Bangor Univeristy Archive holds the Penrhyn Estate Archive for Jamaican plantations owned by the Welsh Pennant family - as well as a wide range of other documents. The Penrhyn Estate Archive reflects nearly 700 years of the Pennant family’s involvement and management of their estates across North Wales, Jamaica and England.

Many of these relating to plantation management in Jamaica are now digitised and accessible on JStore: 

https://www.jstor.org/site/bangor-university/penrhyn-castle/?utm_source=chatgpt.com&so=item_title_str_asc

This Jamaica collection is intricately linked with our other online collection entitled Penrhyn Estate Archive (North Wales), as the Pennant family owned and managed much of their landholdings congruently for long periods of time.

There are over 530 items relating to the Pennant family’s sugar plantations in Jamaica within the Penrhyn Estate Archive. The Jamaica documents provide a valuable insight into the highly profitable sugar trade; giving glimpses of colonial life for the island’s elite (the family sat on the board of governors and Edward Pennant held the post of Chief Justice of the island), an insight into colonial estate management and a perspective on the highly emotive issue of slave labour, including the campaign by Richard Pennant against the abolition of the slave trade.