Jonathan Burchall, a mariner, inherited 20 Clarence St. from his father, Humphrey Burchall, in 1713. It is possible that Burchall assisted in 1714 with the construction of the new St. Peter's Church, following a major hurricane. In 1723, Burchall married Mary Brooke, the widow of the lately deceased Thomas Brooke, Collector of Customs. Burchall and Brooke had several children.
Surviving newspaper records from 1734–55 reveal Burchall's travels as a mariner to New York, Philadelphia, Curacao, and St. Croix. As Michael Jarvis writes, Burchall's career spanned the British Caribbean world: “Jonathan Burchall’s identification as ‘a Dane’ living in St. Croix in the 1740s suggests that he had become a naturalized Danish citizen, but he also had a wife and children living in St. George’s, Bermuda. Burchall’s voyages between Dutch, Danish, and British Caribbean islands and Bermuda in his ‘Danish’ ship Betsey demonstrate his enduring links with his family back home” (Jarvis, IEAT, 353).
Consider also this note by Jarvis: “Marblehead mariner Ashley Bowden shipped with Burchall in 1746 after a French privateer captured him and put him ashore at St. Eustatius; he sailed on Burchall’s sloop ‘in the Dane service’ for six months. His mss. diary includes a sketch of the Betsey; see The Journals of Ashley Bowden (1728–1813) of Marblehead, 2 vols., ed. Philip Chadwick Foster Smith (Boston, 1973), 1:28–29, plate 4." (IEAT, 607 n. 60).
When Burchall's will (drafted on 19 Oct. 1744) was proven on 28 Jan. 1760, his permanent address was listed as Pembroke, not St. George's. He had a sister, Elizabeth Stowe, and an aunt, Rebecca Cornuck (widowed). Elizabeth executed the will. Witnesses: Edward Jones, Rebecca Cornuck. It would appear that Jonathan was estranged from his wife and children.
Note: Research Mix-up: In my research, I saw a reference to a “sweetheart,” Ruth Tynes, daughter of Benjamin the shipwright, in Jonathan’s will, but when I looked at the microfilm of the will, I could not find her name. Furthermore, when I reviewed my notes, I realized I had not recorded the source mentioning Ruth. Due to this mistake, I did not put Ruth in the main essay text. I welcome Prof. Jarvis’s assistance in tracking down this information, as a Ruth Tynes is mentioned in the STG Tax List Compilation.
John Zuill II inherited 37 York Street, along with a young slave named Kennedy & ½ share of an adult slave named Peter, after his mother died (1757) and his father died (1763). John married for the first time to Ann Dunscomb, spinster, in STG on 6 Jan 1781. His and Ann’s “Son” was buried on 20 Oct. 1784 in STG. An infant named Ann Dunscomb Zuill (almost certainly the couple’s daughter) was buried on 26 May 1794, possibly on David’s Island. Mrs. Ann Zuill was buried on 2 Aug. 1795. The next month, John remarried, to Miss Fanny Hayward.
John owned 37 York Street from 1763 until his death sometime in the 1820s. He received a property extension in 1794 near St. Peter's Church; this land was later sold back to the church for a Sunday School in 1844. Zuill frequently mortgaged his house, but lived with several slaves in addition to his family (acc. to the 1806 census). He had two children early in the 1820s, but died circa 1823. By 1827, John James Tucker controlled the old Zuill property.
STG Tax List Compilation for John Zuill:
1781 value: 500,
1783 value: 500,
1784: 500,
1786: 325,
1787: 500,
1788: 845,
1789: 845 [325],
1790: 758 [325],
1791: 760,
1792: 760,
1793: 800,
1794: 865,
1795: 680 + 850 (s/mdz),
1797: 776 + 850 (mdze),
1799: 715 + 150 (s),
1801: 840,
1803: 845,
1805: 920,
1807: 950,
1809: 865,
1810: 750,
1811: 710,
1812: 734,
1813: 736,
1814: 1080 (est).
