Samuel Martin Col.

The papers of Samuel Martin, 1694/5-1776, relating to Antigua

1. Extract from Oxford Dictionary of national biography Martin, Samuel (1694/5-1776), plantation owner, was born in Antigua, the eldest son of Captain Samuel Martin (d.1697) and his wife, Lydia, daughter of Colonel Thomas of Antigua, sugar plantation owners based in what was later known as Greencastle, in New Division, Antigua. He claimed descent from a general serving under William the Conqueror, and from an ancestor who had participated in the conquest of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth I. His grandfather, a royalist, had moved to the West Indies, following the confiscation of his land in Ireland by Cromwell's army. Martin's father, it is believed, had moved to Antigua from Surinam in 1667. By 1697, when his slaves murdered him, the plantation consisted of more than 500 acres. Details of Martin's early life are very sketchy. Following the death of his father he was sent to live with relatives in Ireland, the estate in Antigua being managed by members of his family and friends. He was educated at Mr. Biby's school in Caddington, Hertfordshire. At the age of sixteen he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 17 April 1711, but he does not appear to have taken a degree. Shortly afterwards he married Frances Yeamans, daughter of John Yeamans, attorney-general of the Leeward Islands; their son, Samuel, was born in Antigua on 1 September 1714. During the next thirty years the family lived mainly in Antigua, interspersed with spells in England between 1716 and 1718. Martin returned to England in 1728 but very little is known about his activities over the next twenty years, with the exception that, following the death of his first wife, he married Sarah (d.1747/8), widow of William Irish of Montserrat and daughter of Edward Wyke, lieutenant-governor of Montserrat. Their first son, Henry, was born in 1733 at Shroton, Dorset. It is probable that they lived, at least for part of the time, on Martin's family's estates in Ireland, while the plantation was looked after by a series of managers, aided by his brother Josiah, who was a member of the island's privy council. On his return to Antigua, to remedy the deterioration in the fortunes of the plantation, Martin embarked on a rigorous policy of reconstruction. This rapidly established his reputation as a leading member of the island's community. He was speaker of the island's assembly from 1750 to 1763 and colonel of its militia; the diarist Janet Schaw described him as the ‘loved and revered father of Antigua’ (Sheridan, ‘West Indian antecedents’, 258), a title won as much for his economic as his political activity. Although he helped to pioneer improvements at most of the key stages in sugar-making and rum distillation his interests focused mainly on the non-manufacturing side of production. He was a firm advocate of crop rotation followed by marling, in order to improve soil fertility. He was also instrumental in developing more effective systems of drainage and utilizing windmills rather than animals for crushing the cane. By the standards of his contemporaries Martin was an enlightened slave owner. He advocated the provision of adequate supplies of food, clothing, shelter, and medical facilities for slaves, and ground for the cultivation of their own food. This was not simply an altruistic response but motivated by mercenary considerations, since he appreciated the financial benefits to be derived from a healthy, well-trained, and productive labour force that was able to reproduce itself. In order to maximize the profitability of the undertaking his programme focused mainly on the training and direction of black slaves. Unlike his compatriots he was also prepared to work alongside his slaves in the fields, clearly illustrating that he ‘did not conform to the stereotyped image of the planter as a leisured gentleman who sipped Madeira and rum punch amidst a harem of Mulatto concubines’ (Sheridan, ‘Samuel Martin’, 137). Nevertheless he still defended the principles of slavery. Martin's progressive methods were detailed in his 'An Essay upon Plantership'. It is not clear when it was first issued but the third, extensively revised edition was published in 1756 and was followed by a fourth edition, published in London in 1765. The fifth edition, of 1773, contained a preface, ‘On the management of negroes’; further reprints followed. Martin also issued diplomas

2  to the substantial numbers of young Englishmen and Scotsmen who sought their fortunes in the  West Indies and had received training from him in plantation administration.  Martin might be regarded as Antigua's leading and most progressive planter in the 1730s. The  improvements that he advocated were adopted primarily in Antigua, where the industry was  already beginning to experience long-term secular decline due to a multitude of factors that  included soil exhaustion, the spread of crop diseases, severe drought, and the growing tendency  towards absentee ownership. As a result production costs in Antigua were considerably higher  than in other parts of the British empire, such as the Ceded Islands and Jamaica. During his own  lifetime he had succeeded in making sugar production a moderately profitable enterprise on his  own estates. Martin died in 1776, probably on his estate of Greencastle, Antigua. His legacy was  rather short-lived since his innovations were not immediately adopted outside Antigua and his  descendants continued as absentee owners for several generations before the estate was sold in  the nineteenth century.  Three of his sons, however, became prominent in public life. Samuel (1714-1788), educated at  Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Inner Temple, became M.P. for Camelford (1747-1768) and  for Hastings (1768-1774); he is probably best remembered for the duel that he fought with Wilkes  in 1763, having called him a ‘cowardly scoundrel’ (Valentine, 585). Henry (1733-1794) succeeded  his half-brother in Antigua; he became comptroller of the navy and MP for Southampton, in 1790,  and was created baronet in 1791. Martin's third son, Josiah Martin (1737-1786), pursued a career  in the army before becoming governor of North Carolina at the outbreak of the American War of  Independence.  Sources  R.B. Sheridan, ‘Samuel Martin, innovating sugar planter of Antigua, 1750-1776’, Agricultural history,  24 (1960), 126-39 · A. Valentine, The British establishment, 1760-1784: an eighteenth-century  biographical dictionary, 2 vols. (1970) · R.B. Sheridan, ‘The West Indian antecedents of Josiah  Martin, last royal governor of North Carolina’, North Carolina Historical Review, 54 (1977), 253-70 ·  Venn, Alum. Cant. · L.S. Butler, ‘Martin, Samuel’, ANB · F.W. Pitman, ‘The settlement and financing  of British West India plantations in the eighteenth century’, Essays in colonial history presented to  Charles Mclean by his students (New Haven, 1931) · F.W. Pitman, The development of the British West  Indies, 1700-1763 (New Haven, 1917) · N. Deerr, The history of sugar, 2 vols. (1949-50) · S. Martin,  ‘An Essay upon Plantership’, ed. A. Young, Annals of agriculture and other useful arts (1792) · D.R.  Fisher, ‘Martin, Henry I’, HoP, Commons, 1790-1820 · L.B. Namier, ‘Martin, Samuel’, HoP,  Commons, 175-90 · GEC, Baronetage, 5.269.  Archives  BL, papers, Add. Mss. 41346-41353, 41474; BL, Josiah Martin papers.  Wealth at death  See will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/1031, sig. 227, mentioned in Venn, Alum. Cant., 152.  Dr. John Martin  © Oxford University Press 2004-8 All rights reserved 

• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 25 2016, 19:59:31 UTC

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Samuel Martin Col. was born in 1691 the child of Samuel and Lydia. He married Frances Yeamans and they had two children together. He then married Sarah Wyke and they had three children together. He then had one son from another relationship. Samuel died in November 1776 having lived a long life of 85 years.