Mountravers Plantation (Pinney's Estate) - Nevis, West Indies

Christine Eickelmann and David Small

Acknowledgments

Over half a century ago Professor Richard Pares produced a seminal work on the Pinneys - A West India Fortune. Without this book, and without the Pinney Papers, detailed research on Mountravers would have been nearly impossible. Equally, over the years many people have contributed to our work on Nevis, and we would like to express our grateful thanks to them all:

• Suzanne Gordon of Nevis, Anne Hersh, Arpad and Judith Kovacsy, 'Marlon Brando' and other generous members of the community on Nevis who have provided or organised accommodation and transport for us. Our research on the island would be impossible without their help.
• The late Vince Hubbard of Nevis, for his history of the island, Swords, Ships and Sugar (Corvallis, Oregon, Premiere Editions, 2002), and for his friendship over many years (See also his History of St Kitts: The Sweet Trade, Macmillan Caribbean, 2002).
• David Rollinson of Nevis, Nova Scotia and Wales, for interesting days in the bush and his generous collaboration.
• The late Joan Robinson and David Robinson; the former Executive Director, John Guilbert, and all the previous and current staff of the NHCS, for their invaluable help.
• The late Albert Powell and Charlie Woodley, both of Nevis, for sharing their local knowledge with us.
• The late Bill Pinney, owner of the Mountravers Great House site, for his generous help and permission to work on his part of the estate.
• Members of the Pinney Family Trust in Britain, for their kind permission to use the Pinney Papers.
• Nick Lee, Michael Richardson and Hannah Lowery of Bristol University Special Collections Department, for being ever patient and helpful.
• The late Brian Littlewood, for very generously sharing his research and resources, without which genealogical study of planter families and aspects of plantation management would be all the poorer.
• All the members of Time Team, together with their Nevisian colleagues, for their efforts in the bush in 1998.
• The staff at Bristol City Museum, particularly the former Director, Stephen Price, Sue Giles and Christine Jackson, and members of the Bristol Slave Trade Action Group, for having the courage to more accurately record the city's role in the transatlantic slave economy.
• Members of the NHP for their early co-operation, particularly their work on the slave village site in 2001 and 2002.
• Paul Diamond of Nevis and now of Toronto, Canada, for his tireless efforts in preserving the history and ecology of Nevis.
• Claudette Jenkins, the Supreme Court Registrar, Anthony Walters and Olinda Walters, for their invaluable help in surveying the Nevis Court records in 2008. Since 2015 Wakely Daniel and Kevin Barrett of the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), Dr Andrew Pearson, Delvon Clarke and Mrs Melissa Flemming, the Assistant Court Registrar (based on Nevis) have all worked valiantly to get the digitisation of the historic records in the Courthouse completed.
• Professor Mark Horton and Bernard Lane, previously of the University of Bristol Department of Archaeology and Anthropology; Dr Madge Dresser, Honorary Professor in the Department of History (Historical Studies) at the University of Bristol; Dr Dan Hicks, now of the University of Oxford; Professor David Hancock of the University of Michigan, Dr Michelle Terrell and the late Professor Mary Beaudry of Boston University, for their advice and encouragement.