Day 1. A man of substance

DAY 1 - A man of substance

I am standing in the shade of a large breadfruit tree in the grounds of St.Michaels, Bridgetown, Barbados.  I have found the final resting place of my great great grandfather: a brick built mausoleum about six foot high  above the ground.  On a small marble plaque are the words “The Family Vault of Henry Beckles Gall built Feby 1853”.  In the heat of the late morning I ponder on the life Henry had lived over 150 years ago. May 2006

I imagine Henry sitting in the corner of his merchant store which served as his office. Business had 

been slow. His customers even slower in paying their accounts. But that was the way of things. 

Everyone seemed to be in debt to each other in Barbados. Even the great plantation owners were 

amassing debts greater than the value of their land and slaves.

Henry turned the pages of the Barbados Advocate and read again his advertisement demanding 

payment of all accounts by the end of the month. His position seemed hopeless; he would never better his position in Barbadian society until he had received his rightful inheritance which remained 

stubbornly in the hands of his great aunt, Elizabeth Gall. She had been a frail woman in 1816 when he had arrived in Barbados as a 12 year old with his elder brother. She was clinging onto life, having 

outlived all her siblings and inheriting most of the wealth of the Gall family including “Old Stingo’s 

plantation” in St.John’s. William, Henry’s brother had become the plantation manager on Elizabeth’s 

lands as she retreated to her retirement home on the cooler side of the island. Henry, as the younger 

of her nephews had learnt the skills of a merchant.

Henry carefully wrote out his name on the margin of the newspaper in his copperplate handwriting - 

the one useful trait he had learnt from his mother in Demerara. Henry Beckles Gall - he mulled over 

his name  in his mind. He spoke it out aloud as if this would give the name some gravitas. The Beckles 

name still carried some weight in Barbadian society but not much amongst his fellow merchants and 

traders of Bridgetown, the capital of what had once been the wealthiest of the British Atlantic colonies. The fortunes of the Beckles family had waned with the economics of the island. Perhaps his middle 

name was not as useful as his father had thought when he christened his son with his own name.

As a merchant Henry was a step down from the white elite of the colony, with little prospect of joining 

the plantation owning class. Unless he could arrange an advantageous marriage. But in such a small 

society there were long memories. There were still merchants and money lenders who would gladly 

regale the young Henry with the misfortunes of his great great uncle - Old Stingo- who drank himself into an early death and nearly lost all his lands to his creditors. How Old Stingo’s nephew,  Henry’s 

grandfather, had failed to pay off the debts on the plantation and finally been financially destroyed by 

the Great Hurricane of 1780. He died a broken man in the debtors jail. The Gall family name was 

forever tainted. The orphaned Gall children all left the island for Demerara as soon as they could to 

reinvent themselves.

A generation had spent their lives in Demerara. Henry Beckles Gall had great plans for himself and his brother in Barbados. They would recover the family fortune. Henry’s plans started with the death of 

his grandfather’s sister - Elizabeth Gall - and the securing of a good marriage.

 A man of substance    A Death & an Inheritance    A Pedigree    News from London    

Barrell arrives in Barbados     Face to Face    Before the Beak