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Bangor University Archives in Wales, has a significant collection of plantation management documents related to the Pennant family who owned a number of plantations, mainly in Clarendon. The Penrhyn Estate Archive (Jamaica) includes digitised letters, accounts, maps, lists of enslaved people and other records from the Penrhyn Castle Papers relating to the Pennant family’s Jamaican estates. Access to this collection is free and many of these have been digitised and are now freely available online at:
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The Penrhyn Estate Archive reflects nearly 700 years of the Pennant family’s involvement and management of their estates across North Wales, Jamaica and England.
This Jamaica collection is intricately linked with our other online collection entitled Penrhyn Estate Archive (North Wales), as the Pennant family owned and managed much of their landholdings congruently for long periods of time.
There are over 530 items relating to the Pennant family’s sugar plantations in Jamaica within the Penrhyn Estate Archive. The Jamaica documents provide a valuable insight into the highly profitable sugar trade; giving glimpses of colonial life for the island’s elite (the family sat on the board of governors and Edward Pennant held the post of Chief Justice of the island), an insight into colonial estate management and a perspective on the highly emotive issue of slave labour, including the campaign by Richard Pennant against the abolition of the slave trade.
The selection of records in the Penrhyn Estate Archive (Jamaica) Collection, freely available on JSTOR, preserve a detailed record of the Pennant family's centuries-long involvement in Jamaica and in the enslavement of African people - the management of their sugar plantations; the lives of enslaved Africans; the politics of colonialism and abolition; the post-enslavement history of the Caribbean; the wealth generated through the sugar industry; and the investment of this wealth across the agricultural, industrial, religious, political, civic and educational institutions of north-west Wales.
By making these records freely available online, Bangor University will help empower individuals and communities across Wales and internationally to engage with the historical resources and evidence, through their own lenses.
The digitisation of these records was only made possible through a generous grant by the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Culture, Heritage and Sport Fund 2024/25. A fund established to support institutions like Bangor University (the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates and Bangor University’s Archives and Special Collection) contribute towards the delivery of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.
Content warning: Bangor University acknowledges that offensive language and outdated terminology exist within our collections. Some catalogue descriptions quote directly from the archival material and may include language we would not use today as they reflect the period in which they were created. Terms used within the records or quoted in their description may be derogatory, inappropriate, abusive, harmful, and offensive - such terms can describe race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability, and mental health. We believe that this information is representative of the time and context in which records were created and therefore an essential part of the archival record. We recognise that there is more work we can do to place this language into context and make our records more accessible for everyone. This statement can be seen as a first step and a commitment to the ongoing process of making our collections more inclusive. We have attempted to ensure that the selection of records is representative but recognise that this representation is influenced by our biases and life experiences. The entirety of the collection is available for research on site at Bangor University and is available to search on the Bangor University Archives and Special Collections Online Catalogue. We welcome any comments and feedback regarding our approach.