Estate Body Slob
Body Slob is estate 19 in St. Croix’s King’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 1760s. The windmill was blocked to store water after decommissioning. The inscription stone is partially legible and suggests the surname Bodkin and a date in the 1760s. The windmill is in good condition.
The 1750 map indicates no sugar cultivation in estates 19 & 20. Focusing on estate 19, the first printing of the Beck map includes an animal mill in the northwest quadrant of the estate and the second printing includes 2 animal mills, adding one in the southeast quadrant of the estate.
The 1766 annotated Beck map converts the single animal mill to a windmill. The other annotated Beck maps, based on the second printing, converted the animal mill in the southeast quadrant to a windmill except the 1770 annotated map that only added landowner names. The unsigned manuscript copy of Beck includes sugar manufacturing icons in the same orientation as these other 3 maps. However, following the 1766 map, the Zöllner manuscript copy of Beck only includes a windmill centrally located in the estate.
The 1799 Oxholm map indicates a windmill at Slob on top of a hill. The 1856 map shows a settlement at Slob with elevation indicated as 182 feet. The 1921 topographic sheet notes the Slob mill at an elevation of 173 feet. The later 20th century topographic maps both indicate ruins identifiable as a windmill at Slob. The one on the hilltop is the windmill while the one to the east of the road is the water tower.
The 1750 map attributes ownership of estates 19 & 20 jointly to Robert Handsen and James French. By 1766, ownership transferred solely to Laurence Bodkin for estate 19 per most of the annotated Beck maps and manuscript copies. If the 1770 map is correct, Bodkin died in the late 1760s, with his heirs attributed ownership on the 1770 annotated map. Bodkin was most likely still alive in 1766, being appointed as executor of James Doran’s will. By 1790, ownership transitioned to Beekman.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.37, 178) notes the mill sits on a 179-foot hill on the west side of the estate and the estate can be called Slob or Body Slob.
Historic Maps of Body Slob
