As soon
as Governor Hamilton received word of Abraham Howell’s action, he arranged to
visit Anguilla and Crab Island. He
arrived in Anguilla on 11 November 1717 and was able to see for himself the
hardships suffered by the settlers there.
He described the island as long and narrow, and the soil so worn out
that the people could hardly feed their families. The second census of the people of Anguilla
that he took at that time revealed the names of the free white men, the numbers
(without names) of their adult white women, white children, and slaves (see
table 2):[1]
Men
|
Women
|
Children
|
Negroes
|
|
Captain George Leonard
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
41
|
Arthur Hodge
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
|
John Wignall
|
1
|
2
|
16
|
|
Isaac Thibou
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
Samuel Downing
|
1
|
2
|
6
|
11
|
Peter Rogers
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
12
|
John Rogers
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
29
|
Charles Kagen Sr [ie, Keagan]]
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
|
Jeremiah Martin
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
5
|
Patrick Young
|
1
|
1
|
||
Timothy Connor
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
1
|
Paul Rowan [ie, Ruan]
|
1
|
2
|
15
|
|
William Beal
|
1
|
1
|
||
Joseph Newton
|
1
|
4
|
11
|
|
Peter Downing
|
3
|
3
|
20
|
|
Thomas Gumbs
|
2
|
4
|
25
|
|
William Chalwill
|
2
|
2
|
18
|
|
John Paine [ie, Payne]
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
Charles Kagen Jr [ie, Keagan]
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
John Harragan [ie, Harrigan]
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
8
|
Cornelius Harragan [ie, Harrigan]
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
4
|
John Chapman
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
William Howell
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
13
|
Abednigo Pickering
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
10
|
John Morgan
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
John Rumney
[ie, Romney]
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
7
|
Edward Coakley Jr
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
|
Bryant Monoha [ie, Monahan]
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
3
|
Richard Roberts
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
6
|
William Roberts
|
1
|
1
|
7
|
1
|
John Bryant
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
Rowland Williams
|
3
|
1
|
6
|
|
Thomas Lake
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
Richard Richardson
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
7
|
William Gumbs
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
|
Thomas Howell
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
25
|
Michael Rowan [ie, Ruan]
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
15
|
John Richardson Sr
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
Thomas Lloyd
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
Benjamin Lake
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
14
|
Samuel Floyd [ie, Lloyd]
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
|
David Derrick
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
7
|
Abraham Howell
|
1
|
1
|
10
|
|
Abraham Downing
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
11
|
Richard Downing
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
Bezaliel Howell
|
2
|
4
|
20
|
|
Thomas Flanders
|
1
|
2
|
||
Edward Leonard
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
George Leonard
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
2
|
Isaac Adderly
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
John Connor
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
|
Henry Hodge Jr
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
18
|
John Hodge
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
Peter Hodge
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
|
John Downing
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
Thomas Knight
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
6
|
Robert Lockrum
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
Jacob Howell
|
1
|
3
|
16
|
|
Thomas Richardson
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
James Richardson
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
John Thomas
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
14
|
Peter Frare
|
1
|
5
|
||
Hugh Flemming [ie, Fleming]
|
1
|
8
|
||
Phillip Leonard
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|
Darby Carty
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
6
|
William Coakley
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
18
|
John Powell
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
4
|
Thomas Rumney [ie, Romney]
|
1
|
2
|
8
|
|
Thomas Rumney Jr [ie, Romney]
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
|
Thomas Hodge
|
3
|
5
|
16
|
|
James Glass
|
1
|
1
|
||
Thomas Rogers
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
30
|
Oliver Downing
|
3
|
2
|
8
|
|
Benjamin Rogers
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
|
Henry Hodge Sr
|
6
|
|||
Susan Manning
|
1
|
1
|
||
Edward Welch
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
|
Henry Leonard
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
14
|
Jacob Arundell [ie, Arrindell]
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
|
Mary Watson
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
|
Benjamin Arundell [ie, Arrindell]
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
|
Samuel Kentish
|
1
|
1
|
||
John Lake Sr
|
1
|
5
|
9
|
|
John Lake
|
2
|
4
|
||
Abraham Arrundell [ie, Arrindell]
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
5
|
Daniel Bryant
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
10
|
Jeremiah Richardson
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
12
|
Nehemiah Richardson
|
1
|
3
|
13
|
|
John Richardson
|
1
|
2
|
7
|
27
|
William Farrington
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
6
|
Alice Hoyet
|
2
|
2
|
||
Abraham Wingood
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
|
Totals
|
96
|
97
|
154
|
824
|
Table
2: Governor Hamilton's 1717 List of the Inhabitants of Anguilla: CO.152/12.
The
gaps in the column listing the numbers of men indicates those that were not
present at the time he took the census. Abraham
Howell is noticeably missing. The names
of the absent men indicate some of those who emigrated to Crab Island.
After
he inspected Anguilla and took the list of the names of the male settlers, he
sailed for Crab Island, where he disembarked on 18 November 1717. Of this island he wrote,
This is a long and very level island, but one mountain in it at the
south west end, not high, well timbered and an excellent soil. It is about nine leagues[2] long and in most parts
about six or seven miles broad except at the east end where it is not above two
or three miles broad for about seven or eight miles. It has a good harbour at the south side about
a third down from the east end when once ships are in, but the passage in is
very narrow and ships must warp not again except they have the wind far
northerly.
This island seems to be very fertile and excellent land but then it
is attended with this inconveniency that it lies so near to the island of St John
de Porto Rico that slaves upon the least disgust may easily escape over in
either canoes or bark logs it being just to the eastward of the center of that
island, the channel shallow and not above three leagues over. . .
There,
he also made a list of the white and black inhabitants. This Crab Island census shows that 46
white men and 62 black men immigrated in their desperate attempt to find
improved agricultural land.[3] The census contains no columns for women or
children (see illus 4). This can only
mean that the men did not move to Crab with all their family and possessions
but left them at home in Anguilla until they were sure that it was safe to join
the men. Their hope was to make Crab an
Anguillian dependency. Several wives and
children, as we shall see, later joined the men on Crab Island before the
settlement was finally destroyed.
4. An extract from
the Crab Island census of 1718. CO.152/12/2. (UK National Archives®)
The ‘Complete list of the men able to bear
arms and of negroes on Crab Island’ reads as follows (table 3):
White Men
|
Negroes
|
Henry Osborne
|
0
|
Thomas Allen
|
2
|
George Garner
|
1
|
Nehemiah Richardson
|
5
|
George Richardson
|
0
|
Jeremiah Richardson
|
0
|
John Richardson
|
0
|
Christopher Hodge
|
2
|
Thomas Hodge
|
3
|
Arthur Hodge
|
0
|
Benjamin Hodge
|
0
|
Abraham Chalwill Sr
|
4
|
William Chalwill Jr
|
0
|
Abram Chalwill
|
0
|
Abraham Wingood
|
7
|
Edward Coakley
|
0
|
John Richardson
|
0
|
Thomas Lake
|
4
|
John Lake
|
0
|
Benjamin Lake
|
0
|
David Derrick
|
1
|
Peter Downing
|
2
|
William Beal
|
1
|
Peter Hodge
|
1
|
John Richardson
|
0
|
William Richardson
|
1
|
Samuel Lloyd
|
3
|
Samuel Lloyd Jr
|
2
|
Benjamin Arrindell
|
1
|
William Gumbs
|
2
|
Thomas Gumbs
|
3
|
Joseph Mason
|
0
|
Isaac Arrindell
|
0
|
Andrew Watson
|
0
|
William Smith
|
0
|
Daniel Bryant
|
1
|
Rowland Williams
|
1
|
Cornelius Harrigan
|
1
|
Joseph Harrigan
|
0
|
Peter Harrigan
|
0
|
Bezaliel Howell
|
4
|
Thomas Howell
|
2
|
Abraham Howell
|
5
|
Thomas Coakley
|
3
|
Ceasar Coakley
|
0
|
Peter Downing
|
0
|
Total 46
|
total 62
|
Table 3: List of Men able to bear arms at Crab:
CO.152/12.
These
names show that support for the new settlement ran the length of Anguilla. The principal families from each of the three
Divisions were all represented. They
included the Richardsons, Hodges, Chalvilles, Coakleys, Lakes, Gumbses, Lloyds,
Arrindells, Harrigans, Howells, and Downings.
In
March 1718, Governor Hamilton was at St Kitts when he received word of the
Spanish destruction of the settlement at Crab Island. He wrote to the Committee to tell them that
just what he feared had happened.[4] On 10 February 1718, the Spanish coast guard
from Puerto Rico arrived at Crab Island with one man-of-war and six
sloops. They were in such force that
they went immediately on shore and demanded the surrender of the island. The Anguillians resisted but were
overwhelmed. They suffered several men
killed. Some, with their wives and
children and black and white servants, were taken as prisoners to Puerto
Rico. Many others, apparently the
majority, were able to save themselves by flight to the eastern side of
Crab. They were subsequently rescued by
several Leeward Island sloops that luckily came upon them. The Spaniards destroyed the fledgling
settlement before they carried off their prisoners.
The
Spanish history books record that 300 soldiers arrived from Puerto Rico. The fort was destroyed, and the town
burned. The fields of corn, cotton,
sugar and tobacco were put to the torch.
The cannon were taken to Puerto Rico and installed in the Castillo de
San Geronimo. There is no contemporary
Anguillian account of the disaster.
Abraham Howell was among those taken prisoner, and it would be several
months before he could make his escape and find his way back to Anguilla.
Governor
Hamilton did not intend to leave the captured Anguillians to their fate. In the same dispatch, he explained how he
took immediate steps to demand their return.
The man-of-war HMS Scarborough from the Barbados station was away
in St Kitts at the time on another mission.
It was on its way to Puerto Rico with orders from the Admiralty to
demand the return of a ship seized by the Spaniards after peace was declared at
the end of the previous war. The
Governor’s plan was, at the same time, to have the man-of-war demand the return
of the settlers from Crab. He sent HMS
Scarborough on to Puerto Rico with these instructions which in the end
proved to be futile.
Hamilton
raised again the question of offering parcels of land in St Kitts to the surviving
Anguillians. He also suggested, for the
first time, the possibility of acceding to their request that they be granted
patents to land in the island of St Croix, overlooking for the moment the fact
that it was Danish. He described the
advantages of that island over Crab. As
usual, he was careful not to overstep his authority and authorise their
resettlement in St Croix. Instead, he
awaited the Committee’s directions on that matter. He hoped it would be very soon, as the people
of Anguilla and Spanish Town were in a starving condition and were only restrained
with difficulty from scattering.
He
pointed out again that if only the poor people of that island were provided for
out of the conquered land of St Kitts, they would long since have contributed
to the strengthening of the defences of the main islands of his colony. As they were now, dispersed to foreign
islands, they were altogether useless and so many men lost. If the Committee was minded to authorise
another colony, he preferred St Croix over Crab Island. His moderate and deferential language was
designed to placate the Privy Council in London, not to place any great
pressure on it. Then as now, pressure on
London was the last thing that a colonial Governor would apply, if he valued
his career.
On 13
June 1718, Hamilton’s proclamation arrived in Anguilla.[5] It was read and exhibited there as it was in
each of the Leeward Islands. In it, he
forbade any more colonists to go and settle Crab Island. It read:
Whereas by a letter which I
received the other day from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for
Trade and Plantations bearing date at Whitehall the 28th day of January last I
am directed to use my utmost endeavours to hinder the inhabitants of Anguilla
as well as of St Christopher and other the islands under my government from
depleting themselves and settling in Crab Island by giving them assurances that
they will be provided for as soon as ever the French part of St Christopher's
is disposed of by public authority which their Lordships are pleased to
acquaint me they hope will very soon be done I do therefore in obedience to
their Lordships' commands hereby not only make known to all and every the
inhabitants of the islands within my government this their Lordships intentions
but do assure all and every the poor inhabitants of each of the said islands
that my utmost endeavours shall be employed to procure proper parcels of land
(in the French part of St Christopher's when it comes to be disposed of) for
such of them as shall endeavour to answer this their Lordships good intentions.
And I do hereby forbid any of
the inhabitants belonging to the islands under my government to go and settle
on the aforesaid Crab Island under any pretence whatsoever as they will answer
the contrary at their utmost peril, and on the other hand I do hereby signify
and make known to all person and persons whatsoever who have gone from the
aforesaid islands of Anguilla, St Christopher's or any other of the islands
under my government to the aforesaid Crab Island that if they will return to
the said islands of Anguilla and St Christopher's or to the islands of Antigua,
Nevis or Montserrat they shall have all the encouragement and protection that
is in my power to afford or give them, and if any of them can inform me of any
waste land belonging to His Majesty in any of the said islands (excepting the
French part of St Christopher's) I will immediately give them grants or patents
for the same under the great seal of these islands without fee or reward, and
to the end it may duly and truly appear what numbers do return to any of the
said islands in pursuance of this proclamation I do hereby in His Majesty's
name will and require each party so returning to any of the said islands to
appear before myself, or in my absence before the Lieutenant Governor or
President of the island where he shall so arrive, within three days after his
coming to any of the said islands, and there to make known his arrival with the
number of whites or blacks that he shall bring with him, of all which he is to
take a certificate under the hand and seal of myself, or in my absence from the
said Lieutenant Governor or President of the island where he so makes known his
arrival, and afterwards is to carry the said certificate to the Secretary of
the island where it is granted who is hereby ordered and required to enter the
same in his office in a distinct book to be kept for that purpose and then to
return it to the party concerned, and all Lieutenant Governors, Presidents and
other officers are hereby required to be very diligent in doing and performing
without fee or reward what to them belongs or appertains.
Given under my Hand and Seal
the 13th day of June 1718. In the fourth
year of the reign of Our Sovereign Lord George by the Grace of God of Great
Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
(sd) W Hamilton
God Save the King
This
proclamation promised that all those that returned to their homes would be
offered all the protection and encouragement in his power, and free grants of
waste land. As usual, he expressed the
hope that he would be able to obtain for them parcels of land in the former
French part of St Kitts when it was disposed of. This proclamation was a classic case of
closing the stable door after the horse bolted.
At least, it served the purpose of making it clear to the settlers that
those that returned would not be penalized.
As such, it influenced subsequent events.
In
December 1718, Hamilton was at St Kitts.
He wrote to the Council with good news.[6] Nine months after the debacle on Crab Island,
Abraham Howell arrived in St Kitts.
Hamilton learned from him that the prisoners were dragged through all
the Spanish ports at Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba. He and the two or three others that were
captured with him were released on the intercession of the Agent of the Royal
Asiento Company. A ship of the company took
them to Jamaica from where they got passage to St Kitts.
While
it is unlikely that any captured black slaves were released, at least 22 of
Howell’s hardy band of white settlers survived to sign the 1727 Anguilla
Proclamation on the accession to the throne of King George II. Many of the
settlers and slaves on Crab Island appear to have saved themselves by flight
when the Spanish attacked. Howell was
taken, he claimed, with only two or three other Anguillians. If this means that most of the settlers were
able to make their escape while their fearless captain remained in the
rear-guard, one is justified in speculating that the old captain successfully
organised the escape of his people. The
likelihood is that on the Spanish attack he mounted a successful rear-guard
action before giving himself up.
Unfortunately, we do not know the names of the other men who survived
this action with him. We only know that
seven or eight of them were killed in resisting the Spanish landing. Included among those killed was Bezaliel Howell, the old man’s
son. The captured Anguillians organised
their own escape from Puerto Rico. The
evidence is that they received no assistance either from London or from
Hamilton in making their way back to Anguilla via Nevis. As Hamilton wrote five months later, the
Governor of Puerto Rico never gave any answer to the demand he with HMS
Scarborough.[7]
The
settlement on Crab Island was destroyed, never to be attempted again. All the Anguillian settlers’ property was
confiscated. While most returned to
Anguilla, they were without their personal belongings. The loss of life and property for the
struggling colony in Anguilla was devastating.
In
trying to peer through the mists of time to that distant past to understand
what happened to the Anguillians after the destruction of their settlement on
Crab, we turn to the Proclamation of 1727 to glean what little information we
can from it.[8] The signatures interest us (see illus 5).
5. The signatories to the 1727
proclamation: CO.152/16. (UK National Archives®)
This
Proclamation was not an initiative of the Anguillian planters. It was a legal requirement of the day that
the planters subscribe and append their names proclaiming the accession of the
new king. The English were still
concerned about the acceptance of the new German monarchy. The threat of the Stuart dynasty was still
present. Each householder in the
colonies, including Anguilla, was required to join in signing the proclamation
declaring the accession of King George II on the death of his father, King
George I. This is what the proclamation
said,
WHEREAS it hath pleased
Almighty God to call to His mercy our late sovereign lord, King George of
blessed memory by whose decease the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, France and
Ireland, as also the supreme dominion and sovereign right of the islands of
Nevis, St Christopher, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and the rest of
His late Majesty's Caribbee Islands lying to Leeward from Guadeloupe to the
island of St John de Porto Rico and all other His late Majesty's dominions in
America are solely and rightfully come to the high and mighty prince George
Prince of Wales;
We therefore the Deputy
Governor with numbers of the principal planters and inhabitants of this Island
do now hereby publish and proclaim that the high and mighty prince George
Prince of Wales, is now by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory
become our only lawful and rightful liege lord George the Second by the Grace
of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, as also the supreme dominion
and sovereign right of the islands of Nevis, St Christopher, Montserrat,
Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and the rest of His late Majesty's Caribbee Islands
lying to Leeward from Guadeloupe to the island of St John de Porto Rico and all
other His late Majesty's dominions in America To whom we do acknowledge all
faith and constant obedience with all hearty and humble affection, beseeching
God by whom Kings reign and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal King George the
Second with long and happy years to reign over us.
Given at the Valley Division in
this our Island of Anguilla the seventh day of October in the year of Our Lord
God one thousand seven hundred and twenty seven.
God Save the King.
George Leonard Thomas Lake, Jr
John Rogers Joseph Keegan
Thomas Howell John Godden
Jacob Howell Benjamin
Lake
Bezaliel Rogers Thomas Coakley
Peter Rogers David
Derrick
Abraham Downing Edward
Gumbs
Abraham Howell, Jr George
Dobbony
Thomas Hodge Thomas Rogers
James King Richard Richardson
John Payne Henry Hodge
Edward Coakley Thomas Gumbs
Arthur Hodge, Sr John Bryant, Jr
Arthur Hodge, 2nd Abraham
Chalwill
David Derrick, Jr John Connor
Benjamin Rogers Rowland Williams
Samuel Lloyd Ceasar
Coakley
John Bryant George
Leonard, 2nd
John Keagan John
Lake
Henry Leonard Jeremiah Richardson
John Floyd Jacob Richardson
John Gumbs Edward Lake
John Hughes Thomas
Lake
Thomas Richardson Edward
Rogers
Thomas Coakley, Sr William
Bryan
Francis Goldsly Henry Rumney
Josiah Blake Benjamin
Downing
John Derrick Thomas
Hodge, Jr
William Richardson John
Rowan
George Leonard, Jr William
Farrington, Sr
Jacob Gumbs William
Rich’dson, 2nd
Thomas Call John
Harrigan
Samuel Downing Thomas Flanders
Tim Connor Derby Carty, Jr
Michael Rowan William Gumbs
Paul Rowan Edward Bartlett
William Howell Richard Roberts
Thomas Farrington Joseph
Richardson
Governor Mathew reported to the Board of
Trade in 1727 that King George II was proclaimed by the people of Anguilla on 7
October at The Valley.[9] The planters came together to join in the
signing of the Proclamation.[10] Mathew reported that the Anguillians
proclaimed the new king in the most solemn, decent and cheerful manner that
they were capable of. He glossed over
what really happened to reassure the Committee that his colony was working
smoothly.
The following year, he gave a more
truthful version of what happened at the signing. [11] The event, he now wrote, was characterized by
the misbehaviour of some of the planters.
He does not explain what he meant by ‘misbehaviour’. Clearly,
there were problems in Anguilla over the signing of this oath of loyalty. He writes that the signing was not
unanimous. There were disturbances and
instances of rowdy behaviour at the time.
We can be certain that not all the planters joined in the proclamation
as there are only 76 signatures to it.
Abraham Howell does sign it. His
name appears as Abraham Howell Sr.
It was not that any of the Anguillians
were likely to be loyal to the Stuarts.
They had no interest in supporting the Roman Catholic Stuart dynasty in
its struggle to reclaim the throne of England.
They were not concerned about the Stuart or any other dynasty. No Governor in Chief showed any interest in
the condition and affairs of this the third generation of Anguillians. Why should they on their part care about the
coronation of King George II? With old
deputy governor Leonard now almost permanently resident in Antigua, such little
form of organized government as there was on Anguilla broke down. One can imagine the outrage and indignation
that was felt by the sturdy, self-reliant islanders when they were called
together, not for some act of government relevant to their condition, but to
join in what for them was a completely meaningless and irrelevant ritual of
signing a proclamation in honour of an unknown, distant and uncaring King. Deputy governor Leonard was able to persuade
only 75 of them to join him in signing the proclamation.
It is
one of the characteristics of the Anguillians that they did not then, and still
do not now, rely on expressions of official concern. They have always sought their own solutions to
national problems. There is no record of
their receiving compensation for their destroyed property. There is no evidence even of the authorities demanding
such compensation from the Spaniards. The settlement on Crab was illegal, so that
was not to be expected. The destruction
by the Spaniards of the settlement on Crab also relieved the pressure on London
from Denmark. From Whitehall’s point of
view, the violence of the Spanish action was a neat solution to the diplomatic
crisis. Their preference was to let the
Danes struggle with Spain for ownership of Crab Island.
Crab
Island was to remain Spanish despite the competing claims of the Anguillians
and the Danes of St Thomas and St John.
It was, eventually, accepted by both the Danes and the British that
Vieques, to give the island its proper modern name, was a dependency of Puerto
Rico, and not politically a part of the Virgin Islands. It remains attached to Puerto Rico to this
day.
The
earliest English map of Crab Island located in the UK National Archives is a
very faded one of 1818 drawn for Governor Thomas Probyn and submitted by him in
a dispatch to the Earl of Bathurst (see illus 6).[12] This dispatch related to an attempt by a
group of Kittitians to revive the British claim to Vieques. The Anguillians never again showed any
interest in settling it.
6.
Crab Island in 1818. (UK National Archives®)
Abraham
Howell fades from the scene after this venture.
If he was about twenty-five years of age at the time of his election in
1666 to be deputy governor of Anguilla, he was at least eighty-six years of age
at the time of the signing of the 1727 Proclamation, a very advanced age for
that time.
At the time of the 1717 census, the Howell
and Leonard families were at the peak of their social and economic importance
in Anguilla. There are five Leonard men
recorded as being then on Anguilla, Captain George Leonard and his four sons, Edward,
another George, Phillip and Henry. They
are all recorded as being present on Anguilla because they did not go on the adventure
to Crab Island. The Crab Island Census
shows that Abraham Howell was present with five slaves. He left behind in Anguilla his wife, a child,
and ten slaves. His sons, Bezaliel
Howell and Thomas Howell, were with him on Crab Island with four and two slaves
respectively. Left behind in Anguilla
were William Howell, another Thomas Howell, and Jacob Howell. Within a few years the two cotton growing families
ceased to dominate the little island. The
sugar planter families of the Gumbses and Richardsons came to dominate social
life.
Crab Island was not to affect Anguillians
for nearly another 300 years, and then only in a very tangential way. In the late 1970’s the US navy were using a
part of Vieques as a bombing range.
Forced by pressure from local fishermen, environmentalists and Puerto
Rican nationalists to consider vacating their naval facility on Vieques, they
looked around for an alternative target site.
Dog Island, a small uninhabited cay several miles off the north coast of
and a part of Anguillian territory, was found appealing by certain US navy
consultants. They wrote that they
thought that its situation was ideal for use as a practice range. The pros and cons of such a development were
hotly debated on Anguilla. The sound of
low-flying jets approaching on their bombing run and the detonating of high
explosives just a few miles of Anguilla’s northern tourist beaches would not be
conducive to the happiness and welfare of visitors or residents. It was several years before the British government
turned down the proposal, over the objections of some of the owners who looked
forward to receiving a rich reward for leasing it to the Americans.
And so,
we end the story of Captain Abraham Howell’s efforts to settle the Anguillians
on Crab Island. He may have failed in
his attempt to find land for the dispossessed settlers of Anguilla and the
Leewards who flocked to his standard, but the Anguillians still had outlets
open to them. As Governor Hamilton
warned as early as July of 1719, the survivors of Crab Island were scattered
among the various islands of the colony.
They and others were discontented.
For want of land in the better islands, the Anguillians were obliged to
consider moving to the smaller Virgin Islands.
As we shall see, they were to have more luck on St Croix and Tortola,
and others of the Virgin Islands, than on Crab.
Next:
Chapter 11 –
[1] CO.152/12/2: Hamilton to the Committee on 6 January 1718,
enclosure 4: List of the Inhabitants
of Anguilla taken on 22 November 1717.
[2] A league was a now obsolete unit of
measurement of 3 miles.
[3] CO.152/12/2, No 67: Hamilton to the
Committee on 6 January 1718, enclosure 9: List of the Inhabitants of Crab
Island.
[4] CO.152/12/3, No 87: Hamilton to the
Committee on 15 March 1718.
[5] CO.152/12/3, No 118: Hamilton to the
Committee on 10 September 1718, enclosure: Proclamation of 13 June 1718.
[8] CO.152/16: Mathew to the Committee on 12
October 1727: The 1727 Anguilla Proclamation of King George II.
[9] CO.152/16, folio 56: Mathew to the
Committee on 12 October 1727.
[10] Chapter 10: Crab Island Revisited.
[11] CO.152/16 folio 251: Mathew to the
Committee on 20 January 1728.
[12] CO.239/4, No 68: Probyn to Bathurst on 16
March 1818.
