Mr Atkinson’s Rum Contract: the story of a tangled inheritance

by Richard Atkinson

Richard Atkinson was in his late thirties, and approaching a milestone he had long dreaded - the age at which his father died - when one day he came across a box of old family letters gathering dust on top of a cupboard.

This discovery set him on an all-consuming, highly emotional journey, ultimately taking him from the weather-beaten house of his Cumbrian ancestors to the abandoned ruins of their sugar estates in Jamaica.

Richard's searches led him to one forebear in particular, an earlier Richard Atkinson, a brilliant but flawed West India merchant who had shipped all the British army's supplies during the American War of Independence, and amassed staggering wealth and connections along the way. 'Rum' Atkinson died young, at the height of his powers, leaving a vast inheritance to his many nephews and nieces, as well as the society beauty who had refused his proposal of marriage; forty years of litigation followed as his heirs wrangled over his legacy.

Drawing on his family's personal correspondence, Richard writes with rare candour about his worldly ancestors and their involvement in the slave trade - for, like many well-to-do Georgian families, the Atkinsons' wealth was acquired at a terrible cost, through the lives of enslaved Africans. When the first of the Atkinsons sailed to Jamaica in the 1780s, the island was the jewel in the imperial crown; by the 1850s, when the last of them returned, it was an impoverished backwater. This vivid tale of a single family, their lives and loves, set against a panoramic backdrop of war, politics and slavery, offers a uniquely intimate insight into one of the most disturbing chapters in Britain's colonial past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook

512 pages, ebook

Published April 16, 2020

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a detailed history of Richard Atkinson's family, including much about its slave owning past in Jamaica. It provided insights into the enslaved people's environment, the British abolition campaign, and what happened when the system ended. Overall an interesting read.

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would compare this to Mank the film which at over two hours is rather imposing but if you battle through the first 20 minutes of the latter, so say first 30 odd pages of this tome, you are set fair and onto a damn good thing. It is an engrossing read, well told and skips along at a merry old pace. The author's namesake is some mover and shaker whether it be Government contracts to supply the redcoats battling George Washington with rum one of the much needed supplies or domestic political shenanigans battling Fox and co. The rum comes from Jamaica where the Atkinsons had a couple of plantations and one goes on a moving journey with the author at the end as he visits the island where his family had slaves. The description of the treatment of the slaves in general makes for grim reading...throwing many into the sea so as to try and claim insurance ...effectively murdering them...to transporting those who dared to raise their voices to Nova Scotia. The main thread of the tale is excellent encompassing so much of major moments in history including William Wilberforce and his fellow anti-Slavery crusaders little by little eradicating it, doing deals with the remarkable Toussaint Louverture in Saint Domingue to the redevelopment of Newcastle and restoring Hadrians Wall all courtesy of the Atkinson family. Being from the Lake District Wordsworth evidently crops up..and amidst it all there is the froideur within the family largely over Richard's will. It is a pearl of a book which I bought on spec and delighted that I did. Leave you with the author's trip to Jamaica and this passage: "appalled to think these people (the slaves) had been the lawful property (italics) of my family. I can't help but wonder, did my ancestors ever pause to reflect how posterity might judge them?"

[Martin Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and meticulously researched book about the Atkinson family and in particular Richard 'rum' Atkinson who was born in Temple Sowerby in Westmoreland and developed a business that was intricately involved in the mercantile life of London, the north of England and Jamaica, which in the 18th century means the slave trade. He eventually became an MP and was a highly influential behind the scene fixer in some of the political shenanigans of the 18th century. Of course a lot of the history most people will know, but what is so interesting is the way well known events interact with the family and the way Atkinson managed to be if not at the centre of major events at least close by and talking to all the people who were. He appears in cartoons by Gillray, was accused of profiteering by the press and was involved in the slave trade as well as owning plantations in Jamaica but was also seen as being a decent upright man. The author, a distant kinsman of Richard 'rum' Atkinson, inherited a box of letters and started digging into his family history - and we are lucky that he has the knack of writing wonderfully readable prose. In writing this book he finds distant cousins he had never met before including some whose existence must have been the result of liaisons between ancestors in Jamaica and their slaves, relationships he doesn't hesitate to call rape. Overall I found this book a thought provoking and important addition to my understanding of 18th century Britain and our involvement with slavery and the abolition of what we all now understand was a despicable trade.

[Henry Douthwaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book. A fantastic research into an extensive family history and dynamics between many unique characters, including their involvement in the ownership of slaves on Caribbean plantations during the period of the abolishment of the slave trade in the UK.

I do have issues though. I love the history, but the content is at times very dense. The author admitted towards the end of the book that his research covered a period of at least 8 years and it appears he may have been overly attached to a lot of it as there was definitely information that wasn't necessary and didn't add to the story. Extensive editing could have been done and paved the way for the author to use his delightful powers of description, such as he displayed in the introduction to his research and during his trip to Jamaica more frequently, it could also have given more humanity to some of the figures even if they are subject to his opinion. I would also have loved a summary, what he felt after putting the research on paper, has it helped him and does he have issues with some of his relatives? There was quite an excellent build up, yet no conclusion.

Overall I really did enjoy it, but felt it could have been improve on. As another review described, at the moment, this is an extensive family record as opposed to something for a wider audience.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

[1 Sep 2020] This is a unusual book and one that to be frank is exceptionally hard to pull off. However Richard Atkinson does just that. He takes his own family history and contextualises it by recreating scenes from his ancestors lives. Other peoples families have limited interest, but the politics of the eighteenth century, trade, war and the conduct of the empire builders have infinite interest for many of us. He was dealt a good hand of cards though. His ancestors held high ranking positions and left portraits and documents which allow the diligent researcher to track them down and bring their stories back to life.

The Slave trade is described in a dispassionate manner, it was told 'as was', with no virtue signalling political correctness or British self loathing that seems to be expected these days. It was an horrific trade from which his family benefitted, but the trade itself, the work of the enslaved Africans and the attempts to abolish it are all laid out for what they were without distortion. It was refreshing to read an account of the Slave trade without the horrific nature of it being obscured by twenty-first century moralising. Although I'm aware that for some the story of Slave Owners would always be a story unjustified in its telling. Interesting and information, easy to read and engaging (although there are several characters with the same name which can make it hard to keep up). I would recommend this book because it tells us something about the nature of Britain and the British at a particular time. I liked the use of traditional county names, the family tree chart, the line drawings and pictures. Overall a really enjoyable book and the author is to be congratulated.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read, with the author digging into the archives of his family to paint a portrait of Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Of particular interest was the author’s account of various of his ancestors who ran sugar plantations (with sizable numbers of African slaves) on the island of Jamaica.

Atkinson writes of his ancestors in a nuanced way; while disapproving of their participation in the institution of slavery, he does not judge them, for better or for ill. I respected the fact that he did not try to judge his forbears by the mores of the 21st century.

The author adds background interest to the story by detailing the campaign in Britain to first of all outlaw the importation of slaves to the British Empire, and then some 27 years later, to abolish the institution of slavery itself.

I only gave the book three stars, since it dragged in places. Overall, however, it was an interesting, engaging, and often humorous tale.

[Eleanor]

Atkinson’s attempt to trace his family back through several centuries of British history is fascinating, if overlong and occasionally bogged down in details of eighteenth-century scams. Still, the thing that’s most interesting about it is the fact that many of his ancestors were slaveowners, holding significant estates in Jamaica. The timing of this book intrigues; had it been published even a month later, I wonder if Atkinson’s publishers would have asked him to address this shameful legacy more directly. Instead, though he does engage with it, it’s on a fairly superficial level, the general attitude being that this was not a great thing, but without dwelling much on the details. Still, what it does do is drive home how many perfectly average middle-class families in Britain today have benefited from the slave trade. It’s not just peers and merchant princes who need to take a good hard look at their own houses.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for! I’m particularly embarrassed to have chosen to read this for Black History Month, although in my defence I had hoped it might help with my WIP which touches on the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade in Cumbria, where the Atkinson family has its roots. Full review https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post...

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting family history, such a wealth of sources and letters for the prominent members of the family in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Although there was much too much detailed political scene setting for the Richard Atkinson with the rum contract.

[Mrs Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful family story, details of research,various shenanigans. Highly recommend.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well researched book but ultimately it loses some of its strength in the depth of its detail

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.75 - RTC)

Atkinson’s attempt to trace his family back through several centuries of British history is fascinating, if overlong and occasionally bogged down in details of eighteenth-century scams. Still, the thing that’s most interesting about it is the fact that many of his ancestors were slaveowners, holding significant estates in Jamaica. The timing of this book intrigues; had it been published even a month later, I wonder if Atkinson’s publishers would have asked him to address this shameful legacy more directly. Instead, though he does engage with it, it’s on a fairly superficial level, the general attitude being that this was not a great thing, but without dwelling much on the details. Still, what it does do is drive home how many perfectly average middle-class families in Britain today have benefited from the slave trade. It’s not just peers and merchant princes who need to take a good hard look at their own houses.