The Second Great Fire of London

German bombs falling on London's financial district the night of 29 December 1940 obliterated all of the plantation journals painstakingly prepared by the Lascelles' estate attorneys and managers. Alas, only one scholar was able to spend any significant time working at the offices of Wilkinson and Gaviller before catastrophe struck. Richard Pares was that solitary researcher. In years to come, Pares greatly regretted his decision to examine only the firm's commercial correspondence at 34 Great Tower Street in the single summer of research he completed.

Stray references in Harewood House's West India papers confirm the richness of the incinerated archive. Shortly after Baron Harewood's death in 1795, a list of papers relating to West Indian affairs was drawn up for the benefit of his heir and executors. The items included a series of journals and ledgers maintained for eight Barbadian plantations during the preceding sixteen years. The 1st Earl of Harewood's later overhaul of estate bookkeeping resulted in the creation of additional volumes, containing an even greater amount of detail. John Wood Nelson, for example, reminded newly appointed Barbados attorneys that an annual enumeration of all the slaves for each property was expected; these returns were supplemented by biannual statements describing the sugar crop, the condition of the enslaved, the number of livestock, ‘and attendant occurences’ on each estate.