Catalogue description Commissioners of Legal Enquiry in the West Indies, 1822-1828, unnumbered volume, Free...

Commissioners of Legal Enquiry in the West Indies, 1822-1828, unnumbered volume, Free People of Colour: Disabilities and Grievances. Memorials and papers collected by the Commissioners. Volume includes: petitions to the secretary of state for the colonies, to the commissioners, and to the president and members of the Council from the 'coloured' inhabitants of Dominica; resolutions of a meeting of the 'principal coloured inhabitants' of Dominica held on 26 March 1821 [with 102 names]; report of a committee of the House of Assembly of Dominica on the petition to the secretary of state; petition to the commissioners from 'the free colored inhabitants' of Grenada [with 118 signatures]; details of legislation limiting their participation 'in the British Constitution' submitted by the 'people of color' and the parish of St James, Jamaica, with: statistics of free 'coloured' people; details of previous petitions submitted; an account of the development of the community; a statement of the estimated value of property owned by the community, and a table showing 'the private privilege bills passed by the House of Assembly from time to time on the 'free black and coloured' inhabitants of Jamaica [dating from 1707 and with names of individuals involved]; printed pamphlet 'Statement of Proceedings of the People of Colour of Jamaica, in an intended appeal to the House of Assembly of 1823 for the removal of their political disabilities'; extracts from the Jamaica Journal and the St Jago Gazette; petition to the commissioners from 'free coloured inhabitants' of Antigua [signed by John Tyley, Nathaniel Hill, Richard Wilson, William Thibon, Samuel Picart and David Cranstoun on behalf of others], and a further petition with 115 names; petition from 'free coloured people' or 'persons not being white' of Montserrat [with 101 names], with further petition addressed to the commissioners; memorial of 'His Majesty's subjects of color' of St Christopher [St Kitts], signed by Richard Cable, W M Mahon, Nicholas J Lynch, Humphrey Ottley, Charles M Mahon and seven others on behalf of 'the memorialists at large', and a further petition of 'freeholders and others' [with 40 names]; memorial to the commissioners from the 'colored inhabitants' of St Vincent [with 46 signatures and names]; petition to the governor from 'free people of colour' of St Lucia, with related correspondence, a table [in French] of laws relating to the free population, and a similar list in English; petition to the commissioners from 'persons of colour' in Tobago;three memorials from the 'coloured inhabitants' on Trinidad, with related correspondence and papers including schedule of medical fees, a list of free 'coloured' and 'black' officers, answers of attorney general to issues raised in petitions and the replies of John Lewis, counsel for the committee of free 'coloured' inhabitants, and of the committee itself, English translations of various Spanish documents, an undated census of the 'free coloured capitulants and their descendents', extracts from various laws and regulations, a further printed copy of the schedule of medical fees, a printed copy of schedule of rates for the hire of church pews, and a printed copy of port regulations.