Amaryllis Collymore
Afro-Barbadian slave, plantation owner and businesswoman
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Amaryllis Collymore (c. 1745–1828) was an Afro-Barbadian slave who gained her freedom from her relationship with a white man. The couple had eleven children and she successfully ran a plantation allowing her to acquire numerous other properties, to become the wealthiest free black woman in the colony at the time of her death.
c. 1745
Amaryllis Collymore | |
|---|---|
| Born | Amaryllis Renn Phillips c. 1745 Barbados, British West Indies |
| Died | 1828 (aged 82–83) |
| Other names | Amarillis Collymore, Amarillis Colymore |
| Occupations | plantation owner and businesswoman |
| Years active | 1784–1829 |
Life
Amaryllis Renn Phillips was born into slavery in 1745[Notes 1] on Barbados, during British colonial rule[2] where records indicate she was a mulatto.[3][4] She was purchased by Robert Collymore in 1780, from Rebecca Phillips, a free coloured hotelier,[4][5] along with her five mulatto children,[5] four of whom were Robert's children.[6] In 1784, Robert arranged their manumission by selling her and the children to a friend, James Scuffield.[4][6] Selling a slave to a trusted third-party to avoid high manumission fees was a common practice during the period in Barbados.[7]
Robert acquired Lightfoots, a 42-acre sugar plantation with its 44 slaves, to provide for her and the children.[4] Collymore expanded the estate to over a hundred acres[8] and was able to buy seven properties throughout Bridgetown, on Canary Street, High Street and James Street, which she rented out.[4][9] She also ran a successful shop.[4] By 1805, Collymore owned another property, on Roebuck Street, which she sold for £800.[6] She and her daughter, Katherine Anne Collymore, were the recipients of a bequest from Renn Phillips in his 1809 will.[10]
In 1824, when Robert died, he bequeathed she and her eleven children, full title to Lightfoots and the slaves working on the plantation.[6] Among her children, besides Katherine were Frances Lasley, Margaret Jane, and Robert (baptized 18 February 1792),[11] Thomazin Ashby (baptized 6 June 1795),[12] Elizabeth Clarke (baptized 13 June 1798),[3] Samuel Francis Collymore, Jackson Brown Collymore[13] and Renn Phillips Collymore, who would become the great-great grandfather of Frank Collymore.[2] Collymore's will, dated 1826[6] (or 1829 but which was probably the date the estate was probated),[13] left her estate, worth over £10,000 to relatives. She devised a home in Bridgetown and a plantation known as Haggat Hall, and 67 slaves, as well as silver and personal property.[6] At the time of her death she was "the richest free woman of color in pre-emancipation Barbados".[8]
Death and legacy
Collymore died on 16 December 1828 and was buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Bridgetown.[4][9] The house that Collymore and her children occupied is now the Morningside Building, and houses the Arts Department of the Barbados Community College.[4]
See also
Other former enslaved women who became slave-owners in Barbados: