Estate Negro Bay (Coopers)
Negro Bay (Coopers) is estate 52 in St. Croix’s Prince’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 1760s. Field reconnaissance failed to locate ruins identifiable as a windmill.
The 1750 map indicates sugar cultivation but no animal mill. The second Beck printing in the mid-1750s added an animal mill. To this, the annotated Beck maps add sails to depict a windmill. Both the 1799 Oxholm map and 1856 Parsons map include a windmill. The 1921 topographic sheet identifies an old mill tower. The later topographic maps make no indication of ruins.
Estate 52 has a minor identity crisis, being called a number of names. From 1750 through 1791, all the maps consistently attribute ownership to a member of the Cooper family. Even McGuire underlines Cooper ownership through1851. Therefore, the estate understandably can be called Coopers. However, at some point the estate was part of a plantation including other estates and going by the name Negro Bay, reflecting the shoreline feature. To add complexity, the 1799 Oxholm map identifies the estate as Montpellier.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.135, 59) indicates the Cooper family still owned the estate in 1851, calling it Lower Negro Bay. In the 1920s, the estate planted in sugar cane and pasture.
Historic Maps of Negro Bay (Coopers)
