By 1727, under an ageing and increasingly
absent deputy governor, George Leonard, government in Anguilla was at a low
stage. The settlers were essentially
left to fend for themselves without any forms of constitutional
government. The arrangement whereby
deputy governor Phips would visit Anguilla from time to time to conduct the
affairs of government hardly appears an improvement to the previous
situation. It was still essentially
absentee government with the added aggravation that the new lieutenant governor
was not a native and did not reside on the island.
There is no record of the date of George
Leonard’s appointment as deputy governor.
It is likely that he was appointed by Codrington Sr as early as
1689. He served until about 1735 in
which year he probably died. The date of his death and the place of his
burial, as with that of Abraham Howell, are not known. The uncertainty of the dates of appointment
of the two earliest Anguillian deputy governors contrasts with the certainty of
the dates of appointment of the deputy governors of the larger and richer
islands of the Leewards. The reason for
the uncertainty is that the deputy governor of Anguilla was not appointed by
the Governor in Chief under a patent which was recorded and preserved. The deputy governor of Anguilla was as we
have seen from the beginning until the end informally appointed by the
Governor. He governed by the force of
his personality and his status as the biggest estate owner on the island,
rather than by the rule of any law. This
situation lasted until 1825, when government of Anguilla was assumed by the St
Kitts Council and Assembly. From that
date, laws passed in the St Kitts Assembly applied to Anguilla. Local government ordinances were made by the
Vestry of Anguilla under the Vestry Act of the St Kitts and Anguilla Assembly. The St Kitts-appointed Magistrate chaired the
Vestry until its eventual abolition and replacement by the executive power of
the Magistrate, acting as Warden of Anguilla.
He represented the government of St Kitts in Anguilla. This unsatisfactory situation lasted until
the Anguilla Revolution of 1967 forced out the Warden and the several police
officers who represented government in Anguilla. From that date, the locally elected members
of the Anguilla Council, later the Executive Council, governed.
Leonard in his youth, like Abraham Howell,
was one of the earliest of Anguilla's long tradition of sea-going traders. The sloops that he and Abraham Howell owned
and traded through the islands were small, between two and thirty-five
tons. We know this from the weights of
the vessels recorded in Antigua as trading with Anguilla at this time. The Customs Office in Antigua was diligent in
recording the name of each vessel, its captain, its weight, where it was
registered, and its cargo. If we sift
through these lists, we can find the ships that were arriving from or departing
to Anguilla.[1] Those for the period 1704-1720 include (see
table 2):
Date
|
Vessel
|
Master
|
Burthen
|
Registered
|
General
cargo
|
1704
12 Jun
|
Sloop Rose
|
Simon Rogers
|
10 tons
|
Nevis
|
Cottonwool, hammocks
|
18 Aug
|
Sloop Recovery
|
Peter Lynch
|
15 tons
|
Antigua
|
Cotton, cocoa
|
1706
18 Jan
|
Sloop Merit
|
Charles Keagan
|
8 tons
|
Antigua
|
Livestock
|
24 Jan
|
Sloop Lark
|
Samuel Skinner
|
35 tons
|
Bermuda
|
Coconuts
|
1707
22 Sep
|
Sloop Great Britain
|
James Atkinson
|
15 tons
|
Antigua
|
Cotton, yams
|
31 Dec
|
Sloop Elizabeth and Mary
|
Paul Rowan
|
14 tons
|
St Christopher
|
Cotton, hammocks
|
1708
20 Jan
|
Sloop Great Britain
|
James Atkinson
|
15 tons
|
Antigua
|
Yams
|
25 Mar
|
Sloop Caesar
|
John Trott
|
28 tons
|
Antigua
|
Yams
|
4 Apr
|
Sloop Ann
|
John Kenny
|
14 tons
|
Antigua
|
Yams
|
17 May
|
Sloop Content
|
R Richardson
|
10 tons
|
Antigua
|
Yams, livestock, hammocks
|
2 Sep
|
Sloop Content
|
R Richardson
|
10 tons
|
Antigua
|
Hammocks, livestock
|
22 Sep
|
Sloop Content
|
R Richardson
|
10 tons
|
Antigua
|
Hammocks, livestock
|
Table 2:
Antigua: An account of the imports made by sundry vessels to this island
from Anguilla between 6th June 1704 and 25 December 1715: CO.157/1.
The names of the sloop captains in table 2
that are familiar to us as being Anguillian names include Paul Ruan in 1707 and
Richard Richardson in 1708. The latter
appears again in tables 3 and 4, still captain of the sloop Content.
Date
|
Vessel
|
Master
|
Burthen
|
Registered
|
General
cargo
|
1708
7 Jan
|
Sloop Great Britain
|
James Atkinson
|
15 tons
|
Antigua
|
|
3 Mar
|
Sloop Great Britain
|
James Atkinson
|
15 tons
|
Antigua
|
|
9 Sep
|
Sloop Content
|
Richard Richardson
|
10 tons
|
Antigua
|
Table 3:
Antigua: An account of the ladings of what vessels were in the several
harbours of this island [bound for Anguilla] from 25 December 1707 to 25
September 1708: CO.157/1.
Date
|
Name
|
Place
|
Master
|
Burthen
|
Registered
|
Cargo
|
1712
26 Oct
|
Sloop Sea Flower
|
Anguilla
|
John Downing
|
2 tons
0 guns, 4 men
|
Nevis
|
Cotton, stock, hammocks
|
15 Nov
|
Sloop Sea Flower
|
Anguilla
|
William Downing
|
2 tons
0 guns, 4 men
|
Nevis
|
Hammocks, turtle
|
5 Dec
|
Sloop Elizabeth and Ann
|
Antigua
|
John Kenny
|
15 tons
0 guns 6 men
|
Antigua
|
Livestock
|
1713
16 March
|
Two Mast Sloop Sea Flower
|
Anguilla
|
Hugh Fleming
|
5 tons
0 guns, 9 men
|
Nevis
|
Livestock, hammocks
|
1714
11 May
|
Sloop Susanna and Mary
|
Anguilla
|
William Downing
|
5 tons
0 guns, 5 men
|
Antigua
|
Hammocks, livestock, tobacco
|
6 Jul
|
Sloop Sea Flower
|
Anguilla
|
William Beal
|
2 tons
0 guns, 3 men
|
Nevis
|
Hammocks, livestock
|
1715
4 Jul
|
Sloop Elizabeth and Sarah
|
Anguilla
|
John Downing
|
5 tons
0 guns, 4 men
|
Nevis
|
Hammocks, livestock
|
7 Jul
|
Sloop Content
|
Antigua
|
Florentius Cox
|
10 tons
0 guns, 5 men
|
Antigua
|
Hammocks
|
17 Oct
|
Sloop Mary
|
Anguilla
|
Thomas Hodge
|
5 tons, 0 guns, 5 men
|
Nevis
|
Provisions, hammocks
|
Table 4:
Antigua: Account of the ladings of what vessels have arrived to this
island together with their numbers of men and guns [from Anguilla] from 1st
November 1712 to 25th December 1715: CO.157/1.
Table 4 provides us with the Anguillian
names of John Downing, William Downing, Hugh Fleming, and Thomas Hodge. Their cargos included cotton-wool, hammocks,
coconuts and yams.[2]
Table 5 is a list of cargoless boats
manifested out of Anguilla and bound for Antigua in the years 1718 to 1720.
Date
cleared
|
Name
|
Of what
place
|
Tons
|
From
|
Captain
|
Quality
|
1718
18 Jun
|
Defyance
|
Antigua
|
3 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Noah
|
Two-masted boat
|
1719
27 Jun
|
Dolphin
|
Antigua
|
9 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Jenkins
|
boat
|
3 Jul
|
Defyance
|
Antigua
|
3 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Noah
|
|
6 Oct
|
Defyance
|
Antigua
|
3 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
Francis Kegenor
|
Sloop
|
11 Oct
|
Hopewell
|
Anguilla
|
6 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
William Beal
|
boat
|
15 Oct
|
Hopewell
|
Anguilla
|
6 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
William Beal
|
Sloop
|
13 Nov
|
Phoenix
|
Anguilla
|
5 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Norton
|
Sloop
|
26 Dec
|
Defyance
|
Antigua
|
3 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Thompson
|
boat
|
1720
5 Jan
|
Defyance
|
Antigua
|
3 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Thompson
|
boat
|
8 Jan
|
Eagle
|
Antigua
|
8 tons, 0 guns
|
Anguilla
|
John Thompson
|
boat
|
Table 5: Antigua: A list of all ships and
vessels that have cleared at the Naval Office in His Majesty's Island of
Antigua [bound for Anguilla] from 25th March 1718 to 25th March 1720: CO.157/1.
In his youth, George Leonard carried
similar freight in his sloop. Turtle
meat for local consumption and for preserving for the crossing of the Atlantic,
hardwood stakes for fencing, and dressed and undressed lumber and dyewoods
would occasionally appear in his freight.
Much-needed Dutch-made goods, ie, clothing and crockery, and general
hardware and other dry goods, were smuggled from the Dutch and Danish islands
to the French and English islands around Anguilla. Leonard knew all the bays and reefs of all
the islands about. He acted as pilot to
Royal Navy ships in the waters around.
Codrington was able to say of him that he was the best pilot in all the
islands.
We have the record of only one of
Leonard's escapades from the early period when he was at the peak of his
prowess.[3] We learn the details when deputy governor James
Norton of St Kitts was tried in disciplinary proceedings before Governor
Codrington Jr and the Council at Old Road in 1700 and dismissed from office.
From the transcript of the trial, we learn
that Norton forced Philip Leonard, George Leonard's brother, into indentured
service on his sugar estate in St Kitts.
Philip Leonard endured the usual conditions of near slavery involved in
indentured servitude. His evidence at
the trial was that Norton forced him to work in the fields as a slave, almost
naked and half-starved. Once or twice a
week he was tied to the pillory and whipped.
Norton caused pickle of beef brine to be put on his whip marks and sores
to add to the torture. Eventually,
George Leonard was able to purchase his release, but not on amicable
terms. On a later date, deputy governor
Leonard visited St Kitts to make his report to the Governor in Chief on the
state of his Government in Anguilla. On his
leaving, Norton jeered at him for running away from him. When he answered that other business called
him home, Norton swore at him and struck him on his side with his cane. Norton threatened to run him through with his
sword, cut off his ears and send him home.
These threats and assault were Norton's
undoing. On Leonard’s complaint, Codrington
and his senior members of council brought legal proceedings against Norton. The council took evidence from George and
Philip concerning the incident. Norton testified
in his defence and was represented by counsel.
But he was convicted and removed from his office. The relevant extracts from the transcript of
evidence make interesting reading.
1. An extract from the testimony of deputy
governor George Leonard in the trial of deputy governor James Norton: CO.152/4. (UK National Archives®)
St. Christophers. At a meeting of His Excellency Christopher
Codrington Esq, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's
Leeward Caribbee Islands in America, together with the Members of His Majesty's
Council of this Island at Old Road on Tuesday the tenth of December anno domini
1700
Present:
His Excellency the General
The Hon Colonel Edward Fox, Lt Governor
The Hon Colonel Roger Elrington, Lt Governor of Nevis
William Moad
John Mc Arthur
William Willott
His Excellency and Council
being sat (and Colonel Norton present) George Leonard Governor of Anguilla and
his brother appearing as witnesses against Colonel Norton were sworn to answer
the truth to such questions as His Excellency and Council should demand of
them.
Philip Leonard being upon oath declared that
Colonel Norton came on board of a frigate where he had him pressed for England
in His Majesty's service sometime past and persuaded the said Leonard not to go
to England for the cold would kill him:
upon which the said Leonard did tell the said Colonel Norton he would
give him a year's service to take him on shore which Colonel Norton said he
could not accept of, but told him he should go on shore, and he would take care
to send him to his brother (who was governor of Anguilla).
To which the said Leonard
complied, and went to Colonel Norton's house.
Afterwards the said Colonel Norton tendered to said Leonard certain
Indentures of Servitude to sign for the term of three years, which he refused
to do and thereupon the said Colonel Norton did threaten that if he refused so
to do he would break his bones, calling him bloody son of a whore, and bloody
son of a bitch upon which menacing the said Leonard did sign the said Indenture
of Servitude.
And after, he was bound he was
forced to work in the fields as a slave without any clothes, except only a [ .
. . ] shirt, a pair of drawers and a waistcoat, and for his diet only a small
bit of beef and cassava bread for four and twenty hours’ time, and once or
twice every week the said Colonel Norton did cause the said Leonard to be
whipped in the pillory till the blood came, and caused the pickle of brine to
be put on his sores.
George Leonard Governor of Anguilla being sworn declared that hearing of the
cruel usage that his brother received from Colonel Norton, he made his
application to Colonel Michael Lambert (a member of His Majesty's Council in
this Island who was then at Anguilla) desiring him to procure his brother's
discharge or releasement from Colonel Norton's service; which was accordingly
obtained from said Colonel Norton by Colonel Lambert for and in consideration
of the sum of eighteen pounds current money of this country which was
accordingly paid.
Sometime afterward, hearing of
the said Lieutenant General's arrived in these Islands he came to this Island
to pay his respects to the said Lieutenant General and to give him an account
of the posture of affairs in the government where he the said Leonard
commanded, which he having done, he took leave of His Honour the Lieutenant
General, who was pleased to give him liberty to return to his government.
And coming to the town of
Palmetto Point in order to go home, one Mr Biskott came to this deponent and
told him [ . . . ][4] this
deponent made answer he was not, but that some other occasion called him home,
upon which Colonel Norton did swear God damn him, he lied like a son of a
whore, and at the same time gave this deponent a fulch on the side with his
cane and swore he would run him through, that he would cut of his ears and send
him home, and further Colonel Norton told him this deponent Captain Perry had
sent him a message which made him follow the deponent to Basseterre, adding
withal that he had escaped a scowring, for if he had come up with him he would
have laid him down with his pistols.
Written in the margin of the above
deposition in the Colonial Office files at the National Archives at Kew Gardens
in what appears to be Codrington's own handwriting is this further comment,
made for the information of the Board of Trade:
There are one hundred men on
Anguilla. This Leonard is an honourable
old sloop man, and, being now retired to that island and having the best cotton
plantation there, was made governor by my father. He is the best pilot in all the islands and
very useful by reason of the experience he has to the King's ships in these
parts.
Many years later, in 1735, Governor William
Mathew described George Leonard as being then full four-score years old, ie, over
eighty years of age.[5] He was even then still serving as deputy
governor of Anguilla. He was born in or
shortly before the year 1655, and by 1735 was long past his prime. He was nearly 50 years old when he left the
sea to work his cotton grounds. He invested
his savings not only in Anguilla but also in land in Antigua and Tortola, in
all three of which islands he held plantations.
He is last mentioned in the surviving Anguillian records in the year
1717. From about that year he spent
increasing periods of time in Antigua.
By 1719, drought conditions in Anguilla seem to have made it impossible
for him to make a living in Anguilla. In
June 1720, Governor Walter Hamilton reported that Leonard and several of the
major Anguillian planters migrated from Anguilla to Antigua.[6] The records show him living in Antigua up to
at least 1735. The likelihood is that
his children moved with him to reside in Antigua and were brought up
there. His sons and grandsons were
educated in England like the other children of the major planters of that
time. With better prospects open to them
than Anguilla could afford, the Leonard family eventually disappear from
Anguilla, some to reside in Antigua and others in St Martin and Tortola. The family name did not last for long even in
Antigua. The 1753 census of Antigua
shows several Anguillian names recorded as residing in that island (see table
6).[7]
Family
|
Men
|
Women
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Catherine Carty
|
1
|
|||
Margaret Carty
|
1
|
|||
Samuel Carty
|
1
|
|||
James Coakley
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
Lucy Gibbons
|
1
|
1
|
||
Dr John Richardson
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Mary Roberts
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
George Roberts
|
1
|
|||
Edward Welch
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
James Welch
|
1
|
|||
Richard Welch
|
1
|
Table 6.
An extract from the List of the inhabitants of Antigua, 1753: CO.152/27.
Table 6 indicates that by the 1750s,
there were no Leonards in Antigua. The
likelihood is that by that date they emigrated to more promising lands. Leonard, like Howell before him, gave many
years of service in the undoubtedly unprofitable and burdensome position as
deputy governor of Anguilla. Howell appears
to have spent all his years in Anguilla.
Leonard alternated residence between Anguilla, Tortola and Antigua. The likelihood is that he died in one of
those three islands in about 1735, as in that year John Richardson replaced him
as deputy governor.
Absentee governorship was not conducive to
good government. As a practising Quaker,
opposed to the use of violence in any form, Leonard was entirely unsuited to be
deputy governor of Anguilla in this perilous time. Nor would Leonard's advancing age have made
government of Anguilla any easier. In
1727, as we have seen, the government of the Virgin Islands and Anguilla was
placed under Francis Phips, a planter of St Kitts, to control the unruly
settlers, though Leonard does not seem to have been officially removed. If as is likely he had never been officially
appointed, there may well have been no need to officially remove him from
office.
There was still no Assembly elected to
make laws for Anguilla.[8] In the absence of an Assembly to enact laws
for good government, as in the other islands, a deputy governor of Anguilla
needs must rely on his personal standing in the local community, not to mention
his physical prowess, to maintain his authority. As Governor John Hart wrote in 1724 of the
deputy governor of Anguilla, “If his cudgel happens to be one whit less than
a sturdy subject’s, good night, Governor.”[9]
Ten years later, in 1734, the system of
government was not improved. Governor
William Mathew again used a familiar metaphor when writing of the island.[10] He obviously read the earlier correspondence. He wrote,
I know not what to do with
the inhabitants of Anguilla . . . They live like so many bandits, in open
defiance of the laws of God and man . . . As for being under government, they
are out of all notion of that. From time
to time deputy governors from among themselves have been appointed by His
Majesty’s Chief Governor of these islands, but they have no authority over them
but what they are able to enforce with a cudgel. He that is at Anguilla now writes that he
cannot nor will not continue such among such reprobates any longer.
We know from Thomas Chalkley that the
deputy governor in question was George Leonard.
Despite the appointment of the Kittitian Francis Phips by Governor Hart
in 1724 to supervise the deputy governors of the Virgin Islands, he was still
the deputy governor of Anguilla. We know
from the appointment of John Richardson to succeed him in 1735 that George
Leonard must have died shortly after Governor Mathew wrote this dispatch.
To summarise, in their administration of
the Leeward Islands, each deputy governor was, at least in theory, assisted by
a Council and an Assembly. The former
consisted of up to twelve persons, appointed by the Governor in Chief upon the
recommendation of the deputy governor.
These were invariably, according to the custom of the time, the richest
and most influential of the planters and merchants of the island. The Council advised the deputy governor in
the administration of the island and performed certain judicial functions. Individual members acted as Justice of the
Peace, took oaths, and sat in summary courts.
The whole Council sat with the deputy governor as a superior court of
sessions, with appeal lying to the Governor in Chief residing either in Nevis
or Antigua. Stapleton described the
executive power as being in the Provost Marshall, by warrant from the deputy
governor, who also signed all executions, letters of administration, probates
of wills, and licences of marriage after banns.
The planters and merchants of each parish
elected two representatives to the Assemblies.
These made local laws. Stapleton described
the Assemblies of the Leeward Islands in the 1680s as being composed of two
freeholders from each parish chosen yearly.[11] The constitutional procedure for the
enactment of law is familiar to us. It
is the system that prevails in the British Overseas Territories in the West
Indies to this day. Laws made by the
Assembly were required to be assented to by the deputy governor. He was empowered to veto such laws. These locally made laws were transmitted to
the Governor in Chief from time to time and he in turn would submit them to the
legal advisers to the Committee for Trade in England. These locally made laws remained in force
only for two years unless the Royal Asset was given. Annual sessions, at least, of the Assembly
were a necessity in the larger islands, as financial bills lasted for one year
only. Both Council and Assembly
represented chiefly the interest of the major planters, not of the white free
men, free coloureds, African slaves or small planters. None of these forms of organised government
was established in Anguilla during the early period when first Abraham Howell
and then George Leonard were deputy governors of Anguilla. Of them, as with their successors, their
ability to govern rested solely on their persuasive power and the grudging
support their people gave them.
Next:
Chapter 8 -
[2] The
hammocks were made not only for the Navy. Few of the households in Anguilla and
elsewhere in the islands in this period could afford wooden beds. Most of the poorer houses used only hammocks.
[3] CO.152/4,
No 13, folio 33: Codrington to the Committee on 14 January 1701, Enclosure: Proceedings
of the Enquiry Held on 6 December 1700.
[4] Two lines of the transcript are lost in
the binding of the copy in the Colonial Office records.
[6] CO.152/13, folio 67: Hamilton to the Committee
on 14 June 1720.
[7] CO.152/27: A List of the Inhabitants
of Antigua.
[8] The first Assembly for Anguilla was not
elected until after the Anguilla Revolution of 1967. This gives Anguilla the
distinction of being the last territory in the West Indies to which all the
trappings of government have come.
