Thomas Hibbert

Monument to Thomas Hibbert

Thomas Hibbert (1710–1780) was an English merchant and slave-owner who became a prominent Jamaican.

Thomas was the first of the Hibbert family to settle in Jamaica, arriving in 1734. He was born into a family owning cotton mills which supplied barter goods to businesses in the slave-trade. His original remit was to redeem the bonds of slave traders at the point at which they sold their slaves in Kingston.

In 1754, he completed work on building Hibbert House which won a competition as the finest house in Kingston. Rather than marrying, Thomas cohabited with Charity Harry, by whom he had three daughters. The youngest died whilst still young, but Jane and Margaret were sent to have an Anglican education in England. Margaret died while still at school.^[1]

His nephew was Robert Hibbert.

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