Sir John Orde Collection on Slavery in Dominica and Jamaica, 1763-1823

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Collection Overview

Creator:

Orde, John, Sir (1751-1824)

Title:

Sir John Orde Collection on Slavery in Dominica and Jamaica

Repository:

Manuscripts Division

Permanent URL:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/7d278w77v

Dates:

1763-1823

Size:

5 boxes and 3.0 linear feet

Storage Note:

Firestone Library (scamss): Boxes B-000787, L-000016, P-000055 to P-000057

Language:

English

Abstract: Consists of a collection of letters, accounts, land registers, and other documents from the office of Sir John Orde as governor of Dominica from 1783 to 1793, during a period of British colonial rule over the island; lists of enslaved workers on the estates of Peter Campbell, Esq., plantation owner in the parishes of Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and Hanover, Jamaica, in 1817, 1820, 1823, and 1825; as well as some personal correspondence and documents of Sir John Orde, including letters to his wife and incoming letters during his naval service, household accounts, and various land and property documents.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of letters, accounts, land registers, and other documents from the office of Sir John Orde (1751-1824) as governor of Dominica from 1783 to 1793, during a period of British colonial rule over the island; lists of enslaved workers from 1817, 1820, 1823, and 1825 on the estates of Peter Campbell, Esq., a plantation owner and relative of Orde's in the parishes of Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and Hanover, Jamaica; as well as some personal correspondence and documents of Sir John Orde, including letters to his wife and incoming letters during his naval service, household accounts, and various land and property documents.

Materials primarily pertain to the institution of slavery and the plantation economy under British colonial rule in Dominica in the late 18th century and in Jamaica in the early 19th century, as related to Orde's role as governor of Dominica and to his family's ties to the Jamaica estates of Peter Campbell, whose daughter and heir Eliza Woolery Campbell married Sir John Orde's son, John Powlett Orde. To a lesser extent, Orde's later naval career is also documented in letters sent to his wife and received from friends and colleagues during his naval service in the mid-1790s through 1815, as are his family's property interests in the United States, particularly in South Carolina, following the American Revolutionary War.

Arrangement

Materials are arranged into three primary groupings:

Collection Creator Biography:

Orde

Sir John Orde (1751-1824) was a British naval officer and politician who served as the governor of Dominica under British colonial rule between 1783 and 1793. Orde joined the British Navy in 1766, eventually gaining the rank of Admiral of the Red in 1810. He was created 1st Baronet Orde, of Morpeth, Northumberland, in 1790. After the death of his brother, Thomas Orde-Powlett, first Lord Bolton, Orde served as Member of Parliament for Yarmouth from 1807 until 1812.

Following his naval service on behalf of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, Orde was appointed governor of Dominica after the island was reverted from French to British colonial rule under the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. In Dominica, Orde was charged by the British government with restoring and maintaining British control over the colony and developing the harbor at Prince Rupert's Bay. During Orde's tumultuous term as governor, local inhabitants of Dominica, including enslaved workers, maroon communities armed by the French during France's 1778 conquest of the island, as well as native, French, and mixed race populations, actively resisted the reestablishment of British colonial rule and the extension of the plantation economy. Orde resigned from his position in Dominica in 1793 at the onset of another war with revolutionary France to return to his naval duties.

In 1781 Orde married Margaret Emma Stevens (1759–1790), the daughter of Richard Stevens of Saint Helena in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Following the death of his first wife, Orde married Jane Frere (circa 1773–1829) in 1793, with whom he had two children. His son and heir, John Powlett Orde, married Peter Campbell's eldest daughter, Eliza Woolery Campbell, in 1826. The Campbell family owned several plantation properties in Jamaica, which Orde's daughter-in-law and her sister, Caroline, inherited.

Collection History

Acquisition:: Purchase, 2016 (AM 2017-19).
Appraisal: No materials were separated during 2016 processing.
Processing Information: This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in September 2016. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in September 2016.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

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Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

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