Today is my first full-day in the role of Research and Digitisation Assistant for the Welsh Government funded "Penrhyn Jamaica Papers" Project @prifysgolbangor.bsky.social
This thread will be a sharing of progress, learnings and everyday goings-on...
@ystadaucymru.bsky.social @archpbu.bsky.social
This thread will be a sharing of progress, learnings and everyday goings-on...
@ystadaucymru.bsky.social @archpbu.bsky.social
Comments
Richard Pennant was part of a influential pro-slavery network and "...an outspoken campaigner in favour of the continued legal status of slavery" - Eleanor Harding
https://doi.org/10.16922/whr.31.4.3
However, sometimes you come across something very much puzzle like!
These are individual parcels held in Jamaica, possibly part of a larger map.
The "Penrhyn Jamaica Papers" Project will help towards @archpbu.bsky.social's work in understanding, presenting and sharing wider contexts of our important collections.
Available here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-019-09312-0
Elizabeth became a Pennant after her marriage to Edward Pennant.
Documents such as this deed from 1702 reveal women's roles in colonisation and estate expansion.
Interestingly also the patent is granted by Queen Anne.
Creative ways were used to show changes in land-ownership or in boundaries re-alignments.
As you can see these two surveys have flaps which can be lifted to reveal the changes.
Something the digitising team may struggle to replicate!
Great to work in a historic building which has elements which are "hammered", "snecked" & "cuboid", "trapezoidal" features. A reflection of the variety in our records!
@c20cymru.bsky.social
Each record was identified, recorded and packaged by the project team showcasing what we hope to be an informative cross-section of what has been deposited in the Archive.
Lord Penrhyn's letters were addressed to or sent from Penrhyn Castle in Gwynedd, Wicken Park in Stratford or Grosvenor Square in London (and Liverpool).
All revealing global links.
Map: M0005003 @wellcomecollection.bsky.social
Having several agents across several Jamaican estates, BUASC has pages of letters.
This means trying to read and make sense of lots of different types hand-writing!
(~Content Warning~)
Exchanging knowledge and expertise about approaching British colonial history and the Slave Trade is vital in reflecting on catalogue vocabularies and archival practices.
Diolch, Alex Kither @soaslibrary.bsky.social
This paper by Itza A. Carbajal @ischool.uw.edu challenges and enables reflection.
Providing digital copies of records held at Bangor University means creating certain information that describes, informs and enables the use of the material.
Diagram - National Archives
One inescapable tragedy is that many enslaved persons forced to labour on the Pennant's plantations cannot be named, but their enslavers can be.
The Pennants depended on slavery-derived wealth.
Image: T.1140.3 courtesy of @britishlibrary.bsky.social
With this move the Pennant's became absentee landlords of their Jamaica estates.
However, they remained highly involved exchanging countless letters with their agents on the island.
The plantations were "factories in the fields, based on a
form of exploitative labor relations that drove enslaved laborers close to death" - T. Burnard, Chap.22
With land came power, as Edward was installed as the Chief Justice of Jamaica.
Land granted by William III & George III can be seen in James Robertson's map of 1804 (NLS).
Archives are full of equipment designed to preserve and keep records safe.
During the initial sorting and selection process, documents are being checked, labelled and safely bundled to send off for digitisation.
A common practice as these living features provided a clear line that would help decide boundary disputes (which there were a handful).
A foreshadowing of the use and abuse of many for profit.
The Project will make records freely accessible to national and international audiences. Creating a consice digital resource for all.
No need to visit in person... but you are very welcome to!
Letters along with substantiating maps show us how the landscape of Jamaica was divided for the purposes of exploitation.
This granting of land in Clarendon, by Charles II to a "Thomas Alwinkle" is very much within the early expansion of British colonialism in Jamaica.
An Elizabeth Aldwinkle was married to Gifford Pennant.
The two documents below span 200 years - dated 1666 to 1866.
The records include: accounts, deeds, inventories, letters, lists of enslaved people, maps, surveys, plans and wills.