This might be of interest to others. ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Allicock To: Ivan@Torrington39.freeserve.co.uk Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 6:10 PM Subject: Re: Torrington-Guyana Hi Ivan, My friends data-base comes right into the 1900's. I have two lists for 1759 and 1798, which I checked previously. There are later lists, but not one that I have seen with the owners, just plantation listings in history books. The reason for this is two-fold, after the end of slavery very many of the plantations went into receivership, that is, owned by Mortgagers/ Creditiors, namely banks and insurance companies. The ones that had managed to survive met a similar fate by 1849 with massive bankruptcies. Later on in the 19th Century the remaining plantations became concentrated in the hands of mainly two companies, Bookers (later Booker-McConnell) and Jessels Securities, and remained so until they were nationalised in 1975. Of course many people make the mistake of thinking that if an ancestor was mentioned in connection with a Plantation, that they owned it. The truth is that many Europeans found jobs on the Plantations, later called estates, in various skilled and supervisiory/management capacities. Chances are that the later they arrived the more likely it is that they did not own, but worked for the company owning the plantations/estates. Also many Brits, came to work for the colonial government Civil Service, in Public Works, Administration, Transportation, Tram, Rail and Boats, the legal system etc. and this is a likely source of employment for people coming later in the history of the colony. But then there were also those who came as merchants, or owned farms, went to look for gold and diamonds, worked in skilled and supervisory jobs in the Bauxite companies, liquor, beer, ice and soft drink manufacture, local foundries etc. But to get an idea of whether there were any Torrington's one has to look in the British Guiana Directories, which are not on-line, but I know my friend has consulted those too. So that might leave the Employment records of the companies that ended up owning the plantations, as well as the Civil List (of Government employees) and Royal Gazettes in which appointments and promotions were gazetted. Business news were found in other Gazettes and Advertisers/Newspapers. None of those are on line, some are in the UK at the PRO, most will be in Guyana. You might find British Guiana Directories in the British Library. I think that there are a few B.G Directories in my city library and I might sneak a peek if I have the time some-time. I hope this helps. Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: Ivan@Torrington39.freeserve.co.uk To: Richard Allicock Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 12:19 PM Subject: Torrington-Guyana Hi Richard, Thanks last e-m- I will try the directions you suggest shortly re.Godwin.and various churches.. I don't like to burden you further with questions but To go back to a previous discussion regards the Black Torrington of Guyana ; you said that the friend of yours who has a list for Guyana with 6000 names , could not find any Torrington's thereon. The question is --what dates are encompassed on her list ? It might be that the family in question went to Guyana fairly late for all I know e.g. late 19th cent ? I have the idea that they had connections with Barbados , so I wouldn't be surprized if this is in fact the case that they came from somewhere other than Guyana. Another question on this topic whilst I'm dealing with it --Do you know if there is a ' list ' of plantation owners I could look into , or the best place to look/enquire ? Thanks Rich. ---Ivan---