Mount Gay Rum Distilleries Ltd

The 280-acre Mount Gay estate in the northern parish of St. Lucy was formed when William Sandiford purchased and amalgamated a number of smaller plantations under the name Mount Gilboa. In 1747 he sold the estate to John Sober. (Yup the jokes include: "No matter how much of his rum he drunk he remained Sober".) He and his son, Cumberbatch were English absentee landlords and the estate was actually run on their behalf by an MP and eminent Barbadian, Sir John Gay Alleyne. When he died in 1801 the Sober family re-named their estate in his honour. As a Mount Alleyne was already in existence on the island, so the Estate became Mount Gay.

In 1918 the Mount Gay Estate was bought by Aubrey Fitz-Osbert Ward a prominent Barbadian businessman and landowner of English/Irish assent. His A.F. Ward signature remained part of the branding on the rum's labels until soon after the millenium. Since the death of Ward's son in 1989 Mount Gay has been majority-owned by the French Rémy Cointreau Group but the Ward and Hudson families (John F. Hudson was Aubrey Ward's business partner) retain a 40% interest in the aging and bottling business.