Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams collection

The majority of the material in the collection concerns the financial interests of Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams in Jamaica. Benjamin Adams was owed a significant sum by Jamaican landowner George Noble. Upon Noble's death (ca. 1790), Adams entered into proceedings via attorneys James Corne Pownall and David Duncomb to recover his debt. The process was severely complicated by the revelation that the cane plantation overseen by Noble, known as the Lottery Estate in Trelawney, Jamaica, was not actually owned by him. After Benjamin Adams' death in 1792, the affair was taken up by the executor of his will, his brother Thomas Adams. The collection consists of autograph letters and copies, statements of bills and accounts, estate dealings and promissory notes; included is correspondence with, among others, William Cruden, William Morton Pitt and David Ross.