Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Sir Thomas Modyford, 1st Baronet (c. 1620 – 1 September 1679) was a planter 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) ...

and Governor of Jamaica from 1664 to 1671.

Early life

Modyford was the son of a mayor of Exeter with family connections to the

Duke of Albemarle The Dukedom of Albemarle () has been created twice in the Peerage of England, each time ending in extinction. Additionally, the title was created a third time by James II in exile and a fourth time by his son the Old Pretender, in the Jacobite ...

Barbados

Modyford emigrated to Barbados as a young man with other family members in 1647, in the opening stages 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 ...

. He had £1,000 for a down payment on a plantation and £6,000 to commit in the next three years. Modyford soon was dominant in Barbados island politics, rising to be speaker of 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 gove ...

during the reign of King Charles II, and factor for the Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, who had a monopoly in the

slave trade 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 ...

to the islands. By 1647, Modyford had made a fortune from sugar and slavery. In 1651, Modyford sided with the Cavaliers under Lord

Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham (baptised 1614; died 23 July 1666 O.S., 2 August 1666 N.S.) was an English peer of the House of Lords. He succeeded to the title on 14 October 1617 on the death in infancy of his elder brother ...

, as they defied

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

, but when a force was despatched under the command of Sir

George Ayscue Admiral Sir George Ayscue (c. 1616 – 5 April 1672) was an English naval officer who served in the English Civil War and the Anglo-Dutch Wars who rose to the rank of Admiral of the White. He also served as Governor of Scilly Isles (1647) and G ...

, Modyford switched sides, deserting Willoughby and his royalist forces. In 1660, he negotiated with the Commissioners of the Commonwealth to be governor of Barbados, which put him in an awkward position with the Restoration of the English monarchy.

Jamaica

Sir Thomas Modyford was appointed Governor of Jamaica, by commission dated 15 February 1664 and made a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

. He arrived in Jamaica 4 June 1664, with seven hundred planters and their slaves, marking the wholesale introduction of a slavery-based

plantation economy A plantation economy is an economy based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few commodity crops, grown on large farms worked by laborers or slaves. The properties are called plantations. Plantation economies rely on the export of cash ...

in Jamaica. The move was marked by tragedy for Modyford however, whose eldest son John was lost at sea when returning for his mother in

. But it was not long before Modyford took tight control of the Jamaican government by culling the council and filling it with his own supporters, including his brother, Col. Sir James Modyford, who he made Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, Governor of the Town and Castle of Port Royal and sole judge of the Admiralty and Customs. Thomas Modyford remained a factor for the Royal Adventurers until 1669, overseeing their plantation in Jamaica whilst Sir James was granted a royal licence in November to ship convicted felons from England to his brother in Jamaica. In Jamaica Sir Thomas used a labour force of twenty-eight

indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repaymen ...

s from England, and a large number of African slaves. It was also under Thomas Modyford that the island was first divided into parishes. His own

cacao plantation ''Theobroma cacao'', also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. The largest pro ...

at Sixteen Mile Walk was located in St. Katherine's parish. However, these plantations came under regular attacks from

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...

. In the second half of the 1660s, Modyford waged war against the Karmahaly Maroons, led by

Juan de Serras Juan de Serras was one of the first Jamaican Maroon chiefs in the seventeenth century. His community was based primarily around Los Vermajales, and as a result the English called his group of Maroons the Karmahaly Maroons. It is likely that his Maro ...

, but the governor failed to subdue this community of runaway slaves. In 1670 he was "Governor of His Majesty's Island of Jamaica Commander-in-Chief of all His Majesties Forces within the said Island and in the Islands adjacent Vice-Admiral to His Royal Highness the Duke of York in the American Seas", according to the commission to

Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming we ...

to make war upon the Spanish. The issuance of the aforementioned privateer commission to Morgan, who used it to attack and plunder the Spanish possession of Panama, resulted in revocation of Modyford's governorship and arrest in 1671. King Charles II of England, in desperate need of Spain as an ally in an impending war with the Dutch, had ordered the arrest and revocation merely to appease a Spanish Crown, furious over the destruction of their prize city. Though charges were never preferred, and no trial was ever held, Modyford spent two years in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

. He was released in 1674, and returned to Jamaica in 1675.

Death

Modyford died on 1 September 1679. He was buried the next day at the cathedral in Spanish Town,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

alongside his wife Elizabeth. At his death, Modyford owned one of the largest plantations in the West Indies, with over 600 African slaves and white indentured servants.Hilary Beckles, "The 'Hub of Empire': The Caribbean and Britain in the Seventeenth Century", ''The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume 1 The Origins of Empire'', ed. by Nicholas Canny (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 225.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Modyford, Thomas Jamaican people of English descent 1620 births 1679 deaths West Indies merchants Speakers of the House Assembly of Barbados Baronets in the Baronetage of England Governors of Jamaica Governors of Barbados Chief justices of Jamaica Colony of Jamaica judges 17th-century Jamaican judges Planters of Jamaica