Grenada Heritage: Judith Philip – Her Legacies

 
 
Judith Philip was born to a French baker turned planter Honore Philip and his ex-slave wife Jeannette sometime in the late 1760s. Upon the death of her father around 1779 she, along with her seven siblings, Honore junior, Michel, Susannah, JB Louis, Joachim, Nicholas Regis and Magdalene inherited Honore and Jeannette’s accumulated property worth some 400,000 livres. This property included Lots in Grenada and the outlying islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The family was a close knit one and repeated transactions show all of the siblings interacting with one another continually throughout their lives. Judith, her brothers and sisters also had white French uncles who also lived in Grenada and who owned property. One of them, Francois was particularly prominent as a Justice of the Peace and a Protector of Slaves.

This property inheritance was divided up among the children in portions with Judith taking the main plantation – Grand Ance, Carriacou where she lived, along with several smaller parcels of land. Rapidly Judith added to this initial inheritance by buying more land from her siblings when some of them moved out of planting and others moved to Trinidad to start successful branches of the family there. Further gains were made in the late 18th century when her brother Nicholas Regis died and another family friend Louis Monque also passed away leaving his wealth to Judith and her siblings.
Sometime in the 1770s she began a relationship with Englishman Edmund Thornton (q.v.) who was then a junior attorney and plantation manager looking after estates on Carriacou. It is quite likely that at this stage it was Judith who was the wealthier of the two. While on Carriacou the couple had three children: Ann Rachel Thornton, Louis-Edmund Thornton, Magdalene Thornton.

In the 1790s with war and revolution tearing through the Caribbean the situation on Grenada had become precarious. By 1794 Edmund Thornton and Judith Philip decided to go to England. Possibly connected with this relocation was the education of their children. Judith Philip’s property, that now included not just property in Grenada and its dependencies but Trinidad as well, was placed in the hands of managers and her extended family.

This move to the UK was fortuitous. In the 1790s Judith’s younger brother Joachim, in contrast to the rest of his siblings, fell deeply into debt. In 1795, a short while after being sued by his creditors he took up with the revolutionary Julian Fedon, becoming one of his most trusted lieutenants. While it was ultimately unsuccessful, the 1795 Fedon Rebellion destroyed Grenada’s prosperity. It was to be years before it recovered to its pre 1795 levels. The British reprisals were savage and uncompromising particularly to those of mixed race who were seen as the main instigators of the conflict. Despite initially escaping, Joachim was eventually caught in 1803 and hung in the market square St Georges. Despite her brother’s involvement it is a testament to Judith Philip’s standing that she and the rest of the extended family escaped recrimination.

After purchasing a house in London at 33 Great Coram Street Judith left Carriacou and lived in London round the corner from Edmund Thornton. Judith and Edmund’s relationship became a complex one however when, in 1796, Thornton married Jane Butler the daughter of wealthy Cheshire gentry. Despite Thornton’s marriage he and Judith shared two more children together: Philip Thornton born sometime in the nineteenth century and Judith Thornton born in 1807.

In 1808 Judith left Thornton and returned to Carriacou where until her death in 1848 she remained a prominent and respected part of the Grenadian plantocracy with connections to some of the empires biggest merchant families such as the Campbells, and the Baillies. Her extensive property that included, not only the land she owned in Grenada and the house at Great Coram Street (in England) but other property in London (England) as well was divided up among her surviving children; Ann Rachel, Magdalene and Judith. Her two sons Louis Edmund (a London based merchant) and (who was training to be an attorney) died in the 1820s. Louis Edmund however had five children who also inherited from their grandmother: William Wheeler Thornton, Ellen Ann, Magdalene, Francis Catherine and Jeannette Rose Thornton. With the death in 1848 of Ann Rachel Thornton, the two surviving daughters of Judith Philip moved to London to be with their nieces and nephews. By 1855 the family had sold all the remaining property in Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Grenada and Judith Philip’s well-managed wealth was divided between them.
Following the act of 1811 abolishing the slave trade the colonies instituted registers of negroes lawfully held in slavery. A further act of 1819 established an Office for the Registry of Colonial Slaves in London, England.  Then in 1834 slavery was abolished in British colonies and to ensure it effectiveness the act of 1833 provided a sum of £20 million to ‘compensate slave proprietors‘. Its distribution was entrusted to a Slave Compensation Commission which began to meet in October 1833 and was terminated at the end of 1842.

Judith made three uncontested claims to this Slave Compensation Commission. In 1834 she registered her slaves and made her claims the following November of 1835 for 64 slaves at ‘Petit Ance Estate‘ (£1,499 18s 9d, Claim No. 912), 68 at ‘Susanna Estate‘ (£1,558 8s 5d, Claim No.944), and 143 at ‘Grand Ance Estate‘ (£3,546 17s 5d, Claim No. 948). [T71/328 p. 105]

While her two surviving daughters would die as spinsters, three of Judith Philip’s grandchildren married and had issue – William Wheeler who became a prominent Anglican Minster would die in the 1890s worth well over £30,000 pounds which was inherited by his son Edmund. Ellen Ann married the Anglican Minister Thomas Boys the brother of William Wheeler’s wife and had a least three daughters. Magdalene married a prominent academic Henry Amedroz – one their two sons was killed in the Boer war while the other died a wealthy barrister in 1917 without issue. Jeannette Rose and Francis Catherine remained as spinsters. When Magdalene Thornton died in London in the 1890s she left an estate worth over £35,000.

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Sources

1. Lorna McDaniel ‘The Philips: A ‘Free Mulatto’ Family of Grenada’, Journal of Caribbean History 24 (2) (1990), pp. 178-94.
2. Kit Candlin, The Last Caribbean Frontier 1795-1815 (Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), ch. 1, ‘What Became of the Fedon Rebellion’, pp. 1-23.
3. ‘Carriacou Plantation Slave Registers’, 1833, pp. 2-12, T-71/319, National Archives of the United Kingdom (NAUK) and ‘Grenada Compensation’, 1836, no.780, ‘Judith Philip’, NDO 4/10, NAUK.
4. ‘Judicial Report of the Evidence in the Case of Jose’, 1834, pp.136-138, CO 101/78, NAUK.
5. Honore Philip to the Heirs of Honore Philip, 10 Sep 1785, p.50, Deeds K3, Supreme Court Registry of Grenada (SRG).
6. ‘Judith Philip to Michel Philip Release’ 26 May 1789, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Deeds: Unnumbered Box, SRG.
7. ‘Catherine Philip to the Heirs of Honore Philip Deceased’, 15 Jun 1786 pp.560-562, Deeds V1, SRG.
8. ‘Marie-Magdalaine Vigi Philip to Henry Hilaire de Moussacq’, 27 Jan 1807, pp. 61-66, Deeds S4, SRG.
9. ‘Articles of Agreement between the heirs of Honore and Jeanette Philip (Deceased)’ 7 Sep 1778, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Deeds: Unnumbered Box, SRG.
10. ‘Description of the Grenadines’, S.V. Morse, 1778, CO 101/16, NAUK.
11. ‘Philip Family Indenture’, 10 Sep 1785, Deeds K3, SRG.
12. ‘Articles of Agreement Between the Philip Family’, 10 Sep 1785, pp.51-61, Deeds K3, SRG.
13. ‘Last Will and Testament of Judith Philip’, 25 Nov 1848, Probate, 11/2105, NAUK.
14. ‘The Children of Edmund Thornton and Judith Philip to their Attorneys’, 09 Apr 1855, pp.289-292, Deeds W-C3, SRG.
15. UK Articles of Clerkship 1756-1874, ‘Philip Thornton to Stacey Grimaldi witnessed by Edmund Thornton’ 15 Feb 1816.
16. H. Gordon Slade, ‘Craigston and Meldrum Estates 1769-1841’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 114 (1984), pp. 481-537.
17. ‘Judith Philip about to Depart for England and May be Absent For Some Time Appoints Duncan Campbell, James Baillie and Suzanna Philip as her Attorneys’, 24 Jun 1794, Deeds E2, SRG.
18. ‘Judith Philip About to Depart for England Appoints Pierre Charbonne and Joseph Newton as Attorneys’, 30 May 1803, pp.492-493, SRG.
19. For Thornton’s Address and his marriage to Jane Butler see ‘Edmund Thornton sale of Morne Rouge’, 9 Jul 1814, pp.448-451, Deeds Y2, SRG.
20. ‘Joachim Philip with William Scott’ no.3288, Court of Common Pleas 1794-1796, SRG.
21. ‘Secretary of State Portland to Houston’ pp.238-242, Governors In Letters Grenada, CO 101/34, NAUK.
22. ‘Children of Judith Philip: Intention to sell’, 9 Apr 1855, Deeds W-C3, SRG.
23. ‘Last Will and Testament of Ann-Rachel Thornton’, 04/04/1849, Deeds B4, SRG.
24.  1631 volumes of Slave registers and records of the Slave Compensation Commission (1812-1851), CO T71, NAUK.

For details of the lives of her descendents, such as inheritance, estate value at death, marriage etc see the various items for the family at Ancestry.com.  We are grateful to Kit Candlin for compiling this biographical-outline.

Further Information

Absentee?             Transatlantic

Children                [With Edmund Thornton] Ann Rachel, Louis-Edmund, Magdalene, Philip, Judith (1807-)

Occupation           Planter

Religion                Roman Catholic

Relationships

Aunt                      Marie Magdalaine Vigi Philip
Niece                     Jeanne Rose Philip
Nephew                 St Luce Philip

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Grenada Heritage: Our Artists

A Gallery Called Poui

I remember the first time I met Jim. In my purple and green hair days, I was a young dreamer-of-being-an-artist. After working up the gumption, one day I called to ask if I could visit his gallery. A soft voice on the other end of the line, told me to look for the painted wall on Cross Street, and follow that along, up the steps and ring the bell.

Jim greeted me then, the same way he greets me now when I drop in for a visit – well perhaps with a bit more gusto, since we’ve known each other for donkey’s years. I had brought some samples of my work to him and he was kind. Kind enough to say go work on them some more, and bring them back. Years later, I’d brought them back, and he did take them, and many sold!

The art on the walls and the floor and just about everywhere in that small Cross Street space was not what I had learned in school to be called art. We good convent girls were raised on colouring inside the lines, and attempting with certain failure, to recreate European masters from lumpy tempera on grey sugar paper.

At the time I went to see Jim, I was trying too hard to become an artist instead of letting the art flow. Perhaps if I had paid attention at the time, I would have realised the opportunity to study with Jim and benefit from his years in MOMA and his eye for what was saleable. I would have been much farther along in my career.

Two weeks ago, Haitian artist Jean Renel Pierre Louis (Prensnelo) and I dropped in to have a chat with Jim. Surmounting the staircase, I breathed deeply, (because either the steps have gotten steeper or me slower), of the smell peculiar to old documents and archives, the smell of history. In this case, art.

In the absence of an art museum or archive, right now, Jim holds the information about Grenada’s art and artists, about how far we’ve come, and in what direction(s) our art may or may not be heading. Jim believes that art is not ‘something for people with no grades, or people with money to waste’ to do. He is a firm believer in art magnifiying the soul, of the artist and of the country they represent. “For about three years I used to install small exhibitions of a particular artist’s work at Barclays Bank (now CIBC First Caribbean), till they changed the interior and blocked the wall space. I used to write articles about what was shown which were printed in The Grenadian Voice,” said Jim.
So how did Jim end up in Grenada? Short answer, snow.

The family business in New York was signmaking and neon lights. He would draw the outlines and his father would bend the tubes. His father saw his interest in drawing, and registered his son at Pratt Institute. After a series of art and photography courses, Jim’s art career was distracted by a stint in the US Navy – damage control he says – but returned to the art world on the GI Bill, studying art history. Art was always there. After his art history course, he was determined to work at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. So one Friday he applied for a job, any job, and on Monday was at work. He stayed there for 4 years until the cold of the New York winters drove him to find somewhere warmer to live. “It was a toss-up between Greece and Grenada,” he said. “Grenada won.” He and wife Cornelia read about Grenada and decided to try it, for a new perspective, a new space to breathe, to be warm.
In 1966 they came to Grenada. Two years later, the first commercial art gallery in Grenada, the Yellow Poui was born, in the Purcell building on Granby Street, across from the market in Saint George’s. The first artist in his newly established gallery was Elinus Cato. (The first time I saw Cato’s work was in the lobby of the lower Church street premises of Co-op Bank. Trying to identify all the images Cato packed on his canvas, helped me pass the time standing in the sluggish line.)

Cato was the first artist on Jim’s books, then Gordon Hamilton. In those days the public interest was thin, but the artists were happy to have someone take an interest in their works. Jim also displayed work from Carriacou’s pride, Canute Caliste, as well. He connected with Canute on the recommendation of a religious worker at Madonna House in Carriacou in the early 70s. Jim began showing his work and his childlike approach to painting and his misspellings, immediately caught on.
“Canute used to divide his canvas or board in two, paint the sky with a few clouds and the occasional bird, but all his action was below the line, below the horizon. I encouraged him to put in a palm tree, or something to connect the bottom to the top.” With the inclusion of his unique narratives artwork titles, Canute’s work was well received by the purchasing public, mainly cruise ship visitors and hotel guests.

Any success stories?

“The most successful to my mind were Cato and Caliste. They were unique and humorous. They told stories.” Of Cato, Jim said, “He was a marvelous artist. Cato just painted and painted, and his work began to catch on with tourists and word spread, and his work sold. Then came Gordon Hamilton and Betty Traynor, and after that, other artists started coming.”

Jim’s gallery became the beacon for local artists’ works to be seen, and more importantly, to be purchased.

The gallery moved from Granby to Bruce Street, next door to Charles of Grenada, then to an upstairs on Cross Street, the current location of a radio station. That location was Jim’s absolute best in terms of walk-up customers, visibility and sales. He painted a mural of brilliant colours on the wall leading from the street, to encourage passersby to come up to have a look. A move to Richmond Hill did not auger well. His final destination, the Young Street location, is across from the Antilles Building, housing the National Museum and Tikal, and down the sidewalk from MNIB, aka marketing board.
Several times I have enjoyed watching art videos with Jim. He has scores of videos for public use and education. This is an excellent resource for visual art students, because after the movie, there is Q and A, with the distinct possibility that Jim will be able to answer almost any question a student may have pertaining to art.

Jim represents about 35 Grenadian artists, including Jackie Miller, Doliver Morain, Joseph Browne, Oliver Benoit, and long-time residents Chris Mast, Trish Bethany, and Marie Messenger. Is there a distinct Grenadian style? Jim said, “The Grenadian art ‘style’ develops I think from the artists’ desire to show Grenada in various ways, mostly landscape and flora, but also Grenadians at work and at play, as in regattas. Exceptions are Oliver Benoit and the long-time residents.”

Jim’s contribution to Grenada art has not been fully told, and he has no plans to write any time soon. He represents/has represented close to 45 artists from Europe, the UK and the US, plus Trinidad titans Boscoe Holder, Jackie Hinkson, Sundiata, MP Alladin and Pat Chu Foon, (he is godfather to Pat’s son). He encouraged a few to come to Grenada to paint, and in 1986, Hinkson had a solo show of drawings and watercolours, ‘All Works of Grenada’ at the Yellow Poui.

Forty-five years and several relocations later, Jim is still on the job, displaying artists’ works, and making himself available as an art resource for artists, teachers, students and persons interested in Grenadian art. Poui, in its present and possible last, reincarnation, is a 2-room gallery, at the top of 2 flights of steps, of a building original to the early days of Young Street. The short covered walkway from the street to the steps was once the entrance for horses, in the days when they were a regular sight in the town. Jim has taken the work of obscure Grenadian painters and shown them alongside Caribbean greats in his gallery, the Yellow Poui. The significance is not lost on me.

Jim Rudin. US Navy Veteran. Artist. Photographer. Gallery owner. Art encyclopedia. The possibility of life without Jim and Poui… I have no words.

By Suelin Low Chew Tung

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Grenada Heritage: May Day – Save Our Archives

Getting Ready for May Day 2014

15 April 2014 · in Continuing Education, Digital Preservation, Disaster Planning, Outreach and Advocacy, Policies and Procedures, Preservation, Society of Archivists. ·

To download your this logo or similar ones, please visit SAA’s website at http://www2.archivists.org/initiatives/mayday-saving-our-archives/mayday-logos

It’s that time of year again for archivists–the annual May Day event where we highlight the necessary activities for disaster preparedness. The news is full of disaster that strikes, whether natural or man-made. Once the safety of the people involved is secure, our thoughts as archivists go towards the records–both paper and digital, to ensure that that they are recoverable. Often we are so busy with reference requests, processing, visiting alumni events and classes, that we think we’ll get to the disaster plan later.

“But on 1st May – this year and every year – you can do something that will make a difference when and if an emergency occurs. That’s the purpose of MayDay – a grassroots effort whose goal is to save our archives.” (SAA Website)

We are at the mid-month, so we don’t have long until 1st May, but it is plenty of time to plan to do something simple to honor MayDay 2014. Here are some suggestions from SAA:

1.  Create or Update your Contact Lists.
2. Review or Establish Basic Emergency Procedures
3. Conduct a Disaster Drill
4. Conduct Scenario Exercises
5. Invite Your Local Firefighters to Visit Your Repository
6. Survey the Building for Risks
7. Make Sure All Collections Are in Boxes
8. Make Sure Boxes Are Off the Floor
9. Identify the Most Critical, Essential, Important Records
10. Inventory Emergency Supplies
11. Review Your Emergency Preparedness Plan
12. If Your Repository Doesn’t Have an Emergency Preparedness Plan…MayDay is a good time to get started.

On 1st May, we will be reviewing our Emergency Preparedness Plan and submitting it to review. In our new Records Retention Schedule, we are noting which records are “vital” in the event of a disaster.

Be sure to see the latest post from HERA, “Disaster Prevention on the Fly,” and if you can, attend the free webinar on Thursday, 17 April at 1:00pm (EST) The Supercharged Management System: Applying the Incident Command System in Cultural Repositories by David Carmichael, ‎Director, Records and Information Management at Atlanta Housing Authority. Here’s the description of the class:

Every cultural repository needs two management structures: the day-to-day, business-as-usual hierarchy, and a “supercharged” management structure that takes over temporarily during a crisis or whenever events threaten to overwhelm normal business routines. Emergency responders have used just such a supercharged structure for years: the Incident Command System (ICS). Whether you are preparing for fires and floods—or planning a major public event—the Incident Command System is a proven management tool that safeguards lives, property, and priceless collections. Learn how to put it to use at your cultural organization!

So be thinking about what activity (or activities) you will be conducting at your school, and send them to SAA at MayDay@archivists.org. They would like to track who participated, what they did, and how it might help another similar institution. Be sure to also post in the comments here what you did at your school. Maybe we can get our list to grow every MayDay!
 
Resources

• Heritage Preservation National Task Force: Includes links to resources, both online and in print, in preparing and responding to disasters.
• Watch Heritage Preservation’s Facebook page for weekly disaster preparedness tips throughout the month of May.
• HP’s Alliance for Response: Alliance for Response is a national program on cultural heritage and disaster management. Through a series of local Forums, it builds bridges between the cultural heritage and emergency response communities before disasters happen. Find a group near you!

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