Family and Education

bap. 21 Sept. 1679, o. surv. s. of Samuel Long of Longville, Jamaica, chief justice and speaker of house of assembly, Jamaica, by his w. Elizabeth. m. (1) 26 July 1699, Amy, da. of Sir Nicholas Lawes, gov. of Jamaica, 1s. 1da., (2) 27 May 1703, Jane, da. and h. of Sir William Beeston, lt.-gov. Jamaica, wid. of Sir Thomas Modyford, 5th Bt., 3s. 3da. suc. fa. 1683.

Offices Held

Commr. for forfeited estates Mar. 1719-d.

Biography

Succeeding as an infant to the largest property in Jamaica, Charles Long bought an estate in Suffolk, not far from Dunwich, for which he was returned in 1715, voting with the Government. In 1718 he petitioned unsuccessfully for a 31 years crown lease of Dunwich, pleading that he had been ‘at great expense to preserve H.M.’s interest in the borough’.1 In 1720 he and a number of other persons obtained a patent granting them all gold and silver mines in Jamaica for 31 years. Long and his associates put up £150,000, a large part of which he, as treasurer, invested in South Sea stock at the height of the boom, with disastrous results. As a result, his grandson writes, he became ‘involved in a labyrinth of intricate accounts and lawsuits, besides which the powers of his mind entirely sank’.2 Nevertheless he stood again in 1722 for Dunwich, declaring, it was said locally, ‘that he would spend £5,000 rather than lose it’.3 Defeated, he died 8 May 1723.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. Cal. Treas. Bks. xxxii. 417; see DUNWICH.
• 2. R. M. Howard, Longs of Jamaica, i. 67-71.
• 3. A. Bence to Ld. Strafford, 5 Dec. 1721, Add. 22248, f. 131.