Re: Tortola slave surname origination
Spring
The surname Venzen is not on the list of estate owners on the 1798
"Plantation Map" of Tortola, but there are two Venzens listed in the
2007-2008 BVI Telephone Directory at addresses on Tortola: one in
Kingston and the other in Long Look. As my wife told you recently, as
the BVI's Chief Records Management Officer and Co-ordinator of the
National Archives Project, "the Venzen family used to be a very large
one in Long Look, (but) many have moved away to St. Thomas, US Virgin
Islands, and a few to N.Y."
Was our Dr Quincey Lettsome able to give you any information about the
origins of the Venzens? His name is derived from that of Dr John
Lettsom, a Quaker born on Little Jost van Dyke (off Tortola), who freed
all his slaves in 1768, then returned to London. Samuel and Mary
Nottingham, also Quakers, created the first free black community in the
West Indies in 1776 by freeing their slaves and giving them common
ownership of their Long Look estate "in perpetuity". They were living on
Long Island, New York, at that time, but returned to England before the
American colonies revolted. There were 43 residents on the estate by
1823, all surnamed Nottingham, but for some unexplained reason nobody
with that name lives here now.
It is less likely, but possible, that your client's ancestors lived in
Kingstown, or "the African Location", a new settlement created in 1831
for about 300 Africans out of those who had been rescued from slave
ships by the Royal Navy since the 1807 Act for the Abolition of the
Slave Trade and given certificates of freedom after completing their
"apprenticeship" to prominent local citizens.,
A list of the original allotment holders (all with adopted European
names) to whom the British government had granted land appears in
Pickering's "Early History of the BVI" (1983), copied from a document in
the PRO (Public Record Office) in England. Venzen does not appear there,
but any vacated plots were granted to fresh applicants. The roofless
ruins of St. Philip's Church, at Kingstown (“The African Church”) is all
that remains of the original settlement. John Weiss posted a reference
to similar settlements in Trinidad in 2004.
I shall follow your quest for your client's forebears with interest and
will tell you if I encounter the name
Venzen during my own researches.
Best wishes
Peter Moll
Tortola
BVI
Carmen Beck wrote:
> Dear Monifa, Gloria, and Spring,
> I was googling for information regarding Tortola and came across your
> blog from 2005. I have been trying to research information on the
> origination of the surname Venzen. I had considered the possibility
> that it originated from a slave plantation or owner, but so far have
> been unable to discover a plantation or former owner with this name.
> Have any of you come across anything you feel may be helpful?
> Regards,
> Carmen Beck
Spring
"apprenticeships" to prominent local citizens, including planters and free blacks.