Jamaica - history of the Shakes surname

[Shakes]

Hello,

I have been researching the “Shakes” surname and have hit a road block. I suspect a connection between “Shakes” and “Shakespear” but I am looking for a strong link. Family is little help.

The earliest record I’ve found is the burial of Thomas Shakes in 1845. He is listed as a “slaver”, but I can’t find information on his mother and father.

This surname is most common in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica where the Shakespears owned estates: So I suspect “Shakes” to be an illegitimate line. But since Thomas is listed as a slaver, I wonder how that came to be. Were illegitimates allowed to own slaves?

Any ideas where to look beyond findmypast/ancestry/familysearch? I’ve checked these places. It isn’t a common surname.

[Neale1961]

Have you seen this site?
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~shakespeare/genealogy/pedigrees/overseas/afro_caribbean/afro_caribbean.htm

[Shakes]

Yes, I’ve seen that one as well. But no mention of the Shakespear surname becoming “Shakes”.

I could just accept that “Shakes” was a variation adopted by slaves, but it appears as the name of a slaver and before slavery was abolished so I suspect there is more to it than that.

Thanks for the reply!

[JSowinski]

I'm also descended from the Shakes family, Thomas was baptized at 22 in 1814 into Protestantism in St. Bess, listed as Mestizo which is a very uncommon racial classification for a Jamaican. In his 1845 Burial record, he was listed as a Planter, not a slaver which can mean very different things. People were listed as Planters in Springfield St Bess up until the latest available records (1920) which was almost 100 years after slaver so a Planter is not necessarily the same as a slaver. In St Elizabeth property records during Thomas' lifetime, he owned a property called Derrydown which was not a plantation to my knowledge. Really a planter in the loosest terms is someone who owned a farm that was of European heritage, although later after slavery the term became more progressive. I do also think his father was David Shakespear almost certainly, but his mother is much more of a mystery, I think his mother was either a (mixed) Sephardic Jew, Spanish or Portuguese, Haitian refugee, or just a Catholic in general.