Philip Bell (19 June 1590 – 3 March 1678) was Governor of
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 ...
from 1626 to 1629, of the
Providence Island colony
The Providence Island colony was established in 1630 by English Puritans on what is now the Departments of Colombia, Colombian Department of Archipelago_of_San_Andrés,_Providencia_and_Santa_Catalina, San Andrés and Providencia ...
from 1629 to 1636, and of
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). ...
from 1640 to 1650 during 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 ...
.
During his terms of office in Providence and Barbados, the colonies moved from using indentured English workers to slaves imported from West Africa.
The Providence Island colony, despite its
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 ...
ideals, became a haven for privateers attacking ships in the
Spanish Main
During the Spanish colonization of America, the Spanish Main was the collective term for the parts of the Spanish Empire that were on the mainland of the Americas and had coastlines on the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico. The term was used to di ...
.
Early years
![Beaupre Hall Outwell Norfolk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Beaupre_Hall_Outwell_Norfolk.jpg)
Philip Bell came from the family of Sir
Robert Bell, a prominent politician under Queen
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
who died in 1577.
Karen Ordahl Kupperman
Karen Ordahl Kupperman (born 23 April 1939) is an American historian who specializes in colonial history in the Atlantic world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Biography
Karen Ordahl Kupperman was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota on ...
, author of a carefully researched book on the Providence Island colony, of which he was the first governor, says he was son of Sir Robert's sixth child, Sir Edmund Bell (1562–1608).
If so, he was born on 19 June 1590, either in
South Acre
South Acre is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village has almost disappeared, but the remnants are located about south-west of Castle Acre, north of the town of Swaffham, east of the town of King's Lynn and ...
, Norfolk or in
Beaupré Hall
Beaupré Hall was a large 16th-century house mainly of brick, which was built by the Beaupres in Outwell, Norfolk, England and enlarged by their successors the Bells. Like many of Britain's country houses it was demolished in the mid-20th cent ...
,
Outwell
Outwell is a village and civil parish in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, in the English county of Norfolk.Ordnance Survey (2006). ''OS Explorer Map 228 – March & Ely''.
At the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 2,083, an ...
, Norfolk.
His mother was Anne Osborne, daughter of Sir Peter Osbourne, the Treasurer's Remembrancer in the Exchequer.
Several of his siblings became involved with the Virginia colony.
Bermuda
![Somers Isles Map - John Speed 1676](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Somers_Isles_Map_-_John_Speed_1676.jpg)
Bermuda, originally called the Somers Isles, is a small group of islands in the mid-Atlantic.
The
Somers Isles Company
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, as a commer ...
owned the islands, and arranged for settlement by Englishmen who planted tobacco.
There was very limited available land, the soil was poor and the climate unfavorable.
The planters' problems were compounded by squabbles between the Warwick and Sandys factions of the company.
Captain Philip Bell reached Bermuda late in 1626 or early in 1627.
Bell belonged to the Warwick faction.
He found his predecessor, Captain Henry Woodhouse, facing an attack by the Bermuda assembly for misgovernment.
Bell advised Woodhouse to leave as soon as possible, but Woodhouse refused and was censured and fined, then thrown in prison when he refused to apologise.
Bell, from a privileged background, resented the high status of merchants on the island.
He complained of needing "to live in such a slavishe subjectione to such meane & base minded men as the citizen part of the Companye are & doe showe themselves."
As governor, Bell was entitled to 32 servants, of whom 24 were to work the 12 shares of land that were assigned to him.
Although some were black, they were not necessarily slaves.
In 1629 Bell wrote pessimistically
Bell fell out with some of the other settlers in Bermuda.
In a letter to Sir
Nathaniel Rich dated 28 April 1629, Bell protested about having been blamed for the unrest by the Somers Island Company in England without having been given the opportunity to defend himself. He said the ringleader of the unrest was Stephen Painter, whom he described as a man of "Luciferian Pride", and said the contention arose because Bell would not "suffer the conclusions of the General Assembly and the general equity of the whole land to give place to PAINTER's proud and licentious humour." Bell said that he had resolved to move from the island, and to settle wherever his father in law
Daniel Elfreth went.
In 1629, Bell left Bermuda and became governor of the
Providence Island colony
The Providence Island colony was established in 1630 by English Puritans on what is now the Departments of Colombia, Colombian Department of Archipelago_of_San_Andrés,_Providencia_and_Santa_Catalina, San Andrés and Providencia ...
.
He was succeeded by Captain Roger Wood, who governed from 1629 to 1637.
Providence
![Map of Caribbean-IMG 5973](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Map_of_Caribbean-IMG_5973.jpg)
In 1628 two ships funded by the puritan
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (5 June 158719 April 1658), Lord of the Manor of Hunningham,Hunningham, in A History of the County of Warwick: Vol. 6, Knightlow Hundred, ed. L F Salzman (London, 1951), pp. 117–120. was an English colonial adm ...
, explored the western Caribbean and discovered the
San Andrés and
Santa Catalina islands. Captain
Daniel Elfrith
Daniel Elfrith ( fl. 1607–1641) was a 17th-century English privateer, colonist and slave trader. In the service of the Earl of Warwick, Elfrith was involved in privateering expeditions against the Spanish from his base in Bermuda. He was par ...
, Bell's father-in-law, sailed to Bermuda where he told Bell of their findings. In March 1629, Bell wrote to his cousin Sir
Nathaniel Rich announcing the discovery.
Bell's letter described Santa Catalina as "lying in the heart of the Indies & the mouth of the Spaniards." Thus it was an excellent base for privateering against the Spanish ships.
Bell considered that the island would also provide excellent revenue from tobacco and other crops.
Bell's letter led to the formation of the
Providence Island Company
The Providence Company or Providence Island Company was an English chartered company founded in 1629 by a group of Puritans including Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick in order to establish the Providence Island colony on Providence Island and Mosq ...
to organize the settlement.
Bell took several Bermudans with him to Providence in 1629, including whites and blacks.
In 1630 the Company decided that Bell would succeed Elfrith as the governor of the colony.
At first Bell lived alone on the island, but when he threatened to resign the Providence Island Company arranged to ship out his wife to encourage him to stay.
This was an exception. Until 1635 the Company discouraged planters from bringing their families.
The company forbade swearing, drunkenness or profaning the Sabbath and warned against the evils of idleness.
Bell was instructed to seize and destroy "cards and Dice and Tables" that had been sent to the island.
Despite or because of this, there were intense disputes among the occupants of the island throughout the life of the colony.
Although the original plan had been to grow tobacco, there was a glut on the market.
The directors tried to encourage the planters to grow crops such as silk grass, cotton, sugar cane, pomegranates, figs or juniper berries. However, despite a collapse in prices in 1634, the planters persisted in growing tobacco.
Labor on Providence island was originally undertaken by indentured servants from England, although Bell brought some black slaves from Bermuda. Around 1634–1635 the four-year terms of the indentured servants expired, and planters demanded the right to use slaves in their place. One colonist spoke out against this practice, saying that Christians should not hold slaves. Bell silenced this man on instructions from the company, so he could not stir up the slaves against their masters.
When the English arrived, they found a small group of Dutch privateers living there. Later, Elfrith invited the privateer
Diego el Mulato to the island.
The settlers were alarmed that the presence of these men would draw Spanish retaliation, and in 1632 they were near mutiny, led by their chaplain, Lewis Morgan.
At the same time, they resented having to contribute to building and manning the defenses.
The Spanish sent an expedition that reached the island in July 1635, but their attack was ineffectual.
After the Spanish attack, King
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...
issued
letters of marque to the Providence Island Company on 21 December 1635 that authorized raids on the Spanish.
In March 1636 the Company dispatched Captain Robert Hunt on the ''Blessing'' to assume the governorship of what was now viewed as a base for privateering.
Bell was replaced as governor in 1636, and left the island in 1637.
Barbados
![1780 Raynal and Bonne Map of Antilles Islands - Geographicus - IslesAntilles-bonne-1780](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/1780_Raynal_and_Bonne_Map_of_Antilles_Islands_-_Geographicus_-_IslesAntilles-bonne-1780.jpg)
In 1640, Bell led a group of settlers to
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...
. By 1641 he was on Barbados as governor.
He was appointed by
James Hay, 2nd Earl of Carlisle
James Hay, 2nd Earl of Carlisle (1612 – 30 October 1660) was the Earl of Carlisle (2nd Creation), succeeding James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle. Hay was the second son of the 1st Earl, a Scottish nobleman, and his wife Honoria, heir to Edward Den ...
, who owned the island, with the approved of
Lord Warwick and the Committee of Trade and Plantations.
The island had been settled in 1627 by a group of Englishmen hoping to develop tobacco plantations,
but the leaf turned out to be poor quality.
They then tried cotton, ginger and indigo, but none of these crops were very successful.
In the mid-1640s the settler
James Drax
Sir James Drax ( – 1662) was an English planter in the colonies of Barbados and Jamaica. Born in England, Drax travelled to the English colony of Barbados, acquiring ownership of several sugar plantations and a number of enslaved Africans. Drax ...
tried sugar, struggling at first to master the complex production process.
By the end of the 1640s the difficulties had been solved. Prices were extremely high, and the island became "one of the richest spots of earth under the sun".
Originally the labor force was provided by poor whites, but the planters found that Africans slaves worked harder, cost less and were better able to tolerate the climate. By 1650 the island had 6,000 black slaves and 24,000 whites.
Bell made a number of administrative reforms.
He completed organization of the court system and the parish governments.
He made the island's assembly a legal body, consisting of the leading residents, with the power to pass legislation.
The land grant act by his predecessor
Henry Hawley
Henry Hawley (12 January 1685 – 24 March 1759) was a British army officer who served in the wars of the first half of the 18th century. He fought in a number of significant battles, including the Capture of Vigo in 1719, Dettingen, Fo ...
was confirmed, as were existing property rights, and proprietary dues were abolished.
Bell passed an act directed against radical puritans in Barbados, suppressing "certayne sects and separatists." These people, with "erroneous opinions", were ordered to cease meeting in private and attempting to seduce others to their views, but to conform to public Anglican worship.
Barbados remained neutral for most 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 ...
, which broke out in 1642 after a long period of growing hostility between the king and parliament.
Exiles from both sides avoided conflict as they ran their plantations and trading operations.
Bell wrote in 1645 that,
As the tide turned in favor of the parliamentarians, increasing numbers of royalist refugees arrived in the island.
King
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...
was executed in January 1649, and the truce between the two sides on the island began to break down.
Philip Bell favored neutrality. He published a declaration on 29 April 1650 saying "... no man should take up Armes, nor act in any hostile manner upon paine of death."
On 30 April, the leaders of the Royalist faction persuaded two militia leaders to raise their men. Bell ordered them to disband, but they refused.
Bell called on James Drax to raise a force to keep the peace, but he was unable to gather enough men to present a credible challenge to the royalists, who were marching on
Bridgetown
Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of 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 Island ...
. Bell was forced to concede control of the arsenal and of his own person to the Cavaliers.
The Roundheads were disarmed and punished.
A declaration of loyalty to
Charles II was published on 3 May 1650.
Francis, Lord Willoughby, arrived at the end of July 1650.
Charles II had appointed him as the new Governor of the "Caribbee Isles", and he took over from Bell.
Philip Bell died in England in 1678 and was buried at Outwell, Norfolk.
References
Notes
Citations
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Philip
1590 births
1678 deaths
Governors of Bermuda
Governors of Isla de Providencia
Governors of Barbados
People from Norfolk
Kingdom of England people in the West Indies