ABSTRACT
During the Seven Years’ War, the British captured several French islands, including Grenada and Martinique. The Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1763 granted Grenada to Britain and Martinique was returned to France. However, King George III, in taking possession of his newly gained islands, did not claim escheat, so that if a Frenchman on Grenada died, his French heirs could inherit his property rather than the land reverting to the king. As this chapter shows, however, inheritance was more complicated than it appeared according to the terms of the Treaty, as the analysis of the estate of Johanna Victoria Adelaide Herbert illustrates. This case eventually involved the governors of Grenada and Martinique, and it eventually went through up to the Privy Council in London and illustrates the complexity of law for subjects on the ground when islands switched sovereignty through war and treaty.
