Mark’s History: The day a Pudsey woman lost her slaves – updated

4
1890

In 1841 Albertina Sophia Candida Frederica Bird (born 1781) was living on Chapel Row in Fulneck with her two daughters Juliana (born 1816) and Augusta (born 1821), writes Mark Stevenson.

Albertina was a widow whose husband Thomas had died some years previously, leaving her a woman of independent means, mainly because of some property she had inherited.

The property was a nice little earner, allowing Albertina and her daughters to live a comfortable life in Pudsey. 

However, the government of the day took exception as to how she made her money. She was made to let the property go, but the government thought it only fair to compensate her for it.

Albertina was awarded £1,357 (around £82,000 in today’s money) for the loss of her 146 slaves she owned on her Content Plantation in St Andrew, Jamaica. 

CORRECTION: Ms Bird lived in in Fulneck, Pudsey, not Calverley as originally stated. Out apologies for the error.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Interesting story but This lady did not live in Calverley but Chapel Row Fulneck as can clearly be seen on the census page for 1841.

  2. Albertina Sophia Candida Frederica Bird was from Fulneck in Pudsey and not Calverley as I say in the article. My usual rule of thumb is to check three sources and on this occasion I only checked two and if I checked three I would not have made this mistake. Apologies and lesson learnt

  3. So did she in fact live in Alberta, Jamaica. It did she just own the plantation. It’s not clear. The headline makes it look like those black slaves were employed in Fulneck Pudsey. They clearly weren’t.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.