WALKES GENEALOGY
INTRODUCTION
This work is dedicated to my grandfather, Cyril Walkes. He was without a doubt, the most influential family member of my adolescence. His strength, courage, and fortitude inspired this research. His inspiration remains with me to this very day. He was the patriarch of the Walkes family, when I was growing up, and he instilled in me an appreciation of the name Walkes. His passing on December 22, 1977 left a void in my life, for he was not only a grandfather, but also a father figure to me.
During my many trips to Harlem to visit him, he often would tell me stories of the Walkes birth and ancestors in Barbados, and other places. He, always said that if I ever met a Walkes, that person would be related to me. He believed in the family name, and was proud of it.
When Alex Hailey completed the movie version of his classic book “Roots”, it not only inspired many around the world to trace their ancestry, it also woke an interest in me that I had since I was a child. Who was I? Who was my extended family? What aspects did I inherit? My Grandfather would tell me of others who preceded us from far away places. His stories set a fire within me that has lasted these many years and has culminated in this work.
This work is also dedicated and written to my children, Wenonah Renee Walkes, born 18 August 1956 at Governors Island, New York, Jacqueline Alisa Walkes, born 24 February 1959 also at Governors Island, New York, Joseph Alphonso Walkes III, born 22 June 1962 at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, and Michael Duane Walkes, born 14 July 1965 at Heidleberg, Germany. However new leafs on the tree are blossoming as my great grandchildren inherits the legacy in New York, as well as a new branch of the tree came forth in Ghana, West Africa, the motherland., the original home of our ancestors.
The Walkes family is broadly spaced, composed of various backgrounds, some speaking English, others Spanish, descending from Barbados, and living in the United States of America, the Republic of Panama, The Bahamas and England. It does seem strange that we are all of the same family, and yet we are not aware of each other, and have little or no knowledge of the depth of the Walkes ancestry. [1]
I have been fortunate over the years to have met a number of the Walkes family in Barbados, and New York, (the city of my immediate line) and the Republic of Panama. I have also exchanged letters with a Walkes living in the Bahamas. Friends over the years have been kind enough to send me telephone book pages from Barbados and the Bahamas, listing the names and addresses of others that carry the name Walkes. Unfortunately when letters have been sent they have gone unanswered, except for the response of Sandra D. Walkes who worked at the College of the Bahamas, she being the daughter of Herbert Walkes and the grand daughter of Randol Walkes, both from Barbados. Her cousin being a Joseph A. Walkes Jr., it is within itself remarkable, what a small world![2]
Many years later, my wife and I, would visit the island of Barbados, and I would find, an important link to the past in locating the All Saints Church, Parish of St. Peter in the village of Indian Ground, the site of my grandfathers christening in 1883. It was a moment I will never forget, as many in the family line attended this church. There I found the following engraving:
All Saints Church
Parish of St. Peter
1st Church built 1649
Destroyed by Hurricane 1831
2nd Church built 1839
Pulled down as unsafe 1882
Rebuilt – 1884
Curates on record:
Charles Robinson 1649
H. Walker 1649
H. W. Moore 1855-1865
J. W. Watson 1865-1880
I. M. Alleyne 1881-1898
H. E. Olton 1895-1921
C. W. Johnson 1921-1943
C.J.B. Frederick 1925-1943
H. Gregory Canon 1943-1947
K.A.B. Hinds 1947-1948
E.E. Pestania 1948-1951
G.H. Dickenson 1951-1962
L.B. Burke 1963-1969
The church, the oldest in Barbados, survived the slave revolt of 1765. The plot being discovered before plans could be activated, caused many to be buried alive, beheaded and executed as a warning to other slaves. A classic example of man’s inhumanity to man, the madness of those involved with slavery. [3] The only slave revolt in the history of Barbados took place on Easter Sunday 1816. It being historic and known for what it accomplished and what it did not accomplish, it was named the Bussa’ Revolution. It had been planned and led, at least in the folk tradition, by Bussa, an African born man, slave and head driver at Bayley’s Plantation in St. Phillip’s Parish. 25 percent of the island sugar canes were burnt, a little short of 1,000 blacks were killed, or taken captive and executed, in battles at Lowther’s, Bayley’s, Thicket, Golden Grove and Sandford’s plantation. Originating in the eastern part of the St. Phillip Parish, the rebellion soon spread to the parishes of Christ Church, St. John, St. George and St. Thomas . Neither fighting, nor extensive property destruction was reported for the parishes of St. James, St. Peter, St. Andrew or St. Joseph where many of the Walkes lived.[4]
The plantation owners believed that the slaves revolted because the Crown in England had ordered emancipation, but the island’s legislature refused to comply. But in reality the slaves were fed up with being mistreated. Damage to sixty estates amounted to 179,000 pounds. Only one white inhabitant was slain, but vengeful repression by the planters resulted promptly in the execution of several hundred blacks and deportation of 123, judged under martial law, to be implicated in the conspiracy. [5] Governor Sir James Leith made an appeal to the slave population in which he expressed the Crown’s negative reaction to the revolt and denied that orders for emancipation had been given. [6]
However, although the church survived the hurricanes of 1675 and 1780, it was destroyed by the devastating hurricane of August 11, 1831. The number of deaths from the 1831 storm was approximately 2,500 and at least 5,000 were wounded.[7] A foundation stone was laid in 1839 and the rebuilt church was consecrated in 1843 only to be demolished some 40 years later after structure problems were uncovered. As the plaque reflects, the present version dates from 1884. Their 17th Century graveyards hold the remains of William Arnold allegedly the first Englishman to set foot on Barbados. [8] My researcher Ms. Joy Hunt records that she went to the graveyard at All Saints and found no Walkes buried there. [9] The Simmon mentioned by Ms. Hunt is Alice Chiristian Simmon wife of Joseph Henry Walkes, my Great grand father.
I.M. Alleyne listed on the plaque for the years 1881-1898, officiated at my Grandfathers baptism. His full name being Rev. Innes Milton Alleyne, second son of Frederick William Alleyne and Mary Sophia and during his ministry he was very much involved with the Walkes family. He was born 26 November 1851 at Holetown, a small town located on the west coast of Barbados in the parish of St. James. The town was once known as Jamestown in honor of James I. Its current name comes from the “hole” into which settlers could anchor their ships. It was the site of the first European settlement in 1627. Rev. Alleyne died 17 May 1930 at Christ Church, Barbados. He married 14 June 1877 to Laura, a daughter of John Perryman. She died 13 October 1933 in Barbados at the age of 79 years.
Innes Milton Alleyne was educated at the Lodge School in the parish of St. John, (it being a government owned and operated secondary school for both boys and girls) and Codrington College, Barbados, which is still operating as this writer pens these lines. It is a theological seminary for the Anglican ( Episcopal) Church in the West Indies. Alleyne was ordained a Deacon in 1875 and a Priest 1877. He became Vicar of St. Saviour in Barbados 1880, and of All Saints in 1881 where he served 17 years. It was common at the time for the minister to have responsibility for two churches in the same parish. In 1898 he was appointed Rector of St. Andrew where he served 27 years until his retirement.[10]
Codrington College, Barbados’ first institution of higher learning, was named for Christopher Codrington (1668-1710). In his will he left his plantation in Barbados to the Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.). The plantation about 14 miles from Bridgetown, consisted of 800 acres which was set aside to educate Blacks free and slave. The exact provision of the Codrington will is as follows:
I give and bequeath my two plantations in the island of Barbados to the Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts… and my desire is, to have the plantation continued entire and three hundred Negroes at least always kept thereon, and a convenient number of professors and scholars under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, who shall be obliged to study and practice physick and chirurgery as well divinity…. But the particulars of the constitution I leave to the Society composed of wise and good men. [11]
Abel Alleyne, a relative of Rev. Alleyne, was at one time the manager of the Cordington estate, and along with Thomas Harrison, whose daughter would marry a Walkes, were involved in the S.P.G.[12]
The Church of England accompanied the early settlers to Barbados and as in England, established itself as an arm of the establishment. During the administration of Governor Phillip Bell in 1641, the island was subdivided into eleven parishes, each with its own church, and a minister or rector appointed to each parish. Barbados was part of the diocese of London, and as such, the Bishop of London had full ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the island, except for the collating to benefices, granting licenses for marriage and the probate of wills which was the province of the Governor.
The basic difficulty was that despite the nominal control of the Bishop of London, the clergy of Barbados were more responsive to the parish vestry, which paid them. Since these vestries were controlled by a conservative plantocracy wedded to the slave system, the clergy were powerless to assume any leadership role. They ministered to the spiritual needs of the white and free Blacks, but apart from any effect they may have had on the consciences of these people, there their function ended. [13]
Each of the eleven parishes of the island had a vestry consisting of sixteen elected men, who were resident property holders in the parish. Specific functions of the vestry were maintenance of the parish church, distribution of poor relief, provision of educational facilities for poor children, maintenance of parish roads, provision of relief after natural calamities, arrangement for police, security for the parish and collection of parish taxes and rents.[14]
When I began my genealogical quest to learn what I could about the Walkes family, I hit many barriers, some that remains unresolved. Therefore, the search remains on going. There is much that I do not know, there is much to uncover. It will take a measure of time, but hopefully, in the end, much more will be learned than these few items listed in this work.
The history of the Walkes is a history that goes from England and Africa to Barbados, to Panama, to Cuba, to Antigua, and to New York City, where I was born in 1933. Because of slavery, there are two groups of Walkes in this work. One is Caucasian from England, being the source of the origin of the name. They controlled Barbados and its means of production, its state organizations, and other national institutions.
Of the second group in this work is the slave population of Africans brought to Barbados against their will. Elsa Goveia in her classic study, “Slave Society in the British Leeward Island at the End of the Eighteenth Century” defined the slave population as “the whole community based on slavery, including masters and freedman as well as slaves”. The African-American and Barbadian connection with Africa has never been broken. “African-consciousness,” in varying degrees, good and bad, has always been a part of the psyche of the African people, in forced exile in South America, the Caribbean islands and the United States.[15]
Those, in this work, that are of African descent that carry the Walkes name, as listed herein are direct descendants of the name, and regardless of direct blood lines to me or not, each I feel has played a role in my makeup. Those who are without a doubt of my direct ancestry, I can but say, it is their blood lines that flows from one generations to another that makes me what I am, and who I am.
I want to thank my sweet Jeannette, my wife, who has supported me in this effort. . It was her company and love that allowed me to travel to Barbados and walk the land of my genealogy. I hope some day to return and to spend much more time there, with my children who will carry the work forward. A very special thanks goes to Clyde and Dorothy Payne, two dear friends from my home of Brooklyn, New York, who accompanied us to Barbados, and took us to many places on the island and introduced us to many of their friends. Together, Clyde and I attended the Prince Hall Memorial Lodge No. 100 (now number 1) in Christ Church, one of the many highlights in my visit to the land of my ancestry.
I also want to thank my Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its massive genealogical holdings. The Church requires four generations of genealogy whereby baptism for the dead can be accomplished in its Temples. In many cases the Walkes family line received these blessings before my wife and I had joined the church. Never the less, all the names within this work, will eventually be “sealed” one to another in the Temples of the Lord. The Command and General Staff College Library at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Miss Jennifer Adams and David Williams, both of the Department of Archives, Black Rock, St. Michael, Barbados. Mrs. Joy Hunt of St. Michael, the late Mrs. Jean Sampson Scott of Mt. Vernon, New York, The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc., Washington, DC., Mr. H. A. Cummins, Deputy Director of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society of which I am a member, St. Ann’s Garrison, the late James Dent Walker, Washington, DC., Mrs. Jo Ann Walkes-Lee of Brooklyn, New York the grand daughter of Joseph Nathaniel Walkes and sister of the late Hugh Clarance Walkes, the National Archives, Washington, DC, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC., Mr. Kendirck Harper of New York (my Uncle) and step brother of my father, Mr. Mitchell Sonson, Sr.,. another uncle from the Bronx, New York. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, The Chicago Genealogical Society, Tribunal Electoral, Republic of Panama. Mr. Harry Macy, Jr., Genealogical Researcher from New York; the United States Railroad retirement Board, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Washington, DC.; are but a few who assisted in my research Mrs. Celia Toppin of Christ Church, Barbados who we met at the meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . New York City Bureau of Vital Records, Mr. W. R. Orlando Dottis of St. Michael who drove me throughout the island in search of my genealogical roots, Ms. Lila Salazar of St. Michael, Barbados and my dear Cousin, Ms. Ismay Parrish of Silver Spring, Maryland who not only corrected my manuscript but taught my son Joseph in the New York Public School system, and many others who were of assistance to my research.
Joseph A. Walkes, Jr.
[1] The name and my ancestors are registered in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah in its Genealogical Society or Family History Center.
[2] Letter dated May 31, 1978 to this writer.
[3] Jerome S. Handler, A Guide to Source Materials for the Study of Barbados History, 1627-1834 (Southern Illinois University Press, 1971) p.1o.
[4] Hilary M. Beckles, Inside Bussa’s Rebellion: Letters of Colonel John Rycroft Best. The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Volume XXXVII, No. 2, 1984, p. 102.
[5] Claude Levy, Barbados: The Last Years of Slavery 1823-1833, The Journal of Negro History, Volume 44, p. 309.
[6] Ibid p. 68
[7] Ibid p. 85
[8] Pariser, Harry S., Adventure Guide to Barbados, 2nd Edition (Edison, NJ, Hunter Publishing, Inc. 1995) p. 178.
[9] Letter from Ms. Joy Hunt of St. Michael, Barbados dated 29 April 1982: “5 May 1982: Yesterday afternoon we went to St. Andrews Church and scoured the graveyard, which was overgrown with tall grass, and found not even a mention of any Walke(s) buried there. We even looked for a Simmons, but there again, nil was found. Then bearing in mind that the Simmons family came from St. Peter, we drove to All Saints Chapel and went thru the graveyard but again no luck. There is a a graveyard for the entire parish of St. Peter but the gate is kept locked and the last time we went there, I was appaled (appalled) at the condition of the place. We even came across a family of sheep grazing around the graves! This can only happen in the West Indies I am sure! To get into the graveyard I had to crawl under the gate – I am no longer able to do this – having reached the advanced age of 54!!!
[10] Genealogies of Barbados Families, compiled by James C. Brandow (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1983) pp 98 and 106.
[11] Frank J. Klingberg, British Humanitarianism at Codrigton, Journal of Negro History. Volume 23, p. 454.
[12] Ibid, p. 458, 459 notes.
[13] Karl Watson, The Civilised Island Barbados: A Social History 1750-1816 (Barbados, 1979, p.9.
[14] Ibid, p. 8.
[15] John Henrick Clarke, Notes for an African World Revolution: Africans at the Crossroads (New Jersey, African World Press, Inc., 1991) p. 63.