Sir Henry William Martin, 2nd Baronet (20 December 1768 – 3 February 1842) was an English amateur cricketer.
Auctioneer's description: Fine and extensive journal of Sir Henry Martin of Harley Street, London, chronicling his visit to the West Indies between 1836 and 1837, a detailed manuscript journal, closely written on 271 pages, with one pencil sketch showing a group of carts crossing a bridge, bound in marbled boards, 8vo A highly important account by a high status visitor to the West Indies at a very early date.
Martin appears to be a very meticulous individual, with an eye for minute detail throughout his journey in every degree, making this an invaluable record not only of the West Indies, but also the general conditions in every place he visited, including the U.K. For example, he leaves Piccadilly in December 1836 via the Herald Coach to Falmouth noting, "Passage money inside £4:5:0, outside £2:5:0 - I had three enquiries made at the coach office on different days to ascertain the exact time that the coach got into Falmouth for the purpose of ordering dinner or not ...".
The family reach the West Indies the following February and the journal is equally detailed about the topography and general social conditions which Martin observes.
For example, he says of Martinique, "There are here many excellent shops, which would not disgrace Paris, and many private houses three storeys high and from four to six windows in line, chiefly I think built of stone ... we went to a hotel (as it's called) kept by a mulatto woman called Parker, a native of Barbados and well known to all naval persons who have been here of late years - I think she must be nearly 60 but she looks very much younger.