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Huh? Why bother with this side issue? Well, first, so that I (any anyone who follows me) can be sure to eliminate the wrong Halls and Jacksons from the family tree. Second, because they shed light on contemporary Jamaican families. Third, well, because they're interesting.
There are at least three families of unrelated Halls in Jamaica, and I happen to be lucky enough to have been passed family trees for two of them by Edward Crawford. Let's call ours the John Halls, the second the Charles Halls, the third the Cossley Halls. These three people were exact contemporaries living in Kingston, Jamaica. The Charles Halls may turn out to be related further back, and because of some close parallels with our own Halls, I'll start with that family.
First, remember that our John Hall was born 28 Dec 1722 and married Allegonda Boom 21 Dec 1758. John Hall was a tavern keeper in Kingston. We can't track backwards from our John.
The Parallel is this. Charles Hall was born in 1729 and married Elizabeth Boon 30 Sep 1760. Charles Hall was a merchant in Kingston. We can't track backwards from Charles.
So, as Charles and John were exact contemporaries, and Boom and Boon are such similar names, I had some trouble separating the two. Could Charles be the brother of John? I tried the IGI but, whereas there were heaps of suitable candidates for John, there were none at all that matched the few candidates for Charles, so I just don't know.
By the way, I do have the parents and two siblings of Elizabeth Boon(e). She was born (or was it baptised) in St Andrew 27 Dec 1734 to parents Mary and Henry Boon(e). She has a brother Richard Boon born 18 Feb 1721 and a sister Christian Warrington Boon(e) born 8 Jul 1732.
Charles Hall had a legal role, as "custos rotulorum" of St Andrew's Parish. He married a second time, to Catherine Pinnock in 1779. The Pinnocks were a high ranking family in Jamaica and had many descendants (and slaves). Charles had a son by Elizabeth Boon but not by Catherine Pinnock.
His son was Charles William Hall (1768 to 1832) Lt Colonel St Andrew's Regiment, (militia). Charles William Hall was also a solicitor. He had a mixed race partner Lucy Scott and married once to Isabella Ann Ford in 1806.
Charles William Hall and Isabella Ann had at least six children. The eldest son, the Reverend Charles Henry Hall (1809 to 1889) married Anne Catherine Littlejohn and had a son Caleb Littlejohn Hall (1838 to 1899). 'William Hall' seems to be a common name in both the John Halls and the Charles Halls.
Charles William Hall Esq. had slaves. I counted nine baptised with the Hall surname in St Andrew in 1802, including a Mary Warrington Boone Hall, an unusual name for a slave at a time when most people had only one christian name. There were more, I spotted an "Alexander Jackson" negro slave in 1816 (so the Jackson-Hall connection may not be confined to our family). His wife Isabella Ann had at least two negro slaves with the Hall surname baptised in St Andrew in 1817.
As for the Cossley Halls, grab a copy of "Burke's Landed Gentry"; any edition will do, and look up "Hall, formerly of Jamaica" in the Index. I'll just give you a brief summary of the main line:
William Hall accompanied Christopher Monk, Gov. of the island, to Jamaica as his secretary in 1687, m. 26 Jul 1688 Elizabeth Wyatt. He had five children including James.
James Hall of Hyde Hall and Hall's Delight, Jamaica. b. Oct 1698, m. 2 Apr 1723 Elizabeth Cossley. He had four children including Cossley.
Cossley Hall b. 15 Feb 1728 m. 1stly Whitehorn Lade and had six children. m. 2dly Elizabeth Bromley Rose with whom he had three children including Thomas James.
Thomas James Hall b. 5 Dec 1788, Advocate General of Jamaica 1819. Returned to England & m. Agnes Carr.
The Cossley Halls dominate the Halls on the St Andrew Parish Register from 1688 to 1760. Further, they left a lot of negro Halls and mixed race Halls around. If ever I see a Cossley or Cossley Hall I immediately know that it's the wrong branch. Further, I am now VERY careful about the property "Hall's Delight". The one in the Parish of St Andrew (with many slaves in the early 1800s) belonged to the Cossley Halls. The one with the SAME NAME in the Parish of Port Royal was for a time the abode of our William Hall and family.
I’ve recently become aware of a fourth family of unrelated Halls in Jamaica, the Hall family that owned Tryall Estate in the Parish of St James. They could best be classed as absentee landlords. A large collection of family letters (1709 to 1892) is held in the Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego. On the web can be found the Register of MSS 0220 at
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0220a.html
Background at
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0220d.html
Scope / Content Note at
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0220e.html
and Container list at
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0220f.html
There were other people with a Hall surname about in Jamaica. Some pre-date the arrival of William Hall in 1687. Some were mariners who died were buried in Jamaica. Some (such as James Hall who married Margaret Mercy Rawleigh, and the John Hall who married Sarah Nowell on 30 Dec 1725) I know next to nothing about.
What about the Jacksons? Well, at one time it seemed possible that our Robert Jackson was the brother of a John Jackson b. 1748 who came to Jamaica from Middlesex in England. This now seems very unlikely (as our Robert is said to have come from Yorkshire and his brother is said to have died in the Navy) but John Jackson did have a brother Robert about whom nothing is known [?]. The information on John Jackson's descendants was kindly sent to me by Claire Hendricks. I call this family the Witter Jacksons as John Jackson married Elizabeth Eleanor Witter and among the descendants are a son, grandson, great grandson, great great grandson and great great great grandson all called Thomas Witter Jackson.
The grandson Thomas Witter Jackson was Attorney General in Jamaica from 1808 to 1818 and Chief Justice for the whole of Jamaica from 1818 until he died on the 22 May 1821. Great grandson Thomas Witter Jackson was stipendiary Magistrate in St Thomas, Jamaica in 1865. Great great grandson Richard Hill Jackson was Mayor of Kingston in 1895. This doesn't sound like OUR Jacksons at all. Some of the Witter Jacksons, including the Chief Justice, had mixed race partners.
There were lots of other Jacksons in Jamaica that don't tie in with either our Robert Jackson or the Witter Jacksons. Very few of these had middle names, making identification difficult. The christian name that appears most frequently with Jackson but is not tied in with any known family tree is Samuel. [?]