Lascelles family, Earls of Harwood

Notes:

The Lascelles family was a long established West Yorkshire gentry family who in the 18th century emerged as Earls of Harwood, powerful aristocratic landowners. The foundation of this wealth was their involvement in the Barbados sugar plantation industry as merchants, plantation owners, slave owners and financiers. Owned plantations from the early 18th century and started sugar trading in the late century. Diversified into leading financiers of the trade, providing credit secured by mortgages on estates. Through mortgage default, from late 18th century and in early 19th century accumulated very substantial plantation interests, some of which were retained until the 1950s. Early figures of importance were Henry Lascelles, c1690-1753, and his brothers George, 1681-1729, and Edward, 1702-47, who were for long resident at Barbados. An important association was with the merchants, Gedney Clarke. By mid 18th century had a merchant house, sometime known as Lascelles & Maxwell, in London. The remnants of this London sugar business survived to at least the 1940s when known as Wilkinson & Gaviller. Its premises in the City of London, along with its extensive archives, were then totally destroyed in the Blitz. The Lascelles family continued to own some sugar plantations to c1950. It continues as extensive landowners in Yorkshire [2023]