John Junor (Berbice)
For family tree see John Junor of Berbice on Ancestry (subscription required)
John Junor of Berbice was probably the son of John Junor and Rebecca Junor, born (along with his twin brother James) at Kincurdy (Rosemarkie) on 14 August 1800. James farmed at Kincurdy and died in 1886.
By 1830 John Junor was manager of Mary's Hope on the Corentyne Coast of Berbice, a plantation with 246 enslaved people. [Hearing Slaves Speak]
In 1834 he received compensation for the emancipation of nine slaves [BG claims 263 & 1742].
In 1837 he was recommended by John Ross as a manager for plantation Utile & Paisible, belonging to Thomas & William Earle. Ross wrote: ‘John Junor is a first rate sugar planter & upright man, but being a little bit of a disciplinarian is no favorite with Blackie.’ [Liverpool Martime Museum, D/EARLE/5/6/1: 20 Nov 1837, copy of letter to Thomas & William Earle, Liverpool from John Ross, Attorney, at Inverness]
In 1841 John Junor purchased William Kewley’s half of Mary’s Hope (lots No 47, 48 & 49) on the Courentyne Coast, for 1200 dollars at an execution sale [Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons].
It is probably that John Junor was the father of Colin, Jane and Janet Junor all 'of Berbice' who were at school in Edinburgh in the 1840s. Colin Junor, Berbice won the First Prize for Religious Instruction in the Junior Division of the Second General Division at Edinburgh Southern Academy in 1850 (The Scotsman , 31 July 1850). A Miss Jane Junor, Berbice won a prize for needlework and a Miss Janet Junor, Berbice a prize for arithmetic at Edinburgh’s Ladies Institution for the Southern Districts in1847 (The Scotsman, 7 August 1847) – possibly older sisters of Colin. In 1846 Miss Janetta Junor, Berbice (probably the same girl) had won prizes in needlework and writing (Caledonian Mercury, 10 August 1846. Both schools were in Park Place, Edinburgh.
In 1867 in Georgetown Janet Junor married George Monkhouse of Plantation La Belle Alliance, Essequibo.
I am grateful to Jonathan Macleod for sharing the family tradition that the mother of Janet Junor was from Martinique