Amaryllis Collymore was an Afro-Barbadian slave who gained her freedom from her relationship with a white man. The couple had eleven children and she successfully ran a plantation allowing her to acquire numerous other properties, to become the wealthiest free black woman in the colony at the time of her death.
Life
Amaryllis Renn Phillips was born into slavery in 1745 on Barbados, during British colonial rule where records indicate she was a mulatto. She was purchased by Robert Collmore in 1780, from Rebecca Phillips, a free coloured hotelier, along with her five mulatto children, four of whom were Robert's children. In 1784, Robert arranged their manumission by selling her and the children to a friend, James Scuffield. Selling a slave to a trusted third-party to avoid high manumission fees was a common practice during the period in Barbados. Robert acquired Lightfoots, a 42-acre sugar plantation with its 44 slaves, to provide for her and the children. Collymore expanded the estate to over a hundred acres and was able to buy seven properties throughout Bridgetown, on Canary Street, High Street and James Street, which she rented out. She also ran a successful shop. By 1805, Collymore owned another property, on Roebuck Street, which she sold for £800. She and her daughter, Katherine Anne Collymore, were the recipients of a bequest from Renn Phillips in his 1809 will. In 1824, when Robert died, he bequeathed she and her eleven children, full title to Lightfoots and the slaves working on the plantation. Among her children, besides Katherine were Frances Lasley, Margaret Jane, and Robert, Thomazin Ashby, Elizabeth Clarke, Samuel Francis Collymore, Jackson Brown Collymore and Renn Phillips Collymore, who would become the great-great grandfather of Frank Collymore. Collymore's will, dated 1826, left her estate, worth over £10,000 to relatives. She devised a home in Bridgetown and a plantation known as Haggat Hall, and 67 slaves, as well as silver and personal property. At the time of her death she was "the richest free woman of color in pre-emancipation Barbados".
Death and legacy
Collymore died on 16 December 1828 and was buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Bridgetown. The house that Collymore and her children occupied is now the Morningside Building, and houses the Arts Department of the Barbados Community College.
