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Entry TypePerson
SurnameFickle
ForenamesElizabeth
PlaceJamaica
Epithetfree "Mulatto" woman
Datesc1736-1776
Gender IdentityFemale
Cultural HeritageAfrican descent
BiographyEliza and Susanna Fickle were baptised on 9 March 1736 in Vere, Jamaica. Elizabeth was the daughter of Sarah Durrant, an African woman, probably enslaved, and Varney Philp, an enslaver. Elizabeth worked for William Perrin, who owned the Vere plantation; although she was certainly free at the time of his death, it is not clear whether she was originally enslaved or born free.

After William Perrin's death in 1758, Malcolm Laing (1718-1781), Perrin's attorney wrote to William Perrin's wife in London that Elizabeth had "served [William] faithfully and was about him during his Sickness and at his last moments". This language suggests that Elizabeth was William Perrin's mistress, and this suggestion is further enforced by the fact that Perrin bequeathed Elizabeth land in Kingston, money to build a house on the land, twenty acres of plantation land, his residence in Vere, ten enslaved people and an annuity of £50. In 1766 'An Act to intitle Elizabeth Fickle, of the parish of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, a free mulatto woman, to the same rights and privileges with English subjects, born of white parents, under certain restrictions' was passed (a "mulatto" had mixed European and African parentage).

Elizabeth subsequently entered into a relationship with Malcolm Laing with whom she had several children: Malcolm (d 1760), Charles (c 1761), Samuel (1762-1763), George (d 1764), Elizabeth (d 1765), and Robert (1767-1833). She died in 1776.
SourceAncestry (public member's tree)
https://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146651089
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/77875/livesayd_1.pdf
Authorised Form of NameFickle; Elizabeth (c1736-1776); free "Mulatto" woman

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