By the ‘second generation’ of Anguillians,
we mean those born here or arriving here during the 30-year period
1681-1710. These joined the surviving members
of the first generation, 1650-1680, who continued to live into and beyond that
period. In addition to the landless
homesteaders from St Christopher, or St Kitts, attracted to Anguilla in the
first wave of settlement, others continued to straggle onto the island over the
balance of the century. They came from a
variety of sources and for several reasons.
There are several second-generation land
title documents that can still be seen in the Anguilla Archives. Some are in badly damaged condition, but most
are substantially intact. After Humphrey
Lynch’s 1676 patent seen earlier, the third in time to have survived is Abraham
Howell's 1684 certificate of a grant to John Lake of a parcel of Crown land at
‘Stoney Valley’. This is just thirty-four
years after the settlement of 1650. The
first part is the certificate from the deputy governor while the second part is
a certificate from Anguilla’s only recognised land surveyor of the time, Richard
Gallway. It reads,
These may certify all or whom
it may or doth concern that there was given and granted unto John Lake and to
his heirs for ever a certain parcel of waste or King's land in the Stony Valley
of this island that is to say thirty men’s land in breadth and in length five
hundred geometrical paces beginning at the head line running South East,
bounded on the South West with the land granted to John Burrose with an
additional grant Northwards to ye neighbouring plantations be it more or less.
This I certify under my hand 8
October 1684.
(sd) Abraham Howell (LS)
***
Anguilla Island
These are to certify whom it
may concern that by order I have surveyed and laid out for John Lake thirty
men’s land in the Stony Valley beginning at the head line and running five
hundred geometrical paces South East, bounded on the South West with the land
granted unto John Burrose all which I do hereby certify as witness my hand the
21st of [ . . . ]
(sd) Richard Gallwey
The area of land that Abraham Howell
transferred to John Lake is thirty men's land in breadth, and five hundred
geometrical paces long. The modern
equivalent of these dimensions is lost to us.
Both parcels lie to the north-east of the estate of John Burrose. The name Stoney Valley crops up repeatedly
and was the early name of the area we now know as Stoney Ground. From this patent and the several other
surviving land titles that deal with land in the same area, we learn that
Stoney Ground was one of the first areas of settlement in Anguilla.
The title
document that Thomas Romney received can be described as a ‘patent’ as it
transfers the fee simple to him with the word ‘forever’.[1] John Lake’s document calls itself a ‘certificate’,
and as such it is not a true title document.
It does not convey the fee simple to him, it merely certifies that
someone else, either the Governor in Chief or the deputy governor has given him
a patent to the land. A patent to land
from the Governor in Chief or the deputy governor was at this time the best
title that a settler could hope to receive to his land. A ‘patent’ or ‘letters patent’ was a
form of fee simple title that was long recognised in England. It is a declaration by an officer of the
State as to the ownership of a lot of land.
In England, under the feudal system, a landowner owed duties and
services to his lord in exchange for holding his land. He could lose his land if he failed to
perform the requisite services. This was
most unsatisfactory to landowners. As
early as in section 62 of the Magna Carta (1215), the barons of England forced
King John to grant them patents to their land, raising their land ownership
close to the high level found at that time only in the County of Kent. This limited right of land ownership in
England created by the feudal system was one of the moving factors in people
emigrating to the Americas. They were
determined to really own their land.
None of the feudal tenures applied to land held by patent. Obtaining a patent from the local governor in
Anguilla achieved one of the main aims of settlers in the West Indies, owing
your own land.[2]
Certificates such as Lake’s were in common
use when the deputy governor was not authorised by the Captain General and Governor
in Chief to issue a land patent. A
certificate only certified that the named person was in peaceful occupation of
the land. It was not a true title
document, as a patent was. The deputy
governor of Anguilla was seldom authorised to issue a patent, and most of the
time when we see him granting land, we can assume that he was acting on his own
initiative, and in consideration of a fee paid to him. John Lake’s certificate has survived only
because it was produced and copied for use as an exhibit in litigation in the
year 1775, some ninety-four years after it was issued. It was filed away in the Secretary’s Office,
now the Registry of Deeds, where it can still be seen.
The family name Lake features in Anguilla
from the earliest period of settlement. It
is commonly found even today in Anguilla.
The Lakes were among the first wave of immigrants and homesteaders. It is not certain who the first one was, nor
to which St Kitts or Nevis Lake family he was related. The likelihood is that the Anguillian and
Nevisian Lakes are all descended from Captain Jacob Lake of Nevis. We first see Jacob arriving in Nevis in 1628.[3] He travelled back to England on occasion, probably
reporting to the proprietors. We next
see him aged 30 shipping on the Peter Bonaventure on 3rd April 1635 at
Gravesend "bound for the Barbadoes",
and from there to Nevis. He was Sir
Thomas Warner's deputy in Nevis. He
served as deputy governor of Nevis between 1641 and his death in 1649. He was buried at Lowlands St Thomas' Church
in that island. His damaged tombstone
survives there. It is preserved embedded in the wall of the little church at
Lowlands. The epitaph reads,[4]
Here lies the mirror of each
martial mind
Religion who confirmed and refined
In all his actions who was fortunate
An Atlas to support the weight of state
This island's safeguard and his foe's decrease
The flower of arms and the tower of peace
Now Nevis mourn reading this epitaph
Here Jacob resteth and here lies your staff
Here lyeth the body
of Captain Jacob Lake Esquire
Late Governor of this island Nevis
who departed this life
October 1649
|
The fourth oldest surviving document dealing
with land in Anguilla in the seventeenth century is Thomas Connor’s 1688
certificate from deputy governor Abraham Howell. This is thirty-eight years after the original
settlement of 1650. The certificate
reads,
Anguilla. Dimensions for Mr Thomas Connor to have his
Land Patented, it lying and being situate in the Valley Division of the above
mentioned Island and being in two parcels.
Ye first, bounding north with
the common path and Daniel Bryan, east with the land of Mrs Ruth Howell and
Richard Welch, west with the land that did formerly belong to Owin Carty, now
in the possession of Mary Rowane[5], running south to the extent of the neighbouring
plantation.
Ye second, lying in Stony
Valley at the head line of John Harrigan bounding north west to the other
neighbouring plantations, bounding on the north east side with the land that
did formerly belong to Da[ . . . ] now in the possession of Captain George
Leonard, on the south [ . . . ] side with the land of Daniel Bryan, all which
land contains by estimation forty acres be it more or less, all which land he
is in possession of as his rights did appear before me.
This is to certify under my
hand
this 12th day of J[ . . . ]
(sd) Abraham Howell
Thomas Connor's certificate is
interesting for a number of reasons. It
is another example of an informal ‘certificate’ issued by the deputy governor
for land in Anguilla. It appears from
the wording on the first lines that it was prepared with a view to his applying
to the Governor in Chief for a land patent.
That he never got a better title is evident as the certificate continued
to be produced as proof of title long after it was made. Also of interest is that the certificate
applies to two parcels of land in the Valley Division.
The location of Thomas Connor’s first
parcel of land is not mentioned other than that it is in The Valley
Division. It is said to be bound on the
north with the common path and Daniel Bryan's land. On the east lay the lands of Ruth Howell and Richard
Welch. On the west was the land formerly
belonging to Owin Carty and now possessed by Mary Ruan. These names are of interest to
Anguillians. Owin Carty is the first
Carty to appear in the Anguillan records.
Mary Ruan is the first Ruan mentioned in the archives. As it is an Irish name, we may speculate that
she may have married one of the Wild Irish who landed in Anguilla that year. Ruth Howell who is also mentioned was one of
Abraham Howell’s relatives and thus a member of the leading family of Anguilla.
Connor’s second parcel is stated in the
certificate to be in Stoney Ground. It is
bound by lands of John Harrigan, Daniel Bryan and Captain George Leonard. It is about forty acres in size. These Irish names Harrigan and Bryan are
interesting to Anguillians. Maybe they
were some of the Wild Irish that descended on Anguilla in the year 1688. The Wild Irish were neither all expelled nor left
of their own accord. Their names and blood
lines continue to flourish in Anguilla today.
Connor’s 1688 title document is another
example of an informal ‘certificate’ for land in Anguilla issued by the deputy
governor. This is the last official
document that survives from the period when Abraham Howell served as deputy
governor of Anguilla. He was to live for
many more years and continued to play a significant role in the history of
Anguilla in the first decades of the eighteenth century. Shortly after executing the certificate, he
was removed from office for some unknown reason. We shall see in Chapter 10 that Howell
stubbornly rejected the Governor in Chief’s refusal to permit the Anguillians
to settle on Crab Island, which may have contributed to his falling out of
favour. Governor in Chief Christopher
Codrington Sr appointed George Leonard to be deputy governor of Anguilla and
captain of the island militia in his place.
The fifth seventeenth century title
document preserved in Anguilla’s archives is a patent of 1698. It is made by deputy governor George
Leonard. Here we learn that Governor
Codrington Sr appointed him deputy governor of Anguilla. In it, he grants Jacob Howell, Abraham Howell’s
son, title to land at Blowing Point. The
patent reads,
By the Honourable Captain
George Leonard, Deputy Governor of his Majesty's Island of Anguilla.
By virtue of full power and
authority unto me in that behalf derived from his Excellency Christopher
Codrington [ . . . ] Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over all his
Majesty's Caribbean Leeward Islands in America I do by these present letters
patent give and grant unto Jacob Howell of this island, planter, and to his
heirs, former grants excepted, a certain parcel of land upon this island being
at Blown Poynte, bounded northwards with the land or plantation formerly
possessed by and belonging to John Harris late of this island deceased and now
in the possession and occupation of William Thomas, bounded on the South side
with the land or plantation which did properly belong to John Green and now in
the possession of Peter Edny, bounded Eastwards with the land or plantation
formerly belonging and in the possession of Lewis Jones or other neighbouring
plantations, bounded Westwards to other plantations or the pond, he the said
Jacob Howell at all time and times hereafter paying all such dues and duties as
shall be due unto our lawful sovereign Lord the King and his Deputies upon this
island
In confirmation I have hereunto
annexed my hand and seal in Anguilla, August 18th 1698.
(sd) George Leonard (LS)
Jacob Howell’s patent is of interest for several
reasons. We have seen that Abraham
Howell was elected by the Anguillians to be their deputy governor. His position was subsequently recognised by
Sir William Stapleton, the Governor in Chief of the Leeward Islands, in
1672. Leonard makes no such claim in
this patent to be elected by the Anguillians.
The only authority he asserts is his appointment by the Governor in
Chief. It is likely, however, that he
was, after Abraham Howell, the most influential and powerful of the island’s inhabitants. Otherwise, Codrington would not have
appointed him to replace Abraham Howell.
His appointment was not by the usual formal Leeward Island method of a
patent or commission from the King.
Leonard makes no claim to holding any patent even from the Governor in
Chief. He would mention such a patent if
he had one. From this, it is apparent
that Leonard’s appointment was as informal as Howell’s was.
By this 1698 patent, George Leonard grants
a plantation at Blowing Point to Jacob Howell.
It is described as bound on the north by the plantations of William
Thomas and Peter Edney. On the east it
was bounded by plantations of Lewis Jones and others. On the south it was bounded by a pond. There are two possible ponds. One is Blowing Point Pond, while the other is
Rendezvous Pond. Later endorsements
describe Jacob Howell’s plantation as lying east of Rendezvous Pond, so that is
possibly it.
Jacob Howell did not keep this plantation
long. The following year, 1699, we see
him transferring title to the famous Tortola Quaker, Abednigo Pickering, at
that time still living in Anguilla.
Blowing Point and Rendezvous after 1707, the date of Thomas Chalkley’s first
visit, was likely all Quaker land. The
deeds show it subsequently being owned by another Quaker, John Farrington and
his wife, and later, in 1749, by Solomon Romney.
Early in the eighteenth century, in 1704,
we see the first Anguillian patent to be given by the Governor in Chief
himself. It is for three parcels of land
to Edward Lake of Shoal Bay. Edward Lake
was likely one of Captain Jacob Lake’s children or grandchildren. He is at that time in St Kitts where he
receives the patent directly from the hand of Christopher Codrington Jr. In the patent, the Governor describes Edward
Lake as a ‘gentleman’. This was not a
title lightly bestowed at the time.
Edward Lake of Anguilla was not some shoeless semi-brigand, or Codrington
would never use the title ‘gentleman’ to describe him. Quite how Edward Lake managed this elevation
is not known, unless he was a child of the eminent Jacob Lake. How he came into the money required to purchase
from the Governor in Chief a patent to such extensive lands is lost to us but
was likely part of his inheritance.
Edward Lake’s 1704 patent deals with three
separate parcels of land. The first is
described with these words,
… do give grant and confirm
unto our trusty and well beloved subject Edward Lake of our said Island
Anguilla, Gentleman, and to his heirs and assigns forever a certain plantation
or parcel of land lying and being in Spring Division on said island bounding to
the westward with the land of Jeremiah Richardson and William Roberts, south
with the land of Robert Lockrum and Mr Thomas Call deceased now in the
possession of Mrs Ann Hackett, north and west with the land of Joan Lake and
John Lake.
Jeremiah Richardson who is named on the west
boundary is only the second of the named Richardsons that we meet in
Anguilla. The first was Captain Richard
Richardson, a member of Abraham Howell’s first Council in 1672. Like the Lakes and the Howells, it is likely
that the Richardsons were in the first wave of immigrants to arrive in
1650. Richard Richardson Jr, or ‘Little
Dick’, was Jeremiah’s nephew. In 1752 we
see Edward Payne transferring ‘Little Dick’s Plantation’ to Daniel Derrick.[6] William Roberts is the first named member of
the Roberts family. They subsequently
came to own the lands where North Hill Village now is.[7] The family produced Anguilla’s seventh deputy
governor, Benjamin Roberts, in the year 1768.
He served until his death in 1771.
Robert Lockrum is remembered today only as the eponymous owner of the
plantation lying between Blowing Point Village and Little Harbour, still known
as Lockrum’s. Thomas Call was the owner
of Cauls Pond. The land around the pond is
still known by his name. This first
plantation granted by Governor Codrington to Edward Lake thus lay to the north
of Cauls Pond and to the east of Little Dix.
The
second parcel of land is described as follows,
And a parcel of land known by
the name of Waters' Land belonging to Mrs Ann Hackett eastwards bounding with a
path known by the name of Shoal Bay Path.
Quite how the Governor comes to be giving
away a parcel of land belonging to someone else, Ann Hackett, is not
certain. The possibility is that, as was
usual at that time, Mrs Hackett and her husband before her were merely given a
short-term grant by the deputy governor, or occupied the land without any title
to it, as had Mr Waters. This is the likely
meaning of the expressions ‘land in the occupation of’ or ‘land possessed by’. Such persons occupied the land in question,
erecting a shack to live in, cultivated a vegetable garden, and tethered or let
loose their goats or sheep, without any formal claim of title to the land. Until someone with a better title came along,
there was no one with authority to put them off the land, save by use of force.
The patent describes the parcel as lying
to the west of the ‘Shoal Bay Path’.
This path holds special significance for Anguillians. The modern Shoal Bay Road now follows the
line of the old Amerindian path that led from Bad Cox to Shoal Bay beach. The road’s winding route indicates that it
follows the exact path worn smooth by generations of Amerindians. They walked this route from their inland
cassava plantations to their religious ceremonial site, and never-failing
source of potable water, the Fountain Cavern.
Subsequent Anguillians wore the path even smoother, rolling barrels and
carrying buckets to the spring in time of drought. The land we now know as Wattices was owned by
the long-forgotten homesteader, Mr Waters.
Who he was, and what his full name was, does not appear.
The third and final piece of land conveyed
by Governor Codrington to Edward Lake is Hazard Hill Plantation. It is described this way,
Also another parcel of land in
the Valley Division of said island known by the name of Hazard Hill running
from the headline about SSW to a parcel of land formerly belonging to Captain Richard
Huntington, bounding westwards with land which did belong to Mr John
Merryweather, eastward with John Richardson Senior.
The name of Hazard Hill is still with us,
but the memories of the former neighbours Richard Huntington and John
Merryweather are not preserved in the landscape. We saw John Mereweather as a member of
Abraham Howell’s first Council of 1672, but he disappears from the records after
that date. John Richardson Sr was one of
the first Anguillians. He was probably a
brother of Richard Richardson Sr, of Abraham Howell’s first Council, the father
of Richard Richardson Jr, ‘Little Dick’, after whom the neighbouring Little Dix
Village is named. Another John
Richardson, probably the son, was to become Anguilla’s third deputy governor in
1735. He remained in office until his
death in 1741.
On 17 April 1704 Governor Codrington
granted another patent to land in Spring Division in Anguilla. This patent was for several parcels and was
in favour of Bezaliel Rogers. It begins,
St. Christophers
Anne, By the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and
Ireland, Queen and Sovereign Lady of all her Ma’ties plantations and Colonies,
Defender of the Faith, etc.
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye that we of our especial grace certain
knowledge and mere motion, with the advice and consent of our trusty and well
beloved, Christopher Codrington, Captain General and Governor in Chief of all our
Leeward Caribbee Islands in America, that we may give all due encouragement for
settling our island of Anguilla in order to preserve its Sovereignty over that,
and the rest of the neighbouring islands, commonly called the Virgin Islands,
have given, granted and confirmed, and by these presents for us our heirs and
successors, do give you and confirm unto our trusty and well beloved subject
Bezaliel Rogers, of the said island, and to his heirs and assigns forever, the
several pieces or parcels of land hereafter mentioned,
No purchase price is mentioned, but we can be sure that Codrington was
not making this grant freely and out of concern solely for the settling of
Anguilla. Rogers paid a healthy price
for the grants about to be made to him.
This was how a Governor was expected to earn his living out of his
appointment.
The first parcel lay to the west of Great Sile Bay Pond and ran to the
west of the Savanna estate, southward to the Sprat Hole, the location of which
is not known, and bound on the south by the sea. The second smaller parcel lay to the east of
Chalvilles. A third small parcel, also
in Spring Division, lay to the south of land owned by Captain Abraham
Howell. A fourth small parcel in the
same Division was bound on the south with the old Common Path, which is
probably now the island main road. A
fifth parcel of land was bound on the north with land of Cornelius Murphy known
as Island Harbour and on the south by a path known as the Old Goat Ground
Path. A fifth parcel was known as French
Man’s Ground and was bound on the east with Savanna Bay.[8] Bezaliel Rogers was no newcomer to
Anguilla. He was a wealthy man by
Anguillian standards, and all the above parcels either bordered or lay near to
his already extensive holdings.
There is one other very early land title
worth looking at this point. By this
1708 deed Abraham Howell sells a small parcel of land to David Derrick. It is significant as being the earliest
preserved land title document in Anguilla that is written in the conventional
language of a deed of conveyance. Up to
this point we have seen ‘certificates’, ‘grants’ and ‘patents’. This is the first true deed of conveyance. In it, Abraham Howell explains how he comes
to claim the land as his own. It is as
strange a tale of expropriation and oppression as one can imagine. It reads,
Anguilla. Know all men by these presents that I,
Abraham Howell, of the said Island in the year 1696 did take out a patent for a
parcel of land known by the name of Valentine Blake which plantation is bounded
on the [north] by the land which Mr Thomas Bushel was formerly in possession of
and now in the possession of Samuel Floyd, and finding a parcel of land between
said Blake's and Bushel which was formerly in the possession of Lieutenant
Thorn [ . . . ] now deceased, and the deceased's sons laying claim to said
land, but caring nothing of a right to appear, so that said land doth wholly and
properly belong to myself in case no other person for the time to come doth not
bring any right to appear for said land which shall contradict the right which
is claimed by the deceased Leo and Thomas Derrick's sons, then I the above
named Abraham Howell in consideration of the sum of one pound four shillings
current money of this island to me in hand paid by David Derrick of the said
island, planter, do by these presents sell, like as by these presents have been
bargained sold and made over, all my right title and interest of a certain
parcel of land aforesaid to be included in the bounds and limits of my
plantation, it being forty geometrical paces in breadth by information, and
bounding eastwardly with the land formerly
possessed by Mr John Merryweather
deceased now in the possession of Sam Floyd [ . . . ] him the said David
Derrick to his heirs and assigns for ever to have and to hold possess and enjoy
with all and singular the appurtenances thereto belonging or in any way
appertaining. Furthermore, I the above
named Abraham Howell by these presents bind myself my heirs and assigns never
to trouble nor molest him the said David Derrick his heirs or assigns in the
quiet occupation and possession of the said land.
In testimony whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and fixed my seal the twenty seventh day July in the year
of our Lord 1708.
Signed sealed and delivered ] (sd)
Abraham Howell (LS)
in the presence of ]
(sd) John Howell
(sd) John Armstrong
The twists and
turns in the logic of the argument in this document are difficult to
follow. Howell seems to be saying that
the parcel of land in question lies between his Valentine Blake Plantation and
the plantation of Thomas Bushell which was his northern boundary line.[9] The parcel was previously owned by Lieut Edward
Thorne.[10] Thorne was now deceased and his heirs were
laying claim to it. As we shall see in
more detail in a later chapter, Thorne was a Barbados planter and officer in
the Barbados militia. He assisted
Christopher Codrington Sr in defending the Leeward Islands in the Wars with the
French. On 30 September 1689 he evacuated
all the Anguillians to Antigua after the French set the Wild Irish upon them
for the second time the year before. It
is possible that Governor Codrington granted Thorne this lot of land in Anguilla
as a reward. That deprived Abraham
Howell of an expected fee and would not please him. As we have seen, Howell was removed from
office as deputy governor of Anguilla by Governor Codrington in the same year.
It would appear from this deed that Howell was determined not to allow
Thorne’s patent to stick. To strengthen
his claim to be able to disinherit Thorne’s heirs, he throws in the suggestion that
the heirs of Leo Derrick and Thomas Derrick also claim to own the land in
question. By this conveyance to David
Derrick, he takes on a questionable right to be able to extinguish the claim of
the heirs of Edward Thorne on the argument that they remained in Barbados after
their father’s death and did not come to Anguilla to take up the title.
We may note that
Abraham Howell claims in this conveyance to be a ‘captain’ at this time. The captaincy in question is not a naval
title. It relates to the local Anguilla
militia to which all adult men were obliged to belong for the defence of the
island in case of enemy attack. During
times of war, the senior planters commanded the local militia with the honorary
rank of captain. These honorary titles were frequently retained after peace was
declared. The deed was made while the
long Wars of Queen Ann
(1702-1713) were still raging, and the old ex-deputy governor continued to be a
captain in the island militia.
David
Derrick’s 1708 conveyance is of exceptional interest for another reason. Abraham Howell takes the opportunity of this
conveyance of Edward Thorne’s land to recite the circumstances of his
acquisition in 1696 of Valentine Blake’s Plantation. Not that, in strict conveyancing terms, that
recital has any place in a deed to an unrelated parcel of land. However, we are grateful for its inclusion
and the small window it throws on Anguillian affairs in the seventeenth
century.
Valentine
Blake appears to have owned the plantation at some unspecified time before
1700. We know nothing about Valentine
Blake except that he was dead by 1696.
It is possible that he was one of the original band of persons who came
to Anguilla with Abraham Howell in 1650.
He was in his time a major planter by Anguilla’s standards. He owned one of the most fertile plantations in
all The Valley. He died without heirs
sometime before 1696, thus enabling the deputy governor to give himself a
patent to it.
Valentine
Blake's Plantation was the original name of the present Wallblake estate in The
Valley, the most famous plantation in Anguilla.
‘Val’, then as now, is the accepted nickname for Valentine. It is not surprising that the name Valentine
Blake became shortened to ‘Val Blake’.
The evolution
of Val Blake into Wallblake occurred because of a well-known linguistic
feature.[11] The ‘unvoiced bilabial
fricative’ sound has existed for a long time in colloquial English. It is still common among the Londoners known
as Cockneys. It is widespread among
Anguillians today, especially those of Blowing Point. The sound of the unvoiced bilabial fricative
is a cross between a ‘w’ and a ‘v’. During
the nineteenth century, it was used indifferently where we would now distinguish
a ‘w’ from a ‘v’ sound. Both letters ‘w’
and ‘v’ have only recently come to enjoy clearly separate identities in
English. It is not unusual to hear persons
from Blowing Point speaking about going to ‘The Walley’, or that they feel ‘werry
well’. So, it is not surprising that
eventually, long after the original owner died and his true name forgotten, the
Anguillians pronounced the name of his plantation as ‘Wall Blake’. The name eventually came to be spelled that
way, joined together as one word.
There
is an alternative theory that a later William Blake gave his name to the
estate. The 'i' in Will is thought to
have changed to an 'a' through time and usage.
This is not a likely explanation.
Valentine Blake’s name appears repeatedly in the earliest records. No one named 'Will' Blake ever lived in
Anguilla until a William Blake[12] shows
up in passing, witnessing a document in the year 1828 for the first time. There
is no evidence that any William Blake ever owned Valentine Blake’s
Plantation. By the time that William
Blake comes into the picture, the place name Wallblake Estate featured
repeatedly in the deeds for over a century.
Most of the names that appear in the above
documents will be very familiar to Anguillians today. There are Lakes living in every quarter of the
island. Howells are now found only in St
Martin and Nevis. One comes across Floyd
occasionally, but only as a first name.
It was originally only an alternative spelling for Lloyd. Derrick and Leonard are rarely found as
surnames in Anguilla. They are more
common in Antigua, St Martin and Tortola.
Harris, Connor, Carty, Rowane, Rumney, and Harragin are common names in
Anguilla. They are now spelled Ruan,
Romney and Harrigan respectively. The
name Bryan is still found. The Romneys
to this day are concentrated in Blowing Point, where the name is still
pronounced ‘Rumney’.
The earliest list of the names of the
Anguillians that we have was the one made in 1716 by Abraham Howell. These were the men of the first and second
generation of Anguillians, ie, those born between 1650 and 1710. Howell sent the list to Governor Hamilton
who, in turn, dispatched it on to London.[13] From it, we know the names of 89
planters. We have the numbers of their
women, children and slaves, but not their names.[14] In 1716 there were 534 free persons and 820
slaves in Anguilla. Some 514 of the
latter were described as ‘working negroes’.
Only George Leonard and John Richardson possessed 30 or more
slaves. This indicates they were the
most successful planters of their day.
Those with 20 or more slaves included John Rogers, the widow Deborah
Gumbs, Bezaliel Howell, Thomas Howell, Thomas Coakley, Christopher Hodge, and Thomas
Rogers. These seven homesteaders constituted
the power elite of the second generation of Anguillians. The majority of the remaining Anguillian
slaveholders owned at most only three or four slaves. From the relatively small sizes of their
households, we can deduce that they were all still cotton planters and small-stock
keepers. They were not yet growing sugar
cane, which required more intensive labour.
Some of them were traders and smugglers, with little need for large
households.
We know very little about the life of
these early Anguillians. In the second
decade of the eighteenth century, the 1720s, Anguilla was coming to the end of a
long and severe drought. Crops failed
repeatedly, and the farmers were on the verge of starvation. Few documents written by the second
generation of the islanders have survived to tell us anything about their
lives. We must rely on the reports of
others. One visitor in the year 1707
published a 26-page pamphlet of his adventure in arriving on the island. Captain Thomas Bilton and his nine men
abandoned their sinking ship off the coast of Bermuda and took to the ship’s
boat. This was blown southwards to Long
Bay in Anguilla. Unfortunately, the
entire work consists of his log of conditions at sea on the way south from
Bermuda, a copy of his ship’s protest on reporting the loss, and a fantastical
and fictitious account of the fauna of the island taken almost verbatim from
Richard Blome.[15] The only name he mentions is a Mrs Morgan and
her two negro men who first helped them from the boat onto the beach.[16] Otherwise, there is no useful information of
conditions on the island. He wrote in
his log,[17]
Tuesday, April
21: This 24 hours fine weather. Course West, Distance 5 leagues. This morning we saw the land, and it proved
to be Anguilla, lying in the latitude of 18d: 28’. So that our boat being low in the water, and
our quadrant a little warped, we found that it was Southerly. As soon as we saw the land, we broke down our
tilt,[18]
and shipped our oars; and it was three
of the clock before we roaded in with the land;
we went to a place call’d Long-Bay, at the North North-West part of the
island, where we met with one Mr Morgan’s wife and two Negroes; they received us very kindly, took our sick
people out of the boat, and killed a young kid for us, which was a great
refreshment to us, for in one and thirty days’ time we had not had enough to
satisfy nature: we were all very greedy
of water; victuals we did not care for; but the people were so careful of us,
that they would not let us drink too much of it, for fear that we should kill
ourselves. When we got a calabash of
water to our heads, we thought it death to take it away again. We lay all night in this bay.
April 22: We went to a place, called by the name of
Old-Road [ie, The Road], where the Governor came to see us. The islanders very much bewail’d our
condition, and were ready to fight among themselves in shewing their eagerness
to welcome us to their houses: The time
that we tarried there none of them would take a farthing either for our
victuals, drink, washing, or lodging, but would have had us stay longer. When we came ashore, the gums of Mr Asting,
Mate; William Mather, George Lee, Duke Busdell, the boy Lion, and the Cook were
so swelled, that their teeth could not be seen; their skin rough, like a
grater; and so weak, that they could not stand for some time. After we came ashore, the Captain was sick
and weak, but his gums were well.
Other than effusively praising the
kindness and generosity of the Anguillians shown to his ship-wrecked men, there
is hardly any more detail in his general account, which related,
. . . at three
in the afternoon, we got our boat ashore at Long Bay, where they carried us all
up, and laid us be a well that night with a tilt over us and got us some victuals. That night they sent to the Governor, who
order’d another boat, with several men, to bring us higher up, along the
island, where he himself me us, with several of the island planters; and they
dispers’d us into the island to their houses, carrying some of us on horses,
some in hammocks, and others between two men.
They were all of them very kind to us; the worst was, we could not have
any news from other islands; this being an island of little trade, and no shipping. We were all on the mending-hand, and heard
from one another every three or four days, but generally continued very weak.
Sadly, after they were brought to Governor
Leonard at Road Bay, Bilton does not relate anything of interest about the
island and its people, other than that there was little trade and no shipping.
Governor in Chief Daniel Parke wrote about
conditions in Anguilla in a dispatch of 1709.[19] The life he described was one of extreme
poverty and hardship. It was probably no
exaggeration. He wrote,
The island kept no records
whatever and no ministerial officer, deputy secretary or Council. Indeed, there is a deputy governor, but they
regard him not. They live like wild
people without order or good government and have neither divine nor lawyer
among them. They take each other’s word
in marriage. They think themselves
Christian because they are descended from such.
But, I have got a parson to go to them lately out of charity to make
Christians out of them.
The parson in question clearly did not
expect a rich living in Anguilla.[20] The hard life that Governor Parke described
was not to improve for almost another 300 years.
Similar conditions were described by Governor
in Chief John Hart eighteen years later in 1724 when he reports on an
examination he made of the islands under his command including Anguilla.[21] Anguilla was at this time administratively considered
a part of the Virgin Islands, so that his general comments about the Virgin
Islands apply equally to Anguilla. He
wrote,
The first island that I visited
was Anguilla, which I found to be a poor and barren place, and the inhabitants
in their houses, clothing and diet bore all the marks of poverty. Nor is it capable of any further improvement.
The like may be said of Spanish Town.[22]
And upon enquiring how they
first came to settle these miserable islands I found that the first inhabitants
were such as had fled from Barbados and the greater islands of this government
for debt or to avoid the punishment for their crimes, and have since been
increased by pirates who have come in upon Acts of Grace and are married and
settled there, whose posterity not knowing the world, remain there and
cultivate the ground for a wretched subsistence; and yet on my arrival amongst
them I found a very fierce contention for property, and they having no form of
justice, I appointed six Justices of the Peace, a Secretary and Provost
Marshal, and have given some Commissions to Officers of the Militia to put them
under some military discipline.
Although I could get no
positive proof that the inhabitants of these Virgin Islands (especially at
Tortola and Spanish Town) aid and assists the pirates who frequently come
amongst them, yet there is a strong presumption that they hold correspondence
with them and furnish them with provisions, which I shall endeavour to prevent
in the future.
This is one of the most important sources
of social conditions in Anguilla in the early eighteenth century. There being no surviving Anguillian diaries
or journals, we must mainly rely on these official reports to London. If Governor Hart is accurately reporting what
the Anguillians told him about how they came to be in Anguilla, we see that
they were emigrants from Barbados and the other major islands of the
government, ie, Antigua and St Kitts.
They were either running away from their debts or to avoid punishment
for their crimes. You may well think
that the more recent immigrants to Anguilla continue to fall in this
description. Some of the earliest small
farmers were ex-pirates who had been amnestied under the laws called “Acts of
Grace”. All these types had married
Anguillian women and settled into the community. This, too, is not a development unfamiliar to
us in Anguilla today.
We will see in later Chapters how the long
drought of 1680-1725 caused the Anguillians to seek desperate solutions. Some abandoned Anguilla and the British
islands to become Danes in St Croix[23]
or French in St Martin. Others attempted
to take Crab Island away from the Spanish in Puerto Rico and the Danes of St Thomas,
both of whom claimed it.[24]
We end with the Quakers. The Quakers, or ‘Religious Society of Friends’
as they called themselves, were a fundamentalist Christian sect. They were prominent in Anguilla during the
period 1700-1735. They were persecuted
in England during this period. Large
numbers of them sought refuge both on the mainland and island colonies in the
Americas. We know a little about those
of them who came to Anguilla thanks to the writings of the Quaker missionary, Thomas
Chalkley (1675-1741). He was a trader
who on his visits to the West Indies preached at Quaker meetings. In his memoirs, first published in 1751, but
written many years before, he gave an account of his several visits to the
island and his interaction with the inhabitants.[25] His first visit was in 1707. He died at Tortola in 1741 on his fourth and
final visit to the Virgin Islands. He
described how on his 1707 voyage he visited Quaker meetings in Barbados,
Antigua, Montserrat and Nevis. He
continued,
We sailed to an island called
Anguilla, and were civilly treated there by the generality of the people; as
also by the governor, George Leonard, at whose house we had meetings. I remember that after one meeting the
governor went into his porch, and took the bible and opened it, and said, “By
this book, if people believe the holy Scriptures, I am able to convince the
world, and prove, that the people called Quakers are the people of God, and
that they follow the example and doctrine of Christ, and the practices of the
Apostles and primitive Christians, nearer than any people in the world;” ie,
generally speaking.
At this island several people
were heartily convinced, and confessed to the truth, among whom a meeting was
settled. Here was never a Friend before,
as the inhabitants said. I entreat the
Lord Jehovah to preserve the sincere-hearted among them in his holy fear whiles
they remain in this world; and not them only, but all that love and fear him,
in all kindreds and nations, and amongst people of all professions
whatsoever. This in the universal spirit
of God’s love, is the desire of my soul.
From Anguilla we went to Nevis, and to Antigua.
Chalkley did not return to Anguilla for
another twenty-three years, until the year 1730. He wrote then,
This voyage we were on our
passage about thirty-three days before we arrived at Barbadoes, when after
doing my business, and visiting Friends’ meetings about five weeks, we put to
sea on the 10th of the twelfth month, and sailed along to leeward of divers
islands, till we came to Anguilla, where we landed in expectation to get salt,
but at this time there was not any to be had there. We came to an anchor here in the night,
hoping to get to a harbour before it was dark;
but it soon being very dark, and coming into shoal water, we saw a large
rock, and came to by the side of it, in about five or six fathom water, taking it
to be a ship, and when it was day we saw our mistake, and that instead of a
vessel, we were too nigh a rock, and the wind coming about, tailed our ship
towards it so near, that we were sensible of touching twice. I ordered the men to heave a little farther
ahead and so we lay clear till morning.
When morning came, of which we were glad, several boats, with a cable,
came to us, and the people advised us to put a spring on our cable, and cut it,
that she might cast the right way, which accordingly we did, and it had the
desired effect, so that we soon got into a very fine harbour, it being about a
mile off. Many thanks were given by many
of the people for this deliverance to the Almighty. George Leonard, the governor of this island,
heard in the morning that a vessel was on the rocks, and the people were
running with saws and axes in order to break her up, if she could be got
off. The governor seeing them, sent a
lieutenant with orders that, let her belong to what nation soever, they should
help to get or off, if it could be, and if she was likely to be made a wreck,
he charged them at their peril not to meddle with her, nor any thing belonging
to her, until they had first come to terms with the master, which is worthy to
be recorded.
We stayed several days before
we could get our anchor, for after we were in the harbour, it blew very hard
for four or five days, so that with our four oars we could not row our boat
ahead, but watching for a calm one night, our people went out and got it, and
then we went to the principal road or harbour in the island, called Croaker’s
Bay, the name of that we came from was Rendezvous-bay, where lived a very kind
friend of ours named John Rumney, who, with his wife and family, treated us
with great love, and courteously received us into their house, and he went with
me to the governor’s, who was my old acquaintance and friend, who, with much
love and tenderness, when he knew me, took me in his arms, and embraced me, and
lovingly saluted me with a kiss of charity, and thanked God for our deliverance
and that he had lived to see me once more, (I having been there some years
before). He was seventy odd years of
age, as I remember, and had eighty odd who called him father, they living much on
roots and pulse, are very healthy in this island. I was there nine days, and had seven meetings
with the people. The longer I stayed the
larger the meetings were, so that I had some difficulty to leave them. Through the grace and gift of God I was
helped to preach the gospel of Christ freely, and they received it both freely
and thankfully, divers, if not all; for
their hearts and mine were very open one to another, the holy Lord’s name be
praised forever.
The 3rd of the first month Ezra
Worthington died, and the 4th in the afternoon, he was buried on the plantation
of John Rumney, near his house. The
governor and his son-in-law were at the burial, where I told them that he was
an inoffensive, innocent, sober young man, and that death was to be the end of
us here, putting them in mind to remember their latter end. After I had done speaking, the governor said
that death was a debt due to nature, and that we must all pay it, and blessed
is the man that in time truly prepares for it.
This was a good expression for a man in his post, and worthy of my
notice, as I thought.
I was at one meeting, where was
the governor and his daughter, with divers of the best and soberest people of
this island. It was a satisfactory
meeting, which ended in prayer. And,
when I arose from my knees I found the governor on one side, and his daughter
on the other side of me, both on their knees, a posture in which people are too
seldom found in this degenerate age of the world.
On the 10th of the first month,
we departed from the island of Anguilla, with a pleasant gale, and had fair
weather and winds for several days.
Chalkley’s writing is a pious work, and
consequently of limited interest as a source of social information. It remains, however, one of the few
narratives that have survived to describe any activity of these early
Anguillians and is fascinating for that reason alone. Governor Walter Hamilton reported to London
eleven years earlier in 1719 as the long drought was at its height that deputy
governor George Leonard and several Anguillians emigrated to Antigua.[26] It is evident that, once conditions in
Anguilla improved with the lifting of the long drought, Leonard and,
presumably, the other propertied Anguillians who had moved to Antigua with him,
began again to reside at least part of the year in Anguilla.
Three years after his departure in January
1731, Chalkley visited Anguilla for the third and final time. He again found George Leonard at his home in
Anguilla when he landed. He described
his arrival in early February 1734 with these words,
From St Christopher we set sail
for the island of Anguilla, and had a meeting at the governor’s house on the
first day. We stayed at Anguilla three
days, and there took on board some bags of cotton on freight, and sailed from thence
the 10th of the second month. The
governor of the island, whose name was George Leonard, told me that he should
live and die in our principles, saving that he must defend his people. But, he did not consider that his defence
might destroy both him and them, and that such defence was directly contrary to
Christ’s doctrine and practice.
A remarkable and dismal passage
he related to me, that, some days before, a vessel came from the island of
Saltitudas, (which went there to take in salt) the people going on shore. The master told him that there lay at the
landing the heads of above twenty men on one side of the path, and the quarters
of them on the other, which so surprised them, that they made the best of their
way to Anguilla, where they related this dismal story, and supposed the slain
to be Britons, by their appearances, and that they were destroyed by the
Spaniards, who are known to be cruel to them.
The Saltitudas island referred to is
uncertain. It may be the small Salt
Island near to Tortola where for many years until recently a salt picking
industry was carried on. Salt was a valuable
product in the days before refrigeration when meat, particularly turtle meat,
would be salted and preserved in large quantities for the use of the sailors on
board ship in the crossing of the Atlantic.
Thomas Chalkley died the following year at
Tortola. He was on his way to Anguilla
when he contracted a fatal fever and passed away. Over the following years, most of his Quaker
converts left Anguilla and moved to Tortola, then a thriving Quaker
community. Eventually, most of them
disappeared, emigrating presumably to Pennsylvania, the centre of Quaker
practice in the Americas.
[1] See Chapter 4: The First Generation.
[2] By comparison, the first patent granted in
New York went to Killian Van Rensselaer.
It was dated 1630. This
advantageous form of land title continued to be used in the USA after the
Revolution. They then became re-titled
as ‘land patents’: http://www.truth.tc/information/HistoryOfTheLandPatent.html.
[3] Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana,
Volume II (London: Mitchell Hughes) page 4.
[5] ie, Mary Ruan.
[6] Anguilla Archives: David Derrick’s 1752
deed to Little Dick’s Plantation.
[7] The Roberts Estate at North Hill
subsequently became Owen land when Sara Roberts married John Owen, and, unlike
her, her brothers died childless.
[8] This patent is preserved in the Anguilla
Record of Deeds, 1792-1803, kept in the St Kitts Archives in Basseterre, and
transcribed in 2005 by Heather Nielson.
[9] Bushell, we know from Governor Stapleton,
was a member of Howell’s Council in 1680. See Chapter 4: The First
Generation.
[10] Lieutenant Edward Thorne was an officer in
the Barbados militia that came to the aid of the Leeward Islands during the
Anglo-French War of 1688-1697. We shall see more of him in Chapter 6: War
and the Settlers. A lieutenant was a gentleman’s commissioned rank. It fell
between a captain and an ensign, which was the lowest commissioned rank. An
ensign was followed by the non-commissioned ranks of sergeant, corporal and
private.
[12] The
Blakes are a large Irish-West Indian family. Their roots lay in Montserrat and
St Kitts from the earliest years of the settlement. The family name survives in those islands to
the present day, though it has long died out in Anguilla.
[13] CO.152/11, No 56:
Hamilton to the Committee on 3 October 1716, enclosure: The 1716 List of the
Inhabitants of Anguilla.
[14] Chapter 10: Crab Island Revisited.
[15] Richard Blome, A Description of
the Island of Jamaica; With the other Isles and Territories in America.
(London, 1672).
[16] Probably the wife of the John Morgan listed
as married with four children and three slaves in the 1716 census of Anguilla
examined in Chapter 10.
[17] Thomas Bilton, Captain
Bilton’s Journal of his Unfortunate Voyage from Lisbon to Virginia in the Year
1707. (London, 1715),
[19] Cited by Bryan Dyde, Out of the Crowded
Vagueness (2005).
[20] This
may be the Parson Nelson whom we have previously seen George MacDonnah
describing as the first parson of Anguilla. Parson Nelson taught school during
the Wars of Queen Ann at the little church on the Glebe Land at The Valley,
where St Mary's Anglican Church now stands.
See Chapter 4: The First Generation.
[21] CO.152/14, folio 302: Hart to the Committee
on 12 July 1724.
[22] The early name for Virgin Gorda.
[23] See Chapter 15: The Settlement of St
Croix.
[24] See Chapter 9: The Lure of Crab.
[25] Thomas Chalkley, The Journal of Thomas
Chalkley (1751).
[26] CO.152/12.4, No 155: Hamilton
to the Commissioners on 20.7.1719 with answers to their queries of 8.8.1718.
