Inhabitants' lists (Barbados)

Item

Country

BB

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Barbados Department Archives

Language of name of institution

eng

Contact information: postal address

Black Rock, St. James, Barbados

Contact information: phone number

001 (246) 424-1270
001 (246) 425-5150
001(246) 535-0050 (Ingrid Thompson, chief archivist)

Contact information: web address

https://dloc.com/collections/ibarbadosarchdept

Contact information: email

archives@sunbeach.net
bda@caribsurf.com
ingrid.cumberbatch@barbados.gov.bb (Ingrid Thompson, chief archivist)

Title (official language of the state)

Inhabitants' lists (Barbados)

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

Barbados Department Archives

Date note

17th century/20th century

Language(s)

eng

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

Barbados Department Archives includes a series of censuses and population lists since the 17th century. The record of inhabitants is not continuous, but there are some noteworthy registrations, such as the following:
List of inhabitants possessing over 10 acres in 1638 (transcript).
Names of landowners (transcript, indexed). 1679/80. Some were reproduced in Hotten (1874) and Adler (1893).
Census of 1715 (transcript, indexed). Published by A. St. Hill (1937-40).
Parochial lists of inhabitants, c. 1740-c.1835. 13 items.
Among these censuses and lists of inhabitants are mentions of Sephardic Jews living on the island. See Cohen (1983).

Administrative / Biographical history

In 1960 and 1961, a survey was carried out for the University of the West Indies (then the University College) to discover which historical records survived in Barbados. The survey covered most Government Departments, the local (parish) governments, secondary schools, Anglican, Methodist, Moravian, and Roman Catholic churches, a few business firms, the Public Library, and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. The results of the survey were published in Chandler (1964).
In 1964, a Department of Archives was established by the Barbados Government. The Department is the official repository of archives and, since its establishment, has been accumulating records that were formerly kept by the departments responsible for their creation. Many of the records listed in Chandler (1964) have already been transferred to the Archives, and transfers are continuing.

(source: Chronicle Barbados)

Access points: locations

Barbados

Access points: subject terms

Sephardim in the Caribbean

Census

17th century

18th century

Access points: document types

State records

Finding aids

Chandler, Michael John. 1965. A Guide to Records in Barbados. Mona (Jamaica): University of the West Indies.

Existence and location of copies

Barbados Vital Records (Small Collections)

Existence and location of originals

Colonial Office and predecessors: Barbados, Original Correspondence

Privy Council and related bodies: America and West Indies, Colonial Papers (General Series)

Author of the description

Carla Vieira, 2023

Bibliography

Cohen, Robert. 1983. “Early Caribbean Jewry: A Demographic Perspective.” Jewish Social Studies 45 (2): 123–34.

Dunn, Richard S. 1969. “The Barbados Census of 1680: Profile of the Richest Colony in English America.” The William and Mary Quarterly 26 (1): 3–30. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/1922291.

St. Hill, A. 1937-40. “A Census of the Island of Barbados, West Indies.” Journal of Barbados Museum and Historical Society 5–7.

Published primary sources

Adler, Cyrus. 1893. “Jews in the American Plantations between 1600-1700.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 1: 105–8. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43058514.

Hotten, John Camden. 1874. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went From Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. New York: Empire State Book Co.

Item sets

WSD Roadmap

WSD Roadmap finais

WSD Roadmap Caribbeans