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My name is Harold Ghent, and I am part of the white minority of European "Creoles" of ancestors who had settled in Trinidad British West Indies.
The definition of Creole is debateable but in my opinion, is anyone of European Descent born outside of Europe - i.e. the colonies at the time.
The common idea is that if you're from the West Indies, you're of African Continental decent. For that reason I have to explain my heritage quite alot.
I suppose the common sterotype of West Indian whites are descendents of "Irish/Scottish Prisoners", "Overseers", "Slaveowners" or "Plantation
Owners".
But today, these are extremely few and far between, since the drastic economic decline of global sugar prices in the 1800's forced many to leave and seek fortunes elsewhere.
My father Harold Senior, has told me about a Ghent family,
who had been in Trinidad to work for the Tate and Lyle Sugar estates in the 1800's.
As far as he tells me, my grandfather Herbert Charles Valentine Beresford Ghent, born in 1878, had 3 brothers and a sister, whose father George Haig Ghent, mother as well,
have been the children of a generation to have left England to for the colonies.
Herbert may have carried the traits of his father, since he was a druggist by profession and a keen field naturalist and agriculturalist, which showes he had an interest in
similar activities as his father. To my knowledge, the company Tate and Lyle was the one the ancestor was working with, maybe on the St. Madeline Estate.
I have investigated his birth at the record office in Trinidad but with many archived public records, they are long neglected and eventually perished in a fire at the
archives in Trinidad. To get his parents details, since his grandfather father was born in England, I believe I may be able to research the public record
office in London for Land grants, or Ships Passengers leaving the active
sugar trading ports of the early 1800's.
The original Ghent to have left England may not have been alone. From my
fathers knowledge, my grandfather's generation had many cousins, which may
suggest either the first Ghent came over with other Ghents, or that
Herbert's father did not originally come from England but that an earlier
Ghent did.
Evidence surfaced by a newsgroup posted from a Lavedea Glover-McWillie in
Louisana states that her grandmother was shipped from Port of Spain,
Trinidad, and sold as a slave to a Plantation owner in Baton-Rouge, around
1830 to 1840 and she carried the name Ghent. To my knowledge - carrying her
owners' name.
Herbert as with many British in French cultured Trinidad, was an Anglican
who got converted to Roman catholisim after marrying Marie Therese D'Espaux.
Born in 1883, Marie Therese, a Guadeloupean from French decent apparentley
had a grandfather or a great grandfather who fought in Napoleon II's
army. Her mother, born approximately between 1850 and 1870, widowed early in
life and sold the ancestor's rifle to go to Panama with her daughters (one
of whom was my Grandmother Marie Therese), during the Canal building, to
sell cakes and pastries. She ended up in Venezuela, teaching French and
English in a school before settling in Trinidad, doing the same thing.
My mother's family are Gibsons from St. Vincent and Barbados. My
grandmother, Vinie Gibson, born 1902, had a Father Francis Gibson who owned Banana plantations in St. Vincent. He was stern gentleman who often mistreated his farmhands, and was extremely scrupulous with his money, Given the nickname
Bank Note, as he kept all his money in a large chest.
Vinie Gibson, his daughter left St. Vincent, for Aruba in the Dutch West Indies Eventually settling in Trinidad living on a farm in Cunupia, Caroni. My guess
is that these Gibsons maybe the descendents of Scottish or Irish "redlegs", and had been maybe planter class who arrived early in the 18th century during the early years of the Colonial reign in the British West Indies.
I have
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