How did the Montserrat Company change landownership on the island?

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Montserrat Lush mountain vegetation on Montserrat, Lesser Antilles.

Following the abolition of slavery in 1834 and the subsequent decline of the island's sugar-based plantation system, the Montserrat Company was formed in 1857 under the direction of Joseph Sturge.

The company fundamentally transformed landownership by purchasing abandoned estates and encouraging the cultivation of limes. Crucially, it sold plots of this land to settlers, a practice that led to the establishment of smallholdings that still cover much of the island's inhabited areas today.1