John Pretor Pinney

John Pretor Pinney (1740 – 23 January 1818) was a plantation owner on the island of Nevis in the West Indies and was a sugar merchant in Bristol. He made his fortune from England’s demand for sugar. His Bristol residence is now the city's Georgian House Museum. Early life Born John Pretor in Chard, Somerset in 1740, his parents were Michael Pretor (d.1744) and Alicia Clarke (d.1759). His mother had a distant cousin, John Frederick Pinney, who had no children, so in 1762 at the age of 22 John Pretor was the key beneficiary of John Frederick’s will, inheriting land in Dorset and several plantations worked by enslaved people on Nevis. His inheritance was on the condition that he took the surname Pinney, which he did. John Pretor Pinney left England for Nevis in 1764 where he remained until 1783. The plantations which he inherited had been built up by his great-great-uncle, Azariah Pinney (1661–1720) and his family. Azariah Pinney had been granted a pardon by James II for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion on the condition that he spent 10 years in the West Indies; he arrived in Nevis in 1682. However, by the time John Pretor Pinney inherited the estates, they were run down and in debt. Nevis plantation Over 20 years John Pretor Pinney built up both the size and number of the estates he either owned outright or as a mortgagee, as well as increasing the number of enslaved people he owned. Soon after his arrival on Nevis, between January 1765 and July 1768 John Pretor Pinney bought over sixty Africans. After his first purchase he wrote: Since my arrival I’ve purchased nine negroe slaves at St Kitts and can assure you I was shock’d at the first appearance of human flesh exposed to sale. But surely God ordain’d ‘em for ye use & benefit of us: otherwise his Divine Will would have been made manifest by some particular sign or token.