Henry Hawley was the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Governor of Barbados This article contains a list of viceroys in Barbados from its initial colonisation in 1627 by England until it achieved independence in 1966. From 1833 to 1885, Barbados was part of the colony of the Windward Islands, and the governor of Barbad ...

from 1630 to 1639/40.

Background

Henry Hawley was the younger son of James Hawley,Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library: MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. PARISH OF ST. MICHAEL. ST. MICHAEL'S CATHEDRAL CHURCH
who held the lease for Brentford Market in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

and, until 1622, the lease for

Boston Manor Boston Manor is an English Jacobean manor house built in 1622 with internal alterations, intensively restored in later centuries and Boston Manor Park is the adjoining publicly owned green space including a lake. It was the manor house o ...

nearby. James Hawley was a

mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...

also trained at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

, one of the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

. Hawley himself served a mercer's

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

at the Three Cranes Tavern in London. Almost all of his siblings embarked on colonisation in the New World; one exception was his younger brother Gabriel, who left his

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...

's apprenticeship to serve in 1622 his mercer uncle Henry Hawley, who newly appointed as the English East India Company's chief merchant in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

. Hawley's brother, James, had served his mercer's apprenticeship with his uncle Henry Hawley and may have settled in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Hawley appointed his brother William to colonise and govern

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

, one of the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

, but the islands were taken over by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

.THE EARLY EUROPEAN COLONIZATION OF ST. CROIX (1621-1642)
Written by Alfredo E. Figueredo. Page 1. Hawley's sister Susan, married Richard Peers, another planter, and in Hawley's absence, the acting deputy governor. In addition, he was also brother in law of Richard Ashcraft (1590–1600). Hawley's eldest brother, Jerome, was one of eight investors in the founding of

Maryland colony The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryland ...

and served in the colony's General Assembly.

Governor of Barbados

As Captain Henry Hawley, he was appointed governor 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) ...

in 1630, arriving in June that year initially in the capacity of Commissioner to

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle KB (c. 1580March 1636) was a British noble. Life A Scot, he was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask, second son of Peter Hay of Megginch (a branch member of Hay of Leys, a younger branch of the Erroll family) a ...

. After a struggle over patents with Sir William Courten, Hay had emerged as the proprietor of the island. He died heavily in

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

in 1636 and, for the minority of his son, trustees were appointed to administer his estate. They made onerous tax demands on Barbados to settle the Hay family debts. Hawley enforced high taxes and tariffs, at a cost of damage to

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

. Modern historians, such as Larry Dale Gragg and Mathew Parker have noted that Governor Henry Hawley's rule of the island was deeply unpopular, noting that he "was universally held to be a

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to re ...

" and a "

drunkard Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

". Some historians have argued that he brought in the first ever slave code in Barbados in 1636 which stipulated that

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

slaves brought to Barbados to be sold should be enslaved for life, although some doubt it ever existed. Darryll Clarke, author of ''Governor Henry Hawley and the 1636 Slave Code'' makes the case for its existence and points out that this slave code is central to historiographical understanding of the history of slavery in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. The first official slave code in Barbados was introduced in 1661 by the colonial legislature.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, Henry Governors of Barbados 17th-century English politicians