I’ll start off by saying there are a LOT of Howard’s and Brereton’s in Barbados and subsequently throughout the world. How many are related to us is open to discussion.
In 1627, the English settled Barbados. They were not alone in their ambitions, however, as both the French and the Dutch were also eager to establish themselves throughout the Caribbean. When the English acquired Barbados, they found the island unoccupied.
That is not to say it had always been so. Evidence suggests that indigenous peoples had previously lived on the island, most notably through the discovery of a man-made bridge at the site of what is now Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados. It is generally believed that one group of native peoples may have occupied the island before being displaced by another.
Suffice it to say that when the English, under Captain John Powell, peered across what is really quite a small island of around 166 square miles, they would have seen lush plains, an abundant freshwater supply, and gently rising rocky ridges running through its centre. One imagines they may have thought, “Here is somewhere for us. Someone grab the flag and, with great enthusiasm, I claim this radiant jewel in the name of Charles I of England.” (I should add that I made that last bit up.)
So, what was happening in the wider world at this time?
Europe was in the midst of an age of expansion. People from Britain, continental Europe, and the Mediterranean were moving across the Atlantic to the Americas and beyond. The passengers of the Mayflower had only recently completed their famous voyage to what would become the English colonies of North America.
Ownership and control of territory in the Caribbean would remain fiercely contested between the English and the French for many years, not to mention the competing interests of colonial settlers themselves.
Ocean-going vessels had, for the first time in history, become capable of carrying significant numbers of passengers on long-distance voyages with a reasonable expectation of survival. Back in Britain, figures such as Oliver Cromwell would soon plunge the kingdoms into political and military upheaval. Depending on which side of the border, or indeed which side of the conflict, you found yourself, the mood at home was often bleak.
In its earliest years, Barbados was not envisioned as a slave colony. It would, of course, later become infamous for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Initially, much of the labour force consisted of white indentured servants, many of whom came from Ireland and Scotland. Some were political prisoners or individuals transported against their will. After serving terms that commonly lasted around seven years, they could seek passage back to Britain or onward to the American colonies.
To be “Barbadosed” became a term used to describe those unfortunate individuals who found themselves shipped to the island under such circumstances.
Given that England would, within the next thirty years, execute its own king and become embroiled in conflict on multiple fronts, it is perhaps not surprising that Barbados was largely left to fend for itself during its formative colonial years.
Today, few people would turn down the opportunity of a Barbadian holiday. However, we are talking about the early seventeenth century. For much of the year there was a relentless tropical heat, accompanied by vast numbers of flies, mosquitoes, and other insects. There was also a very real possibility that your ship might sink either on arrival or during the voyage elsewhere.
If the sea spared you, disease might not. Tropical illnesses flourished in the warm climate, while sanitation remained rudimentary by modern standards. It took time before Barbados became self-sufficient in food production, and supplies could often be uncertain.
And if none of that concerned you, there was always hurricane season. From June through November, violent tropical storms could come tearing across the Atlantic. Winds exceeding 200 miles per hour could wreak devastation across the island, destroying homes, crops, and lives.
All things considered, life in the early years of Barbados sound chaotic.
What did come early to Barbados was plantocracy. Predominantly British speculators grabbed large tracts of the land for sugar cane farming. In Barbados by 1638 the first census of landowners of more than ten acres was held. By 1680 this now included not only landowners but their slaves.
Barbados soon became home to a flourishing and remarkably diverse population. Pirates, plantation owners, merchants, indentured labourers, soldiers, sailors, religious refugees, and enslaved Africans all contributed to the island’s rapidly evolving society.
Among those arriving were many Irish and Scottish men and women who had been transported as political prisoners, debtors, or simply individuals who had fallen on hard times. Others came willingly, lured by the promise of land, employment, and opportunity in a new world. Quakers and other religious dissenters sought refuge from persecution, while merchants and tradesmen followed the expanding commercial prospects of the colony.
Not all who arrived did so by choice.
The stain of slavery and forced labour became an integral part of Barbados’s history. As sugar plantations expanded and profits grew, planters increasingly looked to enslaved labour to meet their demands. West Africa became a principal source of captives for the transatlantic slave trade. Men, women, and children were forcibly taken from their homelands, transported across the Atlantic in appalling conditions, and sold into a future they could scarcely imagine.
For many, there was no common language, no hope of returning home, and no certainty beyond the harsh realities of plantation life. Their suffering helped generate immense wealth for others, while their resilience contributed immeasurably to the culture and identity that Barbados would eventually develop.
Piracy, too, was a familiar feature of Caribbean life. The waters surrounding the islands were frequented by privateers, smugglers, and outright pirates seeking fortune on the high seas. Barbados had its share of such characters, and apart from perhaps one or two whose exploits have been romanticised over time, most were a thoroughly ruthless and dangerous lot.
One local pirate became notorious not only for his activities at sea but also for his cruelty at home. According to local accounts, he would regularly imprison his unfortunate wife in a dungeon beneath their house. It serves as a reminder that the reality of piracy was often far removed from the adventurous legends that later generations would create.
Barbados was, in many ways, a crossroads of the seventeenth-century Atlantic world. Here could be found the hopeful and the desperate, the wealthy and the impoverished, the free and the enslaved. Their stories, both admirable and shameful, were woven together to create the complex history of an island that would become one of Britain’s most important Caribbean colonies.
Barbados would like the rest of the West Indies become famous for what was called it’s triangle of trade; slaves, rum and sugar. The first made the production of the second possible and a gaping maw existed back on the continent for these products with little thought given to the colossal human cost and suffering that wrought their supply.
Aristocratic and wealthy landholders in Barbados were supported by the government in Britain to suck great wealth from the tiny nation.
The tide began to turn during the early nineteenth century. The once-enormous profits generated by the British West Indies were beginning to decline, and what had long been regarded as Britain’s colonial “cash cow” was increasingly viewed as a troubled and expensive enterprise.
At the same time, a growing movement for reform was sweeping through Britain. Opposition to the slave trade extended from Parliament to the churches, from influential writers and campaigners to ordinary people in the street. Public opinion was slowly but steadily shifting against the institution of slavery.
Popular culture also reflected these changing attitudes. In 1814, novelist Jane Austen touched upon the issue of slavery in Mansfield Park. Through the observations and moral sensitivity of her heroine, Fanny Price, readers were invited to consider the uncomfortable realities that underpinned the wealth of many West Indian plantation-owning families. While Austen was subtle rather than openly political, her work formed part of a broader national conversation about slavery and Britain’s moral responsibilities.
Meanwhile, abolitionist campaigners, religious groups, and reform-minded politicians continued to gather support. The movement gained momentum throughout the early decades of the nineteenth century, exerting increasing pressure on successive governments to bring an end to slavery throughout the British Empire.
In Barbados, the process of emancipation formally began in 1834 following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act. However, freedom was not immediate. Former slaves were required to enter a controversial system of “apprenticeship”, which compelled many to continue working for their former masters under restricted conditions.
It was not until 1838 that apprenticeship was abolished and full legal emancipation was granted. At last, slavery in Barbados came to an official end, bringing to a close more than two centuries of human bondage on the island.
The legacy of slavery, however, did not end with emancipation. Its effects would continue to shape Barbadian society, culture, and economics for generations to come, leaving a profound imprint on the history of the island and its people.
Now, as for our William Henry Howard, b. around 1783, I’m still trying to find his genealogy, he married Sarah Eliza Brereton b. around 1782 on the 25th April 1802 at St. George in Barbados.
I can claim at this time that William Henry Howard and Sarah Eliza Brereton are definitely ours.
In the Parish of St Georges Parochial Register it state:
This 25th April 1802, were duly married by me, by licence of his Excellency Lord Seaforth, according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, William Henry Howard (Batchelor) and Sarah Elizabeth Howard, both of this Parish. Source: St Georges. Barbados Church Records. Parochial Register.
Of the children of our ancestor William Henry Howard and Sarah Elizabeth Brereton;
Anthony Howard
b. 1803 and lived his whole live in Barbados. One of his descendants would later move their branch to America. He married Ruth Johnson Odwin of another old colonial Barbadian family. Ruth died in 1852.
Ten years later, Anthony married the wealthy widow Charlotte Gray (née Cort) of England, from whom he inherited a considerable fortune within only a few months of their marriage. (For those interested, I have compiled a substantial amount of information relating to Anthony and his family at Ancestry.com.au.)
Whether one finds it distasteful, confronting, or simply reflective of the age in which they lived, the reality is that Anthony, Ruth, and Charlotte were all plantation owners in Barbados. As such, they were also participants in a system that depended upon enslaved labour.
It is important that family historians acknowledge these facts honestly. While we may celebrate our ancestors’ achievements, fortunes, and adventures, we should not ignore the darker aspects of their lives or the societies in which they prospered. The wealth generated by many Barbadian plantations came at an immense human cost borne by enslaved men, women, and children whose labour underpinned the island’s economy.
The records may tell us who owned the land, inherited the fortunes, and built the houses, but they also remind us of the countless individuals whose names were often omitted from history altogether. Their stories formed an equally important part of Barbados’s past.
In St Michael’s Cathedral there are memorials to Anthony Howard’s death and that of his first wife and that of one of their sons. Ruth died quite young at only 48.
In memory of Ruth Johnson wife of Anthony Howard Died Dec 20, 1852, aged 48 years. Also, Anthony Howard died August 24, 1872, aged 69 years. A white marble headstone adjoining reads in memory of Thomas Anthony eldest son of Anthony and Ruth J Howard. Died March 20, 1853, aged 26 years.
Among other properties that he inherited from his second wife, Anthony was the owner of the Golden Ridge plantation in St George’s which he bought in 1862 from Sir John Thomas. (source).
Maria Howard who was born in 1805 but died a few weeks later in 1805 an infant.
Frances Ann Howard b. 1807. Either died in 1807 a few weeks old , or 1808 died a small child or lived and married Samuel Philip Antrobus in 1840 aged 33. There are three Frances Ann Howard’s in Barbados around the same age of birth. I am hopeful someone will tell me the right one that fits here.
William Henry Howard b. 1810. Now as best as I can guess working through Carribean church records he married Harriet Barnes Bynoe also of the Carribean. Again, happy to be corrected or directed here. The Bynoe’s were another plantation family of long-standing origins in Barbados.
Joseph Harris Howard b. 1813. Married Mary Worrall Perkins at St. Michael’s in Barbados on the 10th December 1836. His father was present at the ceremony and signed the register. The Worrell’s were an old family in Barbados stretching back to the 1650’s. In 1854 Joseph remarried, this time to Jane Trundle, so I expect Mary had died. I know very little about Jane. On the 22nd June 1862, Joseph Harris Howard was buried.
Eliza Brereton Howard b. 1815. Would live many years in Barbados raising a family in Bridgtown before leaving with her family and English Mariner husband (Captain William Gay) and head for Australia. (This one is my ancestor).
CLICK here for their story Captain. William Gay (1820 – 1880) and Eliza Brereton Howard (1815 – 1902)
Mary Elizabeth Ann Howard b. 1817 and died 1818 an infant.
Adrian Foster Howard b. 1818 and died 1818. At most lived only a few days.
Benjamin Simpson Howard b. 1819. Benjamin Simpson Howard married Juliana Browne in St Michael’s and they went on to have children with the most fantastic names. I’m not sure whether Juliana was an avid reader of all things romantic or whether these were family names but they are outstanding. Charles Winston Redwar Howard, Helena Augusta Susan Howard, Horatio Fitzgerald Howard, Julia Elizabeth Anne Howard and Theresa Ethelinda Chesterfield Howard. Benjamin’s son Horatio would leave Barbados and settle in America in Georgia.
Walsingham Howard b. 1829. For someone with such a unique name, I’ve been able to find surprisingly little about Walsingham Howard. He was christened at the same church on the same day as his nephew and niece, Thomas Anthony and Juliana Ruth Howard, (the children of his brother Anthony and sister in law, Ruth Howard. They were all remarked to be from Mt Culpepper.
In 1836, the British Government made compensation payments to slave owners for the financial loss they were deemed to suffer as a result of emancipation. Formerly enslaved people, however, received no compensation whatsoever for generations of unpaid labour, hardship, and suffering.
If former slaves wished to remain on the plantations where they had previously been held in bondage, or seek employment elsewhere, they would henceforth do so as paid workers, assuming both employer and employee were agreeable to the arrangement. In principle, the law now recognised them as free men and women, entitled to the same legal rights and protections as other free subjects of the British Empire.
I am not about to launch into a discussion of how successfully those principles were applied in practice over the following decades and centuries, nor how issues of equality, opportunity, and social justice have continued to evolve right through to the present day. That is a much larger story and one for another time.
Nevertheless, these principles formed the foundation upon which emancipation was built in Barbados. The system of slavery had ended, and for the first time those who had been born into bondage were recognised under the law as free people rather than property. While the road ahead would be far from easy, emancipation marked a profound turning point in the history of the island and in the lives of thousands of Barbadians.
in 1836 in Barbados the following Howard’s receive compensatory payments.
Ann Howard, Jamaica St James,
Anthony Howard, Barbados,
Catherine Howard, Jamaica, Kingston,
Charles Howard, Jamaica, Kingston,
Charlotte Anne Howard formerly Gray, nee Cort,
Charlotte Augusta Amelia Howard (nee Bolton), St Vincent, Upper Diamond,
Elliane Howard, British Guiana,
Frank Howard, British Guiana,
Fulke Greville Howard, Trinidad,
Jacob Howard, Barbados,
James Howard, Barbados,
John Christopher Howard, Barbados,
John Forster Howard, Barbados,
John Frederick Howard, Barbados,
Joseph Howard, Barbados,
Joshua Daniel Howard, Barbados,
Margaret Ann Howard, Barbados,
Marsia Howard, Barbados,
Martha Howard, Mary Howard, James, St James,
Mary Elizabeth Howard, British Guiana,
Thomas Howard, British Guiana,
William Howard, Jamaica, Kingston,
William Murrell Howard, Barbados,
William S. Howard, Barbados.
Zechariah (or Zachariah) Howard, Barbados. Source: Legacies of British Slave Ownership and Caribbean Family History
William died in 1856 and was buried on the 27th May 1856.
Sarah died on the 4th July 1863 in St Georges Barbados and her son Anthony arranged the following on her behalf.
At St George) recorded on a stone vault (906) SARAH ELIZABETH Relict of WILLIAM HENRY HOWARD and mother of ANTHONY HOWARD of Golden Ridge in this Parish died July 4th 1863, Aged 81 years
