Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - even more aspects - Slavery - echoes of the past . . . .

The gross value of his personal estate at his death was given as £1,553. 0s. 0d. [equivalent to c.£176,050 in 2025]. [1355] 

So the question remains : Where did the money originate in the period up to 1841 to support the building of the 'Eirene' and for the expenses, development and maintenance of the Missions to Seamen?

I can only conclude that it most probably originated from the Ashley family amassed savings and returns of the Ashley Hall Estate in Jamaica ; this wealth being clearly based upon proceeds from slavery generated during the previous generation(s)!

To-date, I cannot find any further firm evidence of the means of funding in any record, publication or other historical source. As always, if you know better, kindly correct me please! A further complication in the research is that the names of the Parish in which the Ashley Hall Estate or Plantation are listed is not consistent. Vere became part of the Clarendon Parish in 1866 whilst Trelawnley Parish is further north than Vere. All and any assistance to clarify these anomalies would be greatly appreciated.

The Ashley Hall Estate, Trelawnley Parish, Jamaica

Ashley Hall was a sugar plantation estate of 1,733 acres (1845 Jamaica Almanac) situate within the Trelawnley Parish on the island of Jamaica which was owned by several individuals during the 18th and 19th centuries. Based upon the foregoing evidence is was a site of forced labour, worked by numerous enslaved people until emancipation in 1838, after which the slaves were probably 'apprenticed.'

Further research at the database of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery [1353] revealed: William Ashley. described as 'Slave-owner in Jamaica, owner of Ashley Hall. Dead by 1795.'