Anguilla was late taking up the sugar industry. Sugar cane was not grown in Anguilla until
the second quarter of the eighteenth century. This date was long after sugar replaced
tobacco and cotton in the rest of the Leeward Islands in the mid-seventeenth
century. We saw that in the early years
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, cotton and ground provisions were
the main cash crops. The leading
settlers are all described in the surviving archives as cotton planters. Cotton survived as the main cash crop of choice
until well into the eighteenth century. We
have seen that the Governor in Chief appointed the must substantial planter in
Anguilla to be its deputy governor. When
George Leonard was appointed deputy governor, he was a cotton planter. Until he fades from the scene in 1735, he
remained a cotton planter. Leonard was
the richest and most influential man in Anguilla at the time of his appointment. But we can be sure that as a cotton planter
he was a poor man in comparison to the sugar planters of the Leeward Islands.
By the 1730s, the early sugar planters of
Anguilla began to challenge the Howell and Leonard families in wealth and
influence. The Hodge, Gumbs and
Richardson families were to become the leading families of the island. Their incomes from their Anguillian
plantations were supplemented by the trade of their sloops. They extended their landholdings into St
Martin and St Croix. Leonard’s last
years were troubled by the unwillingness of his wealthier and more unruly
subjects to obey his orders. After his
death, his family ceased to have any influence in Anguilla. His son George Jr worked his plantations in
neighbouring St Martin, but the family gradually disappears from the scene. They were eclipsed by the new sugar planters.
The long drought in Anguilla seems
temporarily to have come to an end about the year 1725. Weather conditions improved to the extent
that the growing of sugar cane became feasible.
The population continued to increase.
There were white servants and African slaves available to be employed in
the new industry. In July 1720, Governor
Walter Hamilton sent London a list of the population of the Leeward Islands
(see illus 1 and table 1).[1]
1. Governor Hamilton’s estimate of the
population of the Leeward Islands in 1720. CO.152/13. (UK National Archives®)
The original document is torn and faded,
but it is possible to reconstruct it in its entirety (see table 1)
Free Persons
|
Servants free and un-free
|
Militia
|
Negro
|
|||||||
Men
|
Women
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Men
|
Women
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
|||
St Kitts
|
645
|
694
|
626
|
575
|
163
|
54
|
28
|
15
|
755
|
7,321
|
Nevis
|
331
|
426
|
206
|
312
|
33
|
18
|
13
|
4
|
378
|
6,589
|
Montserrat
|
486
|
492
|
295
|
320
|
64
|
10
|
9
|
12
|
444
|
3,772
|
Antigua
|
739
|
819
|
744
|
652
|
471
|
140
|
45
|
42
|
1,109
|
19,186
|
Anguilla
|
133
|
164
|
112
|
139
|
121
|
879
|
||||
Virgin Gorda
|
92
|
86
|
90
|
103
|
88
|
364
|
||||
Tortola
|
39
|
48
|
61
|
55
|
53
|
266
|
||||
Total
|
2,467
|
2,729
|
2,134
|
2,156
|
731
|
222
|
95
|
73
|
2,948
|
37,477
|
Table 1: List of the Inhabitants of the Leeward Islands, 18 July, 1720: CO.152/13.
This shows that in 1720 the population of
Anguilla consisted of 163 white male settlers, of whom 121 were in the militia,
164 white women, 246 white children, and 879 black slaves. The sugar industry typically required a
population of many times more black slaves than of whites. The more-or-less evenly balanced numbers of
free persons and slaves suggest that sugar was not yet being made in Anguilla.
By 1724, we find the first hint that a
small amount of sugar was being grown in the Virgin Islands, with which
Anguilla was unofficially classed.
Governor John Hart wrote that the produce of the three islands of
Anguilla, Virgin Gorda and Tortola were sugar, molasses and cotton.[2]
These he wrote were their cash
crops. The islanders, he explained,
generally illegally disposed of them to the Dutch in St Eustatius or to the
Danes at St Thomas, where they also purchased the essentials that they
needed. He commented that these
essentials were not of any significance as the inhabitants lived in a very poor
condition.
Because of the drought conditions, it is
unlikely that sugar cane was growing in Anguilla as early as 1724. In any event, the date of 1724 is nearly
eighty years after the usual date of 1640 given for the commencement of sugar
cane growing in Barbados. With the
production of sugar and rum, came an increase in wealth for a few of the major
landowners. There was the usual increase
in the ratio of slaves to free people.
The smaller parcels of potential cane land began to be bought up by the
larger planters. That may be why the
population statistics for the year 1724 show that there now were 360 whites and
900 slaves as compared to 548 whites and 879 slaves just four years
earlier. The falling number of free
persons compared to slaves is a good indicator of the presence of a sugar
industry. The consolidation of land in
the hands of the wealthier planters, and the migration of the landless free
persons to other places where they might have a chance to start over, is
another indicator.
With the increase in wealth of the major
planters of the Virgin Islands that sugar production signalled, the communities
were now ready for their first Councils.
Governor Hart was in Anguilla in May of 1724 on official business. He appointed the first Council, but we are
not certain who they were. Whatever
little sugar industry there was, was very poor and of limited extent. He would not have found many planters that he
would consider suitable to be appointed members of a Council.
During his 1724 visit to Anguilla Governor
Hart issued patents to land. He gave John
Bryan and Daniel Bryan their patent to four parcels of land.[3] The description of the parcels reads:
The one bounded southward with
the lands of Thomas Floyd and William Farrington running east, from thence to
the land of John Richardson Senior, bounded with the land now in possession of
Ann Williams, bound with the great Spring, running east to the path known by
the name of Shoal Bay path, running along the said path bounded with Thomas
Lake [ . . . ]avana.
Also, one other parcel of land
bounded on the west with the land of John Lake, southwardly with Edward and
Thomas Lake, north with a ledge of rocks.
Also, a piece or parcel of land
in The Valley bounded northwardly and eastwardly with Abraham Howell,
southwardly with [ . . . ] Connor and Paul Rohan, westwardly with Governor
George Leonard.
Also, one other parcel of land
in the Stony Ground bound on the north with John Connor, eastward with the land
of [ . . . ] Harrigan, southward with the land of William [ . . . ] running to
the westward a half mile.
The first parcel was described as bound on
the south with the lands of Thomas Floyd and William Farrington, on the east
with the land of Ann Williams and the Great Spring, with the Shoal Bay Path and
Thomas Lake. ‘The Great Spring’ was an alternative
name for the Fountain Cavern. This first
plantation was very large by Anguilla standards. It stretched from the Farrington in the south
to the Brimegin and Shoal Bay Plantations in the north. This was most of the area we know as Stoney
Ground.
The boundaries of the second parcel were
not any more clearly described. No doubt
it was obvious at the time what was meant by “bound on the west with the land of John Lake, south with Edward Lake
and Thomas Lake, and north with a ledge of rocks.” Today, we have no idea where these boundaries
were.
The third parcel of land was situated in
the Valley. The fact that Abraham Howell
lay on the north and east of it suggests that it was a plantation lying to the
west and south of Wallblake Plantation, ie, that it was the Statia Valley
Plantation. “Westwardly with Governor
George Leonard” suggests that at this time Leonard owned the George Hill
Plantation.
The fourth parcel was in Stoney
Ground. Its boundaries are unclear, but,
with its southern boundary being a half mile long, it was also a substantial
plantation by Anguillian standards.
From an endorsement at the foot of this
patent we see John Bryan the following year transferring his half interest in
the above lands to his brother, Daniel Bryan, who was left as the sole
owner. Was this development, perhaps, a
sign of the conglomerating of estates that took place as sugar began to replace
cotton? Perhaps John was joining the
stream of Quaker settlers moving on the Virgin Islands, or more likely he was
joining the Anguillian settlement on St Croix.
He was shedding interests in land in Anguilla that he no longer
wanted. He disappears, and nothing more
in heard of him in the archives.
Some forty years later, one John Bryan of
St Croix was sued by John Hancock, a carpenter of Anguilla, for a debt. We learn from the record of the trial that as
a result of another suit, his land at Little Harbour was sold to Edward Payne. We cannot be sure this the same John
Bryan. Daniel Bryan, as seen in various
earlier patents and conveyances, owned land at the end of the seventeenth
century in the Valley Division and in Stoney Ground. In Thomas Lake’s 1717 conveyance he was
described as possessing the land of Mrs Ann Hackett at Stoney Ground.[4] The likelihood is that John Bryan emigrated
with the Anguillians who were settling St Croix, and that his family became
Danish subjects. They did not give up
their Anguillian connections. With their
sloops and family contacts intact, they continued to own property on both
islands and to travel from one island to the other for years to come.
The Anguillian planters chose an inauspicious
time to move into sugar production. The
price of rum and sugar during the 1730's was depressed on the London market. The lowest prices were reached in 1733.[5] By that date, sugar cane was grown on
Anguilla. We do not know when and to
what extent locally made sugar and rum began to be exported. In 1734, Governor Mathew reported that the
Virgins, including Anguilla, produced no sugar for export.[6] Their chief products then, he wrote, were
cotton and ground provisions, ie, maize, pigeon peas and sweet potatoes. Five years later, in 1739, deputy governor John
Richardson (1679-1742) made his will. Among
many bequests, he left as we shall see below his “mill, stills, boiling house and still house” to his wife Joan
Richardson for her life and after her death to his son, William Richardson, and
grandsons John Richardson and William Richardson for so long as they planted
cane to make rum and sugar.[7]
When deputy governor John Richardson
refers in his will to his mill, he is not referring to a windmill. There is no windmill on this estate. His canes were crushed in an animal
round. This consisted of two iron mills
one of which was turned by animal power against the other, the sugar canes
being inserted by hand between the two of them.
In a typical animal round, donkeys, mules or other cattle were yoked to
a long axle attached to one of the mills.
They were made to walk round and round, turning the mill to crush the
canes which were pushed by hand between the mills as they turned. Animal rounds were common in the Leeward
Islands in the early period of sugar manufacture. The more efficient windmill was soon
introduced into the richer islands of Antigua, Nevis and St Kitts. In Anguilla few windmill ruins, if any, can
be seen. Most of the mills in Anguilla
were animal rounds (see illus 2).
By tying this condition to his gift,
deputy governor John Richardson was trying to ensure posthumously that his
heirs would be obliged to keep up the struggle to grow sugar cane. His will reads in part:
2. A contemporary animal round as depicted by Charles
de Rochefort.
Item. I give
and devise unto my lawful and now married wife Joan Richardson all my estate
both real and personal during her life or widowhood freely to be possessed and
enjoyed by her my said wife, and at her decease or end of widowhood, to be
divided in manner and form as follows.
Item. I give and devise unto my two grandsons John
and William Richardson the sons of my son John Richardson of the island of St
Martins deceased a certain part of my plantation in the said Island being
bounded on the north side with a parcel of land formerly known by the name of
Arrowsmiths next adjoining the Church in Spring Division of said Island running
along said highway to a tamarind tree now standing to the westward and adjacent
to my now dwelling house, from thence running along said highway to the old
breastwork near the south end of my fence, and from said breastwork running to
a cliff of rocks on the north end of Long Pond Bay, and is bounded on the south
side with the sea, and from said land of Arrowsmiths running the same course of
said land of Arrowsmiths to a pond known by the name of Calls pond, and is
bounded westwardly with the neighbouring plantations;
and also a parcel of land I now
have in Stony Valley, and is bounded on the north side with the lands of
William Farrington Sr deceased
and also the one moiety or half
of the land that I lately purchased of Joseph Burnett;
which three parcels of land to
be and remain to them my said grandsons, and the lawful begotten male heirs of
their bodies, the elder being preferred before the younger and for want of such
male heirs said land shall descend to my son William Richardson and the lawful
begotten male heirs on the part of my said son William Richardson [and for want
of such male heirs] it shall go to the female heirs of my said grandsons John
and William Richardson, and for want of such female heirs it shall go to the
next surviving heirs of blood and to their heirs forever, equally to be divided
betwixt them. They shall not sell, or
make away with any of said lands or Plantations except it be to my son William
Richardson or to his lawful begotten heirs or line of blood.
Item. It is my Will that my mill, stills, boiling
house and still house with all the necessaries and utensils thereto belonging
shall be and remain where they are now are for the joint benefit of my said son
and grandsons and their heirs as above said as long as they plant canes to make
rum and sugar, and when they cease from such planting canes and making rum and
sugar as above said they shall be sold, excepting the boiling house and still
house, and the price thereof equally to be divided between my children and
grand children, remembering that the children of my deceased daughter Mary
Wingood and the child of my deceased daughter Elizabeth King shall have the one
fifth part thereof divided between the child of my deceased daughter Elizabeth
King, to have the one half, and the children of my deceased daughter Mary
Wingood shall have the other half to be divided betwixt them, and the children
of my deceased son John Richardson shall have the one fifth part divided
betwixt them.
Item. I give and devise unto my son William
Richardson all the rest of my lands in said Island together with my now
dwelling house and other houses on said land except what is heretofore willed
and devised or bequeathed and other appurtenances and privileges thereto
belonging or there from arriving, to him my said son and the lawful begotten
male heirs of body and in their lawful begotten male heirs of his body and
their line or lineage being males, and, for want of such male heirs it shall go
to the male heirs of the part of my said grandsons John and William Richardson,
and for want of such heirs it shall go to ye lawful begotten female heirs on
the part of my son William Richardson, and for want of such female heirs, it
shall go to the next surviving heirs of blood and to their heirs forever,
equally to be divided betwixt them. He
my said son shall not sell nor make away with any of my said lands or
plantations except it be to my said grandsons or either of them, or to either
of their lawful begotten heirs or line of blood.
Item. I will that my son William Richardson shall
be at half cost and trouble to build each of my said grandsons a house of
thirty-two feet long with height and breadth proportionable, both to be boarded
and shingled, on their parts of said plantation when and where they shall think
proper.
Item. It is also my will that if I recover the
interest in Antigua or any part thereof which belonged to my deceased father
John Richardson Sr of said island of Antigua or any other that my said
grandsons shall have one moiety and my son William shall have the other freely
to be held and enjoyed by them in such manner as in every particular prescribed
touching my estate in this Island.
We learn several things about Anguilla in
the 1730s from this will. For one, by
1739 the island was sufficiently developed to have more than one Anglican
church. Not only was there the Anglican
Church at The Valley, but now also a second one in the East End of the
island. Richardson referred to it in the
second paragraph above only in passing, in describing the location of one of
his devises. The land in question, he
writes, is “adjoining the Church in
Spring Division.” The site of this
church was probably where the St Augustine’s Anglican Church stands at East End
at present. The present Church is built to
the south of his sugar works. Their
remains, the animal round, boiling house, and curing house, can be seen to this
day part hidden in the scrub just a hundred feet north of the church buildings.
We see how far flung his family was. The Richardson family was in Anguilla from
the earliest days of settlement. His
father John Richardson Sr owned a plantation in Antigua. The likelihood is that he acquired it at
about the same time as his contemporary, deputy governor George Leonard, bought
property in Antigua. His deceased son,
John Richardson Jr, lived and died a Frenchman in St Martin. We saw that his grandchildren, John and
William, joined the Danish settlement in St Croix. Only William was left in Anguilla.
The Gumbs family also tried to improve
their lot by growing sugar cane. For the
few deceptive years that it rained more than usual in Anguilla, they managed as
best they could, but not with any great success. William Gumbs Sr was a member of John
Richardson’s Council. By the year 1738 his name begins to be mentioned as a
member of the Council. He was probably
one of the wealthiest men on the island at the time. He died a grandfather in 1749, leaving
several plantations to his children in his will of the same year.[8] It reads in part:
Imprimis. I give and bequeath to my dear beloved wife
Elizabeth Gumbs all my estate both real and personal during her life or
widowhood.
Item. I give and bequeath to William Gumbs my
eldest son all my dwelling houses, out houses and store houses situated upon my
place of residence with my coppers and mill willing that whatsoever products of
cane are reaped from my other lands shall not be debarred of the privilege of
being made of by the said coppers or mill if by those to whom underwritten it
is willed shall be desired. Computing
value the said building to six hundred pounds currency of the island, willing
when once an equal dividend is made of all the rest of my personal estate here
to the rest of my children, then he the said William Gumbs shall come in
coequal in what is over and above the said dividend.
Item. I give and bequeath unto Thomas Gumbs my
fourth son a piece of land commonly known by the name of Hazard Hill in this
island purchased of one John Lloyd and that the said Thomas Gumbs must be made
equal with every child.
Item. I give and bequeath unto Benjamin Gumbs my
fifth son a certain piece of land commonly known by the name of Hazard Hill in
this island purchased of one Thomas Lake and that the said Benjamin Gumbs must
be made equal with every child.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my fourth daughter
Joanna Jones and Catherine Gumbs my youngest daughter the lands and houses at
Crocus Bay and a piece of land known by the name of the Great Cockpit also a
piece of land purchased of one Thomas Skerret in this island and that the said
Joanna Jones and Catherine Gumbs shall be made equal with every child.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my second daughter
Mary Barton a piece of land in the island of St. Martins in the Dutch Quarter adjoining Mr
Aaron Westerband and my lot on the bay and that the said Mary Barton shall be
made equal with every child.
Item. As to what little Negroes I gave away is not
to come in when a day of division or dividend shall be made.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Jacob Gumbs
my land in the Dutch part of St Martins which he now lives on but the Negroes,
mill, coppers, still to be valued and the said Jacob Gumbs shall be made equal
with every child.
From these devises William Gumbs was a
substantial planter by Anguillian standards.
He owned sugar estates not only in Anguilla, but in Dutch St Maarten as
well. We first saw him in the Archives
when he was mentioned in the 1739 conveyance of Thomas Hughes as owning land at
Crocus Bay. In the year he made the will
and died, he was a sugar planter. He
bequeathed to his widow Elizabeth Gumbs, as we saw above, all his estate during
her life or widowhood. He left his first
son William Gumbs all his Anguillian dwelling houses, outhouses and storerooms,
with his coppers and mill.[9] He left his fourth son Thomas Gumbs, John
Lloyd's Hazard Hill. To his fifth son Jacob
Gumbs, he left his sugar estate in Dutch St Maarten, and an equal share with
his other children in the slaves, mill, coppers and still. Jacob already owned his own sugar works and
estate in St Martin. To his daughters, Johanna
Jones and Catherine Gumbs, he left his lands and houses at Crocus Bay, at Great
Cockpit, and other land. To his daughter
Mary Barton, he left other lands in St Maarten.
What we do not know with any certainty is the location of his sugar
plantations in Anguilla.
William Gumbs Sr was a member of Governor Arthur
Hodge's 1741 Council. He was too elderly
to play an important role in the fighting in 1744 and 1745. He was one of those Anguillians who sent Governor
Hodge to England to plead the cause of retaining St Martin as a British
possession and an Anguillian dependency during the peace negotiations. As a sugar planter and landowner in both the
British and Dutch territories, he was put to much inconvenience. Because of his holdings, he was suspect by
the Leeward Islands British administrators of harbouring either Dutch or French
sympathies. The Dutch in turn suspected,
probably with justification, that he retained British sympathies. He received little assistance from either of
them when administrative problems arose.
The litigation that caused William Gumbs’
1749 will to be preserved in the Anguilla Archives was due to his estate not being
properly administered after his death.
The will became the subject of lawsuits in the 1750s and 1760s. When his personal estate was eventually
appraised in 1754, it included the buildings and equipment set out in table 2.
£ s
|
|
1 copper and 2 furnaces
|
40 00
|
2 skimmers and 1 ladle old
|
1 10
|
Boiling House and 3 coolers
|
50 00
|
1 still worm and kitchen and worm tub
|
95 00
|
Mill Oct
|
80 00
|
1 old mare
|
10 00
|
1 house
|
10 00
|
a white faced horse
|
20 00
|
1 mare
|
14 00
|
1 mare and foal
|
16 10
|
a house
|
100 00
|
Negroes
Tower Hill
Toney
Bristol
Fortune
Limbrick
Cudgoe
Venter
Adam
France
Scipio
Will
Jim
Prince
[ . . . ]
Old Harry
|
50 00
30 00
42 00
15 00
33 00
24 00
34 00
100 00
45 00
70 00
46 00
65 00
60 00
30 00
65 00
|
Negro boys
Mathew
Cambridge
Catou
Peter
Quachey
Abraham
Amboy
Tony
Fontu
Trouble
Harry
|
50 00
45 00
41 00
34 00
34 00
33 00
33 00
25 00
20 00
15 00
15 00
|
Women
Sarah
Harry
Mimboe
Susannah
Morotor
Bess
Liddey & child
Cubbo
Dina
Nan
Present
Cattalin
Moll
Bella
Henrietta
|
15 00
40 00
40 00
45 00
10 00
35 00
60 00
40 00
40 00
42 00
25 00
12 00
12 00
10 00
25 00
|
Table 2: The 1754 Valuation of William
Gumbs’ Estate (Anguilla Archives).
From this assessment, other than his house
the most valuable equipment on his sugar estate was his distillery. That tells us that William Gumbs’ probably
grew sugar canes principally to distil rum.
His boiling house contained only one copper, and two furnaces. One copper would not have been enough to make
sugar. If he was producing rum he would
not have needed the several coppers found in sugar-producing factories. He would convert the sugar cane juice to
molasses by boiling it in his copper, and then fermenting and distilling it to
produce alcohol.
By far the major part of William Gumbs’
estate lay in his slaves. The appraisers
listed their names and their values.
There were sixteen male slaves valued at £789.50. There were eleven boys worth £345.00. There were fifteen women and children valued
at £451.00. The total estate amounted to
£2,022.00 current money. Of this sum,
the land, sugar mills, houses, stills and animals, were appraised as being
worth £437.00. The balance of his estate
consisted of his slaves. Of the sixteen
male slaves, the names of two are missing.
Of the remaining fourteen, only one bore an African name: Cudjoe.
He was an old man as he was only valued at £24.00. The likelihood is that he came from Africa
and was not born in the West Indies.
Others of the men bore European place names such as Tower Hill, Bristol
and France. Yet others carried classical
names such as Scipio and Cato. Some bore
English nicknames such as Tony and Jim.
The estimated value of each varied from a low of £15.00 for Fortune to a
high of £100.00 for Adam. Among the
eleven boys were two African names: Quacky
and Fontu, and one European place name: Cambridge. There were four biblical names: Adam, Mathew, Peter and Abraham. There was a variety of other soubriquets such
as Amboy and Trouble. Among the fifteen
women, there were three African names: Mimboe, Moroter and Cubboe. There were four traditional European first
names such as Sarah and Henrietta. There
was a variety of nicknames such as Bess, Nan and Moll. In this alone they were distinguished from
the horses, which were not named. Their
value far exceeded that of house and factory, which were very poor structures.
William Gumbs' son, Thomas Gumbs Sr, died
a few years later, in 1754. He was a
prominent planter and a member of both Arthur Hodge's Council of 1741 and of
his brother Benjamin Gumbs' Council of 1750.
He inherited John Lloyd’s Hazard Hill Plantation from his father. By the time he died, he owned other estates,
including Kidneys Plantation and Diggeries Plantation, the locations of which are
now uncertain. In his 1753 will, he
divided up his estates among his six living children. He was able to leave his daughter Margaret a
feather bed and furniture. He did not
mention any other personal possessions.
He did not state whether his estates grew cotton or sugar cane.[10] From the period we are dealing with, it is
safe to assume that he grew cane, but it was not a very profitable enterprise.
Thomas Gumbs’ son, Thomas Gumbs Jr, served
on his uncle Benjamin Gumbs’ Council of 1750-1768. He made his last will in 1769. He died some time before 1774, the year his will
was probated.[11] He was a major planter, owning several
estates. These included Richard’s Land
(Little Dix), John Ruan’s Land, the Long Ground, and North Side
Plantations. Whatever the produce of his
plantations, it did not include any great quantity of sugar cane. He did not claim in his will to own a sugar
mill or rum still.
Throughout the years when sugar cane was
grown in Anguilla, roughly 1725-1780, it was never a successful crop, unlike in
the main sugar islands. Sugar cane never
occupied all the agricultural land of Anguila, as in the sugar islands. It was grown on the estates only of the
wealthiest and most successful planters.
They grew it only on their best agricultural land. Given the largely rocky surface of Anguilla,
this was only a small part of their lands.
The sugar industry did not last long.
Before the end of the American Revolutionary War, all trace of it
disappears from the Anguilla records.
Small quantities of sugar cane continued
to be grown in Anguilla into the nineteenth century. During periods of good weather, when
sufficient quantities survived to make it worthwhile, it was cut and shipped
the ninety miles to the factories of St Kitts to be ground up. This was uneconomic. The practice did not persist for more than a
few years.
In the Archives, it is not unusual to come
across a planter with large areas of land, none of which appears to be given
over to sugar cane. When in 1739, Elizabeth
Rogers purchased half of Crocus Bay Plantation from Samuel Downing of Tortola
for £172.00, there is no indication that it was under sugar cane.[12]
She sold it a few years later to Joseph Burnett, together with a part of
the adjoining Roaches Hill Plantation, for £183 3s 4d. It was still not under sugar cane. Crocus Bay Plantation was more likely devoted
to small stock and food crops rather than to sugar cane. There is no trace of a sugar round or boiling
house in Crocus Bay. Most of the land in
Anguilla over the centuries and up to the twentieth century was dedicated to
small stock rearing with small patches of subsistence farming in the shallow
bottoms.
Next:
[1] CO.152/13, folio 159: List of the
Inhabitants of the Leeward Islands taken on 18 July 1720.
[2] CO.152/14, folio 325: Hart to the Council
on 10 July 1724. It is not clear from the report whether each of the three islands
was producing each of the three products.
That is one possible interpretation.
It is equally possible that he lumped the produce together, and that
only one of them, eg, Tortola, produced any sugar and molasses.
[3] Anguilla Archives: John and Daniel
Bryan’s 1724 patent.
[5] Frank Wesley Pitman, The Development of
the British West Indies (1917) p.92.
[8] Anguilla Archives: William Gumbs’ 1749
Will.
[10] Anguilla Archives: Thomas Gumbs’ 1753 Will.
[12] Anguilla Archives: Elizabeth Rogers’
1739 deed.
