Dear Editor,

Are there any Angells residing in Jamaica?

After tracing my family’s history I recently discovered that my four times great-grandfather, Peter Renatus Angell, went to Jamaica from England some time in the 18th century. The cabinet maker, who was born in 1748, was probably accompanied by his brothers.

He was converted through his contact with the Moravians, and when they established churches and schools for slaves, perhaps he was employed in the construction of Moravian settlements in St Elizabeth. His wife, Prudence, died in 1793 and was buried at Goshen in St Elizabeth. He later returned to England and died at Fulneck in Yorkshire.

One of his sons, Benjamin Angell, who was shipped off to school in Fulneck, later returned to Jamaica and became a coffee planter with properties at Topsham, Timbuctu and Adam’s Valley. I believe, too, a century later in 1910 a Charles and Emma Angell owned Green Pond Pen and Providence Pen in Manchester.

Amazingly, though I myself lived in Jamaica between 1958 and 1977, I had no idea at that time that almost 200 years earlier my ancestors had lived on the island.

It would therefore be wonderful to hear from any Angells now living in Jamaica, to whom I might be related and who may have additional knowledge of our ancestry.

Jo Angell

mj.angell56@talktalk.net