A very interesting document I saw during a recent visit to the St Kitts and Nevis National Archives was a will from the year 1886, written by a widow with a married name that I’ve done extensive research on. Her name was Mary Cannonier (maiden name Delves), a woman of mixed race who was born about 1817, according to her death record of 1890. Mary’s will was distinctive in several ways. First, she left much of her property to several young Cannoniers, whose exact relationship to her is unknown at this point, but they would have been about the generation of her grandchildren. None of her own children were named at all, even though quite a few were alive in 1886, some in St Kitts, while some had left the island, and several would eventually make their ways to the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. Mary also named two women as executrices, rather than relying on one of her sons, a male family friend, or an attorney.
Mary’s husband William Cannonier had died in St Kitts in 1861, where he had been a planter on the Bell Tete estate. Mary’s status as a widow gave her a more independent position in society then most married women. She left three pieces of real estate to her heirs:
- To Blanche Wentworth Cannonier (a young women born in 1862 to parents Thomas Tobias Cannonier and Anna Maria Gould Cannonier), she left a desirable lot on the north end of Pall Mall Square in the center of Basseterre (now known as Independence Square).
- Land with a blacksmith shop in the town of Dieppe Bay, St Kitts was left to Blanche’s brother James Wentworth Cannonier (born 1865)
- A third property on Cayon Street in Basseterre was to be sold, with the proceeds used first to settle any debts and funeral expenses, and any remainder to be divided between Blanche and James’s brother Richard Frederick Cannonier (born 1869) and the two executrices.
Mary Cannonier used some very specific language for Blanche’s bequest. The will read:
“I give and devise unto Blanche Wentworth Cannonier her heirs and assigns for her sole use and not to be subject to the debts control or interference of any husband whom she may marry. All that my Freehold property situate in North Square Street in the town of Basseterre together with all buildings and other erections thereon.”
The wording is important because it spells out that Blanche should have complete control over her own property, in spite of any future marriage. As it happens, the will was drawn up just four years after a major law was passed in 1882 in the British Parliament, called the Married Women’s Property Act. The act was one step on the path to financial equality for women . Prior to this legislation, when a woman married, she had to give up any real estate or personal holdings to her husband, becoming financially dependent on him. This would apply to assets she possessed before or after her marriage, including inheritances. The legislation also gave married women the right to enter into legal contracts, keep their own work wages, and to sell property.
Our Mary Cannonier was obviously aware of recent advances in women’s rights in the United Kingdom, and made very sure that her young relative Blanche wouldn’t be shortchanged on her inheritance. Blanche did indeed marry in 1894 to Thomas Jessup Brownbill, a merchant and planter of St Kitts.
Sources
- National Archives of St Kitts and Nevis
- Married Women’s Property Act, 1882, legislation.gov.uk
- Married Women’s Property Act, 1870 and 1882, Towards Emancipation? Women in Modern European History, UNC Chapel Hill
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