believed that John had been poisoned by a jealous slave. Thistlewood seems to have enjoyed his powerful position over black female slaves, and showed very little interest in Mary Holmes when he finally met another woman who came from Lincolnshire. When slaves paired up, Thistlewood often disregarded such unions and raped the female slave. When Little Mimber and a slave driver named Johnnie became a "couple", Thistlewood raped Little Mimber to "celebrate" the union. In 1764, Thistlewood's nephew John Thistlewood joined his uncle in Jamaica, but when John sexually abused Little Mimber on a regular basis, Johnnie became angry, and in an attempt to maintain order, Thomas warned his nephew off, and delivered a harsh physical punishment to the hapless Mimber. Later that year, John Thistlewood was found drowned, possibly as a result of revenge by Johnnie. A year later, Thistlewood's slaves blew shell horns and fired guns to celebrate John Thistlewood's death. Life in Jamaica Jamaica was by far the richest colony in the British Empire. Thistlewood was only of average wealth in white Jamaican society, especially in comparison to wealthy planters such as Simon Taylor, but at the time of his death he was still far wealthier than most British men in other parts of the Empire. He acquired more wealth in Jamaica than he could have done if he had chosen to remain in Lincolnshire. White Jamaicans who survived tropical diseases were on average 50 times wealthier than residents of the British Isles, and certainly wealthier than their counterparts in North America. In 1750, a 29-year-old Thistlewood arrived in Jamaica with very few possessions but was immediately sought after as a plantation overseer, and by 1757 his wages had risen to £100 a year. A year later, that was increased to £120 a year. This was an enormous sum compared to the average wages of white Europeans living in the Americas. Such wages allowed him to purchase slaves and hire them out. He could have continued to make more money working for others, but in the mid-1760s he decided to become an independent landowner, not as a rich sugar producer but as a modestly well-to-do market gardener and horticultural expert for Jamaica's western end. He acquired local respectability, often dining with his parish's wealthiest planters, and served in several local offices, including justice of the peace. After one lavish meal in 1778, Thistlewood and his fellow planters