Legacies of Enslavement at Christ's
The Byam Family
Four members of the Byam family of Antigua were admitted to Christ's between 1700 and 1726.
The Byam Family
Lieutenant-General William Byam (d. 1670/71) was the first member of the family recorded as being connected with Antigua. The family split into two key branches: the Byams of 'Cedar Hill', descended from William's son Willoughby Byam, and the Byams of 'Pensive Hall' or 'Martin Byam's', descended from William's other son, 'Governor Edward Byam'.¹
'Governor Edward Byam' became president of the Council of Antigua in 1707, and was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands in 1715. He became Lieutenant Governor of Antigua in the same year, serving in that role until his death in 1741.² ³ Edward was married twice: by his first wife, he had two children, one of whom was Edward Byam (adm. to Christ's in 1708). By his second wife, Lydia Thomas, he had five children, including William Byam (matric. 1720) and Francis Byam (matric. 1726).⁴
Willoughby Byam served as a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and is recorded as having suffered a 'mortal wound in the neck, of which he soon after died' while commanding the body-guard of the regional commander-in-chief, General Codrington, in an expedition to the island of St Christopher's (also known as St Kitts) in 1690. Willoughby had two sons, one of whom was Samuel Byam (matric. 1701).⁵
Connection to enslavement
The Byams became wealthy enough to send multiple members of the family across the Atlantic to be educated at Christ's within two generations of arriving in Antigua. Edward Byam's political role on the island - first as president of the Council of Antigua, then as Lieutenant Governor of the island for more than 25 years, would have been impossible without involvement in the institution and practices of enslavement in Antigua.
By 1736, 20 years into Edward's term as Lieutenant Governor, the approximately 24,000 enslaved people on the island constituted more than 88% of the Antiguan population.⁶ Edward's role in governing the island must imply some degree of complicity in - for example - the execution of nearly 50 enslaved people who fled or attempted to flee captivity on the island between 1730 and 1735. Likewise the execution of 88 enslaved people (and the banishment of a further 47) in the wake of the so-called Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736.⁷ Edward was not directly involved in the trials or executions, but he clearly was at the forefront of the government that maintained enslavement more broadly.
Lieutenant-General William Byam (d. 1670/71) made bequests to his 'overseer', and left large quantities of sugar and tobacco to various family members. He left 'all his estate' - presumably including land - to his sons.⁸ This technically leaves it ambiguous whether or not William owned enslaved people, though significantly he does refer to the sugar and tobacco he bequeaths being 'made on the estate, to be laid out in new negroes out of the shipps'.⁸
Willoughby Byam referred only to leaving his 'estate' in trust to Edward, his brother, and requested that his son Samuel Byam (matric. 1701) be paid £500 at the age of 21 (with the majority of the estate being conveyed to his older son, William).⁸
Edward (the Governor), however, explicitly indicated that he owned enslaved people. In his will, he bequeathed one third of the 'proffits of [his] real estate' to his wife, in addition to seven enslaved people, one of whom he named as 'Tony'. He also left an enslaved man and child to the local churchwardens and minister. To his son Francis (matric. 1726), he left £2,000, and to his oldest surviving son, William (matric. 1720) he left 'all residue'.⁹
It is clear that the father of three of the Christ's alumni (i.e., Edward, the Governor) owned enslaved people, though quantification is impossible. It should be recalled that the 'profitts of [his] real estate' that Edward left to his wife would - by 1741 - necessarily have been produced by enslaved labour. Likewise, the fact that Willoughby left a total of £1,200 to his three daughters, £500 to Samuel (matric. 1701), and - perhaps most tellingly - '2 hogsheads of sugar to the poor' of a local parish, implies that he was at least a beneficiary of the sugar plantations proliferating across the island.⁸
Of the Christ's alumni themselves, Samuel Byam (matric. 1701) died intestate in 1712.¹⁰ Edward Byam (adm. to Christ's in 1708) bequeathed '[his] plantation, etc.,' to his brother George (who did not attend Christ's), with instructions that he should 'keep it entire, and not let it go out of [their] family': he made no explicit reference to the enslaved people who must have worked on the plantation.⁹ William Byam (matric. 1720) left bequests of £8,100, and passed the rest of his estate to his eldest son, Martin Byam.¹¹ Francis Byam (matric. 1726) left various bequests to his wife and children, which included two enslaved people 'Quaco & Bentley', to his wife Jane, an enslaved boy 'Sam' to his son Edward, and an enslaved girl 'Phoebe' to his daughter Grace.¹¹ One might speculate that the residue of his estate, which he instructed to be sold for the benefit of his wife and six children, included additional enslaved people.
It would be reasonable to deduce that all four of the Byams who attended Christ's benefitted from enslavement in how their fathers funded their education, at least in part. Clearly, Edward Byam (the Governor) owned enslaved people, and it seems likely that Willoughby at least benefitted from enslaved labour on plantations. Though one of the alumni, Samuel Byam (matric. 1701), died intestate, the wills of the other three are instructive. Francis Byam (matric. 1726) definitely owned enslaved people, while Edward Byam (adm. to Christ's in 1708) owned a plantation (which, at his death in 1733, must have been worked by enslaved people), and William Byam (matric. 1720) left £8,100 (worth over £2.0 million in 2022) in cash bequests alone. Accumulating so much wealth in Antigua by his death in 1755 would have been impossible without the use of enslaved labour, perhaps on the plantation subsequently owned by his primary inheritor, Martin, between 1755 and 1805.
The inheritors of the Christ's alumni
The Legacies of British slavery project provides additional insight into some of the estates held by Byams. Martin Byam, who inherited the rest of the estate of his father, William Byam (matric. 1720), was the owner of the estate known as 'Fitch's Creek' or 'Martin Byam's' on Antigua between 1755 (the year William died) and 1805, when he died.¹² ¹³ Martin left £13,000 in cash bequests (worth more than £1.2 million in 2022) to various relatives, and passed his residual estate to his younger brother William, who was also a son of William Byam (matric. 1720).¹³ ¹⁴ In 1821, William Byam (the Younger), was recorded as the owner of 258 enslaved people on the estate.¹²
George Byam, who inherited a plantation from Edward Byam (adm. to Christ's in 1708), was the father of George Byam (the Younger) (1734-1779). George (the Younger) owned 132 enslaved people and 366 acres of land on Antigua.¹⁵ He was also the subject of Thomas Gainsborough's painting, George Byam with his wife Louisa and their daughter Selina (c. 1762).¹⁵
The members of the College
Samuel Byam
Life 1683 - 1712
Matriculation year 1701
Place connected Antigua
Samuel was born in Antigua, and went to school in Camberwell in London. He matriculated at Christ's in 1701. He served in the army as a major, and married Elizabeth Anne Clarke of Antigua. He died at a relatively young age, in 1712.¹⁰ ¹⁶
Edward Byam
Life 1690 - a date between 1733 and 1742
Admission year 1708
Place connected Antigua
Born in Antigua, Edward was admitted to Christ's in 1708, where he was a scholar in 1708-09. He appears to have become a merchant,¹⁷ and he also owned two houses in Middlesex.⁹ He died at some point between writing his will in 1733, and his father's will (in which he did not feature) being proved in 1742.⁹ ¹⁸
William Byam
Life 1706 - 1755
Matriculation year 1720
Place connected Antigua
William was born in Antigua, and he matriculated at Christ's in 1720. He graduated from the College with a B.A. in 1724.¹⁹ He later served as a colonel in the army, and became a member of the Privy Council of Antigua. Notably, he married Anne Gunthorpe, the daughter of John Gunthorpe, another member of the Privy Council, in 1735.¹⁹
Curiously, William's entry in Christ's Admissions Book (above) includes the words 'Patre ejusdem nominis', meaning 'by a father of the same name'. Given corroboration by other sources, this is likely to be an error (as William's father was Edward Byam, Lieutenant Governor of Antigua). In his history of Antigua, published in 1894, however, the historian Vere Langford Oliver notes one 'William Byam', grandson of Willoughby Byam and son of the older brother of Samuel Byam (matric. 1701), whose name was William. Oliver records that this William entered Gray's Inn in 1722 to practice law, from 'Christ Church, Cambridge', and died young.²⁰
On balance, it seems more likely that this information - the reference to 'Christ Church, Cambridge', and the suggestion in the Admissions Book that his father was also named William - is inconclusive, rather than that records stating explicitly that William attended Christ's from 1720 are wrong. Further research, however, could settle the matter conclusively.
Francis Byam
Life 1709 - 1757
Matriculation year 1726
Place connected Antigua
Francis was born in Antigua, and was first educated at Westminster School, in London. He matriculated at Christ's in 1726, and migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1728. He is recorded as having obtained a B.A. in 1729/30, and an M.A. in 1733.²¹ He may have briefly become a Fellow, presumably at Trinity College.²¹ Thereafter he returned to Antigua, where he became the rector of St John's, Antigua.²² Like his brother, William (matric. 1720), he served as a member of the Privy Council of Antigua, and married a daughter of another of its members: in his case Jane Warner, the daughter of Edward Warner.²²
References
¹ Antigua and the Antiguans: A Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants, Vol. 2. First published in 1844. Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 314-318. [published online: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511919695]. ² Antigua and the Antiguans: A Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants, Vol. 2. First published in 1844. Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 319. ³ Cahoon, Ben, 'World Statesmen, Antigua and Barbuda', https://www.worldstatesmen.org/Antigua_and_Barbuda.html [accessed 4th September 2022]. ⁴ Antigua and the Antiguans: A Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants, Vol. 2. First published in 1844. Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 319-321. ⁵ Antigua and the Antiguans, p. 322. ⁶ Gaspar, David Barry, 'The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance.' The William and Mary Quarterly, 35:2 (1978), 308-23, at p. 313. ⁷ Gaspar, David Barry, 'The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance.' The William and Mary Quarterly, 35:2 (1978), 308-23, at p. 309. ⁸ Oliver, Vere Langford, The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time, Vol. 1 (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894), p. 102. ⁹ The History of the Island of Antigua, p. 103. ¹⁰ The History of the Island of Antigua, p. 100. ¹¹ The History of the Island of Antigua, p. 104. ¹² Legacies of British Slavery database, 'Fitch's Creek or [Martin] Byam's [ Antigua ]', http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/451 [accessed 4th September 2022]. ¹³ Legacies of British Slavery database, 'Martin Byam', http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146639917 [accessed 4th September 2022]. ¹⁴ Oliver, Vere Langford, The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time, Vol. 1 (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894), p. 98-99. ¹⁵ Legacies of British Slavery database, 'George Byam', http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146635478 [accessed 4th September 2022]. ¹⁶ Venn, J.A., ed. (1922) "Byam, Samuel". Alumni Cantabrigienses (Part 1). Vol.1, Cambridge University Press - via Internet Archive. ¹⁷ Oliver, Vere Langford, The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time, Vol. 1 (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894), p. 97. ¹⁸ Venn, J.A., ed. (1922) "Byam, Edward". Alumni Cantabrigienses (Part 1). Vol.1, Cambridge University Press - via Internet Archive. ¹⁹ Oliver, Vere Langford, The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time, Vol. 1 (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894), p. 98. ²⁰ The History of the Island of Antigua, p. 96. ²¹ Venn, J.A., ed. (1922) "Byam, Francis". Alumni Cantabrigienses (Part 1). Vol.1, Cambridge University Press - via Internet Archive. ²² Oliver, Vere Langford, The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time, Vol. 1 (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1894), p. 101.