Estate Cornhill
Cornhill is estate 18 in St. Croix’s Company’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, a windmill may or may not have been built in this estate. A hand-drawn icon of a windmill is found on the 1766 annotated Beck map with a the unsigned manuscript copy of Beck including a windmill icon in a different location within this estate. A windmill has not been found here partly due to lack of investigation.
The 1750 map depicts provision cultivation in estate 18. Neither of the Beck printings include a sugar mill icon. The 1766 annotated Beck map adds a windmill to the northern half of estate 18, part of a sprawling plantation owned by Christopher McEvoy. The other annotated Beck maps add a windmill to estate 17 and not 18. The unsigned manuscript copy adds a windmill to the southern half of estate 18, owned by Harris & Tuite and also includes a windmill in estate 17. This ambiguity leads to the inclusion of Cornhill as an estate that may have had a windmill.
The 1799 Oxholm map depicts a structure but not a sugar mill icon in the southern half of estate 18, naming the location Tuites. The 1856 Parsons map depicts a structure in the same location at Cornhill. None of the 20th century topographic maps depict ruins at Cornhill.
The 1750 map splits ownership of estate 18, with the northern half attributed to Doctor Hall and the southern half to Ebenezer Coor. The annotated Beck maps and manuscript copies attribute ownership of the northern half of estate 18 to Christopher McEvoy and the southern half to Harris & Tuite. In a curious swap, the 1790 and 1791 maps attribute ownership of the northern half of estate 18 to Tuite & Stapleton and the southern half to McEvoy.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.60) characterizes Cornhill as a small estate and simply notes its location relative to Manchenil Bay.
Historic Maps of Cornhill
