History of Ceylon Tea

1853    Pen-Y-Lan owned by R. Forbes 700 Acres – Manager: Arthur Sinclair – Asst:  A. Patterson.

By 1864 James Blackett already owned Pen-Y-Lan and  Doteloya. He may have purchased these in or before 1854 or they may have been abandoned. Elevation 2,600 to 3,300 feet.

An interesting development: Remember Dr. Gardner of Kew and Peradeniya had observed the first signs of Hemileia Vastatrix on a mountain ridge between Penylan and I think Kellie estate in 1848, just before James Blackett may have purchased Penylan. In 1857 he purchased 312 Acres- 01 Rood- 25 Perches for £739-09-05d (£2-07-04d). This suggests that Blackett owned Penylan by 1857. This increased the estate to 974 Acres as shown in Ferguson in 1870 (Upper Penylan: 426 Acres-150 Acres Cultivated) and (Lower Penylan 550 Acres – 160 Acres Cultivated). In 1870 Proprietor James Blackett – Manager: William Anderson. Agents: Ceylon Company; Ltd).

In 1864 Doteloya is given as: Proprietor: James Blackett- Manager: W. Orrell- Agents: Wilson Ritchie & Co. 650 Acres. It seems that like Penylan he probably purchased some additional acres.

In 1857 to increase it to increase it to 800 0r 900 acres.  Through the Gibbs papers there is the evidence that a nearby estate to Doteloya was owned by J.P. Green. By 1869 James Blackett had either moved into Moorootie estate of 900 acres as abandoned which seems likely or had purchased it for a song. He added quite a lot of the 900 acres to Doteloya to make Doteloya a stated 1,700 acres and apparently passed on a small balance to a next door estate which may have been Kellie estate.

1896    A reference that Norman James Wilson Blackett & Walter Scott Blackett were at Doteloya 660 acres with estate having been with Q. Blackett, P.S. Palmer and A.C. Glenie.

In 1857 he purchased the first block of 50 acres – 2 Roods – 20 perches of Crown land at Uddahentena, Dolosbage to start the creating of Meddegodde Estate and the last of 10 blocks completing the extent of the estate was in 1864. Copies of those deeds and maps are in my possession. It seems that James may have resided on another of his estates or had a small bungalow where later there were stables and garages for the estate lorry and Robert Wilson’s cars. It is believed when Robert Wilson was about to marry Alice Blackett in 1898 whilst at Cooroondoowatta, he had the present Meddegodde Bungalow built and later added a wooden breakfast verandah above the lower verandah.

The, Gibbs family bank in London had poured some £180,000 of investments in the island in 1864 onwards and that was made ip of largely loans to different planters for their coffee crops and later funding the transfer to tea. Two large investments were the Hultsdorf Oil Mills and R.D. Downall’s Haputale group. As the Haputale Group could no longer maintain payments Gibbs Bank took them into their ownership and asked James Blackett with whom Vicary Gibbs had stayed in 1884 and seen the quality of James’s tea fields if he would be their Manager and Visiting Agent to drive the transformation of the Haputale Group into tea which he agreed to and later the Group was sold to Sir Thomas Lipton.

By 1886 James Blackett had retired to Scotland and his wife and her brother George Russell Scott were running the family estates with James’s sons Walter Scott Blackett and Norman James Wilson Blackett. In 1893 James Blackett died in Scotland and the Gibbs bank who were his trustees sold Penylan & Doteloya in 1903 but Walter Scott Blackett and Norman James Wilson retained Meddegodde.