15. The Planter at War: Codrington in the Leeward Islands
‘[These colonies’] whole past history’: quoted in Ragatz, | |
a number of French inhabitants joined in the ‘burning and ravaging’: | |
‘of great estate here and in Barbados’: Johnson to Lords of Trade, 15 July 1689, ibid., no. 256. | |
‘so good is the spirit of the garrison’: ibid., no. 312. | |
‘We are not unprofitable appendages to the Crown … turn our mourning into joy’: 31 July 1689, ibid., no. 312. | |
he knew enough about the self-interest of planters … the value of their own sugar crop: ibid., no. 789. | |
‘most turbulent and ungovernable’: ibid., nos. 548, 789. | |
‘We are greatly discouraged by the long neglect of us at home’: ibid | |
‘I have inspected the muskets and think them as bad as ever came to these parts’: 4 June 1690, ibid | |
‘fittest for marching and accustomed to rugged paths’: ibid | |
‘they have a grievance against you, and doubtless hope for revenge’: 18 February, 1690, ibid | |
‘an almost inaccessible hill … forced to use our Hands as well as our Feet in climbing up’: Spencer, | |
‘pulling themselves forward by the bushes’: | |
‘made all the heels they could’: ibid. | |
‘Liquors’ be ‘secured in a convenient storehouse’: Spencer, | |
On 4 July, Codrington reported to London that morale in his force was excellent: | |
‘riddling the houses like sieves’: ibid | |
‘The King and Queen’s healths were drank’: Spencer, | |
‘disbursed large sums for the public service’: | |
10 acres apiece so as to guarantee an adequate white militia and ‘middle class’: ibid | |
He had been too kind to the French, it was alleged: ibid | |
‘repaid only by murmuring and discontent’: ibid. | |
‘At the taking of St Christophers’: ibid | |
all this was carried on in sloops for whose use in the national interest Codrington promptly charged the English government nearly £5,000: ibid | |
‘run off in distraction at midnight’: ibid | |
‘in consequence of the heavy complaint against him’: ibid | |
‘All turns on mastery of the sea’: ibid | |
a powerful French fleet had arrived at Martinique: ibid., no. 1993. | |
‘far the richest production and most shining ornament [Barbados] ever had’: quoted in Schomburgk, | |
‘Children, in these West India Islands are, from their infancy, waited upon by Numbers of Slaves’: Hughes, | |
‘No spark had walk’d up High Street bolder’: quoted in Harlow, | |
‘So early and so continued a pre-eminence’: ibid., 39. | |
‘I have always thought it very barbarous’: | |
‘his freedom & £500 at 21, he to be sent to school in England’: Oliver, | |
‘This heart ablaze, this spirit’s surging foam’: Harlow, | |
He also repeated his requests for settlers from the northern colonies for St Kitts, but it appears that few were forthcoming: | |
He had traded illegally with the French and Dutch, even during the war, and this had continued since, it was said: PRO CO 152/2, pp.205–10. | |
‘minded nothing but plunder … From a Governour, planter, trader without breeding, word, honour, and religion, good Lord deliver us’: ibid., | |
‘the exercise of almost unlimited authority over a turbulent community turned his head’: Harlow, | |
‘we are not sensible of any mismanagement or irregularities’: PRO CO 152/2, | |
were moved to publicly chastise Codrington. |
16. The French Invasion of Jamaica
‘the enemy daily infests our coasts’: | |
‘the people were so thin and so little used to arms’: ibid., no. 1236. | |
‘in a very mean habit, and with a meagre weather-beaten countenance’: Anon., | |
‘into excellent order’: ibid., 253. | |
Using pressed labour: | |
A system of beacons was established to warn of an approaching fleet, and Beeston announced: ibid., nos. 876, 1083, 1074. | |
‘coming into sight with a fresh gale’: Anon., | |
‘Some of the straggling people … they suffered the negroes to violate, and dug some out of their graves’: ibid., 255–7. | |
and paying for them out of his own pocket: | |
‘here I reckon that our misfortunes began’: ibid., no. 1946. | |
‘people die here very fast and suddenly, I know not how soon it may be my turn’: Amussen, | |
he remarried the following year to Anne Ballard, from another wealthy planter family: Howard, | |
200 per thousand of the town’s population died every year during the first decades of the eighteenth century: Burnard, ‘“The Countrie Continues Sicklie”’, 49. | |
‘Mrs Beckford has been ill but is recovered’: 15 May 1695, | |
and of his servants, only his cook survived: BL Add. Mss 28878, fol. 135. | |
‘There are so many dead that it is hard to bury them’: Burnard, ‘A Failed Settler Society’, 69. | |
that the island was still ‘at present sickly’: March 30 1702, | |
‘the mortality reigns chiefly over the new-comers’: ibid. | |
reaching 42,000 by 1700: Dunn, |
17. Codrington the Younger in the West Indies
‘A British Muse disdains’ quoted in Krise, | |
‘to endeavour to get a law restraining inhuman severities’: | |
‘Nothing will hinder me from promoting boldly’: PRO CO 152/3, no. 23, fol. 100. | |
‘a long fit of sickness’: PRO CO 152/3, no. 57. | |
purchase Dodington Hall in Gloucestershire from Samuel Codrington: Codrington papers, BL RP 2616, reel 8. | |
very fair … well furnish’d’: Davies, | |
in a house only 90 by 16 feet, with four rooms: Dunn, | |
‘too fulsome’, addresses: 11 Jan 1701, PRO CO 152/4, no. 11. | |
‘dispatcht more business and done more justice’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 36. | |
‘universal … the very air does change him in a short time’: | |
‘for the Encouragement of poor settlers’: | |
more than 500 acres in St Mary, Antigua and done nothing with it: Dunn, | |
‘I have defended the poor against ye rich’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 36. | |
attempted to take on the endemic illegal trading: | |
‘There is so much Ignorance, laziness and Corruption’: 5 May 1701, PRO CO 152/4, no. 21. | |
‘a young gentleman of great virtue and efforts’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 46. | |
‘They are a parcell of Banditts’: Codrington to Popple, 2 March 1704, PRO CO 152/5, no. 61. | |
‘idle and vagrant fellows’: | |
‘the only Governor that I have met’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 97. | |
‘not unlike that of a Frenchman, who is as easily elevated, as soon depressed’: Beckford, | |
‘where they had washed it with rum and triumphed over it’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 73. | |
‘we have lost a very useful man in Maj. Martin’: ibid.; Higham, ‘Negro Policy’, 153. | |
‘got drunk together and grew Friends agen’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 21. | |
‘So much ye les of ye Commodity is made, and consequently ye price is rais’d’: ibid., nos. 44, 44i; | |
rumours were that the Irish were preparing to hand the island over to the French: | |
‘I have done all yt it wd. have been possible … I have been no onely General but Engineer, Serjt. and Corporall’: BL Add. Mss 34348; PRO CO 152/4, no. 30. | |
‘meet their Enemys with their Eyes open and their Swords in their hands’: PRO CO 152/4, no. 31. | |
‘had very nearly captured the General one night in a raid’: Eaden, | |
‘far more sober than are most of his nation as a rule’: ibid., 214. | |
‘My honour is much dearer to me than an employ more valuable than mine is’: June 1702, | |
‘as curious as any private one in Europe’: Codrington to Dr Charlett, 25 June 1702, quoted in Harlow, | |
‘I am so weak and spiritless’ 28 June 1702, PRO CO 152/4, 104. | |
‘Her [Majesty’s] Flag is now flying on ye French fort’: PRO CO 152/5, no.2. | |
‘plant me some fruit trees and vines at Dodington’: 30 November 1702, PRO CO 239/1, no. 3. | |
it could take Quebec and drive the French out of Canada: | |
there were hardly enough seamen fit to man the boats: ibid., no. 298. | |
‘murdered them with Drinking’: 24 February 1703, PRO CO, 7/1, no. 3. | |
The will, dated 22 February 1703: Oliver, | |
‘Negroes were equally the Workmanship of God with themselves’: Klingberg, | |
‘afflicted with terrible pains’: PRO CO 152/5, no. 48. | |
‘just when we were to reap the fruit of our hazards & fatigues’: PRO CO 152/5. | |
blamed the Creole contingent for a lack of fighting spirit: Bourne, | |
In one month the following year, out of 108 ships that left Barbados: October 1704, Oliver, | |
‘I still continue so wretchedly weak’: Harlow, | |
‘security of those Islands’: ibid., 172. | |
‘tho it be with a Muskett on my shoulder’: PRO CO 152/5, no. l70. | |
‘I may serve Her better than an another at present’: | |
‘fine appearance and handsome bearing’: | |
‘I heartily wish for Col. Park’s arrival’: | |
carrying away 600 slaves and huge quantities of sugar-making equipment. | |
The Nevis planters estimated the loss at over a million pounds sterling: |