| Background | The Mathew family is descended from John Mathew of St Kew, Cornwall [c. 1540], and the Mathew family of Llandaff (Glamorgan). From the late 17th century, the family had connections with the Caribbean region, when Abednego Mathew (bap. 1633-d 1681), younger son of William Mathew of Tregildren, St Kew, had attained the rank of colonel in the army, and was appointed governor of St Christopher (Saint Kitts) and Nevis. Successive generations of the Mathew family purchased estates in Antigua, St Christopher and St Martin, and became involved in the sugar trade. Sir William Mathew (d 1704), was Captain-General of the Leeward Islands; William Mathew (d 1752), his son, grandson of Abednego Mathew, then was Lieutenant-General of the Leeward Islands from 1715, and Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief from 1735. William Mead (d 1702) and Penelope Mead (d 1734) were the grandparents of Ann Smith, wife of William Mathew, and great-parents of Penelope Smith, who married, first, Daniel Mathew, son of William and Ann Mathew, and then William Buckley. Daniel Mathew (? 1719-1777), eldest son of William Mathew, married Penelope Smith, great-granddaughter of William and Penelope Mead, in 1736, and [c. 1744] divorced her on the grounds of adultery with William Buckley. In 1750, he married Mary, daughter of George Byam of Antigua, widow of Joseph Lyons. She died in 1814, aged 84. Abednego Mathew (b. 1724), the younger brother of Daniel Mathew, married Jennett, the only surviving child of William Buckley by his first wife Sarah, who was the widow of Thomas Butler of St Christopher (d 1731). William Buckley (d 1754) husband of Sarah, widow of Thomas Butler, by whom he had two daughters, Mary (died ante 1755), and Jennett, his heir, who married Abednego Mathew. In 1745, Buckley married Penelope, divorced wife of Daniel Mathew, by whom he had other children: George Mathew (1760-1846), son of Daniel Mathew, became Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards; Sir George Benvenuto Mathew [from 1865, Buckley Mathew](d 1879) the son of George Mathew, was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, M. P., C.B. and K.C.M.G. He married three times. His first wife was Anne Hoare, whom he married in 1836, and from whom he was divorced in 1847. His second wife was Rosina Adelaide Handley, and his third Elizabeth Garrard; Brownlow Hugh Buckley Mathew (d 1917), [from 1887, Brownlow Hoare Mathew-Lannowe] was the eldest son of Sir George Buckley Mathew, he became a Major-general. He married Annie Wilson, (who died in 1921) in 1863; Brownlow Henry Hamilton Mathew-Lannowe (1872-1964), the son of Major-General Brownlow Hoare Mathew-Lannowe, he was himself Lieutenant-Colonel in the Dragoon Guards an awarded the D.S.O. His wife was Iris Gwendoline Oldrey, whom he married in 1907, and who died in 1972. |
| Description | Will of Abednego Mathew, 1682; papers relating to William Mathew, 1702-1764; papers relating to William and Penelope Mead, 1698-1736; papers relating to Daniel Mathew, 1735-1776; papers relating to Abednego Mathew, 1728-1795; papers relating to William Buckley, 1745; papers relating to George Mathew, 1788-1850; papers relating to Sir George Benvenuto Mathew, 1825-1880; papers relating to Buckley's estate, St Christopher, 1876-1943; papers relating to Brownlow Hugh Buckley Mathew, 1862-1911; Brownlow Henry Hamilton Mathew Lannowe, 1894 - [post 1938]; estate plans, documenting the layout and extent of six sugar plantations owned by the Mathew Family on the islands of St Christopher, Antigua and St Martin, [early 18th century]-[mid 18th century]; genealogy containing family tree documents and genealogical notes on the Mathew family 1866-[c. 1973]; photographs of army officers, 1913, 1931; and miscellaneous records, not directly related to the Mathew family, featuring documents on the history of the following Caribbean islands: Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, St Christopher, Jamaica, Nevis and Tobago, 1679-1926. Items of note within this collection are the estate plans of plantations on the islands of St Christopher, Antigua and St Martin in the early 18th century. The most detailed is the plan entitled Plan of a Plantation, the Property of Abednego Mathew Esq. In the Parish of St George, Basseterre in the island of St Christopher, dated 1757. |