The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the
English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, e ...
, as a commercial venture. It held a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
for Bermuda until 1684, when it was dissolved, and
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
assumed responsibility for the administration of Bermuda as a
royal colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Council ...
.
Bermuda under the Virginia Company
Bermuda had been settled, inadvertently, in 1609 by the
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Main ...
when its flagship, ''
Sea Venture
''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...
'', was wrecked on the reefs to its east. The Admiral of the company,
Sir George Somers
Sir George Somers (before 24 April 1554 – 9 November 1610) was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company of London. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by ...
, was at the helm as the ship fought a storm that had broken apart
a relief fleet destined for
Jamestown, the Virginian settlement established by the Company two years earlier. Somers had deliberately driven the ship onto the reefs to prevent its foundering, thereby saving all aboard.
The settlers and seamen spent ten months in Bermuda while they built two new ships to continue the voyage to Jamestown. During the building, ''Sea Ventures longboat was fitted with a mast and sent to find Jamestown. Neither it, nor its crew, was ever seen again. When
''Deliverance'' and ''Patience'' set sail for Jamestown, they left several people behind, some to maintain Somers' claim to the islands for
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, some dead. Those aboard the two ships included
Sir Thomas Gates
Sir Thomas Gates ( fl.?–1622), was the governor of Jamestown, in the English colony of Virginia (now the Commonwealth of Virginia, part of the United States of America). His predecessor, George Percy, through inept leadership, was responsib ...
, the military commander and future governor of Jamestown,
William Strachey
William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 21 June 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter of ...
, whose account of the wrecking may later have inspired
Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
''
The Tempest'', and
John Rolfe
John Rolfe (1585 – March 1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611.
Biography
John Rolfe is believed ...
, who would found Virginia's tobacco industry, and who left a wife and child buried in Bermuda. Rolfe would find a new bride in the
Powhatan
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
princess
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
.
Jamestown, and the sixty survivors of its original five hundred settlers, were found in such a poor state that it was decided to abandon the Jamestown settlement and return everyone to England. The timely
arrival of another relief fleet under Thomas West from England granted the colony a reprieve. However, the food shortage was made more critical by the new arrivals. Somers returned to Bermuda on ''Patience'', captained by his nephew, Matthew, to gather provisions for the Jamestown colony, but died on Bermuda in 1610. Matthew Somers was keen to receive his inheritance (Sir George and his wife were childless, but had raised his two nephews), and took ''Patience'' to Somers' hometown,
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...
, and not to Virginia.
When news reached England of the adventures of ''Sea Ventures survivors, the royal charter of the Virginia Company was extended to include Bermuda on the 12th of March, 1612, at Westminster, with the archipelago granted by the Crown unto the ''Treasurer and Company of Aduenturers and Planters of the Cittie of London for the first colony in Virginia''. The new colony was officially named ''Virgineola'', although this was soon changed to ''The Somers Isles'' or ''The Somers Islands'' in honour of Sir George Somers.
A
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
, Richard Moore, arrived in 1612 with settlers, aboard ''Plough'', to join those left behind by ''Sea Venture'' and ''Patience''. The new settlers were primarily tenant farmers, who gave seven years of indentured servitude to the Company in exchange for the cost of transport. Although the primary industry was envisioned to be agriculture, the early Governors enthusiastically, if mostly unsuccessfully, attempted to develop other industries also. These included pearl diving (there are no pearls in Bermuda) and
ambergris
Ambergris ( or , la, ambra grisea, fro, ambre gris), ''ambergrease'', or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Freshly produced ambergris has a mari ...
. The first two slaves to arrive in Bermuda, one black, one Native American, were brought in for their skills as pearl divers.
Free of the endemic warfare and other hardships which plagued the continental settlement, Bermuda thrived from the beginning, though it was never to be particularly profitable for its investors. Its population quickly surpassed that of Jamestown, and consideration was given to abandoning the North American continent and evacuating its settlers to Bermuda.
Formation of the Somers Isles Company
The Virginia Company ran Bermuda until 1613, when the colony was transferred to Sir
William Wade et cetera in exchange for £2,000, who then resigned to the Crown in 1614. The Crown briefly administered the Colony directly before the adventurers (shareholders) of the Virginia Company formed a second company, the Somers Isles Company, to which Bermuda was transferred in 1615. The Virginia Company was dissolved in 1622, with the administration of its continental colony passing to
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
. The Somers Isles Company, with its separate charter, continued to administer Bermuda for another six decades.
The original Adventurers of the Somers Isles Company listed in the letters patent were essentially the same as those of the Virginia Company. Major-General Sir
John Henry Lefroy
Sir John Henry Lefroy (28 January 1817 – 11 April 1890) was an English military man and later colonial administrator who also distinguished himself with his scientific studies of the Earth's magnetism.
Biography
Lefroy was a son of the Rev ...
, Governor of Bermuda from 1871 to 1877, transcribed the list which was ordered by social rank, but commented that the original list began with Henry, Earl of Southampton:
*
Bedford, Lucie, Countess of
*
Cavendish, William, Lord
*
William, Lord Paget
*
Pembroke, William, Earl of
*
Southampton, Henrie, Earl of
*
Auger (Aucher) Sir Anthoine
*
Cranfield, Sir Lionel
*
Diggs, Sir Dudlie
* Grobham, Sir Richard
* Hide, Sir Lawrence
* Hogan, Sir Thomas
* Howard, Sir John
*
Mansell, Sir Richard (Robert)
* Mericke, Sir John
*
Rich, Sir Robert
*
Sandys, Sir Edwin
*
Sandys, Sir Samuel
* Smith, Sir Richard
*
Smith, Sir Thomas
* Watts, Sir John
*
Winwood, Sir Ralphe
* Caraway, William Esq.
* Chamberlaine, Richard Esq.
* Heydon, Jeremie Esq.
* Hide, Nicholas Esq.
* Martin, Richard Esq.
* Thorpe, George Esq.
* Walter, John Esq.
* Westenholm, John Esq.
* Wrath, John Esq.
*
Abbott, Maurice, merchant
* Abby, Anthony
* Adderlie, William
* Anthonie, Charles, goldsmith
* Banks, John, mercer
* Barnard, John
* Barkeley, George, merchant
* Baron, Christopher
* Benson, Nicholas
* Bretton, John
* Bishop, Edward
* Brainfield, Arthur
* Campage, William, merchant
* Cartwright, Abraham
* Casewell, Richard
* Chamberlaine, Abraham
* Chamberlaine, George, merchant
* Church, Thomas
* Clitherow, Christopher
* Cotton, Allen
* Conell, Thomas
* Dawes, Abraham
* De Laurie, Gideon
*
Delbridge, John
* Dike, John
* Ditchfield, Edward, salter
* Edwards, Richard
* Etheridge, George
* Exton, Nicholas
* Farrer, Nicholas, merchant
* Ffellgate, William
* Fletcher, John
* Fletcher, Edward
* Gearing, John
* Giles, Ffrancis
* Gore, Robert, merchant tailor
* Greenwell, William, merchant tailor
* Haleman, George
* Hamer, Ralphe, merchant taylor
* Harwood, Leonard
* Herne, John
*
Heyward, John, clarke
* Hinton, Anthonie, doctor of
* Hodges, John
* Jacobson, Philip
* Jadwin, Thomas
* John, Thomas
* Johnson, Robert, grocer
* Kerell, John
* Kinge, Ralphe
* Leuis, Thomas
* Lukin, Edward
* Maplesdon, Richard
* Martin, Edward
* Mercer, Richard
* Nicholls, William
* Norcott, Thomas
* Offley, Robert, merchant
* Osborn, John
* Palmer, William
* Payne, William Esquire
* Phipps, Robert
* Poulson, Richard
* Prason, Hildebrand
* Quick, William
* Rich, George
* Roberts, Elias, merchant tailor
* Rogers, Richard
* Scott, Edmon
* Scott, George
* Shepheard, Matthew
* Smith, Cleophas
* Smith, George, grocer
* Smith, Robert
* Smith, Waren
*
Speckhardie, Abraham
* Swinow, George
* Tomlins, Richard
* Tymberdale, Henry
* Wale, Thomas
* Webb, Rice, haberdasher
* Webb, Thomas
* Webster, William
* Weld, John
* Welby, William, stationer
* West, John, grocer
* Wheatley, Thomas
* Woddall, John
Bermuda as a company colony
Most of Bermuda was subdivided into eight equally sized ''tribes'', later called ''parishes''. These were named for shareholders in the Company, and were further divided (by ''tribe roads'') into lots which equated to shares in the Company. The Company's return on investment came specifically from cash crops raised on that land. A ninth subdivision, now the easternmost parish, was
Saint George's, comprising
Saint George's Island,
Saint David's Island, part of the Main Island, and various smaller islands and islets around
Castle Harbour (then known as Southampton Harbour) and
Saint George's Harbour. This area was held as ''common'', or ''King's'' land, and was not subdivided for exploitation by the Company. This was where the capital,
Saint George's Town was located. The choice of this location followed the original settlement created by ''Sea Venture'' survivors, and was also determined by the two eastern harbours being the only ones then readily accessible to shipping.
A surveyor,
Richard Norwood
Richard Norwood (1590? – 1675) was an English mathematician, diver, and surveyor. He has been called "Bermuda’s outstanding genius of the seventeenth century".
Life
Born about 1590, he was in 1616 sent out by the Somers Isles Company to surv ...
, was hired to produce a survey of the colony, which also served as a census. This was completed in 1616, although he made later updates. In the process, he discovered that the total landmass of the eight commercial parishes was greater than originally estimated. His superior,
Daniel Tucker, the
Governor of Bermuda
The Governor of Bermuda (fully the ''Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Somers Isles (alias the Islands of Bermuda)'') is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda.
For the purposes of this a ...
, appropriated a choice piece of land, equivalent to the excess, for himself.
Local government
The Company continued to appoint governors until its dissolution in 1684. In 1620, however, a colonial parliament was created, the
House of Assembly
House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level.
Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
. Suffrage was restricted to male land owners, and there was no upper house. An appointed council, composed primarily from the leading merchant families of the Colony, came to fill a role similar to both an upper house, and a cabinet, and often proved the true repository of power in Bermuda.
The immediate concern of the first governors was for the colony's protection from a feared Spanish or Dutch attack, and the building of fortifications, and the raising of
militias
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
, was sustained throughout the company's administration, and beyond. A review of the colony's defences was carried out by
Captain John Smith
John Smith (baptized 6 January 1580 – 21 June 1631) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, Admiral of New England, and author. He played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first pe ...
.
Demographics and immigration
The immigration of
European indentured servants underpinned the
Bermudian economy during the Company's administration over the island, and this source of cheap labour meant that Bermuda never adopted a
slavery-based economic system which came to characterise other
European colonies in the West Indies. Though the majority of the Bermudian population was of
English descent
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...
, a number of other ethnic groups were brought to Bermuda during the Company's administration; the first group being
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
indentured servants, with both groups primarily consisting of
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
captured during the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities united in a pers ...
(including the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland or Cromwellian war in Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell invaded Ireland wi ...
).
The second group were
Native Americans from
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
who were brought to Bermuda as
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
after being
sold into slavery in the aftermath of various conflicts in
colonial New England
The New England Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colon ...
such as the
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragans ...
and
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...
. The third group were
Africans; though a few were
free people of colour
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Na ...
from
Spanish America
Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in the Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' Spanish Empire, imperial era between 15th century, 15th ...
, the majority were imported by European slave traders as part of the
transatlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
. A rapid influx of Africans to Bermuda during the 17th century led to the white majority becoming uneasy, and resulted in the terms of indenture for African indentured servants to be raised from seven to ninety-nine years.
After the outbreak of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
(1642–1651), Bermuda remained sympathetic towards the
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
cause, perhaps due to the fact that the
shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
s of the Somers Isles Company consisted primarily of wealthy members of the
upper-class
Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...
. Despite the Royalist defeat during the conflict, Bermuda was largely spared the effects and aftermath of the
Parliamentarian victory. Supporters of the Parliamentarians in Bermuda, which like their counterparts in England were similar to the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
and anti-
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
demographic, were forced into
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
by the Company administration, becoming the
Eleutheran Adventurers
The Eleutheran Adventurers were a group of English Puritans and religious Independents who left Bermuda to settle on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas in the late 1640s. The small group of Puritan settlers, led by a man named William Sayl ...
who settled on the island of
Eleuthera
Eleuthera () refers both to a single island in the archipelagic state of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and to its associated group of smaller islands. Eleuthera forms a part of the Great Bahama Bank. The island of Eleuthera incorporates the s ...
in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
.
Economy and industry
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
remained the mainstay of the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
under the Somers Isles Company. The primary cash crop was
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, but the quantity and quality produced were very poor. The
Bermuda cedar
''Juniperus bermudiana'' is a species of juniper endemic to Bermuda. This species is most commonly known as Bermuda cedar, but is also referred to as Bermuda juniper (Bermudians refer to it simply as ''cedar''). Historically, this tree formed wo ...
boxes in which the tobacco was shipped to England were said to be worth more than their contents, and much of the tobacco was destroyed on arrival. The Colony also had little success with other export crops. Additionally, the several acres of arable land that had been cut from the forest meant that each farmer had only a very small area under cultivation, by comparison to the granted to each settler in Virginia. Bermudian farmers had to raise as many as three crops a year in order to be economically viable. This meant that they could not allow fields to lie fallow, and the soil, already high in
alkaline
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a base (chemistry), basic, ionic compound, ionic salt (chemistry), salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as ...
and low in
magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
(used by plants to form
chlorophyll
Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to a ...
), became depleted. By the 1620s, Virginia's tobacco exports were increasing, and newer English colonies in the West Indies were also emulating Bermuda by focusing on growing tobacco for export, with the result of drastically reducing the profitability of growing tobacco for Bermudian farmers. Bermudian farmers increasingly turned to growing food crops and rearing livestock, both to reduce their dependence on overpriced imports, and to sell to other colonies. This growing trade created a need for Bermudian-owned ships to deliver their exports.
Bermudians began to turn away from agriculture quite early, building boats and developing the
Bermuda sloop
The Bermuda sloop is a historical type of fore-and-aft rigged single-masted sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. Such vessels originally had gaff rigs with quadrilateral sails, but evolved to use the Bermuda rig ...
to pursue maritime trades. As the Company derived no income, except from tobacco sent to England aboard the company's magazine ships, it acted to stymie these activities. The building of vessels was banned without its license, and the first laws to protect the
Bermuda cedar
''Juniperus bermudiana'' is a species of juniper endemic to Bermuda. This species is most commonly known as Bermuda cedar, but is also referred to as Bermuda juniper (Bermudians refer to it simply as ''cedar''). Historically, this tree formed wo ...
, which were passed early in the seventeenth century, may have been intended more to restrict shipbuilding than to conserve the resource.
Civil War
By the 1630s, the company had ceased sending Governors to Bermuda and began appointing a string of prominent Bermudians, such as
William Sayle
Captain William Sayle (c. 1590–1671) was a prominent British landholder who was Governor of Bermuda in 1643 and again in 1658. As an Independent in religion and politics, and an adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he was dissatisfied with life in Ber ...
, to the role. As few Adventurers actually settled in Bermuda, with their properties instead managed by poorer relatives or tenants, the local House of Assembly was necessarily elected without a property qualification, unlike the
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...
. This meant it was far more concerned with the interests of the islanders, rather than the Adventurers in England. By the mid-17th century, with tobacco exports failing, many Adventurers in England eagerly cut their losses by selling their shares to the tenants who occupied. Bermudians quickly became the majority of landowners, but the Adventurers who remained in England maintained control of the company by barring any shareholder who did not personally attend meetings in England from the decision-making process. Many of those English shareholders belonged to the
gentry
Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past.
Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies
''Gentry'', in its widest ...
and anti-
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
sects within the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, and sided with the
Parliamentarians during the 1642–1651
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. Given the increasingly hostile relationship between Bermudians and the company, the majority of Bermudians sided with the Crown. With control of the military forces in Bermuda as well as the Assembly, the Royalists deposed the Company appointed Governor, Captain Thomas Turner, and elected John Trimigham in his stead. The colony's Independents, who sided with Parliament, were forced into exile, settling the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
under the Cromwell-loyalist
William Sayle
Captain William Sayle (c. 1590–1671) was a prominent British landholder who was Governor of Bermuda in 1643 and again in 1658. As an Independent in religion and politics, and an adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he was dissatisfied with life in Ber ...
as the
Eleutheran Adventurers
The Eleutheran Adventurers were a group of English Puritans and religious Independents who left Bermuda to settle on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas in the late 1640s. The small group of Puritan settlers, led by a man named William Sayl ...
.
The response of Parliament to what was characterised as the rebellion of Bermuda (and of other colonies, particularly Virginia,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
, and
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
) was the passage of
in October, 1650. This called for ''due punishment
o be
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
inflicted upon the said Delinquents, do Declare all and every the said persons in Barbada's, Antego, Bermuda's and Virginia, that have contrived, abetted, aided or assisted those horrid Rebellions, or have since willingly joyned with them, to be notorious Robbers and Traitors, and such as by the Law of Nations are not to be permitted any maner of Commerce or Traffique with any people whatsoever; and do forbid to all maner of persons, Foreiners, and others, all maner of Commerce, Traffique and Correspondency whatsoever, to be used or held with the said Rebels in the Barbada's, Bermuda's, Virginia and Antego, or either of them.''
Parliamentary privateers were authorised to act against English vessels trading with these colonies: Parliament made preparations to invade the Royalist colonies, but the outbreak of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between Kingdom of England, England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas a ...
in 1651 was to engulf the British West Indies in war with France and Holland. A thousand miles distant, Bermuda was untouched by that war and reached a compromise with Parliament.
With the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, Bermudians found they had a powerful ally in the Crown, which had its own interest in wresting control of the English Empire from corporations like the Somers Isles Company.
Revocation of charter and dissolution
It was worsening interference by the Company into the livelihoods of the islanders which led to its dissolution. A protest to the Crown resulting initially from the treatment of
Perient Trott and his heirs, but expanding to include the company's wider mismanagement of the colony, was directed to the Crown. This led to a lengthy court case in which the Crown championed Bermudians against the company. This resulted in the company's Royal Charter being revoked in 1684, and from then on the Crown assumed responsibility for appointing the Colony's governors (it first re-appointed the last company governor). Freed of the company's restraints, the local merchant class came to dominate and shape Bermuda's progress, as Bermudians abandoned agriculture en masse and turned to the sea.
See also
*
History of Bermuda
Bermuda was first documented by a European in 1503 by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez. In 1609, the English Virginia Company, which had established Jamestown in Virginia two years earlier, permanently settled Bermuda in the aftermath of a hu ...
*
History of Virginia
The written History of Virginia begins with documentation by the first Spanish explorers to reach the area in the 1500s, when it was occupied chiefly by Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan peoples. In 1607, English colonization began in Virginia ...
*
Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was ...
*
List of trading companies
A trading company is a business that works with different kinds of products sold for consumer, business purposes. In contemporary times, trading companies buy a specialized range of products, shopkeeper them, and coordinate delivery of products t ...
*
Virginia Company of London
The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N.
History Origins
The territor ...
*
Sea Venture
''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...
*
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Main ...
References
External links
* Roots We
Richard Norwood’s Survey of the Land and Landholder’s of Bermuda
* Bermuda Yellow Page
* Dan Byrnes. Co
{{Chartered companies, state=collapsed
History of Bermuda
Colony of Virginia
English colonization of the Americas
Chartered companies
Trading companies of England
Companies established in 1615
1615 establishments in the British Empire
1615 establishments in North America
1610s establishments in Virginia
Companies disestablished in the 1680s
1684 disestablishments in the British Empire
1684 disestablishments in North America
British North America
Economy of Stuart England
Trading companies established in the 17th century