Was a slave to John V. Purrier.

Information provided by Lloyd Porter, through Carrie Low: John V. Purrier as a slave owner, and father of Naomi Ferraro. Was hanged by slaves when he refused to give up land during transition from slavery. May have been of Portugese origin.

The above information could not be confirmed and there appeared to be a generation gap, as the time difference from John V. Purrier to the current generation is too large without someone in between. Here is a report I made to Lloyd Porter on 2010-05-31 from my research:

I found detailed slave and slave owner records of Jamaica at ancestry.ca (subscription site).  Unlike the US, where the census didn't name slaves, but just gave numbers, age ranges, and sex, the Jamaica "Slave Schedules" give the names (usually just first names), ages, sometimes other details, such as spouse and/or children, and listed with the name of the owners.  It appears that Jamaica didn't have, or keep census as such during the period of slavery.  At that time, it was an attitude "who cares about people -- but recording property is important" and since slaves were considered "property" meticulous accounting was called for!  It appears that if the owner of a slave was also the father, then a last name was given to that slave.  Surviving records of early 19th century Jamaica appear to contain more details about slaves than about ordinary free people -- at least from what has been digitized and placed online.  There may be local records with much more information.

The slave schedules show a major owner of 185 slaves was John Vincent Purrier, in 1817 in Portland parish, and in 1829 had 224 slaves at the Ferry Hill Planation, Portland.  Although I could find no date of birth or death for him, he was the owner of slaves in the 1817 and 1829, meaning he must have been born in the late 18th century (say around 1770 to 1790).  This would make him too old to be the grandfather of Alexander Pugh born in 1889.  Perhaps there is a missing generation or two in information you have.  The little I could find out about him never refers to a title "Honourable" but it appears he was one of the legislators of Jamaica in early 19th century which would automatically give him that title.  It appears he made several trips to England.

The question was, if John V. Purrier was the father of Naomi Rebbecca Ferraro, why was the surname different?  Slaves were often traded, bought or sold, and the name may have been of another owner.  I also knew that spellings could vary and also wondered why Naomi Rebbecca had two given names -- a rare thing for slaves in those days, but may have happened if a change of ownership happened.

I then searched for variations in names, and for both "Naomi" and "Reb(b)ec(c)a and for various forms of Ferraro and Purrier, since record makers would just write down what they heard and use whatever spelling they thought it should be.  I found one interesting entry in the 1832 slave schedule -- just a year before the British "Abolition of the Slave Trade Act" was passed, and there then following a transition to eventually end slavery in the British Empire.

This entry was for a female owner in Kingston who owned "only" two slaves.  One slave was named Rebecca Ferrier.  Could that be a corruption of "Ferraro?"  In 1832, she was 15 years old, described at "Colour: Black" and listed as "Creole."  Under "Remarks" it says "Returned in 1829 by Elizabeth Oliphant in Kingston."  The other slave is Mary Oliphant, age 69, Black, African -- with the same comment under "Remarks" as for Rebecca.  Thus it appears there was more than one owner for these slaves and a trade back-and-forth took place.  Checking the name of the owner, she is Margaret Ferrier (one entry is unclear and looks like it was altered from Purrier).  Now, this becomes interesting as the variations in surnames is considered.  The owner last name is Purrier or Ferrier. That comes close to matching the surname of the earlier John Vincent Purrier.  The surname of the slave Rebecca is "Ferrier" -- possibly a corruption of both "Purrier" and "Ferraro."  

Now to speculate on some remote possibilities:  Noting this Rebecca was 15 years old in 1832 means she was born about 1817.  Since John Vincent Purrier was a major slave owner around that period, and I found a number of his slaves had his surname or several variations, I suspect he fathered a number of children.  It is possible this could be a connection to your Naomi Rebbecca Ferraro -- possibly Rebecca Ferrier being her mother.  To allow me to further speculate, since Rebecca Ferrier and the much older Mary Oliphant were together and traded together, Mary may have been a relative, possibly grandmother, of Rebecca.  From the age of Mary of 69 in 1832 would mean she was born about 1763 and described as "African" she could possibly have been the original generation of that family who came from Africa.

The slave schedules are incomplete and some pages cut off the first part of the names of some, so not all can be checked.  So far, I can't find any other possible connections.