Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 515

Price Realized: $ 688
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(TRINIDAD.) Neilson, Robert. Letter discussing the labor force at his Brechin Castle sugar estate. Autograph Letter Signed to John L. Anderson of London. One page, 10 x 8 inches, plus integral address leaf with postmarks and docketing; minor wear, folds, slight tear at seal. Trinidad, 29 April 1828

Additional Details

Robert Neilsen (1782-1867) was a leading sugar planter on the British-held island of Trinidad, and served on the island's legislative council. Here he discusses the management of the Brechin Castle sugar estate near the coastal town of Couva: "With proper means I see nothing to prevent 400 hhd of sugar being made on the Brechin Castle, but to do this, you will keep in mind that I look for your encreasing the Negro force considerably as with those to be removed from the Orange Valley. I would consider a crop of 300 hhd not very bad work. The gangs are by no means superior workers . . . the work of the estate is very much in arrear, and I find that a great deal of the mason work has been left undone by Mr. Murphy. I now begin to think that he seen that he could not keep his promise with regard to the present crop. . . . He moved away in the hope, as I early suspected, of turning the blame on his successor."