John Tinker 1700–1758 was an early Colonial official who served the Royal African Company on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, was an Agent for the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

in Portobello, and was Royal Governor of the

Bahama Islands The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

from 1741–1758.

Early life

John Tinker was born and baptised on 30 July 1700 to parents Jeremiah and Hannah at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. His grandfather was Captain John Tinker, Master Attendant of the King’s Yard at Deptford who commanded the ''Coverdine'' during the reign of Charles II. In 1722 John served as governor of the

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle ( sv, Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, establish ...

, a trading post of the Royal African Company which traded principally in gold and slaves. In 1724 he was joined on the Gold Coast by his brother Jeremiah who was based close by at Whydah and also by Nathaniel Rice (later to be a relative). He remained there until 1726, when both Tinker and Rice returned to England.

Portobello

By 1730, Tinker had been appointed Chief of the Panama Factory at

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

for the

, where he was responsible for organising the import of slaves under the '' Asiento de Negros'' agreement reached at the 1713

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne ...

. He was in post throughout the 1730s, although it seems unlikely his family joined him in Panama as his sons were at school in England and his wife Isabella was residing in London. In 1738 it was announced that he was to be the next Governor of the Bahamas so it is likely he had left Portobello before Admiral Vernon captured it, but he was still involved in its affairs, as in 1739, when the Board of Trade was considering ways to prevent the Spanish from exporting from their silver mines in Peru and Mexico, both Tinker and his father-in-law

Martin Bladen Colonel Martin Bladen (1680–1746) was a British politician who sat in the Irish House of Commons from 1713 to 1727 and in the British House of Commons from 1715 to 1746. He was a Commissioner of the Board of Trade and Plantations, a Privy Counc ...

suggested locating a military base at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. Vernon rejected this idea as the location was too isolated and would need to be garrisoned.

The Bahamas

Tinker did not arrive in post until April 1741 and his first priority was strengthening the island’s military defences by building

Fort Montagu Fort Montagu is a small fort of four cannon on the eastern shore of New Providence Island (Nassau) Bahamas. Peter Henry Bruce oversaw the construction of the fort that began in 1741 to defend the British possession from Spanish invaders. C ...

at the entrance to Nassau Harbour, which was accomplished within the first year, and also a small battery nearby which he called Bladen's Battery (named for his son). When funds for fortifications ran low and Bahamians were taxed to raise money, he had difficulties with his Assembly. They were unhappy with the new taxation and stopped his salary and so he dissolved the Assembly. Despite these difficulties and war with Spain and France, privateers in Nassau seized enemy ships and the whole economy shared in prize money from the vessels. In fact, so many Bahamians were involved in privateering, that traditional industries like agriculture were neglected. Tinker had found it difficult to eradicate privateering or entice new settlers as the cost of living was high and the currency was in a poor state. Most of the difficulties he encountered he tended to blame on the people he governed, rather than his own ability to govern.

Freemasons

Tinker had joined the Freemasons in London in 1730 and, in 1755, he made the long journey from New Providence to Philadelphia to attend the greatest procession of Masons ever seen in America at the inauguration of a new Lodge. Tinker, along with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

and son

William Franklin William Franklin (22 February 1730 – 17 November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. William Franklin was the last colonial G ...

were at the head of a procession of 160 Masons in full regalia through the streets led by a sword bearer and which was accompanied by peals of bells and the firing of cannons from a nearby ship.

Marriage

On 6 February 1727/28 he married Isabella Bladen, the daughter of

a senior commissioner at the Board of Trade and he received a generous marriage settlement. They had two sons: Captain John Bladen Tinker (1728–1767) and Jeremiah Tinker (1730–1795). John Tinker later lived in the Bahamas separately from wife Isabella, née Bladen, who remained in London (though they were not divorced) and he had a second family in the Bahamas with Sophia Trigge (later wife of his secretary John Snow). John Tinker died on 10 July 1758 in the Bahamas.More Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies by Vere Langford Oliver

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinker, John British governors of the Bahamas 1758 deaths 1700 births People from Westminster People from New Providence