John P. Dean of Dean’s Lane — Free Man of Colour, Land Owner, Master of Ten Slaves, Member of the House of Assembly

Dean’s Lane is over 182 years old. The road was there before 1844. It sits today, part of a parcel of 281 acres of land, as it has since 1808, on the rise of Nassau Street in Nassau, New Providence. It is named for John Patrick Dean, a free man of colour and one of the first four coloured men to sit in the House of Assembly as the post-emancipation era dawned in The Bahamas.

By 1834, when John Patrick Dean walked into the House of Assembly for the first time, he was already a boat owner, landowner and slaveowner with a considerable fortune thanks in part to his slave owner father.

John’s father was Hugh Dean — Scottish Loyalist, merchant, substantial landowner and slave owner. His mother was Joanna Dean — Hugh Dean’s negro slave mistress.

Dean’s Lane carries the name. It does not carry the history — the story of a free man of colour who rose from the codicil of a Scottish Loyalist’s will to own ten slaves and sit in the House of Assembly, in a Bahamas remaking itself at the seam between slavery and freedom.

Let’s begin with his white slave owner father, Hugh Dean of Scotland, who became a significant influence in the life of his son John, a free coloured man.

Hugh Dean, Scottish Loyalist, Slaveowner arrives in The Bahamas Shortly After 1783

Hugh Dean mattered to his mixed-race son John Patrick Dean in the most material way a father can matter — he left behind land. Where the documentary record is silent, we can make reasoned historical inferences: the 281-acre plantation on the west end of New Providence, somehow wrested from the wreckage of his father’s financial collapse, became the foundation upon which John Patrick Dean built the fortune and the property-owning respectability that colonial Bahamian law required of any man — regardless of colour — who aspired to sit in the House of Assembly.

Hugh Dean was born in Scotland around 1745, possibly in the Parish of Pyke, Moray. He emigrated to America around 1770 and established himself in Maryland, purchasing 500 acres in Somerset County in 1773. When the American Revolution came, he chose the Crown. In 1776, American rebels captured and imprisoned him in Annapolis for releasing English prisoners. He escaped after eleven months and made his way to New York.

On 15 October 1780, he married Hester Ford at the Dutch Reformed Church. They would have children in New York and later in the Bahamas — Jane, Ann, Esther, Sarah, and Hugh Alexander Dean.

In 1785, his confiscated Maryland property was auctioned at the public vendue in Salisbury. Hugh Dean had lost his American world entirely. He moved to the Bahama Islands shortly after the 1783 peace, joined with Philip Moore, James Hepburn, John Wells and other Loyalists in 1785 to demand the dissolution of the House of Assembly, and filed a claim for his confiscated Maryland property with the American Claims Commission in December 1786.
In the Bahamas, Dean rebuilt. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dean-10539

He received land grants in Berrys and Roses on Long Island in 1788 and acquired property in Inagua, Abaco, and Nassau. He partnered with Alexander Begbie and Alexander Bain in the sale of dry goods, properties, and slaves. He planted cotton on his island plantations. He served as Bahamas Salt Commissioner in Inagua and sat on the Bahama Agricultural Society. He was, by every measure, a man of standing in colonial Nassau.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dean-10539

Hugh Dean likely died in late 1808.

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Hugh Dean: In 1808, one of the Bahamas’s Largest Landowners and Debtors

Hugh Dean held land across Nassau town lots, New Providence, Harbour Island, Watlings Island (now San Salvador), Abaco, Long Island, Cat Island, and Heneagua (Exuma). The sheer scale suggests he was one of the larger landholders — and debtors — in the Bahamas at that time.

In the summer of 1808, the Royal Gazette of Nassau published what amounted to a public autopsy of a man’s financial life. Under a terse legal notice, the Estate, Property, Title and Interest of Hugh Dean, Esquire, was ordered sold at the Vendue House on the fifth day of September next, by virtue of sundry executions issued out of the General Court.

What followed was an extraordinary listing. One of the large lots — 281 acres atop what would become Nassau Street, New Providence — became the property of his son John Patrick Dean, a free man of colour known as Dean’s Plan.

Spread across six islands — New Providence, Harbour Island, Watlings Island, Abaco, Long Island, Cat Island, and Heneagua — Dean’s holdings encompassed town lots fronting Bay Street, plantation tracts running to thousands of acres, and properties formerly belonging to men already dead and gone. He had accumulated land the way men of his era accumulated power — aggressively, speculatively, and apparently beyond his means to sustain.

By 1808, the General Court had caught up with him. Hugh Dean was finished. But the story of what he left behind — and who inherited it — had only just begun.

To be Sold, At the Vendue House, on Tuesday the fifth day of September next, By virtue of sundry executions issued out from the general court against HUGH DEAN, Esq. All the Estate, Property, Title and Interest of the said Hugh Dean, Of, in and to the following Property, viz.

All that Lot of Land, with the Stores and Buildings thereon, now occupied by Mr. Francis Monell and Mr. James Dunlhee, distinguished in the plan of the town by the No. 28, and fronting on Bay-street eighty feet, more or less.

Also, all that other Lot of Land adjoining the above, with the Stores and Buildings thereon, now in the occupation of Mr. John Taylor, Mr. William Vaf-, Mr. Thomas Forbes and others, being part of lot distinguished by the No. 29, fronting on Bay Street forty-two feet, and on Frederick Street, one hundred feet, more or less.

Also, a moiety or half-part of Lot distinguished in the plan of said town by the No. 33, fronting upon Crown alley and Prison lane, at present occupied by Harry Webb, Esq.

Also, all that other Lot in the western suburbs of the town of Nassau, occupied by Mr. John Thomas, fronting on Bay-street, about forty-two feet, and extending in depth two hundred and fifty eight feet, more or less.

Also, all that other Lot, situate between the last above mentioned lot of land and lot of Samuel Clufsan, now in the occupation of William Greenwood, fronting on Bay-street 30 feet and extending in depth 258 feet, more or less.

Also all that other Lot in the western suburbs of the town of Nassau, being part of lot No. 6, fronting easterly on Nassau-street 168 feet, and extending in depth therefrom 130 feet, at present in the occupation of the above named William Greenwood.

Also, all that other Lot of Land in the eastern suburbs of the town of Nassau, situate nearly opposite the lot late belonging to Joseph Eve, fronting on Bay-street 99 feet and bounded on the west by Henry Hokginson’s lot.

Also, all that other Lot of Land in the western suburbs of the Island of New Providence, distinguished by the No. 49 in a plan generally called Delancy’s plan, the said lot being one of a number of lots into which Mr. Delancy’s land was divided.

Also, that Lot of Land in the town of Nassau, situate on the hill, adjoining lots of William Kerr, Esq. and Henry Jackson.

Also, all that other Lot in the western suburbs of the town of Nassau, in the occupation of Mrs. Wood, fronting on Bay-street and Dorchester-street, and adjoining Mr. Rigby’s lot.

Also, all that other Lot in the town of Nassau, opposite Doctor Bell’s, in the occupation of Nicholas Garner, fronting on Nassau-street, bounded on the east by a lot of Alexander Hasrald.

Also, all that Plantation or Tract of Land, on the west end of New Providence, containing 281 acres, more or less, formerly the property of Alexander Todd, and bounded northerly on the sea.

Also, all that Tract of Land situate on the said Island of New Providence at Blue Hills, containing 240 acres, now the property of William J. Joyce et al, bounded easterly by land of Robert Woodie.

Also, all that other Lot of Land in the town of Dunmore, Harbour Island, distinguished in the plan of that town by the No. 149.

Also, all that Tract of Land on Watlings Island, containing 200 acres or originally granted to Thomas Hodgkin, adjoining land granted Robert Halliday and bounded upon a branch of the Great Lake.

Also, all that other Tract of Land on the Island of Abaco, containing 360 acres, situate at Cedar Harbour.

Also, all that Plantation or Tract of Land on Long Island, called Cabbage Point, containing 1100 acres, more or less.

Also, all that other Plantation or Tract of Land, adjoining the above plantation, late the property of Brumfield Donam, containing __ acres, more or less.

Also, all that other Plantation or Tract of Land called Little Harbour Plantation, situated on Long Island aforesaid, containing 800 acres more or less.

Also, all that Plantation or Tract of Land on Long Island, containing 1000 acres, bounded north-westerly by land of Lord Dunmore, north-easterly by the sea, easterly by other land of said Hugh Dean, and south-easterly by land of Alex’s. McQueen and other persons, and south-westerly by a Saline, which said plantation was formerly the property of James Rose, deceased.

Also, all that other Plantation or Tract of Land, situate on Cat Island, formerly the property of the above named James Rose, containing 600 acres, bounded southerly on Flamingo and Red pond, easterly by Gambler’s Tract and the Great Lake.

Also, all that other Tract of Land situate at Great Hill, Cat Island aforesaid, late the property of the said James Rose, containing 100 acres, bounded westerly on the land of George Feigley.

Also, all that Plantation or Tract of Land on Cat Island, called Orange Grove, containing 104 acres, and two Tracts of Land near Pigeon Bay, containing 160 acres, which said three tracts, were formerly owned by Seth Doud, deceased.

Also, all that other Tract of Land on the said Island of Heneagua, containing 720 acres, bounded northerly by land of Alexander Eain, Esq. westerly by the sea, easterly and southerly by vacant land.

Also, all that other Tract of Land on the Island of Heneagua, containing 300 acres, bounded northerly by Dorm’s Creek, and on other sides by vacant land.

W. BAYLIS, P.M. N.B. The Plats and Grants of the several Tracts and Lots of Land above mentioned, are lodged in the Subscriber’s office, where reference may be had to them and more particular descriptions obtained at any time prior to the sale. W. B.

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The Second Codicil That Acknowledges His Negro Woman and Their Children John, Hugh and Charlotte

Estate claims appeared in the Royal Gazette and Bahama Advertiser in January 1809. He left a will dated 15 April 1800, with two codicils written in 1805 and 1806. The will was conventional. He left his wife Hester the house and lot in Nassau and two hundred pounds per annum. He placed four thousand five hundred pounds sterling in trust for his daughters Jennet, Ann, and Esther. The rest and residue of his estate — in the Islands and in Forres, Murrayshire — he bequeathed to his legitimate son, Hugh Alexander Dean.

Then Hugh Dean wrote the second codicil.

I give, devise, and bequeath to my Negro Woman called Joanie/Joanna Dean my plantation or lot of land of four acres .. being in the Western District .. to have and to hold .. immediately after my decease .. free from all encumbrances .. and after her death .. shall go to and be held by her three children John, Hugh, and Charlotte.

Joanna Dean. He gave her his name in the codicil. He gave her four acres in the Western District, free from encumbrance, effective immediately upon his death. And he named her three children: John, Hugh, and Charlotte. He made no provision for their freedom in the codicil — which means either Joanna was already free by 1806, or Hugh Dean chose not to formalize what he and the law may have considered understood.

John was the first name. John Patrick Dean.

The Ten Slaves of John Patrick Dean of Dean’s Road

John Patrick Dean appears in the slave returns of 1822 and 1824 not as a slave but as a free coloured man. He is already propertied. He is already navigating the colonial world on his own terms. His father had been dead since 1808.

What capital John carried forward — whether in cash, credit, connections, or the four acres his mother inherited on the Western District — is not recorded. What is recorded is what he did with it.

He engaged in the economy of the day.

In 1826, John Patrick Dean purchased Fly, a male Creole of New Providence aged twenty-eight, off the estate of James Wallace deceased. Fly was his first. In 1827, he purchased Stephen, an eighteen-year-old Creole male, off the estate of Robert Thompson. Two slaves. A modest beginning.

Then 1828 arrived, and Dean moved with purpose.

He purchased Ben, male, thirty-nine, Creole, and Hannah, female, thirty-eight, African, both off James Moss. He purchased Samson, male, thirty-one, Creole, off William Wylly. He purchased Betty, female, sixty-one, Creole. He purchased Paul, male, fifty-nine, African, off Walter H. Lightbourn.

In 1829 he acquired Sidney, female, fifty-five, African, also off Lightbourn — and sold Stephen to Robert W. Sawyer.

In 1830 he purchased Scotland, male, fifty-nine, African, and George, male, fifty-nine, African, both off Elisha Swain.

By the 1831 slave return, John Patrick Dean held ten enslaved persons. He had built his workforce entirely through purchase, in the span of four years, from the estates and holdings of Nassau’s merchant and planter class. Every transaction was deliberate. Every name in the ledger was a choice.

Hannah and Diana

Among the ten, one entry demands particular attention. Hannah was thirty-eight years old when Dean purchased her off James Moss in 1828. She was African-born. She was listed as a field negro. Beside her in the 1831 return is Diana — female, Creole, two and a half years old, born 1828.

We can infer that Hannah was pregnant when Dean bought her. Diana was born into slavery on Dean’s plantation in the same year her mother was purchased.

Diana was two and a half years old in 1831. She was listed as property. John Patrick Dean, the son of a slave woman who bore a white man’s children in bondage, owned a child born the same year he purchased her mother.

Dean bought older enslaved Africans. He purchased — Paul, Sidney, Scotland, George — men and women in their late fifties, depreciated by the calculus of the slave market, cheaper to acquire, harder to work. He bought Betty in her late fifties. He bought experience and exhaustion in equal measure. He was assembling a plantation workforce on a free coloured man’s budget, from the estates of white men who had finished with them.

Slavery Compensation 21st March 1836

John P. Dean is Compensation Number 588 in the British colonial record of Bahamian slaveholders. Upon emancipation, for his claim of 10 slaves, he received £234 15s. 9d. in Crown compensation. In today’s money this would be about £35,000 or $47,000.

Dean’s Plan, A Plantation

John Patrick Dean, free man of colour, slave owner and Member of the Assembly amassed an impressive land holding known as Dean’s Plan — 281 acres stretching from what is now Dean’s Lane southward to and beyond what is now Quarry Mission Road.

This was originally owned by his white Scottish father Hugh Dean and before him it was either a purchase or a large land grant to Alexander Todd. These land was auctioned off in 1808. How the son John, a freed man of colour, came to own it, we do not know.

In the top left corner, there remained a small land holding of Hugh Dean written on the surveyor plan.

The 1844 map of New Providence shows the entirety of Dean’s Plan as the property of John Patrick Dean. It was a substantial holding. Two hundred and eighty-one acres at the top of Nassau Street, in what would become the heart of residential Nassau.

Hugh Dean’s parcel was smaller, separate, at the top of what is now Dean’s Lane — the four acres Joanna Dean had inherited under the codicil, passed to the son she named Hugh after his slaveowner father.

John Patrick Dean did not inherit the plantation he would come to own. He built it. He assembled it through purchase and consolidation across the late 1820s, acquiring land as Nassau’s merchant class wound down estates and liquidated holdings in the years approaching emancipation. He was buying strategically into a market that others were leaving.

Five Lots Situate in Dean’s Road Lots For Sale; One Was A Quarry – 1905

John P. Dean, a free man of colour, married a white woman named Emmeline

John Patrick Dean married a white woman named Emmeline. We have no direct documentary evidence of her racial identity, but we can make a reasoned historical inference from who she chose after his death.

Emmeline Dean, relict of John Patrick Dean, subsequently married James Farquharson of Watlings Island, in 1849. He was the son of Charles Farquharson, the large plantation and slave owner of Prospect Hill. Charles Farquharson’s —a notorious slave owner — journal survives as a UNESCO recognised document detailing slavery in The Bahamas.

That a white woman of the planter class would accept John Patrick Dean, once classified as a free coloured man, as a husband speaks to the social elevation his wealth and Assembly seat had purchased him — he had crossed, in the eyes of at least one white family, the threshold of respectability that colonial Bahamian society so jealously guarded.

The Farquharson connection is itself significant. James Farquharson inherited not only his father’s land but his father’s brutal methods — it was James who precipitated a slave revolt on the Prospect Hill plantation when he savagely beat an enslaved man, a moment that laid bare the violence upon which the entire edifice of Bahamian plantation society rested.

That Emmeline moved from the household of one of the first men of colour in the House of Assembly directly into the heart of the white planter class tells us something important about how fluid, and how fragile, the colour line could be in the post-Emancipation Bahamas when property and ambition were involved.