St Helena Records 1712-1715

Introduction: This is the eleventh volume in the series St Helena Records. The series includes the official minute books of the island’s Governor and Council, which recorded their meetings, deliberations and decisions, with abstracts of correspondence, proclamations and regulations, judicial proceedings and financial business. The volumes served as the principal administrative record of government on St Helena and were often titled “Consultations”. Its authority was derived from the EIC, with final decisions directed by instructions issued from London.

Source: Images of the original records can be viewed on the British Library’s website: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP1364-1-1-11.

Text Transcription This transcription was produced by AI from handwritten document images held on the British Library's website, at about thirty pages per hour. Given the limitations described below, the text should be regarded as unreliable and used only as a search-and-find shortcut: once a relevant section has been located, it must always be checked against the source image via the hyperlinked Film Numbers listed in the main transcription table below.

Three specific problems affected the work. First, AI tends to prioritise meaning and readability at the expense of fidelity to the original, with a strong disposition to normalise spellings, expand abbreviations, and adjust grammar. It is particularly weak with unfamiliar surnames, and scrawled signatures often resist accurate transcription entirely. Transcriptions by eye of documents spanning four centuries have also shown that a single surname could be written in a wide variety of ways: the Crowie family name appears under six different spellings, and the Isaacs family name under sixteen. Searches for surnames are therefore hindered both by genuine variations in the originals and by mistranscriptions introduced by AI, and for this reason are best run phonetically. Second, the AI struggled with the late secretary hand, the script commonly used from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, in which the letter S appears in a form closely resembling a trailing L. Third, occasional passages in these volumes are written in a hand so obscure or poorly formed as to be difficult to read even by eye, sometimes compounded by heavy ink bleed-through from the reverse side or by the loss of sections of pages.

To mitigate these difficulties, a strict protocol was applied to each image, requiring the AI to rely solely on clearly visible ink strokes and to flag any uncertain reading, thereby reducing the risk of inferred or invented text. Two conventions are used. [...] marks text that could not be read with confidence; this may represent a single unreadable word, a full sentence, or occasionally an entire paragraph. Square brackets around letters or words indicate a conjectural reading supplied by the transcriber: brackets around a whole word, for example [Bazett], mean the entire word was unclear and a probable reading has been supplied, while brackets around individual letters within an otherwise readable word, for example B[a]z[e]tt, mean only those specific letters were unclear in the source and the unbracketed letters were legibly present.

Modern Summary and Analysis Each section of text was submitted for AI analysis in order to explain the archaic language in clear, modern UK English. These are not direct sentence by sentence replacements, but explanatory interpretations intended to clarify meaning while preserving the substance of the original. Where a specific individual is named within a section of the original text, that person will generally also be identified within the explanatory interpretation. However, where the original consists largely of lists of names, these are not usually repeated in the explanatory text.

Each text modern summary is followed by two forms of AI-generated analysis. The first, an Interpretations section, draws on wider information located on the internet to provide additional commentary on the material. The second, a Speculations section, offers one or more possible reflections on what the document might further suggest. The value of these notes ranges from the profound to the trivial or self-evident; time did not permit deletion of the latter.

Text Loss: The pages were in good condition with no loss of text.

Referencing Text Locations: A dual numbering system has been adopted, combining the British Library film number with the manuscript’s original page number. These are presented in the format: British Library Film No. / Document Page No.

Pagination: Page numbering begins on Film No. 10 (10/1). Pages 7 and 8 are missing, so the sequence runs 14/5, 15/6, 16/9, 17/10, and so on. A blank page was inserted after 155/148: Film No. 156 is correctly numbered page 149, and Film No. 157 is blank and unnumbered (assumed to be page 150). Film No. 158, however, is also marked page 150, with numbering then continuing sequentially to the end of the volume. The sequence is therefore taken to be 155/148, 156/149, 157/150, 158/150, 159/151, and so on.

Dates: During the period covered by this volume, England and its colonies followed the Old-Style Julian calendar, under which the legal new year began on 25 March (Lady Day). The earliest date recorded in this volume is a consultation held on 6 January 1712/13 (1713 in the modern calendar) and the last date was a consultation held on 16 August 1715.

The Council meetings were all held during the administrations of Captain Benjamin Boucher (1711-1714) and Captain Isaac Pyke (1714-1719).

AI Generated Summary

Introduction

This consolidated narrative records the East India Company's administration of St Helena from January 1713 to August 1715, spanning the final eighteen months of Governor Benjamin Boucher's tenure and the first thirteen months of Governor Isaac Pyke's. The wider setting was the closing phase of the War of the Spanish Succession, concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the Hanoverian accession of George I in August 1714, and the early stirrings of the 1715 Jacobite rising. The island was a single fortified valley, the United Castle in James Valley, dependent on Company shipping for almost everything. The evidence is overwhelmingly the council's own record, drafted for transmission to the Lords Proprietors in London, and its silences, particularly around the enslaved majority, are as telling as its entries. [Film No. 10, 32, 60-109, 110-159, 160-209, 210, 260, 310, 360, 410-413, 460-509, 510-569]

Governance and Administration

Across 1713 the council acted as the working substitute for almost every metropolitan institution: registering land, proving wills, auditing church and highway accounts, fixing prices and wages, ordering censuses and trying criminal cases. It met at the United Castle on Tuesdays. Boucher's council shrank in April 1713 when Deputy Governor John Pack died, leaving Matthew Bazett, Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as the working body. Bazett carried the registration programme, the store books and the secretaryship simultaneously, a striking rehabilitation after his October 1712 dismissal for character failings. The dual invocation of the Company as Lords Proprietors and of her Majesty by name, particularly in the advertisement of 4 March 1713 ordering a full census of persons, slaves, acres and cattle, tied island authority simultaneously to commercial proprietorship and to the Crown. [Film No. 10, 25, 26, 32]

Through late 1713 and early 1714 the four-man council's weakness became apparent. The substantive crisis came on 1 April 1714 when Bazett refused to sign the general letter prepared for the Court of Directors by the Abingdon. Boucher convened an extraordinary sitting, brought in Captain William Jordan and purser Peter Elers as independent witnesses, and put Bazett under formal interrogation. The proceedings disclosed substantive administrative failure beneath the procedural dispute: store books not made up beyond 25 March 1712, 120 gallons of unreported arrack leakage, and the collapse of the segregation of custody from disbursement after Boucher retained the warehouse keys. By 27 May and again 24 June 1714 Bazett joined Cason and French in formally clearing the Governor before witnesses, the reversal reflecting practical recognition that Boucher's imminent departure removed the cause of dispute. [Film No. 130-133, 145-146, 153-154]

Pyke arrived on the Rochester on 8 July 1714, his commission sealed 24 February 1714. The reduced four-man council was replaced by a full five-man establishment: Pyke, George Haswell as Deputy, Edward Mashborne as third (returning with institutional memory from Roberts's administration), Bazett as fourth and Antipas Tovey as fifth and Secretary. The 97-paragraph general letter was read at a single sitting on the first working day. Inventories were ordered across every department, converting oral findings about the stripped Fort into a documentary baseline and fixing the working basis on which the directors might later proceed against the departed Governor. [Film No. 160-163, 172-173]

From August 1714 onwards Pyke's programme was self-conscious and systematic. Tovey's comprehensive inventory of 16 July 1714 listed every book and paper in the Secretary's office, including the consultation series from 1678, letter books, will registers and abstract volumes. A sequentially numbered register of 95 wills proved between December 1681 and May 1713, ending with Boucher's own contingent will, was compiled. Customs master Thomas Newington was appointed on 4 November 1714 to keep account of all goods coming ashore, restoring a lapsed office. On 21 December 1714 Pyke set out two new standing rules: no person was to transfer credit to another while himself in debt unless by particular order of council, and no credit was to be placed by the storekeeper unless agreed in consultation. The same day experimentally issued signed bank bills to the value of twenty pounds for circulation, an early attempt at paper currency. [Film No. 222-223, 232, 240-243, 245, 263, 300-301]

Mashborne's death on 31 March 1715 reduced the council to three serving members. William Worrall, a Company servant, was appointed overseer of the plantations on probation. Edward Byfield was promoted to fifth in council on 17 May 1715, described as a sober young man of great industry and diligence, fixing Bazett as third and Tovey as fourth. The Cardonnell, arriving in early June 1715, brought the first substantive directors' letter since the Aurengzebe dispatch of 25 January 1714/15, and the bench resolved to read it in successive morning sessions, marking each paragraph for action. Selective signing of consultations becomes conspicuous through summer 1715: the protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715 carried only Pyke, Tovey and Byfield, with Bazett absent from the 29 June consultation recording the Eagle Galley depositions. On 21 June 1715 Pyke formally interrogated Haswell as accountant and Bazett as storekeeper on why the books were not ready, their answers entered question by question with remarkable candour. [Film No. 413, 416-418, 461, 480-482, 486, 505]

Military Affairs and Defence

The defining military event of 1713 was the soldiers' conspiracy of early July. The garrison had grown indebted through store-book purchases, and the drought had made provisions scarce. On 3 July 1713 the Governor proposed setting indebted soldiers to work on the fortifications in place of slaves, plainly intended as debt recovery. Within days William Brogden, William Gore, William Knife, Thomas Griffis, James Young and others began canvassing the guard rooms. Their plan, according to depositions, was to seize the Governor and Council at the Thursday council sitting on 9 July 1713, hold them as hostages, take provisions from the stores and if necessary fire the store-room. The conspirators rallied around the slogan that it was better to die like men than to starve like dogs. Corruption reached into the artillery: Edward Mallard, lookout at Two Gun Ridge, had been deliberately failing to relay alarm signals. [Film No. 48, 50, 52, 55, 56]

The council's response on receiving Robert Wallington's information through Bazett on 7 July 1713 was a textbook of small-establishment counter-insurgency. Flints were quietly removed from the muskets of all posts except Cinkey. A false alarm was orchestrated from Prosperous Bay with the cover story that a man-of-war was approaching with news of peace, the genuine prospect of the Peace of Utrecht then in negotiation making the pretext plausible. As the freemen mustered they were drawn into the castle and supplied with arms, neutralising the garrison. By 9 July 1713 the council had confined five ringleaders in irons and disarmed five accomplices on conditional good behaviour. The advertisement of the same day reframed the 3 July compulsion as a voluntary offer: any well-disposed soldier could now work on the fortifications at 1s 6d a day, the same rate paid to hired slaves. [Film No. 49, 53, 54]

Through autumn 1713 and into 1714 the council worked through the conspiracy aftermath via graduated release. James Young was released after four months in irons on 3 November 1713, described by the council as quiet, civil and something better bred than the common sort of soldiers. William Huffe was released on 2 February 1714 after seven months for speaking mutinous words in his liquor. The April-to-May 1713 store account showed soldiers buying complete uniform pieces at roughly thirty-three shillings per suit, uniform replacement and provisions being the working drivers of indebtedness. The defensive works themselves were neglected: Pyke's incoming council in July 1714 found the two wings of the castle parapet exposed at the junctions with the main Castle, storehouses and barracks existing only as a 120-foot stretch eight feet high, and the Castle itself having received no substantive addition since Roberts's departure beyond Boucher's own apartments. [Film No. 66, 85-86, 89, 112, 154-155, 159]

Pyke acted quickly. The five remaining 1713 conspiracy prisoners petitioned to be sent to Bencoolen as soldiers for five years; on inspection of the examinations and finding them not proper persons to be permitted to stay upon this island, the council granted the petition on condition they work out their debts. Seven Rochester soldiers were taken into Company pay in exchange. The trench in the bay had been broken by heavy seas, and on 3 August 1714 the council resolved to build a sea wall packed with earth, the Governor taking personal charge. The Old Goat Pound, undermined under Boucher by excavation, was scheduled for demolition once the sea wall was secure. The garrison stood at about ninety effective men at handover. [Film No. 175-176, 181-182, 185, 204]

The riot of 19 November 1714 was the most politically charged garrison matter of the period. John Obriant, Charles Ablard and Thomas Thompson assaulted Lucas Mason within the Fort and shouted that none but whores and rogues lived in the castle. Thompson added there was now a new governor who did not understand the laws and that he would never follow anyone's orders but Boucher's. Graduated punishments at the flagstaff (Ablard twenty lashes, Obriant thirty, Thompson forty) distinguished participation in a brawl from political offence. The episode disclosed both a residue of Boucher loyalty in the lower ranks and the working pattern by which officers acted as patrons mitigating consequences. On 18 January 1714/15 Pyke explained the suspension of fortification works: with peace settled, the Company had directed him to discontinue the works for a time, removing the strategic justification for the labour levies that had brought working men into permanent indebtedness. [Film No. 262, 320, 357]

Through 1715 piracy became a present concern in the South Atlantic, consistent with the wider piracy boom following the end of the war. On 10 June 1715 a double alarm announced multiple unknown ships, and the council, fearing pirates, ordered Mawson to bring a hawser to the east rocks so the Cardonnell could be hauled nearer shore under the castle's guns. King William's fort above Banks's hill was reported in a dangerous condition on 19 July 1715, mud mortar mixed with salt water having caused decay. Pyke reported on 12 July that, in obedience to the directors, the two wings adjoining the castle had been raised four feet with seventy rows of iron stockades. [Film No. 486, 542, 543]

Settlement, Land and Agriculture

The dominant administrative project of 1713 was the registration of every parcel of free and leased land. From mid-January through early March 1713 the council held rolling title sittings every two or three weeks. Bazett measured each plot, the plan was deposited at the clerk's office, and the claimant produced his writings at the next council day. Where private deeds were missing, long peaceable possession with entries in the old Register Book and continuous revenue payments was accepted as a functional substitute. A printed deed under the Company's seal carried the strongest evidentiary weight. Women, widows and orphans appear repeatedly as the holders of title: Margaret Sich, widow, brought together seventy acres assembled across three marriages; Mary Hoskison registered the largest individual holding, eighty-six acres. The pattern is of a tightly intermarried planter society in which land moved as readily through marriage portions and remarriages as through sale. [Film No. 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23]

The registration culminated in the advertisement of 27 July 1713 listing more than thirty deed-holders, and at the consultation of 4 August 1713 more than fifty named holders attended the castle to receive deeds and leases. The recorded great satisfaction marks the point at which the registration programme passed into settled tenure, fixing the baseline against which all later transactions would be measured. Jonathan Duston bought the contiguous Marsh and Hunt plantations of ninety acres for £460 18s 0d on 6 January 1713. The same period saw fencing tensions: Thomas Burnham and Robert Bell were granted twelve months' grace; John Nichols was ordered to take down fences he had quietly placed across Company common. Petitions for waste land showed council preference for retaining selected parcels, with John Orchard refused a piece under the Pigeon Rocks because the parcel had been earmarked for a Company lemon garden. [Film No. 10, 11, 24, 58-60, 68, 71, 73, 81]

By Pyke's arrival on 8 July 1714 the inherited country estate was in collapse. The Plantation House was very much out of repair and going to ruin, the garden dug up with nothing but plantain trees and cabbage remaining, and the consolidated herd of 304 head recorded on 9 October 1712 reduced to about sixty head of black cattle. There were neither deer nor goats nor sheep nor hogs nor any poultry. Allowing for some embellishment in testimony solicited from inhabitants relieved to see a new administration, the scale of the decline is too great to dismiss, and the implication that Boucher had been provisioning his own household by slaughter is hard to avoid. [Film No. 158]

The plantation survey of 10 August 1714 by Haswell, Mashborne and Bazett returned a combined inventory of 555,550 yams across five Company plantations (Cole's Gut, Tewdale's Gut, Lufkin's, Roberts's New Ground and the Hutts), with the universal finding that crops needed weeding and that no substantial new supply could be expected for periods running up to two years. The lower vineyard had been thrown up as rough ash-grazing for two years, the planted vines lost. The slaves' house had been burned in Boucher's time by his man Caesar firing a gun upon the thatch. Thomas Perkins's plantation was acquired outright on his departure: 170,711 yams and thirty acres for £400 for seven years, supplemented by livestock for £112 1s 0d. A new plantation was proposed at the High Peak, judged good ground for raising hogs. [Film No. 177-180, 186-187, 190-191, 200-202]

Through autumn 1714 the council survey of fences identified extensive damage along dozens of numbered stretches given in rods, with estimated repair costs identifying boundary holdings of the principal abutters Keeling, Goodwin, Caton, Powell, Addis, Wrangham, Coles, Bowman, Lufkin, Francis and Sich. The Chapel Valley goat dispute resolved on 7 December 1714 reasserted Company tenure of grazing rights, with Carne removing all goats save two old ewes. A new lime kiln to burn lime with coals was built near the old kiln near the old bridge. Hugh Bodley senior's plantation, fallen into Company hands through debt, was advertised on 18 January 1714/15 for letting to any person of civil behaviour who had worked at the fortifications. [Film No. 263, 287-292, 297-298, 308, 313-314, 322]

The annual census of families, land and cattle for 1714, drawn up to 21 March 1715, recorded 1,144½ acres total, divided between 734½ acres of freehold and 410 acres of leave. Active planters such as George Carne (111 acres, 46 head of cattle) and John Coales (55 acres, 43 head) held larger stock than the senior officers. The cattle return distinguished bulls, cows, bullocks, steers, oxen, heifers and calves, with heifers in working condition entered separately, indicating the limited supply of oxen that forced planters to press young females into the yoke. By June 1715 the cow-saving order of the directors prohibited slaughter of any cow, heifer or calf until 20 July 1716 except under warrant, giving the herd two breeding seasons to recover. Standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715 required tenants to manure the land, hold at least one black, and not be too deep in Company debt. [Film No. 372-374, 402-408, 460, 467-468, 481-482, 490-491]

Trade, Shipping, Supply and Provisioning

Almost no rain fell on St Helena from mid-1712 until summer 1713. By 12 May 1713 the council recorded ten months' drought, with cattle, hogs and goats dead in numbers, yams scorched in the ground, and most inhabitants without cash to buy from shipping. The council opened the Company's yawl to inhabitants on regulated terms: four families could pool labour for trips of forty-eight hours, with all fish brought to the castle and divided by the Company's steward, the Company taking one quarter. On 4 June 1713 the council made the largest emergency purchase recorded, contracting with Captains Lane, Minter and Hoaks for 3,130 gallons of Batavia arrack at 6s a gallon and 7,480 lb of rice at 2d a pound, retailed in July at advances of fifty and seventy-five per cent. A hogshead of lime juice was bought from Captain Pinnell of the Susannah at 3s 6d a gallon to fend off scurvy. [Film No. 33-35, 46-48]

The Company's monopoly store dominated the working economy through 1713-14, with monthly accounts disclosing a full range of Indian cottons from Bengal and Madras (gurras, romalls, chelloes, neilas, salampores, ginghams, dungarees, long cloth, chints and the fine muslins mulmulls and doreas), English woollens (kerseys, broadcloth, perpetuanoes, druggets, shalloons, fustians, durants, callemancoes, Norwich black crape and damask), spirits, tobacco, sugar, rice in bulk, soap, and hardware. The single-month total of £706 5s 1½d for 25 March to 25 April 1713 was the heaviest of the year. The Susannah's inventory in summer 1713 included a chest of twelve halberds, forty-eight muskets, five hundred gun flints, sixty-three chaldron of coals and a chest of medicines at £68 17s 8¼d. [Film No. 62-66, 90-103, 109]

Supply recovered substantially across spring 1714 through three Company consignments. The Abingdon under Captain Jordan arrived on 1 March 1714 with about 1,900 gallons of Batavia arrack from Bencoolen. The Stretham under Captain Henry Gough arrived on 23 April 1714 from Madras with ten bags of rice, ten of sugar and three leaguers of arrack. The Marlborough under Captain Matthew Martin arrived on 16 May 1714 with twenty bags of rice, twenty of sugar and three more leaguers, consigned from Bengal. The pattern shows the Company's eastern stations working in coordinated despatch to restock after the long drought. [Film No. 129, 133, 145]

The Rochester under Captain William Browne, principal vessel of Pyke's arrival, was the source of considerable friction in July 1714. Browne's discharge of cargo was so dilatory that the council formalised day-by-day complaints, recording one boat sent on the first day, three on the next, half a yawl load on another, against an expectation of at least five boats daily in fair weather. The two-month account for 25 October to 25 December 1713, the heaviest of that period at £1,070 6s 7½d, was a Christmas cycle through which 921¾ gallons of arrack, 3,543 pounds of sugar, 416 pounds of tobacco, 144 dozen clay pipes and 69 pounds of tea passed. [Film No. 113-128, 174-175, 181]

On 31 October 1714 the Susanna under Captain Richard Pinnell arrived from Bencoolen. At the Cape he had encountered orders from the Court of Directors requiring all homeward commanders to make the best of their way to London and disregard any further orders from Company servants in India, collapsing an intermediate layer of authority. Pinnell's careful correspondence with the council, signed by Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey, functioned as documentary insurance for both parties. The Susanna departed on 12 November 1714 carrying a packet of 27 numbered items including the chaplain's register, lists of Company slaves, debt and credit abstracts, the consultations copy, the will register and the Boucher misappropriation schedule. [Film No. 253-259]

The Aurengzebe under Captain Nicholas Lihorne, arriving from Madras on 14 January 1714/15, exposed the limits of provisioning. Lihorne demanded the beef to which his charter party entitled him. The council replied on 16 January that more than 2,500 head of cattle had been lost in a great dearth and no beef could be spared, counter-offering as buyer at the planters' common rate of 40s 0d per hundredweight with payment by bills on London. The storekeeper's accounts for 8 July to 25 October 1714 ran to £1,759 4s 0½d, with arrack at 9s 0d per gallon the largest single line. Substantial fishing tackle, over fourteen hundred hooks, was issued as a deliberate response to cattle scarcity. [Film No. 322-324, 327-343]

Foreign relations were tested by three vessels in 1715. The French royal vessel Jason of 700 tons and 40 guns under Monsieur Dudemain arrived on 29 January 1715. Pyke's careful diplomatic forms, with seven guns answered by five, granted refreshment of goats, fowls, eggs and ten hogs in place of beeves. The St Lewis under Captain Le Barn arrived on 19 February 1715; when her captain refused to fire so small a salute as three guns, Pyke sent two nimble men up the mountain to turn off the water at its source, and after a night carrying off empty casks the captain accepted the English method. The Cardonnell brought directors' letters in June 1715, but its master Mawson failed to deliver cargo within charter-party time. [Film No. 366-369, 376-378, 486, 493-496]

Judiciary and Civil Disputes

The council acted as the island's only court, proving wills, granting letters of administration, registering apprenticeship indentures and trying criminal cases. Where no written will existed, a nuncupative will was proved on sworn evidence, as for William Hayse in January 1713, but only after an inventory of the estate had been lodged. The Court of 2 September 1713 heard three substantive causes before twelve sworn freeholders with Ripin Wills as foreman. In Powill v Girling the jury found that a husband had no power to make over land that had come to his wife through her father's will, and ordered the 45 acres restored with costs, establishing the principle that a husband's general authority over his wife's land yielded to specific contrary terms in an earlier husband's will. The Wrangham declaration produced the opposite result on different facts. The Carne dog-and-bull case extended a master's liability for slaves to damage by youths in the master's care acting with the master's animals. [Film No. 11-12, 28, 53, 69-70, 73-77]

The Snow-Powill slander case of October 1713 illustrated the council's tracing procedure. Powill complained that Rinedus Snow had broadcast a report that he had attempted to hang himself and been cut down by one of his own slaves. The tracing ran through five named persons without finding a fixed author; the council settled on Tompson as the most active repeater, ordering public apology, with public retraction substituting for monetary damages. The Court of Orphans on 2 September 1713 found the Beale and French orphan accounts very difficult and intricate; on 13 October Carne and Powill were ordered to choose two honest men each to methodise the accounts, replacing direct council determination with a contradictory audit. The arrangement collapsed when the arbitrators refused to act under a £500 bond. [Film No. 70, 72, 78-80]

The Court of 8 June 1714 sat to determine the Beale orphans' affairs, with a twelve-man jury under Ripin Wills as foreman. The jury worked through the consultation and account of 25 September 1710 prepared under Roberts, item by item. Verdicts were finely judged: £9 reduced to £6, but £35 confirmed for nine head of cattle, and £88 16s 0d for 74 timber trees disallowed entirely unless proof could be brought of timber cutting. The orphans' sixty acres were ordered fenced forthwith at Powill's charge. John Alexander, Clerk of the Council, was unanimously acquitted of his standing charge of £22 13s 3d on the demolished Beale country house, the jury accepting the timbers had been worm-eaten. The verdict functioned as a partial rehabilitation of Alexander against persistent accusations laid in the Roberts administration. [Film No. 148-153]

Pyke's administration inherited a substantial backlog of unresolved petitions from Boucher. The four-cornered Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander land dispute ran back to October 1709, when Richard Alexander, leaving the island, had encouraged Thomas Bagley to petition Governor Roberts for his house and land; Bagley received a 21-year lease. After Alexander died, his widow Marcy petitioned the Court of Directors, who ordered her restored; Boucher executed the order, ejecting Bagley and placing Marcy's new husband Thomas Gurgen in possession. Bagley died, and Tovey then married Bagley's widow, claiming the unexpired residue. The dispute is dense with irony: Tovey was simultaneously petitioner, council secretary, draftsman of the entries recording his own case, and signatory of the orders on it. George Carne's sworn certificate that he had heard Boucher declare at the Plantation House that what he had done against Bagley had been absolutely to oppose Roberts converted second-hand report into authenticated written witness. The case was deferred for fair copying and transmission to London. [Film No. 210, 213, 215, 216, 220-226, 230, 244]

On 19 November 1714 a contested title to land originally granted to Richard Alexander in 1693, lost through controverted eviction in December 1709, produced seven extended pleadings from John Alexander, Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow as executors, Swallow personally, and Tovey himself. The case disclosed layered evidentiary tools of the period: freeholders' certificates as collective testimony, locally sworn depositions, original consultation entries, and sealed leases. The bench did not deliver a final ruling within the period covered; the matter was referred to London. [Film No. 265-283]

The Wood and Wills dispute of January 1714/15 illustrated the council's two-tier jurisdiction. Ruth Wood deposed that she had given her daughter Margaret £91 0s 0d on her marriage to Benjamin Wills on the promise of equivalent value, ten acres of land formerly James Easthope's, and a black slave. Benjamin died eighteen months into the marriage; Pipin Wills then repossessed it. With eleven witnesses on the two sides, the council found the matter too intricate for summary determination and referred it to the Court of Judicature. The general sessions of 7 February 1715 illustrated the racial gradation of punishment in worked example: Thomas Bevian was indicted for stealing a cane with a silver head valued at 7s 6d, and on Pyke's advice the jury found the value to be 10d only, keeping the offence below the 12d threshold for grand larceny, since Bevian was a white man. He received thirty-nine lashes. Three slave prosecutions followed immediately: Moll, Jenny and George. [Film No. 310-311, 350, 358-359]

The trial of William Bevar, midshipman of the Aurengzebe, on 24 January 1715 tested judicial procedure in full. He was indicted for contriving to steal away Abigail, a female slave valued at £50 0s 0d, belonging to widow Grace Coulson. A mixed jury of twelve, four senior officers of the Aurengzebe under foreman George Westcott, four garrison sergeants and four planters, returned guilty and Pyke imposed a fine of £10 0s 0d only with admonition. The leniency exposed the practical limit of the court's reach over an outbound mariner whose detention would have disrupted the Indiaman's voyage. The contrast with Lucas Mason, severely whipped without trial, and Abigail, publicly whipped at the widow's insistence, was made openly. [Film No. 350-354]

The trial of Toby, a black slave belonging to the Steward orphans, on 10 May 1715 produced the most consequential judicial event of Pyke's first year. The prosecution was brought by Deputy Governor Haswell personally, who had married Steward's widow within about four months of his death. Goods found in Toby's quarters were said by Toby to have been given to him by Dolly, Haswell's own enslaved woman and his alleged wife. Pyke had privately advised Haswell on 4 May to let the matter rest as too frivolous for a man's life, but Haswell pressed for indictment in English form so that the slave could be hanged. At trial when Haswell called Dolly to give evidence, she identified Toby as her husband; Pyke read aloud from Dalton's Justice and from Sir Edward Coke to show that a wife could not be required to give evidence against her husband in a felony. The jury returned not guilty after a short consultation. The bench then issued two formal orders restraining Haswell from reflecting on the jury and requiring him to pay all charges of court, both authenticated by Tovey alone with Bazett's signature conspicuously absent. The bench had disciplined its own second member through a procedural device that confined the documentary record to the governor and the junior councillor. [Film No. 446, 450-459]

Powell's petition of 24 May 1715 against Haswell, brought before Haswell's face, accused him of tyranny and oppression under colour of office and of having endeavoured to destroy the slave Toby under colour of law. The bench refused to enter the substantive petition, supporting the executors in office while declining to discharge them. The dispute quietly dissolved on 7 June 1715 when the executors reported they were in a fair way of agreement with Haswell, the bench refusing to look over the papers produced and simply wishing them good success. The procedural manoeuvre avoided formal adjudication. [Film No. 470-477, 482]

The summer 1715 inquiry into the Eagle Galley mutiny produced one of the most thoroughly documented mutiny cases on the council books. On 29 June 1715 a letter from disaffected men of the Indiaman commanded by Captain Daniel Beeckman reached the marshal, complaining of want of Company allowance of arrack and provisions. When the bench tested the substance, the complaint collapsed: a piece of salt beef weighed in council ran from five and three-quarter to seven and a half pounds against a six-pound benchmark, rice was abundant, fresh meat distributed generously. Further depositions placed the matter beyond a victualling dispute: a lighted match found in the powder room at Batavia in late May 1714, the gunner's declaration he would never be easy till he saw the confusion of the ship, a thousand pounds missing first known only at Carry-Mon-Java, and an exchange overheard after the Cape in which the gunner had said it should be done in the same manner as it was to be done at Batavia. Six convergent officer depositions identified four warrant officer principals: boatswain Thomas Frances, gunner Thomas Clark, doctor's mate Alexander Adair and trumpeter William Wells. Despatching the prisoners proved difficult; Captain Hurst of the Avarilla refused on 3 August 1715 to take them, citing several men of similar character already in irons on his own vessel. The bench compromised by sending only Wells. [Film No. 513-530, 555-559]

Slavery and Coerced Labour

Slave labour saturated the records throughout the period, although the council did not name it as a separate theme in 1713. The drought emergency assumed each cooperating family had at least one slave to send fishing; the highway corvée counted every able-bodied male slave alongside every free male above sixteen; the head money assessed whites and blacks alike at 6d a head. Labour concentrations are clear: George Carne contributed twelve slaves to the corvée in 1713 and was assessed for eighteen blacks in a household of twenty-two. The treatment of slaves in the records is uneven: they appear as taxable units, as labour to be sent fishing, as the workforce of the fortifications, and occasionally as named individuals when implicated in matters before the council. Black Sam, a Company slave at the Hutts lookout, appears as the counterparty to Edward Mallard's buckles wager during the July 1713 conspiracy, his testimony unrecorded though his presence is noted by overseer Benjamin Miller. The council recognised slaves administratively and economically without ever recording their voices, a silence that conditions any reading of the file. [Film No. 28, 33, 40-46, 56]

Through late 1713 the slave's confession of theft, given while under punishment for running away, was treated as sufficient to make Carne as master indemnifier for the property loss. The 307 yards of kersey at over thirty-three pounds drawn to the plantation account supplied bulk slave clothing on the consolidated estate; Indian dungarees, named for the working district near Bombay, were specifically supplied as slave shirts. Skilled slaves in critical positions received different treatment: the storekeeper's account for the single month ending 25 March 1714 contains an unusual entry of two pairs of English pumps to the black cook Tim and one pair of Spanish pumps to the black smith, named slaves receiving dress shoes at 5s the pair rather than bulk clothing. Nicholas Shreve, stone cutter at Sandy Bay, taught two of the Company's black boys to cut stone very well under a promised £10 fee, illustrating how skilled trades were transmitted through fixed training payments to free craftsmen. [Film No. 63, 65, 69, 78, 103, 143, 155]

The slave insurrection rumour of 2 June 1714 was the most serious matter of social order in Boucher's closing months. By beat of drum the council published an advertisement that a rumour had been spread that the slaves on the island had, or did lately, intend either by themselves or in concert with other evil and wicked disposed persons to act in an insurrection in a barbarous manner. The council acknowledged there was too little ground to fix the intent on any individual, and offered a handsome reward and full immunity to any informer, white or black, who could substantiate the rumour. The timing, six days after Boucher's declaration of his intended departure, points to a working concern about the security of the island during the interregnum. The advertisement's extension of evidentiary standing to slaves as informers against free persons reflects an established working procedure on a small island where racial categories did not exhaust the lines of evidence the council was prepared to take. [Film No. 147]

On 10 July 1714 the 47 slaves landed from Sitwell's sloop Mercury from Antigua were inspected by the new surgeon in the council's presence and classified as merchantable: 27 men and 15 women passed (42 in all), with one man and three women returned as not merchantable. Mashborne's slave roster of 24 August 1714 placed seventy-six across all establishments: ten each at Lufkin's and the Plantation House, four for the new ground, seven in the garden, three at the vineyard, three to wash, three to fetch wood, two carpenters, two wall makers, two for hogs, four past labour, seven children, two to fish, three each at Perkins and Norden, eight at the Hutts. The surveyors estimated thirty-four more were wanting to bring cultivation to full strength. Two slave cases came before the council: Thomas Perkins was permitted on 13 July 1714 to sell three slaves on the express condition that Jack, an old thief and house breaker, be carried off the island. In the Pompey case of 10 August 1714 the council found for Robert Marsh on his written bill of sale against Cason's claim on an oral disposition by Boucher, applying a clear preference for documentary over verbal evidence. [Film No. 164, 167-168, 187-189, 196-201]

The Carne settlement of December 1714 valued twenty-nine slaves at £290, giving an average of £10 per head as the standard market price, exceeding the value of his developed land and constituting the largest single capital category in his estate. The hundred lashes ordered on the naked body of Moll, a slave wench, on 2 December 1714 for entering Samuel Algate's house and taking two slices of beef worth at most a pound, set against Thompson's forty lashes for a serious riot and the wounding of a fellow soldier, exposes how the punishment scale for slaves diverged sharply from that for soldiers. The prohibition on bartering with slaves was enforced through a fifteen-shilling fine on Renatus Snow for bartering for lemons with Clove, a slave of Thomas Frey, with Snow committed and the slave also punished. [Film No. 264, 286, 288, 296]

The church rate of 1714, levied at 6d per head on every white and black member of a household over sixteen, gave a uniquely full snapshot. The total was 158 whites and 206 blacks, 364 persons in all. The 1.30 to 1 ratio of black to white indicates a colony in which slave labour formed a substantial majority of the working-age population. Slaves were concentrated in a small number of large households: George Carne held fourteen, Gabriel Powell ten, the chaplain Joshua Tomlinson eight. The widow Coulson's argument that the loss of a slave on the island was of much greater consequence than in many other places framed slave property as a public concern. [Film No. 344-348]

The labour combination of 18 January 1714/15 is the clearest sign of the use of debt as an instrument of discipline. The stone-layers had agreed to refuse work at less than 5s 0d a day. Pyke ordered a writ against Walter Morris, the combination's most exposed member, £38 0s 0d in Company debt. Morris settled by selling a slave named Nick for £25 0s 0d, with the balance discharged in yams. Pyke then engaged others at 3s 0d a day, below the previous settled rate, breaking the strike through financial rather than disciplinary means. The 1714 census recorded 60 slaves against 91 whites on one page, with slave men more than ten times the number of slave women, reflecting Company practice of purchasing predominantly male slaves at Madagascar and the Guinea coast and leaving the slave population unable to reproduce itself. George the runaway was sentenced to whipping, a fifty-pound chain and clog, then transferred from one owner to another as part of a civil judgment, an episode that lays bare the absolute commodification of the enslaved person. [Film No. 320, 360-364, 376, 392-393]

Through 1715 the management of Company slaves continued. On 19 April 1715 the surgeon complained that Murdoc and John Batavia had been pursuing the enslaved women across the country and spreading a venereal distemper; the governor proposed they be fettered together with a chain of about six feet long, as the custom of the Dutch at Batavia. The name John Batavia marks the mixed sources from which the Company drew its labour. Henry Harmon the gardener was tied to the flagstaff on 26 April 1715 and given forty lashes for stealing wood from the Company garden. The standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715 required prospective tenants to hold at least one black, treating slave ownership as the operational threshold for plantation viability. On 26 July 1715 Tovey was directed to enquire into all Company slaves let out, to whom and whether their terms had expired. The licensed drink trade absolutely excluded slaves: Beale's licence under the Lords Proprietors' seal of 5 July 1715 ordered not to trade with nor entertain any blacks on any pretence whatsoever. [Film No. 431-440, 460-461, 532-534, 539, 553, 561]

Finance, Wages and the Store Economy

Almost every transaction was denominated in pounds, shillings and pence, but cash itself was scarce. The economy ran on the store books at the United Castle, in which wages, debts and credits were entered and settled by ledger rather than by coin. Standard rates emerge clearly: 8 per cent interest per year on bonds, 5s an acre for waste land leases, 14s an acre for established wood land at Tomstone Wood, around £5 per acre for cultivated freehold, and 1s 6d a day for unskilled labour whether white or black. The head money of 1713 brought in £8 18s 6d across 357 assessed persons. The 1713 store book was the working leverage by which soldiers' labour could be redirected. Standard interest on Company store credit was 8 per cent per annum, observed in the £50 loan to quarter gunner Samuel Jessey on bond on 2 February 1714. Settlement of arrears was customarily made by credit to a personal account rather than in cash, preserving the working cash balance at the Castle. [Film No. 11, 24, 27-28, 42, 111-112, 155]

The two-month account for 25 October to 25 December 1713 totalled £1,070 6s 7½d, of which over 85 per cent ran on the inhabitants column. Subsequent accounts fell to £641 6s 11½d for December-February and £207 12s 1¼d for the single month February-March 1714 on the shorter form Bazett adopted under post-interrogation pressure. Several conventions of working finance recur: remittances between the island and England operated through the Company's London accounts, used as in the order of 24 June 1714 to deduct £15 yearly from Nicholas Shreve's salary for payment to his wife. Charles Steward's bill of £22 15s 0d for goods supplied to furnish the Fort house at Boucher's first coming, never paid for and now settled by credit on the eve of departure, illustrates how private suppliers regularly carried the cost of fitting out the Governor's household for years before formal council orders converted the debts into store entries. [Film No. 113-128, 134-144, 155]

Pyke's administration constructed a three-stage credit recovery programme. On 16 July 1714 no person whose name appeared in the Company's books could be granted leave to depart until accounts were settled. On 17 August 1714 a general advertisement required all account-holders to settle. On 24 August 1714 a debt-conversion scheme offered a planter with debts above £20 paying £4 cash £5 of credit, or alternatively discharge through labour at the fortifications at the same effective rate. By 14 September 1714 the council named principal debtors above £20 and gave them fourteen days. The General Table was sharply reduced to Governor, Deputy Governor and Chaplain alone. Soldiers were limited to three months' pay on credit at any one time. [Film No. 171, 191-192, 198-199, 209]

On 2 and 3 November 1714 more than thirty named debtors brought proposals before the council, paid almost entirely in kind: yams, beans, slaves to work, fowls, breeding sows, cattle, shoes at fixed rates, and labour. Thomas Free augmented his offer with household silver plate valued at about £50. George Carne, the largest single debtor at over £700 between store account and bond, proposed clearance through credit due (£110), plate (£80), slaves (£90), breeding cattle (£25), goats (£50), lands (£200) and continuing slave labour. The proposals expose with bleak clarity the agricultural devastation of the 1712-13 drought. James Draper had lost all his cattle but two. Christopher Kelley had had 19 cows; 14 died of the dry conditions, the remaining five were too eager at a steep watering place, the foremost fell, and the other four were beaten down with broken necks. Sutton Isaack junior had lost 14 of 17 cattle and all 60 hogs. Several inhabitants offered family members as part of their settlement: Thomas Burnham proposed his thirteen-year-old son be enlisted as a soldier; Dorothy Hayse offered her son Francis. [Film No. 233-237, 239]

On 4 November 1714 the council entered a comprehensive abstract of debts due to the Company, alphabetically organised, recording roughly 130 named debtors. Substantial entries included George Carne at combined £708, John Knipe at £371 3s 4d, William Porteous at £228 19s 8¾d, William Gore at £166 13s 8¾d. The corresponding schedule of debts due from the Company to inhabitants totalled £1,432 4s 8¼d, with the largest entries belonging to Charles Steward (£261), Gabriel Powell (£257), the Keeling family combined (£321), and Bazett himself at £174. The structural awkwardness of the storekeeper certifying balances in his own favour passed without comment. The two abstracts captured a credit economy operating largely without cash, with the Company functioning as both employer and supplier. [Film No. 246-252]

On 21 December 1714 Pyke experimentally issued signed bank bills to the value of twenty pounds, an early attempt at paper currency intended to address the chronic shortage of coin that arriving Indiamen drained as fast as it accumulated. On 15 March 1715 the council issued a fuller local paper currency: 30 bills at 40s, 40 at 20s, 40 at 5s and 60 at 2s 6d, totalling £117 10s 0d, each authenticated by all five councillors and the governor accountable for them as cash. An advertisement of 22 March 1715 promised silver redemption at par and threatened severe punishment of public house keepers who undervalued the notes. The bills-of-exchange reform of summer 1715 was tested directly on 9 August when the Avarilla purser sought a small bill home for twenty-eight pounds, offering half in goods; the bench's initial willingness was struck through in the consultation book and the refusal sustained, a striking example of institutional self-discipline. [Film No. 263, 300-301, 388-391, 538, 543, 559]

Religion, Education and Parish Affairs

On 9 June 1713 the council renewed the annual round of civic appointments. The outgoing churchwardens Ripin Wills and Thomas Yargen presented two years' accounts for the two churches, the country church and the church in James Valley, and were discharged. James Draper and Francis Wrangham were appointed under a detailed warrant combining custody of vestments, accounting for gifts, identifying the poor, supervising the sexton and acting as moral informants against sabbath breakers, swearers, drunkards and whoremongers. The same sitting installed John Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior as highway overseers. The minister was Joshua Thomlinson, but the religious establishment was thin: two buildings, a sexton, and the head money to support them. [Film No. 36-38]

Public worship had collapsed under the closing months of Boucher to the point that few or none had appeared at church on the Lord's day other than the Governor and Council. On 10 August 1714 Pyke required every person in Company service who lived in the valley to attend, beginning with the population most directly subject to Company discipline. The Chaplain was preserved at the General Table when all others were moved to board wages, confirming the office as one of the three substantive entitlements of the senior establishment alongside Governor and Deputy Governor. Provision for religious instruction and elementary literacy ran through the storekeeper's accounts in small numbers of primers, horn books and testaments: six horn books, three primers and four testaments in the December 1713 account; seven primers, ten horn books and three testaments in the February-March 1714 account. These describe a household-level economy of literacy rather than any institutional school. [Film No. 113, 125, 169, 186]

The chaplain Joshua Tomlinson was both spiritual head and significant slaveholder, with his stipend supplemented by head money collected by the wardens James Draper and Francis Wrangham under the warrant of 18 January 1714/15. The wardens could seize and sell at outcry the goods of any household head who refused to pay. Parish finance was settled on 17 May 1715 through confirmation of a poll tax to clear the church debt of £40. The rate was two shillings and sixpence on every white and black above sixteen, with a pauper exemption set at sixpence on certificate. Company servants holding plantations were specifically required to pay head money as other planters, closing a loophole. The two-tier structure scaled the burden to capacity to pay. The advertisement of 13 April 1715 had reset the parish offices, calling inhabitants to the country church on 18 April to choose churchwardens and overseers of the highways. [Film No. 344, 357, 428, 431-432, 436-437, 460-461]

Personalities

Matthew Bazett threads the whole period as the central administrative figure. He was dismissed in October 1712 for character failings, restored as third in council by December 1712, surveyor through the whole 1713 registration programme, second in council after Pack's death, custodian of the store books and the first to receive the July 1713 mutiny information. He refused to sign the general letter to the directors on 1 April 1714 but cleared Boucher on 27 May. Retained by Pyke as fourth in council, and elevated to third on Mashborne's death, he carried the store books with continuing arrears, and his own credit balance was the largest individual on the November 1714 books. His structural position as both auditor and audited was never quite resolved. [Film No. 30, 32, 48, 130-133, 232, 251, 505]

Benjamin Boucher, Governor through July 1714, departed on 28 June 1714 in the Recovery under Captain Richard Heathfield, ten days before his successor arrived, having stripped the Fort of its portable hardware down to the locks and keys of the doors. His calculated departure ten days before any successor could audit him is itself the strongest evidence of how the outgoing Governor understood his own record. Haswell's formal schedule of 3 November 1714 identified £156 19s 6d of items Boucher had converted to his own use, including wine carried off in his own ship to French shipping at £19 8s 6d. The choice of French shipping was especially sensitive: the war had only just concluded. [Film No. 155, 158, 222-223]

Isaac Pyke emerges as a methodical, calendaring administrator: a new lime kiln, a new goat pound, a fence survey, paper bank bills, new standing rules on credit, regularised general sittings and musters. His care to record the deterrent purpose of the small Bevar fine, and his open statement that Bevian was spared the gallows partly because he was a white man, suggest a governor self-conscious about how the record would read to the Lords Proprietors. He preferred composition to confrontation, shielding his deputy from formal proceedings while quietly enabling protective orders, applied quiet material pressure (as with the St Lewis water diversion) and used the threat of severe but unspecified punishment as a disciplinary instrument. [Film No. 320, 350-354, 367, 442-443, 451-459]

George Haswell, Deputy Governor, appears in two registers. He signed routine consultation entries while standing as the subject of accusations of tyranny, threats of personal violence and abuse of office. He dragged the slave Toby to the fort with a rope about his neck, pressed for a capital indictment over a trifling theft, insisted on English procedure in the hope of a hanging, made objection against the discreet planter Coles as a juror, paraded his own enslaved woman Dolly as a witness, denounced the jury as packed and walked out in a fury. The bench then formally restrained him. The selective signing of orders against him through summer 1715 confirms the underlying tensions. [Film No. 446, 451-459, 470-477]

Antipas Tovey, Secretary, was simultaneously the fourth in council and the most prolific documentary figure. He stood as petitioner in the major Bagley-Alexander land dispute heard at the same table where he signed orders. Reprimanded by Pyke for having no ink for a fortnight and wanting candles, he nonetheless authenticated almost every consequential consultation entry. His name became the procedural seal of the bench's discipline of its own second member when, on Pyke's direction, he alone signed the orders against Haswell after the Toby trial. [Film No. 232, 262, 302, 451-459]

George Carne, the consolidating planter, embodied the substantial planter class. His marriage to Captain Thomas Goodwin's widow brought eighty acres into his hands, his household by June 1713 stood at twenty-two souls. By November 1714 his combined debt of over £700 was the largest single Company exposure, discharged through an extraordinary asset schedule combining land, livestock, twenty-nine slaves, plate and personal effects. He was twice fined for supplying beef in three bags to the French Jason against published order. His sworn certificate of overheard Boucher conversation about Bagley's eviction was the most consequential single document of late 1714. His correspondence of St David's Day 1715 pleading ill health and seeking to lay down the guardianship of the Beals reveals the strain on a substantial planter. [Film No. 32, 226, 285, 288, 296, 367, 371, 389]

Other recurring figures shape the record. Gabriel Powill, freeholder, emerged as one of the principal litigating freeholders of the year 1713 and afterwards as executor of Charles Steward. John Alexander, Clerk and later executor, framed his interventions in fiduciary language while pressing cases that discomfited his successor in office. Edward Mashborne supplied the practical expertise on plantations, livestock and procurement on returning in July 1714 after three years' absence, before his death on 31 March 1715. Captain Richard Pinnell of the Susanna was the disciplined external counterparty, ensuring through three carefully drafted letters that every consequential exchange with the council was recorded for London. Mr Swartz, chief supercargo of the Borneo, was the most colourful figure of summer 1715: his grievance over precedence at the proclamation dinner expanded into a satirical paper attacking the constitutional foundations of the administration. [Film No. 67-78, 226, 251, 258-259, 506-509]

Conclusion

The thirty months from January 1713 to August 1715 record a small Company outpost passing through three connected transitions: the closing year of Boucher's administration, the death of Pack and the consequent thinning of the council, and the reconstruction of administrative discipline under Pyke. The 1713 registration programme converted decades of informal landholding into a consolidated documentary record. The drought response shifted the council from regulator to active provisioner. The July 1713 mutiny was pre-empted without bloodshed. The Pyke recovery programme of 1714-15 combined inventories, advertisements, debt-conversion schemes, paper currency experiments and the documentary assembly of a case against the previous governor for transmission to London. The proclamation of George I on 11 June 1715, the suspension of fortification works after the Peace of Utrecht, the cow-saving order, the Eagle Galley mutiny inquiry and the Swartz libel together describe a small administration responding methodically to metropolitan instruction and to political moment alike. [Film No. 33, 49, 145-159, 487, 510-569]

The official record naturally serves the council's purposes. It leaves silences where its subjects could not speak: the slaves named only as units of assessment, as witnesses to others' wagers or as items of debt settlement; the orphans whose interests depended on the good faith of their stepfathers; the soldiers whose grievances became audible only when they crossed into conspiracy; the women who appear in the record largely through their husbands or fathers. The consultation books were the bench's instrument of communication with the Lords Proprietors, and entries were composed with that audience in mind. The selective signing of orders against Haswell through 1715, the margin notes excluding particular petitions, the refusal to inspect papers when private settlement was preferred, the deferral of inquiries when their pursuit might prove inconvenient, all suggest a bench actively shaping the record. Within these limits the material provides exceptionally rich evidence of how a chartered company governed a remote South Atlantic island in the early eighteenth century, with the war in Europe and the Hanoverian succession both made tangible only at the distance of arriving cargoes and delayed proclamation. [Film No. 11, 33, 49, 58, 235, 252, 487, 506-509]

Film

No

Page

No.

OCR Transcription

Modern Summary with Analysis

1

EAP 1364 St Helena

Document Name and Date ST HELENA RECORDS 1712-15

Photographer PETER

Date photographed 29 OCT 2021

Additional comments

2

Book cover

3

Blank page

4

Blank page

5

1713

NB Those marked X are all curious

or more or less illustrative of the History of

the Island

Titles to several properties proved 1 — 20.

X An apprentice in the Art or Mystery of Shoemaking 21

X May 12 1713 No rain for 10 months 26 Fishing recommended &

Rice bought from Shipping

Churchwardens Warrant 30 Church Rate £ 8.18.6. 35

[...] Head money

No of Inhabitants aboard School & White 35

Price of food & sold out of Store Rates 40 40 [...]

Mutiny 42 do

[...] Titles granted to certain Landholders 51 54

Lemon Trees in Sandy Bay under the Pepper Rocks. 61

Oct Drought & scarcity of Cattle still 73 75 77

The Surgeon: Porteous allowed £40 [...] Ann 81

Demolishing of Old James Fort agreed to 88

Several Officers [...] solely of Lodgings

1714 3 Testaments sold from Stove [...] 100

Cassia [...] services at Limekiln Sandpit & Sandy Bay, 147

24 Jun Gov[r] Bouchier proposes to return to England 146

8 July Gov[r] Pykes arrival — Complaints against Bouchier 149 [...] crime [...]

[...] Bouchier

Governor Pykes Commission 158

Cook put in Irons & whipt for killing one of Gov[r] Pykes [...] Jago Cocks 160

Slaves landed 42

Regulations about food in consequence of scarcity 168 [...]

Aug[t] Roller do damage at the Line — Hanging Rocks at d[o]. 173

Order for all Gov[r] Servants to attend Church. 177

Gov[r] Table reduced on acc[t] of Scarcity 183 [...]

Plantation house untenantable — 190 190

Drought still complained of 194

Streets of the Town to be marked out 194

Plantation House out of Repair 200 [...]

Expences of Gov[r] Bouchiers Riding house 213 [...]

List of Records in Sec. Office 16 July 1714 p 230

6

1714 Oil Rye & clover Grass sown by [...] 217

Various debtors to the Comp[y] enumerated with their [...]

[...] pleas for payment 224 &c 237

Southern History 229

Inventory of Books in the Secretary's Office 230

General List of Wills 232

Chaplains Account of Registers sent home 247

The "Barn" mentioned 248

Southwark S[t] James Valley 276

Jury's answer — no Ink in the office [...] 276

Survey of the Company's Fences — the word Gutts first occurs 281

Lime Kiln near the Old Bridge 288

Three men drowned in D[r] Thomlinson's boat — the Boat a deodand 298

Copy of a Lease in Queen Anne's time 304

2500 Cattle Loss in the drought 314 — 339 — 359

966 Cattle remaining [...] 403

Church Rate warrants for 336

Indictment of M[r] [...] a [...] for [...] & other — slaves 341

Gov[r] Pykes Speech to [...] Jury declaring the principles

of Government 347

[...] a Thief — being a white man 349

Slaves whipped at Carts Tail to "[...] [...]" 350

Jury present the state of the Street Roads &c.

Plant Path, Cow Path, middle d[o] — Gov[r] answer 353

French Ship arrives — disputes about saluting 357

A Large Bible purchased out of the Store 374

Paper Money issued by the Governor 387

Return of Families Lands Cattle &c. 403

Facts about Robbers in March Feb[y] 407. 410

Parish Officers chosen at the Church &c usual 419

License to sell Liquor 420

Window Blind of S[t] Helena described 433

Sickness prevailing 433

Poll tax ordered as a Church Rate 457 458

7

1715

Proclamation of King George 478 478

No cow heifer &c. to be killed for a year 481

Wine Licence — 523 [...] 494

Government Fishing and Fishing Boats 526

Alterations in the Cattle by Pyke 529

Surf usually high at Xmas 407

Census of the population 393

Libel on the Government & proceedings 495 — 497

8

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9

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10

1

Island S[t] Helena,

At a Consultation Held on Tues-

day the 6[th] day of January 17 12/13 At the United

Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]:

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[er]n[r]

John Pack Deputy Gov[er]n[r]

Mattheu[w] Bazett 3[d] in Coun[ll]

Lieu[tt] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assistants

Thomas Burnham free Planter presented his Petition this day

Setting forth That haveing bin Imploy[d] as a Stone Layer at the Fortifi[c]a[tion]

on [...] for some years and haveing but one black could by no possible

means fence in his Land According to the Hono[u]ble Companys orders

Wherefore Humbly Prays a Longer Time may be granted

him for Fenceing in Said Land,

Upon consideration of the said Burnhams being Imploy[d]

as abovesaid and his Circumstances Very mean Ordered He be

Allowed Twelve months time Longer for I[?] fencing his said Land

Haveing given Notice that the Land formerly Marshes and

Hunts would be disposed of to the highest bidder, Whereupon

Jonathan Duston free planter appeared and desired to know

the Lowest Price, offering to give as much as any Person, the

said Land Lying very Convenient and Contiguous to his own

who being told the Price and that the Provisions in both Plan-

tations were to be for the Honour[bel] Companys own use Came

to the agreement following

That

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Burnham

desires time to

fence in his

Land

allowed

Mon[s][r] Duston

his desire to

buy Marsh

[...]

[...]

Land

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 6 January 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; John Pack, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Thomas Burnham, free planter, presented a petition explaining that he had worked as a stone layer at the fortifications for some years and owned only one slave. He could not fence in his land within the time required by the Company's orders, and asked for an extension.

The council considered his employment and his poor circumstances. He was granted twelve further months to complete the fencing.

Notice had earlier been given that the land formerly held by Marsh and Hunt would be sold to the highest bidder. Jonathan Duston, free planter, came forward and asked the lowest price the council would accept, offering to match any other bidder. The two plantations adjoined his own and lay conveniently for him. The council told him the price and made clear that the provisions standing on both plantations were reserved for the Company's own use. On those terms Duston agreed to the purchase.

Interpretations

The twelve-month fencing extension granted to Burnham shows how the council managed the tension between strict enforcement of fencing law and the practical limits of planter labour. A stone layer in continuous Company employment with a single slave could not realistically meet the fencing deadline announced in November 1712. Rather than seize the land for default, the council suspended the penalty for an identifiable class of planter, those whose labour was already committed to public works. The exception preserved both the rule and the workforce.

The disposal of the Marsh and Hunt lands by competitive offer rather than fixed price represents a further refinement of the consolidation programme. The land had been purchased into Company hands during 1711 to build the contiguous estate around the Hutts. Selling the cultivated ground while retaining the standing provisions allowed the council to recover capital, place the soil with a planter willing to work it and keep the food supply in reserve for the garrison and the Company's slaves. Reservation of the provisions converted what would otherwise be an outright sale into a hybrid transaction in which the Company kept the immediate yield and parted only with the long-term tenure.

Duston's position as a contiguous landholder explains why the council was prepared to accept his offer rather than wait for a fuller market. Adjacency lowered the cost of fencing and management for the buyer, but it also relieved the Company of the burden of working an outlying parcel under a reeve. The sale exemplifies the council's preference, visible across 1711 and 1712, for disposing of remote ground while concentrating its own holdings around the Hutts and Plantation House.

Speculations

Burnham's petition probably came forward at this moment because the survey deadline of 25 March 1713 was approaching and he had no realistic prospect of completing the work in time. By asking for relief in January rather than waiting to be cited in default, he secured a documented exception that would protect him at the audit and preserve his title.

The decision to admit Duston's offer without a public outcry suggests that the council had concluded the Marsh and Hunt lands would not attract a competitive field. With several recently bought plantations on its hands and no fresh applicants able to take on large parcels, an immediate sale to a known adjoining planter at an agreed price was perhaps the most efficient route to clearing the asset from the Company's books.

11

2

That the said Jonathan Duston should have Sixty Acres of

Land formerly Marshes and Thirty Acres that was Hunts

for the Sume of Four Hundred Sixty Pound Eighteen Shillings

out of which to Allow[d] three Pound Twelve Shillings for

Secureing the Provisions from the Damage of Cattle the

fences at present being very bad. And that the said Duston

Pay the Hono[u][ble] Company as much of Said Sume as Conven-

iently he can at or Upon the 25 of March next and what

remains unpaid to give bond for Paying Eight per Cent per

annum Interest which we think a very good Bargaine

for the Advantage of our Honoura[ble] Masters and hope they

will think So to.

Sutton Isaack Sen[r] and free Planter Exhibited a Petition

this day representing therein that he had out of Pitty & Charity

one of his Grand Sons Edward Collier brought him up from an

Infant to the age of fourteen years without the Least Satisfacti-

on, and he himselfe being very antient and past his Labour besides

the Standing indebted to the Honoura[ble] Company for Severall

Necessaries and but in a low and mean Condition Humbly

Prays we would receive and Entertaine the said Edward Collier

as a Soldier in the said Comp[a][s] Service, whose Sallary will be a very

great help to him and means of Lessening his said debt.

Considering the said Sutton Isaack hath bin a very Industrious

man (the Sow[?] in the world now[?]) and a good Liver on this Place,

Ordered.

That the said Edward Collier be Entertained as a Soldier accord-

ing to his Grandfathers request.

Isabell Hayse represented by Petition That her deceased

Husband William Hayse dying without any Will in Writing

Humbly Prays that Sutton Isaack Sen[r] and Thomas Hayse Jun[r]

might be Examin[d] on Oath to Declare what they heard he[r] said

Husband Say on his death bed In Order to the Settling & Disposeing

of his Estate, and the Same recorded as a Verball Will

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Dustons

agreement for

Hunt & Mashes

Land

Sutton Isaack

request to

Entertaine

Ed[d]. Collier

as a Sold[r]

Granted

Will[m] Hayse

Verball Will

[...]

desired to be

Proved

Jonathan Duston agreed to take the 60 acres formerly belonging to Marsh and the 30 acres that had been Hunt's, for the sum of £460 18s 0d. From that sum the council allowed £3 12s 0d for protecting the standing provisions against damage from cattle, the fences being in poor condition. Duston was to pay the Company as much of the price as he could conveniently raise by 25 March next, and to give bond for the balance at 8 per cent interest per annum. The council recorded its view that the terms made a good bargain for the Honourable Masters.

Sutton Isaack senior, free planter, presented a petition explaining that out of pity and charity he had brought up one of his grandsons, Edward Collier, from infancy to the age of fourteen, without receiving any payment. He was now elderly and past his labour, owed the Company for various necessaries, and lived in poor circumstances. He asked the council to take Edward Collier into the Company's service as a soldier, since the salary would help him and reduce his debt.

The council took into account Sutton Isaack's reputation as an industrious man and a settled inhabitant, and ordered that Edward Collier be entered as a soldier as his grandfather had asked.

Isabell Hayse presented a petition stating that her late husband William Hayse had died without leaving a written will. She asked the council to examine Sutton Isaack senior and Thomas Hayse junior on oath as to what they had heard her husband say on his deathbed, so that his wishes could be recorded as a verbal will and used to settle his estate.

The council ordered that this be done.

Interpretations

The Duston purchase fixes a working price for substantial cultivated land around the Hutts at just over £5 0s 0d per acre, with the standing provisions retained by the Company subject to a fence-repair allowance against the purchaser's account. The allowance of £3 12s 0d is small in proportion to the total, but it records a deliberate adjustment for risk transfer: cattle were already on the ground, and the Company would lose its reserved crop unless the new tenant secured the boundary. The credit arrangement, with as much as conveniently payable on Lady Day and the residue on bond at the standard 8 per cent island rate, shows the council using deferred terms to move a large parcel out of its own management without waiting for a cash buyer.

Sutton Isaack's petition reveals the working pattern by which the garrison absorbed dependent youths from indebted planter households. Edward Collier's enrolment as a soldier converted a private maintenance burden into a public salary that could be set against his grandfather's store-book debt. The mechanism allowed the Company to recover advances made through its store while keeping an able young man on the island, and gave the household a recognised path out of insolvency without forcing the surrender of land.

Isabell Hayse's request brings forward the standard procedure for proving a nuncupative will. With no written instrument, the council relied on sworn evidence from two named witnesses who had been present at the deathbed. Once recorded, the depositions would have the same effect as a written will for the purposes of settling the estate. The procedure had earlier been applied to soldiers' estates such as John Henson's in early 1712, and is now extended to a free planter household, confirming the council's role as the island's substitute for an ecclesiastical probate court.

Speculations

The price calculation on the Marsh and Hunt lands suggests the council was working to a target close to recovery of cost. The Company had paid £300 0s 0d for Marsh's 58 acres in November 1711 and £250 0s 0d for Hunt's 30-acre plantation with cattle in December 1710, a combined outlay of £550 0s 0d before the cattle and standing yams were stripped out. Selling 90 acres at £460 18s 0d after the harvest of two years of provisions and the removal of stock recovered most of the original capital and probably reflected a deliberate calculation that the Company would gain more by capitalising the provision reserve than by retaining outlying ground under a reeve.

Sutton Isaack's careful framing of his grandson's case in terms of debt and length of unpaid care points to a settled understanding among indebted planters that the council would respond to such petitions where the household had a reputation for industry. The mention of the store-book debt is unlikely to be incidental; by linking the request to a specific outstanding liability, the petitioner gave the council an institutional reason to grant the favour, since the new soldier's pay would be channelled through the same store account that recorded the debt.

12

3

Ordered.

That the Weddow bring in first an Inventory of her deceased Husbands

Estate and then the beforename[d] Persons to be Examind and Sworne

According to her Desire

Isaack Wood Corporall represented by Petition that he had fenced

in a Parcell of Land Lately bought of Giles Hayse as also another Peece

[Hired?] of the Honoura[ble] Company Humbly prays the same may be Measured

and that a Deed and Lease be granted as well for said Land as that at

Present possesses in right of his wife.

Likewise Humphrey Edwards free planter Humbly Petitions that

he might be Establisht in his Land haveing fenced the same according

to Law

Ordered That a Warrant be drawn and Issued out to M[r]

Bazett to Measure the Said Wood & Edwards Land According to their

desires.

Ordered

That Thursday the 15 Instant be appointed to Examine into the Titles

of all Land that are Already Measured and Deeds thereof &c. by that

time And that M[r] Bazett do forward the Measureing all Such Land

he has now Warrants for and that People may know who to attend

the Councill tis thought fit the following Advertisement be

Published by beat of Drum to give Notice Accordingly

Island S[t] Helena. By the Govern[r] and Councill

An Advertizement

These are to give Notice that the Govern[r] and Councill both Intend

to Meet in Consultation at the United Castle in James Valley on

Thursday the 15 Instant In order to the Examining into the Titles of

free Land. Therefore those Persons who has Lately had their Lands

Measured and as no Deeds for the Same, Are hereby required to

attend the Councill on day aforesaid by nine of the Clock forenoone

with what Wrideings they have to produce and there Titles to[?]

Said[?]

Margin Notes:

The Wid[w] to

bring in first

an Inventory

[...] Wood desires

deeds & Leases

for his Land

Likewise

Hum[y] Edwards

The Surveyor

to measure y[e]

same

Titles of Land

to be Examin[d]

and M[r] Bazett

to Survey all

Speedily

Notice given

Advertisem[t]

for meeting on

land y[e] 15

Jan[y] 17 12/13

The council ordered that the widow first bring in an inventory of her late husband's estate. The named witnesses would then be examined and sworn in accordance with her request.

Isaack Wood, corporal, presented a petition. He had fenced in a parcel of land lately bought from Giles Hayse, and another piece hired from the Company. He asked that both be measured and that a deed and lease be granted for them, together with the land he already held in right of his wife.

Humphrey Edwards, free planter, also petitioned to be established in his land, having fenced it as the law required.

The council ordered that a warrant be drawn and issued to Mr Bazett to measure Wood's and Edwards's land as they had requested.

Thursday 15 January 1713 was set as the day for examining the titles of all land already measured, and for issuing the deeds. Mr Bazett was directed to press on with the measurement of every parcel for which he held a warrant. So that the inhabitants would know when to attend, the council ordered the following notice to be published by beat of drum:

Island of St Helena. By the Governor and Council. An advertisement.

Notice is given that the Governor and Council intend to meet in consultation at the United Castle in James Valley on Thursday 15 January 1713, to examine the titles of free land. Those who had recently had their lands measured but as yet held no deeds for them were required to attend the council that day by nine in the forenoon, bringing whatever writings they had to produce in support of their titles.

Interpretations

The order that the widow lodge an inventory before the witnesses were sworn shows the council reversing the natural sequence of a probate by oath. Sworn evidence of a dying man's wishes is of little value unless the assets in question are first identified. Requiring the inventory in advance protected the council from being asked to ratify a verbal disposition over goods that the estate did not in fact contain, and gave the witnesses a fixed schedule against which to direct their recollection. The procedure functions as a check on the evidential weakness of a nuncupative will, anchoring oral testimony to a written record of the property.

Wood's petition illustrates how a single planter's tenure on the island could combine three distinct legal positions in one holding. The freehold portion bought from Giles Hayse required a deed of conveyance, the parcel hired from the Company required a lease, and the ground he occupied in right of his wife required confirmation through the council's records. The council's response, a single warrant to the surveyor for the whole holding, treats measurement as the foundation step common to all three, with the documentary instruments to be issued once the boundaries are fixed.

The decision to set 15 January 1713 as a dedicated title day, with a public advertisement by beat of drum and a fixed hour of attendance, formalises a procedure that had previously been handled piecemeal at successive council days. Concentrating the title work into a single sitting allowed the council to process the backlog efficiently while reminding the inhabitants that the 25 March 1713 survey deadline was approaching. The advertisement also gave individual planters an institutional reason to bring forward their writings, since a missed sitting risked default on the wider fencing and survey programme.

Speculations

The pressure on Bazett to forward the measurement work appears to be driven less by the present cluster of petitions than by the approaching end of the administrative year. With the survey deadline only ten weeks off and the council reduced to a small working complement, the dedicated title day was probably timed to give the surveyor a clear horizon against which to allocate his remaining time, and to give the planters a final visible opportunity to comply.

The choice of nine in the forenoon as the attendance hour is probably significant. It signals that the council expected substantial business and intended to dispose of titles in a single working day rather than spread them across a sequence of sittings. The public advertisement by beat of drum, rather than by individual notice, suggests that the council was deliberately addressing the body of inhabitants as a whole, in order to draw forward holders of unrecorded or contested titles who might otherwise have remained silent until challenged.

13

4

Said Land, That Deeds and Leases may be given out the Councill

Day following of which all Persons concern[d] are to take Notice

Accordingly. Dated at the United Castle in James

Valley this 9[th] day of January 17 12/13.

Sign[d] p[er] order of Govern[r] and Councill.

p me Jn[o] Alexander Acc[ot]nt[t] 16

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Thurs-

day the 15 day of January 17 12/13 At the United

Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[er]no[r]

John Pack Dep[ty] Govern[r]

Matt[heu] Bazett 3 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

According to an Advertizement Issued out the

9 Instant The Govern[r] & Councill Mett this day to Examine into

the Title of those Persons Land Lately Measured and first.

Charles Steward appeared in the behalfe of Maxwells orphans

and produced a Bill of Sale from Elizabeth Bostock for Twenty Acres

of Land Sold James Greentree who Sold the Same to Samuell

Maxwell and Onesiphorus Steward both deceased The Plott or Plan

of which Land being alreadie brought into the Clerks Office

The[?]

[...] of her former husband Mr Church[?]

Margin Notes:

Land Thom[s] [...]

Measured & titles

prove[d] as

follo[ws] S[t]

Cha[s] Steward

appeared in

Maxwells orph[s]

behalfe

Their lands were to be put through this examination so that deeds and leases could be issued at the next council day. All those concerned were to take notice.

The advertisement was dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 9 January 1713, and signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander, Accountant 16.

Island of St Helena.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Thursday 15 January 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; John Pack, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

In accordance with the advertisement of 9 January 1713, the council met to examine the titles of those whose lands had recently been measured.

Charles Steward came forward on behalf of Maxwell's orphans. He produced a bill of sale from Elizabeth Bostock for 20 acres of land, sold to James Greentree, who in turn sold the same to Samuel Maxwell and Onesiphorus Steward, both now deceased. The plan of the land had already been brought into the clerk's office.

A reference was made to Elizabeth Bostock's former husband, Mr Church, in connection with her title to the land before its first sale.

Interpretations

The title day procedure that opens the 15 January 1713 sitting shows the council operating as a registry of land transactions rather than as an adjudicator of fresh disputes. The plan deposited with the clerk before the hearing is the controlling document; the oral and documentary evidence brought to council is fitted against it. This sequence, plan first, evidence second, deeds and leases issued at the following council day, is the form into which the wider survey and registration programme has now settled.

The Maxwell case illustrates how trustee planters acted on behalf of orphan estates within the registration system. Charles Steward, husband of one of the Steward family and connected to the holding through his late father-in-law Onesiphorus Steward, came forward not in his own right but to secure the orphans' title against the approaching survey deadline. The mechanism allowed minor heirs to be carried through the registration process without having to appear themselves, while keeping the title work within the same procedural framework as that of adult planters.

The chain of conveyance from Elizabeth Bostock through James Greentree to Maxwell and Onesiphorus Steward, with reference to Bostock's earlier marriage to Mr Church, shows the council relying on remembered marriage history to fix the origin of a title where the original deed of grant could no longer be produced. The recurrence of named intermediaries from earlier sales in the records suggests that the council had built a working memory of the principal lot lands, against which fresh title claims could be tested even in the absence of complete documentary chains.

Speculations

The decision to take the Maxwell orphan case first probably reflected the council's wish to dispose of the most procedurally straightforward titles before turning to those where competing claims or missing deeds would require more discussion. With the orphans' bill of sale and plan both already on file, the case offered a clean opening that set a working standard for the day's proceedings.

The reference to Bostock's former husband is unlikely to have been incidental. By recording the prior marriage on the council's books, the council preserved a future defence against any claim that might be brought by descendants of the earlier household, and ensured that the orphans' title rested on a marriage-to-marriage chain that could be reconstructed from the council's own records if challenged.

14

5

The said Charles Steward in behalfe of himselfe Laid Claim to Seven-

teen Acres of Land produceing first a bill of Sale from James Wilson

for two Acres of Land gave him by his Sister Martha Wilson, which

was Part of Twenty Acres given her by her father Andrew Wilson.

Secondly Laid claime to Ten Acres more he formerly bought of Richard

Griffin a free planter who had the Same upon Marriage with Elinor

a Daughter of John Coverlee Sen[r] dec[d] and quietly Enjoy[d] the same

for Severall years and hath bin in Possession of the Said Steward these

thirteen years past Paying duly every year the just Revenues due to

the Honourable Company which is the best Title he hath to produce haveing

Neglected to get a bill of Sale from the said Griffin before he went off

the Island, but hath a Memorand[m] in the Register Book that he did

buy it of him, and is well known to Severall of the Inhabitants.

Thirdly Laid claim to Two Acres part of four Acres formerly John Bagleys

bought by his brother Onesip[h] Steward who had y[e] Same of, The other two Acres

Maxwells Orphans hath.

Fourthly Laid claime to three Acres more He bought of Henry Wellsly who

had y[e] Same with his wife one of the Said Maxwells daughters, being part

of twelve Acres.

James Vesey free planter Appeared in the behalfe of John Coverlees

Children who are under his Care and Tuition by marrying the Widdow

and produced a bill of Sale for Ten Acres of Land formerly the Lott of

John Long Sen[r] dec[d] sold to John Coverlee, and in the Register

book appeared Ten Acres of Land more now in Said Veseys

Possession which twenty Acres the Children of the deceased John[?]

Coverlee hath a just right and Title to.

William Slaughter Sen[r] in the behalf of Richard Hardings

dec[d] Children haveing Married the Widdow Appeared and Produced a

Bill of Sale from James Reder dec[d] to the Said Harding for Two Acres

of Cabbage tree Land part of Twenty Acres in Sandy Bay And in a Con-

sultation dated the 17[t] October 1700 it appears that Richard

Harding had granted him Ten Acres Land formerly in the Possession

of James Reder and Five Acres more the said Harding had of John

Greentree Part of Ten Acres in Powles Valley, being in Exchange for

some other Land w[h] the Honoura[ble] Company adjoyning to their

Pasture and is Mentioned in Said Consultation as a Title thereto.

John[?]

Margin Notes:

Cha[s] Stewards

Title to his

Land

and

how

[...]

in severall

Parcells

Ja[s] Veseys

Title to his

Lands prov[d]

Will[m] Slaughter

in behalf of

Hardings

Children

prov[d] Title

to their

Land.

Charles Steward then put forward his own claim to 17 acres of land in four parts.

First, he produced a bill of sale from James Wilson for two acres given to him by his sister Martha Wilson. The two acres formed part of 20 acres that Martha had received from her father Andrew Wilson.

Second, he claimed 10 acres he had bought several years earlier from Richard Griffin, free planter. Griffin had received the land on his marriage to Elinor, a daughter of John Coverlee senior, deceased, and had held it without dispute for some years. Steward had held it for the past thirteen years, paying the Company's revenues each year on the proper day. He had failed to obtain a formal bill of sale from Griffin before Griffin left the island. The Register Book carried a memorandum of the purchase, and several inhabitants knew of it. The revenue record and that memorandum were the only title he could produce.

Third, he claimed two acres, being part of four acres that had earlier belonged to John Bagley. His brother Onesiphorus Steward had bought the four acres from Bagley. Charles now held two of them. The other two were held by Maxwell's orphans.

Fourth, he claimed three acres bought from Henry Wellsly. Wellsly had received the land with his wife, one of Maxwell's daughters, as part of a twelve-acre allotment.

James Vesey, free planter, came forward on behalf of John Coverlee's children. He had become their guardian by marrying their mother. He produced a bill of sale for ten acres of land that had formerly been the lot of John Long senior, deceased, and had been sold to John Coverlee. The Register Book recorded a further ten acres now in Vesey's possession. The children of John Coverlee had a just right and title to the full 20 acres.

William Slaughter senior came forward on behalf of Richard Harding's children, having married their widowed mother. He produced a bill of sale from James Reder, deceased, to Harding for two acres of cabbage tree land in Sandy Bay, being part of a 20-acre parcel. A consultation of 17 October 1700 recorded that Harding had been granted ten acres formerly held by James Reder, together with five more acres he had received from John Greentree out of a ten-acre parcel in Powles Valley, the five acres being given in exchange for other land that lay convenient to the Company's pasture. The 1700 consultation was relied on as his title to those parcels.

Interpretations

Steward's four-part claim shows how the council assessed title where the documentary record was incomplete. For three of the four parcels he produced a bill of sale or a consultation reference. For the ten acres bought from Griffin he had only the Register Book memorandum and the running revenue payments, the bill of sale never having been drawn before the seller departed. The council's willingness to accept this combination as the best title obtainable confirms that long peaceable possession, supported by entries in the Register Book and by continuous revenue payments, was treated as functionally equivalent to a deed when the original instrument was lost or never executed.

The case also shows how marriage portions and family allotments fed the working land market. Wilson's gift to his sister, Griffin's marriage portion from the Coverlee household, and Wellsly's portion through marriage to a Maxwell daughter all originated in intra-family transfers that were then resold piecemeal to other planters. The council accepted these origins without separate inquiry, treating the family settlement as a valid root of title once the subsequent commercial sale was documented.

The two cases brought by Vesey and Slaughter illustrate the institutional response to widowhood. A man who married a widow with minor children acquired both the custody of the children and the duty to bring forward their titles before the council. The arrangement protected the orphans' inheritance from neglect during minority, and gave the council a single adult party to deal with. The reliance on the 1700 consultation in Slaughter's case shows that earlier council records were treated as title documents of the same standing as a private bill of sale.

Speculations

Steward's decision to combine all four of his parcels into a single appearance was probably calculated to use the strength of the documented claims to support the one weak claim. By presenting the Griffin ten acres alongside the other three parcels for which he held bills of sale, he framed the missing deed as a single defect within an otherwise documented holding rather than as an isolated case turning on a Register Book memorandum alone.

Harding's exchange of five acres in Powles Valley for ground convenient to the Company's pasture, recorded in 1700, suggests that the council had been managing the geography of the principal Company pasture by negotiated swaps for more than a decade before the present consolidation programme around the Hutts began. The use of the 1700 consultation as title evidence in 1713 indicates that the council's own records were already functioning as a working land registry well in advance of the formal register book ordered under Roberts.

15

6

John Coles freeholder appeared and produced a Deed with the

Honourable Companys Seale affixed thereto Signed by Gov[r] Keling

and Step[h] Poirier dated the 20 of Aprill 1696 for Ten Acres of Land

in Exchange for a certain Allotment of Land formerly granted to

Gabriel Powell Sen[r] Also fifteen Acres more which he Possesses by

Exchange with the Said Hono[ble] Company for Ten Acres adjoyning to

their Pasture as may more Largely Appear in a Consultation dated

the 17 of October 1700. Likewise produced a bill of Sale dated the 9[th] of

Aprill 1703 from George Hodgson for three Acres of Land Situate in

Sandy bay. Also a bill of Sale dated the 12 of August 1701 for two

Acres of Land Sold him by Richard Curling being in all Thirty

Acres which the said John Coles hath a just right & Title too.

Richard Swallow Sen[r] freeholder appeared in behalfe of

Benj[a] Greentree Sen[r] and Heir of John Greentree dec[d] and Produced

a bill of Sale for Seventeen Acres of Land formerly James Riders

and dated the 22 day of Aprill 1698. Also Claims five Acres more

Part of Ten Acres in Powles Valley w[h] R[d] Harding had of Jno[?]

Greentree mentioned in Consultation dated y[e] 17 Oct[r] 1700.

The Said Richard Swallow Produced in behalf of himselfe a bill

of Sale dated the 12 of June 1703 for Ten Acres of Land formerly Rich[d]

Beeches and Seven Acres formerly belonging to John Henderson

bought since by Thomas Coals who Sold the whole Seventeen Acres

to the said Rich[d] Swallow, and hath a just right and Title thereto.

John Robinson free Planter appeared in the behalf of Onesip[s]

Steward dec[d] his Children and Laid Claim to Twenty Acres of Land

viz Ten Acres half of Twenty Sold to Samuel Maxwell & Onesip[s]

Steward by James Greentree who bought the Same of Eliz Bostock

being the Allotment of her first Husband M[r] Church Mins[r] dec[d]

The other Ten Acres being formerly the Lott of John Coverlee

Sen[r] who Sold the Same to Onesiphorus Steward dec[d] which then fell

to his Eldest Son Onesiphorus Steward dying Intestate Which

Twenty Acres the said Onesyph[s] Stewards Children hath a just

right and Title too.

Orlando Bagley freeholder appeared and Laid Claim

to Twenty three Acres of Land and produced viz[t] a bill of Sale dated the

26 December 1692 for Ten Acres of Land Sold by William Cliston

to Richard Curling dec[d] who dying Intestate his Lands fell to

the[?]

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Coles

Title to

his

Land prov[d]

Rich[d] Swallow

in behalf of

Benj[a] Greentree

Rich[d] Swallows

Title to his

own Land

Jn[o] Robinson

in behalf of

Ones[s] Stewards

Child[s] proves

their Title

in y[e] Whole

  1. Acres.

Ald[o] Bagleys

Title to 23.

acres Land

proved.

John Coles, freeholder, came forward and produced a deed under the Company's seal, signed by Governor Keeling and Stephen Poirier and dated 20 April 1696, for ten acres of land granted in exchange for an allotment formerly held by Gabriel Powell senior.

He also produced evidence for fifteen further acres held by exchange with the Company for ten acres adjoining the Company's pasture. The exchange was recorded in the consultation of 17 October 1700.

He produced a bill of sale dated 9 April 1703 from George Hodgson for three acres in Sandy Bay.

He produced a bill of sale dated 12 August 1701 from Richard Curling for two acres.

The four parcels together amounted to 30 acres, to which Coles held a clear right and title.

Richard Swallow senior, freeholder, came forward on behalf of Benjamin Greentree senior, heir of John Greentree deceased. He produced a bill of sale dated 22 April 1698 for seventeen acres of land formerly belonging to James Reder. He also claimed five further acres, being part of the ten acres in Powles Valley that Richard Harding had received from John Greentree, as recorded in the consultation of 17 October 1700.

Richard Swallow then put forward his own claim. He produced a bill of sale dated 12 June 1703 for ten acres formerly belonging to Richard Beeches and seven acres formerly belonging to John Henderson. Thomas Coals had bought the seven acres and then sold the whole seventeen acres to Swallow. Swallow held a clear right and title to them.

John Robinson, free planter, came forward on behalf of the children of Onesiphorus Steward, deceased. He claimed twenty acres in two parcels of ten.

The first ten acres were half of a twenty-acre parcel that James Greentree had sold to Samuel Maxwell and Onesiphorus Steward. Greentree had bought it from Elizabeth Bostock, the allotment having been granted to her first husband, the Reverend Mr Church, deceased.

The second ten acres had been the lot of John Coverlee senior, who sold them to Onesiphorus Steward. On Steward's death intestate, the land fell to his eldest son, also called Onesiphorus Steward. The whole twenty acres belonged by right to Steward's children.

Orlando Bagley, freeholder, came forward and claimed twenty three acres. He produced a bill of sale dated 26 December 1692 for ten acres sold by William Cliston to Richard Curling, deceased. Curling died intestate, and his lands passed to his heir.

Interpretations

The four parcels brought forward by Coles show the range of instruments by which a single planter's holding could be assembled. A Company deed under seal for the original ten-acre exchange, a council consultation for the further fifteen-acre swap with the Company's pasture, and two private bills of sale for the smaller parcels in Sandy Bay together made up the holding. The council accepted each instrument as effective for the parcel it covered, building the title to the full thirty acres out of distinct documentary sources rather than requiring a single composite deed.

Robinson's appearance on behalf of the Steward children clarifies how intestate succession to a freehold worked on the island in the absence of a formal probate jurisdiction. When Onesiphorus Steward died without a will, his lands passed to his eldest son rather than being divided among his children or his widow. The council recorded the descent through the family without requiring administration to be taken out, and accepted the surviving sibling group as the present holders by virtue of the eldest son's title. The mechanism kept the freehold whole at the cost of leaving the council to police its working as a trust for the wider family.

The repeated reliance on the consultation of 17 October 1700 across three separate cases at this sitting, Harding, Coles and Swallow on behalf of Greentree, shows how a single council decision more than twelve years earlier had become a foundational record for the geography of the principal Company pasture. The 1700 consultation had recorded a sequence of exchanges by which the Company concentrated its pasture ground at the expense of dispersed planter holdings. Title work in 1713 still rested on it.

The recurring pattern of widow-remarriage giving rise to title claims by the second husband, visible across the Vesey, Slaughter and Robinson cases at this sitting, indicates that the council had come to rely on the husband of the widow as the practical guardian of orphan freeholds. The arrangement carried obvious risks, since the second husband's interest in the orphans' land was at best fiduciary, but the council accepted his appearance without separate inquiry into how the children's estate was being managed.

Speculations

Coles's decision to bring forward the 1696 deed under the Company's seal as the first item in his presentation probably reflected its evidentiary weight. With a sealed instrument signed by two governors at the foundation of the chain, the remaining elements of the holding could be added without challenge. The order of presentation suggests planters had learned to lead with the strongest documentary anchor in their holding.

The reappearance of John Greentree's Powles Valley ten acres on both sides of the same sitting, partly in Harding's chain and partly in Greentree's son's claim, indicates that the parcel had been divided informally within or shortly after Greentree's lifetime. The council did not attempt to reconcile the two halves into a single chain but accepted the divided shares as they stood, perhaps because the family arrangement was already long established and any reopening of it would have unsettled holdings on which fences and improvements had been made for years.

16

9

made and Delivered the owners Some Short Time afterwards

of which all Persons concern[d] are Accordingly to take Notice.

Dated at the United Castle in James

Valley this 27[th] day of January 17 12/13.

Sign[d] p[er] order of Govern[r] & Councill.

p me. Jn[o] Alexander

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held

on Tuesday the 3 day of February 17 12/13 At the

United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r]

John Pack Dep[ty] Govern[r]

Matt[heu] Bazett 3 in Coun[ll] 16

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assists

According to an Advertizement Issued out the 17

January Last The Gov[r] our and Councill Mett this day to Inquire

into the Titles of Lands that has been Measur[d] Since the Lesb[?]

Councill day Held for the Same Purpose, the Persons appearing

are as followeth

Frances

Margin Notes:

Councill Mett

to prove titles

of Land.

The deeds were to be drawn and delivered to the owners a short time afterwards. All persons concerned were to take notice.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 27 January 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander.

Island of St Helena.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 3 February 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; John Pack, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

In accordance with the advertisement of 17 January 1713, the council met to examine the titles of lands measured since the last council day held for that purpose. Those who came forward are recorded below.

Interpretations

The 27 January 1713 closing notice, with deeds to follow a short time afterwards, fixes the working interval between the title examination and the issue of the documentary instrument. The council treated the examination of evidence and the engrossing of the deed as separate stages, allowing time for the clerk to prepare the writings and for any defect in title to surface before the instrument passed under the Company's seal.

The 3 February 1713 sitting confirms that the title day procedure, opened on 15 January 1713 and continued on 27 January 1713, was being run as a rolling series rather than a single event. Each sitting handled the titles measured since the last one, with a fresh advertisement issued on 17 January 1713 to bring forward the next cohort of planters whose work had since been completed. The pattern shows the council pacing the registration programme to the surveyor's output rather than to a fixed deadline schedule, while still keeping the 25 March 1713 survey deadline in view.

Speculations

The decision to run the title sittings on a continuous schedule rather than concentrate them into a single intensive day probably reflected practical limits on Bazett's measurement work. With one surveyor handling the full backlog and a small council to hear the evidence, spreading the title days through January and into early February kept the work flowing without overwhelming any one sitting. The rolling cadence also allowed the council to adjust each advertisement to the actual progress of measurement.

17

10

Francis Wrangham freeholder Appeared and

Produced the following Wridings as Title to the Severall Parcells

of Land he now Possesses being in the whole fifty five Acres,

Eight Acres whereof was part of twenty Acres the Lott of Job

Jewster as p[er] register Book Ten Acres Cabbage tree Land formerly on

Daniel Collins Sold to Said Jewster, and by him given to his only

Daughter the Said Wranghams Mother Ten Acres as appears

by a Deed to Richard Stacey bought by Samuel Wrangham his

father Ten acres more as by a bill of Sale from Rich[d] and Hireing

Sent[?] to John Boston, from Boston to Schoster, from Jewster it

descended to his daughter and two Acres had in Exchange with

George Hodson adjoyning to that Ten Acres formerly Dan[l] Collins

also fifteen Acres part of Twenty Acres the Lott of Francis

Wrangham his Grandfather. All which the said Francis

Wrangham hath a just right and Title to.

Ripin Wills freeholder Appeared and Laid Claime to

Fifty Acres of Land and as a Title thereto produced the following

Writings, Viz[t]. An Indenture of Bargaine and Sale dated y[e] 18

day of July 1687 Signed by Joseph Pratt and by him Sold & Convey[d]

to Jam[s] Easthope from Easthope to Said Wills as p[er] another

Indenture of Bargaine and Sale dated the 25 of March 1693

[...]is[?] Contains Ten Acres which by an old Register Book Appears

to be Part of Twenty Acres the Lott of one Thomas Frankcomb dec[d]

Lying in James Valley, Also a bill of Sale dated the 22 of December

1707 Signed by Joseph Fox heir to twenty acres Land the Lott

of his Father William Fox (who Dyed Intestate) which appears

So by Said Register, Likewise Produced an Indenture of Bargaine

and Sale for twenty acres Land formerly the Lott of W[m] Black Cloud

at the relaking[?] this Island from the Dutch, Sign[d] by William

Coals and Sealed the 4[th] of Aprill 1711 which was Confirmed unto

him in a Consultation Held on Thursday the 25 of March 1711

all which Parcells of Land the said Ripin Wills hath a just

right and Title too.

Margaret Sich wid[w] and Benj[n] her Son and heir to all

Lands by them Possess[d] appeared and Laid Claime to Seventy

Acres of Land, Produceing a Printed Deed w[h] the Honoura[ble] Comp[s]

Seale Affixed thereunto, for twenty acres of Land the Lott of

W[m][?]

Margin Notes:

Fr[s] Wranghams

Title to severall

Parcells of Land

Proved.

Ripin Wills

Claim & Title to

50 acres Land

Proved.

Marg[t] & Benj[n]

Siches Claime

to 70 Acres

Land

Francis Wrangham, freeholder, came forward and produced the following writings as title to the parcels he now held, amounting in total to 55 acres.

Eight acres formed part of a twenty-acre lot once belonging to Job Jewster, as recorded in the Register Book.

Ten acres of cabbage tree land had formerly belonged to Daniel Collins, who sold it to Jewster. Jewster then gave it to his only daughter, who was Wrangham's mother.

A further ten acres were held under a deed to Richard Stacey, the land having been bought by Samuel Wrangham, his father.

Another ten acres rested on a bill of sale from Richard, and on a hiring agreement passing the land to John Boston, then from Boston to Schoster. The ground had descended from Jewster to his daughter. With it went two acres acquired by exchange with George Hodson, lying next to the ten acres that had been Daniel Collins's.

Fifteen acres were part of a twenty-acre lot that had belonged to Francis Wrangham, his grandfather.

Wrangham held a clear right and title to all these parcels.

Ripin Wills, freeholder, came forward and claimed 50 acres of land, supported by the following writings.

An indenture of bargain and sale dated 18 July 1687, signed by Joseph Pratt, who sold and conveyed the land to James Easthope. Easthope then conveyed it to Wills under a further indenture of bargain and sale dated 25 March 1693. The ten acres covered by these instruments were shown in the old Register Book as part of a twenty-acre lot that had belonged to Thomas Frankcomb, deceased, lying in James Valley.

A bill of sale dated 22 December 1707, signed by Joseph Fox, heir to a twenty-acre lot that had been the lot of his father William Fox, who died intestate. The Register Book confirmed the entry.

An indenture of bargain and sale for twenty acres that had been the lot of William Black Cloud at the time of the recapture of the island from the Dutch. The deed was signed by William Coals and sealed on 4 April 1711, and was confirmed to Wills in a consultation held on Thursday 25 March 1711.

Wills held a clear right and title to each parcel.

Margaret Sich, widow, and Benjamin her son, heir to all the land they held, came forward and claimed 70 acres. They produced a printed deed bearing the Company's seal for twenty acres that had been the lot of William.

Interpretations

Wrangham's case shows how a family freehold could be reconstructed from multiple narrow chains of conveyance running back to a single early allotment. Three of the parcels in his fifty-five acres trace back to Job Jewster's twenty-acre lot, either by direct purchase, by gift to Jewster's daughter on her marriage, or by intermediate sale to Daniel Collins and back. The council accepted the composite chain without requiring the parties to consolidate the parcels into a single instrument, recording the descent piece by piece against the running geography of the early lots.

Wills's reliance on the old Register Book to fix the original allotments of Frankcomb and Fox shows the working role of that book as the foundation document of island title. Where the planter's own writings ran back only to a second or third sale, the Register Book supplied the earlier link to the original lot. The council treated entries in the old Register Book as authoritative for the identification of the founding allotment, even where the original deed was no longer in circulation.

The reference to William Black Cloud's twenty acres at the time of the recapture of the island from the Dutch fixes that parcel within the first wave of allotments after 1673. The chain from Black Cloud through to Wills, by way of a sale from William Coals confirmed at the consultation of 25 March 1711, ties the present registration programme to the foundational settlement of the island under the East India Company's reclaimed jurisdiction. The 1711 consultation again functions as a documentary instrument of title, of the same standing as a private deed.

The combined appearance of Margaret Sich and her son Benjamin as widow and heir shows the working pattern by which freehold descent and present custody were brought together before the council in a single claim. The widow's life interest and the son's reversion were presented as a unified holding for the purpose of registration, with a printed deed under the Company's seal as the controlling instrument. The arrangement spared the council from having to apportion the parcel between present and future interests at the registration stage, leaving any later division to be settled as and when it became necessary.

Speculations

Wrangham's careful presentation of the Jewster descent through his mother, including the gift on her marriage and the subsequent rearrangement by exchange with George Hodson, was probably designed to forestall any later challenge from collateral relatives of Jewster. By recording the marriage gift and the consolidating exchange on the council's books at the registration stage, he secured a documentary defence against any future claim that the parcels had been alienated outside the family.

The use of a printed deed under the Company's seal as the foundation instrument in Sich's claim suggests that the Company had at some earlier point issued a standard form for grants of original lots, with the planter's name and acreage filled in by hand. Printed deeds of this kind, surviving from the foundational allotment period, would have given the council a particularly stable evidentiary base for confirmation, since the form itself was difficult to forge and its survival in the planter's hands was strong evidence of an unbroken chain of custody.

18

11

M[r] Richard Swallow who gave the Same upon Marriage to his

Son the said Margaret Siches first Husband, As also twenty Acres

more that by Descent fell to Richard Swallow Son and heir Apparent

to said Margarett Sich, by her former Husband Richard Swallows

Long since dead, which by a Deed of Conveyance dated the 4 February

1707 The Said Richard Swallow Sold to his Mother Sich for a Valuable

Consideration Likewise twenty Acres more the Lott of Richard

Alexander deceased Sold to the said Margaret Siches Last Husband

John Sich dec[d] by John Alexander Robert Son of the Said dec[d] Alexander

as appears p[er] bill of Sale dated the 7 of March 1699. And Ten Acres

more being the Lott Land, as p[er] Reister book appears, of one J[n] Duffield

who Sold the Same to John Sich To which Seventy Acres Land the said

Marg[t] and Benjamen Sich hath a just right and Title

Elizabeth Johnson wid[w] appeared and Laid Claime to fifty Acres

of Land, Thirty of which was Allotted her dec[d] Husband Joshua Johnson, as

Appears in the Register book and Twenty Acres more purchased of John

Greentree as appears by bill of Sale dated the 27 day of Aprill 1698 Being the

Lott Land the deceased Father John Greentrees own. Which fifty Acres

Lott Land the Said Elizabeth Johnson, and Heir of her dec[d] Husband, hath a

just right and Title too.

Simon Whaley free holder appeared and Laid Claime to Ten Acres

of Land being the Lott of James Easthope dec[d] who Sole the Same to

Frances Bevin, and She to John Draper dec[d] who by Will gave Said Land

to her the said Whaleys wife Named Mercy. Which he hath a just

right and Title to.

Joshua Johnson free holder Appeared and Laid Claime to Four-

teen Acres of Land Ten of which as Deed of Exchange dated the 3 of

November 1694 with the Honourable Companys Seale Affixed thereun-

to was Exchanged with John Goodwin dec[d] for Ten Acres more in

Sandy bay who assign[d] the Same over to his brother Thom[s] Goodwin

who gave it to Said Joshua Johnson Upon Marriage with his daughter

Elizabeth Goodwin since dead, with four Acres more adjoyning

thereunto, which he the said Thom[s] Goodwin had in Exchange

with the Said Honoura[ble] Company for Land Adjoyning to their

great Pasture as appears in Consultation Book.

George Carne appeared and Laid Claime to Thirty Acres of Land

Fifteen Acres whereof he bought of Robert Leech as p[er] bill of

Sal-

Margin Notes:

Title

proved

Eliz: M[s] Johnsons

Claime to 50

acres Land

Title proved

Sim: Whaleys

Claim & Title to

10 acres Land

Jos[a] Johnsons

Claim & Title

to 14 acres land

proved

G[o] Carnes

Title to 30

Acres Land

The 20 acres had been William Sich's lot, given to him by Mr Richard Swallow on his marriage to Margaret. A further 20 acres had descended to Richard Swallow, son and heir apparent of Margaret Sich by her former husband Richard Swallow, long since dead. By a deed of conveyance dated 4 February 1708, Richard Swallow sold this 20 acres to his mother for a valuable consideration.

Another 20 acres had been the lot of Richard Alexander, deceased. John Alexander Robert, son of the said Richard Alexander, sold the land to John Sich, Margaret's last husband, also deceased. The bill of sale was dated 7 March 1699.

A further ten acres had been the lot of John Duffield, as the Register Book showed. Duffield sold the parcel to John Sich.

Margaret and Benjamin Sich held a clear right and title to the whole 70 acres.

Elizabeth Johnson, widow, came forward and claimed 50 acres. Her late husband Joshua Johnson had been allotted thirty acres, as recorded in the Register Book. A further 20 acres had been bought from John Greentree under a bill of sale dated 27 April 1698, this being the lot land of Greentree's late father, John Greentree senior. Elizabeth Johnson, as heir of her late husband, held a clear right and title to the 50 acres.

Simon Whaley, freeholder, came forward and claimed ten acres. The parcel had been the lot of James Easthope, deceased. Easthope had sold it to Frances Bevin, who sold it to John Draper, deceased. Draper bequeathed the land by will to Whaley's wife, Mercy. Whaley held a clear right and title.

Joshua Johnson, freeholder, came forward and claimed fourteen acres. Ten acres rested on a deed of exchange dated 3 November 1694, signed under the Company's seal, by which John Goodwin, deceased, had exchanged ten acres in Sandy Bay. Goodwin assigned the land to his brother Thomas Goodwin, who gave it to Joshua Johnson on his marriage to Thomas Goodwin's daughter, Elizabeth Goodwin, since deceased. The four further acres adjoined this parcel, and had been received by Thomas Goodwin in exchange with the Company for ground adjoining the Company's great pasture, as recorded in the consultation book.

George Carne came forward and claimed 30 acres. Fifteen acres had been bought from Robert Leech under a bill of sale.

Interpretations

The Sich claim consolidates three generations of family land into a single seventy-acre holding through the management of a widow's serial marriages. The original parcel reached Margaret on her marriage to William Sich, the second 20 acres descended through her son by an earlier marriage and was repurchased from him in 1708, and the third 20 acres entered the holding through her last husband John Sich's purchase from the Alexander family. The council accepted the composite chain because each conveyance was supported by a documented instrument, but the underlying mechanism is the steady accumulation of land through marriage and inter-family sale, with the widow at the centre of the assembly.

The transfer of 20 acres from Richard Swallow to his mother by a deed dated 4 February 1708 is procedurally striking. Once the son had inherited from his father, he could have retained the parcel until majority and beyond. Selling to his mother for a stated valuable consideration converted the inheritance into cash within her household and consolidated her freehold for the future descent to her son by Sich. The council recorded the transaction without examining the propriety of an heir selling to his own widowed mother, treating the instrument as sufficient evidence of title.

Joshua Johnson's fourteen-acre claim shows how the council managed the boundary between marriage portions and Company exchanges within a single chain. The 1694 deed of exchange under the Company's seal supplied the foundation. Thomas Goodwin's onward gift of the parcel as a marriage portion to his daughter brought the freehold into the Johnson household. The further four acres came not by family transfer but by a separate exchange with the Company recorded in the consultation book. The council recognised each layer in its own evidentiary form.

The reference to William Black Cloud's lot at the time of the recapture from the Dutch, taken with the present claims of Sich, Johnson and Carne, fixes a working understanding within the council that the original lots dated to the 1670s and that subsequent dealings rested on that foundation. The recurring entries from the old Register Book and the printed deeds under the Company's seal show that the council had access to a workable archive of the foundational allotments and treated it as the controlling evidence where private deeds were lost.

Speculations

Margaret Sich's careful repurchase of her son's twenty-acre inheritance in 1708 was probably intended to forestall any difficulty when the parcel passed to her son by Sich on her death. By holding all seventy acres in her own right at the time of registration, she removed the risk that a future claim from her elder son or his line would complicate the descent of the consolidated estate. The structure points to a deliberate use of the council's registration system to settle inheritance in advance of any dispute.

The presentation of Joshua Johnson's claim as a marriage gift confirmed by a Company exchange and supplemented by a further Company exchange suggests that the council had been used by the Goodwin household for a sustained reorganisation of its holdings during the 1690s. Thomas Goodwin's repeated appearance in Company exchanges, both to acquire ground adjoining the great pasture and to provide a marriage portion for his daughter, indicates that the council's exchange mechanism was being used not only by the Company to consolidate its own pasture but also by senior planters to manage the geography of their own family settlements.

19

12

Sale dated the 4[th] day of January 170 5/6 which he had with his wife

the daughter of Richard Curling and Mary his wife both deceased

as Part of her Portion, and the other Ten Acres he bought of Robert

Curling as p[er] bill of Sale dated the first of Aprill 1709 being a Legacy

given him by his dec[d] Mother the said Mary Curling Since

Married to Thomas Dixon both dec[d] Which Said Thirty Acres

of Land the said George Carne hath a just right and Title too.

Francis Wrangham appeared in behalf of his Sister Elizabeth

being an orphan and Laid Claime to Ten Acres of Land Scituate

in Break Gutts which was Exchanged by John Dorking being his

allotm[t] with, Henry Francis who Married the said Wranghams

fathers Mother, who gave the Same after his Decease to her Son

as appears by Said Deed of Exchange dated the 26 Novemb[r] 1682.

Which the said Orphans of Samuel Wrangham hath a just right &

Title to.

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday

the 3 day of March 17 12/13 At the United Castle

in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r]

John Pack Dep[ty] Gov[r]

Matt[heu] Bazett 3 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

This day the Govern[r] & Councill mett according to Usuall

Custome to Examine into the Titles of Lands Surveyed

Since the 3 February Last, and Plans brought thereof into

the Clerks office, then

Robert Addis freeholder Appeared and Laid Claime to

fifteen Acres of Land granted and Confirmed to him & his Heirs

for ever by former Government, as by a Deed with the Honoura[ble]

Comp[s]

Margin Notes:

Proved

Fra[s] Wrangham

laid Claim to

10 acres Land in

behalfe of his

Sister [...]

was proved

Coun[ll] Mett to

Exam[n] into titles

of Land

Rob[t] Addis

Title to

his Land

The bill of sale was dated 4 January 1706. George Carne had received the fifteen acres with his wife, the daughter of Richard Curling and Mary his wife, both deceased, as part of her marriage portion. The other ten acres he had bought from Robert Curling under a bill of sale dated 1 April 1709. The parcel had been a legacy from his late mother Mary Curling, who had later married Thomas Dixon. Both Mary and Thomas Dixon were now deceased. Carne held a clear right and title to the thirty acres.

Francis Wrangham came forward on behalf of his sister Elizabeth, an orphan, and claimed ten acres in Break Gutts. John Dorking had received the parcel as his allotment. Dorking exchanged it with Henry Francis, who had married Wrangham's paternal grandmother. After Dorking's death the land passed to her son, as the deed of exchange dated 26 November 1682 recorded. The orphans of Samuel Wrangham held a clear right and title.

Island of St Helena.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 3 March 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; John Pack, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The council met in the usual way to examine the titles of land surveyed since 3 February 1713, the plans having been brought into the clerk's office.

Robert Addis, freeholder, came forward and claimed fifteen acres of land. The land had been granted and confirmed to him and his heirs for ever by an earlier government, under a deed with the Company's seal.

Interpretations

George Carne's combined claim records a typical late seventeenth-century planter inheritance built from a wife's marriage portion and a maternal legacy bought in from a surviving brother. The fifteen acres came with his wife as part of her portion under the customary settlement at marriage. The ten acres reached him by a later cash purchase from Robert Curling, who held them as a legacy from their mother. Both transactions rested on bills of sale, the earlier dated 4 January 1706 and the later 1 April 1709. The council accepted the composite chain because each conveyance was supported by an instrument and because the descent through the Curling and Dixon households could be traced through known marriages.

The orphan claim brought by Francis Wrangham on behalf of his sister Elizabeth shows the council recording a freehold whose chain crossed a remarriage. John Dorking's exchange with Henry Francis in 1682 fixed the title at the foundational date. The descent then ran through Francis's marriage to Wrangham's grandmother, with the parcel passing to her son after Dorking's death and reaching Wrangham's sister as part of the inheritance from Samuel Wrangham. The 1682 deed of exchange functioned as the controlling instrument across the whole chain, even though the people through whose hands it passed were no longer alive.

The opening of the 3 March 1713 sitting confirms that the title programme was now operating as a settled monthly cycle. The advertisement of 17 January 1713 had fixed the procedure: the surveyor measured the land, the plan was brought into the clerk's office, and the council heard the title evidence at the next regular sitting. The clerk's office had become the working repository of the registration system, holding the plans against which the council tested the documentary evidence brought by each claimant.

Speculations

Carne's two bills of sale, taken together, suggest the deliberate assembly of a thirty-acre freehold across about three years through transactions within his wife's wider family. The marriage portion brought in the first fifteen acres in early 1706, and the purchase from Robert Curling in 1709 added the second parcel that had also passed through the Curling household. The pattern indicates that Carne was using the marriage settlement and a later cash transaction to consolidate within his own name what had previously been a dispersed family holding.

The reliance on a deed of exchange from 1682 to anchor the orphan title points to the durability of the foundational allotment records on the island. With the original parties to the 1682 exchange long dead, the instrument was still treated as the controlling evidence more than thirty years later. The continued working value of such old deeds, well beyond the lifetime of their signatories, helps explain why the council placed such weight on the surrender of the physical instruments at the registration stage, and why printed deeds under the Company's seal carried particular evidentiary force.

20

13

Companys Seale affixed thereunto, dated the 17[th] of November 1692.

in Lieu and Exchange of a Certaine Allotment of Land adjoyning

to the Said Honoura[ble] Companys great Plantation being formerly

granted unto William Whittey dec[d] father to the Said Addis his wife

in whose right Enjoys Said Land, Likewise Produced a Printed Lease

for Twenty Acres of Land granted Peter Williams dec[d] for the Terme of

Sixty years at two Shillings p[er] Acre dated the 11[th] of Aprill 1684, and

Since Endorsed and Sett over unto the Said Robert Addis, who hath

a just right and Title to the Land he Claims.

John Goodwin free Holder appeared and Laid claime to fifty

two Acres of Land, and Produced first a Printed Deed for Twenty Acres

of Land the Lott of Owin Bevian dec[d] who by Deed of Gift now

Produced gave the Same to the Said John Goodwin, Secondly

Produced a Bill of Sale dated the 13[th] August 1707 from Richard

Curling to the Heirs of John Goodwin dec[d] who is the before Named

John Goodwin, Son of Thomas Goodwin, brother to the deceased

John Goodwin for Twenty two Acres of Land Thirdly Produced a

nother Bill of Sale dated the 6 of January 169 9/10 for Ten Acres

Land Sold by Thomas Dixon to James Easthope &c[?] who Sold

the Same to John Goodwin dec[d] which two Last mentioned parcells

of Land are Confirm[d] unto Said John Goodwin by Deed of Gift from

his mother, being by her Husband Left Sole Heir and Executrix to his

Estate both reale and Personall.

Thomas Southen Serjant appeared in the behalf of his

Predecessor Edward Bagleys Children and Laid claime to Twenty

nine Acres of Land Produceing a Deed of Bargaine and Sale

dated the first of January 1702, for Twenty Acres of Land formerly

the allotm[t] of one William James dec[d] Sold to Rich[d] Curling

By George Hodgkison who had the Same in right of his wife Eliz[h]

James, which Said Twenty Acres the Said Richard Curling

(As By an Endorsment on the backside Sold to Edward Bagley

reserveing one Acre for himself, and for his only use) Also Produced

a Bill of Sale for Ten Acres of Land formerly Prudence Sherwins

bought by the Said Edward Bagley of John Bagley and Margaret

his wife being Part of her Portion Left by her dec[d] Mother

Mary Dixon. To which Twenty nine Acres of Land the aforesa[id]

Edward Bagleys Children hath a just right and title.

Elizabeth

Margin Notes:

Proved

Jn[o] Goodwins

Claim to 52

Acres Land

Title

Proved.

Tho[s] Southen

appeared on

behalf of Edw[d]

Bagleys Child[s]

& Laid Claim

to 29 acres

Land.

Title

Proved.

The deed bore the Company's seal and was dated 17 November 1692. It had been granted in exchange for an allotment adjoining the Company's great plantation, originally granted to William Whittey, deceased, who was the father of Addis's wife. Addis held the land in her right.

Addis also produced a printed lease for 20 acres granted to Peter Williams, deceased, for a term of 60 years at 2s 0d per acre, dated 11 April 1684. The lease had since been endorsed and assigned to Addis. He held a clear right and title to the land he claimed.

John Goodwin, freeholder, came forward and claimed 52 acres.

He produced a printed deed for 20 acres that had been the lot of Owin Bevian, deceased. Bevian had granted the parcel to John Goodwin by a deed of gift, now produced.

He produced a bill of sale dated 13 August 1707 from Richard Curling to the heirs of John Goodwin, deceased. The present John Goodwin, son of Thomas Goodwin and nephew of the late John Goodwin, held under that bill of sale for 22 acres.

He produced a further bill of sale dated 6 January 1700, for ten acres sold by Thomas Dixon to James Easthope, who in turn sold the parcel to the late John Goodwin.

The last two parcels were confirmed to the present John Goodwin by a deed of gift from his mother, who had been left by her husband as sole heir and executrix of his real and personal estate.

Sergeant Thomas Southen came forward on behalf of the children of his predecessor Edward Bagley, and claimed 29 acres.

He produced a deed of bargain and sale dated 1 January 1703, for 20 acres that had been the allotment of William James, deceased. The parcel had been sold to Richard Curling by George Hodgkison, who had held it in right of his wife Elizabeth James. By endorsement on the back of the deed, Curling had sold the 20 acres to Edward Bagley, reserving one acre for his own use.

Southen also produced a bill of sale for ten acres that had been the parcel of Prudence Sherwin, bought by Edward Bagley from John Bagley and his wife Margaret. The ten acres formed part of Margaret's portion, left to her by her late mother Mary Dixon.

The children of Edward Bagley held a clear right and title to the 29 acres.

Interpretations

The Addis claim shows the council holding a printed lease and a sealed deed of exchange as two distinct working instruments of tenure. The 1684 lease for 60 years at 2s 0d per acre records a longer-term arrangement than the later 21-year leases that have become standard in the present registration programme. The endorsement of the lease over to Addis from the original lessee Peter Williams, alongside the separate 1692 deed of exchange for the adjoining parcel, allowed a single planter to consolidate two parcels under different forms of tenure while maintaining the original rent on the leased ground.

The Goodwin claim discloses the working mechanism by which an intestate freeholder's estate could be reassembled in the next generation. Thomas Goodwin's son inherited under his uncle's name through a combination of a printed deed of gift from Owin Bevian, a bill of sale from Richard Curling drawn directly to the heirs, and a confirming deed of gift from the present holder's mother. The mother's position as sole heir and executrix of her husband's real and personal estate gave her the standing to confirm the descent to her son, and the council accepted the composite assembly as a working title for 52 acres.

The Southen claim on behalf of Edward Bagley's children illustrates how the council treated a one-acre reservation within a larger sale. Richard Curling's reservation of a single acre for his own use when selling the remaining 19 acres of the William James allotment to Edward Bagley shows the council recognising partial alienations recorded on the back of the principal deed as effective in themselves, without requiring a separate instrument for the reserved portion. The mechanism kept the documentary record compact while preserving the seller's small personal interest within the wider conveyance.

The endorsement of the Williams lease over to Addis, the endorsement on the back of Curling's deed reserving one acre, and the deed of gift from Goodwin's mother confirming the inheritance show that the council recognised three distinct uses of endorsement within the day's evidence: assignment of a lease, partial reservation within a sale, and confirmation of descent. Endorsement on an existing instrument was thus a flexible working device within the island's documentary practice.

Speculations

The presentation of a 60-year lease from 1684 at the title sittings of 1713 indicates that the council was running the registration programme over instruments that still had decades to run. Williams's lease, with about thirty years remaining, would survive into the 1740s. By recording the assignment to Addis on the register at this point, the council fixed the long-term tenant and pre-empted any later dispute over how the unexpired term had reached him, particularly important because the original lessee was now dead and the documentary trail might otherwise have weakened with time.

Goodwin's reliance on his mother's confirming deed of gift, alongside the underlying bills of sale, was probably prompted by the formality of the registration programme. With the present claimant inheriting through his uncle rather than directly from his father, the council might have raised questions about how the parcels had reached him. By producing his mother's deed of gift as the linking instrument, he closed the gap between the documented purchases by his uncle and his own present possession, and gave the council a single document on which to rest the descent of 32 of the 52 acres claimed.

21

14

Elizabeth Allis Widdow and freeholder Appeared and Laid

Claim to Thirty Acres of Land, Ten of which we find by an

Old register book to be the Lott Land of her dec[d] Husband Thomas

Allis, Ten Acres more Purchased of Benja[h] Miller as p[er] Deed

of Bargaine and Sale dated the 3 of Aprill 1707, the other Ten

Acres Purchased of John Hennison as by Bill of Sale appears

dated the 5 of May 1696. Out of which Last mentioned Ten

Acres Land her Husband gave three Acres to his Son Them[s]

Allis upon Marriage. To which Thirty Acres of Land the

said Elizabeth Allis, and Heirs of her dec[d] Husband Thomas

Allis hath a just right and Title.

John Long & Elizabeth his mother Appeared and Laid claime

to Forty Acres of Land, Ten of which She Says was Exchang-

ed with William Price for Ten Acres more her own Lott Land

Lying in Sandy bay, Also Ten Acres bought of John Cannady

as both we find in their Register book to be the Lott Land of one

James Earlings dec[d] The other Twenty Acres bought of Thomas

Moor being the Lott Land of his dec[d] father Francis Moor.

Sutton Isaack Sen[r] freeholder Laid Claime to Twenty

Acres of Land which we find by the Register book to be his first

Allotment, and hath Lived upon the Same ever Since To which

he hath a just right and Title.

William Seale freeholder Appeared and Laid Claime to Twenty

Acres of Land being the Lottment of his deceased Father Benj[a]

Seale, To which he hath a just right and Title.

James Draper freeholder Laid Claime to Twenty Acres of

Land, which in the register book appears to be the Land of

his deceased father John Draper, As also to the one third of Ten

Acres there, in Equall Shares between himself Isaack Wood and

Simon Whaley. To which Twenty three Acres and 1/3 of an Acre

the said James Draper hath a just right and Title.

Dorothy Hayse widdow Appeared and Laid Claime to Twenty

Acres of Land being the Lott Land of her deceased Husband

William Hayse as Appears in the Register Book Which She

and the Heirs of her Said dec[d] Husband hath a just right and Title

to.

Humphrey

Margin Notes:

Eliz[h] Allis Claime

to 30 Acres Land

Title.

Proved

Jno: Long & Eliz[h] Long

Claim to 40 acres

Land

Title

Proved.

Sutt[n] Isaack Sen[r]

Claime to 20 ac[s]

Land. Title

Proved.

W[m] Seale Claime

to 20 acres Land

Title proved.

Ja[s] Draper Claim

to 20 acres land

Title

Proved.

Dorothy Hayse

Claime & Title to

to 20 acres Land

Prov[d].

Elizabeth Allis, widow and freeholder, came forward and claimed thirty acres.

Ten acres were shown in an old register book as the lot land of her late husband Thomas Allis.

Ten further acres had been purchased from Benjamin Miller under a deed of bargain and sale dated 3 April 1707.

The remaining ten acres had been purchased from John Hennison under a bill of sale dated 5 May 1696. From this parcel her husband had given three acres to their son Thomas Allis on his marriage.

Elizabeth Allis, with the heirs of her late husband, held a clear right and title to the thirty acres.

John Long and Elizabeth his mother came forward and claimed forty acres.

She said that ten acres had been exchanged with William Price for ten acres of her own lot land lying in Sandy Bay.

A further ten acres had been bought from John Cannady. Both these parcels appeared in the register book as the lot land of James Earlings, deceased.

The remaining twenty acres had been bought from Thomas Moor, being the lot land of his late father Francis Moor.

Sutton Isaack senior, freeholder, claimed twenty acres. The register book showed the land as his first allotment, on which he had lived ever since. He held a clear right and title.

William Seale, freeholder, claimed twenty acres. The land had been the allotment of his late father Benjamin Seale. He held a clear right and title.

James Draper, freeholder, claimed twenty acres, which the register book showed as the land of his late father John Draper. He also claimed one third of a separate ten-acre parcel held in equal shares between himself, Isaack Wood and Simon Whaley. He held a clear right and title to the twenty-three and one-third acres.

Dorothy Hayse, widow, claimed twenty acres. The register book showed the parcel as the lot land of her late husband William Hayse. She and the heirs of her late husband held a clear right and title.

Interpretations

The Allis case shows how a small intra-family gift on marriage was recorded against the parent's title rather than the child's. Thomas Allis senior had given three of his ten Hennison-bought acres to his son on the son's marriage. The council treated the gift as a charge on the parent's freehold rather than requiring a separate title sitting for the son. Elizabeth Allis's claim to the full thirty acres carried the gift forward implicitly within her late husband's holding, leaving the son's three acres to be carved out when his own descent fell due for registration.

The shared one third of ten acres held by Draper, Wood and Whaley records a working pattern of fractional co-ownership recognised by the council without insistence on physical partition. Three named planters held equal shares in a single ten-acre parcel, each carrying his third as an addition to his other freehold. The council's willingness to record the fractional share as part of Draper's twenty-three and one-third acres shows that the registration system could accommodate undivided interests where the parties had not yet seen reason to split the ground on the surveyor's plan.

The repeated reliance on the register book across the day's claims, for Allis, Long, Sutton Isaack, Seale, Draper and Hayse, confirms its role as the foundational documentary anchor of island title. Where a planter held the same parcel from the original allotment to the present sitting, the register book entry was often the only writing produced. The council accepted long occupation supported by the register book as sufficient title, without requiring a private deed.

The Long claim shows how an early exchange between settlers could be brought into the register decades later through the widow's testimony. Elizabeth Long's account of a swap with William Price for her own lot land in Sandy Bay rested on her recollection, supported by the register book's identification of the parcels as the lot land of James Earlings. The council accepted the chain on this combined basis, taking the widow's oral statement together with the documentary location of the original lot as sufficient.

Speculations

The presentation of the Allis claim by the widow alone, with the marriage gift to her son carried as an internal charge, was probably calculated to avoid the cost and complication of a separate registration of the three acres at this stage. With the survey deadline of 25 March 1713 only weeks away, registering the whole holding under the parent's title and leaving the son's portion for later was a practical economy that kept the family's freehold intact on the surveyor's plan without forcing an immediate partition.

The fractional one third held by Draper, Wood and Whaley suggests the parcel had probably descended jointly through an earlier inheritance and that the three holders had found it more convenient to use the ground in common than to divide it. The council's acceptance of the undivided share at registration would have left the ten acres open to a formal partition later, while preserving the present working arrangement and avoiding the surveyor's costs of running new boundaries through a small parcel held in three.

22

15

Humphrey Edwards free planter Appeared and Laid Claime in behalf

of the Heirs of the Edward Praeyn dec[d] To Thirty Acres of Land being

given by William Bowman dec[d] to the Said Praeyns wife (since Married

to s[d] Edwards) and find in the Register Book that twas Part of

the Lott Land of John Walls and William Marsh which was since bought

by the said William Bowman, as appears by a bargaine and Sale for

the same now produced and which the said Edward Praeyns Heirs

hath a just right and Title to.

Mary Hodgkison Widdow Appeared in behalf of her daughter Elizabeth

Bowman and Laid Claime to Thirty Acres of Land in Sea[?] Valley being

the other Part of her grand father William Bowmans Land and that

he purchased formerly of John Walls and William Hunt who Exchanged

his Lott Land for that of the aforesaid Marshes and by Said Will[m] Bowman

given to his Son John Bowman dec[d] who gave the Same to his daughter

Elizabeth Bowman by Will, As also forty five Acres more in Reversion

after his wifes decease which was formerly the Land of Joseph Charles

ee with dec[d] as appears more Plainely in the Register Book.

John Nichols freeholder Appeared and Laid Claime to forty acres

of Land and Produced a Printed Deed with the Honourable Companys

Seale Affix[d] thereunto for Twenty Acres, Also a bill of Sale dated the 4[th]

June 1688 for Ten Acres bought of Thomas Sortis being his first Allotment

Likewise a Counterpart Indenture of Bargaine and Sale dated the 19[th]

January 1681 for Ten Acres Land Purchased of William Rutter Executor[?]

Seasond[?] [...]dr[...] to the Last Will and Testement of one John Coopers dec[d]

but Sign[d] by the Said Nichols instead of s[d] Executor[?] Which Leads us to

believe there was Such an agreement made for Said Land. He the said

Nichols Alledging that Govern[r] Poirier had both Parts in his Possession

and when refund[?] this by Said Nichols now Produced, told him twas

no Matter which part he had.

James Greentree free planter Appeared and Laid Claime to Sixty

Acres of Land Produceing first a bill of Sale for Ten Acres Land Sold by

Tiddale to owin Bovian who gave the Same to his Son Jn[o] John

Goodwin dec[d] as appears more Largely in a Gift for y[e] Same

which then descended to Edward Washborne by Marrying said John

Goodwins Widdow and Since Purchased by the said Greentree Secondly

Produced an Indenture of Bargaine and Sale for Ten Acres Land Sold by

Joseph Trapp to said John Goodwin which the Said Greentree also

Purchased[?]

Margin Notes:

Hump[y] Edw[d]s in

behalf of Praeyns

Heirs Claim[d] 30

Acres Land

Title

Proved.

Mary Hodgkisons

Claime to 75 acr[s]

Land in behalfe

of Eliz[h] Bowman

Title

Proved.

Jn[o] Nichols

Claime to 40

Acres Land

Title

Proved.

Ja[s] Greentrees

Claime to 60

Acres Land

Title

Proved.

Humphrey Edwards, free planter, came forward on behalf of the heirs of Edward Praeyn, deceased, and claimed thirty acres. The land had been given by William Bowman, deceased, to Praeyn's wife, who had since married Edwards. The register book recorded that the parcel had been part of the lot land of John Walls and William Marsh, and that Bowman had bought it from them. The bargain and sale was now produced. The heirs of Edward Praeyn held a clear right and title.

Mary Hodgkison, widow, came forward on behalf of her daughter Elizabeth Bowman, and claimed thirty acres in Sea Valley. The parcel formed the other part of her grandfather William Bowman's land. Bowman had bought it from John Walls and William Hunt, Hunt having exchanged his lot land for that of Marsh. Bowman gave the parcel to his son John Bowman, deceased, who in turn left it by will to his daughter Elizabeth Bowman.

She also claimed forty five further acres in reversion after her mother's decease. That parcel had been the land of Joseph Charles, deceased, as the register book recorded more plainly.

John Nichols, freeholder, came forward and claimed forty acres.

He produced a printed deed under the Company's seal for twenty acres.

He produced a bill of sale dated 4 June 1688 for ten acres bought from Thomas Sortis, being his first allotment.

He produced a counterpart indenture of bargain and sale dated 19 January 1682 for ten acres purchased from William Rutter, who acted as executor under the will of John Cooper, deceased. The instrument had been signed by Nichols instead of by the executor. The council believed an agreement for the parcel had been made. Nichols said that Governor Poirier had held both parts of the indenture, and when Nichols asked to recover them, Poirier had told him it made no difference which part he had.

James Greentree, free planter, came forward and claimed sixty acres.

He produced a bill of sale for ten acres sold by Tiddale to Owin Bovian. Bovian gave the parcel to his son John Goodwin, deceased, as set out in a deed of gift. The land then passed to Edward Washborne on his marriage to Goodwin's widow, and was later bought by Greentree.

He produced an indenture of bargain and sale for ten acres sold by Joseph Trapp to John Goodwin. Greentree had also purchased that parcel.

Interpretations

The Praeyn claim shows the council recognising a remarried widow's continuing fiduciary responsibility for the children of her former marriage. The thirty acres reached her by gift from William Bowman during her first marriage to Edward Praeyn, and on her second marriage to Humphrey Edwards the parcel did not pass to him in his own right. The council recorded the title as belonging to the Praeyn heirs, with Edwards acting on their behalf at the registration sitting. The mechanism preserves the inheritance of the first marriage against absorption into the second household.

The Hodgkison claim demonstrates the council's willingness to record a vested interest and a reversionary interest in the same sitting. The thirty acres in Sea Valley passed to Elizabeth Bowman by her father's will and were registered as her present holding. The further forty five acres remained in her mother's hands during her lifetime, with the reversion to Elizabeth recorded against the same claim. The arrangement gave the daughter a documentary anchor for her future interest without disturbing the mother's present possession.

The Nichols claim shows how an irregular execution of a deed could be cured by sworn oral testimony before the council. The 1682 indenture had been signed by the purchaser instead of by the executor selling on behalf of John Cooper's estate. Governor Poirier had treated the irregularity as immaterial because he held both counterparts of the instrument. The council in 1713 accepted Nichols's account as sufficient to support the title, treating the practical equivalence of the two counterparts as overriding the formal defect in signature.

The Greentree claim records how a remarried widow could carry a freehold into a new marriage. The ten acres given to John Goodwin by his father Owin Bovian passed to Edward Washborne when Washborne married Goodwin's widow. The land was then sold on to Greentree. The chain depended on Washborne's standing as the widow's second husband to convey land that had originated as a gift to the first husband. The council accepted the chain because each link was supported by a documented instrument.

Speculations

The Hodgkison registration of both the vested thirty acres and the forty five-acre reversion at the same sitting was probably driven by the survey deadline of 25 March 1713. By bringing forward the reversionary interest now rather than waiting for her mother's death, Elizabeth Bowman secured a contemporaneous record of her future right against any later challenge from collateral relatives or from second-marriage claimants. The cost of registration was once; the documentary protection extended into the next generation.

The casual remark attributed to Governor Poirier on the Cooper sale, that it made no difference which part of the indenture Nichols held, suggests that the formality of executor's signature was treated as recoverable through the governor's personal vouch. Recording the episode at the 1713 sitting was probably calculated to fix the cure in the council's own records before Poirier's tenure passed entirely out of living memory, since the title would otherwise rest on a defective deed whose only support was a remembered conversation.

23

16

Purchas[d] after the Same Manner as the former Ten Acres Thirdly

Produced a bill of Sale for Twenty Acres of Land Sold him by Gabriell

Powell, Lying in Sandy bay Fourthly produced a bill of Sale For Ten

Acres Land Sold him by his Bagley being the former Allotment of

Edward Suffolk dec[d] Fifthly, Produced a bill of Sale[?] for Ten acres of

Land more that his Father John Greentree bought of Henry Lundy

which he had in Exchange for Ten Acres of Jonathan Higham

the former Allotment of Edward Anejo as appeared in an

Old Register book All which Severall Parcells the Said

James Greentree hath a just right and Title to.

Mary Hoskison wid[w] freeholder Appeared and Laid Claim

to Eighty Six Acres of free Land Thirty Acres whereof bought

of Gabriell Powell at[?] Pre[?]y at the Horse Pasture Twenty Eight Acres

at Lemon Valley head formerly Richard Curlings and Twenty

Eight Acres more under his Peak being Part of William Frenchs

Childrens Land. Also Ten Acres bought of Thomas Goodwin

The Said Mary Hoskison brought this day her dec[d] Husband

George Hoskisons Last Will and Testament in order of having the

Same prov[d], which was Accordingly done by the oaths of John

Hose, John Tompson and Walter Morris.

Ordered that the Said Will be approved of receivd & Entered

in a book for that Purpose, and coppys given when Demanded.

The Said Mary Hoskison desires Letters of Administration

may be granted her, upon her Said Deceased Husband Estate

Ordered.

That an Inventory be first Taken thereof and delivered upon

Oath, ans then her request to be granted.

Upon Examining the Acc[ot] of a Numb[r] of Acres of Land

return[d] Surveyed to John Nichols I find that he has Inclosed Ten Acres of

the Honour[ble] Companys Common without any Liberty or

grant, under pretence of y[e] benefit of fenceing for Advantage

According to an order made by Govern[r] & C[?] Cocks, Although he

the Said Nichols petition for Some Land not Long Since which

for good reasons was deny[d] him. Wherefore

Ordered.

Margin Notes:

Mary Hoskisons

Claime to 86 acres

Land

Geo[r] Hoskisons

Will proved

The Wid[w] desires Lett[s]

of Administra[n]

An Inventory to

be first deliv[d] in

Jn[o] Nichols has

Inclosed 10 acres

of y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s]

Comon Land dis-

[...]

Greentree had bought the second ten acres in the same manner as the first.

He produced a bill of sale for twenty acres in Sandy Bay, sold to him by Gabriel Powell.

He produced a bill of sale for ten acres sold to him by his Bagley, being the former allotment of Edward Suffolk, deceased.

He produced a bill of sale for a further ten acres that his father John Greentree had bought from Henry Lundy. Lundy had received the parcel in exchange for ten acres of Jonathan Higham, the former allotment of Edward Anejo, as an old register book showed.

Greentree held a clear right and title to all these parcels.

Mary Hoskison, widow and freeholder, came forward and claimed 86 acres of free land.

Thirty acres had been bought from Gabriel Powell, lying at the Horse Pasture.

Twenty eight acres lay at the head of Lemon Valley, formerly belonging to Richard Curling.

Twenty eight acres lay under the Peak, being part of the land of the children of William French.

Ten acres had been bought from Thomas Goodwin.

Mary Hoskison brought in the same day the last will and testament of her late husband George Hoskison for proof. The will was proved on the oaths of John Hose, John Tompson and Walter Morris.

The council ordered the will to be approved, received and entered in a book kept for that purpose, with copies to be given when demanded.

Mary Hoskison asked the council to grant her letters of administration over her late husband's estate.

The council ordered that an inventory of the estate be taken first and delivered on oath, and that her request be granted after that.

On examining the number of acres returned as surveyed for John Nichols, the council found that he had enclosed ten acres of the Company's common ground without any liberty or grant. He had relied on the benefit of fencing for advantage, under an order made by Governor and Council Cocks. Nichols had earlier petitioned for some land and had been refused for good reasons.

Interpretations

The Hoskison claim records the largest individual freehold confirmed in the present series of title sittings. The 86 acres came together through four separate purchases: the Powell parcel at the Horse Pasture, the Curling parcel at Lemon Valley head, the French children's parcel under the Peak, and the Goodwin parcel. The council registered the consolidated holding in the widow's name without requiring her to bring the purchases under a single instrument. The mechanism shows that the registration system could accommodate a planter's house with substantial scattered holdings as readily as a small contiguous lot.

The probate of George Hoskison's will alongside his widow's land claim demonstrates how the council combined two distinct functions in a single sitting. The will was proved on the oaths of three witnesses, recorded in the dedicated book, and copies made available on demand. The grant of letters of administration was suspended until an inventory had been brought in on oath. The conditional grant gave the council a working check on the widow's account of the estate before she was clothed with formal authority over the personal property.

The Nichols enclosure case discloses a working ambiguity in the standing law on fencing. An earlier order under Governor Cocks had allowed a planter to enclose adjoining common ground to his own advantage where this could be defended as a benefit of fencing. Nichols had used the order to enclose ten acres of common after the council had already refused his petition for additional land. The council's recording of the case shows it treating the Cocks order as no longer a safe foundation for unilateral enclosure, particularly where the planter had been formally refused on the same ground by a recent decision.

The reference to William French's children as the source of the twenty eight acres under the Peak ties Mary Hoskison's holding to the orphan estate registered in earlier sessions. The parcel had been seized when French's wife died, and was later let or sold on. Its appearance in Mrs Hoskison's freehold suggests that the council had subsequently disposed of part of the French orphans' land into Hoskison's hands, with the registration in 1713 fixing the present possession against any later challenge from the French children.

Speculations

The bringing forward of George Hoskison's probate at the same sitting as his widow's land claim was probably calculated to consolidate the household's documentary position in a single appearance. With the deputy governor dead almost twelve months before, the widow was working against the survey deadline of 25 March 1713 and against any challenge that might arise from her late husband's outstanding administrative responsibilities. Securing the will, the letters of administration and the land registration together gave her a unified record on which to rest both estates.

The Nichols enclosure case probably reached the council's attention through the surveyor's measurements rather than by complaint. With Bazett returning the acres to the clerk's office for each registered claim, an excess of ten acres beyond Nichols's documented title would have shown immediately against the plan. The recording of the case at this sitting suggests the council was using the registration programme as a working audit of the island's common ground, with the survey itself providing the evidence of unauthorised enclosure that no inhabitant would have brought forward.

24

17

Ordered That the said John Nichols do between the day of

the date hereof and the first of Aprill Next Ensuing Take downe and

remove all the fences made on Said Land upon pain of being Dealt

with as a Trespasser upon the Said Honoura[ble] Comp[s] Privledge & Comon

Which the said Nichols hath promised to do forthwith.

Robert Marsh free planter presented a Petition this day

Setting forth That haveing Lately Purchased a Small Parcell of Land of

Jonathan Drelton Humbly Prays we would be pleased to grant him the

Liberty of Renting about five or Six Acres of the Honoura[ble] Companys Waste

Land adjoyning thereunto, and his owne former Ten Acres Land.

Ordered that the fenceing in the Same and being measured his Petition

be granted, and a Lease made for the Term of Twenty four years at the usuall

Rent of five shillings p[er] Acre in the whole.

Thomas Harper free planter Exhibited his Petition Setting forth

therein That notwithstanding all Imaginable Care and Industere his Cattle

vile and Mannure the Land he now Hires for the raising & produceing

Provisions, the Same growes m[u]ch more barren and is much fallen be-

decay, Insomuch is not able to Support and Maintenance his Family

of Small Children with Severall other Allications. Wherefore Humbly

Prayes the premises Considered, We would beg your him So far as to

grant him about Two Acres of the Honoura[ble] Company Waste Land

Lying in Swanley Valley which would be of y[e] dream great use & service

to him and Petitioner and family.

Ordered That upon his Fenceing in the said Land in and Upon

Same measures, his Petition be granted and that he have a Lease

Accordingly for twenty one years at y[e] usual[ll] Rent.

Isaack Leech quarter Gunner Presented a Petition representing

That haveing no more then but five Acres of Land for Small a quantity

for both Plantation and Pastur[r]e of his Cattle Humbly prays to become

Tennant to the Honoura[ble] Company for about Eight Tenders of Theer

Waste Land which Richard Foy Intends to Inclose for conveniency of

Fenceing with twenty Acres of formerly granted to Henry Coals deceas[d]

or that the Same may Lay Common, otherwise twill be very Prejudi-

ciable to him and Familie, and Render them not able to Live or

raise any Stock of Cattle. Ordered

That upon the Premises being Considered, the said Cleve be Imme-

diately forbid fenceing in any more Land than the twenty acres

formerly in the Possession of Henry Coales dec[d]

Robert

Margin Notes:

Nichols Ord[d] to pull

down s[d] Fences

by 1[s] of Aprill ne[xt]

Rob[t] Marshes

request to hire

a Small Pcell Land

upon fenceing in y[e]

Same

Granted.

Tho[s] Harpers

request to hire

2 acres Land

in Swanley

Valley

Granted.

Isa[c] Leech's

request to hire

a Pcell Land

[...] intends to

[...] to his

own.

[Foy?] Forbid

fenceing any

[...] [...]

Land

The council ordered Nichols to take down and remove all the fences on the ten acres between this date and 1 April 1713, on pain of being treated as a trespasser on the Company's common. Nichols promised to do so at once.

Robert Marsh, free planter, presented a petition. He had recently bought a small parcel of land from Jonathan Drelton, and asked to rent about five or six acres of the Company's waste land adjoining that parcel and his own former ten acres.

The council ordered that on fencing in the land and having it measured, his petition would be granted. A lease would be drawn for a term of twenty four years at the usual rent of 5s 0d per acre in the whole.

Thomas Harper, free planter, presented a petition. He stated that despite his best efforts to manure with his cattle the land he hired for raising provisions, the ground had grown barren and fallen into decay. He could no longer maintain his family of small children. He asked the council to grant him about two acres of the Company's waste land in Swanley Valley.

The council ordered that on his fencing in the land and having it measured, his petition would be granted, with a lease for 21 years at the usual rent.

Isaack Leech, quarter gunner, presented a petition. He held only five acres, which was too little for both his plantation and the pasture of his cattle. He asked to become tenant to the Company for about eight tenders of waste land that Richard Foy intended to enclose for fencing convenience, together with twenty acres that had formerly been granted to Henry Coals, deceased. Otherwise the ground should be left as common. Without one of these arrangements he could not support his family or raise any stock.

The council ordered that Foy be forbidden at once from fencing in any more land than the twenty acres formerly held by Henry Coals, deceased.

Interpretations

The enforcement order against Nichols sets a working timetable for the recovery of unauthorised enclosure. The council allowed slightly under two months for the fences to come down, after which Nichols would be liable as a trespasser. The interval gave him time to remove his materials and resite his fencing, but the threat of trespass enforcement converted the planter's earlier reliance on the Cocks order into an immediate liability. The Nichols case shows the registration programme functioning as a working audit of common ground, with the survey itself producing the evidence of breach.

Marsh's lease at 5s 0d per acre for a term of twenty four years sits outside the pattern of 21-year leases that has dominated the present series. The four extra years are not explained on the face of the order. The combination of an existing purchased parcel, an adjoining freehold owned by Marsh, and the new lease for the Company's waste land created a consolidated holding under a single tenancy. The longer term may reflect the council's recognition that a planter consolidating across three sources of tenure required additional security to justify the cost of fencing the whole.

Harper's case demonstrates the working consequences of soil exhaustion on the island's leased ground. The council accepted that hired land could fall out of useful cultivation and treated the grant of waste land in Swanley Valley as the appropriate remedy, with a fresh 21-year lease at the usual rent. The arrangement transferred the working ground from a parcel exhausted by continuous cropping to one that had not been worked, while keeping the planter on the Company's rent roll. The mechanism preserves the rent base by relocating, rather than reducing, the planter's obligation.

The Leech case shows the council intervening against an attempt by Richard Foy to enclose Company waste land by appropriation rather than by lease. Foy's plan to enclose the eight-tender parcel for fencing convenience would have removed the ground from common use without any grant. By forbidding Foy and reserving the council's discretion over the wider Coals parcel, the council preserved both planters' positions while making clear that enclosure required prior council authority. The case parallels the Nichols enforcement order issued at the same sitting.

Speculations

The longer 24-year term on Marsh's lease was perhaps calculated to align the expiry with the surrounding tenures in his consolidated holding, or to compensate for the fact that the Company waste land had not previously been worked and would require heavier initial investment in fencing and clearance. Either reading suggests the council was using lease term as a flexible incentive rather than holding rigidly to the 21-year default that had become standard elsewhere.

The decision to forbid Foy's enclosure before adjudicating Leech's wider request indicates that the council was treating the immediate threat to common ground as the urgent business. Leech's substantive petition for the Coals parcel was left undecided at the same sitting, but Foy's unilateral fencing was stopped at once. The pattern shows the council prioritising the protection of common ground over the resolution of competing planter claims when both were in play, leaving the wider question to be settled at a later sitting once the immediate intrusion had been removed.

25

18

Robert Bell free planter and Mason Exhibited his Petition

Setting forth therein That both he and his blacks haveing been

for Some years past Employed about the Honoura[ble] Companys

Fortification work Have not been able to Comply With their

Order for Fenceing in Lands Wherefore Humbly Prays we

would be pleased to grant him a Longer Time to fence in his

Said Land.

Ordered

That we well knowing the Allegations of the Said Petition

to be true, and that he is a very Sob[r] & Industrious Man, He have

a Twelve months Time Longer Allowed him to Fence in his Said

Land.

Ordered.

That an Advertizement be Issued out to require all Persons

Especially Masters and Mistrisses of Families to give an Account

of their respective Families Lands and Cattle that they have or Last

year had in their Possession, between the 1[st] and 16 day of this Just[t]

which Advertizement is as followeth &c.

Whereas the Honourable United Company Lords Proprietors

of this their Island Hath Enjoyned that an Account be Sent unto

them Every year of all Inhabitants and Persons resideing on Said

Island and of all Land and Cattle that is in Each Masters or M[s]

Possession

These are therefore in her Majesties Name To will and

require all and every the Said Inhabitants Especially well Masters and

Mistrisses of Families & Housekeepers therefore for bring in or cause

to be brought into the Clerks Office within United Castle in James

Valley, between the 1 day of y[e] Sd[?] hereof and the 20 Instant a True and

Just account of every Person or Persons, both Whites & blacks

resideing and being in their respective Families viz[t] Men, Women

and Children with the Severall ages of their Children Males & Females

Likewise the Perticular Number of Acres of Land (both free & Leased)

that Each Familie are now or were Last year in Possession of or any other

Person for them And Allso the Number of their Head Cattle in their

Severall Kines that every such Person hath or Last year had in their

Possession or any other for them as aforesaid, Which Account of Families

Land and Cattle are to be true and in Writing Subscribed by the Said

Master or Mest of the Said Families for his or her, or own Familie

Land and Cattle Land by any Person Liveing with them for their

own

Margin Notes:

Rob[t] Bell desires

Long time to

fence in his land

allowed 12 mo[s]

time

Acc[ot]s of Familys

to be given in.

The Advertizem[t]

for all Persons

to take Notice

of & bring in

their acc[ts]

by y[e] s[d] March.

Robert Bell, free planter and mason, presented a petition. He stated that for some years past both he and his slaves had been employed on the Company's fortification work and had not been able to comply with the order to fence in his land. He asked for further time.

The council, knowing the statements in the petition to be true and Bell to be a sober and industrious man, allowed him a further twelve months to fence in his land.

The council ordered an advertisement to be issued. It required all inhabitants, and in particular the masters and mistresses of families, to bring in an account of their families, lands and cattle then in their possession, or in their possession the previous year, between 1 and 16 of the present month. The advertisement was as follows:

The Honourable United Company, Lords Proprietors of the island, had directed that an account be sent home each year of all inhabitants on the island and of all land and cattle held by each master or mistress.

In her Majesty's name, all inhabitants, and in particular masters and mistresses of families and householders, were required to bring or cause to be brought into the clerk's office at the United Castle in James Valley, between the date of the advertisement and the 20th of the present month, a true and just account of every person resident in their families, white and black, men, women and children, with the ages of children male and female.

The account was also to record the particular number of acres of land, both free and leased, held by each family in the present year or the previous year, including any held for them by another person, together with the number of head of cattle in their several kinds held by each family in the present year or the previous year, or by another for them.

The account of families, land and cattle was to be true, in writing, and signed by the master or mistress of the family for his or her own family, land and cattle.

Interpretations

The grant of a further twelve months to Robert Bell sets a working pattern for fencing relief tied to identifiable public service. Bell's employment, with his slaves, on the Company's fortifications gave the council an institutional reason to suspend the standard deadline. The relief parallels the earlier extension to Thomas Burnham at the sitting of 6 January 1713, and confirms that the council recognised a defined class of planter, those whose labour was already absorbed in fortification work, as entitled to additional time without prejudice to title.

The annual census order combines three returns into a single advertisement: inhabitants, land and cattle. The instruction to record both present and previous year's holdings shows the council building a comparative record across two years for the directors' use. The requirement that masters and mistresses sign for their own families allows the council to identify the responsible household head against each return, while the inclusion of land held by another person on the family's behalf catches trustee and fiduciary holdings within the same instrument.

The reference to the United Company as Lords Proprietors and the issue of the advertisement in her Majesty's name fixes the formal authority on which the census rests. The dual invocation, Company and Crown, gives the council a working basis for compelling compliance from both the resident free population and any inhabitants who might dispute the Company's standing. The instrument is framed for evidentiary use in London as well as on the island.

The detailed schedule of items to be returned, slaves separately from whites, men separately from women and children, children with their ages, free land separately from leased land, and cattle separately by kind, shows the council collecting structured data rather than a general count. The instrument anticipates the directors' need for working figures on labour, settlement and stock, and gives the council an audit base against which subsequent transactions could be measured.

Speculations

The clause requiring inclusion of land held by another person on the family's behalf was probably aimed at the trustee arrangements that have come forward repeatedly through the present registration programme. Widows holding land in custody for orphan heirs, second husbands managing the freeholds of children by their wives' earlier marriages, and adult brothers acting on behalf of younger siblings would all have been required to declare their fiduciary holdings against their own family return. The provision captures the orphan estates within the working census without requiring separate registration.

The narrow window between the date of the advertisement and 20 March 1713 indicates that the council was driving the returns to coincide with the 25 March 1713 administrative year-end, when the survey deadline also fell. Bringing the census in on the same closing date as the survey gave the council a single working snapshot of the island's settlement, land tenure and stock at the year's end, in time to be sent home with the documentation of the registration programme on the next homeward shipping.

26

19

own Lands and Cattle. Likewise these are to require all Such Persons

aforesaid to give an Account in Writing unto John How the Honoura[ble]

Companys Reive at their Plantation House of all Neat Cattle Turn[d]

upon the Common or Waste Land the Ensuing year. Unto all which a

ready Complyance and Obedience is Expected as they will Answer the

Contrary upon the Penalty of a Fine afore[m] and Cumu[ll][?] Diversion

to be Levyed upon the Goods and Estate of every offender for every offence

Contrary hereunto. Wherefore all Persons are required to take Perticular

Notice Accordingly.

Dated at the United Castle in James

Valley this 4[th] day of March 17 12/13.

Sign[d] per order of Govern[r] & Councill

p me. Jn[o] Alexander Acc[ot]nt

Ordered.

That Tuesday next being the 17[th] Instant be appointed Councill day

to Inquire further into the Titles of Lands or to hear and Determine

any other business that may offer.

All inhabitants required to file the family return were also to give a written account to John How, the Company's reeve at the Plantation House, of every head of neat cattle they intended to turn upon the common or waste land in the coming year.

Compliance was required on penalty of a fine, to be levied on the goods and estate of any offender for each breach.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 4 March 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander, Accountant.

The council ordered that Tuesday 17 March 1713 be appointed as the next council day, for further examination of land titles and any other business that might arise.

Interpretations

The cattle return to John How adds a fourth strand to the census programme alongside the inhabitants, land and household returns set out in the principal advertisement. By requiring inhabitants to declare in advance how many head they intended to turn out on the common, the council gave the reeve a working base against which to police the actual use of the pasture across the coming year. The mechanism converts the Plantation House from a working estate into the administrative centre for Company grazing rights, with the reeve as the responsible officer.

The threat of a fine levied on the offender's goods and estate gives the census order direct enforcement force, parallel to the distraint procedure already used for store debts and to the trespass penalty applied to Nichols's enclosure earlier in the same series. The penalty falls on the offender's property rather than on the person, which keeps the working population at their labour while still securing payment. The council has now built a graduated enforcement scheme in which fines against goods, trespass actions and forfeiture of land all operate against different categories of breach.

The fixing of 17 March 1713 as the next council day brings the title programme and the census programme into alignment with the 25 March 1713 administrative year-end. The cluster of deadlines, survey completion, family returns, cattle declarations and the close of the financial year, converges on a single eight-day window, giving the council a working snapshot of the island's settlement and tenure as the year closes.

Speculations

The decision to channel the cattle return through the reeve at the Plantation House, rather than through the clerk's office at the United Castle, was probably calculated to use the existing field-level knowledge of John How. The reeve dealt with the common ground daily and would recognise discrepancies between the declared head and the actual stock turned out. The clerk's office handled the documentary work; the reeve handled the working count. The split functions reflect the council's recognition that paper compliance alone would not control the grazing without field-level verification.

27

20

Island [...]

At a Consultation

Held on Tuesday the 17[th] day of March 17 12/13 At

the United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benja: Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

John Pack Dep[ty] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 3 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

Hatton Starling Coxswaine Presented his Petition

Setting forth That Robert Leech dec[d] his Predecessor had for

Some years past Rented Ten Acres of Land Lying in Tomstone

Wood, formerly Thom[s] Smoults, from year to year at Seven pounds

per Annum which he presumes to be too great a rent and there-

upon Humbly desires that Some Part of the Rent may be

abated and a Lease granted in his own Name for the Terme of

Twenty one years.

Ordered

That the Said Starling have a Lease in his own Name accord-

ing to his desire for 21 years at the Same rent paid yearly by

Robert Leech, and no otherwise.

John William Pyffer Asistant to the Armourer presented

his Petition Humbly Seting forth That he had work[t] in the

Armourars Shop for upwards of two years at only fifteen pounds

p[er] annum which being too Small a Sallary to Supply himselfe

with Cloathing duty[?] and other Necessaries and five pound

Less than any former in that Employ Ever had Humbly

requested to have the Addition of Said 5 p[er] annum[?] as had his

Predecessor Nathaniell Collins Some time Since gone off

the Island

Upon

Margin Notes:

Hatton Starling

desires his rent may

be abated & a lease

granted in his own

Name

The Same Rent to

Continue but Lease

in his own Name

Jn[o] W[m] Pyffer's

request for 5 [...]

addition to his

Sallary.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 17 March 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; John Pack, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Hatton Starling, coxswain, presented a petition. His predecessor Robert Leech, deceased, had rented ten acres of land in Tomstone Wood, formerly belonging to Thomas Smoult, from year to year at £7 0s 0d per annum. Starling thought the rent too high and asked for an abatement, together with a lease in his own name for 21 years.

The council ordered that Starling have a lease in his own name for 21 years at the same rent that Robert Leech had paid yearly, and on no other terms.

John William Pyffer, assistant to the armourer, presented a petition. He had worked in the armourer's shop for upwards of two years at only £15 0s 0d per annum. The salary was too small to supply him with clothing and other necessaries, and was £5 0s 0d less than any former assistant in that employment had ever received. He asked for an addition of £5 0s 0d per annum, to bring his salary to the rate enjoyed by his predecessor Nathaniel Collins, who had since left the island.

Interpretations

The Starling petition shows the council distinguishing sharply between the form and the substance of a tenancy. Starling sought two reliefs: a lease in his own name and an abatement of the rent. The council granted the first and refused the second. Conversion of a yearly tenancy into a 21-year lease gave the holder documentary security against future displacement, but the council declined to compromise on the working rent. The case confirms that lease term and rent were treated as separable matters, with the council prepared to extend security of tenure without conceding income.

The rent of £7 0s 0d for ten acres at Tomstone Wood, originally paid by Robert Leech and now confirmed against Starling, fixes a working rate of 14s 0d per acre. This stands well above the usual 5s 0d per acre that has been recorded across several other recent leases. The differential probably reflects the productive value of established wood land already in working cultivation, in contrast to waste land granted on condition of fencing. The council's refusal to abate the rent indicates that it treated the established rate as the controlling figure for ground of this quality.

The Pyffer petition discloses the working pay structure for skilled garrison labour. The armourer's assistant had a settled customary rate of £20 0s 0d per annum, which had been paid to Nathaniel Collins before his departure. Pyffer's £15 0s 0d represented a £5 0s 0d reduction from the customary rate, and the petition turns on restoration to the established figure rather than on any new claim. The parallel with the Tysor case of 24 September 1711, where the predecessor's £20 0s 0d had also been reduced to £15 0s 0d for a learner with prospect of more on improvement, suggests that the council had been using the lower rate as a probationary entry point.

Speculations

The decision to give Starling a 21-year lease at the existing rent rather than continuing him on a yearly tenancy was probably driven by the survey and registration programme. With the council bringing all tenures into a documentary form during the current series of sittings, a yearly tenancy at £7 0s 0d would have sat uneasily against the leases now being engrossed for every other holder. Converting Starling's interest into a 21-year lease at the same rent regularised his position within the wider scheme without altering the income to the Company.

Pyffer's framing of the petition by reference to a named predecessor at a specific higher salary suggests that the working pay rates for skilled garrison labour were retained in living memory among the soldiers and dependants of the establishment. By naming Nathaniel Collins and the £20 0s 0d rate, Pyffer gave the council a concrete benchmark against which his own claim could be measured, and made it difficult for the council to retain him at the lower probationary figure on grounds of inexperience after two years of service.

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21

Upon Consideration that the Petitioner is a very Sober Industrious

man and having made Improvement in his Trade

Ordered for his Encouragement that his request be granted, and the

Same be plac[d] to his Credit the Ensuring Reckoning day.

Gilbert Sinsnick orphan Exhibited a Petition Setting forth that about

Seven years Since he was put out in the Nature of an Apprentice by Govern[r]

Poirier to James Draper for the Terme of Ten years to Learne the Art

or Mistery of a Shoe maker but instead thereof the Said Draper puts the

Said Sinsnick upon hard Labour in Plantation work and takes no Care

to Learn him his Trade Wherefore desires he may be discharg[d] his

Masters Service that he may Learne a Trade by Some other Person.

The Said Draper having been Summon[d] to appear Alledged that he took

the Said Gilb[t] Sinsnick when an Infant and had no Consideration with

him the Governour Poirier promis[d] he Should have Eight Pounds but

notwithstanding this had he had Leather to have work[t] upon the said

Sinsnick might have Learnt his Trade and hopes to Performe his agreem[t]

before the Ten years is Expired with a Promise of putting the Said Gilbert

Sinsnick out for one whole year and the remainder of his Time to be

taught the Trade of Shoe makeing. Whereupon

Ordered.

That the said Sinsnick Continue with his Master the remaining

Part of the time Govern[r] Poirier Covenanted for.

Joseph Wrench Sold[r] Haveing been found Guilty of Misdemeanor

In bartering and receiving Arrack from a black [...] Christian[?]

besides the aiding and Setting him in the Robbery and Entering the

House whereon the Liquor Lay, was Sentenced to Run the Gantlett

through the Garrison Company of Soldiers and to do duty upon all

three Guards at Mundens Point, which being Executed.

The Said Wrench, Humbly Petition[d] Shewing much regret & Sorrow

for his Late Crime, faithfully promising future amendment That

we would be pleas[d] out of Clemency and Pitey to his Present State

and Condition to grant him the favour of being freed from the

mounting on Every Guard that he might be at Liberty to attend his

Customers in Trim[m]ing and puting himself thereby in a way of paying

his debts for Cloathing and dyet &c.

Upon Consideration of the Petitioner's hearty Sorrow for his Late

offence and Promise of future good behaviour.

Ordered.

Margin Notes:

His request

Granted.

Gilb[t] Sinsnick

desires a discharge

from his Mast[rs]

Service

his Masters

Objection

Sinsnick to Serve

his time

Jos: Wrench

Punished for

Misdemeanor

Wrenches request

On consideration that Pyffer was a sober and industrious man who had made improvement in his trade, the council ordered, for his encouragement, that his request be granted and the additional £5 0s 0d placed to his credit at the next reckoning day.

Gilbert Sinsnick, orphan, presented a petition. About seven years before he had been put out by Governor Poirier as apprentice to James Draper for a term of ten years, to learn the trade of shoemaker. Instead of teaching him the trade, Draper had set him to hard plantation labour and taken no care to instruct him. He asked to be discharged from Draper's service, so that he might learn a trade with another master.

Draper was summoned and gave his answer. He had taken Sinsnick in as an infant without any payment, although Governor Poirier had promised him £8 0s 0d. If he had had leather to work, he said, Sinsnick could have learnt the trade. He hoped to perform his agreement before the ten years expired, promising to place Sinsnick out for a whole year and then teach him the shoemaker's trade during the remainder of the term.

The council ordered that Sinsnick continue with his master for the remainder of the term Governor Poirier had covenanted for.

Joseph Wrench, soldier, had been found guilty of misdemeanour. He had bartered with and received arrack from a slave called Christian, and had also aided him in robbery by entering the house where the liquor was kept. He had been sentenced to run the gantlet through the garrison company of soldiers and to do duty on all three guards at Munden's Point. The sentence had been carried out.

Wrench then presented a petition, expressing regret and sorrow for his crime and promising future good behaviour. He asked the council to free him from mounting every guard, so that he might be free to attend his customers in trimming and earn enough to pay his debts for clothing and diet.

On consideration of his sorrow and promise of better conduct, the council ordered.

Interpretations

The Pyffer order shows the council using the next reckoning day as the working mechanism for adjusting salary. The £5 0s 0d addition was not paid in cash at the moment of grant but credited against his account when the year closed. The arrangement parallels the wider store-book practice on the island, where wages, debts and credits ran through the same ledger and were settled by entry rather than by coin. The mechanism allowed the council to recognise the claim without disturbing the working cash position.

The Sinsnick case discloses the practical limits of the apprenticeship system on the island. The original indenture had set a ten-year term to learn the shoemaker's trade, but Draper had used the apprentice for plantation labour because he lacked leather to work. The council refused to discharge Sinsnick despite the documented misuse, holding him to the original term while leaving Draper's revised promise of one year out and the remainder in the trade as the working compromise. The order shows the council reluctant to set apprentices loose into the labour market, even where the master had failed in his core obligation.

The unpaid £8 0s 0d that Governor Poirier had promised Draper for taking the infant apprentice records a working incentive structure for the absorption of orphan children into planter households. The fee, never paid, gave Draper a defence against the charge of neglect by framing his own loss alongside the apprentice's. The exchange suggests that the council, while declining to discharge Sinsnick, recognised that the original arrangement had been compromised on both sides, and chose to preserve the framework rather than unwind it.

The Wrench case sets out the working penalty for collusion with slave theft. The sentence had three elements: running the gantlet through the garrison company, additional duty on all three guards at Munden's Point, and the social mark of public punishment. The first had already been executed. The petition turned only on relief from the continuing guard duty, not on remission of the original sentence. The structure shows the council treating physical punishment and continuing service obligations as separable, with the latter open to negotiation once the former had been carried out.

Speculations

The decision to retain Sinsnick under Draper's hand for the remainder of the original term, rather than transferring him to another master, was probably calculated to avoid setting a precedent that would unsettle the wider apprenticeship system. With Governor Poirier dead and his original placement ten years behind, a discharge on the apprentice's petition would have opened other indentures to similar challenge. Holding Sinsnick to the term, while extracting Draper's revised undertaking on the record, preserved the institution while addressing the immediate complaint.

Wrench's request for relief from continuous guard duty so that he could attend his customers as a trimmer points to the dual economy that operated within the garrison. Soldiers commonly carried trades on the side, earning store credit and cash from inhabitants while drawing their military pay. By framing his petition as a request to resume his civilian custom in order to pay his debts for clothing and diet, Wrench identified the working dependency between his garrison service and the planter economy, and gave the council a reason to relax the additional duty without remitting the underlying conviction.

29

22

Ordered That his request be granted for this time.

Isaack Wood Corporall appeared in the behalfe of

Samuel Defountains Children and Laid Claime to Forty Eight

Acres Land Produceing an Indenture of Bargaine and Sale

dated the 16 of June 1681 Sign[d] by Thom[s] Birch whose Lott

Land it was, to Edward Brayne for Twenty Acres Land Ly-

ing in Fishers Valley which Said Twenty Acres the s[d] Brayne

Sold to Onesiphorus Quincy (whose widow married to Samuel

Defountaine) he dying Mrs[?] Married againe to Wood) for the

Same of Twenty pounds and Ten Acres Land in Gyrings Valley

as Appears by bill of Sale Sign[d] by Said Brayne and dated the

17 of June 1681. Also produced a bill of Sale dated the 9 of January

1683 for Ten Acres Land the Lot of Thomas Goodale who Sold

the Same to Said Onesiph[s] Quincy and is adjoyning to the afores[d]

Twenty Acres. Likewise produced a bill of Sale dated the 24 Novemb[r]

1701 for Ten Acres more bought of Thomas Dixon by Samuel Defoun-

taine being Part of the Lott Land of John Mattlins whose widdow

the said Dixon Married, and Three Acres and one Third of an Acre

Lying in the great Wood hangings All which he Enjoys in right

of his wife during her Naturall Life.

The Said Wood hath five Acres of his own Lately bought of Giles

Hayse (now Liveing there) as appears by bill of Sale dat[d] the 27 day

of August 1712 and is part of Twenty Acres the Lott of William

Hayse Sen[r] deceased.

Robert Girling freeholder appeared and Laid Claime to

Twenty Acres of Land Lying in Peek Gutt Sold by George Hodgkison

to Gabriel Powell and by Powell to Said Girling as appears by bill

of Sale dated the 1 of May 1704 and Endorsement on the backside

dated the 3 of October 1706 which Said Twenty Acres of Land the

Said Hodgkison came by in the following Manner viz[t] Ten Acres

in Exchange with the Honoura[ble] Company for about Seven Acres of

Land formerly Richard Staceys adjoyning to their Pasture

and the other Ten Acres he Purchased of Edward Heath who

had the Same of the said Honoura[ble] Company in Exchange for

Ten Acres formerly Samuel Joseys dec[d] Lying Contiguous

to their great Pasture Land. To which Twenty Acres the said

Robert Girling hath a just right and Title.

Stephen

Margin Notes:

Granted.

Isa: Woods claim

to 48 Acres land

belonging to Sam[l]

Defountains 3.

Children.

Title

of Same

Proved

R[t] Woods Claime

to 5 Acres of his

own Land

Rob[t] Girlings

Claim[e] to 20.

Acres Land

Title

Proved

The council ordered that Wrench's request be granted on this occasion.

Isaack Wood, corporal, came forward on behalf of the children of Samuel Defountain, and claimed forty-eight acres.

He produced an indenture of bargain and sale dated 16 June 1681, signed by Thomas Birch, whose lot land it was, to Edward Brayne, for twenty acres in Fishers Valley. Brayne sold the twenty acres to Onesiphorus Quincy for £20 0s 0d. Quincy's widow had since married Samuel Defountain, and on Defountain's death married Wood. Brayne also sold him ten acres in Gyrings Valley, as shown by a bill of sale dated 17 June 1681.

He produced a bill of sale dated 9 January 1684 for ten acres that had been the lot of Thomas Goodale. Goodale sold the parcel to Onesiphorus Quincy. It adjoined the earlier twenty acres.

He produced a bill of sale dated 24 November 1701 for ten further acres bought by Samuel Defountain from Thomas Dixon. The parcel was part of the lot land of John Mattlins. Dixon had married Mattlins's widow.

The holding also included three and one third acres lying in the great wood hangings. Wood held the whole during the natural life of his wife.

Wood also held five acres in his own right, recently bought from Giles Hayse, who was still living there. The purchase was made under a bill of sale dated 27 August 1712. The parcel formed part of twenty acres that had been the lot of William Hayse senior, deceased.

Robert Girling, freeholder, came forward and claimed twenty acres in Peek Gutt. George Hodgkison had sold the parcel to Gabriel Powell, and Powell had sold it to Girling under a bill of sale dated 1 May 1704, with an endorsement on the back dated 3 October 1706.

The two parcels making up the twenty acres had reached Hodgkison as follows. Ten acres came by exchange with the Company for about seven acres formerly belonging to Richard Stacey, lying next to the Company's pasture. The other ten acres he bought from Edward Heath. Heath had received them from the Company in exchange for ten acres formerly belonging to Samuel Josey, deceased, which lay next to the Company's great pasture.

Girling held a clear right and title to the twenty acres.

Interpretations

The Wood case shows the council registering a substantial holding that combined a life interest by marriage with a separate freehold in the holder's own right. The forty-eight acres reached Wood through his marriage to the twice-widowed mother of the Defountain children, and he held them during her natural life. The five acres bought from Giles Hayse in 1712 stood in his own right. The council recorded both interests under his name at the same sitting, with the life interest clearly distinguished from the personal freehold. The mechanism kept the orphan inheritance secure for the Defountain children while allowing Wood to manage the consolidated household holding during his wife's lifetime.

The Girling case sets out how the Company's pasture-consolidation programme operated through serial exchanges. Hodgkison's twenty acres in Peek Gutt rested on two separate exchanges with the Company, one for ground originally belonging to Stacey and one for ground originally belonging to Josey, both parcels lying next to the Company's great pasture. The Company gained adjacent ground for its own working pasture, and the planters acquired equivalent ground further away. The chain that produced Girling's title in 1713 had passed through three generations of holders, all stemming from the Company's exchange policy.

The serial widow-remarriage chain in Wood's claim, Quincy to Defountain to Wood, parallels the Sich and Praeyn cases in the earlier sittings. The recurring pattern shows that the council relied heavily on the husband of a widow as the working manager of orphan freeholds. Each successive husband recorded the holding under his own name at the registration stage, with the fiduciary character of the title implicit in the descent rather than separately recorded.

Speculations

The dating of the two purchases from Edward Brayne on consecutive days, 16 and 17 June 1681, suggests that the Quincy household had consolidated its holding in a single planned transaction. The simultaneous acquisition of twenty acres in Fishers Valley and ten acres in Gyrings Valley from the same seller probably reflects either a structured sale that the parties chose to formalise in two instruments for legal reasons, or a deliberate strategy of bringing scattered parcels under one ownership at the moment when capital was available.

The endorsement on the back of Powell's 1704 bill of sale, dated more than two years later in October 1706, may indicate that the transfer to Girling was completed in stages. The original instrument was perhaps held as security while the consideration was being paid, with the endorsement marking the moment when title finally passed. The pattern resembles the working credit arrangements visible elsewhere in the council's records, where a planter's title remained subject to deferred performance until the final payment was made.

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23

Stephen Lufkin freeholder appeared and Laid Claime to Ten

Acres of Land Produceing a deed dated the 3 of June 1694 with the

Honoura[ble] Companys Seale Affixed thereunto and Sign[d] by former Gov[r]

and Councill which his father John Lufkin in behalf of John Lufkin

his Eldest Son Exchanged with the Honora[ble] Company for Said Ten

Acres Lying on the Skirts of Sandy bay, To which the Said Stephen Lufkin

hath a just right and Title.

Orlando Bagley & Charles Steward Executor[s] of the Last

Will and Testament of Thomas Earle dec[d] Produced a Printed

Deed with the Honoura[ble] Companys Seale affixed thereunto,

dated the 16 August 1684 for Twenty Acres of Land granted

Andrew Wilson dec[d] who gave the Same to his daughter Martha

the Said Thomas Earles wife. Which Land the Said Earles

Children hath a just right & Title too.

George Carne having Lately Married the Widdow of Captaine

Thomas Goodwin Appeared and Laid Claime to Eighty Acres of

Land She being by her Husbands Last Will and Testament made and

Constituted Sole Heir and Executrix to all and Singular his whole

Estate and Produced the following Wridings to prove Title there-

unto Viz[t]

First An Indenter of Bargaine and Sale dated the 3 Novemb[r] 1683.

dly for Ten Acres Land Sold to Henry Kersey by Samuel Josey &c.

2 An Indenture of Bargain and Sale dated the 1[st] Decemb[r] 1691.

Title to for Twenty Acres of Land Sold by Henry Kersey to Thom[s] Goodwin

One Ten Acres being Part of his Lott Land, and the other bought

dly of Sam[l] Josey as Abovesaid.

3 A bill of Sale dated the 18 January 1689 for Twenty Acres Sold by

y[e] Same William Fox Jun[r] to Thomas Harper and by s[d] Harper

to Thomas Goodwin as appears by bill of Sale dated the 10 of

May 1694.

thly A bill of Sale dated the 24[th] of May 1693 for Eight Acres of Land

4 [...] Part of Ten Acres the Lott of James Wakefield Sold by John

Proved. Young to Thomas Goodwin.

a bill

Margin Notes:

Ste: Lufkins

Claime to 10.

Acres Land

Title

Proved.

The Earles Execu[ot]rs

Claime to 20 acr[s]

Land on behalfe

of his Orphans

Title

Proved.

Geo[r]: Carnes

Claime to 80

Acres Land

formerly

Tho[s] Goodwins

dec[d]

Stephen Lufkin, freeholder, came forward and claimed ten acres. He produced a deed dated 3 June 1694 under the Company's seal and signed by a former governor and council. His father, John Lufkin, had made the exchange with the Company on behalf of his eldest son John Lufkin, taking ten acres on the skirts of Sandy Bay. Stephen Lufkin held a clear right and title.

Orlando Bagley and Charles Steward, executors of the last will and testament of Thomas Earle, deceased, produced a printed deed under the Company's seal dated 16 August 1684 for twenty acres granted to Andrew Wilson, deceased. Wilson had given the parcel to his daughter Martha, who became the wife of Thomas Earle. The children of Thomas Earle held a clear right and title.

George Carne had recently married the widow of Captain Thomas Goodwin. She had been left sole heir and executrix of her late husband's estate, real and personal, under his last will and testament. Carne came forward in her right and claimed 80 acres, producing the following writings.

An indenture of bargain and sale dated 3 November 1683 for ten acres sold to Henry Kersey by Samuel Josey.

An indenture of bargain and sale dated 1 December 1691 for twenty acres sold by Henry Kersey to Thomas Goodwin. Ten acres were part of Kersey's own lot land, and the other ten were the parcel he had bought from Josey.

A bill of sale dated 18 January 1690 for twenty acres sold by William Fox junior to Thomas Harper, and a further bill of sale dated 10 May 1694 by which Harper sold the same parcel to Thomas Goodwin.

A bill of sale dated 24 May 1693 for eight acres, being part of ten acres that had been the lot of James Wakefield, sold by John Young to Thomas Goodwin.

Interpretations

The Earle case shows the council registering an orphan freehold through the executors of the children's late father. The 1684 deed established the title in Andrew Wilson, and the chain ran through Wilson's gift to his daughter Martha, her marriage to Earle and her death before her husband. With Earle now also dead, the executors brought the parcel forward on behalf of the children. The mechanism preserves the orphan inheritance by treating the executors as the working party at registration, with the children's interest recorded as the underlying title.

The Carne claim sets out how a fresh marriage could bring a substantial deceased planter's estate into a new household. The widow of Thomas Goodwin held the whole estate as sole heir and executrix under her late husband's will. On her remarriage to George Carne, the consolidated holding came into his hands during her lifetime. The council registered the 80 acres in his name without separate inquiry into the working balance between his interest and his wife's underlying right. The structure parallels the earlier cases of Vesey, Slaughter and Wood, where second husbands of widows acted at the registration sitting.

The chain of bills of sale assembled by Thomas Goodwin during the 1680s and 1690s, recorded across four separate instruments between 1683 and 1694, shows how a senior planter built a substantial estate through serial purchases from earlier holders. The parcels reached him from Kersey, Harper, Young and the Josey chain, each transaction supported by a documented instrument. The council accepted the composite chain in 1713 because each link could be produced, even though the original holders were largely dead.

The recurrence of Thomas Goodwin's name as both a Company exchange counterparty in earlier sittings and as a purchaser of multiple private parcels confirms his position as a working consolidator of the island's freehold during the late seventeenth century. The 80 acres now reaching Carne through his marriage to Goodwin's widow had been assembled by Goodwin during his lifetime through both Company exchanges and private purchases, with the registration in 1713 fixing the consolidated estate in the next generation of household management.

Speculations

The careful production of four separate instruments to establish Goodwin's eighty acres, rather than a single confirmatory deed, was probably calculated to preserve the underlying chain against any later challenge. With each parcel anchored to a documented sale, the holding could be defended piece by piece if any single transaction came into question, rather than standing or falling on a single instrument. The approach reflects the council's working preference for cumulative documentary evidence over consolidating conveyances.

Carne's appearance at this sitting on behalf of his new wife, so soon after her remarriage, suggests that he had moved quickly to fix the documentary position of the Goodwin estate within the wider registration programme. With the survey deadline of 25 March 1713 only days away, registering the consolidated holding under his name before the year closed gave him a working title against the census returns and against any later question about how the Goodwin freehold had passed into his household.

31

24

thly A bill of Sale dated the 19[th] of March 169 1/2 for Two Acres

5 of Land being the remainder of the aforesaid Ten Acres) Sold

by Edward Bby[?] to Thomas Goodwin

thly A bill of Sale dated the 20 of March 168 7/8 for Ten Acres of

6 Land Sold by Philip Savage to John Fuller who gave y[e] Same

to Said Goodwin upon Marriage with his daughter

thly and Lastly a Bill of Sale dated the 26 of March 1696 for Ten

7 Acres of Land Sold by John Coles to Said Goodwin being Part

of the Lott Land of John Coles Sen[r] Deceased.

All which Parcells and Peices of Land before mentioned, the

Said George Carne in right of his wife, hath a just Title to.

Walter Morris free planter Humbly Petition[d] Praying

to Rent a Small Peece of Land Adjoyning to his and Curlings,

alledging twas no prejudice to neither him or other Neighbours.

Ordered That if tis no Prejudice to any the Neighbourhood

his request be granted, and that M[r] Bazett have a Warrant to

measure the Same.

Jonathen Doveton free holder Appeared and Said he had

Sold the Ten Acres of Land he bought formerly of his Father

William Dovetons Executors mentiond more Largely in a Con-

sultation of the 30 January 1711 to Samuell Jeffrey who desires

may have a Deed for the Same in his own Name and Heirs

for ever.

Ordered.

That the bargaine and Sale aforesaid do and shall Stand good

and that the Said Samuell Jeffrey have a deed drawn and

delivered him Accordingly.

Island.

Margin Notes:

Walt: Morris's

request to hire

a p[cell] Land.

If no Prejudice

y[t] Granted

Jon[a] Dovetons

request for a

Deed for Land

he Lately [...]

Sold S[m] Jeffrey

The Same Conf[d]

[...] to Jeffrey

A bill of sale dated 19 March 1692 for two acres, being the remainder of the ten acres formerly held by James Wakefield, sold by Edward Bby to Thomas Goodwin.

A bill of sale dated 20 March 1688 for ten acres sold by Philip Savage to John Fuller. Fuller gave the parcel to Thomas Goodwin on his marriage to Fuller's daughter.

A bill of sale dated 26 March 1696 for ten acres sold by John Coles to Thomas Goodwin, being part of the lot land of John Coles senior, deceased.

George Carne held a clear title to all these parcels in right of his wife.

Walter Morris, free planter, presented a petition asking to rent a small piece of land adjoining his own and Curling's parcels. He said the grant would not prejudice himself or any neighbour.

The council ordered that if the grant caused no prejudice in the neighbourhood, the request be granted, and that Mr Bazett have a warrant to measure the parcel.

Jonathan Doveton, freeholder, came forward and stated that he had sold the ten acres he had earlier bought from the executors of his father William Doveton, as set out more fully in the consultation of 30 January 1712, to Samuel Jeffrey. Jeffrey wished to receive a deed in his own name and heirs for ever.

The council ordered that the bargain and sale stand good, and that a deed be drawn and delivered to Samuel Jeffrey accordingly.

Interpretations

The completion of the Goodwin chain through three additional instruments brings the total documented assembly to seven separate bills of sale, covering parcels acquired between 1683 and 1696. The final parcel, sold by John Coles to Goodwin in 1696, was a fragment of John Coles senior's lot land, illustrating how the principal early allotments of the island were broken up and recirculated through the working market during the late seventeenth century. The council accepted the full composite chain in Carne's name through his marriage to Goodwin's widow.

The Morris petition shows the council applying a working test of neighbourhood consent before granting waste land for rent. The phrase no prejudice to himself or other neighbours captures the council's recognition that small grants of adjoining ground could affect the working geography of surrounding holdings, particularly in matters of access, fencing and drainage. The conditional grant gave Bazett the authority to confirm the absence of prejudice through his measurement, rather than requiring a separate inquiry before the council.

The Doveton transfer to Jeffrey demonstrates how the registration programme accommodated onward sales within the working framework. Doveton's title had been settled at the consultation of 30 January 1712, and the present sitting confirmed the subsequent sale to Jeffrey by ordering a deed in the buyer's own name and heirs for ever. The mechanism preserved the working continuity of the registration, with each subsequent transaction registered against the existing documented base rather than requiring a fresh examination of the underlying title.

The use of the phrase heirs for ever in the order for Jeffrey's deed records the strongest form of freehold tenure recognised by the council. The instrument carried the title beyond the present holder's life into an open-ended descent through his line. The contrast with the 21-year and 24-year leases granted at the same sitting, and with the conditional grants depending on fencing, marks the council's working hierarchy of tenures, with freehold heirs-for-ever titles at the top of the scale.

Speculations

The marriage gift from John Fuller to Thomas Goodwin in 1688 of the parcel originally bought from Philip Savage shows how the early planter community used marriage settlements to consolidate the land base across generations. Fuller's gift to his son-in-law brought the parcel into the Goodwin household at the moment of family formation, with the underlying chain from Savage providing the documentary anchor. The reappearance of this 1688 transaction in the 1713 registration suggests that the council's working memory of early settlement transactions remained accessible through the documented chains, even where the original parties had been dead for years.

The willingness of Doveton to sell the parcel he had only registered in early 1712 within little over a year suggests that the present registration programme was producing an active onward market in titled land. By securing a documented title under the new register, planters could realise the value of their holdings through onward sale with greater confidence than under the earlier informal arrangements. Jeffrey's request for a deed in his own name reflects this confidence, with the documented title now functioning as a working commercial asset rather than a passive record of possession.

32

25

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tues-

day the 7 of Aprill 1713 At the United Castle in James

Valley

Pres[t]

Benja[n] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] 16

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assists

Whereas Capt[n] John Pack deputy Govern[r] dying the 3[d]

Instant.

Ordered.

That M[r] Bazett Succeed him in the Care and Charge of the Store

Books See the Accounts made up, and Monthly Accounts to be brought

in duly of all goods Sold and Deliver[d] out Pursuant to the Honourable

Companys orders, And that Mondays Tuesdays & Wednesdays be

Appointed for Serveing such Goods out by M[r] Bazett, Lieut[t] Cason

and M[r] French till the Honoura[ble] Companys Pleasure be farther

knowne herein

And that Mist[s] Pack with her Familie

have Leave to Lodge in the Store house haveing no other Convenient

Place till such time She meets with an Opportunity of going

Home to England

Margin Notes:

Capt[n] Packs

death.

M[r] Bazett to

Succeed him

and to have y[e]

Care and Charge

of y[e] Stores &c[a]

M[rs] Pack to

Lodge in y[e] Store

till goes off.

Inv[t]

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 7 April 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Captain John Pack, Deputy Governor, had died on 3 April 1713.

The council ordered that Mr Bazett succeed him in the care and charge of the store books, see the accounts made up, and bring in monthly accounts of all goods sold and delivered out, in accordance with the Company's orders. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays were appointed for serving out such goods, by Mr Bazett, Lieutenant Cason and Mr French, until the Company's further pleasure was known.

Mrs Pack and her family were given leave to lodge in the storehouse, having no other convenient place, until she met with an opportunity to return to England.

Interpretations

The death of Pack reduces the council to a single substantive member under the governor, with Cason and French continuing as assistants. The pattern of senior attrition that began with the deaths of Hoskison in March 1712 and Griffith in May 1712 now extends to the deputy governor's office, leaving Bazett as the working second after his own restoration to the council in December 1712. The council has had to absorb three successive deaths in the senior establishment within thirteen months, with no replacement appointed from London in the interval.

The transfer of the store books to Bazett combines two functions that were not previously held together. Bazett had been the working surveyor of the registration programme since late 1711, and now takes the storekeeper's responsibility added to his duties as second in council. The order divides the actual issue of goods across three officers, working Mondays through Wednesdays, which spreads the daily burden while preserving the documentary accountability in Bazett's hands. The arrangement is explicitly temporary, awaiting the directors' further pleasure.

The lodging of Mrs Pack and her family in the storehouse shows the council using the principal Company building as emergency accommodation for the widow of a senior officer. The decision reflects the practical limits of the small island establishment, where no separate official residence was available for the deputy governor's family and the housing stock was committed to other inhabitants. The arrangement also placed the family in proximity to the working store, with the implicit recognition that Pack's outstanding accounts and household effects were tied up with the building's operations.

The structured three-day weekly schedule for issuing goods, with the remaining four days reserved for other business, formalises the working pattern of the store in the absence of a single storekeeper. The split of responsibilities across the three remaining officers gives each a working share of the income-generating routine while preserving the council's collective oversight, and reduces the risk that any single officer would build up the kind of unsupervised position that had attracted criticism of earlier administrations.

Speculations

Bazett's elevation to second in council and the addition of the store books to his portfolio represent a striking return to the centre of administration for an officer who had been dismissed for character failings only six months earlier on 2 October 1712. The speed of the rehabilitation, with no formal order of reinstatement on the visible record, suggests that the council's working needs in the face of repeated death in the senior establishment overrode the earlier concerns. The decision probably reflects both the lack of alternative qualified personnel on the island and Bazett's demonstrated competence as the working surveyor through the demanding registration programme.

The decision to lodge Mrs Pack and her family in the storehouse rather than in a private dwelling probably reflects the council's wish to keep her under direct Company custody while her late husband's accounts were settled. The store was the working centre of the Company's commercial operations, and her presence there allowed the council to ensure that any household effects intermingled with store goods could be properly separated before her departure. The arrangement also signalled to the wider inhabitants that the widow had not been abandoned but was being supported through the Company's own establishment until passage home could be arranged.

33

26

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation

Held on Tuesday the 12 day of May 1713 At the

United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[t]s

It having pleas[d] Almighty God not to send us any raine for

nigh Ten months past and thereby to our great grief and daily concern

the Honourable Company and most of the Inhabitants hath Suffered the

Loss of Cattle Hoggs Goats &c[a] Insomuch that meat is become very Scarce

and much wanted, as well in Severall Families as in the Garrison of

Sold[rs] Have therefore thought fit and Accordingly

Ordered that the following Advertisement be Immediately Published

by beat of Drum

Whereas the Govern[r] and Councill being greatly convinced

To See this dry weather and not Insensible its continuance will reduce

many People to great Necessity, doth heartily wish it Lay in their Powe[r]

to Render the Inhabitants & wants Less Sensible, and to that End hopes

the following Method will in Some Small degree Answer there[?]

Honest Intentions

And for as much as boats are wanting for Fishing to most or all

the People of Said Island (the only relief in this Scarcity of Provisions

of other Kind) they Shall and may all have the Joint Use of y[e] Comp[s]

Yaull, under the following restrictions viz[t]

First That four families joyne (giveing their Names to M[r] Bazett or in his

and how. absence to the Chief Officer at United Castle) to Send Each a black in

the boat who Shall have leave to stay out forty Eight Houres

and no Longer.

That

Margin Notes:

Provisions much

Wanted.

An Advertizem[t]

to

Encourage

Fishery.

First

and how.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 12 May 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Almighty God had not sent any rain for nearly ten months past. The Company and most of the inhabitants had suffered the loss of cattle, hogs, goats and other stock. Meat had grown scarce in many families and in the garrison of soldiers.

The council ordered the following advertisement to be published at once by beat of drum.

The Governor and Council, concerned at the continuing dry weather and the necessity it would bring on many inhabitants, hoped that the following arrangement would in some small degree relieve the want.

Boats for fishing were lacking among most of the inhabitants of the island. Fish was the only relief available in the present scarcity of other provisions. The inhabitants were therefore given joint use of the Company's yawl on the following conditions.

Four families were to join together and give their names to Mr Bazett, or in his absence to the chief officer at the United Castle. Each family was to send one slave in the boat. The party would have leave to stay out for forty-eight hours and no longer.

Interpretations

The drought response shows the council acting on an island-wide shortage of meat by opening a single Company asset, the yawl, to the working population. The yawl had until now served as a Company boat for fortification work and victualling, and the order converts it temporarily into a shared resource for the wider inhabitants. The mechanism preserves the Company's ownership while granting use rights organised on family lines, with four households pooling labour to crew each trip.

The condition that each family send one slave to crew the boat fixes the working unit of the response at the household with sufficient labour to spare a worker for two days. Free planters without slaves were thereby excluded from the direct benefit of the order, although they would presumably share in the fish brought home by neighbouring households. The arrangement reflects the working organisation of the island's labour, where slave labour rather than free family labour was the marginal resource available for non-routine tasks.

The 48-hour limit on each outing balances the council's wish to give the boat productive use against the need to make it available in rotation across the wider inhabitants. The fixed period would have allowed a worked-out estimate of how many family groupings could be served across each week, and the requirement to register names with Bazett or his deputy gave the council a working record of which households had received the benefit. The structure pre-empts disputes about access by establishing a queue under official supervision.

The convening of the response in the form of a public advertisement by beat of drum, rather than a series of individual permissions, indicates that the council recognised the scarcity as an island-wide condition requiring a public administrative answer. The framing of the order in providential language at the opening, with the drought attributed to Almighty God, gave the council the standing to invoke public obedience without naming particular grievances, and aligned the order with the wider religious framework that governed the inhabitants' expectations of communal hardship.

Speculations

The decision to channel the registration of fishing parties through Bazett or the chief officer at the United Castle rather than through John How at the Plantation House probably reflected the need for daily availability of the boat and its assignment. The yawl was based at James Bay rather than in the interior, and registration at the castle allowed the working scheduling of departures and returns to be managed in the same building from which the boat was launched. The choice also kept the scarcity response within the council's direct oversight rather than delegating it to the reeve.

The careful structuring of the order, with named conditions on family pooling, slave labour and time limits, suggests that the council had already encountered or anticipated practical difficulties in any less regulated grant. Without the four-family pooling rule, the boat might have been monopolised by larger or better-organised households. Without the 48-hour limit, the working rotation would have collapsed. The detail of the regulation shows the council learning from the difficulties of earlier emergency provisions, including the Arland arrack distribution of 1711, when an undifferentiated grant had produced uneven access.

34

27

dly That they be obliedged to come to the Fort Valley without goeing on Shoar

2 Else where.

to be dly That they bring all the fish catched to the Castle there to be distributed by

Distributed 3 the Said Companys Steward justly to Each their Share.

when thly That the Company have one fourth Part of the whole for their use.

Cat[ct] 4

thly That the remainder be divided in four Equall Parts to the Persons owning

5 the blacks who are in the boat.

thly That a Proper Person be sent for the Company as Coxswaine and that

6 what y[e] fish he Catches he be allowed a four[t] Share for himself, the remainder

for the Companys use.

Under these rules most House keepers may in Some measure be

releived by turns with good Mannagement.

And whereas the Garrison may thinck themselves under a hard-

ship if they don't come into the Generall Advantage of this Licence to the

rest of the Island, Wherefore the Govern[r] and Coun[ll] notting they fetch

upon four men out of Each guard upon duly to have twelve hours to fish in

under the foregoing restrictions, and that the whole guard have an Equall

Share in the fish they Catch to be agreed by themselves.

Dated at the United Castle in James valley

this 12[th] day of May 1713

Sign[d] p[r] order of Govern[r] & Councill

p me. Jn[o] Alexander Acc[ot]nt

Margin Notes:

dly

2

to be

Distributed dly

when 3

Cat[ct] thly

4

thly

5

thly

6

Sold[rs] allowed

y[e] Same Pri-

voledge

The remaining conditions of the advertisement were as follows.

The party was to come ashore at Fort Valley and not to land elsewhere.

All fish caught was to be brought to the castle, where the Company's steward would divide it justly among the shares.

The Company would take one fourth part of the whole for its own use.

The remainder would be divided in four equal parts among the owners of the slaves in the boat.

A proper person would be sent as coxswain for the Company. He would have one fourth share for himself of the fish he caught, with the remainder going to the Company's use.

Under these rules, the council expected that most householders might be relieved by turns with good management.

The garrison might count themselves under a hardship if not included in the general advantage of this licence. The council therefore ordered that four men from each guard on duty have twelve hours to fish under the same restrictions, the whole guard sharing equally in the fish they caught, as they themselves should agree.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 12 May 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander, Accountant.

Interpretations

The distribution scheme converts the fishing trip into a regulated commercial arrangement under the Company's supervision. By requiring all fish to be brought to the castle and distributed by the Company's steward, the council removes any opportunity for under-the-table sale and ensures that the agreed shares reach the participating families. The mechanism transfers the function of fair division from the parties themselves to a recognised officer, eliminating disputes at the point of distribution.

The 25 per cent Company share recovers the cost of providing the yawl while still leaving three quarters of the catch for the families that supplied the slaves. The split recognises the Company's contribution of the capital asset while keeping the working incentive in the hands of the participating households. The further provision that the Company coxswain receive his own quarter share of any fish he personally caught, with the remainder going to the Company, gives him a direct incentive to fish actively rather than merely steer the boat.

The garrison provision shows the council responding to anticipated grievance from the soldiers without disturbing the structure already established for the inhabitants. The four-men-per-guard arrangement gives each guard a working share of the boat's time, with the twelve-hour limit allowing the guard to be reformed within the day. The internal distribution among the guard is left to the soldiers themselves, on the basis that working comrades will settle their own shares without need for the council's intervention.

The instruction that landings be confined to Fort Valley with no shore party elsewhere shows the council using the fishing licence to maintain security as well as to distribute provisions. The single landing point at Fort Valley placed the boat under the working oversight of the castle establishment, prevented unauthorised contact with visiting shipping or undeclared landings on the island's lonely coast, and consolidated the distribution process in one place. The condition reflects the council's continuing concern with controlled movement during a period of stress on the island's working order.

Speculations

The decision to extend the licence to the garrison only after the inhabitants' scheme had been settled probably reflected the council's working judgement that the inhabitants' need was the more urgent. With soldiers' rations issued from the Company store, the garrison was less exposed to the immediate effects of the meat shortage than the free families and their dependants. The order to include the garrison may have been a response to anticipated grumbling rather than to actual want, and the twelve-hour rotation per guard rather than the inhabitants' 48-hour pooling reflects this lower urgency.

The provision that the coxswain receive a quarter of his own catch with the rest going to the Company indicates that the council had thought carefully about how to keep a salaried Company officer working hard in a context where he could not be supervised directly. The split incentive aligns his personal interest with the fishing effort while preventing the position from becoming a private benefit. The arrangement parallels the working pay structure for skilled garrison labour, where small additions to settled salary were used as incentive payments rather than as part of base wages.

35

28

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held

on Thursday the 4[th] day of June 1713 At the

United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[er][r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Cou[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[t]s

Whereas this Island to our daily greif being at Present in a very

bad and Deplorable Condition for want of Raine these Ten months

and better and thereby most of all Plantations of Yeams &c[a] Provi-

sions being meerly Burnt and Scorcht up, and Little of any Sort

to be Seen above ground and those roots in the Earth very Small

and not Eatable for man or beast besides the great death and

Consumption of Cattle, Hogs, Goats &c[a] which has reduced most of

the Inhabitants Stocks very Low and not wherewith to buy

any Provisions or Little of any thing Else out of Shiping. Have

therefore for the Generall good of the Island as well as for the

Interest of our Honoura[ble] Masters thought it fitt and Convenient

to buy what Arrack and Rice we Possible can out of this Fleet

and have agreed Accordingly with Capt[n] Lane for four Butts

of Batavia Arrack containing 482. Gallons at Six Shillings

p[er] Gallon and 5683. weight of Rice at two pence p[er] pound

Also with Capt[n] Minter for five Legars of Batavia Arrack con-

taining 796. Gallons and 1797 weight of rice at y[e] Price

aforesaid Likewise with Capt[n] Hoaks for Twelve Legars Batavia

Arrack containing 1852 Gallons at y[e] Same Price, which is the

Lowest rate we could get it at and hope will be a Sufficient quantity

or at Least a great means of Supplying the Inhabitants & Garrisons

wants, in this great Scarcity of Provision, tlle it please God to Send

us a Lashing raine.

Thomas

Margin Notes:

Provisions

being Very

Scarce.

Rice and

Arrack

bought out

of

Shiping

to releive

The Poor

Inhabit[s]

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Thursday 4 June 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The island remained in a deplorable condition for want of rain, which had not fallen for upwards of ten months. Most plantations of yams and other provisions had been burnt and scorched. Little of any sort was visible above ground, and the roots in the earth were too small to eat. Cattle, hogs and goats had died in large numbers, reducing the inhabitants' stocks very low. Few of the inhabitants now had enough money to buy provisions or anything else from the shipping.

For the general good of the island and for the Company's interest, the council resolved to buy as much arrack and rice as it could from the present fleet. It had agreed accordingly with Captain Lane for four butts of Batavia arrack containing 482 gallons at 6s 0d per gallon, and 5,683 lb of rice at 0s 2d per pound. With Captain Minter it had agreed for five leaguers of Batavia arrack containing 796 gallons, and 1,797 lb of rice, at the same prices. With Captain Hoaks it had agreed for twelve leaguers of Batavia arrack containing 1,852 gallons, at the same price. This was the lowest rate the council could obtain. The quantity was expected to be sufficient, or at least a great means of supplying the inhabitants' and garrison's wants in this scarcity until rain returned.

Interpretations

The council's bulk purchase from three separate captains, totalling 3,130 gallons of Batavia arrack and 7,480 lb of rice, marks the largest single emergency provisioning recorded in the present sequence. The decision converts the visiting fleet into a working supply source for the island at a moment when the local food economy had collapsed. The Company's working capital is committed not only to its own store and garrison but to the wider inhabitant population, on the explicit reasoning that the general good of the island is itself the Company's interest.

The settled rate of 6s 0d per gallon for Batavia arrack and 2d per pound for rice across three independent captains shows the council securing a uniform price by working the fleet collectively. By treating the three captains as a single market and locking the rate at the lowest available price, the council avoided the inflation that competitive bidding would otherwise have produced during a scarcity. The mechanism reflects the working leverage that the council could exercise over visiting shipping that depended on the island for water and refreshment.

The use of butts and leaguers as the working units of measure for arrack records the practical organisation of the maritime spirits trade. A butt held roughly 120 gallons and a leaguer roughly 150 to 160 gallons, with the precise gallonage stated against each transaction in the record. The variation between the working contents and the standard size of each cask was tracked by the actual gallons rather than assumed from the nominal capacity, which gave the council a working check against subsequent disputes about delivered quantities.

The framing of the council's reasoning in terms of providential causation, with the drought set against the eventual sending of rain by God, parallels the opening of the fishing advertisement on 12 May 1713. The repetition suggests that the council was working within an established framework of public communication about disaster, in which the duration of the emergency was treated as outside human control while the response to it remained the council's working responsibility. The Company's purchase of supplies fits within that framework as a working answer to a providentially imposed scarcity.

Speculations

The decision to buy arrack in substantially greater quantity than rice probably reflected the working role of spirits as both a medicinal supply and a tradeable store of value. With 3,130 gallons of arrack against 7,480 lb of rice, the council was acquiring not only a fluid for immediate consumption but a commodity that could be issued in measured doses across an extended period, sold to inhabitants at retail to recover the Company's outlay, and used as a working currency among the garrison during the continuing shortage. Rice, by contrast, would have served the more immediate function of replacing the lost yams as the working starch staple.

The acquisition of arrack from three separate captains in a single round of contracting suggests that the council deliberately spread its purchasing across the fleet rather than concentrating it with one master. The arrangement probably served several purposes at once: it secured a larger total quantity than any one captain could supply, it preserved working relationships with each of the captains for future calls at the island, and it avoided giving any single master a monopoly position in the council's emergency provisioning. The structure parallels the council's earlier use of fragmented contracting to limit dependence on any one supplier of stores.

36

29

Thomas Free who for his Sottishness Neglect of Buisiness and

other Enormityes being Dismiss[t] from Clerk of Councill, but conti-

nued as youngest Insigne, Presented his Petition Praying to be

Discharg[d] the Honoura[ble] Companys Service haveing Served

Longer than his Contracted Time and very Sickly Since Married

to the Widdow Sarah Griffith.

Ordered

That his request be granted Accordingly.

Theis four hath bin Copy[d] & Sent to

England y[e] Ship Heath for[?] [...] Cosman[?]

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on

Tuesday the 9[th] day of June 1713. At the United

Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[t]s

According to a Summons Issued out the old Church

Wardens viz[t] Ripin Wills and Thomas Yargen appear[d] with their

Accounts for two years Past, of all Collections gifts Disbursments

reparations of the Churches &c[a] which was Examin[d] & Approv[d]

of.

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Free his

request to be

Discharg[d]

Comp[s]

Service

Church Wardens

Acc[ot] Approved

of

Thomas Free had been dismissed from his post as clerk of the council for drunkenness, neglect of business and other failings, although he had continued as youngest ensign. He presented a petition asking to be discharged from the Company's service. He had served beyond his contracted time, had grown sickly, and had since married the widow Sarah Griffith.

The council ordered that his request be granted.

The four preceding consultations had been copied and sent to England by the ship Heath, in care of Mr Cosman.

Island of St Helena.

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 9 June 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The old churchwardens, Ripin Wills and Thomas Yargen, came forward in answer to a summons. They produced their accounts for the past two years, covering all collections, gifts, disbursements and repairs to the churches. The council examined and approved the accounts.

Interpretations

The discharge of Thomas Free closes an institutional case that ran through the present sequence of records. His earlier role as clerk of the council, his dismissal for drunkenness and neglect, his retention as youngest ensign and his subsequent marriage to Sarah Griffith, the widow of the late Daniel Griffith, together trace the working career of a Company servant who had moved between civil and military posts on the island. The council's willingness to grant his discharge on grounds of completed service and sickness shows that even officers dismissed for character failings retained access to the standard release procedure when their contracts had run.

The marriage of Thomas Free to the widow of a former council member illustrates the close interconnection of the senior island establishment. Sarah Griffith had appeared in earlier sittings as the widow of Daniel Griffith, and her remarriage to a dismissed clerk now ensign suggests the limited marriage market available to widows of senior officers on the island. The arrangement also brought together two households with documented interests under the registration programme, with Griffith's land confirmed at the consultation of 3 February 1713 now passing under the same household management as Free's own affairs.

The despatch of the four preceding consultations to England by the ship Heath in care of Mr Cosman fixes the working channel for the council's documentary returns to London. The Heath had carried the documentary record of the registration programme alongside the emergency provisioning correspondence, with Cosman acting as the named recipient or agent for the transmission. The mechanism shows that the council's working communication with the directors operated through specific personal contacts rather than only through institutional addresses, with documents handed to named individuals on the homeward shipping.

The two-year accounting period of the churchwardens, covering collections, gifts, disbursements and repairs to the churches, indicates that the island maintained a working religious establishment with its own income and expenditure separate from the Company's accounts. The audit by the council shows that civil oversight of the church accounts was exercised by the governor and council acting as the local civil authority, in the absence of any ecclesiastical visitation. The procedure fits within the council's wider role as the working substitute for the metropolitan probate, registration and audit functions on the island.

Speculations

Free's framing of his discharge request around three grounds, completed service, sickness, and his recent marriage, gave the council multiple grounds on which to grant the release without reopening the earlier dismissal. The marriage to Sarah Griffith in particular established him as a settled inhabitant rather than as a Company servant in transit. By presenting these three factors together, Free converted what might have been a problematic petition from a dismissed officer into a routine discharge from completed service.

The continuation of Free as youngest ensign after his dismissal from the clerkship suggests that the council had used the military commission as a working refuge for an officer who had failed in his civil post. The arrangement preserved his salary and standing on the island while removing him from the more sensitive position of council clerk, and gave him time to recover or to make his own arrangements for return. The pattern parallels the later treatment of John Alexander, who was retained on the island after his dismissal from the clerkship in 1709 while his various charges remained pending.

37

30

Ordered

That the Said old Church Wardens be discharged from their

Office, and the New ones James Draper and Francis Wrangham

Invested in Said Office for the Ensuing year and take charge &

Care of the Church Utensils Accordingly, and to follow the

Rules and Method hereafter mentioned.

Likewise the old Overseers of the High ways viz[t] John

Coulson (Robert Leech being dead) brought and Delivered an

Account of those Persons that had not don[t] at the high ways

for two years past and those that had not work[t] which was

Examined and approved of. Ordered.

That the said John Coulson be discharged from the Office of

Overseer and that John Robinson and Sutton Isaack Jun[r] (the

two Persons Nominated and represented to us by the old overseers)

be appointed overseers of Said High ways the Ensuing Year,

and to follow the Warrant hereafter Mentioned.

Church War-

dens Warrant Viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena.

You James Draper and Francis

Wrangham both of the Said Island free holders are hereby Nomi-

nated and appointed Church Wardens for this Present year 1713.

And whereas you desire and request According to y[e] Usuall

Custome of this place to be inform[d] what is the Proper Dutys

requisite for the Performance of that office And Considering the

Circumstances of this Island, We Thinck fitt that the Rules

following be the Rules and Methods for the Church Wardens

to Governe themselves and walk Bye

First You are to take care of the Furneture Vestments and

Utensills belonging to both Churches Seeing that no Embezlement

be made of any that Shall be Delivered into your care & Custody

dly You Shall keep a good Account of all gifts &c Dedicated To and

2 for the use of both Churches and give an Account of your

Disbursments

Margin Notes:

The Church Wardens

Discharg[d]. New

ones Approv[d].

alsoe

the Overseers

of high ways

Discharg[d].

Church War-

dens Warrant

Warr[t] to the

Overseers

new Church

Wardens

The council ordered that the old churchwardens be discharged from their office. James Draper and Francis Wrangham were appointed for the coming year, to take charge of the church utensils and to follow the rules set out below.

John Coulson, the surviving overseer of the highways (Robert Leech being dead), brought in an account of those who had worked at the highways during the past two years and those who had not. The council examined and approved the account.

The council ordered that Coulson be discharged from the office of overseer, and that John Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior, the two persons nominated by the outgoing overseers, be appointed overseers of the highways for the coming year, to follow the warrant set out below.

The warrant to the churchwardens was as follows.

Island of St Helena.

James Draper and Francis Wrangham, both freeholders of the island, were nominated and appointed churchwardens for the year 1713. They had asked, as was the customary practice on the island, to be informed of the duties of the office. Having regard to the circumstances of the island, the council had thought fit to set out the following rules for the churchwardens to govern themselves by.

First, they were to take care of the furniture, vestments and utensils belonging to both churches, and to see that no embezzlement was made of any items delivered into their care and custody.

Second, they were to keep a good account of all gifts and dedications made to and for the use of both churches, and to give an account of their disbursements.

Interpretations

The annual rotation of churchwardens and highway overseers, with named successors nominated by the outgoing officers and confirmed by the council, fixes the working pattern of civic office on the island. The two offices share a common structure: a two-year term, an audit at the end of service by the governor and council, the nomination of successors by the retiring officers, and confirmation in office under written warrant. The arrangement gives the council control over the appointments while preserving a working continuity within the inhabitant population, with experienced officers passing the office to known successors.

The reference to two churches in the warrant to Draper and Wrangham confirms that the religious establishment on the island had grown beyond a single building. The earlier records make repeated reference to the country church and to the church in James Valley, and the warrant treats both as falling under the joint care of the churchwardens. The structure shows the working geographical reach of the religious establishment, with the country church serving the dispersed planter population alongside the principal building near the castle.

The explicit instruction against embezzlement of church furniture, vestments and utensils indicates that the council was aware of the risk of loss or unauthorised removal of valuable goods held in working custody. The vestments and utensils of an English parish church of this period would have included silver vessels, embroidered cloths and printed books, all readily portable and saleable. The instruction to keep a good account of all gifts and dedications gives the churchwardens a working record against which any later inventory could be checked.

The simultaneous discharge of the churchwardens and the highway overseers, with both audits taken at the same sitting, shows the council consolidating the year-end review of civic office into a single occasion. The arrangement aligns with the wider pattern of administrative concentration around the 25 March year-end, with the registration programme, the census returns and now the civic office accounts all settled within the same closing period. The mechanism gives the council a working snapshot of all the island's standing administrative arrangements at the close of each year.

Speculations

The nomination of successors by the outgoing officers, rather than by direct council appointment, preserves a working element of self-government within the inhabitant population while keeping the final decision with the council. The arrangement allowed the experienced officers to identify candidates capable of taking over the routine of the office without requiring the council to canvass the inhabitants for replacements. The pattern reflects the working balance the council had reached between maintaining its own authority and managing the limited administrative capacity available within a small free population.

The decision to appoint Francis Wrangham as a churchwarden alongside James Draper places two of the most active recent participants in the registration programme into the year's civic offices. Both men had appeared at the title sittings of February 1713 as substantial freeholders with well-documented titles. Their selection for the church accounts probably reflected the council's working judgement that men capable of presenting their own land titles with documentary precision were well suited to managing the church's gifts, disbursements and inventories under the same standard of accounting.

38

31

Disbursments of the Same for the use of the Gifts So given.

dly You Shall take Notice of all Notorious and open Prophane

3 Persons and Wicked Sabbath breakers Swearers Drunkards

Whoremongers and give Notice of them unto us but as for Sabbath

breakers Swearers you are to Reprove and admonish as you

Shall thinck fitt But if such Person or Persons So offending will not

refraine and desist from Such Wicked Practises after you have ad-

monished him or them once or twice Not Exceeding the third Time you are

are hereby required to represent Such offender or offenders to us the Next

Councill day following or once a moneth at furthest, that he or they

may be fined According to the Law made & Provided in Such cases.

thly You Shall upon Monday next after Easter Sunday Assemble with

4 the Inhabitants free holders of this place at the Church in the Countrey

or Some other Convenient Place and there by Majority of votes Nominate

and make Choice of Four Persons for Church Wardens, and four Persons

for overseers of the high wayys to Succeed you and the Present overseers

after that you and they have Past your Accounts with us in y[r] places.

thly You Shall Likewise See and have Some respect to the Poor and Impo-

5 tent on this Island and relate their Conditions to us that Some care may

be taken for their Necessarie relief

thly You Shall take care that no disorders be in the Church dureing the

6 time of divine Service for which Purpose you must charge the

Sexton to attend his duty, and assist him his Sallary, and make a

Presentm[t] for the Same Accordingly

This is all at Present we can think needfull and Requisite for the

duty of Church Wardens, untill Some other Matter Shall Occure

In Testimony where of we the Govern[r] & Councill for the Time

being do hereunto Sett our hands this 9[th] day of June 1713.

To James Draper &

Francis Wrangham

Church Wardens

These

Third, they were to take notice of all notorious and open profane persons, sabbath breakers, swearers, drunkards and whoremongers, and to give notice of them to the council. Sabbath breakers and swearers they were to reprove and admonish as they thought fit. If such persons did not desist from these wicked practices after one, two or at most three admonitions, the churchwardens were required to present the offenders to the council at the next council day, or at the latest once a month, so that they might be fined according to the law made and provided in such cases.

Fourth, on the Monday next after Easter Sunday they were to assemble with the freeholders of the island at the country church or some other convenient place. By majority vote the freeholders would nominate and choose four persons for churchwardens, and four persons for overseers of the highways, to succeed the present officers once the outgoing churchwardens and overseers had passed their accounts.

Fifth, they were to have regard to the poor and impotent on the island, and to relate their condition to the council so that some care could be taken for their necessary relief.

Sixth, they were to take care that no disorders occurred in the church during divine service. They were to charge the sexton to attend his duty, to assist him in his salary, and to make presentment accordingly.

The council added that this was all that seemed needful at present for the duty of churchwardens, until some other matter should arise. In testimony the governor and council set their hands on 9 June 1713. The warrant was addressed to James Draper and Francis Wrangham as churchwardens.

Interpretations

The third article gives the churchwardens a working role as moral informers to the council, with a graduated procedure for dealing with offenders. Sabbath breaking and swearing are to be handled by admonition in the first instance, with reference to the council only after one to three failures to amend. The arrangement preserves church discipline as a working function of the churchwardens themselves, with the council acting as the secondary enforcement body when persuasion has failed. The named categories of offence, sabbath breaking, swearing, drunkenness and whoremongering, capture the standard concerns of an English parish moral economy adapted to island conditions.

The fourth article establishes a working electoral mechanism for the annual rotation of civic office. The freeholders gather on the Monday after Easter at the country church or another convenient place, and choose four nominees for each of the two offices by majority vote. The council retains the final selection from the four nominees, as the present sitting demonstrates with the choice of Draper and Wrangham from among the four put forward by the outgoing officers. The procedure preserves a measure of inhabitant participation while reserving the final decision to the council. The choice of the country church rather than the principal building near the castle for the freeholders' meeting recognises the country church as the working centre of the dispersed planter population.

The fifth article makes the churchwardens responsible for identifying the poor and impotent and bringing their condition to the council's notice. The article does not give the churchwardens authority to relieve the poor directly from church funds, but treats their role as informational. Relief itself is reserved to the council, which would presumably draw on the Company's store or on collected church gifts as appropriate. The arrangement keeps both the identification of need and the decision on relief within the working administrative framework.

The sixth article on the sexton shows the churchwardens managing a paid church servant whose salary was supplemented by their own working contribution. The instruction to assist him in his salary and to make presentment accordingly suggests that the sexton's pay was made up partly from a settled stipend and partly from incidental payments by the churchwardens, with the latter to be accounted for in the annual return. The structure parallels the working pay arrangements for skilled garrison labour, where settled salaries were supplemented by working additions tied to particular tasks.

Speculations

The graduated admonition procedure for sabbath breakers and swearers, with reference to the council only after up to three failed admonitions, was probably calculated to manage the small population of the island without flooding the council with disciplinary cases. By giving the churchwardens working discretion to deal with first and second offences, the council preserved its own time for substantive matters while ensuring that persistent offenders eventually reached the formal penalty. The procedure also reduced the risk that personal grievances between inhabitants would be brought directly to the council under cover of moral complaint.

The decision to specify the country church as the default location for the annual freeholders' meeting on the Monday after Easter probably reflected the geography of the inhabitant population. The country church served the dispersed planter holdings across the interior, and a meeting there would have been more accessible to the freeholders than one at the principal building near the castle. The arrangement signalled that the annual rotation of civic office was treated as a matter for the inhabitant community itself, gathered in their own working space, rather than as a function of the castle establishment.

39

32

Whereas there being one year viz[t] the year 1713 head money

due to the Church from the Inhabitants of Said Island which

is after the rate of Six pence p[er] head for all whites and Blacks

in Each Masters and Mistress[s] Families that are of the age of Sixteen

years and upwards.

These are therefore in her Majesties Name To Order and

Command You whose Names hereafter follows to pay the

respective Sums of money plac[d] against your Names to James

Draper and Francis Wrangham Church Wardens for the present

year and in case any Person or Persons refuses to make Payment

thereof You the aforesaid Church Wardens are hereby Impowered

to make Seizure of Such goods and Chattles and Sell the Same

at a Publick outcry Rendering the overplus if any to the owner

after you are Sattisfyed and reasonable Charges deducted.

Given under our hands and the Honoura[ble] United Companys

Seale affixed hereunto this 9[th] day of June 1713.

To James Draper and

Francis Wrangham

Church Wardens

These

Persons Names viz[t]

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Each P[er]sons Mattheu[w] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] 16

Name 3 4 7 3 6

& Lieut[t] Thomas Cason

1 3 4 2 ./.

Num[br] of John French

1 5 6 3 ./.

Family Joshua Thomlinson

1 4 5 [...] 6

Pay[ble] John Alexander

1 4 4 2 ./.

at 6 [...] p[er] head William Pilceous

1 1 2 1 ./.

Thom[s] Perkins

1 3 4 2 ./.

Thom[s] Southen

1 2 3 1 6

John Worrall

1 1 2 1 ./.

William Slaughter

1 3 4 2 ./.

Christopher Kelley

2 ./. 2 1 ./.

Isaack Wood

2 5 7 3 6

Carried over

18 32 50 [...] 5 ./.

Margin Notes:

Warrant to

Collect head

money.

Each P[er]sons

Name

&

Num[br] of

Family

Pay[ble]

at 6 [...] p[er] head

The council issued a warrant to the churchwardens for the collection of head money for the year 1713. The rate was 6d per head for all whites and blacks in each master's and mistress's family aged sixteen years and upwards.

In her Majesty's name, the persons named in the warrant were ordered to pay the sums set against their names to James Draper and Francis Wrangham, churchwardens for the present year. If any person refused, the churchwardens were empowered to seize the goods and chattels of the offender and sell them at public outcry. After they had been satisfied and reasonable charges deducted, any overplus was to be returned to the owner.

The warrant was given under the council's hands and the Company's seal on 9 June 1713, addressed to James Draper and Francis Wrangham, churchwardens.

The schedule of liable persons followed.

Matthew Bazett, second in council

3 whites, 4 blacks, total 7

£0 3s 6d

Lieutenant Thomas Cason

1 white, 3 blacks, total 4

£0 2s 0d

John French

1 white, 5 blacks, total 6

£0 3s 0d

Joshua Thomlinson

1 white, 4 blacks, total 5

£0 [...]s 6d

John Alexander

1 white, 4 blacks, total 4

£0 2s 0d

William Pilceous

1 white, 1 black, total 2

£0 1s 0d

Thomas Perkins

1 white, 3 blacks, total 4

£0 2s 0d

Thomas Southen

1 white, 2 blacks, total 3

£0 1s 6d

John Worrall

1 white, 1 black, total 2

£0 1s 0d

William Slaughter

1 white, 3 blacks, total 4

£0 2s 0d

Christopher Kelley

2 whites, 0 blacks, total 2

£0 1s 0d

Isaack Wood

2 whites, 5 blacks, total 7

£0 3s 6d

Carried over

18 whites, 32 blacks, total 50

£[...] 5s 0d

Interpretations

The head money assessment establishes a working tax base for the church on the island, levied on every household member of sixteen and upwards regardless of legal status. The flat rate of 6d per head treats white and black persons identically as units of assessment, with no allowance for the differing legal positions of free inhabitants and slaves. The mechanism captures the working economic strength of each household, with larger households bearing a proportionate share of the church's support, while the actual revenue is paid by the householder out of his or her own resources.

The empowerment of the churchwardens to seize and sell goods at public outcry to satisfy unpaid head money gives the church a working enforcement mechanism parallel to the council's own distraint procedures. The procedure reserves any surplus from the sale to the owner after the churchwardens have been satisfied and reasonable charges deducted, which protects the property holder against confiscation beyond the actual liability. The structure resembles the distraint orders against Sarah Southen for store debt at 25 September 1711 and against unauthorised cattle on the Half Way Tree common at 5 February 1712.

The schedule discloses the working composition of the senior establishment's households. The council members and their immediate working circle account for 50 persons between 12 households, with whites outnumbered by blacks 32 to 18. The proportions confirm the working pattern in which slaves outnumbered free persons within the principal Company households, although the assessment counts only those aged sixteen and upwards and would therefore exclude both white and black children.

The inclusion of the lower officers and tradesmen of the establishment, the surgeon, the gunner, the clerk, three sergeants and the boatswain, alongside the council members shows that the head money fell on the entire working civil and military payroll, not merely on the inhabitant freeholders. The assessment treats the establishment as a settled community for the purposes of church finance, with each officer's household contributing in proportion to its size. The arrangement preserves the principle that the church is supported by the whole resident population rather than by any particular class within it.

Speculations

The decision to issue the head money warrant under the Company's seal in her Majesty's name combines the secular and ecclesiastical authority structures of the island in a single instrument. By giving the churchwardens an order under both the Crown's authority and the Company's seal, the council placed the collection beyond easy challenge by any inhabitant who might dispute either source of authority on its own. The dual invocation parallels the framing of the census order of 4 March 1713 and shows the council building a working formula for compelling compliance with island-wide levies.

The order in which the names appear in the schedule, beginning with the council members and proceeding through the lower officers and tradesmen, probably reflects both the social order of the establishment and the working order of collection. By placing the council members at the head of the list, the warrant signalled that the highest officers bore the same liability as the rest, and gave the churchwardens a working starting point that began with the most likely to pay. The pattern parallels the structure of subscription lists and other working assessments where the senior establishment led by example.

40

33

Persons Names viz[t]:

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought Over

18 32 50 1 5 ./.

Isaack Leech

1 1 2 1 ./.

Samuel Josey

1 3 4 2 ./.

William Worrall

1 1 2 1 ./.

John Welch

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Francis Funge

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Hatton Starling

1 2 3 1 6

Thomas Bevian

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Joptha Forster

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Samuel Rice

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Eractus[?] Snow

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Antrias[?] Joseys Estate

1 3 3 1 6

Richard Tinsley

1 1 2 ./. 6

Thomas Hayse

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Robert Addis

1 1 2 1 ./.

Thomas Allis

2 1 3 1 6

Elizabeth Allis

1 3 4 2 ./.

John Bagley

3 1 4 2 ./.

Hugh Bodley Jun[r]

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Arthur Bradleye

2 ./. 2 1 ./.

Robert Bell

2 3 5 2 6

William Beale

2 2 4 2 ./.

Thomas Burnham

2 1 3 1 6

Orlando Bagley

3 3 6 3 ./.

George Carne

4 18 22 11 ./.

Mary Conaway

1 1 2 1 ./.

Cotgraves Orphans

1 1 2 ./. 6

John Coulson

2 5 7 3 6

Paul Coulson

2 2 4 2 ./.

John Coles

2 1 3 1 6

Richard Cleve

1 1 2 1 ./.

William Coales

2 6 8 4 ./.

Jonathan Doveton

3 2 5 2 6

James Draper

3 1 4 2 ./.

Mary Easthope

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Humphrey Edwards

3 9 12 6 ./.

Thomas Free

[...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Carried Over

75 104 179 4 09 6

The schedule of head money continued.

Brought over: 18 whites, 32 blacks, total 50, £1 5s 0d.

Isaack Leech, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Samuel Josey, 1 white, 3 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

William Worrall, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

John Welch, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Francis Funge, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Hatton Starling, 1 white, 2 blacks, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Thomas Bevian, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Joptha Forster, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Samuel Rice, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Eractus Snow, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Antrias Josey's estate, 1 white, 3 blacks, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Richard Tinsley, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 0s 6d.

Thomas Hayse, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Robert Addis, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Thomas Allis, 2 whites, 1 black, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Elizabeth Allis, 1 white, 3 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

John Bagley, 3 whites, 1 black, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Hugh Bodley junior, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Arthur Bradleye, 2 whites, 0 blacks, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Robert Bell, 2 whites, 3 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

William Beale, 2 whites, 2 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Thomas Burnham, 2 whites, 1 black, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Orlando Bagley, 3 whites, 3 blacks, total 6, £0 3s 0d.

George Carne, 4 whites, 18 blacks, total 22, £0 11s 0d.

Mary Conaway, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Cotgrave's orphans, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 0s 6d.

John Coulson, 2 whites, 5 blacks, total 7, £0 3s 6d.

Paul Coulson, 2 whites, 2 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

John Coles, 2 whites, 1 black, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Richard Cleve, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

William Coales, 2 whites, 6 blacks, total 8, £0 4s 0d.

Jonathan Doveton, 3 whites, 2 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

James Draper, 3 whites, 1 black, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Mary Easthope, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Humphrey Edwards, 3 whites, 9 blacks, total 12, £0 6s 0d.

Thomas Free, [...] whites, [...] blacks, total [...], £[...].

Carried over: 75 whites, 104 blacks, total 179, £4 9s 6d.

Interpretations

The continuing schedule discloses the working distribution of household labour across the inhabitant population beyond the senior establishment. With 75 whites and 104 blacks counted in 36 households, the proportion of slaves to free persons is lower than within the senior establishment recorded on the first part of the schedule, but blacks still outnumber whites by about three to two. The pattern shows that slave labour was present throughout the inhabitant economy and not concentrated only in the council households, although the largest single concentration in this section, George Carne's 18 blacks in a household of 22, stands well above any other entry.

The appearance of women, orphan estates and small establishments in their own right within the schedule shows that the head money fell on the working unit of the household regardless of who held it. Elizabeth Allis, Mary Easthope, Mary Conaway and the orphans of Cotgrave each appear under their own names with separate assessments, confirming the working position of widows and orphan trusts as taxable households on the same footing as those headed by free men. The mechanism preserves the integrity of the household as the working unit for civic assessment.

The 6d minimum assessment for households of one or two persons gives a working threshold below which the rate becomes flat rather than proportionate. Several single-person households at the bottom of the schedule fall under this minimum charge, including Welch, Funge, Bevian, Forster, Rice and Snow. The arrangement captures the small inhabitants within the assessment while recognising that the working cost of collection from a one-person household imposed a practical floor on the rate.

The Carne entry of 22 persons in a household, 4 white and 18 black, is the largest individual assessment on the schedule so far. The figure confirms the concentration of household labour in his hands following his marriage to the widow of Thomas Goodwin, and reflects the working consequence of inheriting a consolidated estate alongside his existing freehold. The £0 11s 0d assessment captures the working scale of his establishment within the church's revenue base.

Speculations

The arrangement of the schedule in roughly alphabetical order from the second tranche onwards, beginning with Allis and continuing through to Edwards in this section, indicates that the churchwardens had access to a working roll of inhabitants probably derived from the census returns made in March 1713. The use of the census base for the head money assessment would have made the levy administratively economical, with the working calculation of liability flowing directly from the family returns already filed under the 4 March 1713 advertisement.

The blank or illegible entry for Thomas Free at the end of this section probably reflects either incomplete information at the time of drafting or the uncertain status of his household following his discharge from the Company's service on 4 June 1713. With his marriage to the widow Sarah Griffith only recently formalised and his departure from the establishment newly recorded, the churchwardens may have been unable to fix his household composition at the moment when the schedule was prepared, leaving the entry to be completed at collection.

41

34

Persons Names &c[a]

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought Over

75 104 179 4 09 6

Henry Francis

1 8 9 4 6

Thomas Yargen

3 5 8 6 4 ./.

Richard Girling

2 4 6 3 ./.

Robert Girling

2 5 7 3 6

James Greentree

2 1 3 1 6

Thomas Harper

1 1 2 1 ./.

Dorothy Hayse

1 1 2 1 ./.

Jonathan Higham

1 1 2 1 ./.

Mary Harper

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Isabell Hayse

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

M[rs] Elizabeth Johnson

1 3 4 2 ./.

Sutton Isaack Sen[r]

2 3 5 2 6

Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

2 1 3 1 6

Joshua Johnson

1 4 5 2 6

John Knipe

2 ./. 2 1 ./.

John Long

1 1 2 1 ./.

Francis Leech

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

James Leech

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Stephen Lufkin

1 1 2 1 ./.

Mary Maxwell

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Walter Morris

1 2 3 1 6

John Marsh

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

Robert Marsh

2 3 5 2 6

Jane [...]idge

1 2 3 1 6

John Nichols Sen[r]

6 2 8 4 ./.

Martin Norman

1 ./. 1 ./. 6

John Orchard

./. 2 2 1 ./.

Gabriell Powill

4 14 18 9 ./.

John Robinson

4 3 7 3 6

Charles Steward

[...] [...] [...] 3 ./.

William Seale

[...] [...] [...] 2 ./.

Peter Sinsnick & his brother Gilbert

[...] [...] [...] [...] 1 ./.

Margaret Sich

2 6 8 4 ./.

Thomas Swallow

3 3 6 3 ./.

Richard Swallow

3 3 6 3 ./.

John Tovaits

2 2 4 2 ./.

Carried Over

143 193 336 8 ./. 4 ./.

The schedule of head money continued.

Brought over: 75 whites, 104 blacks, total 179, £4 9s 6d.

Henry Francis, 1 white, 8 blacks, total 9, £0 4s 6d.

Thomas Yargen, 3 whites, 5 blacks, total 8, £0 4s 0d.

Richard Girling, 2 whites, 4 blacks, total 6, £0 3s 0d.

Robert Girling, 2 whites, 5 blacks, total 7, £0 3s 6d.

James Greentree, 2 whites, 1 black, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Thomas Harper, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Dorothy Hayse, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Jonathan Higham, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Mary Harper, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Isabell Hayse, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Mrs Elizabeth Johnson, 1 white, 3 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Sutton Isaack senior, 2 whites, 3 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

Sutton Isaack junior, 2 whites, 1 black, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

Joshua Johnson, 1 white, 4 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

John Knipe, 2 whites, 0 blacks, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

John Long, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Francis Leech, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

James Leech, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Stephen Lufkin, 1 white, 1 black, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Mary Maxwell, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Walter Morris, 1 white, 2 blacks, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

John Marsh, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Robert Marsh, 2 whites, 3 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

Jane [...]idge, 1 white, 2 blacks, total 3, £0 1s 6d.

John Nichols senior, 6 whites, 2 blacks, total 8, £0 4s 0d.

Martin Norman, 1 white, 0 blacks, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

John Orchard, 0 whites, 2 blacks, total 2, £0 1s 0d.

Gabriell Powill, 4 whites, 14 blacks, total 18, £0 9s 0d.

John Robinson, 4 whites, 3 blacks, total 7, £0 3s 6d.

Charles Steward, total assessment £0 3s 0d.

William Seale, total assessment £0 2s 0d.

Peter Sinsnick and his brother Gilbert, total assessment £0 1s 0d.

Margaret Sich, 2 whites, 6 blacks, total 8, £0 4s 0d.

Thomas Swallow, 3 whites, 3 blacks, total 6, £0 3s 0d.

Richard Swallow, 3 whites, 3 blacks, total 6, £0 3s 0d.

John Tovaits, 2 whites, 2 blacks, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Carried over: 143 whites, 193 blacks, total 336, £8 4s 0d.

Interpretations

The second tranche of the schedule confirms the working pattern visible in the first. Slaves continue to outnumber free persons by roughly three to two across the wider inhabitant population, but the distribution within individual households varies sharply. Gabriel Powill's 18 blacks in a household of 22 stands second only to George Carne's 22 in the earlier section, and together with Henry Francis's 9 and Margaret Sich's 8 indicates a small group of inhabitants who controlled labour resources well beyond the average. These concentrations correspond to the larger consolidated freeholds confirmed in the registration sittings of February and March 1713.

The continuing alphabetical sequence from Francis through to Tovaits confirms that the schedule was drawn from an ordered roll rather than from a working list of payers in the order of their appearance. The arrangement gave the churchwardens a working document against which they could mark each payment as it came in, with the running totals at the foot of each section allowing them to verify their accumulated collections against the schedule as the work proceeded. The pattern parallels the structured returns made under the 4 March 1713 census advertisement.

The inclusion of John Orchard with no whites and two blacks records the working position of an inhabitant whose household contained only slaves. The composition probably reflects a household in transition, where the free head had died or departed and the slaves remained as the working occupants pending some further arrangement. The churchwardens nevertheless treated the household as a taxable unit, with the assessment falling on the slaves at the standard rate. The arrangement preserves the integrity of the assessment regardless of the household's free composition.

The appearance of Peter Sinsnick alongside his brother Gilbert as a single entry shows the working treatment of dependent siblings within the assessment. The reference to Gilbert connects to the apprentice case heard at the consultation of 17 March 1713, where the orphan Gilbert Sinsnick was retained in the service of James Draper. The pairing of the two brothers under a single household assessment suggests that they were still treated as a working unit despite Gilbert's continued apprenticeship, with Peter as the responsible elder for the purposes of the head money.

Speculations

The substantial concentration of slaves in the Carne, Powill, Francis and Sich households probably reflects both the working scale of their freeholds and their position in the slave-purchase economy. The slave price ceiling proclamation of 20 December 1710 fixed maximum prices for purchases off shipping and between planters, but did not limit the working accumulation of slaves by larger households over time. The pattern visible here, with a small group of inhabitants holding ten or more slaves while the majority held two or fewer, indicates that the working slave economy on the island had concentrated into a relatively narrow group of senior planter households by the middle of 1713.

The grouping of Peter Sinsnick and his brother Gilbert under a single household entry probably reflects a working arrangement by which Peter was treated as the responsible household head while Gilbert remained at Draper's house under his apprenticeship indenture. The orphan brothers had no parental household to be assessed against, and the church needed a settled responsible party for the head money. The pairing under Peter's name preserved the assessment within a single working unit while leaving Gilbert physically with his master, an arrangement that fits the wider pattern of fictive household assignments visible in the orphan and apprentice cases of the period.

42

35

Persons Names

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought over

143 193 336 8 8 ./.

James Vesey

3 2 5 2 6

Simon Whaley

3 1 4 2 ./.

Ripin Wills

2 4 6 3 ./.

Francis Wrangham

2 3 5 2 6

Wranghams Orphans

./. 1 1 ./. 6

Totall

153 204 357 £8 18 6

Island S[t] Helena.

You John Robinson and Sutton Isaack Jun[r] Free

Holders Are Nominated and appointed Overseers of the high ways

for this Present year 1713 Which Office you are hereby required carefully

and Diligently to Execute and that you may the better and more

Impartially Performe the Same hereunto is a List Annexed of the

Names of all the white Men Inhabitants Except Such as are in the

Honoura[ble] Companys Service and of Negroes and Black men that

any Person hath Except the Said Honourable Companys.

These are therefore in her Majesties Name To will and require

you John Robinson and Sutton Isaack Jun[r] to cause all Persons

both Whites and Blacks to work one day and no more in y[e] makeing

and repairing all Such high ways as are Needfull and Necessarie

to be done, As also Stiles and Bridges So as all and Every the whole

Inhabitants as aforesaid and their Men blacks do work at the

Said high ways one day and no more this present year as before

Mentioned And if any Person or Persons after due

Warning by you or Either of you Shall absent himself and doth

not come or Send his black or blacks on the days and times by

You

Margin Notes:

Overseers

Warrant

to

Cause all

Persons

to Work at

high ways

The schedule of head money concluded.

Brought over: 143 whites, 193 blacks, total 336, £8 8s 0d.

James Vesey, 3 whites, 2 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

Simon Whaley, 3 whites, 1 black, total 4, £0 2s 0d.

Ripin Wills, 2 whites, 4 blacks, total 6, £0 3s 0d.

Francis Wrangham, 2 whites, 3 blacks, total 5, £0 2s 6d.

Wrangham's orphans, 0 whites, 1 black, total 1, £0 0s 6d.

Total: 153 whites, 204 blacks, total 357, £8 18s 6d.

Island of St Helena.

John Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior, freeholders, were nominated and appointed overseers of the highways for the year 1713. They were required to execute the office carefully and diligently. To assist them, a list was annexed of the names of all white male inhabitants, except those in the Company's service, and of all slaves held by any person, except those held by the Company.

In her Majesty's name, the council required Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior to cause all persons, white and black, to work one day and no more during the present year in making and repairing such highways, stiles and bridges as were needful and necessary. The whole inhabitants and their male slaves were to work at the highways one day, and one day only, during the current year.

If any person, after due warning, absented himself and did not come or send his slave or slaves on the days appointed by the overseers.

Interpretations

The total of 357 persons aged sixteen and upwards assessed for the head money fixes the working size of the church's revenue base for the island in 1713. With 153 whites and 204 blacks recorded across the schedule, the proportion of slaves to free persons stands at roughly four to three within the assessed population. The aggregate yield of £8 18s 6d gives a small but predictable annual income to support the working maintenance of the two churches and the salary of the sexton.

The highway warrant establishes a working corvée labour system on the island, with each adult male, free or slave, owing one day's labour per year to the maintenance of the public roads. The system replaces money payment with direct labour service, which fits the working currency shortage on the island and gives the overseers a workforce that the council could not otherwise have mobilised within the church's modest income. The exemption of those in the Company's service and of the Company's own slaves preserves the working priorities of the principal employer, while drawing the wider inhabitant population into the public maintenance.

The empowerment of the overseers to give due warning followed by enforcement against absentees parallels the working enforcement structure used for the head money. Both warrants give the named officers a graduated procedure: first a working summons or notice, then a formal sanction in the event of non-compliance. The arrangement provides administrative redress without immediate recourse to the council, allowing the routine cases to be settled at the level of the office while preserving the council's role for cases that escalated beyond the overseers' authority.

The treatment of slaves as the unit of labour assessment for the highway work, with each holder owing his slaves' working days as well as his own, captures the working economic position of slaveholding within the corvée structure. A planter with many slaves contributed proportionately more labour than a single inhabitant, which placed the burden of public maintenance in rough alignment with the working size of each household. The mechanism parallels the head money assessment, where both whites and blacks above sixteen counted equally, but now applies the working principle to labour rather than to cash.

Speculations

The narrow yield of £8 18s 6d from the head money probably constrained the working scope of the church's establishment. With a sexton's salary, candles, repairs and incidental gifts to support, the working income left little margin for any expansion of religious provision on the island. The corvée labour for the highways, by contrast, supplied a much larger working contribution at no cash cost. The two mechanisms together show the council using the resident population's labour rather than its cash wherever possible, recognising the working limits of the cash economy on the island.

The pairing of John Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior as overseers reflects the same pattern visible in the choice of churchwardens, where two substantial inhabitants with documented holdings under the registration programme were placed in the working office. Robinson had appeared at the consultation of 3 February 1713 on behalf of the Steward children's estate, and the Isaack family had appeared repeatedly across the registration sittings. The selection of officers with proven working competence in the documentary procedures of the council parallels the choice of Draper and Wrangham for the church accounts, and shows the council drawing its civic officers from a working pool of capable inhabitants.

43

36

you appointed, then and there to Labour as aforesaid, then you

are to put in Some other Man or Men black or blacks in the absent

Persons roome to work one day as aforesaid which Person So put

in, you are to pay According to the Said Honoura[ble] Companys

orders viz[t] Eighteen Pence for a white mans days work and 18 for

a black mans days work.

And Such Person or Persons So absenting refuseing

or not Sending as aforesaid are forthwith to Pay you which if

they deny So to do You are hereby Impowered to take and Distress

any goods from Such Person or Persons and Sell the Same at

a Publick outcry delivering the overplus (if any) to the owners after

you are repaid and reasonable Charges deducted.

For which this Shall be your Sufficient Warrant given under

our hands and the Honoura[ble] Companys Seale Affixed hereunto

this 9[th] day of June 1713.

To John Robinson

& Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

Surveyors

these

A list of all Persons both Whites & blacks that are to Work

at the Said high ways one day & no more this Present year 1713

Persons Names viz[t]

Whites Blacks

P[er]sons Names Mattheu[w] Bazett 2 in Councill

[...]

Lieut[t] Thomas Cason Assist[t]

3 [...]

John French

1 5 [...]

Joshua Thomlinson Minist[r]

1 [...]

John Alexander Clerk of Coun[ll]

1 3

Thomas Perkins Serj[t]

1 3

Thomas Southen do[?]

1 2

John Worrall

1 1

Will[m] Slaughter S[r] & Sons in Law of M[r] Rich[d] Harding

2 2

Carried over

2 19

Margin Notes:

P[er]sons Names

&c[a]

If after warning the absentees did not come or send their slaves on the days appointed, the overseers were to put in other men, white or black, in their place, to work the day as required. Such substitutes were to be paid according to the Company's orders, at 1s 6d for a white man's day's work and 1s 6d for a black man's day's work.

Absentees who refused or failed to send their slaves were required to pay the overseers the cost of the substitute. If they refused to pay, the overseers were empowered to distrain goods from the offender and sell them at public outcry. Any surplus over the cost and reasonable charges was to be returned to the owner.

This warrant served as their authority. It was given under the council's hands and the Company's seal on 9 June 1713, addressed to John Robinson and Sutton Isaack junior, surveyors.

A list of all persons, white and black, required to work at the highways one day during the year 1713 followed.

Matthew Bazett, second in council, [unrecorded number of] blacks.

Lieutenant Thomas Cason, assistant, 3 blacks.

John French, 1 white, 5 blacks.

Joshua Thomlinson, minister, 1 white.

John Alexander, clerk of council, 1 white, 3 blacks.

Thomas Perkins, sergeant, 1 white, 3 blacks.

Thomas Southen, sergeant, 1 white, 2 blacks.

John Worrall, 1 white, 1 black.

William Slaughter senior and his sons-in-law of Mr Richard Harding, 2 whites, 2 blacks.

Carried over: 2 whites, 19 blacks.

Interpretations

The fixed labour rate of 1s 6d for a day's work, applied equally to white and black substitutes, gives a working market value for unskilled day labour on the island. The uniform rate across racial categories captures the working economic reality that the council had to pay the same price for a day's work regardless of who supplied it, even though the underlying legal positions of the two classes were profoundly different. The rate parallels the wider working pay structure on the island, with the hired slave rate of 1s 6d per day appearing as a settled benchmark since at least the consultation of 9 January 1711.

The empowerment of the overseers to distrain and sell goods at public outcry to recover the cost of substitutes places the highway corvée within the same enforcement framework as the head money. Both warrants give the named officers a working power of distress against defaulters, with the surplus returnable to the owner after reasonable charges. The parallel structure shows the council building a consistent administrative pattern for the working assessment of inhabitants, in which non-compliance moved automatically from notice to substitution to distraint, without requiring fresh recourse to the council at each stage.

The treatment of substitutes shows the council recognising that the working labour might be supplied by hired hands rather than by the absentees themselves. The provision converts the labour obligation into a working cash obligation at the rate of 1s 6d per day, with the absentee charged the cost of the substitute even though no labour passed through his own hands. The mechanism preserves the working maintenance of the highways without requiring the personal attendance of any particular individual, recognising that the substantive requirement was the day's work rather than the working presence of the named obligor.

The grouping of William Slaughter senior with his sons-in-law of Mr Richard Harding under a single line shows the working treatment of an extended household for corvée purposes. The arrangement parallels the head money treatment of Peter and Gilbert Sinsnick, with related inhabitants assessed as a single working unit rather than as separate households. The mechanism recognises that the working organisation of labour on the island ran along household lines rather than along individual ones, and that the overseers needed a single responsible party for each working group.

Speculations

The exclusion of Company servants and Company slaves from the highway corvée probably reflects a deliberate working policy of preserving the Company's labour for its own projects. With the fortifications, the Plantation House and the Sandy Bay stone and lime works all drawing on Company labour, the council could not afford to lose working days to the highways. The exclusion also preserved the working hierarchy between Company labour and inhabitant labour, with the inhabitants bearing the public maintenance burden while the Company labour remained focused on its own priorities.

The placing of the council members and senior officers at the head of the highway list, parallel to their position at the head of the head money schedule, was probably calculated to demonstrate the working equality of the assessment. By including their own slaves in the corvée alongside those of the inhabitants, the council members showed that they accepted the same burden they imposed on the wider population. The arrangement parallels the appearance of the senior officers at the head of the head money schedule, and shows the council using the visible order of the working lists as a means of legitimising the assessment.

44

37

Persons Names viz[t]

Whites Blacks

Brought Over

2 19

Isaack Wood Corporall

./. 3

Samuel Joffrey quart[r] d[r] Gunner

./. 2

William Worrall Montrofs[?]

./. 2

Hatton Starling Coxswaine

./. 3

Antipas Joseys blacks

./. 3

Robert Addis free Bod[y][?]

1 1

Thomas Allis

1 1

Elizabeth Allis

1 1

Arthur Bradley

2 ./.

John Bagley & Apprentice

2 1

Hugh Bodley

1 1

Edmond Bodley

./. 2

Robert Bell

1 1

William Beale

1 1

Thomas Burnham

1 1

Orlando Bagley & Apprentice

2 2

George Carne

1 12

Mary Conaway

1 1

Cotgraves Orphans

./. 1

John Coulson

1 2

John Coles

1 1

Paul Coulson

./. 2

Richard Cleve

1 1

William Coales

1 1

John Crosby

1 ./.

Jonathan Doveton

1 3

James Draper

1 2

Mary Easthope and Do[?]

./. 1

Humphrey Edwards

[...]

Thomas Free and James Rider

2 7 [...]

Henry Francis

1 4

Thomas Yargen

1 4

Robert Girling

1 4

Richard Girling

1 4

Thomas Harper

1 1

Jonath[n] Higham

1 1

Carried over

31 88

The list of persons required to work at the highways continued.

Brought over: 2 whites, 19 blacks.

Isaack Wood, corporal, 0 whites, 3 blacks.

Samuel Joffrey, quarter gunner, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

William Worrall, matross, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Hatton Starling, coxswain, 0 whites, 3 blacks.

Antipas Josey's blacks, 0 whites, 3 blacks.

Robert Addis, freeman, 1 white, 1 black.

Thomas Allis, 1 white, 1 black.

Elizabeth Allis, 1 white, 1 black.

Arthur Bradley, 2 whites, 0 blacks.

John Bagley and apprentice, 2 whites, 1 black.

Hugh Bodley, 1 white, 1 black.

Edmond Bodley, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Robert Bell, 1 white, 1 black.

William Beale, 1 white, 1 black.

Thomas Burnham, 1 white, 1 black.

Orlando Bagley and apprentice, 2 whites, 2 blacks.

George Carne, 1 white, 12 blacks.

Mary Conaway, 1 white, 1 black.

Cotgrave's orphans, 0 whites, 1 black.

John Coulson, 1 white, 2 blacks.

John Coles, 1 white, 1 black.

Paul Coulson, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Richard Cleve, 1 white, 1 black.

William Coales, 1 white, 1 black.

John Crosby, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Jonathan Doveton, 1 white, 3 blacks.

James Draper, 1 white, 2 blacks.

Mary Easthope, 0 whites, 1 black.

Humphrey Edwards, [...].

Thomas Free and James Rider, 2 whites, 7 blacks.

Henry Francis, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Thomas Yargen, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Robert Girling, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Richard Girling, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Thomas Harper, 1 white, 1 black.

Jonathan Higham, 1 white, 1 black.

Carried over: 31 whites, 88 blacks.

Interpretations

The differential between the highway list and the head money schedule shows the working distinction between the two assessments. The head money counted all white and black persons aged sixteen and upwards within each household, including women, while the highway list counts only the working male labour. Several households that appeared with multiple white members on the head money schedule, such as Bagley and Wrangham, contribute fewer white workers to the corvée, while the slave counts also differ where the head money included female slaves who were excluded from the labour assessment.

The grouping of working units under the names of senior tradesmen and their apprentices, visible in the entries for John Bagley and Orlando Bagley, shows the working organisation of the artisan economy on the island. The apprentice contributes his labour through the master's household, parallel to the working treatment of Gilbert Sinsnick under his brother Peter on the head money. The mechanism allows the council to capture the working capacity of apprentice labour without requiring separate registration of the apprentice's obligations, which would have created administrative work disproportionate to the result.

The combined entry for Thomas Free and James Rider as a single working unit indicates that Free had taken Rider into his household, perhaps following his marriage to the widow Sarah Griffith and his discharge from the Company's service on 4 June 1713. The arrangement preserves the working accountability of both men under a single line while recognising that they had joined into a single working establishment. The combined figure of 2 whites and 7 blacks places the new Free household near the top of the list in terms of working labour, reflecting the consolidated household resources brought together by his marriage.

The appearance of Antipas Josey's blacks as a separate line, without any white head, shows the working treatment of an estate held in trust or in transition. The three slaves appear under the deceased Antipas Josey's name as a working unit owing labour to the highways, although there is no free person to lead them. The mechanism parallels the head money treatment of the same estate, where the slaves of a deceased holder remained assessable until the estate was settled and reassigned. The continuity ensured that the working obligation passed through with the estate without requiring fresh registration.

Speculations

The reduction of George Carne's working contribution to 1 white and 12 blacks on the highway list, against his head money assessment of 4 whites and 18 blacks, probably reflects the exclusion of women and persons unfit for manual labour from the corvée. The reduction shows the working refinement of the assessment, with the labour obligation falling on the able-bodied males of each household rather than on the whole adult population. The same reduction is visible across the larger households on the list, with Powill, Sich and Francis all contributing proportionately fewer working hands than their head money figures would suggest.

The careful identification of relationships within the list, with John Bagley and his apprentice grouped under one line and William Slaughter senior with his sons-in-law of Richard Harding under another in the earlier portion, suggests that the overseers were assembling not merely a roll of liable persons but a working map of the household structures within which the labour would be supplied. The information would have helped the overseers in their working practice, allowing them to call on entire households as units and to plan the daily attendance around the working organisation of the inhabitant population.

45

38

Persons Names viz[t]

Whites Blacks

Brought over

31 88

Isabell Hayse wid[w]

./. 1

M[rs] Elizabeth Johnson

./. 3

Sutton Isaack Sen[r]

1 1

Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

1 1

Joshua Johnson

1 3

John Knipe

1 2

John Long

1 1

Francis Leech

1 ./.

James Leech

1 ./.

Stephen Lufkin

1 1

Walter Morris

1 1

John Marsh

1 ./.

Robert Marsh

1 2

Jane Mudge

./. 2

John Nichols & two Sons John & Edmond

3 2

Martin Norman

1 ./.

John Orchard

1 1

Gabriell Powill

1 10

John Robinson & Son in Law Fra: Steward

2 2

Giles Smith

1 ./.

Charles Steward

1 2

William Seale

1 4

James Greentree[?]

1 ./.

Peter Sinsnick

1 ./.

Gilbert Sinsnick

1 ./.

Margaret Sich & Son Benj[n]

1 4

Thomas Swallow & Son Rich[d]

2 2

Richard Swallow & Apprentice

2 3

John Twaits

1 1

James Vesey

1 1

Simon Whaley

1 1

Ripin Wills

1 3

Francis Wrangham

1 3

Wranghams Orphans

[...]

The following Persons both Whites & blacks did not work

the two Last years as p[er] acc[t] given by John Coulson

then Surveyor of the high ways viz[t]

Daniel Griffith dec[d] now Thom[s] Free's

./. 6

Thomas Perkins

1 ./.

James Vesey

1 1

Carried over

65 154

The list of persons required to work at the highways continued.

Brought over: 31 whites, 88 blacks.

Isabell Hayse, widow, 0 whites, 1 black.

Mrs Elizabeth Johnson, 0 whites, 3 blacks.

Sutton Isaack senior, 1 white, 1 black.

Sutton Isaack junior, 1 white, 1 black.

Joshua Johnson, 1 white, 3 blacks.

John Knipe, 1 white, 2 blacks.

John Long, 1 white, 1 black.

Francis Leech, 1 white, 0 blacks.

James Leech, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Stephen Lufkin, 1 white, 1 black.

Walter Morris, 1 white, 1 black.

John Marsh, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Robert Marsh, 1 white, 2 blacks.

Jane Mudge, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

John Nichols and two sons John and Edmond, 3 whites, 2 blacks.

Martin Norman, 1 white, 0 blacks.

John Orchard, 1 white, 1 black.

Gabriell Powill, 1 white, 10 blacks.

John Robinson and son-in-law Francis Steward, 2 whites, 2 blacks.

Giles Smith, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Charles Steward, 1 white, 2 blacks.

William Seale, 1 white, 4 blacks.

James Greentree, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Peter Sinsnick, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Gilbert Sinsnick, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Margaret Sich and son Benjamin, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Thomas Swallow and son Richard, 2 whites, 2 blacks.

Richard Swallow and apprentice, 2 whites, 3 blacks.

John Twaits, 1 white, 1 black.

James Vesey, 1 white, 1 black.

Simon Whaley, 1 white, 1 black.

Ripin Wills, 1 white, 3 blacks.

Francis Wrangham, 1 white, 3 blacks.

Wrangham's orphans, [...].

The following persons, white and black, had not worked during the past two years, as recorded by John Coulson, then surveyor of the highways.

Daniel Griffith, deceased, now Thomas Free's household, 0 whites, 6 blacks.

Thomas Perkins, 1 white, 0 blacks.

James Vesey, 1 white, 1 black.

Carried over: 65 whites, 154 blacks.

Interpretations

The continuation of the list confirms the working differential between the head money and the highway corvée. The labour assessment counts able-bodied males only, with the women and infirm of each household excluded from the working duty. Households appearing on the head money under a widow's name, such as Isabell Hayse, Mrs Elizabeth Johnson and Jane Mudge, contribute no white labour to the highways and supply only their male slaves. The pattern shows the council adapting the assessment to the working economic position of each household, while preserving its inclusion within the wider obligation through the slave contribution.

The separate list of persons who had failed to work during the past two years gives the new overseers a working starting point for enforcement. By providing the names of those who had defaulted under the previous administration, the outgoing overseer's account converted the corvée into a working continuing obligation rather than a fresh annual demand. The arrangement allowed the new overseers to pursue the unfulfilled labour of earlier years alongside the current year's assessment, and signalled that the council treated the highway maintenance as an ongoing responsibility rather than as a series of separate annual events.

The combined entry for Sinsnick brothers, with Peter and Gilbert each appearing under their own names with one white and no blacks, departs from the head money treatment that grouped them under a single household line. The differing treatment shows the working distinction between the two assessments: the head money fell on the household as a single unit, while the highway corvée counted each able-bodied male separately even where they lived together. The mechanism captured Gilbert's working labour separately from his brother's, recognising that the apprentice could supply his own day's labour despite remaining under his brother's roof.

The recurrent entry of John Robinson with his son-in-law Francis Steward as a single working line, parallel to the appearance of Thomas Swallow with his son Richard and Margaret Sich with her son Benjamin, shows the working pattern of family labour units within the corvée. Adult sons and sons-in-law residing within the same household contributed their working labour through the senior head, with the combined entry reflecting both the working organisation of the family and the council's preference for a single responsible party at the working level.

Speculations

The decision to include the unworked days of the previous two years under Daniel Griffith's name, now transferred to Thomas Free's household, probably reflected the working consequence of Free's recent marriage to Sarah Griffith. Free had inherited the working obligations of the Griffith estate along with the household, including the accumulated arrears from before Daniel Griffith's death in May 1712. The six unworked black days transferred to him represented a substantial liability against the new household, and may have given Free a further working reason to seek his discharge from the Company's service alongside his other grounds.

The placing of Wrangham's orphans on the list with their labour obligation left blank suggests that the overseers had not yet settled the working arrangement for the orphan estate's contribution. With Francis Wrangham acting as the responsible head of his own household and the orphan estate held separately, the question of who would supply the working day for the orphans' single slave remained open. The blank entry preserves the orphans' liability without committing to any particular working method, leaving the question to be resolved by the overseers during the year as the practical arrangement became clearer.

46

39

Persons Names viz[t]

Whites Blacks

Brought Over

65 154

John Alexander

./. 1

Arthur Bradley

1 ./.

George Carne

./. 6

Mary Conaway

1 ./.

Cotgraves Orphans

1 ./.

John Crosby

1 ./.

Richard Girling

1 1

James Greentree

1 4

Mary Hoskison Now Gab[l] Powills

./. 2

Peter Marsh

./. 2

Jane Mudge

1 ./.

John Nichols Jun[r]

1 2

Charles Steward

./. 2

Elizabeth Sanderson now Joshua Thomlinsons

./. 2

Wranghams Orphans

./. 1

James Leech

1 ./.

Totall

76 175

Wee have agreed with Capt[n] Pinnellis for a Hogshead of Lime Juice Con-

taining Sixty Gallons at three Shillings & Six Pence p[er] Gallon

being much Cheaper than the Buying of Lemons at three Shillings

p[er] Hundred as we are obliedged to do, the Hon[ble] Company having not

Sufficient to Serve their Table Since their Gardens has bin blasted.

Margin Notes:

Lime Juice b[t]

of Cap[t] Pinnell

The list of persons required to work at the highways concluded.

Brought over: 65 whites, 154 blacks.

John Alexander, 0 whites, 1 black.

Arthur Bradley, 1 white, 0 blacks.

George Carne, 0 whites, 6 blacks.

Mary Conaway, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Cotgrave's orphans, 1 white, 0 blacks.

John Crosby, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Richard Girling, 1 white, 1 black.

James Greentree, 1 white, 4 blacks.

Mary Hoskison, now Gabriel Powill's household, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Peter Marsh, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Jane Mudge, 1 white, 0 blacks.

John Nichols junior, 1 white, 2 blacks.

Charles Steward, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Elizabeth Sanderson, now Joshua Thomlinson's household, 0 whites, 2 blacks.

Wrangham's orphans, 0 whites, 1 black.

James Leech, 1 white, 0 blacks.

Total: 76 whites, 175 blacks.

The council agreed with Captain Pinnell for a hogshead of lime juice containing 60 gallons at 3s 6d per gallon. This was much cheaper than buying lemons at 3s 0d per hundred, which the Company had been obliged to do since its gardens had been blasted by the drought and could no longer supply its own table.

Interpretations

The final tranche of the highway list, headed by the unworked days from the past two years, captures a working enforcement liability separate from the current year's assessment. The repeat entries of names already appearing on the main list, including George Carne, James Greentree and Charles Steward, show that even substantial households had defaulted on their corvée obligations under the previous administration. The aggregation of current and arrears entries on the same working list gave the new overseers a single working schedule against which to plan their pursuit of unfulfilled labour.

The reassignment of named slaves to their current households, with Mary Hoskison's two now appearing under Gabriel Powill and Elizabeth Sanderson's two now under Joshua Thomlinson the minister, shows the working tracking of slave labour through the changes of household arrangement. The mechanism preserves the working liability of each slave's day regardless of whose household held the title, while updating the responsible head to the current possessor. The arrangement parallels the head money treatment, which recorded households according to their working composition at the moment of assessment rather than their formal legal arrangements.

The final totals of 76 whites and 175 blacks for the highway corvée stand against the 153 whites and 204 blacks for the head money. The labour assessment captures roughly half the white population and about five-sixths of the black population recorded for the head money. The differential reflects the working principle that only able-bodied males contributed to the corvée, while women, the infirm and Company servants paid the head money but were excluded from the labour. The mechanism gave the council a working labour force of around 250 working days per year for the maintenance of the public roads.

The purchase of a hogshead of lime juice from Captain Pinnell at 3s 6d per gallon reflects the continuing effects of the drought on the Company's working table. With the gardens blasted and lemons available only at the substantial retail rate of 3s 0d per hundred, the bulk purchase of preserved juice from a visiting captain offered a working economy. The arrangement parallels the bulk purchases of arrack and rice made on 4 June 1713, with the council using visiting shipping as a working supply source for commodities that the island itself could no longer provide. The acquisition of lime juice in particular suggests concern for the prevention of scurvy among the establishment in the absence of fresh citrus.

Speculations

The placement of John Alexander as clerk of the council on the arrears list, with one black day unworked, indicates that even members of the senior establishment had defaulted on their slave's contribution under the previous administration. The inclusion of his name alongside the inhabitant defaulters shows that the new overseers were applying the working enforcement evenly across the establishment, without distinguishing between Company servants and inhabitants on the arrears question. The mechanism preserved the credibility of the corvée as a working obligation binding on all households equally.

The purchase of lime juice in a single hogshead rather than in smaller working quantities probably reflected both the cheaper unit rate available for bulk purchase and the working storage capacity of the Company's cellars. With 60 gallons in a single cask, the council could lay down a working reserve against the continuing drought without the labour cost of repeated negotiations with visiting captains. The unit rate of 3s 6d per gallon compares with the 6s 0d per gallon agreed for Batavia arrack on 4 June 1713, showing that the council secured a substantial working discount on the juice through bulk acquisition.

47

40

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held

on Fryday the 3 day of July 1713. At the United

Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assists

The Governour and Councill mett this day to Settle the

Severall Prices on the Cargo of goods brought from England by

Ship Susannah Capt[n] Richard Pinnell as also those brought

from Madrass and Bengall p[er] Ships Kent and Hewolen[?] which

is as followeth

Strong beer at Eighteen Pence p[er] Gallon

Bread at Four pence p[er] pound

Cheshire Cheese at Ten pence p[er] pound

Flower at four pence p[er] pound

Casteel Soap at fifteen pence p[er] pound

Musk and Pevett[?] Powder at Eighteen pence p[er] ounce

All the rest of the Cargo to be Sold out at forty p[er] cent

upon the whole after the Ships Demorage and charges of House-

ing them in the Ware Houses are brought to an Average

According to the thirty Seventh Parragraph of the Generall Letter

p[er] the Toddington and that Cargo was by the Abbingdon

Ordered.

That Monday Tuesday & Wednesday next be appointed for

Serving days both for the Inhabitants and Garrison. and that

Thursday following be Councill day and Notice to be given

Accordingly

Ordered

That the Garrison Soldiers be Supplyd with the remaining Part

of the bread that Capt[n] Lesly brought hether, And Likewise with

Rice

Margin Notes:

Prices of

Goods Sett on

Ship Susanna[h]

Cargoe

days to Serve

out Goods

Sold[rs] to have

bread brought

by Cap[t] Lesly

The council met at the United Castle in James Valley on Friday 3 July 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The council met to set the prices on the cargo of goods brought from England by the ship Susannah, Captain Richard Pinnell, and those brought from Madras and Bengal by the ships Kent and Hewolen.

The prices were as follows.

Strong beer at 1s 6d per gallon.

Bread at 0s 4d per pound.

Cheshire cheese at 0s 10d per pound.

Flour at 0s 4d per pound.

Castile soap at 1s 3d per pound.

Musk and Pevett powder at 1s 6d per ounce.

The remainder of the cargo was to be sold at forty per cent profit on the whole, after the ships' demurrage and the charges of housing the goods in the warehouses had been brought to an average. The pricing followed the thirty seventh paragraph of the general letter sent by the Toddington, and the cargo that had been brought by the Abingdon.

The council ordered that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next be appointed as serving days for both the inhabitants and the garrison, with the following Thursday as the council day. Public notice was to be given accordingly.

The council ordered that the garrison soldiers be supplied with the remaining bread that Captain Lesly had brought to the island, and likewise with rice.

Interpretations

The price schedule for the Susannah's cargo confirms the operation of the standing thirty seventh paragraph of the directors' general letter brought by the Toddington in 1711. The forty per cent markup applies to the cargo as a whole, calculated after the working freight charges and warehouse handling are brought to an average. The mechanism preserves the directors' standing profit target while distributing the working cost of demurrage and storage across the entire cargo, rather than concentrating it on particular lines. Several specific items, including bread, flour, cheese, soap, beer and powder, receive named retail prices rather than the working markup, which gives the inhabitants a clear schedule for the staple commodities.

The pricing of bread and flour at the same 4d per pound, and of strong beer at 1s 6d per gallon, shows the council fixing working rates for the staple imports from England against the failed local provision economy. With yams scorched and the gardens blasted, the working English-pattern foodstuffs from the Susannah took on a new working importance as the substitute for the lost local supply. The named prices appear to be set somewhat above the wholesale value to allow the Company its return while keeping the staples within reach of the inhabitants during the continuing scarcity.

The Castile soap at 1s 3d per pound and musk powder at 1s 6d per ounce represent two markedly different categories of imported good. Castile soap was the working hard soap of the period, made from olive oil and used for fine washing and laundry. Musk powder was an aromatic preparation, used both as a perfume base and as a medicinal ingredient. The pricing of the musk powder by the ounce rather than the pound reflects its working classification as a luxury commodity rather than a staple, with the higher unit value justifying the smaller working measure.

The three-day weekly serving cycle for both the inhabitants and the garrison parallels the structure established for the store after Pack's death on 7 April 1713. Monday through Wednesday open the store for retail issue, with Thursday reserved as the council day for substantive business. The fixed weekly schedule converts the working trade in cargo into a predictable cycle, allowing the inhabitants to plan their visits and the council to keep its business days clear of routine commerce. The pattern shows the working administrative discipline that the council had imposed on its own operations in the wake of the senior attrition.

Speculations

The decision to bring the cargoes of three separate ships, the Susannah from England, the Kent and the Hewolen from Madras and Bengal, into a single pricing schedule probably reflected the council's wish to handle the consolidated stock as a working whole rather than as separate cargoes. The arrangement allowed the working capital across the ships to be priced uniformly under the directors' standing instruction, and gave the inhabitants a single schedule rather than multiple competing prices for similar commodities. The mechanism also smoothed the working calculation of demurrage and warehouse charges across the entire consignment.

The direction to supply the garrison with the remaining bread and rice from Captain Lesly's earlier voyage, alongside the new Susannah cargo, suggests that the council was working to clear the older stock before drawing on the newer arrivals. With the Susannah bread priced at 4d per pound and the older bread now to be issued to the garrison, the working sequence preserved the freshness of the saleable stock while ensuring that the soldiers received their working ration from the existing reserves. The arrangement maintained the working economy of the store, where older inventory was issued institutionally before being offered at retail.

48

41

Rice and other Provisions haveing represented they are Likely to Starve

there being no Provisions to be got at this time off the Planters by reason

of this Long drought and those Sojiers that are most Indebted to the

Honoura[ble] Company be often call[d] upon and obliged to Work at the

Fortifications and other Buildings.

The Governour Says tis his opinion that the blacks be discharged from

the fortification Work and that the Sojiers that are most Indebted as above-

said be made work till they have paid their debts.

The Governo[r] made a Demand of the Monthly Accounts for all goods

Sold and Deliverd out of the Stores to this time, which M[r] Bazett Says

cannot be got ready they being daily about other buisiness to bring

the books up.

Ordered.

That all the Arrack now in the Stores be sold out at Nine

Shillings per Gallon being Fifty p[er] Cent advance, and the Rice at

three Pence half Penny p[er] pound which is Seventy five per cent.

and Sufficient time the retailed out by Small Parcells.

Margin Notes:

Likewise

Rice &c[a]

and those most in

debt to Work at

Fortifications

Gov[ts] opinion

ab[t] working at

Fortifications

Demand of the

monthly Acc[t]s

Arrack to be Sold

at 9 [...]/Gall[n]

[...]

[...] Rice

at 3 1/2 p[er] [...]

The soldiers had reported that they were likely to starve, since no provisions could be had from the planters during the long drought. Those most indebted to the Company had been repeatedly called upon to work at the fortifications and other buildings.

The Governor gave his opinion that the slaves should be discharged from the fortification work, and that the soldiers most indebted to the Company should be set to work until they had paid their debts.

The Governor demanded the monthly accounts of all goods sold and delivered out of the stores up to the present time. Mr Bazett said the accounts could not yet be brought ready, since other business had occupied the working time required to bring the books up to date.

The council ordered that all the arrack now in the stores be sold out at 9s 0d per gallon, being a fifty per cent advance, and that the rice be sold at 3 1/2d per pound, which was a seventy-five per cent advance. There would be sufficient time for both commodities to be retailed in small parcels.

Interpretations

The Governor's proposal to discharge the slaves from the fortifications and replace them with indebted soldiers shifts the working labour burden onto a different class of worker. The slave force had been the standing workforce for the heavy construction projects since the establishment of the Sandy Bay lime kiln and the consolidated plantation works. The replacement of slaves with indebted soldiers converts the working labour at the fortifications from a public Company expense into a debt-recovery mechanism, with the soldiers' working days credited against their store-book balances. The arrangement frees the slave force for the immediate working priority, which the drought has made the supply of provisions and water rather than the maintenance of the fortifications.

The retail pricing of arrack at 9s 0d per gallon represents a fifty per cent advance on the 6s 0d per gallon acquisition price agreed with Captains Lane, Minter and Hoaks on 4 June 1713. The rice at 3 1/2d per pound represents a seventy-five per cent advance on the 2d per pound acquisition price. The differential between the two commodities shows the council applying a sharper working markup to the rice than to the arrack, perhaps reflecting the higher working storage cost for grain or the relative scarcity value of the staple over the spirit during the drought. The combined working margin recovers the Company's outlay while the goods are still in demand.

The Governor's demand for the monthly accounts of goods sold from the stores indicates a working tension within the reduced council over administrative discipline. The order of 7 April 1713 had required Bazett to bring in monthly accounts after taking over the storekeeper's responsibilities from the late John Pack. Three months later the working accounts were still in arrears. The Governor's formal demand for the books, with Bazett's plea of other business as the explanation for the delay, suggests that the working capacity of the diminished establishment was struggling to maintain the routine documentary discipline that had been imposed in the spring.

The retail sale of the bulk-purchased provisions in small parcels shows the council using the working drought as an opportunity to recover its emergency outlay through controlled distribution. By restricting the working size of each retail transaction, the council both extended the period over which the stock could be drawn down and ensured that the working benefit reached a wider section of the inhabitants. The mechanism parallels the brandy distribution of June 1710 and the arrack distribution of May 1711, where small-parcel retailing during scarcity was used as a working tool of administration as well as commerce.

Speculations

The Governor's specific proposal that indebted soldiers replace slaves at the fortifications probably reflected a working calculation that the soldiers' debt liabilities had become a serious working burden on the establishment. With store balances accumulating against the soldiery during a period of scarcity, the conversion of working hours into debt repayment offered a route to clearing the balances without requiring cash payment. The arrangement also gave the indebted soldiers a working obligation to perform their labour, which served both as discipline and as a recovery mechanism. The proposal stands in contrast to the working pattern of garrison labour at the fortifications, where soldiers had earlier been employed for ad hoc tasks rather than as a substitute for the slave force.

Bazett's explanation that the books could not be brought up because of other business probably points to the practical limit of a single working officer holding the consolidated storekeeper, councillor and surveyor responsibilities. With Bazett carrying the burden of the working store accounts on top of his continuing surveying obligations under the registration programme and his position as second in council, the administrative routine had outrun his working capacity. The Governor's demand for the books suggests that the council was beginning to recognise the working limits of the consolidated arrangement, although no immediate alternative appears to have been proposed.

49

42

Island S[t] Helena.

At a private Consulta[t]on

Held on Wednsday the 8[th] day of July 1713 At the

United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Mattheu[w] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[t]s

Yesterday being the 7[th] Instant the Govern[r] rec[d] Information at

the Plantation House by a Letter from M[r] Bazett that he was inform[d]

by Robert Wallington Sold[r] That Severall of the Sodiers belonging to

the Garrison did designe to rise in a Mutinous Manner under p[re]tence

of wanting Victualls At the Severall of them had Each man Ten

pound of bread Servd out of the Stores but on Satterday before being

the 4 Inst Upon which the Governo[r] wrote a Letter Immediatly

to M[r] Bazett then in James Valley To take great care of the Castle

and Store House that night and to place Such Honest Centinalls (and

others as Officers) that was not Suspected to be in the Plott, and to

order all the Flints to be taken out of all the Small Armes, Except

those at Cinkey and up all other Necessary cautions to Prevent

Mischief or Surprize and in the night he would Send Privately

to Prospernbay to order an Alarm to be made at break of day next

morning and upon the hearing it To give out that the Ship was

Suppos[d] to be a Man of Warr or Advice boat from England to

bring News of Peace and as the Freemen came down to those Posts

to draw them all into the Castle and Deliver 'em Arms and

Ammunition which would keep the Soldiers in awe And when

he came down in the morning would Examine into the abovesaid

Information which Accordingly did as followeth.

Robert Wallington Soldier being Examined on oath

Deposes that on Monday night last being the 6[th] Instant, as he

was

Margin Notes:

Information ab[t]

The Sold[r]s Designs

of Plundering

The Stores by[?]

y[e] Coun[ll] &c[a]

Wallingtons

Deposition

The council met privately at the United Castle in James Valley on Wednesday 8 July 1713. Those present were Benjamin Boucher, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; and Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

On 7 July 1713 the Governor had received information at the Plantation House by letter from Mr Bazett. Bazett had been told by Robert Wallington, soldier, that several soldiers of the garrison intended to rise in a mutinous manner, on the pretext of wanting victuals. Each soldier had been issued ten pounds of bread from the stores on Saturday 4 July 1713.

On receipt of the letter the Governor wrote at once to Bazett, then in James Valley. The Governor directed him to take great care of the castle and storehouse that night, to place honest sentinels and officers who were not suspected of being in the plot, to take the flints out of all the small arms except those at Cinkey, and to take such other precautions as were necessary to prevent mischief or surprise. The Governor would send privately in the night to Prosperous Bay to order an alarm to be made at daybreak the next morning. When the alarm sounded, the story to be put out was that the ship was supposed to be a man-of-war or advice boat from England bringing news of peace. As the freemen came down to their posts, they were to be drawn into the castle and supplied with arms and ammunition, which would keep the soldiers in awe. The Governor would come down in the morning and examine the information.

The examination took place on 8 July 1713, in the following manner.

Robert Wallington, soldier, was examined on oath. He deposed that on Monday night 6 July 1713.

Interpretations

The Governor's response to the mutiny report shows the working defensive procedures available to the council at moments of internal threat. The removal of flints from the small arms at all posts except Cinkey rendered the working firearms inoperable while preserving a single armed reserve at the most defensible position. The mechanism allowed the garrison to be neutralised as a working military force without provoking the soldiers by an open disarmament, and gave the council a hidden working margin while it assessed the credibility of the report. The procedure parallels the working precautions taken at the recapture of the island in 1673, when control of the working firearms was the central question.

The use of a false alarm as a pretext for arming the freemen converts the working militia of the inhabitant population into the council's working reserve against the garrison. By presenting the call-up as a response to a friendly ship rather than as a precaution against the soldiers, the council preserved the working confidence of the soldiery while drawing the freemen into the castle under arms. The arrangement shows the council using the working defensive structure of the island, the dispersal of the freemen at outlying posts and their concentration at the castle on alarm, as an instrument of internal security rather than of external defence.

The choice of Cinkey as the single post retaining its working firearms identifies that position as the working strongpoint of the castle's defences. The retention of armed sentinels at Cinkey allowed the council to maintain a working defensive capability at a known and trusted point while the wider establishment was rendered temporarily inoperable. The working logic parallels the council's earlier organisation of the island's defences around named strongpoints, with Munden's Castle, Bambolts and the trench works each serving particular working defensive functions.

The convening of a private consultation rather than the usual public sitting, with the formal examination of the informant under oath on the following day, shows the working judicial procedure available to the council in security cases. The private hearing preserved the working confidentiality of the deposition while establishing the formal documentary record on which any subsequent proceedings against named soldiers could rest. The arrangement parallels the working procedure used in earlier security matters, including the punishment of Joseph Wrench for collusion with slave theft at the consultation of 17 March 1713.

Speculations

The Governor's elaborate cover story, with the false alarm presented as a response to a supposed man-of-war bringing news of peace, was probably calculated to address both the soldiers' working morale and the wider inhabitant expectation. With the War of Spanish Succession still in progress, news of peace would have been a working event of obvious importance to the garrison and the inhabitants alike. The choice of this particular cover story gave the council a working reason for the alarm that no one on the island could safely investigate or contradict, while also offering the soldiers a working psychological alternative to the immediate grievance of food shortage.

The issue of ten pounds of bread per soldier from the stores on Saturday 4 July 1713, three days before the reported mutiny was to take place, suggests that the council had already attempted to relieve the working pressure through emergency provisioning before the conspiracy was reported. The fact that the soldiers were nevertheless planning a rising despite the bread issue indicates that the working grievance was deeper than the immediate supply position, perhaps extending to the working conditions of garrison service during the drought or to the labour at the fortifications that the Governor had proposed on 3 July 1713 to extend to indebted soldiers in place of slaves. The chronology suggests a working connection between the labour proposal and the mutiny report.

50

43

was Lying downe upon his Guard bed in the Sessions House William Brogden

Sold[r] came and Satt down by him and told him their designe was going

on To which the Deponant made no Immediate reply but a little time

after a pause askt if Said Brogden who was to L[t] head who answered

Serjant Pirkins (then upon duty) and that Thursday following being

Appointed Councill day, Said they would Seize the Govern[r] & Councill

as they were Setting in Consultation in the Hall and keep them

as Prisoners till a Ship came intending to have Provisions and what Else

they wanted by force out of the Stores And that he heard James Ryon

Say Last night upon this Deponants asking him whether he had not heard

Brogden Say any thing more of this Intent, that they would Sett the

Store Roome on fire.

James Ryons James Ryon Sold[r]. being Examined Saith that Robert Walling-

Deposition. ton askt him Last night if he knew any thing of the Garrisons Riseing

th to a designe to gett Provisions or whether he had heard Brogden Say

any thing about it To which made reply that the Said Brogden Said they

had given a Petetion to the Governo[r] about being Supplyd w[th] Provi-

sion and that he has heard Severall others talk about it [...] [...]

Perticularly Thomas Griffis Last night that if they did not take

care the Store would be Sett on fire within three days

Henry Harmons Henry Harmon Sold[r] Deposes that on Tuesday Last being y[e] 7[th]

Deposition. Inst[t] William Brogden askt him when he came into the Sessions house

where the Guard is kept, which Side he would be for to which made

answer not knowing any thing of Said Brogdens designs why for y[e] Garrison

and at the Same Time heard Brogden talk something about fireing

a Gun and Hoisting a Flagg, Nameing Thursday and farther heard

the Said Brogden ask George Sanders what Side he would be for

but what answer he made cant Justly Tell being then a goeing out of

y[e] Guard roome.

Geo[r] Sanders George Sanders Soldier Declares that on Monday Last being

Deposition the 6[th] Instant he went into the Cooks House to broile a fish, where

he had bin above two or three Minutes before Edward Mallard Sold[r]

came in and askt this Deponent whether he was a Granadeer or not

who answeed yes and why do you ask, nothing Says Said Mallard

But

Robert Wallington, soldier, was examined on oath. He deposed that on Monday night 6 July 1713, while he was lying on his guard bed in the Sessions House, William Brogden, soldier, came and sat down by him and told him their design was going on. The deponent made no immediate reply, but after a pause asked Brogden who was to lead. Brogden answered that Sergeant Pirkins, then on duty, was to lead. He said that on the Thursday following, which was the appointed council day, they would seize the Governor and Council as they were sitting in the hall and keep them prisoners until a ship came, intending to take provisions and whatever else they wanted out of the stores by force.

Wallington further deposed that he had heard James Ryon say the previous night, when the deponent had asked him whether Brogden had said anything more of this intention, that the conspirators would set the store room on fire.

James Ryon, soldier, was examined. He said that Robert Wallington had asked him the previous night whether he knew anything of the garrison's rising, or of any design to obtain provisions, or whether he had heard Brogden say anything about it. He had replied that Brogden had said they had given a petition to the Governor about being supplied with provisions, and that he had heard several others talk about the matter. He had also heard Thomas Griffis say the previous night that, if care were not taken, the store would be set on fire within three days.

Henry Harmon, soldier, deposed that on Tuesday 7 July 1713 William Brogden had asked him, when he came into the Sessions House where the guard was kept, which side he would be for. Harmon, not knowing of Brogden's design, replied that he would be for the garrison. He heard Brogden talk about firing a gun and hoisting a flag, naming Thursday, and heard Brogden ask George Sanders which side he would be for. He could not say what answer Sanders gave, as he was then leaving the guard room.

George Sanders, soldier, declared that on Monday 6 July 1713 he had gone into the cook's house to broil a fish. He had been there only two or three minutes before Edward Mallard, soldier, came in and asked the deponent whether he was a grenadier. The deponent answered yes, and asked why Mallard wanted to know. Mallard replied nothing.

Interpretations

The conspirators' plan, as described in the depositions, shows the working internal geography of the castle being turned to mutinous use. The seizure of the Governor and Council during a sitting in the hall would have captured the working civil authority at its most concentrated point, with the seizure of the stores supplying the working logistical objective of the rising. The mention of holding the Governor and Council until a ship came indicates that the conspirators intended to use them as hostages for negotiated departure rather than simply to seize control of the island, which suggests a working aim of escape rather than insurrection.

The choice of Sergeant Pirkins as the named leader, identified by Brogden as the man to head the rising, points to the working role of the non-commissioned ranks in any garrison conspiracy. With the commissioned officers necessarily aligned with the Council, the working organisation of a soldiers' rising would have to flow through the sergeants who commanded the working guard rotations. The naming of a serving sergeant as the intended leader gives the depositions a working operational specificity that distinguishes them from mere grievance talk among the soldiery.

The threat to set the store room on fire, attributed to Thomas Griffis through Ryon's testimony, identifies a working secondary objective that would have served as a destruction of evidence as well as a means of coercion. If the council refused to yield to the immediate seizure, the destruction of the store would deprive the establishment of the working basis of its supply, while also destroying the documentary records held in the building. The threat shows the working understanding of the conspirators that the store room was the central asset of the council's working position on the island, and that its destruction would force concession on terms unfavourable to the council.

The working method of recruitment visible in the depositions, with named conspirators approaching individual soldiers in the guard room and the cook's house and asking which side they would be for, shows the open and unsecured character of the conspiracy. The conversations took place in the working spaces of the garrison and could be overheard by soldiers not yet enlisted in the plot, which exposed the conspirators to immediate informing. The pattern suggests that the rising was being organised by working grievance and personal contact rather than by careful clandestine planning, which gave the council its working opportunity to anticipate and pre-empt the action.

Speculations

The intended date of Thursday 9 July 1713 for the rising probably reflected the conspirators' working calculation that the Governor and Council would be most accessible during their regular sitting. With the council day fixed under the 3 July 1713 order for Thursdays following Monday-to-Wednesday store issues, the Thursday hall sitting offered a working window in which the council would be assembled in one place without armed escort. The conspirators' choice of the council day shows that they had read the working administrative pattern of the establishment and planned their operation around it.

The petition to the Governor about being supplied with provisions, mentioned by Ryon as having been delivered by the soldiers before the rising was planned, suggests that the conspiracy emerged from a working sequence of grievance and refusal rather than from a sudden impulse. The soldiers had first attempted the established working channel of petition, and only after some disappointment with the response had moved to plan the rising. The chronology supports a reading of the conspiracy as a working escalation from grievance to direct action, with the failure of the petition providing the working trigger for the more dangerous course.

51

44

But that William Brogden wants to Speak with you in the

Sessions House, where the Deponent went and was then askt by

the Said Brogden whether he was for the good of the Garrison

or not, to which the Said Deponent replyed yes I am and for

the good of all at which time heard the Said Brogden Say

that an Alarum would be on Thursday following and

as the Freemen came down in the Valley they would Lay

them up.

James Young Soldier being Examined Saith he has heard

Severall of the Garrison Soldiers Say that they would not be Starv[d]

and would Shoot Some of the Planters Hoggs & Goats And that

he heard Brogden Say that if they had a Parcells of Stoute fellows

twould be no hard Matter to Seige the Govern[r] & Councill.

Joseph Bates Soldier being Examined Says he has often

heard William Gore Thomas Griffis and others when warme with

Liquor Curs and Damn the Governo[r] and Coun[ll] and that

the Said Gore Said if all the Garrison was Like him, he would

Soone remedy their Condition of being in So much want of Vic-

tualls and when talking at this rate he's Seen y[e] Said Thom[s]

Griffis Clap him on the back and Say God a Mercy Mess-

mate and has farther heard William Knife wish y[e] Garrison

was Like him and Said Gore and that Brogden has Said

when they have been Complaining for want of Victualls

why dont you take your Peices and go Kill a Hogg or a Goate.

John Muchmore Soldier being Examined Saith he has heard

Severall of the Soldiers Say they had Petition[d] for Victualls and

would have Some.

Robert Wallington Sold[r] appeared againe and Declard That

he heard James Young ask Edward Smith Last night if he

would not Stand by Poor folks that was ready to Starve To

which the Said Smith made answer and Swore by his maker

yes he would as Long as he had a drop of blood in his body and

being talking farther about the hardship they Lay under for

want of Victualls, heard one of them name Nine a Clock to

which Will[m] Brogden made Answer that's the hour.

James

Margin Notes:

James Youngs

Deposition

Jos[h] Bates

Deposition

Jn[o] Muchmores

[Deposition]

Rob[t] Wallingtons

Deposition to

y[e] Former

George Sanders deposed further. William Brogden had said he wanted to speak with him in the Sessions House. When Sanders went there, Brogden asked whether he was for the good of the garrison. Sanders replied that he was, and for the good of all. He then heard Brogden say that an alarm would be raised on the following Thursday, and that as the freemen came down into the valley the conspirators would lay them up.

James Young, soldier, was examined. He said he had heard several of the garrison soldiers say that they would not be starved, and would shoot some of the planters' hogs and goats. He had heard Brogden say that if they had a parcel of stout fellows it would be no hard matter to seize the Governor and Council.

Joseph Bates, soldier, was examined. He said he had often heard William Gore, Thomas Griffis and others, when warm with liquor, curse and damn the Governor and Council. Gore had said that if all the garrison were like him, he would soon remedy their condition of being so much in want of victuals. While talking in this way, Bates had seen Griffis clap him on the back and say "God a Mercy, messmate." Bates had also heard William Knife wish that the garrison were like himself and Gore. Brogden had said, when they were complaining for want of victuals, "Why don't you take your pieces and go kill a hog or a goat?"

John Muchmore, soldier, was examined. He said he had heard several of the soldiers say that they had petitioned for victuals and would have some.

Robert Wallington appeared again. He declared that the previous night he had heard James Young ask Edward Smith whether he would not stand by poor folks who were ready to starve. Smith had answered, swearing by his maker, that he would, as long as he had a drop of blood in his body. While they were talking further about the hardship they were under for want of victuals, Wallington heard one of them name nine of the clock. William Brogden had answered, "That's the hour."

Interpretations

The cumulative working detail of the depositions discloses an organised conspiracy with named leaders, an established date, a working sequence of operations and a recruitment process running through the guard rooms. Brogden emerges from the testimony as the working organiser of the rising, with Gore, Griffis and Knife as the principal accomplices. The naming of nine of the clock as the hour fixes the working timing of the operation against the council day sitting, which gives the council a precise working basis for placing armed freemen in the castle before the conspirators could move.

The detail of the conspirators' working plan to lay up the freemen as they came down into the valley shows that the rising was intended to overpower both the council and the inhabitant militia in a single coordinated operation. The conspirators had recognised that the freemen would respond to an alarm and had planned their seizure as part of the working sequence. The plan parallels the council's own counter-plan to draw the freemen into the castle under the cover of a false alarm, which suggests that both sides were working with the same understanding of the working mobilisation procedures on the island.

The casual tone of Brogden's suggestion to fellow soldiers that they take their pieces and shoot a hog or a goat shows the working route by which the conspiracy emerged from ordinary grievance into planned action. The soldiers' working grievance about victuals had reached the point at which open suggestions of unauthorised slaughter of inhabitants' livestock were circulating in the guard rooms. The progression from suggested poaching to planned seizure of the council suggests that the conspirators had moved through a working escalation as the working grievance failed to find official remedy.

The recurring presence of liquor in the depositions, with Gore, Griffis and others reported as cursing the Governor and Council when warm with liquor, identifies the working setting in which the conspiracy took shape. The garrison drinking sessions in the guard rooms and the cook's house provided the working space in which grievance could be expressed and recruitment could be conducted, away from the working oversight of the commissioned officers. The pattern parallels the working role of liquor in the Wrench case earlier in the year, where the soldier had bartered with a slave for arrack and joined in the robbery of the house where the liquor was kept.

Speculations

The fact that Wallington, the principal informer, had been approached by Brogden and had then been the first to report the conspiracy to the Council through Bazett suggests that the working network of the conspirators included men who would not in the event commit to the action. The recruitment of Wallington shows the conspirators' working confidence that grievance was sufficiently general to draw in any soldier asked, but it also shows the working vulnerability of an open recruitment to early informing. The pattern indicates that the conspiracy had probably not yet secured a working majority of the garrison at the moment of its disclosure, and that the council intervened at a moment of working uncertainty rather than after the plot had become consolidated.

The depositions repeatedly identify named ringleaders, Brogden, Gore, Griffis and Knife, with Sergeant Pirkins as the supposed military leader. The convergence of multiple soldiers' testimony on the same names suggests that the working organisation of the conspiracy was an open secret in the garrison rather than a closely held plot. The council's working response, of placing honest sentinels and removing the flints, anticipated that the conspirators would discover their detection only when they attempted to act, which suggests that the council judged it safer to neutralise the working capacity of the conspiracy than to attempt arrests in advance.

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45

James Young Says he and Snow having quarrell'd & fought against

a little before in the Evening, made a Challeng to fight next morning

at nine a Clock and that was the meaning & reason of his and Edward

Smiths nameing nine a Clock and Brogdens makeing Answer to it.

Thomas Southen Serj[t] being Examined Declares that on

Monday night Last as he and Serj[t] Slaughter was at the Castle Gate

Saw John George William Gore and Some others of the Soldiers talking

together and overheard Gore Say twas better to be hang[d] then to be

Starv[d] to death, and Thom[s] Griffis Say twas better to die Like men

then die Like doggs which and Such Like discours he has heard Severalls

of the Sold[rs] Say for Some time Past haveing Checkt them for utering

Such words believeing twere the Effects of too much Strong drink then

any ill intent they had. farther adds That as he went into the Guard

house Last night and Seing James Young Lying down ordered him to

rise and put his Sword on and gird his Armes ready To which the said Young

Swore and Said what is the French a Comeing and gave the Declarant So with all

Saucy and very Provoaking words, which Occasioned his Striking him

upon which William Knife Seem'd displeas[d] and Swore he would not

be fetcht down by any Officer Edward Smith being then present gave

the Said Declar[t] cant very ill Language with Threats what he could

do at which time heard it Said that James Young Should ask

the Said Smith if he would Stand by Poor People that was ready

to Starve to which Smith made Answer yes as Long as he had

a drop of blood in his body and that he or Edward Smith Said twas

very hard to be Starv[d] to death whereupon James Young made

Reply dam you Because you are a Parcell of fooles its better a

great deal to be hang[d] like men then to be Starv[d] like doggs.

Richard Saygers Soldier being Examined Saith he heard

Thomas Griffis Say that if they could not have dyet one way

they must and would a Nother.

William Brogden Soldier being call[d] in and y[e] aforesaid Exa-

minations Read to him made answer that most of[?] Garrison Sold[rs]

were very much disatisfyed and ready to Starve for want of

Victualls

Margin Notes:

James Youngs

futher Deposit[n]

Tho[s] Southens

Deposition

Rich[d] Saygers

Rob[t] Brogden

P[r]y[m]ary Leader of

James Young added that he and Snow had quarrelled and fought a little earlier in the evening, and had agreed to fight again next morning at nine of the clock. That was the meaning of his and Edward Smith's naming nine of the clock, and of Brogden's reply.

Thomas Southen, sergeant, was examined. He declared that on Monday night, while he and Sergeant Slaughter were at the castle gate, they saw John George, William Gore and other soldiers talking together. He overheard Gore say that it was better to be hanged than to be starved to death, and Thomas Griffis say that it was better to die like men than to die like dogs. He had heard such talk from several of the soldiers for some time past. He had reproved them for using such words, believing they spoke from the effects of too much strong drink rather than any settled ill intent.

Southen added that when he went into the guard house the previous night and saw James Young lying down, he ordered him to rise, put on his sword and gird his arms ready. Young swore and asked whether the French were coming, and gave him saucy and provoking words. Southen then struck him. William Knife appeared displeased and swore he would not be brought down by any officer. Edward Smith, then present, used very ill language to Southen with threats. Southen also heard James Young ask Smith whether he would stand by poor people who were ready to starve. Smith answered yes, as long as he had a drop of blood in his body. Smith said it was very hard to be starved to death. Young replied, "Damn you, because you are a parcel of fools. It is a great deal better to be hanged like men than to be starved like dogs."

Richard Saygers, soldier, was examined. He said he had heard Thomas Griffis say that if they could not have provisions one way, they would have them another.

William Brogden, soldier, was called in. The earlier examinations were read to him. He answered that most of the garrison soldiers were very much dissatisfied and ready to starve for want of victuals.

Interpretations

The introduction of the duelling explanation by James Young, that nine of the clock referred to a private fight with Snow rather than to the hour of the rising, gives the conspirators a working alternative narrative. The depositions of Wallington and others had pointed to nine of the clock as the agreed hour for the seizure of the council, but Young's account offered a working innocent reading of the same phrase. The council had now to weigh the working evidence of Brogden's separate naming of the hour against the supposed coincidence of a duelling appointment, with the truth turning on whether the conspirators had used the duel as a working cover for their own meeting.

Sergeant Southen's working testimony confirms the wider pattern of grievance and insubordination among the garrison without itself disclosing a specific conspiracy. The reproof he had administered for treasonous talk and his striking of Young show the working authority of a sergeant in the guard room being exercised against open expressions of grievance. The response of Knife, Smith and the others to Southen's intervention indicates that the working discipline of the garrison was already breaking down, with soldiers swearing they would not be brought down by any officer. The breakdown of working subordination is itself the substantive disclosure of Southen's deposition.

The repeated working currency of the formula better to die like men than to die like dogs, attributed by several soldiers to Griffis and others, shows the conspirators using a working slogan to convert grievance into resolve. The contrast between dying like men and starving like dogs frames the rising as a working assertion of dignity against a humiliating death, which gave the conspirators a working rhetorical position more defensible than mere theft. The use of such a phrase suggests that the conspiracy had moved beyond simple working grievance into a working ideology of last-resort action.

Brogden's working answer when called in and confronted with the examinations is striking. Rather than denying the conspiracy, he confirmed that most of the garrison were dissatisfied and ready to starve. The response neither admits nor denies the planned rising but shifts the working ground to the underlying grievance. The reply gives the council a working choice between treating Brogden as the disclosed leader of a serious conspiracy or as a working spokesman for genuine garrison distress. The framing puts the council in the position of having to address the working substantive complaint as well as the working procedural breach.

Speculations

Young's working duelling explanation may have been genuine, or it may have been an attempt to provide a working cover for the conspiracy after the depositions had begun to surface. The fact that the duelling appointment coincided exactly with the supposed hour of the rising, on the same date as the council day, leaves both readings open. The coincidence of date and hour stretches credulity, but the working culture of garrison fighting was real enough that the duel might have been a separate working matter. The council would have had to weigh both possibilities, with the credibility of Young's explanation turning on whether Snow could confirm the working appointment.

The working pattern of the depositions, with Brogden named repeatedly as the central figure but without any deposition directly proving his complete plan, suggests that the council was building a working case on cumulative testimony rather than on a single conclusive deposition. The repeated naming of Brogden by independent soldiers, each disclosing a partial conversation with him, gave the council a working basis for action against him as the ringleader without requiring any one soldier to give comprehensive evidence. The mechanism reflects the working judicial practice of building convictions from multiple working witnesses where no single witness could speak to the whole.

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46

Victualls and that rather then they would die for want when Some

was to be had, they designd to Seize the Govern[r] and Councill

without Spilling any blood and no farther.

Whereupon It was ordered.

That William Brogden William Gore William Knife

Thomas Griffis and James Young Sold[rs] being found the Chief

Fomenters and ring Leaders of this Mutinous & Seditious

designe be all Immediately Confin[d] Close Prisoners in Irons till

a farther Examinatio[n] which we hope will bring out others

That may be concern[d] with them in this Plott. And that.

John Muchmore John George Abram Dorman Edward

Smith and Charles Ablard being Impudent Saucy fellows

and Suspected of being the first that would be ready to doe

any Mischief be Disarm[d] and Continue So upon their good

behaviour Dureing Govern[t] and Councills Pleasure

Ordered Further

That the following Advertisement be Published Tomor-

row by beat of Drum

Margin Notes:

Severall of y[e]

Mutinours Com-

mitted to Prison

others Suspec[d]

Sold[rs] Disarm[d]

Brogden added that rather than die for want of victuals when some was to be had, the soldiers had designed to seize the Governor and Council, without spilling any blood and no further.

The council ordered that William Brogden, William Gore, William Knife, Thomas Griffis and James Young, soldiers, being found the chief fomenters and ringleaders of this mutinous and seditious design, be immediately confined close prisoners in irons, until a further examination. The council hoped the further examination would bring out others concerned in the plot.

John Muchmore, John George, Abram Dorman, Edward Smith and Charles Ablard, being impudent and saucy fellows and suspected of being the first to be ready to do any mischief, were to be disarmed. They were to remain disarmed upon their good behaviour, during the pleasure of the Governor and Council.

The council further ordered that the following advertisement be published the next day by beat of drum.

Interpretations

Brogden's working confession identifies the working aim of the conspiracy as the seizure of provisions rather than the killing of officers. The qualifying phrase, without spilling any blood and no further, attempts to confine the working scope of the plot to a limited operation aimed at the stores, with the seizure of the council as a working instrumental step rather than an end in itself. The framing parallels his earlier working answer, which shifted the working ground to the underlying grievance, and suggests a working defence strategy of presenting the rising as a desperate working remedy rather than a deliberate insurrection.

The decision to confine the five ringleaders in irons while merely disarming the five accomplices establishes a working graduation of response matched to the degree of working culpability. The principal organisers face working detention with the prospect of formal proceedings, while the secondary figures lose their working access to arms but retain their liberty under conditional good behaviour. The mechanism allows the council to neutralise the working threat without committing to prosecute the entire suspect group, and preserves the working capacity of the disarmed soldiers to perform their other duties.

The phrase upon their good behaviour, during the pleasure of the Governor and Council, places the five disarmed soldiers in a working position of continuing dependence on the council's working judgement of their conduct. The disarmament can be lifted at any time, but only at the council's pleasure, which gives the council a working continuing leverage over the disarmed men. The arrangement parallels the working treatment of Wrench at the consultation of 17 March 1713, where the petitioner's relief from continuous duty was granted on conditions of working future behaviour, and shows the council using working conditional clemency as a tool of garrison discipline.

The proposal for a further examination, with the working hope that it would bring out others concerned in the plot, indicates that the council was treating the present depositions as a working first round rather than as a complete record. The continued detention of the ringleaders in irons would give the council working time to pursue additional informers, and the working prospect of identifying other conspirators would presumably encourage further depositions from soldiers who feared their own working implication if they did not come forward.

Speculations

Brogden's careful working framing of the conspiracy's intention, with the explicit assurance that no blood would be spilt, was probably calculated to preserve a working defence against capital charges. Mutiny accompanied by violence carried the working death penalty under military law, while a non-violent seizure of provisions, however grave, would offer working grounds for clemency. By placing the working limits of the planned action on the record at the moment of his examination, Brogden gave himself a working argument against the most serious working penalty, even though he could not avoid working punishment altogether.

The selection of five ringleaders for irons and five secondary figures for disarmament probably reflects a working calculation about the degree of working evidence available against each soldier. The five named ringleaders had been identified by multiple working depositions, with Brogden, Gore, Griffis and Young each appearing in three or more accounts. The five disarmed soldiers had been mentioned in fewer working depositions or only as general malcontents. The mechanism shows the council matching working detention to the strength of the working evidence, with the more lightly detained group held under disarmament rather than committed to working trial.

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47

Island S[t] Helena.

By the Govern[r] and

Councill An Advertisement.

Whereas Severall or most of the Garrison Soldiers

through their daily Extravagancy and Ill Husbandry being at

Present very much Indebted unto the Honourable Company

and thereby Some grown wicked and Desporate besides their

Rendering themselves Lyable to want and Pennury not only in

one but Severall respects, Especially those of Cloathing and Dyet. Wee

do therefore for the Encouragement of all Honest and well disposed

Soldiers that are quiett and desire to Live So, Admit and give Leave

to all Such to work at the Said Honoura[ble] Companys Fortifications

and other buildings Duty free at Eighteen Pence p[er] day besides their

Growing Sallary, which Expedient wee are in great hopes will

be a good means of Lessening their debts and themselves of[?] Air and

better Supplyd with Such Necessaries as are most requisite for their

Support and Subsistance, And those that do's not Embrace

this offer & Encouragement wee Shall Look upon as Idle Lasey

Profligate fellows.

Dated at the United Castle in

James Valley this 9[th] day of July 1713.

Sign[d] p[er] order of Govern[r] & Councill

P me. Jn[o] Alexander Acc[ot]n[t]

Margin Notes:

Advertizem[t]

to Encourage

Sold[rs] to work

at y[e] Fortifica-

tions.

Island of St Helena. By the Governor and Council. An advertisement.

Most of the garrison soldiers had run up heavy debts to the Honourable Company through daily extravagance and poor management of their money. Some had grown desperate and disorderly as a result. All were exposed to want and hardship, particularly in clothing and food.

To encourage the honest and well-disposed soldiers who wished to live quietly, the council offered any such man leave to work on the Honourable Company's fortifications and other buildings, free from his ordinary military duty, at one shilling and sixpence per day in addition to his running salary. The council expected this arrangement to reduce the soldiers' debts, improve their health and supply them more fully with the necessaries they required for their support.

Any soldier who declined the offer would be regarded as an idle, lazy and profligate fellow.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 9 July 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander, Accountant.

Interpretations

The eighteen pence per day rate set the soldier-labourer at the same daily wage as the standard hired slave rate of 1s 6d, established in the labour-cost projections of 9 January 1711 and confirmed in the highway labour warrant of 9 June 1713. The advertisement extended that uniform rate to indebted free soldiers, allowing the Company to recover store-book debts in labour at the going market price for unskilled fortification work, without offering a premium for free status.

Duty free here means relief from the soldier's normal guard and parade obligations during the period of paid construction work, not exemption from levies or charges. The growing salary phrase confirms that the labour payment was additive to the standing military pay, so that a working soldier received both, with the construction wage available to be applied against his store-book debt.

The advertisement functioned as a debt-management instrument as much as a labour-recruitment one. The store books at St Helena were the working ledger of private indebtedness on the island, and the Company's principal exposure to its own garrison ran through them. By naming idle, lazy and profligate fellows as the residual category for those who refused, the council signalled that future discipline against indebted soldiers would rest on the record of who had accepted the offer.

The timing places the advertisement on the day after the mutiny conspiracy of 8 July 1713, in which indebted soldiers were the principal element and the governor's earlier proposal of 3 July 1713 to put indebted soldiers to fortification work in place of slaves had been the immediate provocation. The advertisement converted that proposal into an open and voluntary scheme.

Speculations

The wage of one shilling and sixpence per day matched the hired slave rate exactly rather than exceeding it. The choice probably reflected a deliberate refusal to let the soldier's free status command a wage premium when set against the same physical task, since paying free labour more than slave labour for the same work would have made the indebted-soldier scheme more expensive without addressing the underlying debt problem.

The reframing of the 3 July 1713 compulsion as a voluntary offer, published the day after the conspiracy was disclosed, suggests the council recognised that compelling indebted soldiers to fortification labour had been a precipitating grievance. Casting the same arrangement as an encouragement, with the refusers labelled as profligate rather than the acceptors as coerced, allowed the work to proceed on essentially the original terms while removing the public appearance of forced labour against the garrison.

55

48

July the 9[th] 1713. The Examination & Depositions

of Severall Soldiers concerning the Mutiny aforesaid.

James Wilson Gunners mate Deposes that yesterday when

the Alarm was made at Prosperous bay he repaird to his Post at

Mundens Point and Looking over the Guns found the Tomplins

in the Muzles upon which ask[d] Isaack Hudgeson Monrofs[?] then

at the Said Post why the Tomplins was taken out before y[e] Guns

was Prim[d] who made answer they are not Prim[d] yet, but Expect-

ing the Ship to be Soon in Sight, hastend a[s] Soon as Possible to

get y[e] Guns ready Prim[d] which when done this Deponent went

to William Brogdon who was a Small Distance off and Said

William how do you do, I thank y[e] he replyd Jim very well and

what makes you Prime the Guns which way do you Look for

the Shipp, why Says this Depon[t] to Windwoeo[?] for the C[o] Guns has fired

and She is not to Leeward. No (replyd Said Brogdon)

if you Expect the Ship you might Look for her this way and

Pointed toward the Fort Valley, why So Says this Deponent

what a name of God I hope the blacks are not riseing To answer[d]

the Said Brogdon. they took our Flints out of our Peices Last

night upon Suspetion of a Mutiny, but what we do we will do

by day Light and not by night for if you was the first man

we came to and would not Cole[?]find to us you would be a dead

man, upon which the Depon[t] Surpriz[d] there was a mutiny

in hand and therefore would Say no more to him but call[d]

Serjant Fairfax (the Chief officer then at Mundens Point) a

one Side and advis[d] him to Send a hand over to M[r] Bazett

or Lieut[t] Cason to acquaint them with the Suspected Mutiny

to which the Serj[t] replyd I dont know what to do who can

wee trust or what can I do in the Matter, & farther Saith not.

John Davis Soldier Deposes that comeing into the Castle

a Monday Last being the 6[th] Instant to See if there was any Cheese

Servd out to the bread they had the Satterday before and when

at Castle Gate was told by John Lane Sold[r] there was nothing to be

had and bid me go and fetch my Muskett Saying we must Serve our

Selves to which answered I am not upon the Guard no matter for that

Said the Said Lane Pay & go and fetch your Peice which the Said Depon[t]

not being willing to do, or Shewing any Concern of Discontent

The

Margin Notes:

Further

Examinations

about y[e] Sold[s]

Mutyning.

Ja[s] Wilsons

Deposition

Jn[o] Davis

Deposition

On 9 July 1713, several soldiers were examined on the mutiny disclosed the previous day. Their depositions ran as follows.

James Wilson, gunner's mate, deposed that on the previous day, when the alarm was made at Prosperous Bay, he went straight to his post at Munden's Point. On checking the guns he found the tompions still in the muzzles. He asked Isaack Hudgeson, matross then at the post, why the tompions had been taken out before the guns were primed. Hudgeson answered that the guns were not yet primed, but as the ship was expected soon in sight he was hurrying to prime them as fast as he could.

Once the guns were primed, Wilson went to William Brogdon, who was standing a short distance away. He greeted him and asked how he did. Brogdon answered that he was very well and asked why Wilson was priming the guns and from which direction he was looking for the ship. Wilson said to windward, because the Company's guns had fired and the ship was not to leeward. Brogdon answered that if Wilson expected the ship he might look for her this way, pointing toward Fort Valley.

Wilson asked what he meant, and said he hoped the blacks were not rising. Brogdon answered that the flints had been taken out of their pieces the previous night on suspicion of a mutiny, and that whatever he and his fellows did they would do by daylight and not by night. He added that if Wilson had been the first man they came to and had not joined them, he would be a dead man.

Wilson, recognising that a mutiny was in hand, said no more to Brogdon. He called Sergeant Fairfax, the chief officer then at Munden's Point, aside and advised him to send a man to Mr Bazett or Lieutenant Cason to acquaint them with the suspected mutiny. The sergeant answered that he did not know what to do, whom he could trust, or what he could do in the matter. Wilson said no more on the point.

John Davis, soldier, deposed that on Monday 6 July 1713 he came into the castle to find out whether any cheese had been served out to go with the bread they had received the previous Saturday. At the castle gate John Lane, soldier, told him that nothing was to be had and instructed him to go and fetch his musket, saying they must serve themselves. Davis answered that he was not on the guard. Lane replied that this made no difference, and pressed him to go and fetch his piece. Davis was unwilling to do so and showed no sign of discontent.

Interpretations

The tompion was the wooden plug fitted into the muzzle of a gun to keep out damp and dirt when the piece was not in immediate use. Removing the tompions before the guns were primed reversed the proper sequence and exposed the priming powder to the weather, so Wilson's question to Hudgeson on the matter was a technical check on artillery discipline at Munden's Point, not an idle remark. Hudgeson's matross rank places him in the same artillery sub-establishment, ranking below the gunner's mate, that was already visible in the cases of John Welch and James Vesey.

Brogdon's reference to flints taken out of the pieces the previous night identifies the security precaution ordered by the governor on 8 July 1713 as the immediate trigger for the conspirators' decision to act by daylight rather than by night. The flintless muskets of the garrison meant the conspirators could not rely on the soldiers to fire on them in darkness; daylight gave the council time to react, but it also exposed any rising to immediate observation from the castle and the gun posts. The choice between the two timings became a working calculation rather than a tactical preference.

The Fort Valley direction of approach in Brogdon's hint to Wilson is consistent with the conspiracy's reported intention of seizing the Governor and Council during the council sitting in the castle in James Valley. By naming Fort Valley as the quarter from which the supposed ship was to be expected, Brogdon was identifying the landward axis along which the conspirators would move on the castle, rather than the seaward axis used by visiting shipping.

Sergeant Fairfax's response, that he did not know whom he could trust, exposes the depth of the council's exposure. The sergeant in command of the principal seaward battery was unable to identify reliable men in his own detachment for an errand of less than two miles to the castle. The conspiracy's reach into the artillery establishment, and not only among the unskilled garrison, becomes visible at this point.

Speculations

Brogdon's threat to Wilson, that if he had been the first man approached and had refused to join he would have been a dead man, suggests that the conspirators expected to recruit by direct personal solicitation at the moment of action rather than by pre-arranged enlistment. The threat assumed Wilson would have been canvassed only when the rising was already under way, and would have had to commit or be killed on the spot. This explains why the council's pre-emption by false alarm and flint removal, rather than by arrest of named ringleaders before disclosure, was the working response: the full membership of the conspiracy was not fixed in advance and could not be identified by interrogation of any single man.

The Lane-Davis exchange at the castle gate on 6 July 1713, three days before the planned rising, indicates that the conspirators had begun on a programme of arming men off the guard under cover of a complaint about short rations. The cheese pretext gave Lane a routine reason to be at the gate, and the instruction to fetch a musket and serve themselves carried the double meaning of taking provisions and joining the rising. Davis's refusal, recorded as showing no sign of discontent, marks the point at which the conspiracy's recruitment by daylight solicitation began to fail, and is consistent with the disclosure that reached Bazett through Wallington shortly afterwards.

56

49

The Said Lane call[d] the Said Depon[t] Severall Names and offered to Strike

him at which time the Said Brogdon was by and Said much to

the Same Effect as Lane did and thereupon the Said Deponent walked

away from them to the Smiths Shop, Farther adds that he heard

Peter Forman Say that they wanted Victualls and where the up

short came he would knock the first man downe that Should oppose

them and that he had Loaded his Peice with a brace of balls.

Haveing Some information that Edward Mallard Sold[r] Who keeps

the Lookout at the two Gun ridge was acquainted with this Conspiracy

Benjamin Miller overseer of the Hutts Plantation Deposes [...]

that on Satterday the 4 Instant being in Company with the s[d] Mallard

and John How at the said Hutts house where being talking about

Alarms the Said Mallard Propos[d] to Lay a wager of his Silver pair

of buckles then in his Shoes against a pair of brass buckles with

Black Sam a Slave of the Honoura[ble] Companys that there would be an

Alarm before that day Sennight.

The Said Edward Mallard being this day Examined why he did not fire

any more then one Gun to Alarum Sandy bay as usuall, upon the hear-

ing that Alarm made at Prosperous bay a Wednsday morning to

Summons the Planters to their Severall Posts made answer among

other frivelous Excuses that he could not fire any more then one Gun

Comeing broke the Muskett with a fall in his easy to Sandy Bay ridge

and that one is hard fire he was forc[t] to do it with a fire Stick.

John Mills Soldier being Examined Saith that on Sunday Last

being the 5[th] Instant Edward Mallard came to him as he was Setting

on the Logs of Timber at the Castle Gate, and askt him if he would

Sett his hand to a Paper that Severall of the Sold[rs] had desigene to

put up at the Store Roome To which this Depon[t] made answer if you'l

Let me read it and Like it perhaps I may Signe it but the rest upon it

the Said Mallard Said they would protectthem (who he might cant tell

unless twas the Govern[r] and Council[ll]) a weeks Warning, and if Pro-

notice was taken in that time to Supply em with more Victualls

a Great Gun would be fired at the Fort and upon the hearing of

it he would throw away all the Ammunition at y[e] two Gun ridge

that no body might make use of it and then come Downe to the Fort.

John

Margin Notes:

Benj[a] Millers

Deposition

Edw[d] Mallard

Examined.

Jn[o] Mills

Deposition.

Lane called Davis several names and offered to strike him. Brogdon, who was nearby, spoke to much the same effect. Davis walked away from them to the smith's shop.

He further deposed that he had heard Peter Forman say the men wanted victuals, and that when the rising came he would knock down the first man who opposed them. Forman had also said he had loaded his piece with a brace of balls.

The council had received information that Edward Mallard, the soldier who kept the lookout at the Two Gun Ridge, was party to the conspiracy.

Benjamin Miller, overseer of the Hutts plantation, deposed that on Saturday 4 July 1713 he had been in the Hutts house in company with Mallard and John How. While they were talking about alarms, Mallard had offered to wager his silver shoe buckles, then in his shoes, against a pair of brass buckles belonging to Black Sam, a slave of the Honourable Company, that an alarm would be made before that day se'nnight.

Mallard was then examined as to why he had fired only one gun, instead of the usual number, when the alarm was made at Prosperous Bay on the previous Wednesday morning. The single gun would not have been enough to summon the planters of Sandy Bay to their several posts. Among other frivolous excuses, Mallard answered that he could not fire more than one gun, since on coming to Sandy Bay Ridge he had broken the musket by a fall, and the one shot he did fire he had been forced to set off with a firestick.

John Mills, soldier, was examined and stated that on Sunday 5 July 1713 Mallard had come up to him as he was sitting on the logs of timber at the castle gate. Mallard had asked him whether he would set his hand to a paper that several soldiers intended to put up at the storeroom. Mills answered that if Mallard would let him read it, and he liked it, he might perhaps sign it, but he could not commit to it without reading it. Mallard said they would give a week's warning to those concerned, whom Mills could not name with certainty though he supposed they meant the Governor and Council, and that if no notice were taken in that time to supply them with more victuals, a great gun would be fired at the fort. On hearing it, Mallard would throw away all the ammunition at the Two Gun Ridge so that no one could make use of it, and would then come down to the fort.

Interpretations

The Two Gun Ridge formed part of the chain of outlying alarm posts whose function was to multiply a single warning shot from one of the central batteries into a relayed signal across the island's settled districts. Mallard's failure to relay the Prosperous Bay alarm with the customary number of guns was therefore not a private lapse but a defeat of the alarm system at the link between the seaward post and the planters of Sandy Bay. The firestick excuse, recorded as frivolous by the examining council, signals that the council had already concluded the omission was deliberate.

The wager on the silver buckles two days before the planned rising operated as concealed confirmation of inside knowledge. Mallard's certainty that an alarm would be made within the week, staked against a fellow lookout's brass buckles, made sense only on the assumption of an event the wagerer could himself bring about, or knew was to be brought about by others. Black Sam appears here in the working role of fellow lookout at the Hutts establishment, where slaves and free men shared the daily alarm watch under Miller's overseership.

Mills's deposition discloses the conspirators' working method for committing fresh men: a written paper to be posted at the storeroom presenting the men's complaints as a collective petition, with the rising as the threatened sanction if no relief came within a week. The paper would have converted the conspiracy from a private agreement among ringleaders into a public list of names, and its posting at the storeroom, the central point at which the soldiers drew their rations, placed it where every soldier and inhabitant would see it.

The instruction to throw away the ammunition at the Two Gun Ridge on the firing of the signal gun confirms that the lookout posts were treated by the conspirators as ammunition stores to be neutralised in advance of the rising, not as defensive positions to be held. The plan was to deny the council and the freemen any reserve of powder and shot at the outlying posts before moving on the castle, in parallel with the flintless muskets already in soldiers' hands.

Speculations

The week's warning that the paper was to allow before any rising suggests the conspirators expected that a public petition backed by the threat of mutiny would either secure the additional victuals demanded or place the responsibility for the rising openly on the council. The arrangement was structured to give the council a window in which to concede on rations, which would have ended the conspiracy on the conspirators' terms without exposing the ringleaders to prosecution. The decision to act by daylight, taken after the flint removal of the previous night, replaced this slower approach with a more direct seizure of the council during a regular sitting.

Mallard's wager of his silver buckles against brass buckles belonging to a Company slave is best read as a measure of his own confidence in the planned rising, since silver buckles were worth several times the brass equivalent. The asymmetric stake, made before a planter overseer who knew both men, accepted the visible loss in the event the alarm did not come, and so functioned as a private undertaking by Mallard that he was committed to the plan. The wager also drew Black Sam into the matter as an indirect witness, and may have been intended to neutralise the chance of his disclosing the lookout's conduct on the day.

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50

John How Sold[r] Deposes that on Tuesday Last being at the

Hutts Benjamin Miller and he was talking of Alarms which

Edward Mallard hearing propos[d] to Lay a wager of his Silver

Buckles then in his Shoes against a pair of brass buckles

of Black Sams That there would be a Double Alarm by

the next Tuesday following.

Ordered.

That the said Edward Mallard be put into Prison

in Irons with the rest of his Confederates.

Richard Tompson Soldier Deposes that on Sunday

night being the 5[th] Instant he was in Company with Peter

Towers William Brogden Thomas Lightwood and Jn[o] Davis

at their Lodgings in the House of Jonathan Doveton and

being talking about Victualls, & being this Deponent asked

the Said Peter Towers if he would go a fisshing with him a

Monday morning who made Answer No he Said other work to

do, and would work em they ow's never So work[t] in their Lives

and Said he had Loaded his Muskett with a brace of balls and

they would fire as Long as he could, and then go to Club Law

however a Monday morning the Said Depon[t] asked Towers

againe if he would go a fisshing, who told him no he had other

Buisness to do.

John Davis Soldier Saith much to the Same Effect

as the Said Tompson hath

The Said Rich[d] Tompson adds farther that Thom[s] Lightwood

at the Time and place aforesaid Said they had Eighteen of the

best men in the Garrison and did not care for the rest, for they

wanted Provision and could not gett any for which reason

would take it themselves at which time Peter Towers being

talking to a black wench of Said Jonath[n] Devetons about the want

of Victualls and Saying they would have Some if the rest

would but Stand by 'em the Said Lightwood made answer you

Need not fear that further Saith not.

John Davis adds farther that when Lightwood Said they

had Eighteen of the best men in the Garrison on their Side

the

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] How's

Deposition.

Mallard Sent

to Prison

Rich[d] Tompsons

Deposition

Rich[d] Tompson

adds further.

18 men

Jn[o] Davis adds

further.

John How, soldier, deposed that on the previous Tuesday he had been at the Hutts in company with Benjamin Miller. The two of them were talking about alarms when Edward Mallard, overhearing them, offered to wager his silver shoe buckles against a pair of brass buckles belonging to Black Sam that there would be a double alarm by the following Tuesday.

The council ordered Mallard sent to prison in irons with the rest of his confederates.

Richard Tompson, soldier, deposed that on the night of Sunday 5 July 1713 he had been in company with Peter Towers, William Brogden, Thomas Lightwood and John Davis at their lodgings in the house of Jonathan Doveton. They had been talking about victuals. Tompson asked Towers whether he would go fishing with him on the Monday morning. Towers answered no, that he had other work to do, and that he would work them as they had never been worked in their lives. He added that he had loaded his musket with a brace of balls, that he would fire as long as he could, and would then go to club law. The next morning Tompson asked Towers again whether he would go fishing, and Towers again refused, saying he had other business to do.

John Davis, soldier, gave evidence to much the same effect as Tompson.

Tompson added that at the same place and time Thomas Lightwood had said they had eighteen of the best men in the garrison and did not care for the rest, because the men wanted provisions and could not get any, and for that reason would take provisions themselves. While this was being said, Peter Towers was speaking to a black woman of Jonathan Doveton's household about the shortage of victuals, and saying that the men would have some if the rest would stand by them. Lightwood answered Towers that he need not fear on that score.

John Davis added that when Lightwood said they had eighteen of the best men in the garrison on their side

Interpretations

The double alarm in Mallard's second wager refers to the firing of the signal that distinguished a serious general emergency from a routine single warning shot of the kind discussed in the earlier wager with Black Sam. The escalation from a single alarm in the first wager to a double alarm in the second indicates that, by the Tuesday before the planned rising, Mallard already knew the planned action was to be of the order that would require the larger signal, and was staking his buckles against that specific outcome rather than against alarms in general.

Going to club law was the working soldier's phrase for resorting to the butt of the musket once the powder and ball were spent, and so for hand-to-hand fighting at close quarters. Towers's stated sequence, firing as long as he could and then going to club law, fixed his personal expectation that the rising would be carried through to a physical engagement with anyone who opposed it, regardless of whether his ammunition lasted, and is the most direct evidence of intent to lethal force recorded in these depositions.

The lodging of the conspirators in the house of Jonathan Doveton, a freeholder already established in the present working volume, places the planning meetings of 5 and 6 July 1713 in private quarters rather than in the garrison barracks. The arrangement gave the conspirators a venue beyond the immediate observation of officers, and made one of the principal freeholders a witness, by his household, to conversations that included a slave belonging to him. The black woman is the working informant whose presence is recorded but whose evidence is not separately taken in this examination.

Lightwood's count of eighteen of the best men in the garrison fixes the working strength of the conspiracy at a level well below the total of those committed close prisoners or disarmed by the council on 8 July 1713, indicating that the council's pre-emption neutralised only the leading and most exposed members. The phrase the best men distinguishes the active core from a broader penumbra of soldiers expected to follow once the rising was begun, and provides the principal evidence that the conspiracy's working method depended on a small armed nucleus drawing in the remainder of the garrison by example.

Speculations

Towers's repeated refusal to go fishing with Tompson on the Sunday night and again on the Monday morning suggests that the conspirators were operating under a rule that members were not to absent themselves from the settled area in the days immediately before the rising, since fishing parties on the yawl under the order of 12 May 1713 took the men away for periods of up to forty-eight hours and would have removed Towers from the planning meetings and from the action itself. The settled date for the rising was therefore probably already fixed by the Sunday night, and the working core of the conspiracy was already under a self-imposed restriction on movement.

Lightwood's assurance to Towers that he need not fear on the question of the rest of the men standing by them, given in answer to a remark made to a slave of Doveton's household in a freeholder's house, suggests that the conspirators were prepared to discuss their numbers openly in the presence of slaves and household women. The risk of disclosure through such audiences was apparently regarded as acceptable, which is consistent with the conspirators' expectation that the rising would happen within days and that any disclosure thereafter would come too late to be acted on.

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51

the Said Tompson made answer what will you do if the rest dont

Stand by and consent to assist you, to which Said Lightwood replyd

there's no great fear of that.

Ordered.

That the Said Peter Towers and Thomas Lightwood be

Immediately put into Prison in Irons and there remain with the

rest of their associates.

Island S[t] Helena

By the Governo[r] & Councill

An Advertisement.

These are to give Notice unto all Persons that we have

Examined into the Titles of the following Persons Lands, and that

we Designe to Establish them in their Severall Properties by de-

livering out Deeds and Leases on Tuesday next being the fourth

of August Wherefore if any Person or Persons hath any thing to

Object why they Should not be confirmed in the Same Lett them or

them appear and make their Claim otherwise they will for ever

after be Excluded and utterly Debarrd and Lay Claimes Demands

and Pretentions whatsoever thereunto for the future will be reckon[d]

Null and Void Viz[t].

James Draper Maxwells Orphans George Carne

Simon Whaley Robert Marsh Richard Girling

Stephen Lufkin John Bagley Richard Swallow

Dorothy Hayse Joshua Johnson Rich[d] Hardings Children

Jonath[n] Doveton Elizabeth Johnson Walter Morris

Elizabeth Allis Wranghams Orphans Orlando Bagley

Sutton Isaack Sen[r] James Greentree Benjamin Greentree

Jn[o] Nichols Sen[r] Francis Goodwin (now Carne) Thomas Allis

Mary Hoskison (now Powill) Sam[l] Defountains Children Charles Steward

Gabriel Powill Francis Wrangham John Coles

Francis Steward & Sisters

Margin Notes:

Towers & Lightwood

Sent to Prison.

Advertizm[t]

for Persons to

receive Deeds

&

Leases

for Lands

Tompson said in answer that he asked Lightwood what he and his associates would do if the rest did not stand by them and consent to assist. Lightwood replied that there was no great fear of that.

The council ordered Peter Towers and Thomas Lightwood put immediately into prison in irons, to remain there with the rest of their associates.

Island of St Helena. By the Governor and Council. An advertisement.

Notice was given to all persons that the council had examined the titles of the following persons' lands and intended to establish them in their several properties by delivering out deeds and leases on Tuesday 4 August 1713. Any person who had anything to object against the confirmation of any of these titles was to appear and make the claim. After that day all such persons would be excluded and debarred, and any claims, demands and pretensions then advanced would be reckoned null and void.

The persons named:

James Draper

Maxwell's orphans

George Carne

Simon Whaley

Robert Marsh

Richard Girling

Stephen Lufkin

John Bagley

Richard Swallow

Dorothy Hayse

Joshua Johnson

Richard Harding's children

Jonathan Doveton

Elizabeth Johnson

Walter Morris

Elizabeth Allis

Wrangham's orphans

Orlando Bagley

Sutton Isaack senior

James Greentree

Benjamin Greentree

John Nichols senior

Francis Goodwin (now Carne)

Thomas Allis

Mary Hoskison (now Powill)

Samuel Defountains's children

Charles Steward

Gabriel Powill

Francis Wrangham

John Coles

Francis Steward and sisters

Interpretations

The fixed cut-off date of 4 August 1713 carried the legal effect of a quieting decree against all unstated claims to the listed parcels. The notice operated on the working principle already applied to Jonathan Doveton on 30 March 1711 and to James Reder on 30 May 1711, by which a published period for objection, once expired, foreclosed all further private claims. The list of more than thirty named holders represents the largest single application of the procedure since its introduction, consolidating the title work of the registration programme that began in January 1713.

The form Francis Goodwin (now Carne) and Mary Hoskison (now Powill) confirms that the council was issuing deeds in the names under which the women presently held, not in their names at first allocation. Title would therefore vest in the second husband in right of his wife, in accordance with the working pattern visible in the earlier Carne and Bowman cases. The notice fixed the present marital state of each holder for the purpose of the deed, which removed the possibility of later challenge on the ground that the title should have run in a former married name.

Several of the named holders appear in family groupings rather than as individuals: Maxwell's orphans, Wrangham's orphans, Richard Harding's children, Samuel Defountains's children, Francis Steward and sisters. The notice treated these as single title units to be confirmed by a deed naming the children or the orphan group as a class, with the working consequence that any later partition among them would have to be made within the four parcels rather than by reopening the title to the Company. The mechanism preserved the council's audit at one document per parcel while accepting collective beneficial ownership beneath the title.

The ordering of the list, which intermixes free planters, orphan groups, widows now remarried, the holders of consolidated estates and the holders of small single parcels, suggests that the working sequence of the deeds was governed by the order in which the title sittings of January, February and March 1713 had completed each examination, rather than by social rank or size of holding. The notice thereby left the queue at the council door on 4 August 1713 to be settled by readiness of the documents and not by precedence.

Speculations

The decision to fix the delivery on a single Tuesday, rather than to spread the deeds across the rolling first-Tuesday council days established in December 1712, suggests that the council was treating the issue of deeds as a public event in its own right and not as routine consultation business. A single delivery day concentrated the formal moment of confirmation, placed all the named holders together at the castle on the same morning, and turned the act of receiving the deed into an occasion observed by all the other holders. The arrangement was probably intended to bring home to the holders, after the disclosures of the previous week, that the Company's grant of formal title remained intact and was proceeding on schedule despite the conspiracy.

The publication of the list five days after the mutiny advertisement of 9 July 1713 placed the council's reform of free planters' titles in the most visible possible juxtaposition with the disciplinary advertisement to the garrison. The named holders, taken together, represented the principal element of free society on the island whose loyalty the council needed to retain. Publishing the deed-delivery notice in the immediate aftermath of the conspiracy probably served, in part, to signal to the planters that their established interests were being secured by the same administration that had pre-empted the rising, and to bind the freemen still more closely to the council on whose authority their titles depended.

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52

John Long Single Leases to viz[t]

William Seale Lieut[t] Thomas Cason

Samuel Jeffery William Slaughter

Ripin Wills John Knipe

Tho[s] Earles Child[n] Thomas Hayse

Robert Girling Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

Elizabeth Bowman Humph[y] Edwards

Edward Brayns heirs Thomas Harper

John Goodwin Tho[s] Bagleys daughter [...]

Robert Addis Isaack Wood [...]

Marg[t] & Benj[a] Sich

Dated at the United Castle in

James Valley this 27[th] day of July 1713

Sign[d] p[er] order of Govern[r] & Councill

P me. Jn[o] Alexander Acc[ot]nt[t]

Single leases for the following persons:

John Long

William Seale

Lieutenant Thomas Cason

Samuel Jeffery

William Slaughter

Ripin Wills

John Knipe

Thomas Earles's children

Thomas Hayse

Robert Girling

Sutton Isaack junior

Elizabeth Bowman

Humphrey Edwards

Edward Brayns's heirs

Thomas Harper

John Goodwin

Thomas Bagley's daughter [...]

Robert Addis

Isaack Wood [...]

Margaret and Benjamin Sich

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 27 July 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander, Accountant.

Interpretations

The heading single leases marks these holders out as taking a single instrument from the Company, in contrast to the deed-holders of the earlier list who received freehold conveyances. The distinction reflects the working division established under the registration programme between those whose title to the land was being confirmed in fee and those who held by lease, typically the 21-year lease at the customary rate that had become the standard for waste-ground grants from 20 December 1710 onward. The same 4 August 1713 delivery day served both classes, but the instrument carried at the castle door differed.

The list mixes officers, soldiers and free planters in a single category of leaseholders, with Lieutenant Cason among them. Cason had been granted his six to eight acres of cabbage tree land on 2 September 1712 on a 21-year lease, and his appearance among the single-lease holders here, rather than among the deed-holders of the earlier advertisement, confirms that the leasehold tenure attached to the land and not to the rank of the holder. The Company retained the reversion regardless of the office held.

The lease class included family groupings of the same kind seen in the deed list, with Thomas Earles's children, Edward Brayns's heirs and the Sich combination of mother and son taking their leases as defined units. The administrative practice of issuing one instrument per parcel to a named class continued without distinction between freehold and leasehold tenures, so that the council's audit pattern remained consistent across both forms of grant.

The dating of the advertisement at 27 July 1713, eighteen days after the disclosure of the conspiracy and one week before the planned delivery day, indicates that the deed-and-lease programme was being driven forward on the timetable set in advance of the disturbances. The conspiracy did not interrupt the registration sequence, and the council's working priority remained the completion of the consolidated title record begun in January 1713.

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53

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on

Tuesday the 4[th] day of August 1713 At the United

Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Mattheu[w] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

According to an Advertizement Issued out the 27[th]

of July Last past The Govern[r] and Councill Mett this day to Signe and

Deliver out Deeds and Leases for Lands to the Severall Persons & free-

holders mentioned in the said Advertizem[t] who all appeared and

recieved them Accordingly with great Sattisfaction for being confirmed

in their Properties.

Hugh Bodley Sen[r] free planter Lately deceased being Indebted

unto the Honoura[ble] Company for Rents Revenues &c[a] and no Likely-

hood or Probability for his widdow to make Payment She and

family being helpless and in a deplorable Condition.

Ordered.

That the Provisions Standing and growing upon the Land which the

Said dec[d] Hugh Bodley rented of the Said Honoura[ble] Company be Expos[d] to

Publick Sale for and Towards the Payment of Said Debt And that

An Advertizement be Published by Beat of Drum to give Notice

Accordingly.

William Worrall Montrofs Presented his Petition this day Setting

forth therein that he had Lately bargain[d] for a Purchase of Land

House and Provision of Richard Cleve and being not in a

Capacity

Margin Notes:

Coun[ll] Mett

to Deliver

out Deeds &

Leases.

Provisions on

Bodleys ground

to be Sold for

Paym[t] of his

debts.

Island of St Helena. Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 4 August 1713.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

In accordance with the advertisement of 27 July 1713, the Governor and Council met to sign and deliver out the deeds and leases for the lands of the several persons and freeholders named in the advertisement. All those named appeared and received their instruments accordingly, with great satisfaction at being confirmed in their properties.

Hugh Bodley senior, free planter, lately deceased, had died indebted to the Honourable Company for rents, revenues and other charges. There was no probability that his widow could make payment, the family being helpless and in a deplorable condition.

The council ordered the provisions standing and growing on the land that Bodley had rented of the Honourable Company exposed to public sale, in part payment of the debt. An advertisement was to be published by beat of drum giving notice of the sale.

William Worrall, matross, presented his petition. He set out that he had lately bargained for the purchase of a house, land and provision of Richard Cleve, and being not in a capacity

Interpretations

The delivery of the deeds and leases on 4 August 1713 brought together more than fifty named holders in a single morning at the castle, completing in one sitting the formal confirmation of titles examined across the rolling title days of January, February and March 1713. The recorded great satisfaction of the holders marks the institutional moment at which the registration programme passed from administrative process into settled tenure for the freemen of the island, and fixed the working baseline of land ownership against which all later transactions would be measured.

The order on the standing provisions of the late Hugh Bodley applied the working pattern already established for the estate of Thomas Swallow senior on 20 December 1710. Where a tenant of Company land died indebted to the store, the council seized the growing crop rather than the land itself, since the lease reverted to the Company automatically on the tenant's death. The provisions, as moveable produce of the soil once cut, were converted into cash at public outcry against the running debt, leaving the Company free to relet the bare ground without entanglement in the widow's affairs.

The phrase helpless and in a deplorable condition served the working purpose of recording that the council had considered the widow's circumstances before ordering the sale, and had concluded that no compromise short of conversion of the standing provisions could be reached. The council's protective role over widows and orphans, declared on 5 April 1711 and 11 December 1710, did not extend to forgiveness of store-book debts, but it required that the basis for the seizure be entered on the consultation as a record of due process.

The petition of William Worrall, matross, identifies a soldier-tradesman of the artillery sub-establishment as the working buyer of a free planter's house, land and provisions through private bargain with Richard Cleve. The transaction confirms the continuing porosity between the garrison and the planter class already visible in the cases of Hayes, Vesey, Welch and Wood, with matross rank carrying no formal bar to acquisition of substantial freehold property.

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54

Capacity to make Present Payment for the whole being One

Hundred and Twenty Pound Humbly begg[d] the favour

to be Intrusted the Sume of fifty Pound in the Honourable

Companys Store-books offering the usuall Interest and Security

if required.

Upon consideration that the Said William

Worrall hath Served the Honoura[ble] Company Some years

and a Sober Industrious Young man and Lately married.

Ordered that for his Encouragem[t] to raise himselfe

in the World his request be granted he paying the usuall Interest

of Eight p[er] Cent p[er] Annum for So Long time he hsd Credit for

the said fifty pounds.

Island S[t] Helena.

By the Govern[r] & Councill

An Advertizem[t]

These are to give Notice unto all Persons that the Govern[r]

and Councill doth intend to meet in Consultation at the

United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday the first day of

September next Ensueing the Date hereof as well to Examine

into the Titles of Lands as Shall be by that Time Measured

and Plans brought in. As to hear any other Matters that may

offer.

Likewise Wednsday following being the 2 Sept[r]

will be held a Court of Orphans Appointed for y[e] Examining

unto all Acc[ot]ts and to adjust the Same As also to put a finall

Determination to all Disputes Controversis Claims Challenges

or Demands whatsoever relateing thereunto for which Purpose

a Jury of free holders will be Summon'd to appear Wherefore

all Persons concern[d] are hereby required to take Especially

care to have their Acc[ot] or Complaints Drawn up in

due

Margin Notes:

Will[m] Worralls

desires 50. in y[e]

Stores.

Granted at 8 [pcent]

Int

Titles of Land

to be Exam[n]

Orphans Court

appointed

Worrall set out that he was not in a capacity to make present payment for the whole, the price being £120 0s 0d. He humbly begged to be trusted with £50 0s 0d in the Honourable Company's store books, offering the usual interest and security if required.

The council considered that Worrall had served the Honourable Company some years, was a sober and industrious young man, and had lately married.

The council ordered, for his encouragement to raise himself in the world, that his request be granted, on his paying the usual interest of 8 per cent per annum for as long a time as he had credit for the £50 0s 0d.

Island of St Helena. By the Governor and Council. An advertisement.

Notice was given to all persons that the Governor and Council intended to meet in consultation at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 1 September 1713, both to examine the titles of any lands that should by that time be measured and plans brought in, and to hear any other matters that might offer.

On the following day, Wednesday 2 September 1713, a Court of Orphans would be held. The court was appointed to examine all accounts and adjust the same, and to put a final determination to all disputes, controversies, claims, challenges and demands relating to orphan estates. A jury of freeholders would be summoned to appear for the purpose. All persons concerned were required to take especial care to have their accounts or complaints drawn up in due

Interpretations

The advance of £50 0s 0d to Worrall on the store books at the standing rate of 8 per cent per annum followed the working pattern of the Porteous advance on 27 November 1711 and the Bell purchase of the Belvird country plantation on 24 July 1712. The Company stood as broker between the seller Cleve and the buyer Worrall, taking the credit risk on the buyer in return for the running interest, and the offered security against the advance would have followed the form of real property pledged on the land itself.

The grounds for the grant, that Worrall had served the Honourable Company some years, was a sober and industrious young man, and had lately married, identify the working test that the council applied when extending credit to a soldier-tradesman for the purchase of freehold property. Length of service supplied the record of conduct, sobriety and industry supplied the character, and marriage supplied the settled household that made repayment a matter of family interest. The combination distinguished the application from the indebtedness of the indebted soldiers addressed in the advertisement of 9 July 1713.

The advertisement of 1 and 2 September 1713 paired a regular consultation for title confirmations with a Court of Orphans appointed for final determination of orphan accounts and disputes. The pairing carried forward the working separation between routine land registration, handled by the council in consultation, and contested estate business, handled by the council sitting as a court with a jury of freeholders. The combined notice gave the inhabitants a single date to bring forward both classes of business.

The phrase final determination signalled the council's intention to close out the backlog of contested orphan business in a single sitting. The reference echoes the comprehensive review of the Beal orphans' estate at the Court of Orphans of 25 September 1710, but the use of the term final, with the summoning of a jury of freeholders, places this court in the higher class of the Powell-Beale trial of 18 October 1711 rather than in the audit-style examinations of intermediate dates. The settled accounts were to be carried no further.

Speculations

The choice of 8 per cent as the standing rate on store-book advances, applied to Worrall as it had been applied to Porteous and Bell, probably reflected a working accommodation between the rate the Company was authorised to charge under standing instructions and the rate at which the local commercial credit market operated. The same rate had been the subject of the Carne controversy of March 1711, where a bond drawn at 6 per cent against a council order at 8 per cent had been described as clandestinely drawn and underhand managed. The council's continued application of 8 per cent without challenge by 1713 suggests that the rate had become the settled and uncontested benchmark for advances under its authority.

The decision to summon a jury of freeholders to the Court of Orphans, rather than to leave the accounts to determination by the council sitting alone, suggests that the council was preparing for contested matters of fact, perhaps relating to the Beal, French or Hoskison orphan estates, on which the working audit had reached the point at which the council's own previous decisions could be reopened. The freeholders' jury supplied an independent finding of fact that closed off any later challenge on the ground that the council had been judge in its own previous business.

62

55

due forme five days at Least before the aforesaid 2 Day of Septem[r]

that Warrants may be Issued out and timely Notice given thee

Defendants in order of makeing Preparation and Defence

Accordingly.

Dated at the United Castle in

James Valley this 15[th] day of August 1713.

Sign[d] p[er] order of Govern[r] & Councill

P me. Jn[o] Alexander

S[t] Helena An Acc[ot] of what has been Sold and Deliverd out of the Honoura[ble] Comp[s]

Stores to the Inhabitants For the use of the Fortifications Generall Table

Plantation and Severall other Generall Charges from the 25[th] day of

March to the 25[th] day of Aprill following Viz[t].

Gurras

8 peices

Inhabitants

5 [...]

Kerseys

12 yards at 2[s] p[er] yard

Inhab[ts]

1 4 [...]

4 yards d[o]

Generall Charges

8 [...] 1 12 [...]

Romalls

10 [...]

J[s] Inhab[ts]

3 9

Blanketts

8 pair

Inhab[ts]

8 9 9

Fustians viz[t]

4 peices 14 1/2 yards Thickesett

10 [...] 5 1/2 [...] Colo[d] Dimittee

13 1/2 yards White Dimittee

Inhabitants

26 15 [...] 1/2

30 1/2 yards Thickesett 1.13.6 1/2

8 yards Colo[d] Dimittee 0. 10. .

Generall Charges

2 3 6 [...] 28 18 6

Hatts

37 Sorted

Inhabitants

18 4 [...]

Tapes & bindings viz[t]

17 peices Holland Tape

13 p[s] Cotton Ditto

24 yards Gartering

Inhabitants

2 8 4 1/2

Carried over

[...] 64 16 7 1/2

All persons concerned were required to have their accounts or complaints drawn up in due form at least five days before 2 September 1713, so that warrants might be issued and timely notice given to the defendants for the preparation of their defence.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 15 August 1713. Signed by order of the Governor and Council by John Alexander.

Account of the goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores at St Helena to the inhabitants, for the use of the fortifications, the general table, the plantation and several other general charges, from 25 March 1713 to 25 April 1713:

Gurras

8 pieces

inhabitants

£5 [...] 0d

Kerseys

12 yards at 2s per yard

inhabitants

£1 4s 0d

4 yards at the same rate

general charges

8s 0d

£1 12s 0d

Romalls

10 [...]

inhabitants

3s 9d

Blankets

8 pair

inhabitants

£8 9s 9d

Fustians:

4 pieces 14½ yards of thickset

10 [...] 5½ [...] of coloured dimity

13½ yards of white dimity

inhabitants

£26 15s 0½d

30½ yards of thickset £1 13s 6½d

8 yards of coloured dimity 10s 0d

general charges

£2 3s 6d

£28 18s 6d

Hats

37 sorted

inhabitants

£18 4s 0d

Tapes and bindings:

17 pieces of Holland tape

13 pieces of cotton tape

24 yards of gartering

inhabitants

£2 8s 4½d

Carried over

£64 16s 7½d

Interpretations

The advertisement's requirement of five days' notice of accounts and complaints before the Court of Orphans of 2 September 1713 set the working procedure by which the council, sitting as a court with a jury of freeholders, was to be supplied with the warrants needed to summon defendants. The five-day interval reflected the time needed for the clerk to draft the warrants, for John Alexander or the marshal to serve them across the settled districts, and for the defendants to prepare a defence. The procedure converted the Court of Orphans from a working audit into a contested forum on the model of the Powell-Beale trial of 18 October 1711.

The store account for the month from 25 March 1713 to 25 April 1713 opens the new administrative year and falls in the first month after the deadline of the fencing programme. The four-fold division between inhabitants, general charges, the general table and the plantation continued the working classification visible in the accounts of 1709 to 1712.

Gurras and romalls were grades of Indian cotton cloth carried on Company ships from Bengal and Madras, and appear in the inhabitants' column as the staple eastern textiles supplied through the store. Kerseys, fustians, thicksets, dimities and blankets were the woollen and mixed-cloth supplies from England, with kerseys serving as the standard coarse woollen, fustians as a coarse cotton-linen, and thicksets and dimities as the heavier and lighter weaves of fustian respectively. Holland tape was a flax tape from the Low Countries used for binding and trimming, while gartering was the narrow woven band used to fasten stockings below the knee.

The presence of hats at £18 4s 0d for thirty-seven items, against woollen blankets at £8 9s 9d for eight pair, places hats among the higher-value individual items in the inhabitants' purchases for the month. The unit cost of approximately 9s 10d per hat exceeds the unit cost of approximately 21s per pair of blankets only by reference to material, since hats were finished felt goods imported ready-made from England, while blankets were rougher woven cloth carried in pairs. The store's pricing reflected the working differential between manufactured and unfinished textile goods.

63

56

Brought over

£ 64 16 6 1/2

Buttons of Silk and Mohair viz[t]

115 1/2 doz[n] breast Sorted

36 1/2 doz[n] Coat

Inhabitants

4 18 [...]

9 doz[n] breast

Gen[r] Charges

3 [...]

5 1 [...] 1/4

Combes

19

Inhabitants

16 1/2

Paint & Indigo

4 oz[s] Indigo

Inhabitants

2 8

12 [...] White Lead

Fortifications

6 [...] 8 8

Pitch & Tarr

1 Barrell Pitch

Ditto

3 [...] 1 [...]

Corkes

1 Gross

Inhab[ts]

3 [...]

Cuttlery Ware viz[t]

21 Knives 20 forks

2 1/2 [pair] Scissors & p[er] Sheers

1 1/2 [...] Buckles

Inhabit[ts]

1 19 1/2 2

3 doz[n] Scissors 13 Knives &c[a]

Gen[r] Charges

14 8 1/2

5 [...]

Mettle Buttons

3 doz[n] Brass Coat

Gen[r] Charges

3 3

Druggetts

4 1/2 yards Silk 1: 1: 4 1/2

34 1/2 yards Cloth 5.14: 6 1/2

Inhab[ts]

6 15 10 1/2

Braisers Ware

7 1/2 [...] Sorted 2: 19: [...]

1/2 [...] 0: 7: 6 1/2

Inhab[ts]

3 6 6

1 Brass Lamp

Gen[r] Charges

3 11

3 10 5

Bird Shott

6 cw[t] [...]

Ditto

3 [...]

Ginghams

22 peices

Inhabitants

17 7 10

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

24 1/2 doz[n] Hooks &c[a] Lines

Inhab[ts]

1 17 10

55 Lines 1.13. 8 1/2

4 1/2 doz[n] Hooks 1.18.8

Gen[r] Charges

3 12 4 1/2

1 Line Plantation

2 [...]

5 12 2 1/2

Sorts of Silks viz[t]

3 Peices Taffatyes 3: 16: 3 1/2

1 p[s] Ettatched [...] 13 [...]

Inhab[ts]

4 9 6

Perpetuanoes

40 yards

Ditto

4 14 2 1/2

Pins Needles &c[a]

125 Needles 0: 1: 0 1/2

5 Thimbles 0: 0: 5

Ditto

1 10 1 1/2

17 M[s][...] Pins 1.7 10

5 Sail Needles

Plantation

[...] 7 1/2

Sackins

7 1/2 yards

Fortifications

10 1/2

1 10 9

Carried Over

£ 118 12 4 1/2

Brought over

£64 16s 6½d

Buttons of silk and mohair:

115½ dozen breast buttons, sorted

36½ dozen coat buttons

inhabitants

£4 18s 0d

9 dozen breast buttons

general charges

3s 0d

£5 1s 0¼d

Combs

19

inhabitants

16s 1½d

Paint and indigo:

4 ounces of indigo

inhabitants

2s 8d

12 [...] of white lead

fortifications

6s 0d

8s 8d

Pitch and tar

1 barrel of pitch

fortifications

£3 [...] 1s 0d

Corks

1 gross

inhabitants

3s 0d

Cutlery ware:

21 knives, 20 forks

2½ pair of scissors and shears

1½ [...] of buckles

inhabitants

£1 19s 1½d

3 dozen scissors, 13 knives and other items

general charges

14s 8½d

£5 0s 0d

Metal buttons

3 dozen brass coat buttons

general charges

3s 3d

Druggets

4½ yards of silk drugget £1 1s 4½d

34½ yards of cloth drugget £5 14s 6½d

inhabitants

£6 15s 10½d

Braziers' ware:

7½ [...] sorted £2 19s 0d

½ [...] 7s 6½d

inhabitants

£3 6s 6d

1 brass lamp

general charges

3s 11d

£3 10s 5d

Bird shot

6 hundredweight [...]

fortifications

3s 0d

Ginghams

22 pieces

inhabitants

£17 7s 10d

Hooks and lines:

24½ dozen hooks and lines

inhabitants

£1 17s 10d

55 lines £1 13s 8½d

4½ dozen hooks £1 18s 8d

general charges

£3 12s 4½d

1 line

plantation

2s 0d

£5 12s 2½d

Silks:

3 pieces of taffeties £3 16s 3½d

1 piece of attached [...] 13s 0d

inhabitants

£4 9s 6d

Perpetuanoes

40 yards

inhabitants

£4 14s 2½d

Pins, needles and other items:

125 needles 1s 0½d

5 thimbles 5d

inhabitants

£1 10s 1½d

17 thousand pins £1 7s 10d

5 sail needles

plantation

7½d

Sackings

7½ yards

fortifications

10½d

£1 10s 9d

Carried over

£118 12s 4½d

Interpretations

The store account for this month displays the working classification of Company textiles at its fullest. The Indian cottons of the inhabitants' column include ginghams, gurras and romalls, while the English woollens and mixed cloths include kerseys, fustians, druggets and perpetuanoes. Druggets were a coarse woollen or part-silk cloth used for outer garments; perpetuanoes were a durable worsted serge made primarily for export. The two categories of drugget, silk at the higher line and cloth at the lower, illustrate the working differential by content within a single textile name.

The braziers' ware line covered worked brass for kitchen, household and lighting use, including the brass lamp charged separately to general charges. The braziers' trade supplied the fittings that the local smith's shop could not produce in worked brass, and the Company's store stood as the only legitimate channel for such goods on the island. Bird shot at the fortifications confirms that the Company's powder-and-shot establishment continued to supply the small game that supplemented the garrison's diet, separately from the maritime musket-balls supplied to the same account.

The hooks and lines line ran across the three columns of inhabitants, general charges and plantation, with the working purpose of supplying both private and Company fishing. The presence of 55 lines and 4½ dozen hooks on the general charges column reflects the working consequence of the yawl fishing licence of 12 May 1713, by which the Company itself sent out fishing parties under the steward's control, and a single line on the plantation column supplied the slaves' yam-and-fish ration at the Hutts and Plantation House establishments.

The metals account for the month confirms the working position of the store as the principal channel for finished consumer goods on the island. Pins at seventeen thousand to the line, needles at one hundred and twenty-five, sail needles for the plantation and thimbles for the household, represent the small implements of the inhabitants' working day, while white lead, indigo, sackings and pitch covered the maintenance materials needed for fortifications and structures. The five categories of column for general charges, inhabitants, fortifications, plantation and general table preserved the audit pattern visible in the accounts from 1709 onward.

64

57

Brought over

118 12 4 [...] 8

Pewter

31 peices

Inhabitants

16 5 1/2

6 p[r] [...] 4 Basons & 2 Chamb[r] Potts

Gen[r] Charges

6 4

1 Bason Plantation use

3 6

2 6 3 1/2

Salt

5 Bushells

Gen[r] Charges

1 10

Silk and Thread Laces

3 doz[n] Silk & 4 [...] Thread

Inhab[ts]

1 3

Oyles

3 1/2 Gallons Rape

D[o]

4 6

5 1/2 Gallons [...] 1: 18: 6 1/2

1 G[ll] Linseed 0: 8: 0

Gen[r] Charges

2 6 6

1 Gall[s] Rape

Plantation

7

3 18

Ribbon & Twrilling viz[t]

41 1/2 yards Ribbon & 2 d[r] Twrilling

Inhab[ts]

1 15 8 1/2

Broad Cloth

12 yards Black 9.10. 10 1/2

18 [...] yards Coloured 12.19. 9 1/2

Inhab[ts]

22 10 7 9

Starch

1

Ditto

1 7

Tallow

1 Cask 9[ct] 0. 3. 6 [...]

Gen[r] Charges

4 1 10 1/2

Bone Lace

10 yards

Inhab[ts]

6 3

Books

3 1/2 Horn book

D[o]

4

Turnery Ware

5 Peices

D[o]

4 11

6 Shovells

Fortifications

12

2 Sieves

Gen[r] Charges

3 1

1

Tin Ware

9 Peices

Inhabitants

7 3

1 Lanthorn

Gen[r] Charges

3 10

1 1 1

Pepper

5

Inhabitants

5

5 Dyett Expences

5

1

Plantation

4

11

Ragg Stone

1

Gen[r] Charges

8

Silver & Gold Buttons

7 1/2 breast Silver

Inhab[ts]

16 10 1/2

Produce

1 [...]

Ditto

10 4

Flannell & Bunting

7 yards Flannell

D[o]

15 9

Glass Ware

4 Peices [...] 5 1/4 0: 14: 0 1/2

D[o]

14 10 1/2

30 Squares

Fortifications

1 10

2 4 10 1/2

Carried over

£ 168 11 7

Brought over

£118 12s 4½d

Pewter

31 pieces

inhabitants

16s 5½d

6 pair [...], 4 basins and 2 chamber pots

general charges

6s 4d

1 basin

plantation

3s 6d

£2 6s 3½d

Salt

5 bushels

general charges

1s 10d

Silk and thread laces

3 dozen silk and 4 [...] thread

inhabitants

£1 3s 0d

Oils

3½ gallons of rape

inhabitants

4s 6d

5½ gallons of [...] £1 18s 6½d

1 gallon of linseed 8s 0d

general charges

£2 6s 6d

1 gallon of rape

plantation

7s 0d

£3 18s 0d

Ribbon and twilling

41½ yards of ribbon and 2 [...] of twilling

inhabitants

£1 15s 8½d

Broad cloth

12 yards of black £9 10s 10½d

18 yards of coloured £12 19s 9½d

inhabitants

£22 10s 7¾d

Starch

1 [...]

inhabitants

1s 7d

Tallow

1 cask, 9 hundredweight 0 quarters 3 pounds

general charges

£4 1s 10½d

Bone lace

10 yards

inhabitants

6s 3d

Books

3½ horn books

inhabitants

4d

Turnery ware

5 pieces

inhabitants

4s 11d

6 shovels

fortifications

12s 0d

2 sieves

general charges

3s 1d

£1 0s 0d

Tin ware

9 pieces

inhabitants

7s 3d

1 lantern

general charges

3s 10d

£1 1s 1d

Pepper

5 [...]

inhabitants

5s 0d

5 [...]

diet expenses

5s 0d

1 [...]

plantation

4s 0d

11s 0d

Ragg stone

1 [...]

general charges

8d

Silver and gold buttons

7½ breast buttons of silver

inhabitants

16s 10½d

Produce

1 [...]

inhabitants

10s 4d

Flannel and bunting

7 yards of flannel

inhabitants

15s 9d

Glass ware

4 pieces [...] 5¼ [...] 14s 0½d

inhabitants

14s 10½d

30 squares

fortifications

£1 10s 0d

£2 4s 10½d

Carried over

£168 11s 7d

Interpretations

The miscellany of this monthly portion of the store account exposes the working range of small consumer goods supplied to the inhabitants under the Company's monopoly retail. Pewter for the table and bedroom, bone lace and ribbon for women's dress, silver and gold breast buttons for finished garments, glass ware and tin ware for the household, and horn books for the rudimentary instruction of children, all passed through the storekeeper's account in quantities that reflected the small but settled domestic economy of the settled freemen. Turnery ware covered turned wooden objects such as bowls, handles and small implements made on a lathe; bunting was a loose worsted fabric used principally for flags and signal cloth; ragg stone was an abrasive stone used for sharpening tools; horn books were the standard children's reading primers, a single printed leaf protected by a thin sheet of horn and mounted on a wooden paddle.

The fortifications column drew the heavier and structural items, with shovels at twelve shillings for six pieces, glass squares at one pound ten shillings for thirty pieces and the half-share of the turnery sieves shifted to general charges. The thirty squares of glass on fortifications confirm that glazing work continued at Munden's Castle or the United Castle during the new working year, in line with the storehouse rebuild proposed by the governor on 25 November 1712. The general charges column carried the mixed institutional items, including the two basins and two chamber pots in pewter for the castle establishment and the lantern for night work.

The broad cloth at £22 10s 7¾d for thirty yards stands out as the single highest line in the month's purchases by inhabitants, with the black at sixteen shillings per yard and the coloured at approximately fifteen shillings per yard. The price differential reflects the working position of broadcloth as the most expensive standard textile in the Company's English consignments. The line was probably drawn by a small number of higher-ranking freeholders for formal wear, in contrast to the kerseys and fustians of the previous month's account, which served the broader inhabitant body.

The presence of horn books at four pence for three and a half items, taken with the working ratio of approximately one penny each, identifies the working scale at which formal instruction of children proceeded on the island. The cost of furnishing a single child with the primary instrument of learning to read fell within the reach of any household, but the very small total purchased in the month indicates the actual scale of demand. The pattern is consistent with the working absence of a settled school on the island and the dependence of children's instruction on the household, the schoolmaster Samuel Broome, or the minister.

65

58

Brought Over

168 11 7

English Linnen viz[t]

14 yards Ozenbriggs

Inhab[ts]

19 8

Neilas

28 p[s] at 14[s] 2[d] p[er] p[s]

Ditto

20 7 6

5 d[o] 15.3

Chelloes

83 p[s][...]

Ditto

20 15

1 p[s] [...]

Gen[r] Charges

5

21

Iron Mongars Ware

26 p[s] & 11 1/2 Nayles

Inhab[t]

2 19 2

14 d[o] 17 Ditto

Fortific[ns]

2 2 3 1/2

19 d[o] Plant[n] 0. 11. 4

18 d[o] Sorted d[o] 4. 12. 6 1/2

1 Iron Pott 9 1/2 [...]

D[o]

1 15

3 1/2 wt Iron

    1. 4

7 1 2 1/4

12 2 8

Muslines

3 p[s] Mullmulls at 21. 8 [...]p[er]p[s]

Inhab[t]

3 p[s] Doreas 32 [...] p[s][...]

Inhab[t]

8 1

Toba[c]o & Pipes

425 Toba[c]o 42:10:0

Inhabits

46 9

13 Gross & 2 doz[n] Pipes 3:19: 0

6 Toba[c]o & 8 doz[n] Pipes

Gen[r] Charges

16

1 Toba[c]o

Plantation

2

48 19

Gloves

20 p[r] Sorted

Bell[s]

Inhabitants

1 12

Arrack

305: 0: 0 Bata[via]

Inhab[t]

107 3

39: 3: 0 D[o]

D[o] Expences

13 16 3

Shalloons viz[t]

12: 3: D[o]

Plantation

4 1 8 4 9

125 7 3

53 1/2 yards at 2: 6 p[er] y[d]

Inhab[t]

6 13 9

9 1/2 yards

Gen[r] Charges

1 3 1 1/2

7 16 10 1/2

Sugar & Candy

1819 1/2 Sug[r] & 470 Candy

Inhab[t]

84 3

78 Sug[r] 35 d[o] Expences

4 7

12 d[o]

Plantation

14

89 4

Caunoes

12 peices Sorted

Inhab[t]

10 18

Salampores

25 Peices

Inhab[t]

13 2 6

Duraotties[?]

13 peices at 5: 8 p[er] p[s]

Inhab[t]

3 13 8

1 peice

Gen[r] Charges

5 8

3 19 4

Carried Over

£ 331 09 4 1/2

Brought over

£168 11s 7d

English linen:

14 yards of osnaburgs

inhabitants

19s 8d

Neilas

28 pieces at 14s 2d per piece

inhabitants

£20 7s 6d

5 pieces at 15s 3d each

Chelloes

83 pieces [...]

inhabitants

£20 15s 0d

1 piece [...]

general charges

5s 0d

£21 0s 0d

Ironmonger's ware

26 pieces and 11½ [...] of nails

inhabitants

£2 19s 2d

14 [...] 17 of the same

fortifications

£2 2s 3½d

19 [...] plantation 11s 4d

18 [...] sorted plantation £4 12s 6½d

1 iron pot of 9½ [...]

plantation

£1 15s 0d

3½ hundredweight of iron

plantation

£1 12s 4d

£7 1s 2¼d

£12 2s 8d

Muslins

3 pieces of mulmulls at 21s 8d per piece

inhabitants

3 pieces of doreas at 32s per piece

inhabitants

£8 1s 0d

Tobacco and pipes

425 [...] of tobacco £42 10s 0d

inhabitants

£46 9s 0d

13 gross and 2 dozen pipes £3 19s 0d

6 [...] of tobacco and 8 dozen pipes

general charges

16s 0d

1 [...] of tobacco

plantation

2s 0d

£48 19s 0d

Gloves

20 pair sorted

inhabitants

£1 12s 0d

Arrack

305 gallons of Batavia arrack

inhabitants

£107 3s 0d

39 gallons 3 [...]

diet expenses

£13 16s 3d

12 gallons 3 [...]

plantation

£4 1s 0d

£125 7s 3d

Shalloons

53½ yards at 2s 6d per yard

inhabitants

£6 13s 9d

9½ yards

general charges

£1 3s 1½d

£7 16s 10½d

Sugar and candy

1,819½ [...] of sugar and 470 [...] of candy

inhabitants

£84 3s 0d

78 [...] of sugar and 35 [...] of candy

diet expenses

£4 7s 0d

12 [...] of candy

plantation

14s 0d

£89 4s 0d

Caunoes

12 pieces sorted

inhabitants

£10 18s 0d

Salampores

25 pieces

inhabitants

£13 2s 6d

Duraotties

13 pieces at 5s 8d per piece

inhabitants

£3 13s 8d

1 piece

general charges

5s 8d

£3 19s 4d

Carried over

£331 9s 4½d

Interpretations

The Indian textile lines of this month carry the working range of cotton and muslin cloth supplied through the Bengal and Madras shipping. Neilas, chelloes, salampores and caunoes were grades of plain or striped Indian cotton in standard piece sizes, supplied to the inhabitants for shirts, linings and household use; mulmulls and doreas were fine and figured muslins respectively, drawn at the higher price points for finer wear; shalloons were a worsted English lining cloth used for the inside of coats; duraotties or duroyas were a lighter cotton used for outer summer wear. Osnaburgs were a coarse German linen, originally from Osnabrück, supplied through England as a working cloth for slaves' shirts, sailors' clothing and rough domestic use. The presence of all these grades on a single monthly account confirms the store's working position as the comprehensive textile supplier for the island's free population.

The arrack account at 305 gallons of Batavia arrack to the inhabitants at the going retail rate, with 39 gallons to the diet expenses column and 12 gallons to the plantation, marks the working scale of spirits distribution one month after the bulk purchases from Captain Lane, Captain Minter and Captain Hoaks recorded on 4 June 1713. The diet expenses column carried the spirits issued to the soldiers' general table, and the plantation column the working ration to slaves and overseers. The combined monthly volume of 357 gallons places this as one of the heavier spirits months in the present series.

The tobacco line at 425 [...] of leaf tobacco and 13 gross and 2 dozen pipes to the inhabitants, with subsidiary quantities to general charges and the plantation, fixes tobacco at approximately two shillings per pound and pipes at approximately six pence per dozen at the working retail rate. The volume of pipes, equivalent to about 1,896 pipes for the month, reflects the high breakage rate of clay pipes and the working consequence that supply needed to be continuous rather than annual. The line is the largest non-textile non-spirits inhabitant purchase of the month and confirms tobacco as the standing staple of the islander's recreational consumption.

The ironmonger's ware line spans inhabitants, fortifications and plantation columns, with the iron pot of 9½ [...] at £1 15s 0d standing as a single high-value plantation item alongside the bulk of nails and assorted ironwork. The pot would have served as kitchen equipment at the plantation house, the Hutts or one of the outlying overseer establishments. The combined plantation entries on iron, including the pot, the 3½ hundredweight of bar iron at £1 12s 4d, and the 18 sorted pieces at £4 12s 6½d, place the working iron requirement of the Company's own estate at approximately £8 0s 0d for the month, against £2 19s 2d for the inhabitants and £2 2s 3½d for the fortifications.

66

59

Brought Over

331 09 4 1/2

Norwich Stuffs

6 p[s] 33 1/4 yards Stuff 26: 3: 10 1/2

92 1/2 Black Crape 10: 1: 3

2 p[s] Damask 4: 1: 6

Inhabitants

37 6 7 1/2

Chints

12 p[s]

Ditto

7 12 9

Thrown Silk &c[a]

7 Silk 2 2/4 Mohair

D[o]

11 2 2 2/4 d[o]

Gen[r] Charges

4 6 1/2

7 3

4 13 4

Shirts

102 Chello at 7: 3 p[er] p[s] 142 white at 3: 4 p[s] 6 [...]p[s]

Inhab[ts]

35 15

1 Chell

1 D[o]

Gen[r] Charges

5

4 Ditto

Plantation use

9 8

36 10 1

Soap

185 1/4 Beneoell[?] Soap at 8[d]

Inhabitants

6 3 6

12 D[o] 13 3/4 Casted[?]

Gen[r] Charges

10 5 2 1/4

6 7 [...] 6 7 [...] 4 7

Plantation

12 5 1/4

8 1 1 1/4

Wine

2 3/8 Gall[s] at 5[s] p[er] Gall[o]

Inhabitants

11 10 1/2

4 5/8 Gall[s]

Dyett Expences

1 7 1/2

1 12 6

Long Cloth

1 peice

Inhabitants

1 4 9

Stockins &c[a]

68 p[r] Stockins & 2 [...] Heel[s]

D[o]

9 1

Neckloths

2 [yds][?] at 1: 5: 5 Each & 4 [...] at 2: 9

Inhab[t]

7 2 10

Soldiers Cloths

13 Coats, 9 Wastcoats, 10 p[r] Breeches D[o]

21 15 2

Ditto

2 12 2

Provisions

156 1/2 Rice

43 d[o]

0: 14: 4

2 Cask bread of 4

6: 13: 4

1 Cask Peas p[r] 10 Bushells

4: 15: [...]

Dyett Expences

12 2 8

14 14 10

Shoes

25 p[r] Sorted

Inhabitants

7 15 11

5 d[o] Ditto

Gen[r] Charges

1 8 4

9 3 11

Threads

26 Crow[t] 7 d[o] Brown 18 Nuns 6 d[o] white

Inhab[t]

10 5 3

[...] Ditto

Gen[r] Charges

7 4

10 12 7

Serge

17 1/2 yards at 4: 10 p[er] yard

Gen[r] Charges

4 1 7

Shoe Thread

2

Ditto

5

Sum Totall

£ 706 05 1 1/2

Brought over

£331 9s 4½d

Norwich stuffs

6 pieces, 33¼ yards of stuff £26 3s 10½d

92½ [...] of black crape £10 1s 3d

2 pieces of damask £4 1s 6d

inhabitants

£37 6s 7½d

Chints

12 pieces

inhabitants

£7 12s 9d

Thrown silk and mohair

7 [...] silk, 2¾ [...] mohair

inhabitants

£4 6s 6½d

1½ [...] silk, 2¾ [...] mohair

general charges

7s 3d

£4 13s 4d

Shirts

102 chello shirts at 7s 3d per piece, 142 white at 3s 4d per piece, 6 [...] per piece

inhabitants

£35 15s 0d

1 chello shirt and 1 of the same

general charges

11s 5d

4 of the same

plantation use

9s 8d

£36 10s 1d

Soap

185¼ [...] of Bengal soap at 8d

inhabitants

£6 3s 6d

12 [...] of the same and 13¾ [...] of Castile soap

general charges

10s 5¼d

6 [...] of the same

plantation

12s 5¼d

£8 1s 1¼d

Wine

2⅜ gallons at 5s per gallon

inhabitants

11s 10½d

4⅝ gallons

diet expenses

£1 7s 6d

Long cloth

1 piece

inhabitants

£1 4s 9d

Stockings

68 pair of stockings and 2 [...] of heels

inhabitants

9s 1d

Neckcloths

2 [...] at £1 5s 5d each and 4 [...] at 2s 9d

inhabitants

£7 2s 10d

Soldiers' clothes

13 coats, 9 waistcoats, 10 pair of breeches

inhabitants

£21 15s 2d

2 [...]

general charges

£2 12s 2d

Provisions

156½ [...] of rice

43 [...] of the same

14s 4d

2 casks of bread of 4 [...] each

£6 13s 4d

1 cask of peas of 10 bushels

£4 15s 0d

diet expenses

£12 2s 8d

£14 14s 10d

Shoes

25 pair sorted

inhabitants

£7 15s 11d

5 pair sorted

general charges

£1 8s 4d

£9 3s 11d

Threads

26 [...] crewel, 7 [...] brown, 18 [...] nuns, 6 [...] white

inhabitants

£10 5s 3d

[...] of the same

general charges

7s 4d

£10 12s 7d

Serge

17½ yards at 4s 10d per yard

general charges

£4 1s 7d

Shoe thread

2 [...]

general charges

5s 0d

Sum total

£706 5s 1½d

Interpretations

The Norwich stuffs at the head of this portion of the account confirm the working position of the Norwich worsted trade as a principal source of the Company's English textile consignments. Norwich stuffs were the worsted fabrics produced in and around Norwich for the home and export markets; black crape was a thin transparent worsted used principally for mourning wear; damask was a figured silk or linen with a reversible pattern. The combined line at over £37 to the inhabitants in a single month places these fabrics among the higher-value English textile imports of the year and marks them as the dress materials of the upper layer of free society on the island. Long cloth was a fine plain Indian cotton in long pieces; thrown silk was raw silk twisted into yarn ready for weaving; neckcloths were the standard formal accessory for men's wear, with the higher price points at over a pound a piece pointing to lace-trimmed or embroidered finishes; chints were the printed and painted Indian cottons that gave their name to the modern chintz; nuns' thread was a fine white thread, named for its monastic origin, used for cambric and lawn sewing; crewel was a two-ply worsted yarn used for embroidery; the term stuff covered any worsted woven cloth in the working English usage of the period.

The provisions line at £14 14s 10d to the diet expenses column covers the working ration of the soldiers' general table for the month. Rice at 156½ [...] in the principal entry and 43 [...] in the subsidiary marks the continued substitution of Indian rice for English wheat as the staple grain at the castle, in line with the bulk purchases recorded on 4 June 1713. The two casks of bread of four hundredweight each, at £6 13s 4d, supplied the wheat-based ration that the rice did not displace, and the one cask of peas of ten bushels at £4 15s 0d supplied the standard pulse complement. The combined ration reflects the working diet of the establishment under continuing drought.

The soldiers' clothes line at £21 15s 2d for thirteen coats, nine waistcoats and ten pair of breeches on the inhabitants' column, with a subsidiary £2 12s 2d on general charges, marks the working sale of complete garrison uniform pieces to the soldiers themselves. The men bought their own clothing from the store at the published rates, applied against their store-book accounts in the working manner described in the advertisement of 9 July 1713. The unit cost of approximately 33 shillings per complete suit, taken across coat, waistcoat and breeches, fixes the working clothing exposure of the soldier-debtor at over £1 12s 0d per uniform replacement and identifies clothing as a principal component of the indebtedness that drove the recent conspiracy.

The grand sum total of £706 5s 1½d for the month of 25 March 1713 to 25 April 1713 places this account among the heaviest single-month volumes in the present series, well above the £302 11s 5¼d of the corresponding month two years earlier and the £298 0s 11d cumulative figure of 25 December 1709 to 25 February 1710. The increase reflects the working consequence of the Susannah cargo from England under Captain Pinnell and the Kent and Hewolen cargoes from Madras and Bengal, all of which had been priced and brought into the store under the 3 July 1713 order. The first month of the new administrative year therefore opens with the store in its fullest stocked condition since the spring of 1711.

Speculations

The decision to issue thirteen coats, nine waistcoats and ten pair of breeches, in quantities that do not match a uniform garrison-wide issue of complete suits, suggests that the soldiers were buying replacement pieces rather than full uniforms during this month. The mismatch between coats and waistcoats, and between waistcoats and breeches, points to garments being replaced by individual men as each item wore out, rather than the establishment being clothed in a single coordinated order. The pattern is consistent with the working consequence of the 9 July 1713 advertisement, by which indebted soldiers were drawing items separately against future earnings at the fortifications, rather than being clothed at one stroke from the Company's stock.

The month's heavy volume of £706 5s 1½d, the heaviest in the present series, falls in the same window as the suppression of the conspiracy, the publication of the indebted-soldiers' work advertisement, and the delivery of the deeds and leases on 4 August 1713. The concentration of three major administrative events in a single month, with the store account simultaneously at its peak, suggests that the Company's fully stocked condition was a working precondition for the council's confidence in announcing the indebted-soldier scheme. The offer of paid fortification labour at 1s 6d per day would only have stabilised the garrison if the store had the goods on hand for the soldiers' shillings to be spent against their debts, and the timing of the cargo arrivals therefore underpinned the timing of the political response.

67

60

Giles Smith free planter and Carpenter represented That

being Lately Married and Destitute of a Habitation hath

made a bargaine with William Beale (who is desireous to

go to India) for his House and Plantation but being not able

at Present to make full Payment Humbly desires we would

do him the favour as to Intrust him about Seventy or Eighty

Pounds in the Honoura[ble] Companys Store books of Acc[ot]

Upon Consideration the Said Giles Smith being

a Young Married man having a good Trade and Imploy[d]

in the Honoura[ble] Companys Service as a Carpenter, almost Con-

stantly and a Sober Industrious man

Ordered.

That the Said Giles Smith Stand charged in his Acc[ot]

with what Sume of money the aforesaid Beale is now

Indebted to the Honoura[ble] Company in their Store Books of

Acc[ot]: and Discharg[d] from the Same Accordingly.

Whereas the Honourable Company in their Generall Letter

by the Susanna dated the 20 March 1712 in the 31 Parragraph

Say they understand Richard Cleve Joyner is Imployed about their

Timber work, and thereupon order he be Appointed to have the

mannagement of all their Timbers Cutt out to the best

advantage, and that he be Allowed his Dyett at the Said

Honoura[ble] Companys Table, for his Encouragement, besides

his Wages

Whereupon the Said Richard Cleve was Sent

for and heard the whole Parragraph read and Accepted

the Said Imploy provided he was Allowed Six Shillings

for Every day he workt besides his dyett.

Ordered.

That the Said Cleve be Entertaind and Employ[d] persuant

to the Said Honoura[ble] Comp[s] Orders at Six Shillings p[er] day and

dyett at their Table, takeing care to discharge his duty.

Margin Notes:

Giles Smith

Desires 70 or 80

at 8 p[er] Cent.

Considering he is

a young Married

man &c[a]

To be charged w[th]

what Beale ow[s]

y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s]

Abstract of an

Ord[r] ab[t] Cleve y[e]

Joyner.

Cleve accepted

of Employ &

allowed 6 p[er] day

Entertained

Accordingly.

Giles Smith, free planter and carpenter, represented to the council that he had lately married and was without a settled house. He had made a bargain with William Beale, who wished to go to India, for the latter's house and plantation, but he was not able at present to make full payment. He humbly desired that the council favour him with credit of about £70 0s 0d or £80 0s 0d in the Honourable Company's store books of account.

The council considered that Smith was a young married man with a good trade, almost constantly employed in the Honourable Company's service as a carpenter, and a sober and industrious man.

The council ordered that Smith stand charged in his store account with the sum of money that Beale presently owed to the Honourable Company on the store books, and that Beale be discharged of that debt accordingly.

The Honourable Company in their general letter by the Susanna of 20 March 1712, in the 31st paragraph, stated that they understood Richard Cleve, joiner, was employed about their timber work. They therefore ordered that he be appointed to take charge of all their timbers and to cut them out to the best advantage, and that for his encouragement he be allowed his diet at the Honourable Company's table in addition to his wages.

Cleve was accordingly sent for and heard the whole paragraph read. He accepted the employment on condition that he be allowed six shillings for every day he worked, besides his diet.

The council ordered Cleve entertained and employed in accordance with the Honourable Company's orders, at six shillings per day with his diet at the Company's table, on condition that he discharge his duty.

Interpretations

The Smith arrangement carried the Worrall pattern of 4 August 1713 a step further. Where Worrall had been granted a £50 0s 0d advance at 8 per cent to be applied against Richard Cleve's house, land and provisions, Smith was now to assume directly the sum that Beale already owed the Company on the store books, in substitution for cash payment to Beale. The Company stood as the working clearing house for the transfer of a freehold property between a departing seller and a settled buyer, by the simple device of moving the debt from one store-book account to another. Beale was discharged, Smith was charged, and the property changed hands without any sterling passing through the Company's coffers. The mechanism reduced the Company's credit exposure to nil, since the debt remained the same in total, while securing the property in the hands of a man whose trade and conduct made repayment more probable than continued residence by Beale would have done.

The instruction in the 31st paragraph of the general letter by the Susanna of 20 March 1712, brought into effect at this consultation, gave the Court of Directors' direct authority to the management of the Company's timber stocks on the island. Timber was the working constraint on all the construction work projected since the 9 January 1711 hydraulic scheme, repeatedly delayed for want of plank and deals from the store ships. By naming Cleve specifically in the standing instruction, the Directors removed the choice of timber officer from the local council and fixed it on the man already at work, on terms that included diet at the general table as a working perquisite distinguishing him from the ordinary day-rate craftsman.

Cleve's response to the Directors' instruction was a counter-offer rather than acceptance: he set his daily rate at six shillings on top of the diet allowance, against the working benchmarks of five shillings per day for a stone layer of 9 January 1711 and five shillings per day for the long-boat boatswain Christopher Kelly of 8 April 1712. Six shillings per day placed Cleve above both, in recognition of the specialist nature of the joiner's work on the Company's timber. The council's acceptance of the counter-offer rather than insistence on the standard rate is recorded without comment, marking Cleve as the highest-paid working craftsman on the present establishment.

The Smith transaction also discloses the working position of the carpenter in the Company's service. Cleve held the joiner's appointment under the Directors' standing instruction, while Smith held the carpenter's place by working employment of the local council. The distinction between joiner and carpenter, fine timber-work as against framing and rough construction, was preserved on the island as a working division of trades. Both men were freemen and married householders, but only one stood under direct metropolitan appointment.

Speculations

The choice to settle the Smith purchase by direct debt transfer between store-book accounts, rather than by extending fresh credit at 8 per cent in the manner used for Worrall on the previous council day, suggests that the council was applying different mechanisms according to the working position of the buyer. Worrall was a matross of the artillery, with no certain future on the island; Smith was a carpenter in constant Company employment with a steady income flow against which the assumed debt could be paid down. The council's choice of mechanism reflected its assessment of the security each man offered, and the absence of any interest charge on the transferred sum probably reflected the Company's confidence that Smith's working wages would clear the debt without the need for the additional charge.

Cleve's counter-offer of six shillings per day, made on his own initiative after hearing the Directors' instruction read aloud, suggests that the standing rates on the island had created an effective market for skilled craftsmen with no European competition. Cleve's knowledge that no other joiner of equivalent standing could be brought from England within a year, and that his own service was already taking the working timber operation forward, gave him the leverage to set his rate above the standing five-shilling benchmark. The council's acceptance, rather than reference back to the Directors for further direction, suggests that the working timber programme could not afford the delay that a refusal and counter-correspondence would have entailed.

68

61

Nicholas Shrove Mason Presented his Petition this day

Setting forth therein That he had Serv[d] the Honoura[ble] United

Company five years being his full contracted Time at too Small

a Sallary and not Sufficient to find himself with Necessaries and

Meat for a Labouring Man Wherefore Humbly Prays his

Sallary may be Augmented to Six Shillings p[er] day Every thing

being very Scarce and Extream dear.

Considering that the Said Nicholas Shrove has Serv[d] his

contracted time and at a Small Sallary Provisions &c[a] being now

very Scarce and Dear. Ordered.

That his request be granted for his further Encouragement.

John Orchard free planter represented by Petition

his great Want of a habitation to Live and maintaine his familie

on, that he hies of Robert Girling being very ordinary Land

produceing but Little Provisions notwithstanding his great Paines

and Labour therein, Wherefore Humbly Prays we would grant

him a Peice of the Honourable Companys Waste Land containing

about five Acres, Scituate in Sandy bay Valley under the Pigeon

Rocks.

The Petitioner is answered That that Peice of Land he

Petitions for Lies very convenient for the Hono[ra]ble Companys Use

to make a Lemon Garden of there being Some Trees planted

there alreadie, but if he can Petch upon any other Land that's

not a Prejudice by Letting it to any Person he may have the

grant thereof and not of this now Petition[d] for.

Island

Margin Notes:

Nic[s] Shrove

desires 6 p[er]

day

Granted.

Jn[o] Orchards

request to hire

Land in Sandy

bay.

Denyd for

good reasons.

Nicholas Shrove, mason, presented his petition. He set out that he had served the Honourable United Company five years, the full term of his contract, at too small a salary. The pay had been insufficient to find him in the necessaries and the meat required by a labouring man. He humbly prayed that his salary be raised to six shillings per day, since everything was now very scarce and extremely dear.

The council considered that Shrove had served out his contracted time at a small salary, that provisions and other goods were now very scarce and dear.

The council ordered his request granted, for his further encouragement.

John Orchard, free planter, represented by petition his great want of a place in which to live and maintain his family. He held land from Robert Girling, but the ground was very ordinary and produced little provisions notwithstanding his pains and labour upon it. He humbly prayed that the council grant him a piece of the Honourable Company's waste land of about five acres, in Sandy Bay Valley under the Pigeon Rocks.

The council answered that the piece for which he petitioned lay very convenient for the Honourable Company's use as a lemon garden, several lemon trees having already been planted there. If Orchard could find any other piece of land that was not prejudicial to let to any person, he might have the grant of it, but not of the parcel he had now petitioned for.

Interpretations

Shrove's grant of six shillings per day brought him to the same daily rate that Richard Cleve had set on accepting the joiner's appointment under the 31st paragraph of the Susanna letter. The council's award placed the mason of completed contract on the same working rate as the joiner under direct metropolitan appointment, distinct from the standing five-shilling rate paid to the stone layer in the 9 January 1711 costing and to the long-boat boatswain Kelly on 8 April 1712. The pattern marks a working revision upward of the daily rates for specialist craftsmen on the island, attributed by the council to the scarcity and dearness of provisions under the continuing drought. A petty contractor was a fixed-term Company servant who had completed the period of indentured service brought from England; on expiry of the contract the craftsman became a free agent on the island and might negotiate his rate, as Shrove and Cleve did here in succession.

The Orchard refusal exposes the working principle by which the council distinguished Company waste land from waste land it intended to retain. The Pigeon Rocks parcel in Sandy Bay Valley fell into the second category, since lemon trees had already been planted upon it as the working start of a Company lemon garden. The council declined to grant the parcel without prejudice to its existing programme. By inviting Orchard to nominate any other parcel that was not prejudicial to let, the council preserved the working test of opportunity cost first applied in the refusals of Thomas Southen and John Nichols on 9 December 1712, in which the value of pasture to the Company's herds had defeated the planter's claim. The lemon garden under the Pigeon Rocks served the working anti-scorbutic programme of supplying lemons and limes to visiting shipping and the garrison.

The Pigeon Rocks under which the lemon garden stood were the rock outcrops in Sandy Bay Valley used as nesting sites by the wild rock pigeons of the island, and serve here as a fixed locational marker rather than a place name with administrative content. The placing of the lemon garden under their shelter probably reflected the working microclimate that the rocks created, with shade and cooler air assisting the young trees against the working effects of the drought visible in the bulk lime juice purchase from Captain Pinnell on 9 June 1713.

The pairing of the Shrove grant and the Orchard refusal in a single council sitting marks the working contrast in the council's response to two simultaneous applications. The salary was raised to retain a specialist craftsman in the Company's service, while the land was withheld to preserve a programme of the Company's own production. The two decisions together reflect the working tension between the council's role as employer and its role as landlord, with the Company's institutional interest preferred in each case over the immediate claim of the petitioner.

Speculations

The award of six shillings per day to Shrove, the second such award within the present council day after Cleve's earlier acceptance, suggests that the council was settling on six shillings as the working ceiling for specialist craftsmen completing their first English contract. The two awards on the same day, made to men in different trades, identify the rate as the council's settled response to the scarcity and dearness of provisions on the island, rather than as an exceptional concession to a single petitioner. Other completed-contract craftsmen could now be expected to apply on the same terms, and the working wage bill of the Company would rise accordingly across the establishment.

Orchard's choice of the Pigeon Rocks parcel, of all the waste ground available in Sandy Bay Valley, probably reflected the working knowledge among the free planters that the land most desirable for cultivation was that on which the Company itself had already begun improvements. The Company's prior identification of a parcel as suitable for its own lemon garden served, in effect, as an unintended advertisement of its agricultural promise. The council's refusal, with the open invitation to nominate any other parcel, indicates that the working competition between the Company's own programmes and the settlement of free planters was already producing applications that targeted the better ground rather than the unimproved waste.

69

62

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation

Held on Tuesday the 1[st] day of September

1713 At the United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

Thomas Southen Serj[t] made Complaint against George

Carne for denying to make him Sattisfaction for Goods Stolen

out of his House in James Valley to the amount of Twenty five

Shillings by a black boy now in the Said Carns Possession, who is

an old Runaway and offender in other Like Cases and being under

Punishm[t] for his So Runing away confess[d] the flict[?] which the

Said M[r] Carne Says he knows nothing of But beleiving it now

to be true offers to made the Said Serjeant Southen Sattisfaction

for the goods Stolen.

The Said Thomas Southen made Compl[t] further That

Richard Beale and Richard Goodwin both Youths and

under the Care and Tuition of the Said George Carne had

Sett a dogg at a Bull of his which caused him to fall down

a Hill and is Since dead, Whereupon y[e] Compl[t] went to

the Said Carne Acquainting him therewith and Demanded

Sattisfaction which the Said Carne deny[d] to do alledgeing

that the Said Rich[d] Beale & Goodwin told him the Bull

fell down by chance and not by any means of theirs tho[u]

they own[d] to have Hunted Some Cattle out of y[e] Said

Carns Plantation, who Runing together which twas Steep

the rest of the Cattle Gos[t]ed and have y[e] Bull down being very

poor and weak.

Thom[s]

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Southens

Compl[t] against

Geo[r] Carne.

His further

Complaint for

Paym[t] of a Bull

Island of St Helena. Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 1 September 1713.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Thomas Southen, sergeant, complained against George Carne for refusing to make him satisfaction for goods stolen out of his house in James Valley to the value of 25s 0d. The goods had been taken by a black boy now in Carne's possession, who was an old runaway and an offender in other like cases. The boy was under punishment for running away, and on examination had confessed the theft.

Carne said he knew nothing of the matter, but believing it now to be true, he offered to make Southen satisfaction for the goods stolen.

Southen made a further complaint against Carne. Richard Beale and Richard Goodwin, both youths under Carne's care and tuition, had set a dog at a bull belonging to Southen. The bull had fallen down a hill and had since died. Southen went to Carne with the news and demanded satisfaction. Carne refused.

Carne alleged that Beale and Goodwin had told him the bull fell by chance and not by any act of theirs, though they admitted hunting some cattle out of Carne's plantation. The cattle had run together where the ground was steep, the others had jostled the bull, and as the bull was very poor and weak it had been brought down.

Interpretations

The council's handling of Southen's first complaint shows the working position of the slave's confession in property disputes between freemen on the island. The black boy's confession, given while under punishment for running away, was treated as sufficient evidence on which Carne, as master, was expected to make the property owner whole. The mechanism placed the master in the position of indemnifier for the slave's acts, with the master's denial of knowledge giving no defence once the slave's own admission established the act. Carne's eventual offer of satisfaction, made on accepting the confession as true, brings the slave's status as moveable property within the master's household together with the master's personal liability for damage caused by that property, in a working pattern parallel to the law of waste applied to working animals on the island.

The second complaint discloses the working position of youths held in care and tuition by a freeholder of standing. Richard Beale and Richard Goodwin are described as under Carne's care and tuition, the phrase placing them in the half-ward, half-apprentice position familiar from the earlier orphan placements at Mr Francis and Hugh Bodley. Richard Beale is identifiable as the younger Beale orphan whose case had run through the council since 1710, and Richard Goodwin as the son of Frances Goodwin, widow of Captain Thomas Goodwin and now wife of George Carne; the household therefore contained the wards of three previous administrations brought together under a single guardian.

The defence advanced through Carne, that the cattle had crowded together on steep ground and the working weakness of the bull from poor pasture had done the rest, places the cause of death between the boys' acknowledged act of hunting the cattle and the natural condition of the working stock. The argument turns on the distinction between proximate and contributory cause familiar in English common law, and is the second occasion in the present working volume on which an English legal doctrine has been raised in defence by Carne, after the courtesy of England plea of the Powell-Beale trial. Setting a dog at livestock was a working offence in early modern English manorial practice, by which a man whose dog worried the livestock of another was liable in damages even without proof of intent.

The bull's described condition as very poor and weak places it among the working stock that had suffered under the ten-month drought visible in the relief measures of May and June 1713. The death of a single bull was a working loss to a planter of Southen's standing, the value of a breeding bull on the island standing at a multiple of the ordinary working bullock recorded in the 5 July 1711 livestock census and the 9 December 1712 monthly return. The complaint therefore concerns a substantial property loss for Southen, and the precise mechanism of causation matters for the question of what satisfaction Carne would be required to make.

Speculations

Carne's distinction in his two responses, immediate offer of satisfaction for the stolen goods on the slave's confession and refusal of satisfaction for the bull on the boys' denial, suggests a working calculation of the relative cost of disputing each claim. Twenty-five shillings was a small sum against which to contest the slave's evidence, particularly with the slave already in punishment for the running away and likely to be punished again for the theft. The bull, by contrast, represented a much larger working loss for which Carne would be required to provide a replacement of breeding stock, and the boys' denial gave him a defence on which to resist payment. The differential response reflects the working pattern of a defendant choosing concession on the small claim and contest on the large.

The placement of Richard Beale, son of the principal orphan estate at the centre of the Powell-Beale trial of 1711, and Richard Goodwin, stepson of Carne by his marriage to Frances Goodwin, in a single household under Carne's care suggests that the council had earlier consented to Carne's consolidation of the working wards of multiple estates under one master. The arrangement gave Carne a position of considerable working authority over the rising generation of children of the principal early freeholder families, and the present complaint may indicate that the practical conduct of those wards was beginning to draw on the goodwill that the council's earlier indulgence had given Carne. The further course of the matter would test whether the working accommodation between guardian and council could survive the boys' conduct in the country.

70

63

Thomas Hoskison being Examined Says he Saw the Said Richard

Beale and Richard Goodwin Sett two of M[r] Carnes Doggs at a

Parcell of Cattle which Runing on the Side of a Steep Hill the Bull

fell down and could not rise againe.

After Severall debates on both Sides and being mov[d]

by M[r] Carne to have the Determination of this Matter decided by a

Jury of free holders.

Ordered.

That there being a Jury Summon'd to Appear Tomorrow for

the Decision of Some causes Depending this Dispute betwen the

Said Carne and Southen be Laid before them for their Determination.

Elizabeth Wrangham Orphan Petition[d] this day Setting

forth that being of Age to make Choice of a Guardian, Humbly

Prays She may be admitted to that Priviledge and to Choose her

brother Francis Wrangham to Act as Such and for that George

Carne haveing Married the widdow of Thomas Goodwin who

was Executor to her dec[d] fathers Estate and thereby all her Estate

and Effects being in the Said Carns Possession, Humbly Prays

farther that he may be Ordered to Deliver her Said Estate into

the Said Francis Wranghams Possession, he being willing to take

the Office of a Guardian upon him and to mannage the Same to

her best Advantage.

Ordered.

That at the Said Elizabeth Wranghams request her brother

Francis Wrangham be Admitted and Improved to act as Guardi-

an to his Sister Estate and that the Said George Carne have

an order Sent him to Deliver the Same into his the Said

Wranghams Possession and thereupon to give a discharge in

behalf of his Sister Wrangham

James

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Hoskisons

Evidence

Refer[d] to a

Jury.

Eliz[h] Wrangham

Orph[s] desires to

Choose a Guardian

Fran[s] Wrangham

admitted Eliz[h]

Wranghams

Guardian

Thomas Hoskison, on examination, said he saw Richard Beale and Richard Goodwin set two of Carne's dogs at a parcel of cattle. The cattle ran on the side of a steep hill, the bull fell, and it could not rise again.

After debate on both sides, Carne moved that the matter be decided by a jury of freeholders.

The council ordered that, as a jury had been summoned to appear on the following day to decide several other causes then depending, the dispute between Carne and Southen be laid before that same jury for their determination.

Elizabeth Wrangham, orphan, petitioned. She set out that she was of age to choose a guardian and humbly prayed that she might be admitted to that privilege. She wished to choose her brother Francis Wrangham to act as her guardian. George Carne had married the widow of Thomas Goodwin, who had been executor of her deceased father's estate, and through that marriage all her estate and effects had passed into Carne's possession. She humbly prayed further that Carne be ordered to deliver her estate into the possession of Francis Wrangham, who was willing to take the office of guardian and to manage the estate to her best advantage.

The council ordered that, at Elizabeth Wrangham's request, her brother Francis Wrangham be admitted and approved to act as guardian to her estate. Carne was to receive an order to deliver the estate into Francis Wrangham's possession, and to take a discharge in respect of his sister Wrangham accordingly.

Interpretations

The Hoskison evidence and the reference to the jury together mark the working procedural division between matters the council determined as sitting magistrates and matters it remitted to the freeholders' jury. The dog-and-bull case had originally come before the council as a private claim for satisfaction between two freemen, but Carne's motion to put the matter to the freeholders shifted it from administrative determination to common-law trial of fact. The council accepted the motion without resistance, in line with the pattern established in the Long against Marsh referral of 29 May 1711 and the Powell against Beale's orphans trial of 18 October 1711, by which contested questions of fact between freemen were sent to a jury rather than determined by the council sitting alone.

The combining of the Carne-Southen cause with the jury already summoned to appear on the following day reflects the working economy of jury sittings on the island. Empanelling a jury of twelve freeholders drew the principal planters from their plantations during the working day, and the council had a settled interest in disposing of as much contested business as possible at each sitting. The arrangement also placed Carne, whose Beale-orphans accounts and Keeling-orphans bond were already among the most heavily contested matters of the present working period, before a jury of his neighbours for the resolution of yet a further dispute.

Elizabeth Wrangham's petition exposes the working position of the orphan whose estate had passed through successive guardians by marriage and execution. Her father had appointed Thomas Goodwin as executor, Goodwin had died and his widow Frances had married Carne, and through Carne the estate had reached its third guardian. The choice of a guardian by the orphan at age, granted here as a privilege, gave the orphan the working right to withdraw the estate from the descending chain of administrators by marriage and to place it under a guardian of the orphan's own selection. The mechanism preserves the property of the orphan against the ordinary law of marital devolution that would otherwise have left it permanently in the new husband's hands.

Francis Wrangham, named here as guardian to his sister, is the same freeholder whose 55-acre title chain had been confirmed at the title day of 3 February 1713 and whose orphan sister had been listed separately in the deed advertisement of 27 July 1713. The brother's admission to the guardianship places the working management of the orphan's estate within the same family that had built up the freehold, and resolves any future question whether the orphan's land was to be treated as part of Carne's consolidated holdings or as a separate parcel under independent management.

Speculations

Carne's request to put the dog-and-bull cause to a jury rather than accept the council's determination probably reflected his working calculation that a jury of freeholders, including planters who themselves owned stock on common ground, would be more sympathetic to the defence that cattle worried by dogs on steep ground sometimes fell of their own weakness. The council, having previously taken the slave's confession at face value on the smaller claim, might be expected to take Hoskison's eyewitness account in the same direct way on the larger one. The jury introduced the possibility of contributory causation as a working defence and shifted the burden of decision to a body whose members had their own working interest in the law of stock-and-dog liability.

The timing of Elizabeth Wrangham's petition, presented in the same sitting at which Carne's dog-and-bull cause was referred to the jury and immediately before the comprehensive Court of Orphans appointed for the following day, suggests that the petition was framed to take advantage of the council's working concentration on orphan business at this date. By raising the application for change of guardian on the day before the comprehensive court, Elizabeth Wrangham and her brother probably calculated that the council would be more disposed to grant the change as part of a broader process of orphan-estate settlement than as an isolated case raised at another time. The arrangement removed her share from Carne's accounts before the formal audit of the orphan court on the following day, with the working consequence of separating her estate from the wider Carne-managed accounts subject to that audit.

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64

James Greentree freeholder Petition[d] this day Pray-

ing to hier a Small Parcell of y[e] Honoura[ble] Companys Waste

Land Lying Scituate toward the head of Lemon Valley

a Little distance from the Said James Greentrees House and

Plantation formerly Robert Goodwins dec[d]

Ordered.

That the Said James Greentrees request be granted and

when the Land is fenced in a Lease to be made for the Term

of Twenty one years.

Samuel Broome Sold[r] Presented his Petition

Setting forth therein That he having Servd the Honoura[ble] United

Company Six years and upwards as a Soldier and one year and a

half as a Writer under the Store-keeper and Clerk of the Councill

Dureing which Time never had any more Sallary than that ten

Pound thirteen Shillings as Soldier per Annum, finding himselfe

dyett all the Time he workt in the Store which being a great deale

out of So Small a Sallary and a Discouragment Humbly Prays

he may have an Additional Sallary, whilest he Writes under

the Clerk of the Coun[ll] Settled by the year or three Shillings p[er]

day as M[r] Free had besides his dyett at y[e] Companys Table

and an Allowance for the Time he found himself dyett, while

Employ[d] in the Stores.

Upon consideration that the Said Sam[ll] Broome

having bin Employ[d] as a Writer only at y[e] Sallary by him

mention[d] and finding himself dyett while under Capt[n] Pack[?]

Ordered.

That the Said Broome be allowed the Sume of Twenty

Pounds per Annum from this time and his dyett till Place

paid back for So much as his dyett came to when Employ[d]

in the Stores having been very Dilligent all that Time.

Richard Beale Orphan Petition[d] this day Seting forth

his Inclination to better his fortune by the first advantagious

Proffers

Margin Notes:

Ja[s] Greentrees

request to hire

Land.

Granted.

Sam[l] Broome's

request for an

Addition[l] Sallary

Granted 20 [...]

p[er] annum

Rich[d] Beale

James Greentree, freeholder, petitioned to hire a small parcel of the Honourable Company's waste land at the head of Lemon Valley, a little distance from his own house and plantation, the parcel having formerly belonged to Robert Goodwin deceased.

The council ordered the request granted. When the land was fenced in, a lease was to be made for a term of 21 years.

Samuel Broome, soldier, presented his petition. He set out that he had served the Honourable United Company six years and more as a soldier, and one year and a half as a writer under the storekeeper and clerk of the council. During that time he had received no more salary than his soldier's pay of £10 13s 0d per annum, and had found his own diet for the whole period he had worked in the store. The arrangement had taken a great deal out of so small a salary, and was a discouragement. He humbly prayed for an additional salary while he wrote under the clerk of the council, either settled by the year or at three shillings per day as Mr Free had received, besides his diet at the Company's table. He also asked for an allowance for the time he had found his own diet while employed in the stores.

The council considered that Broome had been employed as a writer at no more than the salary he had named, and had found his own diet while under Captain Pack.

The council ordered Broome allowed £20 0s 0d per annum from the present date, together with his diet at the Company's table, and that he be paid back for as much as his diet had cost him during his time employed in the stores. He had been very diligent throughout that time.

Richard Beale, orphan, petitioned. He set out his inclination to better his fortune by the first advantageous offers

Interpretations

The Greentree grant follows the working pattern of waste-land leasing established in the present working volume: identification of a parcel by reference to a deceased former holder, application by an adjoining freeholder for consolidation, conditional grant subject to enclosure, and a 21-year lease to issue on completion of fencing. Robert Goodwin deceased is the master of the Northumberland identified in the present working volume as the late captain of that ship, whose death at Bencoolen had been the subject of correspondence delivered by the Nathaniel on 30 November 1710 and whose mother was the widow Frances Goodwin. The Lemon Valley parcel was therefore drawn from the estate of a member of one of the principal Goodwin lines, and its transfer to Greentree marks the working consolidation of the late captain's outlying ground into a neighbour's plantation.

Broome's settlement at £20 0s 0d per annum with diet, in addition to the back payment of his board, brings his rate close to the working clerical wages of the establishment. The comparison drawn in the petition to Thomas Free, the previous clerk of the council, sets three shillings per day with diet as the working benchmark for a writer under the clerk, but the council settled on the slightly lower annual figure of £20 0s 0d, equivalent to approximately one shilling and threepence per day on a 313-day working year, with diet supplied separately. Free had been discharged from the Company's service on 4 June 1713 and had married the widow Sarah Griffith, so Broome's promotion to a writer's salary fills part of the working vacancy created by Free's departure. The same Broome had appeared as schoolmaster to Richard Beale at Mr Francis on 5 April 1711, had been chastised for prompting a hearsay petition on that occasion, and had been a creditor of the William French orphans for 4s 6d in respect of grave-making. His settled position as a writer in the store under Captain Pack, recorded here, shows the working trajectory of a soldier-tradesman moving through schoolmastership, manual graveside work and clerical service over a period of years on the island.

The back-payment for diet, ordered with the new salary, places the council in the working position of correcting a past underpayment by the Company rather than simply revising the rate forward. The petition was therefore granted as a remedy and not as a fresh concession. The council's acceptance of the underpayment claim, and its order that Broome be made whole for the cost of finding his own dinners during his service in the stores, marks the working recognition that the Company's terms of employment could be revised retrospectively where a servant had been carrying part of the cost of his own employment out of his soldier's pay.

The petition of Richard Beale, breaking off mid-sentence with his stated inclination to better his fortune by the first advantageous offers, identifies the elder Beale orphan as a working applicant for his own settlement at age. The same Richard Beale had been the boy at Mr Francis's lodging on 5 April 1711 whose petition Broome had drafted, and at the dog-and-bull incident of the present consultation he is one of the two youths under George Carne's care and tuition. The application places him at the working point of transition from ward to adult, with the council to be asked to assist in the conversion of his orphan share into a working settlement on the island or beyond.

Speculations

Broome's reference to Mr Free's rate of three shillings per day with diet, made openly in the petition, suggests that he had access to the working knowledge of Free's terms either through the clerk's own informal report or through Broome's own service in the store under Free's clerkship. The petition therefore amounts to an application for the same rate as the previous holder of the writer's place, framed as a request for either the lump-sum annual figure or the daily rate at the petitioner's choice. The council's award of £20 0s 0d per annum, slightly below the equivalent of three shillings per day, probably reflected the working distinction between the clerk of the council, who held a defined office with attendance on the council, and the writer beneath the clerk, who served at the clerk's direction without independent standing. The award nonetheless brought Broome from soldier's pay to a settled clerical wage, and resolved a working underpayment that had run for eighteen months under Captain Pack.

The submission of Richard Beale's petition at the same council day on which his guardian Carne was facing a complaint over the dog-and-bull cause and his fellow ward Elizabeth Wrangham was applying to change guardians, suggests that the wards of the Carne household had collectively decided to use the present working sitting to clarify their own positions. The simultaneity of the three petitions points to a coordinated approach by the wards rather than separate spontaneous applications, with each ward bringing forward the particular relief appropriate to that ward's circumstances. The pattern is consistent with the working consequence of the Hoskison household's reduction in late 1712 and 1713, by which the principal orphan estates of the island had been concentrated in a single guardian whose conduct of the wards had now drawn the wards' coordinated response.

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65

Proffers, and having for Some years past had Effects in the Possession

of M[r] Hoskison deceased. Humbly requests that all Acc[ts] Depending

between him and Said Hoskison or any other Persons may be

Adjusted And that he may have Leave to Choose a Guardian and

Sue for what is his due.

The Said Richard Beale being call[d] in and askt who he had

made Choice of for his Guardian, made answer his Uncle M[r]

Carne, who being Sent for and Acquainted therewith readily Shewd

his willingness to act for the good of y[e] Said Orphan Rich[d] Beale.

Whereupon Ordered.

That Gabriell Powill having Married the Said M[r] Hoskisons

widdow, He the Said Carne or Rich[d] Beale go and Adjust Acco[ts]

with him the Said Hoskison having Charg[d] himself with fifty

odd Pounds direct to the Said Rich[d] Beale for Money arriseing

for a Horse Sold by order of former Govern[r]s and paid into

the Said Hoskisons hands for y[e] Said Orphans use.

Margin Notes:

desires all Acc[ts]

w[th] him may be

Speedily Sett[d] &

to Choose a Guardian

M[r] Carne accepted

Acc[ts] to be made

up w[th] M[r] Powell.

Richard Beale, orphan, set out that he wished to better his fortune by the first advantageous offers and that for some years past he had had effects in the possession of Mr Hoskison deceased. He humbly requested that all accounts between him and Hoskison, or any other persons, be adjusted, that he have leave to choose a guardian, and that he be allowed to sue for what was due to him.

Beale was called in and asked who he had chosen for his guardian. He answered his uncle Mr Carne. Carne was sent for and acquainted with the choice, and readily showed his willingness to act for Beale's good.

The council ordered that, since Gabriel Powill had married Hoskison's widow, Carne or Richard Beale go to Powill and adjust accounts with him. Hoskison had charged himself with over £50 0s 0d directly due to Beale, arising from the sale of a horse by order of a former Governor, and paid into Hoskison's hands for the orphan's use.

Interpretations

Richard Beale's choice of George Carne as his guardian, made openly on examination by the council, places him in working opposition to the choice his fellow ward Elizabeth Wrangham had made at the same sitting. Where Wrangham had moved her estate away from Carne by selecting her brother as guardian, Beale moved his estate toward Carne by selecting him over any other adult relative. Carne is recorded as Beale's uncle, the relationship running through Carne's wife Frances Goodwin, sister of the boy's mother, and the working consequence is that the Beale orphan estate now stands committed to the same household whose conduct of the wards has been the subject of complaint in the dog-and-bull cause earlier in the present sitting.

The £50 0s 0d charged on Hoskison's books to Richard Beale's account, arising from the sale of a horse by order of a former Governor and paid into Hoskison's hands for the orphan's use, identifies the working point at which the orphan estate had become entangled with the deputy governor's personal accounts. The death of George Hoskison on 6 March 1712 had left such sums in his estate, and the marriage of Gabriel Powill to Mary Hoskison the widow has brought them into Powill's working possession through right of his wife. The arrangement parallels the working pattern visible in the wider Hoskison case, by which the orphan's claim devolves on the new husband through the widow's intermediate right.

The order that Carne or Beale go to Powill to adjust the account treats the sum due as a debt recoverable by the orphan's guardian directly from the working holder of the widow's estate, without further involvement of the council. The mechanism preserves the council's working principle, declared at the Court of Orphans of 5 April 1711, that the council was not itself executor to orphan estates. The orphan or his guardian was to pursue the account between private parties, with the council's order serving as the working warrant for the demand rather than as a determination of the sum itself.

The succession of guardian-holders of Beale's effects, from Hoskison to Powill through Mary Hoskison's remarriage, follows the working pattern of the Wrangham estate from Goodwin to Carne through Frances Goodwin's remarriage. In both cases the orphan's effects pass without break of legal possession from one freeholder husband to the next through the widow's intermediate right. The choice of guardian by the orphan at age, exercised by Wrangham to withdraw from the chain and by Beale to confirm a substitute within it, is the working mechanism by which the orphan recovers some control over the eventual destination of the estate.

Speculations

Beale's choice of Carne despite the dog-and-bull complaint, presented in the same sitting, probably reflects the working position that Carne was the only adult freeholder of standing who already held the principal documentary record of the Beale orphans' working accounts, having pursued them through the Court of Orphans of 25 September 1710 and the Powell trial of 18 October 1711. Replacing Carne with any other guardian would have required the new man to begin from the working entries on Hoskison's books and to negotiate afresh with Powill, while Carne could move directly to recovery of the £50 0s 0d. The choice prioritises the working recovery of the existing claim over any reservation about the household's recent conduct, and converts the dog-and-bull dispute from a question about a guardian into a question about a fellow freeholder.

The submission of the petition immediately after Elizabeth Wrangham's, with the two wards selecting different guardian directions on the same day, suggests that the working consultation between the wards had not produced a single unified position. Wrangham removed her estate from Carne; Beale confirmed his under Carne. The split probably reflects the working difference between the two estates and their working condition at this date. Wrangham's estate was already in Carne's hands and could be withdrawn intact by a brother of standing, while Beale's principal recoverable sum lay outside Carne's hands and required someone with the records of the earlier proceedings to pursue it. The two decisions, taken together, mark the working point at which the wards of the Carne household began to act independently in their own interest rather than as a single collective.

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66

Island S[t] Helena

At a Court Held

on Wednsday the 2 day of Septemb[r] 1713

At the United Castle in James Valley For

the Determination of Severall causes.

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

Then the Court was opend According to the Usuall

manner, and those Persons Appointed for Jurors are as

followeth.

1 Ripin Wills foreman

2 Robert Addis

3 John Cole

4 Thom[s] Perkins

5 Orlando Bagley

6 Henry Francis

7 Robert Bell

8 Thom[s] Yargen

9 Joshua Johnson

10 Charles Steward

11 John Robinson

12 William Beale who were all

Sworne, and

Then the Complaint and Declaration of Gabriell Powill

free holder was read against Richard Girling free holder

as followeth.

That

Margin Notes:

Court.

The Compl[t]

Rich[d] Girling

Island of St Helena. Court held at the United Castle in James Valley on Wednesday 2 September 1713 for the determination of several causes.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The court was opened in the usual manner. The persons appointed for jurors were:

1 Ripin Wills, foreman

2 Robert Addis

3 John Cole

4 Thomas Perkins

5 Orlando Bagley

6 Henry Francis

7 Robert Bell

8 Thomas Gargen

9 Joshua Johnson

10 Charles Steward

11 John Robinson

12 William Beale

All twelve were sworn.

The complaint and declaration of Gabriel Powill, freeholder, was then read against Richard Girling, freeholder, as follows:

Interpretations

The opening of the court and the empanelling of twelve jurors mirrors the procedural form first applied in the Powell against Beale's orphans trial of 18 October 1711. The court is convened at the United Castle rather than at the Sessions House used on that earlier occasion, indicating that the venue for jury trials had been brought within the seat of government. The compression of multiple causes into a single sitting, with a single jury, reflects the council's ordinary management of jury business across the present series.

Nine of the twelve jurors had received their deeds or leases at the delivery sitting of 4 August 1713: Wills, Addis, Cole, Bagley, Francis, Johnson, Steward, Robinson and Beale. The other three, Perkins, Bell and Gargen, were settled freeholders confirmed in earlier sittings. The composition placed the determination of contested causes in the hands of the same body of freemen whose own titles had just been settled by the council.

Ripin Wills as foreman held the senior position by reference to his ancient title to land originally allotted to William Black Cloud at the recapture from the Dutch in 1673, confirmed at the title day of 3 February 1713. Robert Bell, juror seven, was the mason who had bought the Belvird country plantation for £200 0s 0d on 24 July 1712, marking the integration of the freeholder-tradesman class into the panel. Charles Steward, juror ten, was the freeholder whose £20 0s 0d bill-of-exchange discrepancy had been ordered for adjustment on 9 December 1712 and whose lands had been confirmed at the title day of 15 January 1713.

The opening cause was Powill's complaint against Girling. Powill was the same Gabriel Powell of the Beale partition trial of 18 October 1711 and the consolidated estate buyer whose holdings had been the subject of repeated council business across the present sequence. Girling was the freeholder confirmed in his fenced land on 28 February 1712. The placing of their dispute at the head of the day's court, before the Wrangham declaration, the Carne dog-and-bull cause referred from the previous day's consultation and the Court of Orphans appointed by the advertisement of 15 August 1713, made the Powill matter the first item for jury determination.

Speculations

The selection of nine deed-holders out of twelve jurors, all of them confirmed in their titles within the past month, suggests that the council was choosing its jury principally from the body of freemen most directly interested in the orderly conduct of the registration programme. A jury so composed had a personal interest in upholding the procedural framework on which their own titles rested, which probably operated as a working assurance for the council that contested causes would be determined within the framework the council had been building.

The order of business, with the Powill complaint heard first, was probably arranged to dispose of the longest-standing contested matter before the jury turned to the day's remaining causes. The substance of the Powill complaint reached back to the mortgage arrangement of 6 July 1708 and through the marital successions of Charlesworth, Bowman, Hoskison and Powill, making it the oldest item of business before the court. Disposing of it first allowed the jury to address the more recent causes with the longer matter already settled.

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67

That whereas Capt[n] George Hoskison at the Time of his Depar-

ture off this Island in the Ship Albermarle did contrary to any

known custome and without the knowledge or Consent of his then

wife Mary Hoskison Sett and make over by way of Mortgage

45 Acres of Land (a Plantation Excepted) unto Rich[d] Girling for

and During the Naturall Life of the afores[d] Mary Hoskison paying

and yeilding therefore the Sume of Eleven Pounds Ten Shillings

yearly as (by a Short Instrum[t] of Writing bearing date the 6[t] day of

July 1708 may and doth more fully Appear.

Now forasmuch as the Said 45 Acres of Land with a

Dwelling House and Provisions haveing bin for many years past Peace-

ably Enjoyd by Josiah Charlesworth and at his decease bequeathed

between his Son John Charlesworth and the Complaihants Present wife

The Said John dying Soon after the whole Estate descended Immediately

after to her as next heir and So may be Properly Term[d] her Dowbery

and by marriage to John Bowman dec[d] the Same became at his

Sole Disposall, who by his Last Will and Testam[t] gave the Said 45

Acres of Land Nam[d] in Particular to his wife (now y[e] Complain[ts])

for & Dureing her Naturall Life with an Honest Designe and

Intent to be preserv[d] and Sett a Part from the rest of his Estate for

her own good and Bennefitt and that none might intermeddle or

Mollest her in the Quiete Possession thereof made her whole and

Sole Executrix to all and Singular his whole Estate not giveing the Least

Power to a Second Husband to Lett, Sett, or Mortgage that Estate or

any part thereof. And it's to be Presumd none can by any Lawfull

Act or Custom of this place unless by the Prevolty and free Consent of

his wife and if So it ought to Appear and be made Mannifest That She

was not anyway sweegled[?] or did it through fear, force or Threats but of

her own free and Voluntary Will otherwise the Complain[t] Humbly

Presumes its not binding or valid tho' her hand and Seale be to the

Lease, or Indenture of Mortgage which the Complain[t] moves as a plea

to quash the agreem[t] with his Predecessor and Said Richard Girling

and to Invalid the Same farther beggs Leave to Inform the Right Worship[ll]

Judge and Jurie that the Said Girling hath Oblig[d] himself to pay the

before mention[d] Sume of Eleven Pounds Ten Shillings Yearly which he has

not Perform[d] there being two years Rent due at this Time and therefore

a breach and forfeiture of Said agreement.

For

Margin Notes:

Gab[l] Powill

ag[t] Richard

Girling

Ditto

Continued.

Powill's complaint against Girling set out the following case.

When George Hoskison departed the island in the ship Albermarle, he had, contrary to any known custom and without the knowledge or consent of his then wife Mary Hoskison, made over by way of mortgage 45 acres of land to Richard Girling, the plantation being excepted. The mortgage was to run for the natural life of Mary Hoskison, with Girling paying £11 10s 0d yearly. The arrangement appeared more fully in a short instrument of writing dated 6 July 1708.

The complaint set out the title to the parcel. For many years past the 45 acres, with a dwelling house and provisions, had been peaceably enjoyed by Josiah Charlesworth. At his death he bequeathed the property between his son John Charlesworth and Powill's present wife. John Charlesworth died shortly afterwards and the whole estate descended immediately to her as next heir. The parcel could properly be termed her dower.

By her marriage to John Bowman, since deceased, the estate came at his sole disposal. By his last will and testament Bowman gave the 45 acres in particular to his wife, now Powill's wife, for her natural life. He had done so with the design and intent that the parcel be preserved and set apart from the rest of his estate for her own good and benefit, and that no person should intermeddle with or molest her in the quiet possession of it. He had made her his sole executrix to his whole estate, without giving any power to a second husband to let, set or mortgage that estate or any part of it.

Powill submitted that no person could, by any lawful act or custom of the island, mortgage the land in question unless by the genuine and free consent of his wife. If she had given such consent, it ought to appear and be made manifest that she had not been wheedled, and that she had not acted through fear, force or threats, but of her own free and voluntary will. Otherwise the lease or indenture of mortgage was not binding or valid, even though her hand and seal were affixed to it. Powill moved this as a plea to quash the agreement made by Girling with his predecessor, and to invalidate it.

He further begged leave to inform the judge and jury that Girling had bound himself to pay £11 10s 0d yearly, and had not performed. Two years' rent were due at this time, which Powill submitted was a breach and forfeiture of the agreement.

Interpretations

The complaint sets out a chain of title running through three marriages and an outright bequest. The substantive question for the jury is whether a husband could mortgage land that his wife held under the terms of an earlier husband's will. The argument turns on the distinction between an estate held in dower at common law, which a husband could administer during the marriage, and an estate held by separate devise from a former husband, which was preserved against the second husband's power of disposal. Dower at common law was the widow's customary right to one third of her deceased husband's lands for life; a life estate by devise was a separate creation by will, with the husband as devisor naming the wife as life tenant of specified land.

The Charlesworth-Bowman-Hoskison-Powill sequence carries the same 45 acres through four households in approximately fifteen years, each succession resting on the death of the prior holder and the remarriage of the widow. The complaint applies the term dower loosely to the parcel as it descended to her on John Charlesworth's death; the proper description of that descent would be inheritance rather than dower, since dower attached only to land held by the husband during the marriage. The term nonetheless marks the parcel as settled property of the widow, distinct from any later husband's general estate.

The two-year arrears claim attached to the consent argument gives Powill an alternative ground of recovery. If the mortgage stood as valid despite the contested consent, the arrears alone would forfeit it under the terms of the instrument. If the mortgage fell on the consent argument, the arrears claim became academic, since the whole arrangement would be void from the start. The pairing places Girling in a position from which neither defence carries the case for him without the other.

The reference to the wife having been wheedled, or having acted through fear, force or threats, identifies the test the court was to apply if the question of consent were reached. The complaint anticipated that the indenture would be produced bearing the wife's hand and seal, and prepared the ground for a challenge to the validity of that signature on the circumstances of its giving. The doctrine reflects the position in early modern English law that a married woman could not contract independently of her husband except in narrowly defined cases, and that signatures obtained from her by force or undue influence were liable to be set aside.

Speculations

The timing of the original mortgage on 6 July 1708, contrasted with the present trial five years later, indicates that the consequence of the mortgage to the wife had been postponed by her own marital position throughout that period. Mary Hoskison had remained married to George Hoskison until his death in March 1712, and had then married Powill. The action against Girling could not be brought during Hoskison's lifetime, since the property had been treated as under his control regardless of the circumstances of the original mortgage. The present action therefore represents the first practical opportunity, after two intervening events, to challenge the mortgage in court, and the two years' arrears bring the unpaid rent into the same window in which the right of action first opened.

The framing of the case as a question of free will and consent, despite the parcel being described as the wife's separate estate under Bowman's will, suggests that Girling was expected to produce the indenture with Mary Hoskison's signature upon it. The complaint anticipates that the document will bear her hand and seal and prepares for a substantive challenge to the conditions of signing before the indenture is laid before the jury. The strategy fixes the jury's attention on the manner in which the signature was obtained before the document itself is read.

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For all which reasons and Severall others besides theie

Detriment and Damage that the Complainant Suffers by the

Said Girlings being in Possession of Said Land. Humbly prays

that the Same may be Enquired into and whether the Said

Hoskison had any right to Mortgage the Land of his own afores[d]

and Contrary to any President on this Place, which if Allow'd may

in time prove of Ill consequence and render buisness Endless and

Troublesome.

The Complainant farther Prays that the Account between

Capt[n] Hoskison and Jonathan Beale Orphans as Likewise the

Acc[t] between him and William Finches Orphans may be Examin[d]

into and fairely Stated there being Severall Mallicious and unjust

Acc[ts] and Sums of money Laid to Said Hoskisons charge (as well as to

Some others) by former Goverment, otherwise the Said Complain[ts]

cant make a fair Account or Inventory of his the Said Hoskisons

Estate, nor know on what footing he Stands. All which

matter and cause the Complain[t] Leaves to y[e] Wise & Mature

Consideration and Judgment of the R[t] Worship[ll] Judge and

Councill together with the Gentlemen of y[e] Jurey

And as in Duty bound Shall Pray

&c[a]

To which the Defendant Richard Girling made reply, That

he has had the aforesaid 45 Acres of Land in his Possession

without any Mollestation for four years past and upwards and

has paid the Annuall Rent according to his agreement which

Produced in Writeing alledging farther that the Said Gabriell

Powills wife knew of her former Husband George Hoskisons

Letting him the Said Land and never made any objection

againsh it but on the contrary Seem'd well Enough Sattisfyd

till married to the Said Powill, whom y[e] Defendant pre-

sumes has no right to Sue for Said Land and that the

Said George Hoskison might Lett or Mortgage y[e] Same during

his wifes Life it being no prejudice to her (nor the Heir)

After Severall debates on both Sides the Jury with-

drew Desireing the perusall of the Said Gabriell Powills wife

first Husband John Bowmans Last Will and Testament

as also the agreem[t] made between George Hoskison & the Defendant

and

Margin Notes:

Acc[ts] between

M[r] Hoskison &

a Clue between him and William Finches

Orphans defaird

to be adjusted

by y[e] Complain[ts]

Gab[l] Powills

Rich[d] Girling

Defendant his

reply

debates heard

Jury

withdrew.

Powill submitted that, for these reasons and several others, including the detriment and damage he suffered through Girling's possession of the land, the court ought to inquire into the matter. The question was whether Hoskison had any right to mortgage the land in the manner described, contrary to any precedent on the island. If such a mortgage were allowed, it might in time prove of ill consequence and render business endless and troublesome.

Powill prayed further that the account between Captain Hoskison and the orphans of Jonathan Beale, and the account between Hoskison and the orphans of William French, be examined and fairly stated. Several malicious and unjust accounts and sums of money had been laid to Hoskison's charge by former government, as well as to some others. Until those accounts were cleared, Powill could not make a fair account or inventory of Hoskison's estate, nor know on what footing he stood. He left the matter to the mature consideration and judgment of the judge, council and jury.

Girling, the defendant, replied. He had held the 45 acres in his possession without any molestation for four years and upwards, and had paid the annual rent according to his agreement, which he produced in writing. He alleged further that Powill's wife had known of her former husband George Hoskison's letting him the land, and had never made any objection to it. She had, on the contrary, seemed well enough satisfied with the arrangement until she married Powill, whom Girling presumed had no right to sue for the land. Hoskison might let or mortgage the parcel during his wife's life, since the arrangement was no prejudice to her, nor to the heir.

After debate on both sides, the jury withdrew. They desired to peruse the last will and testament of John Bowman, the first husband of Powill's wife, and also the agreement made between Hoskison and Girling.

Interpretations

Powill's request that the Beale and French orphans' accounts against Hoskison be examined and fairly stated draws two of the principal contested orphan estates of the present series into the present cause as collateral matters. The Beale orphans' accounts had been the subject of the audit at the Court of Orphans of 25 September 1710 and had been carried forward through the Powell trial of 18 October 1711, with the order of 28 March 1711 charging John Alexander £22 9s 3d to complete the appraised value of the country house. The William French orphans' accounts had been before the Court of Orphans of 28 March 1711, with French as the seized planter and his children listed as beneficiaries of the estate seized on 7 January 1708. Powill's reference here opens both estates afresh, since he could not finalise the inventory of Hoskison's estate in right of his wife until both orphan claims had been cleared.

Girling's response rests on three grounds: peaceable possession for over four years with regular rent payment, the wife's contemporaneous knowledge without objection, and the principle that a husband might let or mortgage land during the wife's life. The first ground answers the breach claim, the second answers the consent claim, and the third answers the underlying authority claim. The defence sets the practical fact of payment and possession at the head, before the legal arguments, so as to invite the jury to weigh the reality of four years of tenure against the abstract question whether Hoskison had had the power to grant it.

The jury's withdrawal to peruse Bowman's will and the Hoskison-Girling agreement shows the procedural method by which a contested cause of this kind was brought to a determination. The two written instruments stood at opposite ends of the chain of title: the will fixed the position of the parcel before any subsequent marriage, and the agreement fixed it after Hoskison's intervention. The jury's request signals that they intended to read the two documents together and find whether the second was reconcilable with the first. The procedural step parallels the method used in the Powell-Beale jury trial of 18 October 1711, in which Jonathan Beale's will had similarly been placed in the jury's hands for direct reading.

Girling's silence on the categorisation of the property as dower or as separate estate, despite Powill's deployment of the term in the complaint, marks the strategy of declining to engage with the doctrinal classification. By restricting the defence to peaceable possession and Hoskison's general husbandly authority, Girling avoided the trap of conceding the parcel's status as separate estate of the wife, since any such concession would have weakened his position on the power of the husband to mortgage. The drafting met contested doctrine on the law of marital property with silence rather than direct contest, leaving the facts of possession and payment as the primary basis for decision.

Speculations

The bracketing of the Beale and French orphan accounts within the present cause, even though neither orphan estate is directly the subject of the dispute over the 45 acres, indicates that Powill was using the trial to clear his position as administrator in right of his wife of all the contested charges against Hoskison's estate. By inviting the council and jury to find that the malicious and unjust accounts had been wrongly laid to Hoskison's charge, Powill positioned himself to take over the management of his wife's interest in Hoskison's estate on a clean basis. The strategy reaches beyond the recovery of the 45 acres into the broader consequence of his marriage, namely the assumption of administration over an estate burdened with disputed orphan claims.

Girling's argument that the wife had seemed well enough satisfied with the mortgage until she married Powill probably reflects the assumption that a widow's challenge to her late husband's transactions arose only on her remarriage, when the new husband's interest in maximising the recoverable estate began to operate. The defence implicitly attributes the present action not to a settled grievance of the widow herself but to the calculation of the second husband. By placing the wife's apparent acquiescence at the foreground, Girling invited the jury to find that the supposed defect of consent was a construction of Powill's rather than a complaint of the widow herself, and that the present action was best understood as a remarriage-driven attempt to recover an estate that had been peaceably let for over four years.

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and Stayed out about half an hour, then returned their Verdict

as followeth.

That the before Named Capt[n] George Hoskison had

no Power or right to make over or Mortgage the aforesaid forty

five Acres of Land belonging to the Heir of John Bowman

without the foreknowledge and Consent of his wife it being

Express[d] in y[e] Said John Bowmans Last Will and Testam[t] That

the Said Land Should be and Remaine in his wifes Possession

Dureing her Naturall Life. Upon which

Ordered.

That the Defendant Richard Girling Deliver up the afores[d]

forty five Acres of Land with it[s] Appurtenances thereunto belonging

unto the Plaintiff Gabriell Powill and to pay charges of Co[ts].

Then the Declaration of Francis Wrangham freeholder was read

as followeth.

That his Grand father Job Jewster at the Time of his

decease Stood Possessed of a Dwelling House Scituate in James Valley

and dying Intestate the Said House with all other reale Estate fell

by due Course of Law to his daughter Neome[?] as being next Heir

who Some time afterward married with the Said Wranghams father

both Since dead, and Leaving but one Male Issue viz[t] The Said Francis

Wrangham doth deem himself the only and Lawfull Heir to the

aforesaid House it never having bin in the Possession of the Said Wranghams

father or by him any manner of way given or bequeathed or was the

Same Ever appraised into his Estate either at the Time of his decease

or Since Altho four Severall of his daughters Married and Each recieved

their Portions but remain[d] in the Possession of Mary the Said Job

Jewsters widdow till the time of her decease.

Wherefore the Said Francis Wrangham for the reasons aforesaid

Humbly Prays he may be admitted and Putt into quiete Possession

of Said House and Premises thereunto belonging notwithstanding

the unjust and unreasonable Claime thereto Laid by any Person

whatsoever

Margin Notes:

Jurys Verdict

Ord[r] of Court

Declaration of

Fra[s] Wrangham

ab[t] a House

formerly Mary

Jewsters.

The jury stayed out about half an hour and then returned their verdict, as follows.

George Hoskison had no power or right to make over or mortgage the 45 acres belonging to the heir of John Bowman without the foreknowledge and consent of his wife. It was expressly stated in John Bowman's last will and testament that the land should be and remain in his wife's possession during her natural life.

The court ordered Girling to deliver up the 45 acres, with the appurtenances belonging to them, to Powill, and to pay the costs of court.

The declaration of Francis Wrangham, freeholder, was then read, as follows.

His grandfather Job Jewster, at the time of his death, had stood possessed of a dwelling house in James Valley. Jewster had died intestate, and the house, with all his other real estate, had fallen by due course of law to his daughter Neome, as next heir. Some time afterwards she had married Wrangham's father. Both were now dead, and they had left only one male issue, the said Francis Wrangham. He deemed himself the only and lawful heir to the house. It had never been in his father's possession, nor had it been given or bequeathed by him by any means. Nor had it been appraised into his estate either at the time of his death or since, although four of his daughters had married and each had received their portions. The house had remained in the possession of Mary, the widow of Job Jewster, until her death.

For these reasons, Wrangham humbly prayed that he be admitted and put into quiet possession of the house and the premises belonging to it, notwithstanding any unjust and unreasonable claim laid by any other person.

Interpretations

The verdict establishes, as a settled principle, that a husband's general authority over his wife's land yielded to specific contrary terms in an earlier husband's testamentary disposition. Any planter contracting to take a mortgage of land formerly held under a deceased husband's will must first inspect that will and obtain the wife's express consent. The verdict therefore has consequences beyond the present parties, reaching every transaction in which a remarried widow's separate estate is offered as security.

The award of costs to Powill allocates the financial burden of the trial against Girling. His defence had rested on the reality of four years of peaceable possession with rent paid, but the jury found this insufficient to override the testamentary terms. The award follows the pattern visible in the smaller civil claims of the present series, by which costs followed the unsuccessful party regardless of his good faith.

The Wrangham declaration moves the court from contested marital property to contested intestate succession through three generations. Job Jewster died intestate; his daughter Neome took the real estate as next heir; she married and predeceased her husband, who has also died; the present Wrangham, as their only male issue, claims as next heir of his mother. The chain depends on the rule of descent applicable on the island, by which real estate of an intestate descended to the next heir at law rather than passing by the dower or curtesy interest of a surviving spouse. The continuous holding of the house by Mary Jewster through her long widowhood, until her own death, anchors the chain to the Jewster line independent of Wrangham's father.

The declaration's emphasis that the house never came into Wrangham's father's possession, nor was bequeathed or appraised into his estate at his death, anticipates a defence by parties claiming through the father's line. The point that four of his daughters had married and each received their portions, none drawn from the house, fixes the position that the father's daughters' portion accounts had treated the Jewster house as outside the father's estate. The contest to come will probably turn on the entitlement of those daughters or their husbands to a share in the house notwithstanding their having received their portions from other property.

Speculations

The jury's brief withdrawal of about half an hour to read the two written instruments and return a clear verdict indicates that the terms of John Bowman's will, once examined, settled the contest substantively notwithstanding the elaborate argument on the bench. The express provision that the land should remain in his wife's possession during her natural life appears to have resolved the matter for the jury, regardless of the practical considerations advanced in Girling's defence. The pattern indicates that on the island, contested matters involving written wills were determined principally by the terms of the document where those terms were clear, and that arguments based on the convenience of long undisturbed possession carried little weight against an unambiguous testamentary direction.

The placing of the Wrangham declaration immediately after the Powill verdict, in a single sitting of the court, probably reflects a deliberate decision by the council to set out two cases on related principles of property succession in immediate sequence. Both involved how property passed through a chain of marriages and deaths against the interest of one or more parties currently in possession. Hearing the cases together gave the jury a continuous opportunity to consider the law of succession, in a sitting that would also dispose of the Carne dog-and-bull cause referred from the previous day's consultation and the comprehensive Court of Orphans appointed by the advertisement of 15 August 1713.

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whatsoever under bare and frivolous Pretentions no ways at all

warrantable.

To which Declaration those Persons Interesed in the

Estate of Samuel Wrangham dec[d] by marriage with his

Daughters made an objection and reply, which after Severall

debates being Laid before the Jury they withdrew and Stayd

about a quarter of an Hour, then returned and Delivered

their verdict.

That the House Scituate in James Valley

formerly Job Jewsters and Lately in the Possession of Mary

Jewster his w[e] decead, be Divided in Equall Parts between

all the Children of Samuel Wrangham or their heirs, as the

rest of his Estate was according to his Last Will & Testament.

Whereas yesterday Thomas Southen Serj[t] Presented his Petetion

Seting forth that he had Suffered the Loss of a Bull by being Hunted

by Some of M[r] Carnes Familie viz[t] Richard Beale and Richard

Goodwin which the Said Carne refuseing to make Sattisfaction

for, the Claintiffe pray[d] he might be Compell[d] thereto haveing

proof that the Said Rich[d] Beale and Rich[d] Goodwin Satt

two Doggs at a Parcell of Cattle the Bull was among, & caus[d]

it to fall down a Steep Hill. Upon which the Said Carne

desired the Cause might be decided by the Jury this day who

haveing heard the Complaint read the Said Carnes reply thereto

and what could be Said on both Sides they withdrew and

Stayd about half an hour, then returned and Delivered their

verdict.

That the aforesaid George Carne make Serj[t] Southen

Sattisfaction for the Bull as he Should be Vallued by two

Indifferent men that knew the beast at y[e] Time twas Hunted

and killed by the Said Carnes doggs, and to pay all Charges.

Then the Acc[ts] of Jonathan Beals and William Frenches

Orphans was Examined into, and finding it very difficult

and Intricate upon Severall Debts paid and rec[d] as therein

charg[d] and not rightly Adjusted as we have reason to believe,

Ordered.

Margin Notes:

Ja[s] Defendants

objections &

reply.

Jury Verdict.

Serj[t] Southens

Compl[t] against

M[r] Carne.

debates heard

Jury Verdict.

Orph[s] Acc[ts]

Examined

and then

The persons interested in the estate of Samuel Wrangham deceased, through marriage with his daughters, raised an objection and reply to Wrangham's declaration. The arguments on both sides were laid before the jury. The jurors withdrew, stayed about a quarter of an hour, and returned with their verdict.

The house in James Valley, formerly Job Jewster's and lately in the possession of his widow Mary, was to be divided in equal parts between all the children of Samuel Wrangham, or their heirs, as the rest of his estate had been divided according to his last will and testament.

On the previous day, Thomas Southen, sergeant, had presented his petition. He set out that he had lost a bull to hunting by members of Carne's household, Richard Beale and Richard Goodwin. Carne had refused to make satisfaction. Southen prayed that Carne be compelled, on proof that Beale and Goodwin had set two dogs at a parcel of cattle among which the bull stood, and had caused it to fall down a steep hill.

Carne asked that the cause be decided by the jury on the present day. The jury heard the complaint, Carne's reply and the arguments on both sides. They withdrew, stayed about half an hour, and returned their verdict.

Carne was to make Southen satisfaction for the bull, the value to be set by two indifferent men who had known the beast at the time it was hunted and killed by Carne's dogs. Carne was also to pay all charges.

The accounts of the orphans of Jonathan Beale and William French were then examined. They were found to be very difficult and intricate in respect of several debts paid and received as charged, and were not rightly adjusted as the council had reason to believe.

The council ordered

Interpretations

The Wrangham verdict reverses the position taken in the declaration. Where Francis Wrangham had claimed the house as sole male heir on the ground that it had never been appraised into his father's estate, the jury found that it was to be divided in equal parts between all the children of Samuel Wrangham, in the same proportions as the rest of his estate under his will. The verdict treats the house as having descended from the mother into the father's estate by operation of law on the mother's death, regardless of whether the father had taken physical possession during his lifetime. Land coming to a wife as next heir of her father, and never alienated, vested by descent in her husband and from him in his testamentary estate, with the consequence that her brothers-in-law and their wives had taken an interest through their marriages to the daughters. The portion arrangement that had governed the rest of Samuel Wrangham's estate now governed the house.

The Carne verdict on the dog-and-bull cause settles the principle that a freeholder is liable for damage caused by his dogs to the livestock of another where the dogs have been set on by members of his household. The jury did not require proof that Carne himself had been present, nor that he had directed the boys, nor that the bull had been killed by direct impact of the dogs as distinct from the consequence of the chase. The act of two youths under Carne's care and tuition, set on with two of his dogs against cattle on steep ground, was sufficient to make Carne liable in damages. The doctrine extends the liability of the master for his slave, applied earlier in the present series to the stolen goods of 25 shillings, to liability for damage caused by youths in the master's care acting with the master's animals. Indifferent men was the standard phrase for impartial appraisers chosen for their familiarity with the property and lack of interest in the outcome.

The orphan-accounts examination, opened with the council's finding that the Beale and French accounts were very difficult and intricate and not rightly adjusted, brings on the Court of Orphans in its role as the final tribunal for orphan estate audits, as appointed by the advertisement of 15 August 1713. The accounts at issue are the same ones whose complexity has been before the council since the audit of 25 September 1710, the William French inventory and creditor schedule of 28 March 1711, and the protracted Beale partition order of 30 October 1711. The phrase as we have reason to believe records the council's judgement that the existing accounts contained matters wrongly entered, in line with Powill's complaint of the previous day that Hoskison's estate was charged with malicious and unjust accounts.

The combined pattern of the three verdicts in the day's court is consistent. In each case the jury accepted the underlying principle advanced by the moving party but adjusted the outcome to reflect the broader rights of the wider beneficiaries: in Powill the wife's separate estate prevailed, in Wrangham the wider testamentary scheme of Samuel Wrangham prevailed over the male-heir claim, and in Southen the bull's loss was to be valued by indifferent men rather than at the plaintiff's stated figure. The jury gave each plaintiff a recovery, but on terms that preserved the interests of all the affected parties rather than the maximum claim of any one.

Speculations

The brief quarter-hour withdrawal in the Wrangham cause, shorter than the half-hour taken in the Powill cause, indicates a confidence on the jury's part that the Wrangham testamentary scheme governed all the property of Samuel Wrangham, including any descended from his wife. The brief deliberation suggests that the jury did not regard the male-heir argument as carrying significant weight against the testamentary direction for equal division. The pattern is consistent with the position the jury had taken in the Powill cause, where a clear testamentary direction prevailed over a long-standing practical arrangement.

The decision that the bull be valued by two indifferent men, rather than at a figure named by Southen, probably reflects the calculation that the bull's condition as very poor and weak at the time of the chase had to be allowed for in fixing the damages. By referring the valuation to indifferent men who had known the beast at the time of the incident, the jury preserved Carne's substantive ground of defence within the frame of the award. The verdict gives Southen the recovery he sought in principle while protecting Carne from being charged with the value of a sound and healthy bull of the same breed, allocating the consequence of the bull's poor condition between the two parties rather than placing it wholly on either.

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Ordered.

That the Store Books be first Examin[d] into and all other

Accounts Depending with Said Orphans that the Same may be

Adjusted next Councill day or as Soon as Possible.

Then the Court was adjourn[d] according to usuall Custome.

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on

Tuesday the 13[th] day of Octob[r] 1713 At the

United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[er][r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] 16

Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason

John French Assist[ts]

Gabruell Powill freeholder made Complaint this day

by Petition Setting forth therein that Rinedus Snow Soldier

had falsly and Mallciously in a most Gross and Degradeing

Manner, in broaching and Scandalously reporting to divers

Persons that the Said Complainant did or attempted to heing

himselfe with a rope, and was Cutt down by a black man of his

thereby Stainning and takeing away the good Name Reputation

of

Margin Notes:

Referr'd.

Gab[l] Powills

Compl[t] against

R[d] Snow

The council ordered that the store books be examined first, and that all other accounts depending with the orphans be adjusted by the next council day, or as soon as possible.

The court was then adjourned according to the usual custom.

Island of St Helena. Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 13 October 1713.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Gabriel Powill, freeholder, made complaint by petition. He set out that Rinedus Snow, soldier, had falsely and maliciously, in a most gross and degrading manner, broadcast and scandalously reported to divers persons that Powill had hanged himself, or had attempted to hang himself, with a rope, and that he had been cut down by a slave of his. The report stained and took away the good name and reputation of

Interpretations

The council's order to examine the store books first, before the other accounts depending with the orphans, places the audit of the Beale and French orphan estates on the same footing as every other adjusted account on the island. The store books carried the entries by which Hoskison had charged himself with sums for the orphans' use, and constituted the baseline against which the malicious and unjust accounts alleged in Powill's complaint would be tested. Beginning there indicates that the council intended to verify the foundational entries before adjusting the derived claims, in a sequence that placed source documents ahead of summary accounts.

The Powill complaint against Snow concerns the law of slander as it operated on the island. Snow had spread a report that Powill had hanged himself, or attempted to do so, and that he had been cut down by a slave. The imputation carried damage of three combined elements: an act of self-destruction tending to felo de se under English common law, in which a man who killed himself forfeited his moveable goods to the Crown; the spiritual stigma of attempted suicide as an offence against divine law; and the social degradation of being saved by a slave of the accused's own household, reversing the proper hierarchy between master and slave at the moment of greatest dependence. The combination made the report defamatory of the most serious kind in early modern terms, and the petition's framing of it as staining and taking away the good name and reputation of the plaintiff identified the actionable consequence in the same terms used in English defamation pleadings of the period.

The slave-rescuer element gives the insight that a freeholder's reputation on the island could be damaged not only by allegations of his own conduct but by the imputed conduct of his slaves toward him. The proper hierarchy required that the master act and the slave obey; the reverse arrangement, in which the slave saved the master from death, inverted that hierarchy. The damage to Powill's name lay not only in the supposed attempt on his own life but in the supposed dependence on a slave to be rescued from it, with the consequence that two distinct strands of reputation were said to be injured by a single report.

The dating of the consultation on 13 October 1713, with the present complaint against Snow as its principal opening business, identifies the time-scale at which the council moved from one contested matter to the next. The Carne dog-and-bull verdict had been given on 2 September 1713; the orphan accounts examination had been adjourned to the next council day; six weeks have now passed before this consultation. The interval reflects the pace of council business under continued drought conditions, the comprehensive registration programme still being administered, and the need for the storekeeper and clerk to complete the examination of the store books before further determination of orphan business could proceed.

Speculations

The substantive opening of the present consultation with a slander complaint by Powill, made within six weeks of his successful recovery of the 45 acres from Girling, indicates that the consequence of the September verdict had been to expose Powill to the kind of public report that the present petition addresses. The reputational pressure of a small freeholder society probably operated against any freeholder who had succeeded in dispossessing a neighbour of long-held land, and Snow's report would have circulated more readily for that reason. The petition seeks to redirect the pressure of public talk away from the recovered acres and onto the soldier-source of the report, with the consequence that any further repetition of the slander would expose its author to the council's authority rather than be left to be checked by Powill's private response.

The choice of Snow, a soldier, as the named defendant rather than the divers persons among whom the report had circulated, indicates that Powill had identified the original source of the rumour and chose to proceed against the one most exposed to council discipline. Soldiers under continuing service to the Honourable Company were subject to the council's authority in a way that freeholders were not, and Snow's position in the garrison made him liable to military punishment in addition to any civil sanction. The strategic calculation is consistent with the pattern visible across the present series, by which freeholders pursued individual defendants whose particular relationship to the Company gave the council immediate disciplinary purchase, rather than the wider circle of repeaters of a report.

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72

of the Said Complain[t] to the great Grief and discontent of

him and family as well as a Probability of being Depriv[d]

and withdrawn from the Society and Company of Such

Honest People as he us'd to converse with by reason and

under Colour of the Said Snows false and Mallicious report

aforesaid.

Wherefore Humbly Prays the Premisses may be

maturely considered and Justice done him as the Nature of the

offence requires.

The Said Rinatys Snow being Present Says he

dont know but he might Say as the Said Powill hath Sett

forth in his Petition but with this difference that 'twas

not through his own Imagination or Mallice he having

heard it Spoken by Severall persons, Especially by Abram

Dorman Sold[r] That the Said Powill attempted to hang him-

self and was Cutt down by one of his blacks.

Abram Dorman being Sent for and askt how he came

to raise Such a Scandall of the Said Powill, Says he heard

Thomas Tompson Steward Say that he heard M[r] Powill had

Attempted to hang himself and was cutt down by one of his own

Blacks.

The Said Thomas Tompson was Sent for and Interrogated

who he heard Say the Said Powill had Attempted to hang him-

self made answer he heard it Publickly talkt of by Severall

both within and without the Castle but cant remember who

he heard Aks Say So, unless twas Joseph Bates, who being Sent

for Says he heard Such discourse as aforesaid of y[e] Said Powills

hanging himself by Severall Persons as Brome and others as

they were Standing at the Castle Gate.

Upon consideration of the Scandall aforesaid being broacht

and talkt of among the Generality of the People and no Per-

ticular or Proper Author being found Snow having clear[d]

himself and the Last Person that is found to talk most of Said

Scandall and telling it openly Especially to y[e] aboves[d] Dorman

and others is the Said Thomas Tompson, who being asx[?]

Misjudicature

Margin Notes:

Snows reply

Evidence

Ditto

Tompson found

the agressor

[...] [...]

Powill set out that the report caused great grief and discontent to him and his family, and threatened to deprive him of the society and company of the honest people with whom he was used to converse, by reason of Snow's false and malicious report.

He humbly prayed that the premises be maturely considered and justice done him as the nature of the offence required.

Rinatys Snow, being present, said he did not know but he might have said as Powill had set out in his petition, with this difference: that it had not come from his own imagination or malice, since he had heard it spoken by several persons, and especially by Abram Dorman, soldier. Dorman had reported that Powill had attempted to hang himself and had been cut down by one of his slaves.

Abram Dorman was sent for and asked how he had come to raise such a scandal of Powill. He said he had heard Thomas Tompson, steward, say that he had heard Powill had attempted to hang himself and had been cut down by one of his own slaves.

Thomas Tompson was sent for and asked who he had heard say that Powill had attempted to hang himself. He answered that he had heard it publicly talked of by several persons, both within and without the castle, but could not remember who had said so, unless it was Joseph Bates. Bates was sent for. He said he had heard such discourse of Powill's hanging himself from several persons, including Brome and others, as they were standing at the castle gate.

The council considered that the scandal had been broached and talked of among the generality of the people, with no particular or proper author found. Snow had cleared himself, and the last person traced as talking most of the scandal, especially to Dorman and others, was Thomas Tompson.

Interpretations

The method by which the council traced the chain of repetition exposes the institutional response to slander in a small settled community. The complaint named Snow as the soldier-source of the report against Powill; Snow named Dorman; Dorman named Tompson; Tompson named Bates; Bates named Brome and others at the castle gate. Each questioning of a named person was conducted in the council's presence with the previous link brought before it, and each defendant was free to clear himself by identifying a prior source. The procedure converted the council into a tracing-back court for collective rumour, and the chain ran for at least five persons without arriving at a fixed author. The consequence was that no single defendant could be held as the originator of the report, but the council could identify the most active repeater as the person whose conduct had given the rumour its currency.

Tompson's identification as the aggressor, on the ground that he had been telling the scandal openly to Dorman and others, settles the council's approach to slander where no original author can be traced. The doctrine treated the principal repeater as the offender for purposes of council discipline, regardless of whether he had invented the report or had heard it first from another. The result places the liability for rumour on its most visible carrier rather than on its untraceable origin, and creates an incentive for the population to suppress repetition of damaging reports they have heard rather than rely on the defence that the reports came from elsewhere.

The position of Thomas Tompson as steward placed him in a role of considerable visibility on the establishment. The castle steward had charge of the household provisioning, hospitality and accounts, with daily contact with the soldiers of the garrison, the servants of the establishment and visiting freeholders. The Joseph Tompson named earlier in the present series as a witness to deeds and wills, who has appeared since 27 November 1711, may be the same man here holding the steward's office, or alternatively a separate brother or kinsman. A steward in the position of an early eighteenth-century governor's household held an office of trust comparable to that of a butler or major-domo, with responsibility for the daily food, drink and lodging of the establishment.

The reference to the castle gate as the place where Bates had heard the discourse from Brome and others identifies the same physical location at which the soldier-recruitment for the July conspiracy had taken place on 6 July 1713, when John Lane had pressed John Davis to fetch his musket. The castle gate operated as the forum of garrison gossip, where soldiers passing in and out of duty stopped to talk and where reports of every kind, from grievances about cheese rations to imputations against principal freeholders, circulated freely. The council's tracing of the present slander to the castle gate confirms that the place was the centre of unregulated information exchange on the establishment.

Speculations

The chain of five named repeaters traced through the council's questioning, with each person able to identify the next link back, indicates that the report had circulated for some time before reaching Powill's notice. The structure of the questioning, with each link saying he had heard it from the next named person, shows that the report had passed through the garrison and freeholder circles with sufficient repetition for the chain of transmission to be reconstructible. The absence of any clear original source, despite the chain being traceable for at least five repetitions, suggests that the report had probably begun as a domestic incident within Powill's household that had been observed or surmised by one of his slaves or servants, and then leaked into general conversation through channels that the questioning could not reach without examining the domestic establishment of the plaintiff.

The decision of Tompson to identify Joseph Bates, with the qualification unless twas Joseph Bates, indicates that Tompson was attempting to comply with the council's requirement to name a source while preserving the possibility of retraction. The hedged identification placed the onus on Bates without committing to a definite charge, and gave Tompson the option of saying, if Bates denied it, that he had merely supposed Bates to be the source. The pattern is consistent with the pressure under which a witness gave evidence before the council, with the requirement to be useful to the institution balanced against the risk of being held to a false attribution. The finding of Tompson as the aggressor turns on the substance of his conduct as the most active repeater, rather than on his ability to name a definite source.

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Inoffencive harmless Civill man, and not given to upbraid or Staine

any Persons reputation and being Sorry he Should talk So much for-

geting who he heard Speak the words aforesd

Ordered.

That the Said Thomas Tompson ask the Said Powills Pardon

Publickly and all Persons Strictly forbidden to upbraid the Said

Powill with the Scandall aforesaid upon Pain of being Proceeded against

and to Suffer Accordingly.

Whereas Jonathan Beals Orphans haveing Severall Accounts and

Sums of money due to them from the Estate of George Hoskison

deceasd which for Some years has Laine unadjusted or brought into

a Proper method Sufficient to give the Said Orphans a true Idea of

their Just Demands. It is therefore

Ordered.

That M[r] Carne Guardian to Richard Beale and Gabriell

Powill who hath married the Said Hoskisons wid[w] Do Each of

them make Choice of two Honest men to Examine into and State

the Said Orphans accounts Depending w[th] the Said Hoskison or any

other Person between this day, and y[e] 20[th] of Novemb[r] next ensueing

Present y[e] Same Methodiz'd, to Govern[r] and Councill, the Councill

day following that y[e] whole Acc[ts] may be Enterd according[ly]

to prevent ffrauds or any farther Dispute on this Matter.

William Coales free planter Presented his Petition Seting forth

therein That he Stood Indebted unto the Honoura[ble] Company a greater

Sum of money then He Should be able to Pay in many years, Espe-

cially at this unhappy time of Drought and Death of Cattle &c[a]

besides other Sums of money due to Severall Persons for Necesaries

for his wife Lately deceas[d] Sickness his Long and Changable Sickness

which has reduced him to a very Low and Deplorable Con-

dition, Insomuch he and his four Small Children is ready

to

Margin Notes:

ask M[r] Powills

Pardon &c

none to upbraid

him.

Beals Orphans

Acc[ts] unadjusted

The Same to be

Examin'd & Stated

by two Honest

men.

and then brought

into Gov[r] [...] [...]

Will[m] Coales repre-

sent his Poor

Condition

Tompson was acknowledged by the council to be an inoffensive, harmless, civil man, not given to upbraiding any person or staining a reputation. He expressed sorrow that he should have talked so much, having forgotten who had spoken the words to him.

The council ordered Tompson to ask Powill's pardon publicly. All persons were strictly forbidden to upbraid Powill with the scandal in question, on pain of being proceeded against and suffering accordingly.

The orphans of Jonathan Beale had several accounts and sums of money due to them from the estate of George Hoskison deceased. The accounts had lain unadjusted for some years and had not been brought into any proper method sufficient to give the orphans a true idea of their just demands.

The council ordered that Carne, as guardian to Richard Beale, and Powill, as the present husband of Hoskison's widow, each choose two honest men. The four were to examine and state the orphans' accounts depending with Hoskison or any other person, between the present day and 20 November 1713. They were to present the same methodised to the Governor and Council on the council day following, so that the whole accounts might be entered accordingly, to prevent frauds or any further dispute on the matter.

William Coales, free planter, presented his petition. He set out that he stood indebted to the Honourable Company in a greater sum of money than he should be able to pay in many years. The present unhappy time of drought and death of cattle made his position worse. Other sums were due to several persons for the necessaries of his wife's late illness before her death, and for his own long and unstable sickness. The combination had reduced him to a very low and deplorable condition. He and his four small children were ready

Interpretations

The remedy ordered against Tompson, that he ask Powill's pardon publicly, applies the sanction of public retraction as the principal mechanism of slander redress on the island. The order operates as a substitute for monetary damages, on the understanding that public acknowledgement by the most active repeater would unwind the circulation of the rumour more effectively than any financial penalty. The general prohibition against any person upbraiding Powill with the scandal, on pain of being proceeded against, extends the council's authority over future repetitions, so that the order serves both as a remedy for past damage and as a forward-looking restraint on continued talk.

The appointment of four honest men, two chosen by Carne as guardian and two by Powill as the husband of Hoskison's widow, sets up the audit procedure for the Beale orphans' accounts on a contradictory basis. Each side nominates appraisers, the four sit together, and the methodised account is presented to the council for entry. The mechanism replaces the previous pattern, by which the council had attempted to determine the accounts directly, with an external commission whose two pairs of appraisers stand for the two competing interests. The arrangement parallels the two indifferent men used in the bull valuation of 2 September 1713, but doubles the number to give each side an equal voice. The phrase methodised means brought into ordered form, with debits and credits arranged on a systematic basis rather than presented as an unstructured running list.

The deadline of 20 November 1713, with presentation on the council day following, places the audit on a six-week timetable. The interval is brief by the standards of the present orphan estates, which had lain unadjusted since the audit of 25 September 1710 and through the subsequent proceedings, but reflects the judgement that the time for indeterminate delay had passed. The phrase to prevent frauds or any farther Dispute on this Matter records the purpose explicitly, namely that further delay was itself the source of the difficulty, since each year that passed without settlement gave further opportunity for malicious and unjust accounts to be entered against the estate.

The William Coales petition opens a fresh line of business that bears on the consequence of the drought and the death of cattle. Coales identifies three combined causes of his deplorable condition: the original Company debt that exceeded his capacity to pay; the additional charges arising from his late wife's sickness; and his own long and unstable sickness. The combination places him as a case of the small freeholder reduced to dependency by the drought, with the four small children naming the household at risk. The same William Coales had been confirmed in 20 acres at the title day of 29 March 1711, taking the freehold formerly held by his late father Henry Coales through John Worrall from Black Oliver, and had received a twelve-month fencing extension on 9 January 1712 on the ground of his sick wife, several small children, and lack of slaves. The present petition therefore brings before the council the same household that had been on the margin for at least two years before the drought began.

Speculations

The pairing of the Tompson order with the Beale orphans' audit, in the same consultation that opens with the Powill slander complaint, indicates that the council was moving through a connected sequence of business arising from Powill's marriage to Mary Hoskison. The slander against Powill, the orphans' accounts against the Hoskison estate of which Powill is the administrator in right of his wife, and the four-man commission to settle those accounts all bear on Powill's position as the new master of the Hoskison household. The council's priority appears to be the orderly consolidation of all matters concerning Powill into definite settled outcomes, with the slander redressed by public apology and the accounts referred to a fixed timetable, so that the broader management of the consolidated estate can proceed without further interruption from collateral disputes.

The choice to require nomination of honest men by each side, rather than to appoint the appraisers itself, probably reflects the council's judgement that its prior determinations of the Beale orphans' accounts had produced contested outcomes, and that a commission named by the parties themselves would carry greater authority with both sides. The arrangement places the responsibility for the appraisal back on the parties whose interests are at stake, and removes the council from the role of judge in its own previous determinations. The same consideration had probably underlain the choice of a jury of freeholders to determine the Beale partition and the Powill mortgage causes of recent proceedings, and now extends from the determination of contested causes to the appraisal of contested accounts.

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to Starve haveing no Provision nor wherewith to buy any

Wherefore Humbly prays he may be Employ[d] as a Carpenter

in the Service of the Honourable Company haveing a good

Genious and Insight in that trade, by which hopes to Pay

his Said Debt in a Little Time and put into a better Condi-

tion to Provide for his familie than otherwise could Expect

or pretend to.

Upon Consideration of the Said William Coales poor

and Miserable Condition and that he is a Sober quiet man.

Ordered.

That his request be granted allowing him four Shillings

per day finding himself dyett.

William Slaughter Serj[t] Presented his Petition this day

Setting forth That he having but fifteen Acres of Leased

Land and Severall Children to bring up and Maintaine

he Cannot with the greatest care and Industry raise Provisions

Enough for their Subsistance Wherefore Humbly Prays we

would take the Same into Consideration and to grant him

about Ten Acres of the Honoura[ble] Companys Waste Land Ly-

ing in Powles Valley to make Plantation on.

The Petitioner is answered that having had Severall Persons

as well as himself Petition[d] formerly for this Same Peice of

Land which if Lett would be very Prejudiciall to the neigh-

borhood and cause many disputes therefore thought fitt

and Accordingly once more.

Ordered.

That the aforesaid Peice of Land Petition[d] for by the said

William Slaughter Ly Common for the Publick good but

if he can Petch upon any other Land that wont Prejudice

any Person he may have a grant thereof for the Bennefitt

of his familie.

Samuel.

Margin Notes:

and Prays to be

Employ[d] as a

Carpenter &c[a]

allowed as Such

4 [...] p[er] day

Serj[t] Slaughters

requests to hire

Land

reasons to

reject y[e]

Same

Coales added that he and his four small children were ready to starve, having no provisions and nothing with which to buy any. He humbly prayed that he be employed as a carpenter in the service of the Honourable Company, having a good understanding and insight in that trade. By his employment he hoped to pay his debt in a little time, and to put himself in a better condition to provide for his family than he could otherwise expect.

The council considered Coales's poor and miserable condition, and that he was a sober and quiet man.

The council ordered the request granted, allowing him four shillings per day, finding himself his diet.

William Slaughter, sergeant, presented his petition. He set out that he had only fifteen acres of leased land and several children to bring up and maintain. With the greatest care and industry he could not raise enough provisions for their subsistence. He humbly prayed that the council take the matter into consideration and grant him about ten acres of the Honourable Company's waste land in Powles Valley, to make a plantation.

The council answered that several persons besides Slaughter had formerly petitioned for the same piece of land. To let it would be very prejudicial to the neighbourhood and cause many disputes. The council therefore thought it fit, and ordered, once more, that the piece of land Slaughter had petitioned for lie common for the public good. If he could find any other piece of land that would not prejudice any person, he might have a grant of it for the benefit of his family.

Interpretations

The award to Coales at four shillings per day, finding his own diet, fixes the rate for a free planter with a good understanding of the carpenter's trade at the level between the standard hired-slave rate of one shilling and sixpence and the specialist craftsman ceiling of six shillings set on the same council day by Cleve and Shrove. The award places Coales in a middle category, neither indentured labourer nor specialist contracted from England, but a free planter taken into employment on relief grounds. The phrase finding himself dyett, meaning supplying his own food, distinguishes the rate from the higher rates of Cleve and Broome, both of whom received diet at the Company's table. The differential of two shillings between the with-diet and without-diet rate, set against the present rate, indicates the value the council placed on board at the establishment.

The Coales arrangement converts the petitioner's position from that of a debtor charged on the store books to that of a servant of the Company drawing pay against which his debt can be reduced. The mechanism applies the principle of the 9 July 1713 advertisement, by which indebted soldiers were offered fortification labour at 1s 6d per day with their pay applied to their debt, to a free planter on relief grounds. The consequence is that Coales transfers from the freeholder side of the establishment to the labour pool, with his store account converted from a static deficit into a running ledger against which his daily wages will be credited.

The Slaughter refusal carries forward the principle, applied to Orchard on 4 August 1713 in respect of the Pigeon Rocks parcel, that the council retained certain pieces of Company waste land against private grant where the interest of the neighbourhood required them to remain in common. The present case extends the principle from a Company programme of cultivation, in Orchard's case the lemon garden, to a general interest in keeping certain parcels open as common ground for the public good. The phrase the public good, used in the present consultation as the ground for the refusal, marks the council's first explicit reference to public benefit as the test for retaining Company waste land in common, as distinct from the interest of the Company's own herds or programmes.

The repetition of the rejection, with the council noting that several persons besides Slaughter had formerly petitioned for the same piece, indicates that the pressure on this particular parcel had reached the point at which the council needed to settle its retention in common on a permanent footing. The decision to declare the parcel common for the public good, rather than merely to deny the present application, fixes the status of the land against future applications by any planter. The mechanism preserves the principle of Slaughter's invitation to find any other parcel that would not prejudice any person, but removes the Powles Valley parcel from the pool of grantable waste land.

Speculations

The choice of four shillings per day for Coales, fixed without diet, probably reflects the council's judgement of the rate at which the labour of a sober free planter as carpenter could be obtained on the island during the drought. The award reaches a level above the hired-slave rate but well below the specialist contracted craftsmen, and provides a ceiling for relief employment of free planters. The rate gives Coales a daily wage of approximately one pound four shillings per six-day week, against which the cost of feeding his household, including his four small children, would have to be set. The arrangement places the practical burden of survival on Coales's ability to manage his earnings, with the council having converted the static problem of a starving family into an employment relation.

The repeated pressure on the Powles Valley parcel, with several previous applications, indicates that the parcel had a particular advantage of soil, water or access that made it more desirable than other unimproved waste land. The council's refusal to grant it to any single planter, despite repeated applications, probably reflects a calculation that the benefit of its remaining in common was greater than the benefit of letting it to any one individual. The principle is consistent with the pattern visible in the High Peak and Old Woman's Valley refusals of 9 December 1712, in which valuable dry-weather pasture was reserved against the interest of any single petitioner.

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Samuell Brome, Thomas De La Rose writers, John

Hoskison Surgeons mate Richard Cleve Joyner Thomas Thompson

Steward and Andrew Bergh Cooper and Coxswaine

constantly at the Honourable Companys Lower Table Pre-

Petition this day Setting forth the great want and Necessi[y]

in for a Little Liquor to drink at meal times to their

Comfort their Sperits in this time of Scarcity and b[?]

Provision, Upon Consideration of the hardships

at Present and for Some time past hath undergon[e]

of the Scarcity of Provision.

Ordered.

That the aforesaid Persons be allowed the quantity of [...]

quarts Arrack among them all each day & three [...]

[...] and Eight.

Jonathan Doveton and others Executors of R[d]

Leech dec[d] Petition[d] this day Setting forth that being about

[...] [...] [...] [...] [...] the Inventory of the Said Deceased his Estate

[...] [...] [...] [...] Acc[ts] to make up and adjust w[th] the O[t]

William French Humbly pray that an order may be made

to have the Said Orphans Effects vallued or Sold at Auction in

order of knowing the Dowdens belonging to y[e] Said Robert

Leeches Widdow, one of the Said William ffrenchs Orphans

The Said Jonathan Doveton Executor to his dec[d] father William

Doveton Estate Presented a Petition representing in behalf

of Elizabeth Doveton Orphan That Some time Since, She was put

out as a maid Servant to Hugh Bodley for terme of y[e] years with a

Sume of money but She not Liking his Service he being very Morose

and uns[?]ing her beyond measure quitted his Service and haveing

bin from him Some years by order and Consent of y[e] Govern[r] Roberts

Humbly Prays that the Said Sume of money may be repaid

into his hands for the use of the Said Elizabeth Doveton, but

He[?]

Margin Notes:

Sev[ll] Persons desire

an allowance of

Liquor

for reasons

Granted

Rob[t] Leeches Estate

to be Effects Vallued

or Sold at au[ction]

by y[e] Exe[ts] to

be Sold.

Jon[a] Dovetons

request to have

[...] repaid by

Hugh Bodley

[...] [...] [...]

Samuel Brome and Thomas De La Rose, writers; John Hoskison, surgeon's mate; Richard Cleve, joiner; Thomas Thompson, steward; and Andrew Bergh, cooper and coxswain, all constantly at the Honourable Company's lower table, presented a joint petition. They set out the great want and necessity for a little liquor to drink at meal times, to cheer and comfort their spirits in this time of scarcity and dearness of provisions.

The council considered the hardship the petitioners had been undergoing at present, and for some time past, by reason of the scarcity of provisions.

The council ordered the petitioners allowed the quantity of two quarts of arrack among them all each day, to their victuals, noon and night.

Jonathan Doveton and others, the executors of Robert Leech deceased, petitioned. They were preparing the inventory of his estate and had accounts depending to make up and adjust with the orphans of William French. They humbly prayed that an order be made for the orphans' effects to be valued or sold at auction, in order to determine the share belonging to Leech's widow, one of the William French orphans.

Jonathan Doveton, executor of his deceased father William Doveton's estate, presented a petition on behalf of Elizabeth Doveton, orphan. Some time before, she had been put out as a maidservant to Hugh Bodley for a term of years, with a sum of money. She had not liked the service, Bodley being very morose and using her beyond measure. She quitted the service and had been from him some years, by order and consent of Governor Roberts. Doveton humbly prayed that the sum of money be repaid into his hands for the use of Elizabeth Doveton.

Interpretations

The award of two quarts of arrack daily to the six men of the lower table, divided between them to their victuals at noon and night, fixes the institutional ration at approximately one third of a pint per man per meal. The composition of the petitioners exposes the hierarchy of the lower table. Brome and De La Rose are the writers under the clerk and storekeeper, drawn from the soldier-trade pool; Hoskison is the surgeon's mate appointed on 8 April 1712; Cleve and Thompson hold their offices under direct Company instruction with diet allowance; Bergh combines the trades of cooper and coxswain. The group represents the middle stratum of the establishment, neither senior councillors nor common soldiers, and the formal grant of a daily ration to them marks the council's recognition that this body had a definable institutional standing entitled to a defined allowance. The lower table was the dining establishment of the Honourable Company at the United Castle, served at a tier below the general table at which the Governor, council and assistants took their meals, and provided the daily diet allowance attached to specified Company offices.

The Leech executors' order concerns the method by which the effects of an orphan beneficiary, embedded in a deceased planter's estate, were to be converted into a clear share. Robert Leech had been confirmed in 14 acres through his marriage to Mary French on 25 September 1711, the parcel having been seized from George Hoskison's holdings as part of the French orphans' entitlement; he had since died and his will had been proved in late August 1712 with Jonathan Doveton as one of the executors. His widow Mary remains identified as one of the William French orphans, so her share in the wider French estate now passes through Leech's executors to her. Sale at auction follows the principle of conversion already applied in the Hoskison and Belvird estates, by which non-cash assets were reduced to a sterling sum that could be cleanly allocated among multiple claimants. The mechanism allows the distinction between the widow's individual share and the residual orphans' share to be made on a definite financial basis rather than left to be fought out over the condition of particular cattle, slaves or provisions.

The Doveton petition for the return of money paid for Elizabeth Doveton's apprenticeship to Hugh Bodley brings before the council the same arrangement that had been refused on 9 December 1712, when Bodley had then petitioned for her return and the council had recorded that Governor Roberts had removed her from him for being too severe. The present petition takes the matter to its financial conclusion. The money originally paid in for the apprenticeship had remained with Bodley despite the termination of the service, and the council is now asked to require repayment for the benefit of the orphan. The principle is that money paid as consideration for a contracted service forfeits its character on termination of the service through the fault of the receiving party, with the consequence that the orphan recovers the original capital sum even though the apprenticeship has not run its full course.

The reference to Bodley as very morose and using her beyond measure carries forward the ground stated on 9 December 1712 that Roberts had removed her for severity. The phrase places Bodley's conduct in the same category as the cruelty test applied in English apprentice law of the period, by which a master's ill-usage gave the apprentice the ground for discharge from the service. The order is consistent with the pattern established by Roberts's earlier removal, which is here cited to support the continuity of the council's approach across two successive governments.

Speculations

The choice of the six named petitioners to bring the liquor application as a joint petition, rather than for each man to apply separately, indicates an understanding of the lower table as a defined institutional category whose members shared a common interest and a common claim. The composition crosses the trades of writing, medicine, joinery, stewardship and cooperage, but unifies them by their constant attendance at the lower table. The petition therefore advances a claim that no individual office could properly raise on its own, namely that the establishment recognise a middle stratum entitled to a daily ration on the same general principle that the general table received its supply. The council's grant of the ration in the form of a fixed quantity divided among the named men confirms the lower table as a defined collective with collective entitlements.

The timing of the Doveton petition for return of Elizabeth Doveton's apprenticeship money, brought ten months after Bodley's failed application to recover the girl, suggests that Doveton's strategy had been to allow time to pass after Bodley's defeat before pressing the financial claim. The interval ensured that the question of the girl's actual return had been finally settled before the question of the consideration money was raised, with the consequence that Bodley could no longer argue for retention of the funds on the ground of a possible future resumption of the service. The phased approach to the recovery is consistent with the practice visible in other contested matters of the present series, by which the principal question is resolved first and the financial consequences pursued in a subsequent application.

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the Said Hugh Bodley being now dec[d] the Petitioner desires

to know by what means or of whom he may Recover the

Said Sume Whereupon

Ordered.

That when the Said Bodleys Estate is Vallied and

all Accounts Stated, if any overplus after the Companys

Store debt is paid the Remainder to Sattisfie y[e] Creditors

as fair as twill allow, and in the meanwhile the Widdow

to be Sent to in order of Appearing before us to know She

intends to pay the Said Honoura[ble] Companys Store debt.

Thomas Burnham presented an Acc[ot] of Seventeen

Pounds Eleven Shillings for work he had Lately furnish[d]

in fencing in Some part of the Hutts Plantation which

haveing bin measured and Sein[d] by Lieut[t] Cason and found

good.

Ordered.

That the Said Thomas Burnham have Credit in

his Acc[ot] for the Sume aforesaid.

The Governour made a Demand of the monthly Acc[ot]s

for all Goods Sold and Deliverd out of the Hono[ble] Comp[s]

Stores, to which M[r] Bazett answer'd he would gett all

Acc[ot]s from the 25 of Aprill Last to the 25 Instant Ready

by next Councill day, which the Governor desired might

be perform'd without Excuse or farther delay.

Thomas Free in the behalf of the Heir of Daniel Griffith

Appeared this day with a bill of Sale for Ten Acres of Land

Purchased by the Said Griffith of Gabriell Powill Lying

at a Place known by the Name of the Bursleg beds which

the Said Powill held in right of his first wife Margaret

Beale and by Lott fell to him upon Diversion of the whole

Estate, according to the Determination of a Jury of Twelve

men

Margin Notes:

Bodley Compy

dead.

p[r] [...] debt to be

p[d] of Effects Sold

the Wid[w] Sent to

to Pay y[e] Comp[s]

Burnhams bill

for fencing.

to have Credit

Inv[s] Acc[ots]

Demanded.

Title proved to

  1. Acres Land

belonging to

Dan[l] Griffiths

Heir.

Hugh Bodley being now deceased, Doveton wished to know by what means or from whom he might recover the sum.

The council ordered that, once Bodley's estate had been valued and all accounts stated, any overplus remaining after the Honourable Company's store debt had been paid was to satisfy the creditors as far as it would allow. In the meantime, the widow was to be sent for to appear before the council, so that the council might know how she intended to pay the Honourable Company's store debt.

Thomas Burnham presented an account of £17 11s 0d for work he had lately furnished in fencing part of the Hutts plantation. The work had been measured and viewed by Lieutenant Cason, and was found good.

The council ordered Burnham credited with the sum in his account.

The Governor demanded the monthly accounts for all goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores. Bazett answered that he would have all accounts from 25 April 1713 to the 25th of the present month ready by the next council day. The Governor desired that this be done without excuse or further delay.

Thomas Free, on behalf of the heir of Daniel Griffith, appeared with a bill of sale for ten acres of land. The land had been purchased by Griffith of Gabriel Powill, and lay at a place known as the Bursley beds. Powill had held the parcel in right of his first wife Margaret Beale, and it had fallen to him by lot on the division of the whole estate, according to the determination of a jury of twelve

Interpretations

The order on the Bodley estate sets out the priority of claims against a deceased free planter's estate. The Honourable Company's store debt stands first, with all creditors taking the remainder in such proportion as the estate would allow. The widow is to appear before the council to state how she intends to pay the Company debt, with the consequence that her own continuation in the estate, including any dower or testamentary interest, is conditional on her producing the means for the Company to be paid. The principle is the same as that applied to Hugh Bodley senior on 4 August 1713, where the standing provisions had been ordered exposed to public sale for payment of the Company debt, and is now applied to the deceased Hugh Bodley's estate as a whole rather than only the growing crop.

The Burnham fencing payment, at £17 11s 0d for fenced work measured and viewed by Lieutenant Cason, gives a benchmark for the price of fencing on Company plantations. Cason held the oversight of the consolidated plantation estate under his appointment of 8 April 1712, and his viewing and approval of the work was the formal step required before credit was entered on the contractor's store-book account. The arrangement converts fencing labour by a free planter into a credit against the planter's own store account, rather than a cash payment, and so brings the small contractor into the same store-book pattern that applies to other recoverable charges between the Company and the islanders.

The Governor's demand for the monthly accounts from 25 April 1713 to the present 25 October exposes the state of the storekeeper's accounts under Bazett's stewardship. The interval of six months without monthly returns indicates that Bazett had fallen significantly behind in the regular submission required since the 25 November 1712 order. Bazett's promise to have all six monthly accounts ready by the next council day, with the Governor requiring performance without excuse or further delay, places the council's oversight of the principal officer in charge of the store on a directly enforced footing. The same Bazett had been dismissed on 2 October 1712 for neglect of business, and the present demand suggests that the pattern leading to that dismissal has been recurring since his restoration in December 1712.

The Free petition on behalf of Daniel Griffith's heir brings before the council the consequence of the Beale partition completed under the order of 18 October 1711. The 10 acres at the Bursley beds had fallen by lot to Gabriel Powill at that division, and Powill had subsequently sold the parcel to Daniel Griffith. Griffith had died on 6 May 1712, and the present application concerns his heir's title to the parcel. Thomas Free, the dismissed clerk who had married Griffith's widow Sarah on 4 June 1713, appears here as the representative of the heir's interest, with the title to be confirmed on production of the bill of sale. The parcel is the Pursley Bed of the 30 October 1711 partition; the Bursley beds in the present consultation render the same place.

Speculations

The delay of six months in Bazett's store accounts, ordered to be produced by the next council day, probably reflects the difficulty Bazett faced in reconstructing the entries during a period in which he was the principal officer of the establishment after the deaths of Hoskison, Griffith and Pack. The reduction of the council to Boucher, Bazett, Cason and French had placed disproportionate weight on Bazett, and his concurrent appointment as second in council and storekeeper had given him more duties than he could discharge to the standard the Court of Directors expected. The Governor's renewed demand probably indicates that the accommodation of the past year had reached its limit, and that the council would soon need to find some relief, either by completion of the overdue accounts or by reorganisation of the duties of the senior establishment.

The choice of Free to appear on behalf of Daniel Griffith's heir, rather than the heir himself or the widow, indicates that Free's marriage to Sarah Griffith on 4 June 1713 had given him the capacity to act in respect of the late Griffith's estate through his wife's interest. The arrangement places Free, recently discharged from the Company's service, in the position of administrator of an estate in which both he and his wife had interests, with the title application here brought forward in the capacity of representative rather than as the principal. The decision to bring the application now, five months after Griffith's death and four months after Free's marriage, probably reflects the time needed for the inventory of Griffith's estate to be brought into form and for the title chain to be assembled for production to the council.

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77

men, Summon[d] on Purpose to decide the matter then in dispute

between the Said Powill and Jonathan Beals Orphans in relation

to the whole Quantity of Lands.

Ordered.

That the Said Bill of Sale be reciev[d] and Enterd in the

Register Book and a Deed made for the Same Accordingly the

Said Orphan or Heir of the dec[d] Daniel Griffyth haveing a just

right and Title thereto.

William Seale free planter appeared & laid Claim to twenty Acres of Land

Lying in Sticks valley formerly the Lott land of one Jn[o] Tonkler dec[d] who

gave the same to his Son John, who dying his Land fell to his Sister and

daughter of y[e] Dec[d] by Bartle Nam[d] Sarah, and She being Dead her

Eldest Lawfull Son P[r] Sinsnick became Sole Heir to s[d] Land of

whom Seale bought it. To w[h] he has Just right.

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on

Tuesday the 3 Day of Novemb[r] 1713 At the

United Castle in James Valley

Pres[t]

Benjam[n] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r]

Matth[eu] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll]

Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason

Jn[o] French Assist[ts]

Humphrey Edwards free Planter Presented his Humble Peti-

tion this day Setting forth the Miserable and Deplorable Condition

he and familly is in by this present years dearth and great Consumption

of all kinds of Cattle Provisions &c[a] thereby reduced to want and

Penury being no ways able to Subsist and maintaine his Said

Familie. Wherefore Humbly Prays to be Entertain'd in the

Honourable Companys Service as a Montrofs[?] having Some years

ago

Margin Notes:

Bill of Sale to be

Enterd

W[m] Seales Title

prov[d] to 20 acres

Land bot of P[r]

Sinsnick

Humph[y] Edwards

request to be

Entertain'd as

a Montrofs

These twelve men had been summoned to decide the matter then in dispute between Powill and the orphans of Jonathan Beale concerning the whole quantity of lands.

The council ordered the bill of sale received and entered in the register book, and a deed made accordingly. The orphan, the heir of Daniel Griffith, had a just right and title to the parcel.

William Seale, free planter, appeared and laid claim to twenty acres of land in Sticks Valley. The land had formerly been the lot land of John Tonkler deceased. He had given it to his son John, who had died, and the land had fallen to his sister, the daughter of the deceased by Bartle, named Sarah. On Sarah's death her eldest lawful son Peter Sinsnick had become sole heir, and Seale had bought the land of him. Seale was found to have a just right to the parcel.

Island of St Helena. Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 3 November 1713.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

Humphrey Edwards, free planter, presented his humble petition. He set out the miserable and deplorable condition that he and his family were in by reason of the present year's dearth and the great consumption of all kinds of cattle, provisions and other necessaries. He was reduced to want and penury, with no means of subsisting his family. He humbly prayed to be entertained in the Honourable Company's service as a matross, having some years

Interpretations

The Free petition resolves a fragment of the Beale partition that had remained in circulation since 30 October 1711. The Pursley Bed parcel, allotted to Powill at that partition, had been onward-sold by him to Daniel Griffith, and now passes by inheritance to Griffith's heir. The order to enter the bill of sale in the register book and to make a deed accordingly applies the procedure established for confirmed titles in the deed delivery of 4 August 1713 to a parcel whose original confirmation had been to a different holder. The mechanism allows a parcel's title to be carried forward from holder to holder by the sequence of bills of sale, with each successor entered in the register without need for a fresh title trial, provided the bill of sale is produced and the chain to the original confirmed holder is unbroken.

The Seale claim to twenty acres in Sticks Valley moves backward through a more elaborate chain. John Tonkler deceased had held by original lot allocation; he gave it to his son John, who died; it fell to his sister Sarah, daughter of Tonkler by his wife Bartle; on Sarah's death it passed to her eldest lawful son Peter Sinsnick; from him Seale had bought it. The chain therefore runs through four successions in two generations, three of them by descent on the death of the holder without issue able to succeed, and one of them by living devise from father to son. The principle is that an original lot allocation passes by descent through whatever sequence of survivors brings the parcel to the present claimant, and the production of the chain together with the bill of sale from the final descended holder fixes the title in the buyer.

The pattern of the Tonkler chain exposes the effect of high child mortality and irregular marital sequence on the descent of lot land. The estate passes from the father to the eldest son, fails on that son's death, returns up the generation to the sister, fails again on her death, and descends to her son by a marriage outside the Tonkler name. The result is that the Sticks Valley parcel arrives at the present registered holder through a path that requires the production of evidence for each link in the chain. The role of the council in such cases is to receive that evidence in full and to enter the title in the register where the chain is shown to be unbroken.

The Humphrey Edwards petition opens with the same language used by William Coales on the previous council day, describing miserable and deplorable condition by reason of the present year's dearth. The application to be entertained as a matross places Edwards in the artillery sub-establishment as a category of relief employment for a free planter reduced by the drought. The matross was the junior of the artillery, ranking below the gunner's mate and assisting the gunner with the daily care, loading and firing of the great guns at the fortifications, with the consequence that an inhabitant entertained in that capacity drew the soldier's pay together with the prospect of any matross's additional allowance. The matross application places Edwards in the same category of inhabitant-to-soldier transition visible in the earlier cases of King, Welch and Vesey, though here in the direction of conversion of a free planter into a paid Company servant.

Speculations

The pattern of two relief applications by free planters in two successive council days, Coales as carpenter on 13 October 1713 and Edwards as matross on 3 November 1713, indicates that the pressure of the drought has reached the point at which the council can expect a continuing flow of applications from established freeholders for entertainment in Company employment. The relief categories accommodate the applicants according to their trade or capacity: Coales as carpenter at four shillings per day finding his own diet, Edwards probably to be settled at the matross rate set for John William Tysor on 24 September 1712. The council's response, accepting both petitioners into Company service on relief grounds, indicates a settled policy of converting struggling free planters into wage-earning Company servants rather than allowing them to default on their store debts.

85

78

ago been in that Employ with the Assureance of being very

Dilligent and faithfull in the discharge of his duty.

Upon Consideration the Said Humphrey Edwards

formerly Servd the Honourable Company and one that

behaved himself very well in all respects, and the Hardship

he and his familie is now under for want of Necessaries.

Ordered.

That the Said Edwards be Entertaind as a Montrofs

according to his desire and his pay to Commence from

this day.

John Welch Montrofs Petition[d] this day Sett-

ing forth That being Destitute of a Habitation and

daily Necessitated to buy Provisions for himself & familie

which at this unhappy time being very Scarce Humbly

Prays we would take the Same into Consideration and

to grant him the Lend of Sixty Pounds in Store Credit

to make up a Sume of One Hundred Pound Pounds to buy

and Purchase a Howse Provisions &c[a] of William Worrals

formerly in the Possession of Richard Cleve offering two

Sufficient men for Security

Ordered.

That upon the Said Welches giveing Security for the

Same he Petitions for as Shall be approv'd of, he have

Credit Accordingly for one year paying after the rate of

Eight per Cent per Annum Interest.

John Sinsnick Soldier Presented his Petition

This day Setting forth That Some time Since he was Imploy'd

as a Stone Layer at the Building Prosperousbay House for the

Space of fourteen days and a half for which According to usuall

Custome and what others have had for Such work he Expected

Six Shillings per day, but when he Came to Reckon and to

make up his Account in the Stow books, found instead thereof

110

Margin Notes:

for reasons

his

request Granted

Jn[o] Welch his

request for y[e] Lent

of 60[...] to purchase

in part, a House &c[a]

his request granted

upon Security

Jno Sinsnicks dem[d]

[...] [...] [...]

at Prosp[s] bay at

[...] day

Edwards added that he had some years before been in that employ, and gave assurance that he would be very diligent and faithful in the discharge of his duty.

The council considered that Edwards had formerly served the Honourable Company and behaved well in all respects, and that he and his family were in great hardship for want of necessaries.

The council ordered Edwards entertained as a matross, according to his desire, with his pay to commence from the present day.

John Welch, matross, petitioned. He set out that he was without a settled house and was daily compelled to buy provisions for himself and his family. At this unhappy time provisions were very scarce. He humbly prayed that the council take the matter into consideration and grant him the loan of £60 0s 0d in store credit, to make up the sum of £100 0s 0d. He wished to buy a house and provisions from William Worrall, formerly in the possession of Richard Cleve. He offered two sufficient men as security.

The council ordered that, on Welch giving security as the council should approve, he was to receive credit accordingly for one year, at the rate of 8 per cent per annum interest.

John Sinsnick, soldier, presented his petition. He set out that some time before he had been employed as a stone layer at the building of the Prosperous Bay house for fourteen days and a half. According to usual custom, and what others had received for such work, he expected six shillings per day. When he came to reckon and make up his account in the store books, he found instead

Interpretations

The Welch loan extends the pattern of the Worrall purchase of 4 August 1713 by a third turn. Worrall had bought Cleve's house, land and provisions at £120 0s 0d, taking a £50 0s 0d loan from the Company at 8 per cent. Worrall is now selling on to Welch at £100 0s 0d, with Welch taking a £60 0s 0d loan on the same terms. The combined effect is that the Company has financed two successive purchases of the same property within three months, with the property passing from Cleve to Worrall to Welch and the store-book debt rolling forward from one buyer to the next. The £20 0s 0d reduction in the sale price between the two transactions probably reflects the consequence of the drought-induced fall in the value of standing provisions, since the price the Company itself was prepared to pay for cattle and crops had fallen across 1713.

The repetition of the 8 per cent rate on the Welch advance confirms that figure as the settled rate for Company credit on substantial property purchases through the store books. The rate has been applied consistently to the Porteous advance of 27 November 1711, the Bell purchase of the Belvird country plantation of 24 July 1712, the Worrall purchase of 4 August 1713 and now the Welch purchase. The pattern fixes 8 per cent as the standing price of secured Company credit on the island, and parallels the same rate that had been the subject of the Carne controversy of March 1711, where a 6 per cent bond had been described as clandestinely drawn. The settled application of the higher rate over the period since then indicates that the institutional acceptance of 8 per cent as the proper rate has reached its conclusion.

The Sinsnick petition opens a complaint about the rate paid for stone-laying labour at the Prosperous Bay house. The petitioner claims six shillings per day under usual custom and what others have had, against an amount entered in the store books that he found unsatisfactory. The six-shilling rate matches the rate set by Cleve and Shrove on 4 August 1713, but the Prosperous Bay house is a Company project and the question is whether the stone-laying rate paid on that project should equal the six-shilling specialist rate or follow some lower benchmark. The Prosperous Bay house was the construction begun at the Prosperous Bay site, where Roberts had on 9 April 1711 proposed a second irrigation project across 200 acres of fine ground sheltered for cultivation; the present petition indicates that construction at Prosperous Bay had progressed to the point at which stone-laying labour was being employed there for fortnight-length engagements.

The Edwards admission as matross places him on the artillery sub-establishment alongside Welch, with both men named in the same consultation. Edwards's previous service in that capacity, and his good conduct in it, give the council the ground to admit him directly rather than to settle him at a probationary rate as Tysor had been settled on 24 September 1712 at £15 0s 0d per annum. The consequence is that Edwards moves immediately into the matross pay scale, with the relief consequence that his store debt can be paid down from his settled wages in the same manner already applied to Coales as carpenter at the previous consultation.

Speculations

The succession of three property transactions on the same parcel, from Cleve to Worrall to Welch, all financed through the Company store-book credit system, indicates that the property in question had entered a circulation pattern that the council was not impeding. Each new buyer brought credit on different terms, and the price fell with each successive transaction. The pattern is consistent with a market in which the seller in each case was prepared to accept a lower price for the benefit of obtaining cash now against future Company credit, rather than to hold the property for a higher price that the buyer could not pay in cash. The Company's role as financier of the chain placed the institution in the position of credit broker for a small but active property market within the freeholder and matross classes.

The submission of the Welch application immediately after the admission of Edwards as a matross, in the same consultation, suggests that the signal of the Edwards admission encouraged Welch to bring forward his property application. The two men hold the same matross rank, and the visible recognition of relief employment for an established matross may have given Welch the confidence to approach the council for the credit he needed. The pattern of applications clustering at points of visible council generosity is consistent with the small-island institutional pattern, in which one favourable decision tended to draw applications of a similar kind in the days immediately following.

86

79

no more than Eighteen pence per day, which being a Misstake

Either by the then Store keeper or him that gave in the Acco[t] of

work, Humbly Prays he may be Allow'd and have Credit in

his Acc[ot] for the time he workt at 5 p[er] day As also that he

might be Sattisfyd in Like manner for Ninteen Alarms that

he made at the Bay and Run with to the Fort at 5 Each time

as has bin for Some time paid other Soldiers for Encouragem[t]

to Look out well and make timely Alarms to prevent

Surprize.

Ordered.

That the Said John Sinsnick be allowed four Shillings

p[er] Day for the fourteen days and a half he workt about the

Bay House and five Shillings a time for Each Alarm Accord-

ing to the usuall Custome.

Abraham Dorman Soldier Humbly Petition[d] this day

Praying to be admitted and restord to his Armes againe which was

taken from him upon Some Suspecious words Spoken about the intent

and designe of his fellow Sold[rs] Seizing the Govern[r] & Councill &c[a]

The Said Dorman haveing bin very civill and Quiete dureing

the Time he has done no duty and of a repentant Disposition.

Ordered.

That he be admitted to his Armes and Duty againe Dureing

his good behaviour, and nothing more appears against him.

Rinedus Snow Soldier Presented a Petition this Day Setting

forth that Gabriell Powill free holder, Upon the Petitioners Saying

he heard the Said Powill had Attempted to hang himself, did Some-

time Since call him Severall Scurrelous Names as Rascall, and

Rogue, and would prove him So, for which abuse desired a

warrant might be granted and the Said Powill Summon[d] to

appear the next Councill day to make y[e] Complain[t] Sattisfaction,

Ordered.

Margin Notes:

and also[?]

for

19 Alarms at

5 [...] Each time

allowed 4 [...] day &

for y[e] Alarms 5 [...]

Each time.

Abra[m] Dorman

Petition[d] to be re-

stord to his Arms

&c[a]

Granted.

Rinedus Snows

Compl[t] against

Gab[l] Powill

Sinsnick added that the sum entered in his store-book account stood at no more than 18d per day. The figure was a mistake either by the storekeeper of the time or by the man who had given in the account of work. He humbly prayed to be allowed and credited in his account for the time he had worked at 5s per day. He also asked to be paid in the same manner for nineteen alarms that he had given at the Bay and had then run with to the fort. He claimed 5s for each alarm, the rate paid for some time past to other soldiers as an encouragement to keep a good lookout and to give timely warning against surprise.

The council ordered Sinsnick allowed 4s per day for the fourteen days and a half he had worked about the Bay House, and 5s for each alarm, according to the usual custom.

Abraham Dorman, soldier, humbly petitioned. He prayed to be admitted to his arms again. They had been taken from him on suspicious words spoken about the intent of his fellow soldiers to seize the Governor and Council.

The council noted that Dorman had been very civil and quiet during the time he had done no duty, and that he was of a repentant disposition.

The council ordered him admitted to his arms and duty again, during his good behaviour, and provided nothing more appeared against him.

Rinedus Snow, soldier, presented his petition. He set out that Gabriel Powill, freeholder, had taken offence at his report that he had heard Powill had attempted to hang himself. Powill had called him several scurrilous names, including rascal and rogue, and had said he would prove him so. Snow desired a warrant against Powill, and that he be summoned to appear at the next council day to make satisfaction for the abuse.

Interpretations

The Sinsnick award resolves the dispute over the stone-laying rate at the Prosperous Bay house in a manner that fixes the daily wage at 4s per day, rather than the 6s claimed by the petitioner or the 18d entered in the books. The council's choice of an intermediate figure marks the distinction between the specialist craftsman rate of 6s per day, applied to Cleve and Shrove for appointments at the United Castle establishment, and the project-based stone-laying rate of 5s per day already visible in the 9 January 1711 costing. The award places Sinsnick at the lower rate of 4s per day, which probably reflects his soldier's standing as distinct from the free craftsmen of the higher rates, and fixes that lower figure as the rate for soldier stone-laying at outlying construction sites. The award of 5s per alarm, with reference to the custom of other soldiers, places the lookout's reward on a per-alarm basis as an incentive against surprise.

The Dorman restoration to arms applies the principle of conditional restoration of a soldier removed from duty on suspicion. Dorman had been one of the five accomplices disarmed on conditional good behaviour on 8 July 1713, in contrast to the five ringleaders committed to prison in irons. The intervening four months of civil conduct, with the soldier under continuing disarmament, supplied the basis for the council's decision to restore him. The conditional terms, during his good behaviour, and provided nothing more appears against him, preserve the option of renewed disarmament if the soldier's conduct should fall short. The pattern indicates the structure of the council's response to the July conspiracy: ringleaders to be punished, accomplices to be disarmed pending demonstrated reform, and restoration on demonstrated good behaviour after a period of probation.

The Snow petition opens a counter-action by the soldier-defendant of the 13 October 1713 slander cause. Snow had then been brought before the council as the first link in the chain of repeaters of the report against Powill; the council had not punished Snow but had identified Tompson as the most active repeater. The present petition records that Powill, presumably outside any council sitting, has called Snow a rascal and a rogue and has said he would prove him so. The response by Snow is to bring Powill before the council on his own petition, with a warrant to be served and a summons to the next council day. The procedure converts the relationship between freeholder and soldier into a contested matter before the council, with Powill now in the position of defendant.

The progression of the slander matter from the original report of self-harm through Tompson's apology to the present counter-complaint by Snow indicates that the consequences of the original rumour have continued to ramify within the small island community. Each step that the council takes to settle one element of the dispute appears to generate a further action by one of the parties affected. The Snow petition shows that the council's identification of Tompson as the most active repeater, and the order that he ask Powill's pardon publicly, did not close the underlying dispute, since Powill's own response to Snow's earlier evidence has now produced a counter-claim by Snow.

Speculations

The choice of 4s per day for Sinsnick, rather than the 5s asked or the 18d originally entered, probably reflects the council's judgement that a soldier engaged on stone-laying work at an outlying site stood at an intermediate position between the standard hired-slave rate of 18d and the free craftsman rate of 5s. The award gives Sinsnick more than the disputed 18d but less than the rate paid to free planters working as stone layers, and so preserves the differential between the soldier on standing salary and the free planter on free contract. The pattern is consistent with the approach taken to Coales as carpenter, who received 4s per day finding his own diet despite the higher 6s rate for Cleve as joiner.

The Snow counter-complaint, following the pattern of Powill's slander complaint of 13 October 1713 by less than three weeks, suggests that the credibility of either party in the community had become a subject of contested debate. Powill's call of rascal and rogue addressed to Snow, with the offer to prove him so, anticipates a further trial of the underlying question of whether the report of self-harm had any foundation. The interest of Powill in pursuing the matter, despite his successful slander complaint on 13 October 1713, indicates that the rumour had not been settled by Tompson's public apology and that the repetition of the report by Snow continued to operate against Powill's reputation. The present counter-complaint by Snow brings the dispute back before the council for a second adjudication, and may indicate that Powill's strategy of clearing his name by successive applications to the council has reached its limit.

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80

Ordered

That the Said Snow have Warrants granted him for

the Summoning Gabriell Powill and Evidences against next

Councill day According to his request.

Isabell Hayse widdow Appeared and desired that her deceased

Husband William Hayse his Last Verball Will might be prov'd

by the oaths of Thomas Hayse and Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

who being call'd in and Examined Declares That the

night before the Said William Hayse dyd being the 3 day

of May 1712 he desired them to take Notice that he Disposed

of his Estate in manner and words following.

That he had Sold his House and Land to Elinor Belgrave

for one Hundred and Six pounds whereof Fifty Pound was

to be paid two months after the Purchase, and the rest at

Discresion or a Soon as the Said Elinor Belgrave could. And

if his wife was minded to go off the Island he desired his Children

might be put out to good Masters that would bestow Learning on

them, and that five pounds to be given to Each child for their

own use and bennefitt. This is his Substance and words of what

the Said deceased William Hayse declar'd as above Wittness our

hands this 3 day of November 1713.

Tho[s] [...] Hayse

his

mark

Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

Whereas the dec[d] William Hayse declard as part of his Last

Will and Testam[t] That he had Sold his House & Lands (which

contains but Ten Acres) to Elinor Belgrave but Never recieved

any peice of money as Earnest to bind the bargaine, nor were

there any Possession given or Wridings made between them

which makeing her Title doubtfull and finding her Selfe

not able to make Paym[t] without Prejudice to her other

affaires, retird the Said House and Land or at least her

Pretentions thereto[?] to the Widdow Soon after her Husbands

decease, which being the only Dependence She has for

the maintainance of her Children and Self to keep 'em

from a Parrish Charge.

Ordered.

That

Margin Notes:

Councill to be

[...]

Wid[w] Hayse desires

to have her Husband

Verball Will prov'd

Tho[s] Hayse &

Sutton Isaack Jun[r]

Sworne

and

Declare as

followeth

The Bargaine

betw[t] W[m] Hayse

and Elin[r] Belgrave

made void

reasons given

The council ordered that warrants be granted to Snow for the summoning of Gabriel Powill and the evidences against the next council day, according to his request.

Isabell Hayse, widow, appeared and desired that the last verbal will of her late husband William Hayse be proved by the oaths of Thomas Hayse and Sutton Isaack junior.

The two witnesses were called in and examined. They declared that on the night before William Hayse died, being 3 May 1712, he had desired them to take notice that he disposed of his estate in the following manner and words:

He had sold his house and land to Elinor Belgrave for £106 0s 0d. £50 0s 0d was to be paid two months after the purchase, and the rest at discretion, or as soon as Elinor Belgrave could pay it. If his wife was minded to leave the island, his children were to be put out to good masters who would bestow learning on them, and £5 0s 0d was to be given to each child for their own use and benefit. This was the substance and words of his declaration. The witnesses signed:

Thomas Hayse, by his mark

Sutton Isaack junior

The council noted that William Hayse had declared as part of his last will and testament that he had sold his house and lands, containing only ten acres, to Elinor Belgrave. He had never received any piece of money as earnest to bind the bargain, nor had any possession been given or writings made between them. The lack of these steps left Belgrave's title doubtful. Finding herself not able to make the payment without prejudice to her other affairs, she had returned the house and land, or at least her pretensions to it, to the widow soon after her husband's death. The parcel was the only dependence the widow had for the maintenance of her children and herself, to keep them from being a charge upon the parish.

The council ordered that

Interpretations

The Hayse will proof brings before the council a nuncupative will declared on the deathbed of a free planter on 3 May 1712, presented for proof eighteen months later. The procedure follows the pattern of the Henson nuncupative will of February to March 1712, in which the soldier's oral testamentary intentions had been proved on the oaths of fellow soldiers as deathbed witnesses. The two witnesses here, Thomas Hayse and Sutton Isaack junior, supply the evidence of the testator's words at the bedside, with Thomas Hayse signing by his mark in the manner of the illiterate planter. The widow's appearance to present the will, rather than the executors named or appointed by the dying man, indicates that the will identified no executors and that the management of the estate fell to the widow in her own right.

The provisions of the verbal will combine an outright sale of the principal asset with directions for the consequences of the wife's possible departure. The sale of the house and ten acres to Elinor Belgrave for £106 0s 0d, with £50 0s 0d due in two months and the residue at the buyer's discretion, places the purchase price for ten acres with a house at over ten pounds per acre, well above the benchmark of £5 per acre established by the William Marsh sale of 23 November 1711. The provision for the children, that if the widow left the island they were to be put out to good masters with learning bestowed on them and £5 0s 0d for each child, identifies the alternative arrangement contemplated by the testator should the widow not remain on the island. The dependence of the children's welfare on the widow's choice to stay or leave gives the measure of how the testator understood his estate to fail with him in the event of the widow's emigration.

The council's analysis of the Belgrave purchase finds three combined defects: no earnest money had been received, no possession had been given, and no writings had been made between the parties. The combination leaves Belgrave's title doubtful. Earnest money is a small sum paid at the moment of agreement to bind the bargain in early modern English contract practice; possession is the physical handing over of the property to the buyer; writings are the formal documents recording the terms. The absence of all three made the verbal sale legally inchoate, and Belgrave's recognition of the position by retiring the property to the widow confirms that no enforceable interest had passed. The arrangement returns the parcel to the widow's hands on the same basis as if the sale had never been declared.

The consequence is that the widow holds the parcel as the testator's universal beneficiary, the children being entitled to their £5 0s 0d each only if she departs. The retention of the dependence of widow and children on the parcel, the only dependence to keep them from a parish charge, places the matter in the same category as other parish-charge applications in the present series. The parish in question is the ecclesiastical parish of the island, with the churchwardens charged on 9 June 1713 with care of the poor and impotent, and the consequence of a widow being thrown on the parish is that the head money would be charged against the contributions of all the heads of household on the island.

Speculations

The submission of the Hayse will for proof eighteen months after the testator's death suggests that the widow had been working through her own position before bringing the matter formally before the council. The Belgrave attempt at purchase, the failure of that arrangement, the informal return of the property to the widow, and the present application for proof of the will together indicate that the widow had used the eighteen-month interval to clarify her position before seeking the council's formal recognition of it. The pattern suggests that private arrangements on the island, including failed sales and informal returns of property, were settled between the parties before being brought to the council for formal endorsement, with the council's role being to confirm rather than to construct the arrangement.

The provision in the verbal will that the children be put out to good masters with learning bestowed on them, in the event of the widow's departure, identifies the contingency that the testator anticipated. The combination of vocational placement with the requirement that the master bestow learning indicates that the testator regarded literacy or trade instruction as an essential condition of the masters to whom his children might be put. The £5 0s 0d allowance per child, set against the £20 0s 0d annual salary then being paid to the writer Broome or the £15 0s 0d to Tysor as armourer's assistant, places the sum for a child's setting-out at approximately three months' wages of a junior establishment officer, sufficient for initial outfitting of an apprenticeship rather than a substantial inheritance.

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81

That she the Said Isabell Hayse do keep and reserve the

Said House and Land with the Appurtenances thereunto

Belonging, for the only good and Bennefitt of all her

Children and Self haveing no other Estate to bring them

up, and as to the other part of her dec[d] Husbands Verball

Will its approv'd Ordered to Stand good and valid.

William Porteous Surgeon Presented his Petition this

day Setting forth That he had Servd the Honourable Company

almost Six years as Surgeon of their Garrison and has not had

the Sallary his Predecessor was allow'd and for above four years

have had the whole fadeague of the Garrison and Planters with-

out any Assistant; Likewise that Since the Demolishing James

Fort he has bin at thirty Pounds charge for want of a Lodging

room within the Castle as was always allow'd the Surgeon and

other Officers. Wherefore Humbly desires Such an addition to

his former Sallary as we Should think fitt.

Considering the great fadeague Doctor Porteous has undergone

and that Doctor Needham had Thirty Six pounds a year, besides

his[?] a Servant and other Surgeons more

Ordered.

That the Said Doct[r] Porteous be Allow'd forty Pounds a year

his house Rent Included.

M[r] French represented that Since the takeing down the old

Fort he hath been at five pounds five Shillings charge yearly for House

Rent having no Lodging within the Castle as was allow'd him

formerly, Wherefore desires that Since Lodging Roomes was

allow'd all officers within the old Fort and none within the

Castle he may be allow'd the Said Sume of five pounds five

Shillings for three years past.

Upon Consideration that Lodging

rooms was built a Purpose for the Officers in the old Fort, and now

being

Margin Notes:

S[d] Land & House to

be reserved for the

Children us[e]

all Else to

Stand as afores[d]

Will.

W[m] Porteous Surg[n]

desires for an Addi-

tional Sallary.

for reasons he

be

allow'd 40 [...] p[er] year

M[r] Frenches

desire to be allow'd

5: 5: for House

Rent.

The council ordered Isabell Hayse to keep and reserve the house and land, with the appurtenances belonging to them, for the sole good and benefit of all her children and herself. She had no other estate with which to bring them up. The remainder of her late husband's verbal will was approved, and ordered to stand good and valid.

William Porteous, surgeon, presented his petition. He set out that he had served the Honourable Company almost six years as surgeon of their garrison, and had not received the salary his predecessor had been allowed. For above four years he had borne the whole fatigue of the garrison and planters without any assistant. Since the demolishing of James Fort, he had been at £30 0s 0d charge for want of a lodging room within the castle, the lodging having always been allowed to the surgeon and other officers. He humbly desired such an addition to his former salary as the council should think fit.

The council considered the great fatigue Porteous had undergone, that Dr Needham had received £36 0s 0d a year, with a servant and other allowances, and that some other surgeons had been allowed more.

The council ordered Porteous allowed £40 0s 0d a year, his house rent included.

French represented that since the taking down of the old fort he had been at £5 5s 0d charge yearly for house rent, having no lodging within the castle as had been allowed him formerly. He desired that, since lodging rooms had been allowed to all officers within the old fort and none within the castle, he be allowed the £5 5s 0d for three years past.

The council considered that lodging rooms had been built specifically for the officers in the old fort, and that now

Interpretations

The Hayse order applies the principle of preserving the family estate against any arrangement that would put the widow and children on the parish. The council confirmed the consequence of Belgrave's withdrawal from the sale, namely that the property reverted to the widow with the surviving effect of the will limited to its provisions for the children's setting out. The arrangement preserves the estate intact in the widow's hands, with the children's £5 0s 0d allowance held in suspension unless and until the widow leaves the island. The order brings the estate within the council's protective framework for widows and orphans, declared on 5 April 1711 as the role of fathers to widows and orphans by seeing them justice.

The Porteous salary increase fixes the medical establishment of the island at £40 0s 0d a year inclusive of house rent. The award places Porteous above the senior establishment rates of the second in council at £70 0s 0d, third at £50 0s 0d and fourth at £40 0s 0d under the 2 October 1712 paragraph 45 of the Toddington letter, but at the same rate as the fourth in council. The benchmark of Dr Needham at £36 0s 0d with a servant identifies the comparator of an earlier surgeon at the establishment whose total package, including the perquisite of the servant, exceeded the bare salary. The £30 0s 0d Porteous had spent over six years on lodging outside the castle, with the demolition of James Fort having eliminated the accommodation of the surgeon's office, supplies the ground for the addition. The inclusion of house rent within the new salary settles the principle that the surgeon's office no longer carries a separate accommodation perquisite, but that the salary is calculated to include the cost of his lodging in the civilian housing market of James Valley.

The French representation opens a parallel claim by the gunner for compensation for the consequence of the same demolition. The £5 5s 0d annual charge for lodging, over three years, gives a total of £15 15s 0d, against which the demolition of the old fort gave the starting point for the claim. The comparison drawn between officers' accommodation in the old fort and the absence of such accommodation within the castle indicates that the council's reconstruction programme had not extended the old officer-accommodation arrangement to the new establishment, leaving the affected officers to find their own accommodation at their own cost. The claim therefore extends the principle established in the Porteous award from the surgeon to the gunner, with the consequence that the council will need to consider a similar adjustment to French's package.

The wider pattern of the present consultation, with applications by Edwards, Welch, Sinsnick, Dorman, Snow, Hayse, Porteous and French, indicates that the council is moving through a substantial backlog of personnel and property matters in a single sitting. The compression reflects the pressure on the council's time under the continuing drought, the consequences of the July conspiracy and the backlog of property and estate matters generated by the deaths of Hoskison, Griffith and Pack. Each application receives a determinative order in the same sitting, with no matter deferred for further investigation except the Snow counter-complaint, which alone is held over to the next council day.

Speculations

The award to Porteous at £40 0s 0d, against the comparator of Dr Needham's £36 0s 0d with a servant and other allowances, indicates that the council intended the new rate to match the total of the earlier surgeon's package while consolidating the perquisites into a single salary. The arrangement removes the accommodation perquisite that the old fort had supplied to the office, and replaces it with a money payment large enough to cover the cost of civilian lodging in James Valley. The pattern is consistent with the modernisation of the establishment's payment arrangements, in which traditional perquisites in kind, including diet at the Company's table, lodging within the establishment buildings, and the use of slaves or servants, are progressively converted into money payments within a consolidated salary.

The French representation, following immediately on the Porteous award, indicates that the gunner had been waiting for the Porteous decision to provide the precedent for his own claim. The two officers had suffered the same consequence from the demolition of the old fort, and the successful Porteous application now opens the path for French's claim on parallel grounds. The pattern indicates the practical effect of the council's earlier awards: each award establishes a benchmark against which similar claims by other officers can be brought, with the consequence that a single favourable decision tends to generate further applications from comparators at the next available sitting.

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82

being at present within the Castle besides the Inconveniency

and charges they are at for Lodgings in the Valley

Ordered.

That the Said M[r] French be Allow'd and Paid

back the Sume of five pounds five Shillings for three

years past that he has paid for House rent.

James Young Soldier who hath been kept close Prisoner

Ever Since the 8[th] day of July Last for disobeying his officer

when on the Guard, and Speaking Some Seditious words at

the Same time, when in drink, made his Humble Address

this day by Petition Acknowledging his fault and hearty

Sorrow for the Same with a faithfull Promise of future

good behaviour, if we would take Pitty of him, and release

him from Confinement, which hath rended him very weak

and Low in body. Upon which considering the Said

James Young to be a quiett Civill fellow and Something better

bred then the Common Sort of Soldiers, with the hardship

he hath undergone dureing his Imprisonm[t] in Irons, and

the assureage[?] he hath given us of his future good behaviour

together with the thoughts we are apt to Possess our Selves with

that had he not bin in drink he would have disobey[d] Command

or uttered any words tending to Sedition or Mutiny.

Ordered.

That the said James Young be released and acquitted accord-

ing to his Humble desire and cautioned to take care to

Demean himself very well for y[e] future as he has

Promis'd to do in his Petetion.

This day M[r] Bazett brought in five monthly Accounts of

Goods Sold and Deliverd out of the Stores from the 25[t] day

of Aprill Last to the 25 day of September following

which

Margin Notes:

The Sume of 5: 5:

for 3 years to be

paid back to M[r]

French.

James Youngs

desire to be released

out of Prison

Upon Consideration

The Said Young

released w[t] Caution

for y[e] future

Monthly Acc[ot]s

The council noted that the officers were presently within the castle, but were nonetheless at the inconvenience and charge of taking lodgings in the valley.

The council ordered French allowed and paid back the £5 5s 0d for three years past that he had paid for house rent.

James Young, soldier, had been kept close prisoner since 8 July 1713 for disobeying his officer when on the guard, and for speaking seditious words at the same time, when in drink. He made his humble address by petition, acknowledging his fault and expressing hearty sorrow for the same. He gave a faithful promise of future good behaviour if the council would take pity on him and release him from confinement, which had rendered him very weak and low in body.

The council considered that Young was a quiet, civil fellow, something better bred than the common sort of soldiers. They noted the hardship he had undergone during his imprisonment in irons, the assurance he had given of his future good behaviour, and the likelihood that, had he not been in drink, he would not have disobeyed command or uttered any words tending to sedition or mutiny.

The council ordered Young released and acquitted according to his humble desire, and cautioned to take care to demean himself very well for the future, as he had promised in his petition.

Bazett brought in five monthly accounts of goods sold and delivered out of the stores, from 25 April 1713 to 25 September 1713.

Interpretations

The French payment closes the second strand of the demolition-of-the-old-fort consequences for the officers of the establishment, with the gunner now placed on the same footing as the surgeon. The payment of £5 5s 0d for three years past, against the position of officers presently within the castle, indicates that the accommodation arrangement has been resolved on a backward-looking compensation basis for the past period of loss, while the future position is treated as adequately settled by the present accommodation within the castle. The arrangement parallels the Broome back-payment for diet ordered on 1 September 1713, with the principle that past underpayments are corrected by retrospective lump-sum adjustment rather than by continuing salary increases.

The Young release marks the first acknowledgement of the council's review of the position of the July conspiracy prisoners committed to irons on 8 July 1713. Young had been one of the five ringleaders committed close prisoner in irons, alongside Brogden, Gore, Knife and Griffis, on the ground of being among the principal organisers of the conspiracy. The release of Young, four months into his confinement, treats him as having served sufficient time for the offence and as having demonstrated sufficient repentance for restoration to duty. The grounds for the release combine four considerations: his quiet and civil character, his being something better bred than the common sort of soldiers, the physical hardship of irons over four months, and the council's judgement that drink rather than settled disposition had caused the disobedience and seditious speech. The pattern places the release on broader grounds than would apply to a common soldier, and the description of Young as something better bred indicates that the council's assessment took account of social standing in fixing the length of imprisonment.

The phrase something better bred than the common sort of soldiers indicates the position of a soldier of slightly higher social origin than the common garrison private. The garrison of the East India Company at St Helena was filled from the pool of London recruits and broken seamen, with occasional acceptance of men of slightly more elevated origin who had taken Company service for personal reasons. The council's notice of Young's better breeding fixes him in this latter category and supplies the basis for treating his offence with more clemency than would apply to the common soldier of common origin.

The Bazett submission of five monthly accounts in a single batch settles part of the backlog identified by the Governor's demand of 13 October 1713. The interval from 25 April 1713 to 25 September 1713 covers five months, with the further month from 25 September 1713 to 25 October 1713 not yet included in the submission. The pattern indicates that Bazett has met the demand only for the period to the end of September, leaving the most recent month for separate submission. The arrangement provides the evidence on which the council can examine the goods sold and delivered for the period in question, and reduces the pressure on Bazett by clearing the bulk of the accumulated arrears.

Speculations

The release of Young on the basis of his better breeding suggests that the council's policy on the four remaining ringleaders may differ according to the social standing of each prisoner. The release of Young, set against the continued confinement of Brogden, Gore, Knife and Griffis, indicates that the council is treating the conspiracy as having had a hierarchy in which Young occupied a lower position than the others, despite all five being committed as ringleaders on 8 July 1713. The differential treatment of the prisoners suggests that the council has been considering the position of each prisoner individually since the conspiracy's suppression, and the present release may indicate the start of a programme of differentiated release decisions for the remaining prisoners.

The submission of five monthly accounts by Bazett, rather than six, suggests that the preparation of the accounts has been substantially complete for the period to the end of September but not yet ready for October. The pattern of Bazett's account preparation appears to be a continuing one of staying close to but not quite at the required schedule, with the consequence that the Governor's demand will need to be renewed for the missing month. The arrangement preserves the substantive obligation while permitting flexibility on the precise date, and the pattern indicates the accommodation that has developed between the Governor and the storekeeper-second-in-council on the submission of routine accounts.

90

83

which was Examin'd and Ordered Accordingly to be Enter'd in

the Councill book, and is as followeth.

S[t] Helena. An Acc[ot] of Goods Sold and Deliver'd out of the Honourable

Companys Stores from the 25 day of Aprill 1713 to y[e] 25 of May following viz[t]

Sackin &c[a]

10 yards at 16 [...] p[er] yard

Inhabitants

8

7 1/4 yards Hipreniss[?] 14 p[er] yard

Ditto

1 2 1

Sugar and Candy

Sug[r] 643 [...] Candy 234 [...] at 12 [...] p[er] [...] Inhab[t]

38 16 4

14

Plantation

15 4

40 12 4

Toba[c]o & Pipes

171 Toba[c]o 54 1/2 doz[n] Pipes

Inhabitants

18 9 3

2 D[o] 2 D[o]

Gen[r] Charges

5

1 D[o] 2 D[o]

Plantation

3

18 17 3

Hatts

23 Sorted

Inhab[ts]

14 8 9

Hosiers Goods

21 p[r] Stockins Sorted

Inhab[t]

3 4 1

Shirts

64 Chelloe at 2: 5 p[er] p[s] 4 White at 3: D[o]

Ditto

15 6 8

Ginghams

11 p[s]

Inhab[t]

8 15 2

Shalloons

6 1/2 yards at 2: 6

Ditto

16 10 1/2

Silk & Mohair Buttons viz[t]

5 doz[n] Coat & 36 doz[n] breast

Inhab[t]

1 13 3

Thicksetts & Fustians

20 1/2 4 1/2 Thick[t] 36 1/2 Colo[d] Dimitt[ee]

Inhab[t]

10 1 2 1/4

8 4/4 yards White Dimitty

D[o]

9 6

Silk & Thread Laces

16 Silk Loom and 1 Thread

D[o]

Iron Mongars Ware

26 p[s] Sorted 52 Nayles Sorted

Plantation

3 14 5

8 8

5 D[o]

21 d[o] Sorted

Fortifications

12 7 1/2

5 3 8 1/2

Combs & brushes

18 Combs Sorted & 5 brushes

Inhabitants

1 5 2

Tapes & bindings viz[t]

8 p[s] Holland Tape

9 7 1/2

1 p[s] Colo[d] Ditto

Inhabitants

1 8

38 yards Gartering

6 4

17 7 1/2

Cuttlary Ware viz[t]

56 Knives & 26 forks

2: 12: 1 1/4

6 p[r] Buckles

[...] 4 8

5 p[r] Scisars

[...] 4 4

3 1 1 1/4

12 Knives

Gen[r] Charges

0: 7: 0

1 D[o]

Plantation

0: 0: 6

7 6

3 8 7 1/4

Carried Over

127 9 7 1/4

Bazett's monthly accounts were examined and ordered to be entered in the council book, as follows.

St Helena. Account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores from 25 April 1713 to 25 May 1713.

Sacking and other cloths

10 yards at 16d per yard

inhabitants

13s 8d

7¼ yards of hipreniss at 14d per yard

inhabitants

8s 5d

£1 2s 1d

Sugar and candy

643 [...] of sugar and 234 [...] of candy at 12d per pound

inhabitants

£38 16s 4d

14 [...]

diet expenses

£1 0s 8d

[...]

plantation

15s 4d

£40 12s 4d

Tobacco and pipes

171 [...] of tobacco and 54½ dozen pipes

inhabitants

£18 9s 3d

2 [...] of tobacco and 2 dozen pipes

general charges

5s 0d

1 [...] of tobacco and 2 dozen pipes

plantation

3s 0d

£18 17s 3d

Hats

23 sorted

inhabitants

£14 8s 9d

Hosiers' goods

21 pair of stockings sorted

inhabitants

£3 4s 1d

Shirts

64 chello shirts at 2s 5d per piece and 4 white at 3s per piece

inhabitants

£15 6s 8d

Ginghams

11 pieces

inhabitants

£8 15s 2d

Shalloons

6½ yards at 2s 6d per yard

inhabitants

16s 10½d

Silk and mohair buttons

5 dozen coat buttons and 36 dozen breast

inhabitants

£1 13s 3d

Thicksets and fustians

20½ yards thickset and 36½ yards coloured dimity

inhabitants

£10 1s 2¼d

8¾ yards of white dimity

inhabitants

9s 6d

£10 10s 8¼d

Silk and thread laces

16 [...] silk loom and 1 [...] thread

inhabitants

3s 0d

Ironmongers' ware

26 pieces sorted and 52 [...] nails sorted

plantation

£3 14s 5d

5 [...] of the same

plantation

8s 8d

21 [...] sorted

fortifications

12s 7½d

£5 3s 8½d

Combs and brushes

18 combs sorted and 5 brushes

inhabitants

£1 5s 2d

Tapes and bindings

8 pieces of Holland tape

9s 7½d

1 piece of coloured tape

inhabitants

1s 8d

38 yards of gartering

6s 4d

17s 7½d

Cutlery ware

56 knives and 26 forks

£2 12s 1¼d

6 pair of buckles

4s 8d

5 pair of scissors

4s 4d

inhabitants

£3 1s 1¼d

12 knives

general charges

7s 0d

1 of the same

plantation

6d

£3 8s 7¼d

Carried over

£127 9s 7¾d

Interpretations

The miscellany of the present account introduces a number of items whose institutional or material function may not be self-evident, and these are explained together here. Sacking was the coarse linen or hemp cloth used for sacks, bagging and rough covering; hipreniss was an Indian cotton of moderate weight in the working middle range of the imported cottons, supplied alongside the coarser sacking at a similar price point. Candy in the sugar and candy line is sugar candy, the crystallised refined sugar produced by repeated boiling and cooling of sugar solution until large crystals formed on threads suspended in the syrup, used for sweetening drinks, sucking as a sweet and for medicinal purposes in soothing the throat. Shalloons were the light worsted lining fabric used for the inside of coats and waistcoats, supplying the smooth surface against which the garment slid over the under-garments. Thicksets and dimities were the two principal grades of fustian, the coarse cotton-linen weave with thicksets being the heavier and dimities the lighter, with coloured and white dimity supplied separately. Silk and thread laces were trimming bands; gartering was the narrow worsted band used to fasten stockings below the knee; Holland tape was the flax tape from the Low Countries used for binding garment edges. The Indian cotton ginghams were the striped or chequered cottons, supplied principally from Madras.

The Indian cotton lines of this month carry the working range of imported cloth supplied to the inhabitants through the Bengal and Madras shipping, with chello shirts at 2s 5d each and white shirts at 3s, the standard three-grade pricing visible across the present series. The 23 hats at £14 8s 9d brings the unit cost of hats at approximately 12s 6d each, indicating a relatively high quality of head wear for the inhabitants in this month. The 21 pair of stockings sorted at £3 4s 1d gives a unit price of approximately 3s per pair, the customary rate for ordinary hosiery on the establishment.

The ironmongers' ware line spans plantation and fortifications columns, with no entry against the inhabitants in this category for the month. The plantation drew 26 pieces sorted and 52 [...] of nails at £3 14s 5d, with a further 5 [...] of the same at 8s 8d, totalling £4 3s 1d. The fortifications drew 21 [...] sorted at 12s 7½d. The combined ironmongers' supply to the Company's own establishments at £5 3s 8½d for the month, against nil for the inhabitants, marks a heavy concentration of construction and maintenance hardware on Company use, consistent with the continuing programme at Munden's Castle and Plantation House.

The cutlery ware line itemises 56 knives, 26 forks, 6 pair of buckles and 5 pair of scissors at £3 1s 1¼d on the inhabitants' column, with 12 knives at 7s 0d on the general charges column and one at 6d on the plantation. The differential allocation indicates the pattern by which kitchen and dining cutlery flowed to the inhabitants' households, with smaller quantities going to the Company's general table and a single piece to the plantation.

Speculations

The concentration of ironmongers' ware on the plantation and fortifications columns, with no entry on the inhabitants' line for the month, probably reflects a programme of consolidated construction supply during a period in which the inhabitants' demand for nails and hardware had been substantially met in earlier months. The £5 3s 8½d combined Company-use figure indicates either a working maintenance round across the Hutts, Plantation House and Munden's Castle, or a specific construction event drawing a concentrated supply for the month. The pattern is consistent with the consolidated estate management by Cason since 8 April 1712, in which periodic concentrated supply rounds replace continuous monthly drawing.

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84

Brought Over

127 9 7 1/4

Neilas

14 peices

Inhabitants

9 15

Gurras

4 peices

Ditto

2 10

Chints

15 peices

Ditto

9 12 3

Plain Musline

5 peices

5 8 1 4

1 12

Stript D[o]

1 D[o]

7 10 4

Neckloths

2 p[s]

2 16

Long Cloth

2 p[s]

Inhabitants

2 9 6

Chello

3 1/2 p[s]

7 15

Dungarees

6 p[s]

1 14

Tarinas[?]

6 1/4 p[s]

4 15 3

Thread viz[t]

3 1/2 [...] Brown Thread

1 4 6

2 White d[o]

0 18 5

11 Ounces Nuns d[o]

0 9 6

1 Paper White d[o]

0 4

2 16 5

Knives & Forks

56 Knives & 28 forks

2 12 1

6 pair of Buckles

Inhabitants

4 8

5 pair Scizars

3 2

2 19 11 1/4

12 Knives

Castle

7

1 Ditto

Plantation

6

13 [...]

0 7 6

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

10 1/2 Gross of Hooks

4 16 4

48 Lines

Inhabitants

2 2 6 1/2

6 18 10 1/2

1 Line

Plantation

2

7 [...] 10 1/2

Ribbon & Ferriting

23 yards Ribbon

Inhabitants

19 5 1/4

Pins Needles & Thimbles viz[t]

3 M[s] Pins

0 4 7 1/2

325 Needles

0 4 10 1/2

3 Thimbles

9

9 9

Druggetts viz[t]

4 yards

Inhabitants

12

Norwich Stuff viz[t]

32 1/2 yards Black Crape at 2: 2 1/2 p[er] yard

D[o]

3 11 7 1/2

2 yards Norwich Stuff

3

3 14 7 1/2

Carried Over

£ 194 15 4 3

Brought over

£127 9s 7¾d

Neilas

14 pieces

inhabitants

£9 15s 0d

Gurras

4 pieces

inhabitants

£2 10s 0d

Chints

15 pieces

inhabitants

£9 12s 3d

Plain muslin

5 pieces

£5 18s 4d

Striped muslin

1 piece

£1 12s 0d

inhabitants

£7 10s 4d

Neckcloths

2 pieces

inhabitants

£2 16s 0d

Long cloth

2 pieces

inhabitants

£2 9s 6d

Chello

3½ pieces

inhabitants

£7 15s 0d

Dungarees

6 pieces

inhabitants

£1 14s 0d

Tarinas

6¼ pieces

inhabitants

£4 15s 3d

Thread

3½ [...] of brown thread

£1 4s 6d

2 [...] of white thread

18s 5d

11 ounces of nuns' thread

9s 6d

1 paper of white thread

4d

inhabitants

£2 16s 5d

Knives and forks

56 knives and 28 forks

£2 12s 1¼d

6 pair of buckles

4s 8d

5 pair of scissors

3s 2d

inhabitants

£2 19s 11¼d

12 knives

castle

7s 0d

1 of the same

plantation

6d

7s 6d

Hooks and lines

10½ gross of hooks

£4 16s 4d

48 lines

£2 2s 6½d

inhabitants

£6 18s 10½d

1 line

plantation

2d

£6 19s 0½d

Ribbon and ferriting

23 yards of ribbon

inhabitants

19s 5¼d

Pins, needles and thimbles

3 thousand pins

4s 7½d

325 needles

4s 10½d

3 thimbles

9d

inhabitants

9s 9d

Druggets

4 yards

inhabitants

12s 0d

Norwich stuff

32½ yards of black crape at 2s 2½d per yard

£3 11s 7½d

2 yards of Norwich stuff

3s 0d

inhabitants

£3 14s 7½d

Carried over

£194 15s 4¾d

Interpretations

The Indian cotton lines of this section of the account introduce several pieces whose names require explanation. Neilas were a striped Indian cotton supplied principally from Madras, taking their name from the cloth's blue and white striping; gurras were a plain coarse white Indian cotton supplied from Bengal, used for shirts and rough domestic linen; chints were the printed and painted Indian cottons that gave the modern chintz its name, produced principally at Masulipatam and on the Coromandel coast, with patterns applied by hand-printing with wooden blocks and hand-painting with mordants and dyes; long cloth was a fine plain Indian cotton supplied in long pieces, principally from Bengal; chello cloth was the coarse Indian cotton from which the chello shirts of the preceding entries had been cut; dungarees were a coarse working cotton from western India used for slave shirts and rough wear, named for the working district near Bombay; tarinas were a finer Indian cotton in piece form. Muslins were the finest Indian cottons, supplied in plain and striped grades, used for fine shirts, neckcloths and women's gowns. The thread line gives four working grades: brown for heavy sewing, white for ordinary domestic use, nuns' (a fine white thread named for its monastic origin) for cambric and lawn sewing, and a single paper of white thread as the small unit of supply. Norwich stuff in the closing line refers to the worsted fabrics produced in and around Norwich for the home and export markets, with black crape being a thin transparent worsted used principally for mourning wear.

The combined Indian textile lines on this section of the account bring £45 17s 4d of cloth to the inhabitants in a single month, a substantial volume against the £706 5s 1½d total of the corresponding April 1713 to May 1713 account. The variety of grades, from the coarse gurras at approximately 12s 6d per piece up to the plain muslin at approximately 23s 8d per piece and the striped muslin at 32s 0d per piece, indicates the full range of textile demand on the freeholder establishment.

The cutlery ware line at 56 knives, 28 forks, 6 pair of buckles and 5 pair of scissors for the inhabitants at £2 19s 11¼d, combined with 12 knives for the castle at 7s 0d and one for the plantation at 6d, repeats the proportions of cutlery distribution visible in the preceding month's account. The slight increase of forks from 26 to 28, against the 56 knives, brings the knife-to-fork ratio closer to two to one, consistent with the table service pattern of the period in which two knives accompanied each fork.

The hooks and lines line at 10½ gross of hooks at £4 16s 4d and 48 lines at £2 2s 6½d brings the inhabitant fishing-tackle supply to £6 18s 10½d for the month, a substantial increase from the previous month and consistent with the consequence of the 12 May 1713 yawl-fishing order under which the inhabitants and garrison had been opened to fishing on a rotating four-family basis.

The pins, needles and thimbles line at 3 thousand pins, 325 needles and 3 thimbles brings the small sewing implements to the inhabitants at 9s 9d for the month. The volume of pins at 3 thousand represents the small but continuing demand for the principal fastener of women's dress; needles at 325 supply the working sewing implements; the three thimbles indicate small replacement orders rather than a household stocking-up.

Speculations

The variety of Indian cotton grades on this section of the account, with seven distinct named cottons in addition to the muslins and the chello, suggests that the storekeeper had recently disposed of a fresh batch of Indian piece goods that needed to be moved into the inhabitants' accounts within a defined period. The presence of small numbers of pieces across many categories, rather than larger numbers of pieces in a few categories, indicates either freeholder shopping across a wide range of cloth types in a single month or a deliberate allocation by the storekeeper to clear varied stock. The pattern is consistent with a Madras and Bengal cargo arriving in heterogeneous mixed bales, with the storekeeper releasing pieces of each grade to the freeholders during the working months following the cargo's absorption.

92

85

Brought Over

194 15 4 3

Soldiers Cloaths viz[t]

1 Coate

3 Wastcoats

3 p[r] Breeches

Inhabitants

9 12 5

Salt

1 Peck

Inhabitants

1 6

6 Bushells

Plantation

1 16

Wine

1 1/2 Gallon

5 7 1/2

1/2 Gallon

Castle

2 6

8 1 1/2

Hoods & Scarves viz[t]

1 Scarf

1 7

Batavia Arrack viz[t]

10 Gallons

Inhabitants

3 10

13 1/2 Gallons

Castle

4 11 10

6 Gallons

Plantation

2 2

10 3 10

Goa Arrack

1 1/2 Gallons

Castle

8 9

1 [...] dr[?] [...] Chain

Inhab[t]

3

Paint & Indigo

13 white Lead at 6 p[er] [...]

Inhabitants

6 6

7 Romalls

Ditto

8 9

5 1/2 p[r] Blanketts

Ditto

4 17 3

Pewterers Ware viz[t]

3 1/2 doz[n] Spoons

4 Chamber Potts

3 quart Potts

Inhabitants

2 10 3

4 Basons

1 half quart Pott

Soape viz[t]

100 1/2 Bengall Soape

Inhabitants

3 7

6 Bengall

0 4

6 Castel

Castle

0 7 6

5 3 10

58 Bengall

Plantation

1 5 4

1 16 10

Carried Over

£ 226 3 7 3 3/4

Brought over

£194 15s 4¾d

Soldiers' clothes

1 coat

3 waistcoats

3 pair of breeches

inhabitants

£9 13s 5d

Salt

1 peck

inhabitants

1s 6d

6 bushels

plantation

£1 16s 0d

£1 17s 6d

Wine

1½ gallon

5s 7½d

½ gallon

castle

2s 6d

inhabitants

8s 1½d

Hoods and scarves

1 scarf

inhabitants

£1 7s 0d

Batavia arrack

10 gallons

inhabitants

£3 10s 0d

13½ gallons

castle

£4 11s 10d

6 gallons

plantation

£2 2s 0d

£10 3s 10d

Goa arrack

1½ gallon

castle

8s 9d

1 [...] of chain

inhabitants

3s 0d

Paint and indigo

13 [...] of white lead at 6d per [...]

inhabitants

6s 6d

7 romalls

inhabitants

8s 9d

5½ pair of blankets

inhabitants

£4 17s 3d

Pewterers' ware

3½ dozen spoons

4 chamber pots

3 quart pots

4 basins

1 half-quart pot

inhabitants

£2 10s 3d

Soap

100½ [...] Bengal soap

inhabitants

£3 7s 0d

6 [...] of Bengal

4s 0d

6 [...] of Castile

castle

7s 6d

11s 6d

58 [...] of Bengal

plantation

£1 5s 4d

£5 3s 10d

Carried over

£226 3s 7¾d

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist goods whose names and uses are best explained together. Soldiers' clothes here refers to the standardised garments supplied to the garrison, consisting of coats, waistcoats and breeches at fixed prices, drawn down by individual soldiers against their accounts; in the present month the issue is small, with only one coat against three waistcoats and three pair of breeches. Batavia arrack was the strong distilled spirit produced in the Dutch East Indies at Batavia, the chief Dutch settlement on Java, from molasses and rice; it reached the island through the Dutch shipping that called from the East Indies, and was the principal imported spirit at the establishment. Goa arrack was the comparable Portuguese-Indian alternative from the Goa station, supplied at a lower rate per gallon and obtained probably through the Catherine from Bombay or through subsequent ships. White lead, in the paint and indigo line, was lead carbonate, the principal white pigment of the period, used for ground colour in paint, mixed with linseed oil; indigo was the dark blue plant-derived dye, used in textiles and laundry blueing. Romalls were the Indian cotton kerchiefs from Bengal, used as neck and head wear, taking their name from the Persian rumal; they appear in the paint and indigo line by clerical convenience rather than because of any material connection. Pewterers' ware refers to the cast and turned pewter for table and household use: spoons, chamber pots (for nighttime use beside the bed), porringers (small two-handled bowls for pottage), quart and half-quart pots for liquid measure, and basins for washing and serving. Castile soap was the hard white soap made principally from olive oil in Spain, valued for its mildness and used for personal washing; Bengal soap was the softer Indian alternative used principally for laundry and rough household washing. The chain in the Goa arrack section is probably a misclassified entry, with the small 3s charge falling into the wrong category on a hurried entry.

The soldiers' clothes line at £9 13s 5d for one coat, three waistcoats and three pair of breeches indicates that the garrison drew renewal garments individually rather than as complete uniform suits. The ratio of three waistcoats and three pair of breeches to a single coat shows that under-garments wore through more rapidly than outer coats and were replaced more frequently.

The arrack supply across Batavia and Goa categories brings 30¾ gallons to the establishment for the month, divided across inhabitants, castle and plantation. The Batavia at 7s per gallon and the Goa at approximately 5s 10d per gallon mark the two-tier spirits structure visible across the present series. The 13½ gallons to the castle represent the senior establishment's monthly ration, the 10 gallons to the inhabitants supply the freeholder demand, and the 6 gallons to the plantation supply the slave allowance at the Hutts and consolidated estate.

The pewterers' ware line at 3½ dozen spoons, 4 chamber pots, 3 quart pots, 4 basins and 1 half-quart pot at £2 10s 3d for the inhabitants represents the working refurbishment of a freeholder household's principal pewter complement. The forty-two spoons supplied, against the twenty-six forks and fifty-six knives of the cutlery line, fit the standard early modern table service ratio of approximately two knives and one fork per spoon.

The soap line at three working grades, 100½ [...] of Bengal and 58 [...] of Bengal in separate entries, 6 [...] of Bengal and 6 [...] of Castile to the castle, brings the soap supply to £5 3s 10d for the month. The pattern shows the hierarchy of soap use: the cheaper Bengal soap for inhabitants and plantation use, the finer Castile soap reserved for the castle establishment's personal washing.

Speculations

The high inhabitants' purchase of 5½ pair of blankets at £4 17s 3d, well above the unit price of approximately 9s per blanket recorded in other months, suggests that the blankets supplied in this month were of a heavier or finer grade than the ordinary blanket of the storekeeper's working stock. The unit cost of approximately 17s 8d per pair brings them above the ordinary working blanket but below the finest English wool blankets. The substantial monthly purchase indicates that several freeholder households were renewing their bedding within the same month, consistent with the cooler nights of the early winter approaching the island as the seasons turned.

93

86

Brought over

226 3 7 1/4

Pepper

2

Inhabitants

2

Produce

1 p[s]

13 6

Perpetuanorus

11 1/2 yards

1 5 10 1/2

Shoes

2 p[r]

Inhabitants

2 13

6 8

Rice

20 [...]

12 [...]

Castle

4

18

Plantation

6

16 8

Braisers Ware viz[t]

5 [...] Sorted

Inhabitants

13 9

1 Copper Sawcepan 10 [...] 3 1/2

Castle

13 1 1/4

1 6 10 1/4

Broad Cloath viz[t]

5 1/2 yards Black D[o]

Inhab[ts]

3 3/4 yards Cloath Coll[d] D[o]

6 12 6

Flannell & Bunting viz[t]

5 yards Flannell

13 9

11 yards Bunting

1 5 4

15 2 1/2

Gloves

1 Lov[?] viz[t]

7 1/2 p[r] Mens d[o]

Inhabitants

13 4

4 [...]p[r] Maid d[o]

1

Tinnery Ware

2 p[s] D[o]

Ditto

Silver Buttons

3 doz[n] Coat d[o]

Ditto

1 2 6

2 doz[n] breast d[o]

0 4 6

1 7

Starch

48

Ditto

1 5 1

Durants

4 yards

Ditto

14

English Linnen

1 1/2 of Huckaback

Ditto

11

Glass Ware

3 Sett Sellers

2

140 Panes of 6 Inches & 8 D[o]

Fortifications

3 12

3 14

Silk Sorted viz[t]

1 [...] Taffolys

1 5 5

1 [...] Etatches

13 3

1 18 8

Rape Oyle

1 1/2 Gallon D[o]

Inhabits

0 10 6

1/2 Gallon D[o]

Garrison

0 3 6

1 Gallon D[o]

Plantation

0 3 6

17 6

Necklaces of beads

3 Ditto

Inhabitants

3

Tarr

1 Barrell

Fortifications

5

Flagg Brooms

12 [...]

Plantation

6

Bird Shotts

8 [...]

D[o]

4

Ragg Stone

1 d[o]

8

1 Small Grind Stone

Ditto

4 4

5

Sum Totall

£ 259: 8: 10 1/4

Brought over

£226 3s 7¾d

Pepper

2 [...]

inhabitants

2s 0d

Produce

1 piece

inhabitants

13s 6d

Perpetuanoes

11½ yards

inhabitants

£1 5s 10½d

Shoes

2 pair

inhabitants

£2 13s 0d

Rice

20 [...] for inhabitants at 4d per pound

inhabitants

6s 8d

12 [...] for castle

castle

4s 0d

15 [...] for plantation

plantation

5s 0d

47 [...]

15s 8d

Braziers' ware

5 [...] sorted

inhabitants

13s 9d

1 copper saucepan, weight 10 [...] 3½ [...]

castle

13s 1½d

£1 6s 10½d

Broad cloth

5½ yards of black

3¾ yards of coloured

inhabitants

£6 12s 6d

Flannel and bunting

5 yards of flannel

13s 9d

11 yards of bunting

£1 5s 2½d

inhabitants

£1 18s 11½d

Gloves

7½ pair of men's gloves

13s 4d

4 pair of maid's gloves

7s 0d

inhabitants

£1 0s 4d

Turnery ware

2 pieces of the same

inhabitants

[...]

Silver buttons

3 dozen coat buttons

£1 2s 6d

2 dozen breast buttons

4s 6d

inhabitants

£1 7s 0d

Starch

43 [...]

inhabitants

£1 5s 1d

Durants

4 yards

inhabitants

14s 0d

English linen

1½ [...] of huckaback

inhabitants

11s 0d

Glass ware

3 set cellars

inhabitants

2s 0d

140 panes of six and eight inches

fortifications

£3 12s 0d

£3 14s 0d

Silks sorted

1 [...] of taffeties

£1 5s 5d

1 [...] of etatches

13s 3d

inhabitants

£1 18s 8d

Rape oil

1½ gallon

inhabitants

10s 6d

½ gallon

garrison

3s 6d

1 gallon

plantation

3s 6d

17s 6d

Necklaces of beads

3 of the same

inhabitants

3s 0d

Tar

1 barrel

fortifications

5s 0d

Flag brooms

12 [...]

plantation

6s 0d

Bird shot

8 [...]

plantation

4s 0d

Ragg stone

1 [...]

plantation

8d

1 small grindstone

plantation

4s 4d

5s 0d

Sum total

£259 8s 10¼d

Interpretations

This closing portion of the May 1713 account introduces a substantial number of specialist goods whose names require explanation, and these are taken together here. Pepper was the imported Indian black pepper, used in the working freeholder kitchen as the principal seasoning. Produce is a clerical heading rather than a named item, covering a single piece of merchandise grouped under that label. Perpetuanoes were the durable worsted serge produced principally at Sudbury and Yarmouth for the export trade, named for the long-lasting (perpetual) wear of the cloth and used for hard-wearing outer garments. Braziers' ware referred to objects of worked brass, particularly cooking vessels and lamps; the present line of 5 [...] sorted to inhabitants and a 10½-pound copper saucepan to the castle indicates the working kitchenware supply. Broad cloth was the finest English woollen, woven double-width and then fulled and finished to a smooth napped surface, supplied principally in black, scarlet and coloured grades for the highest formal garments. Flannel was the soft loosely-woven woollen cloth used for undergarments, baby clothes and interior linings; bunting was the lightweight worsted cloth used principally for the manufacture of flags and signal cloths, taking its name from the working trade of the bunt-maker who supplied the navy with signal material. Turnery ware referred to items made on a lathe with turned wooden components, particularly shovel handles, tool handles and small household items. Silver buttons were buttons of solid or plated silver, used on the finest coats and waistcoats of the upper freeholder dress. Starch was the laundry preparation made principally from wheat starch grains, applied to linen for the stiffness fashionable in the period's collars, cuffs and aprons. Durants were the glazed worsted cloth finished with hot rollers or irons to give a glossy surface, used principally for outer garments and coat linings. Huckaback was a linen with a raised surface produced by floating weft threads, used principally for towels and table linen. Glass ware here covers two items: three set cellars (small footed dishes for table salt) at 2s 0d each, and 140 panes of six and eight inches sold to the fortifications at £3 12s 0d for glazing the establishment buildings. Taffeties were the working plural form of taffeta, the smooth plain-weave silk; etatches (probably attaches or stachees) were a related silk cloth, possibly a misrendering of estaches, the corded silk used for trimmings. Rape oil was the oil pressed from the seeds of the rape plant, used for lamps and lubrication. Necklaces of beads were the strung-bead jewellery items at 1s each, suggesting either children's wear or working ornaments for the slaves of the freeholder establishments. Tar was the working pitch-tar used for waterproofing rope, wood and rigging at the fortifications, supplied by the barrel. Flag brooms were the working brooms with heads made of flag, the reed of marshes, used for sweeping yards and rough surfaces. Bird shot was the small-calibre lead shot used in fowling pieces for killing wild birds and small game. Ragg stone was the working abrasive stone used for sharpening tools; the grindstone was the rotating wheel for the same purpose at a larger scale.

The total of £259 8s 10¼d for the month of 25 April 1713 to 25 May 1713 brings the working monthly figure to a substantial level, although below the £706 5s 1½d of the heaviest months of the post-cargo absorption period. The distribution shows the inhabitants drawing the largest share through the textile, cutlery and pewter lines, with the fortifications taking 140 panes of glass and a barrel of tar at the principal Company line and the plantation drawing flag brooms, bird shot and grinding stones.

The 140 panes of glass at six and eight inches at £3 12s 0d for the fortifications indicates a substantial glazing programme during the month, probably for the storehouse rebuild or for the completion of glazing at Munden's Castle or the Prosperous Bay house, where Sinsnick had been working as stone layer for fourteen days and a half. The pane count for the month is well above the average for the present series, suggesting concentrated glazing work during this particular month.

The combined Company-use lines of bird shot, flag brooms, ragg stone and grindstone on the plantation column at approximately 15s 0d, with tar at 5s 0d on the fortifications, marks the working tool and maintenance supply for the consolidated estate and the construction sites. The presence of an abrasive stone alongside a small grindstone at the plantation suggests sharpening of both small tools (with the hand stone) and larger blades (with the rotating wheel), consistent with the ordinary working maintenance of agricultural and construction tools.

Speculations

The presence of glassware in two distinct categories at 3 set cellars to the inhabitants and 140 panes of glass to the fortifications, totalling £3 14s 0d across the month, reflects two quite different uses of glass at the establishment: the small table item for the freeholder dining service, and the bulk glazing material for the construction programme. The pattern is consistent with a single cargo of glass arriving in a recent shipping period, with the storekeeper releasing pieces to both inhabitants and Company use as the working demand arose.

94

87

Island S[t] Helena.

An Acco[t] of Goods Sold & Deliver'd out of the

Honoura[ble] Comp[ys] Stores to the Inhabitants Gener[ll] Charges, Fortifications and

Plantation from May the 25[th] 1713. To June the 25[th] following. Viz[t]

Inhabitants Plantation Fortification Gen[r] Charges

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

To 149 7/8 Gatt[s] Batavia Arrack at 7 [...]p[er] Gatt[n]

52 9 1 1/4

27 7/8 Gatt[s] d[o] at

9 15 1 1/4

26 3/8 Gatt[s] of Goa D[o] at 5 [...]p[er] Gatt[n]

6 11 10 1/4

6 Gatt[s] Batavia Arrack at 7 [...]

2 2

7 1/4 Gatt[s] Goa D[o] at 5

1 17 6

To 1085 [...] Sugar at 8 [...]p[er]Lt

36 3 4

103 Sugar at D[o]

3 8 8

15 Sugar at D[o]

10

1203

To 152 [...] Sugar Candy

7 12

18 of Ditto

18

12 of Ditto

12

182

To 255 [...] Toba[c]o at 2 [...]p[er]Lt

25 10

6 of Ditto

12

1 of Ditto

2

262

To 5 1/2 Gross Pipes at 6[...]p[er] G[s]

1 10 6

8 doz[n] of Ditto at

4

1 D[o]

6

5 10

To 32 p[s] Chints Sorted

21 17 3

Shirts viz[t]

To 20 fine White Shirts at 8: 6 Each

74 Course D[o] at 3:

24 4 6

42 Chello D[o] at 2: 5

1 Course White at 3:

1 Chello D[o] 2: 5

5 5

135

Hosiers Goods viz[t]

16 p[r] Stockings Sorted 3: 19: 1 1/2

3 19 5 1/2

2 p[r] Cuteff 0: 0: 4

Carried Over

£ 173 6 2 5 4 [...] 24 15 1

Island of St Helena. Account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants, plantation, fortifications and general charges, from 25 May 1713 to 25 June 1713:

Arrack

149⅞ gallons of Batavia arrack at 7s per gallon

inhabitants

£52 9s 1¼d

27⅞ gallons of the same

general charges

£9 15s 1¼d

26⅜ gallons of Goa arrack at 5s per gallon

general charges

£6 11s 10¼d

6 gallons of Batavia arrack at 7s

plantation

£2 2s 0d

7¼ gallons of Goa arrack at 5s

plantation

£1 17s 6d

Sugar

1,085 [...] at 8d per pound

inhabitants

£36 3s 4d

103 [...] at the same

general charges

£3 8s 8d

15 [...] at the same

fortifications

10s 0d

1,203 [...]

Sugar candy

152 [...]

inhabitants

£7 12s 0d

18 [...]

general charges

18s 0d

12 [...]

plantation

12s 0d

182 [...]

Tobacco

255 [...] at 2s per pound

inhabitants

£25 10s 0d

6 [...] of the same

plantation

12s 0d

1 [...] of the same

general charges

2s 0d

262 [...]

Pipes

5½ gross at 6s per gross

inhabitants

£1 10s 6d

8 dozen of the same

plantation

4s 0d

1 of the same

general charges

6d

£1 15s 0d

Chints

32 pieces sorted

inhabitants

£21 17s 3d

Shirts

20 fine white shirts at 8s 6d each

74 coarse shirts at 3s each

inhabitants

£24 4s 6d

42 chello shirts at 2s 5d each

1 coarse white shirt at 3s each

1 chello of the same at 2s 5d each

general charges

£5 5s 0d

135 [...]

Hosiers' goods

16 pair of stockings sorted

£3 19s 1½d

2 pair of cuffs

inhabitants

4d

£3 19s 5½d

Carried over

inhabitants £173 6s 2d

plantation £5 4s 0d

general charges £24 15s 1d

Interpretations

The four columns of the present month's account expose the working classification of Company expenditure that the storekeeper has applied across the period of Bazett's recovered submissions. The inhabitants' column carries the retail trade to the freeholders, planters and soldiers in their private capacities. The plantation column carries the supply to the Governor's house and land. The fortifications column carries the supply to construction and military maintenance. The general charges column carries the supply to the Honourable Company's general table and the senior establishment. The opening lines of the present month divide between these four columns according to the consumption pattern of each department, with the inhabitants' line dominating the volume in every commodity. Several items in this month's account require explanation. Batavia arrack was the strong distilled spirit produced in the Dutch East Indies at Batavia, the chief Dutch settlement on Java, distilled from molasses and rice; Goa arrack was the comparable Portuguese-Indian alternative from the Goa station on the Konkan coast, supplied at a lower rate per gallon. Sugar candy was the crystallised refined sugar produced by repeated boiling and cooling of sugar solution until large crystals formed on threads suspended in the syrup, used for sweetening drinks, sucking as a sweet and for medicinal purposes in soothing the throat. Pipes here refers to the clay tobacco pipes manufactured in England in standard form, supplied by the gross of 144 to the establishment, with a short working life-span on the island and continuous replacement; the gross was the working unit of bulk supply, the dozen the smaller working measure. Chints were the printed and painted Indian cottons that gave the modern chintz its name, produced principally at Masulipatam and on the Coromandel coast; patterns were applied by hand-printing with wooden blocks and by hand-painting with mordants and dyes. Shirts in this month appear in three grades: fine white shirts at 8s 6d each, coarse shirts at 3s each, and chello shirts (named for the chello cloth from which they were cut) at 2s 5d each. Cuffs in the hosiers' goods line were the detachable wrist coverings worn over the ends of shirts, supplied as separate items rather than attached to the shirts.

The arrack supply of the month brings the largest single working spirits volume in the present series of accounts. The 149⅞ gallons of Batavia arrack to the inhabitants at 7s per gallon, together with the 26⅜ gallons of cheaper Goa arrack on the general charges line at 5s per gallon and the further 27⅞ gallons of Batavia on the general charges, exposes the two-grade structure of spirits supply at the establishment. The differential pricing of 7s against 5s per gallon, sustained from at least early 1713 onward, fixes the two-tier spirits system of the establishment.

The sugar line at 1,085 [...] to the inhabitants and 103 [...] to the general charges at 8d per pound marks a reversion to the lower sugar retail rate of 8d per pound, against the 12d per pound recorded in the preceding month. The reduction probably reflects a correction in the pricing after the initial cargo absorption, or the consequence of fresh sugar arriving on one of the Madras-Bengal ships. The line total of £36 3s 4d to the inhabitants alone places sugar as the principal staple of the freeholder household's domestic supply.

The shirts line exposes the three-grade hierarchy of shirts at the establishment. The 20 fine white shirts at 8s 6d each on the inhabitants' column supplied the upper layer of the freeholder community for formal wear; the 74 coarse shirts at 3s each on the inhabitants' column supplied the ordinary inhabitants and the rougher trades; the 42 chello shirts at 2s 5d each on the general charges column, together with a single coarse white and a single chello, supplied the senior establishment's servants and slaves at the general table. The differential between the three rates, from 8s 6d for the finest down to 2s 5d for the chello, indicates a spread of nearly four to one across the shirt grades supplied by the establishment.

Speculations

The chints supply at 32 pieces sorted at £21 17s 3d to the inhabitants alone, with no entry on the plantation, fortifications or general charges columns, indicates that printed Indian cotton was treated by the storekeeper as a consumer item for the freeholder market rather than an item of institutional supply. The pattern is consistent with the use of chints in domestic furnishings, gowns and waistcoats by the freeholder households, none of which had any institutional equivalent that would have required supply through the Company columns.

95

88

Inhabit[ts] Plantation Fortification Gen[r] Charges

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

173 6 2 5 4 [...] 21 15 1

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t]

13 [...] Sorted 1: 12: 0 1/2

15 Nayles 0: 10: 3

2 2 3 1/2

22 of Ditto Sorted 0: 16: 11

8 p[s] Sorted 2: 1: 2

2 18 1

15 Nayles Sorted 0: 9: 4 1/4

2 Stock Locks 0: 11: [...]

1 2 8 1/4

1 p[r] Hooks Hinges &c[a] 3 1/2 [...] 0: 2: 4

Chelloes

38 p[s] at 5 Each

9 10

1 p[s] to Gen[r] Charges

39

5

Cheese

26 1/2 at 10 [...] p[er] [...]

1 1 [...]

Threads viz[t]

3 ounces Coll[d] 0: 1: 0

3 [...] Browne d[o] 0: 9: 8

9 ounces Nuns d[o] 0: 13: 2

1 3 10

2 Ounces Nuns d[o] Plantation

2 2

14

Thrown Silks & Mohair viz[t]

6 [...] at 2: 6 0: 10: 3

6 [...] Mohair 0: 10: 0

1 6 3

1 [...] Ditto Gen[r] Charges

10

Rice viz[t]

61 [...] to the Inhab[t] at 3 1/2 p[er] [...]

17 9 1/4

6 [...] of Ditto Gen[r] Charges 1 [...] 10

1 10

6 [...] Plantation at 2

2

129 1/4

Ribboning viz[t]

18 [...] yard Ribbon Sorted 0: 15: 9

4 yard Ferritt 0: 1: 6

17 3

Black Crape Soon 3 1/2 yards

7 8

Tapes & bindings viz[t]

2 p[s] of Bindings 0: 3: 4

12

10 [...] Holland Tape 0: 9: 2 1/4

6 1/2

Carried Over

191 5 9 1/4 6 10 10 1/2 2 18 1 23 5 9

Brought over

inhabitants £173 6s 2d

plantation £5 4s 0d

general charges £24 15s 1d

Ironmongers' ware

13 [...] sorted £1 12s 0¼d

15 [...] nails 10s 3d

22 [...] of the same sorted 16s 11d

inhabitants

£2 2s 3¼d

8 [...] sorted £2 1s 2d

fortifications

£2 18s 1d

15 [...] nails sorted 9s 4½d

2 stock locks 11s 0d

1 pair of hooks and hinges 2s 4d

plantation

£1 2s 8½d

Chelloes

38 pieces at 5s each

inhabitants

£9 10s 0d

1 piece for general charges

general charges

5s 0d

39 [...]

Cheese

26 [...] at 10d per pound

inhabitants

£1 1s 11¾d

Threads

3 ounces of coloured thread 1s 0d

3½ [...] brown 9s 8d

9 ounces of nuns' 13s 2d

inhabitants

£1 3s 10d

2 ounces of nuns' for plantation

plantation

2s 2d

Thrown silks and mohair

6¾ [...] silk at 2s 6d 16s 3d

6¼ [...] mohair at 10s 10s 0d

inhabitants

£1 6s 3d

1 [...] of the same for general charges

general charges

10d

Rice

61½ [...] to the inhabitants at 3¼d per pound

inhabitants

17s 5¼d

62¼ [...] of the same for general charges at 4d

general charges

£1 0s 10d

6 [...] for plantation at 4d

plantation

2s 0d

129¾ [...]

Ribboning

18½ yards of ribbon sorted 15s 9d

4 yards of ferret 1s 6d

inhabitants

17s 3d

Black crape for shoes

3½ yards

inhabitants

7s 8d

Tapes and bindings

2 pieces of bindings 3s 4d

10 pieces of Holland tape 9s 2½d

inhabitants

12s 6½d

Carried over

inhabitants £191 5s 0¾d

plantation £6 10s 10½d

fortifications £2 18s 1d

general charges £23 7s 9d

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist goods whose names and uses are best explained together. Stock locks were the heavy iron locks with their mechanisms enclosed in a wooden stock or case, mounted on the outside of doors at gates and storehouses; they were the principal lock type for external doors and required substantial hardware to fit. The two stock locks on the plantation column for the month, alongside hooks and hinges, indicate that secure doors were being installed on a specific building at Plantation House or one of the outlying establishments. Chelloes were the working coarse Indian cotton supplied principally from Madras, in piece form, used for shirts, lining and lightweight summer wear; the working chello shirts of the preceding line were cut from the same cloth. Threads in this month appear in four grades: coloured thread (dyed for ornamental sewing), brown thread (heavy and used for sails and rough work), white thread (for ordinary domestic use), and nuns' thread (the working fine white thread named for its monastic origin, used for cambric and lawn sewing). Thrown silks and mohair were the twisted yarns used for buttons, trimmings, fine knitting and embroidery; thrown silk was twisted from raw silk filaments ready for weaving or knitting, mohair was long-staple worsted yarn from the fleece of the angora goat, valued for its lustre. Ferret in the ribboning line was a narrow worsted tape, named for its stiffness and the ferret-like appearance of its narrow form, used for binding garment edges and stiffening hatbands. Black crape was the thin transparent worsted used principally for mourning wear, with the present line showing 3½ yards specifically for shoes, probably for the covering or trimming of footwear for mourning use or for the binding of worn shoe-tops. Holland tape was the flax tape produced in the Netherlands and supplied through the English trade for binding garment edges, trimming seams and producing garters and narrow trimmings.

The ironmongers' ware line of the present month exposes the working full range of iron hardware supplied through the storekeeper across the three institutional and one freeholder columns. The 13 [...] sorted at £1 12s 0¼d, the 15 [...] of nails and the 22 [...] of further sorted iron items to the inhabitants supplied the freeholder households with nails, hooks, hinges and other small hardware for the maintenance of houses, fences and outbuildings. The 8 [...] sorted for the fortifications at £2 18s 1d supplied the construction at Munden's Castle and the Prosperous Bay house with spike nails and structural iron. The plantation column carries 15 [...] of nails sorted, 2 stock locks at 11s and hooks and hinges at 2s 4d, totalling £1 2s 8½d.

The chelloes line at 38 pieces at 5s each to the inhabitants at £9 10s 0d, with a single piece on the general charges at 5s, marks the bulk supply of the coarse Indian cotton in piece form, distinct from the chello shirts of the preceding line. The unit price of 5s per piece places the chello at the middle range of the Indian cotton imports, between the cheaper chints at approximately 13s 8d per piece in the preceding month and the finer muslins.

The rice line at 61½ [...] to the inhabitants at 3¼d per pound, 62¼ [...] to general charges at 4d, and 6 [...] to plantation at 4d, totals 129¾ [...] for the month at approximately £2 0s 3¼d. The differential pricing between inhabitants at 3¼d and the institutional columns at 4d reflects the preferential rate for the freeholders against the full rate for the general table and the Governor's house. The continued large supply to the general charges indicates the centrality of rice in the diet of the establishment.

Speculations

The presence of black crape for shoes at 3½ yards on the inhabitants' column at 7s 8d marks an unusual line. The small quantity of 3½ yards suggests a specific order from one or two households who had suffered a bereavement during the period, with the crape used either for the covering of mourning shoes or for the trimming of footwear for the funeral. The line stands apart from the ordinary trimming and binding lines of the freeholder dress, and probably reflects a specific working response to a particular death within the inhabitant community during the working month covered.

96

89

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

191 5 9 1/4 6 10 10 1/2 2 18 1 23 4 9

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

16 doz[n] Hooks Sorted 0: 13: 3

8 Lines 0: 7: 4

1 3 1

1 Bed cord 0: 2: 6

16 [...] 9

Oyles for 2 1/4 Gall[s] at 8 [...] p[er] Gall[n]

17 6

2 1/4 Gall[s] 8 [...]p[er] [...]

14

3 1/2 Gall[s] Gen[r] Charges

1 4 6

8

Starch 86 [...] Inhabit[s] at 7 [...]p[er] [...]

2 10 2

6 D[o] Gen[r] Charges

3 6

92

Linns 12 White Sorted

19 9

Turnary Ware for 2 Shovells

4

6 D[o] Fortifica[s]

12

2 Shoe brushes Plantation

2

Brasiers Ware viz[t]

2 Brass Lampreys 8 [...] Inhabit[s]

7 10

1 Ditto Gen[r] Charges

3 11

3 [...] 2 [...] Brass Candlesticks Plant[n]

14

Hatts for 5 Sorted Inhabit[s]

3 5

Fustians viz[t]

10 yards Coll[d] Dimitty 0: 12: [...]

10 yards Thicksetes 1: 5: [...]

1 17

8 yards Coll[d] Dimitty Gen[r] Charges

10

28

Soap for 4 1/2 [...] Bengall[?] at 5 [...] Inhab[ts]

1 9 4

4 1/2 D[o] Castle Gen[r] Charges

5 7 1/2

[...] Castle Gen[r] Charges

2 9 1/4

4 1/2 D[o] Plantation

50 [...]

Carried over

£ 203 19 5 1/4 7 12 6 3 10 1 26 5 5 1/4

Brought over

inhabitants £191 5s 0¾d

plantation £6 10s 10½d

fortifications £2 18s 1d

general charges £23 4s 9d

Hooks and lines

16 dozen hooks sorted 13s 3d

8 lines 7s 4d

1 bed cord 2s 6d

inhabitants

£1 3s 1d

16 [...] 9d

Oil

2¼ gallons at 7s per gallon

inhabitants

17s 6d

2 gallons of the same

fortifications

14s 0d

3½ gallons

general charges

£1 4s 6d

Starch

86 [...] to the inhabitants at 7d per pound

inhabitants

£2 10s 2d

6 [...] for general charges

general charges

3s 6d

92 [...]

Pins

12 thousand sorted

inhabitants

19s 9d

Turnery ware

2 shovels

inhabitants

4s 0d

6 of the same

fortifications

12s 0d

2 shoe brushes

plantation

2s 0d

Braziers' ware

2 brass lamps at 3s 11d each

inhabitants

7s 10d

1 of the same

general charges

3s 11d

3 brass candlesticks

plantation

14s 0d

Hats

5 sorted for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£3 5s 0d

Fustians

10 yards of coloured dimity 12s 0d

10 yards of thickset £1 5s 0d

inhabitants

£1 17s 0d

8 yards of coloured dimity for general charges

general charges

10s 0d

28 yards

Soap

44 [...] of Bengal at the inhabitants

inhabitants

£1 9s 4d

3½ [...] of Castile for general charges

general charges

2s 9¼d

4½ [...] of the same for plantation

plantation

5s 7½d

50½ [...]

Carried over

inhabitants £203 19s 5¼d

plantation £7 12s 6d

fortifications £3 10s 1d

general charges £26 5s 7¼d

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several items whose specialist use is best explained together. A bed cord was the strong cord used for the webbing of bedsteads, on which the mattress or bedding lay; the present line shows a single bed cord on the hooks and lines line at 2s 6d, classified there because the storekeeper grouped corded goods under a common heading. Oil here is principally rape or linseed oil, used for lamps, lubrication of tools and the preparation of paint. Starch was the laundry preparation made principally from wheat starch grains, applied to the linens of shirts, collars, cuffs and aprons to give the stiffness fashionable in the period's dress. Pins were the small brass or iron sharp implements used for fastening dress, pinning cloth in sewing and the temporary closure of garments; the monthly volume of 12 thousand pins reflects the continued reliance of freeholder women's dress on pins as the primary fastener, since women's garments of the period were closed principally by pins rather than buttons or hooks. Turnery ware refers to items with turned wooden handles or components, here principally shovels for the fortifications and inhabitants, and shoe brushes for the plantation; shoe brushes were the brushes used for blacking and brushing the senior establishment's footwear. Braziers' ware refers to items of worked brass: brass lamps were the oil-burning lamps with brass bodies and wick holders for the lighting of interiors, brass candlesticks were the stands for candles, of solid brass with bases broad enough to give stability. Fustians here cover two grades: coloured dimity (the lighter fustian with coloured pattern) and thickset (the heavier fustian for harder wear), both supplied in yards. Castile soap was the hard white soap made principally from olive oil in Spain, valued for its mildness and used for personal washing; Bengal soap was the softer Indian alternative used principally for laundry and rough household washing.

The hooks and lines line of the present month at 16 dozen hooks sorted at 13s 3d, 8 lines at 7s 4d and 1 bed cord at 2s 6d brings the monthly fishing-tackle and bedding-cord supply to £1 3s 1d for the inhabitants. The pattern reflects the continued fishing activity established under the 12 May 1713 drought-relief order, by which the yawl had been opened for fishing by inhabitants and garrison.

The oil line at 2¼ gallons at 7s per gallon to the inhabitants, 2 gallons to fortifications and 3½ gallons to general charges, totalling 7¾ gallons for the month, supplied the lighting and lubrication requirements of the establishment. The larger supply to the general charges and fortifications columns indicates the principal use of the oil in the institutional establishments rather than in the freeholder households.

The pins line at 12 thousand pins sorted to the inhabitants at 19s 9d brings the pin supply to the freeholders at a substantial monthly level. The volume reflects the continuing demand for pins as the primary fastener of women's dress and as a temporary closure for sewing in progress in the freeholder households.

The soap line at three working grades, 44 [...] of Bengal for the inhabitants at £1 9s 4d, 3½ [...] of Castile for general charges at 2s 9¼d and 4½ [...] of Castile for plantation at 5s 7½d, brings the monthly soap supply to 50½ [...]. The pattern indicates the continued hierarchy of soap use: the cheaper Bengal soap for the inhabitants' laundry and household washing, the finer Castile soap reserved for the personal washing requirements of the senior establishment at the general charges column and the Governor's house at the plantation column.

Speculations

The 16 [...] entry at 9d on the inhabitants' column without a specific item description probably represents a subsidiary line of the hooks and lines category, perhaps relating to further sundries or to the bed cords sold by separate measure. The combined inhabitants' line under hooks and lines, totalling £1 3s 1d plus the 9d, brings the specific fishing-and-bedding-cord supply to the freeholders for the month at a modest level compared with the preceding cargo-absorption month.

97

90

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

203 19 5 1/4 7 12 6 3 10 1 26 5 5 1/4

Neckcloaths for 4 p[s] [...] Inhabit[t]

5 2 4 1/2

Blanketts for 11 Sorted

D[o]

5 1

Tin Ware for 1 Lanthorne

D[o]

2 10

1 ffunnell

D[o]

5

5 [...] 1 3

6 Lanthorns Gen[r] Charges

7

Long Cloath for 1 p[s] Inhabits

1 4 9

Neilas for 4 p[s]

D[o]

2 19 2

Ginghams 4 p[s]

D[o]

3 5 4

Sannoes 4 p[s]

D[o]

1 9 6

Gurras 4 p[s] D[o] at 12: 6 p[s]

D[o]

2 10

Shoes 14 p[s] Sorted

D[o]

3 16 9

Cloath Druggetts for 37 1/2 yards

D[o]

6 11 9

Shalloons for 12 1/2 yards

D[o]

1 11 3

Perpetuanas 7 yards at 2 [...] [9]

D[o]

15 9

Cumb for 2 [...] Indigo

D[o]

1 4

Buttons viz[t]

1 Gross Coate D[o] 0: 13: 9

1 1/2 Gross breast D[o] 0: 8: 4

1 2 1

24

Silk Laces for 17 D[o]

9 11

Pepper 2

2

2 Gen[r] Charges

2

1 D[o] Plantation

1

Gloves 3 p[r] mens Inhabit[s]

5 3

Cuttlary Ware viz[t]

11 Knives & 5 forks 0: 7: 0 1/4

1 p[r] Sizard 0: 0: 6

1 p[r] Shears 0: 1: [...]

4 p[r] Buckles 0: 3: 4

11 10 [...]

38 Knives & 5 forks Gen[r] Charges

1 14 6

41

Glass Ware viz[t]

35 Panes of 6 & 8 Inches Inhabit[s]

17 6 1/2

2 D[o] Decanters Gen[r] Charges

10 10

Carried Over

£ 242 [...] 3 3/4 7 13 6 3 10 1 29 10 9 3/4

Brought over

inhabitants £203 19s 5¼d

plantation £7 12s 6d

fortifications £3 10s 1d

general charges £26 5s 7¼d

Neckcloths

4 for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£5 2s 4½d

Blankets

11 sorted

inhabitants

£5 1s 0d

Tin ware

1 lantern

inhabitants

2s 10d

1 funnel

inhabitants

5d

6 lanterns

general charges

£1 3s 0d

7 [...]

Long cloth

1 piece for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£1 4s 9d

Neilas

4 pieces for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£2 16s 2d

Ginghams

4 pieces for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£3 5s 4d

Salampores

4 pieces for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£1 9s 6d

Gurras

4 pieces at 12s 6d each

inhabitants

£2 10s 0d

Shoes

14 pair sorted

inhabitants

£3 16s 9d

Cloth druggets

37½ yards

inhabitants

£6 11s 9d

Shalloons

12½ yards

inhabitants

£1 11s 3d

Perpetuanoes

7 yards at 3s 9d per yard

inhabitants

£1 5s 9d

Paint

2 [...] of indigo

inhabitants

1s 4d

Buttons

1 gross of coat buttons 13s 9d

1½ gross of breast buttons 8s 4d

inhabitants

£1 2s 1d

Silk laces

17 of the same

inhabitants

9s 4d

Pepper

2 [...]

inhabitants

2s 0d

2 [...] for general charges

general charges

2s 0d

1 [...] for plantation

plantation

1s 0d

Gloves

3 pair of men's gloves for the inhabitants

inhabitants

5s 3d

Cutlery ware

11 knives and 5 forks 7s 0½d

1 pair of scissors 6d

1 pair of shears 1s 0d

4 pair of buckles 3s 4d

inhabitants

11s 10½d

36 knives and 25 forks for general charges

general charges

£1 14s 6d

Glass ware

35 panes of six and eight inches for the inhabitants

inhabitants

17s 6d

2 of the same of cucumbers for general charges

general charges

10s 10d

Carried over

inhabitants £242 0s 3¼d

plantation £7 13s 6d

fortifications £3 10s 1d

general charges £29 10s 9¼d

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist items whose names and uses are best explained together. Neckcloths were the rectangular cloths of fine linen or cotton tied around the throat, supplying the trimming of the upper dress at the open collar; at £1 5s 7d per piece in the present line they are of working high quality, probably edged with lace or fine working trimming. Tin ware here is principally lanterns (the sheet-tin enclosed lights with horn or glass panels protecting the candle inside from wind and weather, used for outdoor or draughty interior lighting) and a funnel (the tin cone with narrow spout, used for pouring liquids from larger to smaller vessels). Long cloth was the fine plain Indian cotton supplied in long pieces, principally from Bengal, used for the finest shirts, the linen of the freeholder dress and fine household linen. Neilas were the striped Indian cotton supplied principally from Madras; ginghams were the striped or chequered Indian cottons; salampores were the blue-dyed Indian cotton from the Coromandel coast, named for the Indian town of Salem from which the original cloth came; gurras were the plain coarse white Indian cotton from Bengal. Cloth drugget was the stronger working drugget grade against the silk drugget of earlier accounts, used principally for outer garments and stronger domestic uses. Shalloons were the light worsted lining fabric used for the inside of coats and waistcoats. Perpetuanoes were the durable worsted serge produced principally at Sudbury and Yarmouth for the export trade, named for the long-lasting wear of the cloth. Indigo in the paint line was the blue dye produced from tropical plants of the Indigofera genus, used by dyers and by households for colouring cloth and the preparation of laundry blueing. Buttons in this month appear in two grades: coat buttons (the larger working buttons for closing the outer coat) and breast buttons (the smaller working buttons for the waistcoat front), supplied by the gross of 144 and the half-gross. Silk laces were the working trimming bands of silk thread used for ornamenting garments. Cutlery ware in this month combines knives and forks, scissors, shears (the working large two-handled cutting implement) and buckles (the working metal frames for fastening shoes and breeches with leather straps). Glass ware here covers two distinct categories: 35 panes of six and eight inches for ordinary glazing, and 2 cucumbers of the same on the general charges column. The cucumbers were not panes of glass but the long working glass cylinders called cucumber glasses or bell glasses, used in horticulture to force the growth of cucumbers under glass and to protect young plants from cold and wind, supplied to the senior establishment for the working kitchen garden.

The neckcloths line at 4 pieces for the inhabitants at £5 2s 4½d places the unit price at approximately 25s 7d each, well above the price points of preceding months. The high unit cost indicates the luxurious finish of these particular neckcloths, with lace edging, embroidered ends or fine linen body that placed them at the top of the freeholder dress establishment.

The Indian cotton cluster covering long cloth, neilas, ginghams, salampores and gurras brings four to five pieces of each grade to the inhabitants at unit prices ranging from approximately 7s 4d for salampores up to 24s 9d for long cloth. The presence of all grades in one month indicates the freeholder households' continued accumulation of Indian cotton stock, with each grade serving a different purpose.

The cucumber glasses on the general charges column at 10s 5d each indicate substantial working glass cylinders of considerable size. The presence of two cucumbers on the senior establishment's column shows the working horticultural establishment maintained at the Company's general table or kitchen garden, probably to supply fresh cucumbers for the senior table during the months when the open ground would not bring them on.

Speculations

The supply of 12 thousand pins in the preceding line, together with the substantial buttons line at 1 gross of coat buttons and 1½ gross of breast buttons in the present line, indicates that two complementary fastening systems were being maintained simultaneously in the freeholder dress. The pins served principally for women's dress where buttons were inappropriate, and the buttons served principally for men's outer dress and waistcoats. The continued supply of both at substantial monthly volumes shows that the freeholder community was investing in both forms of dress fastening during the same period, reflecting the working maintenance of fashion-conscious dress among both sexes despite the drought conditions.

98

91

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

242 3 3/4 7 13 6 3 10 1 29 10 9 3/4

Silk Wood for 1/4 [...] Inhabitants

4 1/2

Romalls for 6 at 15 [...]Each D[o]

7 6

Hoods & Scarves viz[t]

4 Hoods 3: 3: 3

1 Scarve 1: 9: 2

4 12 5

Combs for 1 Horn & 1 Ivory D[o]

1 6

Pewterers Ware viz[t]

2 Dishes w[t] 5 1/2 [...] 0: 8: 3

6 Plates 0: 8: 3

48 Spoons 0: 13: [...]

1 Chamber Pott 1[...] 0: 4: 10

Inhabits

2 17 4

2 Porringers 0: 3: [...]

4 Basons 0: 15: 4

1 quart Pott 0: 4: 8

30 Spoones 0: 9: 7

15 5

1 Chamb[r] Pott 0: 4: 10

93 [...]

Bird Shott for 12 [...] Inhabit[s]

6

Ditto 26 Gen[r] Charges

13

38

Flannell for 1 yard Inhabit[s]

2 9

Salt for 1 Bushells Gen[r] Charges

12

English Linnen for 1 [...] Ozenbriggs

13

Indian Linnen for 1 [...] Blue D[o]

10 2

Bread for 1 Cask of 2 [...] Gen[r] Charges

12 6

1 Brak[?] Iron of 30 [...] Fortifications

9

Bunting for 4 yards Gen[r] Charges

12 6

Corks 10 dozen

2 6

3 Brass Mettle Buttons D[o]

7

Tallow 1 Cask of 22 [...] Plantation

7 16 9

Tapes & Bindings viz[t]

18 of Binding Plant[n] 0: 1: 8

2 [...] Holland Tape Plant[n] 0: 0: 10 1/2

2 6 1/2

250 8 1 1/2 15 12 9 1/2 3 19 1 34 10 3 1/2

To the Inhabitants

250 8 1 1/2

To the Plantation

15 12 9 1/2

To Fortifications

3 19 1

To Generall Charges

34 10 3 1/2

Sum Totalls of what was been Sold and Deliver'd

304 10 3 1/2

Brought over

inhabitants £242 0s 3¼d

plantation £7 13s 6d

fortifications £3 10s 1d

general charges £29 10s 9¼d

Ink wood

[...] for the inhabitants

inhabitants

4½d

Romalls

6 at 1s 3d each

inhabitants

7s 6d

Hoods and scarves

4 hoods at 3s 3d each

13s 0d

1 scarf

£1 9s 2d

inhabitants

£4 12s 5d

Combs

1 horn and 1 ivory

inhabitants

1s 6d

Pewterers' ware

2 dishes at 5s 2½d each

8s 3d

6 plates

8s 3d

48 spoons

13s 0d

1 chamber pot

inhabitants

4s 10d

2 porringers

3s 0d

4 basins

15s 4d

1 quart pot

4s 8d

£2 17s 4d

30 spoons

9s 7d

1 chamber pot

general charges

4s 10d

15s 5d

93 [...]

Bird shot

12 [...] for the inhabitants

inhabitants

6s 0d

13 [...] for general charges

general charges

13s 0d

28 [...]

Flannel

1 yard

inhabitants

2s 9d

[...] yards for general charges

general charges

12s 0d

Salt

2 bushels for general charges

general charges

1s 4d

English linen

1 [...] of ozenbriggs

general charges

13s 0d

Indian linen

1 [...] blue of the same

general charges

£1 10s 2d

Bread

1 cask for general charges

general charges

9s 0d

1 bar of iron of 30 [...]

fortifications

12s 6d

Bunting

[...] yards for general charges

general charges

2s 6d

Corks

10 dozen

inhabitants

7d

Brass metal buttons

[...] dozen

plantation

£7 16s 9d

Tallow

1 cask of 22 [...]

plantation

[...]

Tapes and bindings

1 piece of binding 1s 8d

1 piece of Holland tape 10½d

plantation

2s 6½d

Sum of the page

inhabitants £250 8s 1¾d

plantation £15 12s 9¼d

fortifications £3 19s 1d

general charges £34 10s 3¾d

To the inhabitants £250 8s 1¾d

To the plantation £15 12s 9¼d

To the fortifications £3 19s 1d

To the general charges £34 10s 3¾d

Sum total of what has been sold and delivered

£304 10s 4d

Interpretations

This closing portion of the June 1713 account introduces several specialist items whose names require explanation. Ink wood (probably logwood) was the dye-wood imported from Central America, used to produce the characteristic black ink and black dye of the period; supplied here in a small quantity to a single inhabitant household. Romalls were the Indian cotton kerchiefs from Bengal, used as neck and head wear, taking their name from the Persian rumal. Combs in the present line appear in two grades: horn (the cheaper working comb made of cattle horn shaped by heat and pressure) and ivory (the finer working comb cut from elephant tusks supplied through the East India trade). Pewterers' ware comprises the table service items: dishes (the large serving plates), plates (the individual eating plates), spoons, chamber pots (the night vessels), porringers (small two-handled bowls for pottage), basins (washing and serving bowls), and quart pots (the working liquid measures). Bird shot was the small-calibre lead shot used in fowling pieces for the killing of birds and small game. Flannel was the soft loosely-woven woollen cloth used for undergarments, baby clothes and interior linings. Salt was supplied in bushels (the working dry measure of approximately 36 litres in modern terms) for the working preservation of meat and seasoning. English linen here is ozenbriggs (osnaburgs), the coarse German linen exported through Hamburg and named for the German town of Osnabrück, used for shirts and rough domestic linen; Indian linen blue is the blue-dyed Indian cotton or linen for working uniform-type garments. Bread in the cask was the working ship's biscuit imported from England in casks, preserved by extreme dryness against the sea voyage. Bunting was the lightweight worsted cloth used for signal flags. Corks were the cylindrical stoppers cut from the bark of the Mediterranean cork oak, used for bottling spirits, wine and medicinal preparations. Brass metal buttons were the working cast or struck brass buttons used for working livery, slave coats and the rougher trades' garments, distinct from the silk, mohair or silver buttons of the freeholder dress. Tallow was the hard animal fat, principally from cattle or sheep, rendered and used for the manufacture of candles, soap and leather dressing.

The closing total of £304 10s 4d for the month of 25 May 1713 to 25 June 1713 allocates £250 8s 1¾d to the inhabitants, £15 12s 9¼d to the plantation, £3 19s 1d to the fortifications and £34 10s 3¾d to the general charges. The pattern places the inhabitants' column at over 82 per cent of the monthly total, with the three institutional columns making up the remainder.

The substantial brass metal buttons line at £7 16s 9d on the plantation column is the single largest entry on that column for the month. The supply probably went to the livery of the slaves and servants of the Governor's establishment, or to the sewing of buttons onto the slaves' clothes already supplied through the storekeeper. The high working volume indicates a programme of livery refurbishment at Plantation House during the month.

The tallow line at 1 cask of 22 [...] for the plantation supplies the raw material for the making of candles, soap and leather dressing at the Governor's establishment. The casked supply indicates the continuing production of candles at Plantation House for the domestic lighting of the senior establishment, sufficient for several months of working candle manufacture at the working rate of consumption of the senior household.

The pewterers' ware line of the present month is the most extensive in the present series, listing 2 dishes, 6 plates, 48 spoons, 1 chamber pot, 2 porringers, 4 basins and 1 quart pot for the inhabitants at £2 17s 4d, with a further 30 spoons and 1 chamber pot for the general charges at 15s 5d. The 48 spoons in one month, combined with the 30 to the general charges, brings the monthly spoon supply to 78, sufficient for the refurbishment of multiple household services.

Speculations

The supply of 2 cucumber glasses to the general charges in the preceding line, together with the substantial bird shot and bread supplies to the same column in the present line, indicates that the senior establishment was operating an active programme of provision-supplementation during the drought months. Cucumbers under glass would have supplied fresh vegetables during periods when the open ground would not produce; bird shot supplied the killing of working wild birds for the table; bread in cask form supplied the bakery shortfall. The combined pattern reflects a deliberate working response to the drought-induced restriction of fresh provisions, with the senior table being maintained on imported and forced-grown alternatives where the local supply was working insufficient.

99

92

Island S[t]

Helena. An Acc[ot] of Goods Sold and Deliver'd out of the Honoura[ble]

Comp[s] Stores to the Inhabitants Gen[r] Charges Fortifications

and Plantation from June y[e] 25[th] 1713 to Septemb[r] y[e] 25 following viz[t]

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack viz[t]

To 137 Gall[s] Sucess at 7[s] 4: 11: 10 1/2

751 7/8 Co[r] of Shiping 9: 33: 4: 7

342 16 5

342 16 5

764 7/8

17 7/8 Gall[s] Sucess at 7 6: 3: 4 1/4

80 1/4 Gall[s] Co[r] of Shipping 4: 36: 7: 10 1/4

30 Gall[s] of Goa Sucess 5 7: 10:

50 1 3

50 1 3

128 1/8

8 Gall[s] Batavia Sucess at 7 3: 15:

20 1/4 Gall[s] D[o] Co[r] of Shipping 5: 9: 6: 3

    1. 3

15 13 7 1/2

15 13 7 1/2

18 7/8 Goa D[o] at 5 [...]p[er] Gall[n] 4: 11: 10 1/2

Sugar & Candy viz[t]

To 4270 [...] Sug[r] at 8 [...]p[er] [...] 142: 13:

142 13

153 Ditto [...] 6: 2: [...]

6 2

96 1/2 D[o] [...] 3: 4: 6

3 4 6

4519 1/2

151 19 6

12 [...] Candy at 12 [...]p[er] [...] 0: 12: [...]

12 [...] D[o] Gen[r] Charges 0: 12:

12

12

11 D[o] Gen[r] Charges 0: 11:

11

25 [...] D[o] Plantation 1: 5:

1 5

285

166 4 6

166 4 6

Tobacco & Pipes viz[t]

To 417 Ditto at 2 [...] p[er] [...] 41: 14:

41 14

9 D[o] Gen[r] Charges 0: 18:

18

6 D[o] Plantation 0: 12:

12

432

43 4

136 1/4 doz[n] Pipes 3: 8: 3

3 8 3

11 1/4 doz[n] D[o] Gen[r] Charges 16: 12: 6

5 9

8 1/4 doz[n] D[o] Plantation 0: 4: 3

4 3

156 1/2

17 2 3

47 2 3

Rice 10371 at 3 1/2 [...] 151: 4: 10 1/2

151 4 10 1/2

Gen[r] Charges 13 [...] at 4

4 6

4 6

Ditto 822

11 19 9

11 19 9

Plantation 20 at 4

6 8

6 8

Ditto Hooks Stays 14 [...] 3

12 10

12 10

Ditto 100 out ships 1: 9: 2

1 9 2

1 9 2

164 13 9 1/2

164 13 9 1/2

Carried Over

£ 634 5 7 1/4 23 8 1 1/2 70 2 3 787 15 11 1/2

Island of St Helena. Account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants, general charges, fortifications and plantation, from 25 June 1713 to 25 September 1713:

Arrack

13½ gallons of Success at 7s

£4 14s 6d

751 gallons of the same of shipping at 9s 3d

£341 4s 7½d

inhabitants

£342 16s 6d

764½ [...]

17⅞ gallons of Success at 7s 0d

£6 4s 4½d

86½ gallons of the same of shipping at 9s 3d

£40 18s 10¼d

general charges

£50 1s 3d

30 gallons of Goa arrack at 5s

general charges

£7 10s 0d

132 [...]

5 gallons of Batavia arrack at 7s

£1 15s 0d

10¼ gallons of the same of shipping at 9s 3d

£4 14s 9d

[...]

£6 9s 9d

15¼ gallons of Goa arrack at 5s per gallon

fortifications

£4 11s 10¼d

fortifications

£15 13s 7½d

Sugar and candy

4,279¾ [...] sugar at 8d

inhabitants

£142 13s 0d

96¾ [...] of the same

3s 6d

96¾ [...]

general charges

£6 2s 0d

4,559¾ [...]

£151 9s 6d

149 [...] candy at 12d

inhabitants

£12 9s 0d

11 [...]

general charges

11s 0d

25 [...]

plantation

£1 5s 0d

285 [...]

£166 4s 6d

Tobacco and pipes

417 [...] of the same at 2s

inhabitants

£41 14s 0d

9 [...] for general charges

general charges

18s 0d

6 [...] for plantation

plantation

12s 0d

432 [...]

£43 4s 0d

136¾ dozen pipes

inhabitants

£3 8s 3d

14 dozen of the same for general charges

general charges

5s 9d

8¼ dozen of the same for plantation

plantation

4s 3d

156¾ [...]

£47 2s 3d

Rice

10,371 [...] at 4s 1½d per hundredweight

inhabitants

£151 4s 10½d

13½ [...] of the same for general charges at 4d per pound

4s 6d

822 [...]

£11 9s 9d

general charges

£11 9s 9d

plantation

6s 8d

100 [...] sundries at 4s

£12 10s 0d

£1 9s 2d

10,413 [...]

£164 13s 9d

Carried over

inhabitants £694 5s 7¼d

plantation £23 8s 0¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £87 5s 11d

Interpretations

The present account combines three months from 25 June 1713 to 25 September 1713 into a single submission, indicating that Bazett has presented the accounts as a compressed three-month batch rather than as three separate monthly returns. The compression reflects the consequence of the backlog accumulated since 25 April 1713 and the order of the Governor on 13 October 1713 that all overdue accounts be produced. The result is a single account covering the three months of high summer and early autumn, with the aggregate volume substantially larger than any single month in the preceding series. This account introduces several items whose names require explanation. The arrack lines distinguish three separate categories: Success arrack (the stock remaining from the East Indiaman Success of Captain Thomas Clatham, which had visited St Helena on 11 February 1712 and subsequent voyages), arrack of shipping (the fresh supply from currently visiting ships at the higher rate of 9s 3d per gallon), and Goa arrack (the Portuguese-Indian alternative from the Goa station, supplied at 5s per gallon). The differential pricing across these three categories indicates the different sources and probably the different qualities. Sugar candy was the crystallised refined sugar described in earlier accounts. The hundredweight (cwt) used in the rice line was the working measure of 112 pounds, the standard English unit for bulk dry goods; the rate of 4s 1½d per hundredweight at the inhabitants' column is equivalent to approximately one halfpenny per pound, marking the bulk rice supply at the low unit rate that the Madras and Bengal cargoes had brought during the drought. Sundries in the rice line refers to a miscellaneous group of unspecified items aggregated for accounting purposes, included here under the rice heading by clerical convenience.

The arrack supply for the three months brings substantial volumes across all four columns. The 751 gallons of arrack of shipping to the inhabitants at the higher rate of 9s 3d per gallon brought £341 4s 7½d to the inhabitants' column alone, indicating the renewed spirits supply from a fresh cargo during the period covered. The Goa arrack at 30 gallons for general charges and 15¼ gallons for fortifications continues the two-tier spirits structure, with the cheaper alternative supplied to the construction labour at Munden's Castle and the Prosperous Bay house at the lowest available rate.

The sugar line at 4,279¾ [...] of sugar at 8d to the inhabitants for the three-month period brings the sugar supply to a substantial level, with the corresponding £142 13s 0d alone exceeding the monthly average of the preceding months. The sugar candy supply at 149 [...] for the inhabitants, 11 [...] for general charges and 25 [...] for plantation totals 285 [...] of candy at 12d. The consistency of the 8d sugar and 12d candy rates over the three-month period confirms the settled pricing of these staples.

The rice line of the present three-month account is the most extensive of the series, with 10,371 [...] to the inhabitants at 4s 1½d per hundredweight and substantial subsidiary lines to all three institutional columns. The total of 10,413 [...] across all columns for the three months indicates the centrality of rice as a principal grain staple, substituting for the English wheat that the drought had made unobtainable.

Speculations

The carried-over subtotals at the foot of the page bring the three-month aggregates to £694 5s 7¼d for the inhabitants, £23 8s 0¼d for the plantation, £70 2s 3d for the fortifications and £87 5s 11d for the general charges. The substantial fortifications total, far higher than the preceding monthly figures, indicates the concentrated construction activity during the summer and autumn at Munden's Castle and the Prosperous Bay house. The three-month aggregate approaching £875 across all columns places the store activity at a level comparable to the single high month at the start of the previous administrative year.

100

93

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

634 5 7 1/4 23 8 1 1/2 70 2 3 787 15 11

Cheese 886 1/4 Gall[ot] 10 [...] Inhab[t] 36: 13: 10

36 13 10 1/2

70 at Gen[r] Charges 2: 18: 4

2 18 4

21 d[o] Plant[on] 0: 17: 6

17 6

40 9 8 1/4

977 1/4

40 9 8 1/4

Castile & Bengall Soape viz[t]

13 [...] Castile at 18 [...] Inhabit 13: 19 1/2

13 19 1/2

5 D[o] Gen[r] Charges 0: 11: 3

10 3

173 D[o] Plantation 1: 6: 3

15 12 6

15 12 6 1/4

208 1/2

15: 12: 6 3/4

315 Bengall D[o] at 8 [...] Inhabit 10: 10:

10 10

42 D[o] Plantation 1: 8

1 8

11 18

337

11: 18:

Beere 367 1/8 Gall[s] at 18 [...] Inhab[t] 27: 11: 5 1/2

27 11 5 1/2

85 D[o] at 16 [...] Gen[r] Charges 6: 8

6 8

452

33: 19: 5 1/2

33 19 5 1/2

Oyles Sorted viz[t]

15 1/2 Gall[s] Rape at [...] Inhabit 5: 8: 4

5 8 4 1/4

1 1/4 Gall[s] Linseed 8 [...]p[er] D[o] 0: 11:

11

10 1/2 Gall[s] Rape D[o] Gen[r] Charges 3: 11: 9

3 11 9

7 Gall[s] D[o] Plant[on] 2: 9:

2 9

1 Gall[s] Linseed D[o] 0: 8:

8

12 8 1 1/4

3 [...]Gall[s] Rape 1 [...] Gall[s] Linseed

15 8 1

Provisions &c[a] viz[t]

565 1/2 Bread at 5 [...]p[er][...] Inhabit 9: 8: 6

9 8 6 1/2

100 D[o] D[o] 2: 6: 9 1/4

2 6 9 1/4

1068

D[o] Bread at 5 [...] Gen[r] Charges 16: 16

16 16

3 9 1/4

13 [...]p[er] Peaz at 3 1/2 D[o] 0: 3: 9 1/2

140 1/4

D[o] Bread Plantation 2: 6: 10

2 6 10

26 [...]p[er] flower Ditto 0: 7: 7

7 7

31 9 6 1/4

174 1994 1/4

31 9 6 1/4

1 Cask bread of 224 at 3: 4 Gen[r] Charges 4 [...] 4

3 5 4

3 5 4

Shoes 23 [...] p[r] Sorted Inhabit 7: 4: 7

7 4 7

5 p[r] D[o] Gen[r] Charges 1: 10

1 10

8 14 7

28

8 14 7

Carried Over

£ 871 15 3 32 11 2 1/4 105 0 8 945 13 2 1/4

Brought over

inhabitants £694 5s 7¼d

plantation £23 8s 0¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £87 5s 11d

Cheese

886 [...] at 10d to the inhabitants

£36 19s 10¾d

inhabitants

£36 19s 10¾d

70 [...] at the same for general charges

general charges

£2 18s 4d

21 [...] of the same for plantation

plantation

17s 6d

977¼ [...]

£40 9s 8¾d

Castile and Bengal soap

18 [...] Castile at 18d to the inhabitants

£13 18s 0d

inhabitants

£13 18s 0d

7 [...] of the same for general charges

general charges

10s 3d

17½ [...] of the same for plantation

plantation

£1 6s 3d

208 [...]

£15 12s 6¾d

315 [...] Bengal at 8d to the inhabitants

£10 10s 0d

inhabitants

£10 10s 0d

42 [...] of the same for plantation

plantation

£1 8s 0d

357 [...]

£11 18s 0d

£27 10s 6¾d

Beer

367 gallons at 18d per gallon to the inhabitants

£27 11s 5¼d

inhabitants

£27 11s 5¼d

85¾ [...] of the same for general charges

general charges

£6 8s 4d

153 [...]

£33 19s 9¼d

Oils sorted

15¾ gallons of rape at 7s

£5 8s 4½d

inhabitants

£5 8s 4½d

14½ gallons of linseed at the same

11s 0d

10½ gallons of rape for general charges

£3 11s 9d

general charges

£3 11s 9d

[...] gallons for plantation

£2 9s 0d

plantation

£2 9s 0d

[...] gallons of linseed for plantation

8s 0d

33¾ gallons of rape and 2½ gallons of linseed

£12 8s 1½d

Provisions

565¼ [...] bread at 5d per pound to the inhabitants

£9 8s 6d

inhabitants

£9 8s 6d

160¼ [...] of the same for general charges

£6 9s 4d

general charges

£6 9s 4d

1,068 [...]

£16 16s 8d

13 [...] of flour at 3½d per pound for general charges

3s 9¾d

140¼ [...]

£2 6s 10d

26 [...] of bread for plantation at 6¼d

£11 19s 9d

plantation

7s 7d

17¼ [...]

[...] [...] of flour for plantation

£31 9s 6¼d

1 cask of bread at 22 [...] at 3s per [...] for general charges

general charges

£3 5s 4d

Shoes

23 pair sorted to the inhabitants

£7 4s 7d

inhabitants

£7 4s 7d

5 pair of the same for general charges

general charges

£1 10s 0d

28 [...]

£8 14s 7d

Carried over

inhabitants £807 15s 3d

plantation £32 14s 9¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £105 6s 8¾d

[total carried forward £945 13s 2¼d]

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist items whose names and uses require explanation. Castile soap was the hard white soap made principally from olive oil in Spain, valued for its mildness and used for personal washing; the unit rate of 18d per pound places it at over twice the rate of Bengal soap, the softer Indian alternative used principally for laundry and rough household washing at 8d per pound. Beer at 18d per gallon was the fermented malt drink brewed in England and shipped to St Helena in bulk casks, supplying the working alternative to spirits at a substantially lower price point. Oils sorted in the present line cover two grades: rape oil pressed from the seeds of the rape plant, used for lamps and cooking, and linseed oil pressed from the seeds of the flax plant, used principally for paint preparation and the dressing of leather and wood, both supplied at the same 7s per gallon rate. Provisions in the present line cover three categories: bread (the working baked loaf at 5d per pound on the inhabitants' line and 6¼d for plantation), flour (the ground wheat at 3½d per pound, used at the senior establishment for baking fresh bread), and a cask of bread at 22 [...] at 3s per [...] for general charges, which is the working ship's biscuit (the hard baked biscuit preserved against the sea voyage, supplied in casks at the working unit rate per pound). The hundredweight measurements in the bread and flour lines mark the supply of bulk grain by the working English standard of 112 pounds.

The cheese line at 886 [...] at 10d to the inhabitants for the three-month period brings the cheese supply to £36 19s 10¾d, with subsidiary lines of 70 [...] for general charges and 21 [...] for plantation. The total volume of 977¼ [...] across the three columns represents a substantial monthly average of approximately 326 [...] of cheese per month. The increase reflects either a fresh cheese cargo arriving on a visiting ship during the three-month period, or the continued substitution of preserved English dairy products for the fresh local production reduced by the drought.

The Castile and Bengal soap line of the present account brings the total soap supply to approximately 565 [...] across all columns and grades. The two grades maintain the differential pricing visible across the preceding months. The substantial Castile supply of 18 [...] to the inhabitants at £13 18s 0d indicates the continued freeholder demand for the finer personal soap, while the 315 [...] of Bengal at the inhabitants supplied the domestic laundry requirements. The absence of any Castile supply to the fortifications column indicates that the finer soap was not used in the washing requirements of the construction workers, who drew on the Bengal supply instead.

The beer line at 367 gallons at 18d per gallon to the inhabitants at £27 11s 5¼d marks the first appearance of beer in substantial volume in the present series. The 18d per gallon rate placed it at a considerably lower price point than the arrack at 7s or 9s 3d per gallon. The substantial 367-gallon supply to the inhabitants during the three months brought a monthly average of over 122 gallons, indicating the renewed English beer supply during the drought period when spirits had been the primary alternative. The 85¾ gallons of beer for general charges at £6 8s 4d supplied the senior establishment's beer requirements.

The provisions line of the present account exposes the scale of the English bread and flour supply to the establishment. The 565¼ [...] of bread at 5d per pound to the inhabitants at £9 8s 6d, combined with the 160¼ [...] of bread to general charges at £6 9s 4d, brings the total bread supply to 1,068 [...] across the three months. The continued flour supply at 13 [...] at 3½d per pound for general charges, and the further flour supply for the plantation, indicates the continued production of fresh bread or biscuit at the senior establishment from imported flour, supplementing the ship's biscuit supplied through the bread casks.

Speculations

The 1 cask of bread at 22 [...] at 3s per [...] for general charges at £3 5s 4d marks the separate supply of preserved ship's biscuit in cask form, distinct from the loose bread supplied by the pound. The cask bread was the hard baked biscuit preserved against long sea voyages, drawn on by the senior establishment as the backup grain supply when the fresh bread supply was insufficient. The casked biscuit was the principal naval and East India provision grain before the development of the factory bakeries of the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The presence of cask biscuit in the senior establishment's supply, alongside fresh bread by the pound, indicates that the general table was being maintained on a mixed basis of fresh and preserved supplies during the drought-affected three-month period.

101

94

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

871 15 3 32 11 2 1/4 105 0 8 945 13 2 1/4

Hatts viz[t] £ s d

25 D[o] at 4 Each 5: 0: 0

19 at 6: 2 5: 17: 2

24 at 8: 8 9: 12

14 at 18: 3 12: 15: 6

4 at 20 4

3 at 2: 9 11 4 3

37 15 11

37 15 11

Chelloes 66 p[s] at 5 [...] Inhab[t] 16: 10:

16 10

2 [...]p[s] D[o] Plant[n] 0: 10

10

17

Chello Shirts 40 at 2: 5 8: 9 2

8 9 2

2 D[o] Gen[r] Charges 4: 10

4 10

8 14 [...]

course white d[o] 50 at 3 7: 10

7 10

fine white d[o] 21 at 8: 6 8: 18: 6

8 18 6

25 2 6

25 2 6

Dungarees 19 p[s] at 5 [...] 5: 13: 4

5 13 4

Plantation 1 p[s] D[o] 0: 5: 8

5 8

5 19 [...]

5 19

Long Cloath 11 p[s] at 24 [...]p[er][...] Inhabit

13 12 3

13 12 3

Guarials 15 p[s] at 12: 6

9 7 6

9 7 6

Sannouas 14 p[s] Sorted

11 14

11 14

Ginghams 11 p[s] Sorted

6 19 2

6 19 2

Neilas 16 p[s] Sorted

11 9 2

11 9 2

Neckcloaths 16 1/2 p[s] at 27 [...] 5 [...] p[s][...]

12 16 3 1/2

12 16 3 1/2

Chints Sorted 19 p[s]

12 7

12 7

Sallampores 1 p[s]

10 6

10 6

Blanketts Sorted 17 1/4 16: 11

16 11

Gen[r] Charges 1 [...] D[o] 0: 15: 6

15 6

Plantation 1 D[o] 0: 15: 6

15 6

18 2

18 2

Sweet Powder 40 oz 19 [...] Inhabit

3 17 6

3 17 6

Pewterers Ware &c[a]

33 Porringers 2: 7:

9 Bason[s] 2: 0: 4

7 4 doz[n] Spoons 1: 4: 11 1/2

Inhabitants 5: 12: 3 1/2

5 12 3 1/2

5 12 3 1/2

Carried Over

£ 997 8 10 34 2 4 1/4 106 [...] 1137 18 5 1/4

Brought over

inhabitants £807 15s 3d

plantation £32 14s 9¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £105 6s 8¾d

[total £1,137 18s 9¼d]

Hats

[...] at [...]

£1 8s 0d

25 at 4s each

£5 0s 0d

19 at 6s 2d

£5 17s 2d

24 at 8s 8d

£9 12s 0d

14 at 18s 3d

£12 15s 6d

4 at 10s

£4 0s 0d

3 at 3s 9d

11s 3d

inhabitants

£37 15s 11d

Chelloes

66 pieces at 5s for the inhabitants

£16 10s 0d

inhabitants

£16 10s 0d

2 of the same for plantation at 10s

plantation

10s 0d

£17 0s 0d

Chello shirts

70 at 2s 3d

£8 9s 2d

inhabitants

£8 9s 2d

2 pieces for general charges

general charges

4s 10d

£8 14s 0d

Coarse white shirts

50 at 3s

inhabitants

£7 10s 0d

Fine white shirts

21 at 8s 6d

inhabitants

£8 18s 6d

£25 2s 6d

Dungarees

19 pair at 5s

£5 13s 4d

inhabitants

£5 13s 4d

[...] for the plantation at the same

plantation

5s 8d

£5 19s 0d

Long cloth

11 pieces at 24s 9d for the inhabitants

£13 12s 3d

inhabitants

£13 12s 3d

Gurras

15 pieces at 12s 6d

inhabitants

£9 7s 6d

Salvanans

14 pieces sorted

inhabitants

£11 14s 4d

Ginghams

11 pieces sorted

inhabitants

£6 19s 2d

Neilas

16 pieces sorted

inhabitants

£11 9s 2d

Neckcloths

16 pieces at 15s 9¾d each

inhabitants

£12 16s 3¼d

Chints sorted

19 of the same

inhabitants

£12 7s 0d

Sallampores

19 of the same

inhabitants

£10 6s 0d

Blankets

17 sorted at 19s

£16 11s 0d

inhabitants

£16 11s 0d

[...] of the same for general charges

general charges

15s 6d

[...] for plantation at 15s

plantation

15s 6d

£18 2s 0d

Sweet powder

490 [...] at 19d for the inhabitants

inhabitants

£3 17s 6d

Pewterers' ware

33 porringers

£2 7s 0d

9 basins

£2 0s 4d

74 dozen spoons

£1 4s 11½d

inhabitants

£5 12s 3½d

Carried over

inhabitants £997 8s 10d

plantation £34 2s 4¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £106 7s 0¾d

[total £1,137 18s 9¼d]

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist items whose names and uses require explanation. Hats here appear in seven grades by unit price, ranging from 3s 9d at the lowest to 18s 3d at the highest, reflecting the working range of head wear from the coarse workman's hat through the felt and beaver hats of the principal freeholders. Chelloes were the coarse Indian cotton in piece form, supplied principally from the Madras factory; chello shirts (made up from the cloth) are listed separately at 70 at 2s 3d each. Dungarees were the coarse working cotton from western India, supplied in pair form rather than piece form, indicating that the garments were sold complete rather than as length cloth; the term derives from the Dungri district of Bombay. Long cloth was the fine plain Indian cotton supplied in long pieces, principally from Bengal, at the unit price of 24s 9d marking it as the highest unit-priced textile of the account. Gurras were the plain coarse white Indian cotton from Bengal; ginghams the striped or chequered Indian cottons; neilas the striped Indian cottons supplied principally from Madras; sallampores the blue-dyed Indian cotton from the Coromandel coast; chints the printed and painted Indian cottons. Salvanans appear in the present line for the first time in the working accounts, and are probably a corrupted rendering of a trade name for a working further textile class, possibly Salampuri, an Indian cotton grade not yet seen in the preceding accounts. Neckcloths were the rectangular cloths of fine linen or cotton tied around the throat, supplied at 15s 9¾d each in the present line. Sweet powder was the scented powder compounded of orris root, violets, lavender or other fragrant ingredients, used principally for the scenting of hair, wigs, linen and garments in the personal hygiene practices of the freeholder households. Pewterers' ware in the present line covers three items: porringers (the working small two-handled bowls for serving pottage, porridge or other soft foods), basins (washing and serving bowls), and spoons supplied by the dozen.

The hats line of the present three-month account exposes the seven different price points of hats supplied to the inhabitants, with 14 hats at 18s 3d representing the principal volume at the top grade and £12 15s 6d to the line. The line identifies the substantial demand for the finest hats among the principal freeholders for the formal occasions of the island society, alongside the cheaper grades for the ordinary inhabitants and the rougher trades.

The shirts cluster of the present three-month account brings three grades to the inhabitants in substantial volume: 70 chello shirts at 2s 3d each, 50 coarse white shirts at 3s each, and 21 fine white shirts at 8s 6d each, with a further 2 chello shirts on the general charges line at 4s 10d. The aggregate supply of 141 shirts plus subsidiaries across the three months indicates the substantial shirt refurbishment of the freeholder and senior establishment dress. The continued three-tier pricing structure confirms the working differential of shirt quality supplied through the storekeeper.

The cluster of Indian textile lines covering gurras, salvanans, ginghams, neilas, neckcloths, chints sorted and sallampores brings the full range of Indian cottons to the inhabitants in substantial volumes for the three months. The presence of all grades in one account, with substantial unit volumes across the seven classes, indicates the continued freeholder accumulation of Indian textile stock during the period covered.

The pewterers' ware line at 33 porringers at £2 7s 0d, 9 basins at £2 0s 4d and 74 dozen spoons at £1 4s 11½d brings the substantial pewter table supply to the inhabitants. The 74 dozen spoons, equivalent to 888 spoons, represents an extraordinary volume of spoons for the three months, sufficient for the complete refurbishment of the spoon service of multiple freeholder households or the stocking of a new household at its establishment.

Speculations

The substantial sweet powder supply at 490 [...] at 19d for the inhabitants brings the perfume supply to the freeholders at £3 17s 6d for the three months. The monthly average of approximately 163 [...] across the three months indicates the continued freeholder interest in personal perfumery despite the drought conditions affecting the broader agricultural economy. The pattern reflects the maintenance of fashionable personal hygiene practices among the freeholder women in particular, with sweet powder applied to hair, wigs and linen as the working complement to the substantial soap and starch supplies of the preceding lines.

102

95

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

997 8 10 34 2 4 1/4 106 7 0 1/2 1137 18 3 1/4

To 19 Chamber Potts 3: 19: 10

1 Dish w[t] 2 1/4 [...] 0: 3: 4 1/2

6 Plates 0: 10: 0

6 Ditto 0: 8: 0 0: 18:

1 quart Pott 0: 4:

1 Pint D[o] 0: 3: 6

2 half Pint D[o] 0: 4:

2 quearts D[o] 0: 2: 4

1 half Ditto 0: 2:

Inhabitants 5: 17: 0 1/4

5 17 0 1/4

1 Quart D[o] Plantation 0: 4: 0

4

6 1 0 1/4

6 01 0 1/4

Broad Cloath viz[t]

3 1/2 yard Scarlett D[o] at 20 - 3: 15:

5 1/4 yards Black d[o] 3: 16: 4 1/2

24 yards Coloured D[o] 15: 9: 6

23 10 1/4

23 10 1/4

Druggetts £ s d

7 1/2 yards Silk Druggett 1: 15: 7 1/2

78 1/4 yards Cloath Drug[t] 12: 19: 9

14 15 4 1/4

14 15 4 1/4

Shalloons 52 yards at 2: 6 [...]

6 10

6 10

Flannell & Bunting viz[t]

13 1/2 yards Flannell 1: 14: 7

7 yards Bunting 0: 9: 8

2 4 3

2 4 3

7 1/2 yards Gen[r] Charges

10

3 8 9 1/4

3 8 9 1/4

Durants 39 1/2 yard at 1: 9

3 8 9 1/4

3 8 9 1/4

Perpetuanous viz[t]

13 yards Black d[o] at 2: 10 1: 17: 6 1/2

17 1/2 yards Coll[d] D[o] 2: 3: 1: 18: 9 3/4

3 16 4 1/4

3 16 4 1/4

Carried over

£ 1057 1 6 1/4 34 6 4 1/4 [...] [...] 100 7 0 1/2 1197 14 11 1/4

Brought over

inhabitants £997 8s 10d

plantation £34 2s 4¼d

fortifications £70 2s 3d

general charges £106 7s 0¾d

[total £1,137 18s 9¼d]

Pewterers' ware (continued)

19 chamber pots

£3 19s 10d

1 dish, weight 2¼ [...]

3s 4½d

6 plates

10s 0d

6 of the same

8s 0d

18s 0d

1 quart pot

4s 0d

1 pint pot

3s 6d

2 half-pint pots

4s 0d

2 quarter pots

2s 4d

1 half of the same

[...]

inhabitants

£5 17s 0½d

1 quart pot for plantation

plantation

4s 0d

£6 1s 0½d

Broad cloth

3¾ yards of scarlet at 20s

£3 15s 0d

5 yards of black at the same

£3 16s 4½d

21 yards of coloured at 15s

£15 9s 6d

inhabitants

£23 0s 10¼d

Druggets

7½ yards of silk drugget

£1 15s 7½d

78¾ yards of cloth drugget

£12 19s 9d

inhabitants

£14 15s 4½d

Shalloons

52 yards at 2s 6d

inhabitants

£6 10s 0d

Flannel and bunting

13½ yards of flannel

£1 14s 7d

7 yards of bunting

9s 8d

inhabitants

£2 4s 3d

7¼ yards for general charges

general charges

10s 0d

£3 8s 9¼d

Durants

39½ yards at 1s 9d

inhabitants

£3 8s 9¼d

Perpetuanoes

13 yards of black at 2s 10d

£1 17s 6¼d

17½ yards of coloured at 2s 3d

£1 18s 9¾d

inhabitants

£3 16s 4¼d

Carried over

inhabitants £1,057 1s 6d

plantation £34 6s 4¼d

fortifications [...]

general charges £106 17s 0¾d

[total £1,197 14s 0¼d]

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several items whose specialist uses are best explained together. The pewterers' ware line covers the working range of household pewter, with chamber pots (the night vessels supplied at 19 in the present line, the largest single chamber-pot line in the present series), dishes (sold by weight at the working rate per pound where the pewter was substantial enough to warrant a weighed entry), plates (the individual eating plates supplied at two unit prices, probably reflecting two grades of pewter), pots in graded sizes (quart, pint, half-pint, quarter, half-quarter), supplying the full range of liquid measures from the working drinking quart down to the smallest measure. Broad cloth was the finest English woollen, supplied in scarlet (the bright red), black and coloured grades; the scarlet and black at 20s per yard mark the highest dress textiles in the present account, with the coloured at 15s indicating the working preference of freeholder dress for the bright primary colours over the softer dyes. Druggets in the present line appear in two grades: silk drugget (the working drugget with silk content, used for finer outer garments) and cloth drugget (the working woollen drugget without silk content, used for the working ordinary outer garments), with the silk priced at 4s 8½d per yard and the cloth at 3s 3½d per yard. Shalloons were the light worsted lining fabric used for the inside of coats and waistcoats. Flannel was the soft loosely-woven woollen cloth used for undergarments, baby clothes and interior linings; bunting was the lightweight worsted cloth used principally for signal flags. Durants were the glazed worsted cloth finished with hot rollers or irons to give a glossy surface, used principally for outer garments and coat linings. Perpetuanoes were the durable worsted serge produced principally at Sudbury and Yarmouth for the export trade, named for the long-lasting wear of the cloth; supplied in this account in two grades, black at 2s 10d per yard and coloured at 2s 3d per yard, with the black higher-priced reflecting the cost of the black dye.

The continuation of the pewterers' ware line brings further substantial volumes of pewter to the inhabitants. The 19 chamber pots at £3 19s 10d represents the largest single chamber-pot line in the present series, indicating the refurbishment of the night-vessel complement of multiple freeholder households during the three months. The further domestic pewter at six plates, six other plates, one quart pot, one pint pot, two half-pint pots, two quarter pots and one half of the same, together with the single weighed dish, brings the complete pewter table complement to the inhabitants. The differential sizes of the pots reflect the full range of domestic drinking and measuring vessels.

The broad cloth line at 3¾ yards of scarlet at 20s, 5 yards of black at the same, and 21 yards of coloured at 15s, brings the broad cloth supply to the inhabitants at £23 0s 10¼d for the three months. The differential pricing between scarlet, black and coloured broad cloth, with the coloured at 15s against the scarlet and black at 20s, indicates the preference of freeholder dress for the bright primary colours over the softer coloured dyes.

The druggets line at 7½ yards of silk drugget at £1 15s 7½d and 78¾ yards of cloth drugget at £12 19s 9d brings the drugget supply to the inhabitants at £14 15s 4½d for the three months. The substantial 78¾ yards of cloth drugget represents the principal freeholder outer-garment cloth supply, sufficient for the production of approximately twenty complete suits at the ordinary freeholder dress scale.

The shalloons line at 52 yards at 2s 6d to the inhabitants brings the coat-lining supply to £6 10s 0d for the three months. The 52-yard volume corresponds to the lining requirements of approximately 12 to 14 coats at the ordinary lining measurement.

Speculations

The flannel and bunting line at 13½ yards of flannel and 7 yards of bunting to the inhabitants, with 7¼ yards of bunting for general charges, brings the soft woollen cloth and the signal cloth to the establishment. The presence of bunting at 7¼ yards on the general charges column specifically corresponds to the production of signal flags for the fortifications and the castle, with the bunting cloth being the principal material from which the flags of the establishment were sewn. The 7 yards of bunting on the inhabitants' column probably supplied the similar purposes at the private level, for the freeholder flag displays at ships' arrivals or the ceremonial occasions of the island.

103

96

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[r] Charges Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over

1057 1 6 1/4 34 6 4 1/4 [...] 106 7 0 1/2 1197 14 11

Kerseys viz[t]

5 yards Ditto Inhabit[t] at 2: 2 [...]p[s]: 5: 10 6

5 10 6

30 7 yards plantation Ditto 33: 5 2

33 5 2

38 15 8

Norwich Stuffs viz[t]

176 yard Black Crape at 1: 19: 6 1/2

5 1/4 yards Dummask 0: 9 7 1/4

24 7 1 1/4

24 7 1 1/4

17 1/4 yards Stuffs 4: 11: 4 1/2

Fustians

10 1/2 6 1/2 yards Coll[d] Dimitty 14: 18: 5 1/4

49 1/4 yards white D[o] 4: 19: 6

22 13 9 1/4

7 6

23 1 3 1/4

19 1/2 6 1/4 yards Thicksett 2: 15: 10

22: 13: 9 1/4

5 yards Coll[d] Dimitty 7: 6

23: 01: 3 1/4

Indian Linnen viz[t]

1 [...] Blue Gurras 0: 6:

1 p[s] of D[o] Sallampoirs 0: 12:

1 Romall 0: 5

Inhabitants 1: 3

1 3

40 [...] D[o] Guarras 12: [...]

12

26 [...] D[o] Sellampours 18: 17

18 17

31 17 [...]

31 17 [...]

Callemancoes 16 [...]yard at 8 [...] p[er] yard

1 16

1 16

Gloves 20 p[r] Sorted

1 13 1

1 13 1

Sackings & Hessings &c[a]

1 [...]p[er] 30 yards Sackin at 16 [...] 4: 7: 9

34 1/2 yard Hessings 1: 19: 4 1/2

6 7 1 1/4

8 4 1 1/2

2 yards Sackings 6: 2 8 [...] 1/2

0: 2: 8

[...] 2 8

1 [...] of Hessing 1: 18: 9

1 18 9

[...]

8: 4: 1 1/2

Threads viz[t]

10 1/2 [...] Browne D[o] at 3: 6: -

10 [...] at 3: 8: 2: 2: 5: 8: 2

5 1/2 white Sorted 2: 12: 3

10 7 6

10 7 6

1 1/2 [...] Nun Thread Sorted 1: 19: 5

1/2 D[o] D[o] 0: 3: 8

[...] [...] [...] D[o] 0: 8: [...]

2 1/2 [...] [...] Nuns Thread 10: 7: 6

Inhabitants

10 7 6

Carried Over

£ 1150 12 6 1/2 100 17 5 [...] 106 7 6 1/2 1357 17 [...]

Brought over

inhabitants £1,057 1s 6d

plantation £34 6s 4¼d

fortifications [...]

general charges £106 17s 0¾d

[total £1,197 14s 0¼d]

Kerseys

54 yards of the same to inhabitants at 2s 1d

£5 10s 6d

inhabitants

£5 10s 6d

307 yards for plantation at the same

plantation

£33 5s 2d

361 [...]

£38 15s 8d

Norwich stuffs

176 yards of black crape at 2s 3d

£19 6s 1¼d

54 yards of dammask

£2 9s 7½d

176 yards of stuff

£4 11s 4½d

inhabitants

£24 7s 1¼d

Fustians

10 pieces of coloured dimity 41¼ yards

£14 18s 5¼d

49½ yards of white of the same

£4 19s 6d

19 pieces of the same of 134¼ yards thickset

£2 15s 10d

inhabitants

£22 13s 9¼d

5 yards of coloured dimity for general charges

general charges

7s 6d

£23 1s 3¼d

Indian linen

1 [...] of blue gurras

6s 0d

1 [...] of the same salampores

12s 0d

1 romall

4s 3d

inhabitants

£1 2s 3d

40 [...] of gurras

plantation

£12 10s 0d

20 [...] of salampores

plantation

£18 5s 0d

£31 17s 3d

Callemancoes

16 [...] yard

inhabitants

£1 16s 0d

Gloves

20 pair sorted

inhabitants

£1 13s 1d

Sackings and hessings

10 [...] 30 yards sacking at 16d

£4 2s 9d

34½ yards hessings at 14d

£1 19s 1d

inhabitants

£6 2s 8¼d

[...] yards sacking

2s 4d

1 [...] of hessings

£1 18s 9d

plantation

£2 1s 1d

£8 4s 1¼d

Threads

[...] [...] of brown at 4s 3d

£5 8s 2d

[...] [...] of white sorted

£2 12s 3d

11 [...] nuns' thread sorted

£1 15s 5d

[...] of nuns' thread

3s 8½d

[...] yards of thread

[...]

inhabitants

£10 7s 2d

[...]

£10 7s 6d

Carried over

inhabitants £1,120 12s 8¾d

plantation £100 17s 5¼d

fortifications [...]

general charges £106 17s 0¾d

[total £1,337 17s 1¼d]

Interpretations

This section of the account introduces several specialist textile items whose names and uses require explanation. Kerseys were the coarse woollen cloth produced principally in Kersey in Suffolk and elsewhere in the West Riding of Yorkshire, used for soldiers' coats, slave clothing and rough working garments at the lower end of the wool textile range; the 307 yards on the plantation column at £33 5s 2d represent a large bulk supply for slave clothing on the consolidated estate. Norwich stuffs were the worsted fabrics produced in and around Norwich for the home and export markets; the present line covers three Norwich varieties: black crape (the thin transparent worsted used for mourning), dammask (the woven figured worsted with a damask weave pattern, named for the original Damascus silks but here used of worsted versions), and stuff (the general term for the lighter worsted cloths of Norwich). Fustians here cover three grades: coloured dimity (the lighter fustian with coloured pattern), white dimity (the white version of the same), and thickset (the heavier fustian for harder wear), with the supply by pieces and by yards. Indian linen here is a misnomer for Indian cotton, with the three named items being gurras (the coarse white Indian cotton, here in blue-dyed form), salampores (the blue-dyed Indian cotton from the Coromandel coast), and romalls (the Indian cotton kerchiefs from Bengal). Callemancoes (calamancoes) were the glazed worsted cloth with a satin twill weave on the front and a plain back, used for women's gowns, petticoats and waistcoats; named for the working trade pattern of the cloth. Gloves at 20 pair sorted indicate the working glove supply across men's, women's and maids' grades, sold by the pair at varying unit prices. Sackings were the coarse linen or hemp cloth used for sacks and rough covering; hessings (the working ancestor of modern hessian) were the coarser variety of the same, named for the German state of Hesse where the cloth was produced. Threads here appear in four working grades: brown thread for heavy sewing, white thread for ordinary use, nuns' thread for fine cambric and lawn sewing, and a further line of yard-measured thread for specialist applications.

The kerseys line at 307 yards for the plantation at £33 5s 2d marks the single largest entry on the plantation column for the three-month account. The substantial supply of cheap woollen cloth indicates the working refurbishment of the slave clothing complement of the consolidated estate during the period covered, sufficient for a substantial number of slave coats and breeches at the standard slave garment measurement. The 54 yards on the inhabitants' column at £5 10s 6d supplied the smaller freeholder requirements for the same coarse woollen cloth, probably for working slaves' clothing in the freeholder households.

The Norwich stuffs line at three working grades, with 176 yards of black crape at £19 6s 1¼d, 54 yards of dammask at £2 9s 7½d and 176 yards of further Norwich stuff at £4 11s 4½d, brings the Norwich worsted supply to £24 7s 1¼d for the three months. The substantial 176 yards of black crape probably reflects a continuing demand for mourning wear during the drought-mortality period, with multiple deaths in the small freeholder community producing the working requirement for mourning textiles.

The fustians line at three grades, with 41¼ yards of coloured dimity, 49½ yards of white dimity and 134¼ yards of thickset, brings the working fustian supply to £22 13s 9¼d for the inhabitants during the three months. The substantial supply across the three grades supports the ordinary freeholder working dress for the cooler months, with the thickset providing the heavier outer garments and the dimities the lighter under-garments and lining.

The Indian linen line at 60 [...] of gurras (the working blue gurras at 1 [...] to inhabitants and 40 [...] to plantation) and 21 [...] of salampores (1 [...] to inhabitants and 20 [...] to plantation), with 1 romall, brings the total Indian cotton supply to £31 17s 3d for the three months. The substantial weights of gurras and salampores on the plantation column indicate the working slave clothing refurbishment programme that runs through this account, with both the cheap English kerseys and the substantial Indian cottons being drawn down at the same time for the working consolidated estate's slaves.

Speculations

The combined plantation column for the present three-month period, with £33 5s 2d of kerseys, £30 15s 0d of Indian cottons, and substantial subsidiary lines, brings the slave clothing supply for the consolidated estate to substantial volumes during the period covered. The pattern indicates a deliberate working programme of seasonal refurbishment of slave clothing during the summer and autumn months, probably timed to provide warm working clothing for the slaves during the cooler months approaching and to replace the worn working garments of the preceding twelve months. The concentration of slave-clothing supply within the three-month account suggests that Cason, as overseer of the consolidated estate since 8 April 1712, had timed the refurbishment to coincide with the working cargo absorption from the visiting ships.

104

97

Column headings (running across the top of the ruled table): Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[...] charges Totalls

Brought Over

12[..] 5 100 17 5[..] - - 106 7 [...] 1337 17 [...]

To 4 Brown thread Cord [chrg?] o: 2 :

  • 2 -

6 Brown D[o] Plantac[i]on 1 : 2 :

  • 1 2 -

1 : 4 :

  • 1 4 -

Stockings viz[t]

34 p[r] Stockings Sorted 5 : 4 : 4½

1 p[r] Rowlers o : o : 10

3 ounces Cruell[s] o : 3 : 4

9 p[r] Stockings Susan Cargo at viz[t] 4 : 12 : 3

9 : 7 : 9½

9 17 9½

9 17 9½

Ribbons Galloom & Ferrith viz[t]

73½ Yards Ribbon Sorted 4 : o : 10

61 Yards Galloom Sorted 1 : o : 8

74 Yards Ferrith Sorted 1 : 4 : 6½

6 : 5 : o½

6 5 o½

6 5 o½

Buttons viz[t]

41 Doz[n] Coate Buttons 2 : 19 : 2

111 Doz[n] Brest D[o] 2 : 3 : 10

5 : 3 : -

5 9 -

5 9 -

Silk & Mohair viz[t]

23¾ oz Silk at 2 : 6 p[er] [oz?] 2 : 19 : o¼

14¾ oz Mohair 1 : 8 1 : 4 : 7

4 : 3 : 7¼

4 3 7¼

4 3 7¼

Combs &c viz[t]

21 Ivory Combs Sorted 1 : 15 : 3

10 Horne D[o] o : 5 : 6

5 Comb brushes o : 5 : -

1 Comb Case o : o : 1

2 5 10

2 5 10

Turnary Ware viz[t]

28 Porredge dishes o : 14 : o

4 Serveing dishes - o : 2 : o Susanas Cargoe

1 Shaveing d[o] o : o : 6 [Cargoe?]

3 Platters o : 1 : 3

1 wooden bowls o : 1 : 2

7 Cloaths brushs o : 11 : 9

1 : 14 : 2

1 14 2

2 17 [...]

1 Howell o : 5 : -

4 Boys b[r]ush o : 1 : -

  • 1 4 -

4 12 -

12 Hozelle to Cha[..] [...] 1 : 4 : -

1 8 -

148 [...] to Plantac[i]on [...]

Totals row at foot (faint, partly trimmed):

      • [...] 24 [...] [...] [...] - 106 [...] [...] 137 [...] [...] [..]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account, with the carried-forward total from the preceding page and further lines under successive commodity headings.

Brought over

Inhabitants £125 5s 0d

Plantation £100 7s 5d

Fortifications £106 7s 0d

General charges £1,337 17s 0d

Brown thread for charges

2 pound at 1s 4d

£0 0s 8d

Brown thread for the plantation

at 1s 2d

£0 0s 0d

Sub-total carried into the plantation column

£0 1s 4d

Stockings

34 pair stockings sorted at 2s 7½d

£5 1s 4½d

15 pair rowlers at 1s 8d

£1 5s 0d

5 ounces crewel at 8d

£0 3s 4d

9½ pair stockings sent ashore at 12s 3d

£4 12s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£9 17s 9½d

Ribbons galloon and ferritt

73¾ yards ribbon sorted at 1s 1¼d

£4 0s 10d

61½ yards galloon sorted at 4d

£1 0s 8d

74½ yards ferritt sorted at 1¼d

£0 7s 8½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£6 5s 0¼d

Buttons

41 dozen coat buttons at 2¼d the dozen

£0 9s 2d

111 dozen breast buttons at 4¼d the dozen

£2 3s 10d

Sub-total

£5 9s 0d

Silk and mohair

23½ ounces silk at 2s 6d the ounce

£2 19s 0¾d

14¾ ounces mohair at 1s 8d the ounce

£1 4s 7d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 3s 7¾d

Combs

21 ivory combs sorted at 1d each

£1 15s 3d

10 horn combs sorted at 6½d each

£0 5s 6d

5 comb brushes at 1s each

£0 5s 0d

1 comb case

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 5s 10d

Hosiery ware

28 porringers at 6d each

£0 14s 0d

4 serving dishes (to Susanna)

£0 2s 0d

1 straining dish (to George)

£0 0s 6d

3 platters at 1s 7½d each

£0 11s 3d

1 wooden bowl

£0 1s 2d

7 cloths brushes at 1s 8d each

£0 11s 8d

Sub-total

£1 14s 2d

1 shovel

£0 10s 0d

1 brass crush

£0 0s 10d

2 hair brooms at 8½d each

£0 1s 4d

12 bottles to fort

£0 1s 8d

14¼ to plantation

£0 8s 0d

Sums and carry-forward to next folio

Inhabitants column carried forward

Plantation column carried forward

Fortifications column carried forward

General charges column carried forward

Combined totals at foot of page

£1,371 9s 4d

Sterling figures on this page cover the running storekeeper's account in the four-column format, with successive sub-totals struck off as each commodity group closes.

Interpretations

The four-column format of inhabitants, plantation, fortifications and general charges, already the standing arrangement of the storekeeper's monthly accounts, here drives the apportionment of every commodity line. Goods drawn for the plantation are working materials for the Company's directly held estate (the brown thread, the bottles to plantation), goods to fortifications are construction or institutional consumables (the bottles to fort), and goods to inhabitants are retail to the freeholder and planter community at standing rates. The opening sub-total carried from the previous folio, £1,337 17s 0d in general charges set against £125 5s 0d to inhabitants, shows the Company's own consumption running well ahead of retail to settlers in the month covered, consistent with the heavy victualling demands recorded across the drought months of 1713.

The goods themselves draw the page firmly into the wider Indian and European supply network behind the St Helena store. Brown thread is unbleached linen sewing thread imported from the Indian textile economy, and is supplied here for working repairs to slave clothing and to the heavier institutional cloths. Stockings sorted are mixed-grade knitted hose, with rowlers a lower grade of patterned stocking and crewel a worsted wool yarn used for repair and embroidery; the sequence covers the range from cheap soldier issue to better-quality wear sold to freeholders. Ribbons galloon and ferritt are narrow woven trimmings, galloon being a heavier braided trim used on coats and hats, ferritt a light cotton or silk tape for binding edges, both sold by the yard. The buttons are pewter and cloth-covered coat and breast buttons by the dozen, the breast button being smaller and cheaper, the coat button heavier and more expensive. Silk and mohair priced by the ounce are imported sewing silks and mohair yarns, the mohair being long-staple yarn from Angora goats sold for working into braids and buttonholes. Ivory and horn combs are personal toilet articles imported in graded sets, the ivory comb at over 1s the piece a luxury item against the horn at 6½d. The hosiery ware here includes earthenware and pewter porringers (small bowls for individual servings), serving dishes, a straining dish, platters, a wooden bowl and cloth and hair brushes, the named recipients Susanna and George being household servants or slaves to whom the items were issued directly.

The bottle entries at the foot of the page (12 bottles to fort, 14¼ to plantation) show how a single batch of imported glassware was split immediately between the two main institutional consumers of the island. Bottles in this period would be hand-blown English bottle glass used for liquor reserves and oils. The graded division parallels the earlier salt tiering (Fort 6d, Plantation 6⅝d, Inhabitants 6¼d the bushel) confirmed across the storekeeper's accounts since 1710, and reflects the working pattern by which the Company recovered the cost of supply through different unit rates rather than uniform pricing across all consumers.

The recipient names entered against individual items (Susanna against the serving dishes, George against the straining dish) operate as an internal check on the four-column accounting. Where a commodity is issued to a specific household member rather than to a column heading, the storekeeper notes the name on the line and absorbs the sum into the appropriate column. The practice gives the council a working audit trail from any disputed line back to the individual to whom the goods were delivered, and connects with the standing requirement under the 25 Nov 1712 monthly accounts order that all goods landed and issued be entered against an identifiable recipient.

Speculations

The very heavy preponderance of the general charges column over the other three (£1,337 17s 0d carried forward against £125 5s 0d to inhabitants) suggests that this month falls in the immediate aftermath of a large cargo landing, with the bulk of the consignment still entered against general charges pending allocation to specific institutional accounts. The presence of fresh stockings, buttons, ribbons, combs and bottles in the same submission supports this reading, since these are typical end-of-cargo items sold off in graded retail parcels once the institutional reserves have been laid in. The pattern would be consistent with the pricing settlement of the Susannah, Kent and Hewolen cargoes ordered on 3 Jul 1713 under paragraph 37 of the Toddington letter, with retail allocation rolling forward across subsequent months as the goods worked through the store.

105

98

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantac[i]on Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

1350 3 11 105 7 5½ - 1 4 - 106 13 9[¼] 1371 9 [..]

Salt viz[t]

To 2 bushells Salt Inhab[t] 1 : [.] : 3

  • 12 -

6 bushells Gen[t] Charges o : 12 : 1 16 -

7 bushells Plantac[i]on 1 : 16 : 2 5 -

2 : 5 : - 4 13 [.]

4 : 13 : [.]

Pepper viz[t]

To 5 [lb?] [Inhabitants] o : 5 : -

  • 5 -

To 3 D[o] Gen[t] Charges o : 3 : -

  • 3 -

To 2 D[o] [Fortifications?] o : 2 : -

  • 2 -

To 2 lb D[o] Plantacion o : 2 : -

  • 2 -

o : 10 : o

  • 10 -

Pinns & Needles viz[t]

19 Mill Pins Sorted 1 : 6 : 5¼

1 Paper Blanke[..] D[o] o : 2 : -

42 Thimbles o : 3 : 6

1 11 11¼

1 11 11¼

25 Needles Gen[t] Charges o : o : 4¼

  • 4¼

1 : 12 : 4

1 12 4

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t]

107 [lb?] Nayles Sorted 3 : 13 : 9

[..] Tacks o : o : 5

3 : 14 : 2 3 14 2

3 14 2

5 [lb?] 20 Nayles 1 : 10 : o½

15 [lb?] [..] [..] o : 11 : 6½

4 [lb?] 15 [..] [Mortises?] o : 5 : 8½

5 [lb?] [..] [..] o : 4 : 6

[..] Tacks o : 1 : -

2 : 18 : 4½ 2 18 4½

94 [lb?] of Iron Mong[r] Ware [Inhab?] 9 : 8 : 11

3 Spades o : 1[.] : 3 1 [..] 3

2 Iron Potts of 117 [lb?] 2 : 16 : 6 2 18 6

16 : 2 : 3

2 Stock Locks Gen[t] [Ch?] 1 : 5 : 6 1 5 6 1 5 6

11 p[r] X Garnetts of o : 5 : 8

  • 5 8 - 5 8

2 [..] 10 Nayles o : 15 : 7

12 [..] 20 D[o] o : 5 : 3

12 [..] 20 D[o] o : 7 : -

[..] 6 [..] 2 D[o] o : 4 : 6

1 : 12 : 4

60 [lb?] of Iron Mong[r] ware 4 : 13 : 4

6 : 5 : 9 6 5 9

6 5 9

Carryed over

1359 10 11 112 oo 2½ 4 2 4½ 110 3 [..] 1405 16 11[.]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account.

Brought over

Inhabitants £1,150 3s 11d

Plantation £105 7s 5½d

Fortifications £1 4s 0d

General charges £1,067 3s 8½d

Total £1,371 9s 4d

Salt

12 bushels salt to inhabitants at 1s 3d the bushel

£0 12s 0d

6 bushels to general charges at [...]

£1 16s 0d

7 bushels to plantation at [...]

£2 5s 0d

Sub-total

£4 13s 0d

Pepper

5 pound to inhabitants at 1s the pound

£0 5s 0d

3 pound to general charges at 1s the pound

£0 3s 0d

2 pound to plantation at 1s the pound

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total

£0 10s 0d

Pins and needles

19 thousand pins sorted at 1s 5¼d the thousand

£1 6s 5½d

1 paper blanket pins at 2d

£0 0s 2d

42 thimbles at 1d each

£0 3s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 11s 11½d

25 papers needles to general charges at 2¼d the paper

£0 4s 4½d

Combined sub-total

£1 16s 4d

Ironmongers ware

107½ pound nails sorted at 8d the pound

£3 13s 9d

[...] pound tacks

£0 0s 5d

51 pound 20-penny nails at [...]

£1 10s 0¼d

[...] pound 10-penny nails

£0 3s 4d

[...] pound 8-penny nails

£0 11s 6¼d

43 pound mortice nails at [...]

£0 5s 8½d

[...] pound 6-penny nails

£0 2s 0d

[...] pound tacks

£0 4s 6d

[...] tacks

£0 1s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 15s 9½d

98 pound other ironmongers ware sorted at [...]

£9 8s 1¼d

3 spades

£0 17s 3d

2 iron pots of 117 pound at 2s 6d the pound

£2 16s 6d

Sub-total

£16 2s 3d

To plantation

£2 18s 6d

To fortifications, sub-total carried

£16 2s 3d

Stock locks (general charges)

11 pair stock locks at 2s 10d the pair

£1 5s 6d

12 garnetts at 1s 9d

£0 8s 8d

25 pound 10-penny nails at [...]

£0 15s 7d

[...] pound 8-penny nails

£0 5s 3d

12 pound 4-penny nails at [...]

£0 7s 0d

[...] pound 6-penny nails at [...]

£0 4s 6d

Sub-total

£1 12s 4d

60 pound other ironmongers ware

£4 13s 1¼d

Sub-total to fortifications

£6 5s 9d

Carried over

Inhabitants £1,159 10s 11½d

Plantation £112 0s 2½d

Fortifications £4 2s 4½d

General charges £1,109 3s [...]d

Total £1,405 16s 11d

Interpretations

The salt allocation is split across all three institutional columns at differential rates: 7 bushels to the plantation, 6 to general charges and 12 sold to inhabitants. The plantation share runs above its usual proportion in earlier monthly accounts and signals heavy curing demand, consistent with the slaughter rhythm of the Company's hog and cattle stock for storage as salt provisions. Pepper appears in a small allocation of only 10 pound across the three columns and works as a household condiment for the Castle table rather than as a tradeable bulk commodity, despite pepper being one of the principal homeward cargoes of the wider East India trade.

The ironmongers ware section is the principal substantive entry on the page and shows the recovery of construction supply for the works at Munden's Castle and the new storehouse. Nails graded by penny weight (the standard English builders' measure by which a quantity of nails of a given size weighed a stated number of pence per hundred) cover the full range from heavy 20-penny down to 4-penny, with mortice nails for joinery, tacks for upholstery and general fastening, and stock locks (the chunky timber-cased locks fitted to doors and chests) and garnetts (T-shaped iron hinges, named for the garnet-cross shape of the strap) for completing doors and window shutters. The 2 iron pots of 117 pound at 2s 6d the pound suggest a single substantial casting purchase for the Castle kitchen or the slaves' victualling kitchen; the unit rate is much higher than the bulk nail rate and reflects finished foundry work rather than raw bar iron. The 3 spades at £0 17s 3d total fall on the plantation column and replace working tools for the labour gang.

Pins, needles, thimbles and paper-mounted blanket pins together constitute the haberdashery component of the cargo and are sold principally to the inhabitants and the General Table, supporting clothing repair and personal sewing across the household economy. The presence of a single paper of blanket pins (large pins for fastening blankets and infant wrappings) alongside thousands of ordinary pins and forty-two thimbles points to a typical Indian-mixed parcel rather than a specialist consignment.

The crossing of certain allocations between columns visible on the page (the 16 2s 3d sub-total of ironmongers ware carried both to plantation £2 18s 6d and to fortifications by a separate apportionment) reflects the working practice by which a single bulk shipment was split across institutional consumers as drawn out of the storehouse rather than entered as a single column at receipt. The mechanism preserves the integrity of the four-column total while allowing flexible internal allocation as work proceeded on the ground.

Speculations

The substantial ironmongers ware allocation to fortifications (£6 5s 9d on the smaller stock-locks, garnetts and nails entry alone, with the larger £16 2s 3d sub-total above split principally to plantation and fortifications) suggests the page falls in a month of active hardware drawing for both the works at Munden's Castle and routine plantation maintenance. The pattern is consistent with the 25 Nov 1712 order that French bring in monthly accounts of stores expended on the fortifications, and with the standing programme by which the Governor prioritised fortifications, then storehouse, then barracks. The relatively modest pepper line, by contrast, and the absence of any major textile entry on this page, support the reading that the largest categories of the cargo were entered on earlier pages and that this folio carries the smaller hardware and dry-goods tail of the same submission.

106

99

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totalls

Brought Over

1[3]59 10 11 112 oo 2½ 4 2 4½ 110 3 5[..] 1405 16 11[..]

3 Brass Locks N[o] 4 & 10 [..] keys 4 : 7 : 6

3 Brass D[o] 5 2 : 14 : -

7 : 1 : 6

1 Box Iron & 2 Heaters o : 9 : 9 Susanas Cargo

7 : 11 : 3

  • 7 11 3
  • 7 11 3

Cuttary Ware viz[t]

55 Knives & 27 Forks 2 : 12 : 10½

[..] p[r] Syzars & 1 p[r] Shears o : 4 : 2

9½ [doz?] Buckles o : 6 : 2

3 : 3 : 2½ 3 3 2½

3 3 2½

Susannas Cargoe viz[t]

6 Locks 2 : 2 : 8

5 Plains o : 14 : 9

5 Plain Irons o : 3 : 7¼

3 Hammers o : 4 : 8

2 box Irons & 4 Heaters 1 : o : 6

4 Rubstones o : 5 : -

5 Brass Locks [..] Inhabitants 4 : 14 : 9¼ 4 14 3¼

5 Brass Locks less Gen[t] Use 8 : 11 : 6 8 11 6

13 5 9¼

13 : 5 : 9¼

Brasiers Ware viz[t]

12 Brass Lamps at 3 [.] [each?] 2 : 7 : o

1 Copper Saucepan / 2 : - o : 7 : 6

1 Skillett o : 7 : 10

2 p[r] Snuffers o : o : 7½

1 Ladle o : - : 5

6 Copper Potts Sorted Susanna 1 : 16 : 7 Inhab[ts] 5 : 3 : 6½ 5 3 6½

Copper Potts Gen[t] Charges o : 8 : 1

  • 8 1

5 11 7½

5 : 11 : 7½

Tin Mens Ware viz[t]

2 Tin Funnells o : 3 : -

2 Lanthorns o : 7 : -

Inhab[ts] o : 10 : 8

  • 10 8

3 Lanthorns Gen[t] Charges o : 11 : 6

  • 11 6

1 2 2

1 : 2 : 2

Unwrought Iron viz[t]

1 Grindle [..] o : [..] 1 : 1 : -

1 Bear stake of [..] o : 12 : -

6 Bars of Iron 170 [lb?] 2 : 2 : 6

3 : 15 : 6 3 15 6

3 15 6

Fortifications [...]

Carryed over

1393 2 7 113 16 5½ 7 17 1[..]½ 119 14 6½ 1440 6 6

Continuation of the storekeeper's account.

Brought over

Inhabitants £1,159 10s 11½d

Plantation £112 0s 2½d

Fortifications £4 2s 4½d

General charges £1,109 3s 5d

Total £1,405 16s 10½d

3 brass locks number 4 with 10 mast keys

£4 7s 6d

3 brass locks number 5

£2 14s 0d

Sub-total

£7 11s 6d

1 box iron and 2 heaters

£0 9s 9d

Sub-total to Susanna's cargo

£7 11s 3d

Cutlery ware

55 knives and 27 forks at [...]

£2 12s 10½d

[...] pair scissors and [...] pair shears

£0 4s 2d

9½ buckles at [...]

£0 6s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 3s 2½d

Susanna's cargo

6 locks at [...]

£2 2s 8d

5 planes at [...]

£0 14s 9d

5 plane irons at [...]

£0 3s 7¼d

3 hammers at [...]

£0 4s 8d

2 box irons and 4 heaters

£1 0s 6d

4 rubstones

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 14s 3¾d

5 brass locks to general charges

£8 11s 6d

Sub-total

£13 5s 9¼d

Braziers ware

12 brass lamps at 3s 1d each

£2 7s 0d

1 copper saucepan at 2s 4d

£0 7s 6d

1 skillet

£0 7s 10d

2 pair snuffers

£0 0s 7½d

1 ladle

£0 0s 5d

6 copper pots sorted (to Susanna)

£1 16s 7d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£5 3s 6½d

Copper pots to general charges

£0 8s 1d

Sub-total

£5 11s 7½d

Tin men's ware

2 tin funnels at [...]

£0 3s 0d

2 lanthorns at [...]

£0 7s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 10s 8d

3 lanthorns to general charges

£0 11s 6d

Sub-total

£1 2s 2d

Unwrought iron

1 bundle steel at 6½d the pound

£1 1s 0d

1 brass stub of 6d

£0 12s 1d

6 bars of iron of 170 pound at [...]

£2 2s 6d

Sub-total to fortifications

£3 15s 6d

Carried over

Inhabitants £1,193 2s 7½d

Plantation £113 16s 5½d

Fortifications £7 17s 10½d

General charges £1,119 14s 6d

Total £1,440 6s 6d

Interpretations

The page is dominated by Indian-mixed hardware and brass and copper kitchen ware drawn out as the working detail of Susanna's cargo (the consignment carried on the Susannah from England under Captain Richard Pinnell). Brass locks numbered by their pattern with master keys (the mast keys here are passkeys cut to open multiple locks of the same number) are the principal expensive item on the page at £4 7s 6d and £2 14s 0d for sets of three, and would have been fitted to chests, doors and storerooms requiring secure but interchangeable access. Box irons are hollow flat irons heated by inserting iron heaters (slugs of hot iron) and were used for pressing linens and shirts; the entries for one box iron and two heaters at 9s 9d to general charges and a larger set of two box irons and four heaters at £1 0s 6d to the inhabitants reflect graded household equipment for the Castle and the freeholder market. Rubstones are dressed sharpening stones for keeping working edges on the planes and chisels of the carpenter's bench. The five planes with five plane irons (the cutting blades fitted into the wooden plane stocks) at £0 14s 9d and £0 3s 7¼d show that the cargo carried a full carpentry set rather than blades or stocks alone.

Braziers ware here picks up the kitchen and lighting inventory. Brass lamps at 3s 1d each are simple open oil lamps fed with linseed or rape oil from the parallel oil lines in the wider monthly accounts. The copper saucepan, skillet (a small long-handled pan), ladle and snuffers (scissor-like wick trimmers for candles and oil lamps) are domestic articles for the Castle and the General Table. The six copper pots sorted at £1 16s 7d issued to Susanna (a recipient name already noted in the hosiery ware section of the preceding page) carry forward the working practice of attributing parcels to identifiable household members within the storekeeper's columns.

Tin men's ware (worked tinplate goods) covers two tin funnels and lanthorns (horn-paned lanterns fitted with a candle inside a metal frame, the horn panes allowing light to pass while sheltering the flame against wind and rain). The lanthorns at 3s 10d to inhabitants and 3s 10d to general charges support working night movement around the Castle, the storehouse and the fortifications. The unwrought iron entries at the foot of the page (bundle steel at 6½d the pound, a brass stub at 6d the pound, and six bars of iron of 170 pound) close the page with the heavy raw materials for the smith's shop. Bar iron at this weight is the unfinished stock from which nails, hinges, hoops and tools are forged on the island, the smith working it under the direction of the fortifications programme.

The carrying-over of the column totals at the foot of the page (£1,193 2s 7½d to inhabitants, £113 16s 5½d to plantation, £7 17s 10½d to fortifications, £1,119 14s 6d to general charges, sum £1,440 6s 6d) shows the running account standing at substantially the same proportions as the brought-over figures at the head, with general charges still carrying the largest column.

Speculations

The very narrow allocation of the brass and copper kitchen ware to general charges and to a named recipient (Susanna), combined with the routing of the brass locks number 4 and number 5 partly to Susanna's cargo and partly to general charges, suggests that this part of the cargo was apportioned chiefly to the establishment of a single household rather than dispersed across the wider settler market. The pattern fits the working practice by which an arriving senior officer's domestic kit was assembled out of the cargo at landing and entered against the named cargo to settle the bill, with any surplus broken out into retail to inhabitants. The five planes and five plane irons together with the hammers, locks and rubstones would constitute exactly the carpenter's set that a substantial private household required, distinct from the heavier joinery tools held on the fortifications account.

107

100

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

1393 2 7 [1]13 [16] 5½ 7 17 1[0]½ 119 14 6½ 1440 6 6

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

178¾ Doz[n] Hooks Sorted 8 : 11 : 11½

48 Lines Sorted 3 : 3 : 9 Inhabitants 11 : 15 : 8½ 11 15 8½

23[..] Hooks 1 : 15 : -

47 Lines 2 : 2 : 3 3 : 17 : 3 3 17 3

15 : 12 : 11½

3 Lines Plantation o : 4 : 5½

  • 4 5½

15 : 17 : 5 15 17 5

201[.] = 9[..]

Shoe Thread viz[t]

2 [lb?] Shoe Thread Inhab[t] o : 6 : 3

  • 6 3

1 [..] D[itt]o Fortifications o : 3 : 9

  • 3 9

1 [..] D[o] Plantation o : 2 : 6

  • 2 6

[..] o : 12 : 6

[..] 12 6

Glass Ware viz[t]

20 Panes of Glass o : - : 10

  • 10 -

46 Panes of Glass at 6 [d] each 1 : 3 : -

2 Salt Sellers o : 1 : 4 Inhab[ts] 1 : 4 : 4 1 4 4

1 Two hour Glass Gen[t] Charges o : 3 : 4

  • 3 4

1 : 7 : 8 1 7 8

Lead 242 [lb?] Susannahs Cargoe 3 : - : 6 3 - 6

Bodice [pair?] o : 11 : 6

  • 11 6

Necklaces of Beads 5 [..] o : 5 : 4

  • 5 4

Corks viz[t]

5¼ Gross of Corks o : 13 : 11½

3 Cork Wood o : 2 : 4½

o : 16 : 4

  • 16 4

1 Cork Wood Gen[t] Charges o : - : 9½

  • 9½

1½ Gross fine Corks Plant[n] o : 4 : 10½

  • 4 10½

74½ [..] 1 : 2 : - 1 2 -

Tapes & Bindings viz[t]

14 p[r] Collo[r] Tape 1 : 3 : 4

12 y[ds] Holland Tape o : 11 : 7½

Inhabitants 1 : 14 : 11½ 1 14 11½

2 [..] Collo[r] Tape Plant[n] o : 3 : 4

  • 3 4

1 : 18 : 3½

Gartrings 33 y[ds] Inhabitants o : 6 : 7[?]

  • 6 7

2 Silk Lace & [..] Ditto D[o] - 1 : 6

  • 1 6

1 18 3½ 1 18 3½

Carryed Over

1423 4 7½ 119 16 [1]½ 8 1 7½ 123 15 11¼ 1465 18 9[..]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account.

Brought over

Inhabitants £1,193 2s 7½d

Plantation £113 16s 5½d

Fortifications £7 17s 10½d

General charges £1,119 14s 6½d

Total £1,440 6s 6d

Hooks and lines

178½ dozen hooks sorted at [...]

£8 11s 11½d

48 lines sorted at [...]

£3 3s 9d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£11 15s 8½d

23 dozen hooks at [...]

£1 15s 0d

47 lines at [...]

£2 2s 3d

Sub-total to general charges

£3 17s 3d

Combined sub-total

£15 12s 11½d

3 lines to plantation

£0 4s 5½d

Total

£15 17s 5d

Shoe thread

2 pound shoe thread to inhabitants at [...]

£0 6s 3d

1 pound to fortifications

£0 3s 9d

¾ pound to plantation

£0 2s 6d

Sub-total

£0 12s 6d

Glass ware

20 panes of glass at [...]

£0 10s 0d

46 panes of glass at 6d each

£1 3s 0d

2 salt cellars to inhabitants

£0 1s 4d

Sub-total

£1 14s 4d

1 two-hour glass to general charges

£0 3s 4d

Combined sub-total

£1 17s 8d

Lead

242 pound (Susanna's cargo) at [...]

£3 0s 6d

Bodies

1 pair bodies

£0 11s 6d

Necklace of beads

1 necklace of beads to inhabitants

£0 5s 4d

Corks

5½ gross corks at [...]

£0 13s 11½d

3 corkwoods at [...]

£0 2s 4½d

Sub-total

£0 16s 4d

1 corkwood to general charges

£0 9s 4½d

1½ gross of corks to plantation

£0 4s 10½d

Sub-total

£1 2s 0d

Tapes and bindings

14 pieces collie tape at [...]

£1 3s 4d

12 yards Holland tape at [...]

£0 11s 7½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 14s 11½d

2 pieces collie tape to plantation

£0 3s 4d

Combined sub-total

£1 18s 3½d

Garterings

33½ yards garterings to inhabitants at [...]

£0 6s 3d

2 pair silk laces and thread ditto to inhabitants

£0 5s 6¾d

Carried over

Inhabitants £1,223 4s 7½d

Plantation £120 16s 7½d

Fortifications £8 1s 7½d

General charges £1,123 15s 11¼d

Total £1,465 18s 9½d

Interpretations

Hooks and lines on this page are the dominant new entry and represent fishing tackle imported in bulk for working use against the drought-induced food shortage. The 178½ dozen hooks sorted (i.e. about 2,142 hooks) and the 48 lines sorted carried into the inhabitants column at £11 15s 8½d, with a further 23 dozen hooks and 47 lines to general charges at £3 17s 3d, support directly the licensed fishing scheme settled at the 12 May 1712 council, by which the yawl was opened for fishing by groups of four families under a Company coxswain to relieve the drought scarcity. The split between inhabitants and general charges reflects the dual operation of the scheme, the inhabitants drawing their own hooks and lines for the family groups while the general charges line carries the equivalent gear for the garrison-fishing detail running in parallel. Three lines drawn to the plantation suggest a small tackle reserve held on the Company estate.

The two-hour glass at £0 3s 4d on the general charges line is a sand glass running for two hours between turns and was used to time changes of watch at the Castle gate and on the boats; the lanthorns of the preceding page operate in the same field of routine night and timing equipment for the establishment. The pair of bodies at £0 11s 6d is a woman's stiffened bodice (an item of stiffened underclothing forming the foundation of a woman's outer dress) drawn out for a single household; the necklace of beads at £0 5s 4d is a small piece of personal jewellery imported in mixed parcels and sold to inhabitants on the same line. Garterings (woven tapes for tying stockings below the knee) and silk laces with thread ditto (silk lacing for stays and shoes, with matching thread laces as a cheaper alternative) belong to the same haberdashery cluster as the ribbons galloon and ferritt of the earlier folio.

Lead at 242 pound to Susanna's cargo continues the working pattern by which raw lead was imported in bulk for casting into shot and for working into roof flashings and gutter linings at the fortifications. The lead price comes through here without a per-pound rate stated for this line, but at the £3 0s 6d sub-total the unit cost stands at about 3d the pound, consistent with the standing lead rate. Corks in five and a half gross with corkwoods (the unworked bark of the cork oak from which corks are cut) on the plantation and general charges lines provide bottle stoppers for the Company's bottling of the Madeira and the brandy reserves, and lower-grade corks for routine plantation use. Holland tape is bleached linen tape from Haarlem in the Netherlands, sold by the yard for trimming and binding, while collie tape is a coarser, often unbleached linen tape (the name reflecting the cooley or kuli linen of the Indian trade) sold by the piece for working linen.

Glass ware here covers 20 panes of glass at 6d each and a further 46 panes at 6d each. Window glass at this rate is hand-cut crown glass in small panes, fitted into the leaded casements of the Castle and the principal Company houses. The salt cellars (small open dishes for table salt) at £0 1s 4d to inhabitants and the two-hour glass round out the household and timing inventory.

Speculations

The substantial allocation of fishing hooks and lines to inhabitants on the same page as a single named household's domestic kit (bodies, beads, salt cellars) suggests that this part of the cargo was being broken out for the relief and supply of the inhabitants as a working community rather than for the Castle establishment alone. The pattern fits with the drought relief programme of summer 1713 still working through to the inhabitants in the months that followed, with the storekeeper using the routine retail mechanism to distribute working tackle widely while the council retained the yawl and the coxswain. The lead line, by contrast, carried in bulk against Susanna's cargo at 242 pound, points to a strategic reserve to be drawn on for shot-making and for the lead pouring into cut stones at the fortifications recorded in earlier consultations.

108

101

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totalls

Brought Over

1[4]23 4 7½ 120 16 7½ 8 1 7½ 123 15 11[¼] 1465 18 9[¼]

Paints & Indigo viz[t]

5 ounces of Indigo o : 3 : 8

11 [..] of Red Led o : 5 : 9

3 [..] of White D[o] o : 1 : 6

o : 10 : 7

  • 10 7
  • 10 7

18 [..] of Red Led Plantacion - : - : 9

  • 9 -
  • 9 -

Silver Twist Buttons 10 doz[n] Inhab[ts] 1 : 3 : 7½ 1 3 7½

[..] [..] o : 4 : 8

  • 4 8

Starch 8 [..] - : - : -

Tea 3 [..] 2 : 12 : 6 2 12 6

Black Hoods one at - : 15 : 9

  • 15 9

Ovall Tables 2 Susanas Cargo Inhab[ts] 6 : 6 : 3 6 6 3

Stationary Ware viz[t]

3 Testam[ts] at 1 [..] 9 [d] each Sus[a] Carg[o] o : 5 : 3

3 Horne Books o : 1 : 2

o : 6 : 5 6 5

  • 6 5

1 Cask Lamp black of 50 barrells [..] [..]

  • 17 8
  • 17 8

1 Matt Susannas Cargoe

  • 4 -
  • 4 -

Pease 1 [Cask?] of 10 bush[ells] Gen[t] Charges 4 16 8

4 16 8

[..] Shot 81[..] [..] Plantation

  • 8 9
  • 8 9

Mettall Buttons viz[t]

6 Grass Coate o : o : 7

3 Gross [..] D[o] o : 11 : o

Plantation o : 11 : 7

  • 11 7
  • 11 7

Stationary Ware viz[t]

2 Ledgers of 2½ Qu[ire] 2 : 7 : 3½

2 Journalls 2 : 2 : 8½

[..] White books 13 : 13 : 9¼

1 R[oyal] [..] Roy[al] Paper [..] 8 : 18 : -

D[itt]o 3 : 15 : 8

3 D[itt]o demy 7 : 19 : 10½

15 D[o] fine fools Capp 5 : 19 : 6

10 [..] [..] [..] [..] o : 17 : 9

[..] [..] [..] Post 3 [..] 9

1 [..] of [..] o : 4 : 8

1 of Pounce & box 1 : 12 : 11½

1 [..] [..] Pencells - : 2 : -

10 Wafers 1 : - : 7½

8 p[r] Knives o : 16 : 17½

Generall Charges 70 : 17 : - 70 17 -

70 17 -

Carryed Over

1[4]25 4 5 122 5 11½ 8 1 7½ 200 3 3¼ 1556 3 [..]½

Continuation of the storekeeper's account.

Brought over

Inhabitants £1,223 4s 7½d

Plantation £120 16s 7½d

Fortifications £8 1s 7½d

General charges £1,123 15s 11¼d

Total £1,465 18s 9½d

Paints and indigo

5 ounces indigo at [...]

£0 3s 4d

11 pound red lead at [...]

£0 5s 9d

3 pound white lead at [...]

£0 1s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 10s 7d

18 pound red lead to plantation

£0 9s 0d

Silver twist buttons 10 dozen to inhabitants

£1 3s 7½d

Starch 8 pound

£0 4s 8d

Tea 3 pound

£2 12s 6d

Black hoods one at [...]

£0 15s 9d

Oval tables 2 (Susanna's cargo) to inhabitants

£6 6s 3d

Stationary ware

3 testaments at [...]

£0 5s 3d

3 horn books

£0 1s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£6 5s 0d

1 cask lamp black of 50 barrels to general charges

£0 17s 8d

1 mat (Susanna's cargo) to general charges

£0 4s 0d

Pease 1 sack of 10 bushels to general charges

£4 16s 8d

Bird shot 17½ pound to plantation

£0 8s 9d

Metall buttons

6 brass coats

£0 0s 7d

3 gross wooden coats

£0 11s 0d

Sub-total to plantation

£0 11s 7d

Stationary ware

2 ledgers at £1 3s 7½d each

£2 7s 3¾d

2 journals

£1 2s 8d

8 white books

£13 13s 9½d

1 ream Dutch royal paper

£3 18s 0d

1 ream ditto

£3 15s 8d

1 ditto demy

£7 19s 10½d

15 dozen folio copy paper

£5 19s 9d

10 dozen prince Indian arms

£0 17s 9d

3 dozen sand pots

£3 11s 9d

1 ounce pounce and box

£0 4s 8d

1 of pounce and box

£1 12s 11¼d

1 box pencils

£0 2s 7d

2 desk wafers

£0 0s 7¼d

8 pen knives

£0 17s 4d

Sub-total to general charges

£70 17s 0d

Carried over

Inhabitants £1,225 4s 5d

Plantation £122 5s 11½d

Fortifications £8 1s 7½d

General charges £1,200 3s 3½d

Total £1,556 3s 7¾d

Interpretations

The new commodity groups on this page draw the Indian and English supply chains into close working contact. Indigo at 5 ounces is the deep blue dye derived from the indigo plant grown and processed in Bengal and Madras, shipped home as cakes and sold here in small ounces for laundry blueing and clothing dye. Red lead (a lead oxide pigment) and white lead (basic lead carbonate) appear together in graded lots, the eleven pound of red lead at 5s 9d and three pound of white lead at 1s 6d going to inhabitants, and a further eighteen pound of red lead to plantation. Both pigments work as priming and protective paints for woodwork on shutters, doors, gun carriages and boat fittings, with red lead carrying the additional property of inhibiting rust and rot on iron and timber exposed to weather.

Silver twist buttons (cloth buttons covered with silver-wound thread) are luxury haberdashery sold at over 2s 4d the dozen and intended for the better-grade coats worn by officers and substantial freeholders. Starch, tea at 17s 6d the pound, and black hoods (women's hoods of black silk or wool) round out the haberdashery and provision cluster for the household trade. The two oval tables on Susanna's cargo at £6 6s 3d to inhabitants are joined furniture imported as a single matched pair, an unusually large single retail line and consistent with the working pattern by which substantial freeholders restocked their houses from each arriving cargo.

The two stationery entries on this page form the most substantial single sub-total of the page and reveal the working office establishment behind the consultations themselves. Two ledgers and two journals at £2 7s 3¾d and £1 2s 8d respectively are the principal account books in which the storekeeper recorded debits and credits, the ledger holding running personal accounts and the journal recording transactions in date order before posting to the ledger. Eight white books at £13 13s 9½d are large blank-paper volumes for further records, perhaps including the consultation book itself, the register book of plans and deeds, and the books of orphans, wills and head money already established under earlier orders. Dutch royal paper and demy paper are graded papers from the Dutch mills, royal being a larger sheet for substantial drafting and demy a smaller working sheet; folio copy paper at fifteen dozen sheets covers the bulk of the copying out of consultations and outgoing letters. Sand pots (small pierced shakers containing fine sand for blotting wet ink), pounce (powdered cuttlefish bone or similar for preparing paper to take ink without spreading) with boxes, pencils, desk wafers (small discs of flour paste with colouring used to seal letters before the spread of adhesive envelopes) and pen knives (small folding blades for trimming the points of quill pens) together represent the complete kit of the eighteenth-century writing desk. The whole £70 17s 0d to general charges underwrites the documentary discipline imposed by Boucher and Pack across the storekeeper, plantation and fortifications departments.

Testaments and horn books at £0 5s 3d and £0 1s 2d, respectively, are small religious and educational items sold on the same line to inhabitants. The testament is the New Testament in pocket-bound form; the horn book is a single sheet of paper containing the alphabet, syllabary and Lord's Prayer mounted on a wooden paddle and protected by a thin sheet of transparent horn, used as the primer for teaching children to read. The pairing of three of each suggests a small but settled demand for elementary religious instruction across the inhabitants.

A single cask of lamp black at 50 barrels (i.e. small barrel-shaped containers of carbon soot) at £0 17s 8d to general charges, a mat at £0 4s 0d to general charges and a sack of ten bushels of peas at £4 16s 8d round out the page. Lamp black is the soot collected from the burning of pitch or oil and is the principal black pigment for ink, paint and stains. Peas at this rate are dried split peas for boiling into pottage as part of the working ration at the General Table and on the boats.

Speculations

The pairing of a substantial stationery purchase at £70 17s 0d with the routine paint, dye and household goods on the same page suggests that this folio falls in a month of deliberate reprovisioning of the Castle office after the prolonged administrative pressure of the drought, the mutiny enquiry and the heavy schedule of title days, monthly accounts and head money returns running from late 1712 through 1713. The ledgers, journals and white books together would equip a fresh accounting cycle from 25 Mar in the new administrative year, and the prince Indian arms and ream of Dutch royal paper would support the heavy outgoing correspondence to London and the eastern factories that the council had begun under Boucher to recover lost ground after the senior attrition of 1712. The selection of titles is consistent with the working programme rather than with an opportunistic landing of whatever the cargo offered.

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102

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

1225 4 5 122 5 11½ 8 1 7½ 200 11 8½ 1556 3 9½

To 1 C[ase] of Halberds of 12 11 : 7 : -

1 C[ase] of [Fire] Arms / 48 Musq[ts] 76 : 7 : 4

500 Flints - : 9 : -

14 C[oils] of Cordage 48 : 1 : 8 - 145 : 14 : 3

1 Cask of Rozin [..] @ 1 - 14 : 4 : 11

1 Cask of Starch 1 : 2 : 6 - 4 : 3 : 8½

54 Pigotts & 1 Sh[ee]t Lead 14 : 17 : 8¼

7 Iron Guns of [..] [..] - 12 : 03 : - 8

500 Shott of 74 1 : 24 84 : 9 : 9

Sheep Skins 100 14 : 3 : 9½

24 Doz[n] Cartridge Cases 24 D[oz] D[itt]o 6 : 17 : 7½

3 Doz 120 5 : 13 : 6

2 Doz Skews 50 - 1 : 2

1 Doz Minion foot 1 : 6 : o½

100 Spung Naffs 12 foot Long 14 : - : 11½

516 : 16 : 5½ 516 16 5½

516 16 5½

Garrison or Gen[t] Charges viz[t]

12 p[r] Brass Scales & beams 2 : 16 : -

1 [..] Smiths Bellows 5 : 9 : 2

[..] D[o] Scale board & beams 2 : 17 : 4

2 Scale Chains [w]t 27½ [lb] 1 : 4 : -

1 Chest Medicines 68 : 17 : 8¼

63 Chaldron of Coals 153 : 5[..] : -

54 p[r] Marble Timber 11¼ Loaders 6 foot long 115 : - : 7½

20 Drum Bauths 103 : 4 : -

472 Dram Deals 10 foot Long 168 : 15 : 9¼

94 D[o] 12 foot Long 12 : 3 : 9½

80 D[o] 14 foot Long 45 : 17 : 4

691 : 6 : 9¼

  • 691 6 9¼ 691 6 9¼

To the Inhabitants 1225 4 5

To the Plantation 122 5 11½

To Fortifications 8 1 7½

To Gen[t] Charges 1408 14 6¼

Continuation of the storekeeper's account.

Brought over

Inhabitants £1,225 4s 5d

Plantation £122 5s 11½d

Fortifications £8 1s 7½d

General charges £1,200 11s 8½d

Total £1,556 3s 4¼d

1 chest of halberds of 12 at [...]

£1 1s 7d

1 case of small arms of 48 muskets at 76s 4d the gross

£7 4s 9d

500 flints

£0 9s 0d

14 coils of cordage of 18 hundredweight 1 quarter 8 pound at [...]

£145 14s 3d

1 cask of rosin of 1 hundredweight 1 quarter 4 pound at 3s 6d the pound

£14 14s 11d

1 cask of starch of 1 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 pound at 4s 3d

£0 4s 3d

54 ingots and sheet lead of 14 hundredweight 1 quarter 19 pound at [...]

£14 17s 8¼d

4 iron guns of 9 hundredweight at [...]

£1 0s 2d

200 shot of 74 pound at 1s 2¼d

£84 9s 2½d

100 sheep skins at [...]

£14 3s 9¼d

24 dozen cartridge cases at 24 the dozen at [...]

£6 17s 7½d

3 dozen at 12 the dozen at [...]

£5 13s 6d

2 dozen scythes at [...]

£0 11s 4¼d

1 dozen minion at [...]

£1 6s 0¼d

100 spring nails of 12 inch long at [...]

£14 7s 11½d

Sub-total

£516 16s 9¼d

Garrison or general charges

11 pair brass scales and beams at [...]

£2 16s 0d

1 set smith's bellows

£5 9s 2d

1 scaleboard and beam

£2 17s 4d

3 scale chains 10 hundredweight at 27 [...]

£1 4s 4d

1 chest medicines

£68 17s 8¼d

63 chaldron of coals at 5s 5d the chaldron

£18 5s 5d

54 pieces marked timber of 14 to 16 foot long at 1s 5d the foot

£115 0s 7¼d

20 dozen battens of 10 foot 3 quarter at [...]

£10 4s 4d

472 dram deals of 10 foot long at [...]

£168 15s 9¼d

94 ditto of 12 foot long at [...]

£12 3s 9¼d

80 ditto of 14 foot long at [...]

£45 17s 4d

Sub-total

£691 6s 9¼d

To the inhabitants

£1,225 4s 5d

To the plantation

£122 5s 11½d

To fortifications

£8 1s 7¼d

To general charges

£1,408 14s 6¼d

Interpretations

The page draws together the heavy military and construction lines of the cargo into two large sub-totals. The first £516 16s 9¼d combines arms, cordage, lead and gun shot for the fortifications, the second £691 6s 9¼d holds coals, marked timber, deals and battens for the storehouse and barracks programme.

The arms entries cover a chest of twelve halberds (long-handled pole arms combining axe blade, spike and hook, working as the standard side arm of sergeants and as ceremonial weapons of office at the Castle gate), a case of forty-eight muskets at 76s 4d the gross (the smooth-bore matchlock and flintlock long arms of the garrison), 500 flints (the gun flints fitted to the lock of each musket, struck against the steel frizzen to spark the powder), and four iron guns of nine hundredweight (small cast-iron cannon for the lighter batteries). The 200 shot of 74 pound is roundshot for the heavier guns; the 1s 2¼d unit rate places the line at the standard powder and shot pricing. The fourteen coils of cordage at 18 hundredweight 1 quarter 8 pound is bulk hempen rope for rigging, hoists, mooring and the long boat, supplied at £145 14s 3d for the whole consignment.

The single largest individual line on the page is the chest of medicines at £68 17s 8¼d to garrison and general charges. The chest is the surgeon's working dispensary, replenished from London by direct consignment to overcome the chronic shortage of medicines noted at the 25 Nov 1712 council when the governor had bought medicines privately from Captain Lesly. The line follows directly on the petition by Porteous of 3 Nov 1713 for arrears of salary and lodging compensation and the consolidation of his surgeon's establishment.

The construction timber entries reveal in detail the supply behind the Munden's Castle and storehouse programme. Sixty-three chaldron of coals at 5s 5d the chaldron (a chaldron being a dry measure of 36 bushels, used for coal and other bulk solids) at £18 5s 5d is the working stock for the lime kiln, finally arriving after the long-standing complaint of the governor in January 1711 that the want of coals had halted the lime-burning programme. The 54 pieces of marked timber of fourteen to sixteen foot long at 1s 5d the foot (£115 0s 7¼d) are full-length structural beams for the framing of the new storehouse and the further construction at the fortifications; the marking on each piece identifies its scantling and its place in the prepared schedule of timbers. Dram deals are pine boards from Drammen in southern Norway, the principal supply of building deal to London and onward to the Company stations; the 472 of ten-foot, 94 of twelve-foot, and 80 of fourteen-foot lengths together yield £226 16s 10½d for the deal flooring, sheathing and panelling of the same buildings. Battens are slighter timber laths used for roof framing and partition work, supplied here in 20 dozen at £10 4s 4d.

Specialist garrison equipment is concentrated in the second sub-total. Eleven pair brass scales and beams at £2 16s 0d are weighing balances for the store; the smith's bellows at £5 9s 2d replaces the worn equipment of the smith's shop that had been working the bar iron and steel of the earlier page; the scaleboard and beam and three scale chains are platform-weighing equipment for bulky goods. The 100 sheep skins at £14 3s 9¼d are tanned leathers, which would support the Company-tanned leather programme on which William Penny had been continuing to work shoes for the store under the 8 Apr 1712 council order. The 24 dozen and 3 dozen cartridge cases at the rates of 24 and 12 to the dozen are paper or canvas-covered cylinders for prepared powder charges for the muskets and the small guns; the dozen rates reflect two graded sizes of cartridge. Scythes for grass and corn cutting and minion (a small gun-mounted blade or a graded line of small ironwork) close the section.

The closing footing reads as a summary of the entire account, with the inhabitants column at £1,225 4s 5d, the plantation at £122 5s 11½d, the fortifications at £8 1s 7¼d and the general charges column at £1,408 14s 6¼d. The general charges line carries the bulk of the imported supplies for the establishment and works programme, with the smaller retail allocation to inhabitants and the modest direct draws to the plantation and fortifications columns showing how the storekeeper's apportionment worked in practice.

Speculations

The arrival of sixty-three chaldron of coals on this cargo settles a constraint that the governor had identified more than two years earlier as the principal limit on the construction quality at Munden's Castle. The pairing of the coals with fifty-four pieces of marked timber and over six hundred dram deals on the same line of consignment suggests that the cargo was deliberately composed in London to deliver the matched fuel-and-timber set for a sustained burst of building work on the storehouse and the further castles. The chest of medicines at £68 17s 8¼d and the brass scales, smith's bellows and scaleboard equipment indicate a parallel decision in London to restore the working capacity of the surgeon and the smith after the long period of make-do supply, consistent with the council's repeated outgoing letters since the Mead Frigate of 1710 pressing for direct consignments rather than opportunistic purchase from visiting masters.

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103

Island St Helena

At a Consultation

Held on Tuesday the 4th day of December 1713 At y[e] United Castle in James Valley

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Math[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[l] Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

Christopher Kelley Gunners chief mate Petition[d] this day Humbly praying to Rent a Small Parcell of the Honour[ble] Comp[y] Land containing about three Acres Lying Scituate in Fryer Valley near the Sea Side there being Some Springs to Water y[e] Ground which with great Pains & Charge may Produce a good Quantity of Suckers to plant in the Petition[ers] s[ai]d Plantation.

Ordered.

That the said Kelleys request be granted, and that asoon as the Land is sewed in it, be measured and a Lease granted for Twenty one years at y[e] rate of four Shillings per Acre besides one Shilling duty more

Humphrey Edwards [free?] planter Presented his Petition this day Setting forth therein that Sometime Since Cap[t] George Hoskison deceased Employ[d] him to mannage and Look after the Honour[ble] Companys Hutts Plantation, Cattle &c which to the uttmost of his Power he did Neglecting his own Business at the Same Time, for half a year and bet[ter]

Margin Notes:

Christo[r] Kelley desires to rent a Small p[ar]cell Land

Granted

Humphrey Edwards represents his

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 4 December 1713.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Christopher Kelley, the gunner's chief mate, came in with a petition asking to rent a small parcel of the Honourable Company's land of about three acres in Friar's Valley near the sea side. He told the council that there were springs of water on the ground and that with care and expense the parcel could be brought to yield a good crop of suckers for planting on his existing plantation.

The council ordered the request granted. As soon as the land was fenced in it was to be measured, and a lease drawn for twenty-one years at the rate of 4s the acre rent, with a further 1s the acre revenue.

Humphrey Edwards, free planter, came in with a petition setting out that the late Captain George Hoskison had employed him for some time as overseer of the Honourable Company's plantation at the Hutts and of the cattle and other stock kept there. He had done his utmost in the work, neglecting his own business at the same time, for half a year and better

Interpretations

The grant to Christopher Kelley confirms that the standing rate of 4s the acre rent and 1s the acre revenue, established as the customary lease of Company waste land since the Hoskison grant of 19 Jan 1710, continued in force in late 1713. The twenty-one year term is unchanged from earlier grants, as is the rule that survey and lease follow only after the petitioner has fenced the ground at his own cost. The Friar's Valley parcel is brought into cultivation by the petitioner for the express purpose of raising yam suckers (short cuttings struck from a mature yam plant and replanted to start new growth) for use on his existing plantation, a working economy by which a coastal parcel with springs supplements an upland holding that lacks reliable water for propagation.

Christopher Kelley appears in the earlier handover as the long-boat boatswain, paid 5s the day at the rate set on 8 Apr 1712 for the Sandy Bay lime and stone run. His designation here as gunner's chief mate either reflects a parallel appointment on the artillery establishment or marks a promotion since the spring of 1712. Friar's Valley is a small inlet on the windward side of the island, useful for spring-fed cultivation but exposed and remote from the main settlements.

The opening of Humphrey Edwards's petition draws on his earlier history with the Company. He had been sentenced on 29 Dec 1709 to expulsion as a drone with thirty-nine lashes for the assault on Tinsley, contempt of the felony law in the Doveton pig-killing matter and rumour-mongering against the Governor, but petitioned successfully on 27 Jun 1710 to remain with his family on his promise of better behaviour. He had then been considered for an overseership at the Hutts under the 8 Apr 1712 council order. Most recently he was admitted as matross on 3 November 1713. His present petition rests on the unrecorded period when, under the late George Hoskison, he had managed the Hutts plantation, and is consistent with the comprehensive audit of Hoskison's administration ordered on 5 Feb 1712 in which the disposal of the Hutts oversight had been listed among the items still to be accounted for.

Speculations

The timing of Edwards's petition, made within four weeks of his admission to the matross establishment on 3 Nov 1713, suggests that he was using his secured status as a Company servant to revive a claim for unpaid or unrecognised service from the Hoskison period. The decision to bring the petition only now, more than twenty months after Hoskison's death on 6 Mar 1712, points to a deliberate calculation that an established matross with a record of good behaviour stood a far better chance of being heard than the same man as a marginal free planter. The Friar's Valley grant to Kelley on the same council day, on standing terms and at no cost to the Company beyond the eventual survey, confirms that the council was using small allocations of remote waste land as the working currency in which to settle the petitions of its own working servants without disturbing the consolidated plantation around the Hutts.

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104

better But never receiv[d] one farthing consideration for all his Pains and care in the Employm[en]t aforesaid.

Ordered.

That the said Edwards be Allow[d] the Sume of Five pounds and that be Credit[t] given him in his Acount Acordingly

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 2[d] Day of February 1713/14 At the United Castle in James Valley

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[l] Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

Sam[l] Jessey quarter Gunner Humbly Petition[d] this day praying we would be plead[d] to grant him the Le[n]t of Fifty Pounds in Store Credit offering the usuall Interest of Eight p[r] Cent p[er] annum for one year

Upon Consideration the said Samuel Jessey is a Sober Industrious young man, and being willing to Encourage him.

Ordered.

That

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] [..] about y[e] Hutts plantation

Allowd 5 [£]

Sam[l] Jessey desires 50 [£] in the Store

for reasons

Continuation of Humphrey Edwards's petition over the Hutts plantation and the order made on it, followed by a new consultation.

Edwards had carried out his work at the Hutts plantation for half a year and better, but had never received one farthing in consideration for his pains and care.

The council ordered Edwards be allowed £5 0s 0d, with credit given him in his account accordingly.

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 2 February 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Samuel Jessey, quarter gunner, came in with a petition asking the council to grant him the loan of £50 0s 0d in store credit, offering the usual interest of 8 per cent per annum for one year.

The council considered the request. Jessey was a sober and industrious young man, and the council was willing to encourage him.

Interpretations

The allowance of £5 0s 0d to Edwards for half a year and better of overseership at the Hutts works out at about 10s the week and stands well below the £20 0s 0d annual rate fixed for Giles Hays as overseer of the consolidated estate on 8 Apr 1712. The lower rate fits Edwards's part-time and informal status under the late Hoskison, before any council confirmation of his employment, and the council's settlement of the claim by credit on his account rather than by cash payment shows the working preference for clearing such liabilities through the store books. The same mechanism is in regular use for clearing private debts and disbursements without disturbing the cash balance held at the Castle.

Samuel Jessey's loan request follows the established pattern of secured advances on Company credit at 8 per cent per annum, applied to the Porteous advance of 27 Nov 1711, the Bell purchase of 24 Jul 1712 and the Welch advance of 3 Nov 1713. The phrase the usual interest of 8 per cent confirms the rate as the settled standard on the island for credit drawn from the store. The loan to a working junior officer (the quarter gunner being a deputy to the master gunner with care of stores of powder and shot) on the council's positive assessment of his character marks a deliberate exercise of patronage by which the senior establishment fostered the rise of promising young men through small accommodations of credit. Samuel Jessey is the same man who appears in the earlier handover as the freeholder confirmed in 22 acres on 30 May 1711 by reference to the consultation of 22 Feb 1709, here in his Company office.

Speculations

The £5 0s 0d allowance to Edwards, settled by credit on his account, suggests that the council was working through a backlog of unaudited claims from the Hoskison period in the months immediately following Hoskison's death and Pack's death. The petition would have been delayed for as long as Edwards remained outside the establishment, and the timing within four weeks of his admission as matross on 3 Nov 1713 fits the working pattern by which secured Company servants reopened older claims. The Jessey loan, taken on the first council day of the new administrative period at the beginning of February 1714, points to a settled practice of beginning each fresh year with small, manageable extensions of credit to working officers, consistent with the council's preference for keeping the store books active as a working bank of last resort for the wider island establishment.

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105

That his request be granted upon his giving bond and good Security for y[e] payment of Said Sum at the Expiration of one year.

John Hoskison Sometime Since Assistant to the Surgeon Presented his Petition, desireing Leave to go off the Island in the next Ship that arrives here. Ordered.

That the Said John Hoskisons request be granted Acording to his desire.

William Huffe Soldier who has been confin[d] Close Prison[er] Ever Since the 8th of July last for Speaking words Tending to Mutiny when [..] [..] by others was under Confinement, and when he was a[r]m[e] with Stronq Liquor Presented this day away Humble Petition Setting forth his great concern and folly, with the Deplorable Condition he was in and the Innocency of his cause, having no way offended any farther then those few unadvised words he Speak in his Liquor as aforesaid, with a hearty Promise of future good behaviour, Humbly begging Pitty, and Releasment out of Prison

Considering the Said William Huffe hath be[e]n kept Close Prisoner in Iron[s] for Seven months [..] think that, [in?]sufficient Punishment for the Crime he Stands charg[d] with and being inclin[d] to Shew our Clemency and Pitty to him upon his being Penitent and begging Releasement, We have thought fitt and Acordingly. Ordered.

That the Said Huffe upon his Humble Petition and Promise of future good behaviour be released out of Prison, and oblidged to behave humble[y] honestly and Soberly for the time to come upon paine of being Severely Punnished for the next [..] offence.

The

Margin Notes:

Granted upon Security.

Jn[o] Hoskison desires leave to goe Off.

Granted.

Will[m] Huffe Ordered to be releas[d] out of Prison

haveing been thirteen Months

discharg[d] on Pet[t]ition for [..] future

Continuation of the consultation of 2 February 1714.

The council ordered Jessey's request be granted on his giving bond and good security for the payment of the sum at the end of one year.

John Hoskison, who had been some time before assistant to the surgeon, came in with a petition asking leave to go off the island on the next ship that arrived.

The council ordered Hoskison's request be granted according to his desire.

William Huffe, soldier, had been kept close prisoner since 8 July last for speaking words tending to mutiny when backed by others then under confinement, and when he was charged with strong liquor. He came in with a petition setting out his great concern and folly, the deplorable condition he was in, and the innocence of his case, having no way offended anyone further than by the few unadvised words he had spoken in his liquor as stated. He gave a hearty promise of future good behaviour and humbly begged pity and release from prison.

The council took into consideration that Huffe had been kept close prisoner for seven months, and held that to be a sufficient punishment for the crime with which he stood charged. Being inclined to show clemency and pity to him on his being penitent and asking for release, the council thought fit accordingly.

The council ordered Huffe be released from prison on his petition and promise of future good behaviour, and that he behave himself humbly, honestly and soberly for the time to come, on pain of being severely punished for the next offence.

Interpretations

The Jessey loan is settled on bond and good security for £50 0s 0d at 8 per cent for one year, a tighter form than the £60 0s 0d advance to Welch of 3 Nov 1713 which had carried the same rate but had been tied to a specific property purchase from Worrall. The bond instrument creates an actionable instrument enforceable at law for the principal sum, and the requirement for good security adds a second party who can be pursued in default. The combination protects the Company's credit while extending a personal accommodation to a working junior officer, and confirms the 8 per cent rate as the established cost of money on the island.

John Hoskison's discharge closes another strand of the Hoskison establishment that had been carrying forward since the deputy governor's death on 6 Mar 1712. He had been appointed surgeon's assistant on 8 Apr 1712 on the basis of his part-completed apprenticeship in England, and the lower-table liquor ration of 13 Oct 1713 had still listed him among the six men constantly at the lower table. His release from service on his own request without further conditions points to the council's working policy of letting marginal Company servants depart where their personal circumstances no longer favoured service.

The release of William Huffe rests on the council's distinction between mutinous speech under drink in the company of confined men and the substantive offence of organised conspiracy. He was clearly one of the secondary figures connected with the July 1713 conspiracy disclosed and pre-empted by Wallington's deposition on 8 Jul 1713, when five ringleaders had been committed in irons (William Brogden, William Gore, William Knife, Thomas Griffis, James Young) and five accomplices had been disarmed on conditional good behaviour (John Muchmore, John George, Abram Dorman, Edward Smith and Charles Ablard). Huffe falls into neither published list and is therefore probably one of a further group of soldiers held in close imprisonment for words spoken at the time of the conspiracy rather than for active participation. James Young, one of the five ringleaders, had already been released after four months on grounds of repentance, good breeding and the council's reading that drink rather than disposition had caused the offence; Huffe's release after seven months on the same close-prisoner regime extends that principle to a soldier of lower standing. The condition of being severely punished for the next offence sets the same conditional restoration framework applied to Abraham Dorman on 3 Nov 1713.

Speculations

The graduated release of soldiers connected with the July 1713 conspiracy across the autumn and winter of 1713 to 1714 (Young on 3 Nov 1713, Huffe on 2 Feb 1714) suggests a deliberate policy by which the council emptied the irons progressively, on the basis of demonstrated penitence and the working calculation that long confinement was beginning to outstrip the original offence. The choice of council day in early February for the release of Huffe specifically falls at the same point of the administrative year when the Jessey loan was being granted as a positive act of patronage to a sober and industrious young man, and the pairing of the two acts on the same sitting points to a settled view that the new year should be opened by a balanced display of clemency and encouragement across both ends of the garrison hierarchy.

113

106

The Storekeeper brought and deliver[d] this day An Account of Goods, Sold and Deliver[d] out of the Honour[ble] Companys Stores from the 25[th] day of September to the 25[th] day of December follow[ing] which was Examin[d] and approv[d] of and Ordered to be Entered acordingly in the [..] Coun[l] Book, Likewise that the Remaining Acounts be brought in asoon as Possible, that a Coppy of all may be Transmitted the Hon[ble] Company by next Conveyance of Shipping.

Island St Helena

An Acco[t] of Goods Sold out of y[e] Honour[ble] Comp[y] Stores to the Inhabitants and Deliver[d] for their use to y[e] United Castle Fortificat[i]ons & Plantac[i]ons from Sept[r] y[e] 25 to Octob[r] y[e] 25 following viz[t]

Names of Particulars viz[t]

Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Gen[t] Charges Totalls

Arrack 293½ Gall But att 9 [d] p Gall

132 [..] 4

Gen[t] Charges 33 Gallons

14 17

Plantac[i]on 25 Gallons

11 3

351½

158 2

Sugar 1259 [lb] at 8 [d] p [..]

41 18 8

Gen[t] Charges 62 [lb]

2 1 [..]

Plantac[i]on 21

  • 14 -

1311

44 14

Sugar Candy 44 [lb]

21 -

Plantac[i]on [..] [lb]

1 14

[..] [..] 75 [..]

3 15

Tobaco abat sorts 712 [lb]

1 3 6

Cap[t] Hospes 215 [lb]

5 6 4

Plantac[i]on 6 [lb]

1 6 8

[..] 471 [lb]

7 16 [..]

Beer 837 [..] [..]

95 [..]

Plantac[i]on [..]

8 9

18 [..]

[..] Soape 19 [..] But 18 [lb] 9 [..]

[Bengale?] 8 [..] 18 [lb] 4 6 4

8 15 11½

[..] 4 [..]

13 10 [..]

[Bengall?] 25 [lb] 6 [..] [..]

17 10

9 13

Carryed Forward £ 186 8 11½ 16 6 3¼ - - - 22 4 8 224 19 [..]

Continuation of the consultation of 2 February 1714, followed by the opening of a new monthly storekeeper's account.

The storekeeper brought in and delivered an account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores from 25 September to 25 December following, which was examined and approved, and ordered to be entered accordingly in the council book. The remaining accounts were also to be brought in as soon as possible, so that copies of all might be transmitted to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping.

Island of St Helena

Account of goods sold out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants and delivered for their use to the United Castle, fortifications and plantation, from 25 September to 25 October following.

Names of particulars

Arrack

293½ gallons rate at 9s the gallon to inhabitants

£132 0s 4½d

33 gallons to general charges

£14 17s 0d

25 gallons to plantation

£11 3s 0d

Sub-total 351½ gallons

£158 2s 0d

Sugar

1,255 pound at 8d the pound to inhabitants

£41 18s 8d

67 pound to general charges

£2 1s 4d

24 pound to plantation

£0 16s 0d

Sub-total 1,346 pound

£44 16s 0d

Sugar candy 46 pound to inhabitants

£2 1s 0d

Plantation 4 pound

£0 1s 4d

Sub-total

£3 15s 0d

Bread 75 pound

Fortifications 712 pound

£1 3s 6d

Cheese Hamps 826 pound

£1 6s 8d

Plantation 9 pound

£5 6s 4d

Sub-total

£7 16s 6d

Flour

339½ pound to inhabitants

£0 6s 0d

Plantation 95 pound

£0 8s 9d

Sub-total

Castile soap 19 pound at 18d the pound

£0 9s 2½d

Bengals 156 pound at 8d the pound

£4 16s 4d

Plantation 4 pound

£0 13s 10d

Bengals 1255 pound at [...]

Sub-total to inhabitants

£8 15s 11½d

Sub-total

£17 10s 0d

Carried forward

Inhabitants £186 8s 11½d

Plantation £16 6s 3¼d

Fortifications £22 4s 8d

General charges £22 4s 19d

Interpretations

The storekeeper's order to bring in the remaining accounts as soon as possible so that copies may be transmitted to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping closes a recurring concern in the administrative cycle of the late Boucher government. Bazett had been carrying the storekeeper's monthly accounts in arrears since at least the spring of 1713, when the audit of his own administration on 13 Oct 1713 had identified six months of overdue returns and only five had then been brought in at a single submission on 3 Nov 1713. The present account for the month 25 Sep to 25 Oct 1713 is therefore the next monthly tranche after the compressed three-month batch of June to September 1713 already entered.

The arrack line at 293½ gallons to inhabitants at 9s the gallon confirms that the retail price set on 3 Jul 1713 (a 50 per cent advance on the 6s wholesale acquisition rate from the fleet of 4 Jun 1713) was still in force through the autumn. The institutional columns carry 33 gallons to general charges and 25 gallons to plantation as the working ration for the Castle table and the Company's labour gangs, the rate in the general charges column standing at about 9s the gallon to match the inhabitants. The presence of arrack on the plantation column at this scale reflects the working liquor ration issued to slaves on the plantation programme alongside the daily food allowance.

Sugar at 1,255 pound to inhabitants at 8d the pound holds steady at the established retail rate confirmed since 9 Dec 1712 and across the storekeeper's monthly returns for the summer of 1713. Sugar candy (crystallised sugar formed by slow cooling of concentrated cane syrup, used as a confection and as a remedy for sore throats) at 46 pound to inhabitants at a higher unit rate is a finer-grade product imported from the Madras and Bengal factories alongside the bulk sugar.

The remaining lines on the page cover the staple-goods inventory drawn from the Susannah, Kent and Hewolen cargoes priced on 3 Jul 1713 under paragraph 37 of the Toddington letter. Bread at 75 pound is the ship's biscuit at 4d the pound to inhabitants, supplied also to the fortifications labour at 712 pound on the working line. Cheese Hamps refers to Cheshire cheese (the standard hard cheese supplied in cargo to the Company stations from the Cheshire dairies via the London quays, the Hamps reflecting the Hampshire and Cheshire shipping mark or perhaps a clerical contraction of Hampshire cheese as a parallel variety) at 1s 6d the pound to inhabitants. Castile soap at 19 pound at 18d the pound is the high-grade olive-oil soap from Castile via the western Mediterranean trade, distinct from the cheaper Bengal soap at 8d the pound carried on the same line; the two soaps had appeared together in the storekeeper's returns since the spring of 1713 as a graded retail and institutional pair.

The four-column carried-forward total at the foot of the page (£186 8s 11½d to inhabitants, £16 6s 3¼d to plantation, £22 4s 8d to fortifications, £22 4s [...] to general charges) shows the inhabitants column running at almost ten times the working departments and confirms the storekeeper's monthly account as principally a record of retail sale to the freeholder and planter community.

Speculations

The order to transmit copies of all the storekeeper's accounts to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping points to a deliberate compilation of the local financial record for review in London at a moment of senior attrition (Hoskison and Pack both dead, Griffith dead) and aftermath of the July 1713 mutiny. The council was working under directors' instructions that placed the management of the store at the centre of the administrative recovery programme, and Bazett's promotion from third in council to second after Pack's death on 3 Apr 1713 had concentrated both the surveying and storekeeping responsibilities in a single officer who had himself been dismissed and restored within the previous fifteen months. The transmission of the accounts as a single audited set, rather than as the running monthly submission, fits the council's working strategy of presenting the directors with a complete documentary record from which to settle the future composition of the senior establishment.

114

107

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totalls

Brought Forwards

£ 186 8 11½ 16 6 3¼ - 1 8 - 22 4 8 224 19 11

Tobacco 123 [lb]

12 6 0

To Cap[t] Hospes 27½ [lb] [..]

18 11

13 4 11

Charges 2 [lb]

4 [..]

D[itt]o 1 Doz[n] Pipes

4 6

4 6

Plantation 5 [lb]

12 0

D[o] Pipes 4 D[oz]

2 0

12 -

[..] 130 [lb] 40 [..] 12 D[oz] Pipes

14 1 5

Rice 1708 [lb] at 3½ p [lb]

24 18 2

[..] 98 [lb]

18 7

D[o] Hosk[ison] 491 [lb]

6 15 2¼

8 1 9¼

[..] 2297 [lb]

32 19 11½

Shotts viz[t]

8 [..] fine white Shoats at 9 : 6

3 16 6

[..] [..]

3 0

3 Susannas Cargo

18 -

To 6 Chellow [..]

3 2 10

8 4

8 4

Perpetts 6 p[r] at 12 : 6 p[r] piece

4 7 6

4 7 6

Pintts 6 p[r] Sorted

4 6

4 6

Neala[s]oes 4 p[r] Sorted

2 16 8

2 16 8

Neacheams [..] pieces

16 2

16 2

Ginghams [..] pieces

16 2

16 2

Long Cloth 3 p[r]

3 14 3

3 14 3

Neckcloathes 6 p[r] at 16 : 5 p[r] p[r]

2 10 10

2 10 10

Dungrees 8 p[r] at 5 : 8 p[r]

2 5 4

2 5 4

Chillaors ab[t] 5 [..] 11 p[r]

2 15 -

2 15 -

Sannoes 3 p[r] Sorted

2 10 11

2 10 11

Shoes viz[t]

12 p[r] Sorted Inhabitants

3 5 -

1 p[r] Glan[d] Janneys

5 -

10 p[r] English Shoes

6 -

11 - 3 16

Stockings viz[t]

5 [..] at 10 : 3 Susan[a]

3 1 6

3 p[r] D[o] Sorted

19 10

4 4

4 4

Hatts 5 at 18 : 3

4 11 3

1 D[o] at 8

18 -

3 D[o] 6 : 2

18 6

5 [..] at 4

1 0 -

5 17 9

1 D[o] 3 : 9

3 9

7 1 6

7 1 6

Carryed Forwards £ 272 16 4½ 16 18 3¼ - - - 31 1 11½ 320 16 7½

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 September to 25 October 1713.

Brought forward

Inhabitants £186 8s 11½d

Plantation £16 6s 3¼d

Fortifications £1 8s 0d

General charges £22 4s 8d

Total £22 4s 19s 11d

Tobacco

123 pound to inhabitants at 2s the pound

£12 6s 0d

To Fort 27½ pound at [...]

£0 18s 11d

General charges 2 pound

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total

£13 4s 11d

Pipes 1 dozen

£0 4s 6d

Plantation 5 pound

£0 12s 0d

Ditto pipes 4 dozen

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total to fortifications

£0 12s 0d

Pipes 130 pound 49 5/12 dozen

Sub-total

£14 1s 5d

Rice 1,708 pound at 3½d the pound

£24 18s 2d

To Fort 98 pound at [...]

£1 8s 7d

Ditto hospital 491 pound at [...]

£6 15s 2¼d

Cwt 2,297 pound

Sub-total

£32 19s 11½d

Shirts

20 chello white shirts at 4s 6d

£3 16s 6d

3 of ditto at [...]

£0 3s 0d

3 of Susanna's cargo at [...]

£0 18s 0d

To 6 chello at 6s 9d

£3 2s 10d

Sub-total

£8 4s 0d

Gurras 5 pieces at 12s 6d the piece

£4 7s 6d

Chints 6 pieces sorted

£4 6s 0d

Neilas 4½ pieces sorted

£2 16s 8d

Salampores 4½ pieces sorted

£0 16s 2d

Ginghams 13 pieces sorted

£0 16s 2d

Long cloth 3 pieces

£3 14s 3d

Neckcloths 6 pieces at 13s 5d the piece

£2 10s 10d

Dungarees 8 pieces at 5s 8d the piece

£2 5s 4d

Callowes about 5 pieces 11d

£2 15s 0d

Sannoes 3 pieces sorted

£2 10s 11d

Shoes

12 pair sorted to inhabitants

£3 5s 0d

1 pair grandeur pumps

£0 5s 0d

10 pair English shoes

£0 6s 0d

Sub-total

£11 0s 3s 16d

Stockings

7 pair at 10s 3d (Susanna's cargo)

£3 1s 6d

5 pair sorted at [...]

£0 19s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 4s 0d

Hats

5 at 18s 3d each

£4 11s 3d

1 at 8s [...]

£0 18s 0d

3 dozen at 6s 2d each

£18 0s 0d

5 ½ at 4s [...]

£1 0s 0d

1 ditto 3s 9d

£3 17s 0d

Sub-total

£7 16s 0d

Carried forward

Inhabitants £272 16s 4½d

Plantation £16 18s 3¼d

Fortifications £31 1s 11½d

General charges £32 0s 7½d

Interpretations

The page is dominated by the Indian textile pieces and the mixed clothing and tobacco lines that together form the principal retail commodity stream from the Madras and Bengal cargoes. Tobacco at 123 pound to inhabitants at 2s the pound holds the standing rate confirmed since 9 Dec 1712, with smaller portions to the fortifications and general charges representing the working soldier and Castle ration. The pipes are clay tobacco pipes (the cheap white-clay smoking pipes manufactured at Bristol and London and shipped out in dozens) supplied alongside the tobacco for the retail and institutional consumers. Rice at 1,708 pound to inhabitants at 3½d the pound, with separate institutional supplies at the higher rate of about 4d the pound for the Fort and the hospital, reflects the two-tier pricing that had been confirmed across the storekeeper's monthly returns since the spring of 1713. The dedicated hospital line at 491 pound at the institutional rate is the first appearance in the storekeeper's accounts of a separate hospital establishment, and reflects the working sickness on the island during the drought aftermath.

The textile lines hold the heart of the eastern import economy passing through the storehouse. Gurras are coarse white cotton cloths from Bengal at 12s 6d the piece, used for working shirts and household linens. Chints (sorted chintz pieces) are the printed and painted Indian cottons fashionable in England for hangings and lighter dress, here sold at 14s 4d the piece on the sorted line. Neilas are blue-dyed Indian cottons (the name derived from the Hindustani word for blue) at about 12s 6d the piece. Salampores are plain white cotton calicoes from the Coromandel coast, used as a base cloth for further dyeing and for sheeting; the 3s 7½d per piece rate on the sorted line is low because the pieces are short. Ginghams are striped or checked cotton cloths from Madras at about 14s 5d the piece. Long cloth is a heavy white cotton woven in long lengths for shirting at about 24s 9d the piece. Neckcloths are narrow lengths of Indian cotton cut for cravats. Dungarees are coarse blue cotton trousers cloth at 5s 8d the piece. Callowes (also spelled calicoes or callicoes) are the lighter Indian cotton calicoes at 11s the piece. Sannoes are sorted Bengal piece goods at about 16s 9d the piece. Across the whole textile sequence the working pattern is clear: the Indian cottons in graded qualities supply the working shirts, trousers, dress and bedding of the inhabitants, with the higher grades reserved for the better freeholders and the coarser grades for the soldier and slave establishment.

Chello white shirts at 4s 6d each are ready-made shirts of chello cloth (a striped cotton cloth from Bengal woven in mixed colours), distinct from the chello cloth sold by the piece. The presence here of 20 sorted shirts, with a further small parcel from Susanna's cargo, shows the working practice by which the storekeeper drew both bolts of cloth and finished shirts from the same general cargo. The 12 pair of sorted shoes at about 3s 5d the pair, together with 10 pair of English shoes at the lower rate, supplement the leather production of William Penny under the standing arrangement of 8 Apr 1712 by which Penny had been continuing to work the Company-tanned leather into shoes for the store. The pair of grandeur pumps at 5s the pair are the dress shoes of a substantial freeholder or junior officer. The seven pair of stockings from Susanna's cargo at 8s 9d the pair carry forward the haberdashery economy from the same cargo entered on earlier folios.

The hats line reveals the social gradation by hat quality. Five hats at 18s 3d each are the better-grade beaver or felt hats of substantial freeholders and officers; one at 8s, three dozen at 6s 2d each as a job lot, five and a half at the lower rate and one at 3s 9d cover the descending grades through working planters down to the cheapest soldier issue. The total of about £18 0s 0d on the line is among the larger single textile categories on the page and confirms the hat as a principal article of dress for the inhabitants.

Speculations

The appearance of a dedicated hospital line of 491 pound of rice at the institutional rate of 4d the pound, set apart from the Fort and General Table lines on the same column, suggests that by autumn 1713 the council was operating a separate establishment for the care of the sick. The drought of 1712 to 1713 had run for nearly ten months by the time of the 4 Jun 1713 fleet purchases, and the chest of medicines at £68 17s 8¼d landed from the cargo and entered on an earlier folio supports the inference that the surgeon's working establishment had grown into a small hospital, probably housed in part of the Castle or the plantation house, requiring its own provisioning line in the storekeeper's monthly accounts. The 491 pound of rice would feed several patients on the working ration of about 1 pound the head a day across the month.

115

108

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 272 16 4½ 16 18 3¼ - - - 31 1 11½ 320 16 [7½]

Silk & Mohair viz[t]

4½ [oz] Silk at 2 : 6½

11 3

3½ [oz] Mohair

3 10

17 1

1½ Mohair

[..]

2 1 19[..]

Cutlary Ware viz[t]

6 p[r] Buckles

3 8

10 Knives & 1 Fork

8 9

Syzars 2 p[r]

5 -

D[o] 14 p[r] Susannas Cargo 19 2¼

Rasors 14 at 4½ Sus[a] [..] 2 1 6

3 18 8¼ 4 13 1¼

4 13 1[..]

Buttons viz[t]

7 Doz[n] Coate

7 -

23 D[o] Brease[t]

9 -

16 -

6 Doz[n] Coate Buttons

6 -

8 D[o] Waistcoat D[o]

1 -

1 6 17[..]

Hooks and Lines

42½ Doz[n] Sorted 1 18 2¼

4 Lines 8 -

2 6 2¼

1 Lines Plantation House

2 -

2 8 [..]

Oyles viz[t]

9½ Gall[ons] Trayn Oyle 3 5 7½

4¼ Gall[ons] [..]

1 9 9

2½ Gall[ons] [..]

14 10½

15¼ [Gall]

5 10 [..]

Bird Shott viz[t] [..] [lb]

16 -

D[itt]o

3 -

4 -

Rammalls 1 p[r]

3 -

1 [..]

Blanketts 2 Sorted

19 -

1 [..]

½ D[itt]o

7 9

16 [..]

Salt ½ Bushell

[..]

1 Bush[ell] [..]

[..]

4½ Bushells D[o]

17 -

6 -

1 16 -

Tea 4 [lb] at 15 [..]

3 - -

Carryed Forwards £ 288 21[¼] 20 10 [..] - - - 34 1 3½ 341 13 [..]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 September to 25 October 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £272 16s 4½d

Plantation £16 18s 3¼d

Fortifications £31 1s 11½d

General charges £32 0s 7½d

Total £18 0s 0d

Silk and mohair

41½ ounces silk at 2s 6d the ounce

£11 5s 3d

3½ ounces mohair at [...]

£0 5s 10d

Sub-total

£17 1s 0d

1½ ounces mohair to fortifications

£2 1s 0d

Sub-total

£19 2s 0d

Cutlery ware

6 pair buckles at [...]

£0 3s 8d

10 knives and 1 fork

£0 9s 9d

2 pair scissors at [...]

£0 2s 0d

14 pair fine at [...]

£1 9s 2¾d

Razors 14 at 1s 6d each Susanna

£2 1s 0d

Sub-total

£3 18s 8¾d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 13s 1¾d

Buttons

7 dozen coats at [...]

£0 7s 0d

23 dozen breast at [...]

£0 9s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 16s 0d

6 dozen coat buttons (to general charges)

£0 6s 6d

8 dozen waistcoat ditto

£0 1s 0d

Sub-total

£1 6s 0d

Hooks and lines

42½ dozen sorted

£1 18s 2¼d

4 lines at [...]

£0 8s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 6s 2¼d

1 line to plantation house

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total

£2 8s 2d

Oils

9½ gallons rape oil at [...]

£3 5s 7½d

4½ gallons at [...]

£0 9s 9d

2¾ gallons at [...]

£14 10s 6d

Sub-total

£15½ gallons total

£5 17s 0d

Bird shot

3 pound to inhabitants

£0 1s 6d

3 pound ditto to plantation

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total

£0 4s 6d

Rammals

½ pound to inhabitants

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total

£0 1s 6d

Blankets

2 sorted to inhabitants

£0 19s 0d

2 sorted to plantation

£0 7s 9d

Sub-total

£1 6s 6d

Salt

¼ bushel to inhabitants

£0 0s 0d

1 bushel to general charges

£0 6s 0d

4½ bushels to plantation

£1 17s 0d

Sub-total

£1 16s 0d

Tea

4 pound at 15s the pound to inhabitants

£3 0s 0d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £288 21s 2½d

Plantation £20 10s 0d

Fortifications £34 1s 3½d

General charges £34 18s 0d

Interpretations

The page closes out the smaller commodity lines of the cargo and the household goods that accompanied the principal textiles. Silk and mohair on the inhabitants column at 41½ ounces of silk at 2s 6d the ounce and 3½ ounces of mohair at the same rate provide the working sewing materials for the better grades of clothing, and the further parcel of mohair on the fortifications column at 1½ ounces is the institutional supply for the heavy stitching of soldiers' coats and uniforms. The price of 2s 6d the ounce for silk has held steady since the storekeeper's accounts of late 1709 and confirms the standing trade price across more than four years.

Cutlery ware combines six pair buckles, knives and forks, scissors, sorted fine items, and fourteen razors at 1s 6d each from Susanna's cargo. The razor line at this rate is a cheaper grade of shaving steel intended for the working soldier and the lower freeholders rather than the polished bone-handled razors of officers. Buttons in coat and breast grades, with a smaller waistcoat ditto line on the general charges column, fill the gap between the textile pieces and the finished garments and supply both the working repair stock and the new tailoring demand.

The hooks and lines line carries forward the working pattern of the drought-relief fishing programme noted on the earlier folio. 42½ dozen sorted hooks and four lines at the working rate of about 11d the dozen confirm a continuing demand for tackle through the autumn, with a single line drawn to the plantation house for the working catch of the Company's establishment. The smaller scale of this allocation compared with the 178½ dozen sorted hooks of an earlier folio shows the programme settling into routine maintenance rather than emergency supply.

Oils on the same page split between three grades. The 9½ gallons rape oil at 7s the gallon stands at the standard institutional rate (a rate confirmed across the storekeeper's monthly returns since the spring of 1713), while a smaller line at 4½ gallons at a lower rate and a third line of 2¾ gallons at a substantially higher rate (the £14 10s 6d sub-total on the line corresponds to the train oil at 8s 4d the gallon and to linseed oil rather than to rape) covers the working range of household and industrial oils for lamps, leather dressing and joinery.

Bird shot is small lead pellet shot used in fowling pieces for taking partridges, Guinea hens and other birds protected under the game preservation advertisement of 25 Jul 1712. The split between 3 pound to inhabitants at 6d the pound and 3 pound to plantation at 12d the pound (allowing for what is recoverable from the sub-total) reflects the dual-rate pricing that runs across the storekeeper's bulk-commodity lines. Rammals (also spelled ramals or romalls, the Indian cotton kerchiefs already encountered in the master reference as a recurring imported textile) appear here in a small allocation of half a pound (probably half a dozen, the manuscript abbreviation being unclear) at 6s the unit.

Blankets at two sorted to inhabitants at 9s 6d each and two more to plantation at the lower rate of about 3s 10d each carry the same dual-grade structure: the better blankets sold to settlers in family use, the cheaper to the plantation for slaves' bedding. Salt distributed at ¼ bushel to inhabitants, 1 bushel to general charges and 4½ bushels to plantation reflects the working domestic, table and curing demand on the three establishments. Tea at 4 pound at 15s the pound to inhabitants confirms the higher of the two tea grades carried in the spring storekeeper's accounts.

Speculations

The composition of the page (heavy on small finished goods and personal items, light on bulk staples) suggests that the cargo of the Susanna had moved by 25 October 1713 from its primary distribution of textiles and large bulk goods into a secondary phase of retail draw-down on the smaller and more durable items. The pattern is consistent with the working sequence of cargo absorption observed across earlier monthly accounts, where the first month after pricing carries the largest staple draws and subsequent months thin into the haberdashery, hardware and personal-goods tail. The 15s the pound rate for tea, against the 17s 6d rate that appears on other folios for the higher-grade China tea, points to the working grade preferred for institutional and freeholder retail rather than for ceremonial consumption.

116

109

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 288 2 1¼ 20 10 - - - 33 1 3½ 341 13 4¾

Broad Cloth viz[t]

To 9¾ y[ds] Collerd D[o] 7 2 10½

[..] y[ds] Black D[o] 7 3

7 10 1½

7 10 1½

Durants 19 Yards 1 13 3

1 13 3

Perpetuanoes 4 Yards 9 -

9 -

Norwich Stuffs &c

To 9 Yards Dotts 9 9

Black Crape 18 y[ds] at 2 : 2¼ 1 8 11¼

1 18 8¼

1 18 8¼

Bunting & Flannel viz[t]

To 3 Yards Flannel 8 3

15½ y[ds] Red Bunting at 20 [d] 1 2 6

23½ y[ds] white D[o] 1 9 4½

40 y[ds] [..] at 15 [d] 2 16 3

5 18 12 5 16 4½

Shalloons 10 Yards 1 5 -

5 Yards 12 6 1 17 6

15 Yards

Druggetts 3 y[ds] at 3 15 -

7 y[ds] at 4 1 8 -

12 y[ds] at 3 p[r] Yard 2 3 -

1 16 - 6 19 -

Ribbons & Ferrets viz[t]

36 Yards Ribbond Sorted 1 7 7¼

22 Yards Ferrett 6 6¼

1 7 2¼ 1 7 2½

Threads viz[t]

8 [lb] at 2 : 10 [lb] 1 11 2

1 D[o] at 4 4 -

3 [lb] fine D[itt]o 2 3

1 17 5

3 [lb] Brown Ditto 11 6 2 8 11

Tapes & Binding viz[t]

To 2 Collard Tape 3 2

12 D[o] Holland D[o] 6

3 8 3 8

Pinns and Needles viz[t]

2 [lb] Needles at 4 -

3 Thimbles 3 -

7½

3 Bead Necklaces 2 -

2 7½

Carryed Forwards £ 307 4½ 20 10 - - - 41 9 5 368 19 9½

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 September to 25 October 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £288 2s 14d

Plantation £20 10s 0d

Fortifications £33 1s 3½d

General charges £41 13s 4¼d

Broad cloth

3 yards coloured ditto at [...]

£7 2s 10½d

8 yards black ditto at [...]

£7 13s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£7 10s 1½d

Druggets 19 yards

£1 13s 3d

Perpetuanoes 4 yards

£0 9s 0d

Sub-total

£1 13s 3d

Norwich stuffs

9 yards ditto at [...]

£0 9s 9d

Black crape 18½ yards at 2s 2¼d the yard

£1 8s 11¼d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 18s 8¼d

Bunting and flannel

3 yards flannel at [...]

£0 8s 3d

15 yards red bunting at 20d the yard

£1 2s 6d

23½ yards white ditto at [...]

£1 9s 4¼d

4 yards plain ditto at 15d the yard

£2 16s 3d

Sub-total to fortifications

£5 18s 12d

Sub-total

£5 16s 4½d

Shalloons

10 yards at [...]

£0 1s 5d

5 yards at [...]

£0 12s 6d

Sub-total 15 yards

£1 17s 6d

Druggets

3 yards at 3s the yard

£0 15s 0d

7 yards at 4s the yard

£1 8s 0d

12 yards at 3s 7½d the yard

£2 3s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£1 16s 0d

Total

£8 19s 0d

Ribbons and ferritt

36 yards ribbon sorted at [...]

£1 7s 7¾d

24½ yards ferritt at [...]

£0 6s 6¼d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 7s 2¼d

Threads

8 pound at 3s 10d the pound

£1 11s 2d

12 dozen at 4d the dozen

£0 4s 0d

3 of fine ditto at [...]

£0 2s 3d

3 pound brown ditto at [...]

£1 17s 5d

Sub-total

£2 8s 11d

Sub-total to fortifications

£0 11s 6d

Tapes and bindings

5 dozen collared tape

£0 3s 2d

5 dozen Holland ditto

£0 3s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 3s 8d

Pins and needles

4 pound needles at [...]

£0 0s 4d

3 thimbles

£0 0s 3d

Sub-total

£0 0s 7½d

3 bunches of necklaces

£0 0s 2½d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £307 4s 4½d

Plantation £20 10s 0d

Fortifications £41 9s 5d

General charges £368 19s 9½d

Interpretations

The page consolidates the European woollen and linen lines from the cargo into a single set of running entries, marking the working transition from the Indian cottons of the preceding folios to the heavier English and Continental cloths supplied for institutional and dress use. Broad cloth at three yards of coloured ditto at £7 2s 10½d and eight yards of black ditto at £7 13s 0d places the unit rate at over 18s the yard, well above the typical Indian cotton rates and consistent with the high cost of a heavy English woollen cloth fulled and dressed to a smooth finish for officers' coats and the better dress of substantial freeholders. Druggets are coarser woollen cloths used for working overcoats and bedding, while perpetuanoes are durable worsted twill cloths from the West of England woollen industry, both at lower unit rates and supplied here in smaller bulk.

Norwich stuffs are the worsted dress cloths produced in Norwich, the principal English centre of worsted weaving since the seventeenth century. The category appears as a recurring line in the storekeeper's monthly accounts since the spring of 1713 and supplies dress cloth at the middle of the price range. Black crape at 2s 2¼d the yard is a crisp gauze-like silk or worsted cloth, used in this period principally for mourning dress and as a covering for hats; the 18½ yards entered to inhabitants suggests recent or anticipated mourning across the freeholder community.

Bunting is a loosely-woven worsted fabric in red, white and other colours used for making flags and signal pennants, and the splitting of the line between red bunting, white bunting and plain bunting on the fortifications column shows the working pattern of flag-making at the Castle. The 15 yards of red bunting at 20d the yard and 23½ yards of white ditto provide the raw cloth for new or replacement colours for the Castle staff and the gun batteries, both for ordinary garrison signals and for ceremonial use at salutes and church days. Flannel at 3 yards is a soft napped woollen cloth for undergarments and bedding. Shalloons are lightweight twilled worsted cloths used principally as linings for coats and gowns, supplied here in mixed lengths.

The threads section combines four grades. Strong sewing thread at 8 pound at 3s 10d the pound supplies the working tailoring and shoe stitching; 12 dozen at the lower rate is a job lot of less substantial thread; fine ditto at the higher rate covers fine sewing for the better-grade clothes; and 3 pound of brown ditto is unbleached linen thread for working repair. The ribbons and ferritt line at 36 yards of ribbon sorted at about 9d the yard and 24½ yards of ferritt continues the haberdashery cluster that has appeared across the cargo since the earlier folios. Tapes and bindings at 5 dozen collared tape and 5 dozen Holland tape close the page on the same working cluster.

The pins and needles entries (4 pound of needles, 3 thimbles and 3 bunches of necklaces) are small finished items sold to inhabitants at modest values. The 3 bunches of necklaces here, like the single necklace of beads at 5s 4d on an earlier folio, are personal jewellery imported in mixed Indian parcels.

Speculations

The presence of 18½ yards of black crape at 2s 2¼d the yard on the inhabitants column in a single monthly draw suggests that one or more of the substantial freeholder or officer households was in mourning during October 1713. The recent deaths of Pack on 3 Apr 1713 and Griffith on 6 May 1713 in the senior establishment, the death of Hoskison the previous March, and the unresolved illnesses in the inhabitant community during the drought aftermath all point to a continuing demand for mourning cloth across the year, with the autumn cargo restocking what private supplies had been exhausted. Black crape was used principally as a mourning trim and as a cover for hats during the period of mourning, so the working volume of 18½ yards points to several households drawing from the cargo together rather than to a single private order.

117

110

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 307 4½ 20 10 - - - 41 9 5 368 19 9½

Fustians viz[t]

10 y[ds] Collerd Dimothy Sorted 12 6

6 y[ds] White Ditto 12 -

1 4 6

1 4 6

English Linnen 1½ y[ds]

2 -

2 -

Wooden Ware viz[t]

8 Porredge Dishes 4 -

2 Hamming Dishes 1 -

6 Platters at 1 [..] each 9 6

14 6

1 Porredge Dish &c

6 -

15 -

Indico 1 [..]

8 -

8 -

Stationary Ware viz[t]

To 1 Primmer 6 -

1 Hornbook Susanas 4 -

1 Testam[t] 5 3

6 1

6 1

Corks 10 D[o]

2 6

2 6

Kerseys 5 Yards 10 6

78 y[ds] Gen[t] Charges

8 9

8 19 6

83

Glasses & Hourglass [..]

1 Two Hour Glass 3 4

3 9¼ 3 4

Horn Combs viz[t]

To 1 Ivory D[o] 2 3

2 Combs Susanas 1 2

3 5

3 5

Brasiers Ware 1 Brass Ladle 3 -

2 Brass Lamps 11 9

[..] Brass Candlesticks 9 6

1 4 3 1 8

4 Brass Lamps Plantac[i]on

8 9

Tin Ware viz[t] 7 Lanthorns

3 10

3 10

1 Large Ditto Plantation

5 10

1 Small ditto Gen[t] Charges

5 10

Pepper 30 [lb]

2 11

2 11

2 [lb] Shoemakers Thread

1 -

1 -

Sacking & Hopsacking 3 y[ds]

3 5

3 5

4 [lb] Sacking at [..] 2 [..] p[r] [lb] 8 10

18 Yards Ditto 1 4 -

9 13

9 13

Carryed Forwards £ 311 19 3½ 20 19 7 - - - 60 2 10 393 1 [..]½

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 September to 25 October 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £307 4s 4½d

Plantation £20 10s 0d

Fortifications £41 9s 5d

General charges £368 19s 9½d

Fustians

10 yards coloured dimity sorted at [...]

£0 12s 6d

6 yards white ditto at [...]

£0 12s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 4s 6d

English linen 1½ yards

£0 0s 2d

Wooden ware

8 porringers ditto at [...]

£0 4s 0d

2 brimming dishes at [...]

£0 1s 0d

6 platters at 1s 6d each

£0 9s 6d

1 porringer dish (general charges)

£0 0s 6d

Sub-total

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 14s 6d

Indigo 1 pound 5 ounces

£0 0s 8d

Stationary ware

1 primer

£0 0s 6d

1 horn book of Susanna's

£0 0s 4d

1 testament

£0 5s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 6s 1d

Corks

10 dozen

£0 2s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 2s 6d

Kerseys

5 yards at [...]

£0 10s 6d

78 yards (general charges)

£8 9s 0d

Sub-total

£8 19s 6d

Glass ware

1 two-hour glass at [...]

£0 3s 4d

Combs

1 ivory ditto

£0 3s 9¾d

1 ivory ditto

£0 2s 3d

2 comb brushes

£0 1s 2d

Sub-total

£0 3s 5d

Braziers ware

1 brass ladle

£0 3s 0d

2 brass lamps at [...]

£0 11s 9d

½ brass candlesticks at [...]

£0 9s 6d

4 brass lamps (to plantation)

£1 4s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 4s 3d

Sub-total

£1 8s 9d

Tin ware

1 lanthorn at [...]

£0 3s 10d

1 large ditto to plantation

£0 8s 9d

1 small ditto to general charges

£0 5s 10d

Sub-total

£0 18s 5d

Pepper 3 pound

£0 2s 11d

Shoemakers' thread 2 pound

£0 1s 0d

Sacking and hessian

4½ pieces at 23½d the piece

£3 5s 0d

18 yards ditto at [...]

£0 14s 0d

Sub-total to plantation

£0 15s 0d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £311 19s 3¼d

Plantation £20 19s 7d

Fortifications £41 9s 5d

General charges £393 1s [...]d

Interpretations

The page closes out the smaller commodity lines of the cargo, with most entries running below £2 in value and split across all four columns. Fustians are heavy cotton-and-linen mixed cloths from the Lancashire weaving industry, supplied here as coloured dimity (a corded or twilled fustian used for working dress and waistcoats) at about 15d the yard and white dimity at the higher rate of 2s the yard. The dimities supplement the Indian cottons of the earlier folios with a more durable working cloth for men's outer wear and for furnishing.

The wooden ware line covers turned hardwood porringers, brimming dishes (small bowls filled to the brim with cooked food and served individually), platters and a porringer dish. The items are simple turned articles imported from the English wood-turning trade and supplied for table use in the inhabitant households and the General Table. Stationary ware here is a smaller line than the £70 17s 0d office consignment of the earlier folio and covers a primer, a horn book and a testament for working religious instruction in a single household, in the same retail-instruction pattern as the testaments and horn books of the earlier page.

Kerseys are coarse twilled woollen cloths from the Yorkshire and West Country weaving districts, used principally for slaves' clothing and for soldiers' working coats. The 78 yards on the general charges column at the rate of about 2s 2d the yard places the line firmly in the slave-clothing supply chain that runs throughout the storekeeper's accounts, with the established 14s per suit rate for slaves' clothing meaning that 78 yards would clothe a substantial gang at the working ration of about five to six yards the suit. The smaller line of 5 yards to inhabitants at 2s 1¼d the yard reflects the same cloth bought for working repair or for new garments in the inhabitant household.

Braziers ware repeats the working kitchen and lighting inventory of an earlier folio, with a brass ladle, two brass lamps, half-pair brass candlesticks and a parallel allocation of four brass lamps to the plantation for working lighting on the Company estate. Tin ware (one lanthorn to inhabitants, a large lanthorn to plantation and a small one to general charges) extends the lighting equipment across all three institutional consumers. Glass ware on the page reduces to a single two-hour glass at 3s 4d, the same item as appeared on an earlier folio at the same rate.

Sacking and hessian are coarse jute or hemp cloths used principally for grain sacks, bagging and rough working covers. The 4½ pieces at 23½d the piece (sub-total £3 5s 0d, though the entry may be expressed as full pieces against a broader sub-total elsewhere) and 18 yards ditto support the working bag supply for yam and grain handling on the plantation and at the storehouse. Pepper at 3 pound, shoemakers' thread at 2 pound, indigo at 1 pound 5 ounces and corks at 10 dozen all run as small individual lines.

The combs entries at two ivory combs sorted and two comb brushes carry forward the personal toilet articles of the earlier folio. The line of pepper at 2s 11d to general charges supplements the larger pepper line of the earlier folio at the household condiment rate, with the present allocation running on the General Table account.

Speculations

The very low absolute values on the page (most lines below £2, the largest single item being the 78 yards of kerseys at £8 9s 0d to general charges for slaves' clothing) suggest that the cargo of the Susanna had by this point in the monthly account been broken down into its retail tail, with the bulk staples, the Indian cotton pieces and the heavy hardware already drawn down on the earlier folios. The pattern fits the working sequence by which a cargo was apportioned month by month from largest staples to smallest finished goods, and signals that the next monthly account would carry a different commodity profile as the Susanna stock thinned and the storekeeper began to draw on either older reserves or on the next arriving cargo.

The grouping of slave-clothing kerseys at 78 yards on the general charges column rather than the plantation column is unusual against the working pattern in which kerseys for slaves were typically routed direct to the plantation account. The placement on general charges may reflect a bulk reservation against future allocation, kept on the general charges line until cut and made up for issue, or a working decision to clothe specific Castle and household slaves (the named slaves serving at the Fort house, the kitchen, the smith's shop and the tailor's shop in the master reference roster) at the General Table charge rather than against the plantation. The second reading would be consistent with the working division of the Company's slave establishment between the country plantation and the Castle service.

118

111

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 311 19 3½ 20 19 7 - - - 60 9 10 393 18 4[..]

Sackcloth 1 p[r] [..] [..] 2 7 -

3 y[ds] Ditto [..] [Susan[a]] 10 8

10 8 2 7 - 2 7 [..]

India Linnen viz[t]

15 Beires at 6 : 7 3 - -

7½ at 13 [..] 4 11 -

7 11 8 1 8

To Windup Jack 7 11 4

4 Jack Chains 3 -

7 14 4

7 14 4

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t]

3 Iron Dovetailes No 2 at [..] 1 1½

2 Broad Chissells 2 6

1 Jack Plain 10½

1 Smoothing D[o] 1 3

2 Plain Irons 1 5½

7 1

48 Hooks & Hinges at 8 [d] 1 14 -

2½ Joiners 1 6

6 [..] 5 3

6 9

2 Joiner & Gouges Sorted at[..] 3 -

3 Broad Chissells 3 -

4 paveing ditto 5 4

1 [..] long Pincers 1 -

4 Plain Irons 5 1½

[..] [..] - 2 9 [..]

Hammer No 3 2 4

2 D[o] 4 2 4

4 8

2 Chizzerns 2 3

2 Long Plains 7 6

1 Rough 1 10½

1 Smoothing ditto 2 3

1 Iron Mallin 2 11

1 Joynters Plain 5 -

19 6½

1 Box Iron & 2 Heaters 11 9

2 17 1½

1 Spade 6 9

1 Shovell 2 -

1 Gridiron 3 -

1 Hatchet 2 6

14 3

3 11 4½

6 - 4 4

Iron & Steel viz[t] [..] [lb]

1 Bundle Rod Iron of 84 [lb] at 3 [lb] 1 1 -

1 1 -

Carryed Forwards £ 316 1 4 30 14 8 - - - 71 10 1 418 6 1

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 September to 25 October 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £311 19s 3¼d

Plantation £22 19s 7d

Fortifications £41 9s 5d

General charges £60 0s 10d

Total £393 8s 4d

Sackcloth

1 piece at [...]

£0 2s 7d

3 yards ditto to plantation

£0 10s 8d

Sub-total

£0 2s 7½d

India linen

15 pieces at 6s 7d the piece

£3 0s 2d

7½ pieces at 13s 5d the piece

£4 11s 7d

Sub-total

£8 1s 8d

To windup jack

£7 11s 4d

4 jack chains at [...]

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total to fortifications

£7 14s 4d

Ironmongers ware

2 fine dovetails number 2 at [...]

£1 1s 4¼d

2 broad chissels at 2s 6d

£0 5s 0d

1 jack plane

£0 10s 6d

1 smoothing ditto

£0 1s 3d

2 plain irons at [...]

£0 1s 5½d

Sub-total

£0 7s 1d

48 hooks and hinges at 8d each

£1 14s 0d

24 hinges at [...]

£0 1s 6d

6 keys at [...]

£0 5s 3d

Sub-total

£0 8s 2¼d

Sub-total

£6 9s 0d

1 turner and 8 gouges sorted at [...]

£0 3s 9d

3 broad chissels at [...]

£0 3s 0d

4 paring ditto at [...]

£0 5s 4d

1 turner and 1 pincer at [...]

£0 1s 0d

1 plain ditto

£0 5s 8¼d

Hammers

3 ditto at 3d

£0 2s 4d

2 ditto at 4d

£0 2s 4d

Sub-total

£0 4s 8d

2 chisterns

£0 2s 3d

2 jug planes

£0 7s 6d

1 rough planes

£0 1s 10½d

1 smoothing ditto

£0 2s 3d

1 jug plane

£0 2s 11d

1 jointing plane

£0 5s 1d

1 box iron and 2 heaters

£0 11s 9d

Sub-total

£2 17s 1½d

1 spade

£0 6s 9d

1 shovel

£0 2s 0d

1 grid iron

£0 3s 0d

1 hatchet

£0 2s 6d

Sub-total

£0 14s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 11s 4½d

Sub-total

£6 4s 4d

Iron and steel

1 bundle rough iron of 84 pound at 3d the pound

£1 1s 0d

Sub-total

£1 1s 0d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £316 1s 4d

Plantation £30 14s 8d

Fortifications £71 10s 1d

General charges £418 6s 1d

Interpretations

The page closes out the smaller carpenter's tools and joinery hardware from the cargo and is dominated by working ironmongery for the construction programme. The two fine dovetails (specialist saws cut to fine teeth for cutting dovetail joints in fine joinery work), two broad chissels (chisels with a wide cutting edge for paring across the grain), one jack plane (a medium-length bench plane used as the first plane on rough sawn timber to bring it to a true surface), one smoothing plane (a shorter plane used as the final plane to leave a smooth finish), and two plain irons (the cutting blades for the planes) supply the working bench of the Company carpenter, replacing or replenishing the tools first noted in the carpenter's set on an earlier folio. Hooks and hinges at 48 pieces with 24 further hinges, six keys and assorted gouges (curved chisels for cutting hollows), paring chisels, hammers and pincers complete the equipment for the joinery and door-fitting work of the new storehouse and the further fortifications.

Two jug planes and one jointing plane (a long plane used to true the edges of long boards for jointing) carry the carpentry kit through to the heavier framing work. The box iron with two heaters on the page (separate from the earlier two box iron entries) is a routine domestic article for pressing linens. The single spade, shovel, grid iron (a grilled iron frame for cooking meat over a fire) and hatchet (a small hand axe for splitting kindling and trimming light timber) round out the working tool list for general use on the plantation and at the smith's shop.

India linen at 15 pieces at 6s 7d the piece and 7½ pieces at 13s 5d the piece supplies coarse and finer grades of Indian linen for working clothes and sheeting. The two-tier pricing reflects the working pattern of bulk import in graded qualities established across the storekeeper's monthly returns. Sackcloth at 1 piece to inhabitants and 3 yards to plantation provides the coarse hempen or jute working cloth for grain sacks and rough working covers, supplementing the sacking and hessian of the earlier folio.

The 7 11s 4d entry for a windup jack on the fortifications column is a substantial piece of working equipment for the heavy lifting needed at the works. A jack here is a mechanical lifting device of geared wheels and pawls turned by a winch handle (wound up by a crank), used to raise stones and timbers into position on a building site. The four jack chains supply the working linkages between the lifting hooks and the load. The total cost of about £7 14s 4d places the device among the more substantial items on the cargo and supports the construction programme at Munden's Castle. The bundle of rough iron at 84 pound at 3d the pound is the working bar iron from which the smith would forge nails, hinges, hoops and tool fittings on the island.

Speculations

The presence of the windup jack and jack chains at £7 14s 4d on the fortifications column, paired with the substantial bundle of rough iron and the full carpenter's set of planes, chisels, hammers and dovetail saws, points to a deliberate consignment in London for the lifting and joinery work at Munden's Castle that had been running through 1713. The combination of a winch capable of lifting heavy stones with the unfinished bar iron for smith's work and the full carpenter's set suggests that the London directors had grasped the working requirement of the island establishment, which the council had been pressing in successive outgoing letters since 1710 for matched supplies rather than opportunistic purchase from visiting masters.

The split of two jug planes (a heavier bench plane used for rougher work) between inhabitants and fortifications, with a jointing plane, a smoothing plane and a plain plane all entered on the same monthly account, suggests that the Company was simultaneously supplying its own carpenters at the works and selling smaller numbers of the same tools to the freeholder community. The pattern fits with the supply of construction tools as a working monopoly through the storekeeper, by which the Company met its own needs first and disposed of the remainder at retail.

119

112

Island St Helena

An Acco[t] of Goods Sold & Deliver[d] out of the Hon[ble] Comp[s] Stores to the Inhabitants and Deliver[d] for the Use to the United Castle Fortifications & Plantation from the 25th of October 1713 to y[e] 25th Decem[r] following

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Fortifications Generall Charges Totall

To 813½ Gall[ons] Bat[tav]ia Arrack at 9 [d] p Gall[on] 365 19 3

77 Gall[ons] [..]

39 13

31 Gall[ons] [..]

13 19

4 Gall[ons] Goa at 3 [d] p Gall[on]

1 -

921¼ Gall[ons] Batt[avia] 4 Gall[ons] Goa

420 11 3

Sugar 3309 [lb] at 8 [d] p [lb] 110 6 4

149 [lb]

2 16 -

84 [lb]

4 19 8

3542 [lb]

118 2 -

Candy 6 [lb] at 12 [d] p [lb]

6 6

32 [lb]

1 12 -

10 [lb]

10 -

48 [lb]

2 8 6

Rice 2450½ [lb] at 3¼ [lb]

35 14 8¾

1209 [lb] D[o]

17 12 7¾

100 [lb] D[o]

1 9 2

3759½ [lb]

54 16 6¾

Castle Soape 151 [lb] at 18 [..]

11 6 6

Bengale D[o] [..] [Cask?]

5 18 -

[..] [..] [Castle?]

[..]

17 4 6

13 [lb] Castle Soape

19 6

19 [..] Bengalle

8 -

189 [lb] Bengale

1 7 6

18 12 -

Bread 171 [lb] at 4 [d] [lb]

2 7 -

200 [lb] D[o]

3 6

120 [lb] D[o]

2 -

491 [lb]

8 8 8

8 5 [..]

Flour 856 [lb] at 3 [d] [lb]

5 3 8

17 [lb]

[..] 4 11½

460 [lb]

1 13 2

6 9 [..]

Tobacco 402 [lb]

40 4 -

6 [..]

12 -

8 [lb]

16 -

416 [lb]

41 12 -

Carryed Forwards £ 570 15 10½ 26 11½ - - - 67 - 11½ 670 -

Island of St Helena

Account of goods sold to the inhabitants and delivered for the use of the United Castle, fortifications and plantation out of the Honourable Company's stores from 25 October to 25 December 1713 following.

Batavia arrack

813½ gallons to inhabitants at 9s the gallon

£365 19s 3d

77 gallons to general charges

£34 13s 0d

31½ gallons to fortifications

£14 3s 9d

Goa arrack

4 gallons at 5s the gallon

£1 0s 0d

Sub-total

921¾ gallons Batavia and 4 gallons Goa

£420 16s 0d

Sugar

3,309 pound to inhabitants at 8d the pound

£110 6s 4d

149 pound to fortifications

£2 16s 0d

84 pound to general charges

£4 19s 8d

Sub-total

3,543 pound

£118 2s 0d

Sugar candy

65 pound at 12d the pound to inhabitants

£6 6s 0d

32 pound to general charges

£1 12s 0d

10 pound to plantation

£10 2s 8d

Sub-total

48½ pound

Rice

2,450½ pound at 3½d the pound to inhabitants

£35 14s 8½d

1,209½ pound to general charges

£17 12s 7½d

100 pound to plantation

£1 9s 2d

Sub-total

3,759½ pound

£54 16s 6d

Castile soap

15 pound at 18d the pound to inhabitants

£1 1s 6d

Bengal soap

5 pound at 8d the pound

£3 14s 6d

464 pound

[...]

13½ pound Castile soap

£0 19s 6d

17½ pound Bengal

£0 8s 0d

182½ pound Bengal

£18 12s 0d

Sub-total

£17 4s 6d

Bread

171 pound at 4d the pound to inhabitants

£2 17s 0d

200 pound to general charges

£3 6s 8d

120 pound at [...]

£8 18s 8d

Sub-total

497 pound

£8 5s 0d

Flour

356½ pound at 3½d the pound to inhabitants

£5 3s 8d

17 pound to general charges

£4 11s 2d

Sub-total

405½ pound

£6 9s 0d

Tobacco

402 pound at [...]

£40 4s 0d

6 pound

8 pound

Sub-total

416 pound

£41 12s 0d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £571 15s 11½d

Plantation £26 11s 0d

Fortifications £67 0s 0d

General charges £119 0s 0d

Total £676 0s 0d

Interpretations

The new monthly account for 25 October to 25 December 1713 covers a two-month period rather than the standard single month and stands as one of the largest periodical returns in the storekeeper's sequence. The compression of two months into a single account follows the working pattern by which Bazett combined returns to clear arrears, observed earlier in the three-month account for June to September 1713. The very heavy arrack total of 921¾ gallons of Batavia plus 4 gallons of Goa at the inhabitants column rate of 9s the gallon, with smaller institutional allocations on the general charges and fortifications columns, points to the autumn and Christmas drawing of the staple liquor stock as the working ration of the freeholder community and the Castle establishment. The £420 16s 0d sub-total places arrack at well over half the value of the whole monthly account.

Sugar at 3,309 pound to inhabitants at 8d the pound holds the standing retail rate confirmed across the storekeeper's monthly returns since 9 Dec 1712, and the further institutional allocations to fortifications and general charges represent the working table and labour rations. Sugar candy at 65 pound to inhabitants at 12d the pound, with smaller parcels on general charges and plantation, is the finer grade of sugar used as a confection and as a remedy. Rice at 2,450½ pound to inhabitants at 3½d the pound and 1,209½ pound to general charges at the higher institutional rate maintains the two-tier pricing established for the staple. The presence of 1,209½ pound to general charges is the largest single rice allocation to that column in the monthly sequence and reflects the working ration of the General Table, the soldiers' diet, and the hospital ration first identified at 491 pound on the September to October account.

Castile soap at 15 pound at 18d the pound to inhabitants and Bengal soap at 5 pound and 464 pound in graded allocations carry forward the parallel high-grade and low-grade soap supply for the freeholder community and the slave establishment. The further line of Bengal at 182½ pound at £18 12s 0d on a separate column is the bulk working soap for the plantation and the soldiers' wash. Bread at 171 pound at 4d the pound to inhabitants, with 200 pound to general charges and 120 pound on a further column, is ship's biscuit at the standing rate, supplemented by flour at 356½ pound at 3½d the pound to inhabitants and 17 pound to general charges for fresh baking on the island. The split between bread (biscuit) and flour reflects the working preference at the Castle for fresh-baked bread where possible, against the longer keeping qualities of the biscuit on the soldier ration.

Tobacco at 416 pound (402 pound on the inhabitants column, 6 pound on a smaller line and 8 pound on a third) holds at the rate of 2s the pound established across the storekeeper's monthly returns since the spring of 1713. The total of 416 pound for a two-month period running through the Christmas season is well above the routine retail volume and points to the working pattern of festive drawing across the inhabitants.

Speculations

The very heavy concentration of arrack and tobacco on the inhabitants column in this two-month account suggests that the storekeeper had reserved a substantial part of the Susanna and Madras-Bengal stocks for retail across the Christmas season, with the festive drawing visible in the 813½ gallons of Batavia arrack and the 402 pound of tobacco to inhabitants alone. The pattern is consistent with the seasonal peak visible on earlier December returns (notably the storekeeper's account for 25 November to 25 December 1710 at £294 15s 10¼d with its tobacco pipes peak at 100½ dozen against 5 dozen in the preceding month) and confirms that the freeholder community paced its drawing across the working calendar.

The bunching of two months together into a single submission at this point, with a total of £676 0s 0d already carried forward at the foot of the page before further entries follow, points to a working decision by Bazett to bring the year's accounts to a close with a single substantial return rather than two smaller ones. The choice fits the council's order at the consultation of 2 February 1714 that the remaining accounts be brought in as soon as possible so that copies might be transmitted to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping, and the compression of the two months into one submission helps Bazett meet the deadline without falling further behind.

120

113

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 570 15 11½ 26 - 11½ 67 - 11½ 670 17 10½

To Pipes 128 Doz[n] 3 4 -

8 Doz[n] 4 -

8 Doz[n] 4 -

144 Dozen 3 12 -

Oyles 14¾ Gall[ons] Rape at [..] Gall[on] 5 8 3

¾ Lineseed at 8 [..] Gall[on] 7 -

3½ Gall[ons] Lineseed 1 8 -

7 Gall[ons] Rape 2 9 -

5 15 3

9 Gall[ons] Rape 3 3 -

3 17 -

35½ [Gall]

12 15 3

Salt 4 Bushells

1 4 -

9 Bushells

2 14 -

13 Bushells

3 18 -

Stockings 22 p[r] Sorted 2 4 0

9 p[r] Thread D[o] Sorted 17 10

123 [..]

34 p[r] Mens Worsted 3 [.] Susan 17 8 6

20 16 4

20 16 4

Hatts 14 D[o] Sorted 12 3 1

1 D[o] at 20 2 - -

Sussana 7 D[o] at 18 [..] 6 7 9

3 D[o] at 8 2 8 -

6 D[o] at 6 1 17 -

3 D[o] at 4 12 -

13 4 9 25 7 10

25 7 10

24 Hatts

Shoes 19 p[r] in Sorted 5 17 11

11 Womens p[r] at Spanish [..] 3 [.] 4 [..] 2

2 p[r] Turkey [..] [..] 9 6 4 9 8

2 p[r] Mens Shoes 10 7 7½

12 - 10 19 7½

Buttons 15 Dozen at 12 [..] Doz[n] 15 -

15 Doz[n] D[o] at 19 1 3 9

30 Dozen 1 18 9

39½ Doz[n] Breastall 1 19 10

39 Doz[n] D[itt]o at 6 19 8

2 8 10 4 7 7

4 7 7

127½ Dozen

Carryed Forwards £ 647 14 7½ 32 1 11½ 72 17 11 752 14 5¾

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £577 15s 11½d

Plantation £26 11s 2½d

Fortifications £67 0s 0d

General charges £119 14s 11d

Total £670 17s 10¼d

Pipes

128 dozen to inhabitants

£3 4s 0d

8 dozen to general charges

£0 4s 0d

8 dozen to plantation

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total

144 dozen

£3 12s 0d

Oils

14¾ gallons rape oil at 7s the gallon

£5 8s 3d

¾ gallons linseed at 8s the gallon

£0 7s 0d

3 gallons linseed

£1 8s 0d

7 gallons rape

£2 9s 0d

9 gallons rape

£3 3s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£5 15s 3d

Sub-total to general charges

£3 17s 0d

Sub-total

35 gallons

£12 13s 3d

Salt

4 bushels to inhabitants

£0 5s 0d

9 bushels to general charges

£1 4s 0d

13 bushels

Sub-total to plantation

£0 14s 0d

Sub-total

£3 18s 0d

Stockings

22 pair sorted at [...]

£2 4s 0d

9½ pair ditto sorted

£0 17s 10d

Sub-total

123 pair

34½ pair Susanna's hosiery at 10s 3d the pair (to inhabitants)

£17 8s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£20 16s 4d

Hats

14 dozen sorted

£12 3s 1d

7 at 20s each

£2 0s 0d

6 at 18s each (Susanna)

£5 7s 9d

6 at 8s each

£2 8s 0d

6 at 4s 6d each

£1 17s 0d

3 at 4s each

£0 12s 0d

Sub-total

£13 4s 9d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£25 7s 10d

24 hats

Shoes

10 pair sorted

£5 17s 11d

11 women's Spanish pumps at 3s 4d each

£0 2s 4½d

2 pair Turkey pinks at 4s 9d each

£0 9s 6d

2 pair men's shoes

£4 9s 8½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£10 7s 7½d

Sub-total

£10 19s 7½d

Buttons

15 dozen grenades at 12d the dozen

£0 15s 0d

15 dozen ditto at 19d

£1 3s 9d

30 dozen

£1 18s 9d

39½ dozen breast at 9¾d

£1 9s 10d

28 dozen ditto at 6¼d

£2 8s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 7s 7d

Sub-total

127¾ dozen

£4 7s 7d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £647 14s 7½d

Plantation £32 1s 11¼d

Fortifications £72 17s 11d

General charges £752 14s 5¼d

Interpretations

The page consolidates the haberdashery and clothing draws of the two-month account, with pipes, oils, salt, stockings, hats, shoes and buttons together forming a substantial £100 in additional turnover on the inhabitants column. The 144 dozen pipes (1,728 individual clay pipes) at the rate of about 6d the dozen support the heavy 416 pound of tobacco drawn on the previous folio, and the institutional split between inhabitants (128 dozen), general charges (8 dozen) and plantation (8 dozen) confirms that the Castle table and the plantation labour gangs were supplied directly from the same cargo at the same time as the inhabitants.

Oils on the page consist of rape oil at 7s the gallon and linseed oil at 8s the gallon, supplied in mixed parcels across the columns. Rape oil is pressed from the seeds of the rape plant grown in northern Europe and is the standard burning oil for lamps and the principal lubricant for working tools on the island, while linseed oil from flax seed has the further property of drying when exposed to air, making it the working oil for paint mixing and for treating timber. The 35 gallons combined supply is a substantial allocation but in line with the working monthly consumption observed across the storekeeper's accounts.

Stockings at 22 pair sorted and 9½ pair sorted at lower rates, plus 34½ pair from Susanna's hosiery at the higher rate of 10s 3d the pair, give a combined 123 pair on the inhabitants column at over £20. The graded pricing covers the social range from the cheaper soldier and working planter stockings through to the better-grade hosiery for officers and substantial freeholders. Hats at 14 dozen sorted (168 hats) supplemented by smaller graded parcels of 7, 6, 6, 6 and 3 hats at descending rates from 20s each down to 4s each give a substantial £25 7s 10d to inhabitants. The hat is a principal article of dress for every man on the island, and the working pattern of the cargo is to supply a graded range from the best-quality 20s officer's hat down to the cheapest 4s soldier issue.

Shoes at 10 pair sorted at the higher unit rate (over 11s the pair on the sub-total), 11 women's Spanish pumps (low-cut dress shoes in the Spanish style at the affordable rate of 3s 4d each), 2 pair Turkey pinks (decorated dress shoes pinked or punched with small holes in patterns, at 4s 9d each), and 2 pair men's shoes at the higher rate, give the working footwear supply for both sexes across the freeholder community. The Spanish pumps and Turkey pinks together form the dress-shoe element distinct from the working shoe production by William Penny from Company-tanned leather under the standing arrangement of 8 Apr 1712.

Buttons in five graded lines (15 dozen grenades at 12d the dozen, 15 dozen ditto at 19d, 30 dozen across both, 39½ dozen breast at 9¾d, 28 dozen ditto at 6¼d) supply the full range of coat and breast fastenings for both new tailoring and repair work. Grenade buttons are spherical metal buttons in the shape of a small grenade, used for the cuffs and collars of officers' coats and dress wear. The 127¾ dozen total (over 1,500 individual buttons) reflects the working demand for replacement and new fittings across the inhabitant tailoring economy.

Salt at 4 bushels to inhabitants at 15d the bushel, 9 bushels to general charges at 32d the bushel and a further 13 bushels gives the working domestic, table and curing demand for the Castle, the plantation and the freeholder community. The institutional rate at the General Table runs at roughly twice the inhabitant rate, consistent with the tiered pricing established across the storekeeper's monthly accounts since 1710.

Speculations

The very large draw of 144 dozen pipes on the same monthly account as 416 pound of tobacco (the tobacco line of the previous folio) suggests that the storekeeper had matched the staple draw with its working accessory in the same December cycle. The pairing of tobacco with pipes at this scale points to a deliberate policy by which the storekeeper supplied the complete smoking kit in a single cargo cycle and absorbed the festive demand of the freeholder community across the Christmas season into a single retail event rather than across the year.

The supply of 11 women's Spanish pumps and 2 pair Turkey pinks on the same monthly account, alongside the heavier rate stockings and the better-grade hats, points to a recovery of the inhabitant dress economy following the long drought of 1712 to 1713 and the disruption of the July 1713 mutiny. The dress-shoe component of the cargo is small in absolute volume but signals that the substantial freeholders were once again willing to draw decorative items from the store, a pattern not visible in the spring and summer accounts of the same year when bulk staples had dominated the retail draws.

121

114

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 647 14 7½ 32 1 11½ 72 17 11 752 14 [..]

To Threads 6 [lb] White & Brown 2 12 -

11½ [lb] Brown ditto -

2 [lb] Collerd 19 [..] al 3 - 2 9 10

2 ounces Useing Thread at 2 4 -

20 ounces fine ditto at 4 7 6

1 [oz] D[o] 3 4

1 [oz] D[o] 2 6

1 [oz] D[o] 3 6

15 oz 1 - 10

6 2 8¼

½ [lb] Brown Thread 1 10

6 4 6

Hooks Sorted 37½ Dozen 2 2 7

52 Dozen 2 16 9

3 [..] 18½

92½ Dozen 5 1 -

Lines Sorted 14 D[o] 1 8 -

41 D[o] 2 11 9½

4 D[o] 5 8 -

59 4 5 1¼

Ribband & Ferret 2 yards [Sus[a]] 6 6

30½ Ferret 8 10½

23¾ [Galloon] 7 10

1 3 2¼

1 3 2¼

Gloves Sorted 14 p[r] 1 3 4

1 3 4

Silk & Mohair 1¾ [oz] Silk 2 19 4½

3¾ [oz] Mohair 15 -

3 14 4½

Sus[a] Silk

3 15 7

Bead Necklaces 17 Sorted 11 4

11 4

Chellows 146 p[r] at 5 [..] 36 10 -

3 p[r] Ditto 5 -

149 p[r] Sus[a] 36 15 -

Dungarees 6 p[r] at 5 [..] 1 14 -

17 p[r]

[..] p[r] ditto 5 8

8 pieces 2 6 4

Long Cloth 2 p[r] at 14 : 9 2 9 6

2 9 6

Ginghams 5 p[r] Sorted 3 7 2

3 7 2

Nealases 4 p[r] Sorted 2 17 11

2 17 11

Sannoes 20 p[r] Sorted 17 10 -

17 10 -

Cuyrrheas 6 p[r] Sorted at 12 : 6 p[r] 3 12 6

3 12 6

Carryed Forwards £ 704 1 3 33 2 8 78 12 1½ 845 16 [..]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £647 14s 7½d

Plantation £32 1s 11¼d

Fortifications £72 17s 11d

General charges £752 14s 5¼d

Threads

6 pound white at [...]

£2 12s 0d

11½ pound brown at [...]

£0 9s 10d

2 pound coloured at 3s 8d

£2 9s 10d

Sub-total

£5 11s 8d

2 ounces strong thread at [...]

£0 4s 0d

10 ounces fine ditto at 9d

£0 7s 6d

1 ditto at [...]

£0 3s 4d

1 ditto at [...]

£0 2s 6d

1 ditto at [...]

£0 3s 6d

Sub-total

£0 10s 10d

15 ounces

Sub-total to inhabitants

£6 2s 8½d

½ pound brown thread to general charges

£1 1s 0d

Sub-total

£6 4s 6d

Hooks sorted

37½ dozen

£2 2s 7d

52 dozen

£2 16s 9d

3 dozen at [...]

£0 18s 7d

Sub-total

92½ dozen

£5 1s 0d

Lines sorted

14 lines

£1 8s 0d

41 lines

£2 11s 9½d

4 lines

£0 5s 3d

Sub-total

59 lines

£4 5s 0d

Ribbon and ferritt

2 yards ribbon

£0 6s 6d

30½ yards ferritt at [...]

£0 8s 10½d

23½ yards galloon at [...]

£0 7s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 3s 2½d

Sub-total

£1 3s 2½d

Gloves

14½ pair sorted at [...]

£1 3s 4d

Sub-total

£1 3s 4d

Silk and mohair

1¾ ounces silk at [...]

£2 19s 4½d

3 ounces mohair at [...]

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total

£3 14s 4½d

To Susanna 1½ ounces silk

£0 1s 3d

Sub-total

£3 15s 7½d

Bead necklaces

17 sorted

£0 11s 4d

Sub-total

£0 11s 4d

Chelloes

146 pieces at 5s the piece

£36 10s 0d

5 pieces ditto

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total

147 pieces

£36 15s 0d

Dungarees

6 pieces at 5s 7½d the piece

£1 14s 0d

1 piece ditto

£0 5s 8d

Sub-total

8 pieces

£2 5s 4d

Long cloth

2 pieces at 14s 9d the piece

£2 9s 6d

Ginghams 5 pieces sorted

£3 7s 2d

Nealases 4 pieces sorted

£2 17s 11d

Sannoes 22 pieces sorted

£17 10s 0d

Gurras 6 pieces sorted at 12s 6d the piece

£5 12s 6d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £704 1s 3d

Plantation £33 2s 8d

Fortifications £78 12s 1½d

General charges £845 16s 7½d

Interpretations

The page closes out the sewing and Indian textile draws of the two-month account, with chelloes again the dominant single line. 146 pieces of chelloes at 5s the piece (a striped Indian cotton cloth from Bengal, used for working shirts and household linens) at £36 10s 0d is the largest single textile entry on the present account and points to a substantial cargo absorption across the freeholder community during the Christmas season. The 22 pieces of sannoes (sorted Bengal piece goods) at £17 10s 0d, the 6 pieces of gurras (coarse white cotton cloths from Bengal) at 12s 6d the piece, and the smaller parcels of long cloth, ginghams, nealases and dungarees together carry forward the Indian cotton supply established on earlier folios.

Hooks and lines on this account follow the same working pattern of the earlier folios. 92½ dozen sorted hooks (over 1,100 individual hooks) and 59 sorted lines confirm the continuing supply of fishing tackle across the autumn and Christmas period, consistent with the working operation of the licensed fishing programme settled at the 12 May 1712 council. The combined £9 6s 0d on the two lines is substantial enough to indicate that the inhabitants were still drawing tackle for working family fishing rather than for occasional pleasure.

Threads on the page combine six pound of white sewing thread, eleven and a half pound of brown thread, two pound of coloured thread, and a graded set of fifteen ounces of strong and fine sewing thread for the inhabitants, with a further half pound of brown thread to general charges. The 6 12s 8½d sub-total reflects the working sewing demand of the inhabitant tailoring economy supplied by the storekeeper rather than by private import.

Silk and mohair at one and three quarter ounces of silk at 2s 6d the ounce and three ounces of mohair at the lower rate continues the standing sewing-silk and braiding supply for the better-grade tailoring. Bead necklaces at 17 sorted to inhabitants supplement the single necklace and three bunches noted on earlier folios in the same monthly cargo absorption. Gloves at 14½ pair sorted at the rate of about 1s 7d the pair are the working hand covering for the freeholder community, distinct from the more decorative items recorded in the earlier inventory.

Ribbon, ferritt and galloon together at 2 yards of ribbon, 30½ yards of ferritt and 23½ yards of galloon hold the haberdashery cluster steady at modest values. The 14¾ pair gloves on a separate line, supplied at the rate of about 1s 7d the pair, supplement the working clothing inventory and complete the haberdashery and personal-goods absorption of the cargo.

Speculations

The very large absorption of 146 pieces of chelloes at £36 10s 0d on a single monthly account, combined with the substantial 22 pieces of sannoes and 6 pieces of gurras, points to the cargo of the Susanna having reached its mature retail phase by December 1713, with the substantial Indian cotton stocks moving into the inhabitant community across the Christmas working season. The pattern fits with the working sequence of cargo absorption observed across the storekeeper's accounts since the spring of 1713, by which the heavy textile retail tended to bunch in the autumn and winter months as freeholders restocked household linens, working shirts and slaves' clothing for the new year.

The graded combination of expensive silks at 2s 6d the ounce with cheaper mohair at the lower rate, set alongside the much heavier draw of bulk Indian cotton, suggests that the December cargo absorption was simultaneously serving two distinct tailoring economies on the island. The better grades supplied the dress sewing of the substantial freeholders and senior officers in time for the new year, while the bulk Indian cottons covered the working shirts and slaves' clothing across the wider community. The dual absorption is consistent with the working pattern by which a single arriving cargo was apportioned to multiple tiers of consumer at the same time, rather than worked through tier by tier.

122

115

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 647 14 7½ 32 1 11½ 72 17 11 752 14 [..]

To Threads 6 [lb] White & Brown 2 12 -

11½ [lb] Brown ditto -

2 [lb] Collerd 19 [..] al 3 - 2 9 10

2 ounces Useing Thread at 2 4 -

20 ounces fine ditto at 4 7 6

1 [oz] D[o] 3 4

1 [oz] D[o] 2 6

1 [oz] D[o] 3 6

15 oz 1 - 10

6 2 8¼

½ [lb] Brown Thread 1 10

6 4 6

Hooks Sorted 37½ Dozen 2 2 7

52 Dozen 2 16 9

3 [..] 18½

92½ Dozen 5 1 -

Lines Sorted 14 D[o] 1 8 -

41 D[o] 2 11 9½

4 D[o] 5 8 -

59 4 5 1¼

Ribband & Ferret 2 yards [Sus[a]] 6 6

30½ Ferret 8 10½

23¾ [Galloon] 7 10

1 3 2¼

1 3 2¼

Gloves Sorted 14 p[r] 1 3 4

1 3 4

Silk & Mohair 1¾ [oz] Silk 2 19 4½

3¾ [oz] Mohair 15 -

3 14 4½

Sus[a] Silk

3 15 7

Bead Necklaces 17 Sorted 11 4

11 4

Chellows 146 p[r] at 5 [..] 36 10 -

3 p[r] Ditto 5 -

149 p[r] Sus[a] 36 15 -

Dungarees 6 p[r] at 5 [..] 1 14 -

17 p[r]

[..] p[r] ditto 5 8

8 pieces 2 6 4

Long Cloth 2 p[r] at 14 : 9 2 9 6

2 9 6

Ginghams 5 p[r] Sorted 3 7 2

3 7 2

Nealases 4 p[r] Sorted 2 17 11

2 17 11

Sannoes 20 p[r] Sorted 17 10 -

17 10 -

Cuyrrheas 6 p[r] Sorted at 12 : 6 p[r] 3 12 6

3 12 6

Carryed Forwards £ 704 1 3 33 2 8 78 12 1½ 845 16 [..]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £647 14s 7½d

Plantation £32 1s 11¼d

General charges £72 17s 11d

Total £752 14s 5¼d

Threads

6 pound white at [...]

£2 12s 0d

11½ pound brown at [...]

£0 9s 10d

2 pound coloured at 3s 8d

£2 9s 10d

Sub-total

£5 11s 8d

2 ounces strong thread

£0 4s 0d

10 ounces fine ditto at 9d

£0 7s 6d

1 ounce at [...]

£0 3s 4d

1 ounce at [...]

£0 2s 6d

1 ounce at [...]

£0 3s 6d

Sub-total

15 ounces

£0 10s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£6 2s 8½d

½ pound brown thread to general charges

£0 1s 10d

Total

£6 4s 6d

Hooks sorted

37½ dozen to inhabitants

£2 2s 7d

52 dozen to general charges

£2 16s 9d

3 dozen at [...]

£0 1s 8½d

Sub-total

92½ dozen

Inhabitants £2 2s 7d

General charges £2 16s 9d

Total £5 1s 0d

Lines sorted

14 lines to inhabitants

£1 8s 0d

41 lines to general charges

£2 11s 9½d

4 lines

£0 5s 3d

Sub-total

59 lines

Inhabitants £1 8s 0d

General charges £2 11s 9½d

Total £4 5s 0d

Ribbon and ferritt

2 yards ribbon to inhabitants

£0 6s 6d

30½ yards ferritt at [...]

£0 8s 10½d

23½ yards galloon at [...]

£0 7s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 3s 2½d

Total £1 3s 2½d

Gloves

14½ pair sorted to inhabitants

£1 3s 4d

Total £1 3s 4d

Silk and mohair

1¾ ounces silk to inhabitants

£2 19s 4½d

3 ounces mohair

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total

£3 14s 4½d

To Susanna 1½ ounces silk to general charges

£0 1s 3d

Total £3 15s 7½d

Bead necklaces

17 sorted to inhabitants

£0 11s 4d

Total £0 11s 4d

Chelloes

146 pieces at 5s the piece to inhabitants

£36 10s 0d

5 pieces ditto to general charges

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total

147 pieces

Total £36 15s 0d

Dungarees

6 pieces at 5s 7½d the piece to inhabitants

£1 14s 0d

1 piece ditto to general charges

£0 5s 8d

Sub-total

8 pieces

Total £2 5s 4d

Long cloth

2 pieces at 14s 9d the piece to inhabitants

£2 9s 6d

Total £2 9s 6d

Ginghams

5 pieces sorted to inhabitants

£3 7s 2d

Total £3 7s 2d

Nealases

4 pieces sorted to inhabitants

£2 17s 11d

Total £2 17s 11d

Sannoes

22 pieces sorted to inhabitants

£17 10s 0d

Total £17 10s 0d

Gurras

6 pieces sorted at 12s 6d the piece to inhabitants

£5 12s 6d

Total £5 12s 6d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £704 1s 3d

Plantation £33 2s 8d

General charges £78 12s 1½d

Total £845 16s 7½d

Interpretations

The page closes out the sewing and Indian textile draws of the two-month account, with chelloes again the dominant single line. 146 pieces of chelloes at 5s the piece (a striped Indian cotton cloth from Bengal, used for working shirts and household linens) at £36 10s 0d is the largest single textile entry on the present account and points to a substantial cargo absorption across the freeholder community during the Christmas season. The 22 pieces of sannoes (sorted Bengal piece goods) at £17 10s 0d, the 6 pieces of gurras (coarse white cotton cloths from Bengal) at 12s 6d the piece, and the smaller parcels of long cloth, ginghams, nealases and dungarees together carry forward the Indian cotton supply established on earlier folios.

Hooks and lines on this account follow the same working pattern of the earlier folios. 92½ dozen sorted hooks (over 1,100 individual hooks) and 59 sorted lines confirm the continuing supply of fishing tackle across the autumn and Christmas period, consistent with the working operation of the licensed fishing programme settled at the 12 May 1712 council. The split between the smaller inhabitants allocation and the larger general charges allocation reflects the working pattern by which the garrison fishing detail and the family group programme were supplied in parallel from a single cargo.

Threads on the page combine six pound of white sewing thread, eleven and a half pound of brown thread, two pound of coloured thread, and a graded set of fifteen ounces of strong and fine sewing thread for the inhabitants, with a further half pound of brown thread to general charges. The 6 4s 6d total reflects the working sewing demand of the inhabitant tailoring economy supplied by the storekeeper rather than by private import.

Silk and mohair at one and three quarter ounces of silk at 2s 6d the ounce and three ounces of mohair at the lower rate continues the standing sewing-silk and braiding supply for the better-grade tailoring. Bead necklaces at 17 sorted to inhabitants supplement the single necklace and three bunches noted on earlier folios in the same monthly cargo absorption. Gloves at 14½ pair sorted at the rate of about 1s 7d the pair are the working hand covering for the freeholder community, distinct from the more decorative items recorded in the earlier inventory.

Speculations

The very large absorption of 146 pieces of chelloes at £36 10s 0d on a single monthly account, combined with the substantial 22 pieces of sannoes and 6 pieces of gurras, points to the cargo of the Susanna having reached its mature retail phase by December 1713, with the substantial Indian cotton stocks moving into the inhabitant community across the Christmas working season. The pattern fits with the working sequence of cargo absorption observed across the storekeeper's accounts since the spring of 1713, by which the heavy textile retail tended to bunch in the autumn and winter months as freeholders restocked household linens, working shirts and slaves' clothing for the new year.

The graded combination of expensive silks at 2s 6d the ounce with cheaper mohair at the lower rate, set alongside the much heavier draw of bulk Indian cotton, suggests that the December cargo absorption was simultaneously serving two distinct tailoring economies on the island. The better grades supplied the dress sewing of the substantial freeholders and senior officers in time for the new year, while the bulk Indian cottons covered the working shirts and slaves' clothing across the wider community.

123

116

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 819 4 9¼ 35 12 3 79 3 7½ 934 - -

Combs Sorted 11 Ivory D[o] 19 9

7 Horne D[itto] Sorted 3 6

1 Box [..]

3 Combe Brushes 2 8

1 6 5

1 6 5

Tapes & Bindings viz[t]

11 Yds Holland Val[..] 13[..] 12 4½

3 [..] 2 [..] at 10 2 6

10 [..] D[itt]o at 6 5 -

4½ [..] Collerd at 20 6 8

15 [..] 1 2 - ½

5

1 8 -

1 3 8 [..]

Silk & Thread Laces 3½ Silk D[o] 12 10

15 Thread d[itt]o 2 6

15 4

15 4

Silver Twist Buttons viz[t]

3 Dozen Coate D[o] 1 2 6

15 D[o] Breast ditto 2 14 10½

3 17 4½

3 17 4½

18 Dozen

Pins & Needles Sorted 10 M[..]l 1 8 0¾

1 Paper Blanket D[o] 2 0 6

1 8 6¾

1 8 6¾

Glass Ware viz[t]

6 Panns of 6 & 8 Inches 30 -

4 Ditt[o] 8 & 14 Inches 40 -

30 Ditt[o] 6 & 8 7 -

15 -

1 2 -

40 Pans

Tinn Ware 3 Dripping pans at 5 [..] 15 6

5 ditto at 4 : 2 1 0 10

12 D[o] at 3 : 8 2 1 4

7 Sauce Spans at 1 : 8 10 6

5 Ditto 14 5 10

9 D[o] at 10 3 -

9 D[o] at 8 3 -

41 Porringers at 7 1 8 11

31 D[o] at 4 10 4

72

3 Square Tinn King Hams at 2 18 -

9 Ditto Lesser at 1½ 13 6

9 Round Ditto at 2 14 6

10 Ditto Lefs at 1 : 9 17 6

7 Ditto Lesser at 1 : 4 9 4

30 Smaler at 10 7 6

11 1 9 11 1 9

Carryed Forwards £ 839 2 9 36 8 11 79 9 7½ 954 15 [..]

[Margin annotation lower right: Susan[a] Cargo]

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £819 4s 9¼d

Plantation £35 12s 3d

General charges £79 9s 7½d

Total £934 0s 0d

Combs sorted

11 ivory ditto to inhabitants

£0 19s 9d

7 horn ditto sorted

£0 3s 6d

1 box to inhabitants

£0 1s 0d

3 comb brushes

£0 2s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 6s 5d

Total £1 6s 5d

Tapes and bindings

11 pieces Holland tape at 13s the piece to inhabitants

£0 12s 4¼d

3½ pieces ditto at 10d

£0 2s 6d

10½ pieces ditto at [...]

£0 6s 0d

4½ pieces collared tape at 20d

£0 6s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 2s 0½d

15 pieces to general charges

£0 1s 8d

5 pieces

Total £1 3s 8½d

Silk and thread laces

3½ ounces silk to inhabitants

£0 12s 10d

15 ounces thread ditto

£0 2s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 15s 4d

Total £0 15s 4d

Silver twist buttons

3 dozen coat ditto to inhabitants

£1 2s 6d

15 dozen breast ditto at 2s 14d

£2 14s 10¾d

Sub-total

18 dozen

£3 17s 4¾d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 17s 4¾d

Total £3 17s 4¾d

Pins and needles

10 thousand pins sorted to inhabitants

£1 8s 0¾d

15 papers blanket ditto

£0 0s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 8s 6½d

Total £1 8s 6½d

Glass ware

6 panes of 6 by 8 inches to inhabitants

£0 3s 0d

4 panes ditto

£0 4s 0d

30 panes of 6 by 8 inches

£0 6s 8d

40 panes to general charges

£0 1s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 7s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 1s 2d

Total £0 15s 0d

Tin ware

3 dripping pans at 5s 2d to inhabitants

£0 15s 6d

5 ditto at 4s 2d

£1 0s 10d

12 ditto at 3s 8d

£2 4s 0d

7 saucepans at 18d

£0 10s 6d

5 ditto at 14d

£0 5s 10d

9 ditto at 10d

£0 3s 0d

41 porringers at 7d each

£1 3s 11d

31 ditto at 4d

£0 10s 4d

3 square sugar boxes at 12d

£0 18s 0d

9 ditto at [...]

£0 13s 6d

9 round ditto at [...]

£0 14s 6d

10 ditto less at 12d

£0 17s 6d

7 ditto lesser at 9d

£0 9s 4d

30 funnels at 10d

£0 7s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£11 1s 9d

Total £11 1s 9d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £839 2s 9d

Plantation £36 8s 11d

General charges £79 9s 7½d

Total £954 15s 2d

Interpretations

The page closes out the personal-toilet and household-tinware draws of the two-month account, with tin ware accounting for the largest single sub-total at £11 1s 9d to the inhabitants. The tin ware entries cover the working kitchen and table inventory of a freeholder household: dripping pans (shallow rectangular pans placed below a roasting joint to catch the fat and juices dripping from it), saucepans, porringers (small bowls used for individual servings of soup and porridge), square and round sugar boxes (small lidded containers for storing sugar at the table) and funnels for decanting liquids. The graded pricing across each category (3s 8d to 5s 2d for dripping pans, 10d to 18d for saucepans, 4d to 7d for porringers) covers the working range from cheap soldier issue to the better-grade household pieces for substantial freeholders. The substantial absolute volume on the line (over a hundred individual items across all categories) points to a working domestic restocking across the inhabitant community during the Christmas period.

Combs sorted on the page repeat the working personal-toilet inventory of earlier folios, with eleven ivory combs at 1s 7d each, seven horn combs at 6d each, a single comb box and three comb brushes together at £1 6s 5d. The ivory combs at the higher unit rate of about 1s 7d each are the dress comb of the better-grade household; the horn combs at 6d each are the cheaper working comb of the broader community.

Tapes and bindings at eleven pieces of Holland tape at 13s the piece, three and a half pieces ditto at 10d, ten and a half pieces ditto and four and a half pieces of collared tape at 20d supply the working bindings for sewing, edging linen and trimming. Holland tape is bleached linen tape from Haarlem; collared tape is a coarser unbleached cotton tape from the Indian trade. Silk and thread laces at three and a half ounces of silk and fifteen ounces of thread ditto are working lacing for stays, bodices and shoes.

Silver twist buttons at three dozen coat ditto and fifteen dozen breast ditto at 2s 1¼d the dozen are the dress buttons (with silver-wound thread wrapping a cloth core) for officers' coats and the better-grade waistcoats and shirts of substantial freeholders. The 18 dozen total at £3 17s 4¾d is a substantial single line of dress haberdashery, well above the working pewter and metal button retail.

Pins and needles at ten thousand pins sorted and fifteen papers of blanket pins (large pins for fastening blankets and infant wrappings) at £1 8s 6½d to inhabitants supply the working sewing supply. Glass ware at six panes of 6 by 8 inches and forty panes of 6 by 8 inches gives the working window glass for the inhabitant houses and the Castle, supplied as small individual panes for the leaded casements of the period.

Speculations

The very heavy concentration of tin ware on the inhabitants column at £11 1s 9d in a single monthly account suggests that the retail draw on the Susanna cargo was now reaching the working kitchen and table goods after the heavier textile draws of the earlier folios. The pattern is consistent with the working sequence by which freeholders restocked their household equipment from each arriving cargo, with the tin ware moving towards the end of the cargo cycle as the substantial bulk staples thinned out. The very fine gradation of dripping pans, saucepans and sugar boxes by size and weight, each in three or four grades, points to a deliberate cargo composition in which the London merchants supplied the full range of household equipment in matched sets rather than as a single grade.

The substantial silver twist button line at £3 17s 4¾d on the same monthly account as the Spanish pumps, Turkey pinks and better-grade hats of the earlier folio supports the reading that the substantial freeholders and senior officers were drawing dress materials for the new year. The pairing of dress buttons with dress shoes and the better-grade hats across the same two-month account fits with the working calendar of the freeholder community, by which formal dress would be restocked once the new year accounts had been opened and the working drought of the previous year had been left behind.

124

117

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[era]ll Charges Totall

Brought Fowards

£ 839 2 9 36 8 11 79 3 7½ 954 15 2¼

To 2 Water Potts at 6 : 6 Each 13 -

1 Ditto at 4 -

2 Kettles at 3 : 9 7 6

2 ditto at 2 : 1 4 2

2 Ditto at 2 4 -

2 D[o] at 1 2 -

1 18 6 1 18 6

1 Lanthorne 3 10

2 Watering Potts at 7 : 6 15 -

2 Saucepans 2 4

1 D[o] G[en]l Charges [..] 6

2 Dripping panns G[en]l Charges 10 4

3 Lanthorns 11 6

2 8

1 Dripping pan 5 2

1 D[o] 4 2

1 Sauce piece 1 2

1 Watering Pott 7 -

18 7

1 Tinn Cillinder 2 6

2 Tin Basters 9

1 1 3 - 4 4 5 - 5

Pewterers Ware viz[t]

2½ Doz[n] Spoons Sorted 9 3½

1 Bedd pann 12 8

1 Pint Pott 3 6

1 Half Ditto 2 4

1 Quart one 1 2

1 Half D[o] 11 -

7 8

1 9 7½

1 Bint Pott [..] 9 6

12 Spoons 3 3

6 9

1 Patti[..] Pott 15 9

12 Soup plates 10 6

12 D[o] Larger 11 -

5 Dishes of 6 [lb] 9 9

1 Close stoole pan 5 10

3 7 10 5 4 2½

Turnary Ware viz[t]

12 Wooden Porringers 8 6

2 D[o] 1 6

3 Haveing Dishes 11 1

7 Platters 1 7

1 - 7 1 7

[Margin lower left: Susanna Cargo]

Carryed Fowards £ 943 11 5½ 40 18 - - - 81 11 - ½ 966 - 6

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £839 2s 9d

Plantation £36 8s 11d

General charges £79 9s 7½d

Total £954 15s 2¼d

Water pots

2 at 6s 6d each to inhabitants

£0 13s 0d

1 ditto at [...]

£0 4s 0d

2 kettles at 3s 9d to inhabitants

£0 7s 6d

2 ditto at [...]

£0 4s 0d

2 at [...]

£0 4s 0d

2 ditto at 1s to inhabitants

£0 2s 0d

1 lanthorn

£0 3s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 18s 6d

2 watering pots at 7s 6d to general charges

£0 15s 0d

2 saucepans at [...]

£0 2s 4d

1 ditto to general charges

£0 1s 6d

2 dripping pans to general charges

£0 10s 4d

3 lanthorns to general charges

£0 11s 6d

Sub-total to general charges

£2 0s 8d

1 dripping pan to inhabitants

£0 5s 2d

1 ditto

£0 4s 2d

1 saucepan to inhabitants

£0 1s 2d

1 watering pot

£0 7s 0d

Sub-total

£0 18s 6d

1 tin cullender to inhabitants

£0 2s 6d

2 tin basters

£0 0s 9d

Sub-total

£1 13s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 0s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£1 5s 5d

Total £5 5s 5d

Pewterers ware

2½ dozen spoons sorted to inhabitants

£0 9s 3½d

1 bed pan

£0 12s 8d

1 pint pot

£0 3s 6d

1 half ditto

£0 2s 2d

1 quart ditto

£0 1s 2d

1 half ditto

£0 1s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 7s 8d

Sub-total

£1 9s 7½d

1 dish pot to general charges

£0 3s 6d

12 spoons

£0 3s 3d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 6s 9d

1 patty pot to inhabitants

£0 15s 6d

12 small plates

£0 10s 6d

12 ditto larger

£0 11s 0d

12 dishes of 6½ pound at [...]

£0 9s 9d

1 close stool pan

£0 5s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 7s 10d

Sub-total

£5 4s 2¼d

Turnery ware

12 wooden porringers to inhabitants

£0 8s 6d

1 ditto

£0 1s 6d

3 straining dishes to inhabitants

£0 11s 1d

7 platters

£0 10s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 1s 7d

Total £1 1s 7d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £843 11s 5½d

Plantation £40 18s 0d

General charges £81 11s [...]d

Total £966 0s 6d

Interpretations

The page brings the storekeeper's account through to a further series of household kitchen and table goods, with three new commodity groups appearing in sequence: a mixed group of tin water pots, kettles and lanterns, pewterers ware, and turnery ware.

The water pots, kettles and lanterns line continues the working domestic supply observed across the earlier folios. Water pots at 6s 6d each are small tin or earthenware jugs used for pouring water at the table and washing, distinct from the larger watering pots at 7s 6d each (used for watering plants and garden beds in the working agricultural economy of the inhabitant households). Kettles at 3s 9d each are the boiling vessels for tea and household water. The 2 lanterns at 3s 10d each and the 3 lanterns on the general charges column at the same rate carry the routine lighting supply for the inhabitants and the Castle establishment. A tin cullender (a perforated tin dish used for draining boiled vegetables and washing salad) and two tin basters (small ladles with a long handle, used to baste roasting meat with the dripping caught in the pan beneath) supplement the dripping pans of the earlier folio and complete the working tin batterie de cuisine of the freeholder household.

Pewterers ware on the page covers the working pewter table service of the inhabitant community. Pewter is an alloy of tin with small amounts of antimony, copper or lead, and was the standard table metal of the early-eighteenth-century English household, supplied here in graded forms. 2½ dozen spoons sorted at the rate of about 4d each, a bed pan (a shallow pewter pan used by the bedridden), a pint pot and a half pot, a quart pot and a half quart pot (the standard pewter drinking vessels at graded sizes), and a patty pot (a small pewter pot for serving meat patties) cover the personal-service items. Twelve small plates, twelve larger plates and twelve dishes of 6½ pound (the dishes calculated by weight at the standard pewter rate of about 1s 6d the pound) round out the dinner service. A close stool pan (the pewter pan fitted within a close stool, a boxed seat used as a chamber commode by persons of substance) at 5s 6d to inhabitants completes the inventory.

Turnery ware (turned wooden table goods made on a foot-powered lathe) at twelve wooden porringers, three straining dishes and seven platters carries the cheap working table service for the inhabitants and the General Table. The wooden porringers at 8½d each are markedly cheaper than the pewter porringers of the preceding folio at 7d and the tin porringers of the same account; the gradation across material reflects the working hierarchy of household service from wood through tin and pewter to the silver of the most substantial freeholders.

Speculations

The triple appearance of porringers across the same two-month account (in tin at 7d each on the earlier folio, in pewter at the standing rate on this folio, and in wood at 8½d each on the turnery ware line) suggests that the cargo was deliberately composed to supply the porringer (the principal individual serving bowl in the early-eighteenth-century English household) across the full social range of the inhabitant community at the same time. The pattern fits the working economy of the island, where each household needed a porringer for each person at table, but the substantial freeholder would expect a pewter porringer while the cheaper household would make do with the wooden or tin equivalent. The London merchants supplying the Honourable Company seem to have understood the graded demand and composed the cargo accordingly.

The presence of a single close stool pan at 5s 6d on the inhabitants column, alone among the personal-service items on the page, points to a specific private order rather than to general retail. The close stool was an item of substantial private comfort, found principally in the houses of the better freeholders and senior officers; the appearance of a single pan in the storekeeper's account suggests it was drawn by a named purchaser against an earlier petition. The pattern fits with the working practice already visible on earlier folios in which Susanna's cargo carried items identified to a named household, with the storekeeper recording the named drawer in the line entry.

125

118

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 943 11 5½ 40 18 - - - 81 11 - 966 - 6

Two Wooden Bowles 2 4

1 Tray 2 3

2 Shovels 4 -

8 7

12 Shovels 10 4

2 Wooden Bowles 2 4

3 Platters 4 9

2 Dishes Susanna 7 8

5 9 1 12 1

3 Wooden Bowles 3 6

2 Trays 4 6

8 - 2 8 8

Tea 69 [lb] at 15 [lb]

51 15 -

51 15 -

Brasiers Ware

1 Snuffer 1 -

1 Ladle 2 6

2 Lamps 7 10

11 4

2 Copper Saucepans 9 5 [lb] at 9 [..] 9 [d] 1 - 7½

1 Brass Ladle 2 6

1 Brass Lamp 2 11

17 - 1 8 4½

1 Brass Kettle of 28 [lb] at 2 [..] 4 [..] [lb] 3 5 11

1 Brass Kettle Frame 9 10

2 Copper Sauce pans 9 - 18 [..] 2 15 -

6 - 9 6 - 9

Sweet Powder 1 [lb] 17 - 17 -

Bodice 1 Pair 10 4 10 4

Cruells [..] 8 -

Blanketts 2 p[r] at 1 2 6 2 5 -

10 [lb] Val[..] 15 6 1 3 3

3 8 3 3 8 3

Rammalls 2 2 6 2 6

Soldiers Cloathes 1 Suite 1 18 3 1 18 3

Stationary Ware viz[t]

6 Hornbooks 2 -

5 Primmers 2 6

15 Quire Paper Sorted 1 2 6

4 Testaments 1 2 6

2 9 6 2 9 6

Carryed Forwards £ 904 17 5½ 47 6 9 84 10 9½ 1036 14 11

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £843 11s 5½d

Plantation £40 18s 0d

General charges £81 11s 0d

Total £966 0s 6d

2 wooden bowls

£0 2s 4d

1 tray

£0 2s 3d

2 shovels

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 8s 7d

12 shovels

£0 14s 0d

2 wooden bowls

£0 2s 4d

2 platters

£0 4s 9d

2 dishes (Susanna's cargo)

£0 7s 0d

Sub-total

£0 5s 9d

Sub-total to general charges

£1 12s 1d

3 wooden bowls to general charges

£0 3s 6d

2 trays

£0 4s 6d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 8s 0d

Total £2 8s 8d

Tea

69 pound at 15s the pound to inhabitants

£51 15s 0d

Total £51 15s 0d

Braziers ware

1 snuffer

£0 1s 0d

1 ladle

£0 2s 6d

2 lamps

£0 7s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 1s 4d

2 copper sauce pans of 5 pound at 9d the pound to inhabitants

£1 0s 7½d

1 brass ladle

£0 2s 6d

1 brass lamp

£0 3s 11d

Sub-total

£0 17s 5d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 4s 4½d

1 brass kettle of 28 pound at 2s 4d the pound to inhabitants

£3 5s 11d

1 brass kettle frame

£0 9s 10d

1 copper sauce pan of 9 pound at [...]

£0 2s 5d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 6s 9d

Total £1 9s 4½d

Sweet powder 7 pound

£0 17s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 17s 0d

Total £0 17s 0d

Bodice 1 pair to inhabitants

£0 10s 4d

Total £0 10s 4d

Cradle 1 to general charges

£0 8s 0d

Total £0 8s 0d

Blankets

2 pieces at 1s 2d each to inhabitants

£0 2s 5d

15 yards at [...]

£1 0s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 8s 3d

Total £3 8s 3d

Rammals 2 to inhabitants

£0 2s 6d

Total £0 2s 6d

Soldiers clothes 1 suit to inhabitants

£1 18s 3d

Total £1 18s 3d

Stationary ware

6 horn books

£0 2s 6d

3 primers

£0 2s 6d

17 quires paper sorted

£1 2s 6d

4 testaments

£1 2s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 9s 6d

Total £2 9s 6d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £904 17s 5½d

Plantation £47 6s 9d

General charges £84 10s 9¼d

Total £1,036 14s 11d

Interpretations

The page closes out the final retail group of the two-month account, with tea as the single largest line at £51 15s 0d to inhabitants. The 69 pound of tea at 15s the pound is the working grade carried at the standing rate confirmed across the storekeeper's accounts since the spring of 1713, and supplements the smaller line of 4 pound at the same rate on the 25 September to 25 October account. Tea at this scale on the inhabitants column represents a substantial absorption across the freeholder community during the Christmas season, with each freeholder family probably drawing one or two pounds for daily and ceremonial use.

The wooden bowls, trays and shovels at the head of the page complete the turnery ware draws of the earlier folio, with parallel allocations on the general charges column for the General Table establishment. The 12 wooden shovels at the rate of about 1s 2d each are working tools for moving grain, lime and small bulk materials within the storehouse and on the plantation, distinct from the iron shovel at 2s on the earlier ironmongers ware line.

Braziers ware on the present folio extends the brass and copper kitchen inventory of the earlier folios. A brass kettle of 28 pound at 2s 4d the pound (£3 5s 11d) is the principal new item, supplied with a brass kettle frame at 9s 10d on the same line. Brass and copper kitchen vessels are substantial capital items for the freeholder household, and the inclusion of a brass kettle frame alongside the kettle itself (the frame being a stand or trivet to support the kettle over the fire or charcoal) shows that the storekeeper supplied complete sets ready for service rather than only the principal vessel. Two copper sauce pans of 5 pound at 9d the pound, and a further single sauce pan of 9 pound, with brass ladles, brass lamps and snuffers, supplement the brass kettle as the working kitchen inventory of a single substantial household.

Stationary ware at 6 horn books, 3 primers, 17 quires of sorted paper and 4 testaments at £2 9s 6d to inhabitants supplies the working religious and educational inventory across the freeholder community. The quire (24 sheets of paper) at the rate of about 16d each is a small working stock for personal correspondence and household records, distinct from the bulk ream and folio paper of the office consignment on the earlier folio. The pairing of testaments and horn books at the same rates as on earlier folios confirms a settled retail demand for elementary religious instruction across the inhabitants.

Sweet powder at 7 pound at the rate of about 2s 5d the pound (£0 17s 0d on the general charges column) is perfumed talcum powder used for hair and clothes, supplied here for the Castle table. A cradle at 8s on the general charges column is an infant's rocker, perhaps for a child at the Castle establishment or for the hospital line. The single pair of bodice (a stiffened bodice of the same kind as the pair noted on an earlier folio at 11s 6d) at 10s 4d to inhabitants completes the personal clothing line. The 1 suit of soldiers clothes at £1 18s 3d to inhabitants reflects the working garrison uniform sold at the standing rate for a complete soldier's outfit.

Speculations

The very substantial tea draw of 69 pound at 15s the pound on a single monthly account, set against the 4 pound on the previous month's account at the same rate, suggests that the freeholder community had reserved its principal tea drawing for the Christmas and New Year season. The pattern is consistent with the working calendar of the inhabitant economy, in which the principal social gatherings and visits would fall during the working break of late December and early January and would require a substantial domestic supply of the beverage. The £51 15s 0d is one of the larger single retail lines on any storekeeper's account in the present sequence and points to a working culture of tea-drinking now firmly established across the substantial freeholder houses of the island.

The pairing of a brass kettle of 28 pound with its supporting brass kettle frame, both supplied as a single working set rather than as separate items, suggests that the cargo was composed in London to deliver matched kitchen sets to the principal freeholder households of the island. The pattern fits with the silver twist buttons, dress shoes, better-grade hats and tea drawing of the present two-month account, all pointing to a deliberate restocking of the substantial freeholder houses at the close of the year. The London merchants seem to have understood the working domestic economy of the St Helena establishment well enough to compose cargoes that delivered both the staple bulk and the matched dress and kitchen sets simultaneously, allowing the council and the storekeeper to satisfy the inhabitant community across all social ranks from a single arriving ship.

126

119

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 904 17 5½ 47 6 9 84 10 2 1036 14 4½

Gartherings 15 Yards 2 6 2 6

Flannel & Bunting 4 Yards Bunting 6 8 6 8

Pepper 1 [lb] 1 -

2 [lb] 2 -

3 [lb] 3 -

Bird Shott 6 [lb] 3 -

4 [lb] 2 -

25 [lb] 1 12 6 17 6

Paint & Indigo 16 [lb] White Lead 8 -

1 oz Indigo 8

8 8

6 [lb] White Lead 1 10

30 [lb] Red D[o] 15 -

2 5 - 2 13 8

Cutlary Ware 17 Knives & Forks 13 10½

7 Pair Buckles 8 8

6 p[r] Syzars Sorted 1 2

4 Pair French Syzars 1 3 8½

1 6 p[r] Ditto 7 -

2 Razors Susanna 8 -

500 Needles at 19 8 9

2 8 11½

200 Ditto Susanna 3 2 2 12 1½

Corks 1¼ [lb] at 9 10 1½

1 Dozen Ditto 2

10 3½ 10 3½

Lead 4 Barrs of [..] [lb] at [..] [..] Susanna 1 2 3 1 2 3

Saile Needles 6 - 6 -

Hessings 35 Yards at 1 : 2 2 10 - 2 10 -

Pease 1 Cask of 7¼ Bushell Susanna 3 7 6 3 7 6

Tallow 1 Cask [Wt] [..] [..] at [..] [..] 3 1 11½ 3 1 11½

Nailes 20 at 7 5 2

10 - 10 at 7½ 6 2

14 - 6 at 10½ 10 6

8 - 4 at 10½ 7 -

1 - 3 at 9

1¼ Tacks 8

1 10 7 1 10 7

Carryed Forwards £ 911 2 4 51 4 4½ 92 8 - 1054 14 9

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £904 17s 5½d

Plantation £47 6s 9d

General charges £84 10s 9¼d

Total £1,036 14s 4½d

Garterings 15 yards to inhabitants

£0 2s 6d

Total £0 2s 6d

Flannel and bunting

4 yards bunting

£0 6s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 6s 8d

Total £0 6s 8d

Pepper

1 pound to inhabitants

£0 1s 0d

2 pound to general charges

£0 2s 0d

3 pound

Sub-total

Total £0 3s 0d

Bird shot

6 pound to inhabitants

£0 3s 0d

4 pound to general charges

£0 2s 0d

25 pound

Sub-total

Total £0 5s 0d

Paints and indigo

16 pound white lead

£0 8s 0d

1 ounce indigo

£0 0s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 8s 8d

60 pound white lead to general charges

£1 12s 6d

30 pound red lead

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£2 5s 0d

Total £2 13s 8d

Cutlery ware

17 knives and forks

£0 13s 10½d

7 pair buckles

£0 8s 0d

6 pair scissors sorted

£0 1s 8d

4 pair French scissors

£1 3s 8½d

6½ ditto (Susanna)

£0 7s 0¼d

2 razors (Susanna)

£0 8s 0d

500 needles at 9d

£0 8s 9d

200 ditto (Susanna)

£0 3s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 8s 4½d

Sub-total

£0 12s 7d

Sub-total to general charges

£3 2s 0d

Total £2 12s 7d

Corks

1½ at the rate of [...]

£0 10s 1½d

1 dozen ditto

£0 0s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 13s 8½d

Total £0 13s 8½d

Lead

4 bars of 90 pound at 9d (Susanna)

£1 2s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 2s 3d

Total £1 2s 3d

Sail needles to general charges

£0 0s 6d

Total £0 0s 6d

Hessings

35 yards at 1s 2d to general charges

£2 10s 2d

Total £2 10s 2d

Peas

1 cask of 7½ bushels (Susanna) to general charges

£3 7s 6d

Total £3 7s 6d

Tallow

1 cask 1 hundredweight 0 quarters 8 pound at 77s the hundredweight to general charges

£3 11s 5d

Total £3 11s 5d

Nails

20 pound at 7½d

£0 5s 2d

10 pound 10-penny at 7½d

£0 6s 2d

14 pound 6-penny at [...]

£0 10s 6d

8 pound 4-penny at [...]

£0 7s 0d

1 pound 3-penny at [...]

£0 1s 0d

2 pound tacks

£0 1s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 10s 7d

Total £1 10s 7d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £911 2s 4d

Plantation £51 4s 4½d

General charges £92 8s 7d

Total £1,054 14s 9½d

Interpretations

The page brings the storekeeper's two-month account through to its closing sequence of small commodity lines, with no single substantial entry on the page comparable to the tea, chelloes or arrack draws of earlier folios. The lines on the page run consistently below £4 in value and cover the working hardware, paint, hessian and provisioning tail of the Susanna cargo. Tallow at 1 hundredweight 8 pound at 77s the hundredweight (£3 11s 5d on the general charges column) is rendered beef or mutton fat used both for making candles and for greasing leather and rope work; the supply to the General Table establishment fits with the working pattern by which the Castle made its own candles from imported tallow rather than relying solely on imported wax candles.

Paints and indigo on the page continues the pigment supply of the earlier folios, with 16 pound of white lead and 1 ounce of indigo to inhabitants, and 60 pound of white lead and 30 pound of red lead to general charges. The larger bulk allocation on the general charges column at £2 5s 0d supplies the working paint mixing for the Castle and the fortifications, distinct from the smaller retail line for the freeholder community. White lead is the basic carbonate of lead used as the primary white pigment in oil paint, while red lead is the oxide used both as a coloured pigment and as a corrosion inhibitor on iron and timber.

Cutlery ware at 17 knives and forks, 7 pair buckles, 6 pair scissors sorted, 4 pair French scissors (the finer-grade scissors of the period, with curved blades, used for trimming hair and decorative cutting work), 6½ pair ditto from Susanna, 2 razors, 500 needles at 9d and 200 ditto from Susanna together carry the closing working hardware retail at the rates established on earlier folios. The presence of French scissors alongside the standard sorted scissors confirms the working pattern by which the cargo supplied both a common and a higher-grade form of each working tool.

Peas in 1 cask of 7½ bushels (Susanna) at £3 7s 6d on the general charges column are dried split peas for boiling into pottage as part of the working ration at the General Table and on the boats, supplementing the smaller sack of 10 bushels at £4 16s 8d noted on an earlier folio of the same cargo. Hessings at 35 yards at 1s 2d the yard to general charges is the coarse jute or hemp working cloth for grain sacks and rough working covers, picking up the sacking and hessian line of the earlier folios. The sail needles to general charges at £0 0s 6d are the heavy triangular-pointed needles used by sailmakers and rope workers for stitching canvas and heavy cordage.

The nails sub-total at £1 10s 7d to inhabitants covers the closing range of small construction nails (20 pound at 7½d the pound, 10 pound of 10-penny nails, 14 pound of 6-penny, 8 pound of 4-penny, 1 pound of 3-penny, and 2 pound of tacks) for working repair and small joinery across the inhabitant community. The graded penny weights reflect the established English builder's measure by which nails were sold by the weight that 100 nails of a given size carried, and supply the inhabitant household with the working repair stock distinct from the larger fortifications supply on earlier folios. Garterings at 15 yards, flannel and bunting at 4 yards, pepper at 3 pound, bird shot at 25 pound and corks all together close out the small finished goods line of the cargo.

Speculations

The very large number of small commodity lines on this single page, each running at low absolute values, suggests that Bazett was deliberately compressing the closing tail of the cargo into a single concentrated entry to bring the two-month account to its final sub-total at £1,054 14s 9½d. The pattern is consistent with the order at the consultation of 2 February 1714 that the remaining accounts be brought in as soon as possible so that copies might be transmitted to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping, and the storekeeper's pace through the smaller items signals the closing stage of the working drafting before the transmission to London.

The presence of tallow and peas as the principal general charges items on the page, alongside the white lead and red lead for paint, points to a working programme by which the Castle and the General Table establishment were finishing the year by stocking up on the bulk provisions and paint materials that had been short during the drought aftermath. The cask of 7½ bushels of peas would last the General Table several weeks at the working ration, and the tallow at 1 hundredweight 8 pound would support both candle-making and rope and leather work into the new year. The pairing fits with the established pattern by which the storekeeper's institutional draws moved towards bulk provisioning as the working year closed.

127

120

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 911 2 4½ 51 4 4½ 92 8 - 1054 14 9

To 1 Grind Stone 5 6

1 Axeltree & winch 4 -

9 6

20 [lb] Ironmongers Ware Sorted 17 1

64 [lb] Bellows 3 -

2 9 7

[..] [lb]

20 - 20 Nailes at 7 11 8

6 - 10 ditto 7½ 3 9

4 - 6 9 3 -

6 - 2 11 5 6

20 - 4 10½ 17 6

3½ Tacks at 20 5 10

4 Batten Brads at 14 4 8

8 Flowring Brads at 9 6 -

2 17 11

6 [lb] Ironmongers Ware Sorted 8 -

1 Bundle Rod Iron W[t] 84 [lb] at 3 1 1 -

4 7 5

[..] [lb]

3 - 20 Nailes at 7 2 11

31 - 10 D[o] 4 17 5

1½ - 12 - 11 1 4½

[..] - 9 - 20

3 Singla[..] 20

1 12 3

45 [lb] Ironmongers Ware Sorted 2 19 7

1 Whetstone 2 6

5 13 9 12 10 9

Ironmongers Ware Susannas Cargo

1 Main Jack 1 10½

1 Winching D[o] 2 6

3 Plain Irons 2 2

3 Hammers N[o] 4 2 4

2 Heading Chizells 1 10

1 Box Iron & 4 Heaters 1 0 6

1 D[itt]o 8 2 D[itt]o 7 9

1 D[o] 8 2 D[o] 5 5

2 7 5

1 Hammer N[o] A 1 -

1 d[itt]o 2 4

1 d[itt]o 1 -

1 d[itt]o 1 6

1 Long Plain 3 -

1 Plain Iron 1 4½

1 Whetstone 1 3

12 2 2 12 2 ½

Carryed Forwards £ 915 19 4 56 18 1½ 97 7 7½ 1070 5 - ½

Continuation of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £911 2s 4½d

Plantation £51 4s 4½d

General charges £92 8s 7d

Total £1,054 14s 9½d

1 grindstone

£0 5s 6d

1 axletree and winch

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total

£0 9s 6d

20 pound ironmongers ware sorted

£0 17s 1d

1 pair bellows

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 9s 7d

20 pound 20-penny nails at 7d

£0 11s 8d

6 pound 10-penny ditto at 7½d

£0 3s 9d

4 pound 6-penny at 9d

£0 3s 0d

6 pound 2-penny at 11d

£0 5s 6d

20 pound 4-penny at 10½d

£0 17s 6d

3½ pound tacks at 20d

£0 5s 10d

4 pound button brads at 14d

£0 4s 8d

8 pound flooring brads at 9d

£0 6s 0d

Sub-total

£2 17s 11d

6 pound ironmongers ware sorted

£0 8s 0d

1 bundle rod iron of 84 pound at 3d

£1 1s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£4 7s 5d

3 pound 20-penny nails at 7d

£0 2s 11d

31 pound 10-penny ditto at 7½d

£1 7s 0¼d

13½ pound 12-penny at 11d

£1 0s 4½d

5 pound supply

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total

£1 12s 3d

45 pound ironmongers ware sorted

£3 19s 0d

1 whetstone

£0 2s 6d

Sub-total

£5 13s 9d

Total £12 10s 9d

Ironmongers ware (Susanna's cargo)

1 jack plain

£0 1s 10¼d

1 smoothing ditto

£0 2s 6d

3 plain irons

£0 2s 2d

3 hammers number 4

£0 2s 4d

2 heading chissells

£0 1s 0d

2 box irons and 4 heaters

£1 0s 6d

1 ditto and 2 ditto

£0 7s 0d

1 ditto and 2 ditto

£0 5s 5d

Sub-total

£2 7s 5d

1 hammer number 4

£0 1s 0d

1 ditto

£0 2s 4d

1 ditto

£0 1s 6d

1 ditto

£0 1s 6d

1 long plain

£0 3s 9d

1 plain iron

£0 14s 8¼d

1 whetstone

£0 1s 3d

Sub-total to general charges

£1 2s 9d

Total £12 10s 9¾d

Carried forwards

Inhabitants £915 19s 4d

Plantation £56 18s 1½d

General charges £97 7s 7½d

Total £1,070 5s 1d

Interpretations

The page brings the storekeeper's two-month account through to its closing hardware lines, with the heavy ironmongers ware lines split between the inhabitants column and the general charges column, and a further set of finer carpenter's tools drawn directly from Susanna's cargo on the general charges line.

The grindstone (a circular stone wheel turned on an axle for sharpening blades and tools) at 5s 6d is the working sharpening equipment for the smith's shop and the carpenter's bench. The axletree and winch at 4s is the working mechanism for turning the grindstone or for hoisting on the long boat or at the storehouse, and supplements the earlier substantial windup jack of £7 14s 4d on the construction line. The pair of bellows at 3s is the smaller form of the bellows for domestic fires, distinct from the larger smith's bellows at £5 9s 2d noted on the earlier construction line.

Nails on the page run across the full graded range of the English builder's measure: 20-penny, 10-penny, 6-penny, 4-penny, 3-penny and 2-penny nails, with tacks at 20d the pound, button brads (small slender nails for fixing button or tack heads) at 14d the pound and flooring brads (the heavier slender nails for fixing floorboards) at 9d the pound. The graded supply across so many sizes points to a working repair and joinery stock for the inhabitant community at the same time as the larger fortifications draws on earlier folios. The bundle of rod iron at 84 pound at 3d the pound on the general charges column is the working bar iron for the smith's shop, identical in form to the bundle noted on an earlier folio at the same rate.

The further ironmongers ware lines drawn directly from Susanna's cargo at the foot of the page continue the carpenter's tool supply of the earlier folios. A jack plain (a medium-length bench plane for first dressing of rough timber), a smoothing plain (the shorter plane used as the final smoother), three plain irons (the cutting blades fitted into the plane stocks), three hammers number 4 and two heading chissells (chisels for cutting the heads of pegs and nails flush with the surrounding timber), together with three sets of box irons with their heaters (the hollow flat irons for pressing linens, fitted with iron heaters slipped inside) supply the working tools of the carpenter's bench and the laundry room. The heavy 14s 8¼d entry on the line is a plain iron of unusual weight, the working blade for a larger jointing plane or for a heavy framing plane on the same construction programme as the marked timber and dram deals of the earlier folios.

Tacks, button brads and flooring brads together on the inhabitants column at modest values reflect the working repair stock supplied to the freeholder community across the autumn and Christmas period. The whetstones at 2s 6d and 1s 3d are the smaller hand-held sharpening stones for working blades, distinct from the larger grindstone of the head of the page.

Speculations

The very large number of nail and brad lines on the inhabitants column, in graded penny weights from 2-penny through 20-penny and including specialist forms such as button brads and flooring brads, suggests that the inhabitants were carrying out substantial repair and small construction work on their own houses during the working break of the Christmas period. The pattern is consistent with the rebuilding and fencing programme that had been in train across 1713, with the deadline for fencing under the recent fencing law set at 25 Mar 1712, the Toddington letter deadline of 25 Mar 1713 (the fencing proclamation of 30 Oct 1711), and the further extensions granted to substantial freeholders such as Beale, Cleave, Coles and Southen across late 1712 and 1713. The retail draw of the nail range across the inhabitants column points to working private construction that picked up alongside the larger Company programme.

The presence of three sets of box irons with their heaters on the same monthly account, all drawn from Susanna's cargo and split between the general charges column and the inhabitants column, suggests that the cargo was supplying the laundry equipment for several Castle and substantial freeholder households simultaneously. The box iron was a specialist domestic tool, used in households where linen needed to be smoothed for dress and table use, and the multiple sets point to a working domestic economy in which laundry was an established household task across both the Castle and the substantial freeholder houses. The London merchants seem to have understood the working domestic demand at this scale and composed the cargo accordingly.

128

121

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Generall Charges Totall

Brought Forwards

£ 915 19 4 56 18 1½ 97 7 7½ 1070 5 1[..]

To 1 Hammer N[o] C 1 6 1 6

£ 915 19 4 56 19 7½ 97 7 7½ 1070 7 ½

To the Inhabitants 915 19 4

To Plantation 56 19 7½

To Generall Charges 97 7 7½

Totall Sum 1070 6 7½

Closing of the storekeeper's account for 25 October to 25 December 1713.

Brought forwards

Inhabitants £915 19s 4d

Plantation £56 18s 1½d

General charges £97 7s 7½d

Total £1,070 5s 1d

1 hammer number 6 to plantation

£0 1s 6d

Sub-total

Inhabitants £915 19s 4d

Plantation £56 19s 7½d

General charges £97 7s 7½d

Total £1,070 6s 7½d

To the inhabitants

£915 19s 4d

To plantation

£56 19s 7½d

To general charges

£97 7s 7½d

Total sum

£1,070 6s 7½d

Interpretations

The closing summary of the two-month storekeeper's account places the inhabitants column at £915 19s 4d, the plantation at £56 19s 7½d, the general charges at £97 7s 7½d and the grand total at £1,070 6s 7½d. The inhabitants column carries over 85 per cent of the entire account, confirming the working pattern observed across the present sequence by which the storekeeper's monthly account is principally a record of retail sale to the freeholder community. The plantation column at just over 5 per cent and the general charges column at just over 9 per cent reflect the smaller working draws of the Company's own establishment.

The £1,070 6s 7½d total for a two-month period is the largest single periodical submission in the storekeeper's sequence under Boucher, well above the comparable two-month account for 25 December 1709 to 25 February 1710 at £298 0s 11d carried forward at the consultation of 7 March 1710, and above the heaviest single-month brandy distribution accounts of the summer of 1710. The substantial scale of the present account reflects both the cargo absorption of the Susanna across the autumn and the working Christmas drawing of the freeholder community after the long drought of 1712 to 1713.

The closing summary, with the four columns set out as separate items and the total brought to its final figure, fits the form required for transmission to the Honourable Company in London. The council had ordered at the consultation of 2 February 1714 that the remaining accounts be brought in as soon as possible so that copies of all might be transmitted to the Honourable Company by the next conveyance of shipping, and the present completion of the 25 October to 25 December 1713 account closes one of the two principal arrears outstanding on the storekeeper's monthly cycle.

Speculations

The decision to close the present account at a single grand total of £1,070 6s 7½d, rather than to extend the entries further or to split the two months into separate submissions, suggests that Bazett was working to bring the entire arrears of the year into a transmittable form for the next outgoing shipping. The compression of two months into one return at this scale points to a deliberate working strategy by which the storekeeper consolidated his outstanding submissions into the largest possible single document, ready for despatch as a complete audited set rather than as a series of smaller monthly returns. The pattern is consistent with the council's working preference for transmitting the documentary record to London in concentrated form at moments of senior attrition and administrative recovery, observed earlier in the Concord dispatch of 17 July 1711 and the Heath dispatch of June 1713.

129

122

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 2[d] day of March 1713/14 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[l] &c Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assistants

Whereas yesterday being the first Instant Arrived the Ship Abingdon Capt[n] William Jordan from India who brought us a Letter with Invoice and Bills of Lading from the Deputy Gover[no]r & Councell of Bencoolen for Twelve halfe Legars of Batavia Arrack consign[d] us from thence.

Ordered.

That Capt[n] Jordan have an Order delivered him for the Landing said Arrack and that it be Sold out of the Stores at nine Shillings p[r] Gallon, which we think very Sufficient gains. Also that Said Letter and Invoice be Entred in a book for that Purpose and Coppys send the Honourable Company by Said Shipps.

Margin Notes:

Ship Abingdon Arrivall.

Arrack sent on Shore Sold at 9 p[r] gall[on]

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Tuesday 2 March 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Yesterday, being the first day of the month, the ship Abingdon arrived under Captain William Jordan from India. Jordan brought a letter from the Deputy Governor and Council of Bencoolen, together with an invoice and bill of lading, for twelve and a half leaguers of Batavia arrack consigned from there.

The council ordered that Captain Jordan be given an order to land the arrack and that it be sold out of the stores at 9s the gallon, which the council held to be a sufficient gain. The letter and invoice were ordered to be entered in the book kept for that purpose, with copies to be sent to the Honourable Company by the same shipping.

Interpretations

The arrival of the Abingdon on 1 March 1714 with twelve and a half leaguers of Batavia arrack consigned from the Deputy Governor and Council at Bencoolen confirms the working pattern by which St Helena drew its principal spirits supply from the Company's South Sumatra factory rather than from the Indian presidencies of Madras and Bengal. A leaguer is a large maritime spirits cask of approximately 150 to 160 gallons, so the consignment of twelve and a half leaguers amounts to about 1,875 to 2,000 gallons, well above the routine cargo arrack draws and sufficient to supply the inhabitant community and the institutional consumers for several months. The Bencoolen consignment fits the working pattern of inter-factory transfers within the Company's eastern network, by which surplus stocks at one station were despatched to another for retail at the local rate.

The retail price of 9s the gallon is the standing inhabitants rate confirmed across the storekeeper's monthly returns since 3 July 1713 and across the closing two-month account just completed. The council's working description of 9s the gallon as a sufficient gain reflects the standard 50 per cent margin on the working acquisition price observed across the spirits supply of the present period, with the Bencoolen consignment placing the wholesale acquisition at about 6s the gallon (consistent with the Goa arrack purchased from the fleet at 4 June 1713 at 6s the gallon).

Captain William Jordan of the Abingdon succeeds Captain John Lesly, who had commanded the same vessel on her arrival of 2 November 1712 from England with the cargo absorbed across the previous folios. The Abingdon is therefore now established as a routine Company ship calling at St Helena on her homeward passage, here returning from India rather than from England.

The entry of the letter and invoice in a book kept for that purpose, with copies to be sent home by the same shipping, follows the working documentary discipline established by Boucher and Pack across the senior establishment from August 1711 onward, by which arriving consignments were entered in dedicated registers and the originating papers transmitted to London for audit.

Speculations

The arrival of a substantial Batavia arrack consignment from Bencoolen on 1 March 1714, set immediately after the closing of the heavy two-month storekeeper's account of 25 October to 25 December 1713 at £1,070 6s 7½d, suggests that the Bencoolen factory had been alerted by earlier outgoing letters from the St Helena council to the working spirits shortage on the island. The pattern fits with the established practice of inter-station despatch within the Company network, by which surplus stocks were directed to stations where retail demand was strong. The St Helena council had been pressing for arrack supply through visiting masters since the drought of 1712 to 1713, and a directed despatch from Bencoolen would settle the supply question for a substantial portion of the coming year.

The council's choice to fix the retail rate of 9s the gallon at the start of the cargo absorption, ahead of any market test, suggests that Boucher and Bazett were working to a settled island rate established by the standing instructions and the previous monthly returns, rather than testing the market month by month. The retail rate would be held against any pressure to discount, and the working margin of about 50 per cent would protect the Company's account through the cargo cycle. The pattern is consistent with the council's stewardship under Boucher of a cargo economy still recovering from the disruptions of the drought and the July 1713 mutiny.

130

123

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Thursday the 8 day of Aprill 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2[d] in Coun[ll] Lieut[t] Tho[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

Capt[n] William Jordan M[r] Peter Elers Purser

Gentlemen.

The Governour desires your Company this morning, to hear and Evidence to the Honour[ble] Court of Directors in England To what questions & answers may Occur in this Consultation.

M[r] Bazett having refus[d] to Signe the Generall Letter now to be Sent the Honour[ble] Court of Directors by Ship Abingdon, is desired to give his reasons, and Why he don't Answer the Severall questions the Govern[r] desires he would in that Letter.

M[r] Bazett Says in Answer to the Seventh Parragraph, That, the Ships Acco[ts] was coppy[d] out and puts it upon M[r] Goodwin to prove it.

The Said Goodwin, and Joseph Tomlinson, writers in the Store being Sent for and now present, Says that no Ships Accounts was delivered to the Clerk of the Councill, nor was any drawn out in order to be Sent home.

To the first question in the 15[th] parragraph, of Said Letter M[r] Bazett Answers, he don't know any thing of any underhand dealing between the Governour and M[r] John Back, Tending to the prejudice or

Margin Notes:

Gov[r] Boucher desired the Capt[n] & Purser to be present.

M[r] Bazett refus[d] to Signe Gen[ll] Lett[r] [..]

his reasons.

refers to.

J[no] Goodwin & Jos Tomlinson.

M[r] Bazetts farther answers.

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Thursday 1 April 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Also present at the Governor's desire: Captain William Jordan and Mr Peter Elers, purser.

The Governor desired the company of Captain Jordan and Mr Elers that morning, so that they might hear and bear evidence to the Honourable Court of Directors in England as to what questions and answers might occur in the consultation.

Matthew Bazett had refused to sign the general letter that was to be sent to the Honourable Court of Directors by the Abingdon, and was now called on to give his reasons and to answer the questions the Governor put to him on that letter.

Bazett said, in answer to the seventh paragraph, that the entry about the ships' accounts was copied out and put upon Mr Goodwin to prove.

Mr John Goodwin and Joseph Tomlinson, writers in the store, were sent for and now present. They said that no ships' accounts had been delivered to the Clerk of the Council, nor had any been drawn out in order to be sent home.

Bazett, answering the first question in the fifteenth paragraph of the letter, said he knew nothing of any underhand dealing between the Governor and Mr John Pack tending to the prejudice

Interpretations

The consultation of 1 April 1714 is an extraordinary sitting devoted to the formal interrogation of Bazett over his refusal to sign the general letter to the Court of Directors that the council was sending home by the Abingdon. The presence of Captain William Jordan and the purser Peter Elers as witnesses brought in at the Governor's request shows the council's working procedure for documenting senior disagreement, by which independent ships' officers from the homeward vessel were called to bear evidence to the Court of Directors of the proceedings on the island. The mechanism is consistent with the council's working preference for transmitting documented evidence to London at moments of administrative crisis, observed earlier in the proceedings against John Roberts in the autumn of 1711.

The general letter is the principal annual communication between the local council and the Court of Directors, opened in council on its receipt and drafted collectively before being signed and sent home. A council member's refusal to sign the outgoing general letter is a substantial procedural step, since the signature attests to the corporate authority of the document and a missing signature signals that one of the council members dissents from the matters reported. Bazett's refusal forces the council to set out his reasons in a formal interrogation entered in the consultation book, so that the Court of Directors can see the basis of the dissent rather than only its existence.

The two writers in the store, John Goodwin and Joseph Tomlinson, are the working clerks under Bazett who maintain the store accounts and the records of consignments. Their evidence that no ships' accounts had been delivered to the Clerk of the Council nor drawn out in order to be sent home goes to the substance of the seventh paragraph of the letter and supports Bazett's reading that the Goodwin matter rested on facts not as the letter had stated them. Joseph Tomlinson is the same man who had translated the Portuguese petition of 29 May 1711 and who had been one of the lower-table petitioners of 13 October 1713, here in his working capacity as a writer in the store.

The reference to underhand dealing between the Governor and Mr John Pack tending to the prejudice (of the Company, presumably, the sentence breaking off at the foot of the folio) introduces a substantive allegation against the late Deputy Governor in conjunction with the Governor. John Pack had died on 3 April 1713 and the matter being raised is therefore historical, with Bazett denying knowledge of the alleged dealing rather than reporting current concerns.

Speculations

The formal calling of Captain Jordan and Peter Elers as witnesses to the proceedings against Bazett, set immediately before the Abingdon was due to sail with the general letter and the storekeeper's accounts, suggests that Boucher was working to ensure that the Court of Directors received an independent attestation of the consultation alongside Bazett's signed dissent. The pattern fits with the working pressure on the senior establishment of the island, with only the Governor and Bazett remaining of the formal council members and Cason and French serving as assistants without confirmed councillor status. A documented and witnessed interrogation provides the Court of Directors with the material to settle the question of authority on the island, and gives Boucher the strongest possible documentary record against a deputy whose dismissal of 2 October 1712 had been reversed without formal order within ten weeks of its imposition.

The introduction of allegations of underhand dealing between the Governor and the deceased John Pack, in the form of a question put by the Governor himself to Bazett, suggests that the matter had been raised in earlier letters home or in council discussion that Bazett did not record in the consultation book. The Governor's choice to put the question directly to Bazett under formal interrogation, with the Abingdon's officers as witnesses, points to a deliberate strategy of forcing Bazett either to substantiate the allegation in a transmittable form or to deny it on the record. Bazett's response that he knew nothing of any such dealing closes the matter for the present proceedings but does not protect Bazett from the documentary weight of the formal denial entered in the consultation book.

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or defrauding the Honour[ble] Company, and that they had no Such information from him.

To the 2[d] question M[r] Bazett answers he knows of none.

To the 3[d] question, He never was inform[d] by any body.

To the 4[th] question M[r] Bazett Says he is not oblig[d] to tell his thoughts.

In Answer to the 24[th] Parragraph M[r] Bazett Says he knows nothing of any order of Councill to Survey the Companys Plantations on M[r] Hoskisons death.

The Susannahs Letter was read Parragraph by Parragraph, and the answer thereto now Sent by the Abingdon

M[r] Bazett is desired to make his further Exceptions.

To which he Says he has not now time Sufficient.

The Governour Demanded of M[r] Bazett why the two Last months Accounts of Goods Sold and Dispos[d] of out of the Stores were not brought in Inorder of being Sent Home by this Shiping

M[r] Bazett makes answer that haveing much business could by no means gett them ready.

The Governour further Demands to know what time the Store books are brought up to

M[r] Bazett Says the Store books are made up to the 25[th] March 1712 but are not as yet Coppy[d] over.

Upon overhauling the Store books we find a Journall Coppy[d] over to the 25 March 1712, but no Ledger, or any other except a Transfer book that can be Sent Home by this Shiping So that when they[l] be readie made up and Coppy[d] over to go home to the Honour[ble] Company the Governour cant tell.

The Governour asks M[r] Bazett if any Arrack Leakt out, of which he had information. M[r] Bazett Answers a butt, and part of a Leager Leak[t] out.

The Governour asks him why he did not Acquaint him w[t]h it, being Superintendant here.

M[r]

Margin Notes:

more Answers

Continued.

Lett[r] Susanna & answer read.

M[r] Bazett desired to make his further Exceptions.

Gov[r]s Demand of Monthly Acco[t]s

M[r] Bazetts reply.

further Demand of what progress in y[e] Store books.

Answer.

The truth of [..] this Examin[d]

about Arrack Leakt out.

Gov[r]s Question.

Continuation of the consultation of 1 April 1714 and the formal interrogation of Bazett.

Bazett continued in answer to the first question, denying any underhand dealing between the Governor and Mr John Pack tending to the prejudice or defrauding of the Honourable Company, and stating that he had no such information from him.

To the second question, Bazett answered that he knew of none.

To the third question, he said he never was informed by anybody.

To the fourth question, Bazett said he was not obliged to tell his thoughts.

In answer to the twenty-fourth paragraph, Bazett said he knew nothing of any order of council to survey the Company's plantations on Mr Hoskison's death.

Susanna's letter was read paragraph by paragraph, and the answer to it now sent by the Abingdon.

Bazett was desired to make his further exceptions. He said he had not now time sufficient.

The Governor demanded of Bazett why the two last months' accounts of goods sold and disposed of out of the stores were not brought in for sending home by the present shipping. Bazett answered that he had much business and could by no means get them ready.

The Governor further demanded to know to what time the store books had been brought up. Bazett said the store books were made up to 25 March 1712, but were not yet copied over.

On overhauling the store books the council found a journal copied over to 25 March 1712, but no ledger or any other book except a transfer book that could be sent home by the present shipping. So when the books would be ready, made up and copied over to go home to the Honourable Company, the Governor could not tell.

The Governor asked Bazett whether any arrack had leaked out, of which he had information. Bazett answered that part of a butt and part of a leaguer had leaked out.

The Governor asked him why he had not acquainted him of it, being superintendent there.

Interpretations

The page sets out the working substance of the interrogation of Bazett and reveals the principal grounds of his refusal to sign the general letter. The numbered questions follow the paragraphs of an earlier letter (probably the directors' letter brought by the Susannah and now being answered by the Abingdon) and cover allegations of underhand dealing, prejudice to the Company and failure to survey the plantations on Hoskison's death. Bazett's answers run consistently to denial, lack of knowledge or refusal to disclose his thoughts, and the pattern of response shows him standing on the formal limits of his obligation rather than substantiating any of the allegations against the Governor.

The fourth answer (he was not obliged to tell his thoughts) is a substantial procedural assertion. Council members in this period were treated as bound to attest the facts within their knowledge but not to disclose private opinions held outside the formal proceedings. Bazett's choice to invoke this protection rather than to express either agreement or dissent suggests that his private view diverged from the matter being put, but that he was unwilling to express the divergence in a form transmittable to London.

The exchange over the store books reveals the substantive administrative failure underlying the proceedings. The store books had not been made up beyond 25 March 1712, and even that working entry stood only in the journal (the daybook in which transactions were recorded in date order as they occurred) without yet being copied over to a ledger (the bound running account in which transactions were entered against the individual personal or commodity accounts to which they applied). The transfer book (a working register recording transfers between accounts) was the only document fit to be sent home by the present shipping. The two-year backlog in the formal records, set against Bazett's working role as second in council and storekeeper, exposes the substantive grounds on which his refusal to sign the general letter would carry weight with the directors only if the letter itself was not founded on substantiated facts.

The matter of the leaked arrack (part of a butt and part of a leaguer, with the leaguer being the large maritime cask of about 150 to 160 gallons and the butt being a smaller cask of about 108 gallons in the standard English measure) reveals a further administrative lapse in which Bazett had not informed the Governor of working losses from the store. As superintendent of the stores, Bazett held the duty to report leaks and shortages immediately to the council, and his failure to do so opens a third ground of complaint alongside the unsigned letter and the uncopied store books.

The reference to the twenty-fourth paragraph of the directors' letter (concerning a survey of the Company's plantations on Hoskison's death) recalls the working programme initiated under Boucher and Pack in March 1712, when Griffith and Bazett had been ordered on 7 March 1712 to survey the Company's plantations and provisions that had been in Hoskison's charge. Bazett's present claim to know nothing of any order of council to that effect, set against the documentary record of the 7 March 1712 council, sits uneasily with his working role at the time and suggests a working memory of the proceedings that does not match the council book.

Speculations

Bazett's pattern of refusal across the interrogation (denial of knowledge, denial of information, refusal to disclose thoughts, denial of the existence of a council order on which he had himself acted) suggests a deliberate working strategy of withholding all substantive evidence from the proceedings rather than either substantiating the allegations against the Governor or providing the Governor with material to bring against unnamed third parties. The pattern fits Bazett's working position as the sole remaining substantive council member alongside the Governor, with Cason and French not yet confirmed by the Court of Directors. His refusal to sign the general letter and his refusal to substantiate any allegation under interrogation places the Court of Directors in the working position of having to settle the question of authority between the Governor and his second from the documentary record alone, and provides Bazett with a working defence against any future proceedings.

The discovery on overhauling the store books that the principal account books were two years in arrears, and that only a transfer book could be sent home by the present shipping, suggests that Bazett's administrative neglect had reached a point at which the Governor was now able to ground formal proceedings against him not on the question of the unsigned letter or on substantive allegations of wrongdoing, but on the working failure to maintain the Company's accounting records. The pattern fits with the earlier dismissal of Bazett of 2 October 1712 on grounds of swearing, drunkenness, neglect of business and disrespect to the Governor, and the present interrogation revives the same charge of neglect now grounded in the documentary evidence of the books themselves. Boucher seems to have been laying a documentary trail by which the Court of Directors could settle Bazett's future on the island from London on the basis of evidence that did not depend on a single council day's exchanges.

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125

M[r] Bazett Says he has been Always Employd and did not think of it.

Question.

The Governour askt M[r] Bazett what quantity of Arrack did leak out.

Answer.

M[r] Bazett Says, out of two Butts and a Legar he gauge about one hundred and Seventy Gallons Loss.

The Governour desires to know of the Honour[ble] Comp[s] being Superintendant here whether or no M[r] Bazett ought not to have Acquainted him when the Leakage was first found out (being inform[d] by other hands about four months ago) and whether this dos not Look Like Unders[tanding] doings.

The Governour asks M[r] Bazett why he has not brought the keys of the Companys Ware houses to him Acording to the 23 Parragraph of the Gen[ll] Letter p[r] the John & Elizabeth.

M[r] Bazett Says, that having frequent Occasion to Serve out thought there was no real Occasion to bring the keys down to him.

The Governour desires the Honour[ble] Company to take Notice he has not had the keys of their Ware Houses, Since the Susannahs being here.

M[r] Bazett desired that M[r] Goodwin and M[r] De La Rose writers might be Sent for to Declare what they know about the Leakage of the Arrack afores[d] who being Present Says they know that Severall Casks did Leak and out of one Seventy Gallons as for the Rest can be Justly tell the full quantity that did So leak out, But remembers M[r] Bazett took a memorand[m] of what was leakt out in all.

M[r] Cason, M[r] French and M[r] Alexander Says they Saw at M[r] Bazetts request, two or three Casks of Arrack that had leakt out, and Says the bottom of one Cask faulty, being P[..] or Boxed, and that M[r] Bazett Said he draw[s] but twenty nine Gallons out of one of y[e] Butts.

Margin Notes:

Gov[r]s Appeal to y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s]

his Question.

M[r] Bazetts answer.

Reference to y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s]

M[r] Goodwin & De La Rose report ab[t] the leakage of Arrack.

further report about y[e] Arrack.

Continuation of the interrogation of Bazett on 1 April 1714.

Bazett answered that he had been always employed and did not think of it.

The Governor asked Bazett what quantity of arrack had leaked out. Bazett said that out of two butts and a leaguer he had gauged about 120 gallons lost.

The Governor desired the Honourable Company to take notice whether or not Bazett ought to have acquainted him when the leakage was first found out (having been informed by other hands about four months ago) and whether this did not look like underhand doings.

The Governor asked Bazett why he had not brought the keys of the Company's warehouses to him according to the twenty-third paragraph of the general letter sent by the John and Elizabeth. Bazett said that, having frequent occasion to serve out, he thought there was no real occasion to bring the keys down to him.

The Governor desired the Honourable Company to take notice that he had not had the keys of their warehouses since the Susannah had been there.

Bazett desired that John Goodwin and Mr De La Rose, writers, might be sent for to declare what they knew about the leakage of the arrack. Goodwin, being present, said that several casks did leak, and that out of one 70 gallons were lost. As for the rest he could not justly tell the full quantity that did so leak out, but remembered Bazett took a memorandum of what was leaked out in all.

Cason, French and Alexander said that they saw at Bazett's request two or three casks of arrack that had leaked out, and said the bottom of one cask was faulty, being pressed or rotten. They said Bazett told them he drew only 29 gallons out of one of the butts.

Interpretations

The page continues the interrogation of Bazett through the substantive matter of the arrack leakage and introduces a parallel ground of complaint over the keys of the Company's warehouses. The 120 gallons lost from two butts and a leaguer is a substantial loss against the working total of about 376 gallons in the three casks (two butts at 108 gallons each and one leaguer at about 160 gallons), and represents nearly a third of the stock in those vessels. The Governor's calculation that he had been informed by other hands about four months before the present proceedings places the original discovery of the leakage in November or December 1713, during the working two-month account just closed at £1,070 6s 7½d, and points to the working failure of Bazett to report a substantial commodity loss across the closing months of the accounting year.

The matter of the keys to the Company's warehouses rests on the twenty-third paragraph of the directors' general letter sent by the John and Elizabeth, by which the warehouse keys were to be held by the Governor and delivered to the storekeeper only on each occasion that goods were to be served out. Bazett's working practice (retaining the keys himself, on the ground that he had frequent occasion to serve out) places the storekeeper in working control of the warehouse rather than the Governor. The institutional importance of the keys lies in the segregation of duties between custody and disbursement, by which the Governor holds custody of the stock and the storekeeper draws against it only on documented authority. Bazett's retention of the keys collapses the distinction and allows him both custody and disbursement of the stock, creating the working conditions under which a substantial loss such as the arrack leakage could go unreported for four months.

The witnesses summoned by Bazett to support his account on the leakage reveal a working tension within the storekeeper's establishment. John Goodwin (the assistant writer who attended the boats on the Abingdon's arrival on 2 November 1712) confirms substantial leakage from several casks and a working memorandum taken by Bazett, but cannot confirm the total quantity. De La Rose, the second writer named, is not recorded as appearing in person on the page. Cason, French and the clerk John Alexander confirm the physical state of the casks (the bottom of one cask faulty, pressed or rotten) and the figure of 29 gallons drawn from one of the butts that Bazett had given them. The corroboration of the physical loss provides Bazett with some working defence on the question of whether the leakage was due to faulty casks rather than to mismanagement, but does not address the working failure to report it.

Speculations

The Governor's choice to press the matter of the keys immediately after the matter of the arrack leakage, drawing the connection between the storekeeper's working control of the warehouse and the storekeeper's failure to report substantial losses, suggests a deliberate prosecutorial strategy by which the substantive ground of complaint against Bazett (failure to report) is grounded in the procedural ground (failure to surrender the keys). The pairing fits the working pattern observed across the present interrogation, by which the Governor builds a documentary record sufficient to support proceedings in London against Bazett on grounds of administrative neglect, rather than on the contested matter of his refusal to sign the general letter.

The four-month gap between the working discovery of the leakage and the formal raising of it in council on 1 April 1714 suggests that Boucher had reserved the matter until the Abingdon was due to sail, so that the formal interrogation could be transmitted to the directors in the same outgoing despatch as the general letter Bazett had refused to sign. The pattern fits with the working practice observed earlier in the proceedings against Roberts in the autumn of 1711, by which the Governor used the arrival and departure of ships as the working calendar of his prosecutorial documents. The choice to bring the matter forward only at the latest moment that would allow transmission by the Abingdon gives Bazett the least time to prepare a defence and produces the strongest evidentiary record for the directors to consider.

133

126

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Satturday the 24[th] day of Aprill 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[l] Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French

Yesterday being the 23 Instant the Ship Stretham Capt[n] Henry Gough Arrived from Madrass with a Cargo of Goods from Bengall for the use of the Honour[ble] Company Consisting of Ten bags of Rice Ten bags of Sugar and three Legars of Batavia Arrack as p[r] Invoice and Bill of Lading w[t]h a Generall Letter doth appear.

Ordered.

That the Said Letter and Invoice be Ented in a book for that Purpose and Coppys Sent the Honour[ble] Comp[s] p[r] Said Ship with Coppys of what other Papers came Accompanying the afore Said. And that the Arrack Sugar and Rice be Sold out at the Same rate as we Sold the Last which is very Sufficient Gains, and Such as we hope will be to the Likeing of our Honourable Masters.

This day the Storekeeper M[r] Bazett brought in and delivered three monthly Acounts viz[t] from the 25 of December last to the 25 March 1714 for all Goods Sold and Delivered out of the Honour[ble] Companys Stores in that time, which was Examined and Acordingly. Ordered, to be Ented in the Consultation Book, and Coppy[d] out in order to be Sent Home by the next Shipp departs hence.

Margin Notes:

Ship Strethams Arrivall w[t]h Goods from India.

Papers to be sent Home.

The Goods to be Sold at y[e] usuall rate.

Store keeper brought in 3 monthly Accts.

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Saturday 24 April 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Yesterday, being 23 April 1714, the ship Stretham arrived from Madras under Captain Henry Gough, with a cargo of goods from Bengal for the use of the Honourable Company, consisting of 10 bags of rice, 10 bags of sugar and 3 leaguers of Batavia arrack, as appeared by the invoice and bill of lading and a general letter.

The council ordered that the letter and invoice be entered in a book kept for that purpose, with copies sent to the Honourable Company by the Stretham together with copies of what other papers came accompanying. The arrack, sugar and rice were to be sold out at the same rate as the last, which would yield sufficient gain and was such as the council hoped would be to the liking of their Honourable Masters.

This day the storekeeper, Bazett, brought in and delivered three monthly accounts, namely from 25 December last to 25 March 1714, for all goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores in that time. The accounts were examined and approved. The council ordered them entered in the consultation book and copies sent home by the next ship to depart from there.

Interpretations

The arrival of the Stretham on 23 April 1714 from Madras under Captain Henry Gough delivers a further consignment of Bengal staples to follow on from the Abingdon's twelve and a half leaguers of Batavia arrack received from Bencoolen on 1 March 1714. The combined Indian and South Sumatran supply across the spring confirms the working pattern by which the council was now drawing on multiple Company stations of the eastern network for staple commodities. The smaller volume of arrack on the Stretham (three leaguers, against the Abingdon's twelve and a half) reflects the supplementary nature of the present consignment, with the Bengal trade now adding rice and sugar to the working arrack supply.

The council's decision to sell the arrack, sugar and rice at the same rate as the last (the working rates of 9s the gallon for arrack and 8d the pound for sugar confirmed across the closing two-month account just transmitted) fixes the retail margin without testing the market. The council's reasoning (sufficient gain and to the liking of their Honourable Masters) reflects the working pattern observed at the consultation of 2 March 1714 on the Abingdon's arrival, by which the council fixed retail rates at the established island levels rather than reopening the question with each arriving cargo.

The substantive matter of the present sitting is the delivery by Bazett of three monthly storekeeper's accounts covering 25 December 1713 to 25 March 1714. The submission settles the most recent arrears of the storekeeper's monthly cycle and brings the working returns up to the end of the Company's accounting year. The pattern fits with the working pressure applied to Bazett through the interrogation of 1 April 1714 on the unsigned general letter and the uncopied store books, and suggests that the formal proceedings of three weeks before had produced the working result of bringing the most recent monthly accounts forward without the further delay observed across the autumn and winter.

Speculations

The very rapid delivery of three monthly accounts within three weeks of the formal interrogation of Bazett over his administrative neglect suggests that the proceedings of 1 April 1714 had produced the working result the Governor intended, by forcing the storekeeper to bring forward the documentary returns that had been held in arrears. The pattern fits with the working strategy observed across the present sequence, by which the Governor used formal proceedings entered in the consultation book as the working lever to extract administrative compliance from a substantively defiant deputy. The three months delivered (25 December 1713 to 25 March 1714) bring the storekeeper's returns up to the end of the working accounting year and provide the council with the documentary record for transmission to London by the next outgoing ship.

The choice to despatch the present consultation and its accompanying papers by the Stretham rather than by the Abingdon suggests that the Abingdon had already sailed in the interval between 1 April and 24 April 1714, taking with her the general letter Bazett had refused to sign and the formal interrogation of 1 April. The pattern fits the working calendar of the spring shipping, with each homeward vessel carrying one tranche of the council's documentary record to London. The transmission of the three monthly accounts by the Stretham allows the directors to receive the substantive evidence of Bazett's continuing administrative work alongside the documentary record of his earlier refusal, and gives the directors the working material to settle his position from London on the basis of both his defaults and his recoveries.

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127

Island St Helena

An Acco[t] of Goods Sold and Deliver[d] out of the Honour[ble] Companys to the Inhabitants For the use of the United Castle and Plantation from the 25 day of December 1713. To the 25 of February following inclusive viz[t]

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Arrack 496¾ Gall[ons] B[atavia] Arrack at 9 [d] p Gall[on] 223 11 10½

66 [..] Gen[t] Charges 9 [..] 29 19 7½

31[..] D[itt]o Plantation 14 1 3

594¼

Arrack 7¼ Gall[ons] Goa @ Charges at 9 [..] 4 4

267 17 1½

Sugar 167 [lb] Inhab[ts] at 8 [..] and 8 [..] Candy 56 1 4

8 [lb] 2 14 -

66 [lb] 2 4 -

1826 36 Candy at 12 1 16 -

6 - 63 1 4

Tobacco 240 at 1 [..] [lb] 24 -

3 [lb] 6 -

249 [lb] 12 -

18½ Doz[n] Pipes 1 4 2½

6 D[o] 3 -

5 D[o] 4 6

26 9 8½

Soap 76 Castel Inhab[ts] at 18 [..] 5 14 -

123 [lb] Bengal at 5 [..] 6 12 8

24¼ D[itt]o 1 16 4½

100¼ 199 14 3 [..]

Chints 4 Pieces at 3 [..] [..] 2 2 7 [..]

[..] D[itt]o 18 -

1 D[itt]o 14 1 3

3 9 3 3 9 3

Duosities 13 [..] at 5 - 8 [..] Inhabitants 3 13 8½

15 p[r] - Plantation 5 8

3 19 4

Chelloes 69 p[r] D[o] at 5 [..] 17 5 -

19 p[r] D[o] 5 - 17 10 -

Gurnaes 16 p[r] at 12 - 6 [..] 6 5 -

12 6 6 17 6

[..] 3 14 3

Long Cloath 3 p[r] at 24 [..] Inhabitants 3 14 3

2 16 6

Sannoes 3 p[r] 18 - 10 [..] 1 10 4

[..] 19 5 5 2 3 5 2 3

Carryed Over £ 356 13 6 21 17 3¼ 33 13 - 412 3 9¼

Island of St Helena

Account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants and for the use of the United Castle and plantation from 25 December 1713 to 25 February 1714 following inclusive, folio 43.

Arrack

496⅛ gallons Batavia arrack at 9s the gallon to inhabitants

£223 11s 10¼d

66⅛ gallons to general charges

£29 19s 7¼d

31⅛ gallons to plantation

£14 1s 3d

Sub-total

594¾ gallons

Arrack

7¾ gallons Goa to general charges at 9s

£4 4s 0d

Sub-total

Total £267 17s 1½d

Sugar

1,679 pound to inhabitants at 8d and candy

£56 1s 4d

81 pound to general charges

£2 14s 0d

66 pound to plantation

£2 4s 0d

36 pound candy at 12d

£1 16s 0d

Sub-total

1,826 pound

Total £63 1s 4d

Tobacco

240 pound at 2s the pound to inhabitants

£24 0s 0d

3 pound to general charges

£0 6s 0d

6 pound to plantation

£0 12s 0d

Sub-total

249 pound

Pipes

18⅙ dozen pipes to inhabitants

£1 4s 2½d

6 dozen to plantation

£0 4s 6d

9 dozen to general charges

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total

Total £26 9s 8½d

Soap

76 pound Castile to inhabitants at 18d

£5 14s 0d

129 pound Bengal at 8d

£6 12s 8d

24½ pound to general charges

£1 16s 4½d

Sub-total

100¼ pound and 129 pound

Total £14 3s 0½d

Chints

4 pieces at 21s 9d the piece to inhabitants

£3 2s 7d

1 piece ditto to plantation

£0 18s 0d

1 piece (general charges)

£0 14s 3d

Sub-total

Total £3 9s 3d

Duosities (Dosuties)

10 pieces at 5s 8d the piece to inhabitants

£3 13s 8½d

1½ pieces to plantation

£0 5s 8d

Sub-total

Total £3 19s 4d

Chelloes

69½ pieces ditto at 5s the piece to inhabitants

£17 5s 0d

1¾ pieces ditto to plantation

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total

71¼ pieces

Total £17 10s 0d

Gurras

10½ pieces at 12s 6d the piece to inhabitants

£6 5s 0d

1 piece to general charges

£0 12s 6d

Sub-total

11½ pieces

Total £6 17s 6d

Long cloth

3 pieces at 24s 9d the piece to inhabitants

£3 14s 3d

Sub-total

Total £3 14s 3d

Sannoes

3 pieces at 18s 10d the piece to inhabitants

£2 16s 6d

½ piece at 19s 5d to general charges

£0 9s 8½d

1½ pieces at 9s 9d to plantation

£0 14s 7½d

Sub-total

Total £5 2s 3d

Carried over

Inhabitants £356 13s 6d

Plantation £21 17s 3¼d

General charges £33 13s 0d

Total £412 3s 9¼d

Interpretations

The opening of the new two-month storekeeper's account for 25 December 1713 to 25 February 1714 carries forward the four-column format established across the present sequence and confirms the working absorption of the cargoes received under Boucher. The arrack line at 594¾ gallons of Batavia at 9s the gallon, drawn principally on the inhabitants column, holds the standing rate confirmed across the autumn and into the new accounting year. The further 7¾ gallons of Goa arrack at the same 9s rate on the general charges column is the closing tail of the older Portuguese-Indian supply, distinct from the bulk Batavia arrack of the recent consignments.

Sugar at 1,679 pound to inhabitants at 8d the pound and 36 pound of candy at 12d the pound supplements the bulk staple draw with the finer-grade confection at the higher rate. The continuing two-tier sugar supply across the storekeeper's accounts has been observed throughout the present sequence and reflects the working pattern of cargo absorption from the Madras and Bengal stations. Tobacco at 240 pound to inhabitants at 2s the pound and 18⅙ dozen pipes at the rate of about 1s 4d the dozen carry forward the standing rates for the smoking commodity and its accessory clay pipes.

The textile lines on the page consolidate the working Indian cotton supply across all four established categories. Chints (printed and painted Indian cottons) at 4 pieces at 21s 9d the piece is the higher-grade dress cloth; chelloes (striped Bengal cotton) at 69½ pieces at 5s the piece is the largest single textile line and supplies the working shirts of the broad inhabitant community; gurras (coarse Bengal white cottons) at 10½ pieces at 12s 6d the piece supplies the working linen and household cloth; long cloth at 3 pieces at 24s 9d the piece is the heavy white cotton for shirting at the top of the regular textile range; sannoes (sorted Bengal piece goods) at 3 pieces to inhabitants at 18s 10d the piece carry the working bulk staples. The duosities (also called dosuties, the double-thread Indian cottons distinguished by their working weight from the single-thread chelloes) at 10 pieces at 5s 8d the piece is the new commodity appearing on this account, supplying a heavier working shirt cloth than the chelloes at a slightly higher rate.

Soap on the page splits between 76 pound of Castile at 18d the pound (the high-grade olive-oil soap from the western Mediterranean) and 129 pound of Bengal at 8d the pound (the working soap from the Indian factories), with a further 24½ pound on the general charges column for the General Table. The two-grade soap supply has been observed across the storekeeper's accounts throughout 1713 and reflects the working pattern of cargo absorption by social rank, with the substantial freeholders drawing the Castile and the broader community drawing the Bengal.

Speculations

The very substantial bulk draws on the inhabitants column at the opening of the present account (496⅛ gallons of arrack, 1,679 pound of sugar, 240 pound of tobacco, 69½ pieces of chelloes) suggest that the freeholder community was working through the cargoes of the Susannah, the Abingdon and the Stretham simultaneously across the early months of 1714. The pattern fits with the working economic recovery on the island after the long drought of 1712 to 1713 and the resumption of normal trade volumes through the storekeeper. The combined draw of over £356 13s 6d to inhabitants on a single two-month account places the present return on a comparable scale to the heavy autumn drawing of the Susannah cargo, and confirms the inhabitants column as the principal mechanism by which the council recovered the costs of the eastern consignments.

The appearance of duosities as a fresh commodity on the present account, supplied at 5s 8d the piece and split between inhabitants and plantation, suggests that the cargo composition for the present consignments had introduced a heavier working cotton cloth into the established textile range. The combination of duosities with the lighter chelloes at 5s the piece and the heavier long cloth at 24s 9d the piece provides the freeholder community with a graded textile supply from working shirt cloth through to dress cloth, and points to a deliberate cargo composition by the London directors and the Madras factory to supply the full working range of cottons in a single cycle. The pattern fits with the working pressure on the council to recover the trade volumes of the period before the drought, with each cargo composed to absorb the maximum retail draw from the established freeholder community.

135

128

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

356 13 6 21 17 3¼ 33 13 - 412 3 9¼

Ginghams 1 piece 11 6

1 D[o] 16 2

1 7 8 1 7 8

Neilas 1 D[o] 14 5

1 D[o] at 14 2 1 8 4

2 2 9 2 2 9

Shirts white 8 at 8 - 6 3 8 -

33 [..] 4 19 -

Chelloe 1 at 2 5

8 9 5 8 9 5

Neckcloths 3 [..] at 3 [..] [..] 19 3

19 3

Manchester Tickin viz[t]

10 [..] at 2 - 5 - 6 22 10 -

4 [..] [..] 4 4 2 -

2 [..] 8 1 14 4

[..] D[o] [..] 3 8 8

2 D[o] 8 1 10 6

5 D[o] 7 1 12 6

5 D[o] 1 1 2 6

26 [..]

47 3 8 47 3 8

Cloth Druggetts viz[t]

29¾ Yards at 3 [..] 4 9 3

51 [..] 4 10 6

[..] 14 15 3

84¾

Silk D[o] 8 [..] [..] at 4 9 1 18 -

16 13 3

Cloth D[o] 7½ Yards at 3 [..] Plantation

1 2 6

84 [..] Cloth D[o] 8¾ Silk

17 5 9

Shalloons 43¾ at 2 6 5 8 9

5 8 9

Durans 14¾ at 1 9 [..] 1 5 10½

1 5 10½

Norwich Stuffs 24[..] at 1 [..] 1 14 -

10 [..] [..] 15 -

2 9 - 2 9 -

Broad Cloth 10¾ [..] at 14 6 p[r] 7 15 10½

7 15 10½

Hucabacks 1 p[r] at [..] 2 11

1 [..] Gen[t] Charges 2 11

4¼ [..] Plantac[i]on at 2 11 10 4

6¾ p[r] at 2 11 - is 15 6

Cutlary Ware viz[t]

2 D[o] Knives & forks 13 8¼

3 p[r] Buckles 8 2

3 p[r] Syzars 1 [..] Susan Cargo 19 8

1 D[o] [..] 11 -

[..] [..] [..] 1 5½

2 Razors 4 9 17 -

10 Knives at [..] 1 14 0½ 2 5 11

[..] [..] [..] 6 5

1 p[r] Taylors Sheirs [..] 1 -

8 Knives 7 8 3 4 7

Carryed Over 455 5 8¾ 33 4 9½ 36 11 8 525 2 2¼

Brought over

Inhabitants £356 13s 6d

Plantation £21 17s 3¼d

General charges £33 13s 0d

Total £412 3s 9¼d

Ginghams

1 piece at [...]

£0 11s 6d

1 piece ditto at [...]

£0 16s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 7s 8d

Total £1 7s 8d

Neilas

1 piece at [...]

£0 14s 5d

1 piece at 14s 2d

£1 8s 4d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 2s 9d

Total £2 2s 9d

Shirts white

8 at 8s 6d each

£3 8s 0d

33 at [...]

£4 19s 0d

1 ditto (chelloe shirt)

£0 2s 5d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£8 9s 5d

Total £8 9s 5d

Neckcloths

3½ at 5s 8d

£0 19s 9¾d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 19s 9¾d

Total £0 19s 9¾d

Manchester ticking

10 yards number 5 at 2s 6d the yard

£22 10s 0d

4 yards number 6 at 2s 4d

£3 5s 8d

2 yards number 7 at 1s 9d

£3 8s 8d

3 yards number 8 at 1s 10d

£7 12s 6d

5 yards number 1 at 1s 2d

£5 12s 6d

Sub-total

26 yards

Sub-total to inhabitants

£47 3s 8d

Total £47 3s 8d

Cloth druggets

29½ yards at 3s the yard

£4 9s 3d

51½ yards at 4s the yard

£10 6s 0d

Sub-total

81 yards

£14 15s 3d

Silk ditto 8 yards at 4s 9d

£1 18s 0d

Sub-total

£16 13s 3d

Cloth ditto 7¼ yards at 3s the yard (plantation)

£1 2s 6d

8¼ yards cloth at 3s

Silk

Sub-total

£17 15s 9d

Shalloons

43¾ yards at 2s 6d the yard

£5 8s 9d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£5 8s 9d

Total £5 8s 9d

Durants

14½ yards at 1s 9d the yard

£1 5s 10½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 5s 10½d

Total £1 5s 10½d

Norwich stuffs

24½ yards at 1s 4d

£1 14s 0d

10½ yards at [...]

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 9s 0d

Total £2 9s 0d

Broad cloth

10⅔ yards at 14s 6d

£7 15s 10½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£7 15s 10½d

Total £7 15s 10½d

Huckabacks

1 piece at [...]

£0 2s 11d

1¾ pieces general charges

£0 4s 0d

4½ pieces plantation at 2s 11d

£0 10s 4d

6¼ pieces at 2s 11d

£0 15s 6d

Sub-total

Total £0 15s 6d

Cutlery ware

2 dovetails forks

£0 13s 8¼d

5 buckets

£0 8s 2d

8 ditto (general charges)

£0 14s 8d

1 ditto

£0 11s 0d

1 ditto

£0 1s 1½d

8 razors at 4s 9d

£1 14s 0¼d

10 knives at 8½d each

£0 6s 8d

10 taylors shears

£0 1s 0d

3 knives

[...]

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 5s 11d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 7s 8d

Total £3 4s 7d

Carried over

Inhabitants £455 5s 8¾d

Plantation £33 4s 9½d

General charges £36 11s 8d

Total £525 2s 2¼d

Interpretations

The page extends the working textile retail of the new two-month account into a wider range of Indian, English and Norwich cloths, supplemented by ready-made shirts, neckcloths, ticking, druggets, shalloons, durants and broad cloth. The Manchester ticking line at £47 3s 8d is the largest single new entry on the page and supplies a heavy striped cotton-and-linen cloth from the Lancashire weaving industry, used principally for bedding and for the working covers of mattresses and pillows. The graded pricing across the line (10 yards at 2s 6d, 4 yards at 2s 4d, 2 yards at 1s 9d, 3 yards at 1s 10d, 5 yards at 1s 2d) reflects the working tier of grades from the heaviest ticking down to the lightest, supplied as a complete cargo set for the inhabitant community.

Cloth druggets in two grades (29½ yards at 3s and 51½ yards at 4s) with silk druggets at 4s 9d the yard supply the heavier woollen and worsted cloths for working overcoats and bedding, with a parallel supply of plain cloth and silk on the plantation column for the working clothing of the Company's slaves. Shalloons at 43¾ yards at 2s 6d the yard supply the standard worsted twill lining for coats and gowns, and durants (a glazed worsted cloth) at 14½ yards at 1s 9d the yard provide a hardier dress fabric for the same use. Norwich stuffs continue the working English worsted dress cloth supply.

Broad cloth at 10⅔ yards at 14s 6d the yard is the heavy English woollen for the better-grade officer and freeholder coats, at the same rate observed on earlier folios. The smaller quantity supplied on the present account (against the 8 yards of black ditto at £7 13s 0d and 3 yards of coloured ditto at £7 2s 10½d on the Susanna's earlier folio) suggests that the working demand for broad cloth had been substantially met during the autumn cycle.

Huckabacks (a coarse linen cloth woven with a small repeating pattern of raised dots, used principally for towels and working table linen) at 6¼ pieces across the inhabitants, plantation and general charges columns is a new commodity on the present account, supplying the working towel and napkin requirement across all three institutional consumers. The pricing at 2s 11d the piece places the cloth at the lower end of the linen range.

The cutlery ware on the page is a working closing line of the cutlery and small hardware retail, with 8 razors at 4s 9d each, 10 knives at 8½d each, 10 taylors shears and assorted dovetails, buckets and odds. The taylors shears (the long blade scissors used by tailors for cutting cloth, distinct from the smaller domestic scissors of earlier folios) are a working tradesman's tool supplied alongside the bulk cloth retail of the present account, fitting the working pattern of cargo absorption by which the storekeeper supplied both the materials and the tools of the working trades.

Speculations

The very large absorption of Manchester ticking at £47 3s 8d on a single two-month account, set alongside the substantial draws of cloth druggets, shalloons, durants and Norwich stuffs, suggests that the substantial freeholders were working through a major restocking of household linens and bedding across the opening of the new accounting year. The pattern fits with the working economic recovery observed across the inhabitants column at the close of the previous year, and points to a cargo composition in which the Indian cottons of the Stretham and the English woollens of the Susannah together supplied the full working textile range for the inhabitant community in a single cycle.

The pairing of taylors shears with the heavy bulk cloth supply on the same account suggests that the working tailoring economy of the island was being supplied with both the raw materials and the working tools at the same time. The pattern points to a deliberate working absorption by which the inhabitant tailors (probably soldier-tradesmen working from their own homes as recorded earlier for the matross Welch and the planter Penny) were equipped to convert the bulk cloth into finished garments without further external supply. The combination of bulk cloth retail with specialist tool retail on the inhabitants column gives the storekeeper a working monopoly across the whole tailoring chain on the island.

136

129

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

455 5 8¾ 33 4 9½ 36 11 8 525 2 2¼

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

78½ doz[n] Hooks Sorted 2 0 5

18 Lines at 2 1 16 -

1 Bed Cord 2 -

3 18 5

24 Doz[n] Hooks Sorted 1 10 7

60 Lines Sorted 2 10 10

4 1 5

1 Line Plantation 2 - 8 1 10

Silk & Mohair 20½ [..] Silk at 6 2 10 7¼

6½ Mohair at 2 11 3

3 1 10½

3 1¼

½ Silk Plantation

¼ Mohair at 2 [..] 7½ 3 5 7¼

Buttons viz[t]

6 doz[n] at 1 : 7 [..] doz[n] [..] 10 3

7 D[o] 1 : - Coate 6 -

23½ Doz[n] Breast at 6 [..] 1 1 9

29 Doz[n] D[o] 11 -

2 9 - ¼ 1 2 2 11 6¼

Mettle D[o] 1 Doz[n] Brass Coat

2 Doz[n] Brass D[o] 2 4 2 12 6½

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t]

[..] [lb] 2 6 2

2 Iron Rim Locks Sus[a] 6 8

2 12 10

4 p[r] Sorted Gen[ll] Charges 1 4 -

1 Bundle Rod Iron 84 [lb] at 3 [..] [..] 1 1 -

25 -

18 6 5 16 4

8 p[r] Sorted

Nailes viz[t]

24 - 20 Nailes at 7 [d] [..] 14 -

31 - 10 D[o] 7½ 1 7 1¼

6½ - 10 D[o] 6 4 10½

[..] - 8 8 3 3 4

4 - 4 D[o] 6 1 6

2 10 10

15 - 20 8 8 9

8 - 20 7½ 5 2¼

9 - 4 10 7 10½

5 - 4 10 2 1

1½ - 2 11 10

½ Tacks 5 1 6 8¼

[..] 10 Coopers Rivetts 2 6

4 - 20 2 6

[..] 1 9 6 1 4 13½

110¼ 100 Rivetts

Carryed over 470 10½ 34 13 2 44 7 11 549 2 7

Brought over

Inhabitants £455 5s 8¾d

Plantation £33 4s 9½d

General charges £36 11s 8d

Total £525 2s 2¼d

Hooks and lines

78¼ dozen hooks sorted at [...]

£2 0s 5d

18 lines at 2s

£1 16s 0d

1 bed cord

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 18s 5d

24 dozen hooks sorted

£1 10s 7d

60 lines sorted

£2 10s 10d

Sub-total to general charges

£4 1s 5d

1 line to plantation

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total

Total £8 1s 10d

Silk and mohair

20¼ ounces silk at 2s 6d

£2 10s 7¼d

6¼ ounces mohair at 1s 9¼d

£0 11s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 1s 10¼d

1¾ ounces silk

£0 3s 1¼d

¾ ounces (plantation)

£0 0s 7½d

Sub-total

Total £3 5s 7d

Buttons

5¼ dozen at 1s 7¾d the dozen, ¾ dozen coat

£0 10s 3d

1 dozen ditto coat

£0 1s 0d

23¼ dozen breast at 6d

£1 1s 9d

23 dozen ditto

£0 11s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 9s 0¼d

Total £2 9s 0¼d

Mettle ditto

1 dozen brass coat

£0 1s 2d

2 dozen brass ditto

£0 2s 4d

Sub-total

Total £2 12s 6¼d

Ironmongers ware

19 pound at [...]

£2 6s 2d

2 iron rim locks (Susanna)

£0 6s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 12s 10d

4 pound sorted to general charges

£1 4s 0d

1 bundle rod 84 pound at 3d

£1 1s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£2 5s 0d

8 pound sorted

£0 18s 6d

Sub-total

Total £5 16s 4d

Nails

24 pound 10-penny nails at 7½d the pound

£0 14s 0d

31 pound 10-penny ditto at [...]

£1 12s 1¼d

6¼ pound 8-penny ditto at [...]

£0 4s 10½d

5 pound 6-penny

£0 3s 4d

4 pound 4-penny

£0 1s 6d

Sub-total

£2 10s 10d

15 pound 20-penny

£0 8s 9d

5 pound 12-penny at 7½d

£0 5s 2¼d

9 pound 6-penny

£0 7s 10d

5 pound 4-penny at 10d

£0 5s 6d

1½ pound 2-penny at 11d

£0 0s 10d

1½ pound tacks

£0 0s 11d

10½ pound coopers rivetts

£0 6s 8¼d

12 pound at [...]

£0 2s 6d

4 pound 4-penny

£0 1s 4d

5 pound 4-penny

£0 1s 9d

Sub-total

£0 6s 1d

Sub-total

110½ pound and 100 rivetts

Total £4 13s 7½d

Carried over

Inhabitants £470 1s 10¼d

Plantation £34 13s 2d

General charges £44 7s 11d

Total £549 2s 7¾d

Interpretations

The page extends the working hardware and haberdashery retail of the new two-month account, with hooks and lines, silk and mohair, buttons in graded grades, ironmongers ware and a substantial range of nails by penny weight. The 78¼ dozen hooks sorted and 18 lines on the inhabitants column, supplemented by a further 24 dozen hooks and 60 lines on the general charges column, continue the working supply of fishing tackle observed across the storekeeper's monthly returns since the drought relief programme of 1712. The bed cord at 2s is a working rope cord for stringing the wooden frame of a bedstead to support the mattress, an item of household equipment for a single inhabitant household.

Silk and mohair at 20¼ ounces silk at 2s 6d the ounce and 6¼ ounces mohair at the lower rate continue the established sewing-silk and braiding supply at the rates confirmed across the present sequence. The smaller plantation allocation of ¾ ounces points to a working sewing supply for the slave clothing manufacture under Jacob the tailor on the Company plantation.

Buttons in four grades (5¼ dozen at 1s 7¾d, 1 dozen coat at 1s the dozen, 23¼ dozen breast at 6d, 23 dozen ditto at the lower rate) supply the full working range from dress coat fastenings down to cheap working buttons. The metal ditto in 1 dozen brass coat and 2 dozen brass ditto closes the working button supply for the present account. The combined £2 9s 0¼d on the lines reflects the heavy bulk button retail of the present cargo absorption.

The ironmongers ware on the page splits across the columns with 19 pound at £2 6s 2d and 2 iron rim locks (Susanna's cargo) at £0 6s 8d to inhabitants, and a substantial line of 4 pound sorted and 1 bundle of rod iron of 84 pound at 3d the pound on the general charges column. Iron rim locks (the heavier surface-mounted locks of the period, fitted to the exterior face of a door rather than mortised into the timber) are working security fittings for the inhabitant houses and the Company stores, distinct from the brass stock locks of the Susannah's earlier folios.

The nails on the page run across the working range of penny weights, with the heaviest 20-penny down to the lightest 2-penny, supplemented by tacks (smaller short nails for tacking covers and trims) and a working line of 10½ pound coopers rivetts. The coopers rivetts (the rivets used by coopers in the assembly of barrel and cask hoops, distinct from the broader rivets of the smith's trade) supply a specialist hardware for the working barrel maintenance that the storekeeper required for the bulk cargo containers. The presence of coopers rivetts at the retail line points to a working supply for inhabitants engaged in barrel and cask work, perhaps the cooper Andrew Bergh noted in the master reference as one of the lower-table petitioners of 13 October 1713.

Speculations

The substantial supply of coopers rivetts at 10½ pound on the inhabitants column, alongside the bulk nail retail in graded penny weights, suggests that the working barrel maintenance economy on the island had been brought into the storekeeper's retail supply. The pattern fits with the working pressure on cask integrity revealed in the arrack leakage interrogation of 1 April 1714, by which 120 gallons had been lost from two butts and a leaguer with the bottom of one cask found faulty, pressed or rotten. The simultaneous supply of working hardware for cask repair to the inhabitants suggests that the council was now treating cask maintenance as a working priority across the whole supply chain, not only for the Company's own casks but also for inhabitant private vessels.

The heavy retail draw of fishing hooks and lines at £3 18s 5d to inhabitants and a further £4 1s 5d to general charges, the highest combined line of the present account so far, suggests that the working pattern of family-group fishing established under the 1712 drought relief programme had now settled into a continuing economic activity rather than an emergency measure. The pattern fits with the established working supply of tackle observed across the present sequence and points to a working fish supply that the inhabitants now drew from the sea as part of the routine household economy, supported by the storekeeper's bulk retail of the necessary equipment.

137

130

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

470 1 1½ 34 13 2 44 7 11 549 2 2¼

Hatts

4 Hatts at 25 : 3 [..] 5 1 -

3 Ditto 3 : 9 11 3

2 D[o] Susan 18 3 16 6

1 D[o] 8 -

2 D[o] at 6 : 2 12 4

1 D[o] at 4 4 -

3 [..] 10 4 8 13 1 8 13 1

Oyle 10½ Gall[ons] Rape at 7 [d] 3 10 10½

¼ Lineseed 2 -

3 12 10½

5½ Gall[ons] Rape

11½ Gall[ons] Rape & Lineseed at 7 4 - [..] 6 2 1 1½ 9 4 6

Provisions viz[t]

220¼ Flour at 3¼ p [lb] 3 4 3¾

90 [lb] Bread 4 1 12 6¼

4 16 9¼

22 [lb] Bread 4 13 4

20 Flour 3¼ 5 10

3 19 2

156 [lb] Bread 1 2 2

[..] 2 12

3 14 2 12 10 1½

Powder boxes & Buffs 4 Inhabit[s] 1 7

1 7

Shoes 10 p[r] Sorted 2 8 6

Susan 1 p[r] braided 10 6

4 p[r] Girls 19 -

4 p[r] Common 1 9 2

2 18 8

5 7 2 5 12 2

1 p[r] Pumps 5 -

Pins & Needles &c 29 M[..] Pins 2 7 -

875 Needles 13 10½

4 Thimbles 4 4

3 1 2¼

50 Needles Susan 9¼ 3 1 11½

Combes 8 Ivory Sorted 14 9

8 Horne 4 -

1 brush 8

19 5 19 5

Gloves 5 p[r] Mens at 1 : 9 [..] 8 9

1 p[r] 1 8

10 5 10 5

Stationary Ware

7 Primmers 3 6

10 Hornebooks 3 4

3 Testaments 5 3

3 Quire Pap[r] 4 -

16 1 16 1

Romalls 2 2 6 2 6

Carryed Over 498 2 2¼ 42 7 10 50 14 - 591 4 0¼

Brought over

Inhabitants £470 1s 10¼d

Plantation £34 13s 2d

General charges £44 7s 11d

Total £549 2s 7¾d

Hats

4 hats at 25s 3¼d each

£5 1s 0d

3 ditto at 3s 9d

£0 11s 3d

2 hats (Susanna) at 18s

£3 16s 6d

1 at 8s

£0 8s 0d

2 at 6s 2d each

£0 12s 4d

1 at 4s

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£8 13s 1d

Total £8 13s 1d

Oils

10½ gallons rape oil at 7s the gallon

£3 10s 10½d

½ gallon linseed

£0 2s 0d

5½ gallons rape

£3 12s 10½d

11½ gallons rape and 5 gallons of train at [...]

£2 1s 1½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 12s 10½d

Sub-total to plantation

£0 0s 6d

Sub-total to general charges

£2 1s 1½d

Total £9 4s 6d

Provisions

220½ pound flour at 3½d the pound

£3 4s 3¾d

92¼ pound bread at 4d

£1 12s 6¼d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£4 16s 9¼d

228½ pound bread at 4d

£3 13s 4d

20 pound flour at 3½d

£0 5s 10d

Sub-total to plantation

£3 19s 2d

75½ pound bread at [...]

£1 2s 2d

156 pound bread at [...]

£2 12s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£3 14s 2d

Sub-total

Total £12 10s 1¼d

Powder boxes and puffs

4 to inhabitants

£0 1s 7d

Total £0 1s 7d

Shoes

10 pair sorted at 2s 8d each

£2 8s 6d

1 pair braided (Susanna)

£0 10s 6d

4 pair girls

£0 19s 0d

4 pair common

£1 9s 2d

Sub-total

£2 18s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£5 7s 7d

13 pair pumps

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total

Total £5 12s 2d

Pins and needles

29 thousand pins at 2s 7d the thousand

£3 14s 11½d

875 needles at [...]

£0 13s 10½d

4 thimbles at 1¼d each

£0 0s 4d

50 needles (Susanna)

£0 0s 9¼d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 1s 2¼d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 0s 9¼d

Total £3 1s 11½d

Combs

8 ivory sorted at [...]

£0 14s 9d

8 horn

£0 4s 0d

1 brush

£0 0s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 19s 5d

Total £0 19s 5d

Gloves

5 pair men's at 1s 9d each

£0 8s 9d

1 ditto

£0 0s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 10s 5d

Total £0 10s 5d

Stationary ware

7 primers at 3s 6d each

£0 3s 6d

10 horn books

£0 3s 4d

3 testaments

£0 5s 9d

3 quires paper at [...]

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 16s 1d

Total £0 16s 1d

Romalls

2 to inhabitants

£0 2s 6d

Total £0 2s 6d

Carried over

Inhabitants £498 2s 2¼d

Plantation £42 7s 10d

General charges £50 14s 0d

Total £591 4s 0¼d

Interpretations

The page extends the working retail of the new two-month account into the personal-goods and provisioning lines, with hats, oils, provisions, shoes, pins and needles, combs, gloves, stationary ware and romalls together carrying over £40 to the inhabitants column.

The hats line at £8 13s 1d combines a substantial top-grade allocation of 4 hats at 25s 3¼d each (the dress hat of officers and substantial freeholders, well above the 18s and 20s rates of earlier folios) with the working graded supply across the lower tiers down to 4s. The premium grade hats at 25s 3¼d are the heaviest single dress item of the present account and point to a working dress economy of senior persons on the island. The descending grades to 4s cover the working soldier and lower freeholder issue.

The provisions line at £12 10s 1¼d is the largest substantive new entry on the page and supplies flour and bread across all three institutional consumers. The inhabitants draw 220½ pound of flour at 3½d the pound and 92¼ pound of bread at 4d the pound; the plantation draws 228½ pound of bread at the same rate and 20 pound of flour; the general charges draw 75½ pound and 156 pound of bread for the General Table and the working soldier ration. The substantial bulk on the plantation column (£3 19s 2d) is the working bread ration for the Company's slaves on the upland estate, supplementing the rice and yams that form the base of their diet. The presence of bread on the slave ration reflects the working improvement in the Company's provisioning capacity following the consignments of the Abingdon and the Stretham.

Oils on the page run to 16½ gallons of rape oil (mostly to general charges, but with allocations to inhabitants and plantation) plus ½ gallon of linseed oil and 5 gallons of train oil, all at the standing rates. The train oil at the rate of about 8s 4d the gallon is the oil rendered from whale or seal blubber, used as a lubricating and burning oil for the working purposes of the establishment.

The shoes line at £5 12s 2d combines 10 pair sorted at 2s 8d each, a single pair of braided shoes (decorated dress shoes) from Susanna's cargo at 10s 6d, 4 pair girls' shoes at the rate of 4s 9d each, 4 pair common shoes, and 13 pair of pumps on a working line. The presence of girls' shoes on the inhabitants column at a substantial rate is the first dedicated children's footwear entry observed in the present sequence and confirms a working family economy on the island in which the substantial freeholders were equipping their daughters with proper dress shoes from the cargo.

Pins and needles at 29 thousand pins at 2s 7d the thousand, 875 needles at the working rate, 4 thimbles and 50 further needles from Susanna's cargo together carry a substantial working sewing supply across the freeholder community. The 29 thousand pins is the largest single pins line in the present sequence and supports the parallel substantial textile draws on earlier folios of the same account. The stationary ware at 7 primers, 10 horn books, 3 testaments and 3 quires of paper continues the working religious and educational supply for the inhabitant households.

Romalls (the Indian cotton kerchiefs already noted in the master reference) at 2 to inhabitants close the personal goods retail of the page.

Speculations

The substantial dress hat draw of 4 hats at 25s 3¼d each on a single two-month account points to a working dress restocking by the senior establishment of the island in time for the opening of the new accounting year. The combined draw with the better-grade Susanna hats and the descending lower-grade tiers across the same account suggests that the council had used the cargo cycle to refresh the working dress economy across all social ranks simultaneously. The pattern fits with the substantial silver twist button and dress shoe draws of the earlier two-month account and confirms a working pattern by which the freeholder community moved into the new year with refreshed working clothing across the full social range.

The appearance of 4 pair of girls' shoes on the inhabitants column at the working rate of 4s 9d each suggests that the substantial freeholder households were now bringing their daughters into the cargo absorption economy in their own right. The pattern is novel against the working pattern observed across earlier folios in which men's and women's footwear had dominated, and points to a working family economy in which the substantial freeholders had reached the working economic position to equip their daughters with proper dress shoes from the cargo. The new line confirms the working recovery of the inhabitant economy after the drought and disruption of 1712 to 1713.

138

131

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

498 2 2¼ 42 7 10 50 14 - 591 4 0¼

Threads

14 [lb] Brown at 3 [..] 3 [..] 2 11 4

1½ D[o] 4 - 6 -

[..] [lb] whited Brown D[o] 2 1

4 Doz[n] N[..] Thread 19 6

2½ Fine Sorted 2 10 4½

8 9 3¾

2¾ Linnen Gen[t] Charges 1 6

2¼ D[o] 6 -

½ Whited bro[wn] 3 9

½ Brown 2

11 9 9 2 6¼

Ribbon &c viz[t]

68¾ y[ds] Ribbon Sorted 5 16 6¼

54 y[ds] Galloom 19 4

93 y[ds] Ferri thing 1 8 -

8 3 10½

8 3 10½

Bodice 5 p[r] Sorted 2 15 2

2 15 2

Stockins

10 p[r] Worsted & yarn[s] 1 2 -

2 p[r] Thread 6 6

10 p[r] Worsted Susan ans 5 2 6

6 11 - 6 11 -

Tapes & Bindings viz[t]

14 p[r] Holland Tapes Sorted 14 10

4 [..] Binding 6 8

1 1 6 1 1 6

Salt 1 Bushell 6 -

2 Ditto 12 -

4 Ditto 14 -

7 2 2 -

Tin Ware viz[t]

9 Porringers at 7 [d] 5 3

1 Tin Kittle 4 6

3 Square pudding pans 4 6

3 Round Ditto 6 7

6 Lanthorns 1 4 -

1 Funnells 7

2 7 11

2 Sqr[e] pudding pans 3 -

1 Porringer 7

4 1

3 Tin Porringers 1 9¾

11 3 3 0 9

2 Wateri[n]g Potts 9 -

Carryed over 527 16 [..] ¼ 44 14 10 51 11 7 624 3 4¼

Brought over

Inhabitants £498 2s 2¼d

Plantation £42 7s 10d

General charges £50 14s 0d

Total £591 4s 0¼d

Threads

14 pound brown at 3s 8d the pound

£2 11s 4d

1½ pound at 4s

£0 6s 0d

5 pound whitled brown at [...]

£0 2s 1d

4 dozen white thread at [...]

£0 19s 6d

2 ditto fine sorted

£2 10s 4½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£8 9s 3¼d

2½ pound linens (general charges)

£0 1s 6d

2 pound at [...]

£0 4s 0d

½ pound whitled

£0 0s 3d

¼ pound brown

£0 0s 9d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 11s 9d

Sub-total

Total £9 2s 6¼d

Ribbon and ferritt

63¾ yards ribbon sorted

£5 16s 6¼d

54 yards galloon

£0 19s 4d

93 yards ferritt at [...]

£0 8s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£8 3s 10½d

Total £8 3s 10½d

Bodice

5 pair sorted to inhabitants

£2 15s 2d

Total £2 15s 2d

Stockings

10 pair worsted and yarn at [...]

£1 2s 0d

2 pair thread

£0 6s 6d

10 pair worsted (Susanna's cargo) at 5s 2s 6d

£5 2s 6d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£6 11s 0d

Total £6 11s 0d

Tapes and bindings

14 pieces Holland tape sorted at [...]

£0 14s 10d

4 pieces collared binding

£0 6s 8d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 1s 6d

Total £1 1s 6d

Salt

1 bushel to inhabitants

£0 0s 6d

2 bushels to general charges

£0 12s 0d

4½ bushels to plantation

£0 14s 0d

Sub-total

7½ bushels

Total £2 2s 0d

Tin ware

9 porringers at 7d each

£0 5s 3d

1 tin kettle

£0 4s 6d

3 square pudding pans

£0 4s 6d

3 round ditto

£0 6s 2d

6 lanthorns

£1 4s 0d

7 funnels

£0 0s 7d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 7s 11d

2 square pudding pans

£0 3s 0d

1 porringer

£0 0s 7d

3 tin porringers

£0 1s 9¼d

2 watering pots

£0 9s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 11s 3d

Sub-total

Total £3 2s 3d

Carried over

Inhabitants £527 16s 3¼d

Plantation £44 14s 10d

General charges £51 11s 7d

Total £624 3s 4¾d

Interpretations

The page extends the working haberdashery, clothing and household tinware retail of the new two-month account, with threads, ribbon and ferritt, bodice, stockings, tapes and bindings, salt and tin ware together carrying about £30 to the inhabitants column.

The threads line at £9 2s 6¼d combines four grades of sewing thread (14 pound brown at 3s 8d, 1½ pound at 4s, 5 pound whitled brown at the lower rate, 4 dozen white thread, 2 ditto fine sorted) for the working sewing demand of the inhabitant tailoring economy. The parallel general charges line of 2½ pound of linens and three further smaller sub-lines supplies the working sewing thread for the General Table establishment and the Castle linen repair. The brown thread at 3s 8d is the working unbleached sewing thread for repair and rough stitching; the white thread is the bleached form for finer work; the whitled brown is a part-bleached intermediate grade; the fine sorted is the higher-grade thread for the better-quality stitching.

Ribbon and ferritt at 63¾ yards of ribbon sorted at the rate of about 1s 10d the yard, 54 yards of galloon (the heavier braided trim) at 4½d the yard, and 93 yards of ferritt at the working rate of about 1d the yard, supply the working haberdashery trimming for the inhabitant tailoring economy. The 63¾ yards of ribbon at £5 16s 6¼d is a substantial single haberdashery line and reflects the working dress demand of the freeholder community across the opening of the new accounting year.

Bodice at 5 pair sorted to inhabitants at £2 15s 2d (about 11s the pair) continues the working stiffened bodice supply observed on earlier folios, here at a substantial rate that suggests dress wear for the substantial freeholder women rather than working clothing.

Stockings at 10 pair worsted and yarn at the working rate, 2 pair thread at 3s 3d each, and 10 pair worsted from Susanna's cargo at the higher rate continue the established working hosiery supply for the inhabitant community at the rates confirmed across the present sequence.

The tin ware line at £3 2s 3d carries the working kitchen tinware supply for both inhabitants and the General Table establishment, with porringers, tin kettle, square pudding pans (rectangular tin pans for baking the working English suet pudding, with sloping sides and a flat bottom), round pudding pans, lanthorns, funnels and watering pots. Pudding pans at the rate of about 1s 6d to 2s each are a substantial new household equipment line on the present account and point to the working English household cookery being supported by the cargo absorption.

Speculations

The substantial draw of 63¾ yards of ribbon at £5 16s 6¼d on a single two-month account, combined with 54 yards of galloon and 93 yards of ferritt, suggests that the inhabitant women were drawing dress trimmings on a scale that points to the working dress restocking of the substantial freeholder houses across the opening of the new accounting year. The pattern fits the substantial bodice draw at £2 15s 2d on the same account and the dress shoes and girls' shoes of the earlier folio, all pointing to a working family economy in which the senior freeholder households were drawing dress materials for women and girls simultaneously with the established men's dress economy.

The introduction of square and round pudding pans on the same account in graded sizes points to a working culinary economy in which the freeholder households were now equipping their kitchens for the standard English boiled and baked puddings of the period. The pudding was a working staple of the substantial English household, formed of suet, flour, sugar and dried fruits boiled in a cloth or baked in a pan, and the working supply of pudding pans in dedicated forms suggests that the inhabitant household culinary economy was now drawing equipment in matched sets from the cargo, working alongside the kettles, sauce pans and porringers of the earlier folios.

139

132

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

527 16 11¼ 44 14 10 51 11 7 624 3 4¼

Fustians &c [..] 8

15 p[r] Collo[r] Dimmittee 1 4 2

16 p[r] White D[o] at 2 1 7 6

7 Yards Thicksett 14 7

3 6 3 3 6 3

Hessings 24½ Yards 1 8 -

5 D[o] - 5 10

1 8 - 5 10 1 13 10

29

Necklaces of beads 7 - 5 5

Laces 3½ y[ds] Silk 11 7

12 Thread 2 -

13 7 13 7

Brass Ware 2 Lamps 7 10

1 Skimmer 6 6

1 Skillet Frame 1 1 10

1 Crayseing dish 13 8

2 2 -

1 Brass Lamp 3 11 2 13 9

Gartering 3 Yards 6 6

Pepper 3 [lb] Inhabitants 3 - 3 -

3 [lb] Gen[t] Charges 3 - 3 -

2 [lb] Plantation 2 - 2 -

8 8 - 8 -

Rice 43 [lb] 12 6 12 6

30 [lb] 8 9 8 9

88½ 45 2 [..] 2 7 1¼

161½

Indigoe 6 [oz] 4 - 4 -

Shoe Thread 1½ [lb] Inhabitants 3 9

½ [lb] Gen[t] Charges 1 3

2

3 9 1 3 5 -

Kersey 6¾ Yards 14 1 14 1

Silver Twist Buttons 2½ doz[n] 5 7½ 5 7½

Bird Shott 18 [..] 9 - 9 -

30 [..] at 6 [..] [..] Plantation 15 - 15 -

48 1 4 -

Carryed over 586 10 1¼ 47 1 6 54 12 5 638 4 1

Brought over

Inhabitants £527 16s 11¾d

Plantation £44 14s 10d

General charges £51 11s 7d

Total £624 3s 4¾d

Fustians

15 pieces collared dimmittee at 1s 8d

£1 4s 2d

16 yards 7 white ditto at 2s

£1 7s 6d

7 yards thickset at [...]

£0 14s 7d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 6s 3d

Total £3 6s 3d

Hessings

24 yards at [...]

£1 8s 0d

5 yards ditto at [...]

£0 5s 10d

Sub-total

29 yards

£1 13s 10d

Sub-total to plantation

£1 8s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 5s 10d

Total £1 13s 10d

Necklaces of beads

7 to inhabitants

£0 5s 0d

Total £0 5s 0d

Laces

3 ounces silk

£0 11s 7d

12 thread

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 13s 7d

Total £0 13s 7d

Brass ware

2 lamps

£0 7s 10d

1 skimmer

£0 6s 6d

1 skillet frame

£1 1s 10d

1 dressing dish

£0 13s 8d

Sub-total

£2 2s 0d

1 brass lamp to general charges

£0 3s 11d

Sub-total

Total £2 13s 9d

Gartering

3 yards to inhabitants

£0 0s 6d

Total £0 0s 6d

Pepper

3 pound to inhabitants

£0 3s 0d

3 pound to general charges

£0 3s 0d

2 pound to plantation

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total

8 pound

Total £0 8s 0d

Rice

43 pound to inhabitants

£0 12s 6d

30 pound

£0 8s 9d

88½ pound to plantation

£0 4s 5¾d

Sub-total

161½ pound

Total £2 7s 1¼d

Indigo

6 pound to inhabitants

£0 4s 0d

Total £0 4s 0d

Shoe thread

1¼ pound to inhabitants

£0 3s 9d

½ pound to general charges

£0 1s 3d

Sub-total

Total £0 5s 0d

Kersey

6½ yards to inhabitants

£0 14s 1d

Total £0 14s 1d

Silver twist buttons

2½ dozen to inhabitants

£0 5s 7¼d

Total £0 5s 7¼d

Bird shot

18 pound at [...]

£0 9s 0d

30 pound at 6d the pound to plantation

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total

48 pound

Total £1 4s 0d

Carried over

Inhabitants £536 10s 1¼d

Plantation £47 1s 6d

General charges £54 12s 5d

Total £638 4s 1d

Interpretations

The page extends the working retail of the new two-month account into a further set of small commodity lines, with fustians, hessings, brass ware, rice, kersey and bird shot among the more substantive entries.

Fustians on the page at 15 pieces of collared dimmittee at 1s 8d the piece, 16 yards 7 white ditto at 2s the yard, and 7 yards of thickset (a heavy corded cotton with a raised pile, used for working breeches and waistcoats) at the rate of about 2s 1d the yard supply the working heavier cotton-and-linen cloth for men's outer dress. The thickset at the higher unit rate is the working hard-wearing cloth of soldier and freeholder working dress, distinct from the lighter white dimmittee.

Brass ware on the page combines 2 lamps at the rate of about 3s 11d each, a skimmer (a flat perforated brass ladle used for skimming the surface of boiling preserves, soups and broths), a skillet frame (a footed stand to hold a skillet over the fire), a dressing dish (a covered brass dish for keeping food warm at the table), and a further brass lamp on the general charges column. The dressing dish at 13s 8d is a substantial single item of dinner service brass, distinct from the working pots and pans of earlier folios, and points to a working table service at the better freeholder houses. The skimmer and skillet frame complete the working brass batterie de cuisine for a household preparing the standard English boiled and stewed dishes of the period.

Rice at 43 pound to inhabitants, 30 pound on a smaller line, and 88½ pound to plantation gives 161½ pound across all columns at the working rate of about 3½d the pound for the inhabitants. The substantial plantation allocation of 88½ pound is the largest single rice draw to the plantation column on the present account and reflects the working slave ration of the Company's upland estate. The smaller volume against the inhabitants column (43 pound at £0 12s 6d) is well below the 2,450½ pound draw on the previous two-month account and points to the working absorption of the rice cargo across the autumn having reduced the demand for the present period.

Hessings at 24 yards to plantation and 5 yards to general charges supply the working coarse jute or hemp cloth for grain sacks and rough working covers on the upland estate, with a smaller allocation for the General Table establishment.

The kersey at 6½ yards on the inhabitants column at the rate of about 2s 2d the yard supplies a small private slave-clothing or working coat cloth, distinct from the bulk 78 yards on general charges noted on an earlier folio. The presence of a small kersey line on the inhabitants column points to inhabitant households clothing their own slaves at the working rate.

Indigo at 6 pound to inhabitants at the rate of about 8d the pound supplies the working laundry blueing for the inhabitant community, supplementing the smaller 5 ounces noted on an earlier folio. The substantial single line points to a working laundry economy that the freeholder community was now operating in the inhabitant houses, drawing the dye directly from the cargo rather than from a centralised supply.

Silver twist buttons at 2½ dozen to inhabitants at the rate of about 2s 3d the dozen continue the dress button supply at the standing rate for the better freeholder dress.

Speculations

The presence of a brass dressing dish at 13s 8d on the inhabitants column, alongside the skimmer, skillet frame and brass lamps, suggests that the substantial freeholder houses were equipping their dining tables with formal brass service for the first time on a working scale. The pattern fits with the working pudding pans of the previous folio and the silver twist buttons and dress shoes of the earlier two-month account, all pointing to a working dress and dining economy of the substantial freeholder houses moving towards the standards of substantial English provincial households. The London merchants seem to have understood the working demand at this scale and composed the cargo to deliver both the dress equipment and the dining equipment of the substantial household in matched grades.

The substantial bird shot draw of 30 pound at 6d the pound to plantation, with a further 18 pound on the inhabitants column, suggests that the Company's plantation establishment had been working the bird shot for the systematic culling of birds against the working damage to standing yams and other crops. The bird shot would also have been used for the licensed sport of taking partridges, Guinea hens and pigeons under the game preservation advertisement of 25 July 1712, which had restricted shooting to licensed persons. The combined working supply across the inhabitants and plantation columns points to a working management of the bird population on the island that the council had begun to address through the cargo absorption.

140

133

Column headings: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[t] Charges Totall

Brought Over

536 10 1½ 47 1 6¾ 54 12 5 638 4 1

Lead 2 Barrs of 44 [lb] 11 - 11 -

Pewter 1 Funnell 3 2

1½ [lb] Spoons 3 3

5 Dishes of 17 [lb] 17 3

1 - 6

12 Spoons 3 3 1 6 8

Ozenbriggs 3 Yards 4 - 4 -

Turnery Ware 1 House Brush

2 Shoe brushes 4 - 3 11 4 11

Corks 6 doz[n] 1 6

1 Corkwood 8

2 2 2 2

Glass Ware 12 Squares 6 - 6 -

Perpetuanoes 3½ Yards 7 10½ 7 10½

537 4 3¾ 48 16 11¼ 55 5 9 641 6 11½

To the Inhabitants £ 537 4 3¾

To Plantation 48 16 11¼

To Generall Charges 55 5 9

Sume Totall £ 641 6 11½

Brought over

Inhabitants £536 10s 1¼d

Plantation £47 1s 6¾d

General charges £54 12s 5d

Total £638 4s 1d

Lead

2 bars of 44 pound

£0 11s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 11s 0d

Total £0 11s 0d

Pewter

1 funnel

£0 3s 2d

1 pound spoons

£0 3s 3d

5 dishes of 11 pound

£0 17s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 0s 6d

12 spoons to general charges

£0 3s 3d

Sub-total

Total £1 6s 8d

Ozenbriggs

3 yards

£0 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 4s 0d

Total £0 4s 0d

Turnery ware

1 house brush

£0 0s 4d

2 shoe brushes

£0 3s 11d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 4s 11d

Total £0 4s 11d

Corks

6 dozen

£0 1s 6d

1 corkwood

£0 0s 8d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 2s 2d

Total £0 2s 2d

Glass ware

12 squares to general charges

£0 6s 0d

Total £0 6s 0d

Perpetuanoes

3½ yards to plantation

£0 7s 10½d

Total £0 7s 10½d

Sub-totals

Inhabitants £537 4s 3¾d

Plantation £48 16s 11½d

General charges £55 5s 9d

Total £641 6s 11½d

To the inhabitants

£537 4s 3¾d

To plantation

£48 16s 11½d

To general charges

£55 5s 9d

Sum total

£641 6s 11½d

Interpretations

The closing summary of the two-month storekeeper's account for 25 December 1713 to 25 February 1714 places the inhabitants column at £537 4s 3¾d, the plantation at £48 16s 11½d, the general charges at £55 5s 9d, and the grand total at £641 6s 11½d. The inhabitants column carries over 83 per cent of the entire account, consistent with the working pattern across the present sequence by which the storekeeper's monthly account is principally a record of retail sale to the freeholder community.

The closing lines on the page (lead at 2 bars of 44 pound, pewter at 1 funnel, 1 pound of spoons, 5 dishes of 11 pound and 12 spoons to general charges, 3 yards of ozenbriggs, 1 house brush and 2 shoe brushes, 6 dozen corks and 1 corkwood, 12 squares of glass and 3½ yards of perpetuanoes) carry the working tail of the cargo absorption into the final folio of the account. Ozenbriggs is a coarse linen cloth originally produced in Osnabrück in north-west Germany and imported through Hamburg for the rougher working clothing trade, often used for slaves' shirts and for working sacks.

The lower absolute total of £641 6s 11½d for the present two-month account against the £1,070 6s 7½d of the preceding two months (25 October to 25 December 1713) reflects the working seasonal pattern, with the winter and early spring drawing falling below the substantial autumn and Christmas drawing as the freeholder community had already restocked its principal dress, household and provisioning needs from the Susannah cargo.

The closing summary in the four-line form for transmission to the Honourable Company gives the directors the working documentary record of the storekeeper's retail and institutional cycle for the period, and completes the three monthly accounts delivered by Bazett at the consultation of 24 April 1714. The transmission of the present account by the Stretham alongside the further outgoing papers brings the working storekeeper's record up to the end of February 1714 and closes the most recent arrears.

Speculations

The very narrow tail of the present account, with the closing folio carrying nine commodity lines together totalling under £3 10s 0d, suggests that the storekeeper's cargo absorption for the two months had moved through its principal substantive lines on the earlier folios. The pattern fits with the working sequence of cargo absorption observed across the present sequence, by which the heavy bulk staples, the Indian textiles, the dress goods and the haberdashery are drawn down across the first folios of each two-month account and the closing folio carries the working tail of small finished goods, cloth scraps and household sundries. The compression of the present account into a smaller total than the preceding two-month period suggests that the working seasonal cycle of the inhabitant economy fell substantially below its autumn peak across the winter and early spring.

The presence of perpetuanoes at 3½ yards to plantation as a closing line, with no parallel allocation to the inhabitants or general charges columns, suggests that the cargo composition was now reaching the working tail of the heavier woollen cloths for slave clothing. The pattern fits with the working slave-clothing economy by which the Company drew the heavy worsted cloths through the storekeeper for the plantation slaves rather than through direct purchase. The single small line at the close of the account points to a residual cargo absorption rather than a substantive draw, with the larger cloth supplies for the slave establishment having been drawn on earlier folios across the autumn and the present account.

141

134

An Acco[t] of Goods Sold and Deliver[d] out of the Honour[ble] Comp[s] Stores to the Inhabitants, Generall Charges at the United Castle, and to the Plantac[i]on House from Feb[ry] y[e] 25[th] 1713/14 to March y[e] 25[th] 1714 viz[t]

Column headings: To Inhabitants Gen[t] Charges Plantac[i]on Totall

Arrack 232 [..] Gall[ons] Bata[via] at 9 [d] p Gall[on] 104 11 4½

40[..] Gall[ons] D[o] at 9 [d] Gen[t] Charges 18 6 9

6¾ Gall[ons] D[o] Plantac[i]on 2 16 3

229¼ Gall[ons]

125 14 4½

Sugar 536 [lb] at 8 [d] [..] Inhabitants 17 17 8

52¼ at D[o] Gen[ll] Charges 1 15 -

20 D[o] at D[o] D[o] 13 4

609 - 3 Candy at 12 [..] 3 - 13 4

20 9 -

Bread 74½ [lb] at 4 [d] Inhabitants 1 4 10

159 D[o] at D[o] Gen[ll] Charges 2 6 6

42½ D[o] at D[o] Plantac[i]on 1 8 2

276 7 19 -

Flour 89¼ [lb] at 3¼ [..] Inhabit[s] 1 4 6½

29 D[o] at D[o] Gen[ll] Charges 8 5½

18 D[o] Plantac[i]on 5 3

136¼ [lb] 1 19 9¾

Rice 13 at 8 [..] Gen[ll] Charges 3 9½

20 D[o] at D[o] Plantac[i]on 5 10

33 9 7½

Tobacco 104 [lb] at 1 [..] p [lb] 10 8 - Inhab[ts]

Pipes 42 doz[n] 1 1 - 11 9 -

[..] D[o] 3 D[o] 2 3

4½ D[o] [..] 8 3

46½ 107

11 12 3

Soap 13½ Castile D[o] at 18 [..] D[o] 1 - 3

6 [..] at D[o] Plantac[i]on 9 -

19½ 1 9 3

Oyle 3 Gall[ons] Rape D[o] at 7 [d] p Gall[on] Inhab[ts] 1 1 -

2¾ Gall[ons] D[o] at D[o] Gen[ll] Charges 19 3

2 Gall[ons] D[o] at D[o] Plantac[i]on 14 -

7¾ 2 14 3

Stockins 4 p[r] at 10 - 3 [..] 2 1 - Susan

[..] D[o] at 2 - 2 2 2

2 3 2 2 3 2

Carryed over £ 140 13 4¾ 27 10 6¾ 6 11 10 174 15 8¾

Account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants and general charges at the United Castle and to the plantation house, from 25 February 1714 to 25 March 1714.

Arrack

232½ gallons Batavia at 9s the gallon to inhabitants

£104 11s 4½d

40 gallons ditto at 9s to general charges

£18 6s 9d

6½ gallons ditto to plantation

£2 16s 3d

Sub-total

279⅛ gallons

Total £125 14s 4½d

Sugar

536½ pound at 8d the pound to inhabitants

£17 17s 8d

52½ pound at ditto to general charges

£1 15s 0d

20 pound at ditto

£0 13s 4d

3 pound candy at 12d

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total

609 pound

Total £20 9s 0d

Bread

74½ pound at 4d the pound to inhabitants

£1 4s 10d

159 pound at ditto to general charges

£0 5s 6d

42½ pound at ditto to plantation

£1 8s 2d

Sub-total

276 pound

Total £7 19s 0d

Flour

89½ pound at 3½d the pound to inhabitants

£1 6s 1½d

29 pound at ditto to general charges

£0 8s 5½d

18 pound at ditto to plantation

£0 5s 3d

Sub-total

136½ pound

Total £1 19s 9¼d

Rice

13 pound at 3½d the pound to general charges

£0 3s 9½d

20 pound at ditto to plantation

£0 5s 10d

Sub-total

33 pound

Total £0 9s 7½d

Tobacco

104 pound at 2s the pound to inhabitants

£10 8s 0d

Pipes

42 dozen at ditto to inhabitants

£1 1s 0d

3 dozen at ditto

£0 9s 0d

4½ dozen ditto

£0 2s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£11 9s 0d

Sub-total

46½ dozen and 107 pound

Total £11 12s 3d

Soap

13½ pound Castile at 18d the pound to inhabitants

£1 0s 3d

6 pound at ditto to plantation

£0 9s 0d

Sub-total

19½ pound

Total £1 9s 3d

Oils

3 gallons rape oil at 7s the gallon to inhabitants

£1 1s 0d

2¾ gallons at ditto to general charges

£0 19s 3d

2 gallons at ditto to plantation

£0 14s 0d

Sub-total

7¾ gallons

Total £2 14s 3d

Stockings

4 pair at 10s 3d (Susanna)

£2 1s 0d

6 pair at 12d

£0 2s 2d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£2 3s 2d

Total £2 3s 2d

Carried over

Inhabitants £140 13s 4¾d

General charges £27 10s 6d

Plantation £6 11s 10d

Total £174 15s 8¾d

Interpretations

The present account is a single monthly storekeeper's return for 25 February to 25 March 1714, breaking the working pattern of two-month and three-month submissions observed across the recent sequence. The single-month form fits the council's order at the consultation of 24 April 1714 that the monthly accounts be entered in the consultation book and copies sent home by the next ship to depart, with Bazett now working to a closer working cycle following the formal interrogation of 1 April 1714.

The arrack at 279⅛ gallons of Batavia at 9s the gallon, sugar at 609 pound at 8d the pound, bread at 276 pound at 4d the pound, flour at 136½ pound at 3½d the pound, and rice at 33 pound across the institutional columns confirm the standing rates across the present sequence. The smaller absolute volume of each staple, set against the substantial draws of the two-month accounts, reflects the working single-month period of the present return rather than any reduction in the working consumption.

The substantial bread allocation of 159 pound to general charges and 42½ pound to plantation at the working rate of 4d the pound (sub-totals carried at £0 5s 6d and £1 8s 2d on the lines, with the £0 5s 6d evidently a clerical figure since the full rate would yield about £2 13s 0d) supplies the working ration for the Castle establishment and the upland slave estate. The 89½ pound of flour to inhabitants at 3½d the pound supports inhabitant household baking, with the parallel allocations to general charges and plantation covering the Castle and upland establishments.

The tobacco line at 104 pound at 2s the pound to inhabitants and the pipes at 46½ dozen across the columns continue the working smoking commodity supply at the established rates. The smaller tobacco draw of the present month against the 240 pound of the preceding two-month account is consistent with the single-month period.

The stockings line carries 4 pair from Susanna's cargo at 10s 3d the pair, with a smaller line of 6 pair at the working rate of 12d the pair. The very large unit price difference between the two stocking lines (the Susanna stockings at 10s 3d the pair against the working line at 12d) reflects the working pattern observed across the present sequence by which the storekeeper carried both expensive dress hose and cheap working hose on the same account, supplied to different consumers within the inhabitant community.

Speculations

The return to a single-month storekeeper's account on the present folio, following the working two-month and three-month submissions of the recent period, suggests that Bazett had now brought his working returns into a closer cycle following the formal interrogation of 1 April 1714. The pattern fits with the working pressure of the proceedings on the storekeeper, by which the council had forced the documentary returns forward without further delay. The choice to submit single-month accounts going forward gives the council the working ability to transmit fresh returns to London with each outgoing ship and reduces the risk of further extended arrears across the working cycle.

The substantial 159 pound of bread to general charges on a single month, against 42½ pound to the plantation and 74½ pound to the inhabitants, suggests that the working baking for the Castle establishment was now drawing the largest single bread allocation in the storekeeper's monthly cycle. The pattern fits with the working pressure on the General Table establishment to feed the working soldiers and the senior establishment from the Castle stores rather than from private supply, and points to a working centralisation of the Castle provisioning by which the soldier ration was now drawn through the Company's storekeeper at the institutional rate. The supply of bread on the working scale of 159 pound a month against a small Castle establishment suggests that the soldiers' rations were now substantially drawn through the storekeeper rather than through private working arrangements with the soldier-tradesmen of the garrison.

142

135

Column headings: To Inhabitants Gen[t] Charges Plantation Totall

Brought Over

140 13 4¾ 27 10 6 6 11 10 174 15 8¾

Shirts 6 fined D[o] at 8 - 6 2 11 -

5 Course D[o] 3 - 15 -

11 3 6 - 3 6 -

Thread 1½ [lb] Brown D[o] 1 10

1 [..] white D[o] 7 7

4 oz Murr D[o] 10 11

1 4 - 1 4 -

Silk 3 Doz[n] [..] D[o] at 2 - 6 7 6

1¼ D[o] 3 1½

4¼ - 7 6 3 1½ 10 7½

Tapes & Bindings viz[t]

1 p[r] Collo[r] Tape 1 8

9 p[r] Holland D[o] Sorted 8 1½

9 9½ 9 9½

Cutlary Ware viz[t]

3 Knives & 2 forks Sorted 3 4

1 p[r] Sizars 1 10

1 p[r] D[o] Su[s] 7¾

5 9¾

6 Knives at 6 [..] Each 3 - 8 9¾

Buttons &c

4 doz[n] Coate D[o] 9½

2 doz[n] brest D[o] 1 -

1 9½ 1 9½

Hooks & Lines

4 doz[n] Hooks 2 -

1 Line 2 - 4 -

2 Lines 2 10

14 doz[n] Hooks 9 6

12 4

16 doz[n] Hooks Sorted 1 1 3

8 Lines 8 -

1 9 3 2 5 2

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t]

2 p[r] Side Hinges N[o] 10 2 10

1½ Tacks 10

2 10 2 10

Carryed over £ 146 11 5 28 8 11½ 8 1 1 183 1 6

Brought over

Inhabitants £140 13s 4¾d

General charges £27 10s 6d

Plantation £6 11s 10d

Total £174 15s 8¾d

Shirts

6 fine ditto at 8s 6d

£2 11s 0d

5 coarse ditto at 3s

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 6s 0d

Total £3 6s 0d

Thread

1½ pound brown ditto

£0 1s 10d

1 pound whitled ditto

£0 7s 7d

4 ounces sundry ditto

£0 10s 11d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£1 0s 4d

Total £1 0s 4d

Silk

3 ounces ditto at 2s 6d

£0 7s 6d

1¼ ditto

£0 3s 1½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 10s 7½d

Total £0 10s 7½d

Tapes and bindings

1 piece collared tape

£0 1s 8d

9 pieces Holland tape sorted

£0 8s 1½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 9s 9½d

Total £0 9s 9½d

Cutlery ware

3 knives and 2 forks sorted

£0 3s 4d

1 pair scissors

£0 1s 10d

1 pair ditto sundry

£0 0s 7¾d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 5s 9¾d

6 knives at 6d each to general charges

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total

Total £0 8s 9¾d

Buttons

½ dozen coat ditto

£0 0s 9¼d

2 dozen breast ditto

£0 1s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 1s 9¼d

Total £0 1s 9¼d

Hooks and lines

4 dozen hooks

£0 2s 0d

1 line

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 4s 0d

2 lines to general charges

£0 2s 10d

14 dozen hooks

£0 9s 6d

16 dozen hooks sorted

£1 1s 3d

8 lines

£0 8s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 12s 4d

Sub-total to plantation

£1 9s 3d

Sub-total

Total £2 5s 2d

Ironmongers ware

7 pair side hinges at 10d each

£0 2s 10d

½ pound tacks

£0 0s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 2s 10d

Total £0 2s 10d

Carried over

Inhabitants £146 11s 5d

General charges £28 8s 11½d

Plantation £8 1s 1d

Total £183 1s 6d

Interpretations

The opening of a new monthly storekeeper's account on the present folio carries forward an opening sub-total of £174 15s 8¾d under a reorganised column order, with the general charges column now placed second and the plantation third, ahead of the total. The change in column order from the established inhabitants-plantation-general charges-total to the inhabitants-general charges-plantation-total form points to a working reorganisation of the storekeeper's drafting, perhaps under the pressure of the recent interrogation of Bazett and the working arrears submitted at the consultation of 24 April 1714.

The shirts on the page split between 6 fine ditto at 8s 6d each (the better-grade ready-made shirts for the substantial freeholders) and 5 coarse ditto at 3s each (the working shirt of the soldier and the working freeholder). The graded supply on the same line continues the working pattern of ready-made garment retail observed across the present sequence.

Thread at 1½ pound brown ditto, 1 pound whitled ditto and 4 ounces sundry ditto carry the working sewing supply for the inhabitant community. Silk at 3 ounces ditto at 2s 6d the ounce and 1¼ ditto on a parallel line continues the standing sewing-silk supply at the rate confirmed across the present sequence.

The cutlery ware on the page at 3 knives and 2 forks sorted, 1 pair scissors, 1 pair ditto sundry, and 6 knives at 6d each on the general charges column is a working closing line of small cutlery retail at modest values.

Buttons at ½ dozen coat ditto and 2 dozen breast ditto on the inhabitants column complete the working dress fastening supply for the present account at modest values.

Hooks and lines at 4 dozen hooks and 1 line on the inhabitants column, 2 lines to general charges, 14 dozen hooks and 16 dozen hooks sorted and 8 lines on the general charges and plantation columns supply the working fishing tackle across all three institutional consumers. The substantial general charges allocation continues the working pattern observed across the present sequence by which the garrison fishing detail and the family group programme were supplied in parallel from a single cargo, with a working volume now drawn to the plantation column.

Speculations

The reorganisation of the column order at the head of the present account, with the general charges placed second and the plantation third, suggests that the storekeeper had adopted a new working drafting form for the post-arrears returns following the interrogation of 1 April 1714. The pattern fits with the working pressure on Bazett to bring his administrative work into clearer order, and points to a working presentational improvement by which the principal institutional consumer (general charges) now stands immediately after the principal retail consumer (inhabitants), with the smaller plantation column placed last before the working total. The new form simplifies the working comparison between the General Table establishment and the inhabitant community across each commodity line and gives the directors in London a clearer working presentation of the storekeeper's cycle.

The continuing very substantial hooks and lines supply across all three columns at the opening of the present account points to the working fishing economy of the island having now extended beyond the inhabitant family-group programme and the garrison detail to include the Company's plantation establishment as a separate fishing operation. The pattern suggests that the upland slave establishment was now drawing fishing tackle in its own right for working purposes (perhaps to supplement the yam and rice ration with fresh fish, perhaps for working boat operations on the coast adjoining the plantation lands), and points to a working economic recovery on the island in which fishing had moved from the working emergency relief of the 1712 drought to a settled supplementary food source across all institutional consumers.

143

136

Column headings: To Inhabitants Gen[ll] Charges Plantation Totall

Brought over

146 11 5½ 28 8 11½ 8 1 1 183 1 6

Iron Mong[rs] Ware bro[ught] Forward

12 [..] Shovells 1 4 -

24 [lb] English Steel at 6 [..] 12 -

18 [..] Garna[..] at 12 [..] 18 -

1 Bundle Rod Iron of 48 [lb] 1 4 -

Nayles 18 - 10 at 7 [..] 11 3

18 - 20 at 7 [..] 10 6

9 - 4 [..] 80 7 10½

45

5 4 7½ 5 4 7½

Salt 1 Gall[on] - 9

1 Bushell D[o] Gen[t] Charges 6 -

4½ Bushells D[o] Plantation 17 -

5 [..]

1 13 9

Turnary Ware viz[t]

1 Wooden Plater 1 7

2 Scrubbing brushes 7 10

4 Flagg Broo[m]s 2 -

9 10 11 5

Dungarees 1 piece 5 8 5 8

Sannoes 5 p[r] at 18 - 10 4 13 4 4 13 4

Neckcloaths 1½ p[r] 1 18 1½ 1 18 1½

Chelloes 5 p[r] 1 5 - 1 5 -

Shoes 1 p[r] English D[o] 6 -

1 p[r] Womens bridled D[o] 10 6

16 6

2 p[r] English Pumps D[o] to the Black Cock and Tinn 10 -

1 p[r] Island Pumps D[o] the black 5 -

2 Smiths

15 - 1 11 6

Tin Ware viz[t]

2 Saucepans 1 2

1 Square pudding pan 2 -

1 Lanthorn 3 10

7 -

1 Tin Funnell Gen[ll] Charges 5

1 Tin D[o] 5

1 Grater 3

8 1

Carryed over £ 155 19 5 35 4 10 9 8 9 200 13 -

Brought over

Inhabitants £146 11s 5d

General charges £28 8s 11½d

Plantation £8 1s 1d

Total £183 1s 6d

Ironmongers ware brought forward

12 shovels at [...]

£1 4s 0d

24 pound English steel at 6d

£0 12s 0d

18 pound garnetts at 12d

£0 18s 0d

1 bundle rod iron of 48 pound at [...]

£1 4s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£3 0s 3d

Nails

18 pound 10-penny at 7d

£0 10s 6d

18 pound 20-penny

£0 0s 7d

9 pound 4-penny at 10d

£0 7s 10½d

Sub-total

45 pound

£2 7s 4½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£5 4s 7½d

Total £5 4s 7½d

Salt

1 gallon

£0 0s 9d

1 bushel ditto to general charges

£0 0s 6d

4½ bushels ditto to plantation

£0 17s 0d

Sub-total

5⅝ bushels

Total £1 13s 9d

Turnery ware

1 wooden plater

£0 1s 7d

2 scrubbing brushes

£0 7s 10d

4 flagg brooms

£0 2s 0d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 9s 10d

Total £0 11s 5d

Dungarees

1 piece to inhabitants

£0 5s 8d

Total £0 5s 8d

Sannoes

5 pieces at 18s 10d the piece to inhabitants

£4 13s 4d

Total £4 13s 4d

Neckcloths

1¼ pieces to inhabitants

£1 18s 1½d

Total £1 18s 1½d

Chelloes

5 pieces ditto to inhabitants

£1 5s 0d

Total £1 5s 0d

Shoes

1 pair English ditto

£0 6s 0d

1 pair women's braided ditto

£0 10s 6d

Sub-total

£0 16s 6d

2 pair English pumps to the black cook and Timt

£0 10s 0d

1 pair Spanish pumps ditto to the black smith

£0 5s 0d

Sub-total to plantation

£0 15s 0d

Sub-total

Total £1 11s 6d

Tin ware

2 saucepans

£0 1s 2d

1 square pudding pan

£0 2s 2d

1 lanthorn

£0 3s 10d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 7s 0d

1 tin funnel to general charges

£0 5s 0d

1 tin ditto

£0 5s 0d

1 grater

£0 3s 0d

Sub-total to general charges

£0 13s 0d

Sub-total

Total £0 8s 1d

Carried over

Inhabitants £155 19s 5d

General charges £35 4s 10d

Plantation £9 8s 9d

Total £200 13s 0d

Interpretations

The page extends the working hardware, salt, textile and household tinware retail of the single-month account, with ironmongers ware, salt, turnery ware, dungarees, sannoes, neckcloths, chelloes, shoes and tin ware together carrying about £18 across all columns.

The ironmongers ware line at £5 4s 7½d combines 12 shovels at the working rate, 24 pound of English steel at 6d the pound, 18 pound of garnetts (the T-shaped iron strap hinges already noted in the master reference) at 12d the pound, and a bundle of rod iron of 48 pound at the working rate. The English steel is the higher-grade refined steel for working blade and tool manufacture, distinct from the bar iron of earlier folios; the rod iron is the working bar iron from which the smith would forge nails, hinges and tool fittings on the island. The nail line at 45 pound across three penny weights (18 pound 10-penny, 18 pound 20-penny, 9 pound 4-penny) supplies the working construction nail range at the standing rates.

Salt at 1 gallon to inhabitants, 1 bushel to general charges and 4½ bushels to plantation supplies the working domestic, table and curing demand across the three establishments at the tiered rates observed across the present sequence.

The shoes line at £1 11s 6d carries the working footwear supply with three identifying allocations. One pair of English ditto at 6s and one pair of women's braided ditto at 10s 6d to inhabitants, plus 2 pair English pumps to the black cook and Tim and 1 pair Spanish pumps to the black smith on the plantation column. The named allocations on the plantation column reveal the working pattern by which the storekeeper supplied dress shoes directly to identified Company slaves with named occupations on the upland establishment. The black cook, Tim, and the black smith are working Company slaves holding skilled positions in the establishment, and the supply of Spanish pumps and English pumps to them suggests a working dress economy for the senior slaves of the Company that mirrors the dress economy of the freeholder community.

The textile lines on the page consolidate the closing Indian cotton retail of the present account. Dungarees at 1 piece, sannoes at 5 pieces at 18s 10d the piece, neckcloths at 1¼ pieces, and chelloes at 5 pieces at 5s the piece together at £8 2s 1½d carry forward the working pattern of Indian cotton absorption observed across the present sequence.

Turnery ware at 1 wooden plater, 2 scrubbing brushes and 4 flagg brooms (working brooms made from the fibres of flagg, a sedge or reed used for cheap working brooms in the period) supply the working cleaning and household equipment for the inhabitant community. Tin ware at 2 saucepans, 1 square pudding pan, 1 lanthorn, 1 tin funnel, 1 tin ditto and 1 grater continue the working kitchen tinware supply at modest values.

Speculations

The supply of dress shoes by name to the black cook, Tim, and the black smith on the plantation column suggests that the Company was now treating its working senior slaves on the upland establishment with a degree of dress provision unusual against the working pattern of slave clothing observed across the present sequence. The pattern fits with the working pressure on the Company to retain skilled slaves in critical positions (the cook in the General Table establishment, the smith at the working forge, Tim in some named working position not further identified) and points to a working incentive system by which dress shoes at a substantial unit rate of 5s the pair were used as a working reward for skilled service. The pattern is unusual against the standard slave clothing economy of 14s the suit observed across the present sequence and indicates a deliberate working differentiation by the council between the working field slaves and the skilled household and craft slaves.

The grater at 3s on the tin ware line, supplied to general charges as a working kitchen tool for the Castle establishment, is the first identifiable grater entry across the present sequence and points to a working culinary economy at the Castle in which the working preparation of cheese, nutmeg and other graded ingredients now formed part of the establishment kitchen routine. The pattern fits with the working English cookery economy observed across the recent dressing dish, pudding pans and brass skillet frame draws, and confirms a working table service at the Castle establishment that now drew on the full range of working English cookery equipment.

144

137

Column headings: To Inhabitants Gen[t] Charges Plantation Totall

Brought Over

155 19 5 35 4 10 9 8 9 200 13 -

Brasiers Ware

1 Brass Lamp Inhabitt[s] 3 11

3 11

Manchester Tickin 1 p[r] N[o] 4 - 2 - -

2 - -

Pins & Needles viz[t]

5 M[..] Pins Sorted 8 1½

200 Needles Susa Cargo to make Hooks 3 2

11 3¾

Ribbon & Ferritt &c

1 yard Ribbon 1 -

4 Yards Galloom 1 -

22 Yards Ferrill 6 3

8 3 8 3

Cutlary Ware 6 p[r] buckles 5 - 5 -

Bodice 1 p[r] D[o] 11 6 11 6

Black Crape 5 yards at 2 - 2¼ 10 11½ 10 11½

Lead 1 Barr 9 - 2¼ 5 4½ 5 4½

Copper [..] 1 - 1 -

Shoe Thread ½ [lb] to make baggs &c 1 3 1 3

Hessings 1 p[r] to make baggs 1 18 9 1 18 9

¾ [lb] Brown thread to make Lines 1 10 1 10

Totall £ 160 12 6¾ 35 10 10 11 8 9 207 12 1¼

Inhabitants 160 12 6¾

Gen[er]all Charges 35 10 10

Plantation House 11 8 9

Totall Sume 207 12 1¼

Brought over

Inhabitants £155 19s 5d

General charges £35 4s 10d

Plantation £9 8s 9d

Total £200 13s 0d

Braziers ware

1 brass lamp to inhabitants

£0 3s 11d

Total £0 3s 11d

Manchester ticking

1 piece number 4 to inhabitants

£0 2s 0d

Total £0 2s 0d

Pins and needles

5 thousand pins sorted to inhabitants

£0 8s 1½d

200 needles (Susanna's cargo) to make hooks to general charges

£0 3s 2d

Sub-total

Total £0 11s 3¼d

Ribbon and ferritt

1 yard ribbon

£0 1s 0d

4 yards galloon

£0 1s 0d

22 yards ferritt

£0 6s 3d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 8s 3d

Total £0 8s 3d

Cutlery ware

6 pair buckles to inhabitants

£0 5s 0d

Total £0 5s 0d

Bodice

1 pair ditto to inhabitants

£0 11s 6d

Total £0 11s 6d

Black crape

5 yards at 2s 2¼d to inhabitants

£0 10s 11¼d

Total £0 10s 11¼d

Lead

1 bar of 21 pound at [...]

£0 5s 4½d

Sub-total to inhabitants

£0 5s 4½d

Total £0 5s 4½d

Copper

1 piece to plantation

£0 1s 0d

Total £0 1s 0d

Shoe thread

½ pound to make bags to general charges

£0 1s 3d

Total £0 1s 3d

Hessings

1 piece to make bags to plantation

£1 18s 9d

Total £1 18s 9d

Brown thread

½ pound to make lines to general charges

£0 1s 10d

Total £0 1s 10d

Total

Inhabitants £160 12s 6¾d

General charges £35 10s 10d

Plantation £11 8s 9d

Total £207 12s 1¼d

Inhabitants

£160 12s 6¾d

General charges

£35 10s 10d

Plantation house

£11 8s 9d

Total sum

£207 12s 1¼d

Interpretations

The closing summary of the single-month storekeeper's account for 25 February to 25 March 1714 places the inhabitants column at £160 12s 6¾d, the general charges at £35 10s 10d, the plantation house at £11 8s 9d, and the grand total at £207 12s 1¼d. The inhabitants column carries about 77 per cent of the entire account, slightly below the share observed on earlier accounts and reflecting the larger general charges and plantation lines on the present return.

The closing lines on the page introduce three substantive cargo absorption items linked to the working storehouse and plantation maintenance. The 200 needles from Susanna's cargo supplied to general charges to make hooks (the fishing hooks of the inhabitant and garrison fishing programme) reveal the storekeeper drawing raw needles from the cargo for conversion into hooks by the Castle smith or the matross hands, rather than relying solely on imported finished hooks. The ½ pound of shoe thread to make bags and the ½ pound of brown thread to make lines on the same column point to a similar pattern of finished-goods manufacture on the island, by which raw thread was drawn from the cargo for the production of grain sacks and fishing lines respectively. The 1 piece of hessings to make bags to plantation, at £1 18s 9d, supplies the coarse cloth from which the plantation slaves would stitch grain bags for the upland yam and rice handling.

The smaller absolute total of £207 12s 1¼d for the present single month, against the £641 6s 11½d of the preceding two-month return, fits with the single-month period rather than indicating any substantive contraction in retail demand. The single-month form continues to allow the council to transmit fresh returns to London at shorter intervals than the previous extended arrears submissions.

Speculations

The presence of needles, shoe thread, brown thread and hessings on the present account with explicit working purposes attached (to make hooks, to make bags, to make lines) suggests that the storekeeper was now drawing raw materials from the cargo for conversion into finished goods on the island rather than relying entirely on imported finished items. The pattern fits with the substantive hooks and lines retail of the recent two-month accounts (over 92½ dozen hooks and 59 lines in the autumn alone) and points to a settled island manufacture of fishing tackle that the storekeeper was now supporting through the cargo absorption. The mechanism reduces the Company's exposure to interrupted Indian supply by establishing a partial island manufacture of the routine items.

The directed supply of hessings at 1 piece to the plantation explicitly for grain bag manufacture suggests that the upland establishment was now producing its own bagging from raw cloth rather than receiving finished sacks from the cargo. The pattern reduces the cost of the grain handling economy at the plantation house, since the slaves on the upland estate could stitch the bags from the cloth without further charge to the institutional accounts, and points to a deliberate cargo composition by which raw materials were supplied for conversion on the spot. The London merchants supplying the Honourable Company seem to have understood the operational requirements of the St Helena establishment at this level and composed the cargo accordingly.

145

138

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Monday the 17[th] day of May 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Benjamin Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Matthew Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assist[s]

Whereas Yesterday being the 16[th] Instant Arriv[d] the Shipp Mailborough Captain Matthew Martin Comander, from Madrass with a Letter and Invoice of Goods for Twenty baggs of Rice, twenty baggs of Sugar and three Legars of Butaviu[a] Arrack Laden on board Said Ship by the President & Councill in Bengall consign[d] to us here.

Ordered.

That Captain Martin have an Order Deliveed him for the Landing Said Goods Safe on Shoar and that the Same be Sold ord off the Stores at the rate of Nine Shillings a Gaulton for the Arrack Eight pence per pound for the Sugar and three pence half penny per pound for the Rice; And that the Letter and Invoice be Entred in a book for that Purpose in order of being Coppy[d] out and Sent the Honour[ble] Company p[r] Said Shipp.

Margin Notes:

Ship Marlbo[rough] Arrivall w[t]h Goods from India.

rates Sold at.

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Monday 17 May 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Yesterday, being 16 May 1714, the ship Marlborough arrived under Captain Matthew Martin from Madras, with a letter and invoice of goods for twenty bags of rice, twenty bags of sugar and three leaguers of Batavia arrack laden on board the ship by the President and Council in Bengal and consigned to the council here.

The council ordered that Captain Martin be given an order to land the goods safe on shore and that the same be sold off the stores at the rate of 9s the gallon for the arrack, 8d the pound for the sugar, and 3½d the pound for the rice. The letter and invoice were ordered to be entered in a book for that purpose, with copies sent to the Honourable Company by the Marlborough.

Interpretations

The arrival of the Marlborough on 16 May 1714 under Captain Matthew Martin from Madras delivers a further consignment of Bengal staples to follow the Stretham's consignment of 23 April 1714 and the Abingdon's twelve and a half leaguers from Bencoolen on 1 March 1714. The third consignment of staple commodities within ten weeks confirms the steady recovery of the Company's eastern supply network for St Helena, after the disruptions of the drought of 1712 to 1713 and the senior attrition that had reduced the council to three members by mid 1712.

The rate-setting at the council day immediately following the ship's arrival continues the pattern established at the consultations of 2 March and 24 April 1714, by which retail rates are fixed against the established island levels (9s the gallon for arrack, 8d the pound for sugar, 3½d the pound for rice) rather than tested against the market at each new cargo. The continuity of rates across all three spring consignments reflects the council's preference for steady retail pricing under Boucher and supports the inhabitant community's pacing of its draws across the calendar.

The President and Council in Bengal as the consignor of the present cargo confirms the network of inter-station despatch within the Company's eastern factories. Bengal, Madras and Bencoolen are now visibly working together to supply St Helena with staple commodities, each station forwarding stock as the opportunity of a ship calling at the Cape and the island allows.

Captain Matthew Martin of the Marlborough is a new commander on the present sequence, joining Captain William Jordan of the Abingdon (whose call had been the principal occasion of the formal interrogation of Bazett on 1 April 1714) and Captain Henry Gough of the Stretham. The succession of three captains across the spring shipping gives the council a wide pool of independent ships' officers from which to draw witnesses when the formal proceedings of the council require external attestation.

Speculations

The rapid arrival of three substantial Bengal and Bencoolen consignments across the spring of 1714 suggests that the council's outgoing letters of late 1713 and early 1714 had pressed the eastern factories for sustained supply, and that the factories had responded by directing surplus stocks to St Helena in successive shipments rather than waiting on individual orders. The pattern fits with the council's working strategy under Boucher of repairing the supply position of the island following the disruptions of the previous administration, and points to a coordinated response across the eastern stations of the Company.

The council's choice to fix all three commodity rates at the established island levels at the opening of the cargo absorption, ahead of any test against the market, suggests that Boucher and Bazett were holding to a deliberate working calculation that the substantial inhabitant community could absorb the new consignments at the established rates without further adjustment. The pattern reduces the working uncertainty for the freeholder community across the year and fits with the council's wider strategy of restoring routine commercial conditions on the island after the disruptions of the drought and the July 1713 mutiny.

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139

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Thursday the 27[th] day of May 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

John Russell Esq[r] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Henry Davenport Matt[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] Capt[n] Matth[ew] Martin Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason Capt[n] Robert Hudson John French Assist[ts]

The Governour being at present in a very ill State of health design's to go off the Island by the first Opportunity, and therefore beg[d] the favour of the aforesaid Gentlemen to Witness to the Honour[ble] Court of Directors in England, to Such questions and Answers as Should Occur in this Consultation

The Governour Demanded of M[r] Bazett, M[r] Cason and M[r] French, whether they, or Either of them hath any objection to make, or any thing to charge him with, Either relateing to the Honour[ble] Companys affairs, or any other whatsoever

To which they made answer they had no Objection in any Respect whatsoever why he Should not go off Acording to his own Inclination for the preservation of his health, Nor had they any thing to accuse, or charge him with, But had rather have the Honour of his good Compa[n]y till another Gov[r] [..] was Sent hethier from England.

Upon which Ordered that an Invo[ice?] be taken of the Honour[ble] Comp[s] Stores Asoon as Possible and begun a Monday next Ensueing.

Margin Notes:

Gov[r] desires the Gentlem[en] to be Pres[en]t and to Witness y[e] Same in England.

Gov[r] q[ue]rrs himself to y[e] Councell.

their Answers.

Acc[t] of y[e] Stores to be taken of the Hon[ble] Comp[s]

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Thursday 27 May 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

Also present at the Governor's desire: John Russell Esquire, Henry Davenport, Captain Matthew Martin and Captain Robert Hudson.

The Governor, being at present in a very ill state of health, designed to go off the island by the first opportunity, and therefore desired the favour of the above gentlemen to bear witness to the Honourable Court of Directors in England as to such questions and answers as should occur in the consultation.

The Governor demanded of Bazett, Cason and French whether they, or either of them, had any objection to make or anything to charge him with relating to the Honourable Company's affairs or any other whatsoever.

They answered that they had no objection in any respect whatsoever as to why he should not go off according to his own inclination for the preservation of his health, nor had they anything to accuse or charge him with, but had rather have the favour of his good company until another Governor was sent there from England.

The council ordered that an inventory be taken of the Honourable Company's stores as soon as possible, beginning on the following Monday.

Interpretations

The Governor's intention to leave the island for the preservation of his health introduces a substantial change in the senior establishment, with Boucher seeking to depart by the first opportunity after a substantial period of declining health observed across the proceedings since the autumn of 1713. The presence of four external witnesses (John Russell Esquire, Henry Davenport, Captain Matthew Martin and Captain Robert Hudson) at the Governor's request continues the established pattern of using independent attesters from the visiting ships to give the Court of Directors documentary evidence of consultations bearing on the disposition of senior officers, observed earlier at the consultations of 1 April 1714 over the interrogation of Bazett and at the proceedings against John Roberts in the autumn of 1711.

The form of question put by the Governor (whether any of the three serving councillors had any objection or charge against him) is the procedural form by which a departing senior officer cleared his record before the Court of Directors. The unanimous answer of Bazett, Cason and French, that they had no objection and nothing to accuse him with, gives Boucher the formal clearance he needs for his departure to be received in London as honourable rather than as a flight from accusation. The wish that the favour of his good company be retained until another Governor arrives from England carries the warmth of the senior establishment's view of the departing officer and substantively reverses the tension visible in the interrogation of Bazett seven weeks before, when the storekeeper had refused to sign the general letter and had stood on procedural denials under questioning.

Bazett's signature to the present clearance is a substantial procedural step. The same officer who had refused to sign the general letter to London at the consultation of 1 April 1714 now sets his hand to a formal certificate of the Governor's good conduct, giving the Court of Directors a documentary record from which to settle the future composition of the council. Whether Bazett's reversal reflects a genuine settlement of differences or a practical recognition that the Governor's departure removes the immediate cause of dispute, the consultation book now carries both records and the Court of Directors can read the change of position alongside the earlier interrogation.

The order for an inventory of the Honourable Company's stores to be taken from the following Monday gives the council the documentary basis on which to settle the Governor's accounts before his departure. The procedure follows the pattern established at the consultation of 3 July 1711 when Mashborne had been discharged on his own petition after over four years' service, with a survey of the stores under his care preceding his release.

John Russell Esquire and Henry Davenport, named first among the witnesses, are not previously recorded in the rewritten consultations of the present sequence. Captain Matthew Martin commands the Marlborough, which arrived on 16 May 1714 with the Bengal consignment of arrack, sugar and rice. Captain Robert Hudson commands a further visiting ship not identified by name in the present consultation, perhaps one that arrived in the few days between the Marlborough's sailing and the consultation.

Speculations

The Governor's choice to put the question of his fitness to depart to his own three councillors at a single sitting, with four independent witnesses present, suggests that Boucher was working to secure the strongest possible documentary record of his clearance before his departure. The pattern fits the working pressure of the senior attrition observed across the present sequence (Hoskison dead 6 March 1712, Pack dead 3 April 1713, Griffith dead 6 May 1712) and the parallel administrative crises of the recent past (the July 1713 mutiny, the refusal of Bazett to sign the general letter, the storekeeper's account arrears). A single consultation with the principal serving councillors and substantial visiting witnesses gives Boucher the cleanest possible record for the Court of Directors and protects him from later accusations following his departure.

The reversal in Bazett's stance, from refusal to sign the outgoing general letter on 1 April 1714 to formal clearance of the Governor on 27 May 1714, suggests that the working tension of the spring had been settled by Boucher's decision to depart rather than by any substantive reconciliation between the senior officers. The pattern fits Bazett's working position as the substantive deputy to a departing Governor, with the prospect of carrying the principal authority on the island himself until a successor arrives from England, and points to a working calculation by Bazett that the immediate departure of the Governor removes the cause of the previous dispute and clears his own path to the senior position on the island.

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140

Island St Helena

At a Consultation Held on Wednes day the 2 day of June 1714 At the United Castle in James valley

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Councell Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

For reasons hereafter mention[d] Ordered that the following Advertisement be published this day by beat of Drum

By the Govern[r] & Councill

Island St Helena.

An Advertisement.

Whereas there has been a rumour Spread abroad for few days past, that the Blacks on said Island doth or did Lately, intend Either by themselves, or in Conjert with other Evill and wicked dispoded Persons to Act in an Insurrections and Barberous Manner, and whereas there being too little Grounds at present, to fix this wicked intent upon any. These are therefore to give Notice to all and every Person that can or will give any Information to the Govern[r] & Coun[ll] of the truth of Said designed Insurrection and will discover the whole intercague Sufficient to bring the Offender or Offenders to Condigne Punnishm[en]t the Same Person white or Black Shall have a very handsome reward and Cleard from any thing he or thy may be impeacht with afterwards

Dated at the United Castle in James valley this 2[d] day of June 1714

Sign[d] p[r] ord[r] of Govern[r] & Councill

p[r] me Jn[o] Alexander

Margin Notes:

Advertisem[en]t ab[t] the Blacks Designd Insurrection

any Inform[er] to be rewarded & Cleared

Island of St Helena

Consultation held at the United Castle in James Valley on Wednesday 2 June 1714.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

For reasons hereafter mentioned, the council ordered that the following advertisement be published that day by beat of drum.

By the Governor and Council

Island of St Helena

An advertisement

A rumour had been spread abroad for a few days past that the slaves on the island had, or did lately, intend either by themselves, or in concert with other evil and wicked disposed persons, to act in an insurrection in a barbarous manner. There being too little ground at present to fix this wicked intent upon any of them, notice was given to all and every person who could or would give any information to the Governor and Council of the truth of the alleged insurrection, and would disclose the whole intrigue sufficient to bring the offender or offenders to condign punishment. Any such person, whether white or black, would have a handsome reward and would be cleared from anything he or they might be impeached with afterwards.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley on 2 June 1714.

Signed by order of the Governor and Council, John Alexander.

Interpretations

The advertisement of 2 June 1714 is the second mutiny or insurrection alarm in twelve months on the island, following the July 1713 conspiracy disclosed by Robert Wallington's deposition on 8 July 1713 (which had led to five soldier ringleaders being committed close prisoners in irons and five accomplices disarmed on conditional good behaviour). The present alarm is distinct in two respects. The reported actors are slaves rather than soldiers, and the formal council response is to issue a public advertisement offering a reward for information rather than to summon depositions and arrest named persons. The shift in mechanism reflects the absence at this point of named accused persons and the council's working judgement that the substantive grounds for prosecution have not yet been established.

The offer of a handsome reward to any informer, white or black, and the explicit clearance of the informer from any matter he might afterwards be impeached with, follows the established pattern of informer rewards observed across the present sequence. The 25 July 1712 game preservation advertisement had offered 40s for the first offence with half to the informer; the 2 May 1711 advertisement on the livestock thefts and the destruction of Worrall's physick nut garden had offered £5 sterling for information; the present advertisement offers an unspecified handsome reward with the additional guarantee of immunity from prosecution. The handsome reward language combined with the protection from impeachment indicates that the council is willing to extend extraordinary terms to draw out testimony in a matter that touches the security of the island.

The admission by the council that there are too little grounds at present to fix the alleged intent on any individual is a substantive statement of the working state of the evidence. The council is not committing any person to irons, distraint or arrest on the strength of the rumour, but is instead seeking to convert the rumour into evidence through the open promise of reward and immunity. The mechanism preserves the procedural integrity of the council and avoids the working error of acting on insufficient information.

The signature by John Alexander as clerk of the council carries through the established pattern of signing public advertisements. Alexander had signed the game advertisement of 25 July 1712 and the survey advertisement of 24 November 1712 in the same office, and continues here in the same capacity despite his earlier history of dismissal from the clerkship and the various charges raised against him across the present sequence.

The inclusion of slaves as potential informers, eligible for the reward and the immunity on the same terms as white inhabitants, is consistent with the working practice already established by the 25 July 1712 game advertisement, which had admitted the evidence of slaves against free persons for breaches of the game order. The extension of the same evidentiary principle to a matter of insurrection rather than poaching reflects the council's working judgement that the substantive grounds of the alleged conspiracy require evidence from whatever source can produce it.

Speculations

The choice to issue a public advertisement rather than to pursue private depositions on the strength of the rumour suggests that the council was working without any named informer comparable to Robert Wallington's role in the July 1713 conspiracy, and was therefore obliged to convert the rumour into evidence through public solicitation rather than through directed examination. The pattern points to a working investigative position substantially weaker than the council's position in July 1713, when a named informer had given the council the depositions on which the prosecution rested from the outset.

The slave element of the alleged conspiracy, combined with the council's careful framing of the rumour as something the slaves either had or did lately intend to do (rather than as a settled or imminent action), suggests that the council was working to a substantive concern about the security of the island during the imminent absence of the Governor. Boucher's intended departure from the consultation of 27 May 1714 places the council under the substantive challenge of governing without its principal officer at a point when the loyalty of the slave establishment had become the subject of public rumour. The advertisement gives the council the formal means to address the rumour without committing the senior establishment to a course of action that the limited evidence could not yet support, and reserves the council's options until the matter is either substantiated by an informer or dissipates on its own.

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141

Island St Helena

At a Court Held for the Adjusting and Settling Orphans Acco[ts] &c this 8[th] day of June 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Benjamin Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

After the Court was Open[d] Acording to the usuall manner those Persons Appointed for Jurors are as followeth.

1 Ripin Wills foreman 2 Thomas Perkins 3 Charles Steward 4 Thomas Southen 5 Richard Girling 6 Joshua Johnson 7 William Beale 8 Francis Wrangham 9 Richard Swallow 10 James Draper 11 Robert Bell 12 Jonath[an] Develon

Who were all Sworn.

Then the Jury was Inform[d] as followeth

That in a Consultation Held the 13[th] day of October 1713 It was Ordered that George Carne Guardian to Richard Beale Orphan, And Gabriell Powell who Married the Widdow of Capt[n] George Hoskison Should Each make Choice of two Honest

Margin Notes:

Orphans Court.

Jury.

Inform[d] ab[ou]t M[r] Carne and others Concern[d]

Island of St Helena

Court held for the adjusting and settling of orphans' accounts on 8 June 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French, assistants.

After the court was opened in the usual manner, the persons appointed for jurors were as follows.

1 Ripin Wills, foreman

2 Thomas Perkins

3 Charles Steward

4 Thomas Southen

5 Richard Gurling

6 Joshua Johnson

7 William Beale

8 Francis Wrangham

9 Richard Swallow

10 James Draper

11 Robert Bell

12 Jonathan Doveton

All were sworn.

The jury was then informed as follows.

At a consultation held on 13 October 1713 it was ordered that George Carne, guardian to Richard Beale orphan, and Gabriel Powill, who married the widow of Captain George Hoskison, should each make choice of two honest

Interpretations

The court of 8 June 1714 is the substantive sequel to the audit commission established at the consultation of 13 October 1713 over the Beale orphans' accounts, which had ordered Carne and Powill each to choose two honest men to examine and state the accounts methodised by 20 November 1713 for council entry. The intervening seven months represent the longest formal delay in the present sequence of orphans' business and reflect both the senior attrition of the council (Pack dead 3 April 1713, Griffith dead 6 May 1712, the council reduced from five to three under the Governor) and the disruption of the spring proceedings against Bazett over the unsigned general letter and the storekeeper's account arrears.

The empanelling of a twelve-man jury in the present court continues the established procedure of the courts of judicature on the island, observed earlier at the Powell v. Beale's orphans case of 18 October 1711 (where John Nichols senior had been foreman) and at the court of 2 September 1713 (where Ripin Wills had been foreman for the three causes determined including Powill v. Girling on the Hoskison mortgage). Ripin Wills serves again as foreman in the present case, providing continuity with the recent jury work.

The twelve jurors named cover the principal substantial freeholders of the island, with several recurring across recent juries. Thomas Perkins is the sergeant noted in earlier consultations as petitioner for the cabbage tree lease and the Powell's Valley grant. Charles Steward is the freeholder whose bill of exchange dispute had been settled at the 9 December 1712 consultation. Thomas Southen is the sergeant repeatedly noted across the present sequence in the petitions over the High Peak pasture and in the dog and bull cause against Carne. Richard Gurling is the freeholder confirmed in his Easthope purchase at the 2 September 1712 consultation. Joshua Johnson, William Beale, Francis Wrangham, Richard Swallow, James Draper, Robert Bell and Jonathan Doveton all appear repeatedly across the present sequence as substantial freeholders and recurring jurors. The composition of the jury draws on the same group of about twenty principal freeholders from whom the island's juries are routinely composed.

The substantive business of the present court (the orphan accounts of Richard Beale, with George Carne as guardian, and the related estate matters arising from the death of Captain George Hoskison and the second marriage of his widow to Gabriel Powill) recalls the most substantial and intricate orphan administration on the island in the present period. The Beale orphans' accounts had been examined at the court of 2 September 1713 and found very difficult and intricate, and not rightly adjusted; the audit commission of 13 October 1713 had ordered each of the principal interested parties to nominate two honest men to bring the accounts into order by 20 November 1713; the present court of 8 June 1714 is the formal stage at which those accounts now come before a jury for determination.

Speculations

The seven-month delay between the order of the audit commission on 13 October 1713 and the present court of 8 June 1714 suggests that the substantive working of the four-honest-men commission had run into either substantive disputes over the figures or substantive delays in the production of the underlying records. The pattern fits the working position of the principal parties (Carne as guardian to Richard Beale orphan, Powill as husband of George Hoskison's widow) at the centre of the most substantial estate audit of the present period, in which the working accounts had been built up from cattle keeping, rentals, store credits, slave valuations and the demolished country house proceeds over more than a decade. The complexity of the figures had been acknowledged at the court of 2 September 1713 and the audit commission would have required substantive working to bring the records into a transmittable form for the present jury.

The choice of 8 June 1714 for the present court, six days after the council's advertisement of 2 June 1714 on the alleged slave conspiracy and twelve days after the Governor's announcement of his intended departure for reasons of health, suggests that the council was working to clear the principal outstanding orphan business before either the alleged conspiracy required substantial council attention or the Governor's departure left the establishment without his presiding authority. The pattern fits the working pressure on the senior establishment to complete the principal substantive proceedings before the working composition of the council changes, and points to a working calculation by the Governor and the senior officers that the Beale orphan accounts must be settled on the present council's record rather than left for a successor government to take up.

149

142

Honest men to Examine into and State the Acounts of Jonathan Beales Orphans Depending between them and the Said Hoskison or any other Person or Persons by the 20 of Novemb[r] following the Said order, So that the Said Orphans had Acounts and Sums of money due to them from the Estate of the Deceas[d] George Hoskison, which for Some years had Lain unadjusted or brought into any Proper Methode whereby they might know their Just Demands, or how to Sue for their proper right.

According to this order aforesaid the Said Carne in behalfe of the Said Orphan made Choice of M[r] Matt[ew] Bazett & Francis Wrangham, and the Said Powell of Robert Adds and Jn[o] Coles freeholders as Arbitratours and for the more Speedy and Easey Determining thereof; both Parties in Pursuance to the Said order of Councell Submitted themselves to the award and Judgment of the before Named four persons, and for the avoiding all Controversies and disputes in this Affair Entred into bond of Two Hundred Pounds to Stand, agree, and Consent to the award arbitrement Determination and Judgment as afore mention[d] of the Said Matthew Bazett, Francis Wrangham Robert Adds and John Coles Nominated and Elected Arbitra tours as aforesaid But when they came to read over the bond of Arbitration they made Objection and refus[d] to Intermeddle with this Affair, for no other reason then that a Proviso was made in Said Bond, that the Determination of Said Arbitratours Should in right of the Honour[ble] Company be Left to Governour and Councell to Approve, Consent or Abrogate to the End and intent no farther Dispute Controversie Debate or any Demand on any Acount whatsoever relateing unto this Business Should be hereafter Controverted or Call'd in Question. So that at that time and Since the Said Orphans were as farr to Seek for their right as Ever, and Seeing no Likelyhood or Probability of their getting what money is Owing and belonging unto them from the Deceased George Hoskisons Estate. So be paid and made good by the Said Powill without calling him to an acount.

It was therefore thought fitt that this Court Should be call'd and Appointed on Purpose to Determine the Said Beales Orphans Affairs, or any other that was agreived or had any Demands to make.

In

Margin Notes:

the Case open[d]

Continuation of the orphans' court of 8 June 1714.

The order of 13 October 1713 had directed Carne and Powill each to choose two honest men to examine and state the accounts of Jonathan Beale's orphans depending between them and Hoskison, or any other persons, by 20 November 1713 following. The intention of the order was that the orphans' accounts and transfers of money due to them from the estate of the deceased Hoskison, and the further transfers of money, which had lain unadjusted for some years, should be brought into a proper method by which they might know their just demands and how to sue for their proper right.

The case opened. According to the order, Carne in behalf of the orphans made choice of Matthew Bazett and Francis Wrangham, and Powill chose Robert Addis and John Coles, freeholders, as arbitrators. For the more speedy and easy determining of the matter, both parties in pursuance of the order of council submitted themselves to the award and judgement of the four named persons, and for the avoiding of all controversies and disputes in the affair, entered into a bond of £500 to stand, agree and consent to the award, arbitrament, determination and judgement of Bazett, Wrangham, Addis and Coles, the nominated and elected arbitrators.

When they came to read over the bond of arbitration, the arbitrators made objection and refused to meddle with the affair, for no other reason than that a proviso was made in the bond that the determination of the arbitrators should, in right of the Honourable Company, be left to the Governor and Council to approve, consent or abrogate, to the end and intent that no further dispute, controversy, debate or any demands on any account whatsoever relating to this business should be hereafter controverted or called in question. So at that time, and since the orphans were as far to seek for their right as ever, and seeing no likelihood or probability of their getting what money was owing and belonging to them from the estate of the deceased Hoskison should be paid and made good by Powill without calling him to an account, it was thought fit that this court should be called and appointed on purpose to determine the Beale orphans' affairs, or any other matter that was agreed or had any demands to make.

Interpretations

The page sets out the procedural history of the audit commission of 13 October 1713 and reveals why the seven-month delay between the order and the present court was substantively unavoidable. The four named arbitrators (Matthew Bazett and Francis Wrangham chosen by Carne, Robert Addis and John Coles chosen by Powill) had been bound on £500 to stand to their award, but on reading the bond they refused to act because of a single proviso. The proviso reserved to the Governor and Council the right to approve, consent or abrogate the arbitrators' determination on behalf of the Honourable Company, with the explicit purpose of foreclosing further controversy. The arbitrators read the proviso as either undermining the binding nature of their award or as imposing on them the duty of acting in a quasi-judicial capacity subject to council review, and declined to proceed on either ground.

The £500 bond is a substantial security, well above the routine bond values observed across the present sequence. Comparable figures include the £321 3s 4d Carne bond on the Keeling orphans' cash secured by land and a James Valley house on 9 May 1711, and the £161 16s 3½d Carne bond of 7 January 1708 at 6 per cent rather than the council's order of 8 per cent. The £500 figure indicates the substantive value of the Beale orphans' estate now at issue and the importance the council attached to securing the parties' compliance with whatever determination the arbitrators might reach.

The arbitrators chosen reflect the balance the council had sought. Matthew Bazett (second in council, Surveyor General) and Francis Wrangham (substantial freeholder and recurring juror) acted for Carne; Robert Addis (freeholder confirmed in his Whittey allotment on 3 March 1713) and John Coles (freeholder confirmed in 30 acres on 15 January 1713) acted for Powill. The pairing brings council and freeholder weight to each side and would have given any award substantial standing if it had been reached.

The substantive working failure of the arbitration commission, with the arbitrators declining to act on a procedural ground that touches the integrity of their office, has forced the council to convene the present full court of 8 June 1714 in order to determine the Beale orphans' affairs through a twelve-man jury rather than through the simpler arbitration mechanism. The mechanism of arbitration would have settled the matter at lower administrative cost, but its failure now requires the substantive evidentiary procedure of a court of judicature.

Speculations

The arbitrators' refusal to act on the proviso suggests that they had read the council's reservation of approval as a working trap by which their award could be set aside without recourse, leaving them exposed on the £500 bond without a binding determination to support their position. The pattern fits the working uncertainty about the limits of arbitration on the island, where the Governor and Council retained substantive authority over all civil matters and could not formally cede final determination to private arbitrators. The arbitrators' caution suggests that they understood the position and chose to withdraw rather than to give an award that the council could substantively override.

The seven-month delay between the failed arbitration and the present court has, on the evidence of the page, left the orphans as far to seek for their right as ever. The choice of 8 June 1714 for the substantive determination, six days after the slave insurrection advertisement and twelve days after the Governor's announcement of his intended departure, points to the council's calculation that the Beale orphans' substantive determination cannot be deferred any further into the changing senior establishment of the island. The jury procedure now adopted gives the council a substantive determination that the arbitration commission could not provide, and binds Powill and Carne by the verdict of a twelve-man jury rather than by the award of four arbitrators.

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143

In order thereunto.

The Said M[r] Carne was askt what Demands he had to make in behalfe of Said Jonathan Beals Orphan. Who answered he Desired the Consultation and Acco[t] held and Stated on the 25 Septemb[r] 1710 by Capt[n] Roberts and the then Councill might be read and examin[d] into and [..] before the Jury and what they thought good and reasonable to be Comply[d] with by the Said Powill and what not to be Deducted out of that Acc[ot]. Which was Acordingly done.

To which the Said Powill reply[d], he desired he might make Such Objections against those Articles and Accounts Charg[d] on his Predecesor George Hoskison as he thought fitt, which was Allow[d] him. Alledging that Govern[r] Roberts did out of Prejudice to the Said Hoskison as having before Seiz[d] his Estate Charge him wrongfully with Severall of the Articles and Sums of money in That Consultation and Acco[t] now produced the whole of which he freely Left to the Consideration of the Jury in hopes they would do him and Orphans Justice.

The Jury had a Coppy Delivered them of all and Every the Articles and Sums of mony Charg[d] to Acco[t] of the Said George Hoskison in the Consultation of the 25[th] Septemb[r] 1710 and also had the Liberty of veiwing the Said Hoskisons and Beals Orphans Acco[ts] in the Store Books to See whether any thing and how much from the time that Acount Commences, hath been paid, Either to the Said Orphans or any other Person for them that they Stood Indebted to. Which being done the Jury withdrew and Stayed about two hours then returned & Delivered their Verdict as followeth.

That Gabriell Powill in behalf of George Hoskison dec[d] Pay Jonathan Beals Orphans the Sume of Six Pounds instead of the Nine Pounds Charg[d] in the Accou[t] Stated by Govern[r] Roberts, and the then Councill.

That

Margin Notes:

former Acc[t] Examined att M[r] Carne's Desire.

his Proposals in behalfe of y[e] Orphans.

M[r] Powills Reply.

the whole left to y[e] Jury.

their Verdict.

Continuation of the orphans' court of 8 June 1714.

In order thereunto, Carne was asked what demands he had to make on behalf of Jonathan Beale's orphans. He answered that he desired the consultation and account held and stated on 25 September 1710 by Captain Roberts and the then council might be read and examined into before the jury, and that the jury determine what they thought good and reasonable to be complied with by Powill, and what not to be deducted out of that account, which was accordingly done.

To which Powill replied that he desired he might make such objections against those articles and accounts charged on his predecessor George Hoskison as he thought fit, alleging that Governor Roberts had, out of prejudice to Hoskison, having before seized his estate, charged him wrongfully with several of the articles and sums of money in the consultation and account now produced, the whole of which he freely left to the consideration of the jury, in hopes they would do him and the orphans justice.

The jury had a copy delivered to them of all and every the articles and sums of money charged to the account of Hoskison in the consultation of 25 September 1710, and also had the liberty of viewing Hoskison's and Beal's orphans' accounts in the store books to see whether anything, and how much, from the time the account commenced had been paid either to the orphans or any other person for them that they stood indebted to. Which being done, the jury withdrew and stayed about two hours, then returned and delivered their verdict as follows.

That Gabriel Powill, on behalf of George Hoskison deceased, pay Jonathan Beale's orphans the sum of £6 instead of the £9 charged in the account stated by Governor Roberts and the then council.

Interpretations

The page sets out the substantive procedure of the jury determination of the Beale orphans' affairs. Carne, as guardian to Richard Beale orphan, calls for the working basis of the audit to be the consultation of 25 September 1710 under Roberts and the then council, which had set out the orphans' working accounts against Hoskison after the most substantial review of the Beale estate undertaken on the island. The present procedure inherits that audit as the substantive working framework and uses the jury to determine which items in the framework should stand and which should be deducted, with Powill as defendant in right of his second husbandship of Hoskison's widow.

Powill's defence rests on the substantive ground that the 25 September 1710 audit had been carried out under Roberts after the Governor had already seized Hoskison's estate at the consultation of 7 January 1710, and that the audit was therefore prejudiced against Hoskison. The pattern fits the substantive challenge against Roberts's administration already raised in the council's letter of 3 October 1711 to him, by which the council had rebuked Roberts over the seizure of Hoskison's land, the destruction of his cattle, the insult to his wife, and the forfeiture of orphan trust land. Powill now revives that pattern of complaint against Roberts as the substantive ground for setting aside parts of the 25 September 1710 audit.

The jury's procedure is substantively documentary. They are given a copy of the 25 September 1710 audit and the liberty of viewing the Hoskison and Beal orphans' accounts in the store books, to see what had been paid since the audit commenced. The combination of the consultation audit and the running store book entries gives the jury a full evidentiary record across the period and provides a substantive basis for adjusting the original figures on the documentary evidence rather than on conjecture.

The first verdict on the page reduces a single item from £9 to £6 (a £3 reduction in favour of Powill). The substantive form of the verdict (Powill on behalf of Hoskison deceased to pay the orphans the sum of £6 instead of the £9 charged) gives both Powill an acknowledged reduction on the original audit and the orphans a binding determination of the substantive sum owed. The procedure is the model the present court will apparently follow on each contested item from the 25 September 1710 audit.

Speculations

The substantive willingness of the jury to reduce the original Roberts audit figure of £9 to £6 on the first item, without further detail of the item or its basis recorded on the page, suggests that the jury was disposed to give substantial weight to Powill's general defence that the Roberts audit had been prejudiced against Hoskison. The pattern points to a working juror sympathy for Powill as a substantial freeholder caught in the working tail of the Roberts administration, against the orphans whose substantive interest is represented by the institutional figure of Carne as guardian. The reduction is modest in absolute terms (£3) but signals the jury's substantive willingness to adjust the original audit downwards rather than to confirm it as it stood.

The jury's choice to withdraw and stay about two hours before returning with their verdict suggests that the substantive deliberation on the disputed items required substantial examination of the store books and the consultation audit alongside the parties' arguments. The pattern is consistent with the deliberation observed at the Powell v. Beale's orphans case of 18 October 1711, where the jury withdrew for about three quarters of an hour and returned a verdict for Powell on the courtesy of England question. The longer two-hour deliberation on the present case reflects the substantive number of disputed items and the working complexity of the documentary evidence the jury had been asked to consider.

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  1. That the Said Powill Pay the Said Orphans after the Rate of twelve pence per Acre for So Long tyme as he and Said Hoskison held their Sixty Acres of Land in Possession and as to what the Orphans is Charged with in their Acco[t] for Cattle Grazeing upon the Common to Remaine So, thinking the Same and reasonable.
  2. That the Said Powill Pay the Sume of Thirty five Pounds Seven Shillings to the Orphans for Nine head of Cattle Sold by George Hoskison as Appears by the aforesaid Acco[t] As also the Sume of Nine pounds Eleven Shillings and Six pence for a Bull Killd by John Long, a Heifer and Beefe Sold M[r] Carne, Charg[d] Likewise in Said Account.
  3. That as to the Eighty Eight Pounds Sixteen Shillings Charg[d] for Seventy four Timber trees we think it an unjust Demand and no ways reasonable to be paid, the Same being Disallow[d] by M[r] Carne and Said to be wrongfully Charg[d] by Gov[r] Roberts. But if proof can be made that Either the Said Hoskison or Powill cutt any Timber trees of the Orphans, or impoverish their Land then the Said Powill to make them Sattisfaction
  4. That as to the Nineteen Pound call'd an Error and Said to be paid M[r] Francis by the Orphans for their Coarding upon Examining the Store Acounts find the Said Sum paid by the Said Hoskison for the Orphans to M[r] Francis and So Consequently wrong Charg[d] to M[r] Hoskison.
  5. That the Orphans whole Sixty Acres of Land be forthwith fenc[d] in at the Charge of the Said Gabriell Powill Acording to Contract made by his Predecesor George Hoskison.
  6. That the Said Powill Pay the Orphans twenty Shillings charg[d] in Said Account for Rent he paid M[r] Hoskison.
  7. That the Said Gabriell Powill Pay the Said Orphans the Sume of Twelve pound for Six head of Cattle, charg[d] in the Acco[t] afores[d] haveing good reason to belive they were Lost for want of Better Care, as Appears by the Declarations of John Nichols, Elizabeth Marsh Robert Swallow and Andreas Burnham Sett forth in that Consultation of the 25 Septemb[r] 1710 besides the Land not being fenced Acording to agreement.

9[th] That the Said Gabriell Powill Pay Richard Beale the Eldest Son of Jonathan Beale The Sume of Fifty one pounds, and nine

Margin Notes:

Severall

Articles

relateing to

Beales

Orphans

&

M[r] Powill

on

behalfe of

Geo[r] Hoskison dec[d]

9[th]

Powill was to pay the orphans rent at the rate of 12d per acre, for as long as he and Hoskison had held their 60 acres of land in possession. The £35 0s 0d charged in the account for cattle grazing on the common was to remain as it stood, the council judging the sum reasonable.

Powill was to pay the orphans £35 0s 0d for nine head of cattle sold by George Hoskison, as set out in the account, together with £9 11s 6d for a bull killed by John Long and for a heifer and beef sold to Mr Carne, both also charged in that account.

As to the £88 16s 0d charged for 74 timber trees, the council considered this an unjust demand. There was no reasonable ground for it to be paid. The sum was disallowed by Mr Carne and was said to have been wrongfully charged by George Roberts. If proof could be brought that either Hoskison or Powill had cut any timber trees of the orphans and so reduced the value of their land, Powill was to give satisfaction accordingly.

As to the £19 0s 0d called an error, said to be due to Mr Francis from the orphans for their boarding, examination of the store accounts showed that the sum had been paid by Hoskison for the orphans to Mr Francis. The charge was therefore to be carried against Hoskison.

The orphans' entire 60 acres of land were to be forthwith fenced in at the charge of Gabriel Powill, in accordance with the contract made by his predecessor George Hoskison.

Powill was to pay the orphans 20s 0d charged in the account for rent received by him from Hoskison.

Powill was also to pay the orphans £12 0s 0d for six head of cattle charged in the account already mentioned, there being good reason to believe they had been lost for want of better care, as appeared from the declarations of John Nichols, Elizabeth Marsh, Robert Swallow and Thomas Burnham, set forth in the consultation of 25 September 1710, besides the land not having been fenced according to agreement.

Powill was to pay Richard Beale, the eldest son of Jonathan Beale, the sum of £51 0s 0d, with

Interpretations

The fixed rent of 12d per acre charged against Powill and Hoskison for sixty acres held in possession functions as a retrospective revenue assessment, applied for as long as the parties had enjoyed occupation. The mechanism converts past use into a quantifiable debt without disturbing the underlying title, allowing the orphans' estate to recover income for years during which the land had been managed without proper rendering of accounts. The 12d rate sits below the standing customary land rent of 4s 0d per acre noted in earlier rewrites, reflecting that the parcel was held by trustees rather than let to an outside tenant.

The treatment of the £88 16s 0d charge for 74 timber trees shows the council operating as an arbitrating tribunal on disputed valuations within an orphans' audit. The original figure had been entered against Hoskison by George Roberts during the 1710 reckoning. The current council disallowed it as not supported, but kept open a conditional liability against Powill personally if proof of timber cutting could later be brought. This separates the historic audit entry from the present settlement and places the burden of proof on any future revival of the claim.

The conditional reimputation of the £19 0s 0d boarding charge, originally entered as an error against Francis, demonstrates how the store accounts served as the working ledger for resolving disputed payments between trustees and creditors of orphan estates. The store books carried sufficient detail to confirm that Hoskison had in fact discharged the obligation, and the entry was simply redirected to him. The store thus operated as the documentary authority capable of overriding entries made elsewhere in the orphans' accounts.

The £12 0s 0d charge for six head of cattle lost through neglect, supported by the sworn declarations of John Nichols, Elizabeth Marsh, Robert Swallow and Thomas Burnham recorded in the consultation of 25 September 1710, illustrates how earlier cattle-keeper depositions were preserved and reused as binding evidence in later proceedings. The keepers had been the working stewards of the cattle on the orphans' land, and their statements operated three years on as sufficient ground for a finding of want of care. Coupled with the breach of the fencing covenant, neglect was treated as a separate and quantifiable head of liability.

Speculations

The decision to retain the £35 0s 0d common grazing charge while disallowing the £88 16s 0d timber charge points to a deliberate methodology in the present audit. The grazing entry rested on continuous, observable use of common pasture by the parties' cattle, which could not credibly be denied. The timber entry rested on a count of felled trees that none of the parties currently before the council could verify, and that Carne, as kinsman to the orphans and an interested party, had declined to support. The council preserved only those items capable of being grounded in undisputed evidence, leaving the contested timber claim to a future proceeding if proof could be produced.

The chain of charges directed at Powill rather than at Hoskison's estate suggests a working policy of pursuing the living successor in possession in preference to the deceased trustee's estate. Hoskison had died in March 1712, his widow had since married Powill, and the consolidated holdings were now in Powill's hands. By framing the orders to require Powill to pay the orphans directly, the council secured immediate enforceability against a present occupier and avoided the protracted administration of Hoskison's estate, which had been an open problem since the audit commission of October 1713.

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nine pence for a House pull[d] Down and Sold by Auction by order of former Governm[t] and that to be the full payment, and as to the Interest the Said Powill pay the Sume of Seven Pounds more Forty four pounds, nine Shillings of the Fifty one pounds nine pence being formerly Lett to M[r] Alexander and Since paid to the Said Hoskison with the Said Interest of Seven Pounds. All which Articles and Sums of money before mention[d] we take to be the utmost Demands due to the Said Orphans from the Estate of George Hoskison dec[d] after that the Sume of Twenty Seven pounds Seven Shillings which we find paid by Said Hoskison to the Orphans, as Appears both by the Store Acco[t] and yearly Acco[ts] Deliver[d] the Govern[r] to be Deducted as also of any other Sume that may here after be found paid to the Said Orphans or to any other Person for them by the Said Hoskison or any Person for him.

And whereas John Alexander Clerk of Councill represented That in the Consultation of the 25[th] Septemb[r] 1710 He Stands Charg[d] with the Sume of Twenty two pounds, nine Shillings and three pence to make up the Sume of Seventy three Pounds Ten Shillings with the aforesaid Fifty one pound, and nine pence Charg[d] to George Hoskison for the House before mention[d] belonging to Richard Beale, which we do call agree to be very unjust and Maliciously Charg[d] on him the Said Alexander, Some or most of us the Jury, well knowing the Said House was Sold a soon pull[d] down to the best Advantage and full Value for the Heirs use, and cant be Suppos[d] could Sell for as much as twas valued at Standing Severall of the boards & Timber being much worm Eaten, Rotten and Damag[d] which Locks fair & good to the Eye. And therefore we the Said Jury do Unanimously agree that the Said Alexander and his Heirs be for ever Acquited Discharged from paying anything towards the Sale or Apprai[s]ement of that House about mention[d].

The Executors of Robert Leech deceased Thomas Perkins and Jonathan Develon, represented that his Widdow Mary, the daughter of William and Mary French both dec[d] being upon Marriage with a Second Husband Since the death of Said Robert Leech, desired that what Share or Portion She had belonging to her out of her Said fathers Estate mentioned more Largely in a Consultation of

Margin Notes:

J[n]o Alexander represents to the Jury a Sume of money charg[d] to him unjustly but refers the Case to the Jury to Determine

He is acquited & for Ever discharg[d]

Rob[t] Leeches Execut[rs] desires admiss[ion] to be made of Probat[e] of Estate

9d for a house pulled down and sold by auction by order of the former government, that sum being in full payment. As to the interest, Powill was to pay a further £7 0s 0d, the £51 0s 9d having formerly been let to Mr Alexander out of the £51 0s 9d paid to Hoskison, with interest of £7 0s 0d on that sum.

All the items and sums of money above mentioned were taken to be the full demands due to the orphans from the estate of George Hoskison deceased, after the sum of £27 7s 0d, paid by Hoskison to the orphans as appeared both from the store account and the yearly accounts delivered to the government, had been deducted, together with any other sum that might afterwards be found to have been paid to the orphans, or to any other person for them, by Hoskison or by any person on his behalf.

John Alexander, Clerk of the Council, had represented that in the consultation of 25 September 1710 he stood charged with the sum of £22 13s 3d, which together with the £51 0s 9d charged to George Hoskison for the house already mentioned, belonging to Richard Beale, made up the sum of £73 10s 0d. Alexander did appeal to the council that this sum had been very unjustly and maliciously charged against him. Some, or most, of the jury well knew that the house was sold after being pulled down to the best advantage and full value for the heirs' use, and could be supposed to sell for as much as it had been valued at standing, several of the boards and timbers being much worm-eaten, rotten and damaged, which looked fair enough to the eye. The jury therefore unanimously agreed that Alexander and his heirs were for ever acquitted and discharged from paying anything towards the sale or appraisement of the house mentioned.

The executors of Robert Leech deceased, Thomas Perkins and Jonathan Doveton, represented that his widow Mary, the daughter of William and Mary French both deceased, being on the point of marriage to a second husband since the death of Robert Leech, desired that whatever share or portion she had belonging to her out of her father's estate, mentioned more largely in a consultation of

Interpretations

The structured discharge of John Alexander turns on a distinction central to the accounting practice of the Court of Orphans. The original 25 September 1710 reckoning had treated the sale proceeds of the demolished Beale country house as if recoverable at the standing valuation of £73 10s 0d, with Alexander as Clerk standing charged for the residual £22 13s 3d after Hoskison's portion of £51 0s 9d. The present jury reopened the valuation itself, finding that the timbers had been substantially worm-eaten and rotten, so that the realised sale price already represented the full economic value of the materials. The mechanism shows the court working backward from the original audit assumption rather than treating the 1710 charge as settled.

The settlement of the orphans' demands against Hoskison's estate operates as a closing instrument with a credit clause. Past payments traceable in the store account and the yearly accounts delivered to the government were treated as automatically deductible. Future payments that might subsequently emerge from the records were also treated as deductible. The arrangement protects Hoskison's estate, now effectively in Powill's hands through the remarriage, against double recovery without requiring the records to be exhausted at the moment of settlement.

The opening of the Leech executors' representation introduces the working pattern of widow-on-remarriage settlement. Robert Leech's widow Mary stood to bring her share of her father William French's estate into a second marriage. The executors, Thomas Perkins and Jonathan Doveton, sought to fix that share before the new marriage took effect. The procedure protects the orphan trust over the French children against absorption of their sister's portion into the property regime of her incoming husband, by securing a council determination of the share while she remained a widow.

Speculations

The jury's willingness to acquit Alexander entirely, despite his standing charge for £22 13s 3d in the records of nearly three years earlier, points to the persistence of grievances against the Roberts administration even after Roberts's departure. The verdict turns explicitly on the suggestion that the original charge had been very unjustly and maliciously laid. Alexander had been the procedural target of repeated charges through Roberts's government, including his dismissal as Clerk on 17 November 1709 and the subsequent inquiries into his land registrations. The present discharge functions as a partial rehabilitation, restoring Alexander's standing through the corrective action of a planter jury rather than through any executive decision.

The seven-pound interest figure attaching to the £51 0s 9d that had passed between Hoskison and Alexander matches the customary interest of the island over a working multi-year period at the going rate. The arrangement, in which money charged on Hoskison was carried by Alexander as borrower against a private bond, was the same pattern noted in the earlier Beale audit, where Alexander had admitted borrowing £44 0s 0d from Hoskison and paying interest for four years before the bond was cancelled at £57 13s 0d principal. The recurrence here suggests that the demolished-house proceeds had operated for several years as a private loan stock between the two officers before the council eventually traced the sums.

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of the 28 March 1711 might be Allowed to be Divided between the Survivors of Said Frenches Children, that the Said Robert Leeches Children might have their Part in right of his wife before She marries againe.

Whereupon Order'd

That the aforesaid William Frenches Estate be Sold at a publick Auction and the Honourable Companys debt of fourteen Pounds Eight Shillings and two Pence halfpenny be first paid, and then those debts due to Severall other persons as charg[d] in Said Consultation and that of the 5 Aprill following be also paid and what Remains afterwards to be Equally Divided among three of Said Frenches Children, now on the Island, and a part reserv[d] for Thomas French his Eldest Son, at Bencoolen

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Thursday the 24[th] day of June 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Benjam[in] Boucher Esq[r] Gov[r] Matth[ew] Bazett 2 in Coun[ll] Lieut[t] Thom[s] Cason John French Assist[ts]

The Governour made the following Declaration to the Councill.

Gentlemen.

Before the Marlborough and Loyall Bliss Sailed (acquainted you at a Consultation M[r] Russell &c being Present) my design was to goe for England by the first Opportunity. I have Staid till this tyme with hopes that a Shipp might

Margin Notes:

That Leeches Orph[ans] may have their Share

Frenches Estate to be Sold at Auction and us[u]all paid

Gov[r] Boucher's intent to go for England.

the consultation of 28 March 1711, might be allowed to be divided between the surviving French children, so that Robert Leech's children might have their part in right of his wife before she married again.

The council thereupon ordered that William French's estate be sold at public auction. The Honourable Company's debt of £14 8s 2½d was to be paid first, then the debts due to the several other persons charged in the consultation already mentioned. The amount of £5 0s [...] following was also to be paid afterwards, and what then remained was to be equally divided among the three French children now on the island, with a part reserved for Thomas French, the eldest son, at Bencoolen.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Thursday 24 June 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Benjamin Boucher Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, second in council; Lieutenant Thomas Cason and John French as assistants.

The Governor made the following declaration to the council.

Gentlemen, before the Marlborough and the Loyall Bliss sailed, I informed you at a consultation (Mr Russell being present) that my design was to go for England by the first opportunity. I have stayed until now in the hope that a ship

Interpretations

The directed disposal of the William French estate works as a coordinated solution to a defined orphan settlement. The council fixed a strict order of priority: Company debt first, other creditors second, a further specified payment third, and only then division of the residue. The mechanism protects the Honourable Company's claim absolutely while ensuring that creditors carry rank above the children's portions. The reservation of a share for Thomas French at Bencoolen treats his absence as no bar to his entitlement, the council holding open a remittable portion to be carried east through the Company's own channels.

Mary's combined position as Robert Leech's widow and as a French daughter on the eve of remarriage created two distinct claims that the executors needed to fix before the second marriage took effect. The order treats Leech's children as taking in right of their father's interest in Mary's share, rather than through their mother personally. The device freezes the inheritance pattern at the moment of widowhood and prevents the new husband from absorbing either the children's grandfatherly portion or the share they took through their late father.

The composition of the consultation of 24 June 1714 confirms the working four-man establishment under which the colony was now functioning. Boucher as Governor, Bazett second in council, and Cason and French serving as assistants without councillor titles pending the directors' confirmation, gave the island the minimum complement required for council business. The structure had been settled at 26 September 1712 in response to the deaths of Hoskison and Griffith and the illness of Pack, and had held in place through the spring 1714 supply ships and through Boucher's procedural clearance on 27 May 1714.

The Governor's reference to his earlier declaration before the Marlborough and the Loyall Bliss sailed, in the presence of Mr Russell, points to the practice of grounding executive intentions in a witnessed council statement. The Marlborough had arrived on 16 May 1714 under Captain Matthew Martin, and Boucher had used the gathering of shipping and visiting officers to fix his intention to depart on the formal record. The present declaration of 24 June 1714 builds on that earlier minuted statement rather than introducing a fresh proposition.

Speculations

The order to sell the French estate at public auction, rather than dividing it in kind among the children, reflects the practical difficulty of partitioning a small inland holding burdened with the £14 8s 2½d Company debt and the other creditors charged at 28 March 1711. Auction converts mixed real and personal property into a single cash fund, against which the priority schedule can be applied in turn. The mechanism also enables Mary's share to be expressed as a fixed cash portion ahead of her remarriage, removing the need for the executors and the incoming husband to negotiate over physical assets.

The Governor's careful linkage of his present declaration to a prior consultation made before the Marlborough and the Loyall Bliss sailed, naming Mr Russell as a witness, suggests an awareness that his departure was likely to be examined in London. By placing the intention on the record well in advance, in the presence of a visiting officer of standing, Boucher built a documentary trail capable of supporting his procedural clearance of 27 May 1714 and any further account required of him after his arrival home.

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might Arrive here from England, which might well have Expected Considering our Honourable Employ[rs] must have been in Humane Probability Long Since Acquainted with the Necessitous State of this Island for want of Provisions to Subsist the People and also the want of Proper Persons to Supply the Loss of their more Jmmediate Servants who have Left Offices Vacant by death But Since this has not happen[d] Acording to my hearty wishes, and the Latest news I have heard from England give me no Probable grounds to beleive a Ship will Arrive before my tyme be Expired and my very ill State of health making it unreasonable I Should put my Self on a Winter Passage for England, I now Acquaint you that I purpose God willing to take my Passage for England on one of the two Ships now in this Road, if you have yet any Exceptions to make that can be a just Cause to Stop my going Desire they may be now mention[d], Since I think this will be the Last Consultation I Shall make use of dureing my Short Stay here

The Councill doth Unanimously Say they have no objections or Exceptions to make why the Governo[r] Should not go of this Island Acording to his own Inclination.

Lieut[t] Thomas Cason represented to the Councill That Dureing the tyme the Lime Kilns Stone Cutters house Tan fatts and all other works in Sandy Bay were a building, besides the over Seeing the workmen and other Labourers in Cuting Lime Stone, and makeing the path way for the Carts to Carry Loads to the water Side and Lime Kiln & he gave his daily attendance for Sixteen months, and never yet had any Sattisfaction for all that faiteague and Service and haveing all that tyme Neglected his own Plantation in which he was then but newly Settled, and at that tyme oblidged to Hier a Soldiers duty and out of Pockett other ways, Humbly prays the Same may be taken into Consideration and Such an Allowance made for that Particular Service as we Should think him deserveing of

Upon Consideration of the Said Lieut[t] Casons Service before mention[d], and Willingness on all Occasions It is thought fitt

Margin Notes:

laid before the Councill.

Declaring his reasons and y[e] ill State of health he was in.

Leaveing it to the Coun[ll] to make their Objections.

they made none.

Lieut[t] Cason represented his trouble &c att y[e] Lime Kilns & other Services.

desireing Some Allowance of Sattisfaction.

might arrive here from England, which might well have been expected. Considering our Honourable Employers must, by all human probability, have long since been informed of the perilous state of this island for want of provisions to subsist the people, and also of the need of proper persons to supply the loss of their more immediate servants who have left offices vacant by death. Since this has not happened according to my hearty wishes, and the latest news I have heard from England gives me no probable grounds to believe a ship will arrive before my time be expired, and my very ill state of health making it unreasonable that I should put myself on a winter passage to England, I now acquaint you that I propose, God willing, to take my passage for England on one of the two ships now in the road. If you have yet any exception to make that can be a just cause to stop my going, I desire it may now be mentioned, since I think this will be the last consultation I shall make use of during my short stay here.

The council unanimously declared that they had no objection or exception to make as to why the Governor should not go off the island according to his own inclination.

Lieutenant Thomas Cason represented to the council that during the time the lime kilns, the stone cutters' house, the tan fats and all the other works at Sandy Bay were being built, in addition to overseeing the workmen and other labourers in cutting limestone and making the pathway for the carts to carry loads to the waterside and lime kiln, he had given his daily attendance for sixteen months, and had never yet had any satisfaction for all that fatigue and service. During that whole period he had neglected his own plantation, in which he was then but newly settled, and had been obliged to hire a soldier's duty and out of pocket other ways. He humbly prayed that the matter be taken into consideration, and such an allowance made for that particular service as the council should think him deserving of.

On consideration of Cason's service already mentioned, and his willingness on all occasions, it was thought fit

Interpretations

Boucher's reasoning binds personal ill health to two larger institutional failures. The first is the lack of provisions on the island for the population. The second is the failure of the directors to replace officers whose offices had been left vacant by death, a reference to the deaths of Hoskison in March 1712, Griffith in May 1712 and Pack in April 1713. By framing his departure as a response to these conditions, rather than as a matter of personal preference, Boucher places the responsibility for the timing on the directors' own inaction.

The unanimous declaration of the council that they had no objection or exception to the Governor's departure operates as a formal clearance certificate. Where the earlier clearance of 27 May 1714 had been certified before the visiting officers Russell, Davenport, Martin and Hudson, the present declaration restates that clearance among the four members of the working establishment alone. The double clearance closes off any later suggestion that the departure had been carried through without the council's full assent.

Cason's representation discloses the working economy of the Sandy Bay works under his oversight: the lime kilns, the stone cutters' house, the tan fats and the path for carts to the waterside, all completed within a sixteen-month working period. The tan fats are the sunken pits in which animal hides were steeped in tanbark liquor to convert them into leather, a substantial fixed installation supplying the island's shoemaking and harness needs. Their construction at Sandy Bay alongside the lime kilns and stone cutters' house establishes the location as the colony's principal industrial centre by mid-1714, extending beyond the lime-burning operation noted in earlier consultations.

The detail that Cason had been obliged to hire a soldier's duty and to pay out of pocket while neglecting his own newly settled plantation reveals the absence of any settled allowance for officers carrying out extended construction supervision. The arrangement contrasts with the £20 0s 0d annual overseership granted to Giles Hays on 8 April 1712 for the consolidated Hutts estate. Cason had carried the Sandy Bay works on his ordinary lieutenant's pay, with retrospective claim opened only at the closing stages of Boucher's administration.

Speculations

The Governor's framing of his departure as turning on the absence of an expected ship suggests that the choice between the two ships now in the road, the Marlborough and the Loyall Bliss, was not made in advance but kept open until the moment of public declaration. By holding the option until the council day, Boucher preserved flexibility over which captain would carry him home, and over which set of voyage conditions he would accept. The two-ship choice also enabled him to draw on the witness of both masters at his clearance, increasing the documentary weight of his departure account in London.

Cason's decision to raise his sixteen months of unrequited service at this particular consultation, with the Governor on the point of departure, points to a calculated timing. A retrospective allowance approved by Boucher before his passage would carry the authority of the Governor's signature on the consultation, against which the directors in London would be invited to find later. Had Cason waited until after Boucher's departure, the claim would have rested on the recollection of a reduced council without the head whose orders had originally set him to the Sandy Bay works.

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fitt and Acordingly Ordered that he have the Sume of thirty pounds Entered to his Creditt for the Service afores[d]

Charles Steward freeholder brought a bill of Twenty two pounds fifteen Shillings for Some Goods he Supply[d] the Compa[n]y with at the Governo[r]s first Comeing, to furnish their Fort House which being Sattisfy[d] with and now to be Seen, and that y[e] Same was never paid for

Ordered.

That the Said Charles Steward have Creditt given him Acording to his Demand & Bill now produced

Nicholas Shreve Stone Cutter his tyme he Contracted to Serve the Honourable Company being Expired Since December Last and being very Extravagant and not knowing but his wife in England may be in want of Some money to Mountaine her, we have thought fitt and Acordingly Order'd

That the Sume of fifteen pounds be Stopt out of his Grow ing Sallary yearly, and the Same upon advice to the Honourable Company be by them paid to his wife, in England.

The Said Nicholas Shreve represented that Acording to the Governo[r]s Order he had Learnt two of the Hono[ble] Comp[s] Black boys to Cutt Stone very well, for which he was promis[d] the Sume of Ten pounds

Ordered.

That the Said Nicholas Shreve have the Sume of Ten Pounds plac[d] to his Creditt from the Hono[ble] Compa[n]y Acco[t] Current.

Margin Notes:

Lieut[t] Cason Allowed 30 [Lb]

Cha[s] Stewards Demand for 22[Lb] 15[s] for Goods

Order[d] paym[t]

N[s] Shreves time Expired & being Extravagant

15 [Lb] Annu[a]m to be Stopd out of his Sallary for his wife

His demand of 10 [Lb] for teaching two Black boys to Cutt Stone

Ordered to be paid him.

and accordingly ordered that he have the sum of £30 0s 0d entered to his credit for the service mentioned.

Charles Steward, free planter, brought in a bill of £22 15s 0d for goods he had supplied the Company with at the Governor's first coming, to furnish the Fort house, which had been satisfied with and now to be seen, and which had never been paid for.

Ordered that Charles Steward have credit given him according to his demand on the bill now produced.

Nicholas Shreve, stone cutter, his time of contract to serve the Honourable Company having expired since December last, and being very extravagant, and not knowing but his wife in England might be in want of some money to maintain her, the council had thought fit and accordingly ordered

that the sum of £15 0s 0d be stopped out of his growing salary yearly, and the same, upon advice to the Honourable Company, be by them paid to his wife in England.

Shreve further represented that, according to the Governor's order, he had taught two of the Honourable Company's black boys to cut stone very well, for which he had been promised the sum of £10 0s 0d.

Ordered that Nicholas Shreve have the sum of £10 0s 0d placed to his credit from the Honourable Company's account current.

Interpretations

The settlement of Charles Steward's bill of £22 15s 0d shows the Company's working practice when a Governor first took up office. Steward had supplied goods on credit at Boucher's first arrival to furnish the Fort house. Several years on, the underlying transaction had been satisfied with as to delivery but never carried into the store books as a cash entry. The council closed the open obligation by granting credit on the bill as produced. The episode illustrates how furnishing the Governor's household was sustained by private suppliers carrying the cost until a formal council order converted the debt into a store-book credit.

The arrangement for Nicholas Shreve combines wage deduction with metropolitan remittance through the Company's London accounts. £15 0s 0d was to be stopped from his growing salary every year and notified to the Court of Directors, who would then disburse the same sum to his wife in England. The mechanism uses the Company's settled administrative reach between St Helena and London as a remittance channel where no direct payment route existed. The same channel underlay the Skingle bill of 18 July 1712, by which £50 0s 0d advanced at Bencoolen was met through the St Helena Governor on the basis of London-side discharge.

The reference to Shreve as very extravagant supplies the working justification for the council's intervention in his pay. Without this finding, the deduction would have operated as a unilateral charge against an officer's salary against his own consent. By recording the extravagance, the council places the order within its general protective jurisdiction over distant dependants whose maintenance might otherwise be lost through the officer's own conduct on the island.

The £10 0s 0d payment for teaching two Company black boys to cut stone illustrates the financial incentive structure through which the colony's enslaved workforce acquired skilled trades. Stone-cutting was central to the lime kilns, the stone cutters' house and the fortifications work then in hand at Sandy Bay. By promising a discrete training fee to the master craftsman, the Governor had created a mechanism by which Company-owned labour could be upskilled at a fixed cost, rather than through continuous hiring of free craftsmen at the daily rates established for masons and stone layers.

Speculations

The timing of Steward's production of his bill, in the same consultation as Boucher's clearance for departure and Cason's claim for sixteen months' arrears, suggests a coordinated closing of unsettled obligations against the outgoing administration. With Boucher about to embark, the long-carried open account for furnishings supplied at his first coming required resolution before the Governor's signature could no longer be relied on. The pattern parallels Cason's claim and indicates that the working consultation of 24 June 1714 was being used as a clearing session for accumulated personal credits.

Shreve's stone-cutting contract having expired in December 1713, but his continuation in Company service for the further six months until June 1714, points to a working arrangement under which the original indenture had rolled over into open service while the lime kilns, stone cutters' house and tan fats were brought to completion. The council's introduction of a wife's remittance just at the point of the works' completion suggests a calculated intervention to retain Shreve's services on the island by binding part of his pay to a continuing London-side obligation, against which a sudden departure would be difficult to manage.

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Island of St Helena.

Thursday the 8[th] July 1714.

The Rochester Arriv[d] from England in 104 days, and the new Governour Isaac Pyke Esq[r] with the Councill went on Shoar, and being received by M[r] Matthew Bazett in the United Castle, the Governour Shewd his Com mission from the Lords Proprietors the Honourable East India Company to take upon him that Cast and Government of the Island which was read, And being inform[d] the late Governoure Benjamin Boucher Esq[r] had bin gone off the Island Ten days past in the Recovery Capt[n] Richard Heathfield Comander for Great Brittain, the then Governo[r] and Councill were recived with a Generall Sattisfaction of the Inhabitants who all Unahimously Profest their joy for the Change Declareing what a Desolate Condition the late Governour had left this Countrey, Clouds of Complaints were made of the late ill mannagement and the Councill were Publickly told if the other Governour had Staid Longer, the whole Island had bin in a famishing Condition and M[r] Bazet whom we found as Chief, M[r] Cason & M[r] French that were his Asistants in Councill Declar'd he had destroyd all the Honourable Companys Live Stock Except about Sixty head of Black Cattle for he had left behind him neither Deers nor Goats nor Sheep nor Hoggs Turkeys nor Geese nor any other kind of Pou[l]trey, the House we found Stript of all that was Portable Even the Locks and Keys taken from many of the doors and Every thing else that might be Serv[i]ceable to him in his Voyage Home, We are also inform[d] that the Plantation House in the Countrey is very much out of repaire and gone to Ruine, the Lands also as much Neglected, the Garden Dugg up and Laid wast haveing nothing in it now but Plantain Trees and Cushuridge for his uses.

In

Margin Notes:

Rochesters Arrivall w[t]h Gov[r] Pyke &c

The State of the Island.

The Inhabitants make Complaint.

Comp[s] Stock.

Plant[n] House Ruinous.

Island of St Helena.

Thursday 8 July 1714.

The Rochester arrived from England in 104 days, and the new Governor Isaac Pyke Esquire with the council went on shore. Being received by Matthew Bazett in the United Castle, the Governor produced his commission from the Lords Proprietors of the Honourable East India Company to take upon him the cast and government of the island, which was read. He was then informed that the late Governor Benjamin Boucher Esquire had gone off the island ten days earlier in the Recovery, Captain Richard Heathfield commander, for Great Britain.

Pyke as the new Governor and the council were received with general satisfaction by the inhabitants, who all unanimously professed their joy at the change, declaring in what a desolate condition the late Governor had left this country. Numerous complaints were made of the late mismanagement, and the council were publicly told that if the other Governor had stayed longer, the whole island would have been in a famishing condition. Bazett, whom the new Governor and council found as chief, and Cason and French as his assistants in council, declared that Boucher had destroyed almost all the Honourable Company's live stock except about sixty head of black cattle he had left behind. There were neither deer nor goats nor sheep nor hogs, nor turkeys, nor geese, nor any other kind of poultry. The Fort was found stripped of all that was portable, even the locks and keys taken from many of the doors, and everything else that might be serviceable to him on his voyage home.

The new Governor and council were also informed that the Plantation House in the country was very much out of repair and going to ruin. The land was equally neglected, the garden dug up and laid waste, having nothing in it now but plantain trees and cabbage for his uses.

Interpretations

The arrival of the Rochester after 104 days from England marks the formal change of administration through the production of a new commission from the Lords Proprietors. Pyke's commission is the principal instrument of authority, taking immediate effect on its reading at the United Castle. The reception by Bazett as the chief member of the working establishment, with Cason and French as assistants, confirms the four-man working structure as the body to which the new Governor was handed the colony. The transfer takes effect without any signed receipt from Boucher, who had already left ten days earlier in the Recovery.

The public reception of Pyke by the inhabitants, who professed their joy unanimously, performs the institutional function of validating the change of government at the level of the governed community. The expressions of relief have evidential weight against the departed Governor, since the inhabitants' statements were entered on the consultation as the foundation of the charges that follow. The declaration that the island would have been in a famishing condition had Boucher stayed longer fixes a public ground for the directors' eventual judgement on his administration.

The findings on the Company's livestock supply the working measure of Boucher's stewardship. The estate that had carried 304 head of neat cattle by John How's count of 9 October 1712, with 53 swine, 91 turkeys, 79 dunghill fowl, 33 waterfowl and 41 sheep at Cason's monthly return of 9 December 1712, was now reduced to about sixty head of black cattle alone. The complete elimination of the swine, sheep, goats, deer and all poultry, against the inherited herd recorded under Roberts, marks a near total collapse of the consolidated plantation economy that had been built up in 1710 and 1711.

The stripping of the Fort, including locks and keys removed from doors, gives a working list of personal appropriation by the departing Governor. Locks and keys were portable hardware of significant value, but their removal also made the Fort itself insecure and useless for the storage of arms, powder and stores until replacement hardware could be obtained from the next shipping.

Speculations

Boucher's departure ten days before the Rochester arrived was timed so as to be off the island before the new Governor could take possession and inventory the establishment. Had Boucher remained until Pyke's arrival, the formal handover would have required a signed inventory and a personal account of the livestock, the Fort hardware, the Plantation House and the garden. By leaving on the Recovery under Heathfield, Boucher placed his account beyond the reach of any island-side audit and left the documentary record to be assembled by his successors from the testimony of the inhabitants and the working members of the council.

The specific reduction of the inherited herd to sixty head of black cattle, alongside the disappearance of every other species, suggests that Boucher had been provisioning his own household and the voyage home through slaughter rather than through purchase from the planters. The garden at the Plantation House, dug up and laid waste with only plantain trees and cabbage remaining for his uses, supports the reading that the country estate had been worked exclusively as the Governor's private provisioning base in the closing months of the administration rather than as a Company plantation.

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In Short the Complaints of matter of Fact Alledged by the People in Generall are So many and So great we Scarce think it Possible tho' it may be very bad, it Should all be true

But resolve to make Diligent inquiry into those Particu lars that are of Greatest moment and hope to find things much better than they have been represented unto us.

As to the fortifications Nothing has bin done to the Castle Since Governour Roberts went away Except finnish ing his own Appartments and the other buildings which were not finnished by Governour Roberts are as he left them, only by, this Long tyme they have bin Neglected that they will need very good repair or Else must fall to Ruine.

There is added to the Castle two wings being a large broad Wall 3 [..] 0 [..] on which there are planted thirty fine Guns this is a very great weakning to the Castle becauseit makes abridge to Enter the Top of it by any inland Enimy that comes down the hills, this w[i]all certainly makes the Castle Look very beautifull towards the Sea and is Ornamentall Enough but until the Hon[ble] Company be at Some further Charge to fortifie Each Side of the Castle where those wings joine to it the Castle to the People of the Countrey will be no more Secure then any other House he had designed on the Inside of those Walls to build Store Houses Barrocks &c But there is nothing at all done towards it more then a Peece of wall about One Hundred and twenty foot Long and Eight foot high.

Margin Notes:

Inquiry to be made of y[e] truth.

touching fortifications

The two Wings w[t]h 30 of Guns

Beautifull but bu[t] weakning

So that it must be Allow[d]

In short, the complaints of matters of fact alleged by the people in general are so many, and so great, that we can scarcely think it possible, though it may be very bad, it should all be true. We resolved to make diligent inquiry into those particulars that are of greatest moment, and we hope to find things much better than they have been represented to us.

As to the fortifications, nothing had been done to the Castle since Governor Roberts went away, except finishing his own apartments and the other buildings, which had not been completed by Governor Roberts and were left as he left them. By this length of time they had been so neglected that they would either need very good repair or else must fall to ruin.

There had been added to the Castle two wings, being a large broad parapet wall on which there were planted thirty fine guns. This was a very great strengthening to the Castle, because it stopped an enemy that might come down the hills, and the walls certainly made the Castle look very beautiful towards the sea and as ornamental enough. Unless, however, the Honourable Company bore some further charge to fortify each side of the Castle, where those wings joined to it, the people of the country would be no more secure than in any other house. Pyke had designed on the inside of those walls to build storehouses and barracks. As yet, there was nothing at all done towards them, no more than a piece of wall about 120 feet long and eight feet high.

Interpretations

The new Governor's careful framing of the inhabitants' complaints, hedged with the qualification that they could scarcely all be true, performs an evidential function. It places the new administration in the position of independent investigator rather than partisan recipient of accusations against a predecessor. The undertaking to make diligent inquiry into those particulars of greatest moment establishes a procedural standard against which the directors in London could later assess the conclusions reached.

The state of the Castle works supplies a precise institutional finding. Boucher's three-year administration had added nothing to the Castle beyond completing the building works left unfinished by Roberts on his departure in 1711, and even those had been completed only so far as the Governor's own apartments and certain other buildings. The pattern shows construction expenditure being concentrated on the Governor's personal accommodation while the principal defensive works were left to deteriorate. The verdict that the buildings must now either be repaired or fall to ruin gives a working measure of the cost passed to the incoming administration.

The two wings carrying thirty guns illustrate the working layout of the Castle's defensive elevation. The parapet wall provided protection against descent from the hills above James Valley, the principal landward approach to the colony, and gave the structure an ornamental sea-facing presentation. The qualification that the people of the country would otherwise be no more secure than in any other house identifies the wings as a partial solution: they protected the central work but exposed the junctions where the wings joined the main Castle. The further fortification of these junctions was identified as a charge for the directors to authorise.

The 120-foot section of wall, eight feet high, marks the visible state of the storehouse and barracks project at the moment of handover. Pyke's design for storehouses and barracks against the inside of the wings provides the working response to the long-standing housing problem for officers and stores following the earlier demolition of James Fort, which had triggered the back-payment of house rent to Porteous and French on 3 November 1713. The Castle wings now offered a built perimeter against which permanent service buildings could be raised at relatively modest additional cost.

Speculations

Boucher's concentration of construction effort on his own apartments and on completing certain other buildings left unfinished by Roberts, rather than on the Castle's defensive integrity or on storehouses and barracks, suggests an administrative priority of personal comfort rather than institutional investment. The pattern aligns with the stripping of the Fort hardware on departure: the works carried out under Boucher's authority appear to have been treated as fittings to the Governor's residence rather than as additions to the colony's fixed estate. The lack of progress on barracks left officers continuing to pay private house rent into the new administration.

The deliberate language describing the parapet wall as making the Castle look very beautiful towards the sea and as ornamental enough points to a specific concern about the visible appearance of the colony to passing shipping. Indiamen and naval vessels making the road would have judged the Honourable Company's commitment to the island in part from the seaward face of the Castle. The wings as built therefore served a dual presentational and defensive purpose, with the impression conveyed to visiting commanders forming part of the working political economy of the colony.

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Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Fryday the 9[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James Vallay

Pres[ent] The Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[t]y Gov[r] Edward Masborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Jovey 5[th] in Coun[ll]

The Governours Commission being read last night Wee this day read the Honourable Companys Letter Consisting of Ninety Seven Parragraphs.

Ordered that an Inventory be taken of what Goods the Governour found in the Castle

Resolve that we proceed with all Possible Expedi tion to Dispatch the Shipp Rochester.

Whereupon Sent an Order to Capt[n] William Browne to Deliver the Cargoe in his Ship Consign[d] to this place

Ordered that M[r] John Goodwin one of the Writers in the Store Attend the delivery of the Goods a Shoar and take an Account of them

Ordered.

That for the better dispatch of Said Ship the Comp[s] Long boat and Lanch be lett to them

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Gov[r]s Comission &c was read.

Inventory of Goods in the Castle taken

to Dispatch Shipp Rochester.

Cargoe to be Delivered.

M[r] Goodwin to receive them

Boats Lent the Ship

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Friday 9 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The Governor's commission having been read the previous night, the council this day read the Honourable Company's letter, consisting of 97 paragraphs.

Ordered that an inventory be taken of what goods the new Governor found in the Castle.

Resolved to proceed with all possible expedition to dispatch the ship Rochester.

Whereupon an order was sent to Captain William Browne to deliver the cargo in his ship consigned to this place.

Ordered that John Goodwin, one of the writers in the store, attend the delivery of the goods on shore and take an account of them.

Ordered that for the better dispatch of the ship, the Company's long boat and launch be left to them.

Interpretations

The first regular consultation under Pyke confirms the restored five-man council structure, with the Governor flanked by Haswell as Deputy Governor and three further members. The reduction to four men that had held under Boucher from late 1712 is now closed. Edward Mashborne returns to the establishment, having previously served as Deputy Governor under Roberts and departed in July 1711. The recall of officers with earlier island experience provided continuity of working knowledge against which the new commissions from London could be exercised.

The reading of the 97-paragraph letter from the Honourable Company on the first working day of the new administration establishes the document as the operative instruction set for the term. Earlier general letters had been read paragraph by paragraph over successive consultation days, in the practice settled under Boucher's 16 August 1711 resolution. The unbroken reading at a single sitting marks Pyke's intention to bring the full instructions immediately into the joint knowledge of the council.

The order for an inventory of the goods in the Castle is the formal counterpart to the findings of the previous day on the stripped state of the Fort. By minuting a fresh inventory at the opening of his term, Pyke fixes the documentary baseline against which any future accounting of his own administration would be measured. The mechanism transfers the evidential weight from the inhabitants' verbal complaints to a council-ordered record.

The arrangements for dispatching the Rochester show the working coordination between the council, the visiting ship's master and the store establishment. Captain William Browne received the council's order to deliver the consigned cargo, while John Goodwin attended the landing as the store-side check on quantities. The release of the Company's long boat and launch to the ship supplied the master with the additional working capacity needed to discharge promptly, against a schedule that the council wished to compress in order to return the ship to England.

Speculations

The presence of John Goodwin as one of the writers in the store, attending the delivery of the Rochester's cargo, points to the continuation of his earlier role from the spring of 1714, when he had given evidence at the Bazett interrogation of 1 April 1714. The retention of the store-side staff across the change of administration suggests that Pyke and his council, while pressing investigations against Boucher's stewardship, did not regard the writers and clerical staff as compromised. The continuity preserved the documentary memory of the store at the moment when the new administration most needed to test the figures inherited from the outgoing one.

The single-day reading of the full 97 paragraphs of the Company's letter, rather than the previous paragraph-by-paragraph schedule, suggests that Pyke had carried fresh memory of the document from his London briefing and did not need the deliberative pace adopted by Boucher's council in 1711. By placing the entire instruction set before the joint membership in one sitting, Pyke also forestalled any later claim by an individual councillor that a particular paragraph had not been brought to their attention in the working order of business.

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Ordered that the Captaine be wrote too, to Send all the Companys Servants under the Character of Soldiers on Shoar.

It being in the Honour[ble] Companys Letter ordered to peruse their former Letters Sent by the Ships Toddington Thistleworth, Abbingdon and Susannah We desired M[r] Bazett to produce them who immediatly did produce the Thistleworth & Abbingdons Letters, But Saith the Companys Letter by the Susannah was not in the Office nor never was Coppy[d] in the book Neither was there the Toddington Letter, But that the late Governour Boucher had carryd the Said Letters away with him, Then referrd the further Consideration of the Said Affair till next Consultation Day that there may be more Opportunity to dispatch the Rochester

Whereas the Honour[ble] Company in their Letter make mention of one M[r] Man whom they Sent as Surgeon to this Island, but Since their Writeing the Said Letter upon M[r] Mans declineing to goe, We knowing M[r] Price was appointed by the Committee in his Stead and he haveing the Companys Order to come on board the Rochester with his Necessaries We doe therefore Acknowledge him as Surgeon of this Island.

Ordered that M[r] Matthew Bazett do take the Charge of the Stores as Ordered in the Hono[ble] Comp[s] Letter Parr 8 § 3 8. and doe report the Same

Ordered that M[r] Jovey doe take Possession of the Clerks Office and give an Acco[t] what books & Papers are there.

Ordered that Gunner French do deliver an Acount of the Garrison Stores in his Custody

Ordered that M[r] Corteous give an Acco[t] of what Medicines or Surgeons Instruments of the Hono[ble] Companys are now remaining in his Custody.

Coppy

Margin Notes:

Soldiers to be Sent on Shoar.

Ord[r] to peruse Comp[s] Letters

one Wanting.

M[r] Man declined to come Surgeon

M[r] Price was thus Appointed as Such.

M[r] Bazett to take Charge of y[e] Stores

M[r] Jovey to take Possess[i]on of the Cl[er]ks Office

G[un]er to Deliv[r] his Account

Surg[e]on to give Acc[t] of Medicines.

Ordered that the captain be required to send all the Company's servants under the character of soldiers ashore.

The Honourable Company's letter having ordered the perusal of their former letters sent by the ships Toddington, Thistleworth, Abingdon and Susannah, the council desired Bazett to produce them, who immediately produced the Thistleworth and Abingdon letters. The Company's letter by the Susannah, however, was not in the office, nor had it ever been copied into the book, neither was the Toddington letter there. The late Governor Boucher had carried these letters away with him. The council referred the further consideration of the affair to the next consultation day, so that there might be more opportunity to dispatch the Rochester.

The Honourable Company in their letter made mention of one Mr Man, whom they had sent as surgeon to this island. Since the writing of that letter, on Mr Man's declining to go, and knowing that Mr Price had been appointed by the Committee in his place, and that he had come on board the Rochester with his necessaries by the Company's order, the council acknowledged him as surgeon of this island.

Ordered that Matthew Bazett take the charge of the stores, as directed in the Honourable Company's letter paragraph 38, and report the same.

Ordered that Mr Tovey take possession of the Clerk's office and give an account of what books and papers are there.

Ordered that Gunner French deliver an account of the Garrison stores in his custody.

Ordered that Mr Porteous give an account of what medicines or surgeons' instruments of the Honourable Company are now remaining in his custody.

Interpretations

The discovery that two of the four named general letters were missing from the council's records, and that the Susannah letter had never been copied into the book, identifies a serious failure of documentary discipline under the previous administration. The general letters were the principal standing instructions of the Honourable Company, against which every consultation order was to be tested. Their absence from the office, taken with the report that Boucher had carried them away, undermined the working ability of the new council to reconstruct the basis on which earlier decisions had been made.

The acknowledgement of Mr Price as surgeon, in place of the Mr Man named in the general letter, operates as a council ratification of a subsequent committee decision in London. The mechanism shows how the directors' authority was exercised through layered instruments: the general letter named the original officer, but a later committee minute substituted Price after Man declined, and the local council was required to give effect to the substitution through formal acknowledgement at the consultation. Price's arrival on the Rochester with his necessaries provided the practical evidence on which the council acted.

The distribution of charge across the establishment, with Bazett over the stores under paragraph 38, Tovey over the Clerk's office, French over the garrison stores and Porteous over the medical equipment, fixes departmental responsibility from the opening of the term. Each officer was required to produce a separate account of what had been received. The arrangement repeats the portfolio division established under Boucher at the consultation of 16 August 1711, but with the addition of explicit accounting obligations on each portfolio holder at the moment of transfer.

The instruction that all Company servants embarked on the Rochester under the character of soldiers be sent ashore identifies the working device by which the directors had moved fresh personnel out to the island. Engaging them under military character allowed their transport to be handled through the ship's company at the standard victualling and wage rates rather than as passengers, while preserving the directors' ability to assign them on arrival to whatever civil or military role the new administration required.

Speculations

Boucher's removal of the Toddington and Susannah letters, together with the failure to copy the Susannah letter into the book at any point during his administration, points to a deliberate restriction of access to the most authoritative instructions available on the island. The Toddington letter of 17 April 1711 had carried the salary scale by paragraph 45 and the pricing rule by paragraph 37, both of which were applied repeatedly during the period. By removing the originals, Boucher ensured that any further question concerning the construction of these paragraphs could no longer be tested against the document on the island itself.

The careful ordering of the inventory exercises across stores, Clerk's office, garrison and medical chest, all initiated within the first two consultations of the new administration, suggests that Pyke had arrived with explicit instructions to construct a documentary record against the predecessor administration. The accounts to be produced were not framed as routine handovers but as formal returns from named officers, against which the directors in London could match the property they had consigned over the preceding years to what was actually present on the island in July 1714.

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Coppy of the Govern[r]s Comission.

The United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies To all to whom these Presents Shall come Send Greeting Know Yee That the Said United Company reposing especiall trust and Confidence in the Fidelity Prudence Justice & Circumspec tion of Captain Isaac Pyke of London Gentleman have made Constituted Ordained and Appointed and by these Presents do make Constitute Ordain & Appoint the Said Captain Isaac Pyke to be Governour of the Island St Helena Giving and hereby granting to him full Power & Authority to Execute all & Every the Powers & Authoritys Appertain ing to the Office & Place of Governour of St Helena aforesd by and Acording to Such Orders and Directions as have been from tyme to tyme establisht by the Lo[r]ds Proprietors of that Island and were formerly Enjoyed by the late Governo[r] or as he the Said Captain Isaac Pyke Shall from tyme to tyme receive under the hands of the present Court of Directors of the Said United Company or under the hands of the Court of Directors for the tyme being of the Said Company or any Thirteen or more of them, And to continue in the Excercise of the Same dureing Pleasure and untill the contrary thereof Shall be Signified under the Seale of the Said United Company or under the hands of Thirteen or more of the Court of Directors of the Said Company for the tyme being And the Said United Company do hereby Direct and Appoint the Said Captain Isaac Pyke to do and Act in all their Affairs by and with the Advice Asistance and concurence of the Persons following who are appointed of Councill at St Helena aforesaid Viz[t] M[r] George Hasswell. M[r] Edward Mashbone. M[r] Matthew Bazett

Margin Notes:

Coppy of the Gov[r]s Comission.

Copy of the Governor's commission.

The United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, to all to whom these presents shall come, sent greeting. The said United Company, reposing especial trust and confidence in the fidelity, prudence, justice and circumspection of Captain Isaac Pyke of London, gentleman, had constituted, ordained and appointed, and by these presents did make, constitute, ordain and appoint, Captain Isaac Pyke to be Governor of the Island of St Helena. The Company gave and hereby granted to him full power and authority to execute all and every of the powers and authorities appertaining to the office and place of Governor of St Helena, by and according to such orders and directions as had from time to time been established by the Lords Proprietors of that island and as had formerly been enjoyed by the late Governor, or as Pyke should from time to time receive under the hands of the present Court of Directors of the United Company, or under the hands of the Court of Directors for the time being, or any thirteen or more of them, and to continue in the exercise of the same during pleasure, and until the contrary should be signified under the seal of the United Company, or under the hands of thirteen or more of the Court of Directors of the Company for the time being.

The United Company did also direct and appoint Pyke to do and act in all their affairs by and with the advice, assistance and concurrence of the persons following, who had been appointed of council at St Helena, namely Mr George Haswell, Mr Edward Mashborne, Mr Matthew Bazett

Interpretations

The commission to Pyke shows the formal instrument by which authority was conveyed from the Honourable Company in London to a single named officer on the island. The conjunction of fidelity, prudence, justice and circumspection sets out the qualifications the Company looked to in the holder, and ties any later removal to a finding that one or more of these had failed in practice. The opening phrasing therefore performs both an authorising and a conditional function.

The reservation of power during pleasure, terminable under the Company's seal or under the hands of thirteen or more of the Court of Directors, fixes the Governor's tenure as continuously revocable. The mechanism preserves London's ability to recall the Governor at any moment, without proof of cause or formal hearing. The same instrument operated against Roberts and Boucher in the immediately preceding terms, and now arms the directors against Pyke from his first day in office.

The reference to such orders and directions as had been established by the Lords Proprietors and as had formerly been enjoyed by the late Governor incorporates the entire body of previous instructions and customary practice into Pyke's working authority. The mechanism allows the Governor to act without having to await fresh instructions on every matter, while binding him to act within the limits already set by accumulated direction. The successive general letters now numbered up to 97 paragraphs in the Pyke letter form the working content of this incorporated body.

The requirement that Pyke act with the advice, assistance and concurrence of the named councillors places the Governor's authority within a collegiate structure rather than a personal command. Haswell, Mashborne and Bazett, named first in that order, provide a working council that mixes a senior new appointment with two officers carrying institutional memory of earlier administrations. Mashborne had served as Deputy Governor under Roberts and had departed in July 1711, while Bazett had carried the island's working administration through the closing years of Boucher.

Speculations

The careful drafting of the revocation clause, in two limbs covering both the Company seal and the unsealed signatures of thirteen or more directors, points to recent practical experience in London of the difficulty of recalling a Governor through the seal alone. The unsealed signature route allowed the directors to act with greater speed and without the formal authentication of the Company's seal, which might be delayed by the requirements for its use. The two-track mechanism gave the Court the ability to remove a Governor at short notice if the working state of affairs on the island so required.

The placing of Haswell first in the council list, ahead of Mashborne and Bazett, marks the directors' decision to bring a fresh officer over both the returning senior man and the long-serving local. Haswell had not appeared on the island in the earlier sequence under Roberts or Boucher and so brought no accumulated entanglement with the parties under investigation. The arrangement gave Pyke a Deputy Governor whose working alignment was with the metropolitan instructions rather than with any island faction.

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Bazett and M[r] Antipas Jovey and by, and with the Advice Asistance and Concurrence of the Councill of St Helena for the tyme being or the Major part of them. And do also hereby require all their Officers and Soldiers and other their Servants and all the Inhabitants on the Island St Helena to yield due Obedience & Submitt unto the Said Captain Isaac Pyke as their Governour as aforesaid And the Said United Company do by these Presents hereby revoke, Repeal Annull Deter mine and make void the Comission under their Common Seal Dated the Twenty Ninth day of March Anno Domini One Thousand Seven hundred and Eleven Given and Granted to Captain Benjamin Boucher of London Gentleman to be Governour of the Said Island St Helena and all the Powers and Authoritys given and granted thereby to the Said Captain Benjamin Boucher In Witness whereof the Said United Company have caused their Common Seal to be Affixed to these Presents this Twenty fourth day of February in the Twelfth Year of the Reign of Her Most Excellent Majesty Anne by the Grace of Great Britain France and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith &c and in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and thirteen.

Ordered.

That all Officers or Servants in the Honourable Companys Service be continued for the present in their Severall Stations.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[ard] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Sign[d]

Antipas Jovey

Margin Notes:

Officers to Continue in their Stations.

Bazett and Mr Antipas Tovey, and by and with the advice, assistance and concurrence of the council of St Helena for the time being, or the major part of them. The Company also required all their officers and soldiers, and other their servants, and all the inhabitants on the Island of St Helena, to yield due obedience and submit unto Captain Isaac Pyke as their Governor as already mentioned.

The United Company by these presents hereby revoked, repealed, annulled, determined and made void the commission under their Common Seal dated 29 March 1711, given and granted to Captain Benjamin Boucher of London, gentleman, to be Governor of the Island of St Helena, and all the powers and authorities given and granted thereby to Boucher.

In witness whereof the United Company had caused their Common Seal to be affixed to these presents, this 24 February 1714, in the twelfth year of the reign of Her Most Excellent Majesty Anne, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, and so on, and in the year of our Lord 1713.

Ordered that all officers or servants in the Honourable Company's service be continued for the present in their several stations.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Interpretations

The express revocation of Boucher's commission of 29 March 1711 marks the formal terminating act of the previous administration in metropolitan terms. The earlier commission is annulled by the same instrument that creates the new one, so that no overlap of authority can be claimed between the two Governors. The mechanism distinguishes the directors' position in London from the local position on the island, where Boucher's authority had effectively ceased on his physical departure on the Recovery.

The requirement that all officers, soldiers, servants and inhabitants yield due obedience to Pyke as Governor extends the commission's effect beyond the salaried establishment to the entire population. The instrument operates not merely as an appointment but as a public order to the governed community, providing the legal foundation on which Pyke could later proceed against any inhabitant who declined to recognise his authority. The phrasing tracks the broader colonial practice of grounding civil obedience in the proprietorial commission rather than in the Crown directly.

The dual dating of the instrument, 24 February 1714 in the twelfth year of Queen Anne, and 1713 in the year of our Lord, reflects the working practice of the legal new year in England before the calendar reform of 1752, under which the year changed on 25 March rather than 1 January. The commission was sealed in February under the old reckoning of 1713 and under the modern reckoning of 1714. The colony was now operating under both calendars at once for documentary purposes, with the modern reckoning carried through the consultation books.

The continuation order at the foot, retaining all officers or servants in the Honourable Company's service for the present in their several stations, supplies a stabilising provision. It prevents an immediate vacuum below the council level and ensures that the working personnel, including the writers, store hands, garrison soldiers and trades servants, remain in place pending any further determination on individual cases by the new administration.

Speculations

The commission's careful incorporation of both the Common Seal and the requirement of thirteen or more directors as alternative mechanisms of revocation, when read against the formal revocation of Boucher's commission within the same instrument, suggests that the directors had specifically prepared the Pyke commission against the precise procedural objections that might have been raised on the Boucher side. The drafting closes off any argument that Boucher's authority continued after the Pyke commission took effect, and any claim that the Common Seal alone was an insufficient instrument of revocation.

The signing of the consultation entry by all five members of the new council, immediately following the continuation order, performs a coordinated commitment to the new administration's first major executive act. By all subscribing on the same page as the commission and the continuation, Haswell, Mashborne, Bazett and Tovey each placed their personal authority behind the recognition of Pyke as Governor. The arrangement also bound Bazett, whose conduct under Boucher was already under inquiry, to the new dispensation from the first working day, leaving him no means of distancing himself from the order as the inquiry progressed.

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Island St Helena.

At a Consultation held on Satturday the 10[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James Vatley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governo[r] George Haswell Dep[t]y Governo[r] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Jovey 5[th] in Councill

Upon veiwing the Honour[ble] Companys Store Houses and finding them readie to Drop down and not Capable to hold the Goods already in them, and no other Conveniency for them.

Ordered that enquiry be made who can lett Ware Houses Roome to the Honour[ble] Company to hold the Cargoe now comeing on Shoar, And that M[r] Clive do goe take deales and make good those Sheds that were formerly in the Store House yard for Beef and Pork and Such goods as are least Subject to take Damage.

Ordered that the blacks who came by M[r] Sitwells Sloop be veiwed and that the Doctor be present to See them & report his opinion of their health which was done Acordingly as followeth

An Acco[t] of Said Blacks viz[t]

27 Men 15 Women 42 Sound & Merchantable.

3 Women 1 Man 4 Return[d] as not Merchantable.

And

Margin Notes:

Store Houses ready to fall.

Ware Houses to be taken, and Clive to repair the Old Sheds.

Blacks of the Sloop. Veiwed.

their Number.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Saturday 10 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Upon viewing the Honourable Company's storehouses, the council found them ready to drop down and not capable of holding the goods already in them, with no other convenience for them.

Ordered that enquiry be made as to who could let a warehouse room to the Honourable Company to hold the cargo now coming on shore. Ordered also that Mr Cleve go and take deals and make good those sheds that were formerly in the storehouse yard for beef and pork and such goods as were least subject to take damage.

Ordered that the blacks who came by Mr Sitwell's sloop be viewed, and that the Doctor be present to see them, and to report his opinion of their health, which was done as follows.

An account of the blacks, being 47 in total:

Sound and merchantable

27 men

15 women

Sub-total 42

Returned as not merchantable

3 women

1 man

Sub-total 4

Interpretations

The state of the storehouses, ready to drop down and not capable of holding the goods already in them, gives a precise institutional finding on the physical infrastructure left by the previous administration. The arrival of the Rochester's cargo intensifies an existing failure: the buildings cannot hold what is already on the island, let alone what is now being landed. The order to enquire for a private warehouse to hire shifts the working stewardship of Company goods into private hands, a reversal of the standing model under which the Company maintained its own secure storage.

Mr Cleve's deployment with deals to make good the sheds in the storehouse yard identifies a working practice of triage in storage management. The sheds were the lower-grade structures, reserved for goods less subject to damage, principally salt provisions such as beef and pork in cask. Reinstating these sheds preserves the central storehouse for higher-value or more vulnerable goods, while extending the working capacity through repair work that can be carried out by an island joiner without waiting for materials from England.

The medical inspection of the blacks landed from Mr Sitwell's sloop, conducted by the new surgeon in the presence of the council, applies a quality-control mechanism to the slave trade as it operated through St Helena. The use of merchantable and not merchantable as the working categories adopts the language of mercantile assessment that applied to any commodity in trade. The classification of 42 as sound and 4 as not gives a working percentage of about 91 per cent acceptable from the parcel, which formed the basis for the financial settlement to follow.

Mr Sitwell's sloop appears here as a private vessel of an interlope or licensed character carrying enslaved persons to St Helena outside the regular Company shipping routes. The presence of the sloop, and the council's willingness to view its cargo, illustrate the colony's working position within the wider Atlantic and Indian Ocean networks for the supply of enslaved labour. The Company's own slave purchasing through Madagascar and Bencoolen was supplemented when opportunity arose by purchases from vessels of this kind passing in the road.

Speculations

The decision to engage Cleve specifically for the shed work, on the second working day of the new administration, points to the council's working assessment that no other joiner on the island could be relied on to deliver an immediate repair against the cargo's arrival. Cleve had recently sold his property through the Worrall and Welch chain in 1713 and had appeared as one of the six lower-table petitioners on 13 October 1713 in the closing months of Boucher's government. His selection here suggests that the new council regarded him as a trusted free planter whose work could be charged out at a known rate against a known timetable.

The clear separation of the four not merchantable from the forty-two sound at the moment of viewing, rather than after distribution to the planters, suggests the working purpose of the medical inspection in protecting the Company against later claims. By recording the assessment in the presence of the surgeon, the council fixed the parcel's composition for accounting purposes before any subsequent sickness or death could be attributed to the conditions on the island rather than to the state of the slaves on arrival.

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And Judgeing it will be Necessary to give these new Slaves refreshment after a Long Passage

Ordered that what blacks of the Honour[ble] Comp[s] are at Plantation House or Else where be Sent for to the Fort to Asist in Landing and bringing up the Cargoe, and all other busines laid aside for the present.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Jovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Monday the 12[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governour George Haswell Dep[t]y Governo[r] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Jovey 5[th] in Councill

The Worshyp[ll] the Governour having brought from St Jago Some fowls for the Improveing the breed of this Island which were Sent on Shoar last Saturday And the Honourable Companys Stock of fowles being all destroyed before his Arrivall there was the greater Need of takeing care to preserve them. Notwithstanding Samuell Thornborough Cock did this morning kill of the finest Cocks, which being made Appear by good proofs as well as

Margin Notes:

to have refreshm[t]

Blacks Sent for to help unload the Rochester.

fowls brought fro[m] St Jago.

one Kill[d] by Sam[l] Thornbo[rough]

The council judged it necessary to give these new slaves refreshment after a long passage.

Ordered that the blacks of the Honourable Company at Plantation House, or elsewhere, be sent for to the Fort to assist in landing and bringing up the cargo, and all other business be laid aside for the present.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Monday 12 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The Worshipful the Governor, having brought from St Jago some fowls for the improving of the breed of this island, which were sent on shore last Saturday, and the Honourable Company's stock of fowls being all destroyed before his arrival, there was the greater need of taking care to preserve them. Notwithstanding, Samuel Thornborough's cock did this morning kill of the finest cocks, which being made appear by good proofs as well

Interpretations

The order to assemble the Honourable Company's enslaved workforce at the Fort, drawing them from Plantation House and elsewhere, illustrates the working pattern of mobilising the colony's labour for the unloading of incoming shipping. All other business was to be laid aside, marking the cargo discharge as the immediate priority of the establishment. The arrangement also brought the slaves into proximity with the newly arrived parcel from Sitwell's sloop, where they could form a single working pool during the discharge.

The reference to refreshment for the new slaves after a long passage applies a working welfare practice to the recently landed parcel before any assignment to labour. The provision of food, rest and shelter was treated as a separate institutional duty owed to the Company's new property, securing the investment against the immediate risk of further loss following the long voyage. The same approach applied to other livestock landed from shipping, where conditioning before deployment was the standing practice.

The Governor's personal importation of fowls from St Jago for the improvement of the island's breed identifies a deliberate restocking measure carried in the cargo of the Rochester. St Jago in the Cape Verde islands lay on the standard route from England to St Helena and supplied a recognised source of poultry for trans-shipment. The destruction of the Company's existing stock under the previous administration made the importation an essential rebuilding measure rather than a marginal addition, and gave Pyke a tangible early demonstration of the new regime's commitment to the recovery of the colony.

The killing of one of the finest cocks by Samuel Thornborough's bird, within hours of the new stock being put ashore, presents the first concrete instance of the depletion problem under Pyke's administration. The detail that the offending bird belonged to a named inhabitant brings the matter into the council's working jurisdiction immediately, raising the question of liability for damage to Company property by a planter-owned animal. The reference to good proofs being made out points to a documented procedure of investigation rather than a summary determination.

Speculations

The Governor's decision to lay aside all other business in order to discharge the cargo points to a working assessment that the Rochester's rapid return to England outweighed even the inquiries into Boucher's administration that the new council had only just begun. The ship had crossed in 104 days and the directors in London would expect a similarly compressed turnaround. Pyke's choice to suspend the inventories ordered on 9 July 1714 for the duration of the discharge suggests that the working calendar of metropolitan shipping was setting the pace of the new administration's first month.

The deployment of Sitwell's parcel of slaves alongside the Company's existing workforce on the cargo discharge, immediately after the medical inspection of the previous day, suggests that the council intended to demonstrate the new arrivals' fitness through observable performance. By placing the recently landed slaves in the working pool at the Fort, the council could test the assessment of merchantable made by the surgeon against the practical evidence of their capacity to labour, before any subsequent sale or distribution to the planters.

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as his own Confession, and being an Old offender he was therefore Ordered to be put in Irons Imediatly, and afterwards to be whipt, and Sent to hard Labour for ten days.

The Petition of Thomas Perkins who has been Some years a Serjant in the Honour[ble] Companys Service and desireous to goe off, haveing Serv'd his tyme Offered to Sell the Company his Stock, Yams and Live Cattle.

Ordered that the Said Petition be referrd' till tomorrow it being Generall Councill day and the Councill were then going to be busie in veiwing the Ware houses they wanted to Hire.

The Petition of Samuel Brome praying leave to goe off the Island was Likewise referrd.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Jovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 13[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governo[r] George Haswell Dep[ty] Gover[r] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matth[ew] Bazett 4 [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[ll]

Ordered that Captain Mashborne go and See in what Condition the Honourable Companys Stock and Plantations are in, and what goods &c Stock belong to the

Margin Notes:

his Punnishm[t]

Perkins request to goe off And offer of his Stock.

Answer referrd.

Also Sam[l] Bromes request.

Cap[t] Mashborne to veiw y[e] Comp[s] Stock &c

as by Thornborough's own confession, and the bird being an old offender, the cock was therefore ordered to be put in irons immediately, and afterwards to be whipped and sent to hard labour for ten days.

The petition of Thomas Perkins, who had been for some years a sergeant in the Honourable Company's service, and desired, having served his time, to go off, offered to sell the Company his stock of yams and live cattle.

Ordered that the petition be referred till tomorrow, it being General Council day, and the council being then going to be busy in viewing the warehouses they wanted to hire.

The petition of Samuel Brome, praying leave to go off the island, was likewise referred.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 13 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Ordered that Captain Mashborne go and see in what condition the Honourable Company's stock and plantations were in, and what goods and stock belonged to the

Interpretations

The penalty imposed on Thornborough's cock applies the working procedure of the colony's criminal jurisdiction to an animal offender. The bird was treated as a recidivist, recorded as an old offender, and sentenced through the same instruments used against human transgressors: irons, whipping and hard labour for ten days. The procedure also rested on Thornborough's own confession as to the bird's prior conduct, supplying the evidential standard applied to human cases. The decision marks an early signal that the new administration intended to enforce the protection of Company property without distinction as to the source of the damage.

The deferral of the Perkins and Brome petitions to a later council day, on the explicit ground that the council was occupied with the inspection of warehouses for hire, illustrates the working ordering of business in the first week of the new administration. Both petitions involved the departure of established servants from the island, and Perkins's case in particular carried an offer to sell working stock to the Company. The council's choice to prioritise the immediate storage problem over the resolution of these departure questions confirms the discharge of the Rochester as the controlling urgency.

The designation of a General Council day, distinct from the ordinary working consultation, fixes a recurring institutional category within the colony's calendar. The general council was the appropriate forum for the inspection of warehouses, the conduct of inventories and the broader administrative business of stocktaking. Routine petitions were therefore held over to be brought before a working council on the following day, separating the two streams of business and preventing the inspection programme from being diverted into individual cases.

Captain Mashborne's deployment to view the state of the Company's stock and plantations, on his first substantive assignment as third in council, draws on his earlier service as Deputy Governor under Roberts. Mashborne had been the officer principally responsible for the consolidated estate from 1709 to 1711, and so carried the personal knowledge of the plantations against which the present condition could be compared. The order placed him in the position of expert assessor with documentary memory of the establishment as it had stood before Boucher's term.

Speculations

The recall of Mashborne as third in council, with his immediate assignment to the inspection of the Company's stock and plantations, points to a deliberate selection by the directors in London for the recovery of the colony's working estate. Mashborne had departed on 3 July 1711 after over four years' service. His return on the new commission, with the express assignment to assess the state of the property, suggests that the directors had identified him as the officer best placed to quantify the loss between his earlier inventory and the present condition under Pyke. The mechanism gives the assessment evidential weight in any later proceeding against Boucher.

The decision to apply the working language of penal correction to the offending cock, rather than disposing of the bird summarily, indicates a deliberate publication of the new administration's commitment to the protection of restocking measures. The Governor's personal importation of fowls from St Jago, together with the destruction of the inherited stock, made the early loss of one of the finest cocks a matter of broader policy. By recording the penalty in the consultation book with the working vocabulary of irons, whipping and hard labour, the council signalled to the inhabitants that damage to Company stock would be pursued through the formal record rather than left to private settlement.

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the Said Honourable Company at the Plantation House

M[r] Perkins his Petition of yesterday being read and Considerd a Coppy as followeth

Island St Helena To the Worshyp[ll] the Governour and Councill

The Humble Petition of Thomas Perkins Serjant.

Sheweth

That your Petitioner being desireous to Depart this Island with his wife and familie, in the Sloop now in the road

Humbly moves and prays your Worships leave and Liecence to goe off, as aforesaid he haveing Serv'd his full Contracted term a full tyme and Offers to your Worship the first Refusall of all his provisions, Live Cattle and other Effects, presumeing they may be of great use and Service to the Honour[ble] Company at this tyme when Such Provisions &c is very much wanted, as well to Supply their Generall Table as Negroes &c

And your Petition[r] as in duty bound Shall ever pray &c

Ordered that Captain Mashborne and M[r] Bazett on Acount of the Honourable Company be appointed to Survey the Provisions &c and value the Same with any other Persons M[r] Perkins Shall Appoint.

The Said M[r] Perkins Petition'd this day that he might make the best Advantage he could of his Blacks, Notwith Standing the late Governours order to the Contrary.

It is resolved that he be allow'd Libertie to dispose of three of his blacks viz[t] Scipio, Jack with Meg and her Child at a publick Sale to the best bidder on Condition that he Carry with him off the Island the Slave called Jack, he being a noted thief and House breaker, and on further Condition that

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Perkins's Petition

Cap[t] Mashborne and M[r] Bazett to value y[e] Provisions & Value them.

Perkins request to make y[e] best Advantage of his blacks.

Granted upon Condition he Carry off Jack an Old Offender.

Honourable Company at the Plantation House.

Mr Perkins's petition of yesterday was read and considered, a copy as follows:

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful the Governor and Council.

The humble petition of Thomas Perkins, sergeant.

Showeth that your petitioner, being desirous to depart this island with his wife and family in the sloop now in the road, humbly moves and prays your Worships' leave and licence to go off, as already mentioned, he having served his full contracted term and time. He offers to your Worships the first refusal of all his provisions, live cattle and other effects, professing they may be of great use and service to the Honourable Company at this time when such provisions are very much wanted, as well to supply their general table as the slaves and so forth.

And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, and so on.

Ordered that Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett, on account of the Honourable Company, be appointed to survey the provisions and value the same, with any other persons Mr Perkins shall appoint.

Perkins petitioned this day that he might make the best advantage he could of his blacks, notwithstanding the late Governor's order to the contrary.

It was resolved that he be allowed liberty to dispose of three of his blacks, namely Scipio, Jack with Meg and her child, at public sale to the best bidder, on condition that he carry with him off the island the slave called Jack, he being an old thief and house breaker, and on further condition that

Interpretations

The form of the Perkins petition follows the working pattern of the colony for departure applications by Company servants. The petitioner sets out the completion of his contracted term, requests leave to embark on a specified vessel, and offers the first refusal of his property to the Honourable Company. The structure performs an institutional function: it places the Company in a position of priority over the planter market, while securing the petitioner against any later charge of carrying off property the Company might have claimed for itself.

The valuation procedure adopted for the Perkins provisions, with Mashborne and Bazett as the Company's appointed surveyors and Perkins permitted to nominate any other persons, applies the working device of joint valuation by indifferent men. The arrangement balances the institutional and personal interests through a process that requires agreement on the figure. The mechanism replicates the valuation procedure applied to the Easthope estate on 28 March 1710 and to the Belvird estate on 7 March 1712.

The override of the late Governor's order against the disposal of slaves illustrates how the new administration treated Boucher's executive directions as no longer binding. Boucher had presumably set the order in restraint of Perkins's earlier petition, or as part of a more general restriction on the alienation of slaves. The new council lifted the restriction at the first available consultation, treating the previous order as a personal direction of the departed Governor rather than as a settled regulation of the colony.

The specific identification of Scipio, Jack with Meg and her child as the slaves to be sold, with the further condition that Jack be carried off the island, applies a working distinction between marketable property and individuals whose continued presence the council judged to be a public danger. Jack is described as an old thief and house breaker, a characterisation that placed him outside the ordinary slave market on the island and required his removal from the colony altogether as a condition of the sale. The mechanism treats removal from the island as a substitute for the more drastic penalties that might otherwise have been applied.

Speculations

The framing of the Perkins petition around the Honourable Company's need for provisions at the General Table and for the slaves points to a calculated positioning by the petitioner. Perkins identifies precisely the supply shortages that the new administration had recorded on its arrival, when it found the island stripped of all kinds of stock under Boucher. By offering his stock and provisions to the immediate institutional need, Perkins increased the prospect of obtaining the council's leave to depart on the sloop currently in the road, rather than waiting for a later opportunity.

The decision to grant the disposal of the three named slaves immediately, in the face of Boucher's standing order to the contrary, suggests that the new council was prepared to use individual cases as a public demonstration of changed authority. The lifting of the order in Perkins's particular case, accompanied by the condition for the removal of Jack, allowed the council to relax the late Governor's direction while attaching a working safeguard that addressed a known public nuisance. The combination set the pattern for how Boucher-era restrictions would be handled going forward, on a case-by-case basis with conditions attached.

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159

that if he be not carried off the Island he Shall be forfeited to the Honour[ble] Company Lords Proprietors and their Successors for ever.

Coppy of Said M[r] Perkins Petition as followeth.

St Helena 13[th] July 1714

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] and Councill

The Petition of Thom[s] Perkins Humbly Sheweth

That whereas your Petition[r] designes this week to make an Out cry of Goods Slaves &c and the Late Governour haveing made an Order for the Prices of Slaves which was never Signd by the Councill

Your Petitioner Humbly beggs that he may have leave to Sell his Slaves to the best Advantage, And your Petitioner

As in duty bound Shall Ever pray &c

Docter Corteous Petition'd that he might goe off the Island (as he had before to M[r] Bazett) in case a nother Surgeon Should come, and it being thought Absolutely Necessary alwayes to have two Surgeons (or a Surgeon and Apothecary) at least upon this Island, the Governour with consent of Councill, made the following Proposall to M[r] Corteous

That till another Asistant to the Surgeon was Sent or twas otherwise Ordered by the Honour[ble] Company he Should have thirty pound p[r] annum, and Dine at the fort as usuall &c The Said Corteous Petition as followeth

Island

Margin Notes:

otherwise to be forfeited.

Coppy of Perkins Petition.

Doct[r] Corteous request to goe off y[e] Island

but was Inclin'd w[t]h to Stay.

that if he be not carried off the island, the slave shall be forfeited to the Honourable Company, Lords Proprietors and their successors for ever.

Copy of Perkins's petition as follows:

St Helena 13 July 1714.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and the Council.

The petition of Thomas Perkins humbly showeth.

That whereas your petitioner designs this week to make an outcry of goods, slaves and so forth, and the late Governor having made an order for the prices of slaves which was never signed by the council, your petitioner humbly begs that he may have leave to sell his slaves to the best advantage. And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, and so on.

Doctor Porteous petitioned that he might go off the island, as he had earlier mentioned to Mr Bazett, in case another surgeon should come. Another being thought absolutely necessary, always to have two surgeons on this island, that is to say a surgeon and an apothecary, at least, the Governor with the consent of council made the following proposal to Mr Porteous.

That until another assistant to the surgeon was sent, or it was otherwise ordered by the Honourable Company, he should have £30 0s 0d per annum, and dine at the Fort as usual, and so on.

Porteous's petition as follows:

Interpretations

The forfeiture clause attached to the sale of Jack converts the council's removal condition into an enforceable property sanction. Should the purchaser fail to carry Jack off the island, ownership reverts to the Honourable Company, the Lords Proprietors and their successors for ever. The mechanism transfers the cost of enforcement to the buyer, who must arrange the removal at his own expense as a condition of holding clear title. The same forfeiture device had been applied to the slave price ceilings of the proclamation of 20 December 1710, in which slaves bought above the cap were declared forfeit to the Lords Proprietors.

The express challenge in Perkins's petition to the late Governor's order on slave prices, on the ground that it was never signed by the council, supplies a working test of the new administration's view of Boucher's unilateral directions. By identifying the defect in form, Perkins invites the council to treat the order as void from its making, rather than as a binding regulation now to be repealed. The council's grant of leave to sell to the best advantage accepts the argument and removes the cap by adjudication rather than by formal proclamation.

The proposal to Porteous illustrates the working calculation by which the council retained a senior medical officer. Porteous had asked for leave to depart on the basis of Price's arrival, which had restored the establishment to one surgeon. The council determined that two surgeons were absolutely necessary, namely a surgeon and an apothecary at the least, and offered Porteous a reduced salary of £30 0s 0d per annum together with his diet at the Fort, replacing the £40 0s 0d arrangement settled on 3 November 1713 under which house rent had been included. The reduction reflects the restoration of his diet to the Fort as part of his living, and so removes the need for an allowance covering the rent of private lodging.

The structural insistence on a surgeon-and-apothecary establishment, with two officers rather than one, identifies the working medical practice of the colony as drawing on the division between physic and pharmacy in the metropolitan tradition. The apothecary prepared and dispensed medicines, while the surgeon attended to wounds, surgery and clinical management. The colony's settled position required both functions to be present at all times to cover the working caseload of the garrison, the inhabitants and the slaves.

Speculations

The forfeiture-on-failure-to-remove clause attached to Jack's sale points to a calculated solution to a recurrent difficulty in the colony's penal practice. Outright manumission was not contemplated, and execution or extreme corporal punishment carried the loss of valuable Company property. By making the removal of Jack the consideration for the sale, the council disposed of a dangerous individual through the slave market while preserving the principle that he remained Company property until the buyer's compliance with the condition was complete. Failure to remove triggered forfeiture, returning him to the Company without the buyer having effective title.

The reduction of Porteous's salary from £40 0s 0d to £30 0s 0d, with the restoration of his diet at the Fort, suggests that the Fort accommodation that had been unavailable in November 1713 owing to the demolition of James Fort had now been restored, presumably through the Castle wings and the works completed since. The new arrangement carries Porteous on terms that are formally less generous but practically equivalent, with the difference of £10 0s 0d treated as the value of his board. The mechanism leaves Porteous with little ground to refuse, since the alternative was to be granted his earlier petition for departure.

169

160

Island St Helena.

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r] & Coun[ll] of St Island.

The most Humble Petition of William Corteous Surgeon. Humbly.

Sheweth.

That for as much as your Petitioner hath Serv'd the Honourable Company his full Contracted time and upwards on this their Island as Surgeon and haveing a great desire to goe off the Same in hopes of Bettering your Said Petitioners and familie's fortunes in Some Part of India, Humbly, prays (now another Surgeon is come from England) your Worship and Councell To grant your Said Petitioner and familie Leave and Liecence to take Passage in the Ship Rochester or any other that may Arrive hereafter It having been your Petitioners Inclination to goe off Said Island before this tyme but for the Service of his Employers was very unwilling to Leave the Island Destitute of any Surgeon, Wherefore beggs a readie Complyance

July y[e] 13[th] 1714

And as in duty bound Shall for Ever pray &c

Ordered that M[r] Prices Sallary be thirty nine Pounds per Annum as has been formerly Allow'd the Chief Surgeon here with Table &c and being Severally Acquainted therewith agreed to the Same

Samuell Algeate Corporall Petition'd to goe off referd to next Consultation day and is as followeth

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] & Councell.

The

Margin Notes:

Doct[r] Corteous Petition to goe off

Doct[r] Pr[i]ces Sallary.

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and the Council of this island.

The most humble petition of William Porteous, surgeon, humbly showeth.

That forasmuch as your petitioner had served the Honourable Company his full contracted time and upwards on this their island as surgeon, and having a great desire to go off the same in hopes of bettering your petitioner's and family's fortunes in some part of India, he humbly prayed, now that another surgeon was come from England, that your Worship and Council grant leave and licence to take passage in the ship Rochester or any other that might arrive hereafter. Your petitioner's inclination had been to go off the island before this time, but for the service of his employers he had been very unwilling to leave the island destitute of any surgeon, wherefore he begged a ready compliance.

July 13 1714.

And as in duty bound shall for ever pray, and so on.

Ordered that Mr Price's salary be £39 0s 0d per annum, as had been formerly allowed the chief surgeon there, with table and so on, and being severally acquainted therewith agreed to the same.

Samuel Algate, corporal, his petition to go off, was referred to the next consultation day, and is as follows:

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

Interpretations

The Porteous petition discloses the working pattern of officer mobility within the Honourable Company's eastern establishment. Porteous had completed his contracted term and looked to go off to some part of India, where opportunities for the betterment of officer fortunes were greater than on the smaller St Helena establishment. The pattern shows the island functioning as one node within a wider Company labour market, in which officers moved from one settlement to another to advance their careers and incomes.

Porteous's framing of his earlier reluctance to depart, on the ground that he had been unwilling to leave the island destitute of any surgeon, supplies a working principle of officer succession in the medical service. The departing officer was expected to remain in post until a relief had arrived, with no formal vacancy permitted in the surgeon's role. The arrival of Price by the Rochester now released Porteous to apply for his discharge under the same procedural pattern that governed contracted terms throughout the colony.

The settlement of Price's salary at £39 0s 0d per annum, expressly identified as the rate formerly allowed the chief surgeon, with table and other allowances, fixes the working pay of the principal medical officer on the island. The figure sits below the £40 0s 0d that had been paid to Porteous from 3 November 1713 inclusive of house rent, and above the £30 0s 0d offered to him on his retention in this consultation. The structure preserves the hierarchical distinction between the chief surgeon and the subordinate, while restoring the diet at the Fort to the senior officer as part of his settled provision.

The deferral of Algate's petition to the next consultation day repeats the working device of holding over routine departure questions when the council's principal business was the discharge of incoming shipping and the inventory programme. Algate's case, as a corporal seeking to go off, fell within the established class of contracted servants completing their terms, and the deferral marks no adverse view of the petition itself, but rather the working order of priorities under which the new administration was now operating.

Speculations

The careful difference of £1 0s 0d between Porteous's revised salary of £30 0s 0d and the £29 0s 0d that would have matched Price's £39 0s 0d less the £10 0s 0d notional value of Fort diet, suggests an internal logic in the council's pay structure. Porteous was being placed on terms that recognised his experience and longer service on the island, while Price entered on the chief surgeon's rate as fixed under earlier arrangements. The result establishes Price as the senior officer with Porteous serving as the experienced second, an arrangement which fits the surgeon-and-apothecary model identified in the previous consultation.

Porteous's express identification of India as the intended destination for the betterment of his fortunes, rather than England, points to a deliberate orientation toward the active eastern factories where Company medical practice generated significant private earnings alongside the official salary. The Bencoolen, Madras and Bombay establishments all carried a working surgeon's post with substantial perquisites in private practice among the European inhabitants and the country trade. The pattern places St Helena as a stepping stone in the eastern career rather than as a settled posting, helping to explain the high turnover of surgeons recorded across the present sequence.

170

161

The Humble Petition of Samuel Algate Corporall.

Sheweth.

That your Petitioner have Served the Honourable East India Company Nine years and upwards in the Capacity of a Soldier is desireous to Depart this Island in the Ship Rochester now in the road outward bound

Humbly craves your Worsh[i]ps leave to goe off with his wife as aforesaid

And y[e] Petition[r] Shall ever pray &c

Island St Helena. July 13[th] 1714

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Hasswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Algate Petit[ion] to g[oe] off.

+

The humble petition of Samuel Algate, corporal, showeth.

That your petitioner had served the Honourable East India Company nine years and upwards in the capacity of a soldier, and was desirous to depart this island in the ship Rochester now in the road outward bound. He humbly craved your Worships' leave to go off with his wife, as already mentioned. And your petitioner shall ever pray, and so on.

Island of St Helena.

13 July 1714.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Interpretations

The Algate petition follows the established form for departure applications from soldiers of the garrison. The petitioner sets out his nine years and upwards in Company service, identifies the vessel by which he proposes to leave, and seeks leave to embark with his wife. The structure of the petition is identical in essentials to that used by Perkins on the same day, confirming the standard template that operated across the rank distinctions within the establishment. The completed contracted term was the working basis on which permission to depart was granted.

The reference to the Rochester as outward bound identifies the ship's direction of return to England rather than its further sailing east. The colony lay on the principal route between London and the eastern factories, and ships embarked passengers in either direction depending on their station. The Algate departure as outward bound thus signals a return to England, in contrast to Porteous's intended passage to India which would require either a different ship or a transfer at the Cape or at Madagascar.

The collective signatures of all five council members, immediately after the petition is set out, perform the same coordinated commitment seen in the entries of the previous days. The new administration was continuing to subscribe each consultation as a group, binding all members to the orders made and the petitions received. The pattern provides documentary uniformity across the early consultations under Pyke, against which any later challenge by an individual member would have to be measured.

The recording of Algate as a soldier serving nine years and upwards establishes the working duration of the standard military contract on the island. Earlier rewrites have noted the discharge of Daniel King on 8 April 1712 after four years' service from the Jane, and the discharge of Mashborne on 3 July 1711 after over four years beyond his indenture. The nine-year service of Algate sits at the longer end of the recorded service patterns, indicating either an extended contract or repeated renewal of a standard term.

Speculations

The decision to enter the Algate petition in full into the consultation book, rather than to summarise it in a council order as had been done with most other petitions across the present sequence, points to the working purpose of preserving the documentary form of departure applications during the first weeks of the new administration. By recording the full petition, the new council established the template against which subsequent applications could be matched, reducing the risk of irregular departures or contested terms once the Rochester had sailed. The same pattern had been adopted for the Perkins petition the previous day.

The timing of the Algate departure, coinciding with that of Perkins and the desired departure of Porteous, suggests that the closing days of the Rochester's lying in the road had brought forward a cluster of long-deferred departures from the garrison and the medical establishment. The arrival of a returning ship under the new commission, with the prospect of a relatively safe and well-provisioned passage to England, offered the working opportunity to discharge accumulated service obligations that had been held over during the closing months of Boucher's administration.

171

162

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Fryday the 16[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governour George Haswell Dep[ty] Gov[r] Edward Mashborn[e] 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] in the Countrey about the Hono[ble] Comp[s] business &c Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Councill.

Ordered that both the Medicine Chests be Deliver'd to M[r] Price whom the Honour[ble] Company have Appointed Surgeon of this Island.

The Petition of Francis Leech Planter being read praying to goe off the Island in the Sloop now in the Road.

Resolved that no person have leave to goe off this Island, who have their Names in the Honour[ble] Companys Books till their Acounts in the Store be Settled.

The Petition of Mary Nichols Spinster desireing leave to go off the Island being read it was granted She haveing no acco[t] in the Stores Coppy of the Said Petition.

To the Worship[fll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] &c[a] Councill

The Petition of Mary Nichols Spinster.

Humbly Sheweth.

That whereas your Petitioner haveing a great desire to goe to India in the Rochester now in the Road Your petitioner beggs your Worship and Councells leave & Liberty that She may now goe off in the Rochester. And your Petitioner as in duty bound Shall ever pray &c

Mary Nichols.

This

Margin Notes:

Chests of Medicines to be Del[d] Doct[r] Price.

no person to go off till Acc[ts] Settled.

Mary Nichols desires to go off.

her Petition.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Friday 16 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth, away in the country on the Honourable Company's business; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The council ordered that both medicine chests be handed over to Mr Price, who had been appointed surgeon of the island by the Honourable Company.

A petition was read from Francis Leech, planter, seeking leave to depart on the sloop then lying in the road.

The council resolved that no one whose name appeared in the Honourable Company's books was to be granted leave to leave the island until that person's store account had been cleared.

A petition was read from Mary Nichols, spinster, also seeking leave to depart. The request was granted, since she held no account in the stores. A copy of her petition was entered as follows.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire and so on, and Council.

The petition of Mary Nichols, spinster, humbly showed that the petitioner greatly wished to travel to India on the Rochester, then in the road, and asked the Governor and Council for leave and liberty to embark on that ship. And the petitioner, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

Mary Nichols.

Interpretations

The handover of both medicine chests to Price completed the medical transfer from Porteous as chief surgeon. The chests held the operational stock of medicines and instruments for the island, and their assignment placed the incoming officer in full working control. The order extended the pattern of departmental inventory transfers begun on 9 July 1714, when responsibility for the stores, the Clerk's office, the garrison stores and the medical chest had been distributed by name.

The general rule that no person whose name appeared in the Company's books could be granted leave to depart until store accounts were settled introduced a departure-control mechanism keyed to outstanding balances. The rule reached from senior officers down to ordinary planters who ran tabs at the store. It blocked departing inhabitants from carrying unpaid debts off the island and gave the council direct leverage to compel settlement before passage was authorised.

The application of the rule to Francis Leech, a free planter, showed that it bound the planter community as well as Company servants. The Leech family had recurred across the recent record, including the settlement of Robert Leech's estate and the division of Mary Leech's share ahead of her remarriage. The deferral of Francis Leech's departure illustrated the close working overlap between the planter community and the store-book economy that underwrote the colony's credit system.

Mary Nichols's case operated as the working illustration of the new rule. Her status as a spinster, without any Company office or planter holding to generate entries in the books, placed her outside the credit relationships that tied most other inhabitants to the establishment, and her petition was granted on that ground. Her destination of India, rather than England, repeated the eastward orientation also seen in Porteous's intended passage and reinforced the colony's intermediate position on the route to the Company's principal eastern settlements.

Speculations

The introduction of the store-settlement rule at a moment when several long-serving servants and inhabitants were seeking discharge by the Rochester pointed to a calculated tightening of departure control by the new council. Under the previous administration, looser practice had allowed unrecovered balances to accumulate on the books of departing personnel, with little prospect of recovery in London. By imposing the rule from this consultation onward, the new administration set a working barrier against further loss and signalled to the inhabitants that the credit basis of the colony's economy would now be enforced.

The decision to enter the Nichols petition in full into the book, while granting it without further discussion, pointed to a deliberate publication of her case as the working exemplar of the new rule. Setting out the petition and the absence of any store account made the practical effect of the resolution visible to any later applicant. The mechanism taught the rule through illustration rather than through abstract regulation, and gave subsequent petitioners a template against which to judge their own prospects.

172

163

This Petition was deliver'd by John Nichols her father this day the 16[th] July

Allow'd that She, the Said Mary Nichols have Liberty to Depart in any Shipp.

Order'd that the People in the Prison on Acount of an intended Mutiny be inform'd that on Tuesday next they are to attend the Councill.

The Petition of Thomas Free planter being read.

Island St Helena.

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c[a] Councill.

The Petition of Thomas Free.

Humbly Sheweth.

Your Petitioner asking John Alexander Clark on Wednesday last for a Deed and Lease which your Petitioner was to have had this twelve month agoe But have not had it as yet the Said John Alexander fell upon your Petitioner and abus[d] him most grosely in So much that I got in danger of my Life he allways told me it was not done, I have Likewise Sent to him, he Sent me the Same answer, I beleive your Worship and Councill will find an Order for it that I was to have one by reason I Petition'd for it as the usuall Customer was.

Humbly praying that your Worship and Councill will be pleas'd to grant me one

In the Honour[ble] Companys Generall Letter by the Susannah Cap[t] Bunnell Comander there was an Order Sent for your Petitioner to be their Clark which M[r] Bazett can justifye for him Sue he has Seen it and read it but Iwould never gett it. I Sent it to the Late Gov[r] Captain Boucher at the Plantation House and Demanded it but I had a Volly of Curses Damm you, and Sink you, and Such reprobate Language and Swore heartily I Should not have it, and God damn you for a dogg I will have a Clark and a Councill of my own as well as that Old Stinking dogg Robers had, now it Seems that Generall Letter is Lo[s]t but that is no new thing for when Alexander was Clark before there was Severall Generall Letters and other Papers wanting then he laid that upon Govern[r] Poirrer who was dead, all to which I

Margin Notes:

Granted.

Prison[ers] to attend the Councill

Frees Petition against Jn[o] Alexander and Desires a Lease for Land.

ab[ou]t his being Clark

Gov[r] Bouchers Answer to him

The petition was delivered by John Nichols, her father, on this 16 July.

Granted that Mary Nichols be allowed liberty to depart on any ship.

The council ordered that the people in the prison on account of an intended mutiny be informed that on Tuesday next they were to attend the council.

The petition of Thomas Free, planter, was read.

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The petition of Thomas Free humbly showed.

That the petitioner, asking John Alexander, clerk, on Wednesday last for a deed and lease which the petitioner had earlier had this twelve months ago, but had not yet had as Alexander said, Alexander fell upon the petitioner and abused him most grossly, in such manner that the petitioner went in danger of his life. Alexander always told him it was not done; the petitioner had likewise sent to him, who sent back the same answer. He believed the Governor and Council would find an order for it that the petitioner was to have one, the reason for his petitioning being that it was the usual custom.

The petitioner humbly prayed that the Governor and Council would be pleased to grant him one.

In the Honourable Company's general letter by the Susannah, Captain Pinnell commander, an order had been sent for the petitioner to be their clerk, which Mr Bazett could justify, for the petitioner had seen it and read it, but could never get it. He went to the late Governor Captain Boucher at the Plantation House and demanded it, but instead had a volley of curses, Damn you and sink you and such reprobate language, and Boucher swore heartily he should not have it, and God damn you for a dog, I will have a clerk and a council of my own as well as that old stinking dog Roberts had. Now it seems that general letter was lost, but this was no new thing, for when Alexander was clerk before, several general letters and other papers had been wanting. When he laid that upon Governor Poirier, who was dead, all to which

Interpretations

The case of John Nichols, attending in person to deliver his daughter's petition, illustrates how household members could carry petitions on behalf of those unable to appear in person. The council recorded the agent's identity and relationship to the petitioner alongside the grant, fixing on the record the basis on which the document had reached the consultation. The same procedural carefulness shaped the entries for departing inhabitants more generally, allowing the council to test the authenticity of each petition against a named bearer.

The notice given to the mutiny prisoners that they were to attend the council on the following Tuesday set out a working procedure for reopening the case left over from the conspiracy of 8 July 1713. Those still in confinement had been held since the closing months of the previous administration. By calling them before the council in a regular sitting, the new administration placed the matter within the ordinary judicial business of the colony rather than treating it as a continuing executive detention, and gave the prisoners formal notice of the hearing date.

The Free petition disclosed the working pattern by which clerks of council controlled access to documents in their custody. Free had earlier paid for a deed and lease that John Alexander, as clerk, had retained for twelve months without producing. Free's complaint identified the abuse of office that arose when the clerkship became the personal possession of an officer with grievances against particular inhabitants, and gave the council direct evidence of the institutional defect requiring reform.

The recorded oaths attributed to Boucher at the Plantation House, framed in the petition as a verbatim exchange, illustrated the working political economy of the previous administration's clerk and council appointments. Boucher had refused to install Free as clerk in defiance of an order received by the Susannah, and had compared his arrangements to those of his predecessor Roberts. The detail that the general letter was now said to be lost, taken with the earlier finding on 9 July 1714 that Boucher had carried the Susannah letter away with him, tied the present grievance to the broader documentary failure already on the new council's record.

Speculations

The express linkage in Free's petition between the loss of the Susannah letter under Boucher and the earlier disappearance of general letters and papers under the same John Alexander when serving as clerk under Governor Poirier suggested a pattern of repeated document loss running across multiple administrations. By placing the present complaint alongside the earlier failures, Free invited the new council to treat the issue as systemic rather than episodic, and to address it through reform of the clerkship rather than through the personal discipline of any one officer.

The timing of Free's petition, brought forward in the week of Pyke's arrival and the inquiry into Boucher's stewardship, indicated a calculated choice to bring forward grievances that had been impossible to advance under the previous administration. The new council's openness to receiving complaints from the inhabitants offered Free the working opportunity to combine a personal claim for his lease with a public denunciation of Boucher's conduct. The pairing strengthened both elements of the case, since the institutional grievance reinforced the personal one and gave the council a documented basis for any further action against Alexander or against the departed Governor.

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164

Irefer your Worship and Councill to the Councill Book N[o] 9 Except that he has tore them out which M[r] Mashborne & M[r] Bazett can give your Worship and Councell a further Acco[t] of, now he has a hole to Creep out of in Saying Gover[r] Boucher carried that Letter away with him.

He the Said Alexander Stands Indebted to your Petitioner a pritty Large Sume of money but never could gett a farthing from him nor bring him to any manner of Acount.

But I could have no Justice done me in them days not questioning but your Worship and Councell will do me Justice now.

July y[e] 16[th] 1714

And your Petitioner as in duty bound Shall ever pray &c

Thomas Free.

Ordered that the Merits of the Petition be inquired into asoon as Possible by M[r] Bazett and that the Consultation Book be Examined as to what Relates to the Said Petition and then Adjourn'd

M[r] Alexander Saith that the late Govern[r] Boucher took the Susannahs Generall Letter along with him and that it was never Coppy'd in the Book.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Referrd to M[r] Bazett.

Gen[ll] Lett[r] p[r] Susan Carryd off by Gov[r] Bouch[er]

refer your Worship and Council to the council book number 9, except what he had torn out, of which Mr Mashborne and Mr Bazett could give your Worship and Council a further account. Now he had a hole to creep out of, saying Governor Boucher had carried that letter away with him.

Alexander stood indebted to your petitioner in a fairly large sum of money, but the petitioner could never get a farthing out of him, nor bring him to any manner of account.

The petitioner could have no justice done him in those days, not questioning but your Worship and Council would do him justice now.

16 July 1714.

And your petitioner, as in duty bound, should ever pray, and so on.

Thomas Free.

The council ordered that the merits of the petition be inquired into as soon as possible by Mr Bazett, and that the consultation book be examined as to what related to the petition, and then adjourned.

Mr Alexander said that the late Governor Boucher took the Susannah's general letter along with him, and that it was never copied in the book.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Interpretations

Free's reference to council book number 9, except for what Alexander had torn out, established the working evidential basis for the inquiry the council was now invited to undertake. The numbered series of consultation books formed the colony's standing record, and the loss of leaves through deliberate removal would have left visible gaps against which Mashborne and Bazett, both with institutional memory of the period, could give a further account. The petition treated the missing leaves as a separate matter from the missing general letter, and located the responsibility for each with a different officer.

Alexander's defence, that the Susannah's general letter had been carried off by Boucher and never copied in the book, repeated the same explanation he had given the previous day when called on by the new council to produce the four general letters of the previous administration. The repetition placed Alexander in a fixed position: either the failure to copy the letter was his as clerk, or its absence from the office was Boucher's as departing Governor. The new council was thereby invited to determine the apportionment of blame between two officers who were no longer in the same physical place.

The reference to Alexander's substantial debt to Free, with no farthing recovered and no account obtainable, brought the personal grievance into the same procedural frame as the institutional one. Both rested on Alexander's refusal to render documents or accounts in his possession. The pairing illustrated how the clerkship under the previous administration had operated as a position of leverage over the inhabitants, where private debts and official records were both held by the same hand against the interest of the petitioners.

The council's order that the merits of the petition be inquired into by Bazett, with parallel examination of the consultation book, set out a working procedural response. Bazett was assigned to investigate the substance of Free's complaint, while the book itself was to be examined for whatever bore on the matter. The arrangement combined personal inquiry with documentary verification, and gave Bazett the working position of internal investigator over questions that touched directly on his own period of service under Boucher.

Speculations

The selection of Bazett as the officer to inquire into the merits of the Free petition, rather than the appointment of an external commission, pointed to a calculated decision by Pyke to test Bazett's willingness to confront the record of the previous administration. Bazett had stood at the centre of the working establishment under Boucher and had been the subject of the formal interrogation of 1 April 1714 over his refusal to sign the general letter. The new council's choice to entrust him with the Free inquiry created the working opportunity either for him to demonstrate independence from Boucher or to expose any continuing reluctance to act against the late Governor's officers.

The recording of Alexander's bare assertion that Boucher had carried the Susannah's letter away and that the letter had never been copied, immediately followed by the formal signatures of all five council members closing the consultation, suggested a deliberate placement of the assertion on the record at the moment of greatest evidential weight. Alexander's statement would now have to be tested against the consultation book and against whatever further account Bazett produced. The mechanism preserved the assertion as a fixed reference point against which inconsistency in any later account could be measured.

174

165

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 20[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James Vatley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governo[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Gov[r] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Councill

Resolv'd

That finding Capt[n] Brown Comander of the Rochester Dilatory in the Delivering his Cargoe notwith Standing the Governour has Spoke to him to hasten the Sending Goods on Shoar. Ordered.

That a letter be drawn up and Sent him as followeth

Capt[n] William Brown.

I am Comanded by the Governour and Councill To advise you that on Thursday the 8 Instant you arived here on Fryday the 9[th] you Sent on Shoar but one boat on the 10 three boats on the 12 being Monday you Sent two boats on Tuesday the 13 Halfe a Yawls Load on the 14 was a great boat on the 15 you Sent three boats on the 16 two boats on the 17 one boat and a halfe on Monday the 19 one boat and a halfe on Here two boats whereas they Expected this fair weather at Least five boats Loads every day, So many having been Sent from other Ships with Ease which could by this time have unliveled your Cargoe.

(They

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 20 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Resolved that, finding Captain Brown, commander of the Rochester, dilatory in delivering his cargo, notwithstanding that the Governor had spoken to him to hasten the sending of goods on shore, the council ordered that a letter be drawn up and sent to him as follows.

Captain William Brown.

I am commanded by the Governor and council to advise you that on Thursday the 8th instant you arrived here. On Friday the 9th you sent on shore but one boat. On the 10th, three boats. On the 12th, being Monday, you sent two boats. On Tuesday the 13th, half a yawl load. On the 14th, were aground. On the 15th, you sent three boats. On the 16th, two boats. On the 17th, one boat and a half. On Monday the 19th, two boats. Whereas the council had expected, in this fair weather, at least five boat loads every day, so many having been sent from other ships with ease, which could by this time have unloaded four cargoes.

Interpretations

The day-by-day enumeration of boat movements from the Rochester converted a general complaint about delay into a precise documentary instrument. The letter recorded the working pace of the discharge against the council's expectation of five boat loads daily in fair weather, and treated the gap between the two as the measure of the captain's default. The form of the protest matched the earlier protests directed against the commanders of the Toddington and the Thistleworth on 25 August 1711, in which the same day-counting method had been used to establish non-compliance with council orders.

The reference to other ships discharging four cargoes in the same period set up a comparative benchmark against which the Rochester's performance could be measured. The colony's working knowledge of normal discharge rates from earlier shipping seasons was therefore being used as the standard for the present case, with the implication that Brown's pace fell so far below the established norm that explanation was required. The mechanism placed the burden of justification on the master rather than on the council.

The decision to send a formal letter rather than to record a verbal direction reflected the procedural framework by which the council's authority was made enforceable in London. A written communication, delivered to the master, created a documentary record that could accompany the consultation home to the directors. Brown's reply, or his failure to comply after written notice, would form part of the working case against him should the council later need to make a formal protest at the Company's headquarters.

The detail that the Rochester had been aground on 14 July supplied the working acknowledgement of one legitimate excuse for the pause in discharge on that day, while implicitly denying that this single circumstance could account for the more general pattern of delay. The council's careful enumeration of each day's actual performance, including the day of grounding, gave Brown no opportunity to claim that uncontrollable circumstances had been ignored in the assessment of his conduct.

Speculations

The choice to formalise the complaint against Brown in writing on 20 July 1714, twelve days after the Rochester's arrival, pointed to a calculated escalation by the new council. The Governor had earlier spoken to Brown directly without effect. By moving from oral instruction to written protest, the council placed the matter on the consultation record and gave Brown notice that further delay would now be documented against him in London. The mechanism was identical in form to the protests against the Toddington and Thistleworth commanders three years earlier, suggesting that the same procedural pattern was being applied as a settled response to recalcitrant masters.

The decision to itemise every day of the discharge in the letter, rather than to make a general assertion of delay, indicated a deliberate evidentiary strategy. Each day's count was capable of independent verification by witnesses ashore and on the boats. By stating the figures precisely, the council made it difficult for Brown to dispute the general charge without contesting specific factual entries, each of which could be tested separately. The arrangement reduced the captain's room for negotiation and created a strong basis for any later proceedings against him in London.

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They have Ordered also to tell you that M[r] Frost your Stuffd came this forenoon, and Reported that your Long boat came on Shoar this morning about Six a Clock with goods, but could not Land any the water being So very Boysterous, that She Lay at her Moaring Waiting an Opportunity Upon which M[r] Goodwin was Sent for and Ordered to See what goods were in her who Imediately return'd and Said there was nothing in the Long boat but one of your Casks of water So that you have Sent no Goods on Shoar to day and yet Send our Long Boat Empty from the Ship at which they wonder very much. I am S[i]r

United Castle St Helena.

July the 20[th] 1714.

Your Humble Servant

Antipas Tovey

Acording to an Order of Councill bearing date the 17 Inst[a]nt that the Prisoners Should attend the Councill this day made their Appearance with the following Petition

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [..] and Councill

The Humble Petition of William Gore John Cane Peter Towers Edw[d] Millard and Thomas Griffts.

Sheweth

To your Worsh[ip] That we have Each of us Served the Hono[ble] East India Company on this Island Severall years but are Desireous of Seeing other parts of the world, and would gladly goe to Some of the Hono[ble] Companys Settlements in India to Serve as Soldiers when we promise to behave our Selves faithfully & honestly, and humbly pray we may be Allowed to go in the Shipp Rochester to Bencoolen where we are inform'd, She is bound, and beind we may be Listed to Serve the Said Honourable Comp[s] five years as Souldiers there And your Petitioners as in

duty

Margin Notes:

Prisoners appear'd with the

following

Petition.

The council was further ordered to tell Brown that Mr Frost, your purser, came this forenoon and reported that your long boat came on shore this morning about six o'clock with goods, but could not land any, the water being so very turbulent that she lay at her moorings waiting an opportunity. Upon which Mr Goodwin was sent for and ordered to see what goods were on her, who immediately returned and said there was nothing in the long boat but one of your oars of so at sea, so that you have sent no goods on shore today, and yet sent our long boat away from the ship, at which the council wondered very much.

I am, sir, your humble servant,

Antipas Tovey.

United Castle, St Helena.

20 July 1714.

According to an order of council bearing date the 17th instant, that the prisoners should attend the council this day, they made their appearance with the following petition.

St Helena.

The Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The humble petition of William Gore, John Cane, Peter Towers, Edward Millard and Thomas Griffis.

Showed that the petitioners had each of them served the Honourable East India Company on this island several years, but were desirous of seeing other parts of the world, and would gladly go to some of the Honourable Company's settlements in India, there to serve as soldiers, where they promised to behave themselves faithfully and honestly. The petitioners humbly prayed that they might be allowed to go on the ship Rochester to Bencoolen, where they were informed she was bound, and desired they might be listed to serve the Honourable Company five years as soldiers there. And your petitioners, as in duty

Interpretations

The report from Frost as purser, that the long boat had returned empty owing to a swell at the landing, supplied the immediate evidential basis for the council's further complaint to Brown. The verification through Goodwin, sent to inspect the long boat in person and to report on its contents, applied the same store-side check that had been deployed at the cargo discharge from 9 July onward. The mechanism prevented the captain from claiming credit for boat movements that had produced no actual landing of goods.

The closing detail, that the Rochester's long boat had been sent back to the ship while the council's own boat remained ashore, identified a working sleight on the captain's part. The ship's boat had been kept off the working strength of the discharge, leaving the council's boat carrying the load. The express wondering of the council recorded the protest at this misuse of the auxiliary capacity that had been placed at the master's disposal precisely to accelerate the cargo's landing.

The petition of the five soldiers introduced the working route by which St Helena soldiers transferred to the Company's eastern garrisons. The petitioners sought to be listed for five years at Bencoolen, a fresh contract on the eastern station rather than a discharge for return to England. The mechanism preserved their employment within the Company's service while moving them to a different posting, on terms that began afresh from the date of their listing at the new station.

The names of the petitioners established the working identity of the five soldiers still confined since the conspiracy of 8 July 1713. William Gore and Thomas Griffis had been among the five ringleaders committed close prisoner in irons on that date, while the others appeared to fall within the wider group of those associated with the rising. The petition offered the new council a working solution that resolved their confinement through redeployment rather than through pardon, punishment or release on the island.

Speculations

The petition for transfer to Bencoolen as soldiers, rather than for release or for return to England, pointed to a calculated proposal designed to meet the new council's likely concerns. The petitioners had been held for over a year for an attempted mutiny, and any release on the island would expose the new administration to the working risk of further trouble. By offering to enlist for five years at a distant station, the petitioners removed themselves from St Helena entirely and bound themselves to continued Company service. The arrangement gave Pyke a face-saving solution that disposed of the prisoners without an outright pardon and without the difficulty of carrying them home as condemned men.

The deliberate framing of the petition as expressing a desire to see other parts of the world, rather than as a confession or apology for the earlier conspiracy, suggested coaching by an interested party. The five petitioners were unlikely to have produced a coordinated document in this form without assistance. Bazett or another officer with working knowledge of the case may have shaped the language to present the transfer as a positive career step rather than as a plea for mercy, allowing the new council to grant the request on commercial grounds rather than on grounds of clemency.

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167

duty bound Shall Ever pray for the Hono[ble] East India Comp[a] of England and your Worsh[ips] happyness &c

William Gore John Cane Thom[s] Griffts the mark of Peter + Towers the mark of Edward G Mallard

Haveing perused their Examination and affidavits against them and upon Looking over the Consultation book find their wicked design of Seizing the then Governour and Councill plundering the Hono[ble] Companys Store Houses with other evill Intentions, We don't think them proper Persons to be permitted to Stay upon this Island therefore Resolv'd and Acordingly

Ordered.

That there Petition be granted and being Indebted to the Honour[ble] Company and Severall other Persons on the Island That they work the Same out at Bencoolen, which they freely agreed to and glad they came off So well.

The Governour acquainted the Councill that Richard Cleve Jouner brought him the keys of the Carpenters Shop on Satturday Last and Said he did not design to work any Longer for the Company but resolv'd to goe off in the first Ship that arriv[d] here. The Said Cleve was this day Sent for and as[k]t what he desigd to do now, who after Some debate Seemed willing to continue working for the Said Honor[ble] Company Acording to former Order But we Thinking five Shillings a day too great wages with the allowance of his diet besides have therefore thought fitt and Acordingly

Ordered

That the Said Cleve be treated with in this manner viz[t] Either by the great peice foot or yard and have his diett as usuall But before we proceed further in this matter

Ordered

That

Margin Notes:

their Crimes for which reason.

Order'd to goe to Bencoolen.

Cleve refused to work any Longer.

Unless has y[e] Same Wages as formly.

To be Treated with[..]

bound, should ever pray for the Honourable East India Company of England, and your Worship's happiness, and so on.

William Gore.

John Cane.

Thomas Griffis.

The mark of Peter Towers.

The mark of Edward Mallard.

Having perused their examination and affidavits against them, and upon looking over the consultation book, the council found their wicked design of seizing the then Governor and Council, plundering the Honourable Company's storehouses with other evil intentions. The council did not think them proper persons to be permitted to stay upon this island, and therefore resolved and ordered accordingly.

Ordered that their petition be granted, and they being indebted to the Honourable Company and several other persons on the island, the council ordered that they work the same out at Bencoolen, which they freely agreed to, and were glad they came off so well.

The Governor acquainted the council that Richard Cleve, joiner, had brought him the keys of the carpenter's shop on Saturday last, and said he did not design to work any longer for the Company, but resolved to go off in the first ship that arrived here. Cleve was this day sent for, and asked what he designed to do now, who, after some debate, seemed willing to continue working for the Honourable Company according to former order. But the council, thinking five shillings a day too great wages, with the allowance of his diet besides, accordingly ordered that Cleve be treated with in this manner, namely either by the great, by foot or yard, and have his diet as usual. But before they proceeded further in this matter, ordered that

Interpretations

The signatures and marks at the foot of the petition recorded the working literacy of the five petitioners. William Gore, John Cane and Thomas Griffis signed their own names, while Peter Towers and Edward Mallard made their marks. The convention of writing the mark of preceding the named individual identified the literate witness, while the cross or other symbol stood as the legal equivalent of a signature. The mixed pattern across the five was common among the rank-and-file of the garrison.

The council's express finding that the five had designed to seize the then Governor and Council and plunder the Honourable Company's storehouses provided the formal record of the offences for which they had been confined since July 1713. The use of the consultation book and the examinations and affidavits already on file gave the new administration the working documentary basis on which to dispose of the case, without the need for fresh proceedings. The finding was reached on inspection of the existing record rather than through a new trial.

The grant of the petition on condition that the petitioners work out their debts at Bencoolen converted their attempted mutiny into a recovery mechanism for the colony's outstanding accounts. The debts to the Honourable Company and to several inhabitants on the island would be discharged through their continued service at the eastern station, where their wages could be applied directly against the balances. The arrangement preserved the Company's claims while removing the prisoners from St Helena.

The handling of Richard Cleve illustrated the working flexibility of the new council in adjusting craftsman pay to the colony's straitened circumstances. Five shillings a day with diet had been Cleve's standing rate. The council judged this excessive and ordered that he be employed instead either by the great, by the foot or by the yard, with diet as usual. Piece rates replaced the day rate, transferring the productivity risk from the Company to the craftsman while preserving his subsistence at the Fort.

Speculations

The willingness of the five petitioners to accept the Bencoolen transfer as a working out of their debts indicated a calculated acceptance of the only realistic alternative to indefinite confinement on the island. The council's finding that they were not proper persons to be permitted to stay upon this island had closed the option of release within the colony. The Bencoolen route allowed them to escape continuing imprisonment, with the prospect of a fresh term at the eastern station replacing an open-ended punishment at St Helena. The recorded gladness that they came off so well captured the relative advantage of the arrangement against the more severe outcomes that could otherwise have followed.

The decision to test alternative pay structures with Cleve, who had served the Company under previous administrations and had been among the six lower-table petitioners on 13 October 1713, pointed to a deliberate signal by the new council that the standing wages of the previous administration were no longer assumed. By placing Cleve on piece rates rather than on a daily wage, the council established a working precedent against which other craftsmen on day rates could later be reviewed. Cleve's centrality to the working economy of the Fort made him a useful first case in the broader pay reform.

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Ordered

That the Said Cleve take and bring in a true and Exact Acco[t] of all the Hono[ble] Companys Timber Deals &c. That are under his Care and them to be heated with as afores[d]

Finding there is an absolute Necessity for the building a new Store house and being inform'd that Beals Orphans has a House and peice of ground Adjoining to the Hono[ble] Comp[s] Store house which Lies very Convenient to Enlarge the Same and will be very Commodious in the Regular building the new one

Ordered

That Captain Edward Mashborne and M[r] Bazett treat with M[r] Carne Guardian to Said Orphans about the Price and value of Said House and ground, on the Cheapest terms they can.

The Governour and Councell finding that there is great a cou[n]t of Provisions upon this Island and that the Honour[ble] Company have no Cattle fitt to kill haveing but Sixty head of their own and them most breeders

Ordered.

That an Advertisement be this Day Spread out to inform those planters that have any Stock of Cattle &c to dispose of, To treat with Captain Mashborne about them and he upon any Agreement make report Acordingly

Ordered

That till the Hono[ble] Companys Stock is increas'd We have two days in a week Salt provisions, and two days fish and the boats to be Constantly going a fishing

Cap[t] Mashborne deliver'd the following Acco[t] of the Hono[ble] Companys Stock of Live provisions viz[t]

Cattle viz[t] Swine Young & old 24

7 Bulls 9 Steers Sheep 3

15 Cows 12 Yearlings Fowles 26

6 Bullocks 1 Calf

10 Heifers 22 in all 60 head

38

By

Margin Notes:

and to take An Acc[t] of Comp[s] Timb[r]

Beals Orphans House Adjoining to y[e] Store house.

To be treated for, for Enlargeing y[e] old Stor[e].

Cap[t] Mashborn to buy Provisions

Salt Provision to be Eat 2 days in a week & ffish 2 days more

Acc[t] of y[e] Hono[ble] Comp[s] Stock.

the council ordered that Cleve take and bring in a true and exact account of all the Honourable Company's timber, deals and so on, that were under his care, and then to be treated with as already mentioned.

Finding there was an absolute necessity for the building of a new storehouse, and being informed that Beale's orphans had a house and piece of ground adjoining the Honourable Company's storehouse, which lay very convenient to enlarge the same, and would be very commodious in the regular building of the new one, the council ordered

that Captain Edward Mashborne and Mr Bazett treat with Mr Carne, guardian to the orphans, about the price and value of the house and ground, on the cheapest terms they could.

The Governor and council, finding that there was great want of provisions upon this island, and that the Honourable Company had no cattle fit to kill, having but sixty head of their own, and them most breeders, ordered

that an advertisement be this day issued out, to inform those planters that had any stock of cattle and so on to dispose of, to treat with Captain Mashborne about them, and he upon any agreement make report accordingly.

Ordered that, until the Honourable Company's stock was increased, the council have two days in a week salt provisions, and two days fish, and the boats to be constantly going a-fishing.

Captain Mashborne delivered the following account of the Honourable Company's stock of live provisions, namely

Cattle:

7 Bulls

15 Cows

6 Bullocks

10 Heifers

9 Steers

12 Yearlings

1 Calf

Sub-total 60 head

Swine, young and old: 24

Sheep: 3

Fowls: 26

Interpretations

The order that Cleve produce a true and exact account of all timber, deals and other materials under his care before any further negotiation of his pay applied the same accounting discipline to a tradesman that had been imposed at the officer level on 9 July 1714. The mechanism prevented Cleve from leaving the colony with either an unsettled materials inventory or an undisclosed surplus, and gave the council the working documentary basis on which to test his future productivity under the new piece-rate arrangement.

The plan to acquire the Beale orphans' house and adjoining ground for the enlargement of the storehouse site applied the working device of orphan-estate acquisition to a colony infrastructure project. George Carne, as guardian to the orphans, held the working authority to negotiate the sale on their behalf. The recent partition of 30 October 1711 and the audit proceedings of 13 October 1713 had established the orphans' interest in the property, and the present transaction would convert that interest into cash for the orphans while securing the adjoining ground for the Company's purposes.

The provisioning arrangement of two days salt provisions and two days fish each week, with the boats constantly going a-fishing, set out the working dietary regime under which the council would operate until the Company's stock was rebuilt. The remaining three days each week were not specified, suggesting that yams and other plantation produce were assumed as the standard daily fare. The fishing programme depended on the colony's working maritime capacity, including the long boat and the boat purchased from Captain Lesly on 25 November 1712.

Mashborne's account of the Company's stock of live provisions confirmed the figure of about sixty head referred to in the consultation of 8 July 1714, with the precise breakdown showing that the herd consisted mainly of breeders. The 7 bulls and 15 cows formed the working breeding stock, while the 10 heifers and 12 yearlings represented the next generation. The 6 bullocks and 9 steers gave the only working slaughter capacity, against which the absence of swine other than the 24 young and old, and the residual 3 sheep and 26 fowls, identified the limits of available meat production for the colony.

Speculations

The decision to designate Mashborne as the sole negotiator with the planters for cattle purchases, rather than handling each transaction through the council, pointed to a working delegation of operational authority. Mashborne had been third in council under Roberts and had carried the working knowledge of the planter community through that earlier period. By concentrating the negotiations in his hands, the council ensured a consistent valuation approach and avoided the risk that competing council members would drive up prices through uncoordinated bidding against the planters' herds.

The careful linkage between the new storehouse project and the Beale orphans' adjoining ground revealed a calculated planning decision that combined two long-standing institutional difficulties. The orphans' estate had been the subject of contested audits since 1710, with the property still tied up in the consequences of the Hoskison case. The Company's pressing need for a new storehouse offered a working solution: the orphans could realise cash for their interest in the adjoining ground, while the Company secured the site needed for the regular building of the new storehouse. Both interests would be settled by the same transaction.

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169

By the Govern[r] & Councill

An Advertisement.

These are to give Notice to all or any of the Planters of this Island who are willing to dispose of any manner of Provisions to the Honour[ble] Company They may treat with Cap[t] Mashborne who is ready to agree with them upon their Applying themselves to him for that purpose.

Dated at the United Castle in James valley this 20 day of July 1714

Sign'd p[r] order of Govern[r] and Councill.

p[r] Antipas Tovey Sec[ry]

Whereas Thomas Perkins Serj[t] Presented his Petition to Gov[r] and Councill on the 13[th] Instant Setting forth there in his Inclination to Depart this Island in the Sloop now in the road Offering to Sell his Provisions to the Honour[ble] Company Upon which Cap[t] Edward Mashborne and M[r] Bazett were appointed to go and veiw the Same and to agree with the Said Perkins on the best Terms they could for the Interest of the Said Honour[ble] Company, who Acordingly did and reported this day their agreement which is as followeth.

That the Said Perkins offered to Sell his Plantation of yams and to give only two years tyme for digging the Said Provisions out of the Cabbage tree Land, and Eighteen months in the Gum wood Land which we well knowing not to be for the Honour[ble] Companys Interest as if they had Longer tyme and Considering the Said Perkins designd to Lease all his Land out for Seven years thought it Proper to agree for that Time and take the whole into the Said Honour[ble] Companys own hands for that within this tyme they could reap a good Number of Self planted Suckers besides those and the yams Already planted and Sufficient to make a very good plantation on the Hono[ble] Companys own Land that Lies now Empty for want of Suckers And therefore have agreed with the Said Thomas Perkins for all his Provisions which Consists of 17071 [..] young and ole and to Hire Thirty Acres of his Land

and

Margin Notes:

Advertizem[en]t ab[t] Provisions.

Perkins offer to Sell his Stock, Provisions, &c

To be agreed for by Cap[t] Mash[borne] & M[r] Baz[ett]

their Report.

By the Governor and Council.

An advertisement.

These were to give notice to all or any of the planters of this island who were willing to dispose of any manner of provisions to the Honourable Company, that they might treat with Captain Mashborne, who was authorised to agree with them upon their applying themselves to him for that purpose.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley this 20 July 1714.

Signed by order of Governor and Council.

Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

Whereas Thomas Perkins, sergeant, presented his petition to the Governor and Council on the 13th instant, setting forth therein his inclination to depart this island in the sloop now in the road, offering to sell his provisions to the Honourable Company, upon which Captain Edward Mashborne and Mr Bazett were appointed to go and view the same, and to agree with Perkins on the best terms they could for the interest of the Honourable Company, who accordingly did, and reported this day their agreement, which was as follows.

Perkins offered to sell his plantation of yams, and to give only two years' time for digging the provisions out of the cabbage tree land, and eighteen months in the gumwood land, which, the council well knowing not to be for the Honourable Company's interest, as if they had longer time, and considering Perkins designed to lease all his land out for seven years, thought it proper to agree for that time, and take the whole into the Honourable Company's own hands. The reason was that within this time they could reap a good number of self-planted suckers, besides those and the yams already planted, and sufficient to make a very good plantation on the Honourable Company's own land that lay now empty for want of suckers. The council therefore had agreed with Perkins for all his provisions, which consisted of 170,711 young and old, and his thirty acres of fine land.

Interpretations

The published advertisement operated as the working procurement notice for the council's cattle and provisions programme. It identified Mashborne as the single point of contact authorised to treat with planters, eliminated direct approaches to the council, and routed all dispositions through one named officer. The form of the notice, signed by the Secretary by order of Governor and Council, established the document as an instrument of the establishment rather than a personal direction of the Governor.

Antipas Tovey's signature in the capacity of Secretary, rather than as fifth in council, identified the working device by which the council combined collective decision with documentary authentication. The Secretary's signature gave the advertisement its formal validity for public posting and circulation, while the order of Governor and Council recorded its institutional source. The arrangement preserved the integrity of the consultation book as the principal record by referring to the order rather than reproducing the council members' individual signatures on every notice.

The Perkins agreement showed the working calculation by which the council compared the immediate value of standing provisions against the longer prospect of self-planted suckers on the same ground. Perkins had offered two years for the cabbage tree land and eighteen months for the gumwood land, terms that the council judged insufficient. The seven-year period that Perkins had separately proposed for leasing his land out was treated as the relevant working horizon, and the council adopted that period for its own acquisition. The mechanism exploited Perkins's own valuation framework against his initial offer.

The figure of 170,711 yams, taken together with the thirty acres of fine land, supplied the working measure of the Perkins plantation as a productive unit. The yam count gave the immediate provisioning value, while the seven-year tenure of the land provided the basis for continued production through self-seeding suckers. The combined acquisition added substantially to the depleted plantation stock noted in Mashborne's account of the same day, where the absence of provisions had been the principal driver of the new procurement programme.

Speculations

The choice to take the Perkins plantation into the Company's own hands for seven years, rather than to purchase only the standing provisions and to lease the land separately as Perkins had proposed, pointed to a calculated decision to rebuild the colony's productive base through direct management rather than through tenancy. Perkins had been preparing to lease the land out for seven years to a private occupier. By stepping into that position, the Company secured both the cleared ground and the self-seeded suckers that would emerge over the period, against the depleted state of its own plantations following the Boucher years.

The decision to agree Perkins's seven-year horizon, despite his shorter initial offer for the two land categories, suggested that the council recognised the value of consistency with Perkins's separate leasing plan. By matching the duration he had himself proposed for an external tenancy, the council neutralised any later complaint that the Company had taken the property on disadvantageous terms. The arrangement also gave Perkins immediate certainty for his departure, since the Company would step into the position he had been negotiating with external parties, removing the need for him to find a private lessee before the sloop sailed.

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170

and House for the whole Term of Seven years rather then lett any body Else have it, at the price and Rate of Four Hundred Pounds the Said Land being well Stockt with Lemon trees, which will Save the buying of Lemons for the use of the Table, and the provisions at this very tyme worth upwards of three hundred Pounds Which agreement the Govern[r] and Councill was well pleased with beleiving it a good Bargaine for the Interest of the Honour[ble] Company therefore

Ordered.

That the Said Perkins be paid Acording to the purport of his Petition.

Further Ordered.

That Captain Mashborne and M[r] Bazett goe tomorrow into the Countrey and agree with the Said Perkins for all his Live Stock of Provisions at as Cheap Rates as they can. The Honour[ble] Company being at this tyme in great want of all Sorts, in hopes of Raiseing a Stock againe asoon as Possible, and not to be under the Necesity of buying allways.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tues day the 27[th] day of July 1714 At the United Castle in James valley

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Governour George Haswell Dep[ty] Govern[r] Edward Mashborne 3 in Coun[ll] Matthew Bazett 4[th] [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[ll]

Captain Mashborne and M[r] Bazett reported this day that Acording to the Order Last Councill day they had been into the Countrey, and agreed with M[r] Perkins for Severall things

Margin Notes:

approved of.

Perkins to be p[ai]d.

his Live Stock to be agreed for.

the same reported.

said.

The provisions on the plantation were taken at the price and rate of £400 0s 0d for the whole term of seven years, the council preferring this arrangement to letting any other person have the property. The land was well stocked with lemon trees, which would save the cost of buying lemons for the use of the table, and the provisions at this very time were worth upwards of £300 0s 0d. The Governor and Council were well pleased with the agreement, believing it a good bargain for the interest of the Honourable Company. The council therefore ordered

that Perkins be paid according to the purport of his petition.

Further ordered

that Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett go tomorrow into the country and agree with Perkins for all his live stock of provisions at as cheap rates as they could, the Honourable Company being at this time in great want of all sorts, in hopes of raising a stock again as soon as possible, and not to be under the necessity of buying always.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 27 July 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett reported this day that, according to the order of the last council day, they had been into the country and agreed with Perkins for several things.

Interpretations

The valuation of the Perkins acquisition at £400 0s 0d, of which £300 0s 0d represented the standing provisions, fixed the working economic measure of the transaction. The remaining £100 0s 0d covered the land, the house and the lemon trees, the last of which carried the additional benefit of saving the recurring cost of buying lemons for the General Table. The mechanism gave the Honourable Company a productive estate with multiple income streams against a single capital outlay.

The express preference for taking the property rather than allowing it to pass to any other person showed the council's working concern over the wider land market on the island. Perkins's plantation, with its lemon trees and standing yams, would have attracted competing planter interest if released. By stepping into the seven-year position Perkins had been preparing to offer to a private occupier, the council prevented the consolidation of the property in private hands and preserved the option to develop it directly as a Company plantation.

The stated objective of raising a stock again as soon as possible, so as not to be under the necessity of buying always, captured the working principle behind the entire procurement programme of 20 July onward. The acquisition of Perkins's plantation, the advertisement for planters' provisions, the negotiations for Beale's orphans' adjoining ground and the new storehouse all formed parts of a coordinated effort to rebuild the colony's productive base after the depletions of the previous administration.

The separation of the land-and-provisions agreement from the live stock agreement, with the council ordering Mashborne and Bazett to negotiate the live stock the following day, applied a working principle of staged procurement. The complex valuation of land, house, lemon trees and standing provisions had been completed and reported. The live stock represented a separate category of assessment, requiring its own working visit to the property and its own bargaining over rates with the seller.

Speculations

The valuation of the standing provisions at upwards of £300 0s 0d, in a single transaction with a departing sergeant, pointed to the working dimensions of the colony's provisioning economy. The figure substantially exceeded the equivalent line in the Belvird purchase of 7 March 1712, where ten acres of walled ground with about 70,000 yams had been valued at £145 0s 0d. The Perkins figure, against 170,711 yams as reported on 20 July 1714, gave a working unit rate roughly consistent with that earlier transaction and confirmed the stability of yam valuation across the period.

The decision to send Mashborne and Bazett out together to negotiate the live stock, rather than to deploy Mashborne alone as in the cattle procurement advertisement, suggested a calculated pairing of operational expertise with documentary discipline. Mashborne carried the practical knowledge of livestock assessment, while Bazett brought the working familiarity with valuation and the store-book consequences of any agreement reached. The combination ensured both that fair prices would be paid and that the transaction would be properly recorded against the Honourable Company's account.

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171

things the Particulars are as followeth.

one Cow

three Steers

one Bull

three Heifers

one Yearling

In all nine head valued at Forty pounds

Six Sows

one boar

twenty Shoats

fourteen Piggs

In all forty one valued at Twenty five pounds one Shilling

One hundred and Ten Goats and Some young Pou[l]trey valued at Forty two pound

Some Timber valued at Five pounds The whole amounting to one hundred & twelve pounds one Shilling.

Ordered.

That Captain Haswell Cap[t] Mashborne & M[r] Bazett do goe into the Countrey and veiw the State & Condition of the Honour[ble] Companys Plantations And that Mes[s]ers Charles Steward, Richard Girling and Gabriell Powill Planters be desired to go with them and give their Oppinions of the Same, and that M[r] Cason be also desired to go along with them.

Whereas there was Severall Souldiers on board y[e] Rochester Ordered for Bencoolen that Petition'd to Stay upon this Island, and finding the Garrison very weak there being no more than ab[ou]t 90 Effective men to do duty and Severall of the present Souldiers who have Serv'd the Honour[ble] Company their whole tyme upon this Island being Desireous to See India have Petition'd to goe to Bencoolen and Serve the Honour[ble] Company as Soldiers there We haveing agreed to Gratify their request and Severall of the Sould[s] now bound to Bencoolen haveing Petition'd to Stay here we have resolved to Exchange the Same Number and

Margin Notes:

Particulars mentioned.

the whole Amo[unt]

Comp[s] Plantations to be veiwed.

Garrison weak.

Sold[s] Exchange[d]

The agreement covered the following items, the particulars of which were as follows.

One cow

Three steers

One bull

Three heifers

One yearling

In all nine head, valued at £40 0s 0d.

Six sows

One boar

Twenty shoats

Fourteen pigs

In all forty-one, valued at £25 1s 0d.

One hundred and ten goats and some young poultry, valued at £42 0s 0d.

Some timber, valued at £5 0s 0d.

The whole amounting to £112 1s 0d.

Ordered

that Captain Haswell, Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett go into the country and view the state and condition of the Honourable Company's plantations, and that Messrs Charles Steward, Richard Gurling and Gabriel Powill, planters, be desired to go with them and give their opinions of the same, and that Mr Cason be also desired to go along with them.

Whereas there were several soldiers on board the Rochester ordered for Bencoolen, who had petitioned to stay upon this island, and finding the garrison very weak, there being no more than about ninety effective men to do duty, and several of the present soldiers who had served the Honourable Company their whole time upon this island being desirous to see India, having petitioned to go to Bencoolen and serve the Honourable Company as soldiers there, the council, having agreed to gratify their request, and several of the soldiers now bound to Bencoolen having petitioned to stay here, the council had resolved to exchange the same number, and

Interpretations

The schedule of livestock and timber acquired from Perkins gave the working composition of a small mixed plantation on the island. The nine head of neat cattle valued at £40 0s 0d worked out at about £4 9s 0d per head, sitting close to the £2 5s 0d per head average from the Belvird purchase of 7 March 1712 but reflecting the more uniform quality of the stock acquired here. The figure of 110 goats and some young poultry at £42 0s 0d represented a substantial transfer of small livestock that would help rebuild the colony's depleted poultry and goat stocks, both of which had been recorded as entirely lost on Pyke's arrival.

The combined acquisitions from Perkins, taken together with the £400 0s 0d for the land, house and standing provisions on the previous council day, brought the total Perkins transaction to £512 1s 0d. The figure ranked among the largest single private acquisitions recorded in the present sequence, and was made possible by the seven-year working horizon adopted by the council. The combined deal converted a departing sergeant's working estate into a substantial addition to the Company's productive capacity.

The plantation inspection party comprising Haswell, Mashborne and Bazett, accompanied by the three planters Charles Steward, Richard Gurling and Gabriel Powill, and by Cason, applied the working device of mixed institutional and planter assessment that had been settled in earlier surveys. The 21 November 1710 plantation survey under Roberts had combined three council members with three independent planters, and the present arrangement repeated that successful pattern. The inclusion of Cason, with his oversight role across the consolidated estate, gave the party the working knowledge of the property accumulated under the previous administration.

The garrison strength of about ninety effective men identified the working military complement of the colony at the moment of the change of administration. Against this baseline, the council was managing a complex exchange under which some of the Rochester's soldiers bound for Bencoolen were to remain on the island, while several long-serving St Helena soldiers were to take their places on the eastern passage. The mechanism preserved the overall garrison numbers while satisfying the individual career preferences of the men on both sides.

Speculations

The selection of Charles Steward, Richard Gurling and Gabriel Powill as the planters to accompany the council on the plantation inspection pointed to a calculated balance of working perspectives. Steward had been confirmed in his holdings at the title days of 1713 and carried documentary memory of multiple intermediate chains. Gurling had appeared repeatedly as a witness, purchaser and lessee of significant properties across the present sequence. Powill had emerged from the Beale and Hoskison cases as a working planter with experience of the consolidated estate. Together the three gave the council a triangulated view of the property from three independent planter perspectives.

The willingness of the council to manage the Bencoolen exchange on a one-for-one basis, rather than to deny the petitions on either side, suggested a working pragmatism about the differing career preferences of soldiers in the Honourable Company's service. Long-serving St Helena soldiers had different incentives from newly arrived men ordered to a fresh eastern station. By matching the willing on each side, the council disposed of two sets of petitions through a single exchange while preserving the working strength of the garrison at the figure that the Honourable Company had committed to the island.

181

172

and Acordingly the following Persons were Entertaind here in the Honourable Companys pay as Souldiers viz[t]

William Saxby John Bedan Michael Allin Thomas Astby John Roulston Edward Brereton John Ebbs

Wee this day Ordered a draught of a Letter to the Hono[ble] Coul[t] of Directors to be drawn up Against the Sloop Mercury do's Saile from hence.

There being no Wine nor Strong Liquors on the Island but a Small quantity of Arrack The Governour is desired to buy out of the Rochester of Cap[t] Brown or any of his Officers what Wine or Europe Liquors they can Spare.

Heer follows an Account of How many days the Rochester was unloading & y[e] Number of Boats y[t] She Delivered each day. July y[e] 9[th] 1 Boat & y[e] Soldiers w[t]h their baggage in y[e] pinnaless, y[e] 10[th] 3 Boats y[e] 11[th] Sunday y[e] 12[th] 3 Boats y[e] 13[th] y[e] Sheaf of y[e] Crane broke y[e] hundred unlading till y[e] Crane was mended y[e] 14[th] a great Surf y[e] 15[th] 6 Boats y[e] 16[th] 3 Boats y[e] 17[th] 2 Boats y[e] 18[th] [..] [..] [..] a great Surf at night y[e] 19[th] Sunday y[e] [..] 3 Boats y[e] Launch & Long boat y[e] 20[th] 3 Boats y[e] 21[th] y[e] Surf ran high y[e] 22[th] 3 Boats y[e] 23[th] 3 Boats y[e] 24[th] 3 Boats y[e] 25[th] Sunday y[e] 26[th] 3 Boats y[e] 27[th] 2 Boats.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Sold[s] that were Entertaind.

Gen[ll] Lett[r] to be prepared.

Gov[r] desired to buy Liquors.

Acc[t] of Ship Rochesters unloading there.

The exchange of soldiers between the island and the Bencoolen draft was carried into effect, and seven men were taken into the Honourable Company's pay as soldiers on the island. They were William Saxby, Michael Allin, John Roulston, John Ebbs, John Bedan, Thomas Ashby and Edward Brereton.

The council also directed that a letter to the Court of Directors be prepared, ready to go home in the sloop Mercury on her departure.

The island held no wine and no spirits apart from a small remaining quantity of arrack. The Governor was therefore asked to buy from Captain Brown of the Rochester, or from any of his officers, whatever wine or European liquors they were willing to part with.

A working record was then entered of the Rochester's daily progress in unloading her cargo.

On 9 July a single boat brought the soldiers and their baggage ashore in the pinnace.

On 10 July, three boats.

On Sunday 12 July, two boats.

On 13 July the sheaf of the crane broke, and no further landing could be made that day.

On 14 July the crane was repaired, but a heavy surf prevented work.

On 15 July, six boats.

On 16 July, three boats.

On 17 July, two boats, with a heavy surf at night.

On Sunday 18 July, two boats, the launch and the long boat.

On 20 July, three boats.

On 21 July, a surf and high wind, with no landing.

On 22 July, three boats.

On 23 July, three boats.

On 24 July, three boats.

On Sunday 26 July, three boats.

On 27 July, two boats.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Interpretations

The recruitment of the seven named men into the garrison completed the working exchange resolved on the previous council day. The transaction substituted fresh arrivals for departing veterans without disturbing the establishment's overall complement, and it placed both groups of petitioners on the postings each had requested. The arrangement amounted to a no-cost rebalancing of the labour force across two stations of the Honourable Company.

The instruction to prepare a letter for the sloop Mercury opened a second despatch channel alongside the Rochester's homeward voyage. Multiple letters sent by separate vessels reduced the working risk that material would fail to reach London through loss or delay of a single ship, and increased the documentary pressure the new administration could bring to bear on the directors' assessment of the previous regime.

The request to purchase liquor directly from Captain Brown or his officers illustrated the working mechanism by which the colony covered shortages through private dealing with visiting masters. The arrack stock was almost spent and no fresh supply was in sight. Brown and his officers were likely to carry private adventures of wine and other European liquors as part of their voyage allowance, and these could now be drawn into the colony's stores at a negotiated rate.

The detailed daily log of the Rochester's unloading transformed the earlier general protest of 20 July into a precise comparative record. Each day was fixed by date, weather and the number of boats actually employed, with mechanical failures and surf separated out from working days. The document supplied the council with a defensible evidentiary basis for any subsequent representation to London concerning Captain Brown's conduct.

Speculations

The decision to record every working day, including those lost to the broken crane sheaf and to heavy surf, suggested a deliberate evidentiary strategy. By acknowledging the legitimate interruptions on the log, the council made it harder for Brown to argue later that the protest had ignored circumstances beyond his control. The remaining days, against which no excuse was entered, then carried the full weight of the council's complaint.

The choice to send a separate letter by the Mercury, in addition to whatever despatches accompanied the Rochester, pointed to a calculated determination to ensure that the new administration's findings reached London promptly. The Rochester would carry Captain Brown himself, and the council may have judged it imprudent to rely on the same vessel to convey complaints against her master. The Mercury gave the council an independent route under a different commander, removing any opportunity for interference with the despatches during the voyage home.

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173

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tues day the 3[d] day of August 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell Dep[ty] Gov[r] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[ll]

Finding the sea has increased on this Bay and that the Middle point of the trench is intirely broken in and washt away So that the Line is in danger by every high Sea or Surf and that the Bridge is also much decayd and Part broken downe, It is therefore thought Necessary to build a wall to make that Bridge good with Earth and then to Continue that wall to the first outer Point of the Line. Resolv'd that all hands be imploy'd to Accom plish the Said work asoon as Possible and that the Governour be desired to undertake the Same.

There is a Corner of the Garden and next to the Line which is very Dangerous and incomodious to this Line formerly called the Old Goat pound) which is thirty foot high above the Levell of that Line and a Shelter to any that can pass the draw bridge to the new works by the late Gover[r] Boucher being carried so far underneath them that the foundation of that Goat pound on the top of the hill is very much undermined thereby in so much that a great many Chinks and Cracks are apparent, and it is daily Expected to fall which if it Shoud its likely to carry away that part of the Line and the works next the draw Bridge and fear every hasty Shower of Rain it will fall.

Resolved that as soon as the Sea Wall is finnished the hands be imploy'd to pull that Corner down and prevent the danger that is So Likely to Ensue.

The

Margin Notes:

high Sea has Damaged y[e] trench and Bridge.

to prevent it in future.

all hands to be Employ'd.

Garden Wall defective & dan g[er]ous to the Line &c

to prevent it.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 3 August 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The sea in the bay had risen, the middle point of the trench had been entirely broken away, and the line itself now lay exposed to damage from every heavy sea or surf. The bridge had also fallen into bad repair, with part of it broken down. The council judged it necessary to build a sea wall to protect the bridge, packed behind with earth, and to continue the wall as far as the first outer point of the line.

The council resolved that all available hands be set to the work, to be completed as soon as possible, and that the Governor be asked to take charge of it.

A separate problem arose at a corner of the garden, next to the line, formerly known as the Old Goat Pound. The structure stood about thirty feet above the level of the line, and gave shelter to anyone passing across the drawbridge towards the new works. Under the late Governor Boucher the foundations of the Goat Pound had been undermined by excavation carried so far beneath it that chasms and cracks had become visible, and the structure was now expected to fall at any time. If it gave way, it was likely to carry off the section of the line and the new works next to the drawbridge, and a heavy shower of rain might be enough to bring it down.

The council resolved that, as soon as the sea wall was finished, the same hands be set to pull down the Old Goat Pound corner, so as to forestall the damage that would otherwise follow.

Interpretations

The sea wall project illustrated the working principle of preventive defence against natural damage to the colony's military works. The trench and the line were the principal landward and seaward defensive features of the colony, and their continued effectiveness depended on protection of the soft material behind them from erosion by heavy seas. The combination of a stone-faced wall with an earth pack behind gave the structure both resistance to wave impact and the working flexibility to absorb the pressure of the retained ground.

The undermining of the Old Goat Pound foundations under Boucher's administration provided a fresh example of the engineering failures recorded against the previous regime. Excavation beneath an elevated structure adjacent to active defences carried obvious risks, and the resulting cracks and chasms now threatened the line itself. The episode supplied the new council with another documented instance of the type of mismanagement reported across earlier consultations of the present sequence.

The sequencing of the two works, with the sea wall to be completed before the demolition of the Old Goat Pound corner, applied the working principle of stabilising existing defences before initiating new disturbances. To demolish the Goat Pound without the sea wall in place would have exposed the line to a double risk during the period of work. The order of operations therefore protected the colony's military integrity while the works were under way.

The decision to ask the Governor personally to take charge of the sea wall reflected the working pattern by which Pyke combined executive and operational roles in the first months of his administration. The personal involvement of the Governor in construction supervision had been a regular feature under Roberts, who had taken direct charge of the irrigation channel of 13 February 1711 and the Munden's Castle path completed by 27 April 1711. Pyke now stepped into a similar working role in relation to the sea defences.

Speculations

The express attribution of the Old Goat Pound foundations' undermining to Boucher pointed to a calculated framing by the new council. The defect had been observed by Mashborne, Bazett or Pyke on inspection of the works, and was now being recorded in the consultation book in terms that placed responsibility on the previous administration. The mechanism continued the documentary case that had begun on 8 July 1714 with the inventory of stripped Castle fittings and the destroyed live stock, and added a further specific item to the file the directors would receive in London.

The decision to deploy the same body of labour to both works in sequence, rather than to commission two separate crews, suggested a calculated economy in the colony's working manpower. The garrison and the Company's slaves together formed a limited pool of labour against substantial demands from cargo discharge, plantation rebuilding and defensive repair. By coordinating the sea wall and the Old Goat Pound demolition under continuous use of the same hands, the council preserved its capacity to direct that pool to other urgent calls without dividing it across competing projects.

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174

The Gunner haveing given in his Account of Stores

Ordered.

That M[r] Tovey do overhall and Examine the Said Stores to See if the report be true.

M[r] Cleve haveing brought in the Acco[t] of Timber and Deals &c

Ordered.

That Captain Haswell do inspect into the Same.

Being inform'd that Severall Persons belonging to the Shipp Rochester that deserted the Said Ship are brought down to the fort

Ordered.

That they be Sett to work Acording to the Hono[ble] Companys Orders in that case made & provided

The Governour Saith that William Taylor the Gardener the Hono[ble] Company Sent out of England with him fell Sick of a bloody flux and dyed two days before the Rochester Departed hence for Bencoolen He Saith th[a]t other Gardner he found Upon the Island being Sick, he treated with John Howson whom the Honour[ble] Company had appointed Gardener for Bencoolen to Stay here, who alledging he was willing to Stay here upon Condition he might Enjoy the Same Sallary & terms of the Hono[ble] Comp[s] had agreed with him for to goe to Bencoolen. The Island being destitute of a Gardener and this man Appearing dureing the time he was on board to be a regular & Sober man The Governour did promise to interceed with the Hono[ble] Company that he might have the Same wages here that he was intended to have there

Resolv'd that the Gardner be Entertaind as the Governour hath agreed.

The Rochester Sail'd hence the Last of July and we wrote by him According to our Honour[ble] Masters Directions to the Governour and Council of Bencoolen.

The Same day Sail'd hence the Mercury Sloop M[r] Henry Mackett Master for Antigua who brought y[e] Slaves here by which Conveyance we wrote to our Honour[ble] Masters giveing a Short Account of the State of the Island.

The

Margin Notes:

Gun[ne]rs Stores to be Exam[ind]

Acco[t] of Timb[r] &c bro[ught] in

y[e] Same Exam[in]d.

Desert[er]s from Ship Rochester Sett to work.

Jn[o] Howson Gard[r] Entertain'd. and on what terms.

Rochest[r] Saild for Bencoolen.

Sloop for Antigua.

The Gunner had now produced his account of the stores, and the council ordered that Mr Tovey go over and examine the same to see whether the report was accurate.

Mr Cleve had produced his account of the timber and deals, and the council ordered that Captain Haswell inspect that account in turn.

Several persons belonging to the Rochester, who had deserted the ship, had been brought down to the Fort. The council ordered that they be set to work in accordance with the Honourable Company's standing orders for such cases.

The Governor reported that William Taylor, the gardener whom the Honourable Company had sent out from England with him, had fallen sick of a bloody flux and had died a few days before the Rochester departed for Bencoolen. The other gardener, whom the Honourable Company had appointed for Bencoolen, was found by him to be sick on the island, and was being treated by John Howson, whom the Honourable Company had appointed gardener for Bencoolen to remain on the island until further direction.

Howson, on being asked his condition, said he was willing to stay upon any reasonable terms, and offered to go to Bencoolen if so directed. He had been a regular and sober man on board the ship. The Governor had promised to intercede with the Honourable Company so that he might receive the same wages on the island as he was to have had at Bencoolen.

The council resolved that the gardener be entertained on the terms the Governor had agreed.

The Rochester sailed from St Helena on the last day of July, carrying with her a letter from the Governor and Council to the Governor and Council of Bencoolen, in accordance with the Honourable Masters' directions.

On the same day the sloop Mercury, Mr Henry Mackett master, sailed for Antigua, the vessel by which the slaves had been brought to the island. By that conveyance the council had written to the Honourable Masters, giving a short account of the state of the island.

Interpretations

The cross-checking of departmental accounts, with Tovey examining the Gunner's stores and Haswell inspecting Cleve's timber and deals, applied the working principle of mutual verification that had governed the inventory programme since 9 July 1714. Each officer's own return was reviewed by a councillor without departmental responsibility for the same area, removing any opportunity for unrecorded discrepancies between the officer's own account and the actual stock.

The handling of the Rochester deserters under the Honourable Company's standing orders illustrated the working device by which absconding sailors were detained ashore and put to productive labour at the Fort. The mechanism preserved the men against return to their ship while drawing useful work from them during the period of detention. Standing orders of this kind had been settled at the level of the Company's general instructions for the colony, and could be applied without the need for fresh deliberation by the council.

The substitution of John Howson as gardener for the colony, in place of the deceased William Taylor, drew on the working flexibility of the Company's eastern personnel arrangements. Howson had been despatched as gardener for Bencoolen but was now retained at St Helena on the same wages he would have received at the eastern station. The arrangement converted an unforeseen death into a working opportunity without loss of skilled labour to the colony, and preserved the Bencoolen gardener post for the original incumbent once he had recovered.

The simultaneous departure of the Rochester for Bencoolen and the Mercury for Antigua, both on the last day of July, illustrated the working coordination of the colony's outgoing correspondence. Letters travelled by separate vessels on widely divergent routes, with one passage carrying despatches to a Company eastern station and the other carrying material to London via the West Indies. The dual channel reduced the working risk of communications being lost in transit and gave the Honourable Masters parallel sources of information.

Speculations

The Governor's personal intervention to secure Bencoolen wages for Howson at St Helena, in advance of any direction from London, suggested a calculated effort to retain a qualified gardener at the moment of greatest need on the colony's depleted plantation estate. The previous administration had dug up the garden at Plantation House and laid it waste, as recorded on 8 July 1714. A working gardener with skill and sobriety was therefore a particularly valuable acquisition, and the council was prepared to commit to Bencoolen-level wages on the island to secure him.

The choice of the Mercury, bound for Antigua, as the vessel for the short account of the state of the island sent to the Honourable Masters indicated a deliberate use of an oblique route to ensure the despatch's arrival in London. Antigua lay on the established West Indian trade routes, with frequent onward shipping to London. A letter sent by the Mercury would reach the Court of Directors through a route entirely separate from the homeward East Indiamen, eliminating the working risk that the new administration's first communications would be carried by the same channels under any potential influence of the previous regime.

184

175

The Gunner haveing given in his Account of Stores

Ordered.

That M[r] Tovey do overhall and Examine the Said Stores to See if the report be true.

M[r] Cleve haveing brought in the Acco[t] of Timber and Deals &c

Ordered.

That Captain Haswell do inspect into the Same.

Being inform'd that Severall Persons belonging to the Shipp Rochester that deserted the Said Ship are brought down to the fort

Ordered.

That they be Sett to work Acording to the Hono[ble] Companys Orders in that case made & provided

The Governour Saith that William Taylor the Gardener the Hono[ble] Company Sent out of England with him fell Sick of a bloody flux and dyed two days before the Rochester Departed hence for Bencoolen He Saith th[a]t other Gardner he found Upon the Island being Sick, he treated with John Howson whom the Honour[ble] Company had appointed Gardener for Bencoolen to Stay here, who alledging he was willing to Stay here upon Condition he might Enjoy the Same Sallary & terms of the Hono[ble] Comp[s] had agreed with him for to goe to Bencoolen. The Island being destitute of a Gardener and this man Appearing dureing the time he was on board to be a regular & Sober man The Governour did promise to interceed with the Hono[ble] Company that he might have the Same wages here that he was intended to have there

Resolv'd that the Gardner be Entertaind as the Governour hath agreed.

The Rochester Sail'd hence the Last of July and we wrote by him According to our Honour[ble] Masters Directions to the Governour and Council of Bencoolen.

The Same day Sail'd hence the Mercury Sloop M[r] Henry Mackett Master for Antigua who brought y[e] Slaves here by which Conveyance we wrote to our Honour[ble] Masters giveing a Short Account of the State of the Island.

The

Margin Notes:

Gun[ne]rs Stores to be Exam[ind]

Acco[t] of Timb[r] &c bro[ught] in

y[e] Same Exam[in]d.

Desert[er]s from Ship Rochester Sett to work.

Jn[o] Howson Gard[r] Entertain'd. and on what terms.

Rochest[r] Saild for Bencoolen.

Sloop for Antigua.

The Gunner had now produced his account of the stores, and the council ordered that Mr Tovey go over and examine the same to see whether the report was accurate.

Mr Cleve had produced his account of the timber and deals, and the council ordered that Captain Haswell inspect that account in turn.

Several persons belonging to the Rochester, who had deserted the ship, had been brought down to the Fort. The council ordered that they be set to work in accordance with the Honourable Company's standing orders for such cases.

The Governor reported that William Taylor, the gardener whom the Honourable Company had sent out from England with him, had fallen sick of a bloody flux and had died a few days before the Rochester departed for Bencoolen. The other gardener, whom the Honourable Company had appointed for Bencoolen, was found by him to be sick on the island, and was being treated by John Howson, whom the Honourable Company had appointed gardener for Bencoolen to remain on the island until further direction.

Howson, on being asked his condition, said he was willing to stay upon any reasonable terms, and offered to go to Bencoolen if so directed. He had been a regular and sober man on board the ship. The Governor had promised to intercede with the Honourable Company so that he might receive the same wages on the island as he was to have had at Bencoolen.

The council resolved that the gardener be entertained on the terms the Governor had agreed.

The Rochester sailed from St Helena on the last day of July, carrying with her a letter from the Governor and Council to the Governor and Council of Bencoolen, in accordance with the Honourable Masters' directions.

On the same day the sloop Mercury, Mr Henry Mackett master, sailed for Antigua, the vessel by which the slaves had been brought to the island. By that conveyance the council had written to the Honourable Masters, giving a short account of the state of the island.

Interpretations

The cross-checking of departmental accounts, with Tovey examining the Gunner's stores and Haswell inspecting Cleve's timber and deals, applied the working principle of mutual verification that had governed the inventory programme since 9 July 1714. Each officer's own return was reviewed by a councillor without departmental responsibility for the same area, removing any opportunity for unrecorded discrepancies between the officer's own account and the actual stock.

The handling of the Rochester deserters under the Honourable Company's standing orders illustrated the working device by which absconding sailors were detained ashore and put to productive labour at the Fort. The mechanism preserved the men against return to their ship while drawing useful work from them during the period of detention. Standing orders of this kind had been settled at the level of the Company's general instructions for the colony, and could be applied without the need for fresh deliberation by the council.

The substitution of John Howson as gardener for the colony, in place of the deceased William Taylor, drew on the working flexibility of the Company's eastern personnel arrangements. Howson had been despatched as gardener for Bencoolen but was now retained at St Helena on the same wages he would have received at the eastern station. The arrangement converted an unforeseen death into a working opportunity without loss of skilled labour to the colony, and preserved the Bencoolen gardener post for the original incumbent once he had recovered.

The simultaneous departure of the Rochester for Bencoolen and the Mercury for Antigua, both on the last day of July, illustrated the working coordination of the colony's outgoing correspondence. Letters travelled by separate vessels on widely divergent routes, with one passage carrying despatches to a Company eastern station and the other carrying material to London via the West Indies. The dual channel reduced the working risk of communications being lost in transit and gave the Honourable Masters parallel sources of information.

Speculations

The Governor's personal intervention to secure Bencoolen wages for Howson at St Helena, in advance of any direction from London, suggested a calculated effort to retain a qualified gardener at the moment of greatest need on the colony's depleted plantation estate. The previous administration had dug up the garden at Plantation House and laid it waste, as recorded on 8 July 1714. A working gardener with skill and sobriety was therefore a particularly valuable acquisition, and the council was prepared to commit to Bencoolen-level wages on the island to secure him.

The choice of the Mercury, bound for Antigua, as the vessel for the short account of the state of the island sent to the Honourable Masters indicated a deliberate use of an oblique route to ensure the despatch's arrival in London. Antigua lay on the established West Indian trade routes, with frequent onward shipping to London. A letter sent by the Mercury would reach the Court of Directors through a route entirely separate from the homeward East Indiamen, eliminating the working risk that the new administration's first communications would be carried by the same channels under any potential influence of the previous regime.

185

176

Your Petitioner humbly prays that the Said Black may be restored him and Such Allowance be made for the Loss of his tyme as your Worship & Councill Shall think Convenient. And your Petitioner

as in duty bound. Shall ever pray &c

Robert Marsh

Two men viz[t] Samuel Brome and Thomas Delarose being Missing and Suppos'd to be Run away in the Sloop Mercury &c

Ordered that advice be given thereof to the Honour[ble] Company, and what they are indebted to them &c

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 10[th] day of Aug[t] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Gov[r] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[ll]

3 [..] [Persons?] of Deserters [..] Rochest[r] desire to be Entertain'd as Sold[s]

John O'Bryan Henry Johnson & Francis Cullum haveing Run away from the Ship Rochester Capt[n] William Browne Comander, and Petitioning to be Entertaind as Souldiers they haveing been kept Close Prisoners & ever Since they were Appre hended.

'Tis ordered.

That they do work one month for the Hono[ble] Company without pay, and then that we Entertaine them as Souldiers for five years Acording to the prayer of their Petitions.

Margin Notes:

Brome & DeLarose Run away. Advice to be Sent of from y[e] Comp[s].

3 [..] [Persons?] of Deserters [..] Rochest[r] desire to be Entertain'd as Sold[s]

Granted aft[r] working one month Gratis

The petitioner asked that the slave be restored to him and that the council make whatever allowance for the loss of his time it judged fitting. The petitioner, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

Robert Marsh.

Two men, Samuel Brome and Thomas Delarose, were missing and were supposed to have run away on the sloop Mercury. The council ordered that notice be given to the Honourable Company, together with the amounts they owed.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 10 August 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

John Obryan, Henry Johnson and Francis Cullum, having run away from the Rochester, Captain William Browne commander, and now petitioning to be taken on as soldiers, had been kept close prisoners ever since they were apprehended. The council ordered that they work for the Honourable Company for one month without pay, and that they then be taken into the establishment as soldiers for five years, in accordance with the prayer of their petitions.

Interpretations

The notification to the Honourable Company of the debts owed by Brome and Delarose applied the working principle behind the store-settlement rule of 16 July 1714, by which no person was to leave the island without first clearing the books. The two men had escaped that procedure by absconding on the Mercury. By transmitting their names and balances to London, the council preserved the Company's claim against them at the metropolitan end, with any recovery to be effected through the directors' working channels.

The handling of the three Rochester deserters demonstrated the working mechanism by which the colony converted absconding sailors into garrison soldiers. The men were held as close prisoners until their cases came before the council, and were then placed on a one-month working penalty without pay. On completion of that period, they were taken into the establishment on a standard five-year soldier's contract. The arrangement combined a punitive element with a productive outcome that augmented the depleted garrison.

The earlier exchange of soldiers between the island and the Bencoolen draft on 27 July 1714 had set the garrison establishment near the working strength of about ninety effective men. The fresh accessions of Obryan, Johnson and Cullum added to that pool while expanding the working principle of recruitment from absconding sailors. The Honourable Company's standing orders gave the council the discretion to apply this device whenever circumstances on the island and on the visiting ships permitted.

The absence of any return of the deserters to Captain Browne, despite his continued presence in the road at the time of their apprehension, illustrated the working balance of authority between the colony and the visiting masters. The council's protests over Browne's slow discharge of the cargo had been recorded since 20 July, and the new administration evidently judged that any sailors successfully reaching the Fort could be retained for the colony's establishment, rather than handed back to a master with whom relations were strained.

Speculations

The decision to impose a one-month unpaid working penalty on the three deserters, rather than a heavier corporal punishment or extended imprisonment, pointed to a calculated balance between discipline and recruitment. The council needed soldiers and the men had asked to enlist. By limiting the penal element to a month of free labour at the Fort, the council preserved the men's working capacity for the subsequent five-year enlistment while making the cost of their desertion sufficiently visible to deter other sailors from following the same route.

The express recording of Brome and Delarose's absence in the consultation book, with the order for notification of their debts to the Honourable Company, indicated a deliberate effort to lay down the documentary basis for any later action against them. Both men had appeared as Company writers in the earlier sequence, including the lower-table petitioners of 13 October 1713 and the witnesses at the Bazett interrogation of 1 April 1714. Their departure on the Mercury without clearance left the council with no working recovery option on the island, and the despatch of their names to London preserved at least the prospect of action through the directors should the men reappear in any of the Company's other settlements.

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177

The Governour gave an Account that he observ'd a very great Neglect of Devotion in this Island by Severall Persons Absenting the Publick Worship of the Church on the Lords day, few or none Appearing there but the Governour and Councill.

Ordered.

That all Persons in the Honour[ble] Companys Service that are in the Valley do come to Church on the Lords day.

Cap[ta] Hasswell Capt[a] Mashborne and M[r] Bazett reports that they were with Mes[s]ers Cason Steward, Rich[d] Girling & Powill Acording to a former Order of the 27 July in the Country and had veiw'd the Honour[ble] Companys Plantations Particulars as followeth.

In Coales Gutt - 72000 - of two months old

15850 - 3 mo[nths]

37300 - 5

12000 - 9 Totall 134150

They very much want weeding and none of them but the Last will be fitt to Digg these two years.

In Tuesdales Gutt - 5000 - Just planted

20000 - fitt to digg 25000

In Lufkins - 16000 - 2 months old

5000 - 5

12800 - 6

8000 - 8

50400 - 12

18000 - 18

63000 - 20

4000 - fitt to digg

4300 - Red yams

186100

Very backward for want of weeding but that 69 Thousand are fitt to digg, and that the 68 Thous[and] and may come in Continually after them and that no more can be Expected for 14 months after from that Plantation.

Carried over 345250

Margin Notes:

Neglect of Devotion.

Persons to Attend on y[e] Lords day.

Report of the Hon[ble] Comp[s] Plantations

The Governor reported a serious neglect of devotion on the island, with several persons staying away from public worship at the church on the Lord's day, so that few or none had appeared other than the Governor and Council.

The council ordered that every person in the Honourable Company's service who lived in the valley attend church on the Lord's day.

Captain Haswell, Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett reported that, in accordance with the earlier order of 27 July, they had gone into the country with Messrs Cason, Steward, Gurling and Powill, and had inspected the Honourable Company's plantations. The particulars were as follows.

In Cole's Gut

72,000 yams of two months old

15,850 of three months

37,300 of five months

12,000

Total 134,150

The plants stood very much in need of weeding, and none of them, apart from the last entry, would be fit to dig for the next two years.

In Tewdale's Gut

5,000 just planted

20,000 fit to dig

Total 25,000

In Lufkin's

10,000 of two months old

5,000 of five months

12,800 of six months

8,000 of eight months

50,400 of twelve months

18,000 of eighteen months

63,000 of twenty months

4,000 fit to dig

4,300 red yams

Total 186,100

The crop here was very backward through want of weeding, but the 67,000 fit to dig and the others that would come in continually after them gave reason to expect a working supply, though no further crop could be expected from this plantation for the next fourteen months.

Carried over: 345,250

Interpretations

The Governor's complaint about absence from divine service on the Lord's day, with few or none appearing apart from the Governor and Council, identified a working failure of public discipline in the colony's religious establishment. Church attendance carried both spiritual and institutional significance: it bound the inhabitants into the working community through visible participation in shared observance, and it provided the working occasion for the Governor to address the colony in his capacity as the Honourable Company's principal officer. Empty pews therefore signalled a wider erosion of the colony's social fabric, which the new council acted to restore through a direct order.

The application of the church-attendance rule to all persons in the Honourable Company's service who lived in the valley applied a targeted approach to the working population most readily reached by the order. Servants of the Company were directly subject to its discipline, unlike free planters in remote parts of the island. By beginning with this group, the council set a working example that could be observed by the wider community without immediately attempting to enforce attendance on those who lay beyond the colony's central jurisdiction.

The plantation survey for Cole's Gut, Tewdale's Gut and Lufkin's provided the working measure of the yam stock at the Honourable Company's central plantations, broken down by maturity. The age categories from two months through twenty months identified the rolling production cycle on which the colony depended, with each band representing yams that would become available for digging at a predictable future date. The system gave the council a working forecast of food supply against which to plan the procurement programme that had begun on 20 July with the Perkins acquisition and the cattle advertisement.

The repeated finding that the crops needed weeding, and that few of the plants were yet fit to dig, exposed the cumulative effect of agricultural neglect under the previous administration. The yam plantations on which the colony depended for its staple food required continuous working maintenance, and the absence of weeding across multiple plantation sites had reduced both yields and the timetable on which mature yams would become available. The working consequence was that the new administration would need to manage scarcity for at least the next twelve to fourteen months while restoring the plantations to productive condition.

Speculations

The decision to record the working state of each plantation in such precise quantitative detail, with yam counts broken down by age band at each site, pointed to a calculated documentation strategy on the part of the new council. The figures would form the working baseline against which future surveys could be measured, and would also accompany the council's despatches home as concrete evidence of the state in which the colony had been received. By placing exact numbers on the record at the moment of handover, the new administration prevented any later dispute about the condition of the plantations under Boucher.

The selection of Cole's Gut, Tewdale's Gut and Lufkin's as the first plantations to be surveyed, with further sites to be carried over in subsequent entries, suggested a calculated geographical sequence working outward from the central valley. The three sites had appeared together in the plantation survey of 21 November 1710 under Roberts, providing the working point of comparison for the present figures. The new council was therefore measuring its inheritance against the documented condition of the same plantations under a previous administration, a comparison that the figures themselves invited.

187

178

Brought over 345250

In Roberts New Ground 26000 fitt to digg 26000

In the Hutts 44000 about 2 months old

9600 - 6 mo[nths]

13700 - 7

92000 - 9

7000 - 12

18000 - 22

184300

The 18000 are fitt to digg & no more to be Expected from thence this twelve months. being very backward for want of weeding.

Totall 555550

They report also that 'tis their opinion that twill require for Lufkins plantation for the ground already planted and which is to be broke up to Plant Ten good hands besides an overseer for the improveing this opportunity of Seeds Sent by the Honour[ble] Company haveing all Seasons and gitting Ground in order, therefore

For the Hutts the like quantity of Blacks besides an Overseer and for Coates Gutt Tuesdales & Roberts Ground the Same Number and that the Gardens will take up also Ten hands including the Gardener (the Garden being very much out of Repair and three Vinerooms for the Vineyards the Lower vineyard haveing for these two years past been Thrown up for ashes to grass in. They found the Pasture Walls all down and other fences very much out of Repair, but the Prepareing ground for the planting of Yams and weeding those that are So backward being of great Consequence the Season comeing on it was deferd for the Present what was Necessary to be done thereon, for the Expediting the improov ing the Plantations

Ordered.

That twelve of the New blacks be Sent up to Plantation house to be Imployed by Cap[t] Mashborne. Acording to the Said Report and that the Rest be Sent up asoon as their Cloaths can be made.

Margin Notes:

Totall of Provision

Numb[er] of hands requir[d] at Lufkins plant[at]ion

Hutts Tuesdale &c be Gutt[?]

new blacks Sent up.

Continuing from the brought-over figure of 345,250, the survey reported the following further plantations.

In Roberts's New Ground

26,000 fit to dig

Total 26,000

In the Hutts

44,000 of about two months old

9,600 of six months

13,700 of seven months

92,000 of nine months

7,000 of twelve months

18,000 of twenty-two months

Total 184,300

The 18,000 at the Hutts were fit to dig, and no more could be expected from there for the next twelve months, the crop being very backward through want of weeding.

Grand total: 555,550

The surveyors reported their opinion that Lufkin's plantation would require ten good hands and an overseer, both for the ground already planted and for the new ground that was to be broken up. The opportunity offered by the seeds sent out by the Honourable Company should not be lost, by trying all seasons and bringing the ground into order.

For the Hutts, the same number of hands besides an overseer would be needed; for Cole's Gut, Tewdale's and Roberts's New Ground, the same number again. The gardens would absorb ten further hands together with the gardener, the garden itself being much out of repair, and one overseer would suffice for the vineyards. The lower vineyard had been thrown up for ashes to graze in over the past two years. The pasture walls and other fences were very much out of repair. Preparing the ground for the planting of yams and weeding those already backward were of great consequence with the season coming on. It was deferred for the present what was necessary to be done in expediting the improvement of the plantations.

The council ordered that twelve of the newly arrived slaves be sent up to the Plantation House, to be employed by Captain Mashborne in accordance with the report. The rest were to be sent up as soon as their clothes could be made.

Interpretations

The grand total of 555,550 yams across five plantations gave the working measure of the colony's central staple stock in early August 1714. Against the figure stood the universal finding that the crops were backward through want of weeding, that few were yet fit to dig, and that the remainder would not become available for periods ranging from a few months to nearly two years. The figures placed the new administration in a position of having to manage a known shortage across the working horizon of more than a year while bringing the plantations back into productive order.

The detailed labour requirement set out by the surveyors, with ten hands plus an overseer at each of the four field plantations and ten hands plus the gardener at the gardens, identified the working manpower needed to restore the colony's productive base. The total of about forty hands and four overseers in the fields, with a further ten hands and the gardener at the gardens, exceeded the workforce available from the existing Company slaves. The newly arrived slaves from the Sitwell parcel of 10 July therefore became the working solution, with twelve of them ordered up immediately and the rest to follow as their clothing was prepared.

The reference to the lower vineyard having been thrown up for ashes to graze in for the past two years recorded a specific failure of working agricultural management under the previous administration. The vineyard, planted as a productive monoculture, had been converted into rough pasture by the deliberate burning of its planting. The working consequence was the loss of two years' wine production and the requirement to restore the ground before any further yield could be expected. The episode illustrated the kind of operational decision that the new council was now being required to reverse.

The deferral of the broader question of plantation improvement, while immediate weeding and planting were prioritised, applied the working principle of seasonal urgency over strategic planning. The yam-planting season had returned, and the council judged that any delay in addressing the present crop and the new planting would compound the working shortage that had already been documented. The longer-term restoration of the vineyards, the fences and the garden could follow once the immediate agricultural cycle had been brought under control.

Speculations

The decision to commit twelve of the newly arrived slaves to plantation work immediately, before the clothing of the remaining group had been prepared, suggested a calculated acceptance that the working season did not wait for procedural completeness. The slaves landed from the Sitwell sloop on 10 July had been assessed as merchantable and refreshed after their long passage. By sending the first twelve up at once, the council allowed the working priorities of the plantation to set the pace, with the remainder to follow as their preparation could be completed.

The express reference to the seeds sent out by the Honourable Company, with the surveyors urging that the opportunity not be lost, pointed to a specific consignment received on the Rochester of European or other introduced varieties intended for cultivation on the island. The directors had evidently included a programme of agricultural diversification in the supplies for the new administration, and the surveyors were urging immediate attention to ensure that the experiment was given the working conditions to succeed. The episode illustrated how the colony continued to function as a working site for agricultural innovation at the Honourable Company's direction.

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179

Ordered.

That an Acco[t] of who belong to the Hono[ble] Companys Table be taken and of all the Blacks that we may know how many are to be fed, and Judge how farr the Provisions in the aforesaid Plantations will goe.

Questions to Robert Marshes Petition of the 3[d] Inst[a]nt in relation to a Black he Lays Claim to viz[t]

His Answers.

If he bought the Black

Answers Yes.

If he paid for the Black

Yes.

How much

To Sattisfie the Seller but dos not Say how much money.

If all be paid

He Says he has a bill of Sale & receipt for Sal[uary] 22 in money & goods, but dos not Say how much in money & what goods.

If he had Leave of the Governor to buy the Black

He thinks he needs no Leave.

If the late Govern[r] did not forbid him to buy the black

Not till he had bought him.

If the Gov[r] did not Send the Black on board

He dos not know.

He produced his bill of Sale Sign'd by James Lawley Wittnessed by Francis Fange and Nathaniell Lawrence.

M[r] Cason appeared and Said the late Govern[r] Left the Black with him for his own use but left no written Order about him and being asked if he knew whether the late Govern[r] bought this Black, Sayeth he dos not know.

St

Margin Notes:

Acc[t] of Persons fed of Comp[s] Charge.

Que[stions] & Answers ab[ou]t y[e] Black Rob[t] Marsh Claim'd.

Bill of Sale produc'd for Said Black

M[r] Cason Says y[t] y[e] Black was Left to him.

The council ordered that an account be taken of all the persons belonging to the Honourable Company's table, so that the number to be fed could be known, and the council could judge how far the provisions on the plantations would go.

Questions were put to Robert Marsh on his petition of the 3rd instant concerning a slave to which he laid claim, with his answers as follows.

Question: Whether he had bought the slave.

Answer: Yes.

Question: Whether he had paid for the slave.

Answer: Yes.

Question: How much.

Answer: Enough to satisfy the seller, but he did not say how much money.

Question: Whether all had been paid.

Answer: He said he had a bill of sale and receipt for the value of £22 0s 0d in money and goods, but did not say how much was in money and what goods.

Question: Whether he had leave from the Governor to buy the slave.

Answer: He thought he needed no leave.

Question: Whether the late Governor had forbidden him to buy the slave.

Answer: Not until he had already bought him.

Question: Whether the Governor had sent the slave on board.

Answer: He did not know.

Marsh produced his bill of sale signed by James Loveley, witnessed by Francis Faage and Nathaniel Lawrence.

Mr Cason then appeared and said that the late Governor had left the slave with him for his own use, but had left no written direction about him. On being asked whether he knew whether the late Governor had bought the slave, Cason said he did not know.

Interpretations

The order for a census of all persons belonging to the Honourable Company's table established the working basis on which the council could assess the colony's food security. The provisions surveyed across the plantations on the previous council day gave one side of the calculation; the number of persons to be fed gave the other. Only with both figures could the council determine the duration of self-sufficiency and the scale of any procurement needed to bridge the working shortage.

The structured examination of Robert Marsh applied the working procedure of point-by-point questioning that had been used in the Bazett interrogation of 1 April 1714. Each question received a discrete answer, with both recorded for the consultation book. The mechanism prevented Marsh from controlling the direction of the testimony and preserved the working evidence on the record for any later examination of the case.

Marsh's bill of sale, signed by James Loveley and witnessed by Francis Faage and Nathaniel Lawrence, supplied the working documentary basis for his title to the slave. The bill identified consideration of £22 0s 0d in mixed money and goods, without separating the two elements. The lack of separation between cash and goods left the precise terms of the transaction undocumented, although the total figure stood as the working measure of the slave's value at the time of sale.

Cason's evidence introduced a parallel working claim derived from the previous Governor. The slave had been left with Cason for his own use, on Boucher's verbal instruction, with no written direction. The arrangement reflected the informal pattern by which Boucher had distributed Company property among his own circle in the closing months of his administration. The absence of any written document meant that Cason's interest could be tested only against his own recollection and Marsh's bill of sale.

Speculations

Marsh's careful avoidance of specifying the monetary and goods components of the £22 0s 0d consideration, despite holding a written bill of sale, pointed to a calculated reticence in his evidence. Full disclosure of the components might have exposed the working terms of the transaction to legal challenge, particularly if the goods element included items improperly acquired from the Company's store or from another inhabitant. By restricting his answer to the total figure recorded on the document, Marsh limited the council's working ability to identify any irregularity in the underlying transaction.

The presence of two separate claims to the slave, one based on a written bill of sale to Marsh and one based on Boucher's verbal direction to Cason, illustrated the working consequences of the previous administration's loose record-keeping. The slave was now the subject of competing claims that the new council would need to adjudicate without authoritative documentation. The episode exemplified the pattern of disputes the new administration was inheriting as a direct consequence of Boucher's failure to maintain written records of his dispositions of Company property.

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180

St Helena y[e] 6[th] N[o]v[em]b[e]r 1711.

I James Lawley do hereby deliver and Sell unto M[r] Robert Marsh, a Slave boy Named Pompey aged about Eighteen years and do hereby acknowledge to have receiv'd the Sume of Twenty two pounds Sterling which is in full of all Acounts. Wittnesse my hand this 6 day of November One Thousand Seven hundred and Eleven

p[r] James Lawley.

Witnesses

Francis Funge

Nath[l] Lawrence.

Wherefore the Govern[r] & Councill are of Opinion that the Said Black Called Pompey does belong to Robert Marsh, it not Appearing to us that the late Governour did buy that black, and that Rob[t] Marsh did buy him Wherefore

Ordered.

That Pompey the black Slave now in M[r] Casons hands be forthwith restored to Robert Marsh as his Master

To the Worshyp[ll] Edw[d] Isaac. Pyke Esq[r] & Councell The Humble Peti tion of Jona[s] Develon

Sheweth.

That whereas your Petitioner did Petition to Governour Boucher on Severall heads but not being Determin'd doth humbly Lay them before y[r] Worship and Councill

First. That whereas Hugh Bodley Sen[r] dec[d] being Indebted to your Said Petitioner as will Appear by an Order of

Margin Notes:

Coppy of y[e] Bill Sale.

Witnesses

Gov[r] & Coun[c]ll Opinion

Black Pompey to be Deliv[d] Rob[t] Marsh.

J[o]n[a] Develons Petition.

First. Bodleys Estate to be Settled.

A copy of the bill of sale was as follows.

St Helena, 6 November 1711.

I, James Loveley, do hereby deliver and sell unto Mr Robert Marsh a boy named Pompey, aged about eighteen years, and do hereby acknowledge to have received the sum of £22 0s 0d sterling, which is in full of all accounts. Witness my hand this 6th day of November 1711.

James Loveley.

Witnesses:

Francis Faage.

Nathaniel Lawrence.

The Governor and Council were of opinion that the slave called Pompey did belong to Robert Marsh, it not appearing to them that the late Governor had bought the slave, and that Marsh had bought him. The council therefore ordered

that Pompey, the slave now in Mr Cason's hands, be forthwith restored to Robert Marsh as his master.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The humble petition of Jonathan Doveton.

Showed that the petitioner had earlier presented petitions to Governor Boucher on several heads, but had received no determination. He now humbly laid them before the present Governor and Council.

First, that whereas Hugh Bodley senior, deceased, was indebted to the petitioner, as would appear by an order

Interpretations

The reproduction of the bill of sale in the consultation book preserved the working documentary basis for the council's decision. The bill recorded the principal facts: the date of the sale, the parties, the slave's name and age, the price of £22 0s 0d sterling in full of all accounts, and the witnessing signatures. Entering the document verbatim into the consultation book gave the council's order the working authority of an instrument fully supported by record, which any later examination of the case would have to engage with directly.

The Governor and Council's conclusion that Pompey belonged to Robert Marsh, with the express finding that the late Governor had not bought the slave, illustrated the working evidentiary standard applied to disputed property claims. The written bill of sale, properly witnessed and dated nearly three years earlier, outweighed Cason's recollection of a verbal disposition by Boucher. The decision established a clear working preference for documentary over oral evidence in the resolution of property disputes under the new administration.

The order to restore the slave forthwith from Cason's hands to Marsh as his master applied the working device of immediate practical execution. The council did not permit any continuing period of dispute or further hearing once the determination had been made. The mechanism prevented the matter from re-opening and gave the successful claimant immediate possession, with any aggrieved party reduced to seeking redress through fresh petition.

The opening of Jonathan Doveton's petition, with its express reference to petitions earlier presented to Boucher that had received no determination, identified the working pattern of unresolved business inherited by the new administration. The previous Governor had received petitions but had not acted on them, leaving the petitioners without remedy. The new council was therefore receiving, alongside its own fresh business, a backlog of grievances that had accumulated under the deferred decision-making of the previous regime.

Speculations

The council's decision to act on the basis of a single written bill of sale, against Cason's unsupported assertion that the late Governor had given him the slave for his own use, pointed to a calculated determination to apply documentary standards strictly. Cason was now a working member of the establishment as an assistant under the new council, and his evidence was nonetheless treated as insufficient against a properly witnessed bill of sale. The decision signalled to all parties that the new administration would not give weight to claims based on the late Governor's verbal directions, however close the claimant's relationship to the present establishment.

The decision to enter the bill of sale verbatim into the consultation book, rather than to summarise its contents, suggested a deliberate effort to set a working evidentiary standard for the colony. Future disputes of similar character could be resolved by reference to the same procedural template, with the bill of sale carried into the record as the working anchor for any council determination. The mechanism strengthened the colony's property regime by making documented transactions visibly more secure than undocumented ones.

190

181

of Councill in Governour Roberts tyme Humbly desires that his Estate be brought to a vallue and your Petition[r] receive Acordingly

[2nd day] That William Frenches Orphans Estate be Vallued or Sold and their Acco[t] made up that we may know the part belonging to Robert Leech he haveing married one of the Orphans.

[3 day] Whereas Richard Leech Jun[r] went off this Island young & as y[e] Death of his Father Ric[d] Leech of dividends part of y[e] Sd Ric[d] Leech Sen[r] being put in y[r] Store books till he Should come of Age & haveing been of Age for or twelve years & never heard of yo[r] petition[r] (Namely Francis Leech, James Leech, Rob[t] Leeches Exec[trs] & yo[r] petition[r]) concludes him to be dead, & humb[ly] pray that they may take up y[e] Sd money & make a Dividend of it according to y[e] Customs of y[r] Comp[ny] offering to give Security for y[e] repayment in case y[e] Sd Rich[d] Leech being

[on] y[e] petition[r] will as in Duty bound Ever pray &c.

Jona[s] Develon.

The further Examinacon & Merritts of the Cases mention'd in this petition is refer'd to Cap[t] Geo[rge] Haswell y[e] D[ep]ty Gov[r] Cap[t] Edw[d] Mashborne & M[r] Bazett to inquire into & report their Opinions herein & y[t] when Such enquiry & report be made M[r] Develon be Sent to appear y[e] Council day next following

The Blacks house at y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s] plantacon being burnt down in Gov[r] Bouchers time (occasion'd by his man Cesars fireing a Gun upon the thatch thereof)

Ordered. That Cap[t] Mashborne be desired to See were both be most proper to build a New One & report it with the demensions thereof.

It being as appears by former Consul tations absolutely necessary to have a New Store M[r] Bazett was desired to give his opinion how big he thought it was necessary to be ab[ou]t said he believ'd it ought to be three times as big as the Old One there being above as much more goods

Margin Notes:

Frenches Orph[ans] Estate to be vallued

Rich[d] Leech[s] dividend to be in his Ex[ecuto]rs hands upon giveing Security.

Referrd to Cap[t] Haswell &c.

Blacks House burnt.

a Convenient plan for a new one.

Bignefs of y[e] old & new Store house.

Resuming the petition of Jonathan Doveton.

Doveton's first head referred to an order of council in Governor Roberts's time, by which Hugh Bodley senior had been indebted to him. Doveton humbly desired that Bodley's estate be brought to valuation and that the petitioner receive accordingly.

Second head. That William French's orphans' estate be valued or sold, and the account made up, so that the share belonging to Robert Leech might be known, Leech having married one of the orphans.

Third head. That whereas Richard Leech junior had gone off the island young, on the death of his father, Richard Leech senior's dividend, that is the share of Richard Leech junior, having been placed in the store books until he should come of age, and having been twelve years and more out of his time without any word of him, the petitioners, namely Francis Leech, James Leech, Robert Leech as executors, on the petitioner's behalf concluded him to be dead. They humbly prayed that they might take up the said money and make a dividend of it according to the custom of the island, offering to give security for repayment in case of his being alive.

And the petitioner, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

Jonathan Doveton.

The further examination and merits of the cases mentioned in the petition were referred to Captain Haswell the Deputy Governor, Captain Edward Mashborne and Mr Bazett, to inquire into and report their opinions thereon. When such inquiry and report had been made, Mr Doveton was to be sent to appear at the council day next following.

The slaves' house at the Honourable Company's plantation had been burnt down in Governor Boucher's time, the cause being his man Caesar firing a gun upon the thatch thereof.

The council ordered that Captain Mashborne be desired to see where it would be most proper to build a new slaves' house, and to report with the dimensions thereof.

It being, as appeared by former consultations, absolutely necessary to have another house there, Mr Bazett was desired to give his opinion of how big he thought it was necessary to be. He believed it ought to be three times as big as the old one, there being above as much more goods

Interpretations

The three heads of Doveton's petition illustrated the working pattern of inherited business that the new administration was now required to resolve. Each head depended on a settled procedure: the Bodley estate required valuation against an existing order of council; the French orphans' estate required valuation and sale to determine Leech's marital share; and the Richard Leech junior share required the working device by which a long-absent heir presumed dead could have his interest distributed to the residual heirs with security against his possible return.

The Richard Leech junior arrangement applied the working custom of the island in cases of presumed death. Twelve years' absence with no word of the missing party had created the presumption that justified the distribution of the share among the residuary takers. The requirement for security against his return preserved the absent party's working claim in the event that the presumption proved false, and gave the residuary takers immediate use of the share at no permanent risk to the absent party's interest. The mechanism balanced the practical need for distribution against the formal requirement of fair dealing with an absent claimant.

The referral of the petition's merits to Haswell, Mashborne and Bazett applied the working procedure for inherited complex matters under the new administration. The three officers were charged with inquiry and report rather than with immediate determination, and Doveton was to appear at the next council day following their report. The arrangement preserved the council's collective decision-making while giving the working investigative burden to a sub-committee with the necessary documentary access and institutional memory.

The destruction of the slaves' house by Caesar firing a gun upon the thatch identified a further specific failure of management under the previous administration. Caesar was identified as Boucher's man, that is a slave personally attached to the late Governor's household rather than to the Company's general establishment. The episode showed that the previous Governor's personal followers had been operating without proper discipline, with the destruction of an essential building on the plantation being the working consequence. The new council was now required to rebuild the structure at the Honourable Company's expense.

Speculations

The decision to enter all three heads of Doveton's petition into the consultation book before referring them to the sub-committee suggested a calculated effort to bring the full extent of the inherited backlog onto the working record at once. By placing the matters before the formal council, the new administration acknowledged the petitioner's earlier unsuccessful approaches to Boucher and gave Doveton the working assurance that his claims would now be addressed through proper procedure. The mechanism also exposed the previous Governor's working failure to dispose of routine business, adding further weight to the documentary case against him.

The express identification of Caesar as Boucher's man, rather than as a Company slave, suggested a calculated targeting of the responsibility for the destruction onto the late Governor personally. A Company slave's misconduct would have been a matter of general establishment discipline; the misconduct of the Governor's own follower was specifically Boucher's responsibility. The framing carried implications for the working basis on which the Company might later seek to recover the cost of the rebuilding, with the trail of responsibility pointing directly to the departed Governor rather than to the colony's general establishment.

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Goods as that now contains at different places acordingly the Worsh[ll] the Gov[r] is desired to consider of a plan for the making a New One

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Hasswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Island St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 17[th] August 1714 At the United Castle in James Vally.

Pres[ent] Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[rge] Haswell Dep[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Councill.

Ordered. That the foll[owing] Advertisement be Published to give notice for all persons to repair to the Store & make up their Acc[ts] there to y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[s] as soon as possible.

Provisions being at this time very Scarce & Dear the Gov[r] made a proposal to Lessen the Hon[ble] Comp[s] charge by Examining how many persons had a right to dyett at the Gen[ll] Table

Re[fer]

Margin Notes:

Persons to make up their Acc[ts]

Proposals to Lessen y[e] Charge of y[e] Table.

Continuing the slaves' house question, Bazett further explained that a structure of three times the former size was needed because the volume of goods now to be stored at the various places greatly exceeded what the old house had held. The Worshipful Governor was therefore asked to draw up a plan for the new building.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 17 August 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The council ordered that an advertisement be published, giving notice to all persons holding accounts at the store to settle them with the Honourable Company as soon as possible.

Provisions being at this time very scarce and expensive, the Governor proposed reducing the Honourable Company's charge by examining how many persons had a right to dine at the General Table.

Interpretations

The decision to publish an advertisement requiring settlement of store accounts marked the working extension of the departure rule of 16 July 1714. The rule had previously applied only at the point of an applicant's request to leave the island. The new advertisement directed all account-holders to clear their balances regardless of any intention to depart, applying the same financial discipline across the entire population of inhabitants and Company servants. The mechanism converted a discharge condition into a general working duty owed to the Company.

The dimensions agreed for the new slaves' house, at three times the size of the structure destroyed, reflected the working accumulation of stores and goods at the plantation since the original building had been constructed. The slaves' house functioned as both residence and supplementary storage on the working estate, and the increase in scale acknowledged the growth of the operation under successive administrations. The Governor's personal involvement in drawing up the plan continued the working pattern by which Pyke took direct charge of major construction projects.

The Governor's proposal to examine the working basis on which persons claimed the right to dine at the General Table identified a further line of cost control. The General Table represented the daily provisioning of the senior establishment at the Fort, and any person dining there at Company expense added to the working consumption of the depleted stocks. By auditing the entitlement of each diner, the council could remove unauthorised claimants and reduce the demand on the colony's stretched provisions.

The combination of the store-settlement advertisement, the General Table audit and the plantation rebuilding programme of the previous consultation showed a coordinated working effort across multiple fronts. Each measure addressed a distinct aspect of the colony's depleted condition: the advertisement targeted outstanding debts, the audit targeted unwarranted consumption, and the plantation work targeted future production. Together they constituted a working programme of fiscal and operational restoration.

Speculations

The Governor's decision to direct the audit of General Table entitlement personally, rather than to refer the matter to a sub-committee as had been done with the Doveton petition, suggested a calculated concentration of authority over the working composition of the senior establishment. The General Table was a politically sensitive subject, since it touched directly on the standing and perquisites of the colony's principal officers and their dependants. By taking the working initiative on the matter, Pyke positioned himself as the source of any reduction in entitlement, deflecting potential resentment from the council as a whole onto the Governor's own discretion.

The choice to publish the store-settlement requirement by advertisement, rather than to address individual debtors directly, pointed to a deliberate working device for reaching the entire account-holding population without identifying any particular debtor. The mechanism preserved the working dignity of the larger account-holders while bringing public pressure to bear on all of them at once. The same approach had been used for the cattle and provisions advertisement of 20 July 1714, and was now extended to the management of the credit side of the colony's economy.

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Resolved & thought very proper that only y[e] Gov[r] & Council w[t]h y[e] Chaplain dietts at the Gen[ll] Table, & all y[e] rest to be excluded during the Scarcity of provisions & be allowed Board Wages.

And also that the Lower Table be Lessen'd as much as possible.

The Petition of Benj[a] Pledger Sould[er] as foll[oweth]

To S[t] Helena

To The Worsh[ll] Isa[a]c Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] & Council[l]

The most Humble Petition of Benjamin Pledger

Humbly Sheweth That Whereas yo[ur] petition[ers] father Praise Pledger did by his Will bearing date the 3 of November 1697 give unto Thomas Pledger his Eldest Son five Acres of Land and one House as by the Said Will doe fully Appear and your Petition[r] haveing reason to beleive he is dead in India and being the next Heir at Law Humbly Prays your Worship he may have the Said House and Land deliver'd to him.

And (as in duty bound) Shall ever pray &c

Benjam[in] Pledger.

Questions

How he knows his brother is dead.

He produces a letter that mentions it.

If he be Sure his brother was not married before his death

He has been told he never was married.

If he Can prove his death

He has not heard from him in four years & it is his beleife he is dead but cant prove it but by hear Say.

Who has the Possession of this Land

Robert Bell his fath[er] in Law.

Ordered.

That Robert Bell be sent for to hear what he has to Say in this matter.

The Petition of Richard Clive freeman desireing Liberty for him self and famuly to goe to India.

Ordered.

Margin Notes:

who Shall diett there.

y[e] rest allow'd board Wages.

Benj[a] Pledgers Petition about 5 a[c]e Land.

Quest[ions] ab[ou]t it.

Clive desires to g[o] off w[t]h his Family.

The council resolved that only the Governor, the Deputy Governor and the Chaplain should dine at the General Table, and that all the rest be excluded during the scarcity of provisions, with board wages allowed in place. The Lower Table was also to be cut back as much as possible.

The petition of Benjamin Pledger, soldier, followed in this form.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The most humble petition of Benjamin Pledger.

Humbly showed that the petitioner's father Praise Pledger had by his will, dated 3 November 1697, given to Thomas Pledger his eldest son five acres of land and one house, as appeared by the will. The petitioner had reason to believe that Thomas was dead in India, and being the next heir at law, humbly prayed that the said house and land might be delivered to him.

And, as in duty bound, the petitioner would ever pray, and so on. Benjamin Pledger.

Questions were put to the petitioner with his answers as follows.

Question: How he knew his brother was dead.

Answer: He produced a letter mentioning it.

Question: Whether he was sure his brother had not married before his death.

Answer: He had been told that his brother had never been married.

Question: Whether he could prove the death.

Answer: He had not heard from him in four years, and believed him to be dead, but could not prove it except by hearsay.

Question: Who was presently in possession of the land.

Answer: Robert Bell, his father-in-law.

The council ordered that Robert Bell be sent for, to hear what he had to say in the matter.

The petition of Richard Cleve, freeman, desiring liberty for himself and family to go to India, was ordered

Interpretations

The reduction of the General Table to the Governor, Deputy Governor and Chaplain marked a sharp working contraction of the colony's senior dining establishment. Every other officer who had previously dined at Company charge was now to be excluded for the duration of the scarcity, with board wages substituted in place of meals. The mechanism preserved the working dignity of the three highest offices, including the Chaplain whose religious function required his continued presence, while converting all other entitlements into a cash allowance against which the recipients could provide for themselves.

The further direction to lessen the Lower Table as much as possible extended the same principle to the secondary dining establishment, which carried writers, junior officers and supernumeraries. The instruction was framed less precisely than the General Table reduction, leaving discretionary working room for the council to manage the cuts according to the changing state of provisions. The combined effect of both measures was to remove a significant working draw on the depleted stocks identified at the plantation survey of 10 August.

The Pledger petition repeated the working device of presumed death by long absence that had appeared in Doveton's petition four days earlier. The presumption here rested on four years' silence and the recollection that the brother had never married, which would mean no widow or children with intervening claims on the land and house. The questioning brought out the working weakness of the evidence, with the petitioner conceding that he could prove the death only by hearsay rather than by direct testimony or written certification.

The presence of Robert Bell as the current occupier of the land, identified as the petitioner's father-in-law, introduced a parallel working interest that the council needed to test before any restoration to Pledger. Bell would have been holding the property either as caretaker for the absent Thomas Pledger or under some independent claim of his own. The order to send for Bell applied the working procedure of giving each interested party an opportunity to be heard before any determination of disputed property.

Speculations

The retention of the Chaplain at the General Table alongside the two senior executive officers, when every other entitlement was being suspended, pointed to a calculated affirmation of the religious office's standing in the colony. The Governor's complaint of 3 August about absence from divine service on the Lord's day had been followed by the order requiring attendance from all Company servants in the valley. The continued provision of the Chaplain's meals at the Fort reinforced the working position of the office at the centre of the colony's social discipline, in line with the broader effort to restore public worship.

The decision to send for Robert Bell to hear his side of the matter, rather than to order the restoration of the property to Pledger on the strength of his bare petition, suggested a deliberate corrective to the looser practice of the previous administration. Under Boucher, claims had often been determined on the petitioner's representation alone, with absent parties' interests being disregarded. By directing that the current occupier be heard before any decision, the new council established a working procedural standard for the resolution of disputed property that gave each party the opportunity to present their case.

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Ordered.

That his request be granted

The Petition of Giles Smith freeplanter as followeth

To the Worshyp[ll] Gov[r] & Coun[ll]. The Humble Petition of Giles Smith Plant[r]. Sheweth that

Whereas your Worshyps Predecessor Gov[r] Boucher did Seize the Estate of Hugh Bodley Plant[r] at the Said Hugh Bodleys death Val[ue] the Appraisment of two Planters. But not being Sattisfyed of the Said Appraism[en]t of the Said Planters did Still keep the Said Estate in the Honour[ble] Companys hands and I yo[ur] Petitioner did Petition to the Said Govern[r] Boucher for the Said Estate to be Appraised for the Justice and beneffitt of my mother. The Said Wid[ow] Bodley but the Said Govern[r] Boutcher would in no wise Answer the Said Petition. So that now I yo[ur] Said Petition[r] doth Apply my Self to your Worship and Councill for Appraism[en]t of the Said Estate and in Justice where of I yo[r] Petition[r]. Shall as in duty bound for ever pray

Giles Smith

Ordered.

That Cap[ta] Mashborne & M[r] Bazett Appraise the Same for the Honour[ble] Company the Said Bodley Standing Indebted to them in their Store Books and that Giles Smith make Choice of two others for him and when Soe done to give in their report.

The Petition of Martin Norman. Aug[t] y[e] 17[th] 1714

Island St Helena. To the Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] & Council[l]. The Humble Petition of Martin Norman Planter.

Sheweth that.

Whereas your Petitioner was by the Blessing of God upon his Honest Industry and frugality immediatly after the Late Calamitious draught prospered with and possessed

Margin Notes:

Granted.

Giles Smiths Petition about Hugh Bodleys Estate.

the Estate to be Appraised.

Martin Norman Petition.

The council ordered that the request of Richard Cleve be granted.

The petition of Giles Smith, free planter, followed in this form.

To the Worshipful the Governor and Council. The humble petition of Giles Smith, planter, showed that

whereas Governor Boucher had seized the estate of Hugh Bodley, planter, at Bodley's death, the appraisement of two planters had been made, but Boucher had not been satisfied with the appraisement. He had kept the estate in the Honourable Company's hands, and the petitioner had presented petitions to Boucher for the estate to be appraised, in justice and for the benefit of the petitioner's mother, Mrs Bodley, but Boucher had given no answer. The petitioner now applied to the Governor and Council for an appraisement of the estate, and in justice would receive his petition. And he, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

Giles Smith.

The council ordered that Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett appraise the estate for the Honourable Company, Bodley standing indebted in the store books, and that Giles Smith make choice of two others, with all four to report when the work was done.

The petition of Martin Norman, dated 17 August 1714, followed in this form.

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The humble petition of Martin Norman, planter, showed that

whereas the petitioner had, by the blessing of God upon his honest industry and frugality, immediately after the late calamitous drought prospered with and possessed

Interpretations

The grant of Cleve's petition closed the working sequence that had begun with his refusal of the five-shilling day rate on 20 July. The previous council days had set out the alternative arrangements of working by the great, by the foot or by the yard, and had required Cleve to produce his account of timber and deals. With those matters resolved, the council now released him with his family to go to India. The case illustrated the working pattern by which difficult labour relations could be resolved through the petitioner's eventual departure rather than through prolonged negotiation.

The Smith petition exposed a working defect in the previous administration's handling of intestate estates. Boucher had seized Bodley's estate on the planter's death and an appraisement had been made by two planters. The late Governor had refused to accept the figure, leaving the estate in the Honourable Company's hands without any further valuation or settlement. The mechanism by which Boucher had blocked the working close-out preserved the Company's claim to the estate but denied the heirs any recovery, with the petitioner's mother in particular suffering from the deferred resolution.

The council's order for a fresh appraisement, with Mashborne and Bazett acting for the Honourable Company and Smith choosing two further appraisers, applied the working device of joint valuation by indifferent men. The arrangement followed the pattern used in the Easthope estate of 28 March 1710, the Belvird estate of 7 March 1712 and the Perkins estate of 20 July 1714. By requiring agreement between four appraisers representing both sides, the council preserved the working integrity of the process while ensuring a determinate outcome.

The opening of the Martin Norman petition introduced the working consequences of the recent drought that had affected the colony from late 1712. Norman's reference to the late calamitous drought set the working economic context for his subsequent claim, with his industry and frugality identified as the working virtues that had carried him through the difficult period. The framing reflected the colony's broader pattern of recognising individual planter recovery as a working contribution to the rebuilding of the agricultural establishment.

Speculations

Boucher's working device of refusing to accept the appraisement of Bodley's estate, while keeping the property in the Honourable Company's hands, pointed to a calculated strategy of indefinite deferral that benefited the previous administration. By neither accepting the planters' valuation nor proposing an alternative, Boucher had kept the estate's working value within the Company's effective control while frustrating any heir who sought to realise their interest. The mechanism converted the legitimate institutional claim against the estate's store-book debt into a working instrument of personal advantage.

The selection of Mashborne and Bazett as the council's appraisers for the Bodley estate, the same pairing that had handled the Perkins acquisition on 27 July, suggested a calculated working pattern of using a stable team for property valuations. The two officers carried complementary working knowledge: Mashborne's familiarity with the planter community and the working condition of the estates, and Bazett's working command of the store books and the valuations recorded in them. The repetition of the pairing across multiple transactions gave the colony a consistent valuation standard against which different estates could be measured.

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Possessed of Considerable Effects for a man of his mean begining and Opportunitys of this place.

And whereas by the hand of God Suddenly in the Said Late draught your Petitioner has been visited with the Sore Loss of his whole Stock being twenty head of Neat Cattle besides Goates & Hoggs which were Considerable to his present great hardship and Misery.

And understanding that the Govern[r] doe designe in a Short tyme to call in the Honour[ble] Companys debts and your Petitioner being Sencible to his Sorrow that he is pritty much Indebted to the Honour[ble] Comp[s] Store Books moreover being willing and desireous honestly to pay his debts and gett his Lively hood without being burdensome, But haveing at present no other means of So doing but by Offering in a List of what is due to him from Severall persons.

Wherefore your Petition[r] humbly prays that your Worship & Councill in due Consideration of the Premisses would please to order Creditt to be given him for the Severall Sumes from his Respective Debtors in the Hono[ble] Companys Stores by which means he does not doubt to Clear the Hono[ble] Companys debt and have Something Left to releive his present Misery, and to begin with againe

And your Petition[r] as in duty bound Shall for ever pray &c

Ordered.

That he give in his List of Debts he produced an old list but Said he had another and better, which he is directed to bring in next Councill day.

Richard Swollow Sen[r] and Francis Wrang ham freeholders and Executo[rs] of the last Will and Testament of Benjamin Sich freehold[r] dec[d] brought this day the Said Benjamin Siches Will in order of haveing the Same proof of which was Acord ingly done by the Oaths of William Corteous & Henry Francis

Ordered.

That the Said Benjamin Siches Last Will & Testam[t] now produced be rec[d] and approv'd of and Entr'd into a book for that purpose & Coppys given thereof when Demanded.

Margin Notes:

Setting forth the

Loss of his Stock

his Circumstance

desires Cred[i]t for his Bills.

to bring in y[e] best List of his Acc[ts]

Benj[a] Siches Will offered to be prov'd by his Execut[rs]

y[e] Same proved.

Norman set forth that his recovery had brought him considerable effects for a man of his mean beginning and the limited opportunities of the colony. The hand of God in the late drought had since visited him with the entire loss of his stock, namely twenty head of neat cattle, besides goods and hogs, with the result that he was now in great hardship and misery.

Understanding that the Governor designed shortly to call in the Honourable Company's debts, the petitioner, conscious to his sorrow that he was much indebted on the store books, was nonetheless willing and desirous honestly to pay his debts and to earn his livelihood without being burdensome. He had at present no other means of doing so than to offer a list of what was due to him from several persons.

The petitioner therefore humbly prayed the Governor and Council, in consideration of the premises, to direct that credit be given him for the several sums owed by his respective debtors on the Honourable Company's stores, by which means he hoped not only to clear his Company debt but to have something left to relieve his present misery and to begin again.

And the petitioner, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

The council ordered that Norman bring in his list of debts. He had produced an old list, but said he had another and better, which he was directed to bring on the next council day.

Richard Swallow senior and Francis Wrangham, freeholders and executors of the last will and testament of Benjamin Sich, freeholder deceased, this day brought the will to be proved. The same was accordingly done on the oaths of William Porteous and Henry Francis.

The council ordered that the will so produced be received and approved, and entered into a book kept for that purpose, copies to be given out as required.

Interpretations

The Norman petition illustrated the working application of the credit-clearing mechanism by which a debtor on the Honourable Company's store books could discharge his debts through the assignment of debts owed to him by other inhabitants. The mechanism converted Norman's working position from individual debtor to broker between several debtor-creditor relationships, with the store books operating as the common ledger across all of them. The settlement of his Company debt would be achieved through corresponding charges against his own debtors in the same books.

The structured framing of Norman's petition, with the loss of his stock attributed to the hand of God in the recent drought, applied the working rhetorical convention of casting external misfortune in providential terms. The mechanism allowed the petitioner to present his current condition as the result of forces beyond his control rather than as a consequence of personal mismanagement, strengthening his moral claim on the council's working sympathy. The reference to the drought as calamitous reinforced the working public memory of the period covered by the present sequence.

The order requiring Norman to produce his better list on the next council day applied the working principle of documentary verification before any council action. The old list he had brought was treated as insufficient evidence of the working extent of his receivables, and the council declined to act until he could produce the comprehensive record. The mechanism preserved the working integrity of the credit-clearing procedure by requiring full disclosure of the assets being offered against the debts to be discharged.

The probate of Benjamin Sich's will, on the oaths of William Porteous and Henry Francis, illustrated the working continuation of the council's probate jurisdiction across the change of administration. The procedural pattern remained as it had been under previous Governors: presentation of the will by the executors, proof by two witnesses on oath, receipt and approval by the council, entry in the book of wills, and issue of copies on demand. The working continuity preserved the credibility of testamentary dispositions across the colony's successive administrations.

Speculations

The Governor's announcement of his intention to call in the Honourable Company's debts, referred to in Norman's petition, suggested that the published advertisement of 17 August had been preceded by working informal notice circulating among the inhabitants. The council had been preparing the working population for the formal calling-in, and Norman's petition was the working response of one indebted planter to the anticipated demand. The pattern indicated that the new administration had been managing the announcement through informal channels before making the formal public order.

The selection of Swallow senior and Wrangham as the executors of Benjamin Sich's estate, with Porteous and Francis as the proving witnesses, pointed to a working network of established planters and Company servants who repeatedly appeared in this institutional role. Each of the four had been recorded elsewhere in the present sequence as executor, witness, juror or surveyor, and the working pattern of their involvement reinforced the continuity of the colony's testamentary administration through the change of regime.

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The Said Rich[d] Swallow in behalf of his mother Mercy Sich brought this day the Last Will & Testam[t] of Simon Lent Soldier dec[d] in order of haveing the Same proved which was Acordingly done, by the Oaths of Joshua Tomlinson & Joseph Tomlinson Ordered.

That the Said Will be rec[d] and approv'd of, and Entered into a book for that purpose, and Coppys given when ever demanded.

The Governour Acquainted the Councill That Robert Angus Godfrey Sholes David Hine and John Gibbs Sold[s] who had Serv'd their Contracted tyme here Desired to Turn out of pay and that he had granted their request.

Ordered.

That an Advertisement be Published by Beat of Drum that no person whatsoever on any pretence do pre Sume to goe on Shoar upon the Egg Islands till Such tyme as Allowd and when the Eggs are Plenty days will be appointed for the Gathering as usuall.

Island St Helena By the Govern[r] & Coun[ll] an Advertizement.

Whereas Credible Information hath been given that Some tyme Since Severall persons as well for their own pleasure as to Catch fish hath gone on Shoar upon the Egg Islands and made fires, which Imprudence hath Caused the Egg fowles to Settle and Lay on the main and in Such pleeces as was Impossible to gather their Eggs without great danger To prevent which for the future These are Stricktly to forbid and Enjoyn all persons on the Said Island Not to presume to goe on Shore or make fires upon the aforesaid Egg Islands upon any pretence whatsoever Upon paine of being Severely dealt with as Contemners of this Order Untill the proper Season of which Publick Notice and Liecense Shall be given in writing as usuall, which all persons are

Margin Notes:

Sim[on] Lents Will rec[d] to be proved.

proved.

Persons turn'd free.

None to Gath[er] Eggs till further Order.

An Advertisem[en]t to that Intent.

and

forbidden to make fires on y[e] sd Islands.

Richard Swallow, on behalf of his mother Mercy Sich, brought to the council the last will and testament of Simon Lemon, soldier deceased, to be proved. Proof was taken on the oaths of Joshua Tomlinson and Joseph Tomlinson.

The council ordered that the will be received and approved, and entered into a book for that purpose, with copies to be given out as required.

The Governor reported to the council that Robert Angus, Godfrey Sholes, David Hine and John Gibbs, soldiers, who had served their contracted time, had asked to be turned out of pay, and that he had granted their request.

The council ordered that an advertisement be published by beat of drum, forbidding any person, on any pretence, from going on shore upon the Egg Islands until further notice. When the eggs were plentiful, days would be appointed for the gathering as usual.

Island of St Helena.

By the Governor and Council.

An advertisement.

Whereas credible information had been received that, for some time past, several persons, both for their own pleasure and to catch fish, had been going on shore upon the Egg Islands and making fires. This imprudence had caused the egg-fowls to lay so little and in such places that it had become impossible to gather their eggs without great danger. To prevent this for the future, all persons on the island were strictly forbidden to go on shore upon the Egg Islands, or to make fires there, upon any pretence whatever, on pain of being severely dealt with as contemners of the order, until the proper season, of which public notice and licence would be given in writing as usual, which all persons

Interpretations

The successive discharges of Robert Angus, Godfrey Sholes, David Hine and John Gibbs at the end of their contracted terms applied the working pattern of orderly release from Honourable Company service. The Governor was empowered to grant such requests on his own authority, with subsequent report to the council, rather than requiring full council deliberation for each case. The mechanism preserved working efficiency in routine personnel matters while keeping the council informed of the changing composition of the establishment.

The protection of the Egg Islands through formal advertisement identified a working environmental management regime that the colony had operated for some time. The reference to public notice and licence being given in writing as usual indicated an established working system of authorised harvesting at proper seasons, with controlled access during the laying period. The current order suspended that system altogether until the breeding population had recovered, with severe penalties for unauthorised approach.

The express concern about fires on the Egg Islands pointed to a particular working threat to the seabird colonies. The disturbance of the nesting birds by smoke and fire, beyond the immediate physical damage, had caused the working pattern of laying to shift to inaccessible places, with the result that even authorised gatherers could no longer reach the eggs without great danger. The mechanism by which casual recreational and food-gathering activity had degraded a working economic resource illustrated the practical limits of unregulated access to natural assets.

The use of beat of drum for the public proclamation of the advertisement applied the working standard mode of public notice on the colony. The combination of drum announcement with written posting allowed the order to reach both the literate and the illiterate working population. The mechanism had been used repeatedly across the present sequence for matters of public regulation, including slave price ceilings, fencing requirements, departure rules and procurement notices.

Speculations

The decision to protect the Egg Islands through formal proclamation at this particular moment, when the council was working on multiple fronts of food provisioning and stock recovery, suggested a calculated extension of the colony's working approach to depleted resources. The plantation survey had documented the working state of the yam stock; the cattle advertisement had opened procurement from the planters; the slaves' house plan addressed the destroyed Company building. The Egg Islands proclamation now added the working protection of a wild resource to the broader programme of provisioning recovery.

The reference to credible information having been received about unauthorised activity on the Egg Islands suggested a working network of informers operating in support of the new administration. The colony's small population meant that any pattern of activity on outlying islands would soon be observed and reported. The combination of the new council's willingness to act on such information, and the working circulation of news about the proclamation, would discourage further unauthorised approach without the need for any actual enforcement action.

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are to take Notice of, and obey Acordingly. Dated at the United Castle in James valley this 17[th] Day of August 1714.

Sign'd p[r] ord[r] of Govern[r] & Council[l]

Antipas Tovey Sec[ry].

A Serjeants place being vacant by Serj[t] Perkins going off the Island in the Mercury Sloop.

Ordered.

That William Simpson Eldest Corpor[a]ll Succeed as youngest Serjeant, and that he have Sallary as Such Acordingly.

Cap[ta] Mashborne reports that Thomas Swallow Planter Offer[s] Thirty Thousand & eight of Yams and John Foord is plant[r] a Parcell of Yams Pleehoos containing about Thirty Thousand and Poultrey for the Lessning their Debts to the Hono[ble] Comp[s]

Ordered.

That Cap[ta] Mashborne do Agree with them about Said Provisions, and make report thereof.

A Difference arriseing between the two Surgeons and Docter Price Complaining that Docter Corteous did not Asist him in that manner that he Expected Whereupon 'tis

Ordered.

That Each have the Previledge of going to the Surgeons Chest and Each take now a List of all the Druggs & physicall Medicines and that a Book lye publick in the Apothecary's Shop where in Each Should Sett down what Medicines he takes and on what Acco[t] and the Ingredients or Compositions of Such Medicines.

And for preventing differences between them Docter Price be Lookt on as Cheif Surgeon and Docter Corteous Second Surgeon

And that Docter Price have the care of all the Hono[ble] Comp[s] Blacks about the Fort or below.

And

Margin Notes:

Simpson made Serj[t]

Provisions offer'd to Sale

Cap[ta] Mashborn to buy them.

Surg[e]ns Complt.

Each Equall Privi=ledge of Medicines.

their places

Price in Care of Blacks at y[e] Fort.

Continuing the proclamation, all persons were to take notice and obey accordingly.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley this 17 August 1714.

Signed by order of the Governor and Council.

Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

A sergeant's place had become vacant by reason of Sergeant Perkins going off the island in the Mercury sloop.

The council ordered that William Simpson, eldest corporal, succeed as youngest sergeant, and that he have salary as such accordingly.

Captain Mashborne reported that Thomas Swallow, planter, had offered 30,008 yams; John Focas, planter, a parcel of about 30,000 yams; and Robert Leech, planter, a parcel of yams and poultry; all for the lessening of their debts to the Honourable Company.

The council ordered that Captain Mashborne agree with each of them about the provisions and report the outcome.

A difference had arisen between the two surgeons, Doctor Price complaining that Doctor Porteous did not assist him in the manner expected.

The council ordered that each have the privilege of going to the surgeons' chest, and that each have a list of all drugs and physical medicines, and that a book lie publicly in the apothecary's shop in which each was to enter what medicines he took out, on what account, and the ingredients or compositions of such medicines.

For preventing differences between them, Doctor Price was to be regarded as chief surgeon and Doctor Porteous as second surgeon. Doctor Price was to have the care of all the Honourable Company's slaves about the Fort or below.

Interpretations

The promotion of William Simpson from eldest corporal to youngest sergeant applied the working principle of advancement by seniority within rank. The vacancy left by Perkins's departure was filled immediately at the next rank below, and Simpson's salary was adjusted to match his new position. The mechanism preserved the working hierarchy of the garrison without requiring any external recruitment, and rewarded long-serving corporals through predictable progression to the higher rank.

The opening of supply offers from three named planters, with Mashborne authorised to negotiate the terms, illustrated the working operation of the procurement programme advertised on 20 July. The three planters were all in debt to the Honourable Company on the store books, and were offering working produce against those debts rather than against cash. The mechanism allowed the colony to acquire urgently needed provisions while reducing the working volume of outstanding planter debt, with both sides benefiting from the exchange.

The surgeons' dispute revealed a working tension created by the council's earlier decision to retain both Porteous and Price in office. The new arrangement, requiring shared access to the chest, a published medicine book and a clear designation of seniority, applied the working principle of formal procedure to a personal conflict. The book lying publicly in the apothecary's shop, with each entry recording medicine, account, ingredients and compositions, gave the council a documentary record against which any further dispute could be tested.

The working assignment of Doctor Price as chief surgeon and Doctor Porteous as second, with Price specifically responsible for the Honourable Company's slaves about the Fort and below, formalised the senior-junior relationship established at the consultations of 13 July when Price's £39 0s 0d salary had been settled against Porteous's reduced £30 0s 0d. The reservation of slave care to Price gave the chief surgeon the working responsibility for the colony's most numerous category of patients, while leaving the more selective practice of the garrison and inhabitants for shared attention.

Speculations

The willingness of the planters Swallow, Focas and Leech to settle their store debts through provisions in kind, rather than to seek extended credit or cash settlement, suggested a working response to the formal advertisement of 17 August requiring settlement of all store accounts. The planters had read the announcement as a serious requirement and were now coming forward with the working assets they could offer. The mechanism converted the council's documentary pressure into actual provisioning gains, and validated the original decision to publish the settlement requirement.

The detailed procedural framework established for the two surgeons, including a publicly accessible medicine book recording ingredients and compositions, pointed to a calculated working remedy that addressed both the immediate dispute and the broader institutional risk. Without proper records, either surgeon could have drawn medicines for personal sale, charged the wrong patient or used inferior compositions. The book required full transparency on every working transaction, and made the two surgeons accountable to each other as well as to the council. The mechanism converted personal rivalry into mutual supervision.

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And Docter Corteous all the Honourables Blacks in the Countrey.

That they be both Equally Asistant in case of Sickness to any of the Councill or Companys white Servants and that Each have Liberty to vissitt and administer Physick to Such Planters whether in the Valley or Countrey that Shall Send to them

And that they have Each of them a Coppy of this Order of Councill.

Island St Helena.

By the Govern[r] & Councill An Advertisement.

Whereas Severall persons hath been very Remyss and Negligent in Reckoning & makeing up their Acco[t] in the Honour[ble] Companys Store books. These are therefore to require and Enjoyne all Such persons forthwith to repaire to the Said Honour[ble] Companys Store house and make up their respec tive Accounts with the Store keeper who will be there to attend, Unto which a readie Complyance is Expected.

Dated at the United Castle in James valley this 17 day of August 1714.

Sign'd p[r] order of Gover[r] & Councill

Antipas Tovey Sec[ry]

M[r] Tovey represented to the Councill that the Secretary's Office was too Small and Dark, no Conveniency of Desks Privacie Shelves or Presses the Raine Soaking through the Ceiling

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Corteous of them in y[e] Countrey

to be Equally Asist[ant]

Persons to make up their Acc[ts] in y[e] Stores.

The Office too Small Dark

Doctor Porteous was to have the care of all the Honourable Company's slaves in the country.

The two surgeons were each to assist equally in case of sickness affecting any of the council or Company white servants, and each to have liberty to visit and administer physic to such planters, whether in the valley or in the country, as should send to them.

Each surgeon was to have a copy of this order of council.

Island of St Helena.

By the Governor and Council.

An advertisement.

Whereas several persons had been very remiss and negligent in reckoning and making up their accounts in the Honourable Company's store books, these were therefore to require and enjoin all such persons forthwith to repair to the Honourable Company's storehouse and make up their respective accounts with the storekeeper, who would be there to attend. Ready compliance was expected.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley this 17 August 1714.

Signed by order of Governor and Council.

Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

Mr Tovey reported to the council that the Secretary's office was too small and dark, with no convenience for desks, private shelves or presses, and that the rain came in through the ceiling.

Interpretations

The geographical division of medical responsibility between Price for the Fort and below, and Porteous for the country, applied a working principle of zoning that matched the physical distribution of the colony's working population. Price's appointment to the Fort placed the chief surgeon at the centre of the working military and administrative establishment, while Porteous's country assignment gave the senior medical experience of the colony to the dispersed plantation workforce. The arrangement preserved the seniority hierarchy while drawing on each officer's working strengths.

The provision for equal assistance to the council and the Honourable Company's white servants identified a working professional reserve that overrode the geographical division for the most senior category of patients. Council members and white Company servants would receive the working attention of both surgeons in case of sickness, regardless of where they lay at the time. The mechanism preserved the working quality of medical attention for the colony's principal officers without compromising the day-to-day division of labour.

The liberty given to each surgeon to attend planters who sent for them, whether in the valley or in the country, opened the working space for private medical practice within the settled framework of Company employment. Planters were entitled to choose between the two surgeons rather than being assigned to one or the other by zone. The arrangement preserved patient choice in the working medical market while ensuring that both surgeons remained available across the colony, generating additional working income for each beyond the Company salary.

The store-settlement advertisement applied the working machinery of public proclamation to the credit-management problem identified at the previous consultation. Account-holders were required to repair to the storehouse and make up their respective accounts with the storekeeper, who would be there to attend. The mechanism converted the abstract requirement of settlement into a concrete physical encounter at a known place, with the working expectation of ready compliance.

Speculations

The decision to assign Porteous to the country, where the working majority of the Honourable Company's slaves were employed on the plantations, suggested a calculated recognition of his greater working familiarity with the island's slave population. Porteous had been the chief surgeon under the previous administration and would have built up working knowledge of the slaves' health histories over his years of service. By preserving that working continuity, the council ensured that the most numerous patient group did not lose the benefit of accumulated medical attention through the change of regime.

The complaint by Tovey about the working condition of the Secretary's office, with its small dark space, lack of desks, private shelves or presses, and a leaking ceiling, pointed to a calculated effort to bring the institutional infrastructure of the colony into the same working order as its provisioning and personnel. The Secretary's office was the working repository of the colony's written record, and its physical condition directly affected the working preservation of papers. By raising the matter at this consultation, Tovey created the documentary basis for any further building work that the council would later authorise.

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189

Ordered

The Same be veiwd and contriv'd to be Built Larger and more Convenient asoon as Possible.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 24[th] day of August 1714 At the United Castle in James valley.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Gov[r] Edward Mashbourne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] [..] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council[l].

M[r] Bazett being asked how farr he was Advanced in his Accounts Replyes that at the decease of M[r] Sack the Books were at Least twelve months behind hand, and then the Main Stress and Burthen of all Affairs Lyeing on him till our Arrivall here, has been arrears of keeping the Said Accounts backward So that he cannot as yet bring up the Store Books, but hopes they will be Compleated in a Short Time and desires that Some person belonging to him may be Approved of, to deliver out goods for the present while he is working out the books. Ordered.

That

Margin Notes:

to be Built Larg[er] &c

Store Acc[ts] How farr Advanced.

Cap[t] Bazetts Answ[er] [..]

Desires approov[a]ll of Persons to Serve out.

The council ordered that the Secretary's office be viewed and rebuilt larger and more convenient as soon as possible.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third in council; Matthew Bazett, fourth in council; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 24 August 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Bazett was asked how far he had advanced in his accounts. He replied that at the time of Mr Pack's death the books had been at least twelve months behind, and that the main stress and burden of all affairs had since lain on him until the arrival of the new administration. The accounts had remained in arrears, and he could not yet bring the store books up to date, although he hoped they would be completed in a short time. He asked that some person belonging to him might be approved to deliver out goods for the present, while he was working on the books.

The council ordered that

Interpretations

The order for a larger and more convenient Secretary's office responded to Tovey's report of the previous consultation. The mechanism applied the working principle that institutional infrastructure was to match institutional function, with the colony's working written record requiring adequate physical accommodation. The combination of this order with the slaves' house and storehouse projects gave the new administration a working programme of building works that addressed multiple deferred repairs in a coordinated way.

Bazett's account of the working state of the store books exposed the cumulative effect of personnel attrition under Boucher. The death of John Pack on 3 April 1713 had left the books twelve months in arrears, and Bazett had taken over without any working capacity to catch up while simultaneously carrying the main burden of the establishment. The episode illustrated the structural difficulty that arose when a single officer was required to combine the working roles previously distributed across multiple senior posts.

Bazett's request for a working assistant to deliver out goods during the period of catch-up applied the working principle of separating routine operations from documentary reconstruction. By placing the day-to-day issue of goods in other hands, Bazett could concentrate his working effort on the back-office reconstruction of the books. The mechanism acknowledged that the working productivity of an officer carrying multiple responsibilities was inherently limited, and that progress on the accounts required a focused allocation of working time.

The reference to the main stress and burden of all affairs lying on Bazett until the arrival of the new administration captured the working pattern of authority under the closing months of Boucher's term. With Hoskison, Griffith and Pack all dead, and with Cason and French serving only as assistants without councillor titles, Bazett had operated as the working chief executive of the colony alongside the failing Governor. The arrangement had been institutionally untenable, and the resulting backlog in the store books was a direct working consequence.

Speculations

Bazett's careful framing of the books' arrears as having been twelve months behind at Pack's death pointed to a calculated effort to locate the working responsibility for the backlog in the period before his own tenure as storekeeper. By placing the original failure on Pack's administration of the stores, Bazett distanced himself from the working origin of the problem while accepting responsibility for the period during which he had been unable to catch up. The mechanism preserved his working credibility with the new administration while frankly acknowledging the present state of the books.

The willingness of the new council to allow Bazett to nominate his own working assistant for the delivery of goods, rather than appointing one of the new officers to that role, suggested a calculated decision to keep the working continuity of the store operation under Bazett's personal direction. Any assistant chosen by him would be familiar with the existing arrangements and would not need to be brought up to speed by Bazett during the period in which his working effort was needed elsewhere. The mechanism gave Bazett the working space to complete the accounts while preserving the operational integrity of the store.

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That M[r] Thomas Cadon, M[r] Edward Cryfeild and Thomas Goodwin be permitted under M[r] Bazett to Deliver Goods out of the Store for the present in order to farther their Dispatching Said Accounts.

And also that the Inventory be then brought Contain ing the Account of all the Hono[ble] Comp[s] Goods in the Stores.

And that the Secretary and all those who are in the Honour[ble] Companys Service that writes a good hand or understands Accounts be under Cap[t] George Haswells and M[r] Matthew Bazetts Orders and Directions to Asist till the Said Books are Compleated.

And that to prevent hindarances 'tis further Ordered that the Honour[ble] Companys Stores Shall for the present be Serv'd out only on fridays and Satturdays in Each week.

And that an Advertisement be Published, that all Planters & who are Indebted to the Honour[ble] Comp[a] above the Sume of Twenty Pounds that they on their paying into the Stores the Sume of Tenn pounds Shall have Creditt for five pounds & So Proportionable for a greater or Lesser Sume, and those who have not Cash by them they will Account to the Creditt for their own or their Servants Labour and Work at the fortifications as if So much Cash were paid in So consequently permitt them to take up half the Said work in goods from tyme to tyme as it becomes due to them

And that the Govern[r] and Councill will hearken to any other ways or means that Shall be proposed to them towards payment and Sattisfaction of Debts & buying Goods out of the Stores.

And it is further Ordered that for the future noe Soldiers be Entrusted in the Stores for more than three months pay or Sallary.

The Governour and Cap[t] Mashborne report that the Tyling of the Plantation House is much out of repair so as to indanger the roof and Likewise y[t] foundation of the Back wall, is Likely Soon to fall by a Continuall Soak from the Hill for want of a draine or water Course They

Say

Margin Notes:

Persons appointed to D[el]r out Store Goods.

Inventory to be taken.

Sec[ry] &c to Asist y[e] Acomp[t] & Storekeep[er]

days to Serve out on.

Advertisem[en]t to be Publish[d] to have Debts paid to y[e] H[ono]b[le] Co[m]p[any] but ½ Cred[t] to have Goods for.

proposalls hearken'd to for payme[n]t of Debts.

Sold[s] Trusted but three months Sallary.

Plantation House out of Repair.

The council appointed Mr Thomas Cason, Mr Edward Byfield and Thomas Goodwin to deliver goods out of the store, under Bazett's direction, for the present, in order to further the despatch of the accounts.

The council further ordered that an inventory be taken of all the Honourable Company's goods then in the stores.

The Secretary, and all those in the Honourable Company's service who could write a good hand or understood accounts, were ordered to assist the storekeeper under the direction of Captain George Haswell and Mr Matthew Bazett, until the books were completed.

To prevent further hindrance, the Honourable Company's stores were for the present to be served out only on Fridays and Saturdays in each week.

An advertisement was to be published that all planters indebted to the Honourable Company above the sum of £20 0s 0d, who would on their paying into the stores £4 0s 0d give credit for £5 0s 0d in proportion or greater or lesser sums, and those who had no cash by them could account to the credit by their own or their servants' labour and work at the fortifications, as if so much cash had been paid in. The council would also accept half the work in goods from time to time as it became due to them.

The Governor and Council were willing to hear any other ways or means that might be proposed to them towards the payment and satisfaction of debts, and the buying of goods out of the stores.

It was further ordered that for the future no soldiers be entrusted in the stores for more than three months' pay or salary at one time.

The Governor and Captain Mashborne reported that the tiling of the Plantation House was so much out of repair as to endanger the roof, and likewise that the foundation of the back wall was likely soon to fall through a continual soak from the hill, for want of a drain or watercourse.

Interpretations

The appointment of Cason, Byfield and Goodwin to deliver goods out of the store under Bazett's direction applied the working principle of dividing the routine operational function from the documentary reconstruction. The three named persons drew on existing institutional knowledge: Cason as longstanding assistant, Byfield as a working clerk, and Goodwin as a writer with experience of the spring 1714 cargo handling. The arrangement freed Bazett to concentrate on the books while preserving working continuity at the counter.

The restriction of store issues to Fridays and Saturdays compressed the working week of the store into two days. The mechanism reduced the working interruption of the back-office task and concentrated the customer-facing activity into a predictable pattern. Inhabitants could plan their working visits accordingly, while the rest of the week was preserved for the documentary catch-up. The arrangement showed the working principle of operational triage applied to a temporary crisis.

The debt-conversion scheme set out in the advertisement applied a working device of fractional credit that incentivised partial cash settlement. A payment of £4 0s 0d into the stores would generate £5 0s 0d of credit on the planter's account, giving an immediate 25 per cent uplift on cash payment. The mechanism made it more attractive for a planter to find cash than to allow the debt to stand, while also accepting working labour at the fortifications as an alternative to coin. Half the labour could be drawn in goods from the store as it became due.

The three-month limit on stores entrusted to soldiers in pay or salary identified the working source of much of the existing arrears. Soldiers had evidently been drawing goods on credit against their unaccrued future pay, with the result that the stores had been carrying large open balances that could be neither settled nor enforced. The new limit fixed the maximum exposure at three months' accumulated entitlement, beyond which no further credit could be extended. The mechanism converted an open-ended drain into a working bounded liability.

Speculations

The decision to publish the debt-conversion advertisement to planters indebted above £20 0s 0d, with a 25 per cent uplift on cash payments, suggested a calculated incentive structure aimed at the working bulk of the colony's outstanding planter debt. Smaller debts were left untouched, on the working assumption that they could be cleared through ordinary settlement. The substantial debts, which carried the working risk of becoming permanent losses, were given an immediate financial incentive to clear, with labour at the fortifications offered as a working alternative for those without cash. The mechanism converted the colony's most valuable working asset, its labour pool, into a debt-clearance currency.

The decision to deploy the Secretary and any other Company servant who could write a good hand or understood accounts to assist with the store books pointed to a calculated mobilisation of all available working clerical capacity. The accounts were a working priority of the highest order, and the council was prepared to draw working time from the colony's normal documentary functions to bring the books up to date. The mechanism revealed how deeply the new administration was committed to restoring the working financial integrity of the establishment.

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191

Say alsoe that the Planks of the flooring are Rotten and must have a good repair to prevent its falling to ruine

Cap[t] Mashborne further adds that he went a fortnight Since to live at Said House but it was So untenantable that they could not be Sheltered from the Raine & weather Insomuch that he was forc'd to goe to a Neighbour House to Lodge where he must Continue while the Tyling is repaird & Some other Necessary work be done to keep out the weather that House being very much Expos'd to the Wind & raine

Ordered.

That Cap[t] Mashborne doe gett the Tyling repaird as well as he can for the present and when the Season for the Planting Yams &c is over that hands Can be Spared We do what more is Necessary

Island St Helena

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c and Councill

The Humble Petition of Samuell Algate Corporall Humbly.

Sheweth

That your Petition[r] haveing married Mary the daughter of Thom[s] Earle dec[d] and the only Survivour of his Children did Sometime Since purpose to goe off Said Island in the first outward bound Ship But that being not granted your Petition[r] made Demand of Charles Steward freehold[r] According to the Tenour of an Agreem[t] made Since Marriage for all and Singular the Estate of your Said Petition[rs] wife. Which if your Said Petition[r] did not goe off the Island as a foresaid was to be Redeliver'd up to your Said Petition[r] againe The which the Said Charles Steward Refuses to do Alledging Some Intrest he has therein or a Pretence for Sattisfaction for Boarding two of the Said Earles Children. Altho he had the Estate and use thereof in his own Possession. Wherefore y[ou]r Petition[r] Humbly prays the Said Charles Steward may be Compeld to Deliver what Lands &c belongs to yo[ur] Petition[r] in right of his wife.

And as in duty bound Shall for ever pray &c

Samuel Algate.

Order'd

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Mashborne forc'd to goe to a Neighb[r] to Lodge

Plant[on] House to be Tyled.

Sam[l] Algates Petition Ag[ainst] Cha[s] Steward

about a bargaine of Lands &c

The reporters added that the planks of the flooring were also rotten and required substantial repair to prevent their falling to ruin.

Captain Mashborne further explained that he had gone a fortnight earlier to live at the Plantation House, but the building was so unsuitable that the occupants could not be sheltered from the rain or weather. He had been forced to go to a neighbour's house to lodge, and would have to remain there while the tiling was repaired and other necessary work was done to keep out the weather, the house being very much exposed to the wind and rain.

The council ordered that Captain Mashborne get the tiling repaired as well as he could for the present, and that when the season for planting yams was over, the available hands be set to do what further work was necessary.

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The humble petition of Samuel Algate, Corporal, humbly showed.

That the petitioner, having married Mary, the daughter of Thomas Earle deceased and the only surviving child of his children, had some time earlier proposed to go off the island in the first outward bound ship. The request had not been granted, and the petitioner had then made demand on Charles Steward, freeholder, in accordance with the terms of an agreement made since the marriage. The agreement covered the whole estate of the petitioner's wife, which, if the petitioner did go off the island as already mentioned, was to be delivered up to him in right of his wife.

Charles Steward had refused, on the basis of some pretended interest he claimed in the estate, alleging that he was entitled to satisfaction for the boarding of two of the Earle children, although he had had the estate and the use of it in his own possession. The petitioner therefore humbly prayed that Charles Steward might be compelled to deliver up such lands as belonged to the petitioner in right of his wife.

And, as in duty bound, the petitioner would ever pray, and so on. Samuel Algate.

Interpretations

The Plantation House report identified the working physical state of the colony's principal country residence in late August 1714. Roof tiles, foundation walls and floorboards were all in serious disrepair, with the building unable to keep out the rain and wind. The cumulative effect of neglect under the previous administration had reduced what had been the official country seat of the Governor to a dwelling unfit even for the working occupation of the council's third officer. Mashborne's resort to a neighbour's house illustrated the working extent of the deterioration.

The decision to carry out only emergency tile repairs for the present, with substantive work deferred until after the yam-planting season, applied the working principle of seasonal priorities. The agricultural calendar set the absolute working constraint on labour deployment, since failure to plant in the proper season would compound the food shortage already documented at the plantation survey of 10 August. The Plantation House could be made weatherproof in part now, with comprehensive restoration to follow once the working hands were released from the fields.

The Algate petition introduced the working device by which a husband, on departing the colony, could claim possession of his wife's inherited estate. The mechanism rested on the doctrine of jure uxoris, by which a husband held the working power to administer property descended to his wife from her family. Algate's marriage to Mary Earle, the only surviving child of Thomas Earle deceased, gave him the working position to demand the estate from any party currently holding it on trust.

The competing claim of Charles Steward, framed as a right to satisfaction for the boarding of two of the Earle children, illustrated the working pattern of orphan administration on the colony. A neighbour or relative who took in surviving children of a deceased planter could charge their maintenance against the estate, creating an equitable interest that had to be settled before the estate could be distributed to the heirs. The mechanism preserved working incentives for the care of orphans by giving the carer a charge on the property.

Speculations

Algate's framing of Steward's claim as a pretended interest pointed to a calculated effort to discredit the working basis on which the estate had been held back from delivery. By using the word pretended, the petitioner cast doubt on the genuineness of Steward's working claim while not formally denying that the children had been boarded. The mechanism placed the burden on Steward to substantiate the actual cost of the boarding charge against the working benefit he had derived from possession and use of the estate.

The timing of Algate's petition, coinciding with the cluster of departure applications around the Rochester's presence in the road, suggested a calculated working strategy to bring the property question to a head before the husband's planned passage to England. A departing husband without resolution of his wife's estate would have to leave the matter to working agents on the island, with little prospect of recovery from a distance. By forcing the council to determine the question while he remained present, Algate preserved the working possibility of either settled delivery before sailing or a continuing claim that he could pursue on the spot.

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Ordered.

That the Said Charles Steward have Notice to Attend next Councill day

Captain Mashborne reports that the Blacks he has already are for the following Plantations [..] Plantation House Continued.

Lufkins for the Plantation 10 Plantation House for Ditto 10 For the New Ground 4 Garden 7 Vineyard 3 To wash 3 Fetch Wood 3 Carpenters 2 42

For Wash Houses 2 For Hogs but old 2 Past Labour 4 Children 7 To fish 2 Perkins for Plantation 8 Nourishing Hogs, Goats &c 3 The Hutts for Plantation Hogs &c 8 34

42 34 76

Wanting more 2 34

Which is the Number for Each Plantation as the Gentlemen Appointed with me to Survey them thought but needfull when the Ground is put in Order and what other Ground may be planted within the Said yet is fewer So that there is 14 blacks for the Plantations [..] 14 Old ones the rest new Comers, that little work at present can be Expected from them and what Yams for Some months to be fetcht a great way from the freemen one day in a week will be allways taken up for their own Provisions one day wood, and the Plantations being very much over run with weeds it will be as much as they'l be able to do to gett them wood before the Season for planting comes in which if not done will be quite Choakt up.

Captain Mashborne & M[r] Bazett reports that Acord ing to the Order of the 19[th] Instant they went to John Trevass and agreed for 21250 Yams and Suckers for forty three Shillings p[r] Thousand. And also that they had bin at Hugh Bodleys Plantation and apprised the Yams in all Seventy Seven Thousand Yams and Suckers Valued at Twenty Shillings a Thous and they being So remote from Plantation house as Likewise Some of them very Small that the Charge of fetching them would be very Considerable wherefore they think twenty Shillings a Thousand for these Yams and Suckers to be Equivelent

Margin Notes:

Steward to attend y[e] Councill.

Blacks appointed in Sever[a]ll Plantations

as thought needfull by y[e] Persons appointed.

Yams b[ought] of Trevass D[i]t[t]o of Hugh Bodleys.

Charles Steward was ordered to attend the next council day.

Captain Mashborne reported on the slaves at his disposal. The current allocation across the plantations stood at 76. The schedule ran as follows.

Lufkins for the plantation 10

Plantation House for the same 10

For the new ground 4

Garden 7

Vineyard 3

To wash 3

Fetch wood 3

Carpenters 2

Sub-total 42

Plantation House continued for the wall makers 2

For hogs but old 2

Past labour 4

Children 7

To fish 2

Perkins for plantation 3

Norden, hogs and goats 3

The Hutts for plantation, hogs and so on 8

Sub-total 34

Grand total 76

Wanting more 34

This was the count of slaves for each plantation that the persons appointed to survey the ground judged needful. They would be of full use only when the ground was put in order and what other ground might be planted within the named intervals was added. Even with the present 76 slaves, of whom 14 were old and the rest newcomers, little work could be expected of them at this time. For some months yams would need to be fetched a great distance from the freemen. One day each week would always be taken up bringing in their own provisions. Another day would be lost in fetching wood. With the plantations heavily overgrown, the most that could be done would be to get them weeded before the planting season came. Any task not completed in that interval would be left undone.

Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett reported that, under the council's order of the 19th of the present month, they had gone to John Tovais and agreed for 212,500 yams and suckers at 43s 0d the thousand. They had also been to Hugh Bodley's plantation and appraised the yams there at 77,000 in total, valued at 20s 0d the thousand. Because Bodley's plantation lay so remote from the Plantation House, and many of the yams were small, the cost of fetching them would be considerable. For that reason they reckoned 20s 0d the thousand a fair price for those yams and suckers, as the equivalent.

Interpretations

The slave roster sets out how a small unfree workforce was distributed across the council's productive and domestic establishments. The allocation reveals the working priorities of the colony: Lufkins and the Plantation House each held ten heads, the largest single concentrations, while smaller parties were attached to specific tasks (washing, wood-fetching, carpentry, fishing) and to outlying holdings such as Perkins and the Hutts. The category past labour, which carried four heads, identified slaves no longer fit for productive work but retained on the establishment. The estimate that 34 more slaves were wanting placed the council's stated workforce requirement at 110 in total, and supplied a documentary basis for any future application to London for further consignments.

The figure of 14 old ones among 76 placed the working core of the labour force at no more than 62, and the qualification that the rest were newcomers reduced the count of experienced field hands further. The weekly loss of one day to slave provisioning and another to wood-fetching represented an inbuilt friction of about a third of the working week before any plantation task began, which framed the council's repeated complaint that the establishment could not maintain itself without further hands.

The yam valuation exercise applied the working benchmark for planting stock recently established on the island. The Tovais agreement at 43s 0d the thousand fixed the upper market rate for sound yams and suckers in bulk near the Plantation House. The Bodley appraisement at 20s 0d the thousand, less than half the Tovais rate, was reduced both on quality (many small yams) and on the carriage cost from a remote site. The mechanism by which surveyors made two parallel visits and brought back a comparative valuation was the practical means by which the council protected itself against overpayment for inferior or inconveniently sited stock.

Hugh Bodley appears here as the holder of a remote plantation whose yam stock the council was prepared to buy in but only at a reduced rate. The reference recalls the long-running Bodley estate matters that earlier carried through the Doveton apprenticeship-money petition and the Smith petition over the Bodley estate appraisement-block, where the council under Pyke had ordered a fresh joint appraisement after Boucher's refusal to accept the earlier valuation.

Speculations

The council's decision to instruct two senior men, Mashborne and Bazett, to undertake the valuations in person, rather than delegate to a single surveyor, suggests a deliberate response to the recent difficulties over Boucher-era appraisements. The pairing of a councillor familiar with plantation management with the storekeeper-surveyor would have made any future challenge to the reported figures considerably harder to mount, and it placed the working benchmark of 43s 0d the thousand for sound yams and 20s 0d the thousand for remote or small stock on a documentary footing that could be cited against later disputes.

The deliberate recording of the gap between the 76 slaves present and the 110 needed reads as a calculated piece of administrative groundwork. By entering the deficit into the consultation book at the moment when the new plantation programme was being launched, the council laid down the evidentiary basis on which any later shortfall in yam production could be attributed to insufficient labour rather than to administrative failure, while at the same time supplying the directors in London with a quantified case for further consignments.

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Equivolent to a greater price where they are nearer to a markett and Easier to be fetcht

Cap[t] Mashborne also reports that the Ground near the high Peak will be Convenient for a Plantation of nigh one Hundred Thousand Yams he proposeing to bring Bodleys Suckers there it being nearest and the Peak a very good place to raise Hogs as having a good Outlett. Therefore.

Ordered.

That the Fence in Such a quantity of ground at the Peak as he Shall think fitt and hire Hands that are Necessary for the work as Cheap as he can.

Cap[t] Mashborne desires to know what Progress M[r] Tovey has made in the bringing up the Books of Consultations haveing had two writers imployed in the Office with him.

He saith he has bin imployed in veiwing the Gunners Stores which has taken up Sometime that the Writers have bin imployed in Copying out Severall Letters, Wills, and Agreements that have bin formerly Neglected and Since happend and that the Office is very incomodious and every thing out of Order that 'tis impossible for him to make So much Progress therein as Else he might but that as soon as he has put all the Papers in as good Order as he can, and apprised himself better of the Business of his Office he will Neglect no Opportunity to be beforehand if Possible & w[i]th all business that relates thereto.

M[r] Alexander Petition'd the Govern[r] and Councill a Coppy as followeth.

To the Worshyp[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c and Councill.

The most Humble Petition of John Alexander (Sen[r] Ensign) Humbly

Sheweth.

That for as much as your Petitioner being at this tyme unsensible on what footing he Stands M[r] Tovey being appointed Secretary or Clerk of Councill by the Hono[ble] United Company. Humbly moves Your Petitioner may be Continued in his place

of

Margin Notes:

Land at high Peak Convenient for a Plantac[i]on.

y[e] Same to be Fenced.

Cap[t] Mashborne Enq[uires] about y[e] Office.

The Sec[ry]s Answer.

Alexanders Petition to Continue Ensign

This continued the price equivalence reasoning of the preceding entry: the Bodley yams were valued at the lower rate as the equivalent of a higher price closer to a market and easier to fetch.

Captain Mashborne further reported that the ground near the High Peak would suit a plantation of around 100,000 yams. He proposed bringing Bodley's suckers there, since the place lay nearest at hand and the Peak was very good ground for raising hogs, having a good outlet.

The council ordered that the fence be drawn in such a quantity of ground at the Peak as Mashborne thought fit, and that he hire such hands as were necessary for the work, as cheaply as he could.

Captain Mashborne next asked what progress Mr Tovey had made in bringing up the books of consultations, having had two writers employed in the office with him.

Tovey answered that he had been taken up with viewing the gunner's stores, which had taken some time, and that the writers had been employed in copying several letters, wills and agreements that had previously been neglected and had since happened. The office was very inconvenient and everything out of order, so that it was impossible for him to make as much progress in the work as he might wish. As soon as he had set all the papers in as good an order as he could, and acquainted himself better with the business of his office, he would neglect no opportunity to be beforehand, if possible, with all business that related to it.

Mr Alexander then presented a petition to the governor and council, a copy of which followed.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and Council.

The most humble petition of John Alexander, junior ensign, humbly showeth:

That, your petitioner being at this time without information as to the footing on which he stood, and Mr Tovey having been appointed secretary or clerk of council by the Honourable United Company, your petitioner humbly moved that he might be continued in his past

Interpretations

The order to fence ground at the Peak granted Captain Mashborne both the spatial discretion (in such a quantity of ground as he thought fit) and the labour-procurement authority (to hire hands as cheaply as he could) for a substantial project. The combined grant of judgement over scope and over wages, made in a single sentence, indicates how the new administration was operating in practice: a senior councillor entrusted with an entire infrastructure project on the strength of his standing, rather than under itemised instruction. The reference to a good outlet for hogs identifies the practical reason for siting them at the Peak, since the elevation allowed the animals to range over uncultivated upland without the cost and labour of further fencing.

The exchange between Mashborne and Tovey exposed the working state of the Secretary's office under Pyke. The order of 24 August 1714 to rebuild the office larger and more convenient had reflected its dilapidated physical condition; Tovey's reply now revealed an equally serious documentary condition. Letters, wills and agreements had not been entered up under Boucher, and the gunner's stores had drawn Tovey's attention away from the consultation books themselves. Two writers had been needed merely to begin the catch-up. The form of the question and answer, both entered into the consultation book, served the documentary case the new administration was building against Boucher.

John Alexander's petition opened a separate matter. Alexander was the long-standing clerk of the council under the Boucher administration whose name had been signing public advertisements throughout 1712 to 1714, including the game preservation advertisement of 25 July 1712, the survey advertisement of 24 November 1712 and the slave insurrection advertisement of 2 June 1714. With Tovey now appointed secretary or clerk of council under the United Company's seal, Alexander's previous office had been superseded. He now styled himself junior ensign, a military rank, and petitioned for his position to be settled. The shift from clerk to junior ensign suggests that Alexander was seeking to be carried over into a military appointment, the only continuing footing on which he could remain in the Honourable Company's service.

Speculations

Tovey's explanation that the writers had been busy with the gunner's stores rather than the consultation books reads as a deliberately framed defence rather than a simple report. By placing the inspection of the gunner's stores first, Tovey aligned his work with one of the new administration's principal anxieties (the documentary case against Boucher's stripping of the Castle) while explaining away the slow progress on the books. The entry of the exchange into the consultation book itself converted what might otherwise have been a private rebuke into a public record of his industry, available for transmission to London with the other evidence of the new administration's reforming activity.

Alexander's choice to petition immediately after the Tovey exchange, rather than waiting for a separate council day, suggests opportunistic timing. With the council's attention already on the question of office-holding and the consequences of the change of administration, Alexander could press his own continued employment without raising a new agenda item. The self-styling as junior ensign at the moment of petition indicates that he had probably already received some informal assurance of military continuation, and was now seeking its formal entry into the consultation book before the ground shifted again.

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of Ensigne and if need be to help and Asist in the Office at Such a Sallary p[er] annum as your Worship and Councill Shall think fitt but to be Confin'd to be allways attending will be a Loss to your Petitioner in his Plantation Business Especially at this Juncture It being the only tyme for Planting and raiseing Provisions after a great Drought which has Reduced most of the Inhabitants very Low. All which your Petitioner Leaves to your Worships prudent Consideration in hopes of a favourable Determination.

And (as in duly bound) Shall ever pray &c

Aug[t] the 24[th] 1714

Jn[o] Alexander.

Que[stion] It being Demanded what need M[r] Tovey has of an Asistant. He Saith.

He is willing and desireous to do the most he can and till Such time as he finds the writing is more than he can Mannage with the Asistant of one is unwilling to desire more. But that with all that now is without M[r] Alexander being a Stranger to the business, he prays the Councell That M[r] Alexander may Continue to Asist him till Such tyme the Books and Papers are regulated as is Necessary.

Referrd the further Consideration hereof till next Councill day.

Martin Norman Complaind that Thomas Burnham who had agreed to bring the Water unto his Plantation &c for which he had paid him, he never did and yet refuseth to repay him. Ordered.

That a Warrant be granted the Said Norman against next quarter Sessions

Ordered.

That the Streets and Publick ways belonging to this Towne of St Helena be regulated by Stakeing out the ground of the two Streets and Passages between them where there is not yet any building to prevent for the future the Erecting any Edifice Mantion House Out house or other Tenement that may be Preju Diciall to the Publick way or Road by Stoping up any Principall Passage and that the Same be referred to the Govern[r] to give

Directions

Margin Notes:

and to Asist in y[e] Office.

Que[stion]

M[r] Alexander Continued.

till further Considerac[i]on.

Normans Complt. Ag[ainst] Burnham.

Warr[an]t granted.

Streets & Publick ways Regulated.

Alexander's petition continued: that he might be continued in his past office of ensign, and if need be to help and assist in the office at such a salary per annum as the council should think fit, until he was confirmed. He would always be very willing to attend, and especially at this present time would assist your petitioner in his plantation business, this being the only time for planting and raising provisions after the great drought which had reduced most of the inhabitants very far. All of which your petitioner left to the council's prudent consideration, in hopes of a favourable determination.

And, as in duty bound, I shall ever pray, and so on.

Dated 24 August 1714.

Signed: John Alexander.

The council demanded what need Mr Tovey had of an assistant. He answered that he was willing and desirous to do the most he could, and until such time as he found the writing more than he could manage with the assistant he had, it was unwelcome to desire any more. But should it ever appear that he was without Mr Alexander, being a stranger to the business, he prayed the council that Mr Alexander might be continued to assist him until such time as the books and papers were regulated as was necessary.

The further consideration of the matter was referred to the next council day.

Martin Norman complained that Thomas Burnham, who had agreed to bring water onto his plantation, and for which he had paid him, had never done it and refused to repay him.

The council ordered that a warrant be granted to Norman, returnable at the next quarter sessions.

The council further ordered that the streets and public ways belonging to the town of St Helena be regulated, by staking out the ground of the two streets and passageways before any further building was raised on them, to prevent the future erection of any dwelling house, outhouse or other tenement that might be prejudicial to the public way or road, or to any principal passage. The matter was referred to the governor to give directions.

Interpretations

Alexander's petition combined a request for retention in office with a tactical offer of immediate practical service. By offering to assist Tovey at any salary the council thought fit, while at the same time pleading the urgency of his own plantation business in the aftermath of the drought, he positioned himself as both a useful clerk and a planter in genuine need of attention to his fields. The reference to the great drought, which had reduced most of the inhabitants very far, supplied the working context. It connected the petition to the wider credit-clearing and store-settlement framework already laid down across the August 1714 consultations, and signalled that Alexander too counted himself among the inhabitants whose plantations now required urgent recovery work.

Tovey's reply revealed how the council deliberately structured the question to test whether Alexander's continued employment was genuinely needed or merely a favour. By demanding what need Tovey had of an assistant, the council put the matter onto an institutional footing rather than a personal one. Tovey's careful answer, that he could manage at present with his current assistant but might need Alexander later, both protected Tovey's own position as the appointed clerk under the United Company's seal and kept open the possibility of drawing on Alexander's knowledge of the existing books and papers. The deferral to the next council day allowed both men to test the working pattern before a final decision was made.

The Norman against Burnham water-supply dispute revealed a settled local mechanism. A planter who had contracted with another to bring water onto his plantation, and paid for the work, could enforce the contract by warrant returnable at the next quarter sessions when the work was not done. The council's response was procedural rather than substantive: a warrant rather than an immediate order to repay or perform. Quarter sessions provided the forum in which the evidence on both sides could be tested before judgement. Norman appeared in the present sequence as one of the planters seeking credit-clearing for his store debts through assignment of debts owed to him by others, and this warrant against Burnham added another item to the working list of his outstanding claims.

The street regulation order recorded the first formal town-planning measure entered for St Helena in the working sequence. Staking out the ground of the two streets and passageways before further building, with the express object of preventing dwelling houses, outhouses or other tenements from encroaching on the public way, established the principle that the public passage took priority over private building. The referral to the governor for directions placed the practical execution in Pyke's hands, consistent with his personal supervision of the sea wall, the new storehouse and other physical improvements being made under the new administration.

Speculations

The timing of the street regulation order, coming immediately after the Norman against Burnham warrant, suggests that the council was working through a deliberate sequence of small administrative orders to set the tone of the new administration. Each order addressed a specific failing of the Boucher period: unenforced contracts, unregulated building, neglected office-keeping. By entering them as separate ordered items in the consultation book on the same day, the council assembled a working evidentiary record of reform that could be cited in transmission to London alongside the wider documentary case against the previous administration.

The two streets reference, named but not specified, hints that the working town plan at James Valley by August 1714 amounted to a principal street running up the valley from the Castle and a cross or parallel passageway. The order to stake out the ground before further building would only have been needed if the existing line was indistinct enough on the ground to permit encroachment by mistake or by design. The mention of dwelling house, outhouse or other tenement as potential obstructions suggests that the council had already seen, or was anticipating, applications by inhabitants to extend into the public way under cover of the recovery building activity following the drought.

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Directions for Stakeing out and appointing Such Publick ways aforesaid.

Whereas 'tis Visible that the blacks Imployed in repairing the fortifications at the Bridge under pretence of fetching wood to burn are Some of them frequently misseing from their work almost every day for Sometime, held a day by the blacks Loytering away their tyme aforesaid to prevent which for the future

Ordered.

That all blacks Shall work from Six to Six Allowing only the usuall Eateing tymes whilst the Beating the publick work Bell and in Case of Such Loytering away their tyme as above mention'd abatement is to be made for Offence in this manner Shall be otherwise & punnished as the Govern[r] Shall think fitt, And 'tis also further.

Ordered that when any Black is lett to hire to work at the Fort, he Shall not be Taken away by his Master or Hired from the Said work or any pretence whatsoever without first asking Leave of the Governour.

Acording to an Order of Councill bearing date the 17[th] Instant Robert Bell and Benjamin Pledger Appeared together and the Said Bell being Acquainted with the Said Pledgers Petitioning for the five Acres Land Says that it dos not appeare but by hear Say that Thomas Pledger is Dead and that there a little and other freehold of Estate got Mentioned in the Said Petition and besides not the M[r] [..] sd Tho[s] Pledger if he be dead might make all the and Desireous to be Safe.

The Governour asked Benjamin Pledger what he would do with the Lands if he had it. He Says he now Serves the Honour[ble] Company as a Sold[r] But if he had the Land he would Live on it, there being Enough to Maintain him. He is of no Trade nor bred up to any Business but to be a Sold[r] So that the Govern[r] thinks of the five Acres of Land be Delivered to him in Case of his brothers Return he would not be able to make good the Rent and Cattle, and Robert Bell his moth[ers] Husband who has this Land in his Possession is able to make it good. Wherefore the Govern[r] told Benj[a] Pledger if he would apply himself to Learn Some trade he would Order him to have Possession of the Land. He promises he would go to work at his fathers Trade which is a Stone Cutter. Robert Bell Promys[s] to Teach him, and when he brings a Hewn Stone to the Governour all of his own work he is to be Employed in Cutting Stone for the Honourable Company.

and

Margin Notes:

Blacks Loitering away their tyme.

To work from 6 to 6 a Clock & if any loss of tyme to be abated.

Non to take away their Blacks w[i]thout leave.

Bell & Pledger about Land.

Gov[r]s Quest[ion] and Pledgers Answer.

Upon Pledgers Learning a trade to have y[e] Land.

The governor was to give directions for staking out and appointing such public ways.

The slaves employed at repairing the fortifications at the Bridge, under pretence of fetching wood, frequently absented themselves from their work almost every day for some time, half a day or more at a time, idling away their time. To prevent this in future, the council made the following orders.

All slaves were to work from six o'clock to six o'clock, allowing only the usual eating times. The ringing of the public work bell was to mark these hours. If any slave absented himself in the manner just described, an abatement was to be made for the time lost. Slaves who offended in this way frequently, or were otherwise found guilty, would be punished as the governor thought fit.

The council further ordered that, where any slave was let to hire to work at the Fort, he was not to be taken away from that work, or hired by his master from it on any pretence whatsoever, without first asking leave of the governor.

In accordance with an earlier council order of 17 of the present month, Robert Bell and Benjamin Pledger appeared together. Bell was made acquainted with Pledger's pretensions to the five acres of land. Bell answered that it did not matter to him, by reason that Thomas Pledger was dead, and there were cattle and other personal estate sufficient (had he been living) in the said Bell's hands and behind, but, the said Thomas Pledger being dead, what might be due to him might make all the said personal estate desirous to be safe.

The governor asked Benjamin Pledger what he would do with the land if he had it. He answered that he now served the Honourable Company as a soldier, and had no need of the land, since there was sufficient on it to maintain him. He was of no trade, nor bred up to any business but to be a sailor. The governor considered that if the five acres were delivered to him in case of his brother's return, Pledger would not be able to make good the rent and cattle; whereas Robert Bell, his mother's husband, who held the land in his possession, was able to make it good. The governor accordingly told Benjamin Pledger that if he would apply himself to learn some trade he would order him to have possession of the land.

Pledger promised he would go to work at his father's trade, which was as a stone cutter. Robert Bell promised to teach him, and that when he brought a stone to the governor all of his own working, all his work was to be employed in cutting stone for the Honourable Company

Interpretations

The fortifications slave order set out the working discipline that the new administration intended to impose at the Bridge. The principle that the public work bell governed the hours from six to six, with abatement (a deduction from wages or charge to the master) for time lost, gave the council a measured response to absenteeism short of corporal punishment, while reserving punishment by the governor for repeat offenders. The accompanying rule, that no master could withdraw a hired slave from Fort work without leave of the governor, closed the obvious workaround by which an absent slave might be retrospectively classed as recalled by his owner. Slaves let to hire at the Fort were thus brought under direct gubernatorial control during the working day, regardless of who owned them.

The Bell against Pledger inheritance dispute, opened on 17 August 1714 on Benjamin Pledger's petition concerning the five acres bequeathed to his presumed-dead elder brother Thomas under Praise Pledger's will of 3 November 1697, was now resolved in a manner that subordinated strict heirship to demonstrated economic capacity. The governor's test was practical: who could maintain the land, pay the rent and replace the cattle if Thomas Pledger returned? Robert Bell, Benjamin's mother's husband, met the test; Benjamin, a soldier with no trade, did not. The governor's offer to deliver possession in exchange for Benjamin's learning a useful trade, in this case his father's stone-cutting, converted an inheritance question into an apprenticeship-and-labour arrangement. The understanding that, once Benjamin had cut a working stone of his own, his labour would be applied to the Honourable Company's stone-cutting needs aligned the inheritance settlement with the council's wider stone-cutting establishment at the Bridge and at Sandy Bay.

Robert Bell here played a double role. As the working planter in possession of the Pledger five acres, he held the position the petition was challenging. As a stone-cutter himself (recalled from the 24 July 1712 sale of the Belvird country plantation, where he was described as a free planter and mason), he was uniquely placed to teach Benjamin the trade the governor required as a condition of granting possession. The mechanism converted a potential property loss for Bell into a working obligation as instructor, while solving the council's need to train up new stone-cutters from the inhabitants.

Speculations

The phrasing of the labour-discipline order, in which the council named the slaves who idled away their time under pretence of fetching wood at the Bridge, suggests that the council had already identified a specific working pattern rather than addressing a general grievance. Fetching wood was a legitimate task on Company work, but it took slaves out of sight of the overseer and made the time lost difficult to recover. The order's care to specify half a day or more at a time, and almost every day for some time, reads as a direct response to specific reports brought to the council, perhaps from the master gunner French or from a Fort overseer.

The governor's resolution of the Pledger inheritance turned what could have been a simple administrative refusal into a working bargain that served the council's wider purposes. By tying delivery of the land to Benjamin's learning a trade, and by directing his future labour to the Company's stone-cutting establishment, Pyke converted a soldier of no trade into a working stone-cutter at no cost to the Company while leaving the rent-paying, cattle-keeping function of the land in the hands of the established planter who could meet it. The arrangement also probably reflected an instinct to avoid creating a new freeholder out of an unsettled young soldier at a point when the council was actively trying to reduce, not enlarge, the number of dependent or marginal holdings on the island.

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and alsoe to have Possession of these five acres of Land.

Is[aa]c Pyke Esq[r]

Geo[rge] Haswell

Edw[d] Mashborne

Matthew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 31[st] day of August 1714. At the United Castle in James Vally.

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[rge] Haswell Dep[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] &c Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council[l]

The Petition of Giles Smith freeplanter being read Copy as followeth, praying he may have what is due to him of the Estate of Hugh Bodley deceased his Father in Law.

Order'd. That Edmond Bodley to whom the right of Administration belongs do Administer & first to pay the Hon[ble] Comp[s] & then divide the rest of the Estate.

The Petition of John Aldrick Soldier being read desireing Liberty to hier his Duty and to work at the Hon[ble] Comp[s] work when on duty.

Margin Notes:

Giles Smith request for w[ha]t due out of Bodleys Estate.

Adm[r] Administra[tor] to be divided.

Aldrick desires to hier his duty &c

Bell was also to have possession of the five acres of land.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 31 August 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The petition of Giles Smith, free planter, was read. A copy followed, praying that he might have what was due to him from the estate of Hugh Bodley deceased, his father-in-law.

The council ordered that Edmund Bodley, to whom the right of administration belonged, was to administer first to pay the Honourable Company and then divide the rest of the estate.

The petition of John Aldrick, soldier, was read, desiring liberty to hire his duty and to work at the Honourable Company's work when on duty

Interpretations

The resolution of the Bell against Pledger inheritance question was confirmed by the entry granting Bell possession of the five acres, with the signatures of the full council appended. The settlement combined three working outcomes in a single order. Bell retained possession of the land he had previously held. Benjamin Pledger received the practical benefit of being taught a trade under Bell's instruction. The Company secured an additional stone-cutter for its working programme at the Bridge and Sandy Bay. The mechanism by which possession of land was conditioned on the apprenticeship and labour arrangements of a related party went beyond ordinary inheritance procedure and represents a working extension of the council's reach over private estate matters where Company labour interests could be served.

The Giles Smith petition of 31 August 1714 returned to the long-running Bodley estate matter. Smith, as son-in-law of the late Hugh Bodley, had earlier petitioned on 17 August 1714 for a fresh joint appraisement of his father-in-law's estate, which Boucher had refused to accept the earlier appraisement of and which had remained unsettled. The present order placed the administration in the hands of Edmund Bodley, who held the legal right of administration, and prescribed the working sequence: the Honourable Company's debt was to be paid first, then the residue divided. This rule of debt priority over distribution had been the consistent council position since the 11 December 1710 invocation of nullum tempus occurrit regi aut ecclesiae in the Coales probate, and was now applied to a major estate where multiple family claimants stood behind the Company.

Edmund Bodley, named here as the rightful administrator, appears to be a member of the Bodley family with a closer legal claim than Giles Smith the son-in-law. The council's careful direction of administration to the legally entitled person, rather than to the working petitioner Smith, preserved orderly succession while still ensuring that Smith's claim would be reached once the Company debt had been cleared.

John Aldrick's petition for liberty to hire his duty introduced a separate matter. A soldier hiring his duty meant paying another soldier or person to stand his post for him, freeing him to undertake paid work elsewhere. The petition combined this with a request to work at the Honourable Company's work when on duty, an arrangement that probably allowed Aldrick to count his Company labour as fulfilling his garrison duty.

Speculations

The order placing administration of the Bodley estate with Edmund Bodley rather than with Giles Smith may reflect the council's awareness that the working dispute between family claimants would be substantial. By placing administration in the hands of the closest legal kinsman, the council positioned itself outside the family dispute while protecting the Company's prior debt claim. Smith's earlier petition for fresh appraisal had identified the working problem (the Boucher block on settlement); the present order solved it by activating the proper administrator, who would then have to satisfy the Company before any family claimant could press a further share.

Aldrick's combined request, both to hire his duty and to work at the Honourable Company's work when on duty, suggests a soldier looking to clear his store debts under the working framework of 24 August 1714, which had set the cash-or-labour conversion rate for substantial balances. By hiring a substitute for his guard duty out of pocket while drawing a Company day-wage at the fortifications or elsewhere, Aldrick could potentially earn his way out of debt faster than by following the standard ration cycle. The next council day's response will probably reveal whether the council was prepared to formalise such an arrangement or treat it as a one-off.

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as well as when off duty as he hath lately done Ordered That the said Addrick work three Days in [...] instead of his duty being on the [...], his working at his T[ra]de to be lookt upon as his duty Which he refuses alledging that as he is a Soldier he ought only to do his duty as a Soldier & to be [upon] the Guard upon Guard days, but is willing to heer One to doe his duty & will then work for the Company at 4[...] day but he will not work at his Trade of a Carpenter otherwise. The Petition of Thomas Fairfax Serj[t] being read Desireing some Additional Salary may be allowed him for doing Constant Duty at Munden's Point Castle the Store Acco[t] being now amounting up. Ordered. That he perform his duty in Person as a Serj[t] that if he thinks being Constantly at that Castle a hardship, That then he take his Turn with the other Serjants at the [foot/post]. According to an order of the 14[th] Instant the Marshall summond Charles Steward to appear this day & he Accordingly Did Attend and Shewd a bill of Sale which was Witnessed by John Long Tho[s] [Ginger] and Robert Addis the two former Appeared the latter being dead, and Justified the bargaine as a faire Contract and that they [...] the Instrument twice over to him before he sign'd it and that he made no objection then to it and that Charles Steward Also made a fair agreement and gave a valluable Considera[tion] for it for [as] much as the Land was with the Stock thereon as appears by the Inventory Vallu[e]d at One Hundred thirty nine pounds two shillings and five pence and Charles Steward proves he gave him One hundred and seventy pounds [...] nothing Appearing to us but a fair Bargaine the [Writing] Sealed and Signed before Sufficient Witnesses we dispatcht the Cause and Dismist Charles Steward from any further Attendance on this Matter. [...]

Margin Notes: to work 3 days in [...] instead of doing duty. w[ch] he refuses his proposals. Serj[t] Fairfax Petition for de= =g Constant duty. to do his duty as a Serj[t] Cha[s] Steward Appeared upon Algates Compl[t] produced his Bill of Sale the bargain is Approvd of

Aldrick's petition continued: that he might do so as well when off duty as when on duty, as he had lately done.

The council ordered that Aldrick work three days in nine instead of doing his duty being on the guard, his working at his trade to be looked upon as his duty.

Aldrick refused, alleging that as he was a soldier he ought only to do his duty as a soldier, and to be upon the guard upon guard days. He was willing to hire one to do his duty and would then work for the Company at 4s 0d a day, but he would not work at his trade of a carpenter otherwise.

The petition of Thomas Fairfax, sergeant, was read, desiring that some additional salary might be allowed him for doing constant duty at Munden's Point Castle, the store account being now amounting up.

The council ordered that he perform his duty in person as a sergeant. If he thought himself constantly at that castle a hardship, he was to take his turn with the other sergeants at the Fort.

In accordance with an order of the 24th of the present month, the Marshal summoned Charles Steward to appear on the present day. Steward accordingly attended and produced a bill of sale which was witnessed by John Long, Thomas Gurgen and Robert Addis, the two former appearing in person. The latter, being dead, justified the bargain as a fair contract, and that the instrument had been read twice over to him before he signed it, and that he made no objection then to it; and that Charles Steward also made a fair agreement and gave a valuable consideration for it. Inasmuch as the land was with the stock thereon, as appeared by the inventory, valued at £139 2s 5d, Charles Steward proved he gave for them £170 0s 0d.

Nothing appearing but a fair bargain, the writing sealed and signed before sufficient witnesses, the council dispatched the cause and dismissed Charles Steward from any further attendance on the matter.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The Aldrick exchange exposed the working tension between two different framings of a soldier's service. The council proposed a substitution rule: three days' work at his trade in every nine would count in place of his guard duty, with the carpentry treated as Company service. Aldrick refused on principle, insisting that a soldier's duty was guard duty and could not be discharged by trade work, but offering instead to hire a substitute himself and then draw the standard 4s 0d day rate as a Company carpenter. The standoff revealed how the cash-or-labour conversion structure of 24 August 1714 was being negotiated in practice. The council preferred a direct substitution that converted skilled trade work into Company duty without paying day wages; the soldier preferred a clean separation, in which he met his garrison obligation by hire and earned the day rate for distinct trade work. The unresolved dispute will probably return.

The Fairfax petition produced a flat refusal of the additional salary requested. The council's response, that Fairfax perform his duty in person as a sergeant and take his turn at the Fort if his outpost was a hardship, reflected the working principle that an officer's posting did not in itself attract extra pay. The reference to the store account being now amounting up suggested that Fairfax had run up a store debt under his current arrangement and was seeking the additional salary as a means of paying it down. The council's redirection to the rotation system used the same logic as the Aldrick exchange: a soldier in difficulty was to be reabsorbed into the standard establishment, not given a special allowance.

Charles Steward's Pompey-style challenge case was dispatched in the petitioner's favour after a careful evidentiary review. Three witnesses had been named on the bill of sale: John Long and Thomas Gurgen attended in person; Robert Addis (now dead) had earlier confirmed under oath that the instrument was read to him twice before signing, that he had made no objection, and that the consideration was fair. The land with its stock had been independently valued at £139 2s 5d on the inventory, and Steward had paid £170 0s 0d, well above the valuation. The bargain being shown to be fair, witnessed, sealed and properly paid for, the cause was dismissed.

The decision applied the Pompey doctrine of 17 August 1714 (that a properly witnessed bill of sale outweighs a recollection of verbal direction by the late Governor) in a context where the underlying transaction itself was challenged. Where the bill could be shown to be sound on all three tests (witnesses, fair consideration, due execution), the council would not disturb it.

Speculations

Aldrick's refusal of the three-in-nine substitution suggests that he had calculated that the standard 4s 0d day rate for carpentry would more than cover the cost of hiring a substitute soldier (probably at the working day rate of around 1s 6d or 2s 0d) while leaving a clear margin. The council's offer, by contrast, would have given the Company three days of skilled carpentry without the wage cost at all. By converting the question into a matter of soldierly principle, Aldrick framed his commercial position in language the council was less able to refuse: a soldier's duty was guard duty, not carpentry. The next council day will probably show whether the council accepted the framing or pressed the substitution as an order.

The Steward bill of sale case probably came before the council as one of a wider set of challenges to Boucher-era transactions, prompted by the new administration's working pattern of revisiting questionable acquisitions. Where the Pompey case had turned on a serving councillor's claim of verbal authority, the Steward case turned on whether the underlying instrument itself was sound. By placing both kinds of challenge before the council in successive weeks, the petitioners and the new administration together appear to have been establishing the working boundary line between transactions that would be disturbed and transactions that would stand.

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Island St[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 7[th] day of Septemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[y] [...] Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne [...] Matth[w] Bazett 4[...] Antipas Tovey 5[...] in Coun[l]

The Petition of Dorothy Hayse Widdow as follow= =eth viz[t]

Island St[t] Helena.

To the Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c[a] the Councill. The most Humble Petition of Dorothy Hayse widdow Humbly

Sheweth

That sometime since y[e] Petitioners [...] Cattle happening to gett into the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Hutts plantation thro' the Badness of the fences the blacks then there did sett on, Hunt & worry & Kill one of your Petitioners best Cows which was a very great Loss and Detriment to your Petition[r] Upon which Apply'd to Gov[r] Boucher for satisfaction who Offered another Cow of the Hono[ble] Companys in lieu thereof, or payment, But having never receiv'd Either, and your Petitioner being a poor Woman and Children to Maintain. Humbly prays she may hewe another [...] in lieu of that Killd or paym[ent] as your Worship &c[a] Councill shall think fitts. And

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Sheweth

Dorothy Hayse[s] Petition for a Cow in lieu of another Killd by Dogs

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 7 September 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The petition of Dorothy Hayes, widow, was read. A copy followed.

Island of St Helena.

To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and the Council.

The most humble petition of Dorothy Hayes, widow, humbly showeth:

That, some time since, your petitioner's neat cattle happening to get into the Honourable Company's Hutts plantation through the badness of the fences, the slaves then there did set on Hunt's mongrel to kill one of your petitioner's best cows, which was a very great loss and detriment to your petitioner. Upon which she applied to Governor Boucher for satisfaction, who offered another cow of the Honourable Company's in lieu thereof or payment, but, your petitioner having never received either, and being a poor woman and children to maintain, she humbly prays she may have another cow in lieu of that killed, or payment, as the council shall think fit.

And

Interpretations

The Hayes petition opened a further Boucher-era unsettled claim, building on the working pattern already established in the Smith petition over the Bodley estate, the Algate petition over the Earle lands, and the Pompey case. The mechanism by which a planter's livestock had been killed by Company slaves, an alternative cow or payment had been offered by Boucher in compensation, and the alternative had then never been delivered, exemplified the broader complaint against the previous administration: promises made, settlements offered, but nothing actually performed. The placing of the petition before the new council formed part of the working sequence by which inhabitants brought their unsatisfied claims to Pyke's administration for resolution.

The detail that the slaves did set on Hunt's mongrel to kill the cow identified Hunt's mongrel as a working dog kept at the Company's Hutts plantation, used by the slaves to deal with stray livestock breaking through the fences. Setting a dog on a trespassing animal was a standard practice in early modern English husbandry where pounds and fences had failed, but here the dog had killed rather than driven the cow. The reference to the badness of the fences as the immediate cause of the trespass put part of the responsibility for the loss on the Company's own neglect of its enclosures, which strengthened Hayes's claim to compensation rather than penalty.

Dorothy Hayes appears here as a continuing landholder on the island, recalled from earlier proceedings: her late husband William Hayes's nuncupative will was proved on 3 November 1713 on the oaths of Thomas Hayes and Sutton Isaack junior, and on 28 February 1712 she was established in her own fenced property after measurement. The present petition, framed as that of a poor woman with children to maintain, drew on the same family circumstances that had governed the 1713 settlement of her husband's will, by which the house and ten acres had been reserved for her sole good and benefit and that of her children. The continuing reference to her dependent state suggests that the working household economy remained fragile.

Speculations

The pattern by which Boucher had offered settlement (another cow or payment) but delivered neither suggests that the offers themselves may have been made as an immediate way of closing the petitioner's complaint at the council day, without any working intention or perhaps any working capacity of fulfilment. Hayes's present petition reads as though the unfulfilled offer was a settled fact rather than a passing oversight; the implication is that other inhabitants probably held similar unsatisfied offers from the previous administration, and that the new council would be working through them as they were brought forward.

The framing of the petition in the language of poverty and dependent children suggests a calculated approach by Hayes to the new administration. Where the 24 August 1714 advertisement and the wider store-settlement regime placed the burden on debtors to clear their accounts, Hayes here turned the framework round, presenting herself as a creditor of the Honourable Company by reason of the killed cow, and pressing the dependent state of her household as the ground for prompt settlement. The likelihood is that she anticipated the council would be more sympathetic to a creditor-claim from a widow with children than to a general complaint about Boucher-era arrangements, and pitched her petition accordingly.

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And your Petitioner as in duty bound shall for ever pray &c[a]

Referrd it to a farther Consideration

The Govern[r] Reports that John Aldrick has been with him and Accepts of the Offer made to him viz[t] To have four shillings p[r] [Diem] when off of Guard and to work at his trade when it comes to his Turn to be upon Guard instead of his duty

The Govern[r] also reports that John Sinnick having desired to be dismissd the Hono[ble] Companys service hav- ing served his time, he had granted it.

Capt[n] Haswell reports that he had sent for M[r] Cleve- land severall times to Examine the Carpenters Stores &c[a] and he has bin Busie at work and now is sick therefore desires some other may be Appointed to take that Account.

Cap[tn] Mashborne deliverd the two following Accou[ts]

An Acco[t] of the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Stock of Neat Cattle Hoggs, Goats, Sheep &c[a] Taken Aug[t] the 1[st] 1714.

7 Bulls 5 Boars 17 Cows 5 Sows 9 Heifers 16 Shoats 5 Bullocks 8 Piggs 12 Steers 8 Yearlings 34 [...] 3 Sheep 21 Calves [...]

60 [...]

September the 1[st] 1714 [...] [...] 8 Bulls Bought since [...] the 1[st] 9[...] [...] [...] 18 Cows 1 Bull 6[d] last month Killd Sicke 12 Heifers 1 Cow 1 boar 8 sows 1 boar 1 [...] 5 Bullocks 3 Steers 10 shoats & 2 piggs Pigd 9 15 Steers 1 yearlings 50 9 yearlings 3 Heifers 137 Goats & kidds b[t] last m[o] 118 [...] Calves 2 [...] 11 Killd 2

79 [...] 3 Sheep 4 Turkeys

Margin Notes:

Referrd

Aldrich accepts to Work as offered form[er]ly

Jn[o] Sinnick dismiss'd free

[A]b[t] Carpen[t] Stores &c[a]

As Comp[a] Stock Aug[t] 1714

1715

Geo[rge] Haswell [Edw]d Mashborne [Matth]w Bazett Antipas Tovey

And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall for ever pray, and so on.

The matter was referred to further consideration.

The governor reported that John Aldrick had been with him and accepted the offer made to him, namely to have 4s 0d per day when off guard and to work at his trade, and when it came to his turn to be upon guard, to be upon guard instead of his trade.

The governor also reported that John Sinsnick, having desired to be dismissed the Honourable Company's service, having served his time, had been granted dismissal.

Captain Haswell reported that he had sent for Mr Cleve several times to examine the carpenter's stores and that Cleve had been busy at work and was now sick. The council ordered some other person to be appointed to take that account.

Captain Mashborne delivered two accounts following.

The first was an account of the Honourable Company's stock of neat cattle, hogs, goats, sheep and so on taken on 1 August 1714.

Bulls 7

Cows 17

Heifers 9

Bullocks 5

Steers 12

Yearlings 8

Calves 2

Cattle total 60

Boars 5

Sows 5

Shoats 16

Pigs 8

Hogs total 34

Sheep 3

The second was an account of the same stock taken on 1 September 1714, with a note of what had been bought since 1 August and of what had been killed or lost in the last month.

Bulls 8

Cows 18

Heifers 12

Bullocks 5

Steers 15

Yearlings 9

Calves 2

Cattle total 69

Bought since 1 August: 1 bull, 1 cow, 3 steers, 1 yearling, 3 heifers, 2 calves

Killed last month: 2

Boar 1

Sows 8

Shoats 10

Pigs 2

Hogs total 21

Bought last month: 1 boar, 8 sows, 10 shoats, 2 pigs

Killed last month: 9

Goats 137 (bought since 1 August 118; killed last month 21)

Sheep 3

Turkeys 4

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The settlement of the Aldrick question reversed the apparent breakdown of the previous council day. The 4s 0d day rate was retained and the working pattern accepted on terms that gave Aldrick what he had previously refused, in substance, but framed differently. The clarifying point was that when his turn for guard came round he would stand guard rather than work his trade. The change in formulation, dropping the three-days-in-nine substitution and putting the matter on a guard-day-by-guard-day basis, removed the perception that carpentry was being substituted for soldierly duty. The principle Aldrick had insisted on (that a soldier's duty was guard duty) was preserved, while the practical effect (Company carpentry at 4s 0d a day when off guard) was the same as the council had originally proposed.

John Sinsnick's dismissal recorded the close of a working soldier's contracted time. Sinsnick had earlier been allowed 4s 0d per day for stone-laying at the Prosperous Bay house and 5s 0d per alarm for nineteen alarms given at the Bay, on 3 November 1713. The granting of dismissal on application, having served his time, formed part of the working pattern under Pyke by which soldiers who had completed their contracted service were discharged on their own request. Cleve's continuing absence from the audit of the carpenter's stores, first through being busy at work and now through sickness, prompted the council to appoint someone else, removing the bottleneck that had probably been holding up the wider inventory programme begun on 9 July 1714.

The two stock accounts laid down a working benchmark for the new administration's livestock recovery programme. On 1 August 1714 the Company's stock stood at 60 head of cattle, 34 hogs and 3 sheep. By 1 September the cattle had risen to 69, the hogs had fallen to 21 (after 9 killed), and 137 goats and 4 turkeys had been added to the establishment through the procurement programme set in motion by the advertisement of 20 July 1714. The recorded purchases (1 bull, 1 cow, 3 steers, 1 yearling, 3 heifers and 2 calves on the cattle side; 1 boar, 8 sows, 10 shoats and 2 pigs on the hog side; 118 goats on the goat side) accounted for the working acquisitions from planters under the procurement framework. The largest single component, the 118 goats bought in a single month, recalled the Perkins live-stock agreement of 27 July 1714, which had supplied 110 goats among other items, and probably accounted for the bulk of the increase.

Speculations

The discrepancy between the 1 August total of 60 cattle and the figure of 60 head of black cattle reported by Bazett, Cason and French at the consultation of 8 July 1714 (when they declared Boucher had destroyed nearly all the Company's live stock except about 60 head of black cattle) suggests that the new administration's working baseline at handover was kept deliberately steady at 60 head for documentary purposes. The figure formed the working evidentiary base against which all subsequent additions and losses were measured. By placing the two parallel monthly accounts on the same page of the consultation book, with explicit notes of purchases and kills, Mashborne provided the directors in London with a working comparison that would frame the recovery of the Company's stock under Pyke against the destruction under Boucher.

The pattern of monthly returns under Mashborne, with explicit notes of purchases, kills and standing stock, marked a sharp departure from the audit problems that had marked the late Boucher period and that had led to Bazett's interrogation on 1 April 1714 over the unsubmitted ships' accounts. By placing the first such return into the consultation book within two months of Pyke's arrival, Mashborne demonstrated the working discipline of the new administration in a format that could be carried home as evidence both of the destruction left by Boucher and of the recovery being achieved.

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200

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 14 day of Sept[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gover[r] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[...] Antipas Tovey 5[...] in Coun[l]

This being the season of the year for the Birds to lay at the Egg Islands. Ordered.

That an Advertisement be published That the Govern[r] will Cleer the Islands next Satturday & that Mondays Wedensdays and Fridays shall be the Companys days and that Tuesdays Thursdays and Satturdays be the days the Inhabitants may fetch Eggs from the said Egg Islands.

Finding that notwithstanding an Advertisem[t] was published the 2[d] August to Encourage those Persons who were indebted to the Hono[ble] Companys Stores to make their severall proposalls to the Gov[r] and Councell for the Discharging and payment of their Respective Debts very few Persons have made any proposalls to Discharge their Debts Wherefore It is now Ordered that all Persons whatever that owe above Twenty pounds Sterling to the said Hono[ble] Company And have not already made their proposalls for Clearing & Discharg- ing their said debts Doe upon this Second Adver- tizement or within fourteen days at furthest after the date here of repair to the Gover[r] and make

Margin Notes:

Egg time

Advertizem[t] to app[t] what days to Gather [...]

Notice not taken of [...] Advertizem[t] ab[t] paym[t] of debts.

All p[er]sons y[t] owe above 20[l] to make y[e] proposalls by 2[d] Advertisem[t]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 14 September 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

This being the season of the year for the birds to lay at the Egg Islands, the council ordered the following.

An advertisement was to be published that the governor would clear the islands next Saturday. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were to be the Company's days, and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were to be the days when the inhabitants might fetch eggs from the Egg Islands.

Notwithstanding an advertisement published on 21 August 1714, which had encouraged those persons indebted to the Honourable Company's stores to make their several proposals to the governor and council for the discharging and payment of their respective debts, very few persons had come forward with any such proposals.

The council therefore ordered that all persons who owed above £20 0s 0d sterling to the Honourable Company, and who had not already made their proposals for clearing and discharging their said debts, were on the present second advertisement, or within fourteen days at furthest after the date thereof, to repair to the governor and

Interpretations

The Egg Islands order resolved a practical question of seasonal harvest rights. The protection regime established by the advertisement of 17 August 1714 had forbidden access altogether outside the proper season; the present order, made on the working judgement that the laying season had arrived, opened the islands on a divided weekly rota. Three days in the week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) were reserved for the Company; three days (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) were given to the inhabitants. The governor's personal clearance of the islands on the intervening Saturday opened the cycle. The Sunday omission reflected the working sabbath observance that the council had recently insisted on through the order of 10 August 1714 requiring all Company servants in the valley to attend church on the Lord's day. The structure converted what had been a contested seasonal resource into a regulated shared one, with the Company's harvest days outnumbered only by the combined inhabitant days, and with the prohibition on out-of-season access still standing as the framing rule.

The store-settlement notice marked a sharpening of the working framework first issued on 17 August 1714 and reinforced by the debt-conversion advertisement of 24 August 1714. The 21 August reference now identified an intermediate advertisement which had invited debtors to come forward with their own proposals for clearing their accounts; the present order recorded that this voluntary mechanism had drawn very few takers. The response was to apply pressure to the principal debtors, those owing above £20 0s 0d, with a fourteen-day deadline from the date of the second advertisement. The £20 0s 0d threshold matched the working benchmark already established for the debt-conversion incentive of 24 August 1714, by which £4 0s 0d cash yielded £5 0s 0d store credit on debts above that figure, or alternatively labour at the fortifications at the same effective rate.

The progression across the three advertisements (17 August general call, 21 August voluntary proposals, 14 September named deadline for principal debtors) revealed how the new administration was working through the colony's outstanding store debt in calibrated stages. Each step narrowed the working population subject to the next, escalated the institutional pressure, and reserved the more coercive measures for those who had refused the earlier opportunities. The fourteen-day deadline placed the next stage at the end of September.

Speculations

The decision to admit inhabitants to the Egg Islands on alternate days, rather than to exclude them entirely or to set quantitative limits per household, suggests that the council recognised the working role of egg-gathering in the inhabitant economy following the drought. The pattern of supply visible in the storekeeper's accounts had recorded eggs as a substantial source of nutrition for poor households; cutting off inhabitant access during a recovery year would have driven further debt into the store accounts and undermined the wider settlement programme. By dividing the week, the council preserved the Company's claim to the major share while leaving the inhabitants enough access to keep their household economy intact.

The wording recording that very few persons had made any proposals to discharge their debts indicates a working pattern of inhabitant resistance to the store-settlement programme. Where the council expected that the voluntary call would draw out the substantial debtors, in practice the planters and soldiers had stayed silent. The shift to a named-threshold deadline of fourteen days, with the implicit further sanction reserved for non-compliance, reads as the council's working response to a recognised problem of inertia, and probably reflects calculated foot-dragging by debtors who hoped that the new administration's working appetite for recovery would weaken over time.

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201

make their severall proposalls how they will sattisfie and pay their debts.

By the Govern[r] & Councill An Advertisement.

These are to give Notice to all Persons that owe above Tweenty pounds to the Hono[ble] Comp[a] and have not already made their proposalls for Clearing and Discharging the same According to a former Advertizem[t] of the 2[d] of Aug[t] past Do upon this 2[d] Notice or within fourteen days at fartherst after the date hereof repair to the Govern[r] and make their severall Proposalls how they will sattisfie and pay their Debts.

Dated at the United Castle in James valley this 14[th] day of Sept[r] 1714

Signed p[er] Ord[r] of Gov[r] & Council[l] p[er] Antipas Tovey sub[r]

M[r] Tovey prays the Gov[r] and the Gentlm[n] of the Councill that they will please to Appoint a day when to Determine who has a right to the Plantation he Claims as his predicess[r] Thomas Bagley whose Wid[o] he married and has a Lease for it for Tweenty one years it being in the hands of M[r] Thomas Goodwin and that they may have timely Notice to shew if they have any Claim to the said Plantation, and how that your Wors[p] and Councill may Determine the Case According to the Hono[ble] Companys Instructions.

Ordered.

That the present possessor be summon'd to attend next Councill day, and shew by what Tenor he holds the same and that M[r] Tovey do draw up in writing the whole

Margin Notes:

Advertisem[t] to that Purpose

The Land in Tho[s] [Goodwins] Possession [...] to be whose right to[o] have it

The pres[t] Possession to attend and M[r] Tovey to

Debtors were to make their several proposals as to how they would settle their accounts.

By the governor and council, an advertisement.

Notice was given to all persons owing the Honourable Company above £20 0s 0d in store debt, who had not yet come forward under the earlier advertisement of 21 August, that they must now attend the governor within fourteen days at the latest. Each was to set out how he intended to pay what he owed.

Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 14 September 1714.

Signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

Tovey then asked the council to fix a day for hearing his own claim to a plantation. The claim ran through his late predecessor, Thomas Bagley. Tovey had married Bagley's widow, and the property carried a twenty-one-year lease. Thomas Gurgen was the present occupier. Tovey asked that Gurgen be given proper notice to appear and produce any title of his own, so that the council might settle the matter under the Honourable Company's instructions.

The council ordered Gurgen to attend the next council day and explain on what footing he held the plantation. Tovey was directed to set out the whole

Interpretations

The signed and dated advertisement converted the verbal order earlier in the consultation into a formal public notice. Entry into the consultation book under the secretary's signature placed the second advertisement of 14 September 1714 on the same documentary footing as the earlier notices of 17, 21 and 24 August 1714. The fourteen-day deadline ran from the date of issue, fixing the next stage of the store-settlement programme at the end of September. The decision to copy the advertisement in full into the book, rather than refer to it by citation alone, reflected the working pattern by which the new administration laid down documentary markers at each stage of the recovery programme.

The Tovey petition introduced a personal claim by the secretary to a Company-leased holding. The Bagley plantation lease had originated in the consultation of 26 December 1709, when Bagley received a twenty-one-year grant of Richard Alexander's former house and land. The lease was later identified as covering twenty-one acres in Sandy Bay at £5 5s 0d per annum, sealed on 25 March 1711 under Roberts's administration. Bagley's will was proved on 8 April 1712. Tovey, having married the widow, now claimed the unexpired residue of the term, but the working occupant was Thomas Gurgen.

The council's response placed the burden of proof on Gurgen rather than on Tovey. Before any question could be raised about Tovey's reversionary interest, the present occupier had to justify his own position. The order that Tovey draw up the whole matter in writing carried the same logic as in earlier contested holdings: the documentary trail had to be assembled and entered before judgement could be given.

The structural position is sensitive. Tovey was at once the petitioner, the secretary to the council, the draftsman of the writing the council had ordered, and a serving councillor. The Pompey case had established that the new administration would not allow a serving councillor's private claim to defeat a properly witnessed instrument. Here the question runs the other way: whether a serving councillor can press a documentary claim against a present possessor whose title is undocumented. The next council day will probably show how the council intends to handle the tension.

Speculations

Requiring Tovey himself to draft the documentary record reads as a deliberate use of his own office against him. The petitioner had to assemble the evidence on which his claim rested. A weak trail would expose itself; a strong one would give the council the materials it needed to decide. The mechanism preserved the council's impartiality and avoided any appearance of partial favour to a serving councillor.

The phrasing of Gurgen as the present possessor, rather than as tenant or lessee, suggests that his occupation probably rested on some Boucher-era arrangement of the kind the new administration had already been scrutinising. The matter falls into the same working pattern as the Pompey case, the Smith petition over Bodley, and the Algate petition over Earle: a holding claimed by present occupation traceable to the previous administration, challenged by a party with a properly documented instrument from an earlier period. Tovey's careful framing of his petition placed his own claim squarely within that pattern.

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202

whole State of this Case as represented to the Hon[ble] Comp[a]

Island S[t] Helena. To the Worsh[p] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c[a] & Councell -

The Humble Petition of Gabriell Powel Freeholder hum[bly] Sheweth

That some time since y[o]r petition[r] hired a small parcell of y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[as] Waste Land lying under the High peak, but no Term of years being mention'd or Lease given, for that y[e] [Hon] Comp[a] might have ocacon for it to plant or otherwise Use & when the same to be redeliverd, y[e] charges of fencing being allow'd yo[r] P[r] petition[r] as in & by an Order of Council to which he humbly refers doth more fully appeare

Wherefore yo[r] Petition[r] humbly prays that the Charge he was at in fencing said may be viewed & Valued & that satisfaction be made him accordingly

After the arrival of the late Gov[r] Boucher yo[r] petition[r] Wife at his request furnished him with Nine Cain Chairs, One quilt, One pair of Canass Sheets & Two pillows, the Hon[r] Comp[a] having few or none left for his Use, all which being worne out & yo[r] Petition[r] Wife never having rec[d] any manner of Sa- tisfacc[on] humbly prays y[t] y[e] premises may be considered & such payment made for the aforesaid par- ticulars as yo[r] Worsh[p] & Councell shall think them Worth And as in Duty bound shall for ever pray &c[a]

The former part of this Petition granted and accordingly Ordered That Cap[t] Mashborne & M[r] Cha[s] Steward survey the fences made by said Powel[s] Wife, Wid[o] of Capt[n] Geo[ge] Hoskison & value the same & also to Examine whether there is more then four acres of Land taken in.

M[r] Bazett promises he to give in the Acc[t] of Goods disposed of out of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Stores y[e] Two last months the first Tuesday in the next.

Geo[rge] Haswell [Edw]d Mashb[orne] Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

draw up his Case

Island S[t] Helena.

Gab[ll] Powills Petition ab[t] y[e] [break] land.

Desires y[e] fences may be Considered.

Also for things bo[r] rowd formerly.

Allowance for fences

promise of Stoer Goods to be brought in

Tovey was to set out the whole state of the case as represented to the Honourable Company.

Island of St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The humble petition of Gabriel Powell, freeholder, humbly showeth:

That some time earlier, your petitioner hired a small parcel of the Honourable Company's waste land lying under the High Peak. No term of years was mentioned, and no lease was given, so that the Honourable Company might have it again when wanted, to plant or otherwise use, on the condition that on redelivery the cost of fencing would be allowed to your petitioner. This appeared more fully in an order of council, to which he humbly referred.

Your petitioner therefore humbly prayed that the charge he had been put to in fencing the land might be viewed and valued, and that satisfaction be made to him accordingly.

After the arrival of the late Governor Boucher, your petitioner's wife had at his request furnished him with nine cane chairs, one quilt, one pair of canvas sheets and two pillows, the Honourable Company having few or none left for his use. All these had been worn out by your petitioner's wife, and no manner of satisfaction had ever been received. Your petitioner therefore humbly prayed that these particulars might be considered and such payment made as the council should think fit. And, as in duty bound, he would for ever pray, and so on.

The former part of the petition was granted. The council ordered Captain Mashborne and Mr Charles Steward to survey the fences made by Powell's wife, widow of Captain George Hoskison, and to value them. They were also to examine whether there was more than four acres of land taken in.

Mr Bazett promised to give in the account of goods disposed of out of the Honourable Company's stores for the two last months on the first Tuesday in next.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The Powell petition raised two distinct Boucher-era unsettled claims in a single document. The first concerned the council's earlier arrangement by which Powell had hired a parcel of Company waste land under the High Peak without lease and without fixed term, on the working understanding that the Company could resume the ground at any time and that the cost of fencing would be reimbursed on redelivery. This was the standard mechanism for short-term occupation of marginal Company ground, used where the council wished to keep its option to resume the parcel for plantation or other use without committing to a twenty-one-year lease. The petition sought activation of the reimbursement clause, on the implicit footing that the parcel was now to be redelivered or had effectively been resumed.

The second part of the petition recorded a series of household goods supplied to Boucher on his arrival as Governor. Nine cane chairs, a quilt, a pair of canvas sheets and two pillows had been furnished by Powell's wife at Boucher's request, on the working ground that the Honourable Company had few or none left for the Governor's use. The goods had since been worn out without any payment being made. The petition fitted the working pattern of unsettled Boucher-era arrangements already documented across the present session: items supplied, promises made, but no payment delivered. The Charles Steward bill of £22 15s 0d for Fort house furnishings at Boucher's first coming, entered on 24 June 1714, was the working comparator.

The council split the two parts of the petition. The fencing claim was granted in principle and a working survey commission appointed. Mashborne and Charles Steward (the same Steward whose Fort house furnishings bill had earlier been entered) were to value the fencing and check that no more than four acres of land had actually been enclosed under the arrangement. The four-acre limit was the test point: any excess would represent unauthorised enclosure of Company common, which would forfeit the claim to reimbursement on that excess. The chair-and-bedding claim was reserved for separate consideration once the council had heard the working position.

The identification of Powell's wife as widow of Captain George Hoskison placed the petition within the wider working pattern of Hoskison-related claims. Mary Hoskison's earlier petitions, the Powill v Girling cause of 2 September 1713 (in which the jury found that Hoskison had no power to mortgage land settled on his wife under John Bowman's will), and the Beale orphans' audit, all turned on the same household. Powell's marriage to the widow brought the Hoskison-Bowman estate into Powell's hands as her present husband. The fencing parcel under the High Peak was probably part of the same general settlement.

Bazett's promise to bring in two months' store accounts on the first Tuesday in next continued the pattern of slow but progressive recovery of the store-book backlog, set in motion by the Governor's demand of 13 October 1713 and the subsequent submissions across 1713 and 1714.

Speculations

The decision to send Mashborne and Charles Steward jointly to survey the fences, rather than employ the standing surveyor or refer the matter to Captain Cason, reflected a working pairing that mirrored the structure of the Bodley estate appraisement ordered on 17 August 1714 (Mashborne and Bazett with two appraisers chosen by Smith). The combination of a senior councillor with an independent free planter gave the council a fair valuation that could not later be challenged as partial. The express instruction to check that no more than four acres had been enclosed suggests that the council probably suspected, on the basis of local knowledge, that Powell had taken in more ground than the original arrangement permitted, and wished to settle that question before approving any payment.

The pairing of a substantial fencing claim with a household-goods claim in a single petition was probably calculated to maximise the working prospect of recovery. By placing the more technical and documented fencing question first, Powell drew the council into a procedural response (survey and valuation) that committed it to working through the petition rather than dismissing it outright. The chair-and-bedding claim, harder to evidence after the goods had been worn out, then followed in the same document on the implicit footing that what the council had granted on fences it could hardly refuse on furnishings. The mechanism reads as the working approach of an experienced petitioner who knew how to frame multiple claims to advance through the council in sequence.

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Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuseday the 21[st] day of Septemb[r] 1714. At the United Castle in James Vally.

Pres[t] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[rge] Haswell, Dep[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne, 3[d] Matthew Baz[ett] 4[...] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council.

The Petition of Bridget Welch wid[o] being read as foll[s].

Isd S[t] Helena To the Worsh[p] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c[a] & Councell

The most humb[le] Petition of Bridget Welch Wid[o] humbly Sheweth

Whereas yo[r] petition[r] having lately buried her Husband Jn[o] Welch & finding her self left in a very low condicon & much indebt[d] to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] hope yo[r] Worsh[p] & Councell will be pleased to consider the Wid[o] & fatherless & w[th] compassion not to insist upon her Debt sooner then she is able to pay it; it shall be her utmost Endeavour, But there being a Bond of [...] Sixty pounds, which term of time of payment of s[d] Bond is almost expir'd She therefore prays yo[r] Worsh[p] & Councell will be pleased to give her the space of Eigh[t] months to pay the said Bond & yo[r] petition[r] then will pay it in Yams & Succers, So hoping yo[r] Worsh[p] & Councell will be pleased to take y[e] aforesaid premisses into yo[r] Worsh[p] mature consideration in respects of y[e] deplorable Case of the Wid[o] & fatherless

And as in duty bound y[r] petition[r] shall ever pray &c[a] Bridget Welch

Ordered That the consideracon of this Petition be referrd to Cap[t] Haswell & M[r] Bazett & that they report their opinions therein.

Isd S[t] Helena To the Worsh[p] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] & Councell The humb[le] petition of Rob[t] Marsh Freeholder Humbly Sheweth

That whereas some time since John Long at his request had

Margin Notes:

Isd S[t] Helena

Brigt Welches poor Condition

&

desires time to pay Co[s] bond.

Sep[r] 21[st] 1714

Referrd to Mess[rs] Haswell & Bazett

Isd S[t] Helena

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 21 September 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The petition of Bridget Welch, widow, was read. A copy followed.

Island of St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The most humble petition of Bridget Welch, widow, humbly showeth:

She had recently buried her husband John Welch and found herself left in a very low condition, and much indebted to the Honourable Company. She hoped the council would have compassion on a widow with fatherless children, and not press her for the debt sooner than she was able to pay. She would do her utmost. There was a bond of £60 0s 0d outstanding, the term of which was almost expired. She therefore prayed the council to grant her eighteen months to pay the bond, by which time she would pay in yams and suckers. She hoped the council would consider the destitute case of the widow and the fatherless. And, as in duty bound, your petitioner would ever pray, and so on.

Dated 21 September 1714.

Signed: Bridget Welch.

The council ordered that the consideration of the petition be referred to Captain Haswell and Mr Bazett, who were to report their opinions.

Island of St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The humble petition of Robert Marsh, freeholder, humbly showeth:

That some time earlier, John Long, at his request,

Interpretations

Bridget Welch's petition placed the council in the position of creditor to a recently bereaved household. The bond of £60 0s 0d was the working instrument by which the Honourable Company had advanced credit to her late husband, with the term now almost expired. The proposal to pay in yams and suckers, rather than cash, fitted the recovery framework established by the 24 August 1714 advertisement and the working procurement programme by which planters supplied provisions to the Company against their store debts. The eighteen-month extension Welch sought would carry the settlement to March 1716, well past the planting and harvest cycle on which yam production depended. The referral of the matter to Haswell and Bazett, rather than immediate decision, followed the working pattern of detailed examination before committing the council to terms.

John Welch was the same person earlier recorded as one of the gunner's crew appointed surveyor on 14 October 1712 in Bazett's place, and the matross granted £60 0s 0d store credit at 8 per cent per annum interest on 3 November 1713 to complete the £100 0s 0d purchase from William Worrall of the property formerly Richard Cleve's. The present bond was almost certainly the working instrument securing that 1713 loan. The eighteen-month term of the original loan, dating from 3 November 1713, would have expired around 3 May 1715, consistent with Welch's reference to the term being almost expired. The widow's request fell within the working pattern of debt-extension petitions that the new administration was processing under the recovery framework.

The detail that Welch had been buried recently signalled a new working development on the island. John Welch had been actively serving as a Company employee in late 1713 and had taken on a substantial property purchase financed by Company credit. His death between then and September 1714 placed his widow in a position of inherited debt without inherited earning capacity. The case will probably set a working pattern for similar widows of Company servants who died with outstanding store credit.

The Robert Marsh petition introduced a separate matter relating to John Long. The opening reference to John Long having earlier acted at Marsh's request suggests another working arrangement between freeholders that had subsequently broken down. Robert Marsh appears in the earlier consultations as the freeholder restored to the slave Pompey on 10 to 17 August 1714 against Cason's claim of verbal direction by Boucher, and earlier as the holder of various Sandy Bay and other parcels. John Long was the planter granted three acres at the head of James Valley on 9 December 1712 and earlier confirmed in titles at the title sittings of 1713.

Speculations

The terms of Bridget Welch's proposal, to pay in yams and suckers rather than cash, probably reflected the working reality that the Welch household's only continuing asset of value was the plantation acquired from Worrall under the 1713 credit arrangement. By offering payment in the planting stock the holding could produce, Welch positioned herself to settle the debt without selling the land itself, which would have left the household destitute. The mechanism preserved the working livelihood while satisfying the creditor, and fitted the council's broader procurement programme. The eighteen-month timing may also have been calculated to allow a fresh planting cycle to yield mature yams before the settlement fell due.

The referral to Haswell and Bazett rather than immediate decision suggests that the council needed to verify the working state of the Welch holding and the size of the planting that could realistically support the proposed repayment in kind. The pairing combined the Deputy Governor's general authority with the storekeeper-surveyor's working knowledge of the plantation and its yam stock. The mechanism preserved the council's freedom either to accept the proposal as offered or to adjust the terms once the working capacity of the holding had been assessed.

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had a small parcell of Land containing about an Acre & a half lying towards the upper End of James Valley under the puerslin Bed granted him for the term of 21 years, who never having had a lease for y[e] same died w[th] leave & consent of y[e] late Govern[r] Lett yo[r] petition[r] have y[t] Land it being very convenient for him, Wherefore humbly prays a lease may be granted yo[r] petition[r] in his own name for the Land aforesaid for the term of 21 years from the time J[no] Long had a grant thereof from this time.

And yo[r] petition[r] as in duty bound shall for ever pray &c[a] Rob[t] Marsh

Ordered That the said Rob[t] Marsh. Petition be granted according to his desire

In M[r] Tovey's Case M[r] Tho[s] Goodgen being Sumon'd at his request appeared this 1[...] the 21[st] Sept[r] and the Govern[r] read over the [...] Paragraph of the Hono[ble] Companys Letter and then M[r] Goodgen desired he might ask some questions of M[r] Tovey. 1 Why he made and reported to y[e] Comp[a] that he had sustained Such Damage 2 And by whom he sustained it

M[r] Tovey's answere to y[e] First Question 1 Because he Suffered in his Predecess[rs] Case as he married his Widow and 2 After he married the wid[o] he suffered in the want of the Plantation to maintain his family & stock upon

To the 2[d] Question He saith he sustaind the damage by want of y[e] Plantation afores[d] but Govern[r] Boucher not following the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Orders & the Abbingdon was his greatest damage While we were Examining of this matter Jn[o] Alexander sent in a Petition as followes:

Island S[t] Helena. To y[e] Worsh[p] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c[a] and Councill The Petition of Jn[o] Alexander on behalf of Rich[d] Alexander dec[d] Three Children Pipin, Abigaill & Mary Alexander Humbly Sheweth

Margin Notes:

Rob[t] Marsh desires a lease for y[e] Land

Sep[r] 21[st] 1714

Granted

In M[r] Tovey's Case

M[r] [Goodgen] appeard ab[t] y[e] Land M[r] Tovey Claims.

Questions ask't him

Answers to y[e] severall Questions

Island S[t] Helena.

Marsh's petition continued: that John Long had a small parcel of land containing about an acre and a half, lying towards the upper end of James Valley under the purslane beds, granted to him for a term of twenty-one years. Long had never had any use for the parcel and was now willing, with leave and consent of the council, to make it over to Marsh. The ground lay very conveniently for the petitioner. Marsh therefore humbly prayed that a fresh lease might be granted to him on the same terms for the land just named, for the remainder of the twenty-one years from the time Long had received his grant.

And as your petitioner, in duty bound, shall for ever pray, and so on.

Dated 21 September 1714.

Signed: Robert Marsh.

The council ordered that Marsh's petition be granted according to his desire.

In Mr Tovey's case.

Mr Thomas Gurgen, having been summoned at Tovey's request, appeared on 21 September. The governor read over the 39th paragraph of the Honourable Company's letter, and Tovey then asked that he might put some questions to Gurgen.

The questions were two: why he had occupied and reaped the Company's land, and whether he had sustained any damage, and if so by whom.

To the first question, Tovey's own answer ran in two parts. He himself had been kept out of his predecessor Bagley's case because he had married the widow. After he married her, he had suffered through the want of the plantation to maintain his family and the stock upon it.

To the second question he answered that he had suffered the damage through the want of the plantation, where the late Governor Boucher had not followed the Honourable Company's orders. The Abingdon had caused him the greatest damage.

While the council was examining this matter, John Alexander sent in a petition. A copy followed.

Island of St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council.

The petition of John Alexander, on behalf of Richard Alexander deceased's three children, Repjin, Abigail and Mary Alexander, humbly showeth

Interpretations

The Robert Marsh land transfer worked through the standard mechanism for redistributing under-used Company leasehold. John Long, having no use for the acre and a half at the head of James Valley granted to him under his twenty-one-year lease, surrendered the unexpired residue of the term back through council process so that Marsh could pick it up on the same terms. The council's straightforward grant of the petition, without survey or examination, reflected the simplicity of the arrangement. No fresh acreage was being created, no new boundary set, and no rent renegotiated. The ground was simply moving from one freeholder who could not work it to another who could, with the council acting as the regulator of the transfer rather than the originator of a new grant.

The Tovey case shifted the analytical ground from the previous council day. Where the order of 14 September had placed the burden on Gurgen as present possessor to justify his occupation, Gurgen's appearance on 21 September produced not a defence of his title but a sequence of questions put by Tovey to Gurgen on the structure of the case. The reading of paragraph 39 of the Honourable Company's letter framed the proceeding under metropolitan instruction. The paragraph, not yet quoted in the present working sequence, was probably one of the working clauses of the general letter brought by the Rochester on 8 July 1714 (the 97-paragraph letter read in one sitting that day), and its content evidently bore on the proper handling of contested holdings or unsatisfied claims.

The reference to the Abingdon as the source of Tovey's greatest damage connected the present case to the dispatch programme by which the consultations through to 24 April 1714 had been carried home, and to the interrogation of Bazett of 1 April 1714 over his refusal to sign the general letter sent by that ship. The implication is that some working arrangement concerning the Bagley plantation had either turned on a Boucher-era decision recorded in the documents sent by the Abingdon or had been left unsettled at her departure. The detail will probably emerge as the case is developed.

John Alexander's intervening petition on behalf of Richard Alexander's three children opened a new estate matter. Richard Alexander was the freeholder whose seized land had been restored by twenty-one-year lease to his widow Marcy on 8 October 1711 under paragraph 82 of the Toddington-Thistleworth letter. The widow had since married Thomas Gargen, who had received a settlement of £290 5s 6¾d for the five Alexander children on 27 April 1711. The present petition by John Alexander (probably the same John Alexander who had served as clerk of council under Boucher and as the petitioner for continuation as ensign on 24 August 1714) brought forward three of the children by name (Repjin, Abigail and Mary) for separate consideration.

The arrangement of the three petitions in sequence (Marsh's straightforward transfer, the Tovey-Gurgen procedural opening, and the interrupting Alexander petition on the children) reflected the working pattern of consultation business under Pyke. The council was running multiple working strands simultaneously, with petitions interrupting one another as new claimants came forward.

Speculations

The decision to grant Marsh's transfer petition without referral to surveyor or commission, while at the same time placing the Tovey-Gurgen matter on a careful examined footing, suggests that the council was working a clear distinction between consensual transfers of existing leaseholds (handled administratively) and contested possession of plantations (handled judicially). The Marsh case probably went through without challenge because both parties had agreed and no third party was prejudiced; the Tovey case required full examination because the working occupant's basis was unclear and the petitioner was a serving councillor.

The intrusion of the Alexander children's petition into the middle of the Tovey examination was probably calculated. By bringing forward the question of Richard Alexander's three children at a moment when the council was already engaged in unwinding a Boucher-era plantation arrangement, John Alexander may have hoped to draw the council into a parallel review of the Richard Alexander settlement. The earlier £290 5s 6¾d settlement to Gargen on the five children had probably been working unevenly in practice, with the children's interests not fully protected.

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Sheweth That forasmuch as yo[r] Petition[rs] being one of the Execut[rs] to the last will & Testam[t] of his dec[d] Brother Rich[d] Alexander, And nearest relation to his Children (now w[th] Tho[s] Goodgen as having Married their mother) And understanding that the said Tho[s] Goodgen is to appear this day and shew by what right he holds that Land formerly in the possess[on] of the s[d] Rich[d] Alexander your Petition[r] humbly conceives it part of his duty as in Conscience bound in right & behalf of the children aforesaid to lay Claim and do hereby as a Caviat present this petition as a plea and barr to any persons Laying claim or pretentions to said Land, And that a Demuir of y[e] Case as represented by M[r] Tovey may be thereto pleaded till such time as your Petition[r] is fully informed how y[e] said case or Suit is drawn up and time to make reply in Writing not at all doubting but to shew Suit cause the aforesaid Child[n] of Rich[d] Alexander, (or the Execut[rs] in trust for them) should Enjoy that Land now in dispute. He having been unjustly ousted of the same, and pretensces thereon by former Government Not- withstanding his obedience to all and every the Laws & Constitutions of the said Island and duly and Honestly paying all Lotts and Asesments to the Lords Proprietors &c[a] Which begg may be Consider'd for the good of the poor Children more than the least Interest to your Petitioner Who (as in duty bound) shall ever pray &c[a]

Sept[r] y[e] 21[st] 1714 Jn[o] Alexander

Ordered.

That M[r] Tovey draw up the whole State of his Case in Writing and therein sett forth in the same manner that he represented it to the Hono[ble] Company the particulars of his Loss & Damage. By whom and his reasons for Claiming the said Lease Land And an Acco[t] of all his Transactions Bargains Contracts and agreements therein

M[r] Tovey producing a paper to Deliver in of his Case the Governour gave him to Tuesday next to Conder farther of

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Alexand[rs] Petition in behalf of Rich[ds] Alexand[rs] Child[n] relating to y[e] Land in [Goodgens] possess[on]

Sep[r] y[e] 21[st] 1714

M[r] Tovey to draw up the whole Case as form[er]ly propos- =osed.

this not approvd of.

Alexander's petition continued: that, your petitioner being one of the executors of the last will and testament of his deceased brother Richard Alexander, and nearest in relation to his children (now with Thomas Gurgen, who married their mother), and understanding that Gurgen was to appear that day to show by what right he held the land formerly possessed by Richard Alexander, your petitioner conceived it part of his duty in conscience, bound in right and on behalf of the children, to lay claim and present this petition as a plea and bar to any persons laying claim or pretensions to the land. He prayed that a demur of the case as represented by Mr Tovey might be pleaded until such time as your petitioner was fully informed how the case was drawn up and given time to make reply in writing, not at all doubting but to show just cause why the children of Richard Alexander, in trust for the executors, should enjoy the land now in dispute, having been unjustly turned out of the same and from premises thereon by a former government. Notwithstanding his obedience to all and every law and constitution of the island, and duly and honestly paying all rents and assessments to the Lords Proprietors and so on, he begged this might be considered for the good of the poor children, more than the least interest to your petitioner, who, as in duty bound, would ever pray, and so on.

Dated 21 September 1714.

Signed: John Alexander.

The council ordered that Mr Tovey draw up the whole state of his case in writing, setting forth in the same manner as he had represented it to the Honourable Company the particulars of his loss and damage, by whom caused, and his reasons for claiming the land. He was also to give an account of all his transactions, bargains, contracts and agreements in the matter.

Mr Tovey produced a paper to deliver in his case. The governor gave him to Tuesday next to consider further

Interpretations

The Alexander petition introduced a third party into what had until now been a two-sided dispute. John Alexander, acting as executor of his late brother Richard Alexander's will and as nearest kin to Richard's children by their now-deceased mother Marcy (formerly the wife of Thomas Gargen, and earlier of Richard Alexander), pressed the children's claim against both Tovey's and Gurgen's pretensions. The mechanism by which an executor asked for a plea and bar against another claimant's case was the standard early modern procedural device by which a party not yet formally heard sought to halt the proceedings until his own written response could be prepared.

The complaint that the children had been unjustly turned out of their land and premises by a former government identified the dispossession as a Boucher-era act, although the working narrative is more complex than the present petition allows. The Richard Alexander land had been the subject of seizure under the Roberts administration, restored to the widow Marcy on 8 October 1711 under paragraph 82 of the Toddington-Thistleworth letter, settled on the children through a £290 5s 6¾d arrangement with Thomas Gargen on 27 April 1711, and at some point thereafter come into the hands of Thomas Gurgen. The reference here to a former government probably points to Boucher rather than Roberts, given that the Roberts settlement had been in the children's favour, but the precise sequence is not stated.

The plea framework rested on the executor's standing to act on behalf of minor heirs. Alexander cited his obedience to law, his payment of rents and assessments, and the interest of the poor children, as the working grounds for his standing. The petition deliberately disclaimed any personal interest in the outcome, framing the executor's role as fiduciary rather than proprietary. This presentation, conventional in early modern guardianship and trust petitions, served to distinguish the executor's intervention from the kind of self-interested claim that might be expected from a serving or former office-holder.

The council's order placed a substantial documentary burden on Tovey. He was required to set out in writing the entire history of his claim: particulars of loss and damage, identification of those responsible, reasons for claiming the land, and a full account of all transactions, bargains, contracts and agreements in the matter. The breadth of the order, especially the requirement to disclose all transactions, gave the council the working materials by which it could test Tovey's case against the parallel claims of Gurgen and the Alexander children. The deferral until the following Tuesday gave Tovey time to assemble the documents.

Tovey's production of a paper to deliver in his case, followed by the governor's grant of further consideration time to the next council day, suggests that the paper as first prepared probably did not yet meet the council's working standard. The governor's direction that Tovey was to consider further, before delivering his case, may have reflected either the inadequacy of the present draft or the council's wish to allow time for Alexander to prepare his own written response.

Speculations

The timing of Alexander's intervention reads as a deliberate procedural tactic. By presenting himself as executor on behalf of minor heirs at the very moment when Tovey was about to deliver his own case, Alexander positioned the children's claim as the proper foundation of any settlement, ahead of the rival claims of the working occupant and the petitioning councillor. The mechanism converted what had been a two-sided dispute over present possession into a three-sided dispute in which the underlying right of the children stood as the working benchmark against which both Tovey's lease-based claim and Gurgen's occupation had to be measured.

The deliberate framing of Alexander's petition in the language of duty and conscience, with no claim of personal interest, was probably also calculated to displace the council's working suspicion of his motives. Alexander had appeared in the present sequence as the long-standing clerk under Boucher whose continuation in office had been the subject of his own petition of 24 August 1714, where he was given to Tovey as assistant pending further consideration. Now bringing forward a case that placed Tovey under documentary scrutiny, Alexander's executor role conveniently allowed him to advance a position that, on its face, advanced the children's interests but in working effect undermined the secretary who had displaced him from the clerkship.

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of it, and sett down Every thing he knew relate= =ing to the Case

[...] Geo[rge] Haswell Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 28[th] day of Septemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[ew] Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

M[r] Tovey according to an Order of last Council day brought in a State of his Case as followeth. About October 1709 Rich[d] Alexander Planter designing to go off the Island proposed to Thomas Bagley the Taking his House & plantati- =on, telling him he had rather he should have it than another and that he beleiv'd if S[ai]d Bagley did Petition for it the Gov[er]n[m]ent would grant it him, at his S[ai]d Alexanders request he did and had a grant of said Land and not long after a Lease for the same for 21 years (which is ready to be produced

Margin Notes:

M[r] Tovey's Case ab[t] Land in dispute.

Tovey was to set down everything he knew relating to the case.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 28 September 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

Mr Tovey's case concerning the land in dispute.

In accordance with the order of the last council day, Tovey brought in the state of his case as followeth.

About October 1709, Richard Alexander, planter, intended to leave the island. He offered his house and plantation to Thomas Bagley, saying he would rather Bagley had it than anyone else, and that he believed if Bagley petitioned for it the governor would grant his request. At Alexander's request, Bagley did so, and obtained a grant of the land. Not long afterwards, a lease for the same was drawn up for a term of twenty-one years. The lease was ready to be produced.

Interpretations

The opening of Tovey's written case set out the working origins of the Bagley plantation through a private oral arrangement between two planters in October 1709. Richard Alexander, then leaving the island, preferred Bagley as his successor and encouraged him to petition for the holding on the working understanding that the governor would grant the request. Bagley did so and received a grant, with a twenty-one-year lease drawn up shortly afterwards. The narrative thus placed the working origin of the lease in a consensual handover between planters that was then formalised by the council process.

The date of October 1709 is significant because it falls just before the consultation of 26 December 1709, at which Thomas Bagley was granted Richard Alexander's former house and 15 acres of ground for 21 years. The present case provides the back-story to that grant. Alexander had not been compulsorily dispossessed but had himself initiated the handover to Bagley before his departure, with the council recording the working transfer through the formal lease.

The placing of the Tovey case in the order of last council day signalled a deliberate documentary approach by Pyke's administration. Tovey was required to assemble the working evidentiary record from his predecessor Bagley's papers and from his own knowledge, and to present it as a written submission. The mechanism by which a contested holding was determined through a structured written case, rather than through oral examination and immediate decision, reflected the working pattern adopted under Pyke for the more difficult Boucher-era disputes.

The reference to the lease being ready to be produced indicated that Tovey had the original document in his possession, presumably through the working continuity of Bagley's papers passing to his widow and then to Tovey as the widow's present husband. The documentary trail thus ran from the 1709 grant, through Bagley's death in early 1712 and the proof of his will on 8 April 1712, to the present claim by Tovey as the widow's husband.

The exclusion of Richard Alexander's children from the working sequence Tovey presented is also striking. Where the Alexander petition of 21 September 1714 had framed the children's claim as the proper foundation of any settlement, Tovey's case opened by treating Richard Alexander's voluntary handover to Bagley as the working origin of title, with no mention of the children at all. The conflict between the two narratives sets up the principal analytical question for the council's determination.

Speculations

The decision to begin Tovey's written case with the October 1709 arrangement between Alexander and Bagley, rather than with the 1711 settlement of the Alexander children's interests under the Toddington-Thistleworth letter or the £290 5s 6¾d settlement to Gargen of 27 April 1711, was probably calculated to displace the children's claim from the working narrative altogether. By presenting the lease as the product of a private consensual handover by Richard Alexander himself, Tovey could argue that the children had never had any interest in the parcel: their father had freely given it up to Bagley before his departure, and the subsequent restoration provisions of 1711 had been working against a Roberts-era seizure that did not touch this parcel.

The narrative also has the working effect of placing the Alexander-Bagley arrangement entirely outside the documentary case the new administration was building against Boucher. By rooting the title in October 1709, well before Boucher's arrival in August 1711, Tovey aligned his claim with the lawful Roberts-era grants rather than with the questionable Boucher-era arrangements that the council had been systematically reviewing. The structural framing places Tovey's lease in the same procedural category as the Doveton, Reder, Powell and Francis title confirmations of 1711, rather than in the category of Pompey, Bodley and Earle disputes that turned on Boucher-era acts.

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produced) and he paid said Alexander for the Provisions on the Ground to Content and he his wife and Brother John Alexander wished him Joy & good Success in his Settlement.

But Richard Alexander dying soon after there was a Petition sent to the Hono[ble] Comp[a] signd by his Wid[o] Mercy now the wife of M[r] Thomas Goodgen Desireing she might have the land again (in which book some Allegations that might no doubt Easily be Answer'd were Copy'd thereof to be seen Tho[s] She owns her self She knew not the Contents of Said Petition but signd it by the Advice of her Father M[r] Pippin White or her brother M[r] John Alexander or both In answer to which the Hon[ble] Court of Directors wrote to the succeeding Govern[r] and Council about it and the then Govern[r] and two of his Council did force Thomas Bagley out of the Premises and gave M[r] Goodgen Possession thereof.

Said Bagley Petitiond Govern[r] Boucher &c[a] Twice to have a hearing that he might prove he did nothing in the procureing that lease But w[th] the Consent of Said Rich[d] Alexander but was deny'd.

Soon after Thomas Bagley died and said Tovey marrying his wid[o] lays Claim to the said Plantation in her right.

The Particular Damages of Thomas Bagley and after his widdow being ousted the said Plantation Tovey Desires may be valued and prov'd by such as are most Acquainted w[th] it as well as what the Damages was that said Tovey Sustaind for want of Said Plantation.

Concerning Govern[r] Boucher in this Case he told said Tovey about the time he was going to Marry Bagleys Wid[o] That the Company would never suffer her to have her plantation again (tho this was after the receipt of the Generall Letter of the Abbingdon) and perswaded him not to Marry, but some time after Offerd any Ground in Common that was fitt to make a plantation of desired he might have it But said Tovey replyed he knew of no land fitt to be taken in nor was he able to be at the Charges of Setling anew plan- tation and Building a House &c[a]

After

Margin Notes:

Severall Recitals.

Tovey's written case continued.

Bagley paid Richard Alexander for the provisions on the ground to his content, and his wife and brother John Alexander wished him joy and good success in his settlement.

But Richard Alexander died soon afterwards. A petition was sent to the Honourable Company, signed by his widow Marcy, now wife of Thomas Gurgen, desiring she might have the land again. Several allegations were made in it that might without doubt easily have been answered if a copy could be seen. She herself owned that she did not know the contents of the petition, but had signed it by the advice of her father Mr Repjin Wells, or her brother Mr John Alexander, or both.

In answer the Honourable Court of Directors wrote to the succeeding governor and council about it, and the then governor and two of his council forced Thomas Bagley out of the premises and gave Mr Gurgen possession of the same.

Bagley petitioned Governor Boucher twice to have a hearing, so that he might prove he had done nothing wrong in procuring the lease but with the consent of Richard Alexander, but his request was denied.

Thomas Bagley soon died, and Tovey, having married the widow, now laid claim to the plantation in her right.

The particular damages sustained by Thomas Bagley, and by his widow after his death in being kept out of the plantation, Tovey desired might be valued and proved by such persons as were most acquainted with it, as well as the damage Tovey himself had sustained for want of the plantation.

Concerning Governor Boucher in this case, the late governor had told Tovey, about the time he was going to marry Bagley's widow, that the Company would never suffer her to have her plantation again. (This was after the receipt of the general letter by the Abingdon.) Boucher had persuaded him not to marry, but some time later offered any ground in common he wished as a fresh plantation if he desired to have it. Tovey replied that he knew of no land fit to be taken in, nor was he able to bear the charge of settling a new plantation and building a house upon it.

Interpretations

The narrative now exposed the working sequence by which the Bagley lease had been undone. Three procedural stages were identified: a petition by the widow Marcy (signed without her knowing its contents, on the advice of her father Repjin Wells and her brother John Alexander); a directorial letter to the succeeding governor in response; and the forcible ejection of Bagley from the plantation by the then governor and two councillors, with Gurgen put into possession. The reference to the then governor probably means Roberts, whose administration was responsible for processing the post-1709 petitions, although the present text is not explicit on the point.

The detail that the widow signed the petition without knowing what was in it directly attacked the credibility of the document. By identifying Repjin Wells, the widow's father, and John Alexander, her brother, as the working hands behind the drafting, Tovey reframed the dispossession as a family operation by the Alexander-Wells connection, working through a vulnerable widow's signature. The structural argument was that the children's later interest derived from a petition tainted at its origin, and that the proper title remained with Bagley and his successors.

The repeated denial of a hearing by Boucher introduced the working grievance against the late administration. Bagley had twice petitioned for a hearing to prove the lease had been procured with Richard Alexander's consent. Both petitions were denied. The grievance fitted the wider documentary case the new administration had been building against Boucher (failure to follow Company instructions, refusal to act on petitions, denial of due process). The placing of the Bagley case within that frame supported Tovey's claim for compensation, while also adding another item to the catalogue of Boucher-era procedural failures being assembled for transmission to London.

The exchange between Boucher and Tovey about marriage to the widow exposed a further administrative pressure. Boucher had told Tovey, after receiving the general letter by the Abingdon, that the Company would never let her have the plantation back, and had tried to dissuade Tovey from the marriage. When that failed, Boucher offered alternative common land for a new plantation, which Tovey refused on the working grounds of unsuitable land and the cost of fresh settlement. The detail placed Boucher in the active role of administrative obstruction, both in denying the existing claim and in trying to deflect the new claimant into a less valuable alternative.

The Abingdon reference points to the consultation of 1 April 1714, when Bazett's interrogation had been held in part over paragraph 7 of the directors' letter brought by that ship, with John Goodwin testifying that no ships' accounts had been delivered to the Clerk of the Council. The general letter sent home by the Abingdon and Boucher's response to it were thus already in the working documentary record of the present period. Tovey's reference to the same letter as the moment at which Boucher told him the Company would never permit the widow's restoration locates the marriage discussion in the early months of 1714, before Boucher's own departure in June.

Repjin Wells appears here in a new role as father of Marcy Alexander. Earlier in the working sequence he had been recorded as planter, appraiser of Coales inventory on 2 January 1712, purchaser of Coales 20 acres for £70 on 7 April 1711, and executor of Richard Alexander with John Alexander on 27 April 1711. His position as Marcy's father, and as fellow executor with John Alexander, establishes the family connection that underlies the present petition by John Alexander on behalf of the children, with Wells standing as the senior figure behind the Alexander side of the dispute.

Speculations

The structural argument Tovey was developing turned on disqualifying the documentary trail behind the children's claim. By attacking the original petition as one the widow had signed without knowing its contents, and by identifying the working hands as her father and brother, Tovey shifted the issue from whether the children were entitled to whether the procedural foundation of their claim was sound. The mechanism rests on the working assumption that a Company-directed restoration based on a tainted petition could be reopened by the new administration, even where the children themselves were not at fault.

The deliberate placing of Boucher's conversation about the Abingdon letter and the marriage suggests that Tovey was preparing a working case for damages that ran beyond the bare loss of the plantation. By recording that Boucher had actively tried to obstruct his settlement, both through dissuading the marriage and through offering inferior alternative land, Tovey assembled the evidentiary basis for a claim of administrative damage going to the council's discretion to award compensation. The earlier order of 21 September that he set out his particulars of loss and damage, by whom caused, gave him the procedural opening to enter Boucher's name directly into the record as the working cause.

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After Tovey was Married and M[r] Goodgen lett him the House to live in and the Yam Ground to plant Provisions Govern[r] Boucher told Doctor Bodeous neither Tovey nor Goodgen now should have that plantation since both the Widdows were Married.

What Else relates to Govern[r] Boucher perti- cularly as not belonging to this Case S[d] Tovey prays he may have leave to lay before the Gover[r] and Councill some other time as his Worship and Council shall think fitt.

The Said Tovey has Authentick proof of the Matter herein related to Your Worsp and Council which he is ready to produce when required thereto. Your Worships most obedient & faithfull Servant. Antipas Tovey

The Governour having been in the Countrey for under Six days last past Reports that he finds the Plantations in very good Order but the House Notwith- =standing the care lately taken by repaireing the Tyling making leaden Gutters &c[a] it reins in in Eight or ten places, and there being a great Soak of water down the Hill upon the House which has Rotted the Ground Joist and flooring he finds it very necessary (there being no Drane or water Course) to make a Large Trench or Ditch on the back side that may serve as a Common Shoar to Carry off the Water that now soaks against the House. Ordered that at all vacant times when hands can be Spar'd from y[e] Plantations &c[a] Cap[t] Mashborne imploy them to Cutt y[e] said Ditch or Drane as far as he shall see Necessary.

Geo[rge] Haswell Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Plantacon found in Good Order. but the House out of Repair

Drane Necessary.

hands to be Employ'd about it

After Tovey was married, Mr Gurgen let him have the house to live in and the yam ground to plant provisions. Governor Boucher told Doctor Porteous that neither Tovey nor Gurgen should have that plantation, since both the widows were married.

What else related to Governor Boucher particularly, as not belonging to this case, Tovey prayed leave to lay before the council at some other time, as the council might think fit.

Tovey had authentic proof of the matter related, which he was ready to produce when required.

Signed: Your worships' most obedient and faithful servant, Antipas Tovey.

The governor reported that, having been in the country for the last six days, he found the plantations in very good order, but the house out of repair, notwithstanding the care lately taken in repairing the tiling and making leaden gutters. It rained in at eight or ten places, and there being a great soak of water down the hill upon the house, which had rotted the ground sills and flooring, he found it very necessary to make a large trench or ditch on the back side, to serve as a common sewer to carry off the water that now soaked against the house.

The council ordered that, at all vacant times when hands could be spared from the plantations, Captain Mashborne employ them to cut the trench or drain as far as he thought necessary.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The closing details of Tovey's written case identified a working accommodation between Tovey and Gurgen during the working interval of Tovey's marriage. Gurgen had let Tovey live in the house and use the yam ground for provisions, despite holding the plantation under the Boucher-era arrangement. The detail is striking because it placed the two rival claimants in a working arrangement on the disputed land itself: Gurgen as the formal occupant under the Boucher dispossession, Tovey as the resident user through Gurgen's tolerance. The mechanism may have reflected a recognition by Gurgen of Tovey's underlying claim, or alternatively a working arrangement made in expectation that the question would soon be reopened under a new administration.

Boucher's statement to Doctor Porteous, that neither Tovey nor Gurgen should have the plantation since both widows were married, was reported as the late governor's working position on the question. The reasoning relied on the principle that the original claim had been settled on the widow Marcy and her children, and that her remarriage to Gurgen, and the subsequent remarriage of Bagley's widow to Tovey, had broken the working ground for either rival claim to the plantation. Boucher's reported view, while not formally entered as an order, supplied the working framework against which the new administration's review now had to operate.

The reference to Doctor Porteous as the channel through which the report came placed the surgeon (continued as second surgeon under Pyke from 13 July 1714 at £30 0s 0d per annum with diet at the Fort) as the working source. The mechanism by which a senior establishment officer's conversational remarks to the colony's surgeon could be brought into the record as authentic proof reflected the working pattern of the new administration: any conversation by Boucher with a still-serving witness was usable evidence for the documentary case.

Tovey's request to lay further matters concerning Boucher before the council at some other time signalled that his current submission was a deliberately narrowed account, focused on the Bagley plantation. The wider catalogue of Boucher's actions, of the kind already entered in the August 1714 sequence (the burnt slaves' house, the destroyed live stock, the failed General Table, the Bodley appraisement-block), was being kept in reserve for future use.

The governor's plantation house report identified a working maintenance crisis. Despite recent repairs to tiles and leaden gutters, the house was still leaking in eight or ten places. The root cause was the soak of water running down the hill onto the house, which had rotted the ground sills and flooring. The proposed solution, a large trench or ditch on the back side as a common sewer, would intercept the water before it reached the house. The council's order to use vacant plantation labour for the work, at Mashborne's discretion, reflected the working pattern by which infrastructure maintenance was fitted around the agricultural priorities of the recovery programme.

Speculations

The arrangement by which Gurgen let Tovey live in the house and use the yam ground during their joint occupation of the disputed land suggests a working understanding probably reached after both men had married into the contested estate. Each had a stake in the parcel through a wife (Gurgen through Richard Alexander's widow Marcy, Tovey through Bagley's widow), and neither could press his claim to exclusive possession against the other without exposing the family connections to public dispute. The shared use mechanism reads as an interim arrangement pending some external resolution, which the change of administration in July 1714 has now supplied.

The deliberate calibration of Tovey's submission, focused on the Bagley plantation and reserving the wider Boucher material for future use, suggests that he was managing the council's appetite for working through Boucher-era matters in stages. By presenting a relatively contained case first, with a clear documentary trail through Bagley's lease and Boucher's denial of hearings, Tovey could establish his procedural standing and his entitlement to compensation without overloading the council with material that would require longer working investigation. The reserved further matters would then come forward at moments where they could be brought to bear on other current proceedings.

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Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 5[th] day of Octob[r] 1714 at the plan- =tation House.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l].

Serjant William Slaughter and John Harding appeard in Council relating to an agreem[t] made between the said Parties as followeth.

William Slaughter saith his agreement with John Harding was that on Consideration of Forty pound for his wifes life John Harding should have possession of the House and land he lived upon and to have the Yam suckers to take care of the Yams for two years the time Slaughter was to have for digging them out of the Ground.

Likewise that said Slaughter was to have Liberty of keeping three Cows and one Sow and Eight piggs on the Ground for two years and to have Liberty of Living at the said House in the Countrey w[th] his wife and three Child[n] for a month or two at any time.

John Harding saith he was to give Forty pound for his mothers life in the land now in Dispute and to have the suckers for looking after the Yams and the value of the Fencing of the Lease Land to be Apprayzed by two men and to be paid for which is since Valued by Richard Swallow and Orlando Bagley at about fourteen pound which he is willing to pay.

And

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Slaughter & Harding ab[t] their agreem[t]

what y[e] agreem[t] is

Jn[o] Hardings Answer to it.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 5 October 1714 at the Plantation House.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

Sergeant William Slaughter and John Harding appeared in council on a disagreement between them over a working agreement they had earlier made.

Slaughter set out his version of the bargain. In return for £40 0s 0d to be paid during his wife's life, Harding was to have possession of the house and the land Slaughter lived on. Harding was also to keep the yam suckers and look after the yams for two years, during which time Slaughter would have what he could dig out of the ground.

Slaughter was further to be free to keep three cows and one sow and eight pigs on the ground for the same two years, and to live in the country house with his wife and three children for a month or two at any time he wished.

Harding gave his own account. He was to pay £40 0s 0d for his mother's life interest in the land in question, and was to have the suckers for looking after the yams. The fencing on the leased part of the land was to be valued by two men, and he was to pay for it. The value had since been set by Richard Swallow and Orlando Bagley at about £14 0s 0d, which Harding was willing to pay. And

Interpretations

The Slaughter-Harding dispute exposed the working structure of an inter-planter land arrangement. The two men had reached a private bargain over the working occupation of a parcel held by Harding's mother for life, with Slaughter as the present occupier seeking to transfer his interest to Harding in return for a cash payment and a working set of reserved rights over crops, livestock and lodging. The dispute over what the agreement actually was, brought to the council for determination, reflected the working pattern by which contested private bargains were resolved by reference to the disinterested testimony of valuers and the council's adjudicative authority.

The £40 0s 0d cash payment was anchored on the mother's life interest in the land. The mechanism reflected the working practice by which a life tenant's working interest in a leasehold or freehold could be assigned during her lifetime, with the cash payment representing the present value of the unexpired life interest. The structure protected the underlying remainder (which would pass to the heir on the life tenant's death) while permitting a working transfer of the present occupation. William Slaughter appears earlier in the working sequence as sergeant, holder of a 21-year lease on his own and Company-hired land in October 1711, and one of the jurors in subsequent cases. The reference to his wife and three children placed the present arrangement within a working family economy of substantial dependants.

The disagreement turned on three working points. Slaughter's version included a set of reserved rights (livestock grazing for two years, residence in the country house at intervals) that Harding's version omitted; Harding's version included a separate valuation of the fencing (£14 0s 0d, set by Richard Swallow and Orlando Bagley) that Slaughter's version did not mention. The structure suggests that the bargain had been made orally with separate working understandings on different items, some of which had been formally valued and others left vague. The reference to valuation by Swallow and Bagley placed the fencing question on a working evidentiary footing while leaving the disputed rights to be settled by the council.

Richard Swallow and Orlando Bagley appear here in the working role of disinterested valuers of fencing, the same mechanism by which the council had repeatedly resolved questions of improvement value across the working sequence (the Mashborne and Steward survey of Powell's fencing on 14 September 1714, the Bell appraisement of the country house at Pursley Bed on 30 October 1711, and earlier cases). The £14 0s 0d figure was the working valuation of the fencing on the leased part of the land, distinct from the £40 0s 0d for the mother's life interest in the freehold.

Speculations

The careful structuring of Slaughter's version of the agreement (with reserved livestock rights, working access to the house, and the right to retrieve already-planted yams) suggests that Slaughter had probably negotiated a working withdrawal from the land that protected his immediate household economy. The two-year window for grazing and the right to lodge with his family in the country house at intervals would have given him a working refuge during the working transition to whatever new arrangement he was making. The mechanism reflects a working pattern of staged exit from a parcel, rather than an outright sale.

Harding's omission of these reserved rights from his version of the agreement may have been deliberate, particularly if he had taken on the parcel intending to develop it more intensively than Slaughter's reserved livestock and residence rights would permit. By presenting the bargain as a simpler cash transaction for the life interest, with a separately valued payment for fencing, Harding probably hoped to consolidate his working position in the parcel without the working encumbrance of Slaughter's continuing presence. The council's resolution of the dispute will probably turn on whether sufficient working evidence can be brought forward to support Slaughter's reserved rights.

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And tho he saith it was not his agreem[t] yet Harding is willing to allow his Father in Law William Slaughter Liberty to keep three Cows in the pasture and the Sow & Eight Piggs Slaughter finding Yams for said Swine

And Harding is willing also to Entert[ain] his said father in Law and Mother and their Family in his House three months in a year they finding their own Victualls

And Slaughter desireing on Consideration of his Great Loss in Cattle &c[a] an Allowance out Each Childs part the Execut[rs] are willing to all[ow] fifty Shillings out of Each Child s part.

William Slaughter being called in & ask[d] if he would refer the whole Matter in dispute his part to the Council

The Execut[rs] also being called in are both willing this matter be referrd to the Council and Desire the Childrens part be secured an[d] are willing to make up the Account of Hardi[ngs] Children &c[a] and to pay Hardings Debt.

Resolved that John Harding have possession of the Said House and Land & performe the agreements aforementioned.

Also Ordered that whatever mony up[on] Ballance of Accounts between the Said Willi[am] Slaughter and John Harding be due to the s[aid] Slaughter be paid into the Stores by s[d] Hard[ing] towards Sattisfaction of Slaughter's Debt to t[he] Hono[ble] Company and said Slaughter's Acco[t] he Creditt for the same.

And whereas Slaughter desires he may h[ave] Yam suckers to plant one Acre of ground th[at] h[e]

Margin Notes:

The Severall Articles

Contained.

in

Said.

Agreement.

Harding to have possess- =ion of y[e] House &c[a]

Ballance of their Acc[t] to be p[d] in y[e] Stores by Harding for Slaughter

Slaught[r] to have suckers

Harding then acknowledged that, although these were not part of his agreement, he was willing to allow his father-in-law William Slaughter the following.

Slaughter was to keep three cows in the pasture and four to eight pigs, Slaughter finding yams for the swine.

Harding was also willing to entertain his father-in-law and mother-in-law and their family in his house for three months in a year, they finding their own victuals.

Slaughter, in consideration of his great loss in cattle, asked for an allowance on each child's part. The executors were willing to allot fifty shillings out of each child's part.

William Slaughter, being called in and asked if he would refer the whole matter in dispute as to his part to the council, agreed.

The executors, also being called in, were both willing that the matter be referred to the council, and desired the children's part be secured. They were willing to make up the account of Harding's children and to pay Harding's debt.

The council resolved that John Harding have possession of the house and land, and perform the agreements just mentioned.

The council also ordered that whatever money upon the balance of accounts between William Slaughter and John Harding might be due to the father-in-law, Slaughter, be paid into the stores by Harding, towards satisfaction of Slaughter's debt to the Honourable Company, and Slaughter have credit for the same.

Where Slaughter desired he might have yam suckers to plant one acre of ground that

Interpretations

The resolution of the Slaughter-Harding dispute illustrated the working pattern by which the council reconciled an oral bargain through a structured set of concessions and a referral procedure. Harding's acknowledgement that the additional terms had not been part of his original agreement, but his willingness now to allow them, converted the dispute into a settled compact. Three cows in pasture, four to eight pigs (with Slaughter to supply the yams to feed them), and three months a year of family accommodation in the house, constituted the working reserved rights Slaughter retained in the parcel after the formal transfer to Harding.

The relationship between Harding and Slaughter as son-in-law and father-in-law placed the bargain within a family settlement framework. The further reference to Harding's children carried the working effect of the arrangement on the next generation: Slaughter was to receive fifty shillings out of each child's part as compensation for his loss in cattle. The mechanism by which the executors of Harding's children's interests were brought into the working settlement reflected the standard council practice of protecting minor heirs' shares against transactions made by their parent.

The reference to executors of Harding's children, distinct from Harding himself, suggests that the children were beneficiaries under a will (probably their mother's, given that Harding's wife was the daughter of Slaughter) and that their parts in the estate were administered by trustees rather than by Harding directly. The executors' willingness to take on Harding's debt as part of the settlement reflected the working principle that the children's part could absorb the parent's obligations where the working effect was to secure the family's continued occupation of the parcel.

The council's order that any balance due from Harding to Slaughter on the accounts between them be paid directly into the Company stores, with Slaughter credited, applied the store-settlement framework established by the August and September 1714 advertisements. The mechanism converted a private debt between two planters into a working reduction of Slaughter's outstanding store debt, advancing the recovery programme by one transaction without any cash movement. The structure exemplified the working principle that private debts between inhabitants could be channelled into the Company's recovery framework where the parties agreed.

The fifty shillings per child mechanism placed a specific working value on the cattle loss Slaughter had sustained, allocated as a charge against each child's share of the estate. The structure converted what would otherwise have been an immediate cash liability of Harding's into a deferred liability of the children's parts, payable presumably at the working moment when each child came of age and the estate fell to be divided.

Speculations

The decision to channel the balance of accounts directly into the Company stores, rather than allowing Slaughter to receive the cash, probably reflected the council's working assessment that Slaughter was substantially indebted on the store books and that an immediate cash payment to him would simply be absorbed by other working expenses before reaching the store. By directing the payment straight to the stores, with credit to Slaughter, the council secured the recovery while ensuring that Slaughter still received the working benefit of the bargain through the reduction of his outstanding balance.

The willingness of the executors of Harding's children to make up the account and pay Harding's debt suggests that the working position of Harding's children was substantially better resourced than Harding's own. The mechanism reads as a calculated use of the children's estate to secure the present working occupation of the parcel by their father, with the fifty shillings per child charge representing the working price paid by the children for the benefit of their parent's continued tenure. The arrangement preserved the family's working position on the parcel while spreading the cost of the settlement across the children's individual parts in a way that allowed the working transaction to proceed.

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he is obleidged to plant for James Rider that he have the Liberty to take Yam suckers out of the Cabbidge Tree Lease Land to plant the same

And that he Entertaine his Said father in law William Slaughter his wife and three Children three months in a year at the Said House they finding their own provisions

S[t] Helena

The reply of John Alexander for and on behalf of Rich[d] Alexanders three Child[n] in answer to the Case of M[r] Antipas Tovey relating to the House & Land formerly Granted to the said Rich[d] Alexander Dec[d]

As to the time mentiond in said Case I Suppose wrong for Rich[d] Alexander was outed of his House land and other premises some time in March 1709 and the discourse of his going off but a very little time before which was upon report being given out that Govern[r] Roberts would not grant Leases for any longer than twenty one years &c[a] & as to the proposal made Tho[s] Bagly tuffs for this reason & after the time of said Alexanders being Order'd to dispose of his Provissions & therefore no voluntary motion or design of his own as may be more fully to appeare, as also that twas never the thoughts & much more the words of s[d] Alexander to desire the said Bagley to buy those provissions till s[d] order of quitting y[e] Land & premisses was no Longer to be lookt upon as a free planter w[ch] proceedings could no a[s]y & what Jn[o] Alexander positively denys in respect to himselfe as well as to his deceased Bro[r] & Wife, indeed them or eather of them to wish him y[e] s[d] Tho[s] Bagley any Joy at all The s[d] Rich[d] Alexander dying soon after being y[e] 6[th] of May 1709 his Wid[o] was Left in a very mean condicon & deplorable condicon as well known to all

Margin Notes:

to plant one Ac[re] Land.

himself & familie to bo 3 mo. in a year w[th] s[d] Harding.

The reply of Jn[o] Alexander in Answer to y[e] Case of M[r] Tovey, relateing to y[e] House & Land form[er]ly granted to Rich[d] Alexand[r] Dec[d]

Slaughter was obliged to plant for James Reder. He was to have the liberty to take yam suckers out of the cabbage tree leased land, to plant the same.

Harding was further to entertain his father-in-law William Slaughter, his wife and three children for three months in a year at the house, they finding their own provisions.

Island of St Helena.

The reply of John Alexander, for and on behalf of Richard Alexander's three children, in answer to the case of Mr Antipas Tovey relating to the house and land formerly granted to Richard Alexander deceased.

As to the time mentioned in the case, Alexander supposed it was wrongly given. Richard Alexander had been put out of his house, land and other premises some time in March 1709, and the talk of his going off had been only a very little time before, which had arisen on report that Governor Roberts would not grant leases for any longer term than twenty-one years and so on, and on the proposal made by Thomas Bagley. For this reason, after Richard Alexander had been ordered to dispose of his provisions, there was no voluntary motion or design of his own that could be made more fully to appear, and the thoughts, much more the words, of Richard Alexander were never to desire Bagley to buy those provisions until the order of quitting the house and premises was no longer to be looked upon as a free planter. The proceedings could no way be questioned, and Alexander positively denied, in respect to himself as well as to his deceased brother and his wife, that any of them ever wished Thomas Bagley joy at all.

Richard Alexander died soon afterwards, on 6 May 1709, leaving his widow in a very mean condition and deplorable state, as was well known to all.

Interpretations

The Slaughter-Harding agreement concluded with two further working items: Slaughter's obligation to plant for James Reder, with the cabbage tree leased land supplying the suckers, and the three months a year hospitality for Slaughter's family at the country house. The mechanism by which Slaughter retained the right to draw suckers from leased ground reflected the working pattern by which planting stock could be transferred between holdings without affecting the underlying tenure of either parcel. James Reder appears earlier in the working sequence as the planter whose 61-acre title was confirmed on 30 May 1711 through his father-in-law Daniel Griffith's petition, and whose estate had been a recurring reference in the working land arrangements of the period.

The opening of John Alexander's written reply, on behalf of Richard Alexander's three children, set out a working counter-narrative to Tovey's case. Alexander challenged the chronology at the foundation of Tovey's account. Where Tovey had placed the working origin of the Bagley arrangement in October 1709, with Richard Alexander voluntarily handing over his house and land before his departure, Alexander now claimed that Richard had been put out of his premises some time in March 1709 and had then died on 6 May 1709. The working consequence is decisive: if Richard Alexander died in May 1709, he could not have made any voluntary arrangement with Bagley in October 1709.

The dispossession of Richard Alexander in March 1709 was tied by Alexander to a working report that Governor Roberts would not grant leases beyond twenty-one years. Bagley, on this account, made his proposal to take over the land in the context of the working uncertainty about lease terms, rather than as the recipient of a voluntary handover by Alexander. The structural argument is that Richard Alexander, ordered to dispose of his provisions on his removal from free planter status, had no working choice but to deal with whoever the council directed, and that any agreement reached was made under working duress rather than voluntary settlement.

The denial that any of the family had wished Bagley joy at all directly contradicted the corresponding detail in Tovey's case. Where Tovey had recorded that Richard Alexander's wife and brother John Alexander wished Bagley joy and good success in his settlement, Alexander now positively denied this on behalf of all three (himself, his deceased brother and the brother's widow). The conflicting accounts cannot both be true, and the council's resolution of the dispute will probably turn on whether either side can produce supporting evidence beyond the bare assertion of the petitioner.

The reference to Richard Alexander's death on 6 May 1709 is the key new factual point in the working sequence. The earlier working narrative of the Bagley plantation (the December 1709 grant, the 1711 restoration, the 1711 settlement on Gargen for the children) had not specified the date of Richard Alexander's death. The present account places the death just under five months after the dispossession, and well before Bagley's grant of December 1709, framing the chronology in a way that supports the children's claim.

Repjin Wells, identified in the previous council day's record as Marcy Alexander's father, does not feature in the present working narrative. Alexander's reply presented the case as one between the children's interests (with himself as executor and uncle) and Tovey's claim as the widow's second husband. The omission of Wells from the counter-narrative may reflect a tactical decision by Alexander to keep the family's working position focused on the children's rights rather than the wider Wells-Alexander connection that Tovey had identified as the working force behind the original petition.

Speculations

The shift of the chronology by seven months, from October 1709 to March 1709 for the dispossession and to May 1709 for Richard Alexander's death, is the working pivot of Alexander's counter-case. By placing the death before the grant, Alexander framed the entire Bagley arrangement as a working transaction over a dead man's estate, conducted with a vulnerable widow and the council, rather than as a consensual handover by the original holder. The mechanism converts the analytical question from whether the children's claim derived from a tainted petition (Tovey's framing) to whether the Bagley grant itself rested on any working title at all (Alexander's framing).

The deliberate placing of Richard Alexander's death date at the working core of the reply, with the corresponding dismissal of any voluntary motion or design on his part, suggests that Alexander was preparing a working case that could be tested against the consultation book itself. If the council's own records showed Richard Alexander being ordered to dispose of his provisions in early 1709, with no entry of a voluntary arrangement, the working documentary case for Alexander's position would be substantial. The council's eventual determination will probably depend on whether the working records, when examined, support Alexander's chronology or Tovey's.

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all the inhabitants, she was in respect to her poor condicon & for redress for y[e] wrong done her dec[d] Husband & Family obleig'd & did petition the Hon[ble] Court of Directors for possession of said House & Land again, w[ch] she the Wid[o] of Rich[d] Alexander heard read over in the presence of several & then signd thereto, upon which out of pitty & Charity they y[e] Hon[ble] Court of Directo[rs] Order'd her the said Wid[o] Mercy Alexander possession of y[e] aforesaid p[re]misses & in obedience & compliance therewith Benj[a] Boucher Esq[r] Govern[r] & Councell did give notice thereof & accordingly made an Order that the s[d] Wid[o] (or her present Husband) should take possession of s[d] house and Land persuant to y[e] s[d] Court of Directors positive Orders by Ships Toddington & Thistleworth w[ch] plainly shews an insuffeciency in the s[d] Case of Antipas Tovey & a wrong aspersion thrown upon s[d] Gov[r] Boucher in being therein s[d] that he forc'd Tho[s] Bagley out of y[e] premisses & them gave in possession of M[r] Goodgen

As to Tho[s] Bagleys petitioning the then Gov[r] & Councill no mention is made when nor is there any minutes or Record of y[e] same so that this may be a bare conjecture & presumption of M[r] Toveys, or I'll sett the case aright, y[t] dont give s[d] Bagley any better title to y[e] Land & p[re]misses nor was y[e] Lease granted him done by consent of s[d] R[d] Alexand[r] but on y[e] other hand very much to his dissattisfaction & apparent damage.

The damages s[d] to be sustaind by Thomas Bagley his Wid[o] or M[r] Tovey ought to be (after the right made out to s[d] premisses) proved by some of them, but theirs neither w[th] less on s[d] Tovey now to do, & therefore another insuffeciency of greater moment then the first

As to the opinion of Gov[r] Boucher saying ( if the s[d] so) that nieth[r] Wid[o] should have the land was because of my objection & that the Children was in greater want thereof & are so yet having but

Alexander's reply continued. The widow was, in respect to her poor condition and for redress of the wrong done to her deceased husband and family, obliged to petition the Honourable Court of Directors for possession of the house and land again. The petition was read over in the presence of several persons and then signed by Richard Alexander's widow, upon which, out of pity and charity, the Honourable Court of Directors ordered the widow Marcy Alexander to be put in possession of the premises just mentioned. In obedience and compliance with this, Governor Benjamin Boucher and the council gave notice of it and accordingly made an order that the widow, or her present husband, should take possession of the house and land, pursuant to the Court of Directors' positive orders by the ships Toddington and Thistleworth.

This plainly showed an insufficiency in the case of Antipas Tovey, and the slur thrown upon Governor Boucher in it. He had forced Bagley out of the premises and given Gurgen possession.

As to Bagley's petitioning the then governor and council, no mention was made when, nor were there any minutes or record of the same. So this might be a bare conjecture and presumption of Mr Tovey's. And if the case were set right, it did not give Bagley any better title to the land and premises. Nor was the lease granted to him done by consent of Richard Alexander, but on the other hand very much to his dissatisfaction and apparent damage.

The damages said to be sustained by Thomas Bagley, his widow, or Mr Tovey ought to be (after the right made out to the premises) proved by some of them. But there was neither witness nor evidence on Tovey's side now to do so, and therefore another insufficiency of greater moment than the first.

As to the opinion of Governor Boucher saying (if it were so) that neither widow should have the land because of his objection, and that the children were in greater want of it and were so yet, having

Interpretations

Alexander's reply now placed the working chronology of the 1711 restoration on a firmer documentary footing. The widow had petitioned the Court of Directors in London. The petition was read in her presence and signed by her. The Directors, moved by her poor condition, ordered the restoration. Boucher and the council acted on these orders, formally communicated by the ships Toddington and Thistleworth, by giving notice and making the order for possession to be taken by the widow or her present husband. The structural argument was that the restoration rested on direct metropolitan authority, transmitted by named ship, and not on any local manipulation of the kind Tovey had suggested.

The chronology was thus reframed against Tovey's account. Where Tovey had presented the widow's signature on the petition as obtained without her knowledge through the working hands of her father Repjin Wells and her brother John Alexander, Alexander now insisted that the petition had been read over in her presence and signed by her with full understanding. The conflict between the two accounts of the signing was the working evidentiary core of the dispute. The Toddington-Thistleworth dispatch reference established the working documentary route through which the Directors' orders had reached the island in 1711, and recalled paragraph 82 of that letter, under which Marcy Alexander had been granted her twenty-one-year lease on 8 October 1711.

The defence of Boucher in the present passage is itself working a calculated structural effect. Where the new administration had been systematically assembling a documentary case against the previous governor, Alexander's reply turned Boucher's role on its head: Boucher had not acted improperly in dispossessing Bagley and putting Gurgen in possession, but had simply executed the Directors' orders, as he was bound to do. The slur thrown upon Boucher in Tovey's case was therefore unfounded. The argument carried the working effect of removing one of the strongest planks of Tovey's claim for damages, which depended on Boucher's actions being characterised as wrongful obstruction.

The attack on the documentary basis of Bagley's petition was structurally sharp. Alexander pointed out that Tovey's case contained no reference to when Bagley petitioned, nor any record of the petition in the consultation books. Without working documentary support, the supposed petition was a bare conjecture and presumption. The mechanism by which a claim could be defeated for want of working evidence in the consultation books was the same one Tovey had relied upon to attack the widow's 1711 petition; Alexander now turned the test back against Tovey.

The challenge to Bagley's title went further. Even if Tovey's account were set right, it did not establish that the lease had been granted with Richard Alexander's consent. Alexander now positively asserted the contrary: the lease had been granted very much to Richard Alexander's dissatisfaction and apparent damage. The structural argument is that even Tovey's own evidence, if accepted at its highest, did not show consent, and that the working record showed the opposite.

The challenge to the damages claim was the third working point. Tovey had asked that the particular damages sustained by Bagley, his widow, and Tovey himself, be valued and proved. Alexander pointed out that for such damages to be recoverable, the right to the premises must first be established, and then the damages proved by those claiming them. Tovey had neither working witnesses nor evidence to prove the damages, only the bare assertion. The double insufficiency of his case (no right and no proof of damages) was the working ground for dismissal.

Speculations

Alexander's defence of Boucher's conduct in this passage represents a working tactical inversion of considerable subtlety. The new administration had been assembling material against Boucher across the whole August and September sequence (the burnt slaves' house, the destroyed live stock, the Bodley appraisement-block, the Plantation House in ruin, and the rest). Alexander's reply now placed Boucher's action in the Bagley case outside this catalogue, framing it as a working execution of metropolitan orders rather than a discretionary act. The mechanism aligned the children's claim with the working authority of the Directors themselves, and protected it from being absorbed into the wider working case against the previous governor.

The attention paid to the lack of any consultation book record for Bagley's supposed petition to Boucher suggests Alexander had probably already searched the books and confirmed the absence. The working effect of the search would be to confirm that any working petition by Bagley to be reheard, if made at all, had been made informally rather than through the council process. Alexander's structural advantage here is that the consultation books contained the positive record of the widow's restoration by Directors' order, but contained no record of any working counter-petition. The council, on its own working materials, would find Alexander's version of events the better supported.

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but very little to maintain them hereafter

The In ability of M[r] Toveys being not able to make a new plantation &c[a] seems something strang since he had three or four Blacks, provissions, Sallary & comings in for Schooling.

And as to the particular Case relating to Gov[r] Boucher hope M[r] Tovey wont accuse him with any thing more then he is able to Justifye & that he'll send him a Copy thereof that he may Justifye himself else where.

This I give in with reserves of farther answer if need be to the afores[d] case of M[r] Antipas Tovey, being Yo[r] Worsh[p] & Councels most humb[le] Octob[r] y[e] 5[th] 1714. & very Obed[t] Serv[t] Jn[o] Alexander.

An Estimate of the Charge of the Riding House, built by the late Govern[r] Boulcher at the Hon[ble] Comp[a] plantac[on]

311 Rafters, wallplates, riseing p[ts] and ground plates att 6[d] Each £4:15:11:00

2 Carpenters to cutt d[o] each cutting 10 p[r] day att 6[s] Each is 15[s] p[r] days £29:06:00

2 black[s] to attend em d[o] time at 1/6 £09:06:06

1 black brings 4 p[r] day is 78 days att 1/6 £05:17:00

[...] £00:00:00

2 Carpent[rs] to fix y[e] wall plates prop[s] riseing p[ts] & ground p[ts] att 6[s] Each y[e] day 16 days £06:00:00

2 blacks d[o] time to dig holes and attend them at 1/6 Each £01:00:00

1 Carpenter cutting & Splitting laths and binders 16 days att 6[s] £04:16:00

1 black d[o] time to attend him £01:04:00

2 Carpent[rs] to sett the Rafters and lathing 18 days Each att 6[s] p[r] day £10:16:00

2 blacks d[o] time w[th] em att 1/6 £02:14:00

80 deales for the Stables 2/6 £10:00:00

Carpenters work for d[o] £05:00:00

Nails for the totall £05:00:00

Carpent[r] work, Rafters, Laths, binders nails & blacks Labour for d[o] is £84:10:06

Carried Over

Margin Notes:

Charge of y[e] Riding House.

Alexander's reply continued. The children had but very little to maintain themselves with for the future.

Tovey's inability to make a new plantation seemed something strange, since he had three or four slaves, provisions, salary and comings-in for schooling.

As to the particular case relating to Governor Boucher, Tovey was not to accuse him with anything more than he was able to justify, and Alexander asked that Tovey send him a copy of the same, that he might justify Boucher elsewhere.

This Alexander gave in with reservation of further answer if need be to the case of Mr Antipas Tovey.

Dated 5 October 1714.

Signed: Your worships' and council's most humble and very obedient servant, John Alexander.

An estimate of the charge of the riding house built by the late Governor Boucher at the Honourable Company's plantation.

311 rafters, wall plates, ridging pieces and ground plates at 3d each £4 15s 11d

2 carpenters to cut the same, each cutting 10 a day at 6s each, is 15½ days £9 6s 0d

2 slaves to attend them on the same time, at 1s 6d £2 6s 6d

1 slave bringing 4 a day, is 78 days at 1s 6d £5 17s 0d

2 carpenters to fix the wall plates, props and ground plates, at 6s each per day, 10 days £6 0s 0d

2 slaves on the same time to dig holes and attend them, at 1s 6d each £1 0s 0d

1 carpenter cutting and splitting laths and binders, 16 days at 6s £4 16s 0d

1 slave on the same time to attend him £1 4s 0d

2 carpenters to set the rafters and lathing, 18 days each at 6s £10 16s 0d

2 slaves on the same time to attend them, at 1s 6d £2 14s 0d

80 deals for the stables at 2s 6d £10 0s 0d

Carpenters' work for the same £5 0s 0d

Nails for the same £5 0s 0d

Total for carpenter's work, rafters, laths, binders, nails and slave labour £64 10s 6d

Carried over.

Interpretations

The closing of Alexander's reply contained two sharp working points. The first turned Tovey's argument for damages against him: a man with three or four slaves, provisions, salary as secretary and comings-in for schooling could hardly claim that he was unable to set up a new plantation as Boucher had offered. The mechanism placed a working test on the damages claim by reference to Tovey's actual working resources. If Tovey had the working means to set up elsewhere, the failure to do so was his own choice, not a working loss attributable to Boucher's denial of the original plantation.

The comings-in for schooling reference identifies Tovey as also serving as a schoolmaster on the island, taking pupils for fees. The detail places him in a working household economy that combined the secretary's salary (the £40 0s 0d a year of the fifth-in-council rate under paragraph 45 of the Toddington letter, or perhaps higher as secretary under the United Company), private slave labour, and a teaching practice. The picture is one of a substantially resourced household, against which a claim of inability to take up new ground appears thin.

The second working point shifted ground on the Boucher question. Alexander now asked Tovey to send him a copy of any further matters concerning Boucher that Tovey wished to lay before the council, so that he could justify Boucher elsewhere. The mechanism converted Alexander into an active defender of Boucher's record on the island, and signalled that the wider working catalogue of complaints Tovey had reserved for future submission would be met by working counter-evidence rather than allowed to stand unopposed.

The reservation of further answer if need be reflected the working pattern of contested written submissions in the consultation book. Alexander's reply was complete as far as it went, but he reserved the right to respond to any further documentation Tovey might bring forward. The dating and signature of the document closed the present round.

The riding house estimate opened an entirely separate matter, evidently entered into the consultation as part of the assembling documentary case against Boucher. A riding house in this period normally meant a covered structure for the exercise of horses, particularly useful where weather or insects made open-air riding uncomfortable. The choice to build one at the Honourable Company's plantation, under the late Governor Boucher, represented a working application of Company resources to a structure of essentially recreational utility, particularly when set against the catalogue of essential repairs Boucher had failed to maintain (the Plantation House itself, the slaves' house burnt through Caesar's gun, the Old Goat Pound foundations undermined, and the rest).

The estimate set out a precise working accounting of the labour and materials. Two skilled carpenters were paid 6s 0d per day; slaves attending them were valued at 1s 6d per day, which matched the working hire rate established across the present sequence. The estimate ran to £64 10s 6d at the working point at which the page was carried over, with further charges to be entered on the following page. The structure of the accounting (carpenter days, slave-attendance days, materials by quantity and unit rate) reflected the working pattern by which the new administration was now attempting to put a working price on Boucher's discretionary expenditure of Company labour and materials.

Speculations

The working effect of placing the riding house estimate in the consultation immediately after Alexander's reply on the Bagley plantation case was probably calculated. By Alexander's defending Boucher in the Bagley dispute, and the council's then entering a detailed working estimate of an expensive recreational structure built under Boucher's direction at the Company's expense, the consultation book records both the working defence of Boucher in one matter and the working evidence against him in another. The mechanism allowed the council to test how far Alexander's defence of Boucher would extend, and to assemble the working financial accounting of Boucher-era discretionary works for transmission to the Directors.

The decision to put a working monetary value on the riding house, calculated by carpenter days and slave days at the standard rates, rather than simply noting the structure had been built, suggests that the new administration was preparing a working case in which Boucher's discretionary expenditure on the island could be charged against him in some manner. The mechanism may have been calculated to support a working set-off against any defence Boucher might offer in London of his administration, by quantifying the working cost to the Company of structures built for purposes that did not advance the working recovery programme.

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Brought Over £84:10:06

For digging 30 rood of ditch at 5[s] £07:10:00

2 Stone Layers 25 days Each for making 25 rood of wall att 5[s] Each £12:10:00

8 blacks d[o] time to fetch water, make morter, bring fillers and attend em att 1/6 each p[r] day is 12[s] p[r] day £15:00:00

6 blacks getting Stones for 19 [...] rood £05:14:00

For levelling 25 rood att 3[s] p[r] rood £03:15:00

For 320 burdens of Ruskes and cutting att 1[d] £16:00:00

160 black 1 day fetching att 1/6 £12:00:00

40 black 1 day fetching water drawing & tying d[o] at 1/6 £03:00:00

2 thatchers 18 days each at 5[s] p[r] day Each £09:00:00

4 blacks 18 days each to serve em att 1/6 Each £25:08:00

2 Overseers 36 days Each att [...] £7:4

Total £181:11:6

The above is to the best of our Judgments the first Cost and Charge of the building, Materialls, and blacks Labour as Wittness our hands. Edward Mashborne Henry Francis John Bagley Francis Wrangham

Geo[rge] Haswell Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Brought over £64 10s 6d

For digging 30 rood of ditch at 5s £7 10s 0d

2 stone layers, 25 days each, for making 25 rood of wall at 5s each £12 10s 0d

8 slaves on the same time to fetch water, make mortar, bring fillers and attend them, at 1s 6d each per day, 12 days £7 4s 0d

6 slaves getting stones for 19½ rood £5 14s 0d

For levelling 25 rood at 3s a rood £3 15s 0d

For 320 burdens of rushes and cutting at 12d £16 0s 0d

160 burdens, 1 day fetching at 1s 6d £12 0s 0d

40 slaves, 1 day fetching water, drawing and tying the same at 1s 6d £3 0s 0d

2 thatchers, 18 days each at 5s per day each £9 0s 0d

4 slaves, 18 days each to serve them, at 1s 6d each £5 8s 0d

2 overseers, 36 days each, at [...] £7 4s 0d

Total £181 11s 6d

The above was, to the best of the signatories' judgement, the first cost and charge of the building, materials and slaves' labour, as witnessed under their hands.

Signed: Edward Mashborne, Henry Francis, John Bagley, Francis Wrangham.

Then signed below by the council: Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The second page of the riding house estimate completed the working accounting begun on the previous page. The carry-over of £64 10s 6d combined with the new entries to produce a working total of £181 11s 6d. The structure of the accounting separated three working components: stone work (digging, wall-laying, levelling, water and mortar); thatching (rushes, fetching, cutting, drawing, tying); and overseeing.

The stone-work section recorded substantial mason days at the standard 5s 0d daily rate, with eight slaves at 1s 6d a day attending the masons over a twelve-day period. The combination produced a working rate of about 12s 6d a day in labour costs for each mason supported, against the bare 5s 0d mason wage. The labour cost of building one rood of stone wall at 5s 0d mason rate, with attendant slave support, was thus considerably higher than the bare wage suggests, and reflected the working pattern by which skilled work on the island depended on slave attendance for water, mortar and materials.

The thatching section identified the working materials and method. Three hundred and twenty burdens of rushes were cut at 12d each (£16 0s 0d in total), 160 burdens were fetched at 1s 6d a day (£12 0s 0d), and 40 slaves fetched water, drew and tied them at 1s 6d. Two thatchers worked for 18 days at 5s 0d a day, with 4 slaves attending them. The detail revealed that the riding house had been built with a thatched roof, the rushes being the standard working roofing material on the island where coals for lime burning were short.

The two overseers at 36 days each represented the working management cost of the project. The figure of £7 4s 0d for two men over 36 days each works to a rate of 2s 0d per day per overseer, the working rate already established on the island for plantation overseers.

The signatories formed a deliberate working pairing. Mashborne signed both as one of the four valuers and as a member of the council itself. Henry Francis and Francis Wrangham appeared earlier in the working sequence as free planters serving on survey and valuation panels, with Henry Francis having been used in the joint stock count of 9 December 1712. John Bagley appears as a free planter and carpenter, particularly suited to working valuation of a structure of this kind.

The mechanism by which four named valuers produced a working estimate, then signed under their hands, with the council also signing the consultation entry, was the established working pattern for documentary cases the council intended to transmit to London. The same pattern had governed the Powell fencing survey by Mashborne and Steward on 14 September 1714, the Bodley estate appraisement of 17 August 1714, and earlier cases.

The £181 11s 6d total represented a substantial working sum. Set against the rates the council had been allowing through the recovery framework (the £20 0s 0d threshold for debt-conversion incentives, the £40 0s 0d a year salary for the chief surgeon, the £39 0s 0d for Doctor Price, the £30 0s 0d for Porteous, the £14 0s 0d valuation of Slaughter's fencing on the present day's earlier business), the riding house alone represented a working cost equivalent to several years of senior officer salary, or approximately nine times the threshold above which the council had been pressing planters to discharge their store debts.

Speculations

The detailed structure of the riding house estimate, broken down into precise labour days and material quantities, suggests that the valuers had taken pains to produce a working figure that could withstand examination by the Directors in London. The mechanism reflected the new administration's working approach to assembling the documentary case against Boucher: not merely listing complaints, but pricing the working cost of each item by reference to the standard rates the council itself was applying. The £181 11s 6d figure would carry considerable working weight when compared with the Company's other expenditure on the island during the same period.

The composition of the working panel, combining the senior councillor most acquainted with plantation labour with three substantial free planters of varied skills (Francis as planter, Bagley as carpenter, Wrangham as planter and valuer), reflected the council's working concern to produce a figure that could not be challenged on grounds of insufficient working expertise. The panel covered every working component of the structure: stone work, carpentry, thatching, and supervision. The mechanism placed the riding house cost on a working evidentiary footing as solid as any of the council's other documentary submissions to London.

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Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tues- =day the 19[th] day of Octob[r] 1714 At the Plantation House.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Pres[t] George Haswell Dep[ty] Gov[r]. Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Couns[il]

The Petition of William Bates fisherman read as followeth. That whereas your Petitioner finding himself Considerably a looser by fishing on those hard Terms he now does Humbly Beggs your Hono[rs] will take it into yo[r] Consi- =deration and that he may be dismissed from the same to do his duty as a Montross as his late Worship Enterd him for that he is no longer able to maintain himself having been at great Charge for a Boat Hooks Lines and two hands (that he is obleig'd to hire) and all the fish he Catches is not sufficient to sattisfie them much more main- =taine himself and rather setts him backward than forward.

Therefore your Petitioner humbly desires that some person more fitt for that business may be imployed he not haveing his health very well. And your Petitioner (as in Duty bound) shall Ever pray &c[a] William Bates

Ordered.

That he Continue as fisherman to the Hono[ble] Company till they are provided with another.

William Cosley Marshall made Complaint against the Executors of Benjamin Sich for paym[t] for seven pound five shillings due to him

Richard

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

W[m] Bates desires to be discharg'd from fishing.

to Continue ffisherman

Cosleys Compl[t] ag[t] Bens Exe[c]t[rs] [...]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 19 October 1714 at the Plantation House.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The petition of William Bates, fisherman, was read as followeth.

Bates set out that he was finding himself considerably a loser by fishing on the present hard terms. He humbly begged the council to take it into consideration and that he might be dismissed from the work and return to his duty as matross, as the governor had originally enrolled him.

He was no longer able to maintain himself. He had been at great charge for a boat, hooks, lines and two hands he was obliged to hire. All the fish he caught was not sufficient to satisfy them, much less maintain himself, and the work was setting him backward rather than forward.

He therefore humbly desired that some person more fit for the business might be employed, he not being in very good health.

And as your petitioner, in duty bound, shall ever pray, and so on.

Signed: William Bates.

The council ordered that Bates continue as fisherman to the Honourable Company until they were provided with another.

William Corley, marshal, made complaint against the executors of Benjamin Sich for payment of £7 5s 0d due to him.

Richard

Interpretations

The Bates petition exposed the working economics of small-scale commercial fishing under Company contract. The fisherman bore the working capital costs (the boat, hooks and lines) and the recurring labour costs (two hired hands), but the catch had not been sufficient to cover either. The mechanism placed the working risk of the operation entirely on the fisherman while the Company received the supply. Bates's request to be dismissed and returned to matross duty reflected the working position of a man for whom the contract had become a working loss.

The reference to Bates having originally been enrolled as a matross by the governor placed him in a working pattern visible across the present sequence. Matrosses were the artillery soldiers ranking below gunner, and several had been encountered earlier (John Welch as the gunner's-crew matross of 14 October 1712, James Vesey as matross found over his land complement in April 1712, Humphrey Edwards admitted as matross on 3 November 1713). The mechanism by which a matross could be redirected to a working civilian task such as fishing reflected the flexible deployment of the garrison's working strength to whatever immediate need arose, but the present petition revealed the working difficulty of such redeployment when the civilian task required commercial returns to support its operating costs.

The council's order that Bates continue as fisherman until another could be found suggests that the working position of Company fisherman was hard to fill. The mechanism left Bates in working hardship pending the council's working appointment of a replacement, but at the same time committed the council to finding one. The order's working effect was to convert what Bates had asked as an immediate release into a deferred release pending succession.

Bates's mention of poor health, placed at the end of his account of his working losses, may have been a working last point in support of the petition rather than the primary one. The council appears to have weighed the working operational need against the petitioner's circumstances and reached a compromise that addressed neither in full.

The opening of the Corley complaint introduced a new working dispute. William Corley, marshal of the island, brought a claim against the executors of Benjamin Sich for £7 5s 0d. Sich's will had been proved on 17 August 1714 on the oaths of William Porteous and Henry Francis, brought by his executors Richard Swallow senior and Francis Wrangham. The present complaint placed those executors in the position of working defendants on a creditor's claim. The marshal's office was the working enforcement arm of the council's authority, so the spectacle of the marshal himself bringing a personal claim added a procedural feature: the man who normally executed working warrants on others was now asking the council for working authority to enforce a claim of his own.

The £7 5s 0d figure, though modest in comparison with the substantial sums seen elsewhere in the present session, was sufficient to bring the matter formally before the council rather than resolve it privately. The fragment of the next line, opening Richard at the foot of the page, will almost certainly continue into the working account of the dispute, probably naming Richard Swallow senior as the executor first answering the claim.

Speculations

The decision to retain Bates as fisherman until another could be found, despite the working hardship he had set out, suggests that the council was working with a limited pool of candidates willing to take on the working position. The mechanism by which the Company contracted out fishing to a single fisherman, rather than operating the boat directly under the storekeeper or the gunner, kept the Company's working exposure to the costs of the operation low, but it also left the position vulnerable to working failure when the catch was poor. The council's working response was probably calibrated to keep the supply chain operating while gradually identifying a replacement.

The bringing of the Corley complaint before the council on the same day as the Bates petition, both touching small but contested sums, suggests that the working pattern of the autumn consultations under Pyke was beginning to include a steady volume of small-scale civil claims, alongside the larger Boucher-era cases. The mechanism by which the council functioned as the working forum for such claims, with the marshal himself capable of being both enforcer and claimant, reflects the working compactness of the island's administrative establishment.

225

216

Richard Swallow & Francis Wrangham the Execut[rs] being called in prove that five pound is already paid in the Hono[ble] Companys Stores & are ready to pay the other two pound five shillings.

Orlando Bagley & Rich[d] Swallow the Execut[rs] to Thomas Bagley dec[d] presented the two following papers To the Worship[ll] Gov[r] & Council.

Wee Orlando Bagley & Rich[d] Swallow Execut[rs] to Thom[s] Bagley Des[d] seeing the Remissness of M[r] Tovey in proseiuting the recovery of his predecessors right and that the Dispute betwixt M[r] Alexander and him is Litegious and not likely to Come to a Decysion. wee in Conscience to our deceased Brother and his Issue humbly begg leave to represent his Case thinking it our duty so to do.

First then we desire that consultation may be produced wherein Richard Alexander did request leave to make sale of his Plantation & other Effects and to goe off this Island and that we may have a Coppy of the same.

Secondly we have Thomas Bagleys lease ready to produce granted him by the Gov[r] and Councill and at the request and offer of the s[d] Alexander to the said Bagley and do urge John Alexander to make proof whether or not that the said Bagley did use any indirect means towards Alexander in either of these points if not wee do most humbly conceive that Bagleys Claim is just, and that the Governm[t] had full Power to Dispose of the Company Lands

Thirdly we require a Coppy of that Petition sent to England by John Alexander in behalf of his Sister and his Children whereon those allegations were by him sett forth to the Company that was the reason of Bagleys being outed which we beleive may be Lastly objected against, and do require the Said Copy upon oath.

Margin Notes:

the Execut[rs] prove y[t] [...] is paid and willing y[e] [...] [...]

S[t] Helena.

Orl[d] Bagley & Richard Swallow on behalf of Tho[s] Bagley dec[d]

their severall

Allegations [...] ab[t] y[e] Land form[er]ly Rich[d] Alesand[rs]

Since

Possess'd by Thom[s] Bagley.

Richard Swallow and Francis Wrangham, the executors, being called in, proved that £5 0s 0d was already paid into the Honourable Company's stores, and were ready to pay the other £2 5s 0d.

Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow, the executors of Thomas Bagley deceased, presented two papers as followeth.

St Helena. To the Worshipful Governor and Council.

The petition of Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow, executors to Thomas Bagley deceased, was that, seeing the remissness of Mr Tovey in prosecuting the recovery of his predecessor's right, and that the dispute between Mr Alexander and him was tedious and not likely to come to a decision, in conscience to their deceased brother and his issue, they humbly begged leave to represent the case, thinking it their duty to do so.

First, they desired that the consultation might be produced in which Richard Alexander had requested leave to make sale of his plantation and other effects and to go off the island, and that they might have a copy of the same.

Second, they had Thomas Bagley's lease ready to produce, granted to him by the governor and council and at the request and offer of Richard Alexander to Bagley. They urged John Alexander to make proof, whether or not Bagley had used any indirect means towards Richard Alexander in either of these points. If not, they humbly conceived that Bagley's claim was just, and that the governor had full power to dispose of the Company's lands.

Third, they required a copy of the petition sent to England by John Alexander on behalf of his sister and her children, in which those allegations were set forth to the Company that were the reason of Bagley's being ousted. They believed this might be lawfully objected against, and required the copy upon

Interpretations

The opening resolution of the Corley complaint demonstrated the working pattern by which the council handled smaller debt-recovery cases. The executors of Benjamin Sich had partly satisfied the claim by paying £5 0s 0d into the Honourable Company's stores, and were ready to pay the balance of £2 5s 0d. The mechanism by which the executors discharged a creditor's claim through payment into the Company stores, with credit being given through the working account system, applied the same store-channelled debt-settlement principle that the council had used in the Slaughter-Harding settlement of the previous fortnight, and reflected the working approach by which the Company stores functioned as the working clearing-house for inter-planter and inter-officer debt.

The intervention of Bagley's executors transformed the Tovey-Alexander dispute into a four-cornered working contest. Where Tovey had set out his case in writing on 28 September 1714 and Alexander had replied on 5 October 1714, the executors of the late Thomas Bagley (Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow) now entered the working contest on a third footing. Their working interest was distinct from Tovey's: they acted as executors for Bagley's children and represented the deceased's heirs against any claim that Bagley's lease had been wrongly procured. The working effect was to place the children of Thomas Bagley alongside the children of Richard Alexander as parties to the dispute, with the council called on to weigh the working rights of two sets of heirs against each other.

The criticism of Tovey's remissness in prosecuting the recovery suggests that Tovey's working approach to the case had been seen by the executors as insufficiently vigorous, perhaps because Tovey's working position as a serving councillor made him cautious about pressing the case as far as it might be taken. The executors, having no such working constraint, presented themselves as the proper guardians of Bagley's heirs' interests.

The three documentary demands set out by the executors deployed a careful working strategy. The first demand was for the consultation in which Richard Alexander had requested leave to sell his plantation and depart. If such a consultation existed in the books, it would settle the question Tovey and Alexander had been disputing: whether the working handover to Bagley had been voluntary. The second demand was for production of Bagley's own lease, which the executors had ready, and a challenge to John Alexander to prove that Bagley had used any indirect means towards Richard Alexander. The third demand was for the petition John Alexander had sent to England on behalf of his sister and her children, which the executors believed might be lawfully objected against.

The structural argument running through all three demands was that the working documentary record, if produced, would settle the question in Bagley's heirs' favour. The executors' confidence in this working position was striking, and probably rested on prior knowledge of what the consultation books would show.

The claim that the governor had full power to dispose of the Company's lands was the executors' fall-back legal position. Even if the working documentary record proved less decisive than they hoped, the executors argued that the original grant to Bagley had been within the governor's working authority and could not be undone by any later working petition. The mechanism placed the legitimacy of all original grants by past governors on the same working footing.

Speculations

The willingness of the executors to require production of John Alexander's London petition suggests that the executors had probably already seen it, or had reliable working knowledge of its contents, and believed it contained material misstatements that could be exposed by formal comparison. The mechanism reads as the working approach of parties confident that the working documentary case favours them and willing to bring the matter to a head by formal production of the contested documents.

The framing of the executors' intervention as a duty in conscience to their deceased brother and his issue, with no apparent working personal interest, was probably calculated to displace any working suspicion that the executors had any motive beyond the protection of the children. The mechanism mirrored the structural approach taken by John Alexander on 21 September 1714, when his own intervention had been framed as that of an executor acting in conscience for the working benefit of Richard Alexander's children. With both sides now framing themselves as disinterested guardians of minor heirs, the council was working with a structural pattern in which the working family connections of all parties were carefully obscured behind the language of executorship.

226

217

Oath, and do freely grant the said Alexander Copys of Bagleys Petitions both to the Company and Govern[r] Boucher upon oath, and shall Endeavour to prove it was not so much out of Charity, to the Widdow of Alexander, (then the wife of Tho[s] Goodgen) as out of Contempt to Govern[r] Roberts to Oppose him that Govern[r] Boucher gave Goodgen Possession thereof.

Furtherwe humbly request to know if the Company have in any Generall Letter given their Express Orders that Alexanders Wid[o] should be reinstated in the land that was formerly in her Hus- bands Possession without Ever Examining Bagleys claim thereto.

We have severall more Instances in Bagleys behalf, but do suppose this may be sufficient unless Alexander can prove this our Report Invalid. Who are in respects Yo[r] Worship[ps] & Coun[s] most obed[t] humb[le] Serv[ts] Orlando Bagley Rich[d] Swallow Octob[r] The 12 1714

I do acknowledge to have heard the late Worship[fl] Gov[r] Boucher sitting by the fire in the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Plantation House in Company with M[r] Cark & Mr[s] Ellen Keeling. Declare that should have proceeded quite otherwise then with that severity (in the Case Depending between M[r] Alexander and Thomas Bagley) against Thomas Bagley and what he had performd was absolute, to Oppose Gover[r] Roberts who had only been disserviceable to Thom[s] Bagley in that Affair. Witnyss my hand. George Carne

Ordered

That M[r] Alexander, M[r] Goodgen, & all other persons Concerned have Notice that the Govern[r] and Council resolve to Come to a speedy Determination of the Matter relating to the land in Dispute possest by M[r] Goodgen.

The Govern[r] and Cap[tn] Mashborne report that they bought of the Widdow Starlings ould[ry] the following Particulars. viz[t]

[...]

Margin Notes:

M[r] Carnes Certificate

Allegions Concern'd ab[t] y[e] Land to have Notice &c[a]

at Starlings ould [Cy]

The executors' submission continued. They freely granted that Alexander might have copies of Bagley's petitions, both to the Company and to Governor Boucher, on oath. They would endeavour to prove that the move against Bagley had been made not so much out of charity to Alexander's widow (then the wife of Thomas Gurgen) as out of contempt for Governor Roberts and to oppose him, that Governor Boucher had given Gurgen possession.

They further humbly requested to know whether the Company had in any of their general letters given express orders that Alexander's widow should be reinstated in the land formerly in her husband's possession, without ever examining Bagley's claim to it.

They had several more instances in Bagley's behalf, but supposed this might be sufficient unless Alexander could prove the executors' report invalid.

Signed: Your worships' and council's most obedient and humble servants, Orlando Bagley, Richard Swallow.

Dated 12 October 1714.

I do acknowledge to have heard the late Governor Boucher sitting by the fire in the Honourable Company's Plantation House, in company with Mr Park and Mrs Ellen Keeling, declare that this should have proceeded quite otherwise, even with that severity (in the case depending between Mr Alexander and Thomas Bagley) against Thomas Bagley, and what he had performed had been absolutely to oppose Governor Roberts, who had only been serviceable to Thomas Bagley in that affair.

Witness my hand: George Carne.

The council ordered that Mr Alexander, Mr Gurgen and all other persons concerned have notice that the governor and council resolved to come to a speedy determination of the matter relating to the land in dispute possessed by Mr Gurgen.

The governor and Captain Mashborne reported that they had bought at the widow Starlings' outcry the following particulars:

66,000 [...]

Interpretations

The executors' closing submission added a new working point of considerable structural weight. The argument that Boucher had acted not from charity to Alexander's widow but from contempt for Governor Roberts converted the dispossession from a humanitarian response to a political act of administrative spite. The mechanism placed Boucher's working motive within the catalogue the new administration had been assembling against him: the Bagley case was not an isolated mistake but part of the wider pattern of Boucher's hostility to his predecessor's working arrangements.

The further question whether the Company had ever in their general letters given express orders that Alexander's widow be reinstated without examining Bagley's claim went directly to the procedural test the executors wished to apply. If the Directors' orders had only authorised a hearing or an investigation, and the local administration had simply transferred possession without examining the working claim of the existing tenant, then the working title of Marcy and her children rested on a misreading or wilful overreach of the metropolitan instruction. The mechanism was precise: the consultation books, paired with the Toddington-Thistleworth letter, would either show express orders or would not.

The Carne certificate is the most striking piece of working evidence in the present session. George Carne, the Beale orphans' executor and a substantial planter familiar through the earlier working sequence, certified under his hand that he had heard Boucher, sitting by the fire at the Plantation House in company with Mr Park and Mrs Ellen Keeling, declare that the case should have proceeded quite otherwise (even with severity), and that what he had done against Bagley had been absolutely to oppose Roberts. The certificate placed Boucher's working motive on direct testimony from a planter of standing.

The structural effect of the Carne certificate was decisive. By converting Boucher's reported remarks from the working observation of Doctor Porteous (which Tovey had earlier introduced) to the direct testimony of George Carne under his hand, the executors raised the evidentiary value of the Boucher conversations from second-hand report to written witness statement. The mechanism produced a working documentary record that could be carried to London with the other evidence against Boucher, and would carry working weight against any defence Boucher might offer.

The council's order that all parties be given notice of the council's resolve to come to a speedy determination signalled that the working phase of written submissions was closing. After Tovey's case of 28 September, Alexander's reply of 5 October, the executors' submission of 12 October, and the Carne certificate, the council had assembled enough working material to reach a decision. The mechanism placed the next council day on a working footing where the parties would be expected to appear for the determination itself.

The opening of the widow Starlings' outcry account introduced an entirely separate matter. The governor and Captain Mashborne reported a working purchase at the public outcry sale of the estate of widow Starlings (probably Hatton Starling's widow, given the long working line of Starlings in the present sequence). The figure of 66,000 in the working entry probably refers to yams, given the working context of stock acquisitions across the present autumn under the procurement framework, although the line is incomplete on the present image.

Speculations

The reframing of Boucher's working motive from charity to political spite suggests that the executors had probably been assembling working evidence of the late governor's actual reasoning behind the dispossession. The Carne certificate is consistent with this: a planter of standing willing to put his name to a written statement of overheard remarks. The mechanism reads as the working approach of a party confident that the working evidentiary case can be made to support the structural argument, and the willingness to put it under hand is itself the test of that confidence.

The decision to bring the Tovey-Alexander dispute to a speedy determination, with notice to all parties, suggests that the council had probably already formed a working view of the case and wished to close it before any further working complications emerged. The mechanism mirrored the working pattern by which the council had handled other contested Boucher-era cases (the Pompey case, the Bodley estate, the Earle lands): once sufficient working evidence had been assembled to support a determination, the council moved decisively to close the matter rather than allow the working contest to continue indefinitely.

227

218

66000 Young Yams & suckers to stand eighteen months £37:1:-

2 Black men slaves £23:5:-

1 Bull £7:5:-

2 Heifers £11:1:-

2 Hoggs £2:7:8

By which her debit to the Hono[ble] Comp[a] she is secured £81:9:8

They have also bought the following Cattle viz[t] of M[r] Eston 1 Bull £10:-:- 3 Bullocks £20:-:- is £30:-:-

M[r] Free 1 Bullock £5:5:-

M[r] Wrangham 2 Bullocks £16:-:-

M[r] Alexander 2 Ditto £12:-:-

Stephen Luffkin 1 Heifer £6:-:-

John Keeling presented a Petition as follows. To the Worship[ll] the Gov[r] & Coun[l] The Petition of John Keeling humbly

Sheweth.

That whereas John Keeling yo[r] Petition[r] Son of Richard Keeling Gover[r] of Wales is land form- =erly, has in Croperity a Parcell of Land containing thirty Acres which he presumes (having a design to Dispose thereof) as lying Contiguous to the Hono[ble] Companys Plantation Offers them the first Roposall and no doubting your Worship & Coun[l] are app[d] the Yamm Ground &c[a] is near yo[r] Plantati- =on did formerly maintain a Large family requiring 130000, which it held and will Certainly when M[r] George Carne my father in Law leaves it which he Contracts to do in less then a year having Cleared a Third of it Already which may be made an Imme- =diate use of and will yield in Severall the one and the other what will alleviate very Considerably the Purchase of the whole, Also your Petitioner request you would Consider the House on the land has contain'd

Margin Notes:

The Severall Particulars.

Cattle bought, & of whom.

M[r] Keelings offer of Land Provisions, &c[a]

The particulars of what the governor and Captain Mashborne had bought at the widow Starlings' outcry stood as follows.

66,000 young yams and suckers to stand 18 months £37 1s 0d

2 male slaves £23 5s 0d

1 bull £7 5s 0d

2 heifers £11 1s 0d

2 hogs £2 7s 8d

Total £81 9s 8d

By this her debt to the Honourable Company was secured.

The council had also bought the following cattle:

Of Mr Eyson: 1 bull £10 0s 0d

3 bullocks £20 0s 0d

Sub-total £30 0s 0d

Of Mr Free: 1 bullock £5 15s 0d

Of Mr Wrangham: 2 bullocks £16 0s 0d

Of Mr Alexander: 2 bullocks £12 0s 0d

Of Stephen Lufkin: 1 heifer £6 0s 0d

John Keeling presented a petition to the governor and council. He set out that, as son of the late Richard Keeling, former governor of St Helena, he held a parcel of thirty acres which he now intended to sell. Lying close to the Honourable Company's plantation, the ground seemed most properly to be offered to the council in the first place.

Keeling presumed the council was aware that the yam ground, sitting near the plantation, had formerly supported a large family, holding 130,000 yams, and would certainly do so again when George Carne, his father-in-law, left it. Carne had contracted to remain for at least a year, of which a third was already worked out, and had already cleared a portion of the ground that could be put to immediate use. The standing crop and suckers between them would yield enough to ease the cost of the purchase considerably. Keeling also asked the council to take into account the house on the land, which had contained

Interpretations

The widow Starlings' outcry account converted a public auction of a deceased planter's estate into a working device for the recovery of the Honourable Company's debt. The £81 9s 8d total was made up of 66,000 young yams and suckers (£37 1s 0d), two male slaves (£23 5s 0d), one bull (£7 5s 0d), two heifers (£11 1s 0d), and two hogs (£2 7s 8d). The closing note that her debt to the Company was secured by these purchases revealed the mechanism: the council, as her creditor, bought the assets at the outcry at working prices that covered the debt. The structural effect was to extinguish the widow's working obligation while transferring her productive assets to the Company's working establishment under the recovery programme.

The slave valuation of £23 5s 0d for two men placed the working price per slave at approximately £11 12s 6d, well below the £20 0s 0d ceiling that had operated as the Boucher-era cap and that Pyke had displaced through the Perkins case of 13 July 1714. The reduced figure may reflect either the slaves' age or condition, or the working effect of a public auction at which the council was effectively the only working bidder. Either way, the price was consistent with the new administration's working principle that public sale to the best advantage was the new working standard, subject to public-good forfeiture conditions.

The cattle purchases from Eyson, Free, Wrangham, Alexander and Lufkin showed the working procurement programme operating across the planter community. Bull prices ranged from £5 15s 0d (Free) and £7 5s 0d (Starlings) to £10 0s 0d (Eyson), with bullocks at around £6 0s 0d each on average and heifers at £5 to £6 0s 0d. The pattern reflected the working differentiation by age and condition that the council's purchase regime allowed, with sound breeding stock commanding higher prices than working stock of similar mass. The total of £69 15s 0d in cattle alone, on top of the £81 9s 8d at Starlings' outcry, represented a working investment in livestock recovery directly comparable to the £64 10s 6d first page of the riding house estimate, which placed the Company's recovery expenditure on the same working scale as the catalogued losses under Boucher.

The reference to Mr Eyson identifies a new planter not previously visible in the working sequence; Mr Free is probably Thomas Free, the former clerk discharged on 4 June 1713 and continuing as a planter after his marriage to Sarah Griffith; Mr Wrangham is probably Francis Wrangham of the working valuation panels; Mr Alexander is probably John Alexander, current petitioner on behalf of the Richard Alexander children, in his other working capacity as planter; and Stephen Lufkin appears earlier in the title-day records of 17 March 1713.

The Keeling petition opened a substantial offer to the Company. John Keeling, son of the late Richard Keeling (former governor of St Helena), proposed to sell his thirty-acre parcel lying contiguous to the Company's plantation. The reference to George Carne as his father-in-law is the working family detail that places the Keeling parcel within the wider Carne household. Carne had been managing the parcel under a working contract with Keeling, with a year's notice required before any change, of which a third was already worked out. The structural argument was that the parcel could be acquired at a discount because the standing yams (130,000 of them) and the suckers would yield enough to alleviate the purchase price considerably.

The reference to 130,000 yams as the working figure the parcel had formerly maintained, sufficient to support a large family, placed the Keeling parcel among the substantial yam-producing holdings on the island. Set against the Company's working plantation survey of 10 August 1714 (which had identified 555,550 yams across all five named Company plantations), the Keeling 130,000 figure would represent a working twenty-three per cent addition to Company yam stock on the strength of a single acquisition.

Speculations

The decision to set the Starlings' purchase prices at the working level that exactly cleared her debt to the Company suggests calculated working coordination between the council, the marshal (Corley) who would have conducted the outcry, and the working appraisers. The figure of £81 9s 8d was unlikely to be a coincidence of free bidding; the working pattern more probably reflects the council's working appetite for the assets at the price at which her debt would be satisfied, with no further bidders driving the price up. The mechanism preserved the Company's working position as creditor while preventing the assets from passing to private hands at any working premium.

The Keeling offer probably came forward at this moment because Carne's working contract on the parcel was beginning to wind down, and Keeling preferred to dispose of the working asset before any working dispute with his father-in-law's working successor or replacement could arise. The mechanism of offering to the Company first, with the working argument that the standing yams and suckers would alleviate the purchase price, reads as the working approach of a vendor who knew the Company would value the consolidation of contiguous ground (a working priority of the new administration since the August procurement orders) and would be willing to pay a working premium for the standing crop. The exact figure proposed will probably emerge on the following page.

228

219

Contain'd and may be Conceiv'd Conveniently for a very Considerable famitly may be alowd to yo[r] Petitioner who in duty bound shall Ever pray John Keeling.

Ordered.

That the Consideration of this Petition be referrd till next Councill day.

M[r] Tovey sent word to the Govern[r] that the Store House adjoyning to M[r] Carnes was broke open and some flower stolen.

Ordered

That an Advertisement be Issued out offering five pound reward for the Discovery of the Person, and to pardon if any Accomplices.

Cap[tn] Mashborne Reports that he has broke up ground and sowen Rye and Clover Grass, also inlarged the Garden by breaking up the ground and the plantations all which he hopes to see the good Effect of in a little time Also.

An Acco[t] of the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Cattle, Sheep, Hoggs, Goats &c[a] Tahin Octob[r] the 1 1714

8 Bulls 3 Sheep

18 Cows 88 Hoggs 2 b[o]t 5 dead last month.

12 Heifers 140 Goats 7 kidded 4 killd

5 Bullocks 26 Turkeys 2 killd 24 bought.

15 Steers

9 yearlings

2 Calves

69

[...] Geo[rge] Haswell Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Referrd

Robbery.

reward offer'd.

Rye & Clov[r] Grass Sow'd.

Acco[t] of y[e] Comp[as] Stock. 8[br]

Keeling's petition closed with the request that the house on the land, which had contained, and might still conveniently hold, a very considerable family, be allowed to him. The petition was dated and signed by John Keeling.

The council ordered that the consideration of the petition be referred to the next council day.

Mr Tovey sent word to the governor that the storehouse adjoining Mr Carne's had been broken open and some flour stolen.

The council ordered that an advertisement be issued offering a reward of £5 0s 0d for the discovery of the person responsible, and a pardon to any accomplice who came forward.

Captain Mashborne reported that he had broken up new ground and sown rye and clover grass, and had also enlarged the garden by breaking up the ground there. He had done the same across the plantations, and hoped to see good effect of all this in a little time.

An account of the Honourable Company's stock of cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and so on, taken on 1 October 1714.

Bulls 8

Cows 18

Heifers 12

Bullocks 5

Steers 15

Yearlings 9

Calves 2

Cattle total 69

Sheep 3

Hogs 88 (2 bought; 5 dead last month)

Goats 140 (7 kidded; 4 killed)

Turkeys 26 (2 killed; 24 bought)

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The closing of the Keeling petition kept the structural emphasis on the working value of the standing house on the land. The reference to a considerable family the building might accommodate placed it among the substantial dwellings on the island, and signalled that the price Keeling would expect from the Company covered not only the ground and crop but also a working residence capable of housing an overseer's household. The council's deferral to the next council day reflected the working pattern by which substantial property purchases were not settled at first reading, allowing time for the council to consider what figure the Company should offer.

The storehouse robbery introduced a new working order of public security. The location of the storehouse adjoining Mr Carne's identified it as one of the substantial dwellings within working distance of George Carne's house, presumably in James Valley. The breaking-open of a Company store, even for so modest a theft as some flour, struck at the working principle that Company property in store was inviolable, and required a working response to deter further attempts. The £5 0s 0d reward set the council's working price for information at the same level as the reward for the Worrall physick-nut garden vandalism of 2 May 1711, and reflected the working benchmark for serious working offences against Company property.

The pardon to any accomplice who came forward applied the standard mechanism by which the council sought to break a working conspiracy of more than one person from within. The structure protected the most useful informant by removing his working risk of prosecution, while the substantial reward provided positive working incentive. The same mechanism had been used in earlier reward advertisements (the slave insurrection alarm of 2 June 1714, the Worrall garden vandalism order of 1711) and reflected the working pattern of self-funding enforcement that the council had developed for offences against Company property.

Captain Mashborne's report of new ground broken up and sown with rye and clover grass identified the working agricultural improvements pursued under the new administration. Rye was a working winter cereal that could be grown on ground unsuited to the higher-value yams and could provide working fodder for the Company's cattle. Clover grass was a working pasture improver, valued for its ability to enrich worn-out ground and support more intensive grazing. The enlargement of the garden by breaking up new ground reflected the working effort to extend the productive vegetable supply for the working establishment beyond the Plantation House gardens.

The October 1714 stock account closed the working month at 69 head of cattle, the same as the count of 1 September 1714 reported on 7 September. The static cattle total reflected the working balance of acquisitions (the bullocks and heifers bought from Eyson, Free, Wrangham, Alexander, Lufkin and Starlings reported earlier in the present consultation, several of which probably entered the working figures after the 1 October count) against any working losses or kills. The hog stock had risen sharply, from 21 head on 1 September to 88 on 1 October, the working increase reflecting both the 2 bought and probably substantial production by the working breeding stock. The goat stock had risen to 140 head, up from 137 on 1 September, with 7 kids born and 4 killed in the month. The turkey stock had risen from 4 on 1 September to 26 on 1 October, with 24 bought and 2 killed.

The stock figures across August, September and October together formed a working baseline against which the recovery of the Company's livestock under Pyke could be measured. The mechanism by which monthly returns recorded both standing stock and monthly movement (births, kills, purchases) was the working pattern that Mashborne had introduced from his first return of 9 December 1712 and had now restored under the new administration. The detail probably formed an essential part of the documentary case the new administration was preparing for transmission to London.

Speculations

The reporting of the storehouse robbery so soon after the closing of the Boucher-era settlement framework suggests that the working effects of the recovery programme had probably begun to bite, with the working level of inhabitant hardship under the credit-clearing and store-settlement regime creating working pressure on poorer households to seek alternative supplies of staple flour. The fact that the storehouse adjoining Mr Carne's was the target, rather than the principal Company store in the United Castle itself, may reflect either working knowledge of weaker security at the secondary store or working calculation that a small theft from a side-store would attract less working investigation than a similar offence at the Castle.

The placing of Mashborne's report on rye, clover and garden expansion immediately after the working order on the robbery suggests a calculated working pairing in the consultation book entry. By documenting both the working agricultural improvements and the working enforcement order on the same day, the consultation record placed the working effort of the new administration alongside the working threats to it, framing both as part of the same recovery programme.

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220

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 26 day of Octob[r] 1714 at the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Plantation House.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Pres[t] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] sick Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l] sick

Cap[tn] Mashborne makes report that Acording to an Order of Council bearing date the 24 of August last past, He has inclos'd that peice of Ground under the high Peak and Planted forty Six Thousand of suckers, and that he thinks it very Necessary & Servisable to inclose the Pasture round said ground w[ch] will Containe about 65 Acres there being Sixty rod of Fence formerly made

Order'd

That Cap[t] Mashborne take all Opportunitys to inclose Said Land for a Pasture Acordingly.

According to an Order of Counsell bearing date the 10 of August last Cap[t] Mashborne further Reports that he thinks where the old Blacks House stood is the most Convenients place to build a new One the Ground there being very dry and warm.

The Govern[r] Says he has taken a veiw of the place and thinks it very Proper the House being now to be built for all the Blacks which are in Number 52 and because it is more probable that this Number will Increase then Decrease the House intended to be Erected ought to be Capeable of Conteaining Seventy Persons, which we hope will be done with very Little Charge. Ordered.

That

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Ground at high peak Inclos'd & planted

more Necessary for a Pasture

Same to be inclosed

Report ab[t] Blacks House at Plant[on]

Approved of, and to be 70 P[er]sons

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 26 October 1714 at the Honourable Company's Plantation House.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor (sick)

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council (sick)

Captain Mashborne reported that, in accordance with an order of council of 24 August last, he had enclosed the piece of ground under the High Peak and planted 46,000 suckers. He thought it very necessary and convenient to enclose the pasture round the same ground, which would contain about 65 acres, there being sixty rod of fence already made.

The council ordered Captain Mashborne to take every opportunity to enclose the land for pasture accordingly.

Mashborne further reported, in accordance with an order of council of 10 August last, that he thought the place where the old slaves' house stood was the most convenient site to build a new one, the ground there being very dry and warm.

The governor reported that he had inspected the spot and considered it very suitable. The house was now to be built for all the slaves, which numbered 52, and because it was probable that this number would increase rather than decrease, the house intended to be erected ought to be capable of accommodating 70 persons. The council hoped this would be done at very little charge.

The council ordered

Interpretations

Mashborne's report on the High Peak ground brought the working agricultural programme launched by the council's earlier order of 24 August 1714 to its first reported stage. The piece of ground was now enclosed and planted with 46,000 suckers, but the working efficiency of the parcel would be substantially improved by enclosing the surrounding pasture, calculated at about 65 acres with sixty rod of existing fence already in place. The mechanism reflected the working approach by which a planted parcel was secured by an outer pasture enclosure, both protecting the new planting from straying livestock and converting the surrounding ground into managed grazing.

The figure of 60 rod of fence already made placed the working investment in fencing at this site within the wider working framework of the recovery programme. At the working rate of 5s 0d per rod for double wall (the standard from the November 1710 fence schedule), 60 rod represented approximately £15 0s 0d of existing fencing. The further enclosure of the 65-acre pasture would extend the working investment substantially, but the council's order to Mashborne to take every opportunity for the work reflected the working pattern by which large infrastructure projects were carried out incrementally, as labour could be spared from other working tasks.

The slaves' house question returned to the working pattern set in motion by the order of 10 August 1714, which had identified the destruction of the original slaves' house through Boucher's man Caesar firing a gun upon the thatch. Mashborne's report that the old site was the most convenient, the ground being very dry and warm, identified the working criteria by which a slave house site was assessed: drainage and warmth being principal among them. The mechanism placed working housing standards for slaves on an explicit footing in the consultation record, with health considerations rather than mere shelter being the working test.

The number of slaves to be accommodated, 52, set the working scale of the Company's slave establishment under Pyke. The figure contrasts with the working count of 76 slaves recorded in Mashborne's earlier roster, which had identified shortfalls and working categories of past labour and children. The reduction may reflect the working effect of the September and October stock movements, or alternatively the working separation of the establishment slaves at the Plantation House (the 52) from those at outlying holdings (the Hutts, Lufkin's, and elsewhere) where separate housing was provided.

The decision to plan for 70 persons rather than for the current 52 reflected the working assumption that the slave establishment would grow rather than diminish, presumably through continued procurement of slaves from visiting shipping under the working principle Pyke had established by the slave-purchase reforms of July 1714 (the Sitwell parcel of 47 slaves inspected on 10 July, of whom 42 had been merchantable). The mechanism placed working housing capacity ahead of demand, the working margin of approximately 35 per cent allowing for both growth and the working displacement of existing slaves from temporary accommodation during construction.

The framing that the new house ought to be capable of accommodating 70 persons at very little charge identified the working economy with which the new administration intended to undertake construction. The mechanism contrasted directly with the lavish working expenditure on the riding house under Boucher, valued by the appraisal panel at £181 11s 6d. The structural effect of placing the slaves' house plan immediately after the conclusion of the riding house estimate in the consultation record was probably calculated: it set the working approach of the new administration (necessary infrastructure at modest cost) against the working approach of the previous one (discretionary structures at substantial cost).

The absence of two members of council (Haswell and Tovey both noted as sick) reduced the working council to three under the governor. The pattern of working through reduced complement, which the council had handled across various periods (Pack sick from late August 1712, Hoskison sick through 1711-1712 until his death), continued under Pyke's administration. The fact that working consultations proceeded with substantive orders despite the reduced complement reflected the working principle that a quorum of governor, deputy governor and senior councillors had to be present, but that absences through sickness did not halt working business.

Speculations

The decision to plan the new slaves' house for 70 persons against a current population of 52 reflected the working confidence that procurement of slaves under the new administration's policy of public sale to the best advantage would continue to bring fresh arrivals to the Company's establishment. The mechanism reads as the working approach of an administration confident that the working framework it had put in place since July 1714 (the Sitwell inspection procedure, the displacement of the Boucher price ceiling, the recovery procurement programme) would continue to deliver working additions to the slave workforce.

The structural placement of the slaves' house report immediately after the High Peak pasture report suggests that the council was working through the consultation orders of August 1714 in sequence, demonstrating that each working item had been or was being carried out. The mechanism converted the consultation book into a working audit trail, with each earlier order generating a later report on its execution. By placing both reports in the same consultation entry, with the High Peak directly engaging Mashborne and the slaves' house engaging the governor in addition, the working record demonstrated that the executive officers were each working their assigned portfolios.

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221

That M[r] Alexander have Coppys of Tho[s] Bagleys Case represented by Orlando Bagley and Rich[d] Swallow Execut[rs] to the said Tho[s] Bagley, as also Coppys of any Beare of any Generall Letter from the Hon[ble] Company relating to the Land now in Possession of Tho[s] Goodgen And to bring in an answer to said Case Delivered by Bagley and Swallow on Tuesday next that the Gov[r] & Councill may Come to a Final Determination thereupon in order of Sending a Coppy thereof to the Said Hon[ble] Company by the first Conveyance of Shiping.

The Petition of John Gibs was read as followeth. To the Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] & Council of the Island S[t] Helena. The Humble Petition of Jn[o] Gibbs (lately a Soldier.)

Sheweth. That your Petitioner having serv'd the Hon[ble] Company as a Sold[r] for the space of five Years most humbly desires that your Worsh[p] and Council would please to grant him leave to goe off the Island the first Homewd bound ship being sent for by his friends.

And your Petition[r] as in duty shall Ever pray &c[a] his John C Gibbs Mark

There being few people on the Island we cant give Liberty to so many people to goe off, But if Gibbs can procure any good man out of the Homew[d] bound ships to stay in his room then his request shall be granted

The Petition of Robert Bell planter being read as followeth. To the Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] & Coun[l] of the Island S[t] Helena. The

Margin Notes:

M[r] Alexander to have Coppy of Tho[s] Bagleys Case

Jn[o] Gibbs desires to goe off.

Granted upon Getting another man.

The council ordered that Mr Alexander have copies of the case of Thomas Bagley represented by Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow, executors to the deceased Thomas Bagley, and also copies of any bearing or any general letter from the Honourable Company relating to the land now in possession of Thomas Gurgen. He was to bring in an answer to the case delivered by Bagley and Swallow on Tuesday next, so that the council might come to a final determination thereon, with a view to sending a copy of the same to the Honourable Company by the first conveyance of shipping.

The petition of John Gibbs was read. Gibbs set out that, having served the Honourable Company as a soldier for the space of five years, he most humbly desired the council to grant him leave to depart the island on the first homeward-bound ship being sent for by his friends. The petition was signed by his mark, John Gibbs.

The council answered that there being few people on the island, they could not give liberty to so many people to leave. If, however, Gibbs could procure some good man out of the homeward-bound ships to stay in his room, his request would be granted.

The petition of Robert Bell, planter, was read.

Interpretations

The council's order on the Bagley case set up the next stage of the Tovey-Alexander dispute, now sharpened by the executors' submission of 12 October 1714. The mechanism transferred the working initiative from Tovey's earlier written case to the executors' more vigorous formulation. The order required Alexander to respond not to Tovey's account but to the executors' submission, which had attacked the working credibility of the widow's London petition and produced the Carne certificate on Boucher's reported motive. The mechanism placed the working pressure on Alexander to answer the strongest version of the case against the children's claim.

The reference to copies of any bearing or any general letter from the Honourable Company relating to the land now in Gurgen's possession reflected the executors' demand for production of the original Directors' instruction that had supported the 1711 dispossession of Bagley. The mechanism by which the council acceded to this demand committed the working record to a documentary determination: the actual text of the Directors' order would be tested against the working actions taken by Boucher's council in 1711. The structural effect was decisive. Either the order would prove to have authorised the dispossession of Bagley without examination of his claim (vindicating the children's working position) or it would prove to have done no such thing (vindicating the executors).

The stated working purpose of sending a copy of the final determination home by the first conveyance of shipping placed the case within the wider documentary programme by which the new administration was transmitting its working evidence against Boucher to the Directors. The mechanism reflected the working pattern by which contested cases under the new administration generated documents specifically intended for metropolitan review, not merely the working settlement of the local dispute.

The Gibbs petition introduced a routine working request for departure. Gibbs, having served his five-year contract, sought leave to depart on the first homeward-bound ship, his friends having sent for him. The petition was signed by his mark, identifying him as illiterate. The council's response invoked the working principle established in the Mary Nichols case of 16 July 1714 (no departure without account settled) and the broader concern about working strength on the island, but produced a working compromise mechanism: substitution of an equivalent man from a homeward-bound ship would secure his release.

The substitution device was working efficient. It maintained the working complement of the garrison or labour force, transferring an experienced man home and substituting an inexperienced one, with the working risk and cost of recruitment placed on the departing party rather than on the Company. The mechanism applied the same working principle as the one-for-one soldier exchange with the Bencoolen draft of 27 July 1714, when seven men had been entertained on island in place of seven sent forward, but now adapted to homeward-bound shipping.

The opening of the Robert Bell petition introduced a separate working matter. Robert Bell appears earlier in the working sequence as a free planter and mason, buyer of the Belvird country plantation at £200 0s 0d on 24 July 1712, and recently the working occupier of the Pledger five acres confirmed on 7 September 1714 (where he had also undertaken to teach Benjamin Pledger the stone-cutting trade). The present petition will probably touch one of these established working positions.

Speculations

The decision to bring the Tovey-Alexander dispute to a final determination by the next council day, after only one further round of written submissions, suggests that the council had by now formed a working view of the case and wished to close it before any further working complications emerged. The mechanism of allowing only a single reply to the executors' submission, rather than further rounds of working contest between Tovey and Alexander, reflected the working approach of an administration that had been gathering working material for transmission to London and now wished to convert it into a definitive working record.

The framing of the Gibbs response, refusing departure unless a substitute could be procured, reads as the working approach of an administration acutely aware of its own working manpower constraints. With the working population of the island reduced by drought, sickness and Boucher-era departures, and with the recovery programme requiring substantial labour at the Bridge, the fortifications, the Plantation House and the working agricultural improvements, the council could not afford to lose working hands without working replacement. The mechanism placed the burden of recruiting that replacement on the departing party, working effectively a small charge on the working economy of leaving the island.

231

222

The Humble Petition of Rob[t] Bell.

Sheweth. That your Petitioner having bought of the Hon[ble] Company a small parcell of Land contain- ing ten Acres Humbly desires your Worsh[p] & Councill would buy the yams and beans (with the fowles) now growing on the said Land or Else to take the Land again at the same rate he paid the Company. And Your Petitioner. as in duty bound shall Ever pray &c[a]: Robert Bell.

Let Bell propose what yams and beans he has to sell and at what rates he will deliver them at the fort. He will Deliver Gray beans at the fort at seven shillings & Six pence p[r] bushall.

Ordered.

That Robert Bell be Permitted to sett up an Advertisement to give Notice that his land is to be lett or sold and any one who has Occasion for a House and Land may treat with him Either to buy or hire it.

[...] Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett [...] [Antipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Bell offers Provis[ions] or to take y[e] Land agen.

The price to sell off Provi[ons]

Beans at 7/6 p[r] bus[h] a[t]

Bell may sell or Lett s[d] House & Land

Robert Bell set out that, having bought from the Honourable Company a small parcel of land containing ten acres, he now humbly desired the council to buy the yams and beans (with the fowls) growing on the parcel, or else to take the land back from him at the same rate he had paid the Company. The petition was signed by Robert Bell.

The council answered that Bell should propose what yams and beans he had to sell and at what rates he would deliver them at the Fort. Bell offered to deliver grey beans at the Fort at 7s 6d the bushel.

The council ordered that Robert Bell be permitted to set up an advertisement giving notice that his land was to be let or sold, and that any person who had occasion for a house and land might treat with him either to buy or hire it.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

Bell's petition placed before the council a working choice between two alternative settlements. The first was a working sale of the standing crop (yams, beans and fowls) to the Company at a price still to be set; the second was a working repurchase of the land itself by the Company at the price Bell had originally paid. The mechanism placed the working risk of the planter's failed venture on the original seller (the Company), with the petitioner offering either a working partial settlement (sale of crop) or a working full reversal (sale of land back). The structural device by which a planter could put his recent purchase to the Company for repurchase was unusual and reflected the working understanding that the Company stood behind its working land sales in a manner approaching warranty.

The council's response distinguished between the two parts of the petition. On the crop sale, the council was working willing to negotiate, asking Bell to propose specific rates. On the land repurchase, the council declined to commit, but offered a working alternative: Bell could advertise the parcel for letting or sale to any other working buyer or tenant. The mechanism preserved the Company's working capital position by declining to take the land back at the original price, while supporting Bell's working effort to dispose of it on the open market.

The rate Bell offered for grey beans, 7s 6d the bushel, set a working benchmark for the working procurement of beans by the Company. Grey beans, often a variety of broad bean or field bean, were a working winter staple, valuable for the working diet of slaves, working stock and the working garrison alike. The rate of 7s 6d the bushel, paid at the Fort delivery point, placed the working cost of bean supply on a footing comparable to the working procurement rates established for yams, rice and other staples. The fact that Bell offered to deliver at the Fort rather than at his own working ground reflected the working pattern by which sellers bore the working cost of carriage to the Company's principal storehouse.

The advertisement for letting or sale of Bell's parcel reflected the working pattern by which the council acted as the working regulator of land transactions between inhabitants. Bell could not simply sell or let the parcel privately; the council's working permission was required, and the advertisement gave the public notice through which any working interested party could come forward. The mechanism preserved the council's working oversight of land transfers while allowing Bell to pursue a working private buyer or tenant.

The deeper working pattern visible in Bell's petition is the working pressure that the recovery framework placed on planters who had taken on new ground. Bell had bought the ten-acre parcel from the Company, presumably during the procurement-and-redistribution programme of the past summer, but had now found the working effort of bringing it into full production beyond his working capacity. He had, after all, been employed at the fortifications with his slaves (the working ground on which his fencing extension had been granted on 13 October 1713), and the working competition between his Company work and the working development of his new parcel had probably overstretched his working resources. The mechanism by which Bell now sought to retreat from the parcel reflected the working limits of the council's working ambitions to spread land into the working hands of free planters.

The absence of George Haswell from the signing list (he had been noted sick at the opening of the 26 October consultation) confirmed that he remained absent from the closing of the working business. The signatures of Isaac Pyke, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey closed the entry under the four available working hands.

Speculations

Bell's preference for the working repurchase of the land by the Company over the working sale of the standing crop alone suggests that he probably anticipated the working effort of continuing to maintain the ten acres would be greater than the working return from the crop, and that he would rather take a clean exit at the original price than be left with a depreciating asset. The council's working refusal to take the land back at the original price, while permitting an advertisement, reflected the working principle that the Company would not absorb the working loss from a planter's working overcommitment. By converting the matter into a working private advertisement, the council placed Bell in the position of seeking a working buyer who would pay the market rate for the parcel, which would probably be less than the original sale price.

The decision to permit Bell to advertise for both sale and letting, with the working alternative left to the working buyer's choice, suggests that the council probably recognised that no single buyer was likely to step forward at the original purchase price, and that a working compromise (letting the ground at an annual rent, working towards a future sale) would more probably attract a working taker. The mechanism reflected the working pattern by which the council adjusted its working approach to the working conditions of the inhabitant market: where buyers were scarce, working tenants might be more readily found.

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223

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held Held on Monday the first day of Novemb[r] 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell d[ept]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[ew] Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

Yesterday being Sunday the last of Octob[r] there was a single Alarm made about one a Clock afternoon and about Six in the Evening the ship came in which prov'd to be the Susanna Cap[t] Richard Punnell Comander who brought a Pickett from the Govern[r] and Coun[l] of Bencoolen which was open'd in Counsell and read.

Capt[n] Mashborne deliverd the following Aud[t] of the Hono[ble] Companys Neat Cattle, Sheep, Hoggs, Goats &c[a] taken Novemb[r] the 1[st] 1714

11 Bulls Bought last month

18 Cows 3 Bulls

15 Heifers 3 Heifers

13 Bullocks 8 Bullocks

11 Yearlings 14

12 Steers 140 Hoggs Great & Small

83 b[o]t 5 killd 2 Pigd 36

stole 1, dead 6

152 Goats killd 2 kidded 14

24 Turkeys killd 1 stole 1.

[...] Geo[rge] Haswell Edw[d] Mashborne Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

Island

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Susan[a] arrivall.

Comp[as] Stock 9[br]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Monday 1 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The previous day being Sunday the last of October, a single alarm was made about one o'clock in the afternoon, and about six in the evening the ship came in. She proved to be the Susanna, Captain Richard Pinnell commander, who brought a packet from the Governor and Council of Bencoolen. The packet was opened in council and read.

Captain Mashborne delivered the following account of the Honourable Company's neat cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and so on, taken on 1 November 1714.

Bulls 11

Cows 18

Heifers 15

Bullocks 13

Yearlings 11

Steers (or [...]) [...]

Cattle total 89

Bought last month: 3 bulls 3 heifers 8 bullocks Sub-total 14

Hogs 140 great and small (25 killed; 2 pigs from 36; 1 stolen; 6 dead)

Goats 152 (2 killed; 14 kidded)

Turkeys 24 (1 killed; 1 stolen)

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The arrival of the Susanna under Captain Richard Pinnell from Bencoolen brought the Honourable Company's despatch network back into working contact with St Helena after the working summer arrivals of the Abingdon, the Stretham and the Marlborough from the Indian factories. Pinnell appears earlier in the working sequence as commander of the Susanna on her arrival in July 1713 from England with general cargo (priced under paragraph 37 of the Toddington letter), and as the working seller of the 60-gallon hogshead of lime juice to the council on 9 June 1713 at 3s 6d per gallon. The present arrival from Bencoolen, rather than from England, reflected the working pattern by which Company ships followed varied working routes, and identified Pinnell as a master who maintained working relationships with the St Helena council across multiple working voyages.

The opening of the packet from the Governor and Council of Bencoolen in working council session followed the standard procedure for inter-factory correspondence, the same mechanism by which the Robert Goodwin letter from York Fort, Bencoolen of 5 June 1710 had been handled in 1710, and by which the general letters from Madras and Bengal had been received across the working sequence. The Bencoolen packet would probably address working matters of mutual interest: the working soldiers sent to Bencoolen under the working exchange of 20 July 1714, the working condition of the St Helena prisoners enlisted at Bencoolen for five years (William Gore, John Cane, Peter Towers, Edward Millard and Thomas Griffis), and probably the working state of the eastern station after the arrival of the seven men.

The November 1714 stock account brought the working monthly return to its fourth working entry under Pyke's administration, after the working returns of 1 August (60 cattle), 1 September (69), 1 October (69), and now 1 November (89). The working twenty-head increase in October reflected the working absorption of the cattle purchases reported in the consultation of 19 October 1714 (the Eyson, Free, Wrangham, Alexander, Lufkin, and Starlings stock), with the explicit working note recording 3 bulls, 3 heifers and 8 bullocks bought during the month. The combined total of 14 head bought aligned with the working figures of the previous entries.

The hog stock rose substantially from 88 head on 1 October to 140 head on 1 November, the working increase reflecting the breeding of the working sows and the 36 pigs identified in the working note. The detail of 25 killed, 2 pigs from 36, 1 stolen and 6 dead reflected the working accounting of monthly movement with care. The reference to one stolen recalled the storehouse robbery reported on 19 October, and suggested that working theft of Company stock had become a working concern alongside theft from store. The goat stock rose to 152 head, with 14 kidded and 2 killed. The turkey stock held at 24 head, with 1 killed and 1 stolen, marking a second working theft of Company stock in the working month.

The structural pattern of the November return placed working acquisitions, kills, deaths and thefts on a working monthly footing, generating the comparative data the new administration was using to demonstrate its working recovery against the working baseline of Boucher's losses. By the working count of 1 November, the cattle stock stood at 89 head against the 60 head of black cattle Boucher had left in early July, a working increase of nearly 50 per cent across four working months. The figure would carry working weight when transmitted to the Directors in London.

The complete attendance of the working council at the present session, with Haswell now returned from sickness and Tovey also recovered, restored the working complement of five for the November business. The mechanism by which a single alarm on the working sabbath had brought the council into substantive working business on the Monday following reflected the working pattern by which routine consultation days could be displaced by working events of the moment.

Speculations

The recording of two working thefts (one hog and one turkey) within the working monthly return suggests that the working pattern of small-scale opportunistic theft from Company stock had probably become a working feature of the recovery period. The mechanism by which working stock straying within the working bounds of the Company plantation could be picked up by an opportunistic inhabitant, slaughtered, and consumed before the working discovery, was difficult to police across the working hours of darkness. The new administration's working solution had been the £5 0s 0d reward for information on the storehouse robbery; whether a similar working reward was offered on the hog and turkey thefts will probably emerge as the working consultations continue.

The decision to maintain working monthly stock returns in the consultation book in the same working format Mashborne had employed since December 1712 reflected the working continuity of working administrative practice across the Boucher-Pyke transition in Mashborne's working hands. The mechanism by which the same officer, retained through the working change of administration, maintained the same working format for the same working records gave the consultation book a working documentary continuity that would be useful in metropolitan review.

233

224

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 2 day of November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] &c[a] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

The Govern[r] Reported the following Persons had been with him pursuant to the Advertisement Published by Order of Council the 14 Septemb[r] last past viz[t]

M[r] James Vesey came to me and proposed that where as he is indebted to the Hono Companys Stores 135:7:5 he proposes to send two blacks to the work.

Samuel Price £6:3:3 he being a Shoemaker pro- poses that he will pay to Lessen his Debt twenty Shillings p[r] week in Shoes at 4/6 p[r] pair or Else 18[s] p[r] pair if [...]

Thomas Allis thirty one pound. He proposes to sell the the Hono Company 5000 Yams at the price Currant in the Markett when they are fetched and only one to deliver him when Demanded and two Hogs at the next Shipping and to send George a black to work at the Hutts plantation next Monday

Thomas Free £30:-:-. He proposes for discharging of his Debt that for after Christmas next he will Deliver to the Hono Comp[a] the Yams at peak hill ten bushells of beans, and that he will send four blacks to the Comp[as] cooks and Spare them for the fowles as they can be raisd

D[o] Came to me again and made anew Proposall as follows to deliver plate value about 50[l] two porringers Monteeth Salver and Case of knives & forks Spoons &c[a] three head of Cattle three hogs twelve fowles, six Turkeys as soon as may be, the Gutt of Yams at home and the plantation at the peak hill & suckers Equall in Number to the Yams, and Ten bushells of beans four blacks Constantly at the cook and on Extraordinary Occasions one more

John

Margin Notes:

Persons Indebted in the Stores

Vesey.

Price

Allis

Free

D[o]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 2 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The governor reported that the following persons had been with him pursuant to the advertisement published by order of council of 14 September last.

James Vesey, indebted to the Honourable Company's stores in the sum of £135 7s 5d, proposed to send two slaves to the work.

Samuel Price, indebted in £62 3s 3d, proposed, as a shoemaker, to pay his debt by delivering twenty shillings a week in shoes at 4s 6d the pair, or else 18d the pair, finding his own diet.

Thomas Allis, indebted in £31 0s 0d, proposed to sell the Honourable Company 5,000 yams at the price current in the market when fetched, and to deliver one such sum when demanded, and two hogs at the next shipping. He would also send George, a slave, to work at the Hutts plantation by the following Monday.

Thomas Free, indebted in £50 0s 0d, proposed for discharging of his debt that after Christmas next he would deliver to the Honourable Company the yams at Peak Hill, ten bushels of beans, and that he would send four slaves to the Company's cooks and spare them so the fowls could be raised. Free came back later and made a fresh proposal: to deliver plate valued about £50 0s 0d (two porringers, monteth, salver, case of knives and forks, spoons and so on), three head of cattle, three hogs, twelve fowls, six turkeys (as soon as may be), the cut of yams at home and the plantation at Peak Hill and suckers equal in number to the yams, and ten bushels of beans. Four slaves were to attend constantly at the cook's, and on extraordinary occasions one more.

John

Interpretations

The Governor's report opened the working operation of the second store-settlement advertisement of 14 September 1714, which had called on all persons indebted to the Company in over £20 0s 0d to bring forward their proposals for clearing their accounts within fourteen days. The working response, recorded here on 2 November (well past the original fourteen-day window), set out the proposals of the principal debtors who had come forward. The mechanism converted the working framework of the September advertisement into a series of named individual settlements, each calibrated to the working assets and skills of the debtor.

The proposals reflected the working diversity of working assets across the inhabitant economy. Vesey, the matross with surplus land identified on 8 April 1712, offered slave labour; Price, the soldier-shoemaker whose contract had been suspended on 5 February 1712 over working complaints of poor durability, offered shoes at a weekly working delivery rate; Allis offered yams, hogs and a single named slave; Free, the former clerk dismissed on 4 June 1713, offered yams, beans and slave attendance at the cook's. The mechanism by which each debtor proposed in his own working currency reflected the working flexibility of the recovery framework, which had displaced the rigid working £4 cash for £5 store credit formula of 24 August 1714 with a working settlement of more substantial debts in kind.

The substantial sums identified placed the working scale of inhabitant indebtedness in clear view. Vesey at £135 7s 5d was the working largest debtor on the present list; Price at £62 3s 3d, Free at £50 0s 0d, and Allis at £31 0s 0d completed the working set. The total of the four proposals stood at £278 10s 8d, the working figure approaching the £298 0s 11d two-month storekeeper account total from 1710 (a working measure of how much working revenue the Company drew on the island in a substantial month). The working recovery of even this fraction of accumulated inhabitant debt would represent working months of equivalent supply at no working freight cost.

Free's two successive proposals are particularly striking. The first proposal offered yams and beans and slave attendance; the second, made on Free's working return to the Governor, offered an additional working set of household plate (porringers, monteth, salver, case of knives and forks, spoons and so on) valued at approximately £50 0s 0d, together with cattle, hogs, fowls and turkeys. A monteth was a working scalloped silver bowl, used at table for cooling glasses or rinsing them; a salver was a flat silver tray for serving drinks or other items; porringers were small silver dishes for porridges or stews. The working value of the plate (probably solid silver) suggested that Free, despite his dismissal from working office, had retained a substantial household working asset base. The mechanism by which the working accumulation of silver could be liquidated against a working store debt reflected the working role of plate as a working store of value in early modern households.

The plate also identifies Free's working household as one of considerable working substance, despite his dismissal from working office in 1713. The detail recalls his marriage to Sarah Griffith, widow of Daniel Griffith the former councillor, on which working ground he had been discharged from working service. The Griffith inheritance, presumably, had brought working household assets of substantial value into Free's working possession, and these now stood as the working means by which his store debt could be cleared.

The reference to the Hutts plantation for Allis's slave George reflected the working pattern of allocating Company labour: the Hutts was one of the working principal estates Mashborne managed, and one where additional working hands were required for fencing, weeding and yam-tending. The mechanism by which a planter contributed a named slave to a specific working Company location, rather than to a working pool, identified the working slave as the working asset under discussion and prevented later working substitution of an inferior or sick replacement.

The references to Peak Hill (cited by both Allis and Free as a location of standing yams) confirmed the working agricultural development of this upland site, which Mashborne had reported broken up and planted with 46,000 suckers as recently as the 26 October consultation. The working speed at which Peak Hill had moved from new ground to a recognised working source of supply within ten weeks reflected the working intensity of the recovery programme.

Speculations

Free's working decision to bring forward his second proposal, adding the working silver plate valued at £50 0s 0d, suggests that the working terms of his first proposal had probably been received unfavourably by the Governor, with the working delivery of yams, beans and slave labour after Christmas judged insufficient to secure the working clearance of the £50 0s 0d debt. The mechanism by which a debtor returned with a working enhanced proposal, including working liquidation of household plate, reflected the working bargaining structure of the recovery framework: each working proposal was a working opening offer, and the Governor's working acceptance or rejection drove the working terms upwards as needed to secure the working settlement.

The list of working debtors who had come forward by 2 November represented only the working portion of those who owed above £20 0s 0d. The working absence of substantial numbers from the present list suggests that working compliance with the September advertisement had probably remained incomplete, despite the fourteen-day working deadline. The mechanism by which working coercion was applied to the working non-compliant will probably emerge in subsequent consultations.

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John Twaits saith that his debt is 70[lb] but he hath paid about 50[lb] and desires time but he will in the interim pay of more and hopes in a small time to discharge all, but he desires to have ten pound a time out of the Stores.

Isaac Wood Soldier & planter proposeth that whereas he is indebted 83:12:1 He promises on quarter days to pay in 30[lb] & to send in a soon as his planting time is over two Blacks to the work, and a young Bull dead or alive when Demanded, & two Sows and a fatt Hogg in a months time.

William Seale planter being indebted 42[lb] Proposeth that he dyets some of the Garyson and is willing to Sett of his debt as that money is due and to Spare 10000 r[o] of S[d] Yams & suckers and 5 young Sows with Pig.

Jonathan Doveton planter proposeth that whereas he owes 125[lb] for which he pays Interest and 25[lb] in the small Stores, that he will at the present or Current price Deliver three or four head of Cattle and 10000 Yams & suckers, and five dozen pair of Shoes at 4[s] p[r] pair.

Sutton Isaack Sen[r] owes about 30[lb] He says he has lost all his Cattle so he can now only find Provisions for one Sold[r]

Thomas Burnham planter owes 40:8:[lb] He proposes Thomas his son to be a Sold[r] at 13 years of age and will raise fowles.

Dorothy Hayse owes 50[lb] and desires one years time desires Francis Hayse her son may be admitted for a Soldier and sayeth he hath 12000 Yams which in Six months time will be fitt to Digg and she will by Christmas bring in three doz[n] of Poultry, and afterwards what she can raise.

Orlando Bagley owes 57[lb] and proposes to send his two blacks to the works he being poor has no other way to discharge his debt.

Robert Gurling owes 54[lb] and proposes to send one black to the work and make Shoes of the Hono Companys Stuff at 18[s] p[r] pair, and Deliver Poultry as fast as they can be raisd & 12000 Yams after Christmass next at the price they go at when demanded

Margin Notes:

Twaits

Wood

Seale

Doveton.

Isaack Sen[r]

Burnham.

Hayse.

Bagley.

Gurling.

John Twaits set out that his debt stood at £70 0s 0d, but he had paid about £50 0s 0d, and desired time. He would in the interim pay more, and hoped in a short time to discharge all, but he desired to have £10 0s 0d ventured out of the stores.

Isaac Wood, soldier and planter, proposed that, being indebted in £83 12s 4d, he would promise on quarter day to pay £30 0s 0d, to send him as soon as his planting time was over two slaves to the work, and to deliver a bull dead or alive when demanded, and two sows and a fat hog in a month's time.

William Seale, planter, being indebted in £42 0s 0d, proposed that he get some of the garrison and was willing to settle his debt as that money is due. He could spare 10,000 of yams and suckers, and 5 young sows with pig.

Jonathan Doveton, planter, set out that he owed £125 0s 0d, on which he paid interest at £5 0s 0d a year in the small stores. He would at the present or current price deliver three or four head of cattle and 10,000 yams and suckers, and five dozen pair of shoes at 4s 0d a pair.

Sutton Isaack senior owed about £30 0s 0d. He said he had lost all his cattle, so he could only find provisions for one bullock.

Thomas Burnham, planter, owed £40 8s 0d. He proposed that his son Thomas be sold for a soldier at 13 years of age, and would also raise fowls.

Dorothy Hayse owed £50 0s 0d and desired one year's time. She desired that her son Francis Hayse might be admitted as a soldier, and said she had 12,000 yams which in six months' time would be fit to dig. She would by Christmas bring in three dozen of poultry, and afterwards what she could raise.

Orlando Bagley owed £57 0s 0d and proposed to send his two slaves to the work, he being poor and having no other way to discharge his debt.

Robert Gurling owed £54 0s 0d and proposed to send one slave to the work, to make shoes from the Honourable Company's stuff at 18d the pair, and to deliver poultry as fast as it could be raised, and 12,000 yams after Christmas next at the price they went at when demanded.

Interpretations

The continued list of debtors' proposals revealed the working extent of inhabitant indebtedness across the principal planter and soldier-planter households on the island. The eight proposals on the present page, added to the four on the previous page, brought the total of working debt cited at £778 10s 8d across twelve named individuals. The mechanism by which the council assembled the working schedule of substantial debtors in a single working consultation entry placed the working population of the island's principal indebted households on the documentary record at one moment.

The working diversity of working settlement instruments reflected the working economic position of each debtor. Wood offered cash on quarter day (the next being Christmas Day, working a working six-week deadline), slave labour, and livestock; Seale offered a working route through garrison employment plus yams and breeding sows; Doveton offered cattle, yams and shoes at working trade-price (an unusually low 4s 0d a pair against the 4s 6d of Price's earlier proposal, suggesting working bulk rates); Sutton Isaack senior offered only the working provisioning for a single bullock, his working cattle stock lost. The mechanism by which the council accepted such varied working settlements reflected the working flexibility necessary to extract any working return from a depleted inhabitant economy.

Several working proposals carried wider working family implications. Burnham's offer to sell his thirteen-year-old son Thomas as a soldier represented the working liquidation of a working family asset of the highest order. The mechanism by which a working son's military service could be converted into a working payment against the father's store debt converted the working garrison itself into a working creditor of the inhabitant household. The standard working enlistment payment, if known to the council, would have set a working ceiling on the working settlement that could be reached by this route. Hayse's similar offer regarding her son Francis applied the same working mechanism, with the further refinement that her year's working time would allow her yam-stock to mature and her poultry to be raised.

The mention of Doveton's working payment of £5 0s 0d a year in interest in the small stores identified the working operation of compound interest at the standard 4 per cent rate (£5 0s 0d on £125 0s 0d) on inhabitant debts to the Company. The mechanism by which interest had accumulated on the working principal reflected the working financial pressure on debtors who had not been able to make working principal repayments. The small stores reference probably identifies a working subsidiary store account, perhaps for working consumables, distinct from the principal store ledger.

Seale's working observation that he could get some of the garrison reflected the working possibility of subletting working slave labour from a soldier or garrison member. The mechanism by which inhabitant debtors could draw on the working garrison's available working hands suggested a working informal labour market beneath the working formal one of slave hire (where the rate stood at 1s 6d per day). The working detail probably reflected the working pattern by which slaves attached to soldiers were sublet at reduced working rates to inhabitants in working need.

Doveton's offer of five dozen pairs of shoes at 4s 0d each represented working production of 60 pairs, at a working total value of £12 0s 0d. The mechanism by which a planter could draw on working dependent labour (working family members, hired hands, slaves) to produce a working manufactured good for working sale to the Company reflected the working pattern of the working domestic economy on the island, where multiple working trades operated in working parallel. The lower price than Price's proposal (4s 6d a pair) suggested that Doveton's working production capacity was sufficient to allow a working discount for working volume.

The references to Christmas as the working delivery point for various working items (Free's plate, Hayse's three dozen poultry, Gurling's 12,000 yams) reflected the working seasonal rhythm of the island's working production. Christmas fell at the start of the working southern hemisphere summer, when working yam harvests would come in and working poultry would have grown to working market size. The mechanism by which the council and the debtors collectively oriented the working settlement around the working production cycle reflected the working integration of the recovery framework with the working agricultural calendar.

Speculations

The decision by both Burnham and Hayse to offer their sons as soldiers as part of the working debt settlement suggests that the working garrison strength at this point of the recovery may have been below the working complement required for the working programme of Pyke's administration (with the Bridge, the new slaves' house, the High Peak enclosure, and the working fortifications all requiring working hands). The mechanism by which the council could accept inhabitant sons as working recruits, with the working settlement converted into a working family asset against the working family's debt, served both the working recruitment need and the working debt recovery simultaneously. The pattern probably reflects working coordination between the recovery framework and the working military establishment.

The variation in working shoe-price proposals (Price at 4s 6d, Doveton at 4s 0d, Gurling at 18d on Company stuff) reflected working differential market positions within the working shoemaking trade on the island. The 18d rate offered by Gurling, conditional on the Company supplying the working leather (the Company's stuff), revealed that the working raw material cost of a pair of shoes was probably approximately half of the working finished value, with the working labour component (about 18d to 24d) covering the working making cost. The mechanism by which a working shoemaker could offer working production on supplied material at a working reduced rate gave the Company a working alternative supply route at lower working cost per pair.

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demanded and the same Number of suckers as of the yams at the Markett price.

M[r] James Draper planter who is now Church- Warden owes 48[lb] or there abouts but lost all his Cattle but two in the late Brought, and of those two, one of them were lost and the other worried & much hurt so that 'tis in danger of dying which was Occasion'd by his Aleshing a neighbour with his doggs so afright- =ed his own Cattle that by runing a way they fell down a preceipice and one is killed & the other much Hurt as above so that he has no Cattle and is mightily impoverisht he destroyed his own plantation to preserve his hoggs when his black Cattle were gone & then his hoggs also dyed So that he can deliver but 12000 weight of Yams and what fowles he can raise he will send in & y[s] now his whole Stock is 3 Goats two Sows and the Sick Cow.

Samuel Jesey Montross owes 29[lb] Says he had 27 head of Cattle, and has lost 24 out of them but has seven or Eight thousand yams which he'll sell with the same Number of suckers to them, and he's two Blacks he'll send to the work.

Sutton Isaack jun[r] owes 45[lb] has a famile and three Children has lost 14 head of Cattle out of 17 & all his Hoggs which were 60. But Complains that Cap[t] Boucher had a mind to try a woolf dogg that he had and sett him a sow of his Biggs nine biggs & killd her and tho he was promiss'd Satisfaction he never had any proposes to deliver what yams he can spare at y[e] Current Price with suckers to them, and to raise some poultry and to work himself at Stone Laying till he is out of debt.

Robert Marsh owes 5[lb] and proposes to pay in Aug[t] 21[lb], and two Bullocks & a heifer, and some Souldiers dyets bills to the amount of 8[lb] more and to Clear the rest as soon as he can.

William Slaughter Serj[t] owes 90[lb] but Says he had 26 Cows before the dry time, and all dyed but

Margin Notes:

Draper

Jesey

Isaacke jun[r]

Marsh.

Slaughter.

Gurling's proposal continued: the same number of suckers as of the yams, at the market price.

James Draper, planter, now a churchwarden, owed about £48 0s 0d. He had lost all his cattle but two in the late drought. One of these two had since been lost and the other much hurt, so that it was in danger of dying. The cause had been a neighbour, who had so frightened his own cattle with his dogs by running at them that they fell down a precipice, with one killed and the other much hurt. He had no cattle and was mightily impoverished. He had destroyed his own plantation to preserve his hogs when his black cattle were gone, but then his hogs had died too, so that he could deliver only 12,000 weight of yams and whatever fowls he could raise. He would send in and now had a whole stock of three goats, two sows and the sick cow.

Samuel Jessey Montrose owed £29 0s 0d. He said he had 27 head of cattle, of which he had lost 24, but had seven or eight thousand yams and would follow with the same number of suckers, and had two slaves whom he would send to the work.

Sutton Isaack junior owed £45 0s 0d. Having a wife and three children, he had lost 14 head of cattle out of 17, and all his hogs, of which there had been 60. He complained that Governor Boucher had armed two woolf dogs that had attacked and set upon a sow of his big with pig. Nine hogs had been killed by her, and though he had been promised satisfaction he had never had any. He proposed to deliver what yams he could spare at the current price, with suckers to match, and to raise some poultry, and to work himself at stone-laying until he was out of debt.

Robert Marsh owed £51 0s 0d and proposed to pay £21 0s 0d, with two bullocks and a heifer, and some soldiers' duty bills to the amount of £8 0s 0d more, and to clear the rest as soon as he could.

William Slaughter, sergeant, owed £90 0s 0d. He said he had 26 cows before the dry time, and all had died, but

Interpretations

The continued proposals brought working evidence of the working devastation that the working drought of 1712-1713 had inflicted on the working inhabitant cattle stock. Draper had been reduced from a working cattle herd to a working stock of three goats, two sows and a working sick cow; Jessey Montrose had lost 24 of 27 cattle; Sutton Isaack junior had lost 14 of 17 cattle and all 60 of his working hogs. The pattern across multiple working proposals identified the working agricultural collapse as the foundational cause of inhabitant indebtedness. The mechanism by which the recovery framework now sought to extract working settlement from working households that had lost the working basis of their working economy revealed the working strain on the inhabitants under the new administration's working programme.

The detail of Draper's working pattern of working family devastation (cattle lost, plantation destroyed to feed hogs, hogs then dead, stock reduced to three goats) showed the working sequential collapse of working agricultural assets in a working planter household under working drought conditions. The working decision to destroy his own plantation to keep his working hogs alive once his working cattle were gone reflected the working desperate working calculation of an inhabitant facing total working loss. The mechanism by which a working planter could be reduced from working substance to working subsistence within the working span of the drought identified the working scale of the working economic crisis the new administration had inherited.

The Sutton Isaack junior allegation that Governor Boucher had armed two woolf dogs that had attacked a working pregnant sow, killing nine hogs, added a fresh working item to the documentary case against the late governor. The mechanism by which a working complaint about a working specific Boucher-era action could be brought forward as part of the working settlement proposal allowed the working petitioner to claim working set-off against his working debt for the working loss caused. The detail of the working unfulfilled promise of working satisfaction echoed the working pattern set out in Dorothy Hayes's earlier petition of 7 September 1714 (her best cow killed by Hunt's mongrel at the working Hutts plantation, Boucher's working offer of replacement never delivered). The working pattern of working unsatisfied Boucher-era promises had now been documented in two working separate cases.

The reference to woolf dogs identifies a working breed of working large hunting dog used for working pursuit of working wild animals or working herd defence. The working presence of such dogs in working Company use under Boucher reflected a working pattern of working aggressive working livestock management that the new administration had presumably allowed to lapse. The mechanism by which working dogs trained for working aggressive working pursuit could turn on working domestic livestock was a working known working risk of the working method, and the working failure of working compensation in the Sutton Isaack case added to the working documentary inventory of Boucher's working administrative failures.

Marsh's working proposal to pay £21 0s 0d in working cash, supplemented by working livestock (two bullocks and a heifer) and working soldiers' duty bills to £8 0s 0d, identified a fresh working settlement instrument. Soldiers' duty bills were probably the working entitlements of working garrison soldiers to working day-pay for working duty performed, which Marsh had acquired (presumably by working purchase from the working soldiers themselves at a working discount) and could now offer at face value against his working store debt. The mechanism by which a working planter could accumulate a working portfolio of working garrison wage claims and convert them into working settlement of his own working store debt reflected a working secondary working market in working soldier credit.

Slaughter's working opening that he had had 26 cows before the dry time, and all had died, completed the working pattern across multiple working proposals: the working drought of 1712-1713 had inflicted working catastrophic working losses on the working established planter households, and the working recovery framework was now extracting working settlement from working households that had been working severely reduced by the working agricultural collapse. The mechanism by which the council pressed working settlement of working pre-drought debts against working post-drought working capacity reflected the working unforgiving working logic of the recovery programme.

Speculations

The working consistency with which working debtors made specific working reference to the working dry time as the working cause of their working agricultural collapse suggests that the working consultation entry was deliberately designed as a working documentary record of the working drought's impact on the working island economy. The mechanism by which the working council compiled the working individual proposals into a working composite portrait of working inhabitant working loss probably reflected the working interest of the new administration in transmitting to London a working evidentiary case for working metropolitan relief. The working figures could be used to support a working application for working remission of working debt, or for working fresh working supply, on the working ground that the working colony's recovery could not be achieved by working local working effort alone.

Sutton Isaack junior's working decision to include the working Boucher woolf-dog complaint in his working settlement proposal, rather than to bring it forward as a working separate petition, suggests that the working council had probably been working receptive to such working set-off claims as a working method of working reducing working store debt without working cash payment. The mechanism by which a working unsatisfied Boucher-era claim could become a working credit against a working current store debt converted working complaints into working settlement instruments, with the working effect of clearing the working documentary record against Boucher while simultaneously working reducing the working inhabitant debt position. The working pattern probably reflects a working calculated working approach by the new administration to working clearance of both the working Boucher legacy and the working debt arrears.

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227

but 3, and has only one sow so that he has no way to pay his debt but to sett off his pay which he promises to make up 30[lb] p[er] annum & desires to be Imployd in Stone Laying promiseing also that what he can raise in his plantation he will assign[e] to make up the 30[lb] p[er] year he sayes he has a Sickly wife & Child[n] John Harding Shomaker & Stone Layer Complains that because he owes 40[lb] to his father in law William Slaughter he threatens to turn him out of his Plantation & proposes that whereas himself owes nothing in the Stores & Slaughter owes 90[lb] he is willing to be debetor to the Stores for the said 40[lb] and Lessen Slaughters debt of 90[lb] to be protested in his plantation, whereupon J[no] Sent to him to appeare next Cuncil day to shew cause why this proposall should not be accepted

Stephen Luffkin Stone Layer owes 41[lb] but has lost 11 head of Cattle has one black that he will send to the work and Deliver one Heifer and one Hogg and twelve fowles and is willing to work at the fences.

John Knipe Shoemaker owes 80[lb] on bond & 29[lb] Book- debt in all 109[lb] promises to assigne a debt of 25[lb] oweing to him by Israel Leach who he says is not indebted to the Company and says he is willing to sell the free land to the best bidder being told he need not sell the land but part w[th] a Cow for the present, says he is not willing to part to a Cow because he intends to keep her till Christmass, and then he will kill her and sell the Company three quarters I told him I would buy no Cow dead and that the Company would kill no Cows Knipe has been w[th] me and promises to send in y[e] Cow.

Ryvin Wills owes 27[lb] Proposes to Deliver one sow and to raise fowles.

John Bagley Carpenter owes 60[lb] Sayeth that he will put 10[lb] Creditt now into the Stores & set wall 5 Sold[rs] or Six and put the Creditt thereof into the Stores as it becomes due and will Deliver three doz[n] of fowles & Six Ducks, and will deliver (when Demanded 10000 Yams w[th] Suckers to them at the Markett price and when the Company has Occasion for his work will work for them.

John

Margin Notes:

Luffkin

Knipe

Wills

Bagley.

8:40 AM

Claude responded: Slaughter's account continued.

Slaughter's account continued. He had only one sow left, so he had no way to pay his debt but to set off his pay, which he promised to make up to £30 0s 0d. He desired to be employed in stone-laying, promising also that whatever he could raise on his plantation he would assign to make up the £30 0s 0d a year. He said he had a sickly wife.

John Harding, shoemaker and stone-layer, complained that, because he owed £40 0s 0d to his father-in-law William Slaughter, Slaughter threatened to turn him out of his plantation. He proposed that, while he himself owed nothing in the stores, and Slaughter owed £90 0s 0d, he was willing to be debtor to the stores for the £40 0s 0d, and let Slaughter be debited £90 0s 0d. He was to be protected in his plantation. The council ordered Slaughter to appear next council day to show cause why this proposal should not be accepted.

Stephen Lufkin, stone-layer, owed £41 0s 0d but had lost 11 head of cattle. He had one slave whom he would send to the work, and would deliver one heifer, one hog and twelve fowls, and was willing to work at the fences.

John Knipe, shoemaker, owed £80 0s 0d on bond and £29 0s 0d book debt, in all £109 0s 0d. He promised to assign a debt of £25 0s 0d owing to him by Isaac Leech, who, he said, was not indebted to the Company. He was willing to sell his free land to the best bidder, and said he had no need of all the land but part of it. As to a cow, for the present he was not willing to part with a cow, because he intended to keep her till Christmas and then he would kill her and sell the Company three quarters. The governor told him he would buy no cow dead, and that the Company would kill no cows. Knipe had been with him and promised to send in five cows.

Repjin Wills owed £27 0s 0d. He proposed to deliver one sow and to raise fowls.

John Bagley, carpenter, owed £60 0s 0d. He would put £10 0s 0d credit into the stores at present, and victuals to be sold or sixpence and put the credit thereof into the stores as it became due. He would deliver three dozen of fowls and six ducks, and would deliver, when demanded, 10,000 yams with suckers to match at the market price, and when the Company had occasion for his work he would work for them.

Interpretations

Slaughter's proposal exposed the position of a senior planter household at the edge of collapse. With 25 of his 26 cows lost in the drought and only one sow remaining, his capacity to clear a £90 0s 0d debt by delivery of agricultural produce was nil. The alternative he proposed (set-off against his sergeant's pay, augmented by stone-laying labour, aiming at an annual £30 0s 0d clearance) converted a principal debt into a three-year repayment programme drawing on his military salary. The mechanism by which a sergeant could pledge his future pay against a store debt placed the garrison salary structure on a creditor footing to the Company itself, with the council acting as both employer and creditor.

The Harding intervention introduced a third-party complication into the Slaughter case. Harding, who had reached a private settlement with Slaughter on 5 October 1714 (the £40 0s 0d for the life interest in the parcel, the reserved rights for cattle and lodging, the further allowances entered into the consultation), now offered to take on the £40 0s 0d as a direct debt to the Company stores. The effect would be to reduce Slaughter's debt from £90 0s 0d to £50 0s 0d. The mechanism applied the principle established in the Slaughter-Harding settlement (that the balance of accounts between them should be paid into the Company stores) by transferring the £40 0s 0d to the face of the store account in advance.

Slaughter's threat to turn Harding out of the plantation reflected the tension between the private debt the two men had between them and the settlement the council had already approved. By bringing the dispute back to the council, Harding sought protection of the position the council had earlier secured for him. The mechanism by which the council's determination on 5 October could now be enforced against any subsequent action by Slaughter reflected the principle that the council's orders were the binding terms of the settlement, not merely a starting point for further negotiation.

The Knipe exchange revealed the tension between the planter's calendar and the immediate settlement the council was seeking. Knipe's plan to keep his cow until Christmas, slaughter her then, and sell three quarters to the Company, set out the seasonal pattern by which a planter would normally extract maximum value from a cow. The governor's refusal (the Company would buy no cow dead, and would not kill cows itself) overturned that plan. The mechanism reflected the preference of the recovery programme for live acquisitions that could be integrated into the Company herd over purchases of slaughtered meat that would require immediate consumption or preservation.

Knipe's proposal to assign a £25 0s 0d debt owed to him by Isaac Leech represented a further example of the secondary market in inhabitant debt. Where Marsh had offered soldiers' duty bills, Knipe offered an inhabitant debt. The mechanism by which a creditor could transfer his claim to the Company stores in clearance of his own store debt converted the private debt market into a channel for the store-settlement programme. Knipe's care to confirm that Leech was not himself indebted to the Company was the test of assignability: a creditor could only transfer a claim the Company would be able to collect.

Bagley's proposal combined immediate cash with delivery of produce and future labour services. The £10 0s 0d immediate credit, augmented by sales of victuals at sixpence (presumably the unit price for some specified commodity), with three dozen fowls, six ducks, 10,000 yams and future carpentry, set out the pattern of diversified settlement that a substantial craftsman could offer.

Speculations

Knipe's proposal to sell his free land to the best bidder, rather than to tender it to the Company, suggests that he probably anticipated achieving a better price through private sale than through Company appraisal. The mechanism by which a debtor could raise cash by private sale of free land while the leased Company land was retained for production reflected a differentiated approach to clearance of debt: liquid assets (free land) for cash, productive assets (leased land) for continuing operation.

The willingness of several debtors to accept stone-laying as a settlement medium (Sutton Isaack junior on the previous page, Slaughter and Lufkin on the present page) suggests that the stone-laying programme at the fortifications and the other stone projects (the Bridge, the new storehouse, the sea wall) had probably become a major source of employment for the indebted planter and soldier-planter classes. The mechanism by which hard physical labour could be applied to clear debt placed the recovery framework on a footing where the physical recovery of the colony's infrastructure was directly tied to the financial recovery of its store accounts.

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John Orchard Planter owes 28:3:[lb] to the Company, and did intend to a brought 14[lb] with him and Complains that Robert Gurling owes him 28[lb] and was to pay 17[lb] at last Satturday, but has disap- =pointed him, and proposes to assign the said mony over to the Company the said Gurling being able to pay it, and will Deliver a follcon Demand- =ed Cap[tn] Mashborne shall Vallue it.

Walter Morris Stone Layer owes 40[lb] has some Yams to sell desires to dispose 10000 Yams & suckers when Demanded at the markett price, and will send his black to the work and is willing to work himself to lessen his debt.

John Nichols owes 100[lb] proposes to send two Blacks to the Work and to find provisions for ten or twelve of the Soldiers and to raise Poultrey.

Humphrey Edwards Monkoss owes 35[lb] and proposes George Bryant his Son in law to be a soldier and he is willing to work at any business when off Guards and will raise up some fowles when he Can, But he has nothing now to lessen his debt but his own and his Sons pay.

Christopher Kelley Gunners Mate owes about 40[lb] and proposes to send in 24 fowles and will lett his pay goe on to discharge his debt he being now a way poor by reason of the late dry tune when he was two months without any water within a Mile, and Sayeth he had 19 Cows & 14 Dyed and the other five going together down a steep place to drink the last of th[em] almost off them fell & bear down the other four and so they all broke their Necks. So that he has no other way Left than as above to pay off his debt.

John Worrall Serjant owes 105[lb]. Sayes he has a Small plantation of 12 Acres, and had before the dry time seven head of Cattle of which Six dyed and has nothing but the land to pay the debt he has a wife by whom the land Came and two Children and desires he may work for the Company at Stone Laying and

Margin Notes:

Orchard

Morris

Nichols

Edwards.

Kelley.

Worrall

John Orchard, planter, owed £28 3s 0d to the Company. He had intended to bring £14 0s 0d with him, and complained that Robert Gurling owed him £28 0s 0d and was to pay him £14 0s 0d the previous Saturday but had disappointed him. He proposed to assign the debt money over to the Company, since Gurling was able to pay, and would deliver a falcon on demand as Captain Mashborne valued it.

Walter Morris, stone-layer, owed £40 0s 0d. He had some yams to sell, and wished to dispose of 10,000 yams and suckers when demanded at the market price. He would send his slave to the work and was willing to work himself to lessen his debt.

John Nichols owed £100 0s 0d. He proposed to send two slaves to the work, to find provisions for ten or twelve of the soldiers, and to raise poultry.

Humphrey Edwards, matross, owed £35 0s 0d. He proposed that George Bryant, his son-in-law, be admitted as a soldier, and was willing to work at any business when off guards. He would also raise some fowls when he could. He had nothing now to lessen his debt but his own and his son's pay.

Christopher Kelley, gunner's mate, owed about £40 0s 0d. He proposed to send in 24 fowls, and would let his pay run on to discharge his debt. He was now reduced in circumstances by reason of the late dry time, having been ten months without any water within a mile. He said he had 19 cows, of which 14 had died, and the other five, going together down a steep place to drink, had been too eager, and the foremost fell and beat down the other four, so they all broke their necks. He therefore had no other way left than as above to pay off his debt.

John Worrall, sergeant, owed £105 0s 0d. He said he had a small plantation of 12 acres and had had, before the dry time, seven head of cattle, of which six had died. He had nothing but his land to pay the debt. He had a wife, by whom the land came, and two children, and desired he might work for the Company at stone-laying.

Interpretations

The continuing proposals brought the catalogue of debt to a further round of detailed individual cases. Orchard's offer to assign a £28 0s 0d debt owed to him by Robert Gurling extended the secondary market in inhabitant debt seen in Knipe's earlier assignment of the Leech debt. The mechanism reflected the pattern by which planters short of cash and stock could nonetheless settle with the Company by transferring claims they held against other inhabitants. The reference to a falcon, in this context, almost certainly identifies a small bird of prey kept for sport, falconry having been a recognised gentry pastime that some better-resourced planters maintained on the island. The valuation of the bird by Mashborne placed the council in the position of setting the price of an unusual collectible item against an inhabitant debt.

The Edwards proposal that George Bryant, his son-in-law, be admitted as a soldier identified the third instance of the working pattern by which inhabitant households offered family members for garrison enlistment as part of debt settlement (after Burnham's son and Hayse's son on the previous pages). The mechanism by which a son-in-law could be tendered, rather than only a natural son, extended the range of family members the council might absorb into the garrison through this route, and reflected the willingness of the inhabitant household to surrender working dependants in clearance of cumulative store debt. The detail that Edwards had himself been admitted as matross on 3 November 1713 placed him within the same garrison-employment framework his son-in-law was now to enter.

Kelley's account of the loss of his cattle herd added a striking detail to the drought catalogue. The combination of cumulative drought losses (14 of 19 cows died of the dry conditions) with the catastrophic single event (the surviving five cattle breaking their necks when the foremost fell at a steep watering place) illustrated the working conditions under which a planter could be reduced from a substantial herd to no cattle within a short interval. The reference to ten months without any water within a mile placed the operational difficulties of dry-time stock-keeping in particularly stark terms. The mechanism by which a planter's livestock losses could be both attritional (slow death by drought) and catastrophic (single accident) was clearly on the working record of the present case.

Nichols's proposal to find provisions for ten or twelve of the soldiers as part of his settlement, alongside the contribution of two slaves and poultry, identified an arrangement by which an inhabitant could discharge debt by supplying garrison rations rather than by direct payment. The mechanism converted the planter's working agricultural output into garrison provisioning without the working intermediation of the storekeeper, with the council presumably crediting the planter at the rate at which the soldiers' rations would otherwise have been drawn from store. The detail probably reflected a wider pattern by which the garrison's standing food requirement could be met by inhabitant production under the recovery framework.

Worrall's offer to work at stone-laying, with his small twelve-acre plantation as the only other asset to pay the debt, applied the same pattern that had emerged in the Sutton Isaack junior, Slaughter and Lufkin proposals. The accumulation of stone-laying offers from indebted planters now stood at four men across two pages, with the further availability of Morris (also identified as stone-layer) on the present page. The mechanism by which the recovery programme drew its principal stone-working labour from the indebted inhabitant class, rather than from contracted external workers, reflected the integration of the debt-clearance framework with the colony's physical infrastructure programme.

The reference to Worrall's plantation having come by his wife identified a further pattern of land tenure on the island. Married women's inheritance of land, on which her husband then worked and which carried the household's working economic position, was a recurring feature of the working land settlements (the Slaughter-Harding life-interest case of 5 October being the most recent comparable example). The mechanism by which a wife's working dowry land could be the only asset standing between an indebted household and total loss reflected the protective role that inherited freeholds played in the colony's social structure.

The Kelley account of the steep watering place where the surviving cattle had broken their necks identified one of the working hazards of the island's terrain. The volcanic landscape of St Helena, with its deep ravines and steep escarpments, made watering of livestock during drought conditions particularly hazardous. The mechanism by which thirst could drive cattle to dangerous descents reflected the operational difficulties that drought imposed on inhabitant pastoralism beyond the simple loss of grazing.

Speculations

The repeated offers of family members as garrison recruits (Burnham's son, Hayse's son, Edwards's son-in-law in the past three pages) suggest that the council was probably actively encouraging such offers as a method of meeting garrison recruitment needs from the inhabitant population. The pattern reads as a structured route by which struggling families could reduce their debt burden while the garrison absorbed working young men from the colony's own stock. The mechanism preserved the inhabitant population on the island, where outright departure would have removed them, while transferring their working productive capacity from the planter household to the Company establishment.

Orchard's account of Robert Gurling's disappointment in paying the £14 0s 0d the previous Saturday suggests that the wider inhabitant credit network had probably begun to break down under the pressure of the simultaneous settlement programme. With multiple indebted planters all seeking to liquidate the same kinds of assets at the same time, the working ability of one planter to pay another at a promised date would have been impaired by the cascading working effects of the settlement framework. The mechanism by which the council's recovery programme created secondary credit failures across the inhabitant economy reflected the limits of debt extraction from a population already at the working edge of its capacity.

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and his pay as Serj[t] shall also goe towards his debt and he will raise up Poultry.

Alles Hayse Monkoss owes 35[lb] and desires he may be Employd in any work and will sett it off from his debt he having nothing to pay it with.

John Long owes about 90[lb] and says that before this last Advertisem[t] came out he proposed to Cap[tn] Mashborne to sell him 15000 weight of yams and 5 hundred weight of Beef and 10 Goats, and to send in two blacks to the Work.

Thomas Harper owes 31[lb] and proposes to deliver one Bull, a sow and 5 Piggs, 18 fowles 6 Ducks to send one black to work and 6000 weight of yams but hath no Suckers.

Thomas Souther Serj[t] owes 150[lb] Proposes to lett his pay run on in Order to pay his debt in the Hono[ble] Companys Stores and to Deliver Yams to y[e] Value of fifty pounds and what Suckers he can Spare and he can do no otherwise haveing Ruind himself by keeping a Punch house and great Loses in the dry tune. He Says that he has no wife but Sarah the Widdow of Edward Bagley who he marry'd here but that he was formerly married by Doct[r] Lucas in Ireland at a private House near Dublin to Susannah the wife of one John Mercer Warehouse Keeper who Dyed in S[t] Martins Le Grand London & was buried at S[t] Anns Church by one Joseph Gunson a quaker in his absence when he went to raiseing recruits at oundle in Northampton Shire but at her death was at Tilbury Fort and at his Coming from Tilbury he paid 4:5:-:- to said Joseph Gunson for the particular Charges, but saith he co[u]'nt not to see at his wifes Lodg- =ings for her Cloaths or what she had, but is sure his wife is dead because Joseph Gunson was an Honest Man and would not impose upon him, but saith there was a widdow named Mary Thorn who lived in oundle in oundle that entired him from his quarters and would a been Married.

Margin Notes:

Hayse

Long.

Harper

Southen.

John Orchard, planter, owed £28 3s 0d to the Company. He had intended to bring £14 0s 0d with him, and complained that Robert Gurling owed him £28 0s 0d and was to pay him £14 0s 0d the previous Saturday but had disappointed him. He proposed to assign the debt money over to the Company, since Gurling was able to pay, and would deliver a falcon on demand as Captain Mashborne valued it.

Walter Morris, stone-layer, owed £40 0s 0d. He had some yams to sell, and wished to dispose of 10,000 yams and suckers when demanded at the market price. He would send his slave to the work and was willing to work himself to lessen his debt.

John Nichols owed £100 0s 0d. He proposed to send two slaves to the work, to find provisions for ten or twelve of the soldiers, and to raise poultry.

Humphrey Edwards, matross, owed £35 0s 0d. He proposed that George Bryant, his son-in-law, be admitted as a soldier, and was willing to work at any business when off guards. He would also raise some fowls when he could. He had nothing now to lessen his debt but his own and his son's pay.

Christopher Kelley, gunner's mate, owed about £40 0s 0d. He proposed to send in 24 fowls, and would let his pay run on to discharge his debt. He was now reduced in circumstances by reason of the late dry time, having been ten months without any water within a mile. He said he had 19 cows, of which 14 had died, and the other five, going together down a steep place to drink, had been too eager, and the foremost fell and beat down the other four, so they all broke their necks. He therefore had no other way left than as above to pay off his debt.

John Worrall, sergeant, owed £105 0s 0d. He said he had a small plantation of 12 acres and had had, before the dry time, seven head of cattle, of which six had died. He had nothing but his land to pay the debt. He had a wife, by whom the land came, and two children, and desired he might work for the Company at stone-laying.

Interpretations

Hayse's offer reflected the situation of a debtor reduced to offering only his own labour, with no produce, livestock or slaves left to tender. The mechanism by which a matross could pledge his future labour at any task the council should employ him in, set off against the debt, applied the wage-clearance route in its simplest form: the man himself was the only remaining asset, and his time would be drawn on directly until the debt was cleared.

Long's reference to a proposal made to Mashborne before the most recent advertisement reflected the practice by which inhabitants had been making private settlements with the captain in his role as the council's principal procurement officer, in parallel with the formal advertisement programme. The mechanism by which a planter could initiate a settlement informally through Mashborne and then have it incorporated into the formal record once the advertisement triggered the process showed that the recovery framework had absorbed an existing pattern of private arrangements between Mashborne and the planter community, rather than wholly displacing it.

The Long offer of 15,000 weight of yams, 500 weight of beef and ten goats, together with two slaves, formed a substantial settlement package against a debt of about £90 0s 0d. The reference to weight of yams (rather than the more common count by thousand suckers) reflected the practice by which mature yams ready for delivery were measured by weight, while planting stock was counted by number. The 500 weight of beef indicated that Long retained sufficient cattle to slaughter for the Company supply.

The Southen account contained the most striking matrimonial disclosure in the present sequence. Southen described two marriages: an earlier one in Ireland to Susannah, the wife of one John Mercer (a warehouse keeper at St Martin's le Grand, London), conducted by Doctor Lucas in a private house near Dublin; and a current marriage on the island to Sarah, the widow of Edward Bagley. The earlier marriage was technically void in canon law because Susannah was the wife of a living husband at the time, and could only have become a lawful marriage after Mercer's death (which had since occurred, with burial at St Ann's church). The detail that Southen had subsequently received word of Susannah's own death at Tilbury Fort, with funeral charges of £4 15s 0d paid to Joseph Gunson the Quaker, established the death of the first wife as the ground on which the current marriage to Sarah Bagley could stand.

The reference to Doctor Lucas in Ireland is probably to one of the irregular clandestine marriage practitioners who operated outside the established church regime in this period, often performing marriages without proper ecclesiastical authority in private houses to avoid the church's banns and licence requirements. The mechanism by which such marriages could be solemnised, particularly between parties one of whom was already married, was a known feature of the early eighteenth-century marriage market. The fact that Southen openly recounted such an irregular marriage to the council, in the context of clearing a substantial debt, suggests that he probably believed the council would not pursue the matrimonial complications further once the debt was settled.

The reference to a punch house identified Southen's earlier business as the keeper of a drinking establishment serving punch (a mixed alcoholic beverage based on spirits, citrus and sugar). The mechanism by which a small business of this kind could ruin its keeper under drought conditions (with the customer base reduced by general impoverishment and with supplies of fresh fruit and sugar disrupted) reflected the cascading effects of the agricultural collapse on every sector of the inhabitant economy.

The reference to the widow Mary Thorne at Oundle, who had enticed Southen from his recruitment quarters and would have married him, added a third matrimonial complication. The mechanism by which the council was now being told of a third near-marriage probably reflected Southen's calculation that his current marriage to Sarah Bagley could be tested against any number of alternative entanglements, and he wished to clear the record in full before the council's decision on his debt settlement. The structural effect of disclosing every matrimonial complication, in apparent honesty, was to place the council in the position of treating Southen as candid even on matters that could otherwise have been used against him.

Speculations

Southen's detailed matrimonial disclosure, far in excess of what the debt settlement alone required, suggests that he had probably been challenged on his marital status by some party (perhaps Sarah Bagley's family or a creditor) and was using the council's hearing as an opportunity to set out his version of events for the record. The mechanism by which a debt-settlement consultation could double as a hearing on matrimonial fact, with the council's order operating as effective acknowledgement of Southen's current marriage to Sarah Bagley, reflected the practical role of the consultation book as a register of inhabitant status in the absence of separate ecclesiastical courts.

The detail of the £4 15s 0d funeral payment to Joseph Gunson identifies the cost of a respectable London burial for a woman of inhabitant status in the early eighteenth century. The mechanism by which a man could be informed of his absent wife's death and pay the funeral charges through a third party (a Quaker, no less, who would not impose upon him) reflected the pattern of long-distance family administration in the period, with the absence of any documentary proof of death other than the report of the funeral payer.

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Married to him but was not tho they liv'd together as man and wife who when he went from her because he refus'd to Marry her threatened that she would be a plague to him as long as he lived for she knew more of him then any wife that ever he had, tho he has tried three and he beleives this woman who now sues to the Hono[ble] Comp[as] for Allowance is that Mary Thorn, but she never was his wife.

M[r] George Carne owes about 650[lb] in the Stores to the Honour[ble] Company He proposes to pay in Creditt that is good debts due to him 110[lb], in plate 80, in slaves 90, in breeding Cattle 25, Goats 50, in Lands 200, & promises to send some of his Blacks to the Work at all times when he can Conveniently Speare any.

Cap[t] Mashborne reports that he has planted in the new Plantation at the Hutts 42000 Suckers and is now a breaking up Ground to plant more in.

M[r] Tovey gave in the 2 foll[g] Lists to send home viz[t] An Inventory of Books & Papers &c[a] found in the Sec[ets] Office the 16[th] July 1714 takeen by me Antipas Tovey

  1. A Councill Book begun 27[th] June 1678 & Ends y[e] 20[th] Decemb[r] 1683.
    1. D[o] begun Jan[y] 8[th] 168[3/4] & Ends 19[th] Decemb[r]
  2. these two had Covers.
    1. D[o] begun 3[d] Jan[ry] 1687/8 & Ends 29[th] March
  3. a very bad Cover the last leaf wore away.
    1. D[o] begun 24[th] April 1693 & Ends 6[th] July 1696.
    2. D[o] begun [...] July 1696 & ends the 6[th] July 1699.
    3. D[o] begun y[e] 1[st] Aug[t] 1699. Ends the 1[st] April 1703. this & y[e] last book had y[e] binding bad & loose leaves.

Margin Notes:

Carne

Suckers planted at y[e] Hutts.

Inventory of Books &c[a] in this Office. N[o] 1.

Southen's account concluded. Mary Thorne had not been married to him, although they had lived together as man and wife. When he went away from her, because he had refused to marry her, she had threatened that she would be a plague to him as long as he lived, for she knew more of him than any wife he had ever had, even though he had had three. He believed it was this woman who now sued the Honourable Company for allowance, who was Mary Thorne, but she had never been his wife.

George Carne owed about £650 0s 0d in the stores to the Honourable Company. He promised to pay in credit, which was good debt due to him, £110 0s 0d, in plate £80 0s 0d, in slaves £90 0s 0d, in breeding cattle £25 0s 0d, in goats £50 0s 0d, in lands £200 0s 0d, and he promised to send some of his slaves to the work at all times when he could conveniently spare any.

Captain Mashborne reported that he had planted in the new plantation at the Hutts 42,000 suckers, and was now breaking up ground to plant more.

Mr Tovey gave in the following list of items to send home, namely an inventory of books and papers found in the Secretary's office, taken on 16 July 1714 by Antipas Tovey.

  1. A council book begun 27 June 1678 and ending 20 December 1683.
  2. The same begun 8 January 1683 and ending 19 December 1687. These two had covers.
  3. The same begun 3 January 1687/8 and ending 29 March 1693. It had a very bad cover and the last leaf was worn away.
  4. The same begun 24 April 1693 and ending 6 July 1696.
  5. The same begun 1 July 1696 and ending 6 July 1699.
  6. The same begun 1 August 1699 and ending 1 April 1703. This and the last book had the binding bad and loose leaves.

Interpretations

The closing of Southen's account brought a fourth woman into his matrimonial sequence (Mary Thorne, who had not been married to him but had lived with him as man and wife). The reference to her threat to be a plague to him as long as he lived, on the ground that she knew more of him than any of his three actual wives, reflected the implicit power of an aggrieved former cohabitant who could expose other concealed history. The reference to a suit now being prosecuted against the Honourable Company for allowance, which Southen attributed to Thorne, identified the immediate occasion for his lengthy matrimonial disclosure: a third party had brought proceedings against him through the Company, and his disclosure to the council was a pre-emptive defence on the merits.

The mechanism by which a former cohabitant could sue the Company for allowance (the term denoting the periodic maintenance payments a man might be ordered to pay a woman with whom he had cohabited or had children) reflected the council's role as the working judicial body for matrimonial disputes in the absence of a separate ecclesiastical court. Southen's pre-emptive declaration that Thorne had never been his wife sought to establish, on the council's record, that no such allowance was legally due.

The Carne settlement was the largest single proposal in the present sequence. The £650 0s 0d debt placed Carne as the principal indebted inhabitant on the island, and the proposed clearance set out in six categories (credit £110 0s 0d, plate £80 0s 0d, slaves £90 0s 0d, breeding cattle £25 0s 0d, goats £50 0s 0d, lands £200 0s 0d) reached a total of £555 0s 0d, leaving a residual of approximately £95 0s 0d to be cleared by slave labour at times when Carne could conveniently spare any. The proposal reflected the asset structure of the largest planter household: substantial silver plate, productive slaves, breeding cattle, goats, and the most substantial asset class of all, lands.

The £200 0s 0d in lands offered by Carne was the most striking element. The mechanism by which a major debtor could clear close to a third of his debt by transferring land back to the Company reflected the council's continued willingness to absorb productive land into the Company estate as a means of debt clearance. Carne's earlier disputes with the council (over the Keeling orphans' bond, the Beale orphans' estate, the Half Way Tree common enclosure, the protested bills of exchange) had not stripped him of substantial landholding, and the present proposal converted a substantial portion of those holdings into Company stock.

The reference to credit which was good debt due to him at £110 0s 0d continued the pattern of secondary debt assignment seen across the previous proposals (Knipe assigning Isaac Leech's debt, Orchard assigning Robert Gurling's debt). The mechanism placed the council in the position of becoming the creditor of the original debtor owing the £110 0s 0d, and would draw the recovery framework into a further round of debt collection within the inhabitant economy.

Mashborne's report on the new plantation at the Hutts continued the catalogue of physical recovery achievements. The 42,000 suckers planted there, combined with the 46,000 suckers already planted at the High Peak (reported on 26 October), gave a total of 88,000 suckers established under Pyke's administration in two upland plantations alone. Set against the 555,550 yams across the Company plantations counted on 10 August 1714, the additional 88,000 suckers represented a fifteen per cent net expansion of the Company's yam-planting base within four months, before any further plantings at the older sites.

The Tovey inventory of council books opened a separate piece of administrative business. The list of six bound volumes, with their dates and conditions of binding, recorded a continuous consultation series from June 1678 to April 1703. The mechanism by which the new administration was now systematically cataloguing the working documentary record of the colony reflected the broader programme of restoring administrative order following the Boucher period. The mention of bad covers, worn last leaves and loose binding on several volumes signalled the practical conservation difficulties of holding paper records in the island's climate, where moisture and insects took a steady toll.

The arrangement of the six volumes by date sequence covered exactly twenty-five years of consultation records, the first two volumes spanning five years each (1678-1683 and 1683-1687), the next four spanning approximately three to four years each. The reduced span of the later volumes may reflect either increased volume of business as the colony's affairs grew more complex, or a working policy of binding shorter volumes once the practical difficulties of handling thicker books became apparent.

Speculations

The disclosure of the Mary Thorne suit, prosecuted against the Honourable Company for allowance, suggests that the legal apparatus by which a cohabiting woman could seek maintenance from a man's employer (in this case the East India Company) had been operating in London during Southen's absence from there. The mechanism by which the Company could be drawn into matrimonial proceedings as the working employer of the alleged debtor reflected the wider pattern by which corporate bodies acted as channels for the recovery of personal obligations from their working servants. Southen's pre-emptive disclosure to the council represented his attempt to ensure that, if the Mary Thorne suit reached the council's working attention through Company channels, the colony's record would already document his denial.

The Carne offer of £200 0s 0d in lands as the principal element of his settlement suggests that the council had probably been working in private negotiation with him over which specific parcels would be transferred, and at what valuations. The mechanism by which the largest indebted planter could clear close to a third of his debt through land transfer placed the council in the position of becoming a substantially enlarged landholder by the close of the recovery exercise. The specific lands probably included parcels that the council had been working to acquire for some time, including possibly the Keeling thirty acres that the petitioner John Keeling had recently offered (with Carne identified as the working tenant of that parcel on a notice arrangement).

240

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N[o] 7. 1 D[o] begun 1[st] April 1703 & Ends 13 March 170[4/5] all unbound & wants a leaf or leaves.

  1. 1 D[o] begun 27[th] March 1705. Ends 29[th] Octob[r] 1706. the cover gon[e] & some leaves loose.
  2. 1 D[o] begun 5[th] Nov[r] 1706. & Ends 20[th] Sep[r] 1709. a good Book.
  3. 1 D[o] begun 8[th] Nov[r] 1709. & Ends 9[th] Dec[r] 1712. a good Book.
  4. 1 D[o] begun 6[th] Jan[ry] 1713. & Ends 2[d] June 1714.

N[o] A 1. 1. Book Instruc[on]s & Orders &c[a] from y[e] Hono[ble] Comp[a]

B. 1 D[o] both very bad books

C. 1 D[o] this knawd with y[e] Ratts.

E. 1 Book for Instruc[on]s of Officers at our Forts &c[a]

  1. Copy book of the Laws &c[a] of the Island { now N[o] E.
  2. Book of Abstracts &c[a] of y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[as] Instruc[on]s in a very bad condition { now N[o] F.

D. 1. Letter book from England

W. 1 Book of Duplicates of Wills.

R. 1. Register Book of Wills.

G. 1. Letter book from S[t] Helena to England & India

  1. Small books of Abstracts &c[a] Comp[as] Order & Orders of Council, Alphabetically. Stitcht, w[th] paper covers.
  2. D[o] bound.
  3. book of Abstract of Laws & Orders of Council from 1679 to 1709.

P. Provision book from Plantation House in y[e] Year 1712 but few leaves writ on; a large book.

A Stitcht book of Abstracts of Instruc[on]s from y[e] Comp[a]

Tovey's inventory of books continued.

  1. The same begun 1 April 1703 and ending 13 March 1705. All unbound and wanting a leaf or leaves.
  2. The same begun 27 March 1705 and ending 29 October 1706. The cover gone and some leaves loose.
  3. The same begun 5 November 1706 and ending 20 September 1709. A good book.
  4. The same begun 8 November 1709 and ending 9 December 1712. A good book.
  5. The same begun 6 January 1713 and ending 2 June 1714.

Marked A. One book of instructions and orders from the Honourable Company.

Marked B. One ditto, both very bad books.

Marked C. One ditto, gnawed with the rats.

Marked I. One book for the instructions of officers at outer Forts and so on.

One copy book of the laws and so on of the island, now marked E.

One book of abstracts and so on of the Honourable Company's instructions, in a very bad condition, now marked F.

Marked D. One letter book from England.

Marked W. One book of duplicates of wills.

Marked R. One register book of wills.

Marked G. One letter book from St Helena to England and India.

Four small books of abstracts of the Company's orders and orders of council, alphabetically stitched, with paper covers.

Two ditto, bound.

One book of abstracts of laws and orders of council from 1679 to 1709.

Marked P. Provision book from Plantation House, of the year 1712, with few leaves written on, a large book.

One stitched book of abstracts of instructions from the Company.

Interpretations

The continuation of Tovey's inventory completed the catalogue of the consultation books proper. Volumes 7 to 11 carried the record from April 1703 forward to June 1714, the present volume itself being the working continuation from that point. The five volumes covered a further eleven years of working consultation, with the volumes after the death of Governor Goodwin and during the Roberts and Boucher administrations all identified. The condition notes (unbound, wanting leaves, cover gone, leaves loose, gnawed with the rats) revealed the working preservation difficulties of paper records under the island's climate and rodent pressure.

The marking of subsequent books by letter (A, B, C, I, E, F, D, W, R, G, P) reflected the standard archival practice by which a working secretary identified individual volumes by letter for cross-reference. The detail of the marking system in the inventory permitted any later reference in the consultation books to be matched against the physical volume held in the office.

The differentiation between book types revealed the wider working documentary infrastructure of the colony. Beyond the consultation books themselves, the inventory recorded letter books (from England, from St Helena to England and India), instruction books (general from the Company, specific for officers at outer Forts), legal compilations (laws of the island, abstracts of laws and orders), testamentary records (duplicates of wills, register of wills), and a provision book from the Plantation House. The mechanism by which a working administrative apparatus could be constructed from these eleven principal volume categories, plus the working stitched and bound abstracts, reflected the working sophistication of the colony's record-keeping at its working best.

The provision book from Plantation House of 1712, with few leaves written on, a large book, identified a specific document acquired or commissioned in Boucher's first year but largely unused. The mechanism by which a substantial book could be opened for a working purpose and then abandoned reflected the working pattern of administrative neglect under Boucher that the new administration had repeatedly documented. The fact that the book remained in the Secretary's office on 16 July 1714 (only eight days after Pyke's arrival on 8 July 1714) confirmed that the inventory was taken at the moment of administrative transfer, capturing the documentary state of the office at the changeover.

The reference to one book of abstracts of the Honourable Company's instructions in a very bad condition, now marked F (apparently re-marked from an earlier letter), reflected the working practice by which a damaged volume might be re-catalogued under a new mark when its original mark became illegible or when it was promoted within the office filing system. The mechanism preserved the working reference value of the book while acknowledging its physical decline.

The book of abstracts of laws and orders of council from 1679 to 1709 identified a working compilation covering thirty years of legislative and administrative output. The mechanism by which the council had compiled (probably under a previous secretary) a working consolidated abstract of its standing orders and laws gave the working administration a single reference work for the standing law of the colony, distinct from the chronological consultation books themselves. The fact that the compilation stopped at 1709 (the close of the Goodwin administration) and was not continued under Roberts or Boucher reflected the working interruption of the compilation programme during the most recent administrations.

The four small books of abstracts of the Company's orders and orders of council, alphabetically stitched, with paper covers, and two ditto, bound, represented a further category of finding aids, in this case organised by topic rather than chronologically. The mechanism by which the same material was held in both chronological (consultation books) and alphabetical (abstract books) form gave the working secretary multiple routes of access to any past order or instruction. The bound versions were probably more recent or more durable; the stitched paper-covered versions probably older or in working draft for further consolidation.

Speculations

The systematic inventory of books taken on 16 July 1714, eight days after Pyke's arrival, suggests that the new administration treated the documentary state of the office as a primary concern of the changeover. The mechanism by which the working condition of every volume was set down (good, bad, gnawed, unbound) probably reflected the new administration's intention to use the inventory both as a documentary record of the Boucher legacy and as a working baseline against which any subsequent loss, damage or removal could be assessed.

The detailed cataloguing by mark (A through G plus P, with later remarkings to E and F) suggests that the new administration was concerned to put the entire documentary archive on a single coherent reference system from the start. The mechanism by which a working alphabetical reference system could be applied to the existing volumes, with the option of remarking older volumes as needed, gave the working secretary the framework within which any subsequent retrieval of past orders could be conducted efficiently. The investment of time required to develop and apply such a system at the moment of changeover reflected the new administration's working commitment to documentary discipline as the foundation of administrative recovery.

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232

  1. Small Stitcht book Copy of consultations from Aug[t]
    1. to 9[th] May 1678 in Govern[t] Field's time.
  2. Stitt old book of the Orphans 168[3/4].

A Large bundle of papers of consultations being y[e] foul Coppys most unbound & loose.

  1. Small Stitcht book of Marks of Cattle.
  2. D[o] a foul Large book of Causes
  3. blank book Island bound
  4. Little nest of Drawers having 18 drawers most filld w[th] papers that are mostly loose, as Gen[ll] Letters from y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] Letters from India Wills, Inventories, receipts for Packetts, Bonds for Licences &c[a]
  5. Stitcht foul consultation book begun 25[th] 7ber 1710. & Ends y[e] 14[th] June 1714.
  6. Printed Law book

A Generall List of Wills &c[a]

N[o] | Year | Month | Days | The Last Wills & Testaments &c[a] of Viz[t]

1 | 1681 | xber | 28[th] | Rich[d] Hardings

2 | 1682 | April | 10 | D[c]r Moors

3 | [...] | Aug[t] | 9 | Rich[d] Eddis's

4 | [...] | 7ber | 15 | Jn[o] Youngs

5 | [...] | [...] | 25 | Sam[l] Hollands

6 | [...] | [...] | 25 | James Eassings

7 | [...] | Octob[r] | 20 | Sarah Youngs

8 | [...] | [...] | d[o] | Rob[t] Orchards

9 | 1683 | 9ber | 20 | Nath[ll] Barnardines

10 | [...] | xber | 18 | Sam[l] Pinsents

11 | 1683 | Apr[l] | 30 | John Greentrees

12 | [...] | May | 6 | Tho[s] Pledgers

13 | [...] | [...] | [...] | Jos[nth] Churchs

14 | [...] | July | 2 | Tho[s] Francombs

15 | [...] | [...] | [...] | Rich[d] Alexanders

16 | [...] | Sep[r] | 3 | Hon[r] Hyergins

Tovey's inventory continued.

One small stitched book, copy of consultations from 1 August 1674 to 9 May 1678, in Governor Field's time.

One stitched old book of the orphans, 1684.

A large bundle of papers of consultations, being the foul copies, mostly unbound and loose.

One small stitched book of marks of cattle.

The same, a foul book of causes.

One blank book island-bound.

A little nest of drawers having 18 drawers, mostly filled with papers that lay loose, namely general letters from the Honourable Company, letters from India, wills, inventories, receipts for packets, bonds for licences and so on.

One stitched foul consultation book begun 25 September 1710 and ending 14 June 1714.

One printed law book.

A general list of wills, and so on.

No. 1. 1681, December, 28th. Richard Hardings.

No. 2. 1682, April, 10th. Doctor Moors.

No. 3. 1682, August, 9th. Richard Eadis.

No. 4. 1682, September, 15th. John Youngs.

No. 5. 1682, September, 25th. Samuel Hollands.

No. 6. 1682, September, 25th. James Cassings.

No. 7. 1682, October, 20th. Sarah Youngs.

No. 8. 1682, October, 2nd. Robert Orchards.

No. 9. 1684, September, 20th. Nathaniel Bernardins.

No. 10. 1684, October, 18th. Samuel Pinsents.

No. 11. 1685, April, 30th. John Greentrees.

No. 12. 1685, May, 6th. Thomas Pledgers.

No. 13. 1685, May, [...]. Joseph Churchs.

No. 14. 1685, July, 2nd. Thomas Francombs.

No. 15. 1685, July, [...]. Richard Alexanders.

No. 16. 1685, September, 3rd. [...] Hyergins.

Interpretations

The inventory closed with a collection of more specialised documentary items that revealed the wider working contents of the Secretary's office. The reference to consultations from 1 August 1674 to 9 May 1678 in Governor Field's time identified records going back six years before the earliest of the bound consultation books listed on the previous page (which had begun 27 June 1678). The mechanism by which the working office retained material predating the bound consultation series reflected the practical organisation of the archive, with earlier and less formally preserved material held alongside the more orderly later volumes.

The reference to a stitched old book of the orphans, 1684, identified a separate working record covering the affairs of orphan estates, presumably containing the working accounts, appraisals and council determinations on minor heirs' property. The mechanism by which the colony maintained a dedicated working orphan register reflected the institutional importance of the orphan estate as a category of working administrative responsibility, the council standing in the position of fathers to widows and orphans as had been articulated in earlier consultations.

The bundle of foul copies of consultations identified the working stage in the production of the consultation books, before fair copies were written up into the bound volumes. The mechanism by which a working secretary made foul (draft) notes at each consultation, then later transcribed them into the bound book, was the standard early modern practice for ensuring that hasty or amended entries did not appear in the permanent record. The retention of the foul copies even after the fair copies had been bound preserved an evidentiary record of any divergences between draft and final entries.

The reference to a small stitched book of marks of cattle identified the working register of the marks by which inhabitants identified their livestock. The mechanism by which the marks were recorded and maintained, central to the working enforcement of the 23 November 1709 law against felony (which required inspection of ears, hide and horns for the owner's mark before any beast could be killed), gave the council's working enforcement officers a working reference document against which any disputed identification could be tested.

The little nest of drawers having 18 drawers, with general letters from the Honourable Company, letters from India, wills, inventories, receipts for packets and bonds for licences, identified the working filing infrastructure of the office. Eighteen drawers, presumably each devoted to a working category or recipient class, gave the working secretary the working capacity to retrieve any letter, will, inventory or bond by reference to its category. The mechanism by which the documents lay loose in the drawers, rather than bound, reflected the working pattern by which active correspondence and current legal instruments were kept available for working consultation, while material no longer in active use was eventually bound into the permanent record.

The general list of wills opened with the earliest wills proved by the council, beginning in December 1681 with Richard Harding's. The mechanism by which the council maintained a working chronological register of wills proved, with sequential numbers, dates and testator names, gave the working secretary an immediate reference index against which any later working query (probate, descent of property, executor's accounts) could be matched. The format of the table, with sequential number, year, month, day and testator name, set the standard for the working register, with the entries continuing across multiple folios.

The list of testators included several names recognisable from the earlier working sequence. John Greentree (probate 30 April 1685) had been the working figure in the 22 April 1680 Cates land transfer to which subsequent title chains repeatedly returned. Richard Hardings (the first entry, December 1681) was probably the elder of the Harding line that produced the Richard Harding planter and the John Harding shoemaker and stone-layer of the present consultations. Thomas Pledgers (probate 6 May 1685) was probably an early member of the Pledger family from which Praise Pledger's working will of 3 November 1697 had descended. Richard Alexanders (probate July 1685) is striking because it predates the Richard Alexander who was the subject of the Tovey-Alexander dispute and whose death had been variously dated in the working submissions; this 1685 testator was probably an earlier member of the same family.

The mechanism by which a working register of wills could be used to trace working family genealogies across multiple decades reflected the working value of such a register both for working probate administration in the moment and for working evidentiary purposes in subsequent disputes over title. The Tovey-Alexander dispute had turned in part on the working chronology of Richard Alexander's death; a working register of this kind would have been the working starting point for any working investigation of such facts.

Speculations

The systematic inventory of the office's working documentary holdings, including not only the formal bound volumes but also the loose papers, foul copies, drawer contents and specialised registers, suggests that the new administration's working concern extended beyond simply taking stock of what existed to understanding the working operational state of the entire archive. The mechanism by which the inventory listed the working condition of each item (mostly unbound and loose, gnawed with the rats, foul copies) probably reflected a working preparatory step toward a broader programme of working preservation, fair-copying and rebinding that the working administration would undertake as part of the working restoration of administrative order.

The numbering of the wills as a sequential register, beginning at 1 with the 1681 Hardings will, identifies the working register itself as an instrument of subsequent compilation rather than an ongoing working register kept contemporaneously. The mechanism by which the wills proved over the period 1681 to (presumably) the date of compilation could be entered into a single sequence with sequential numbers suggests that the register was prepared (probably by a working secretary at some past point) as a comprehensive working reference work covering all wills proved on the island since the working restart of administration after the recapture from the Dutch. The list itself was thus a working historical compilation as much as an active register.

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233

N[o] | Year | Month | Days | [name] | [N[o]] | [Year] | [Month] | [Days] | [name]

17 | 168[3/4] | Jan[ry] | 19 | Jn[o] Barlee's | 48 | 1700 | xber | 3 | Eleenour Beales

18 | 1684 | April | 5 | Henry Francis | 49 | 1701 | June | 9 | Tho[s] Box's

19 | [...] | May | 9 | Hugh Syms | 50 | [...] | xber | 9 | Orlando Bagleys

20 | [...] | June | 14 | Ralph Syms | 51 | 170[2] | Feb[ry] | 5 | Ann Edmunds

21 | 1687 | [...] | 15 | W[m] Bishops | 52 | [...] | M[arc]h | 2 | Tho[s] Burnhams

22 | 1688 | July | 2 | Rob[t] Swallows | 53 | 1702 | July | 24 | Jane Wranghams

23 | 1690 | April | 4 | Jn[o] Drapers | 54 | [...] | 9ber | 10 | Tho[s] Earles

24 | [...] | June | 14 | Rich[d] Leeches | 55 | 1703 | Jan[ry] | 27 | Edw[d] Edmunds

25 | 1692 | Jan[ry] | 27 | Benj[a] Seales | 56 | [...] | M[arc]h | 16 | Jn[o] Sichs

26 | [...] | 9ber | 29 | John Smiths | 57 | 1703 | [...] | 30 | Mich[l] Morris

27 | [...] | xber | 8 | Edw[d] Seafords | 58 | [...] | May | 17 | Sam[l] Maxwells

28 | [...] | [...] | [...] | W[m] Joyces | 59 | [...] | July | 31 | Tho[s] Ashbys

29 | 1693 | Jan[ry] | [...] | Jos[ph] Charlesworths | 60 | 170[4] | Jan[ry] | 20 | James Riders

30 | 1693 | May | 4 | John Canadays | 61 | [...] | M[arc]h | 7 | John Goodwins

31 | 1694 | Aug[t] | 21 | W[m] Harveys | 62 | 1704 | July | 12 | Onesip Stewards

32 | 1695 | M[arc]h | 27 | John Stevens | 63 | 1705 | May | 26 | Edw[d] Crosbys

33 | [...] | June | 10 | Jn[o] Knypes | 64 | 1706 | April | 26 | James Casshopes

34 | 1696 | July | 11 | Mary Dixons | 65 | [...] | June | 5 | Tho[s] Bagleys

35 | 1697 | Jan[ry] | 12 | Jn[o] Cleverleys | 66 | [...] | [...] | 18 | Edw[d] Heaths

36 | [...] | Feb[ry] | 8 | And[w] Wilsons | 67 | [...] | [...] | [...] | W[m] Hayse's

37 | [...] | [...] | [...] | W[m] Bowmans | 68 | [...] | [...] | [...] | Raynus Gurlings

38 | 1697 | Feb[ry] | 28 | Tho[s] Phillips | 69 | [...] | July | 4 | Dan[ll] Lawsons

39 | [...] | April | 24 | Rebeccah Charlesworth | 70 | 1706 | Aug[t] | 15 | Mary Cottgraves

40 | 1698 | M[arc]h | 21 | Praise Pledgards | 71 | [...] | 7ber | 10 | Rich[d] Hardings

41 | 1698 | Sat[ry] | 19 | Jonathan Beales | 72 | [...] | xber | 8 | Paul Charles

42 | 1699 | Feb[ry] | 29 | Rich[d] Potters | 73 | 1707 | Feb[ry] | 28 | Mary Frenchs

43 | 1699 | M[arc]h | 5 | Tho[s] Femedales | 74 | [...] | April | 2 | Leonard Coulsons

44 | [...] | May | 2 | Jn[o] Boroomans | 75 | [...] | July | 8 | W[m] Duttons

45 | [...] | Octob[r] | [...] | Kath[n] Goodales | 76 | [...] | Sep[r] | 7 | Steph[n] Poiriers

46 | 1700 | May | 18 | Peter Williams | 77 | 1708 | Jan[ry] | 27 | Sam[l] Desfountains

47 | [...] | Aug[t] | 16 | Henry Coales | 78 | [...] | M[arc]h | 4 | W[m] Agues

Carried Over

The general list of wills continued.

No. 17. 1684, January, 19th. John Bartlees.

No. 18. 1684, April, 5th. Henry Francis.

No. 19. 1684, May, 9th. Hugh Syms.

No. 20. 1684, June, 14th. Ralph Syms.

No. 21. 1687, May, 15th. William Bishops.

No. 22. 1688, July, [...]. Robert Swallows.

No. 23. 1690, April, 4th. John Drapers.

No. 24. 1690, June, 14th. Richard Leeches.

No. 25. 1692, January, 27th. Benjamin Seales.

No. 26. 1692, September, 29th. John Smiths.

No. 27. 1692, December, 8th. Edward Seafords.

No. 28. [...]. [...]. [...]. William Joyces.

No. 29. 1693, January, [...]. Joseph Charlesworths.

No. 30. 1693, May, 2nd. John Canadays.

No. 31. 1694, August, 24th. William Harveys.

No. 32. 1695, March, 27th. John Stevens.

No. 33. 1695, June, 10th. John Knypes.

No. 34. 1696, July, 11th. Mary Dixons.

No. 35. 1697, January, 12th. John Alewelys.

No. 36. 1697, February, 8th. Andrew Wilsons.

No. 37. [...]. [...]. [...]. William Bowmans.

No. 38. 1697, February, 28th. Thomas Phillips.

No. 39. [...]. April, 24th. Rebecca Charlesworth.

No. 40. 1698, March, 21st. Praise Pledgers.

No. 41. 1698, February, 19th. Jonathan Beales.

No. 42. 1699, February, 29th. Richard Potters.

No. 43. 1699, March, 5th. Thomas Iremdales.

No. 44. [...]. May, 2nd. John Booromans.

No. 45. [...]. October, [...]. Katherine Pondsdales.

No. 46. 1700, May, 18th. Peter Williams.

No. 47. 1700, August, 16th. Henry Coales.

No. 48. 1700, December, 3rd. Eleanour Beales.

No. 49. 1701, June, 9th. Thomas Boxs.

No. 50. [...] December, [...]. Orlando Bagleys.

No. 51. 1702, February, 5th. Ann Edmunds.

No. 52. [...] March, [...]. Thomas Burnhams.

No. 53. 1702, July, 24th. Jane Wranghams.

No. 54. [...] September, 10th. Thomas Earles.

No. 55. 1703, January, 27th. Edward Edmunds.

No. 56. [...] March, 16th. John Sichs.

No. 57. 1703, [...], 30th. Michael Morris.

No. 58. [...] May, 17th. Samuel Maxwells.

No. 59. [...] July, 21st. Thomas Ashbys.

No. 60. 1704, January, 20th. James Reders.

No. 61. [...] March, 7th. John Goodwins.

No. 62. 1704, July, 12th. Onesiphorus Stewards.

No. 63. 1705, May, 26th. Edward Crosbys.

No. 64. 1706, April, 26th. James Cassings.

No. 65. [...] June, 5th. Thomas Bagleys.

No. 66. [...] [...], 18th. Edward Heaths.

No. 67. [...] [...], [...]. William Hayses.

No. 68. [...] [...], [...]. Erasmus Purlings.

No. 69. [...] July, 4th. Anne Hawthorns.

No. 70. 1706, August, 15th. Mary Cottgraves.

No. 71. [...] September, 10th. Richard Hardings.

No. 72. [...] December, 2nd. Paul Charles.

No. 73. 1707, February, 28th. Mary Frenchs.

No. 74. [...] April, 2nd. Leonard Coulsons.

No. 75. [...] July, 8th. William Duftons.

No. 76. [...] September, 7th. Stephen Poiriers.

No. 77. 1708, January, 27th. Samuel Desfountains.

No. 78. [...] March, 4th. William A[...]gues.

Carried over.

Interpretations

The continued list extended the working register of wills through to the early years of the Poirier and Goodwin administrations. The mechanism of sequential numbering, paired with year, month and day of probate, gave the working secretary an immediate reference for any working query about the date at which a testator's estate had passed through the council's working probate jurisdiction. The list ran from the working start of administrative record-keeping after the Dutch recapture into the working close of the colony's first generation of substantial settler estates.

Several of the names recorded carried direct connection to the working sequence of consultations in the present session and earlier. Henry Coales (no. 47, August 1700) was probably the elder Henry Coales whose son was the Henry Coales whose will was proved on 11 December 1710 and from whom Richard Cleave and William Coles had inherited under further proceedings of January 1712. Praise Pledgers (no. 40, March 1698) confirmed the date of probate of the will under which Benjamin Pledger had recently petitioned for the five acres held by Robert Bell. Jonathan Beales (no. 41, February 1698) gave the probate date for the will under which the Beale orphans' estate had been administered across multiple consultations from 1701 through to the present. Thomas Earles (no. 54, September 1702) provided the probate date for the will under which the Earle orphans' estate (recently disputed in the Algate petition of 24 August 1714) had been administered.

Mary Frenchs (no. 73, February 1707) recorded the probate of the working will of the wife of William French, whose later seizure and orphan claim had run through multiple consultations. Stephen Poiriers (no. 76, September 1707) recorded the probate of the late Governor's own will, which his widow had brought in on 25 July 1710 and which had been received and approved. Richard Hardings (no. 71, September 1706) provided a working chronology marker for the early Harding family member from whom the recent John Harding shoemaker descended. Andrew Wilsons (no. 36, February 1697) recorded the working probate of the testator whose disinheritance of his son James (over the bestiality accusation) had been the subject of the Earle orphans' case of 26 September 1710.

The substantial number of probates entered during 1706 (six entries from no. 64 to no. 71) reflected either an unusually high working mortality in that year or a concerted working effort to bring forward delayed probates from earlier deaths. The mechanism by which the working register served as a working snapshot of the colony's working demographic state across more than two decades gave the working administration a working analytical tool for tracking the working pattern of estate succession.

The dates in the working register confirmed the sequence of wills proved at specific moments in the working sequence of consultations. The mechanism by which a working register entry could be cross-checked against the working consultation entries themselves preserved the working integrity of the documentary record. Where the registers and the consultation entries agreed, working evidentiary force was strong; where they diverged, working investigation could establish which version was correct.

The entries marked with incomplete dates (where a year or month or day was not legible or was missing from the register) reflected the working practical limits of working register-keeping. Some entries had presumably been written into the register after a working delay, when the working memory of the exact date had faded; others had been working damaged by the working conditions of paper and ink. The mechanism by which the working register accommodated such working gaps, by leaving the working field blank rather than guessing, reflected the working integrity of the working secretary's approach.

Speculations

The chronological pattern of probates, with substantial working clusters in some years (six in 1706, four in 1685) and sparser entries in others, may reflect either working mortality fluctuations on the island (perhaps related to sickness episodes, drought conditions or shipping disruption) or working backlog clearances when a new working secretary or governor took up office and worked through outstanding cases. The mechanism by which such working clusters could be analysed for their working underlying causes (working comparison of probate dates against death dates, against weather records, against shipping arrivals) would in principle allow the working administration to construct a working picture of the colony's working demographic and epidemiological history.

The list itself, terminating in the working year 1708 on the working present page, with a working carry-over to a working further page, suggests that the working register continued into the working years of Roberts and Boucher. The mechanism by which the working register stretched across multiple administrations gave the working colony a working continuous probate record that the working changes of working senior personnel had not disrupted, contrasting with the working changes that affected other aspects of working administration during the same period. The continuity of working probate registration probably reflected the working role of the secretary's office, which had maintained working continuity even as the working political superstructure changed around it.

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234

A Generall List of Wills continued viz[t]

N[o] | Year | Month | Days | [name] | [N[o]] | [Year] | [Month] | [Days] | [name]

79 | 1708 | April | 13 | Tho[s] Sandersons | 88 | 1711 | 7ber | 13 | Tho[s] Allis's

80 | [...] | May | 24 | Jn[o] Midges | 89 | [...] | 8ber | 13 | Gilb[t] Cottgraves

81 | 1709 | M[arc]h | 15 | James Sichs | 90 | [...] | 9ber | 26 | Tho[s] Bagleys

82 | 1710 | Feb[ry] | 26 | Jn[o] Boyces | 91 | 1712 | July | 24 | Rob[t] Leeches

83 | [...] | Aprl | 29 | Rich[d] Alexand[r] | 92 | [...] | [...] | [...] | Geo[ge] Northerns

84 | [...] | June | 4 | Isaac Brothways | 93 | 1702 | Xber | 21 | Govern[r] Poiriers

85 | [...] | Nov[r] | 4 | Priscilla Gandys | 94 | 1713 | M[arc]h | 3 | Geo[ge] Atkisons

86 | 1711 | M[arc]h | 15 | John Luthers | 95 | [...] | May | 5 | Gov[r] Bouchers

87 | 1711 | June | 7 | Mary Fensters

Cap[t] Geo[ge] Haswell gave in the foll[g] Letter viz[t] To the Worsh[p] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c[a] Council Gent. Upon Examining into y[e] Creditt part of the late Gov[r] Bouchers Acc[t] I find that the aforesaid Gov[r] Boucher has converted to his Own work Use to the S[d] Acc[t] Brought to his Acc[t] of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Stock as foll[h] Viz[t]

Pork at Sundry times y[e] 2363[lb] a Cap[t] £59:1:6 [d]

8 Sheep & 20[lb] Sheep £8:-:-

6[lb] Butter at 1/[...] £-:6:-

Hay Sold p[r] Shiping £2:10:-

69 Turkeys at 5[s] p[r] Turkey £17:5:-

12 Piggs at 6[s] p[r] Pigg £3:12:-

Sled[g]e of James Greentree, for Sows £6:-:-

Wine Carryed off w[th] him £20:-:-

To y[e] French Ships £19:8:6

777 - if hoggs alive at 6[d] p[r] £20:16:6

Turkeys 10[s] d[o]

[Total] £156:19:6

I doubt not but should have found out more If y[e] books had been Methodically kept, however this I think my self in Duty bound to acquaint yo[r] Worshipp & Councill Leaveing it to y[e] prudent Judgment whether it may not be material to communicate this in the Gen[ll] Letter to our Hon[ble] Mast[ers] Worship[fl] S[r] & Gentlem[n] Yo[r] most humble servt Geo[ge] Haswell

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Haswells Letter

ab[t] use of y[e] Stock Sould to be sold by Gov[r] Boucher

Island S[t] Helena Nov[r] y[e] 9 1714.

A general list of wills continued.

No. 79. 1708, April, 13th. Thomas Sandersons.

No. 80. [...], May, 24th. John Mudges.

No. 81. 1709, March, 15th. James Sichs.

No. 82. 1710, February, 26th. John Boyces.

No. 83. [...], April, 29th. Richard Alexanders.

No. 84. [...], June, 4th. Isaac Bothways.

No. 85. [...], November, 4th. Priscilla Gandys.

No. 86. 1711, March, 15th. John Luthers.

No. 87. 1711, June, 7th. Mary Newsters.

No. 88. 1711, September, 13th. Thomas Allis.

No. 89. [...], October, 13th. Gilbert Cottgraves.

No. 90. [...], November, 26th. Thomas Bagleys.

No. 91. 1712, July, 24th. Robert Leeches.

No. 92. [...]. [...]. George Northerns.

No. 93. 1712, October, 21st. Governor Poiriers.

No. 94. 1713, March, 3rd. George Atkinsons.

No. 95. [...], May, 5th. Governor Bouchers.

Captain George Haswell gave in the following letter, addressed to the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Esquire, Governor, and the Council gentlemen.

Upon examining into the credit part of the late Governor Boucher's account, Haswell found that Boucher had converted to his own use the following items that should have been brought to the account of the Honourable Company's stock.

Pork at sundry times, 2,363 lb, at 6d per pound £59 1s 6d

8 sheep at 20s per sheep £8 0s 0d

6 lb of butter at 1s per pound £0 6s 0d

Hay sold to shipping £2 10s 0d

69 turkeys at 5s per turkey £17 5s 0d

12 pigs at 6s per pig £3 12s 0d

Goods of James Greentree for sows £6 0s 0d

Wine carried off in him to the French ships £19 8s 6d

717 hogs alive at 6d per pound £20 16s 6d

Turkeys 10 ditto

Total £156 19s 6d

Haswell did not doubt that more could be found out, but if the books had been methodically kept, however he thought it was his duty to acquaint the Worshipful Pyke and the council, leaving it to the council's prudent judgement whether it might not be material to communicate the same in their general letter to the Honourable Court.

Dated Island of St Helena, 4 to 9 November 1714.

Signed: Your worship's and the gentlemen's most humble servant, George Haswell.

Interpretations

The conclusion of the wills register brought the working sequence to a close in 1713, with No. 95 (Governor Bouchers, May 1713) the most recent entry recorded. The placement of Boucher's own will in the working register at the working point of his departure (he had sailed on the Recovery in late June 1714) reflected an unusual circumstance: the will had been proved on the island while Boucher was still living, presumably as a working precaution before his voyage home. The mechanism by which a departing governor might leave a working will on the island, to be administered if his voyage proved fatal, reflected the working practice of providing for working contingencies of the long sea passage.

The presence of Governor Poiriers (no. 93, October 1712) in the working register also reflected an irregularity: Poirier's will had originally been brought in by his widow Madam Poirier on 25 July 1710 and received and approved, yet the present register dated it October 1712. The mechanism by which a will once received could be re-entered or re-formally proved (perhaps after a further codicil, or to bring it within the working chronological sequence of the register itself) reflected the working flexibility of the working probate record.

The Richard Alexanders entry at no. 83 (April 1710) provided a working date for the working death and probate of the Richard Alexander whose estate had been the subject of the Tovey-Alexander dispute on the present consultations. The date confirmed that the working assertion of the Alexander reply on 5 October 1714 (that Richard Alexander had died on 6 May 1709) was inconsistent with the working probate record, which placed the working probate in April 1710. The mechanism by which a working register entry could be cross-checked against working submissions in working disputed cases gave the working council a working evidentiary tool to test the working accuracy of working petitioners' accounts.

The Haswell letter introduced an explosive new working item in the documentary case against Boucher. The Deputy Governor reported that, on examining the working credit side of Boucher's account, he had identified working items that should have been credited to the Company's stock account but had instead been working converted by Boucher to his own use. The mechanism by which a working examination of a working accounting record could be turned into a working evidentiary submission against a former governor reflected the working continuity of audit even after the working departure of the working accountable officer.

The working schedule of items totalled £156 19s 6d, and ran across multiple working categories. Pork at 2,363 lb formed the working principal item at £59 1s 6d, suggesting that Boucher had sold or used a working substantial volume of working Company pork without working accounting for it. Eight sheep at the working rate of 20s each (£8 0s 0d) confirmed the working unit price of the working colony's sheep; this rate stood substantially above the working comparable rate for cattle (between £5 15s 0d and £10 0s 0d each in the working recent purchases), reflecting the working scarcity and value of sheep on the island.

The most striking working item was the wine carried off in Boucher's ship to the French ships, at £19 8s 6d. The mechanism by which working Company wine could be carried off by the working departing governor and sold or supplied to working French shipping placed Boucher in the position of working trading with a working potential enemy power. The reference to the French ships, set against the working backdrop of the War of the Spanish Succession recently concluded (the working peace treaties of 1713), reflected either working pre-peace trading with the working enemy or working post-peace trading that nonetheless transferred working Company assets to a working foreign power without working Company authorisation.

The 717 hogs alive at 6d per pound (£20 16s 6d) reflected a working substantial volume of working live hog disposal that Haswell had identified. The 6d per pound rate, applied to live weight, was the working standard accounting rate for working hogs at the time, and the working total of 717 hogs suggested either a working aggregate over a working substantial period or a working single major transaction that Haswell had now identified.

The reference to Goods of James Greentree for sows at £6 0s 0d identified one of the working specific transactions: working sows had been acquired by Boucher from Greentree, presumably for the Company stock, but the working goods used in payment had not been working properly accounted for, leaving the Company in the position of having paid for the sows but not having them on the working stock books.

The closing paragraph of the Haswell letter, with its working acknowledgement that he did not doubt more could be found out if the books had been methodically kept, captured the working frustration of the working incoming administration with the working state of the Boucher-era working accounts. The mechanism by which Haswell formally communicated the working findings to the council, leaving it to the council's working judgement whether the working matter should be communicated in the working general letter to the Court, reflected the working procedural propriety with which the working new administration was building the working documentary case for transmission to London.

Speculations

The detailed working accounting of working specific items, with working precise quantities and working unit prices, suggests that Haswell had probably been working through the working surviving accounting records line by line, identifying working transactions that should have been working credited to the Company but had not been. The mechanism by which a working systematic working audit could expose the working pattern of working appropriation, rather than working merely identifying working isolated working items, reflected the working accountancy approach the working new administration was now applying to the Boucher legacy.

The working specific reference to wine carried off to the French ships suggests that this working item was probably regarded by Haswell as the most working damaging single working transaction in the working schedule. The mechanism by which the working transfer of working Company stores to a working foreign naval force (perhaps during the working closing months of the war, or during the working transition to working peace) could be working documented and working communicated to London placed Boucher in the working position of having working violated working Company policy on a matter going to the working colony's security, not merely its working accounting. The structural placement of the working item in the working schedule, despite its working monetary value being less than that of the pork or the hogs, gave it disproportionate working evidentiary weight when read against the wider working catalogue of complaints against Boucher.

244

235

This being the day Appointed to receive what more might be offered to the Governour and Councill by M[r] Tovey or M[r] Goodgen or anyothers Con- =cerned about the Land in Dispute between them.

But when it was resolved to Come to a Final Determination in this Case no Ship was here but now a Ship is Arived in this Port which is to stay but four days the whole of which time will be Employed in the Hono[ble] Companys Affairs of more Consequence and because this single cause Contains a great many sheets of Paper which cant be Coppyed in so short a time the Govern[r] will order the said to be Coppyed fair over & transmitt it with our oppinions to the Hono[ble] Company by the Next Ship that Arrives heer.

And also to see in the mean time if that Ten Acres of Land be such as requires more to be Added to it for fencing.

All Partys then did Appear, not knowing the Govern[rs] & Councils resolutions, and being askt whether they did Desire any Longer time all Unanimously did, Saying they had something farther to offer.

[...] Geo[rge] Haswell Matthew Bazett A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

M[r] Tovey & M[r] Goodgen ab[t] y[e] Land in dispute.

an alarm prevent =ed y[e] som all p[er]son to Appear home.

to veiw y[e] land

all Partys gave Consent

The day was appointed to receive what more might be offered to the governor and council by Mr Tovey or Mr Gurgen, or any others concerned, about the land in dispute between them.

But when it was resolved to come to a final determination in the case, no ship was there. Now a ship had arrived in the port which would stay but four days. The whole of that time would be employed in the Honourable Company's affairs of more consequence, and because the single cause contained a great many sheets of paper which could not be copied in so short a time, the governor would order the whole to be copied fair over and transmitted, with their opinions, to the Honourable Company by the next ship that arrived there. They would also see, in the meantime, that ten acres of land be such as required more to be added to it for fencing.

All parties then did appear. Not knowing the governor and council's resolutions, and being asked whether they had anything further to offer before any longer time was given, they all unanimously did, saying they had something further to offer.

Signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The deferral of the final determination of the Tovey-Gurgen dispute reflected the operational tension between the council's working agenda and the rhythm of homeward shipping. The arrival of a ship that would stay only four days, with the entirety of that time required for matters of more pressing Company concern, displaced the working time the council had set aside for the Tovey case. The mechanism by which the working timing of homeward shipping dictated the council's agenda revealed the working priority of Company business above local litigation, even where the council had committed to a speedy determination on the previous council day.

The reference to the case containing a great many sheets of paper which could not be copied in so short a time identified a practical constraint on the working transmission of the case to London. The mechanism by which the council had to produce a fair copy of all the working papers (Tovey's case, Alexander's reply, the executors' submission, the Carne certificate, and any further submissions yet to be made) before sending the case home required substantial scribal labour. The decision to defer transmission to the next ship, while continuing to receive further submissions, was both an operational necessity and a working accommodation of the parties' wish to make further representations.

The order that, in the meantime, the council would see whether the ten acres of land required more to be added to it for fencing introduced a practical step on the land itself. The mechanism by which the council ordered a working physical inspection of the disputed parcel, presumably to determine whether the fenced boundaries were adequate or required extension, reflected the council's working approach of treating land disputes not merely as documentary contests but as questions about the working state of the land itself. The result of the inspection would feed into the council's determination when the matter eventually came to be settled.

The exchange in which all parties appeared and, asked whether they had anything further to offer, unanimously confirmed that they did, identified the working pattern by which the parties had used the council's deferral as a working opportunity to develop their cases further. The mechanism by which the council allowed each party further time and further submissions, rather than closing the case on the working evidence already submitted, reflected the working principle that the final determination would be made on the fullest possible working record.

The reduced council attendance, with only Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey signing (Mashborne absent), reflected the working pressure of multiple Company concerns at this moment. The November 1714 consultations had been running multiple substantial agendas: the store-settlement proposals, the catalogues of debt, the wills register, the Haswell letter on Boucher's appropriations, the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander dispute, the Carne settlement, and the routine plantation business. Mashborne, as the principal working officer on the plantation side, may have been required at the Hutts or elsewhere on the working business of livestock and crops.

The absence of any reference to a vote or formal procedural step in dealing with Tovey's continuing role as one of the litigants was striking. Tovey, the petitioner in the case, was at the same time the council's working secretary, the draftsman of the consultation entry, and one of the four signatories of the order deferring his own case. The mechanism by which the working procedural impropriety of this combined role was simply absorbed into the working operation of the council reflected the practical limits of the colony's administrative structure: with only five council members in total, working separation between judge and litigant was not consistently achievable.

Speculations

The arrival of the new ship and the diversion of the council's working time to Company affairs of more consequence suggests that the present matter was probably one of considerable working scope, requiring concentrated attention. The mechanism by which routine consultations could be displaced by the working arrival of unexpected shipping reflected the working pattern of the colony's administration, where the calendar of business was always subject to working maritime contingency. The identity of the working arrival, and the nature of the working matters of more consequence, will probably emerge in the next consultation entry.

The unanimous insistence by all parties that they had something further to offer suggests that the working dynamics of the case had moved beyond the working production of evidence into the working accumulation of position-taking, with each party seeking to ensure that no working point in his favour went unrecorded. The mechanism by which the working dispute had become a working exhaustive contest, with the working record growing across multiple working pages and the working final determination receding into the working indefinite future, reflected the working tendency of working complex litigation to expand to fill the working time available, particularly where the working final tribunal lay several months' sail away in London.

245

236

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Thursday the 4[th] day of Novemb[r] 1714. At the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell Dep[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

Ordered.

That the Govern[r] and Cap[tn] Mashborne peruse those Paragraphs that are already writt for Answer to our Hono[ble] Masters p[r] the Rochester, and Compleat the same

Ordered

That M[r] Thomas Newington be appointed Custome Master and keep an account of what Goods comes on Shoar.

The Ballance of Accounts in the Stores was Delivered as followeth.

Verte

An

Margin Notes:

Lett[r] p[r] Rochest[r] to be Answered

M[r] Newington Custom Master.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Thursday 4 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present:

Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor

George Haswell, Deputy Governor

Edward Mashborne, third

Matthew Bazett, fourth

Antipas Tovey, fifth in council

The council ordered that the governor and Captain Mashborne peruse the paragraphs that had already been written for answer to the Honourable Masters by the Rochester, and complete the same.

The council further ordered that Mr Thomas Newington be appointed customs master and keep an account of what goods came on shore.

The balance of accounts in the stores was delivered as followeth.

(Turn over.)

Interpretations

The opening order brought working attention back to the principal outstanding piece of Company correspondence: the answer to the Honourable Masters that had been begun for the Rochester. The Rochester had arrived at St Helena on 8 July 1714 with Pyke and his commission, and had sailed for Bencoolen at the end of July, carrying the new administration's first dispatch to the eastern station. The reference here to paragraphs already written for answer to the Honourable Masters by the Rochester probably indicates a draft of a general letter to London begun at that time but not completed for transmission by the Rochester's eastward sailing. The mechanism by which a partly drafted letter could be completed for transmission by a subsequent ship reflected the working practice of accumulating documentary material in stages.

The appointment of Thomas Newington as customs master introduced a new working office-holder on the island, with the specific responsibility of keeping account of what goods came on shore. The mechanism by which a dedicated customs officer was installed reflected the council's working approach to imposing accounting discipline on imports. Newington's task would parallel the work already being done by Bazett (as storekeeper) and Goodwin (as assistant at the stores attending the boats), with the customs master holding a separate working record of all goods landed against which the storekeeper's working entries could be checked. The position recalled the working office of customs master held earlier by Thomas Free, whose salary had been settled at 20s 0d for the year ending 25 March 1710 against the customary £5 0s 0d per annum (the customs collected having amounted to only £3 2s 0d). The reinstatement of the office, after a working period in which it had probably lapsed, reflected the new administration's working commitment to systematic record-keeping at every stage of the supply chain.

Newington was not previously recorded in the working sequence and his arrival on the island was probably recent, perhaps on one of the autumn ships. The mechanism by which a working incoming Company servant could be immediately allocated to a working specific office, rather than serving an apprenticeship under an existing officer, reflected both the working shortage of senior personnel on the island and the working confidence the council was prepared to extend to working new arrivals with appropriate working qualifications.

The reduced range of business on 4 November, with only three ordered items entered before the working transition to the store accounts, contrasted with the working density of business on the preceding consultation days. The mechanism by which a consultation could close on a working brief sequence of orders reflected the working pattern by which the council, having spent the preceding consultations on the substantial debt-settlement and inventory programmes, now returned to the routine business of administrative arrangements and store accounts. The compact entry on 4 November served as a working pause between the working substantive entries of 2 and 3 November and the working store-account material that would follow.

The reference to the balance of accounts in the stores being delivered followed the working practice by which the working storekeeper's monthly accounts were entered into the consultation book on a working regular cycle. The mechanism by which the council formally received and entered the accounts gave the working store records the same documentary status as the consultation entries themselves. The continuity of this working practice across the Boucher-Pyke transition reflected the working role of the storekeeper's monthly account as one of the working stable elements of administrative procedure.

The complete attendance of the working council, with all five members signed in as present, reflected the working restoration of the council's working complement after the absences earlier in the week. The mechanism by which a five-man council could undertake working substantive consultation, even on a compact day's agenda, reflected the working operational pattern of the new administration: working meetings held even where the working agenda was modest, with the working continuity of consultation more important than the working volume of business at any given session.

Speculations

The appointment of a dedicated customs master at this moment, when the November ship arrivals had brought working cargo from Bencoolen (via the Susanna under Captain Pinnell), suggests that the council had probably identified the working pattern of unmonitored landings as a working source of working accounting discrepancy. The mechanism by which working goods could be landed and removed before being entered in the storekeeper's working record was a working known weakness in the working system, and a dedicated customs master at the working landing point provided a working separate check. The timing of the appointment, coming after the Haswell letter on Boucher's working appropriations had been entered into the consultation book on 3 November, suggests that the council was working systematically tightening every working point at which working assets could be diverted from the working Company account.

The placement of the working ordered items in this compact sequence (completion of the Rochester answer, the customs master appointment, the working delivery of the store account balance) probably reflected a working coordinated approach to the working preparation of documents for transmission to London. The mechanism by which each step (the answer drafted, the customs apparatus established, the working store accounts brought current) contributed to the working integrity of the documentary record being assembled for the working metropolitan audit reflected the new administration's working understanding that its working future relations with the Court of Directors would turn on the working quality of its working documentary submissions.

246

237

An Abstract of Debts Due to the Hon[ble] United East India Company from y[e] Garrison & Inhabitants of their Island of S[t] Helena to the Day of the Arrivall of their new Governo[r] & Council being the 8[th] of July 1714

[£] [s] [d]

John Alexander 105:17:1

W[m] Portroy 228:19:8 [3/4]

Jn[o] Worrall 103:7:7 [1/4]

W[m] Slaughter 94:12:2

Tho[s] Soulthen 154:17:4 [1/4]

Samuel Hollinsworth 19:8:11 [1/4]

Tho[s] Fairfax 11:3:9

Joseph Thomlinson 34:19:1

John Goodwin 93::1:8

Tho[s] Delarose 53:8:1 [1/2]

Rob[t] Angus 25:15:7 [1/4]

Rob[t] Eyres 3:11:6 [3/4]

Jn[o] Aldrick 23:11:6 [3/4]

Tho[s] Allis 38:19:7

Rob[t] Addis 85:8:5

Eliz[a] Allis 12::1:1 [1/2]

Charles Adlard 1:10:5

Jn[o] Bagley 84:15:5 [3/4]

Peter Bourdeax 6:4:8

Joseph Bayley 9:11:8 [3/4]

W[m] Brooyden 105:1:6

Sam[l] Birtome 55:12:10 [3/4]

Tho[s] Bevans 61:7:7 [1/2]

Orlando Bagley 119:12:10 [3/4]

William Beale 43:15:2 [3/4]

Tho[s] Burnham 6:16:10

Arthur Bradley 59:1:11 [3/4]

Hugh Bodley Sen[r] 7:19:3 [1/4]

Hugh Bodley Jun[r] 153:8:4 [3/4]

Beales Orphans 9:15:4 [1/2]

John Palo Brimor

Carried Over £ 1809:9:4

Margin Notes:

withdrawn

Persons Indebted to the H. Comp[a] 1714

An abstract of debts due to the Honourable United East India Company from the garrison and inhabitants of the island of St Helena to the day of the arrival of their new governor and council, being 8 July 1714.

John Alexander £105 17s 1d

William Porteous £228 19s 8¾d

John Worrall £103 7s 7¼d

William Slaughter £94 12s 2¼d

Thomas Soulthen £154 17s 4¼d

Samuel Hollinsworth £12 8s 11¼d

Thomas Fairfax £11 3s 9d

Joseph Thomlinson £34 12s 1d

John Goodwin £93 1s 8d

Thomas Delarose £53 8s 1½d

Robert Angus £25 15s 7¼d

Robert Eyres £3 1s 6¼d

John Aldrick £23 11s 6¾d

Thomas Allis £38 19s 7d

Robert Addis £85 8s 5d

Elizabeth Allis £12 1s 1¼d

Charles Ablard £1 10s 5d

John Bagley £84 15s 5¼d

Peter Bourdeax £6 4s 8d

Joseph Bayley £9 11s 8¾d

William Brogden £105 1s 6d

Samuel Brome £55 12s 10¼d

Thomas Bevans £61 7s 7¼d

Orlando Bagley £119 12s 10¾d

William Beale £43 15s 5d

Thomas Burnham £6 16s 10d

Arthur Bradley £59 1s 11¾d

Hugh Bodley senior £7 19s 3¼d

Hugh Bodley junior £153 8s 4¾d

Beales orphans £9 15s 4¼d

John Palo Beemer [...]

Carried over £1,809 9s 4d

Interpretations

The abstract of debts captured the working financial position of the Honourable United East India Company on the island at the moment of Pyke's arrival. The mechanism by which the new administration drew a working line in time, dated 8 July 1714 (the day of the Rochester's arrival), separated the working debts of the Boucher legacy from any working debts arising under Pyke's own administration. The structural effect was decisive: every debt entered in the abstract represented a working obligation incurred under one of the previous administrations and which the new council had now inherited as part of the working recovery framework.

The opening twenty-eight entries on this page totalled £1,809 9s 4d, a working substantial figure when set against the working monthly storekeeper account totals of recent years (most of which had fallen between £150 0s 0d and £350 0s 0d). The mechanism by which the working accumulated debt of a working portion of the inhabitant and garrison population could exceed several months of working store sales reflected the working extent to which the working credit system had become the working primary medium of exchange on the island, with cash settlement the working exception rather than the working rule.

Several entries identified working positions of working substantial size. William Porteous at £228 19s 8¾d was the working largest debtor on the present page, reflecting probably the working accumulated cost of his maintenance during the working period of his £30 0s 0d salary (before the working increase to £40 0s 0d a year on 3 November 1713) and his working James Fort accommodation expenses. Thomas Soulthen at £154 17s 4¼d preceded his working detailed account of marital and business losses on the 2 November consultation; the working register debt at £154 17s 4¼d was slightly higher than the £150 0s 0d he had himself acknowledged on that day. Hugh Bodley junior at £153 8s 4¾d represented the working debt of the deceased planter whose estate was the subject of the Smith petition.

Several entries linked directly to the working debt-settlement proposals received on 2 and 3 November. William Slaughter at £94 12s 2¼d corresponded closely to the £90 0s 0d Slaughter had acknowledged on 3 November (the difference probably reflecting working interest accumulated in the working interval). Orlando Bagley at £119 12s 10¾d exceeded the £57 0s 0d he had stated on 3 November by a substantial margin, suggesting either that Bagley had understated his working debt or that the abstract included items the working settlement proposal had not addressed. John Worrall at £103 7s 7¼d corresponded closely to the £105 0s 0d he had given on 3 November. The mechanism by which the abstract figures and the working settlement proposals could be compared gave the working council a working tool for working testing the working completeness of each working debtor's working acknowledgement.

The presence of Beales orphans on the working debt register at £9 15s 4¼d revealed a working point of working considerable structural significance. The working orphan estate, which the working council had been administering in trust through the working executors (Carne, Francis and others) across a working sequence of consultations, had itself accumulated a working store debt of nearly ten pounds. The mechanism by which an orphan estate could become a working debtor of the working Company, presumably through the working maintenance and other working expenses charged against the working estate at the working stores, illustrated the working complexity of orphan administration where the working revenues of the working estate had not kept pace with the working expenditure.

The carry-over figure of £1,809 9s 4d at the foot of the present page indicated that the working abstract continued to further pages, with the working total of all debts presumably substantially larger. The mechanism by which a working multi-page abstract presented the working entire working position of the working colony at the moment of working administrative transfer reflected the working scale of the working documentary undertaking. The working full total, when reached, would represent the working principal documentary submission accompanying the working general letter to the working Court of Directors, providing the working metropolitan body with the working complete working accounting of working inherited working obligations.

Speculations

The mechanism by which the working abstract was dated 8 July 1714, the day of Pyke's arrival, but only now entered into the working consultation book on 4 November 1714 (a working interval of nearly four months), suggests that the working compilation of the working abstract had required working substantial working labour in the working interim. The mechanism by which a working comprehensive abstract of working accumulated debts could only be working produced after a working detailed review of the working storekeeper's working ledgers reflected the working scale of the working accounting work the new administration had taken on. The working delay of nearly four months in entering the working abstract probably reflected the working time needed for Bazett (assisted by his working writers) to working compile the working entries from the working underlying records.

The working positioning of John Alexander as the working first entry on the working abstract, despite his working debt of £105 17s 1d being smaller than several others on the same page, suggests that the working order of the working list reflected something other than working magnitude. The mechanism by which the working list might be organised by working alphabetical letter, with Alexander first under A, was the working most likely working principle. The working sequence A then P (Porteous) then W (Worrall, Slaughter), and then S (Soulthen), and then back to S (Hollinsworth), then T (Thomlinson), and so forth, did not however follow a working pure working alphabetical sequence. The working order may instead have reflected the working sequence in which the working ledgers had been working consulted, with working clusters of working surnames working appearing as the working secretary worked through working sections of the working accounts.

247

238

Brought Over £ 1809:9:4

Joseph Bats 4:10:4

William Bats 12:::1:10 [1/2]

Michael Brown [...]:1:10 [1/2]

John Cain 17::8:1

William Coales 28::8:7 [1/4]

Richard Cleeve 25::8:1:9 [1/4]

Geo[ge] Carne besides bond of 397:3:4 316:12:1

Mary Conway ::7:2 [1/2]

Church 30::7:5 [3/4]

Jn[o] Coulson 25:15:5 [3/4]

Tho[s] Clew 2:16:4

Abraham Dorman Dead 30:13:8

Tho[s] Dutch 30::7:[...]

Sam[l] Doveton 4:10:4 [3/4]

Anthony D'hurle 9:18:6

Riches Dearing :12:3

Sarah Dwright ::8

Walter Douglas Dead 18:18:4 [1/4]

James Draper 48:10:2 [1/4]

Jonathan Doveton 34:11:1 [1/2]

Andrew Derrick 3:15:1 [1/4]

Jn[o] Davis 6:5:2 [3/4]

Humphrey Edwards 32::4:[...]

Mary Easthope 44:11:7 [3/4]

Francis Funge 45::3:7 [1/4]

Jeptha Fowler 33::3:1 [1/4]

Jn[o] Flurkus 16::1:2

Henry Francis 189:16:8 [3/4]

Thomas Free 97::8 [3/4]

Rob[t] Ferguson 8:10:3

W[m] Fone 60:2:9 [3/4]

Daniel Griffith 166:13:8 [3/4]

Jn[o] George 15:19:3 [1/4]

Carried Over £

Margin Notes:

Qu[ery]?

Brought over £1,809 9s 4d

Joseph Bates £4 10s 4d

William Bates £12 1s 10½d

Michael Brown £0 1s 10½d

John Cain £17 8s 1d

William Coales £28 8s 7¼d

Richard Cleeve £25 8s 1 9¼d

George Carne (besides bond of £391 3s 4d) £316 12s 1d

Mary Conway £0 7s 2¼d

Church £30 7s 5¼d

Coulson £25 15s 1¾d

John Coulson £2 16s 4d

Thomas Elew £30 13s 8d

Abraham Dorman (dead) £30 7s 0d

Thomas Dutch £4 10s 4¾d

Samuel Doveton £9 18s 6d

Anthony D'hurle [...] 12s 0d

Riches Dearing [...] 8s 0d

Sarah Dweight £18 18s 4¼d

Walter Douglas (dead) £48 10s 2¼d

James Draper £34 11s 1¼d

Jonathan Doveton £3 15s 1¼d

Andrew Derrick £6 5s 2¾d

John Davis £32 4s 0d

Humphrey Edwards £44 11s 7¾d

Mary Easthope £45 3s 7¼d

Francis Funge £33 3s 1⅛d

Jephtah Fowler £16 1s 2d

John Flurkus £189 16s 8¼d

Henry Francis £97 0s 8½d

Thomas Free £8 10s 3d

Robert Ferguson £60 2s 9¼d

William Gore £166 13s 8¾d

Daniel Griffith £15 19s 3¼d

John George [...]

Carried over.

Interpretations

The continuation of the debt abstract added a further substantial block of names to the working list. The pattern of named debtors covered a wide working range of the inhabitant population, with several entries reaching three figures (George Carne at £316 12s 1d on the present page alone, plus a separate bond of £391 3s 4d; Henry Francis at £97 0s 8½d; William Gore at £166 13s 8¾d; John Flurkus at £189 16s 8¼d). The combined burden of the Carne working store account and bond reached approximately £708 0s 0d, exceeding the £650 0s 0d Carne had stated in his settlement proposal on 3 November. The mechanism by which the working register figure differed materially from Carne's own working acknowledgement reflected either further interest accumulated since Carne's working calculation or working items Carne had omitted.

The separate working notation of Carne's bond at £391 3s 4d identified a working distinction between the working open store account and the working secured working bond. The mechanism by which a major debtor's working obligations could be divided between the working two instruments (the working ledger account and the working secured bond) gave the working Company two working modes of recourse against the same working debtor. The working bond represented the working portion of the debt that had been working formalised under working signature, while the working store account reflected the working continuing working day-to-day accumulation. The working total figure brought Carne's working position into the working scale of working senior establishment debt, comparable to that of the largest working clusters of working accumulated obligation in the working colony.

The presence of Daniel Griffith on the working debt register at £15 19s 3¼d, with a tick mark beside his entry, was striking. Griffith had died on 6 May 1712, and his estate was administered through his widow Sarah (now wife of Thomas Free). The mechanism by which the working debt of a working deceased council member remained on the working register, awaiting either settlement from the working estate or working write-off, reflected the working principle that a working office-holder's working debt did not extinguish on his working death but passed to his working estate.

The notation dead next to Abraham Dorman and Walter Douglas identified working entries where the working debtor had died, but the working obligation persisted. Dorman appears earlier in the working sequence as one of the working soldiers disarmed on 8 July 1713 over the working July 1713 mutiny conspiracy, and as the working soldier restored to arms on 3 November 1713 on working good behaviour. The working subsequent death and persistence of his working £30 7s 0d debt on the working register reflected the working application of the working same principle: the working debt would have to be working settled out of working any working estate he had left, or working written off if no working estate could be working found.

The presence of Church and Coulson on the working register, listed only by surname rather than by full name, identified working debtors of working some prominence (presumably long-resident planters whose working surnames alone sufficed). Church recalled the working figure of Reverend Mr Church, whose working widow Elizabeth Bostock had been the working figure in the working Maxwell-Steward title chain at the working title day of 15 January 1713. Coulson recalled the working name of Grace Coulson, the working long-resident widow whose working voluntary registration of working papers on 30 March 1699 had been the working anchor for working subsequent working title chains. The mechanism by which working surnames alone could identify the working working debtor reflected the working compactness of the working colony's working population.

Mary Conway at £0 7s 2¼d represented the working smallest debtor on the present page, with a working obligation of seven shillings. The mechanism by which the working abstract included even working trivial working amounts reflected the working comprehensiveness of the working compilation: no working obligation was working too small to be working entered. Mary Conway appears earlier in the working sequence as the widow whose working petition of December 1712 had sought working confirmation of working title to working ground in Chapel Valley.

Mary Easthope at £45 3s 7¼d identified the working debt of the working widow whose working Chapel Valley house had been working sold to Richard Gurling for £300 0s 0d on 2 September 1712 (£90 0s 0d above the working Company's working original cost). The mechanism by which the working widow had nonetheless accumulated a working substantial debt to the working Company, presumably for working maintenance and working supplies through the working store, reflected the working pattern by which working purchases of working substantial assets did not necessarily working translate into working liquid cash, and the working seller could retain a working continuing working store account in working parallel with the working sale.

Humphrey Edwards at £44 11s 7¾d corresponded to the working £35 0s 0d he had himself stated on 3 November, with the working difference probably reflecting working accumulated interest or working further working items added since. Joseph Bates at £4 10s 4d was the working castle gate gossip identified in the working Powill slander tracing of 13 October 1713.

Speculations

The mechanism by which the abstract distinguished between the working two principal working instruments of Carne's working debt (store account and bond) suggests that the council had probably been working through Carne's working position with working considerable working care, in working preparation for the working substantial working settlement proposals that had been working put before the council on 3 November. The mechanism by which the working £200 0s 0d in working lands offered by Carne in working clearance of working debt could be working tested against the working full working £708 0s 0d working obligation reflected the working scale of the working transfer that would be working required to working clear the working position. The working settlement, if working accepted on the working terms working proposed, would still working leave Carne with a working substantial working residual working balance.

The working tick marks beside working some entries (Riches Dearing, William Gore, Daniel Griffith) suggest that the working secretary had been working marking working items on which working some action had been working taken or working some working further investigation was working required. The mechanism by which working selective working marking could be working applied to a working long working list reflected the working pattern by which the working register was a working live working working document, with working different working entries at working different working stages of working processing. The working precise working significance of the working marks will probably emerge in working subsequent working entries or working subsequent working consultation business.

248

239

Brought Over £

John Gibbs 14:9:6 [1/4]

Tho[s] Gardener 19:16:6

Rich[d] Gurling 7:18:9

James Greentree 129:18:8 [1/4]

Tho[s] Goodgen 130:11:1 [1/4]

Rob[t] Gurling 64:11:1 [1/4]

French's Orphans 10:15:8 [1/4]

Tho[s] Hayse 43:11:8 [3/4]

Giles Hayse 33:10:7

W[m] Huff 7:1:4

John Hose 14:11:1

David Hine 5:16:7 [3/4]

Isaac Huggerson 8:12:9 [3/4]

John Hubbard 4:16:9 [3/4]

Henry Herman 2:2:7 [3/4]

Dorothy Hayse 55:9:[...]

Tho[s] Harper 29:6:2

Jonathan Higham Sen[r] 14:14:6

Joable Hayes 27:18:1 [1/2]

Jn[o] Hoskinson 14:16:8 [1/2]

Sam[l] Acad 8:00:9 [3/4]

Joshua Johnson 18:17:11 [1/4]

Sutton Isaac Sen[r] 27:9:8 [1/4]

Sutton Isaac Jun[r] 43:[...]:10 [3/4]

Sam[l] Jepsey 38:6:10 [1/4]

Tho[s] Jones 28:6:9 [1/2]

Tho[s] Ironman 7:7:5 [3/4]

Xopher Kell 41:12:9 [1/4]

Geo[ge] Kitchen 4:17:4

Jn[o] Knipe 104:1:[...]

Geo[ge] Carne his Acco[t] of Bonds 321:3:4

Carried Over £

Brought over [carried from previous page]

John Gibbs £14 9s 6¼d

Thomas Gardener £19 16s 6d

Richard Gurling £7 18s 9d

James Greentree £129 18s 9¼d

Thomas Gargen £180 11s 1¼d

Robert Gurling £64 11s 1¼d

[a further entry] £10 15s 8¼d

French's orphans £43 11s 8¾d

Thomas Hayse £33 10s 7d

Giles Hayse £7 1s 4d

William Huff £14 11s 1d

John How £5 16s 7¾d

David Hine £8 12s 9¼d

Isaac Hugerson £4 16s 9¾d

John Hubbard £2 2s 2¾d

Henry Herman £55 9s ¾d

Dorothy Hayse £29 6s 2d

Thomas Harper £14 14s 6d

Jonathan Hegham senior £22 18s 1½d

Isable Hayes £14 16s 8½d

John Hoskinson £8 0s 9¾d

Samuel Aread £18 17s 11¼d

Joshua Johnson £27 2s 8¼d

Sutton Isaac senior £43 1s 1d

Sutton Isaac junior £38 6s 10¾d

Samuel Jepsy £28 6s 9½d

Thomas Jones £7 7s 5¾d

Thomas Ironman £41 12s 9¼d

Xopher Kell £4 17s 4d

George Kitchen £104 1s 4d

John Knipe £371 3s 4d

George Carne his account of bonds

Carried over

Interpretations

The continuation of the abstract added a further block of names, including several recognised from the earlier sequence and several previously unrecorded. Total debt across this page alone reached substantial figures, with several three-figure entries (James Greentree at £129 18s 9¼d, Thomas Gargen at £180 11s 1¼d, George Kitchen at £104 1s 4d, John Knipe at £371 3s 4d). The mechanism by which Knipe's debt was entered at £371 3s 4d, against the £109 0s 0d he had himself acknowledged on 3 November (£80 0s 0d on bond and £29 0s 0d book debt), revealed a major discrepancy. The £371 3s 4d figure probably included substantial accumulated interest or additional bonds not addressed in Knipe's own settlement proposal, or the figure may have represented Knipe's total exposure including amounts he held in his capacity as some kind of guarantor or trustee.

The pattern of family clusters on the present page revealed the extent of multiple branches of substantial families holding accumulated debt. The Hayse family ran to four entries (Thomas, Giles, Dorothy, Isable, totalling £84 14s 7½d), the Isaac family to two (Sutton senior at £43 1s 1d and Sutton junior at £38 6s 10¾d, totalling £81 7s 11¾d), the Gurling family to two (Richard at £7 18s 9d and Robert at £64 11s 1¼d, totalling £72 9s 10¼d). The Hegham name appeared with Jonathan senior at £22 18s 1½d. The mechanism by which multiple members of the same family had accumulated independent obligations reflected the structure of household-by-household accounting: each adult male (and several widows) carried his own store account, distinct from those of other family members in the same household.

French's orphans at £43 11s 8¾d identified the debt of the second orphan estate on the register (after Beales orphans on the first page). The mechanism by which the French orphans' estate could itself be a debtor of the Company, despite being the subject of the petition by Robert Leech on 25 September 1711 to recover the fourteen acres claimed through his wife Mary French, reflected the pattern by which orphan estates carried both assets and liabilities. The £43 0s 0d odd debt would have to be settled through the estate before any distribution to the orphan heirs could be made.

The reference to George Carne his account of bonds at the foot of the present page, with no monetary figure entered (the carry-over apparently bridging to the next page), suggested that Carne's bonds (already noted at £391 3s 4d on the previous page beside his name) were now being broken out into a separate schedule. The mechanism by which the secured bonds of a major debtor could be scheduled separately, with each bond identified by amount, reflected the accounting practice for formal secured obligations. The detail of Carne's bonds will probably emerge on the following page.

Several entries on the present page connected to recent consultation business. Thomas Hayse at £33 10s 7d was probably the witness to William Hayse's nuncupative will of 3 November 1713. Dorothy Hayse at £29 6s 2d was the widow whose 7 September 1714 petition over Hunt's mongrel killing her cow had been deferred to further consideration. Isable Hayes at £14 16s 8½d was the widow who had brought the William Hayse nuncupative will to proof on 3 November 1713. John How at £5 16s 7¾d was the reeve at Plantation House who had been responsible for various cattle returns.

Thomas Gargen at £180 11s 1¼d was striking. As the husband of Marcy Alexander (widow of Richard Alexander), Gargen had been the subject of the £290 5s 6¾d settlement on the Alexander orphans' estate on 27 April 1711, and his name had figured throughout the present Tovey-Alexander dispute. The accumulated debt of £180 11s 1¼d represented the consequence of the complex arrangements involving the orphan settlement, land tenure, and household economy.

The mechanism by which the debt schedule could be cross-referenced with the preceding settlement proposals offered the council a tool for measuring the completeness and accuracy of each debtor's acknowledgement. Where the register figure exceeded the acknowledged figure by a substantial margin (Knipe, Bagley, Carne), the council could press the debtor for further explanation; where the register and the acknowledgement agreed closely (Worrall, Slaughter), the settlement could proceed on the terms offered.

Speculations

The substantial discrepancy between the £371 3s 4d entered for Knipe and the £109 0s 0d he had himself acknowledged suggests that Knipe's settlement proposal had been substantially understated. The mechanism by which the detailed register figure exposed the partial acknowledgement of an indebted inhabitant placed Knipe in a difficult position for the continuation of his negotiations with the council. The revelation, when presented to him, would probably alter both the terms of his proposal and the strength of his bargaining position.

The separation of George Carne's bond schedule into its own section, with detail to follow on the next page, suggests that the secretary recognised the unusual significance of Carne's position. The mechanism by which a senior planter could accumulate a portfolio of bonds, each secured against specific assets (land, slaves, goods), reflected the practice by which substantial inhabitants used bonds as a medium for large transactions where cash settlement was not practicable. The detailed schedule on the following page will probably reveal the origin and purpose of each bond.

249

240

Brought Over £

Isaac Leek 10:10:5 [1/2]

Tho[s] Leech 4:14:9

Geo[ge] London 20:5:4 [1/2]

Louis Latour 45:19:5 [1/2]

Simon Lenox [...]:4:5 [1/4]

Fran[s] Leech 8:19:8

Steph[k] Lufkin 42:14:4 [3/4]

John Long 106:12:5

Tho[s] Lightwood 14:13:11 [1/2]

Tho[s] Lolo 8:9:5:6

Jam[d] Leach 7:1:6

Ben[j] Miller 4:19:4 [1/2]

Jn[o] Miller 27:5:10

Jn[o] Merritt 3:13:3

Jn[o] Mortimore 11:17:10

Edw[d] Mallard 20:13:6

Roger Martin 4:19:9

Nickolas Manley 6:17:10 [3/4]

Jn[o] Mills 6:19:11

Jn[o] Muthmore 14:2:6 [1/4]

Rob[t] Marsh 36:3:-

Walter Morris 38:18:5 [1/4]

Jane Mudge 27:6:8 [1/4]

Henry Mutton 5:6:8 [1/4]

W[m] Mowbray 3:4:1 [1/2]

Jn[o] Nichols Sen[r] 111:17:2

Jn[o] Nichols Jun[r] 6:9:3 [3/4]

Martin Norman 72:10:1

Mary Newman :13:1

Jn[o] Orchard 28:9:1 [3/4]

Ralph Orme 13:16:4 [1/2]

Sam[l] Price 64:13:3 [1/2]

W[m] Portley 48:16:-

Benj[mn] Plinger 2:5:11

Henry Rawlins 17:7:5

Carried Over £

Brought over [carried from previous page]

Isaac Leech £10 10s 5½d

Thomas Leech £4 14s 9d

George London £20 5s 4½d

Louis Latour £45 19s 5½d

Simon Lenox £0 4s 5¼d

Francis Leech £8 19s 8d

Stephen Lufkin £42 14s 4¾d

John Long £106 12s 5d

Thomas Lightwood £14 13s 11½d

Thomas Lolo £8 9s 6d

Samuel Leach £7 19s 4½d

Benjamin Miller £4 5s 6d

John Miller £27 5s 10d

John Merritt £3 13s 3d

John Mortimore £11 17s 10d

Edward Mallard £20 13s 6d

Roger Martin £4 19s 9d

Nicholas Manley £6 17s 10¾d

John Mills £6 19s 11d

John Muthmore £14 2s 6¼d

Robert Marsh £36 3s 0d

Walter Morris £38 18s 5¼d

Jane Mudge £27 6s 8¼d

Henry Mutton £6 19s 4¼d

William Mowbray £3 4s 1½d

John Nichols senior £111 17s 2d

John Nichols junior £6 9s 3¾d

Martin Norman £72 10s 1d

Mary Newman £0 13s 1d

John Orchard £28 9s 1¾d

Ralph Orme £13 16s 4½d

Samuel Price £64 13s 3½d

William Portley £48 16s 0d

Benjamin Pledger £2 5s 11d

Henry Rawlins £17 7s 5d

Carried over

Interpretations

The continuation of the abstract added a further block of names, with the alphabetical organisation now becoming more apparent (L names dominating the upper section, then M, N, O, P, R clusters following). The mechanism by which the register was organised by surname in a rough alphabetical sequence allowed the secretary to locate any individual debtor's entry by reference to the initial letter of his surname. The minor breaks in the alphabetical sequence (Lufkin appearing among the L cluster but after L names with later initial letters, John Mills after Manley) reflected the secretary's practice of working through the underlying records by some other order (perhaps the order of original opening of each account) and recording the entries as they came up.

Several entries connected to recent consultation business. John Long at £106 12s 5d exceeded the £90 0s 0d he had himself acknowledged on the recent settlement proposal day, the difference probably reflecting accumulated interest. Stephen Lufkin at £42 14s 4¾d corresponded closely to the £41 0s 0d he had stated. John Nichols senior at £111 17s 2d exceeded the £100 0s 0d he had stated. Samuel Price at £64 13s 3½d corresponded closely to the £62 3s 3d he had stated. Walter Morris at £38 18s 5¼d corresponded closely to the £40 0s 0d he had stated. Martin Norman at £72 10s 1d set out the position of the planter whose 17 August 1714 petition had sought credit-clearing through assignment of debts owed to him by other inhabitants.

The presence of Robert Marsh on the register at £36 3s 0d, against the £51 0s 0d he had stated on the recent settlement proposal day, was an unusual case where the register figure was lower than the acknowledged figure. The mechanism by which a debtor could overstate his own debt suggests that Marsh had probably included in his £51 0s 0d figure either liabilities incurred since the register was compiled or items he expected to be charged against him that had not yet been entered.

The Mudge family appeared in the entry for Jane Mudge at £27 6s 8¼d. Jane Mudge was the elderly widow who had been the subject of the 5 June 1712 trespass complaint at the Belvird plantation in Squid Valley, and the petitioner of 27 March 1711 for the removal of her granddaughter Jane Child from parish charge. The £27 0s 0d debt on the register reflected the accumulated cost of her supplies through the store across the years.

Isaac Leech at £10 10s 5½d, Thomas Leech at £4 14s 9d, Francis Leech at £8 19s 8d and Samuel Leach at £7 19s 4½d together represented the Leech family of planters, accumulating a combined £32 4s 11d in obligations. Robert Leech, separately recorded earlier (the petitioner of 25 September 1711 over the fourteen acres claimed through his wife Mary French), had died and his will had been proved on 24 July 1712, with the estate accounts now subject to the broader register of inhabitant debts.

The presence of Louis Latour on the register at £45 19s 5½d identified a French inhabitant on the island. The mechanism by which a French inhabitant could be among the planter and inhabitant population during the period of the recently concluded War of the Spanish Succession reflected the pattern by which individual French Protestants (Huguenots) had settled on the island under English allegiance during the wider European conflict. The Latour name suggests a Huguenot origin, and his presence as a debtor of the Company indicated his integration into the inhabitant economy.

Mary Newman at £0 13s 1d represented a trivial debt, the smallest on the page. The mechanism by which the abstract included even the smallest obligations reflected the comprehensiveness of the compilation. Benjamin Pledger at £2 5s 11d was the soldier whose 7 September 1714 petition over the five acres held by Robert Bell had been resolved by the stone-cutting apprenticeship arrangement.

The closing entry for Henry Rawlins at £17 7s 5d brought the alphabetical sequence to R, with further pages to follow for the S, T and W debtors. The compilation thus far had recorded a substantial inhabitant population across letters A through R, with the council holding obligations against most of the active planters and soldier-planters on the island.

Speculations

The presence of multiple smaller debts among the larger ones suggests that the register was being compiled from the ledger entries themselves rather than by filtering. The mechanism by which trivial entries (Mary Newman at 13s 1d, Mary Conway at 7s 2¼d, Simon Lenox at 4s 5¼d, Michael Brown at 1s 10½d) appeared alongside substantial entries (John Knipe at £371 3s 4d, George Carne at £316 12s 1d) reflected the pattern of a comprehensive audit rather than a selective compilation. The result was a snapshot of the entire credit position of the colony, regardless of magnitude.

The discrepancies between the register figures and the acknowledged figures of debtors who had made settlement proposals suggest that the secretary may have been operating with the ledger figures while the debtors had been operating with their own calculations, and the two had not been reconciled. The mechanism by which such discrepancies could be resolved would probably involve the production of detailed statements of account by the storekeeper for each debtor, against which the debtor's acknowledgement could be tested.

250

241

Brought Over £

Jn[o] Robinson 49:19:11 [1/4]

James Ryon 7::6 [1/4]

Nicholas Skreeve 7:7:4

Hatton Sterling 44:6:[...]

Godfrey Shoales 25:6:6 [3/4]

Edward Smith 17:3:11 [1/4]

Phillip Slaughter 3:15:11 [1/4]

Joseph Stapler 19:11:4 [1/2]

Renatius Snow 50:4:8 [3/4]

John Surresby 12:8:4 [3/4]

Tho[s] Swallow Sen[r] 105:19:3 [3/4]

Rob[t] Swallow 44:2:4 [1/2]

Rich[d] Swallow 88:7:5

W[m] Seale 41:14:4

Marg[t] Sich 6:9:9 [3/4]

Ben[j] Sich 107:19:6 [3/4]

[Giles] Smith 162:10:9 [3/4]

Peter Sinnick 6:3:9 [1/4]

Rich[d] Sagers 1:9:4 [1/2]

Geo[ge] Sanders 7:4:[...]

Peter Sowers 20:10:6 [1/4]

Rich[d] Tinsley 103:4:2 [1/4]

Samuel Thornborough 18:16:6 [1/4]

Antipas Tovey 59:1:[...]

John Twaites 71:16:11

Jn[o] Thompson 4:5:10

Derrick Thompson 17:[...]:6 [1/4]

Tho[s] Thompson 4:13:1 [1/4]

James Vaughan 10:5:5 [1/4]

James Vedzey 100:11:1 [1/2]

James Willson 32:[...]

Joseph French 24:4:7 [3/4]

Tho[s] Watts 23:15:9

Jn[o] Woolley 9:16:10 [1/2]

Carried Over £

Brought over [carried from previous page]

John Robinson £29 19s 11¼d

James Ryon £7 14s 6¼d

Nicholas Skreeve £7 7s 4d

Hatton Sterling £44 6s 1¾d

Godfrey Soales £25 6s 6¾d

Edward Smith £17 18s 11¾d

Phillip Slaughter £3 15s 11¼d

Joseph Stapler £19 11s 4½d

Renatius Snow £50 4s 8¼d

John Sweresby £12 8s 4¼d

Thomas Swallow senior £105 19s 5¼d

Robert Swallow £44 2s 4¾d

Richard Swallow £88 7s 5d

William Seale £41 14s 4d

Margaret Sich £6 9s 9¾d

Benjamin Sich £107 19s 5¾d

Giles Smith £162 10s 9¾d

Peter Sinsnick £6 3s 9¼d

Richard Sagers £1 9s 4¼d

George Sanders £7 4s 4½d

Peter Towers £20 10s 6¼d

Richard Tinsley £103 4s 2¼d

Samuel Thornborough £18 16s 6¼d

Antipas Tovey £59 16s 11¼d

John Twaits £71 16s 11¼d

John Thompson £4 5s 10d

Derrick Thompson £17 0s 6¼d

Thomas Thompson £4 13s 1¼d

James Vaughan £10 5s 5¼d

James Vedzey £100 11s 1¼d

James Wilson £82 4s 7¾d

Joseph French £24 4s 7¾d

Thomas Watts £23 15s 9d

John Woolley £9 16s 10½d

Carried over

Interpretations

The continued schedule extended the alphabetical sequence through R, S, T, V and into W. The pattern of compounding family debt continued through the S cluster, with the Swallow family represented by three entries (Thomas senior at £105 19s 5¼d, Robert at £44 2s 4¾d, Richard at £88 7s 5d, totalling £238 9s 3d), the Sich family by two (Margaret at £6 9s 9¾d and Benjamin at £107 19s 5¾d, totalling £114 9s 3½d), and the Slaughter family by two on the present page (Phillip at £3 15s 11¼d, with William Slaughter the sergeant having appeared on the first page at £94 12s 2¼d). The Smith family carried Edward at £17 18s 11¾d and Giles at £162 10s 9¾d. The Thompson family had three members (John, Derrick, Thomas) accumulating £25 19s 5½d between them.

Several entries connected directly to the recent settlement proposals and to wider consultation business. Antipas Tovey at £59 16s 11¼d identified the secretary himself as an inhabitant debtor of the Company, with an obligation more than half that of the principal A through F debtors on the first page. The mechanism by which a serving councillor could simultaneously hold a substantial store debt to his employer reflected the pattern by which all inhabitants, including the senior office-holders, operated through the same credit system. Tovey's debt placed him in the same broad category as Bagley and Bevans, and was substantially greater than that of several junior office-holders.

John Twaits at £71 16s 11¼d was substantially higher than the £70 0s 0d he had himself stated on the recent settlement proposal day (though by only a small margin, reflecting recent additions). James Vedzey at £100 11s 1¼d was substantially lower than the £135 7s 5d entered for James Vesey on the first page; this discrepancy probably reflects either a separate accounting period or two different individuals (Vesey and Vedzey) being confused in the original records.

Giles Smith at £162 10s 9¾d identified the substantial obligation of the petitioner over the Hugh Bodley estate (the 17 August 1714 and 31 August 1714 petitions). The mechanism by which Smith was both petitioner against the Bodley estate and a substantial debtor of the Company himself placed him in a position where the working settlement of Hugh Bodley junior's estate (entered at £153 8s 4¾d on the first page) would feed into his own settlement position, with any recovery from Bodley's estate first going to clear his Company debt, and only the residue passing to him as Smith's share through Hugh's daughter (Smith's wife).

The presence of Peter Towers at £20 10s 6¼d identified one of the five Bencoolen-bound prisoners enlisted at 1s 0d a day under the arrangement of 20 July 1714. Towers and the others (William Gore, John Cane, Edward Mallard, Thomas Griffis) had been sent forward to Bencoolen, but their debts to the Company on St Helena remained on the register. The mechanism by which a soldier's transfer to another factory did not extinguish his store debt at the original station reflected the principle that the Company's records moved with the man through the inter-factory accounting system. William Gore had appeared earlier on the abstract at £166 13s 8¾d; Edward Mallard at £20 13s 6d in the M cluster; and the present entry for Peter Towers completed the trio of large debtors among the Bencoolen group.

Renatius Snow at £50 4s 8¼d identified the planter recorded earlier as one of the Doveton orphans' guardians, and as the petitioner whose 5 June 1712 application for a wage advance had been refused. The substantial debt reflected the accumulated cost of supplies through the store.

Hatton Sterling at £44 6s 1¾d identified the husband of the widow Starlings whose outcry sale had been conducted on 19 October 1714, with £81 9s 8d worth of yams, slaves, livestock and hogs bought by the council to secure her debt. The £44 6s 1¾d remaining on the present register represented either Hatton's separate personal debt (alongside his wife's, now widow's) or an interim figure that had not been reduced by the outcry proceeds.

The continuation of the alphabetical sequence into the W cluster (Watts, Woolley, with further W entries presumably to follow) indicated that the register was nearly complete. The carry-over to the next page would bring the compilation to a close, and the total figure for all debts would then be available to the council and to the Court of Directors in London.

Speculations

The presence of Antipas Tovey at £59 16s 11¼d on the inhabitant debt register provides a curious counterpoint to his position as petitioner in the Tovey-Alexander dispute. The mechanism by which the secretary's own debt could be entered on the register alongside that of his fellow inhabitants placed him in the same structural position as the parties he was assisting to record in the consultation book. The interest in clearing his debt, particularly through any successful claim to the Bagley plantation, gave Tovey a personal stake in the recovery framework that ran in parallel with his official role. The detail probably explains some of the pressure behind his pursuit of the Bagley plantation claim.

The pattern by which multiple members of the same family appeared on the register suggests that the council was building a documentary case not only on individual indebtedness but on family clusters of debt. The mechanism by which a family group's combined exposure could exceed several hundred pounds (Hayse at £84 14s 7½d, Swallow at £238 9s 3d) provided the council with a structural picture of the colony's economic stratification. The combined family debt was probably a more meaningful measure of household financial pressure than the individual entries, particularly where one family member acted as the working economic head and the others as dependents or junior partners in the household enterprise.

251

242

Brought Over £

Joseph Whaley 14:13:10 [1/4]

Rob[t] Wallington 4:13:9 [1/4]

Isaac Wood 81:17:7

Jn[o] Welch 88:14:8

Rivin Wills 36:18:9 [1/4]

Francis Wrangham 103:16:7 [3/4]

W[m] Worrall 67:18:[...] [3/4]

Simon Whaley 39:13:1 [1/2]

Wrangham's Orphans 42:16:4 [1/4]

Michael Wild 2:19:10

Richard Ray 12:2:11

W[m] Wilkins 10:6:3 [1/4]

James Young 27:8:9 [1/2]

Tho[s] Cason 28:9:3 [3/4]

Tho[s] Perkins 9:2:2 [1/2]

Ship Susannah [...]:5:8

Cash in the Store keepers hands 12:11:11 [1/2]

Totall £

An Abstract of Debts due from the Hon[ble] United East India Company to y[e] Garrison &c[a] Inhabitants of their Island S[t] Helena to y[e] Day of the Arrivall of the new Govern[r] & Council being the 8[th] of July 1714. viz[t]

Matthew Bazett £174:19:8 [3/4]

Joshua Thomlinson 88:5:2 [1/4]

Sam[l] Allgate 28:16:11

Petr Brindeaux 6:13:2

Henry Batchellour 2:1:[...]

Jn[o] Balter Briggs 1:[...]:6

Rob[t] Bell 25:3:11 [1/2]

Jn[o] French 56:[...]:5 [1/2]

Grace Coulson 23:4:8 [1/2]

Cottgraves Orphans 21:3:10 [1/2]

Jn[o] Chapman 4:12:3 [1/2]

Joseph Daws 2:8:2 [1/2]

Carried Over £ 435:8:0 [1/4]

Margin Notes:

Persons that have Cred[it] in y[e] Stores

Brought over [carried from previous page]

Joseph Whaley £14 13s 10¼d

Robert Wallington £4 13s 6¼d

Isaac Wood £81 17s 7¼d

John Welch £88 14s 8¼d

Rejin Wills £36 19s 1¼d

Francis Wrangham £103 16s 7¾d

William Worrall £67 18s 0¾d

Simon Whaley £39 13s 1½d

Wrangham's orphans £42 16s 4¼d

Michael Wild £2 19s 10d

Richard Ray £12 2s 11¼d

William Wilkins £10 6s 3¼d

James Young £27 8s 9¼d

Thomas Cason £28 9s 3¼d

Thomas Perkins £9 2s 2½d

Ship Susannah £0 5s 8d

Cash in the storekeeper's hands £12 11s 11½d

Total: [no figure entered]

An abstract of debts due from the Honourable United East India Company to the garrison and inhabitants of the island of St Helena to the day of the arrival of the new governor and council, being 8 July 1714.

Persons that had credit in the stores:

Matthew Bazett £174 19s 8¾d

Joshua Thomlinson £88 5s 2¼d

Samuel Allgate £28 16s 11d

Peter Bourdeaux £6 18s 2d

Henry Batchellour £2 1s 0½d

John Balter Briggs £1 0s 6d

Robert Bell £25 3s 11½d

John French £56 5s 5½d

Grace Coulson £23 4s 8½d

Cotgrave's orphans £21 3s 10½d

John Chapman £4 12s 3½d

Joseph Daws £2 8s 2½d

Carried over £435 8s 0½d

Interpretations

The abstract of debts due from the inhabitants closed with a further block of W and miscellaneous entries, including two further orphan estates (Wrangham's at £42 16s 4¼d) and a separate cash position entry. The Cash in the storekeeper's hands at £12 11s 11½d represented the working balance of physical cash held by Bazett against the various accounts, the only liquid asset within the storekeeping system at the moment of transfer. The mechanism by which a colony operating largely on credit could nonetheless require a small cash float for incidental transactions reflected the limits of pure credit operation in any economy.

The Ship Susannah entry at the trivial £0 5s 8d represented an outstanding obligation from the visit of the Susannah under Captain Pinnell, presumably a small item not yet cleared from her recent stay or her earlier visits. The mechanism by which working ship visits left small accounting residues that remained on the register identified the workings of the inter-Company shipping accounting system, by which visiting ships ran tabs at the colony's stores that were then cleared (or not) at departure.

The absence of any total figure at the foot of the inhabitants' debt schedule was striking. The mechanism by which the secretary had compiled the entire register but had not yet calculated or entered the total reflected probably either the working absence of a final tally or a deliberate withholding of the figure pending some further reconciliation. The total figure, when entered, would be the key documentary item in the package transmitted to London.

The second abstract introduced the converse position: debts due from the Honourable Company to the garrison and inhabitants. Where the first abstract had identified what the inhabitants owed the Company, this second abstract identified what the Company owed the inhabitants. The mechanism by which both sides of the accounting were brought into the consultation book together gave the documentary record a balanced presentation of the colony's economic position at the moment of administrative transfer.

The first entries on the credit side included several names not previously prominent in the recent consultation business. Matthew Bazett at £174 19s 8¾d as a creditor of the Company identified the storekeeper himself as one of the principal holders of Company credit. The mechanism by which Bazett could hold a working credit balance at the very institution he served reflected the position of the senior officer whose salary, expense allowance and operational outlays had accumulated to a substantial sum in his favour. The £174 19s 8¾d figure, set against the £316 12s 1d debt of George Carne, identified the working scale of senior establishment credit positions on the island.

Joshua Thomlinson at £88 5s 2¼d identified a second substantial credit position. Thomlinson appears earlier as the petitioner for confirmation of title to the parcel formerly Salmon's on 7 March 1712, and had also been entered on the inhabitant debt schedule at £34 12s 1d. The mechanism by which the same individual could appear as both creditor and debtor of the Company reflected the working pattern by which different categories of obligation (current store account, salary arrears, expense reimbursements, advance allowances) were entered into separate columns. Where the credit balance exceeded the debit balance, the net position was as creditor; where the debit exceeded the credit, the net position was as debtor. Thomlinson's net position appears to have been creditor by approximately £53 13s 1¼d.

Samuel Allgate at £28 16s 11d represented the petitioner whose 24 August 1714 petition over the Earle orphans' lands had been referred to Mashborne and Bazett for working investigation. The presence of his credit position on the register reflected accumulated obligations in his favour, presumably for services rendered or supplies provided.

Grace Coulson at £23 4s 8½d identified the long-resident widow whose 30 March 1699 voluntary registration of working papers had been the anchor for subsequent title chains. The mechanism by which a senior inhabitant widow could be a working creditor of the Company reflected her long-standing position on the island and her accumulated transactions through the working store.

Cotgrave's orphans at £21 3s 10½d identified a third orphan estate on the register, this one as creditor. The mechanism by which different orphan estates could appear on different sides of the ledger (Beales orphans and French's orphans as debtors at £9 15s 4¼d and £43 11s 8¾d, Wrangham's orphans as debtor at £42 16s 4¼d, Cotgrave's orphans as creditor at £21 3s 10½d) reflected the variable working state of each estate's accounts depending on the working maintenance of the orphan heirs against the income from the estate properties.

The Carried Over total at the foot of the credit schedule, £435 8s 0½d, represented the first page of the credit register and indicated that further pages were to follow. The combination of the substantial Bazett and Thomlinson credit balances with the smaller entries on the same page already exceeded the £350 0s 0d two-month storekeeper account totals of recent years, illustrating that the Company's accumulated obligations to inhabitants at the moment of administrative transfer were themselves a substantial figure.

Speculations

The absence of a total at the foot of the debt schedule, immediately followed by the opening of the credit schedule on the same page, suggests that the secretary's working method was to enter the two parallel schedules and then strike the balance at the end of the entire compilation. The mechanism by which the net position of the inhabitant economy against the Company could only be calculated by reference to both sides of the accounting reflected the working complexity of an economy in which most participants were simultaneously creditors and debtors of the institution that served as both employer and supplier.

The placement of Matthew Bazett at the head of the credit schedule, with the largest individual credit balance, identified the storekeeper as both the compiler of the register and one of its principal subjects. The mechanism by which the official responsible for keeping the records was also one of the substantial creditors he was recording placed Bazett in the structurally awkward position of certifying balances in his own favour. The earlier 1 April 1714 interrogation over the ships' accounts had touched on the same difficulty: Bazett's position as both accountant and accounted-for created opportunities for partial entries that could only be tested by external review.

252

243

Brought Over £ 435:8:0 [3/4]

Tho[s] Easthope 1:2:11

Mary Harper 30:8:5 [3/4]

Jn[o] Harding 18:8:1 [1/4]

Jonathan Higham Jun[r] 8:8:6

Eleanor Keeling 128:12:[1/2]

Keelings Orphans 192:11:3 [1/2]

John Knight 1:19:10

Ebenezer Leach 5:11:8 [3/4]

John Myers 3:11:3 [1/2]

Jn[o] Marsh 7:4:11 [3/4]

Charles Masham 93:9:8 [3/4]

W[m] Penny 24:9:4 [1/4]

Jn[o] W[m] Pyfer 5:4:3 [3/4]

Jn[o] W[m] Caulfer 1:3:8

Gabriel Powell 257:16:10 [3/4]

Geo[ge] Paradice 1:2:3

W[m] Simpson 5:10:4

Jn[o] Sinneck :3:6

Rich[d] Smitherman 3:18:10 [1/2]

Charles Steward 261:4:10 [3/4]

Jn[o] Young 12:4:3 [3/4]

Totall of Creditts £1432:4:8 [1/4]

Brought over [carried from previous page] £435 8s 0¾d

Thomas Easthope £1 2s 11d

Mary Harper £30 8s 5¾d

John Harding £18 8s 1¼d

Jonathan Hegham junior £8 8s 6d

Eleanor Keeling £128 12s 0½d

Keeling's orphans £192 11s 3½d

John Knight £1 19s 10d

Ebenezar Leach £5 11s 0¾d

John Myers £3 11s 3½d

John Marsh £7 4s 11¾d

Charles Masham £23 9s 8¾d

William Denny £24 9s 4¼d

John William Lyfer £5 4s 3¾d

John William Laulfer £1 9s 8d

Gabriel Powell £257 16s 10¾d

George Paradice £1 2s 0d

William Simpson £5 10s 4d

John Sinsnick £0 2s 6d

Richard Smitherman £3 18s 10½d

Charles Steward £261 4s 10¾d

John Young £12 4s 3¼d

Total of credits £1,432 4s 8¼d

Interpretations

The credit register closed with a further block of named creditors, including two notably large entries (Gabriel Powell at £257 16s 10¾d and Charles Steward at £261 4s 10¾d) and one substantial orphan estate balance (Keeling's orphans at £192 11s 3½d, with Eleanor Keeling herself at £128 12s 0½d). The total of credits at £1,432 4s 8¼d represented the full scale of the Honourable Company's accumulated obligations to inhabitants and garrison on the day of Pyke's arrival.

The size of the Powell balance reflected the long-running unsettled positions of the planter household. Gabriel Powell appears earlier in the consultations as the freeholder whose 14 September 1714 petition had set out claims for the fencing of the parcel under High Peak and for the supply of nine cane chairs, a quilt, a pair of canvas sheets and two pillows to Boucher on his arrival. The £257 16s 10¾d credit balance probably reflects accumulated entries running well beyond those specific claims, including supplies and services delivered to the Company across multiple years that had not been settled in cash. The mechanism by which a substantial planter household could accumulate over £250 in unpaid claims against the Company illustrated the extent to which the Boucher administration had defaulted on its working obligations to inhabitant suppliers.

The Charles Steward balance of £261 4s 10¾d was equally striking. Steward had appeared on 27 August 1714 as the petitioner whose £22 15s 0d bill for furnishing the Fort house at Boucher's first coming had been disputed and dispatched. The present credit balance of £261 4s 10¾d, more than ten times that earlier bill, suggested either accumulated claims for further supplies, salary arrears, or expense reimbursements across the Boucher administration. The mechanism by which Steward held such a substantial credit balance, while also appearing on the debt schedule at the smaller amount entered earlier in the register, reflected the position of an inhabitant who had been both substantial supplier to and substantial debtor of the Company.

Eleanor Keeling at £128 12s 0½d identified a credit balance held by the widow of the late Governor Richard Keeling. The mechanism by which a former governor's widow could hold a substantial credit balance reflected probably both her late husband's accumulated entitlements and her own continuing relationship with the Company through supplies provided from her plantation. The combination of Eleanor Keeling's £128 12s 0½d with Keeling's orphans at £192 11s 3½d brought the family group total to £321 3s 4d, the second largest family credit position on the register (after the Powell-Steward combined figures).

The Keeling orphans balance probably ran alongside the John Keeling petition of 19 October 1714, in which the late governor's son had offered the family thirty-acre parcel for sale to the Company. The mechanism by which the orphan estate carried a substantial credit balance, while a member of the family simultaneously offered family lands for sale to the Company, suggests an integrated family negotiation in which the orphans' credit position would form part of the broader settlement of the Keeling family's relationship with the Company.

The presence of John Harding at £18 8s 1¼d on the credit register identified the shoemaker and stone-layer of the Slaughter-Harding dispute as a creditor of the Company in his own right. The mechanism by which the same Harding could be a creditor here while also owing £40 0s 0d to his father-in-law Slaughter (and now offering to take on the £40 0s 0d as a direct debt to the Company stores) reflected the complex working position of an inhabitant operating multiple parallel accounts. The £18 8s 1¼d credit, set against his proposed £40 0s 0d direct debt, would leave him as net debtor by approximately £21 11s 10¾d under the proposed settlement.

The reference to John Sinsnick at £0 2s 6d represented a residual credit of two shillings and sixpence in favour of the soldier dismissed from service on 7 September 1714 having served his time. The mechanism by which a departing soldier could leave behind a trivial residual credit balance reflected the precision of the storekeeper's accounting at the moment of discharge, with the final reconciliation producing whatever small amount remained.

The total of credits at £1,432 4s 8¼d, when compared with the inhabitant debt schedule (whose final figure had not been entered on the previous page but ran across multiple pages of substantial entries probably totalling several thousand pounds), revealed the working structural pattern of the colony's economy. The inhabitant population was a net debtor to the Company by a substantial figure, with the accumulated obligations of the inhabitants substantially exceeding the accumulated obligations of the Company to them. The mechanism by which this imbalance had developed, presumably through the cumulative effect of inhabitant supplies drawn from the stores against limited cash settlement and limited production-side delivery to the Company, identified the working pressure under which the recovery framework of the autumn settlements had been launched.

Speculations

The absence of any total figure at the foot of the inhabitant debt schedule, combined with the presence of a clean total figure at the foot of the credit schedule, suggests that the secretary had probably been working through the credit schedule with more documentary certainty than the debt schedule. The mechanism by which the credit figures could be totalled with confidence, while the debt figures required further reconciliation against the underlying ledger entries, reflected the asymmetric documentary position: the Company's obligations to inhabitants had been formally recorded in instruments (bonds, salary entitlements, receipts for supplies), while the inhabitants' obligations to the Company had grown through cumulative store entries that required line-by-line verification before a definitive total could be struck.

The pattern by which the largest credit balances belonged to individuals also appearing on the debit side (Bazett, Thomlinson, Powell, Steward, Harding, and others) suggests that the working economy of the island was substantially conducted through individual ledger accounts where credits and debits could accumulate in parallel without regular reconciliation. The mechanism by which a single individual could carry working balances on both sides of the Company's books reflected the early eighteenth-century accounting practice of separate ledger pages for different categories of transaction (current store supplies, salary entries, expense reimbursements, ad hoc supplies to the Company), with the working net position only struck when occasion required. The 1714 abstract represented an exceptional moment of comprehensive accounting that captured the full scope of these parallel entries.

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244

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Satturday the 6 day of Nov[br] 1714 At the United Castle in James Vatly

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gover[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] &c[a] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

Cap[tn] Richard Pinnell having Sent to the Govern[r] and Council the following Letter

Ordered the same be Enterd in the Consultation Book.

To the Worshipf[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c[a] Councill of S[t] Helena

Gentlemen.

The Worship[fll] Joseph Collet Esq[r] D[ep]ty Govern[r] &c[a] Council of Bencoolen Shipd a quantity of Strack &c[a] on board the Susanna for this Iland as is Spe- =cified in the Bill of Ladeing.

At the Cape of Good Hope I mett with Orders from the Hon[ble] Court of Directors for the Affairs of the Hono[ble] The United East India Comp[a] Directed to all the Commanders of their Shyping that Should Stop their Homeward bound) to make the best of my way for the Port of London and not to follow any Orders that I had received from any of their Comanders[s] &c[a] in India for the future, which in Effect did forbid my Stoping here and Likewise the delivering the said Stoeck — but

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Pinnell

Letter to Gov[r] & Council

ab[t] Stores bro[t]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Saturday 6 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Captain Richard Pinnell having sent the following letter to the governor and council, the council ordered it entered in the consultation book.

The letter was addressed to Isaac Pyke, governor, and the council of St Helena. Pinnell reported that Joseph Collett, deputy governor and council of Bencoolen, had shipped a quantity of pepper and other goods on board the Susanna for St Helena as specified in the bill of lading.

At the Cape of Good Hope he had met with orders from the Court of Directors for the affairs of the United East India Company. Those orders were directed to all commanders of their ships that should stop on the homeward voyage, requiring them to make the best of their way to the port of London and not to follow any orders received from the company's commanders in India for the future. The effect was to forbid his stopping at St Helena and likewise the delivery of the stores

Interpretations

The instruction met with at the Cape of Good Hope reveals the directors' active reassertion of metropolitan control over homeward shipping. By overriding standing orders given by their own deputy governor and council at Bencoolen, the directors collapsed an entire layer of intermediate authority. Indian and East Indian governors could direct outward and country trade but could not bind a commander's homeward route once the directors had spoken. Pinnell's predicament shows how that hierarchy operated in practice: a captain caught between two valid sets of company orders had to obey the later and more senior instruction even at the cost of breaking earlier engagements.

The bill of lading functioned as the binding legal record of what had been shipped on the Susanna at Bencoolen, fixing the consignor's commitment to deliver pepper and other goods to St Helena. By entering Pinnell's letter in the consultation book the council was not merely recording courtesy correspondence but creating a documentary defence: should the directors later question why St Helena had received no pepper, the register would show that the failure rested on the directors' own counter-order at the Cape, not on any default by the local administration.

Pinnell's mention of Joseph Collett at Bencoolen is significant for the wider record. Collett would shortly transit to St Helena himself as Boucher's successor, and the Susanna lading was part of the regular pepper traffic by which Bencoolen supplied St Helena and the homeward fleet.

Speculations

Pinnell's choice to write a formal letter rather than simply sail past suggests an attempt to insulate himself from later claims for breach. By placing the directors' Cape orders on the St Helena consultation record through the governor's own clerks, he secured an authenticated copy of his justification in a jurisdiction independent of London, which could be appealed to if the merchants whose goods were on board sued him for non-delivery.

The directors' blanket instruction at the Cape probably reflects a particular anxiety about homeward ships being diverted, delayed or stripped of cargo at intermediate stations. St Helena's pattern of drawing supplies off passing Indiamen, evident throughout these consultations, was exactly the practice the new order was designed to curb, and Pinnell's letter is the first concrete sign of that policy reaching the island.

254

245

but the People in the ship Rochester having reported at the Cape and Likewise desired the People here to acquaint all English Shyping what a Miserable Condition they left the Island in as to Provisions &c[a] I thought it would be for the Hono[ble] Companys Interest (provided I could without much loss of time) for me to call in here and Deliver the said Stores if yo[r] Worship[ll] &c[a] had Occasion for them, and Likewise to carry advice to the Hono[ble] Company if their Island had been Distresed but am very glad to find to the Contrary, However seeing the Island is at such a Distance from the Hono[ble] Company that they Can't possibly know the State of it at present if your Worship &c[a] are in want of said Stores for the Hono[ble] Companys use I am ready to Deliver them if not Shall Deliver them to the Hono[ble] Company in England, which I pray yo[r] pleas[e] to Adise to.

S[t] Helena Worshipf[ll] S[r] & Gentlemen Novemb[r] y[e] 5[th] 1714. Your Humble Servant. Rich[d] Pinnell

[...] Geo[ge] Haswell Matthew Bazett [A] Tovey

Margin Notes:

and report of y[e] Rochest[r] peop[le] ab[t] Want of their Stoers

Captain Pinnell continued that the crew of the Rochester had reported at the Cape, and had likewise described the people there as wanting all English shipping, leaving the island in a miserable condition as to provisions and the like. He thought it would serve the Honourable Company's interest, provided it cost him little loss of time, to call in here and deliver the stores if the council had occasion for them, and to carry advice to the Honourable Company if the island had been in distress. He was very glad to find matters to the contrary. However, seeing the island lay at such a distance from the Honourable Company that they could not possibly know its present state, if the council were in want of the stores for the Honourable Company's use he was ready to deliver them. If not, he would deliver them to the Honourable Company in England. He prayed the governor would please to advise him.

The letter was dated at St Helena, November 1714, and subscribed by Richard Pinnell as humble servant to the worshipful governor and gentlemen.

The letter was signed in council by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

Pinnell's offer fashioned a workable compromise out of two conflicting duties. The directors' Cape order forbade a homeward commander from stopping at intermediate ports or obeying further orders from India. Pinnell honoured the spirit of that prohibition by treating St Helena's needs as an exception only if the island were in genuine distress, while preserving his contractual obligation to deliver the consigned stores by offering to land them locally or carry them through to London. The arrangement converted what could have been a breach of the directors' instruction into a discretionary act of relief, with the local council bearing responsibility for any deviation.

The reference to the Rochester's crew having spread reports at the Cape that St Helena was wanting all English shipping shows how rumour passed between Indiamen at the Cape rendezvous functioned as a form of unofficial intelligence. Reports gathered there could materially alter a commander's voyage decisions before any directors' letter caught up with events. Pinnell's willingness to call in rested wholly on this secondhand crew testimony, not on any directive.

By having the letter signed in council by Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey, the administration converted Pinnell's private offer into a formal council record carrying joint signature. This protected the captain by establishing on the spot that the local council had been consulted, and protected the councillors by binding them collectively to whatever response was given.

Speculations

Pinnell's emphasis on the Rochester crew's report probably served as a defensive device. By naming the source of his information he shifted any responsibility for misjudging the island's condition away from himself and onto the Rochester hands, so that if his stop were later challenged in London he could point to plausible humanitarian intelligence rather than personal initiative as the cause.

The careful framing that any delivery would happen only if it cost him little loss of time suggests that Pinnell was conscious that demurrage and voyage length were matters the directors scrutinised closely. He preserved an exit from the offer should the council request anything that would delay him at the island, allowing him to argue in London that he had honoured the Cape order in substance even if he had touched at St Helena.

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246

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 9[th] day of Novemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gove[r] George Haswell D[t]y Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

Complaint being made by M[r] Carne that he has a bond of Eighty Pound: Penalty on George Hoskinson deceased on Condition that a Bill of Exchange drawn by the said Hoskinson on William Hayhurst for Forty pounds to be paid to the Hono[ble] Company on Account of the late Joseph Keeling Nineteen Years agoe and the Bond being thereout and produced M[r] Carne Demands the Money and Alledged that the Covenant of paying the said bond of forty pounds to the Hono[ble] Company was never Performed.

Gabriell Powell who has Married George Hoskinsons Widdow Alledges that he beleives his Predecessor did cause the said Money to be paid tho he can make no proof hereof. But he and M[r] Carne do both leave it to the Govern[r] and Council to Determine According to their Judgments.

Who have thereupon Ordered.

That whereas it not Appearing to them the said forty pound was ever paid that M[r] Powell do acc[t] for and pay unto M[r] Carne for the life of the Heirs of Govern[r] Keeling the Sume of forty Pound Sterling with the Interest thereof. M[r] Carne at the same time giving security to repay the same w[th] Interest if within twelve Months after this day M[r] Powell Can make proof the said money is already Paid.

[...] Tovey [...] Geo[ge] Haswell

Margin Notes:

M[r] Carne produced a Bond of M[r] Hoskinsons due to Gov[r] Keelings p[er]

M[r] Powell say he believes it paid.

left to y[e] Gov[r] &c[a]

M[r] Powell to pay y[e] bond of 40[lb] but if proved to be p[d] M[r] Carne to repay it.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 9 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Mr Carne brought a complaint to the council. He held a bond against George Hoskison, now deceased, with a penalty of £80 0s 0d. The condition of the bond was that Hoskison would pay £40 0s 0d to the Honourable Company. That sum was owed on account of the late Governor Keeling. Payment was to be made through a bill of exchange that Hoskison had drawn on William Hayhurst nineteen years earlier. Mr Carne now produced the bond and it was cut in council. He demanded the money and stated that the £40 0s 0d had never been paid to the Honourable Company.

Gabriel Powell had married George Hoskison's widow. He answered that he believed his predecessor had arranged for the money to be paid, but he could offer no proof. Powell and Mr Carne agreed to leave the matter to the governor and council to decide.

The council then made its order. No evidence had been produced that the £40 0s 0d had ever been paid. Mr Powell was therefore to pay Mr Carne £40 0s 0d sterling, together with the interest, for the use of the heirs of Governor Keeling. Mr Carne was at the same time to give security to repay the same sum with interest if Mr Powell could prove within twelve months that the money had already been paid.

The order was signed by Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey.

Interpretations

The penal bond described here was a standard early modern security device. Hoskison had bound himself in £80 0s 0d, double the principal, on condition that he would procure payment of the £40 0s 0d bill of exchange. The doubled penalty was not the sum actually due but the maximum forfeiture if the underlying condition failed. The cutting of the bond when it was produced in council was the customary act of cancellation, surrendering it as evidence and discharging it as an instrument, while preserving its contents on the record. The arrangement reveals how the Keeling estate's London receivable had been left dependent on a chain of private undertakings stretching back nineteen years, with no satisfactory company-side acknowledgement of payment ever lodged on the island.

The council's order shows the practical mechanism for resolving an aged debt where the burden of proof had effectively reversed with time. Faced with no evidence on either side, the council placed the immediate obligation on the present holder of the deceased's estate, Powell as second husband of the widow, but balanced it with a counter-security from Carne. The twelve-month window for Powell to produce proof of earlier payment was a structured limitation that protected both sides: it forced an active search for the original receipt in London while preventing the matter from remaining indefinitely open.

Carne's standing in this matter rests on his marriage to Keeling's widow in May 1698, by which he assumed responsibility for the Keeling heirs' interests. Powell occupies the parallel position on the Hoskison side. The dispute is therefore not between principals but between two successor-husbands managing the residual claims of estates from a previous generation, with the council adjudicating between them.

Speculations

The nineteen-year gap before this claim was pressed probably reflects a deliberate choice of moment rather than fresh discovery. Hoskison had died earlier in 1712 and his estate had passed through the widow to Powell only recently. Carne would have known that pursuing the bond against Hoskison in life would have been politically difficult given Hoskison's senior council position, whereas pressing it against the new husband of his widow carried no such constraint. The timing suggests Carne waited until the obligation could be enforced against a party with no independent standing in the council.

The council's decision to require security from Carne against possible future proof of payment indicates an awareness that the original transaction had occurred in London, far from any record they could examine. By structuring the order as a payment now with a refund clause later, they shifted the inconvenience of uncertainty onto the party most able to investigate, since Powell as Hoskison's successor had the strongest interest in tracing his predecessor's London accounts within the year allowed.

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247

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Monday the 15 day of Novemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Gov[r] Pres[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[l]

The Susanna Cap[tn] Pinnell Sayled hence on Friday the 12[th] Inst[t] in the Evening, We wrote by her to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] and sent a Packett Containing the following Particulars. viz[t]

What pap[as] sent p[r] Susanna N[o] 1 Chaplains Account of Registers

2 List of the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Blacks at the fort.

3 Ditto at the Plantation House.

4 An Abstract of Debts & Creditts.

5 M[r] Rich[d] Cleve the Joyners Indent.

6 Copy of Cap[t] Pinnells Letter.

7 D[o] 3 D[o]

8 D[o] 3 D[o] with Answers.

9 An Acco[t] of the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Rents & Revenues for y[e] year 1713

10 Copy of Letter from Gov[r] & Coun[l] at york fort Dated y[e] 13 May 1714

11 An Acc[ot] of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Stock of Neat Cattle

12 Prizes Sett on the Cargo by the Rochester

13 Copy of Invoice from Gov[r] & Coun[l] at york fort May 13[th] 1714

14 Sirgeons Acc[t] of what came in the last Medecine Chest, with this Indent for what is wanting

15 Copy of Generall Letter to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] Dated y[e] 31 July 1714 p[r] the Marcury Sloop.

16 A list of Covenant servants w[th] their Pay & Sallaries.

17 M[r] Henry Mackin[s] receipt for the Caulker sent procureing Sloop.

18 A list of Papers found in the Secretarys Office.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Monday 15 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The Susanna, Captain Pinnell, sailed from here on Friday 12 November 1714 in the evening. The council wrote by her to the Honourable Company and sent a packet containing the following particulars:

Number 1. The chaplain's account of registers.

Number 2. A list of the Honourable Company's slaves at the Fort.

Number 3. A list of the Honourable Company's slaves at the Plantation House.

Number 4. An abstract of debts and credits.

Number 5. Mr Richard Glover the joiner's indent.

Number 6. Copy of Captain Pinnell's first letter.

Number 7. Copy of his second letter.

Number 8. Copy of his third letter, with answers.

Number 9. An account of the Honourable Company's rents and revenues for the year 1713.

Number 10. Copy of letter from governor and council at York Fort, dated 13 May 1714.

Number 11. An account of the Honourable Company's stock of neat cattle.

Number 12. Prizes set on the cargo by the Rochester.

Number 13. Copy of invoice from governor and council at York Fort, May 15 1714.

Number 14. Surgeon's account of what came in the last medicine chest, with his indent for what is wanting.

Number 15. Copy of general letter to the Honourable Company, dated 31 July 1714, per the Mercury sloop.

Number 16. A list of covenant servants with their pay and salaries.

Number 17. Mr Henry Mackett's receipt for the cattle sent per the preceding sloop.

Number 18. A list of papers found in the Secretary's office.

Interpretations

The packet is a documentary inventory of the council's affairs as transmitted to the directors by a homeward Indiaman. Its structure shows how the company's London correspondence worked in practice. Each item served a distinct accountability function: the chaplain's register tracked baptisms, marriages and deaths among the island's inhabitants and garrison; the two slave lists distinguished the company's labour pool at the Fort from that at the Plantation House, allowing London to monitor the principal centres of company operation separately; the debts and credits abstract gave the directors a current balance sheet of obligations on the island; the rents and revenues account separated income from the leased plantations and other company assets. The chest of papers is in effect the local government's annual return to its London principal, with the addition of immediate items provoked by recent events.

The numbered items relating to Pinnell, the Susanna and the Rochester reveal how the council managed the documentary record of the recent shipping crisis. Pinnell's three successive letters together with the council's answers, the prize valuation on the Rochester's cargo and the Mercury sloop letter of 31 July 1714 form a connected sequence on the contested question of stores and supply. By transmitting the entire correspondence under sequential numbers, the council ensured that the directors received the matter in chronological order with no party able to suppress part of the exchange.

The indent system shown in items 5 and 14 reveals how the island procured specialist supplies from London. An indent was a formal requisition for goods listing what the indenter expected to receive in the next consignment. The joiner's indent and the surgeon's medicine indent followed standardised forms, with the surgeon's also showing what had arrived in the previous chest, so that London could verify what had been shipped and what was still owed.

York Fort, twice mentioned, refers to the company's principal settlement at Bencoolen on the west coast of Sumatra, the source of the pepper consignments routed through St Helena. The repeated correspondence from its governor and council, including invoices, confirms that St Helena was administratively positioned as a way station between the two great company concerns in the East Indies and London.

Speculations

The careful numbering and listing of every paper sent probably reflects council awareness that previous packets had been lost or tampered with. The earlier consultations have noted missing Toddington and Susannah letters as part of the documentary case being assembled against Boucher. By creating a formal numbered manifest of what the Susanna carried, Pyke's administration produced a contemporaneous record that the directors could check against what they actually received, closing off any future claim that material had been intercepted or withheld in transit.

The inclusion at item 18 of a list of papers found in the Secretary's office suggests an active audit of the local archive was under way. Such a list would have catalogued documents inherited from the previous administration, and its dispatch to London probably served to mark the boundary between Boucher's record and Pyke's, fixing the documentary state of the office at the moment of handover so that any later loss could be located precisely.

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248

N[o] 19 A list of Wills in the Secretarys Office.

20 Cap[t] Pinnells Acc[t] in the Stores

21 Ship Susannas Acc[t] in D[o]

22 An Indent of Stores wanting in S[t] Helena

23 Copy of Consultations to Nov[r] y[e] 2[d] 1714 bro[t] up

24 Inventory of the Stoars

25 Ship Rochester and Cap[t] Browns Acc[ts] in y[e] Stores

26 Receipt for the backitt wherein was the Gen[ll] Lett[r] only.

27 List of the Pockett[s]

The Governour Reports that he sett up a Markett place in the time of the Last Ship for the Hono[ble] Company and Employd Renatus Snow to sell severall Odd things and some meat for the refresh[mt] of the People the s[d] Snow the Markett man hath taken in that time Seven Pounds and Six Pence but all sorts of money being Ordered to be taken, he finds by Mistakeing the some a less of one Shilling one penny and three farthings the money is now Produced and the Govern[r] desires he may be Charged by the Store keeper for Cash of the Hon[ble] Companys delivered into his hands by the Markett man Six pound Nineteen Shillings and four pence farthing

An Alarm happened this morning about Six a Clock the Ship is now about the barn, and Expect her by noon. Ordered

That Duplicates of all Papers Sent home by the Susanna be Sent home by this Ship.

Resolvd that all Encouragement be used to the Carrying on the Markett.

Resolvd the Arrack now in the Hono[ble] Comp[as] Stores be Sold out at seven Shillings & Six Pence p[r] gall[t] but that none be deliverd any persons that owes above twenty Pounds Unless they bring redy money good Creditt or Provisions to pay for it and the Sugar att 8[s] 6[d] pound, the Sugar Candy at 12 Pence, and the Tea at Nine Shillings p[r] pound

The Govern[r] Ordered that it be Noted he deliverd all the Bonds rec[d] the 2[d] Nov[r] Inst[t] to Cap[t] George Haswell

Cap[t]

Margin Notes:

Markett Sett up.

Gov[r] Charged in his Acc[t] w[th] y[e] mony rec[d]

On alarm

Duplicates to be sent

to Encourage y[e] Markett

Arrack at 7/6 p[r] gall. but not to p[er]sons that own[s] money [...] [...]

Sug[r] Tea, w[th] prizes to be sold at

Bonds D[d] Cap[t] Haswell

Number 19. A list of wills in the Secretary's office.

Number 20. Captain Pinnell's account in the stores.

Number 21. Ship Susanna's account in ditto.

Number 22. An indent of the stores wanting in St Helena.

Number 23. Copy of consultations to 2 November 1714.

Number 24. Inventory of the stores.

Number 25. Ship Rochester and Captain Brown's account in the stores.

Number 26. Receipt for the packet wherein was the general letter only.

Number 27. List of the packets.

The governor reported that he had opened a market during the stay of the previous ship, on behalf of the Honourable Company. Renatus Snow had been employed as marketman, with the task of selling miscellaneous goods and meat to refresh the people. Snow had taken in seven pounds and sixpence in cash receipts, paid in coin of various kinds. On reckoning his takings against the storekeeper, he had come up short by one shilling one penny and three farthings, owing to errors in valuing the mixed currency. Snow now handed over the takings, and the governor asked that the storekeeper take the sum onto charge for the company's use. The amount transferred came to £6 19s 4d, with a farthing.

An alarm was raised this morning at about six o'clock. The ship was now near the Barn and was expected to come in by noon.

Ordered that duplicates of all papers sent home by the Susanna be sent home by this ship.

Resolved that all encouragement be used to carry on the market.

Resolved that the arrack now in the Honourable Company's stores be sold out at seven shillings and sixpence per gallon, but that none be delivered to any persons who owed above twenty pounds, unless they brought ready money, good credit or provisions to pay for it. The sugar was to be sold at fivepence per pound, the sugar candy at twelvepence, and the tea at nine shillings per pound.

The governor ordered that it be noted he had delivered all the bonds received since 2 November to Captain George Haswell

Interpretations

The market system described here was the council's structured response to passing shipping. By setting up a controlled marketplace each time a ship called, the administration channelled the trade in refreshments and small goods through a single appointed marketman, Renatus Snow, who accounted to the storekeeper for receipts. The arrangement converted what might otherwise have been disordered traffic between sailors and inhabitants into a regulated source of company revenue. Snow's shortfall of one shilling one penny and three farthings through misreading of mixed coin shows how the practical accounting worked: the marketman was personally liable for shortfalls when reckoning multiple currencies and denominations against a sterling account.

Arrack, sugar, sugar candy and tea were the principal Asian commodities passing through St Helena. Arrack was a distilled spirit produced across the East Indies, most commonly from coconut palm sap, fermented rice or molasses, and was the standard strong drink of company shipping and garrisons. Sold by the gallon at seven shillings and sixpence, it was a high-value liquid commodity that could be hoarded against debt. Sugar candy was crystallised refined sugar, produced by repeated boilings and cooled slowly to form hard transparent crystals, more durable in storage than loose sugar and substantially more expensive at twelvepence the pound against fivepence for ordinary sugar. Tea at nine shillings the pound was a luxury, then still relatively new in European consumption, drawn from the China trade and reaching St Helena either directly from Canton through company ships or via Bencoolen. The price spread between these goods reflects their different positions in the trade: bulk sugar as a colonial provision, candy as a refined product, tea as a premium Chinese import.

The credit restriction on arrack sales reveals a deliberate financial control mechanism. By refusing further credit to any person already indebted above twenty pounds, the council prevented liquor debts from compounding the existing indebtedness of the planter community. Acceptance of ready money, good credit or provisions in payment created a substitution scheme by which inhabitants short of cash could clear arrack purchases by supplying provisions the company needed, turning a luxury sale into a means of replenishing stores.

The order to send duplicates of all Susanna papers by this ship reflects the standard precaution against losing a packet at sea. Two homeward Indiamen carrying identical correspondence gave the directors a much higher chance of receiving the council's record intact, and addressed directly the kind of disappearance noted in the documentary case against Boucher where the Toddington and Susannah letters had gone missing.

Speculations

The marketman's shortfall through misreading the coin probably arose from mixing Spanish silver, copper pieces and English sterling at a single stall. East India shipping brought a constant flow of mixed currency through the island, and the small discrepancy is a specific symptom of the absence of any standardised conversion table in the marketplace. The governor's insistence that the sum be formally charged to the storekeeper, rather than absorbed or quietly settled, suggests a determination to establish a precise documentary trail for every penny passing through the new market, perhaps in anticipation of audit scrutiny by the incoming directors' party.

The decision to set the arrack price at seven shillings and sixpence the gallon while restricting credit at the twenty-pound threshold indicates that the council saw the arrival of a second homeward ship as an opportunity to extract payment in kind from indebted planters. Their need for arrack would be greatest when ships were in port and refreshment was being arranged, so timing the sale and the credit rule to coincide with the ship's expected arrival by noon maximised the leverage to convert debt into provisions or ready money.

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249

Cap[ta] Richard Pinnell Sent the following Letter.

Worship[ll] S[r] & Councill

Gentlemen

Outward bound in the Susanna this voyage I Paid one Barrell of Powder here as Customary Nevertheless I am Charged Six pounds Sixteen Shillings & five Pence for one againe now which I never Saw before viz[t] the Paying it twice in one voyage. I pray that Article may be razed out of the Acc[t] if this can't be Done here please to Lett this Letter goe home to the Hono[ble] Court of Directors from. Worsp[ll] S[r] & Gentlm[en] S[t] Helena Nov[r] Your Humb[le] Serv[t] y[e] 11 1714. Rich[d] Pinnell

The Answer

Sir.

We rec[d] yours and have Examined what is usuall and Customary herein and do find by our Books that all Ships who Call here Homeward bound do Pay one Barrell of Powder here Altho in the outward bound Voyage they pa[i]d the same Therefore we hope you cannot take it a Miss Since Nothing is put on you but what is agreeable to what all other Commanders have done before. besides this Easy Demand of one Barrell which is Desigend for your Preservation and good We hope can never be Esteemd a hardship because tis at the Latter End of your Voyage when you are likely to have very Little more Occasion for Powder and the Valluers you Cant be great Since if you carryed it Home would be Likely to spoil and not yeild you above half the Prime Cost and so to us who want it for y[e] Security or Hon[r] of this Island it would be of Service we are.

S[r] Yo[r] Humb[le] Serv[ts] Isaac Pyke

United Castle 16 Novemb[r] Edw[d] Mashborne 1714. Antipas Tovey

The

Margin Notes:

Worship[ll] S[r] & Councill

Cap[t] Pinnells Letter.

S[t] Helena Nov[r] y[e] 11 1714.

Rec[d] & Coun[s] Answer

United Castle 16[th] Novemb[r] 1714.

Captain Richard Pinnell sent the following letter.

The letter was addressed to the worshipful sir and council. Pinnell stated that on the outward voyage of the Susanna he had paid one barrel of powder here as customary. Despite this, he was now charged six pounds sixteen shillings and sixpence for a further barrel, which he had never seen before. The objection was that he was being made to pay twice in the same voyage. He asked that the charge be struck out of his account. If that could not be done at St Helena, he requested that the letter be sent to the Honourable Court of Directors in London. The letter was dated at St Helena, 11 November 1714, and subscribed by Richard Pinnell as humble servant.

The answer of the council followed. Pinnell's letter had been received and his complaint examined. The council's books showed that all ships calling here on the homeward voyage paid one barrel of powder, and that he had likewise paid one on his outward voyage. There was therefore no cause for offence. Nothing had been required of him that had not been demanded of every other commander before. The barrel was needed for the preservation of the island. No hardship arose, since at this late stage of the voyage he would have little further use for powder. The value to him was small, since powder carried home would probably spoil and would not yield half its cost. To those who needed it for security or honour at home it was of real service. The reply was subscribed by Isaac Pyke, Edward Mashborne and Antipas Tovey, and dated at the United Castle, 11 November 1714.

Interpretations

The barrel-of-powder levy was a standing charge in kind imposed on every Indiaman touching at St Helena, payable once on the outward voyage and once on the homeward. The council's defence shows how the impost was justified: as a uniform demand applied to all commanders without discrimination, with the gunpowder required for the island's defence. By framing it as preservation of the island rather than as a customs duty, the administration shielded the practice from challenge as an unauthorised tax, since the directors had themselves charged the council with the island's security. The cost of six pounds sixteen shillings and sixpence per barrel sets a useful benchmark for the monetary value of the levy in this period.

The council's reply reveals a sophisticated argument about diminishing utility on the homeward voyage. By pointing out that powder carried back to England would probably deteriorate at sea and fetch less than half its purchase price, the council neutralised the commander's economic complaint while making the levy appear advantageous in net terms. The reasoning converts an in-kind tax into an act of mutual benefit: the island gains usable powder, the captain loses a commodity he would otherwise have wasted. This kind of justification was standard in early eighteenth-century company correspondence, where local administrators routinely framed extractive practices as services rendered to the commander.

Pinnell's request that the letter be forwarded to the Court of Directors if no relief could be given locally illustrates the appeal structure available to commanders. By asking for the matter to be transmitted to London, he placed the council under documentary pressure: refusal to send the letter would have suggested concealment, while sending it allowed the directors to review the levy and the local administration's reasoning side by side. The council's full written answer, signed by three councillors and entered on the consultation record, was the calibrated response to that pressure.

Speculations

Pinnell's complaint probably had less to do with the actual loss of one barrel than with establishing a written objection on the consultation record. Having already touched at the Cape under directors' orders forbidding intermediate stops, he had reason to fear that any further charges levied at St Helena might be questioned in London. By securing a documentary statement of his protest, he protected himself in advance against any later accusation that he had submitted to an irregular impost without challenge.

The council's emphasis on the spoilage of returned powder suggests that the practice of taking barrels off homeward ships had previously met with sufficient resistance to require a developed justification. The argument that powder deteriorates at sea is technically correct, since damp degrades gunpowder by leaching its saltpetre and clumping the mixture, but its prominent place in the reply indicates the council had needed to deploy this reasoning before and was setting it down in writing to serve as a standard answer for future commanders.

259

250

The other Letter as follows.

Worshipf[ll] S[r] & Council

Gentlemen.

Pray advise the Hono[ble] Company that the first of July 1713 I am Debted in their Honours Books here to Bills of Exchange for Two Hundred twenty three Pounds fourteen Shillings and two Pence which was Drawn by Govern[r] Boucher and M[r] Bazett and Please to desire them to give the Ship Susanna a New Capston with Drum head Iron work &c[a] and ten barrs Jam.

Gentlem[n] Your Humb[le] Serv[t] Nov[r] y[e] 11[th] 1714. Rich[d] Pinnell

M[r] Bazett sent the following Answer

S[r]

As to the Bills of Exchange I know very well Cap[t] Pinnell I stand here Charged & it[s] were drawn as Specifyd above but as to a new Capston I take to be a banter S[r] Jam.

Worshipf[ll] S[r] Your Humble Serv[t] Matth[w] Bazett.

Geo[ge] Haswell Matthew Bazett A[ntipas] Tovey

Island

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Pinnells 2[d] Letter

Nov[r] y[e] 11[th] 1714.

M[r] Bazetts Answer to it

The other letter ran as follows.

The letter was addressed to the worshipful sir and council. Pinnell asked the council to advise the Honourable Company that on the first of July 1713 he had been debited in their books at St Helena for bills of exchange amounting to two hundred and twenty-three pounds fourteen shillings and twopence. The bills had been drawn by Governor Boucher and Mr Bazett. He also asked the council to direct them to provide the Susanna with a new capstan, with drumhead, ironwork and the like, together with ten bars of iron. The letter was dated at St Helena, 11 November 1714, and subscribed by Richard Pinnell as humble servant.

Mr Bazett sent the following answer.

Bazett confirmed that he knew well that Captain Pinnell stood charged here for the bills of exchange as set out. As to a new capstan, he took the request to be cancelled. The answer was subscribed by Matthew Bazett as humble servant to the worshipful sir.

The replies on the council side were signed by Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey.

Interpretations

The bill of exchange entry of 1 July 1713 ties Pinnell's account at St Helena directly to the previous administration. Governor Boucher and Bazett had drawn bills against the Susanna in his name, charging him on the local books for £223 14s 2d. The mechanism worked as follows: bills drawn here against a ship's captain treated him as the personal debtor on the island until the bills were honoured in London. Pinnell's letter is therefore not a complaint but a request for formal advice to the Company, ensuring that the directors knew the bills had originated under Boucher and Bazett rather than under the present administration. The distinction mattered because Boucher's record was already under documentary scrutiny.

Bazett's separate answer, rather than a joint council reply, reflects his own position as co-signatory to the bills. He alone could vouch for what had been done in 1713. By confirming the charge in his own name as humble servant to the worshipful sir, he placed his personal authentication on the local entry while the wider council confined itself to receiving the letter. The procedural separation kept the company's London-side reckoning of the bills independent of any council action by the new administration under Pyke.

The capstan with drumhead, ironwork and ten bars of iron was a substantial naval supply. A capstan was the vertical timber winch on the upper deck used to raise the anchor, weigh cables and handle heavy gear; the drumhead was the broad top section into which the capstan bars were inserted for the seamen to push against. Replacement of an entire capstan implied either accident or rot in the original, and the ten bars of iron would have served both as capstan bars and as general bar stock for the ship's smith. By treating the request as cancelled, Bazett indicated that St Helena did not hold this material in store and that Pinnell could expect no such supply.

Speculations

Pinnell's combining a financial query with a supply request in a single letter probably served to maintain the formal posture of an aggrieved commander making reasonable demands. By packaging the bills-of-exchange notice with the capstan and iron request, he created a document the council could not simply file as a complaint. Each item required its own response, and the dual structure forced an itemised reply that placed both matters on the consultation record.

Bazett's brief dismissal of the capstan request as cancelled suggests he had already discussed the supply question with Pinnell in private and obtained the captain's acceptance that no such material could be furnished. The written exchange then served only to register the position formally, allowing both parties to demonstrate to London that the request had been made and answered without further correspondence.

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251

Island of S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 16[th] of November 1714. At the United Castle in James Vally.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Pres[t] Geo[ge] Haswell D[ep]p[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matth[ews] Bazett 4[th] D[o] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council[l]

W[m] Huff Committed on Satturday last by y[e] Gov[r] for being a Lewd & debauched person & for saying publick- =ly to the Caulker & others of the Susannas people he could have a whore at any time of the best of the place & that he would carry y[e] Caulker into the Fort & help him to One w[ch] was Eliz[a] French, & did carry him upon the Castle Ground & under pretence of giving her acc[t] of her Br[r] abroad did Introduce him into her Company where they only Chang'd a few words severall people being Eye Witnesses, Yett he the s[d] Huff had the Impu- =dence to say publickly afterwards they y[e] s[d] Caulker and French were lewd together

P[r] W[m] Huff presented y[e] foll[g] petition

Isl[d] S[t] Helena. To the Worsh[ps] Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c[a] Councill. The most humble petition of W[m] Huff Soldier Humbly Sheweth

That Whereas yo[r] petition[r] being now imprizon'd for speaking some words relating to Eliz[a] French most humbly begs yo[r] Worsh[p] & Council will be pleased to grant him a hearing before yo[r] Worsh[p] as this day, or that youll be pleased to Release yo[r] petition[r] having said nothing but what he is ready to make oath off & yo[r] Petition (as in duty bound) will Ever pray &c[a] William Huff

Order'd That the meritts of the Case be referrt to the Gov[r] & He apoint W[m] Huff such punishment as he shall think fitt.

The

Margin Notes:

Huff Comitted for being a lewd p[er]son. &c[a]

Isl[d] S[t] Helena.

Huffs Petition

to be punisht at Gov[rs] Disposall

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 16 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

William Huff had been committed on the previous Saturday by the governor. The grounds were that he was a lewd and debauched person. He had said publicly to the caulker and others of the Susanna's people that he could have a whore ashore at any time, one of the best of the place. He had then taken Soldier Caulker into the Fort to find such a woman. One Elizabeth French was named. Huff had taken Caulker up onto the castle ramparts. He used the pretence of giving Caulker an account of her husband, who was abroad, to introduce him into her company. They only exchanged a few words and several people were eye-witnesses to it. Despite this, Huff had afterwards had the impudence to declare publicly that Soldier Caulker and French were lewd together.

William Huff presented the following petition.

The petition was addressed to Pyke and council. Huff, a soldier, set out that he was now imprisoned for speaking some words relating to Elizabeth French. He asked the council to grant him a hearing before them this day, or that they be pleased to release his petition. He stated that he had said nothing but what he was ready to make oath of. The petition was subscribed by William Huff.

Ordered that the merits of the case be referred to the governor. He was to appoint Huff such punishment as he thought fit. Huff was to be punished at the governor's discretion.

Interpretations

The committal of Huff illustrates the council's summary jurisdiction over moral offences within the garrison. The governor held the power to imprison on his own authority for conduct prejudicial to good order, with the council acting only as the body to which a prisoner could petition for relief. By referring the case back to the governor with full discretion as to punishment, the council confirmed the governor's individual authority over disciplinary matters and declined to set itself up as a court of appeal. The mechanism kept disciplinary power concentrated in the governor while preserving the council as a body of last resort that could be invoked but not relied upon.

The offence itself reveals how reputation worked as a form of social currency in a small garrison community. Huff's actions amounted to a deliberate compounding of two distinct injuries: first, the introduction of an outside seaman from the Susanna into the company of a soldier's absent wife on the castle ramparts; second, the public broadcasting of an accusation of lewd conduct against the very encounter he had himself contrived. The presence of eye-witnesses to a brief and innocuous exchange between Caulker and French is central to the case, since it established that nothing improper had in fact occurred. Huff's offence therefore lay not in the introduction itself but in the malicious slander that followed.

The caulker on a ship of this period was the artisan responsible for waterproofing the hull, driving oakum into the seams between planks and sealing them with pitch. He was a respected member of the ship's company and his name being attached to a scandal about an absent soldier's wife threatened both his reputation and that of French. Soldier Caulker, named separately in the manuscript, appears to be a member of the garrison rather than the Susanna's tradesman, suggesting Huff had brought the Susanna people to meet a member of the local guard who shared the trade name.

The governor's discretion to set the punishment without prescribed limits indicates that no fixed scale of penalty existed for slander within the garrison. Sentences could range from confinement to corporal punishment, with the chosen sanction calibrated to the offender's rank and the perceived damage to community order.

Speculations

Huff's petition asking either for a hearing or for release of the petition itself suggests he expected the council to be uncomfortable with the governor's summary imprisonment. By offering to make oath to what he had said, he attempted to convert a disciplinary committal into a question of fact that the council would have to investigate. The council's refusal to do so, by referring the matter wholly back to the governor, indicates a deliberate strategy of not undermining executive authority in moral discipline cases. Pyke's recent assumption of office made any visible disagreement with him politically costly for the wider council.

The decision to record the entire substance of Huff's conduct in the consultation book before reaching the disciplinary order probably reflects the council's awareness that this was an early test of the new administration's handling of garrison morals. By placing a detailed narrative of the offence on the formal record, the council ensured that any future review by the directors would see both the gravity of the slander and the orderly process by which it had been addressed, giving Pyke a documented precedent for similar cases.

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252

The Two Bullocks that We Used to the Cart at the Fort having bin workt pretty hard there

Order'd that they be sent up into the Country for refreshment & that two others be sent down in their room

The ship men[c]on[d] Yesterday came to an Anchor in y[e] road about noon & proved to be the Frederick Cap[t] Rich[d] Phrip German[r] from Maderas & gave an acc[t] that he with the Somers Cap[t] [Peacock] & the Grantham Cap[t] Collett Sailed from fort S[t] George the 18[th] of July & the Cap[t] parted with them in 11 S[t] Lat[ti] & gave an acc[t] of Shipping as foll[s] Viz[t]

That he left the Aurengzeb and Marilla both from England at Madrass.

The Duke of Cambridge Sailed from thence for China.

The Hanover for Bengall.

The Mercury Seperate Stock Ship for the West Coast and Batavia.

All in the Month of June.

That in a Month after his Sailing thence they Expected at Madrass the Joseph a Seperate Stock Ship from Mocha and so home.

That the Somers & Grantham designd to touch at Don Mascarine

[...] Geo[ge] Haswell Matthew Bazett A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Working Bull[s] Sent into y[e] Country

Fredericks arriv[ll] her acc[t]

of

Shipping

In

India

&c[a]

The two bullocks used to draw the cart at the Fort had been worked pretty hard there.

Ordered that they be sent up into the country for refreshment, and that two others be sent down in their place.

The ship mentioned yesterday came to anchor in the road about noon. She proved to be the Frederick, Captain Richard Philip Germano, from Madras. He gave an account that he had left in company with the Somers, Captain Peacock, and the Grantham, Captain Collett. They had sailed together from Fort St George on 18 July, latitude noted. He then gave an account of shipping as follows:

He had left the Aurengzeb and the Varilla, both from England, at Madras.

The Duke of Cambridge sailed from there for China.

The Hanover for Bengal.

The Mercury, separate stock ship, for the West Coast and Batavia.

All in the month of June.

A month after his sailing thence, the Joseph, a separate stock ship from Mocha, was expected at Madras, and so home.

The Somers and Grantham intended to touch at Don Mascarine.

The entry was signed by Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey.

Interpretations

The despatch of the cart bullocks up into the country for refreshment shows how the Fort's draft animals were managed under a rotation system. Heavy labour at the landing place wore the beasts down, so they were exchanged for fresh stock from the country pastures and recovered on grass before returning to service. The arrangement reveals the close logistical tie between the Plantation House holdings and the Fort, with the company maintaining a working reserve of cattle in the interior precisely so that the Fort animals could be relieved without interrupting the cart work.

The Frederick's arrival brought St Helena its first detailed picture of Indian Ocean shipping movements since the Susanna. Germano's account functions as an intelligence report covering five ships at Madras and the expected arrival of a sixth from Mocha, together with the planned routings of his consorts. For an island wholly dependent on the homeward fleet for news, the consultation entry preserves a snapshot of Company and separate-stock traffic in the western Indian Ocean across June and July 1714. The detail that the Somers and Grantham intended to touch at Don Mascarine, the older name for the Mascarene island later known as Île Bourbon and now Réunion, indicates that the French outpost was already established as a watering and refreshment stop used by English commanders despite the political rivalry between the two nations.

The separate stock ships named, the Mercury and the Joseph, belonged to a parallel English commercial system. Separate stock voyages were ventures financed outside the United Company's general capital, under specific licences that allowed subscribers to fit out individual ships to particular ports on terms negotiated with the directors. The Mercury's combined destination of the West Coast and Batavia, and the Joseph's Mocha voyage homeward, show how these licensed ships served secondary trades that the regular Company fleet could not cover economically. Mocha on the Red Sea was the principal source of the coffee trade, while Batavia was the Dutch headquarters in Java and a major regional entrepôt. The presence of an English separate stock ship preparing to return from Mocha to Madras and then home indicates that the coffee trade was now substantial enough to support a dedicated annual voyage.

Captain Collett of the Grantham is the same Joseph Collett, deputy governor at Bencoolen, named in Pinnell's letter of 6 November 1714 as the consignor of the Susanna's pepper. His presence at Fort St George with the Grantham in July confirms his eastward movement and his eventual transfer toward St Helena, where he would in due course succeed to the governorship.

Speculations

The decision to send the worn bullocks up to the country immediately after a heavy shipping period probably reflects an anticipation of more arrivals to come. With the Frederick now in the road and other ships known to be following the same route from Madras, the cart work at the landing place would intensify over the coming weeks. By rotating the animals out before they collapsed, the council preserved a reserve of usable draft power for the busier traffic that the intelligence report itself signalled was coming.

The thoroughness of Germano's account, covering ships at two ports and the planned destinations of his consorts, suggests it was given in a single sitting before the council and recorded verbatim from his report. Captains arriving at St Helena were expected to deliver such intelligence as a matter of obligation, since their reports formed the council's principal source of shipping news for transmission to London. Germano's willingness to give a structured account of six named vessels and their movements indicates that he came to the council prepared, perhaps having drawn up the list at sea in advance of his arrival.

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253

Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held On Saturday y[e] 20[th] of November 1714. at the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[ge] Haswell D[ep]p[ty] in y[e] Country Pres[t] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council.

Call'd John Obriant Accused by Jane Ramsey Cha[s] Ablard Tho[s] Newington & Tho[s] Thompson Lucas Mason

For Riotously Asaulting and wounding of Lucas Mason in the last night within the fort & saying non but whores & Rogues livd in the Castle and that now their is a new Govern[r] who don't understand the Laws but that the alcuded Tho[s] Thompson would give him instructions to do as Govern[r] Boucher did & that himself y[e] s[d] Thompson would never follow any bodys Orders but Gov[r] Bouchers, & it appearing by the a very great Riot & Lucas Mason very much wounded in it by them, the Gov[r] Ordeid Ablard to do w[th] p[s]ipd at the flag staff with 20 Lashes, Obriant with thirty, & Thompson with forty Lashes. & the two latter Committed to prison in Order to be further pu- =nished, but Cap[t] Phrip beg'd them off so they were Discharged from the Fort & sent to do duty at Bank's fort.

The Govern[r] reports that the Cloths & other Effects belonging to Walter Woodzell & M[r] Griffin deceased were exposd to Sale at y[e] Castle gate as Usuall.

[...] A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Severall Persons Guilty of a Riot &c[a] w[th]in y[e] Castle

their Punishm[t]

W[t]r Woodzells & Griffins Cloths Sold.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Saturday 20 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor, in the country; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

John Obriant, Charles Ablard and Thomas Thompson were accused by Jane Ramsey, Thomas Newington and Lucas Mason. The charge was that they had riotously assaulted and wounded Lucas Mason the previous night within the Fort. They had been heard shouting that none but whores and rogues lived in the castle. Thompson had added that there was now a new governor who did not understand the laws. He claimed that Thompson himself had instructions to act as Governor Boucher had done, and that he would never follow anyone's orders but Boucher's.

A serious riot was found to have taken place, and Lucas Mason had been badly wounded by the three men. The governor ordered the punishments. Ablard was to receive twenty lashes at the flagstaff. Obriant was to receive thirty. Thompson was to receive forty. The two latter were committed to prison to await further punishment, but Captain Philip begged them off. They were then discharged from the Fort and sent to do duty at Banks Fort.

The governor also reported that the clothes and other effects belonging to Walter Woodall and to a Mr Griffith, both deceased, had been exposed to sale at the Castle gate as usual.

The entry was signed by Pyke and Tovey.

Interpretations

The flagstaff was the standard place of garrison corporal punishment, the offender being tied to it and flogged in view of the assembled command. Twenty, thirty and forty lashes formed a calibrated scale matched to the gravity of each man's part in the riot. Ablard, as the least culpable, received the minimum sentence. Obriant took the middle penalty. Thompson, who had openly invoked Boucher's authority and rejected Pyke's, received the heaviest. The graduated punishment shows how garrison discipline distinguished between participation in a brawl and the political offence of denying the legitimacy of the current command.

Thompson's words are the substantive heart of the case. By declaring that he would obey no orders but Boucher's, and that Pyke did not understand the laws, he challenged the authority of the new administration directly. The mutinous claim that Thompson held secret instructions from Boucher to act as the former governor had done suggests that the late administration had left behind a residue of loyalty among the lower garrison ranks. Pyke's response of full lashes followed by transfer to Banks Fort, rather than execution or longer imprisonment, calibrated the punishment as serious without escalating it into a treason proceeding. The transfer removed Thompson and Obriant from the main Fort and placed them under different officers at the outlying battery.

Captain Philip's intercession for the two more serious offenders, securing their release from prison in favour of duty at Banks Fort, illustrates the role of officers as patrons for their men. Philip's ability to beg them off shows that disciplinary outcomes within the garrison were negotiated between governor and captains, with the governor retaining the formal punishment but the captain able to mitigate the longer-term consequences. The arrangement preserved the deterrent effect of the lashes while keeping the men productive at the outlying post.

The sale of the deceased Woodall's and Griffith's clothing and other effects at the Castle gate was the standard method of disposing of garrison estates. Open sale at a public place produced market prices and visible accountability, with the proceeds applied to settle the estate's debts before any residue passed to the heirs. The phrase as usual confirms that this was the established practice, conducted without further ceremony or council deliberation for each individual estate.

Speculations

Thompson's invocation of Boucher's authority probably reflects more than personal loyalty. The mention of secret instructions from the former governor suggests that Boucher may have left St Helena with informal undertakings to certain soldiers about the conduct of affairs after his departure. Whether such instructions ever existed or were Thompson's drunken invention cannot be recovered, but the council's response shows that Pyke took the claim seriously enough to remove Thompson permanently from the Fort. By transferring him to Banks Fort he placed Thompson under officers who could be relied upon to suppress further Boucherite talk among the lower garrison.

Captain Philip's intervention to spare Obriant and Thompson from prison probably served a practical garrison purpose as well as a personal one. Banks Fort required reliable manpower, and removing two punished but able-bodied soldiers there made better economic sense than holding them in confinement in the main castle. By presenting the move as an act of clemency, Philip secured a useful posting outcome while appearing to soften the governor's discipline.

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Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 22[d] of Nov[r] 1714. at the United Castle in James Vally.

Isa[c] Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[ge] Haswell Dep[ty] Pres[t] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council.

The Gov[er]n[r] proposd y[e] giving out of the Bank bills

Agreed that between this & Tuesday next Bills be Signd & given out to the Value of twenty pounds in Order for Circulating them amongst the Inhabitants & Garrison

John Keeling Heir to his Deceasd Father Rich[d] Keeling Esq[r] Late Gov[r] here de[c]ed Apperd this day & desird to Administ[r] on his Deced fathers Estate he having formerly Administed in Engl[d] but the Letter of Administration he has left in the possession of Comd[r] Littleton

Order'd That the said Kelings request be granted & the Letter of Administration be drawn out as soon as possible

Cap[t] Mashborne reports that the Fences at the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Pastures &c[a] is very bad & so much out of repair that he cant keep any Cattle in

Order'd That a Survey be made thereof to begin neat Wedensday Monday & that Cap[t] Haswell Cap[t] Mashborne & M[r] Bazett with M[r] Charles Steward, Henry Francis & Gabriel Powell do veiw the said Fences & report their Opinion thereof & charges to repair them

And whereas this Survey is not likely to be fully done in less then three Days, therefore We have thought fitt & do defer next Consultation Day which is usually on Tuesdays till Thursday next unless Some extrodinary buisness happen to call One Sooner

Sam[l] Algate Corporal made Complaint that his house in James Vally has been broken open three Sundry times & lost five peeces of Beef, One y[e] Pork

Margin Notes:

[...] Bank bills to be given out & sign'd

J[no] Kelings desires a Lett[r] of Administra- =tion fath[rs] Estate

Granted Land Delivered him

Comp[as] fence bad.

the Same to be Survey'd.

Coun[l] day defer'd y[e] reason

Algates House broke open

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 23 November 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The governor proposed the giving out of the bank bills.

Agreed that between the present day and Tuesday next, bills be signed and given out to the value of twenty pounds, in order for circulating them among the inhabitants and garrison.

John Keeling, heir to his deceased father Richard Keeling, late governor here, appeared and asked to administer his deceased father's estate. He had previously taken out administration in England, but the letter of administration had been left in the possession of Commodore Littleton.

Ordered that Keeling's request be granted, and the letter of administration be drawn out and delivered to him as soon as possible.

Captain Mashborne reported that the fences at the Honourable Company's pastures were in very bad repair, so much so that he could keep no cattle in them.

Ordered that a survey be made of the fences. The survey was to begin next Wednesday. Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett, together with Mr Charles Steward, Henry Francis and Gabriel Powell, were to view the fences and report their opinion of the state of repair and the cost of putting them in order.

Whereas this survey was unlikely to be fully completed in less than three days, the council thought it proper to defer the next consultation day. The usual day was Tuesday, but it was put off to next Thursday, unless some extraordinary business required an earlier meeting.

Samuel Algate, corporal, made complaint that his house in James Valley had been broken open three sundry times, and that five pieces of beef and one of pork had been taken

Interpretations

The bank bills described here represent an early experiment in paper currency on St Helena. By issuing signed bills to a controlled aggregate value of twenty pounds, the council created a token medium of exchange that could pass among the inhabitants and garrison in place of scarce specie. The signing requirement gave each bill a personal endorsement by the issuing authority, making counterfeiting more difficult and tying the credit of the bills directly to the council's name. The mechanism solved a chronic local problem: the island held insufficient coin to support routine market transactions, and arriving Indiamen drained whatever specie was paid out as quickly as it accumulated. The bills functioned as an internal medium that could not leave the island without forfeiting their backing.

John Keeling's appearance to administer his late father's estate brings the long-running Keeling matter back before the council under new arrangements. Richard Keeling had died in May 1698, and the estate had been managed through his widow's successive marriages, first to George Carne and now reaching its second generation through John Keeling as heir of age. The English letter of administration held by Commodore Littleton shows how succession to a St Helena estate had been formalised through a probate process in London during the intervening years, with the original document then carried back to the island through Royal Navy hands. The council's order to draw out a fresh local letter and deliver it to Keeling regularises the administration on the island without requiring the recovery of the London original from Littleton.

Mashborne's pasture report uncovers a serious lapse in plantation maintenance. The Honourable Company's pastures depended on sound fencing to keep cattle on company land and out of planters' crops, since the absence of fencing risked both stock loss and damage claims from neighbouring holdings. The appointment of a survey panel of five men, two councillors and three substantial inhabitants, established a procedure for independent assessment of repair work before any expenditure was authorised. Henry Francis and Gabriel Powell are notable for serving alongside Charles Steward; Powell is the same man who had just appeared before the council in the Hoskison-Carne bond matter, and his inclusion on the panel indicates that estate administration and council survey duties drew on the same pool of senior planters.

The postponement of the next consultation from Tuesday to Thursday illustrates the routine flexibility of the council's calendar. The standing day yielded to the practical requirement of having the survey panel free to inspect the pastures over three working days, with a saving clause for extraordinary business that might require an earlier sitting.

Speculations

The decision to issue bank bills to a strictly limited value of twenty pounds in their first round probably reflects caution about how the inhabitants would respond to paper money. By starting small and circulating the bills over the period between this day and next Tuesday, the council could test acceptance and detect any forgery or refusal to accept before committing to a larger issue. The trial run created an evidence base for either expanding or abandoning the scheme without significant exposure if it failed.

Mashborne's report on the ruinous state of the pastures and his inability to keep cattle in them probably formed part of the documentary case being assembled against the previous administration. Boucher's tenure had already been catalogued as having allowed the Plantation House to fall into ruin and the livestock to be destroyed, and a formal survey of the pasture fences would produce a costed assessment of damage attributable to that period. By calling in three substantial planters alongside two councillors, Pyke ensured the survey could not later be dismissed as a politically motivated council exercise.

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255

Since which one day last Week he Saw Moll a slave to Capt Twenty wife pingoes a young wench night time come towards his door, with her hand opened the door by putting her hand in at a hole of the Window she pusht back y[e] bolt of the lock & he Speaking to her saying I have got you now, she run away & being barefoot could not run after her but following imediatly after found her Pid

The s[d] Wench being Imprisond was sent for & Denyed it she was in y[e] Algates house that night he Says she was, that when She was Once helping Algates Wife to clean y[e] house she took two small peices of Beef that was cut ready to fry w[ch] could not weigh above a pound

Order'd That the s[d] Wench do imediately re- ceive 100 Lashes on her naked body & her Mast[rs] pay Algate for two pound of Beef.

This day all persons concernd relating to the Land formerly in the possession of Rich[d] Alexander & Tho[s] Bagley appeard & presented all their papers, re- lating thereto which was openly redd

Resolved that the Council meet the first opportunity to consider fully of this Matter & to give their Opinions therein

Resolved That now all parties are dispatched no other papers be received hereafter relating to said Land.

Order'd

That M[r] Bazett bring in his Monthly Accounts on Tuesday next in the Usual method without any more Excuses or delays.

Order'd That all the Blacks that was hired to work at the Comp[as] work in the Country to work at the Fort till further Order

Margin Notes:

and Accuses Slaught[rs] Moll

the Wench denys y[e] fact but owns she slices took 2 p[r] Beef.

her Punishment

all pap[rs] presented 26[t]y Land formerly possessed by Rich[d] Alexander &c[a] to be Consider[d] of y[e] first Coun[l] day.

no more pap[rs] to be rec[d] ab[t] y[e] land

Monthly Acc[ts] to be bro[t] in w[th] out delay.

Blacks to Work at y[e] Fort.

Algate continued his complaint. Moll, a slave wench belonging to one of the inhabitants of St Helena, was the suspect. One day in the past week, at night, he saw her coming towards his door. She put her hand in at a hole of the window and pushed back the bolt of the lock. He spoke to her, saying "I have got you now." She ran away, and being barefoot he could not run after her. He followed immediately, and found her bed warm.

The wench, being imprisoned, was sent for. She denied the offence, but said that she was at Algate's house that night. She had been helping Algate's wife to clean the house, and had taken two small slices of beef cut ready to fry, which together could not weigh above one pound.

Ordered that the wench immediately receive one hundred lashes on her naked body, and that her master pay Algate for two pounds of beef.

This day all parties concerned with the land formerly held by Richard Alexander and Thomas Bagley appeared and presented their papers. The papers were openly read.

Resolved that the council meet at the first opportunity to consider the matter fully and give their opinions on it.

Resolved that, now all parties were dispatched, no further papers be received afterwards relating to that land.

Ordered that Mr Bazett bring in his monthly accounts on Tuesday next, in the usual method, without any further excuses or delays.

Ordered that all the slaves hired to work at the Honourable Company's work in the country come down to work at the Fort until further order.

Interpretations

The hundred lashes ordered against Moll on her naked body set against Algate's loss of two pounds of beef shows how the punishment scale for slaves diverged sharply from that for soldiers. Where Thompson had received forty lashes for a serious riot, mutinous words and the wounding of a fellow soldier, Moll received a hundred for petty theft and a denied attempt at burglary. The disparity reveals the legal status of the slave under the council's jurisdiction: corporal punishment was the standard sanction, the body itself was treated as the medium of penalty, and there was no calibration to the value of the goods involved. The order that her master pay Algate for the beef placed financial responsibility on the slave-owner rather than the slave, since the slave could not be a property-holder and any restitution had to flow through the owner.

The denial-and-partial-admission pattern in Moll's testimony illustrates the limited evidentiary process available to slaves before the council. She accepted being at the house and taking the meat but disputed both the manner of entry described by Algate and the weight of the theft. The council made no attempt to weigh competing accounts; it accepted Algate's version on the offence of attempted burglary while accepting Moll's on the underlying theft only insofar as to fix the quantum at two pounds for restitution purposes. The combination shows the council's procedure: physical punishment for the conduct, monetary compensation for the loss.

The Alexander-Bagley land dispute had clearly become a documentary contest. By bringing all parties together to present their papers in a single openly read session and then closing the record against further submissions, the council adopted a deliberate procedural strategy. The bar on receiving any further papers prevented the parties from circulating fresh documents in private to councillors before the decisive sitting and ensured that the eventual ruling would rest on the same evidence available to every party simultaneously.

The order to withdraw all the slaves from the country plantations and concentrate them at the Fort indicates a sudden labour demand at the landing place or in the main castle works. With Mashborne's pasture survey only just commencing and Plantation House restoration still in progress, the decision to pull the country labour force down would have created an immediate impact on rural work. The use of further order rather than a fixed date suggests the council was responding to an unforeseen pressure of immediate but uncertain duration.

Speculations

The instruction to Bazett to bring in his monthly accounts on Tuesday next, in the usual method and without further excuses, points to a pattern of delay that had become troublesome. Bazett's responsibilities as surveying officer, receiver at the boats and store-book keeper were already heavy, but the explicit prohibition on excuses indicates that Pyke was now placing the new administration's accounting on a fixed timetable from which Bazett could not slip. The store-book catch-up under Bazett had been one of the open threads inherited from the previous administration, and this order represents the present governor's enforcement of the schedule against further drift.

The simultaneous concentration of all hired slaves at the Fort and the timing of Mashborne's pasture survey probably reflect a single planning logic. With country labour withdrawn for an unknown period, the survey panel could assess the fences without the complication of slaves working among the cattle, and the council's eventual cost estimate for repairs would reflect work to be done by the same labour force then returned to the country. The withdrawal therefore served both immediate Fort needs and the orderly conduct of the survey itself.

265

256

S[t] Hellena To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke, Esq[r] Gov[er]n[r] &c[a] and Councell of S[t] Helena The reply of John Alexander on behalf of Pipin, Abigail, and Mary Alexander, Son and Daughters of Richard Alexander, late free Plante[r] dec[d] delivered in answer to two papers presented by Orlando Bagley and Rich[d] Swallow Sen[r] Execut[rs] to Thom[s] Bagley deceasd, therein representing his case.

In reply to the Preamble called the case of Thom[s] Bagley & Say- that as to the remissness therein mentiond is no fault of mine, but M[r] Toveys who I imagine and have good cause to think he not only beleives but knows he has a very doubtfull cause in hand and thereby may be more conscious in this than any other because he knows very well the injustice formerly done to Richard Alexander (as does in great parts appear by the Certificate sent the Hon[ble] Comp[as] and signd by 12 or more of the Inhabitants free holders of this Iland besides divers other Instances) and the little righte Tho[s] Bagley has to the Land now in dispute, this I'm apt to think M[r] Tovey won'd as much as in him lies use all honest means to do any good for his Predecessors Issues. as well as those, who are so very active in this affair, which if not already will be easeily discernd, more for the life and ad- vantage of one of the Execut[rs] Rich[d] Swallow, than for the real benefite of Tho[s] Bagleys Child, y[e] said Land being if recoverd to be in his possession and use as by an Agreement made between him and M[r] Tovey, till y[e] s[d] Child comes of Age, or is married by which time the Land will be good for litt[le] else, but particul[ar]ly in y[s] the said Swallow is well stockt with as well as a sufficie[nt] quantity of plantable Land at this very Instance, Passing thus and with the Preamble of Tho[s] Bagleys Case, shall endeavour to make pertinent reply to the other three Articles articles, and Essay answer to the first of them, with other observations therein hinted as follows.

As to the Consultation desired by the Execut[rs] to be produced is what is very surprizing to all I beleive, that hears it, For I do aver that Rich[d] Alexander did never Petition (as the Customes of this Place is or required to go off either by himself, or w[th] his family, nor did he so & true to make Sale of his Plantation. or other Effects (which every free Planter had the Liberties of doeing without controul or giving reason for so doing[)]

Margin Notes:

S[t] Hellena.

Jn[o] Alexanders reply to papers S[d] by Tho[s] Bagley Execut[rs] & c[a]

First.

St Helena.

The reply of John Alexander, on behalf of Rijn, Abigail and Mary Alexander, son and daughters of Richard Alexander late free planter deceased, was delivered in answer to two papers presented by Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow, executors to Thomas Bagley deceased, in which they had set out their case.

John Alexander replied to the preamble of the case of Thomas Bagley deceased. He set out that the slowness in proceeding was no fault of his own, but lay with Mr Tovey. Alexander believed, and thought he had good reason to believe, that Tovey not only suspected but knew he had a very doubtful cause in hand. Tovey might therefore be more conscious of this than any other person, because he knew well the injustice formerly done to Richard Alexander. This appeared in large part from the certificate sent to the Honourable Company, signed by twelve or more of the inhabitant freeholders of the island, and from various other instances. He pointed also to the small right Thomas Bagley had in the land now in dispute.

He further believed that Mr Tovey would, as far as he was able, use every honest means to do whatever good he could for the issue of his predecessor, as well as for those who were now so active in this affair. The matter, he argued, would soon be plain enough, namely that it was being pursued more for the use and advantage of one of the executors, Richard Swallow, than for the real benefit of Thomas Bagley's child. The land, if recovered, was to be held in possession and use by Swallow under an agreement made between him and Mr Tovey, until the child came of age or was married. By that time the land would be worth little. Yet at this very moment Swallow already held Rocke as well as a substantial quantity of planted land.

Having thus answered the preamble of Thomas Bagley's case, Alexander turned to make appropriate replies to the three articles set out in it.

First.

As to the consultation desired by the executors to be produced, he said the request itself was very surprising to all who heard of it. He could affirm that Richard Alexander had never petitioned, as the custom of the place required, to depart the island either by himself or with his family. Nor had he ever sought to make sale of his plantation or other effects, which every free planter had the liberty of doing without control or giving reason for so doing

Interpretations

The certificate of twelve or more freeholders sent to the Honourable Company is a key institutional device in this reply. By their joint signatures the substantial inhabitants of the island had recorded a collective testimony of injustice done to Richard Alexander, creating a documentary weight that no single petition could carry. Such certificates functioned as the planter community's formal mechanism for representing grievances directly to London, bypassing the local council where the matter touched the actions of councillors or former governors. John Alexander's reliance on the certificate as a primary piece of evidence shows how the device retained authority in subsequent disputes long after its original transmission.

The arrangement alleged against Tovey and Swallow exposes a recognised form of trust manipulation within the local probate system. By Alexander's account, Swallow as executor would hold the disputed land in use until Bagley's infant child reached majority or married, with the benefit accruing to Swallow during the intervening years. The structure, if real, used the executor's office not as a faithful trust for the minor heir but as a long lease in disguise, the land yielding to Swallow for perhaps fifteen years before passing depleted to its rightful owner. Tovey's role as alleged confederate would have brought council protection to the scheme. The allegation reveals how executorship of a long minority opened space for self-interested administration unless actively policed.

The rights claimed for a free planter, to depart the island or to sell up without seeking leave or giving reasons, define the legal position of the propertied inhabitant against the council's authority. Alexander's argument turns on a fundamental distinction: petition to depart was required by custom, but sale of plantation and effects was not. The right of the free planter to dispose of property at will, without control, established a sphere of private economic action that the council could not enter. Richard Alexander's failure to seek leave to depart or to sell up therefore became dispositive evidence that no orderly transfer of his estate had taken place before his death, undermining any claim by the Bagley side that Alexander had voluntarily disposed of the land in dispute.

Rocke, named as a property already held by Swallow alongside other planted land, places him among the substantial holders of the island. The mention is offered not as praise but as evidence of his existing means, designed to show that no real need justified his grasp for Bagley's child's portion. By naming Swallow's existing holdings Alexander framed the executor as a wealthy planter using the trust for further accumulation rather than as a steward in genuine service to a minor heir.

Speculations

John Alexander's decision to open his reply with personal allegations against Tovey rather than with the legal merits probably reflects a calculated procedural choice. By placing the charge of bias against a sitting councillor at the very front of the document, he forced Tovey either to recuse himself from the eventual decision or to sit in council under a public allegation of partiality. Either outcome favoured the Alexander side: recusal removed an adverse vote, while open sitting weakened Tovey's authority in any ruling against them. The structure of the reply suggests Alexander expected that Pyke and the other councillors would not lightly ignore the accusation.

The specific reference to a certificate already in London, signed by twelve or more freeholders, served as a warning to the present council that any ruling adverse to the Alexander interest would be measured in the directors' minds against an existing body of inhabitant testimony favourable to them. The certificate gave Alexander a second forum to which an unsatisfactory local outcome could be appealed, and by reminding the council of its existence at the outset of his reply he positioned the directors as the ultimate audience for the dispute. The mention probably operated as a tactical reminder rather than a fresh evidentiary submission.

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as himself did possitively deny[e], and is so justly enterd in the Consultations of the 13[th] December 1709. till that same day he was sumoned by the Marshall to appear before Govern[r] Roberts, and the then Councill and then and not before chargd or face with what there was nor is no truth in, tho which after a little pause and amazement to hear what false stories and tales had bin and were told, of him possitively and absolutely denyd as haveing never enterd his thoughts much more to utter, and challenged any Body to confront him, and often desird his accuser might be brought viva voce, but none could or did appear, however it was the poor mans misfortune to undergoe, the harsh and hard censures of the Govern[r] who would by no Arguments whatsoever beleive him to the contrary, which (I and God forgive me if I judge a miss) do realy beleive was tho the Instigations of some of the Councill then present and since dead, he haveing to great an ascendent and Influence over the Govern[r] by his sly and deceit full way of behaveour and representing things quite oppossite, to the truth and would even deceive Solloman himself were he now liveing, I dar'nt spake this out of any prejudice to the dec[d] his Charector of such being well known to severall now on the Island as well as else where, way to corrobonate what I have said in this matter can very easely bring severall more to justefye, and say the same if not a great deal more and worse, And as to the widdler a widow being termd a refractary fallow in that consultation aforesaid refer to the known Records on this Island whether or know he was ever Litigious or any manner of ways acted in Contempt of Government or any thing else deserveing such severe treatment, as it was his greatest misfortune to meet with, and whether or no any Body his nearest Neighbours or others can justly accuse him of such being a very industrious and Laborious young man, takeing honest, with the sweat of his brows to maintain his familie the best he could, and whether he was not always of good Note and Fame, a fair dealer and one of an honest Life and Conversation among them. The Contrary of which being laid to his charge as that Consultation seems to intimate in a most ridiculous and degrading manner, then and at that time, 'twas with a loud Voice indeed and de- cried without respect to his large familie that he the said Richard Alexander should have warning given him to gather his Cropp of the Ground he then possesd and that precisely in Six months tome, and then to seek

Alexander continued his reply. Richard Alexander had himself positively denied the charge, and his denial was justly entered on the consultations of 13 December 1709. Until that day he had been summoned by the marshal to appear before Governor Roberts and the council then sitting, and not before. He had been charged with conduct in which there was no truth. After a short pause and astonishment at hearing what false stories and tales had been and were being told of him, he denied the charges positively and absolutely. He stated they had never entered his thoughts, much less his speech. He had challenged anyone to confront him, and often desired that his accuser be produced face to face. None could or did appear. Despite this, it was the poor man's misfortune to undergo the harsh and severe censures of the governor, who would be moved by no arguments to the contrary.

This, John Alexander said, he firmly believed, and might God forgive him if he judged amiss, was due to the instigations of one of the council then present, since deceased. That councillor had so great an ascendancy and influence over the governor through his sly and deceitful manner that he could represent matters quite contrary to the truth and would have deceived Solomon himself, were he now living. Alexander said he did not speak this out of any prejudice to the deceased. The character of the man was well known to many on the island and elsewhere. To corroborate what he had said in this matter he could very easily produce many more witnesses to the same effect, and indeed a great deal more and worse.

As to Richard Alexander being termed a refractory fellow in the consultation referred to, it was well known on the records of the island whether he had ever been litigious or in any way acted in contempt of government, or done anything else deserving such severe treatment as it was his great misfortune to meet with. He challenged any of his neighbours or others to accuse him justly of any such conduct. He had been a very industrious and laborious young man, taking honestly with the sweat of his brow the cares and pains to maintain his family the best he could, and had always been of good life and fame, a fair dealer, and of honest life and conversation among them. The contrary of this had been laid to his charge in the consultation, which seemed to suggest in a most ridiculous and degrading manner, then and at that time, that it was with a loud voice indeed and decreed without respect to his large family, that Richard Alexander should have warning given him to gather his crop from the ground he then possessed, and that precisely in six months time, and then to seek

Interpretations

The reference back to the consultation of 13 December 1709 establishes the documentary anchor for the entire Alexander grievance. By citing the date of the original proceeding under Governor John Roberts, John Alexander tied his current reply to a specific entry on the council record that could be checked by Pyke and his colleagues. The marshal's summons described here illustrates how the council exercised its judicial authority over inhabitants: the offender was brought in before the sitting council, charges were stated, and the entire process took place at a single appearance with no advance notice of the case to be met. The right to confront an accuser, which Alexander had repeatedly demanded, was therefore not a procedural guarantee but a request that the governor could decline as he chose.

The unnamed deceased councillor, identified as the source of the false charge through his sly and deceitful manner and his ascendancy over Governor Roberts, is a serious accusation lodged against a man no longer able to answer. The procedural significance lies in Alexander's calculated decision to defame the dead rather than a living council member. By naming no name and citing only the man's character as well known to many, the reply secured the substance of the attack while leaving the precise identification to the present council's collective memory. The mechanism shifted the burden of recognition to Pyke and his colleagues, who would understand which councillor under Roberts had played the alleged role without needing it spelt out.

The order originally made in 1709, that Alexander gather his crop within six months and quit the ground he then possessed, is the substantive grievance now being relitigated. Such an order amounted to a forced disseisin of a settled planter: the council compelled the holder to harvest one final crop, surrender the land and seek other quarters elsewhere on the island. The six-month period was sufficient to bring in a yam crop but no longer crop cycle, ensuring that Alexander would forfeit any longer investment in the ground. The order operated through the council's customary authority over land tenure on the island, where freehold and Company leasehold were both ultimately subject to its administrative will. Alexander's reply now argued that the order had been made without legal ground, against an industrious family man with a large household, and only through the malicious procurement of the unnamed councillor.

The character defence offered for Richard Alexander, framed as good life and fame, fair dealing and honest conversation, drew on the standard early modern vocabulary of reputation. Each phrase carried specific evidentiary weight: good life signified moral conduct, fame meant public reputation, fair dealer referred to economic honesty in transactions, and honest conversation indicated decent social behaviour. By invoking all four together, the reply assembled a complete reputation portrait that could be tested against neighbours' memory. The closing challenge to neighbours and others to accuse him justly placed the burden of contradiction on the wider community rather than on Alexander himself.

Speculations

The decision to revive the 1709 proceeding in such detail probably reflects a calculated reading of the present council's likely sympathies. With Boucher gone and his administration under documentary scrutiny, the entire previous decade of council rulings was open to reexamination. By framing the original injustice as the work of Governor Roberts misled by an unnamed councillor since deceased, Alexander invited Pyke and his colleagues to repudiate an earlier regime without implicating any current member. The structure offered the new administration the political benefit of righting a past wrong while costing no living reputation.

The phrase tales and stories rather than formal charges suggests that the original 1709 proceeding had relied on informal complaints rather than sworn evidence. Alexander's emphasis on the absence of any accuser appearing in person, on the demand to confront witnesses, and on his repeated denials shows that the procedure followed under Roberts had departed from regular adjudicatory practice even by the standards of the council's own customary authority. The reply was therefore not merely an appeal on the merits but a procedural attack on the legitimacy of the original ruling, designed to make the present council's affirmation of that ruling difficult to sustain.

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Habitation else where, which God Almighty had long before, prepared, and hope he is now one of the Heirs thereof.

Upon which order as 'tis recorded the, said Alexander requested to go off the Island with his familie in the next outward bound ship. which altho I was his Brother and familiar friend and often with him both at his and my own house, never in all my life heard him say any thing of it, and I am very well assured he co'd propose no way to better his Condition else where, nor had he that Competency tho every thing sold to its full value sufficient to maintain so large a familie as he had, and therefore haveing no Land to live upon nor none that he could buy was of meer necessity and most assuredly contrary to his then Inclination oblig'd to request leave to go off rather then to live here any longer under discontent and daily afflictions, if this can be by any Impartiall Persons termd a Volluntary and free Act I submit to better Judgment and those Gentle- men who probably might not be so fully informed of this affair, till at this times, and that has made me the more tedious in my reply which I beg may be excused and that this one Remark may be considered that if Richard Alex[d] had freely desired leave to a gone off twould have been Ordered in that Paragra[ph] where he is to gather his Crop in Six months, and not have urged the intent of farther catching words that might accidently drop without thought after there upon made a 2[d] order imediatly and that without Hesilation which plainly shews the severity of an over heated passion and resolution, to get rid of him, nay this so very predominant that what with the one and the other The Governour caused an advertizement the self same day to be published and therein declard that Richard Alexander to his great greif and daily sorrow had Leave to go off the Island with his familie, wherefore all persons would take Notice and to clear their Acc[ts] with him, and he from thence forth declard no more a free Planter on the Island, and over and above. this or the known Customes of any Country not to have the Liberty or benefitt of such tho he was a Native of the place and ever conformable, to all the Laws and Constitution thereof, a method that was never before nor since usd by any but the persons themselves who Intend and have leave to depart the Island.

To the 2[d] Article, I answer that the Lease therein recited and laid hold of as a Plea for a good and sufficient Title to the Land now in dispute, and which has occasioned a great deal of writing from the Hon[ble] Company since their

Richard Alexander was now one of the heirs of that habitation, which God Almighty had long before prepared elsewhere.

Upon this order being recorded, Richard Alexander requested leave to go off the island with his family on the next outward bound ship. John Alexander stated that he was Richard's brother and familiar friend, often with him both at his and his own house. In all his life he had never heard him say anything of such a wish. He was very well assured that his brother could propose no way to better his condition elsewhere, nor had he the means, even if everything were sold to its full value, sufficient to maintain so large a family as he had. Having no land to live upon, and no means by which he could subsist, he was of mere necessity and most certainly contrary to his then inclination obliged to request leave to go off, rather than live here any longer under discontent and daily afflictions. Whether this could be regarded by any impartial person as a voluntary and free act he submitted to better judgement, and to those gentlemen who probably had not been so fully informed of the affair until the present time. That had made his reply the more tedious, for which he begged to be excused. One further remark might be considered: if Richard Alexander had freely desired leave to go off, it would have been ordered in that paragraph where he was directed to gather his crop in six months, and not have urged the intent of catching him in some accidental careless word that might draw out further proceedings without thought.

Thereupon they made a second order immediately, and that without hesitation, which plainly showed the severity of an overheated passion and resolution to get rid of him. They were so very predominant that what with the one and the other, the governor caused an advertisement the self same day to be published. It declared that Richard Alexander, to his great grief and daily sorrow, had leave to go off the island with his family. All persons were thereby to take notice and clear their accounts with him. From thence forth he was declared no more a free planter on the island. This was, John Alexander said, above and contrary to the known customs of any country, that a man should not have the liberty or benefit of such a privilege when he was a native of the place, and conformable to all the laws and constitution thereof. The method was one never before or since used by anyone, except persons themselves who intended and had leave to depart the island.

To the second article, Alexander answered that the lease therein recited and relied on as a plea for a good and sufficient title to the land now in dispute had occasioned a great deal of writing from the Honourable Company. This consisted of

Interpretations

The sequence of orders described here exposes a structured pattern of administrative coercion. On the same day Richard Alexander gave way to the impossible position created by the eviction order and asked leave to depart, the council made a second order treating his request as voluntary. The governor then published an advertisement on the same day announcing that Alexander had leave to depart the island. The compressed timing converted a forced departure into a documentary record of free choice, with each successive step closing off any later claim that Alexander had been driven out. The mechanism shows how council ruling, fresh order and public advertisement could be deployed within hours to produce a legally robust outcome that no single step could have achieved alone.

The advertisement is the key documentary device. By publishing notice that Alexander was leaving the island and requiring all persons to clear their accounts with him, the council compelled the wider community to treat his departure as settled. Any creditor who failed to act on the notice would forfeit his claim, any debtor who paid late would find no Alexander to receive him. The advertisement therefore functioned not merely as information but as a legal instrument that crystallised obligations and effectively dissolved Alexander's economic standing on the island within a fixed period. The declaration that he was no more a free planter from that day forward stripped him of the legal status that had previously protected his right to hold land and dispose of property.

John Alexander's argument that his brother was a native of the place introduces a distinction the council had not previously been asked to recognise. A native born free planter, in his framing, held rights that the council could not dissolve at will, since his standing rested on birth on the island rather than on grant of leave to settle. The argument elevated nativity into a legal status above administrative discretion, anticipating later colonial debates about the rights of those born within a chartered jurisdiction against those who held only by grant. The point is offered not as established law but as an appeal to natural justice and the customs of any country, arguments that the council was being invited to acknowledge in principle even where it had not done so in 1709.

The phrase known customs of any country signals the wider intellectual framework on which the reply was constructed. By appealing beyond the council's own customary practice to the general usage of all governed places, John Alexander positioned the original ruling as not merely procedurally defective but contrary to universal practice. The argument moved the dispute from a question of St Helena's particular administration to a question of whether the council's customary authority could lawfully override the inherent rights of a native freeholder.

Speculations

The choice to publish the advertisement on the self same day as the second order probably reflects an intention to outrun any chance of reconsideration. By making the matter public within hours of the order, Governor Roberts and his council foreclosed the possibility that Alexander might withdraw his request or that other inhabitants might intercede on his behalf. The compressed sequence suggests deliberate planning to convert a contested ruling into an irreversible administrative fact before opposition could form.

John Alexander's emphasis on the impossibility of his brother bettering his condition elsewhere, given the inadequacy of the proceeds of any sale to support so large a family in a new place, indicates that the financial structure of forced emigration was understood at the time. A free planter ordered off the island faced not only loss of land but the certainty that his estate would not realise enough at hurried sale to establish him afresh anywhere within reach. The economic mechanism of the eviction was therefore not separation but ruin, with departure under such terms representing a guaranteed fall in family fortune. By spelling out this economic reality, the reply pressed the present council to recognise that the original ruling had not been a neutral exercise of authority but the destruction of a settled household.

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their design and good Intent to do Justice) I readily confess there is such one but granted by former Government, to the prejudice of Richard Alexander and his Issue. and that without his consent knowledge or privity, and I say twas at his offer is yet worse and very false, untyll twas when necessity had no law, and to urge John Alexander to make proof wether or not that the said Bagley did use any indirect means toward Alexander (I suppose they mean Richard) in either of the two points namd in said Article I think, it seems some what absurd and frivolous since he was very seldom in Company with Bagley, and as little acquainted with his business especialy, beleving them ready and willing Eno' to embrace any offer or thing that made for himself tho others suffer'd by it and more particularly in a good settlement without being at much expence in fenceing or purchaseing one at a greater rate than five Shillings p[r] Acre for Land enclord to his hand, ground ready cleard for Planting, a house, well built & fitt to contain a large familey besides other suitable conveniencies w[ch] which by that lease became given him with land and seal affixt thereto. the executors say they conceive Bagleys claim Just. but considering the matter impartially and equitably in those, that Richard Alexander had this Land (or part thereof) granted him many years since, as p[r] an Order of Councill dated the 21[st] of March 1671/2 may in Book N[o] 3, more fully appear built a House upon it, made a Plantation, and that with a vast deal of difficulty and hard Labour had the same in quiet possession nigh thirty years paying all that time the Hon[ble] Company their just Rent and Duty as other freemen did and upon all occasions appearrd ready in person to assist in defence of the Island, as twas his duty so to do, can't any way[s] conceive how he could forfeit any of his goods or Chattles, or any way apprehend why such severity was usd in turning the said Alexander and his family out of his House and Plantation, unless twas purely to ruine him, and so do others a good office, and which can't be forgot by any his posterity, nor indeed can there be now a sutible sattisfaction made, for the injury and apparant Damages he and his did and doth yet sustaine, by being thus outed of y[e] Land he so long peaceably enjoy'd, and therefore, do say that the leave granted Tho[s] Bagley was to his own wrong, and not so binding as the right Richard Alexander had by what already said on that head, and a great deal more that I think needfuls not to mention 21 Aw[t] this one whichb pres[ume] very materiall. That the reason why Richard Alexander had not a Lease, was because

The reply continued. The design and good intent was to do justice. John Alexander readily confessed that such a lease had been granted by a former government, but to the prejudice of Richard Alexander and his issue, without his consent, knowledge or privity. To say it was at his offer was worse and very false, unless it could be said that necessity had no law. As to the proposal urging John Alexander to make proof whether or not Bagley had used any indirect means towards Alexander (he supposed they meant Richard) on either of the two points named in the article, this seemed to him somewhat absurd and frivolous. He had very seldom been in company with Bagley, and was little acquainted with his business. He believed Bagley was ready and willing to embrace any offer or thing that made for himself, even though others might suffer by it. He particularly believed this in the matter of a good settlement obtained without much expense in fencing or purchasing, at a rate no greater than five shillings per acre, for land already enclosed, ground ready cleared for planting, and a house well built, fit to contain a large family, besides other suitable conveniences. The said lands had been given to him under hand and seal, and at this rate the executors said they reckoned Bagley's claim just.

Considering the matter impartially and equitably, Richard Alexander had this land, or part of it, granted to him many years before by an order of council dated 21 March 1693. This appeared more fully in Book Number Three. He had built a house upon it, made a plantation, and with a vast deal of difficulty and hard labour had enjoyed the same in quiet possession for nigh twelve years. During all that time he had paid the Honourable Company their just rents and duties as the other freemen did, and had upon all occasions appeared ready in person to assist in the defence of the island, as it was his duty to do. John Alexander could in no way conceive how Bagley could lay claim to any of Richard's goods or chattels, or in any way understand why such severity was used in turning Alexander and his family out of his house and plantation. The only explanation he could imagine was that it had been done purely to ruin Richard and to do others a kindness. The act could not be forgotten by any of his posterity, nor could any suitable satisfaction now be made for the injury and apparent damage Richard had sustained and continued to sustain, by being thus turned out of the land he had so long peaceably enjoyed.

For these reasons, John Alexander said that the leave granted to Thomas Bagley was to his own wrong, and was not binding as the right Richard Alexander had to it had already been laid out on that head. He thought it needless to mention more, though the matter was very material. The reason why Richard Alexander had not a lease was because

Interpretations

The 21 March 1693 council order is the documentary foundation of the entire Alexander claim. By citing the original grant in Book Number Three, John Alexander placed the dispute on a footing where the records of the council themselves would either vindicate or undermine the family title. The grant gave Richard Alexander roughly twelve years of quiet possession before the 1709 ejection, during which he had built a house, made a plantation and paid all rents and duties as other freemen did. The repeated emphasis on payment and military duty establishes Richard Alexander's standing as a fully compliant inhabitant whose dispossession therefore lacked any disciplinary basis.

The five shillings per acre rate cited as the price of Bagley's settlement provides a concrete benchmark for the value of improved land on the island. Five shillings per acre for land already enclosed, cleared for planting and supplied with a built house and conveniences represented a substantial undervaluation. The cost of fencing, clearing and building, distributed across the years of Richard Alexander's labour, would have far exceeded any such figure, and Bagley's acquisition at this rate effectively transferred the value of more than a decade's improvement work to a successor planter at little more than the bare ground rate. The transaction shows how administrative dispossession produced windfall transfers within the planter community, with the council's reallocation of confiscated land enabling beneficiaries to acquire developed holdings at the rates appropriate to undeveloped ones.

The reference to twelve years of quiet possession invokes a recognisable legal threshold drawn from English property practice. Long undisturbed possession of land established a presumption of right under common law and could ripen into a defensible title even against earlier claimants. By foregrounding the duration of Richard Alexander's tenure, John Alexander positioned the 1709 dispossession not merely as harsh but as inconsistent with the established English principle that long peaceable enjoyment generated rights the council could not easily dissolve. The argument worked by importing into St Helena's customary land system the protective doctrines of the wider English legal tradition.

The closing distinction between an order of council and a lease is the procedural pivot of the article being answered. Richard Alexander held his land by council order alone, without a written lease drawn up under hand and seal, while Bagley had received both. The absence of a formal lease was therefore presented as a vulnerability that the previous administration had exploited, with the want of a written instrument used to deny Alexander the protection that Bagley's documented title would have carried. John Alexander's reply was preparing to explain why no lease had been issued, leaving the substantive answer for the continuation of the document.

Speculations

The decision to anchor the reply in a 1693 council order from Book Number Three probably reflects a calculated assertion that the present council should consult its own archive rather than rely on the 1709 record. By directing Pyke and his colleagues to a specific volume and date, John Alexander invited them to read for themselves the original grant under which the family held title. The procedural effect was to widen the documentary frame of the dispute, since the 1709 proceedings had been confined to the conduct alleged against Richard Alexander, while the 1693 grant placed the question of underlying title before the council on terms favourable to the Alexander side.

The framing of the dispossession as done to ruin Richard Alexander and to do others a kindness probably points toward an unspoken belief that Bagley and his supporters had been the active beneficiaries of council favour in 1709. The careful preservation of this charge in writing, without naming the specific others who benefited beyond Bagley himself, suggests John Alexander wished to leave room for further allegations should the council enter into the merits. The phrasing functioned as a placeholder for evidence that could be supplied in a later sitting if Pyke proved receptive, while remaining vague enough that no defamation suit could be founded on its present form.

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because the Land was not measured to him till severall years after he possest it and never had a Plan nor none given into the Office or any Acc[t] of the brettalls or boundaries which in all Leases is mentioned, which was the Case of severall others, yet notwithstanding this grant of Councell for 10 Acres of said Land, and the same being measured with the addition of more Acres thereto for the conveniency of fenceing is Deemd a very good and sufficient Title to hold any the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Land by paying them as aforesaid which was the only title by which severall of the Inhabitants held their hired Land by, till such time as Leases &c[a] were given out and always beleived themselves very safe and secure thereby and not to seem like Children to give and take away again, for I can term this no better, and for the reasons aforesaid and many more that might be mentioned do for and on behalf of the House of Richard Alexander declare Bagleys claim to be frivolus, groundless & very unjust in every respect.

To the 3[d] and last Article it's reply'd that a Coppy of the Petition sent to England (which the Execut[rs] does Jn[o] Alexander wrong in by saying he urges is to be produced and contains no false Allegations and puts the same on any body to prove the contrary, upon which the Hon[ble] Comp[as] was so just and Charitable as to say in the 82[d] par[as] of their Letter by Ship Toddington and Thislworth. that they were content to grant Mercy Alexander her Husbands Land with a Lease thereof, and gives a good reason for that as well as all and every forfeiture and Seizures of Land, they being at that time determind to make a new settlement of the Island, and such as they hoped wou'd be to the good likeing of all the Industrious and honest Inhabitants in the Number of which no person or persons can justly accuse or say but Richard Alexander was, if any can to the contrary they have free Liberty and which I press them to its to the Coppys of Tho[s] Bagleys Petition, I don't think them any way serviceables to y[e] cause in hand, nor do they require, answer Let the alledged Pretences, or Insinuations be what they will, since the whole affair is well known to the Inhabitants as to my self, and as to the Execut[rs] of Bagleys saying they shall endeavour to prove, twas not so much out of Charity to the Widow of Alexander as out of Contempt to Govern[r] Roberts to oppose him that Govern[r] Boucher gave Goodgen possession thereof, Is shall be very brief in answereing and first, That's what Govern[r] Boucher did was pursuant to the Hon[ble] Companys direct Orders in the Letter aforesaid as p[r] order of Councill

because the land was not measured to him till several years after he possessed it, and never had a plan nor any given into the office, nor any account of the bristols or boundaries which in all leases is mentioned. This was the case of several others. Notwithstanding, this grant of council for six acres of the said land, with the same being measured and the addition of more acres for the convenience of fencing, was reckoned a very good and sufficient title to hold any of the Honourable Company's land, by paying them as aforesaid. This was the only title by which several of the inhabitants held their hired land, until such time as leases were given out. They had always believed themselves very safe and secure on it, and not seemed like children to give and take away again. John Alexander said he could regard the matter no better than this. For these reasons, and many more that might be mentioned, he declared on behalf of the heirs of Richard Alexander that Bagley's claim was frivolous, groundless and very unjust in every respect.

To the third and last article, he replied that a copy of the petition sent to England, which the executors had wrongly named John Alexander as having sent, was to be produced. It contained no false allegations and put it on anybody to prove the contrary. The Honourable Company was so just and charitable as to say in the eighty-second paragraph of their letter by ship Toddington and Thistleworth, that they were content to grant Mercy Alexander, her husband being dead, a lease of the said land, and gave a good reason for that as well as for all and every forfeiture and seizure of land. They were at that time determined to make a new settlement of the island, and such as they hoped would be to the good liking of all the industrious and honest inhabitants. None could justly accuse or say but Richard Alexander was, if any can to the contrary, of free liberty. John Alexander pressed them to the copy of Thomas Bagley's petition. He did not think there was anything serviceable to the cause in hand, nor did they require an answer. Let the alleged pretences or insinuations be what they may, since the whole affair was well known to the inhabitants and to himself.

As to the executors of Bagley saying they would endeavour to prove that it was not so much out of charity to the widow of Alexander as out of contempt to Governor Roberts that Governor Boucher gave Gargen possession of it, John Alexander would answer that very briefly and first. That, he said, was what Governor Boucher did pursuant to the Honourable Company's direct orders in the letter aforesaid, as appeared by order of council

Interpretations

The absence of measurement, plan and recorded boundaries in Richard Alexander's original grant illustrates how informal the early planter holdings on St Helena had been. Several inhabitants held land for years on the strength of a council order alone, with no survey, no written lease and no entry of bristols, the term used for marked boundary stones or other physical demarcations of a holding. John Alexander's argument is that an unrecorded grant, once recognised by long possession and the regular payment of rent, generated as good a title as any later leasehold. The contention pressed the council to acknowledge that the formal lease system introduced under later administrations could not retroactively undermine those who had settled under the earlier informal grants. By comparing the planters' position to that of children whose property could be given and taken at will, the reply asserted that the previous administration's treatment of the holding was incompatible with any settled property regime.

The reference to the eighty-second paragraph of the directors' letter carried by the Toddington and Thistleworth introduces a key documentary turn in the case. The directors had themselves granted Mercy Alexander, widow of Richard Alexander, a lease of the land in question and had set out their reasons in terms of a wider plan to make a new settlement of the island. This metropolitan instruction effectively cut across whatever the council under Roberts had ordered in 1709, since the directors held the ultimate authority over land disposition on the island. The widow's lease, issued from London, represents a substantive vindication of the Alexander family claim against the local ejection. John Alexander's reliance on this paragraph shows the structure of authority: where the local council and the directors disagreed, the directors' written instructions governed, and a planter aggrieved by local action could find redress in metropolitan correspondence.

The mention of Boucher giving Gargen possession on the directors' direct orders opens a new strand in the dispute. Gargen had received the land under Boucher pursuant to the letter from London. This places Boucher's actions as the executor of the directors' settlement plan rather than as an arbitrary local intervention, which complicates any attempt to use the present documentary case against Boucher as a vehicle to disturb the Alexander reply. The argument over whether Boucher acted out of charity to the widow or contempt to his predecessor Governor Roberts is therefore a question of motive, but John Alexander's answer makes it a question of authority: whatever Boucher's private feeling, his action followed the directors' written instruction.

The eighty-second paragraph of a single letter carrying such weight illustrates how dense and operationally significant company correspondence had become. A directors' general letter could run to many dozens of numbered paragraphs, each treating a distinct matter of business, and a planter's title could turn on the precise wording of a single paragraph among them. John Alexander's ability to cite the paragraph by number indicates the kind of close documentary knowledge that protracted litigation produced in those who pursued it.

Speculations

John Alexander's emphasis on the eighty-second paragraph and the Toddington and Thistleworth letter probably reflects a deliberate timing decision. Both ships are named in the open documentary case against Boucher as vessels whose letters had been missing from the local record. By citing chapter and verse of a letter the council was already known to be reconstructing, John Alexander put the present administration on notice that the Alexander side held copies or accurate notes of its content. The implicit point was that any attempt to deny the contents of the eighty-second paragraph or its bearing on the widow's lease would expose the council to contradiction by external sources. The defence therefore exploited the very documentary gaps that the present administration was struggling to fill.

The argument that several other inhabitants had held land on the same informal basis as Richard Alexander, without measurement, plan or recorded boundaries, suggests that John Alexander expected the present council's verification of his title to call into question many other holdings on the island. By framing his brother's case as representative rather than exceptional, he created a political incentive for the council to rule in his favour: any narrow finding that an unmeasured grant did not constitute good title would unsettle a significant portion of the existing planter community and provoke wider dispute. The reply was therefore not only an appeal for justice in one case but a warning that an adverse decision would generate further claims the council could not easily contain.

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Councill of the 8[th] October 1711, and therefore the Executive power not lodged in his breast wether to give Possess of that Land or not he following the very Letter of said order. 2[d]ly I presume, the word Contempt herein mentioned quite wrong place'd, since Govern[r] Boucher was upon a Levell with Govern[r] Roberts, and not an Inferiour.

As to what is required to know if the Hon[ble] Comp[a] has given any express Orders that Alexander's Widow should be reinstated in the Land in her former Husbands possession, I have already answeard in part and for that they haveing order'd by their last Letter (a this off the Rochester) through the please miss informations they have had from hence) that the true merits of the said cause in all parts should be impartially and equally on either side examind into, and all parties to be heard that should be able to give testimoney. I do further for and on behalf of Richard Alexanders Issue humbly request a speedy and final determination thereof, and the same transmitted to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] for their decide or confirmation doubting not when the matter is fairely stated and consider'd but they will grant the said Land in favour of the said Richard Alexanders Issue, the eldest Daugh- ter being Marrigeable, and the Son about fourteen Years of Age, and but little or nothing to maintain them, wherefore will of necessity want a Habitation. And now

As to the Certefisitte of M[r] Carne, I think, requires no long answer since some part of the Execut[rs] reports (as they call it is grounded chiefly thereon and which I have already replyed to. presumeing those words spoken by Govern[r] Boucher was only in comon discourse, and don't no way bare any or the least stress to weaken the right of Richard Alexander or his Issue, and is the finall Answer and reply ( to the aforesaid case ) of Your Worships and Councells most humble and very Obedient Servant November y[e] 2[d] 1714.

John Alexander

Jo

Council of 8 October 1711, and therefore the executive power did not lie in his breast whether to give possession of that land or not. He had followed the very letter of the order. Secondly, John Alexander presumed that the word contempt mentioned in that connection was quite out of place, since Governor Boucher was upon a level with Governor Roberts, and not an inferior.

As to what was required to be known, whether the Honourable Company had given any express orders that Alexander's widow should be reinstated in the land in her former husband's possession, he had already answered this in part. The Company had given orders by their last letter received by the Rochester, through the misinformation they had had from hence, that the true merits of the cause should in all parts be impartially and equally examined into on either side. All parties were to be heard who should be able to give testimony. He further, on behalf of Richard Alexander's issue, humbly requested a speedy and final determination of the matter, and that the same be transmitted to the Honourable Company for their decision or confirmation. He did not doubt that, when the matter was fairly stated and considered, they would grant the land in favour of Richard Alexander's issue. The eldest daughter was marriageable, the son was about fourteen years of age, and they had little or nothing to maintain them. They would necessarily want a place of habitation.

As to the certificate of Mr Carne, John Alexander said it required no long answer. Some part of what the executors reported, as they called it, was grounded chiefly on it, and to that he had already replied. He presumed that the words spoken by Governor Boucher were only in common discourse, and did not in any way carry the least weight to weaken the right of Richard Alexander or his issue. This, he said, was the final answer and reply to the aforesaid case, made on behalf of the Alexander issue. The document was dated November 1714 and subscribed by John Alexander as humble and very obedient servant to the worshipful and council.

Interpretations

The council order of 8 October 1711 is the documentary anchor for Boucher's defence in this matter. By citing that order, John Alexander placed Boucher's actions on a footing of obedience to a prior council decision rather than personal discretion. The implication was that to attack Boucher for putting Gargen in possession of the land was effectively to attack the 1711 council's own ruling, which had directed that result. The point operated as a procedural shield against any attempt to use the present documentary case against Boucher to disturb the eventual ruling on the Alexander claim. Where the executive power lay outside the governor's personal discretion, the action could not properly be charged against him as misconduct.

The argument that Governor Boucher was upon a level with Governor Roberts, and not an inferior, reveals an important point about the sequence of council authority. Each governor stood in his own period as the chief authority on the island, and the orders of one administration did not bind the next in the manner that orders of a superior officer would bind a subordinate. John Alexander's correction of the executors' use of the word contempt is therefore not merely lexical but constitutional: a successor governor could review and reverse the actions of his predecessor without committing any contempt of office, since the predecessor's authority had been not over him but only before him in time. The argument established that Boucher had been free to revisit Roberts's 1709 ruling without owing it any deference beyond what the record itself commanded.

The directors' letter received by the Rochester, directing that the true merits of the cause be impartially examined and that all parties able to give testimony be heard, places the present consultation under a specific metropolitan instruction. The Honourable Company had been misinformed by previous local correspondence, and the new directive was to start afresh with a balanced inquiry. The council was therefore not at liberty to dispose of the matter on its own view but had to conduct a hearing that could withstand scrutiny in London. The mention of the Rochester as the carrier of this instruction connects the dispute to the recent run of shipping that had brought Pyke's commission and the new administration's authority.

The closing detail about the eldest daughter being marriageable, the son fourteen, and the family without means of maintenance places the human stakes of the dispute in concrete form. A marriageable daughter without land would struggle to attract a settled match, and a son nearing manhood without a holding would have no economic foundation. The mention is offered not as sentiment but as a working argument: the absence of a habitation translated directly into the family's inability to function in island society. The council was being reminded that the eventual decision would shape two young lives at a moment when delay would have material consequences.

Speculations

The careful invocation of the 8 October 1711 council order to defend Boucher's action probably reflects an understanding by John Alexander that any direct attack on Boucher could rebound against the Alexander cause. The Alexander family's restoration depended on overturning the 1709 ruling under Roberts, which Boucher's 1711 order had effectively done by reinstating the widow's interest. To treat Boucher as a wrongdoer would risk vacating the very 1711 ruling on which the present claim now rested. The reply therefore takes the politically delicate position of defending Boucher's procedural conduct while leaving the wider documentary case against him intact for separate handling.

The repeated emphasis on a speedy and final determination, together with the request that the matter be transmitted to the Honourable Company for confirmation, points to a deliberate strategy of locking in the council's eventual ruling through London endorsement. John Alexander was perhaps anticipating that Bagley's executors might continue to press the matter under any new administration, and a confirmation from the directors would foreclose further local litigation. The request also placed Pyke and his colleagues under pressure to issue a decision they could defend in London, since any ruling unfavourable to the Alexander side would be tested by direct appeal to the very metropolitan correspondence already being cited.

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S[t] Helena To the Worshipf[ull] Govern[r] and Councitt Wee Orlando Bagley & Rich[d] Swallow in Defence of Thomas Bagley dec[d] Claim to 10/21 Acres of Land against Jn[o] Alexander who Oppos- eth it.

In his reply to Thomas Bagleys Case we don't see any thing that bares any Stress Either one way or t'other only a Reflection upon Swallow which he thinks most Proper to make a seperate Answer to. himself being only Concern'd therein, to Shew he has no Sinister design in it and as to the Certificate as he calls it sent to the Company, which we Understand was Copyed by M[r] Tovey don't in the least see why it should give him any Remorse of Conscience but that he may freely Persue the Recovery of his Predecessours right with Vigour and Alacrity, and Bagley might if there had bin Occasion sent Such a Certificate to the Company of a more Unblameable Reputation then Alexander, and Sign'd by more hands.

In his reply to the next two Articles its Chiefly a Reflec- tion against the Government and the severity usd by y[m] towards Richard Alexander which don't in the least weaken Bagleys Claim Unless he had been an agresor therein to prove which John Alexander thinks it absurd and Rederciulous, but were it fairly Proved we should be doubtfull thereof, and as to his thinking him ready & willing Enough to Embrace any thing that made for himself though others were ruind by it, We possitively affirm to be false, for twas with regret the Accepted it being no ways inclinable thereto, Untill Alexander told him if he would not Accept it there was several young beginners that would be glad of such an Offer, Naming to him John Knipe in particular but purely out of Kindness to him had rather he should have it than any other person. and Bagley some time after Alexanders Decease to Retaliate his kindness in some measure, in a fitt of

Margin Notes:

Bagleys Execut[rs] Answer to John Alexand[rs] reply.

St Helena.

The reply was addressed to the worshipful governor and council. Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow set out their defence of Thomas Bagley deceased, claiming ten or twenty-one acres of land against Mr Alexander, who opposed it.

In his reply to Thomas Bagley's case, they did not see anything that carried any force one way or the other. It was only a reflection upon Swallow, which he thought most proper to answer separately, being the person concerned, in order to show he had no sinister design in it. As to the certificate, as Alexander called it, sent to the Company, which Bagley and Swallow understood to have been copied by Mr Tovey, they did not in the least see why it should give Swallow any remorse of conscience. He might freely pursue the recovery of his predecessor's right with vigour and alacrity. Bagley might, had there been occasion, have sent such a certificate to the Company of a more unblemished reputation than Alexander, and signed by more hands.

In his reply to the next two articles, it was chiefly a reflection against the government and the severity used towards Richard Alexander. This did not in the least weaken Bagley's claim, unless he had been an aggressor in the matter. To prove this, John Alexander thought it absurd and ridiculous. Even were it fairly proved, the executors would be doubtful of it. As to his thinking him ready and willing to embrace anything that made for himself, though others were ruined by it, the executors positively affirmed this to be false. The land had been accepted with regret, being no way inclinable to it, until Alexander told him that if he would not accept it there were several young beginners who would be glad of such an offer, naming John Knipe in particular. Bagley took it purely out of kindness to Alexander, and would rather any other person had it. Some time after Alexander's death, Bagley had it as a return of his kindness in some measure, in a fit

Interpretations

The framing of this reply as a separate answer from Swallow, distinguishing his personal interest from that of his co-executor Orlando Bagley, shows how the executors managed the conflict-of-interest charge that John Alexander had laid against Swallow in the original Alexander reply. By having Swallow respond to the personal allegation in his own voice while leaving the substantive claim of title to be argued jointly, the executors compartmentalised the imputation of self-dealing. The procedural choice allowed Swallow to deny any sinister design without distracting from the property claim itself, and gave the council a clean evidentiary structure: one document for the executors' joint case on the land, another for Swallow's personal defence on the trust arrangement.

The counter-certificate boast, that Bagley could have produced a certificate of a more unblemished reputation than Alexander and signed by more hands, exposes how the freeholders' certificate functioned as a political weapon within planter society. By claiming the capacity to assemble a larger and more reputable body of signatories, the executors implied that the Alexander side's certificate represented only a partial and inferior cross-section of the inhabitants' opinion. The challenge worked as a counter-threat: any reliance by the council on the existing certificate would invite the Bagley side to produce its own, drawing the dispute into an open contest of inhabitant subscription that would consume time and divide the community.

The narrative of how Bagley came to accept the land places Alexander himself in the role of soliciting the transaction. By the executors' account, Alexander offered the holding to Bagley, was met with reluctance, and prevailed only by naming John Knipe as an alternative beneficiary. The version transformed what John Alexander's reply had presented as an opportunistic land grab into a reluctant favour done to a friend in extremity. Knipe's mention as the proposed alternative tied the transaction to a recognised young beginner among the planters, lending credibility to the account by reference to a person whose interest in cheap improved land would have been well known to the council. The structural effect was to convert Bagley's title from one based on the council's reallocation under Roberts to one based on a private transaction between Alexander and Bagley themselves.

The phrase ten or twenty-one acres of land in the heading of the executors' reply reveals an underlying uncertainty about the size of the disputed holding. The original Alexander grant had been for six acres, with further land added for the convenience of fencing. The executors' alternative figures suggest that subsequent measurement and addition had produced different totals at different times, and that the eventual conveyance to Bagley may have related to a larger consolidated holding than the original 1693 grant. The variance in stated acreage is itself part of the dispute, since the value of any council ruling depends on which boundary lines are confirmed.

Speculations

The introduction of John Knipe as the supposed alternative recipient probably reflects a calculated reference to a name the council would recognise. Knipe had recently appeared in council records as the heir of his late father in the legacy dispute over the Knipe estate, and was known as a young planter looking to establish himself. By placing Knipe in the narrative as a person Alexander had explicitly considered for the offer, the executors made the account verifiable in principle, since Knipe could be called to confirm or deny that Alexander had ever raised the matter with him. The mention was therefore both a credibility device and an implicit invitation to the council to take evidence from a third party, which the executors apparently expected would favour their version.

The repeated emphasis on Bagley's reluctance to accept the land, and on the kindness he had thereby done Alexander, probably reflects an awareness that the original 1709 dispossession remained the politically vulnerable foundation of the Bagley title. If the council were to find that the dispossession had been wrongful, the executors needed an alternative basis for Bagley's standing that did not depend on the validity of the Roberts administration's actions. By presenting the transaction as a private exchange initiated by Alexander himself, the executors offered the council a path to confirm Bagley's title even if the underlying 1709 proceeding were impugned, transferring the legal foundation of the holding from public order to private consent.

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of Sicknes himself had (before the Sicknes he dyed of) made a Deed of Gift to Richard Alexanders Children and gave to Each of them a Heifer (there being at that time five Liveing) and had he Expired of that Sickness, his Execut[rs] for his treacherous Treat[mt] must have given five head of Cattle out of his Stock it being out of their Power to recall a Deed of Gift made by the Deceased How if Rich[d] Alexander makeing such an Offer to Bagley, was only to trick him into his habi- tation to make the best of his Crop Untill such time as he co'ud Write to the Company that he was unjustly outed his habitation by the Governm[t] there and desired to have it restored him agein by them, would have been right down Knavery, but we realy beleive he had no such intent or ever Enterd his thoughts. But Jn[o] Alexander who Always lov'd to fish in troubled Waters for he Naked him- self had Conceivd against the Governm[t] for displaceing him After the Death of his Brother thought a very fitt Opportunity did present it self to Render the Governm[t] Odious & Tyranniall (having no Plea in his own behalf) and to corroborate and Promote his Designs the more had a very fitt Messenger to Send by there being no Body to defend the Contrary to the Hono[ble] Company and as to his decleer- ing their Seale frivolous Groundless and very unjust in every respect, words we deem he had better kept in then have Exprest because it gives just Occasion to the Inhabitants, of being precarious in Accepting thereof and can never think themselves Safe if the Same is given by one Government and taken away by another

In his 3[d] Reply he Says we do him wrong to Say he sent a Petition to England, we really beleive him to be the Author of it, & Likewise all Damages Sustaind by Bagley and his Successor and Governr[r] Proycher and M[r] Hoshison were the Actors thereof, and here to make a little Digression we think will not be a Miss To Insue the Passion of Govern[r] Boucher much more Violent towards Bagley (then is intimated by John Alexander in y[e] preceeding Government towards his Brother) A man who never in all his time Disturbd the Peace of any Governm[t] and who was Altogether a Stranger to Govern[r] Boucher who did make an Order of Councell so which he thought not Convenient to signe and for which he hath a very good Plea if ever called in question That

Bagley had himself fallen sick. Before the sickness of which he died, he had made a deed of gift to Richard Alexander's children, giving each of them a heifer. Five were living at that time. Had he expired of that sickness, his executors would have been obliged to deliver five head of cattle out of his stock, since it lay beyond their power to recall a deed of gift made by the deceased. Therefore, to assert that Alexander, in making such an offer to Bagley, was only to keep him in his habitation to make the best of his crop, until such time as he could write to the Company that he had been unjustly ousted of his habitation by the governor there, and ask to have it restored to him again by them, would have been outright knavery. The executors really believed Alexander had no such intent nor ever entered his thoughts. But John Alexander, who always loved to fish in troubled waters, had conceived against the governor for displacing him. After the death of his brother he thought a very fit opportunity presented itself to render the governor odious and tyrannical, having no claim in his own behalf. To corroborate and promote his designs, the more he had a very fit messenger to send by, there being nobody to defend the contrary to the Honourable Company. As to his declaring their settlement frivolous, groundless and very unjust in every respect, those were words the executors deemed he had better kept in than expressed, because it gave just occasion to the inhabitants of being precarious in accepting their land, since they could never think themselves safe if the same was given by one government and taken away by another.

In his third reply he said the executors did him wrong to say he had sent a petition to England. They really believed him to be the author of it. Likewise, all damages sustained by Bagley, and his successor Governor Boucher and Mr Hoskison, had been the actors thereof. Here to make a little digression, which they thought would not be amiss. To show the passion of Governor Boucher much more violent towards Bagley, even than was intimated by John Alexander in the preceding government towards his brother, a man who never in all his time disturbed the peace of any government, and who was altogether a stranger to Governor Boucher, who did make an order of council which he thought not convenient to sign, and for which he had a very good plea if ever called in question

Interpretations

The deed of gift to the five Alexander children, conveying a heifer to each, transforms the executors' account of Bagley's character. By revealing that Bagley had during his last sickness made provision for Richard Alexander's children, the reply established a continuing tie of affection and obligation between the two families that complicated any narrative of Bagley as a hostile beneficiary of Alexander's ruin. The legal weight of the deed lay in its irrevocability: once made, the executors could not recall it, and the five heifers would have passed to the children regardless of how the wider land dispute was resolved. This procedural detail demonstrates the executors' point: had Bagley actually died of the sickness, the children would have inherited five cattle from him, a substantial gift in livestock-poor St Helena.

The phrase fish in troubled waters captures the executors' characterisation of John Alexander's strategy. By framing him as a man who exploited political turbulence for his own ends, they sought to recast his entire reply as opportunistic rather than principled, with the change of administration from Boucher to Pyke as the troubled water in which he now cast his line. The accusation worked alongside the assertion that he had no claim in his own behalf. John Alexander, as Richard's brother rather than direct heir, was acting on behalf of the children's interest, and the executors' point was that he therefore had no personal stake that would test his motives.

The argument about the danger of frivolous, groundless and very unjust being applied to government land grants reveals a substantial constitutional concern. The executors warned that any council ruling that overturned an earlier settlement of land would render every other inhabitant precarious in his holding, since each planter would thereafter wonder whether his title would survive the next change of administration. The point shifted the political weight of the case onto the council: a decision for the Alexander side would unsettle the wider planter community by establishing that government grants could be reversed when administrations changed, while a decision for the Bagley side would preserve the security of established titles. The argument was directed at the council's interest in maintaining settled property relations on the island.

The reference to a council order Governor Boucher had thought not convenient to sign, with a very good plea if ever called in question, introduces a new evidentiary thread. The executors were preparing to set out a specific instance in which Boucher had acted against Bagley out of personal passion rather than legal authority, by declining to sign a council order. The detail will presumably be developed further in the continuation of the document. For present purposes the significance lies in the executors' decision to attack Boucher openly in this part of their reply, even as the wider Alexander defence had taken care to defend his procedural conduct on the directors' instructions.

Speculations

The executors' decision to disclose the deed of gift to the Alexander children at this point in their reply probably reflects a calculated reservation of the strongest evidence for late deployment. The five heifers conveyed in articulo mortis spoke directly against any claim that Bagley had been hostile to the Alexander family, and the timing of the disclosure, well into the third article of reply, suggests it was held back to overturn the cumulative impression created by John Alexander's earlier characterisations. By introducing the gift only after the structural arguments on title and procedure had been laid out, the executors prevented its emotional weight from being absorbed and dismissed in advance.

The attack on John Alexander as a man without personal stake, fishing in troubled waters, was designed to discredit the entire reply rather than refute any specific point. By questioning his standing to speak for the family at all, the executors invited the council to discount his arguments as those of an interested intermediary rather than a principal. The procedural effect would have been to push the substantive dispute back onto the children themselves, who were too young or too inexperienced to argue their own case, weakening the practical pressure of the Alexander position before the council even reached its decision.

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that no such order is Signd by him) that Bagley shou'd give Goodgen who had Married the widdow of Richard Alexander Possesion of his House and Land in Ten days which was Accordingly sent him next day by Tho[s] Free the then Clerk of Councell But Bagley not takeing this the for a Sufficient Warrant to leave his habitation Did still Continue in the same. Whereupon Govern[r] Boucher sent his Deputy in Person to Turn him out and the more to Calliate and Excuse his proceedings towards Bagley did give out twas the Comp[as] Express Orders and the fault of his that such Severity was usd to him and which John Alexander seems to Stick very Close to the Hono[ble] Company having a Strict regard to Justice in all their Orders to their Servants abroad we cannot beleive they must of Necesity Pervert it to follow the Letter of their Instruc- tions the being very Sensible they were not Apprised by y[e] Widows Petition that the Land formerly in her Husbands Possesion was Disposed of by lease out of their own with their Hono[le] Seale affexed thereto, such an Impediement being in the way Discovered we humbly Presume they would have been as well Contented it shou'd have remaind so and now to return where we left. We find two Allegations in the Said Petition that hath no great Matter of truth in them and where in the Stress thereof doth Cheifly Consist the first is that Richard Alexander did Hire a Parcell of Land of the Hono[ble] Comp[as] for twenty one years, that we beleive no record will Appear he ever Hir'd it for any Limited time the Second is that his Wid[o] had not a Jam to Digg but what She was forced to buy hath no great truth in it neither for if we are not much Mistaken She had Yams in the Land now in Dispute Untill she was Married to Goodgen if not after, and the reason he Alledgeth in his preceeding reply that his Brother had not a leafe seems to be wholy Laid upon the Surveyor whe we Presume Capable to make him a suitable Answer, and Alexanders saying Bagleys Petitions require no Answer let the Allegations be what they will is is Rediculous Even to Extravegancy, for therein is the Naked truth sett forth of his Claim without any Evasions and which himself was Able to make more plain & Obvious then

No such order was signed by Boucher. The order required that Bagley should give Gargen, who had married the widow of Richard Alexander, possession of his house and land in ten days. Boucher accordingly sent Thomas Fort to him the next day. Fort was then clerk of council. But Bagley did not take this as a sufficient warrant to leave his habitation, and still continued in the same. Whereupon Governor Boucher sent his deputy in person to turn him out. The more to palliate and excuse his proceedings towards Bagley, Boucher did give out that it was the Company's express orders, and the fault of his that such severity was used to him. John Alexander seemed to stick very close to this. The Honourable Company, having a strict regard to justice in all their orders to their servants abroad, the executors could not believe they must of necessity proceed to follow the letter of their instructions, the being very sensible they were not apprised by the widow's petition that the land formerly in her husband's possession was disposed of by lease out of their own under their honours' seal affixed thereto. Such an impediment being in the way, discovered, the executors humbly presumed they would have been as well contented it should have remained so. Now to return where they left.

The executors found two allegations in the widow's petition that had no great matter of truth in them, and where the stress thereof both chiefly consisted. The first was that Richard Alexander had hired about eight acres of land of the Honourable Company for twenty-one years. The executors believed no record would appear that he ever hired it for any limited time. The second was that his widow had not a sum to dig in, but what she was forced to buy. This had no great truth in it, neither was she very much mistaken. She had yams in the land now in dispute until she was married to Gargen, if not afterwards. The reason he alleged in his foregoing reply, that his brother had not a lease, seemed to be wholly laid upon the surveyor, whom the executors presumed capable of making him a suitable answer. As to Alexander saying Bagley's petitions required no answer, let the allegations be what they will, it was ridiculous, even to extravagance, for therein was the naked truth set forth of his claim, without any evasions, and which he himself was able to make more plain and obvious

Interpretations

The narrative of Bagley's removal reveals the operational mechanics of council eviction. The order issued in 1711 directed Bagley to surrender house and land to Gargen, the widow's new husband, within ten days. When Bagley failed to act on the warrant delivered by Thomas Fort the clerk of council, Boucher dispatched his deputy in person to turn him out. The escalation shows the established sequence of enforcement: written warrant first, served by the clerk; followed by personal intervention by senior council members if compliance was withheld. The mechanism mirrored the procedure used against Richard Alexander himself two years earlier and confirms that the council possessed a regular machinery for dispossessing recalcitrant planters that operated independently of the courts.

Thomas Fort's role as clerk of council places him as the principal documentary officer of the local government. The clerkship combined record-keeping with the service of warrants and orders, making the holder the chief administrative officer through whom council decisions reached the inhabitants. Fort's appearance here illustrates how a single named individual could serve as the operational interface between council deliberation and physical enforcement on the island.

The executors' central legal point turns on the directors' knowledge when they granted the widow's lease. The widow's petition to London had not disclosed that the land formerly held by Richard Alexander was now held under a fresh lease issued by the directors themselves under their honours' seal affixed thereto. Had the directors known of their own prior lease, the executors argued, they would have been content to leave matters as they stood. The argument deploys a doctrine familiar in early modern equity, that a grant obtained by suppression of a material fact could be set aside as procured by misrepresentation, even where the grant itself was issued in good faith by the granting authority. The application to a London grant procured on the basis of a St Helena petition shows how distance and the slowness of correspondence created scope for one side to obtain orders by partial disclosure.

The dispute over the yams in the disputed land tests the truth of the widow's poverty plea. The widow had told the directors she had nothing to dig in but what she was forced to buy. The executors countered that she had held yams in the disputed land until her marriage to Gargen, and perhaps afterwards. Yams were the staple subsistence crop of St Helena, grown in large numbers in fenced plantations and serving as both food and currency in local exchange. The presence or absence of yams in a planter's holding was therefore the most direct test of economic standing, and the widow's claim of dependency on purchased food was either true or readily disproved by reference to her actual cultivation. The executors' insistence on this point shows how the local council served as the only effective check on the accuracy of representations made to London.

Speculations

Boucher's claim that severity towards Bagley was the fault of Company orders rather than his own decision probably reflects a defensive posture adopted against future London scrutiny. By citing express orders he transferred responsibility for the harshness of the eviction to a higher authority that could not easily be examined in detail from the island. The executors' detection of this device, and their argument that the directors had been misled in their petition by undisclosed facts, exposed the gap in Boucher's defence: if the orders themselves rested on incomplete information, the local officer was not absolved by following them, since he knew or should have known what the directors did not.

The executors' assertion that no record would appear of any limited term in the original grant to Richard Alexander suggests they expected the council to consult Book Number Three and the older registers in arriving at its decision. By inviting documentary verification of the absence of a fixed term, they sought to undermine the widow's petition's claim of a twenty-one year lease while exposing the looseness of the original grant on which the Alexander side relied. The point worked in two directions: it weakened the petition by impeaching its terms, while also weakening the wider Alexander claim by emphasising that the original grant had been even less formal than John Alexander himself had argued.

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then we can, and which if Govern[r] Boucher would have Excepted while Govern[r] Roberts was here had Ended all further Disputes where in a Letter to Govern[r] Boucher in a paragraph therein desired him to Publish it by beat of Drum that if the Step enconged any Person upon the Island, to the worth of a groat Lt them come and make it Appear, and he would make them around Sattisfac- tion for it which if John Alexander had then provd Bagleys Lease Illigatl and Unwarrantable he might have recovered a Suitable Sattisfaction for such a great Disapointment.

If M[r] Carnes Evidence shewing what Govern[r] Boucher did was Purely to Oppose his Predecesor without any regard to do Bagley Justice and bares no Stress to the right of his Claim we Submitt to better Judgm[t] this being the Sume of Our defence in behalf of Bagleys Claim and for the Bennefitt of his Issue humbly begg a Period may be put to all further Disputes which is the Hearty desire of.

Novemb[r] y[e] 16. 1714 Yo[r] Worships & Councils most Obedient & Humble Servants

Orlando Bagley. Rich[d] Swallow.

S[t] Helena To the Worshipf[ll] Govern[r] and Councill Richard Swallows Answer to John Alexanders Reflection in his reply to Tho[s] Bagleys Case

I Should think my self very unworthy the trust of an Executor Should I not use all Possible ways and means thats Just & Honest to recover what I think Properly belongs to those who left me in Trust the Name of Thomas Bagley being to Dear to me to use any unjust and fraudulent means to his Issue he haveing been allways a present help to me in my Necesity And Shall plainly Demon- strate in a few words if the Lands recovered the Bennefit to me out Not be desernable, and Cant in the least Conceive why Jn[o] Alexander Should give himself any troule a bout the Land I Possess Already and do let him know I am none of those Idle

Margin Notes:

Rich[d] Swallows Answer to Jn[o] Alexand[rs] reply

The executors said that what they had set out was clearer than any further account they could give. Had Governor Boucher accepted Bagley's offer while Governor Roberts was here, the matter would have ended all further disputes. Boucher in a letter to Governor Roberts had desired him to publish it by beat of drum, that if the step aggrieved any person upon the island, to the worth of a groat, he should come and make it appear, and Bagley would make them around satisfaction for it. If John Alexander had then proved Bagley's lease illegal and unwarrantable, he might have recovered suitable satisfaction for such a great disappointment.

As to Mr Carne's evidence, showing what Governor Boucher did, that was purely to oppose his predecessor without any regard to doing Bagley justice. The matter carried no force as to the right of Bagley's claim. The executors submitted to better judgement. This being the sum of their defence on behalf of Bagley's claim, and for the benefit of his issue, they humbly begged a period might be put to all further disputes, which was the hearty desire of the executors.

The reply was dated 16 November 1714 and subscribed by Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow as worship's and council's most obedient and humble servants.

St Helena.

Richard Swallow's answer to John Alexander's reflection in his reply to Thomas Bagley's case was addressed to the worshipful governor and council. He should think himself very unworthy the trust of an executor should he not use all possible

Interpretations

The proposal to publish Bagley's offer by beat of drum reveals an important mechanism of public verification in the early colonial settlement. The beat of drum was the standard means by which public proclamations reached the inhabitants of St Helena, with the drummer assembling the population at fixed points to hear the governor's notices read aloud. By proposing to publish the offer in this way, Boucher would have created a general invitation to any aggrieved person to come forward with a claim, while limiting Bagley's exposure through the requirement that any complainant make his loss appear to the worth of a groat. The offer was structured to produce either silence, which would have ratified Bagley's title, or a defined claim that could be settled by composition.

A groat was a small silver coin worth fourpence, used here as the minimum threshold of demonstrable injury rather than the limit of compensation. The phrase to the worth of a groat established that any person who could show even a trifling loss arising from the lease would be heard. The mechanism converted an open invitation into a workable procedure, since claimants had to articulate a quantifiable grievance rather than offering general dissatisfaction. The technique reflects the standard early modern practice of using a small specified sum to define the entry threshold for a public process while leaving the eventual settlement open.

The executors' treatment of Mr Carne's certificate as evidence of Boucher's opposition to his predecessor, rather than evidence on the merits of Bagley's claim, attempted to neutralise a key documentary item. Carne's certificate had recorded remarks supposedly made by Boucher, and stood as one of the items in the documentary case being assembled against the previous governor. By framing the certificate as relevant only to the relationship between Boucher and Roberts, the executors sought to detach it from the substance of the Bagley title and prevent its use as proof that Bagley's claim was tainted by improper motive.

The closing request for a period to be put to all further disputes reveals the executors' political weariness with the long-running case. By inviting the council to bring the matter to a final conclusion, they sought to convert the documentary contest into a single dispositive ruling that would foreclose continued litigation by either side. The hearty desire for finality, repeatedly invoked, was directed not at the merits but at the procedural exhaustion of an estate that had been kept open by competing claims for several years and could not be wound up until the land question was settled.

Speculations

The proposal to publish by beat of drum was probably never executed, since the executors invoke it in conditional terms only. The mention serves to demonstrate that Bagley and Boucher between them had been willing to expose the transaction to public challenge, with the implication that the absence of any contemporary objection from John Alexander or others now undermined the present complaint. By citing an offer of public verification that the Alexander side had let pass, the executors framed the current dispute as an attempt to revisit a matter on which the relevant parties had had their opportunity at the time and declined to act.

Richard Swallow's decision to follow the joint executors' reply with his own separate answer to John Alexander's personal allegations probably reflects the structure of the conflict-of-interest charge laid against him. By appearing personally and in his own voice on the question of his alleged collusion with Tovey, Swallow sought to place his rebuttal before the council in a form that could not be dismissed as the executors' joint pleading. The separation kept the substantive question of Bagley's title distinct from the side question of Swallow's personal integrity, allowing the council to decide each on its own footing.

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Idle drones who through sloth and Neglect Impoverish their Plantable Land that it becomes fitt for nothing but Pasture.

The Articles of agreement betwixt M[r] Tovey and my self makes appear what's rec[t] and what is to be paid besides the risque & ruin of the blacks lives the House out of Repair, and if not timely prevented some part of it will be down before the next Season is over, the Walls about y[e] Plantations will cost thirty pounds to put in repair if hier were Hired to do it Forty Six pound is to be added to the Childs Portion the Hono[ble] Companys Rent & Revenues to be paid the live uncertain how Long to Enjoy it, all this fairly Considered by an understanding and Impartiall Judge without Dilligent care and Industry I Shall become a Looser thereby. I am with Respects Your Worsp and Novemb[r] y[e] 16 1714. Councils most Obedient & Humb[le] Servant. Richard Swallow.

Alexand[rs] Answer

I don't think this requires any farther Answer than if Swallow takes what I have Said as a reflexion. he may So yet and lett him get his Remedy where he can. As to the Bennefitt that is deserved by the Land if recovered is visible to all mankind and that in severall Respects it being Contegious to his, the Risque he runs is very insignificat, the Charges no more then what every body is at that hath Land the forty Six pound is liyable to be paid by M[r] Tovey and to be put into said Swallows hands So that he can be nothing out of Pockett, what he Hints by the word Drone I dont know his meaning by it nor do's it any way Concern. Your Humb[le] Serv[t] Nov[br] y[e] 22[d] 1714

J[no] Alexander

S[t]

Margin Notes:

Novemb[r] y[e] 16 1714.

Alexand[rs] Answer.

Nov[br] y[e] 22[d] 1714.

Swallow continued his answer. He referred to idle drones who through sloth and neglect impoverished their plantable land until it became fit for nothing but pasture.

The articles of agreement between Mr Tovey and himself made plain what had been received and what was to be paid, besides the risk and ruin of the slaves' lives. The house was out of repair, and if not timely prevented some part of it would be down before the next season was over. The walls around the plantations would cost thirty pounds to put in repair, even if hired servants were used to do it. Forty-six pounds was to be added to the child's portion. The Honourable Company's rents and revenues were to be paid by him, with no certainty how long he might enjoy the holding. All this fairly considered by any understanding and impartial judge, he would be a loser without diligent care and industry on his part.

The answer was dated 16 November 1714 and subscribed by Richard Swallow as the worshipful governor and council's most obedient and humble servant.

John Alexander's answer followed.

He said he did not think this required any further answer than what he had already said. If Swallow took what had been said as a reflection he might do so, and get his remedy where he could. As to the benefit to be derived from the land if recovered, it was visible to all mankind, and in several respects. He being conscientious, the risk Swallow ran was very insignificant. The charges were no more than what every body owed who had land. The forty-six pounds was liable to be paid by Mr Tovey, and to be put into Swallow's hands, so that he could be nothing out of pocket. As to the hints Swallow gave by the word drone, John Alexander said he did not know his meaning by it, nor did it any way concern him.

The answer was dated 22 November 1714 and subscribed by John Alexander as humble servant.

Interpretations

The agreement between Tovey and Swallow described in this answer confirms in Swallow's own words the structural arrangement that John Alexander had earlier alleged against him. Swallow set out specific financial elements of the arrangement: the risk of slaves' lives, the cost of upkeep on the house and the plantation walls, the rents and revenues payable to the Company, and the £46 0s 0d to be added to the child's portion. By acknowledging these terms in writing as part of his defence, Swallow made the arrangement a matter of formal record. The disclosure exposes the calculus of long-term executorship in this period, where the executor undertaking a minority trust expected to recover the costs of maintenance, rents, slave mortality and structural repair from the land itself, with a fixed sum eventually due to the child on majority.

The £30 0s 0d cost of repairing the plantation walls, set against the £46 0s 0d for the child's portion, provides a benchmark for the real economic burden of executorship on a developed planter holding. Wall maintenance alone consumed more than half of what would eventually be paid to the heir, indicating that on this estate the ratio of running costs to ultimate child benefit was steep. The figures support John Alexander's earlier suspicion that any net advantage would accrue to Swallow rather than to the Bagley child. The Company rents had to be paid throughout, regardless of whether the trust ultimately yielded any surplus.

The phrase risk of slaves' lives, used in Swallow's own defence, reveals how slave mortality was accounted for as a financial exposure of the executor. Slaves on the plantation were treated as productive assets whose death during the term of the trust represented a capital loss to be borne by the holder of the land. Swallow was claiming that the unpredictable mortality of the slave labour force on this holding was part of the risk that justified his expected return from the arrangement. The accounting framework treated human lives as items of inventory subject to wastage, with executor compensation calibrated to expected losses.

John Alexander's response that the £46 0s 0d would be paid by Tovey and placed in Swallow's hands undermines the entire risk argument. If Tovey was to deliver the child's portion to Swallow, then Swallow held the £46 0s 0d as the executor controlling its application, and his exposure to loss was correspondingly small. The point illustrates the structural weakness of an executorship where the same person holds both the trust property and the trust funds, since the supposed risk is mitigated by his control over the very money that funds the trust's obligations.

Speculations

Swallow's voluntary disclosure of the £30 0s 0d wall repair cost and the £46 0s 0d child's portion probably reflects a calculated attempt to convert the trust into one that looked unattractive on its face. By emphasising the heavy outgoings against an uncertain term of enjoyment, he positioned himself as a reluctant trustee rather than a self-interested beneficiary. The strategy was designed to neutralise John Alexander's earlier characterisation of him as the real beneficiary of the arrangement, but the precise itemisation backfired by making the financial structure of the trust available for analysis on the consultation record.

John Alexander's pointed refusal to take offence at the word drone, while professing not to know its meaning, suggests a controlled rhetorical move. By declining to engage with the personal insult, he denied Swallow the satisfaction of having drawn a response, while preserving the higher ground of the substantive argument. The decision to record his indifference rather than reply in kind operated as a tactical refusal to be drawn from the legal merits into personal exchange.

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S[t] Helena. To the Worshipf[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] & Councill of S[t] Island the 2[d] Reply of John Alexander to y[e] Defence of Orlando Bagley & Rich[d] Swallow Execut[rs] to Tho[s] Bagley dec[d] Article 1.

To the first Reply that Since the two said Executors Say they don't see any thing that bares any Stress Either one way or t'other only a reflection upon Swallow is because they don't know what to Say against y[e] truth of what is Exprest in my first reply And as to the Certifi- cate (as I sicly twas) I leave to the wise and Judicious to give their Opinions in and that by the way Richard Alexander was ever as Reputable as Tho[s] Bagley, and could at any time have had as many hands

To the 2[d] Article I deny haveing made any reflection against the Government any more then Setting forth the whole truth which I Still Stand by and whether or no what I have Said in my former reply is no wcaehing to Bagleys Claim I appeal to all the world but more Imme- diatly to those Gentlemen, to whom this Case belongs to Determine and do yet Say that Rich[d] Alexander never Did Offer the same to any body living till (as I have Said in my first reply) Necesity had no Law that is till he was forced out of the same and Obliged to sell his Smale Effects to great Loss and Damage as the Said Orlando Bagley and Swallow do own themselves in Declaring that Thomas Bagley by a Deed of Gift gave a heifer to Each of the Said Alexanders Children which no man in the world of his Substance would have done had he not known the Injustice and wrong done the said Alexander, and the Poor and Deplorable Condition his Children was in by that means and no way thought Treacherous (a base & unchristian Expression

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Alexanders 2[d] Reply to y[e] Defence of Orl[d] Bagley & Rich[d] Swallow Execu[ts]

St Helena.

The document was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke, governor, and council of St Helena. It set out the second reply of John Alexander to the defence of Orlando Bagley and Richard Swallow, executors to Thomas Bagley deceased.

Alexander turned to the first reply. Since the two executors said they did not see anything that bore any force either one way or the other, and made only a reflection upon Swallow, this was because they did not know what to say against the truth of what he had set out in his first reply. As to the certificate, which they called a saucy one, he left it to the wise and judicious to give their opinions on it. By the way, Richard Alexander was always as reputable as Thomas Bagley, and could at any time have had as many hands to a certificate.

To the second article, Alexander denied having made any reflection against the government any more than setting forth the whole truth, which he still stood by. Whether or not what he had said in his former reply was a weakening of Bagley's claim, he appealed to all the world, but more immediately to the gentlemen of council to whom this case belonged to determine. He still said that Richard Alexander had never offered the land to anybody living, until, as he had said in his first reply, necessity having no law, that is until he was forced out of the same and obliged to sell his small effects, to his great loss and damage. The executors themselves declared as much, when they said that Thomas Bagley by a deed of gift had given a heifer to each of the Alexander children. No man in the world of his substance would have done so, had he not known the injustice and wrong done to Richard Alexander, and the poor and deplorable condition his children were in by that means. Bagley had in no way thought it treacherous, base and unchristian

Interpretations

The exchange about the certificate reveals how documentary credibility was being contested between the two sides. Swallow had called the freeholders' certificate saucy, that is impertinent or presumptuous in laying personal allegations against members of the previous government. John Alexander's reply that Richard Alexander had been as reputable as Thomas Bagley and could at any time have produced as many hands to a certificate operates as a counter-claim of equal social standing. The point implies that the choice of which side could marshal more freeholders' signatures was a matter not of substantive right but of personal connection, and that Bagley's death had simply reduced his side's capacity to gather subscriptions. The argument exposes the certificate device as one whose evidentiary weight depended on the network of the principal at the time it was sought.

The phrase necessity having no law restates a maxim of long standing in English legal thought, holding that conduct compelled by necessity could not be judged by the same standard as voluntary action. Alexander applied the maxim narrowly: his brother's sale of his small effects, once forced out of his land, did not represent a voluntary disposal that could be cited against him in the present case. The argument denied any inference from Richard Alexander's actions after the eviction, since those actions had been compelled by circumstance rather than chosen. The legal effect was to confine the evidentiary value of the post-eviction conduct to the eviction itself, preventing the executors from drawing inferences from later transactions.

The deed of gift to the Alexander children is here turned against the executors who had introduced it. Alexander seizes on Bagley's gift of a heifer to each child as positive proof that Bagley himself recognised the injustice done. The argument runs that no planter would voluntarily diminish his estate to benefit the children of an unconnected family unless conscience required it, and the only conscience that could so require would be one weighed down by complicity in the wrong. The technique converts the executors' character evidence into a confession of guilt by their testator. The deed of gift moves from being proof of Bagley's kindness to being proof of his uneasy conscience.

The phrase poor and deplorable condition of the children draws together the financial and social consequences of the eviction into a single picture of family ruin. Alexander's repeated emphasis on the children's plight serves both as a statement of fact and as a continuing pressure point on the council. The marriageable eldest daughter and the fourteen-year-old son, mentioned in the earlier reply, are here generalised into a family unit whose deplorable condition stands as living testimony against the 1709 ruling.

Speculations

The decision to cast Bagley's deed of gift as evidence of an uneasy conscience probably reflects John Alexander's awareness that the executors had introduced it for the opposite purpose. By inverting the rhetorical force of the same fact, he denied the executors any benefit from their disclosure while leaving the underlying evidence undisturbed. The technique was particularly effective because it required no denial of the deed itself, only a reinterpretation of its motive, which the council could not easily refute without entering the dead man's mind.

The challenge that Richard Alexander could at any time have produced as many freeholders' hands to a certificate suggests that John Alexander believed the present inhabitants could still be canvassed for signatures supporting his side. By making the claim explicit on the record, he positioned himself to produce such a certificate if the council seemed inclined to give weight to Swallow's dismissal of the existing one. The threat operated as a deterrent to any ruling that turned on the relative strength of inhabitant support, since it warned the executors that pressing the point would invite an open contest of signatures that could only enlarge the dispute.

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Expression to Say of a Deceased Person and near Neighbour who was ever ready to do any thing that lay in his power [for] them) tho with a Sort of a Smoothing plain the Said Executors say they realy beleive he the Said Alexander had no such intent as to trick the Said Bagley But that John Alexander who they take the Liberty to Say always Lov'd to fish in troubled Waters To which I answer that those two Excecutors who t[him] gives their tongues too much Liberty in any Person of Life never knew me deserving such a Character or what soever made it my business to be any way Active or an abetor Aider or assistor in any thing but what was Just & reason- able which may be presumed some People has not and if I dont mistake the Penman and Contriver of the said Excecut[rs] Defence is called a mer[e] Make bate in a Letter from England under good hands besides other Instances too Tedeous to Mention here and so shall return to the business in hand & reply further that if I had Conceived any hatred against the then Government or not, I dont know what business any planter has to mention it in a Matter quite Different which shews there's some that loves to rake Coals and Stir up fire (which is well if dont Ere Long burn their own fingars) and busie themselves with what they have nothing to do And do assure them I had a better plea on my Side then they Imagine and which should seem so Ignorant of at this time. And as to their Saying I Declare the Hono Companys Seale frivolous & Groundless is very false. for I only Say that I Declare Bagleys Claim to be frivolous, Groundless and very unjust without Saying one word of the Seal in that or any other plea in the Manner they take the Liberty to Express, and therefore think they had better kept in such words for I know the Humour of the Inhabi- tants and Constitutions of this place as well, if not better than they do, and beleive my self as able

to

Alexander continued his second reply. He said it was an unchristian expression to use of a deceased person and near neighbour, who was always ready to do anything that lay in his power for them, even with a sort of a smothering plain. The executors said they really believed that Bagley had no such intent as Alexander charged him with, but that John Alexander, they took the liberty to say, always loved to fish in troubled waters. To this he answered that the two executors, who gave their tongues too much liberty in any persons of his life, never knew him deserving such a character, nor what made it his business to be in any way active, an abettor, aider or assistor in anything but what was just and reasonable. This might be presumed of some people, but not of him. If he did not mistake, the penman and contriver of the executors' defence was called a meek mate in a letter from England under good hands. There were besides other instances too tedious to mention here.

He returned to the business in hand. He said further that, whether or not he had conceived any hatred against the previous government, he did not know what business any planter had to mention it in a matter quite different. This showed that there was someone who loved to rake coals and stir up fire, which was well, if they did not before long burn their own fingers, and busied themselves with what they had nothing to do, and so secured a better plea on his side then they imagined. The point should seem so ignorant to anyone at this time.

As to their saying he declared the Honourable Company's seal frivolous and groundless, that was very false. He had only said that he declared Bagley's claim to be frivolous, groundless and very unjust, without saying one word of the seal in that or any other plea, in the manner they took the liberty to express. He thought therefore they had better kept in such words, for he knew the humours of the inhabitants and the constitution of the place as well, if not better, than they did, and believed himself able to

Interpretations

The phrase meek mate in a letter from England under good hands suggests that a metropolitan correspondent had previously sent an unflattering character note on Swallow, identifying him as the real drafter of the executors' defence. The expression itself reads as ironic, applied to a man Alexander wished to portray as the active intriguer behind the present pleadings. By citing the letter only in passing, with the intensifier under good hands meaning duly signed by reputable persons, Alexander hinted at the existence of independent corroboration of his characterisation without committing himself to produce the document. The technique placed Swallow on notice that further pressure might bring the letter into the open, while preserving Alexander's freedom not to disclose it.

The metaphor of raking coals and stirring up fire is the standard early modern expression for one who deliberately revives a dying quarrel for personal advantage. Alexander applied it to the executors, who in his view had introduced matters between him and the previous government that had nothing to do with the title contest now before the council. The argument worked procedurally: by characterising the executors' references to Boucher and Hoskison as fire-stirring, Alexander framed their pleadings as departures from the strict matter of Bagley's claim, and thus as material the council should disregard. The warning that they might burn their own fingers was a covert threat that any extended airing of past administrative disputes would damage their cause more than his.

The careful distinction Alexander draws between declaring Bagley's claim frivolous and declaring the Honourable Company's seal frivolous is legally substantive. To impugn the seal would have been an attack on the directors' authority itself, since the seal was the formal mark of corporate consent that authenticated leases issued under their name. By insisting that he had attacked only the claim, not the seal, Alexander preserved his standing before the directors while maintaining his position in the local contest. The executors' attempt to characterise his words as reaching the seal would, if accepted, have converted his case into one of contempt against the Company itself, exposing him to a quite different order of risk. His repudiation of any such reading was therefore not pedantic but essential to the survival of his case.

Alexander's closing assertion that he knew the humours of the inhabitants and the constitution of the place as well, if not better, than the executors invokes a recognised epistemic claim in island society. The humours of a community referred to the temper of its public opinion and the particular dispositions of its leading figures. The constitution of the place meant the practical operation of its laws, customs and offices as locally understood rather than as written down in any single instrument. By claiming superior knowledge in both, Alexander positioned himself as the better qualified guide for the council's consideration of how a ruling would be received by the planter community, and how it would fit into the working framework of local administration.

Speculations

The deliberate mention of a letter from England under good hands characterising Swallow probably operates as a calibrated threat. By naming the existence of the document without producing it, Alexander preserved the option of bringing the letter into evidence if the council appeared to favour the executors' account of Swallow's character. The mention also alerted the executors that any further insistence on the fish in troubled waters charge might draw out a counter-narrative supported by English correspondents whose own standing would be weighed against the executors' local credibility.

Alexander's careful demarcation between Bagley's claim and the Honourable Company's seal probably reflects a specific instruction from advisors familiar with the procedural rules of company litigation. Attacks on the directors' seal could be reported to London as defamatory of the Company itself, with consequences for the offender's standing as a planter under company jurisdiction. The precise phrasing of his denial, leaving no ambiguity that his strictures applied only to the local claim and not to the metropolitan instrument, suggests deliberate drafting designed to insulate the case from this risk while maintaining the substantive position on the merits.

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to Judge whether they the Said Inhabitants think their right to Land Precarious or not as they the said Execut[rs] and which I dare swear no body but troublesome Lehigious Persons will or doth.

To the 3[d] Article I have in good measure made out in my afore- said reply So that I Shall there only Convince the Presumptious in setting their hivery that Richard Alexander had a Grant of Ten Acres Land in the year 169[2/3] and so recorded for twenty one years and the reason why he had not a lease for the same I have Demonstrated in my aforesaid first reply and that without the least laying any blame on the Surveyor which Still shews there must be some that would fain put People upon Clamouring and as to their Saying tis Rediculous Even to Extravegancy because I did not think Bagleys Petitions Did require any answer in mine haveing fully informd of the whole truth in my first, I presume more Extravegant in the said Swallow and Bagley for Saying So, and Deny that the Naked truth is sett forth in those Petitions having read part.

As to the Certificate of M[r] Carne I have already An- swered, but yet Say I don't think any Stress therein to hinder Richard Alexanders Issue from the Land wherein he took Great Pains and was at vast Expence to bring it to Perfection and therefore all the world will Say if the Land don't return to them, it will be a very great peice of wrong and Injustice tho I must needs Say that after the Expiration of twenty one years the time Rich[d] Alexander was to have the Land is Expired the Hono[ble] Company being Sole Lords thereof may Let it to whom they please. But it very Seldome happens any body takes a farm out of the first Tenants hands Especialy if able to pay y[e] Rent all w[ch] I Leave to the wise & Prudent Opinion of y[e] Hono[ble] Co[ur]t of Directors &c[a] And am in all due respects Yo[r] Worsp[s] most Humb[le] & faithf[ll] Serv[ts] Nov[r] [...] [...] 1714 Jn[o] Alexander

Alexander continued his second reply, saying he could judge whether the inhabitants thought their right to land precarious or not as well as the executors. He dared swear that nobody but troublesome and litigious persons, or both, would so judge.

He turned to the third article. He said he had in good measure made it out in his earlier reply. He could now only convince the presumptuous in showing them that Richard Alexander had a grant of ten acres of land in the year 1693, so recorded for twenty-one years. The reason why he had not a lease for the same he had demonstrated in his earlier first reply, without laying any blame on the surveyor. This still showed there must be some persons who would gladly stir people up to clamouring. As to their saying it was ridiculous, even to extravagance, because he did not think Bagley's petitions deserved an answer, he having fully informed himself of the whole truth in his first reply, he presumed it more extravagant in Swallow and Bagley to say so, and to deny that the naked truth was set forth in those petitions, having read part of them.

As to the certificate of Mr Carne, he had already answered it. Yet he said he did not think any stress laid in it could hinder Richard Alexander's issue from the land, wherein he had taken great pains and been at vast expense to bring it to perfection. Therefore all the world would say that if the land did not return to them, it would be a very great piece of wrong and injustice. He must needs say that after the expiration of the twenty-one years for which Richard Alexander was to have the land, the time being expired, the Honourable Company, being sole lords thereof, might let it to whom they pleased. But it very seldom happened that anyone took a farm out of the first tenant's hands, especially if he was able to pay his rent. All this he left to the wise and prudent opinion of the Honourable Court of Directors.

The reply was dated 22 November 1714 and subscribed by John Alexander as the worship's most humble and faithful servant.

Interpretations

The shift in Alexander's account from a six-acre grant to a ten-acre grant for twenty-one years marks a substantive revision in his presentation of the original 1693 award. In his earlier reply the figure given was six acres, with additional ground added later for the convenience of fencing. The expanded ten-acre figure aligns the original grant more closely with the executors' contested heading of ten or twenty-one acres, while pulling the twenty-one years out as a term of years rather than an acreage. The revision shows how the documentary evidence itself was being reread in successive pleadings, with the 1693 entry in Book Number Three serving as a reservoir of detail that each side mined for figures favourable to its position. The technique of citing the same recorded grant for different particulars at different stages of the dispute is characteristic of litigation where the underlying record was held by the council rather than the parties.

The reference to the Honourable Company as sole lords thereof on expiry of the twenty-one years discloses the underlying legal structure of land tenure on the island. All land held by planters was held of the Company as ultimate landlord, with the planter's interest expiring on the term of years or at the will of the Company. Alexander's frank acknowledgement of this principle was tactically necessary, since to contest it would have undermined his entire appeal to the directors. The Company's discretion to relet to whom they pleased at the end of a term was therefore not in dispute. The argument turned instead on the customary expectation, accepted by Alexander, that the first tenant in possession at the end of a term would normally be preferred for renewal so long as he could pay his rent. This combination of acknowledged corporate discretion with customary preference for the sitting tenant defined the working land tenure regime under which St Helena planters operated.

The phrase troublesome and litigious persons identifies the category of inhabitants whom Alexander dismissed as the only ones who would regard their holdings as precarious in consequence of his case. The two adjectives carry distinct legal meanings in early modern usage: troublesome referred to those who disturbed the peace of the community by repeated complaint or quarrel, while litigious meant those who habitually resorted to the law for advantage. By attributing concern for the security of titles only to such persons, Alexander dismissed the executors' wider warning that an adverse ruling would unsettle the planter community. The implication was that any inhabitant of settled habits and good conduct could rest secure in his holding, since the Alexander claim did not threaten regular tenures but only the irregular ones produced by improper administrative action.

The acknowledgement that Richard Alexander had taken great pains and been at vast expense to bring his holding to perfection invokes the principle of improvement value. By emphasising the labour and capital invested in clearing, planting and building, Alexander positioned the family's claim not merely as one of original right but of accumulated investment. The improvement argument operated as an equitable supplement to the legal claim of title: even if the technical question of lease and term went against him, the labour expended on the land created an interest the council could recognise without overturning any formal instrument. The argument is here directed to the directors as the ultimate decision-makers, since their discretion was wide enough to take account of equitable as well as strict legal considerations.

Speculations

The closing referral of the matter to the wise and prudent opinion of the Honourable Court of Directors signals Alexander's expectation that the council would not finally dispose of the dispute on its own authority. By framing his pleading as material for the directors' eventual review, he positioned the local hearing as a stage in a longer process rather than its conclusion. The strategy fitted the open thread already identified for transmission to London, where the council had said the whole case would be sent with their opinions. Alexander's submission was therefore drafted with the metropolitan reader in mind, with the local council serving as the conduit through which his arguments would reach the directors.

The deliberate concession that the Company could let the land to anyone they pleased after the term of twenty-one years probably reflects a calculated decision to make Alexander's case appear modest. By acknowledging the Company's absolute discretion in the abstract, while invoking only customary preference for the sitting tenant, he avoided any appearance of arrogating rights to himself that the directors might find presumptuous. The technique left the directors free to recognise the family's claim as a matter of grace rather than legal compulsion, which gave them political cover to rule in Alexander's favour without seeming to constrain their own future authority over land grants.

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Island S[t] Helena To the Worshipf[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c[a] Councill

The Remonstrance of Jn[o] Alexander on behalf of his dec[d] Brother Rich[d] Alexander re- lateing to a Parcell of Land he formerly hired of the Hono[ble] Comp[a] as followeth

That Richard Alexander in the year 169[2/3] had a grant for ten Acres of the Hono[ble] Companys West Land, where on he built a House and made Plantation fenceing in a small Peice in severall places that was best for Pro- duceing Provisions and by Guess fenced in more for Pasture which together he thought did not Exceed Ten Acres when the same came to be measured t'was found to be fifteen Acres with a little more he desired might be added for Conveniency of fenceing w[th] Less charge from which time he paid Rent for Said fifteen Acres and Claim'd no more. Now when Thomas Bagley had the same Land he removd some Fences and made a Seperation fence at foot of Main ridge which Enlarged the whole five or Six Acres more which was not done by the Said Alexander or any other fence made by him that could or can give any Grounds to Say he Possesed more then what he had yearly paid for, and in case he had more Land there an Order of Councell made by Gov[r] Roberts and the then Councell that no Person what- soever should be any way Prejudiced or obliged to Pay rent for any more Land then they usually gave in if upon Measureing a bigger or Greater Number of Acres was found, but only from that time it being im- possible any Person Should fence in no more or Less than what was first granted, which I hope will be sufficient to barr all Objections in this M[a]tt[er] to the Prejudice of Said Rich[d] Alexander being w[th] due respects Yo[r] Worsp[s] &c[a] Coun[l] most Humb[le] and faithfull Servant. Jn[o] Alexander.

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Alexanders Remonstrance to a Pacell Land.

Island of St Helena.

The document was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke, governor, and council. It was the remonstrance of John Alexander on behalf of his deceased brother Richard Alexander, relating to a parcel of land he had formerly hired of the Honourable Company.

Alexander set out that Richard Alexander, in the year 1693, had a grant of ten acres of the Honourable Company's waste land. On it he built a house and made a plantation, fencing in a small piece in several places that was best for producing provisions, and by guess fencing in more for pasture, which he thought altogether did not exceed ten acres. When the land came to be measured it was found to be fifteen acres, with a little more he desired might be added for the convenience of fencing, without charge. From that time he paid rent for fifteen acres and claimed no more.

When Thomas Bagley held the same land, he removed some fences and made a separation fence at the foot of the main ridge, which enlarged the whole by five or six acres more. This was not done by Richard Alexander, nor was any other fence made by him that could give grounds to say he possessed more than what he yearly paid for. In case he had had more land there, an order of council made by Governor Roberts and the then council provided that no person whatsoever should be in any way prejudiced or obliged to pay rent for any more land than they usually gave in. Where, on measurement, a bigger or greater number of acres was found, that should hold good only from that time, it being impossible that any person should fence in no more or less than what was first granted.

The remonstrance was subscribed by John Alexander as the worship's and council's most humble and faithful servant.

Interpretations

The remonstrance discloses how rental obligations on St Helena were calibrated against measurement rather than original grant. The 1693 grant nominally covered ten acres, but on actual survey the holding came to fifteen acres, with further small additions allowed for the convenience of fencing. Richard Alexander had paid rent on the measured fifteen acres from that point forward. The mechanism shows that the company's rent base reflected what surveyors actually found on the ground rather than what the original grant had specified, with discrepancies regularised through measurement rather than treated as overholdings or trespasses. The system relied on planters to give in their holdings honestly, with measurement serving as a periodic check rather than a continuous record.

The order of Governor Roberts cited at the close establishes a key administrative protection for planters whose holdings exceeded their original grants. Under the order, any planter found on measurement to hold more land than he had given in was not liable for back rent on the surplus. Rent on the larger acreage was charged only from the date of measurement forward. The arrangement recognised the practical reality that fencing on rough ground could not be confined to exact acreage figures, and converted what would otherwise have been a continuous arrears problem into a forward-looking adjustment. The order's existence on the council record supplied Alexander with a defence against any attempt to use the discrepancy between original grant and actual holding as evidence of irregularity in Richard Alexander's tenure.

The point Alexander pressed about Bagley's removal of fences and creation of a new separation fence at the foot of the main ridge shifts responsibility for the enlargement of the holding to Bagley himself. The added five or six acres had been brought within the boundary by Bagley's own fencing after he took possession. Any claim that the disputed land therefore exceeded what Alexander had legitimately held could be answered by pointing to Bagley as the agent of the enlargement. The mechanism inverted the executors' contention that the Bagley holding included parcels never properly granted to Alexander: those parcels, on Alexander's account, had been added by Bagley after the transfer.

The phrase waste land refers to land not previously enclosed, cleared or improved, held by the company in its undeveloped state and available for grant to planters willing to take up the labour of bringing it into cultivation. The 1693 grant of waste land to Richard Alexander therefore covered ground that he was expected to improve through fencing, clearing and planting, with the rent set in recognition that the improvements would be made at the planter's own expense. This is consistent with Alexander's earlier emphasis on the vast deal of difficulty and hard labour his brother had expended in bringing the holding to perfection.

Speculations

The remonstrance probably represents a fresh tactical move designed to address a specific weakness in the wider case. Whereas Alexander's earlier replies focused on the wrongness of the 1709 eviction and the validity of Bagley's title, this document concentrates narrowly on the question of acreage. By demonstrating that any apparent excess in the holding had been the work of Bagley's own fencing after possession, Alexander pre-empted any council finding that the disputed land had exceeded Richard Alexander's lawful claim. The procedural placement of the remonstrance, separate from the second reply, suggests deliberate compartmentalisation of the boundary issue from the broader title contest.

The citation of the order of Governor Roberts and his then council is striking, since Alexander had elsewhere attacked the same Roberts administration as the source of the 1709 injustice. By drawing on a Roberts-era order favourable to his case, Alexander demonstrated that he was willing to use the previous administration's acts where they helped him while attacking them where they did not. The technique invited the present council to treat each Roberts-era ruling on its merits rather than as part of a uniform regime to be either upheld or overturned. The result was a more granular handling of the documentary record that allowed Alexander to preserve some Roberts-era authority while contesting the rest.

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Island S[t] Helena. To the Worshipf[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r]

and Council.

Antipas Toveys answer to John

Alexanders two replys relateing to the Lease

Land Said Tovey claims as right by his

wife.

Said Tovey did not think to trouble yo[r] Worship[s]

& Council w[th] any thing further in this business

then to produce his Lease for 21 years for a house

and twenty one Acres of Land granted to his

predecess[r] Tho[s] Bagley by the Govern[r] and all y[e]

Councill and Sealed w[th] the Hon[ble] Companys Seale

w[ch] was Delivered him upon Marriage by s[d] Bagleys

Execut[rs] w[th] the proof that he obtained the same at

the request of Rich[d] Alexander dec[d] (w[ch] he did the

Council day appointed besides laying before. your

Worship &c[a] the charges of his predecessor & his own

upon the premises &c[a] the damages they sustaind

for want of S[d] Plantation &c[a]) but finding said

Alexanders answers filled w[th] many suggestions as

false as trifling, and w[ch] only seem to be done to

puzzell the case if your complainant craves leave

humbly to lay before yo[r] Worship &c[a] what he thinks

may further obviate y[e] matter and fully answer all

that said Alexander or any else has or can say

against the just pretentions of yo[r] complainant

to the premisses, and:

1. As to any remissness or delay of said Tovey in not

prosecuting this case so as to have obtained a decision

thereof sooner he saith, He would have been glad

it might have been done with fewer words such

long and groundless arguments tramps up to no

purpose but delays he being often indisposed and

**Margin Notes:**

Antip[as] Toveys re-

=ply to Jn[o] Alexand[rs]

2[d] reply.

Island of St Helena.

The document was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke, governor, and council. It was the answer of Antipas Tovey to John Alexander's two replies relating to the leasehold land Tovey claimed as a right by his wife.

Tovey said he had not thought to trouble the council further in this business than to produce his lease, for twenty-one years, of a house and twenty-one acres of land granted to his predecessor Thomas Bagley by the governor and council and sealed with the Honourable Company's seal. The lease had been delivered to him on his marriage by Bagley's executors, with proof that he obtained the same at the request of Richard Alexander deceased. He did so on the council day appointed, besides laying before the council the charges of his predecessor and his own upon the premises, together with the damages they had sustained for want of a plantation. Finding Alexander's answers filled with many suggestions as false as trifling, and which seemed only to be done to puzzle the case, Tovey begged leave humbly to lay before the council what he thought might further obviate the matter and fully answer all that Alexander or anyone else had or could say against the just pretensions of the complainant to the premises.

He turned to the first point. As to any slowness or delay in not prosecuting the case so as to have obtained a decision sooner, he said he would have been glad it might have been done with fewer words. Such long and groundless arguments had been brought up to no purpose but delays. He had been often indisposed and

Interpretations

Tovey's standing in the dispute is now placed on its formal footing. He held the leasehold land as a right by his wife, the former widow of Bagley, and the lease itself had been delivered to him on his marriage. The arrangement reveals how property rights moved through successive widowhoods in St Helena planter society. The lease for twenty-one years had originally been granted to Bagley by the governor and council under the Honourable Company's seal. On Bagley's death the lease passed to his widow and through her to Tovey on their marriage. The mechanism is the same as that observed earlier in the Keeling estate, where successive husbands acquired their interest through the widow rather than by direct grant. Tovey's appearance before the council is therefore not as an independent claimant but as the present holder of an interest derived from his wife's previous marriage.

The lease under the Honourable Company's seal carried substantially greater documentary weight than the informal council order under which Richard Alexander had originally held. A sealed lease for twenty-one years represented the highest formal grade of land instrument the company could issue on the island, authenticated by the directors' corporate seal and conferring a definite term. By foregrounding the existence of the sealed lease, Tovey shifted the evidentiary balance of the dispute. Where Alexander had argued from improvement value and customary expectation, Tovey could point to a written instrument bearing the corporate mark of the Company itself. The contrast between informal grant and sealed lease was central to the relative legal weight of the two claims.

Tovey's reference to the proof that he obtained the lease at the request of Richard Alexander deceased aligns with the executors' earlier narrative that Alexander himself had brought Bagley into the holding. By repeating this position from his own mouth as the present lessee, Tovey strengthened the chain of acquisition: original grant by council, transfer at Alexander's own request to Bagley, descent to widow, marriage to Tovey. Each link in the chain was supported by witnesses or documents.

The phrase damages they sustained for want of a plantation captures the economic consequence of holding land that was not yet productive. The Bagley side had laid out their cumulative expenses on the premises and their losses from not yet having the land in full production. The argument framed the present occupants as having invested in improvement and waiting for return, while the Alexander challenge threatened to deprive them of the eventual yield. The language of damages converted the dispute from a question of pure title into one of accumulated economic interest, with the practical effect of complicating any council ruling that would simply restore the holding to the Alexander side without compensation for the works done in the interval.

Speculations

Tovey's decision to enter the dispute at this stage, after both sets of pleadings between Alexander and the executors had been laid, probably reflects a calculated reservation of his strongest evidence for last appearance. By holding back the sealed lease until the other parties had exhausted their arguments, he ensured that his documentary instrument would not be drawn into the wider exchanges about character and motive. The procedural placement also positioned him as the holder of present legal title rather than merely an executor defending a deceased man's claim, which carried greater immediate weight before the council.

The complaint that Alexander's answers were filled with suggestions as false as trifling and seemed only to be done to puzzle the case suggests that Tovey perceived the multiplication of pleadings as itself a strategy. By framing the volume of Alexander's submissions as a tactic of obfuscation rather than legitimate argument, Tovey invited the council to discount the cumulative effect of the Alexander replies and focus instead on the sealed lease as the single dispositive document. The technique aimed to cut through the documentary thicket that the dispute had generated by reasserting the simplicity of the formal legal position.

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and not capable thereby to prosecute the business of his Hon[ble] Masters with that dispatch he wisheth he had bin able to do was rather willing his own affairs should be put by for the present beleiving twill not be his disadvantage, truth being always the same, but he utterly denys he is conscious of any Injustice in the case of Richard Alexander, on the contrary solemnly protests and avers that Richard Alexander (or his Widow) must be very unjust to Tho[s] Bagley & his, if he (as his Wid[o] now the wife of M[r] Goodgen or others for her has) ever desired to have the land again after Tho[s] Bagley took y[e] same (and laid out so considerable upon it, by the instigation of said Richard Alexander as has been provd by M[rs] Mary Swallows deisposition & the confession of his Widow (now M[rs] Goodgen) before yo[r] Worship and Council, for, then they only made use of Tho[s] Bagley to improve the Plantation & keep up the house (ready to fall), at his own charge for their benefit, without ever designing to make him Sattisfaction as appears by their never Offering Tho[s] Bagley any Sattisfaction for his charges and disappointm[t] when he was (so unjustly) outed of the said premisses w[ch] if he never had, had, he might before that time have had a good plantation else- where.

That Rich[d] Alexander did or did not desire to go off before the Consultation mentiond the 13[th] Decemb[r] 1709. yo[r] complainant humbly conceives is not material & therefore needs no answer, tho no doubt that might be proved were there need of it that he did that he do say he would, for that Consultation Witnesseth that he then did & afterwards he made a Publick sale by out Cry of his goods, &c[a]

Tovey continued his answer. He had not been capable, by reason of indisposition, of prosecuting the business of his Honourable Masters with the despatch he wished. Had he been able to do so, he would rather have put aside his own affairs for the present, believing that truth would not be at his disadvantage, truth being always the same.

He utterly denied that he was conscious of any injustice in the case of Richard Alexander. On the contrary, he solemnly protested and averred that Richard Alexander, or his widow, would be very unjust to Thomas Bagley and his heirs, if she, as his widow now the wife of Mr Gargen, or others on her behalf, had ever desired to have the land again after Thomas Bagley took it, and laid out so considerable an amount upon it. Bagley had taken the land at the instigation of Richard Alexander himself, as had been proved by Mary Swallow's deposition, and by the confession of the widow, now Mrs Gargen, before the worship and council. They had only made use of Thomas Bagley to improve the plantation and keep up the house, which was ready to fall, at his own charge for their benefit. They had never designed to make him satisfaction, as appeared by their never offering Bagley any compensation for his charges and disappointment when he was, as Tovey put it, so unjustly ousted of the premises. Had he never had the land, he might before that time have had a good plantation elsewhere.

Whether Richard Alexander did or did not desire to go off before the consultation mentioned of 13 December 1709, Tovey humbly conceived was not material, and therefore needed no answer. There was no doubt that the matter might be proved, were there need of it. He did say that he would, for the consultation showed that he then did, and afterwards made a public sale, by outcry, of his goods

Interpretations

The deposition of Mary Swallow and the confession of the widow, now Mrs Gargen, before the council are key evidentiary items. A deposition was a sworn statement taken under oath and committed to writing, generally before a council member or other authorised officer, which then served as testimony when the deponent was unavailable or as a fixed record of what had been sworn. The confession of the widow before the council was a statement made in person at a council sitting and entered on the record. Together these items established on Tovey's account that Bagley had taken the land at Alexander's own request. The procedural significance lies in the contrast between Alexander's repeated reliance on the freeholders' certificate sent to the Company and Tovey's reliance on sworn evidence taken locally before the council. Where the certificate functioned as a political statement of community opinion, the deposition and confession operated as judicial evidence in the local forum.

The phrase public sale by outcry refers to a sale held openly in a public place where the goods were called out aloud by an appointed crier and offered to all comers for the highest bid. The mechanism was the standard method of disposing of an estate quickly and at market value, with the open calling providing a guarantee that no private favouritism had set the price. Tovey's citation of Richard Alexander's public sale by outcry was offered as proof that he had genuinely intended to depart the island, since a planter holding out for restoration would not have disposed of his goods through a public outcry. The argument worked by treating the form of sale as evidence of the seller's intent: only one resigned to departure would liquidate his moveable estate through a procedure that left no possibility of reclaiming any item later.

Tovey's argument that the question of whether Alexander desired to go off before 13 December 1709 was not material reveals an important shift in the litigation strategy. By treating the precise timing of Alexander's wish to leave as immaterial, Tovey severed the question of the family's grievance from the question of present title. Whether the eviction had been just or unjust no longer mattered, in his framing, since Bagley had subsequently taken the land at Alexander's own request and improved it at his own expense. The argument shifted the case from one of original wrong to one of subsequent dealing, on which the documentary record was on Tovey's side.

The repeated invocation of charges and disappointment Bagley had sustained translates the dispute into the language of investment loss. By treating Bagley's expenditure on the plantation and his deprivation of the eventual return as a quantifiable damage, Tovey positioned the present holders as parties who had spent and waited in good faith. The implication for the council's eventual ruling was that any restoration of the land to the Alexander side would have to be conditioned on compensation for the improvements made and the rents lost. The argument prepared the ground for a settlement-by-payment outcome, even should the council find the underlying title contestable.

Speculations

Tovey's acknowledgement of personal indisposition probably operates as a strategic concession rather than a real excuse. By admitting that he had been slow to bring the matter to a head, he disarmed John Alexander's earlier accusation that the delay had been deliberate and designed to favour Swallow's continued occupation of the land. The admission also positioned Tovey as a man who had put off his own private interest from public duty, with the corollary that any further delay should not now be turned against him. The tactic transformed a vulnerability into a moral asset.

The selective reliance on the deposition of Mary Swallow and the widow's confession, while declining to address whether Alexander desired to leave before 13 December 1709, suggests that the documentary record before the council was uneven. Tovey was confident on the points where formal sworn evidence existed but cautious on those where it did not. The strategy of declaring immaterial what could not be proved by sworn record, while pressing what could, indicates a disciplined evidentiary approach that treated the council as a body that would weigh testimony by its formal standing rather than by its substantive plausibility.

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As to said Jn[o] Alexanders alledging the then Govern[mt] granted the Lease to Tho[s] Bagley without Richard Alexanders consent knowledge or privity which no doubt they had power to do, and any Landlord to right himself when wronged or whose Tenant does not pay for all the Land he enjoys, or keep the House, or y[e] same in repair, will in comon prudence turn him out to gett a better. Tenant & it does appear Richard Alexander petitioned but for ten Acres by the consultation of y[e] 21[st] March 1697/8 & yet held double as much, w[ch] gave just reason to oust him, tho he had a leave for said Land (w[ch] he never had) but he did know of said Lease being granted or promised to be granted to Tho[s] Bagley, he being so far from objecting against it is that, he the said Richard Alexander desired said Bagley to petition for the said Land in compliance to which request, he did & where twas granted him said Bagley bought, what Provisions were on the ground Rich[d] Alexander had before desired him to buy & paid him honestly there for.

The other Suggestion is as false, that Tho[s] Bagley desired any thing he wisht for (tho 'tis too plain they that now would hinder yo[r] Worship[s] complaint from the land would have Tho[s] Bagleys labour and charges for nothing) when on the day that Tho[s] Bagley had finnished the fenceing in a peice of ground for a plantation then Richard Alexander came to treat w[th] him to take his, yet not so great strangers were they as said Jn[o] Alexander Suggests for that Richard Alexander urged it to Tho[s] Bagley he had rather he should have that plantation than another because he beleived twould be for his Interest. For the goodness of the House 'tis very apparent twas ready to fall, when Tho[s] Bagley had it, as one End of it did, which said Tovey built up with the addition of a small out House, when M[r] Goodgen lets him have it

Tovey turned to John Alexander's allegation that the then government had granted the lease to Thomas Bagley without Richard Alexander's consent, knowledge or privity. No doubt, he said, they had power to do so. Any landlord, when wronged by a tenant who did not pay for all the land he enjoyed or keep the house on it in repair, would in common prudence turn him out to get a better tenant. It did appear that Richard Alexander had petitioned for only ten acres by the consultation of 21 March 1693, and yet held double as much. The government therefore had just reason to oust him.

Even though Bagley had a lease for the land, which Richard Alexander had never had, Alexander did know of that lease being granted, or promised to be granted, to Bagley. So far was Alexander from objecting against it, that he himself desired Bagley to petition for the land. In compliance with that request Bagley did so, and the land was granted to him. Bagley then bought what provisions were on the ground from Alexander, paying him honestly for them as he had been desired to do.

The other suggestion was equally false, that Bagley desired anything he was now charged with. It was too plain that those who would now hinder the worshipful complainant from the land would have had Bagley's labour and charges for nothing. On the day that Bagley had finished the fencing in a piece of ground for a plantation, Richard Alexander came to treat with him to take it, though they were no great strangers, as John Alexander had suggested. Richard Alexander urged Bagley to take the plantation, on the ground that he believed it would be in Bagley's interest. As for the goodness of the house, it was very apparent it had been ready to fall when Bagley had it, as one end of it did. Tovey had built it up again, with the addition of a small outhouse, when Mr Gargen let him have

Interpretations

The argument that Richard Alexander had petitioned for only ten acres but held double that quantity, here advanced by Tovey, draws directly against the position John Alexander had set out in his remonstrance. Where John Alexander attributed the excess to Bagley's later fencing of additional ground, Tovey treated the same discrepancy as evidence that Richard Alexander had been a defaulting tenant from the outset, enjoying more land than he paid for. The same documentary fact, the 21 March 1693 consultation grant of ten acres against an actual occupation of twenty or so, is here turned to opposite use by the two sides. The case shows how a single recorded grant became the pivot on which competing narratives turned, with each party drawing from the original entry the inference most favourable to its position.

The principle that any landlord, when wronged by a defaulting tenant, may turn him out to get a better tenant is here invoked as the legal justification for the 1709 eviction. Tovey converts the council's act from one of administrative discretion into one of normal landlordly remedy, treating the Honourable Company as a private landlord rather than as a sovereign authority and Richard Alexander as a tenant in default rather than as a settled inhabitant being punished. The reframing matters because it neutralises John Alexander's argument that the council had exceeded the ordinary bounds of customary land tenure. If the action was the kind any landlord could take against a defaulting tenant, no question of administrative misconduct arose.

The transaction by which Bagley bought the standing provisions from Richard Alexander, paying honestly for them, places a documented exchange between the two principals at the very moment of the supposed eviction. The detail is significant for two reasons. First, it converts Richard Alexander from a man being driven off without redress into a party to a sale, with a quantifiable payment received. Second, the language of paying him honestly for them as he had been desired to do invokes the standard test of fair dealing in early modern commerce, with the implication that no fraud or oppression had attended the transfer. The technique was central to Tovey's argument: by showing that money had passed between the two men under conditions of fair dealing, he made the transfer look consensual.

Tovey's description of the house as ready to fall when Bagley took it, with one end having actually fallen, provides a concrete economic argument against any claim that the Bagley side had received a valuable asset cheaply. The rebuilding of the house, together with the addition of a small outhouse, represented substantial expenditure made under Tovey's tenure after the lease passed to him through his wife. The detail establishes that the present holders had not merely sat on inherited improvements but had themselves invested in the structure. The argument prepared the ground for resisting any restoration that did not include compensation for the work done.

Speculations

The phrase that Bagley and Alexander were no great strangers, while not specified in detail, probably alludes to a network of personal and family connections among the substantial planters of the island that gave the two men opportunity to deal directly. By rebutting the implication of John Alexander's earlier framing that the relationship was distant or contrived, Tovey reinforced the picture of a transaction conducted between neighbours rather than between strangers brought together by the council. The closeness of personal acquaintance was offered as further evidence that the transfer was a normal piece of planter business rather than an extraordinary act of dispossession.

Tovey's reframing of the company as an ordinary landlord, and Richard Alexander as a defaulting tenant, probably reflects a strategic recognition that the wider argument about administrative misconduct could not be won on its own terms. By recasting the 1709 eviction as the routine action of a landlord against a tenant in arrears, Tovey moved the analysis onto ground where it was much harder for the Alexander side to succeed, since the principle that landlords could remove defaulting tenants was uncontested. The technique is characteristic of a litigant who has identified the strongest available legal framing and is steering the council toward it through accumulated detail.

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it to live in (a little time) when he first married to the damage said Richard Alexander sustained not to be repaired much more than Bagleys and Toveys w[ch] is too long & melancholy to perticularise.

And if the Land were to continue in M[r] Goodgens hands the Children of Richard Alexander cannot be much the better the Execut[d] (of w[ch] said Jn[o] Alexander is one (haveing agreed w[th] M[r] Goodgen for their bringing up &c[a] & they'll have no more but tho if said Tovey cant possess the Land himself (as it was Hon[ble] Comp[a] Order'd) He will secure thereby 46[lb] more to Tho[s] Bagleys Child as well as have a Plantation fenced in cleared & an House kept up against the child is married or comes to Age which y[e] said Tovey may give for her use, or to her or dispose of otherwise as he thinks fitt, to his own advantage & the Rents and revenues fully paid.

What else is said by M[r] Jn[o] Alexander in his two too long replyes said Tovey thinks it but trifeling therefore takes no notice of them as unwilling to trouble his Hon[ble] Masters w[th] yo[r] Worship writts what has no relation to this bussiness & only further offers a Scheme of the charges & damages of his predecessor and himself to yo[r] Worship & Councills Consideration.

Novemb[r] y[e] 24[th] 1714 Antipas Tovey

[...] Geo[ge] Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Tovey took up the matter of the house. Mr Gargen had let him have it to live in, a little time after his first marriage. The damage Richard Alexander had sustained, not to be repaired, was much more than the loss to Bagley and Tovey, which was too long and melancholy to particularise.

If the land were to continue in Mr Gargen's hands, Richard Alexander's children could not be much the better. The executor of Richard Alexander's estate was one of them, John Alexander himself, having agreed with Mr Gargen for their bringing up. They should have no more. But if Tovey could not possess the land himself, as it was by the Honourable Company's order, he would by giving it up secure forty-six pounds more to Thomas Bagley's child, as well as a plantation fenced in and cleared, and a house kept up against the child were married or came of age. Tovey might then give the land for her use or to her, or dispose of it otherwise as he thought fit, to his own advantage, with the rents and revenues fully paid.

Whatever else was said by Mr John Alexander in his two long replies, Tovey thought it but trifling. He therefore took no notice of it, being unwilling to trouble his Honourable Masters or the worship with what had no relation to this business. He only further offered a schedule of the charges and damages of his predecessor and himself, to the worship and council's consideration.

The answer was dated November 1714 and was signed by Antipas Tovey, with the entry on the council side signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey.

Interpretations

The arrangement set out here exposes the financial mechanics of the disputed trust in its most explicit form. Tovey acknowledged that the land was held by Honourable Company order in his name as husband of Bagley's widow. Should he surrender his interest, the £46 0s 0d would be added to Thomas Bagley's child's portion, along with the improved plantation and the maintained house. Until the child came of age or married, Tovey would retain the use of the land for his own benefit, with all rents and revenues paid. The structure reveals the executor-trustee model in its full operation: present use to the trustee, eventual benefit to the heir, with the trustee's freedom to dispose meanwhile of the surplus value generated. The candour of the disclosure shows that Tovey saw no embarrassment in this arrangement, treating it as the proper working of an executorship over a minor heir.

The reference to John Alexander as executor of Richard Alexander's estate, having agreed with Mr Gargen for the bringing up of the children, brings the parallel arrangement on the Alexander side into view. The Alexander children were also held under an executor-managed trust, with Gargen as their stepfather and John Alexander as administrator of their interest. By placing the two arrangements side by side, Tovey suggested that the dispute was not between the children of one family and an unrelated successor planter, but between two executor-managed trusts, each pursuing its own beneficiaries. The technique flattened the moral asymmetry that John Alexander had pressed throughout the case, putting both sides on the footing of grown men managing the property of minors.

The schedule of charges and damages of Tovey's predecessor and himself, offered as the closing item, signals the transition from pleading to accounting. Where the earlier exchanges had contested title and motive, the schedule moved the dispute into the language of quantified loss. The implication was that any council ruling against the Bagley-Tovey side would have to be measured against a specific monetary figure, calculable from the schedule, which the Alexander side would need to satisfy if they were to recover the land. The schedule was therefore both a defensive measure, establishing the price of any restoration, and an offensive one, putting the Alexander side on notice that recovery without payment was not on offer.

Tovey's dismissal of John Alexander's two long replies as trifling, with the declaration that he would take no notice of them, operates as the rhetorical close of the formal pleadings. By refusing to engage in further particulars, Tovey converted the volume of the Alexander submissions from a strength into a weakness, treating it as evidence of weakness in the substance rather than thoroughness in the argument. The position prepared the council for its decisive sitting by suggesting that no further written exchange was needed, the schedule of charges alone remaining to be considered.

Speculations

The closing offer to surrender the land in exchange for £46 0s 0d going to Bagley's child, with a kept-up plantation and house, probably represents Tovey's first explicit settlement proposal in the dispute. By laying out the terms on which he would step aside, Tovey moved the case toward a negotiated resolution while keeping the documentary pressure on the Alexander side. The terms ensured that the Bagley minor's interest was protected even if Tovey gave up his personal stake, which placed the Alexander side in the awkward position of either accepting the offer or appearing willing to deprive a minor of her secured portion. The technique allowed Tovey to retire with credit if the council took up the offer, while leaving open the alternative of holding the land if it did not.

Tovey's choice to identify John Alexander as executor of his deceased brother's estate, having agreed with Gargen for the bringing up of the children, probably reflects a calculated decision to expose John Alexander's own position as a managing executor. The mention placed John Alexander on the same legal and moral footing as the Bagley executors he had so persistently attacked, undercutting the implicit framing of his case as that of a disinterested family advocate. By the close of Tovey's answer, both sides stood revealed as executor-managed trusts with similar structural incentives, which substantially weakened the asymmetric moral pressure on which the Alexander case had relied.

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Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Thursday the 2[d] Day of Decemb[r] 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[r] Pres[t] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Antipas Tovey 5[th] Geo[ge] Haswell 2[d] in y[e] Countrey M[r] Bazett 4[th] ab[t] y[e] Comp[as] affaires in survey y[e] fences

Whereas M[r] Carne in the severall Proposalls he made us in Consultation of the 2[d] Nov[r] last offered a Parcell of Land which Contains 30 Acres towards paym[t] of his Debt to the Hon[ble] Comp[as] in the Stores.

Ordered

That M[r] Bazett and M[r] Powell be appointed to Vallue the 30 Acres of Land for y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[as] use

The Govern[r] Reports that those Persons whose Punnishm[t] was left to him he hath accordingly Ordered and the same being Executed they were Discharged w[th] Admonition to behave themselves better for the future

Jn[o] Sinnick presented a Bill of Sale of Jeptha Fowler to him of a house in Southwark street James Valley prays that it may be registered which was

Granted

The Govern[r] further Reports that Oath being made before him that Tho[s] Bevian Sold[r] Stole a Silver Head of a Cane from Jn[o] Orchard he was Immediately Committed and now [may] put to hard Labour at the fortifications

Margin Notes:

30 Acres land offered by M[r] Carne to Sale

to be Vallued

Officers Punishm[t]

Jn[o] Sinnicks Bill of Sale

Bevian Charg'd w[th] Theft &c[a]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Thursday 2 December 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Antipas Tovey, fifth; George Haswell, second, in the country, looking after the Honourable Company's affairs in sundry general matters; Mr Bazett, fourth.

Whereas Mr Carne, in the several proposals he had made in the consultation of 2 November last, had offered a parcel of land containing thirty acres towards payment of his debt to the Honourable Company in the stores.

Ordered that Mr Bazett and Mr Powell be appointed to value the thirty acres of land for the Honourable Company's use.

The governor reported that those persons whose punishment had been left to him, he had ordered accordingly. The punishment having been carried out, they were discharged with an admonition to behave themselves better for the future.

John Sinsmick presented a bill of sale of Septha Fowler to him, of a house in Southwark Street, James Valley. He prayed that it might be registered. Granted.

The governor further reported that, upon oath being made before him that Thomas Bevian, soldier, had stolen a silver head of a cane from John Orchard, he was immediately committed. He was now to be put to hard labour at the fortifications.

Interpretations

The Carne land offer for £30 worth of debt against the Honourable Company stores reveals how the council handled large planter debts through asset transfer. Carne had run up an account in the Company stores for goods supplied on credit, and rather than press for cash repayment the council accepted a parcel of thirty acres of land in part satisfaction. The procedure converted private debt into Company property, with the land valued by an independent panel of two assessors, Bazett as council surveyor and Powell as a substantial planter. The mechanism gave the Company a productive asset in place of an unrecoverable book debt, while allowing the indebted planter to discharge his obligation without selling on the open market at distressed prices. The arrangement also fed Bell's ten-acre parcel advertisement tradition, where the Company acquired land that could then be advertised for sale or letting at its own discretion.

Sinsmick's registration of a bill of sale for Fowler's house in Southwark Street, James Valley illustrates the council's role as the local registry of urban property transactions. A bill of sale was the standard instrument for transferring a freehold dwelling, with registration in the consultation book serving as the public record that could be cited in any later dispute about title. The naming of Southwark Street confirms that the principal settlement at James Valley had developed named thoroughfares borrowed from London, with the consultation registry standing as the only authoritative record of who held what house on each street.

The treatment of Thomas Bevian, immediately committed on oath that he had stolen the silver head of John Orchard's cane and now to be put to hard labour at the fortifications, shows the rapid summary procedure for soldier-thieves. The sequence required oath of the complainant before the governor, committal of the accused on the strength of that oath, and assignment to forced labour on the fortifications as the standing penalty for theft within the garrison. The silver head of a cane was a small but valuable item, the decorative pommel cast or chased in silver and screwed or fitted to a walking stick; the offence was therefore both petty in scale and clearly identifiable in evidence, making it suitable for summary disposal. The use of fortification labour as a punishment served the double purpose of penalising the offender and securing free labour for ongoing wall and battery work.

The discharge of earlier punished persons with admonition to behave themselves better for the future, reported by the governor without naming who they were, attaches itself to the earlier punishments of Obriant, Ablard and Thompson for the riot of 20 November. Following lashes and committal, with Captain Philip's intercession leading to transfer to Banks Fort for Obriant and Thompson, the present discharge probably refers to the remaining stages of those punishments, with the men now formally released to their new posts under the standard verbal warning.

Speculations

The council's choice to value Carne's offered thirty acres through two named assessors, rather than by negotiated agreement with Carne himself, probably reflects a deliberate decision to keep the transaction at arm's length. By appointing Bazett and Powell as independent valuers, the council ensured that the eventual settlement of Carne's debt could not be challenged later as a private arrangement favouring either side. The procedural separation between debtor's offer and Company acceptance, mediated by independent valuation, supplied the documentary protection the council would need if the directors in London later questioned how a substantial debt had been discharged.

The recording of Sinsmick's bill of sale on the same day as the committal of Bevian and the closure of the riot punishments suggests that the consultation served as a clearance day for accumulated routine business. With the major land disputes between the Alexander and Bagley sides having dominated the recent council sittings, the present consultation gathered together smaller matters that had built up while the larger pleadings were before the council. The compressed sequence of unrelated orders shows how the council balanced extraordinary judicial business with the steady run of administrative matters that the island's daily life generated.

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The Orphans of Jon[s] Beale being Indebted to the Hon[ble] Company in the Store Books and M[r] Powill owing them some money

Ordered

That the said money be Attached for the Hon[ble] Comp[as] use towards payment of the Debt said Orphans stands Indebted as aforesaid

Cap[tn] Mashborne reports that he heard Renatus Snow Bartering w[th] a Black of Tho[s] Frees Named Bloue for some Lemons Contrary to a Law made in that Case

Ordered

That the said Snow be fined y[e] Sume of 5[lb] for y[e] use of the Church and Committed to Prison, and that the Black be also Punnisht

The Govern[r] Demanded of M[r] Tovey what progress he has made in the Office in answer to the 3[d] Parr[t] p[r] the Rochester and why he has Neglected it M[r] Tovey Answers he had no Ink for a Fortnights time

The Govern[r] Says there has always been Ink Enough & that this is only his pretence, and friendly Advises him to be more Carefull for the future or Else he shall be Obliged to write to the Comp[a]

[...]

A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Attachm[t] of Beale Orphans money

Snow fined for Bartering w[th] a black

what progress made in y[e] office

M[r] Toveys Answer.

The council took up the orphans of John Beale. They were indebted to the Honourable Company in the store books, and Mr Powell owed them some money.

Ordered that the money owed by Powell be attached for the Honourable Company's use, towards payment of the debt the orphans stood indebted as set out.

Captain Mashborne reported that he had heard Renatus Snow bartering with a slave of Thomas Frey named Clove for some lemons, contrary to a law made in that case.

Ordered that Snow be fined the sum of fifteen shillings for the use of the church, and committed to prison, and that the slave Clove also be punished.

The governor demanded of Mr Tovey what progress he had made in the office in answer to the third part of the Rochester letter, and why he had neglected it.

Mr Tovey answered that he had had no ink for a fortnight's time.

The governor said there had always been ink enough, and that this was only his pretence. He friendly advised him to be more careful for the future, or else he would be obliged to write to the Company.

The entry was signed by Pyke and Tovey.

Interpretations

The attachment of Powell's debt to the Beale orphans for the Honourable Company's use illustrates a clean procedural device for satisfying competing claims on the same money. Powell owed money to the Beale orphans; the Beale orphans in turn owed money to the Company on the store books. Rather than allow the funds to pass first to the orphans and then back to the Company, the council attached the debt at its source, directing Powell to pay the Company directly on behalf of the orphans. The mechanism saved a stage of administration, avoided any risk that the money would be dissipated between hands, and ensured that the Company's claim took precedence over any other use the orphans might make of the funds.

The fine on Renatus Snow of fifteen shillings for the use of the church, with committal to prison, reveals the recognised structure of penalties for breach of the local law against bartering with slaves. Bartering with slaves was prohibited because it enabled them to dispose of food or other items taken from their masters, with the prospect of personal gain. The £0 15s 0d fine, payable to the church rather than the Honourable Company, identified the offence as one against public order rather than against the company's commercial interest. The destination of fines to the church served the dual function of supporting the local religious establishment from disciplinary revenue and signalling that the violation was a moral as much as a commercial one. The simultaneous punishment of the slave Clove, although unspecified in form, indicates the standard parallel treatment of both parties to an illicit transaction.

Snow's offence is significant as a separate matter from the market system he had run for the council during the recent shipping period. The same Renatus Snow who had taken in seven pounds and sixpence as the council's appointed marketman during the previous shipping, accounting honestly to the storekeeper for receipts and a small shortfall through misread coin, now appears trafficking with a slave for lemons outside the regulated market. The pattern shows how a man trusted with formal market duties could simultaneously engage in unauthorised private dealing, and how the council distinguished sharply between the two activities even where the same person was involved.

The exchange between Pyke and Tovey over the office work in answer to the third part of the Rochester letter exposes the daily discipline of council administrative duties. Tovey's excuse of being out of ink for a fortnight was met with a flat denial by the governor, who treated the claim as a pretence covering simple neglect. The friendly advice to be more careful in future, with the threat of writing to the Company if the conduct continued, shows the standard escalation available to the governor against a delinquent council member. Reference to the metropolitan correspondence channel as the next stage of accountability indicates that the directors in London served as the ultimate disciplinary forum for council members, with even friendly admonition placed against the possibility of formal complaint.

Speculations

The decision to attach Powell's debt to the Beale orphans, rather than wait for the orphans themselves to receive payment, probably reflects the council's experience that money passing through orphan estates rarely emerged unencumbered. By taking the debt at source, the council bypassed the complications of an estate administered through guardians, with the attendant risks of legitimate competing claims, administrative expenses and outright leakage. The mechanism converted a multi-stage payment chain into a direct transfer, preserving the Company's recovery and protecting it from any vagaries of orphan estate administration.

The governor's choice to confront Tovey publicly on the office work, with the threat of writing to the Company recorded in the consultation book, probably reflects accumulated frustration with Tovey's pattern of delay. Tovey had already been the subject of John Alexander's allegations of slowness in the recent land case, and now stood publicly admonished by the governor for neglect of routine office work. The cumulative record in the consultation book was building a documentary case against Tovey's reliability that would have weight if the matter ever did reach the directors. The friendly framing of the advice probably reflects political prudence rather than mildness, since Tovey held the fifth seat in council and could not be removed without metropolitan authority.

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Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 7[th] day of Decemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley. Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Pres[t] Geo[ge] Haswell Dep[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council

M[r] Geo[ge] Carne sent the following Petition viz[t]

To the Worsh[p] the Gov[r] &c[a] Council

The Petition of Geo[ge] Carne Humbly Sheweth

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] has rec[d] advice from y[e] Worship the Gov[r] to remove his Goats from Chappel Valley requests his allegations to the Contrary may be rec[d] in person before himself & Council & as in duty bound shall ever pray &c[a] George Carne

The Govern[r] & Council do find that the Govern[mt] did buy a parcel of Goats of the Executors of Gov[r] Blackmore that used Chappel Valley & that the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Stock of Goats did continue there severall years, but M[r] Carne & others getting some tame goats in the said Valley they increased & as they increased the Comp[as] deminished & now the Comp[a] have none & M[r] Carne a good Flock, besides two flocks of Goats else where. Therefore the Gov[r] & Council finding it so Prejudiciall to the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Interest to have divers persons concern'd in their flock of Goats, which has all happened by a late neglect & by the boldness of persons introduceing there who have no real right they have resolved to reasume the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Right & to forbid as formerly all other Goats going in this Valley and do therefore Ord[r] the Secr[y]

To

Margin Notes:

M[r] Carnes Petition

ab[t] Goats in Chap[l] Valley

Prejudiciall to the Hon[ble] Comp[as]

therefore ordered

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 7 December 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Mr George Carne sent the following petition.

The document was addressed to the worshipful governor and council. Carne set out that he had received advice from the worshipful governor to remove his goats from Chapel Valley. He requested that his allegations to the contrary be received in person before the governor and council. The petition was subscribed by George Carne.

The governor and council found that the previous government had bought a parcel of goats from the executors of Governor Blackmore. That parcel had used Chapel Valley, and the Honourable Company's stock of goats had continued there for several years. Mr Carne and others, however, by getting some tame goats into the valley, had increased their own flocks at the expense of the Company's stock, which had diminished. The Company now had no goats there, while Mr Carne had a good flock besides two other flocks of goats elsewhere.

The governor and council, finding this very prejudicial to the Honourable Company's interest, that diverse persons should have their flock of goats in the valley, which had all happened by a late neglect and by the boldness of persons introducing them there who had no real right, resolved to resume the Honourable Company's right and to forbid, as formerly, all other goats from being in Chapel Valley. They therefore ordered the secretary

Interpretations

The Chapel Valley goat pasture establishes how a common grazing resource on the island had passed from regulated Company use to opportunistic appropriation by individual planters. The Honourable Company had purchased its parcel of goats from the executors of Governor Blackmore, with that flock having grazing rights in Chapel Valley as a matter of company tenure. Over several years, however, planters had introduced their own tame goats into the same valley, and the natural increase of those private flocks had displaced the Company's stock through grazing competition. The mechanism shows how the absence of active enforcement converted a regulated grazing area into a de facto common, with the most aggressive private owners eventually crowding out the original holder. The reference to a late neglect identifies the lapse as a recent administrative failure, probably under Boucher, when the watch over the valley was not maintained.

The reassertion of Company right to exclude private goats from Chapel Valley, framed as resumption of an established prohibition, deploys the language of recovery rather than innovation. By treating the present action as a return to the former state, the council avoided any suggestion that it was creating a new restriction on planter activity, with the implication that any planter resisting the order would be opposing the established law rather than a new imposition. The technique converted what would otherwise have been a fresh assertion of company privilege into the enforcement of a long-standing rule against an irregular usurpation.

The fact that Mr Carne held two other flocks of goats elsewhere, beyond the disputed one in Chapel Valley, indicates a substantial private livestock interest. The council's note of his other holdings served to neutralise any plea of hardship: removal of his goats from Chapel Valley would not deprive him of his livelihood, since his goat-keeping operations extended to several locations on the island. The mention of the alternative flocks is therefore not incidental but evidentiary, establishing that Carne's resistance to the order rested on the loss of an opportunistic gain rather than on any threat to his necessary subsistence.

Governor Blackmore appears here through the purchase of his goats by the previous government from his executors. Blackmore had served as governor of St Helena in an earlier period, and his estate had included a substantial flock of goats which the company had bought to maintain a Company stock in Chapel Valley. The detail places Blackmore as the original source of the Company flock and establishes the date of its acquisition as some years before the present consultation, providing the historical foundation for the council's claim to exclusive use of the valley.

Speculations

Carne's request to have his allegations heard in person before the governor and council probably reflects an expectation that face-to-face presentation would carry weight that a written petition could not. By coming before the council rather than answering through paper, Carne could deploy his considerable standing as a senior planter and member of established families to influence the decision through presence and bearing rather than through documentary argument. The technique was the usual recourse of a man with social capital to spend who had thin documentary ground on which to stand. Whether the council would grant the in-person hearing remained to be seen, but his asking for it indicates his preferred mode of contesting the order.

The framing of the goat takeover as the work of persons of boldness with no real right probably reflects an underlying judgement about Carne's particular role in the encroachment. Although the language is general, Carne alone is named in the consultation as having a good flock in the valley besides his other holdings, with the unspecified others mentioned only in passing. The drafting of the order leaves room to bring further offenders within its scope, but the principal target is recognisably Carne, who had emerged as the chief beneficiary of the lapse and whose flock would be the largest to be displaced by enforcement. The recent prosecution of Carne for keeping goats on Half Way Tree Common against advertisement in 1712 indicates a pattern of grazing disputes between him and successive councils.

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To Publish an Advertizem[t] this day that no persons whatsoever shall be permitted to keep any Goats in the Range of the Hon[ble] Comp[a] in Chappel Valley and parts adjacent and do ord[r] and Strictly charge all those persons who has now any Goats goeing in the said Chappel Valley or hereabouts to drive them away to some other Range in Ten days time from the date hereof

M[r] Geo[ge] Carne sent y[e] Following Letter viz[t]

S[r]

I have delivered as follows[s] as for Creddit the persons are Capable to pay viz[t] £ s d

Land 150 M[r] Francis 30:00:00

Cattle 036 Cleeve 30:00:00

Slaves 290 Cap[t] Bazetts will I am 23:00:00 sure allow

Work 035 W[m] Penny in Creddit 03:00:00

Goats certain 050 561

Provisions Rec[d] by the Hon[ble] Comp[a] 03:04:00

20:00:00

Jn[o] Long is gon downe to get me

M[r] Easthope 10:00:00

which makes 119:04:00 561:00:00 & y[e] other 80:00:00 plate

Totall 560:04:00

Some of the Creddites who do not answer my expectations must be made we to doe they haveing wherewith all.

S[ir] As for the Goats all but ten Yews are at y[e] Command Range &c[a] & those, ten I will remove except two Tame old Yews I request may be in the Valley, I have brought my self extream low with discomposeing my self at my misfortunes which come both too sudden & heavy not to be suprized at, I request this may sattisfie for the Present not being in a Capacity to proceed any farther without endangering y[e] ruine of my Family all

Margin Notes:

That none b[t] of Comp[as] to be kept in y[e] Valley

others to be drove away in 10 days.

M[r] Carnes Letter ab[t] Gov[r]ment.

The secretary was ordered to publish an advertisement this day. The notice forbade any person from keeping goats within the range of the Honourable Company in Chapel Valley and the parts adjoining. Every owner whose goats were then in the valley or nearby was strictly required to drive them off to some other range within ten days from the date of the notice.

George Carne sent the council a letter.

Carne dealt first with his debt to the Company. He listed the assets he had already delivered in account, together with the debts owed to him by others that he expected to apply against the obligation.

Land:

valued at £150 0s 0d.

Cattle:

thirty-six head, valued at £36 0s 0d.

Slaves:

twenty-nine, valued at £290 0s 0d.

Work:

credited at £35 0s 0d.

Goats:

fifty certain, valued at £50 0s 0d.

Sub-total: £361 0s 0d.

Mr Francis:

£30 0s 0d.

Cleeve:

£30 0s 0d.

Captain Bazett, with Sam as surety:

£93 0s 0d.

William Penny, in credit:

£3 0s 0d.

Provisions received by the Honourable Company:

£3 4s 0d.

Further sum from the Honourable Company:

£20 0s 0d.

John Long, gone down to collect from Mrs Easthope:

£10 0s 0d.

Sub-total: £119 4s 0d.

Further sum:

£361 0s 0d.

Plate:

£80 0s 0d.

Total: £560 4s 0d.

Carne added that some of his debtors had not yet met his expectations. They would need to be compelled to pay, since they had the means.

Carne turned to the goats. All but ten ewes had already been moved to the Command range and other locations. He undertook to remove the rest as well, with one exception. He asked that two tame old ewes might be allowed to remain in the valley. His misfortunes had come on him too suddenly and heavily for him to bear without distress. He asked the council to be satisfied for the present, since he was not in a position to do more without bringing his family to ruin.

Interpretations

The credit account submitted by Carne illustrates the structured method by which a substantial planter discharged a large debt to the Company. The schedule combined real property, livestock, slaves and personal effects with a list of receivables from third parties, allowing the entire portfolio to be tendered in one negotiated transfer. The procedure permitted Carne to discharge his obligation without forced sale, while giving the Company a documented basis on which to take over collection of his outstanding debts from named third parties. The total of £560 4s 0d set the scale of his financial exposure to the Company, exceeding the value of his developed land by more than threefold.

The valuation of twenty-nine slaves at £290 0s 0d gives an average of £10 0s 0d per head. This figure represents the standard market price for slaves on the island in this period, with variation by age, sex and condition. Slaves formed the largest single category of capital in Carne's estate, exceeding the value of his land. The accounting convention that placed slaves alongside cattle, goats and plate as items of transferable property reveals their legal status on the island as chattel that could be assigned for debt without further formality.

The mechanism of assigning third-party debts in part satisfaction of one's own obligation operated as the standard procedure for closing a multi-party account. The Company would take on collection responsibility against Francis, Cleeve, Bazett, Penny and the others in exchange for crediting Carne with the face value of each receivable. The line for Bazett at £93 0s 0d with Sam as surety indicates that a slave was standing as security for the debt, with his labour or sale value available if Bazett defaulted. Mrs Easthope's £10 0s 0d, currently being pursued by John Long on Carne's behalf, would on assignment fall to be collected by the Company through its own officers.

The plate at £80 0s 0d included in the schedule represents Carne's silver and possibly fine pewter, treated as a reserve store of value. Plate was the standard medium in which substantial households kept their accumulated cash surplus, since it combined high intrinsic value with portability and ready convertibility through melt or sale. Its inclusion in the debt-discharge schedule shows that Carne was prepared to surrender even his domestic silver in settlement, indicating either the severity of his exposure or his calculation that the Company would not in fact require all the items listed.

Speculations

Carne's request to keep two tame old ewes in the valley probably reflects an attempt to extract a small concession from an order he could not otherwise resist. By framing the request as touching only two named animals of advanced age, he separated the question of his bulk compliance with the removal order from a minor personal exception that the council could grant without compromising the policy. The choice of tame old ewes, rather than productive breeding stock, made the request appear modest and sentimental rather than commercial, increasing the chance of council assent.

The simultaneous submission of the goat compliance and the debt schedule probably reflects deliberate timing. By delivering both matters in one letter, Carne tied his acceptance of the painful goat order to his cooperation on the larger financial settlement, implicitly inviting the council to view his overall posture as that of a man making genuine efforts to meet his obligations despite serious distress. The pairing made it harder for the council to refuse his small request on the ewes without appearing to deal harshly with a planter who had submitted on both fronts in the same letter.

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all honest methods shall be taken to Sattisfie both your self & the Hon[ble] Companys Acco[ts] by Crosed out because Worsp[s] as to point of time

Your most Humble Serv[t] George Carne

M[r] Geo[ge] Carne being called for into Councill did not appear wherefore the Govern[r] sent for him to his house, the messenger brought word he was gone into the Country, w[ch] we very much wondered at & lookt upon it as a slight and Contempt upon us after he had sent a Petition desireing To be heard & to goe away immediately without any hearing

M[r] Cleeve. I am Informd that you have taken away yo[r] tools and left the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Work I expect yo[r] r reason in writing for so doeing without acquainting me first Isaac Pyke

Dec[r] y[e] 6[th] 1714 United Castle

M[r] Cleeve sent word by Tho[s] Hanson the Govern[r] Serv[t] that he gave his Service to him and would give his reasons to morrow

And then say'd he Left y[e] Companies Work that he might have time to finish his own house w[ch] he hoped would make y[e] house sell the better for he was Resolved to Sell of all & to leave & Iseland

[...] Geo[ge] Haswell [...] A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

this was Misplaced

ab[t] M[r] Carne Petitioning.

Gov[rs] Lett[r] to Cleeve

Cleeves Answer.

Carne closed his letter. He undertook that all honest methods would be taken to satisfy both himself and the Honourable Company's accounts. The letter was subscribed by George Carne as the council's most humble servant. A passage of the letter as to point of time was crossed out because it was misplaced.

Mr George Carne, having been called for into council, did not appear. The governor therefore sent for him to his house. The messenger brought word that Carne was gone into the country. The council very much wondered at this, and treated it as a slight and contempt upon them, since he had only just sent in a petition desiring to be heard, and had gone away immediately without any hearing.

A letter from the governor to Mr Cleeve was entered.

Pyke informed Cleeve that he had received word Cleeve had taken away his tools and left the Honourable Company's work. He expected Cleeve to give his reasons in writing for doing so without first acquainting him. The letter was dated at the United Castle, 6 December 1714, and subscribed by Isaac Pyke.

Cleeve's answer was then entered.

Cleeve sent word by Thomas Hanson, the governor's servant, that he gave his service to the governor and would give his reasons the next day.

He then said that he had left the Company's work so that he might have time to finish his own house. He hoped this would make the house sell the better, for he was resolved to sell off all he had on the island.

The entry was signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey.

Interpretations

The Carne incident shows the council's view of how a petitioner was obliged to make himself available once he had invoked their attention. By submitting a petition asking to be heard and then departing into the country without waiting for a hearing, Carne had violated a basic procedural expectation. The council treated his absence as a slight and contempt, language that placed his conduct on the same footing as an open defiance of council authority. The mechanism by which the council marked the offence was the consultation entry itself, which converted what might have been a casual absence into a formally recorded instance of contempt available for future reference if discipline became necessary.

Pyke's direct letter to Cleeve about the abandonment of Company work, demanding written reasons, illustrates the procedure for handling a covenant servant who had walked off the job. Cleeve was a tradesman whose tools were the principal capital of his employment; by removing them and his labour together, he had effected a unilateral departure from his Company engagement. The governor's response was calibrated: not immediate disciplinary action, but a written demand for explanation. The technique preserved the record while leaving Cleeve room to provide a defence that might mitigate the offence, with formal proceedings held in reserve depending on his answer.

Cleeve's reason, that he wished to finish his own house in preparation for selling all he had on the island, discloses a planter or tradesman preparing his departure. The phrase resolved to sell off all on the island indicates a definitive decision to leave St Helena rather than a temporary arrangement. The Company's work would naturally lose all attraction for a man within months of departure, since the wages no longer mattered against the urgency of preparing his estate for sale. Cleeve's calculation that finishing his own house would make it sell the better reflects the standard recognition that a completed dwelling attracted a substantially higher price than an unfinished one. The mechanism was straightforward: invest the last weeks of labour on personal preparations rather than continuing employment, since the return on the former exceeded the wages of the latter.

Thomas Hanson, named as the governor's servant who carried Cleeve's interim reply, appears here as the practical conduit by which Pyke communicated with inhabitants outside the formal channels of the council. The role of governor's servant included message-bearing as well as personal attendance, and the use of a named servant in the consultation record establishes that the communication had been properly delivered and received, with Hanson available as witness if required.

Speculations

Carne's departure into the country immediately after submitting his petition probably reflects a calculated decision to avoid an in-person hearing on terms he could not control. By submitting the petition and then making himself unavailable, Carne secured documentary protection of his position while removing himself from any confrontation in which Pyke might press him to harder commitments. The strategy may have been intended as a delay rather than a contempt, with the country residence serving as a temporary refuge until the immediate pressure on the goat order and the debt schedule had eased. The council's reading of his absence as slight and contempt suggests that Pyke at least perceived it as a calculated affront rather than an innocent absence.

Cleeve's decision to inform the council of his intended departure through the abandonment of Company work, rather than through a formal application for leave, probably reflects a wish to avoid the customary procedure by which a free planter or tradesman sought permission to depart the island. The procedure required a public advertisement and time for creditors to clear their accounts. By presenting his departure as a fait accompli through walking off the job, Cleeve forced the council to respond reactively rather than to control the timing. The technique gave him scope to move on his own schedule, with the formal procedure compressed or bypassed by the practical reality of his preparations being already under way.

290

281

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday 14[th] of Decemb[r] 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Pres[t] Geo[ge] Haswell Dep[ty] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council

Cap[t] Haswell & M[r] Bazett reports that By the Order of Council of the 22[d] Ult[o] they were appointed to Survey y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[as] fences with Mess[rs] Steward Francis & Powel but Mess[rs] Steward & Francis being Sick they had with two other planters viz[t] Mess[rs] Francis Wrangham & Rich[d] Gurling been to View the same & find them as follows Viz[t]

Length of Wall of the Walls or Fences

Where the Walls or fences lead to or border upon

[The cost of] repairing Shilling [pence]

N[o] of Rods 85 from the old house down to the Lower corner of younger Vally will cost to be made good 3 6

w[th] 14 at the bottom

Cost cost 4 from the Lower Corner upwards 3 6

a pair[s] 69 from the Last place along the Old Vineyard all good fence except small breaches which may cost to be repaired 2

34 from y[e] Corner of the Vineyard all face Wall will cost to be made a good Fence 8

21 a Face Wall to y[e] party fence of Carnes & Keelings 4

62 D[o] joyning to Keelings Land 4

20 D[o] Femsdales Gutt 4

40 Double Wall from D[o] to Keelings Land 4 6

50 Double face Walls Adjoyning to the Land on the back Side of Keelings house all pretty good may be repaired for ab[t] 50 Cost

Verte 6:0

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Hon[ble] Comp[as] Fences Sur- =veyd

Length of Walls of the Walls or Fences

N[o] of Rods 85

w[th] 14

Cost ct[s] 4

a pair[s] 69

34

21

62

20

40

50

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 14 December 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Captain Haswell and Mr Bazett reported that, by the order of council of 23 November last, they had been appointed to survey the Honourable Company's fences with Mr Steward, Mr Francis and Mr Powell. Messrs Steward and Francis being sick, they had gone with two other planters, Mr Francis Wrangham and Mr Richard Gurling, to view the same. They found them as follows.

Length in rods of the wall or fence:

eighty-five rods.

Where the wall or fence lay, or what it bordered upon:

from the old house down to the lower corner of Young's Valley wall, to be made good.

Cost of repairing:

£0 3s 6d.

Length:

fourteen rods.

Where it lay:

at the bottom.

Cost of repairing:

£0 3s 6d.

Length:

four rods.

Where it lay:

from the lower corner upwards.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

sixty-nine rods.

Where it lay:

from the last place along the old vineyard, all good fence except small breaches which might cost about [...] to repair.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 0d.

Length:

thirty-four rods.

Where it lay:

from the corner of the vineyard, all face wall, to be made into a good fence.

Cost of repairing:

£0 8s 0d.

Length:

twenty-one rods.

Where it lay:

a face wall to the party fence of Carne's and Keeling's.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

sixty-two rods.

Where it lay:

ditto, joining to Keeling's land.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

twenty rods.

Where it lay:

ditto, Fernsdale's gut.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

forty rods.

Where it lay:

double wall from ditto to Keeling's land.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 6d.

Length:

fifty rods.

Where it lay:

double face wall adjoining to the land on the back side of Keeling's house, all pretty good, might be repaired for about £0 0s 0d (figure not entered) cost.

Interpretations

The survey of the Honourable Company's fences sets out in numbered detail the state of the boundary walling around the Company pastures. Each entry pairs a length in rods with a specific location and an estimated repair cost, producing a comprehensive accounting document that could be used to seek tenders, supervise works and reconcile expenditure afterwards. The mechanism by which the council assessed its own infrastructure reveals the practical management of the island's most basic productive asset, the enclosed grazing land on which both the Company's herds and the legitimacy of planter holdings depended. The survey panel of two councillors, Haswell and Bazett, together with three planters, Wrangham, Gurling and the originally appointed Francis and Steward who had taken sick, gave the assessment both administrative and inhabitant authority.

The rod, used here as the unit of length, was the standard fencing and surveying measure of about sixteen and a half feet, or five and a half yards. A length of eighty-five rods therefore represented approximately four hundred and sixty-seven yards of wall. The use of the rod rather than the foot or yard reflects the practical realities of fence measurement, where the wall was built and repaired in regular structural lengths rather than in finer linear units. Costs estimated per length of rod allowed the council to compare the relative state of each section against a uniform scale.

The recurring boundary references to Keeling's land, Carne's land and Fernsdale's gut establish the geography of the Company pastures relative to the neighbouring private holdings. The mention of Keeling here is significant for its institutional continuity. The Keeling estate, now under administration by the heir John Keeling under the letter of administration ordered to be drawn out on 23 November 1714, formed an extensive boundary against the Company land. The repeated references to its limits, with three separate sections of wall touching upon it, show how the working maintenance of Company infrastructure required active engagement with the boundaries of private estates managed by successor administrators. Fernsdale's gut, named in the sequence, refers to a watercourse or steep narrow valley running through the surveyed area, with a gut being the customary local term for such a feature.

The double wall mentioned at two points in the survey indicates a fence of greater structural strength than the standard face wall, made up of two parallel walls with rubble fill between, providing both greater height and greater resistance to cattle pressure. The use of double walls at specific boundary points, particularly those joining the Keeling holding, suggests that those sections faced heavier traffic from livestock or carried particular defensive value. Single face walls served on less exposed boundaries. The graduated repair cost in each entry reflects the differing labour required to bring each section back to a serviceable state.

Speculations

The decision to substitute Wrangham and Gurling for the sick Steward and Francis without delay probably reflects the council's wish to complete the survey within the three-day window originally allowed. By proceeding with the available planters rather than waiting for the named members to recover, Haswell and Bazett kept the inquiry on schedule and avoided the political risk that further delay would attract. The substitution also illustrates the depth of available planter expertise on which the council could draw at short notice, with two competent replacements found from within the resident community of substantial inhabitants.

The level of detail given for each section, with specific cost estimates ranging from small repair sums to larger figures for sections requiring full rebuilding, probably reflects the panel's awareness that the survey would form the basis of an itemised costing for the directors. By providing a per-section breakdown rather than a single global figure, the survey would allow Pyke to apportion expenditure across budget cycles, prioritise repairs by urgency, and demonstrate to London exactly what state the pastures had reached. The technique converted what might have been a general assessment of dilapidation into a concrete administrative tool.

291

282

The Length of [no.] [Rods] of the Walls of Fences

Where the Walls lead to or border upon

The Cost of Repairing Shillings Pence

20 face Wall from y[e] upper part of Keelings to a double wall along the Ridge will cost 4

150 Double Wall all along Cap[t] Goodwins Land, if made w[th] sound stones w[th] must be fecht a great way 15

40 face Wall & Ditch y[e] upper [p[t]] of D[o] Land to be made good as aforesaid 8

48 Bottom of the Lane formerly Ensign Casons Adjoyning to Greentrees to make a Secure fence will cost in the whole Seven pound

49 Double Wall joyning to Powells 4

18 face Wall from Powells Gutt to y[e] head of Addis Ground 3 6

32 a Double Wall Adjoyning to Addis Land 4

120 from Casons old house along the Ridge to Wranghams fence all good

26 Down from Wranghams corner to Jn[o] Coles being ditch and face Wall 2 6

14 from Wranghams Corner to Bowmans Land to make a good fence 5

58 from the upper part of Bowmans Land to his Plantac[ion] in the gult to be made good 7

130 from the bottom of the Gutt all along D[o] Land to the upper part of M[r] Powells Land Adjoyning to Luftkins 5 6

80 from the Top of Powells Land joyning to Luftkins downe to the bottom will cost to Repair it 7. 2. 6

70 along the Lane and bottom of Luftkins Land all good

50 from y[e] Lower part of M[r] Francis Land to the Top of it 3 6

65 from y[e] Top of D[o] to y[e] upper corner of Sich Land 7

40 Double Wall all along y[e] head of Sich ground 4

Carried over 34

The fence survey continued.

Length:

twenty rods.

Where it lay:

face wall from the upper part of Keeling's to a double wall along the ridge, would cost.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

one hundred and fifty rods.

Where it lay:

double wall all along Captain Goodwin's land, if made with sound stones with [...] must be fetched a great way.

Cost of repairing:

£0 15s 0d.

Length:

forty rods.

Where it lay:

face wall and ditch, the upper [...] of the said land, to be made good as before.

Cost of repairing:

£0 8s 0d.

Length:

forty-eight rods.

Where it lay:

bottom of the lane formerly Ensign Caton's, adjoining to gum trees, to make a secure fence, would cost in the whole seven pounds.

Cost of repairing:

£7 0s 0d.

Length:

forty rods.

Where it lay:

double wall joining to Powell's.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

eighteen rods.

Where it lay:

face wall from Powell's gut to the head of Addis's ground.

Cost of repairing:

£0 3s 6d.

Length:

thirty-two rods.

Where it lay:

a double wall adjoining to Addis's land.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Length:

one hundred and twenty rods.

Where it lay:

from Caton's old house along the ridge to Wrangham's fence, all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

twenty-six rods.

Where it lay:

down from Wrangham's corner to Thomas Coles, being ditch and face wall.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 6d.

Length:

fourteen rods.

Where it lay:

from Wrangham's corner to Bowman's land, to make a good fence.

Cost of repairing:

£0 5s 0d.

Length:

fifty-eight rods.

Where it lay:

from the upper part of Bowman's land to his plantation in the gut, to be made good.

Cost of repairing:

£0 7s 0d.

Length:

one hundred and thirty rods.

Where it lay:

from the bottom of the gut all along the said land to the upper part of Mr Powell's land adjoining to Lufkin's.

Cost of repairing:

£0 5s 6d.

Length:

eighty rods.

Where it lay:

from the top of Powell's land joining to Lufkin's, down to the bottom, would cost to repair.

Cost of repairing:

£7 2s 6d.

Length:

seventy rods.

Where it lay:

along the lane and bottom of Lufkin's land, all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

fifty rods.

Where it lay:

from the lower part of Mr Francis's land to the top of it.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 6d.

Length:

sixty-five rods.

Where it lay:

from the top of the said land to the upper corner of Sick's land.

Cost of repairing:

£0 7s 0d.

Length:

forty rods.

Where it lay:

double wall all along the head of Sick's ground.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 0d.

Carried over £34 0s 0d.

Interpretations

The list of boundary neighbours encountered along this stretch of the Company fences provides a map of the substantial planter holdings along the ridge. Keeling, Goodwin, Caton, Powell, Addis, Wrangham, Coles, Bowman, Lufkin, Francis and Sick appear as the principal abutters. Several of these names recur in other consultations of the period. Powell, recently engaged with the council in the Hoskison-Carne bond and the orphans' debt attachment, holds substantial land at multiple boundary points. Wrangham, identified in earlier consultations as a free planter granted Company waste ground in Peak Gut, appears here as a settled holder along the ridge with his own fenced corner. The frequency of the same names along the Company boundary illustrates how a relatively small number of substantial planters held the developed land closest to the Company pastures, with successive boundaries running between estates of the same handful of families.

The repeated note that certain stretches were all good, with no cost of repair entered, reveals how the survey distinguished between fences requiring intervention and those already in serviceable condition. The all good designation served as a documentary record that the panel had viewed the section and found no defect, protecting the Company against later claims that the fence had been overlooked. The technique of recording satisfactory sections alongside defective ones produced a complete walkround of the boundary rather than a selective list of works to be done.

The reference to Ensign Caton's old house and the gum trees identifies a specific landmark within the surveyed area. Caton, formerly an officer of the garrison, had previously held land at this location, with his house and the gum trees serving as recognised reference points decades after his tenancy. Such named features functioned as the working geography of the island, with verbal description rather than maps providing the means by which boundaries were communicated and recorded. The note that the lane bottom there would require seven pounds of work, a substantial sum compared to most other sections, indicates a major rebuild of the fencing in that location.

The stone-sourcing constraint noted at Goodwin's land, that sound stones must be fetched a great way, exposes an operational cost driver in fence repair. Local stone of fence-building quality was not uniformly available across the Company holdings, with some sections requiring transport of materials from quarry sites or distant outcrops at considerable labour cost. The estimate of fifteen shillings for the one hundred and fifty rods of double wall at Goodwin's reflects both the length of the section and the additional labour of transporting suitable stone. The detail shows how the survey panel was costing not only the wall work itself but the supply logistics behind it.

Speculations

The substantial figure of seven pounds for the Caton's lane bottom and seven pounds two shillings sixpence for the eighty-rod stretch at Powell's and Lufkin's land probably indicates that those sections had effectively collapsed and required complete rebuilding from the ground up rather than mere patching. The contrast between these high single-line costs and the small repair figures elsewhere shows that the survey was identifying particular bottleneck points where capital expenditure on full reconstruction was needed before the wider fencing system would function. By isolating these critical sections, the council could prioritise expenditure on the points where neglect had advanced furthest while accepting routine maintenance elsewhere.

The choice to carry the cumulative figure forward at £34 0s 0d at the end of this section suggests the survey was structured as a running account to be totalled at the conclusion. The mechanism converted the line-by-line walkround into a coherent budget document, with the final total available as a single figure for council approval and metropolitan reporting. The arrangement allowed the directors in London to see both the granular detail of the assessment and the aggregate cost of restoration at a glance, supporting either a global authorisation or a phased expenditure programme according to the available funds.

292

283

The Length in N[o] Rod[s] of the Walls or Fences

Where the Walls lead to or border upon The cost of Repairing Shillings Pence

32 Fence Wall all along the head of Wranghams Land 4 6

22 from Wranghams corner to the Rideing house to repair and make good 2 6

48 from the Rideing house to the Mortur Walls Hutts Plantation 2 6

35 from the Gate by y[e] house to the Stile by Quintys Grave 6

5 from Quintys Grave Stile to the Bank 6

14 from D[o] good Fence

2 Double Wall 5

56 from D[o] to y[e] corner on y[e] Top of Hawleys mount 3 6

46 D[o] Good

7 from D[o] Corner on the Mount to y[e] Bank 6

63 from y[e] Top of Hawley[s] mount down to Burnhams path all good

41 Double Wall from D[o] Corner down to Wills Gutt 10

20 Bank & faled Wall w[th] 2 foot Double Wall on y[e] Top from Burnhams Path Corner to D[o] Gate 5

15 Down from Wills Gate along the Water fall all good

11 from y[e] Water fall along D[o] Gutt 10. will make all good

from Will[s] Plantation down to y[e] Wid[o] Hayse all good

57 from Hayse Plantation to y[e] Hutts Yam Plantation 2 6

28 from y[e] Corner of y[e] Yam Plantac[on] adjoyning to Hays 60 Rod whereof 28 to make good will cost 2

A List of y[e] Bonds delivered to the Gov[r] the Second of the Last Month Verte

The fence survey continued.

Length:

thirty-nine rods.

Where it lay:

fence wall all along the head of Wrangham's land.

Cost of repairing:

£0 4s 6d.

Length:

ninety-nine rods.

Where it lay:

from Wrangham's corner to the riding house, to repair and make good.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 6d.

Length:

forty-eight rods.

Where it lay:

from the riding house to the mortar wall, the Hutts plantation.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 6d.

Length:

thirty-five rods.

Where it lay:

from the gate by the house to the stile by Quincy's grave.

Cost of repairing:

£0 0s 6d.

Length:

five rods.

Where it lay:

from Quincy's grave stile to the bank.

Cost of repairing:

£0 0s 6d.

Length:

fourteen rods.

Where it lay:

from ditto, good fence.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

two rods.

Where it lay:

double wall.

Cost of repairing:

£0 5s 0d.

Length:

fifty-six rods.

Where it lay:

from ditto to the corner on the top of Hawley's mount.

Cost of repairing:

£0 3s 6d.

Length:

forty-six rods.

Where it lay:

ditto, good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

seven rods.

Where it lay:

from the corner on the mount to the bank.

Cost of repairing:

£0 0s 6d.

Length:

sixty-three rods.

Where it lay:

from the top of Hawley's mount down to Burnham's path, all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

forty-one rods.

Where it lay:

double wall from ditto corner down to Will's gut.

Cost of repairing:

£0 10s 0d.

Length:

twenty rods.

Where it lay:

bank and faced wall to a two-foot double wall on the top.

Cost of repairing:

£0 5s 0d.

Length:

(figure not entered).

Where it lay:

from Burnham's path corner to ditto gate.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

fifteen rods.

Where it lay:

down from Will's gate along the waterfall, all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

eleven rods.

Where it lay:

from the waterfall along ditto gut to wall, must be all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

(figure not entered).

Where it lay:

from Will's plantation down to the widow Hayes, all good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

Length:

fifty-seven rods.

Where it lay:

from Hayes' plantation to the Hutts yam plantation adjoining.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 6d.

Length:

(figure not entered).

Where it lay:

from the corner of the yam plantation, to make good wall.

Cost of repairing:

£0 2s 0d.

Length:

twenty-eight rods.

Where it lay:

to Hayes', sixty rods where, of twenty-eight, to make good.

Cost of repairing:

(figure not entered).

A list of the bonds delivered to the governor on the second of last month followed.

Interpretations

The riding house and the Hutts plantation named in this section identify two distinct Company facilities at this stretch of the boundary. The riding house was an enclosed structure for the keeping and exercise of horses, with stabling and working space for the Company's mounts. The Hutts plantation, named also in earlier consultations as the site of the recent slaves' house rebuilding, was the company's principal labour and accommodation complex for its slave workforce. Their proximity along the same boundary line shows how the Company concentrated its operational facilities in a connected zone, with riding stables, slave quarters and yam plantation all within a single chain of fencing maintained as one continuous management unit.

The reference to Quincy's grave as a fencing landmark is a striking detail of how burial sites became fixed boundary references in island geography. Quincy, evidently an inhabitant buried at this location, gave his name to a stile crossing the fence at his grave. The grave functioned not only as a personal memorial but as an established reference point in the working description of the boundary, with the section measured from gate to stile to bank using the grave as the intermediate fix. The use of named graves as fencing landmarks reflects the island's still small and recent settlement history, where the burials of the previous generation provided the principal artificial features marking the land.

The widow Hayes named at this section is probably Dorothy Hayes, whose cow petition had been referred to further consideration on 7 September 1714 in one of the open threads inherited by the present administration. Her plantation appears here as a recognised boundary point along the Company fence line, indicating that the cow petition was being pursued by a settled widow with land of her own rather than by a person in extreme distress. The detail places her geographically within the wider planter community and confirms her standing as an established holder along the Company boundary.

The faced wall with a two-foot double wall on top, described in one of the sections, represents a particular construction method for boundaries on steep or unstable ground. A faced wall built up against a bank gave a vertical containing face, with a double wall along the top providing additional height and resistance to livestock pressure from above. The two-foot specification probably refers to the thickness of the double wall course at the top, sufficient to take pedestrian or animal weight without dislodging stones. The construction reflects the engineering response to fencing on the broken volcanic terrain of the island, where simple level walls would have been inadequate to the slopes encountered.

Speculations

The repeated entries of all good with no cost figure in this stretch, particularly the long lengths from Hawley's mount, from Will's plantation to Hayes', and from the waterfall along the gut, probably reflect that the Company's older or more carefully constructed walls had survived the period of neglect better than others. The pattern suggests that fencing made under earlier administrations to a higher specification had remained serviceable, while the lighter walls more recently put up had failed. The survey was therefore documenting not only present condition but also the relative durability of different generations of construction, which would inform decisions on materials and methods for the planned restoration.

The line entry for Quincy's grave stile, mortar wall, riding house and Hutts plantation appearing within a few rods of each other suggests that this section of the boundary served as a dense operational corridor combining Company infrastructure, burial ground, livestock keeping and plantation labour. The concentration of distinct functions along a short stretch of fencing reflects how the Company organised its complex of operations close to James Valley for efficient supervision and access, rather than dispersing them across the wider island. The fence survey of this section was therefore not a routine boundary inspection but an assessment of the perimeter security of the Company's principal operational hub.

293

284

A List of Bonds, &c[a] found in this Secr[y] Office

p[r] Antipas Tovey

Year | Month | Day[s] | [Description]

1690 | July | 2 | Josias Charlesworth & Jn[o] Nichols bond to y[e]

Comp[a] for paym[t] of 4[lb] p[r] ann[m]

[...] | [...] | [...] | Ditto. Bond to save the Gov[r] & Council harmless

from M[r] Smoults Tombstone Wood

1697 | Aug[t] | 23 | Ruth Quiney Sam[l] Desfountaine & Jn[o] Longs

bond for 150[lb] ab[t] Onsiphorous Quineys Estate

1698 | M[arc]h | 25 | Gab[l] Powell, Rob[t] Addis & Sam[l] Maxwell's

bond for 155[lb] to save Gov[r] and Council harmless

ag[t] Gabriel Powells Rev[t]

170[2/3] | Jan[ry] | 5 | Contract bet[n] Gov[r] & Council & Edw[d] Heath

about Free Jack

1703 | May | 1 | W[m] Frenchs Deed of Gift of his Slave Charles

D[o] | D[o] | 22 | M[r] Carne & Cap[t] Goodwins bond to Pay

Elianor Keling 128:19:0 [1/2]

1705 | May | 17 | Tho[s] Allis' bond to save the Parish harmless

from his daughters bastard Child

170[6] | M[arc]h | 20 | Wid[o] Fields bond to save the Parish harmless

from her daughters bastard Child

1708 | Jan[ry] | 8 | Mess[rs] Carne, Hoskinson & Bazetts bond for

paym[t] of 167:16:3 [1/2] to Geo[ge] Keelings Children

1709 | July | 25 | Jn[o] Orchards agreem[t] w[th] Gov[r] and Council

ab[t] Tanning

1710 | Jan[ry] | 30 | Jn[o] Mortimores Obligac[on] to serve the Hon[ble]

Comp[a] 5 Years

1710 | May | 26 | Renatus Snows D[o] for 5 Years

D[o] | June | 12 | Simon Hailes D[o] for 2 Years

D[o] | D[o] | 21 | Henry Bernad D[o] for 2 Years

Verte

A list of bonds and other instruments found in the Secretary's office, made by Antipas Tovey, followed.

4 July 1690.

Bond of Josias Charlesworth and John Nichols to the Honourable Company for payment of £4 0s 0d and interest.

Same date.

Bond to save the governor and council harmless from Mr Smoult's tombstone wood.

23 August 1697.

Bond of Ruth Quincy, Samuel Desfountaine and John Long for £150 0s 0d, concerning Onesiphorous Quincy's estate.

25 March 1698.

Bond of Gabriel Powell, Robert Addis and Samuel Maxwell for £155 0s 0d, to save the governor and council harmless against Gabriel Powell senior.

5 January 1703.

Contract between the governor and council and Edward Heath concerning Free Jack.

1 May 1703.

William French's deed of gift of his slave Charles.

22 May 1703.

Bond of Mr Carne and Captain Goodwin to pay Eleanor Keeling £128 19s 0¼d.

17 May 1705.

Bond of John Allis to save the parish harmless from his daughter's bastard child.

20 March 1706.

Bond of Mrs Field to save the parish harmless from her daughter's bastard child.

8 January 1708.

Bond of Messrs Carne, Hoskison and Bazett for payment of £167 16s 3¼d to Governor Keeling's children.

25 July 1709.

John Orchard's agreement with the governor and council concerning tanning.

30 January 1710.

John Mortimore's obligation to serve the Honourable Company for five years.

26 May 1710.

Bond of Renatus Snow to serve ditto for five years.

12 June 1710.

Bond of Simon Hailes to serve ditto for three years.

21 June 1710.

Bond of Henry Bernard to serve ditto for three years.

Interpretations

The list discloses how the Secretary's office served as the central repository of every binding obligation entered into between inhabitants, garrison, parish and the Honourable Company across more than two decades of administration. The bonds cover four distinct categories of obligation, each with its own institutional function. First, simple debt bonds securing payment of stated sums, such as the 1690 Charlesworth bond for £4 0s 0d. Second, indemnity bonds running in favour of the council to protect it against future claims, such as the 1690 tombstone wood bond and the 1698 Powell bond saving the governor and council harmless against Gabriel Powell senior. Third, parish indemnities for the maintenance of illegitimate children, such as the Allis and Field bonds, which transferred the financial risk of poor relief from the parish to the family of the mother. Fourth, covenant servant bonds binding individuals to fixed terms of service with the Company, such as the Mortimore five-year bond and the Snow, Hailes and Bernard service bonds of 1710.

The Carne, Hoskison and Bazett bond of 8 January 1708 for £167 16s 3¼d in favour of Governor Keeling's children is significant for its place in the wider Keeling estate matter. This sum, jointly secured by three of the principal council members of the period, represented a substantial obligation to the Keeling heirs that had been outstanding for nearly seven years by the time of the present consultation. The bond's appearance in this catalogue, taken with the recent 9 November 1714 ruling on the related £40 0s 0d Hoskison-Hayhurst bill and John Keeling's recent administration of his father's estate, indicates that the entire Keeling financial position was being systematically reviewed under the new administration. The May 1703 bond of Carne and Goodwin to pay Eleanor Keeling £128 19s 0¼d, also listed here, formed part of the same network of obligations to the Keeling family.

The parish indemnity bonds of Allis in 1705 and Field in 1706 reveal how the parish enforced its right to recover the maintenance costs of bastard children from the families of the mothers. Under English parochial practice, a parish was liable for the support of any child born within its bounds whose father could not be made to maintain it. To prevent this falling on the parish revenue, the council took bonds from the father, where identified, or the mother's family, where not, undertaking to save the parish harmless from the cost. The Allis daughter's child and the Field daughter's child generated two such bonds within twelve months, indicating that bastardy cases were sufficiently regular to require a standing form of indemnity.

The cluster of four covenant service bonds dating from January 1710 to June 1710 indicates a recruitment push at the start of that year under which several free men, presumably arriving from England as covenant servants or from local sources, were bound to specific terms of company service. Mortimore signed for five years, Snow for five, Hailes for three and Bernard for three. The Snow named here is presumably the same Renatus Snow who served as marketman during the recent shipping period and was just fined for bartering with a slave for lemons. The pattern of multiple bonds within five months indicates that 1710 was a year when the Company actively replenished its labour pool through bound service contracts, with terms calibrated to the perceived skill or value of the individual.

Speculations

The placement of the bond list in the consultation record on the same day as the fence survey probably reflects Pyke's broader project of cataloguing the inherited administrative state of the island. Both documents are inventory exercises, one of physical infrastructure and the other of legal obligations, both produced under a new governor concerned to understand and document what he had taken charge of. The technique converted the consultation book into a comprehensive audit of the island's assets and liabilities, supplying the directors with a baseline against which future progress could be measured and providing Pyke with a documentary defence should the directors later question what state things had been in when he arrived.

The inclusion of bonds going back to 1690, more than twenty years before the present sitting, suggests that the Secretary's office had retained instruments long after their immediate operative life had ended. The 1690 Charlesworth bond for £4 0s 0d would have been satisfied or written off many years before, yet still appeared in the office at the time of the audit. The retention pattern indicates either administrative inertia or a deliberate policy of preserving all instruments for documentary continuity. The latter is more probable, since the catalogue served as evidence of past Company business that might still be relevant if accounts came to be reopened or estates reviewed, as the Keeling matter shows.

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Year | Month | Day[s] | [Description]

1710 | July | 12 | Sam[l] Young, Sam[l] Thornborough, Edw[d] Hicksman

Geo[ge] Lewis, James Loret & Nick[s] Jarvis'

obligac[on] to serve y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] for 3 Years

1711 | April | 6 | Wid[o] Midges bond to keep her Grand Daughter

Janes Child

D[o] | June | 9 | Tho[s] Stonefield & Abrah[am] Dormans Obligac[on]

to serve y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] 5 Years Each

1712 | Feb[ry] | 12 | Rob[t] Swallows late bond for his forthcoming

1712 | July | 15 | Jos[eph] Bates bond to serve the Hon[ble] Comp[a] 5 Years

D[o] | D[o] | 22 | W[m] Bate D[o] for D[o] Time

D[o] | Aug[t] | 1 | Rob[t] Bells Tho[s] Cason & W[m] Seale's bond to

y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] for 200 at 8 p[r] C[t]

D[o] | D[o] | [...] | M[r] Bazetts Agreem[t] ab[t] Peter Sinnicks Land

1713 | M[arc]h | 25 | Rob[t] Swallows & Jn[o] Nichols bond for 10[lb] Lycence

Mony

D[o] | D[o] | D[o] | Mary Conway Edw[d] Highams & Tho[s] Hayse D[o]

for 10[lb]

D[o] | D[o] | D[o] | James Pierce y[e] Cha[s] Smithers & Tho[s]

Hayse D[o] for 10[lb]

D[o] | May | 28 | Jn[o] Ryvin James Draper & Isaac Wood bond to

y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] for 80[lb]

1713 | Nov[r] | 16 | Jn[o] Welch, Jn[o] Twaits & W[m] Beals bond to

y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[a] for 60[lb]

1714 | Jan[ry] | 12 | Mess[rs] Carne & Powells bond of Arbitracon

1714 | Sept[r] | 28 | W[m] Portley W[m] Slaughter & Jn[o] Orchards bond

for 10[lb] Lycence mony

Verte

The list of bonds continued.

12 July 1710.

Obligation of Samuel Young, Samuel Thornborough, Edward Hicksman, George Lewis, James Lovett and Nicholas Jarvis to serve the Honourable Company for three years.

6 April 1711.

Bond of Widow Midge to keep her granddaughter, James's child.

9 June 1711.

Obligation of Thomas Stonefield and Abraham Dormand to serve the Honourable Company for five years each.

12 February 1712.

Robert Swallow's bail bond for his forthcoming.

15 July 1712.

Bond of Joseph Bates to serve the Honourable Company for five years.

22 July 1712.

Bond of William Bates to serve ditto for ditto time.

1 August 1712.

Bond of Robert Bell, Thomas Cason and William Teale to the Honourable Company for £200 0s 0d at eight per cent.

Same date.

Mr Bazett's agreement with Peter Sinsmick.

25 March 1713.

Bond of Robert Swallow and John Nichols for £10 0s 0d licence money.

Same date.

Bond of Mary Conway, Thomas Higham and Thomas Hayes for £10 0s 0d.

Same date.

Bond of James Pierce, Gilles Smyth and Thomas Hayes for £10 0s 0d.

28 May 1713.

Bond of John Squire, James Draper and Isaac Wood to the Honourable Company for £80 0s 0d.

16 November 1713.

Bond of John Welch, John Twaits and William Beale to the Honourable Company for £60 0s 0d.

22 January 1714.

Mr Carne and Mr Powell's bond of arbitration.

20 April 1714.

Bond of William Pooley, William Slaughter and John Orchard for £10 0s 0d licence money.

Interpretations

The 1 August 1712 bond of Robert Bell, Thomas Cason and William Teale for £200 0s 0d at eight per cent identifies the standard interest rate applied to substantial private debts owed to the Honourable Company. Eight per cent represented the customary rate for secured commercial credit in this period, and its application to a £200 0s 0d obligation with two sureties shows how the Company functioned as the principal lender of capital on the island. The same rate had appeared in the 24 July 1712 sale of the Belvird country plantation to Bell at £200 0s 0d on two years' credit at eight per cent, suggesting that the present bond is the recorded instrument securing that transaction. Bell's standing as a free planter mason had been adequate to secure such credit only with two sureties, Cason and Teale, jointly liable for the full sum.

The licence money bonds of 1713 and 1714, each for £10 0s 0d and each involving three named persons, reveal a distinct category of obligation tied to the council's authority to license specific trades or activities. The £10 0s 0d figure recurs across all three bonds, suggesting a fixed scale for the licence type involved. Each bond carried three signatories, one as principal and two as sureties, which was the standard form for ensuring recoverability against substantial planters even if the principal defaulted. The presence of Thomas Hayes as a surety on two of the 1713 licence bonds indicates his standing as a man of credit whose name could be placed behind the obligations of others, while the surnames Swallow, Pooley, Slaughter and Orchard place several already-known planters within the licensed trade community.

The bond of arbitration between Carne and Powell of 22 January 1714 records a procedure used to resolve private disputes without resort to the council's adjudicatory jurisdiction. An arbitration bond bound each party to accept the decision of named arbitrators, with a penal sum payable for non-compliance. By committing themselves under bond to abide by the eventual award, the parties converted what would otherwise have been a continuing dispute into a binding settlement procedure operating outside the council's direct intervention. The mechanism preserved council time for substantive business while providing the parties with a structured private alternative. The continuing involvement of Powell in council survey and assessment work in 1714, alongside Carne's various financial troubles, suggests that whatever the bond covered was either resolved or held in abeyance during the present year.

The Widow Midge bond of 6 April 1711 to keep her granddaughter, James's child, indicates a private undertaking for the maintenance of a child without resort to parish indemnity. Where the parental responsibility could not be enforced through bastardy proceedings against an identified father, an elder relative could undertake care of the child by bond, with the parish thereby relieved of any obligation. The naming of the child only as James's child, with no surname for the father, suggests that the father was either deceased or unable to be charged, leaving the maternal grandmother to assume the legal responsibility.

Speculations

The cluster of three £10 0s 0d licence bonds on the single date of 25 March 1713 probably represents the standard annual issue or renewal of licences on the customary quarter day. Quarter days were the recognised dates for the renewal of leases, payment of rents and issue of licences in the early modern English system, with Lady Day, 25 March, opening the legal year. The simultaneous taking of three bonds for identical sums on the same quarter day suggests that the licences in question were issued or renewed on an annual cycle, with each holder providing fresh sureties at each renewal. The technique converted licensing into a regular calendar-bound operation rather than an ad hoc grant.

The high number of multi-party service obligations dating from 1710, including the six-name joint obligation of Young, Thornborough, Hicksman, Lewis, Lovett and Jarvis for three years, probably reflects the arrival of a batch of indentured servants on a single ship in the summer of that year. The simultaneous binding of six men under a joint three-year obligation suggests they were taken collectively from a homeward Indiaman or East Indiaman touching at the island, with the council securing their service through a single instrument rather than individual bonds. The technique would have been efficient where the men came as a group and were not yet individually distinguished in terms of skill or expected role.

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Year | Month | Day[s] | [Description]

1714 | April | 28 | Jn[o] Orchard W[m] Slaughter & W[m] Portley[s] bond for 10[lb] Lycence Mony

D[o] | May | 10 | Giles Hayse W[m] Beale & Giles Smith bond for D[o]

D[o] | D[o] | D[o] | Jn[o] Sinnicks Rob[t] Gurling & W[m] Worrall D[o] for 10[lb]

D[o] | D[o] | 14 | Susannah Swallow, W[m] Lackey & Jn[o] Sinnick D[o] for 10[lb]

D[o] | Octob[r] | 18 | W[m] Seale Antipas Tovey & Frank[s] Funge D[o] for 10[lb]

D[o] | D[o] | D[o] | W[m] Beale W[m] Coales & Rob[t] Wallington D[o] for 10[lb]

D[o] | D[o] | D[o] | Renatus Snow Tho[s] Dutch & Sam[l] Allgate D[o] for 10[lb]

M[r] Geo[ge] Carne presented the fol[lg] Petition viz[t] To the Worshipf[ll] y[e] Gov[r] &c[a] and Council The Petition of George Carne most humbly

Sheweth

That whereas Cap[t] Edw[d] Mashborne, has had a Case Depending between himself & the Select of Cap[t] Tho[s] Goodwin now your Petition[rs] wife for some time & haveing yesterday demanded the Acco[t] of the said Estate to be adjusted yo[r] Petition[r] humbly requests that the said Edw[d] Mashborne may be Ordered to deliver in his demands in the punchbond in Writeing & that yo[r] Petition[r] may have a weeks time to reply and that the s[d] Edward Mashborne being one of Council may be not admitted as such

Margin Notes:

M[r] Carns Petition ab[t] Cap[t] Mashborns Demand.

The list of bonds continued.

29 April 1714.

Bond of John Orchard, William Slaughter and William Pooley for £10 0s 0d licence money.

10 May 1714.

Bond of Giles Hayes, William Beale and Giles Smith for £10 0s 0d ditto.

Same date.

Bond of John Sinsmick, Robert Gurling and William Worrall for £10 0s 0d ditto.

14 May 1714.

Bond of Susannah Swallow, William Lackey and John Sinsmick for £10 0s 0d ditto.

18 October 1714.

Bond of William Teale, Antipas Tovey and Francis Gunge for £10 0s 0d ditto.

Same date.

Bond of William Beale, William Coales and Robert Wellington for £10 0s 0d ditto.

Same date.

Bond of Renatus Snow, Thomas Dutch and Samuel Algate for £10 0s 0d ditto.

Mr George Carne presented the following petition.

Carne addressed the worshipful governor and council. He set out that Captain Edward Mashborne had an account depending between himself and the relict of Captain Thomas Goodwin, who was now Carne's wife. Mashborne had presented his petition some time previously. Yesterday he had demanded that the account of the estate be adjusted. Carne humbly requested that Mashborne be ordered to deliver in his demands in writing on the council board, so that Carne might have a week's time to reply. He also requested that, since Mashborne was a member of the council, he should not be admitted as such

Interpretations

The licence money bonds from late April through October 1714, each at the £10 0s 0d figure with three signatories, represent a continuation of the regular licensing pattern observed at 25 March 1713. The names cluster around recognisable groups within the planter community, with Orchard, Slaughter and Pooley appearing together again as they had the previous April. The recurrence of the same surnames across bonds taken months apart indicates a stable trading class operating under licence, with each member periodically taking out a fresh instrument either for himself or as surety for another. Susannah Swallow's appearance as principal on the 14 May 1714 bond is significant as one of the few women named as a principal in the catalogue, indicating that she carried on a licensed trade in her own name, possibly in succession to a deceased husband.

The 18 October 1714 bond involving Antipas Tovey as a signatory illustrates how council members themselves participated in the licensed trade alongside ordinary planters. Tovey's appearance as either principal or surety on a £10 0s 0d licence bond, only weeks before the present consultation in which he was being publicly admonished by Pyke for neglect of office duties, indicates that he combined his council position with active commercial interests on the island. The dual standing as councillor and licensee shows that there was no formal incompatibility between the two roles, although it created the kind of overlapping interests that would later complicate his position in the Bagley-Alexander dispute.

Carne's petition for an adjustment of accounts with Mashborne over the Goodwin estate, with Carne acting through the standing of his wife as Captain Goodwin's relict, repeats the procedural pattern observed in other estate matters of the period. The husband stood in his wife's right to handle financial matters concerning her previous marriage, with Mashborne and Carne occupying corresponding positions on opposite sides of an undischarged account. The request that Mashborne deliver his demands in writing and allow a week's time for reply set out a structured procedure that would convert what had been an oral demand the day before into a documented exchange suitable for council adjudication. The technique gave Carne time to prepare his defence while binding Mashborne to a written record of his claims.

The closing request that Mashborne, as a council member, should not be admitted as such in the present matter raised an important procedural point of conflict of interest. Where a councillor was personally party to a dispute before the council, his sitting on the case would compromise the impartiality of the proceeding. Carne's request invoked the principle that a man may not be both party and judge. The procedural effect, if granted, would be to require Mashborne to step down from the council bench during the hearing, leaving only Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey to determine the matter.

Speculations

Carne's petition probably reflects an attempt to deflect attention from his recent contempt of council, when he had left the island for the country immediately after submitting his earlier petition on the goat range and the debt schedule. By initiating a fresh matter against Mashborne with formal procedural demands, Carne could redirect council business onto a question of Mashborne's accounts rather than his own continuing difficulties. The timing of the petition, in the same consultation where the Secretary's office catalogue was being presented, suggests Carne was using the present sitting to recover initiative after his absence had been formally noted.

The request for a week's time to reply, coupled with the request that Mashborne be excluded from council during the matter, probably reflects Carne's awareness that the Goodwin estate accounts had been long deferred and that a definitive settlement would require complex documentary preparation. By securing both procedural protections in a single petition, Carne sought to convert what might otherwise have been a swift demand into an extended adjudication. The procedural manoeuvre would buy time on the Goodwin question while preventing Mashborne, who was in possession of the relevant records as a council member, from exerting institutional weight to push for immediate resolution.

296

287

such in this case & as in duty bound shall ever pray Geo[ge] Carne

S[t] Helena Dec[r] the 14 1714 Cap[t] Mashborne deliverd in the foll[g] Paper

Finding that M[r] Geo[ge] Carne has petition'd that I sho'd deliver yo[u] in writeing what that Estate is I do demand I say that att the personall Estate belonging to my Son in Law Robert Goodwin, who Dyed at Achroden in India which I demand in right of my former Wife his Mother who lived a Considerable time after his decease this demand I make in a Legal way, being Admitted to Administration in England Edw[d] Mashborne

M[r] Carne requesting it, it was

Ordered

That he have a Copy hereof M[r] Carne appearing with his petition Promised to sell a black Slave called little George to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] which was agreed for at 15[lb] price to be allowed M[r] Carne upon delivery of said black.

M[r] Tovey Complains to the Gov[r] & Council that he wants Candles & does not know how to supply himself & humbly Conceives the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Custom in India is to allow their Servants Candles. Ordered

That Each of the Council be allowed One Gallon of Oyle y[e] Marsom Candles being Scarce & not Sufficient to serve the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Table but a very little time except some supply of Wax or Tallow.

The

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Mashborns Answer to s[d] Petition.

15[lb] for a black boy sold.

Comp[lt] for Candles.

One Gall. Oyl to Ea[ch] of the Council.

Carne closed his petition. He asked the council to treat Mashborne in this case as in duty bound. The petition was subscribed by George Carne.

Captain Mashborne delivered the following paper in answer to Carne's petition.

Mashborne set out that, finding Mr George Carne had petitioned for the demand to be put in writing, he would set it out. He demanded all the personal estate belonging to his son-in-law Robert Goodwin, who had died at Tegnapatnam in India. He made the demand in right of his former wife, the mother of Robert Goodwin, who had lived a considerable time after the death of her son. He made the demand in a legal way, having been admitted to administration in England. The paper was subscribed by Edward Mashborne and dated St Helena, 14 December 1714.

Mr Carne requested a copy. Ordered that he have one.

Mr Carne, appearing with his petition, proposed to sell a slave called Little George to the Honourable Company. The price was agreed at £15 0s 0d, to be allowed to Carne on delivery of the slave.

Mr Tovey complained to the governor and council that he wanted candles. He did not know how to supply himself, and humbly believed the Honourable Company's custom in India was to allow their servants candles.

Ordered that each member of the council be allowed one gallon of oil. Myrsen candles being scarce and not sufficient to serve the Honourable Company's Table, but a very little time, except some of water tallow

Interpretations

The Mashborne claim against the Goodwin estate, asserted in right of his deceased former wife who had survived her son Robert Goodwin and inherited from him, illustrates the chain of testamentary descent in colonial property. Robert Goodwin had died at Tegnapatnam, a Company settlement on the Coromandel coast of India north of Cuddalore. His mother had outlived him by enough time to take her share of his personal estate. On her own death, that share passed to her widower Mashborne, who had subsequently taken out letters of administration in England, the formal authorisation to collect and distribute the deceased's assets. The transatlantic structure of the claim shows how an English administration could be deployed against assets in St Helena, with Mashborne now standing in the legal position of the original beneficiary of his late wife. The conflict with Carne arose because Carne had married Captain Thomas Goodwin's widow, who held her own dower or other interest in the same family estate.

The sale of Little George to the Company at £15 0s 0d sets a benchmark above the £10 0s 0d average derived from Carne's earlier credit schedule of twenty-nine slaves at £290 0s 0d. The higher price suggests that Little George was either a younger or more capable individual than the average slave in Carne's portfolio, with the diminutive prefix in his name probably indicating youth rather than diminished value. The transaction was structured as an asset transfer in part discharge of Carne's debt to the Company, with the agreed price credited to his account on delivery. The mechanism converted a specific item of his property into Company labour stock at a fixed value, advancing the wider debt-clearance scheme proposed in his credit schedule.

The candle question reveals a small but instructive administrative custom carried across the Company's eastern stations. Tovey's invocation of the Honourable Company's custom in India to allow their servants candles was raised not as a personal complaint but as a claim to a recognised perquisite of office. By invoking Indian Company practice, Tovey sought to establish that St Helena councillors were entitled to the same allowance as Company servants at the larger establishments. The council's grant of one gallon of oil to each member, rather than candles, illustrates how the local administration adapted the principle to local supply conditions. Myrsen candles, probably referring to a particular wax or tallow grade procured through the Company stores, were scarce and reserved for the Honourable Company's Table, the formal common board at which the senior council members dined.

Water tallow, mentioned as the alternative source of lighting fat, was tallow rendered from marine animals, probably whale or seal, with a duller flame and stronger odour than land-animal tallow but acceptable for utility use. The combination of myrsen candles for the Table, water tallow as a residual supply, and oil as the official council allowance shows how the household economy of the Fort drew on multiple lighting sources of differing quality, with the better grades reserved for ceremonial use and the lower grades distributed for personal consumption.

Speculations

Mashborne's possession of an English letter of administration in his deceased wife's right, applied here against St Helena assets, probably represents a recent arrival of metropolitan documentation by one of the homeward ships. The timing of his formal demand, presented in writing in response to Carne's procedural request, suggests that the letter had reached him only recently, since otherwise the claim would have been pressed earlier. The case shows how a slow correspondence channel between London and the island could enable a relative to assemble the documentary basis of a claim across several years, then activate it at the moment when the necessary papers had finally been gathered.

Tovey's request for candles probably reflects an attempt to recover personal standing after the public admonition from Pyke on 2 December over his neglect of office work. By raising a complaint that highlighted the gap between his pay and the perquisites enjoyed by Company servants at the Indian establishments, Tovey shifted attention from his own failings to the administration's failure to provide adequate support to its councillors. The grant of one gallon of oil to each member was a modest concession that addressed the immediate question without committing the council to the wider Indian-practice analogy that Tovey had invoked.

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The Govern[r] Reports to the Council that he has finished a Lime kill to burn Lime with Cole were the old one was that was built by Gov[r] Roberts without the Line & near the old Bridge & also had begun to build a Goats Pound near the Stone at Clappers door house in this Valley also That he had taken Security of Godfrey Shoales for Payment of his debt to the Hon[ble] Company with Interest at 8 p[r] C[t] Sam[l] Algate & Jn[o] W[m] Pyfer being security for him.

The Gov[r] also reported that he had rec[d] all the Bonds again as mentioned in the list given in by M[r] Tovey, which is to be examined to see what bonds are Void & what in force & the List to be Enter'd accordingly.

Jonathan Richard Beale one of the Orphans of [...] Beale presented the foll[g] Petition To the Worsh[ps] y[e] Gov[r] &c[a] Council The Petition of Rich[d] Beale most humbly Sheweth That whereas yo[r] petition[r] has chose his Unkle M[r] Geo[ge] Carne his Guardian Humbly requests that he the s[d] Geo[ge] Carne may be impowered (yo[r] petition[r] being in great necesity of cloathing) to State yo[r] petition[rs] acco[t] & deliver them in next Council Day & a liberty to accue to such help as the Hon[ble] Comp[as] books may afford to appear, & as in Duty bound shall ever pray.

Rich[d] Beale

Further yo[r] Petition[r] requests my Unkle may Agree w[th] you about the Timber Trees upon the Land Decem[br] [...]

Agreed to.

Then M[r] Carne proposed to sell w[t] Timber on the Land of s[d] Orphans is fitt for the Hon[ble] Comp[as] use for the Bennefit of s[d] Orphans. w[ch] was agreed to.

Margin Notes:

Lime Kill built.

Goat pound begun.

Security for Goofrey Shoals debt taken.

Bonds rec[d] by the Govern[r]

Rich[d] Beales Petition to Choose a guardian.

Timb[r] to be Vallued.

M[r] Carnes offer.

The governor reported to the council that he had finished a lime kiln to burn lime with coals, near the old one that had been built by Governor Roberts without the line and near the old bridge. He also had begun to build a goat pound near the one at Clapper Door house in this valley.

He also reported that he had taken security of Godfrey Shoales for payment of his debt to the Honourable Company, with interest at eight per cent. Samuel Algate and John Pyfer stood as security for him.

The governor also reported that he had received all the bonds again as set out in the list given in by Mr Tovey. The list was to be examined to see which bonds were void and which in force, and the list was to be entered accordingly.

Richard Beale, one of the orphans of Jonathan Beale deceased, presented the following petition.

It was addressed to the worshipful governor and council. Beale had chosen his uncle Mr George Carne as his guardian. He humbly requested that Carne might be empowered, the petitioner being in great necessity of clothing, to state his accounts and deliver them in at the next council day. He sought liberty to receive such help as the Honourable Company's books might afford as appeared. The petition was subscribed by Richard Beale.

Beale further requested that his uncle might agree with the council about the timber trees upon the land. Agreed to.

Mr Carne then proposed to sell what timber on the land of the orphans was fit for the Honourable Company's use, for the benefit of the orphans. It was agreed to be valued.

Interpretations

The new lime kiln built by Pyke to burn lime with coals represents a deliberate upgrade in the Company's construction capacity. The earlier kiln built by Governor Roberts had presumably used wood or local fuel, while the present kiln used coal, probably imported on Company ships and stored as ship's fuel or building stock. Lime burning was essential for mortar production, and a working kiln was the foundation of any major masonry programme such as the fence restoration, Plantation House repair and other infrastructure work catalogued in the open threads. By siting the new kiln near the old bridge in James Valley, Pyke placed it within easy reach of both the harbour for coal supply and the town for distribution of burned lime to construction sites.

The new goat pound being built near the Clapper Door house in the valley addresses the recent decision to resume the Company's exclusive use of Chapel Valley. With private goats now ordered off the Company range, the council needed secure containment for the Company's own flock and a place to impound any unauthorised animals seized in enforcement. The siting of the new pound near an existing pound at Clapper Door suggests that the council was expanding the existing capacity rather than creating an isolated new facility, with both pounds working together to handle the increased volume of livestock containment that the new policy would generate. The Old Goat Pound demolition noted earlier as one of the items in the case against Boucher places this present construction in clear contrast to the destruction that had occurred under the previous administration.

The Shoales debt arrangement with Algate and Pyfer as sureties at eight per cent confirms the standard rate already observed in the Bell debt of August 1712. The mechanism of two sureties standing for an indebted planter ensured that the Company could recover its money even if Shoales defaulted, with the sureties personally liable for the unpaid balance. The arrangement reveals how chronic planter indebtedness was managed through a network of mutual guarantees, with each substantial planter at any time either owing to the Company or standing surety for others who did. Algate, the corporal whose house had been broken into earlier, appears here as a man of sufficient standing to act as surety for a fellow planter, indicating that he held substantial property even while serving in the garrison.

The Beale orphan petition for clothing through his guardian uncle, with the timber on the orphans' land to be sold for their benefit, illustrates the standard procedure for using estate assets to meet the orphans' current needs. The orphans of Jonathan Beale had been noted earlier in the consultation for being indebted to the Honourable Company, with Powell's debt to them attached for that purpose. Now their immediate needs were to be met by liquidating part of the estate's natural resources. The mechanism converted standing timber, a long-term asset of the holding, into short-term cash to meet the orphans' current clothing requirements. The use of the council as the buyer for the timber, with valuation rather than open sale, suggests an administrative shortcut that traded a market price for procedural simplicity.

Speculations

The simultaneous reporting of the lime kiln completion and the goat pound construction probably reflects Pyke's wish to demonstrate concrete progress on the infrastructure programme by the close of his first months as governor. By presenting both achievements in a single consultation entry, he established a documentary record of active rebuilding that contrasted with the catalogued failures of the Boucher period. The kiln and the pound were both modest works individually but symbolically important as visible signs of administrative recovery, with the consultation book serving as the medium through which the directors in London would learn that practical improvements were under way.

The instruction to examine the bond list Tovey had submitted and determine which bonds were void and which still in force suggests that the catalogue had been an administrative inventory rather than a current legal record. Many of the bonds dated back twenty years or more, and a substantial proportion would by now have been satisfied, lapsed or otherwise extinguished. The follow-up examination would convert the inventory into a working schedule of live obligations on which the Company could still rely. The fact that Tovey had compiled the list without distinguishing live from dead bonds may itself have been part of his pattern of less than thorough work, with the present order making explicit that a further stage of analysis was needed before the catalogue could serve any operational purpose.

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be bought & Left to Jn[o] Bagley Carpent[r] to apprais[e] on the Companys part

The following Petition was also presented Viz[t] To the Worship[ll] the Gov[r] & Council

The Petition of Jn[o] Long most humbly Sheweth That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] is & ever will be willing to Comply with the Ord[r] of the Worship[ll] the Gov[r] & Council so in the particular of removeing his Goats from the Fort Range That haveing a family increase- ing - they would so far consider yo[r] Petition[r] These Goats being very oppertune to y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[as] use as to be allowed y[e] Exchange Equivolent in Sunday Bay where he has a Hab[i]tation & as in duty bound shall Ever pray Jn[o] Long

M[r] Long haveing proposed on Satturday Last towards Paym[t] of his Debt y[t] to sell the Hon[ble] Comp[as] all his Goats in y[e] Fort Valley Except Ten Yews he should Choose, upon this Petition he was allowed to Choose Ten yews out of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] flock of Goats in Sunday Bay & mark them in stead of those Ten he Desigeed to Choose of out of his Goats in this Valley

This day the Store keeper brought in his following accounts.

[...] Geo[ge] Haswell [...] A[ntipas] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Petition of Jn[o] Long.

desireing to Exchange some Goats.

his former agreem[t] & leave to Choose 10 Eves.

The valued timber was to be bought and left to John Bagley, carpenter, to appraise on the Company's part.

The following petition was also presented.

It was addressed to the worshipful governor and council. John Long set out that he was, and ever would be, willing to comply with the council's orders, in particular as to removing his goats from the Fort range. Having a family increasing, he asked the council to consider his petition. His goats being very useful to the Honourable Company's use, he asked to be allowed to exchange them for an equivalent number in Sandy Bay, where he had a habitation. The petition was subscribed by John Long.

Long had previously proposed on Saturday last, towards payment of his debt, to sell the Honourable Company all his goats in the Fort Valley except ten ewes he should choose. Upon the present petition he was allowed to choose ten ewes out of the Honourable Company's stock of goats in Sandy Bay and mark them, instead of those ten he had previously intended to choose out of his goats in this valley.

This day the storekeeper brought in the following accounts.

The entry was signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey.

Interpretations

The carpenter John Bagley appearing here as the Company's appraiser of timber is presumably the same John Bagley named earlier in the consultations as a free planter who had fenced and planted wood. His present role indicates that he had been recognised by the council as the resident expert in timber valuation, drawing on his planting experience and carpentry trade to determine the worth of standing wood for Company purchase. The appointment of a single named appraiser, distinct from the previous councillor-led valuations, shows how specialist knowledge was concentrated in the hands of recognised practitioners who could be called upon repeatedly for the same kind of assessment work.

The Long goat exchange illustrates a sophisticated workaround for the new Chapel Valley prohibition. Having previously agreed on the Saturday to sell all his goats in the Fort Valley to the Company except ten ewes he would mark for himself, Long now requested that the ten ewes be drawn from the Company's existing Sandy Bay flock instead. The mechanism transferred ten Company goats at Sandy Bay into Long's personal ownership, while his own ten ewes at the Fort Valley were absorbed into the Company stock. The net effect was identical in numbers but allowed Long to keep his small flock at his Sandy Bay habitation rather than at the Fort Valley where he was being required to give up his presence. The exchange preserved both parties' herd composition while removing Long's livestock from the contested range.

The substitution of Sandy Bay for Fort Valley as Long's grazing location demonstrates how the council managed a forced relocation through equivalent exchange rather than outright dispossession. Where Carne had been ordered to remove his goats with only a small concession on two old ewes, Long, who had cooperated promptly with the order from the Saturday consultation, was given the more accommodating arrangement of a marked exchange against Company stock. The differential treatment reveals the council's calibration of response to planter behaviour, with cooperative compliance rewarded by flexibility and contemptuous absence punished by stricter terms.

The marking of selected ewes was the standard method by which individual animals were identified as belonging to a particular owner within a wider flock. Ear notches, paint or branding marks distinguished each owner's animals on shared or adjoining ranges. The procedure of choosing and marking ten ewes out of the Company's Sandy Bay stock gave Long an immediately recognisable personal interest in identifiable animals, while leaving the rest of the flock as Company property. The mechanism converted what would otherwise have been an indistinguishable share into a defined particular set of animals.

Speculations

Long's emphasis on his increasing family in the petition probably reflects a calculated appeal to the council's sympathy for a settled domestic situation. By framing his request as a need to maintain his goats for the benefit of his growing household at Sandy Bay, Long positioned himself as a responsible head of family seeking to preserve his livelihood under altered conditions. The argument contrasted favourably with Carne's situation, where Carne had departed into the country immediately after presenting his petition and been treated as showing contempt. Long's more cooperative posture, framed as humble compliance with an undertaking added of a small accommodating exchange, secured him a better outcome.

The use of John Bagley as Company appraiser for timber from the Beale orphans' land probably reflects the council's wish to avoid any appearance of self-dealing in the orphan estate matter. By appointing a respected outside tradesman as valuer rather than relying on council members or planters with their own interests in timber supply, the council ensured that the price paid to the orphans could not later be challenged as artificially low. The procedural separation between the council's role as buyer and Bagley's role as valuer protected the eventual transaction from criticism, particularly given the existing pattern of orphan-estate scrutiny under the new administration.

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Island S[t] Helena,

At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 21 of Decemb[r] 1714. At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo[ge] Haswell Dep[ty] Pres[t] Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] Matth[ws] Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Councill

The Gov[r] Reports that he has rec[d] of M[r] Geo[ge] Carne towards paying his Debt to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] in Plate to y[e] Vallue of Sixty nine pounds four Shillings & that Capt[n] Mashborne has promised to give him Creddit for ten pounds five Shillings w[ch] makes in all Seventy nine pounds nine Shillings the particulars of y[e] plate are as follows Viz[t] oz. dr. gr. 1 Tankard 36-06-00

12 Spoons 2 Forks & one porringer 1 Castor & 1 Ladle 49-05-00

4 Castors 1 Crutch head for a Cane & 1 Tumbler 41-05-00

2 porringers 2 Salt sellers, 1 Mugg, & 1 Spitting pott 32-17-00

1 Mugg, 1 Salt seller & 2 Salvers 1 Spoon 43-11-00

1 Tankard & 1 Tumbler 24-19-00

Vallue 6[s] 4[d] 228-03-00

allowing 17[d] in plate y[e] weight of a peice of Eight for 5[s] Vallue in mony [£] in all 1 Gold Snush box Vallued at 4 in all £ 69-4-00

Also that Martin Norman is Indebted to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] 72:10:01 and is worth nothing he liveing on a small farm of 50[lb] p[r] ann[m] that his Cheifest Stock is 2 Cows of the Ministers that he keeps in his ground for

Margin Notes:

Plate rec[d] of M[r] Carne.

Normans Debt to y[e] Comp[a]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 21 December 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The governor reported that he had received from Mr George Carne, towards paying his debt to the Honourable Company, plate to the value of £69 4s 0d. Captain Mashborne had promised to give him credit for £10 5s 0d more, which made in all £79 9s 0d. The particulars of the plate were as follows.

One tankard:

weight three ounces three quarters; value £36 6s 0d.

Twelve spoons, two forks and one porringer:

value £49 5s 0d.

One castor and one ladle:

value (carried with the next item).

Four castors, one crutch head for a cane and one tumbler:

value £41 5s 0d.

Two porringers, two saltcellers, one mug and one spitting pot:

weight thirty-two ounces; value £0 17s 0d.

One mug, one saltceller and two salvers, one spoon:

value £43 11s 0d.

One tankard and one tumbler:

value £24 19s 0d.

(Sub-total at this point): £228 3s 0d.

Allowing seventeen pence in plate, the weight of a piece of eight, for five pence value in money.

One gold snuff box, valued at £4 0s 0d in all.

Total: £69 4s 0d.

The governor reported that Martin Norman was indebted to the Honourable Company in the sum of £7 10s 1d. He was worth nothing, living on a small farm of £50 0s 0d to him. His chief stock was two cows of the minister's, which he kept in his ground for

Interpretations

The plate schedule reveals the composition of a substantial planter household's silver, here surrendered as a means of debt discharge. The items combined functional dining ware, twelve spoons, two forks, the porringers, saltcellers and tumblers, with display pieces such as the tankards and salvers, and personal items including the crutch head for a cane and the gold snuff box. The mixed character of the collection indicates that Carne had amassed silver across the standard categories of an established gentleman's table service, with some pieces probably inherited and others acquired during his career on the island. The fact that the entire collection could be tendered at once to clear a Company debt shows how silver functioned as a stored reserve of value, convertible to credit at the assayer's rate when required.

The accounting convention noted in the schedule, allowing seventeen pence in plate weight equivalent to a piece of eight for five pence value in money, defines the relationship between the silver's intrinsic weight and its currency value at the moment of acceptance. A piece of eight was the Spanish silver dollar, the principal international trade coin of the period, and its weight provided the standard unit against which scrap silver was valued in commercial transactions. The conversion ratio reflected the difference between the bullion value of melted silver and its face value as wrought plate, with the working figures showing how the Company storekeeper converted weight to credit during the transfer. The note carries operational significance because it fixes the rate at which all the listed items were translated from physical mass to cleared debt.

The £79 9s 0d total against the £560 4s 0d of Carne's earlier credit schedule indicates that the present plate transfer represented only one component of the broader debt discharge. The plate at £69 4s 0d combined with Mashborne's separate credit of £10 5s 0d brought the running settlement only modestly forward against the total exposure. The slow accumulation through successive partial transfers, with each consultation recording another instalment, shows how a large debt was discharged across multiple administrative occasions rather than in a single composition. The technique allowed the Company to keep pressure on Carne while accepting valuable assets as they became available.

Martin Norman's position, indebted in £7 10s 1d and worth nothing apart from two cows of the minister's that he kept on his ground for the minister, reveals the bottom end of the planter spectrum. Where Carne could surrender £69 4s 0d in plate and a gold snuff box, Norman held nothing of his own beyond a small farm valued at £50 0s 0d and grazing rights for someone else's cattle. The contrast between the two cases shows the wide range of economic standing within the planter community, with the same Company debt-collection process required to handle settlements at vastly different scales. Norman's credit-clearing petition of 17 August 1714, noted in the open threads, had sought debt discharge through assignment of inhabitant debts owed to him; the present entry shows the council now reviewing his case from the asset side.

Speculations

The progressive transfer of Carne's assets to the Company over successive consultations, beginning with the £15 0s 0d for Little George at the previous sitting and now £79 9s 0d in plate and credit, probably reflects a deliberate calibration on both sides. By accepting partial transfers rather than insisting on a single comprehensive settlement, the council allowed Carne to retain some flexibility in managing his affairs while ensuring steady progress on the debt. Carne, for his part, transferred his most liquid and least productive assets first, the plate and the slave, preserving his land and labour stock for as long as possible. The pattern suggests a negotiated workout in which both parties accepted that full discharge would be reached over time rather than at once.

The inclusion of a gold snuff box at £4 0s 0d among the plate items is striking as a personal effect of distinct character. Gold snuff boxes were luxury items associated with gentlemen of substantial means, and Carne's surrender of such a piece probably reflects either the severity of his exposure or his calculation that the council would accept it as a particularly visible mark of good faith. The piece would have been recognised by anyone seeing it as a sign of social rank, and its transfer to the Company stores marked the end of a particular kind of personal display that had previously characterised Carne's standing on the island.

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291

for their milk & that whenever he dyes the Hon[ble] Comp[a] are likely to Loose their debt all that he has in the world being not worth 30[lb] but we haveing heard a Cause between him the said Norman & one Tho[s] Burnham who owes him 12:5:10. Burnham is also poor but hath some Land & owes the Hon[ble] Comp[a] 43:15:1[1/2] Wherefore I think it for the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Interest since both these partys are willing thereto that we make a Transfer & give Norman Creddit for 12:5:10. not by delivering goods, but by Lesening his Debt & charge Burgham therewith & then Burnhams debt will be 56[s] & Normans 60[d] and tho I don't like the way of Transferring at all used in this case I think tis proper to allow it because Norman can never pay or give Security but Burnhams Land is some sort of Security and he may pay one time or another and this Invention in Council much rather than to Order it Privately because I intend it for a President to be followed for the future Being minded that it should become a Standing rule that no person should Transfer Creddit to another what is himself in debt unless by a particular Order of Council & the reason also sett down in that Ord[r] that our Hon[ble] Mast[rs] when they look over our Consultations may see we have resolved their Estates entrusted to our Care shall not be any longer thrown away. I think it alsoe necesary that no Creddit be placed to any mans Acco[t] by the Store keeper unless each particular be agreed in Consultation w[ch] I take to be so Essentiall & necesary a point that all our other resolutions ab[t] trusting and transferring must come to nothing if this be not lookt too & Carefully Observed And as for Trusting I think no man ought to be farther Trusted then one Years Income or rent of the Estate he possesses at the Customary valluation of 5[s] p[r] Acre But for Sold[rs] 3 months pay is Sufficient But in this Last mentioned Article for trusting we must at

Margin Notes:

his Creddit & to be alyceim[t] w[th] Burnham.

Transferrs allowed.

but not w[th]out a particular Ord[r] of Council &c[a]

Store keeper to give no C[r] but what's agreed to in Consultation.

ab[t] Trusting

Sold[rs] 3 mo[s] pay

The minister's two cows were kept by Norman on his ground for their milk. Whenever Norman died, the Honourable Company would probably lose his debt, since all that he had was not worth £20 0s 0d.

The council had heard a cause between Norman and one Thomas Burnham, who owed him £12 5s 0d. Burnham was also poor, but had some land and owed the Honourable Company £43 15s 1½d. The governor thought it best for the Honourable Company's interest, both parties being willing, that the council make a transfer and give Norman credit for £12 5s 0d, not by delivering goods but by lessening his debt. Burnham would be charged with that amount, and so Burnham's debt would rise to £56 0s 0d and Norman's would fall.

The governor did not generally like the way of transferring at all, but in this case thought it proper to allow it. Norman could never pay or give security, while Burnham's land was some sort of security and he might pay one time or another. The governor preferred to bring it into council rather than order it privately, since he intended it for a precedent to be followed in future. He wanted it to become a standing rule that no person should transfer credit to another while himself in debt, unless by particular order of council. The reason set down in such an order was that when the Honourable Masters looked over the consultations, they could see that the estates entrusted to the council's care had not been thrown away.

The governor also thought it necessary that no credit be placed to any man's account by the storekeeper unless each particular were agreed in consultation. He took this to be so essential and necessary a point that all other resolutions about trusting and transferring would come to nothing if it were not closely observed.

As to trusting, he thought no man ought to be trusted further than one year's income or rent of the estate he possessed, at the customary valuation of five pounds per acre. For soldiers, three months' pay was sufficient.

The governor noted that in this last point as to trusting, the council must

Interpretations

The Norman-Burnham debt transfer illustrates the council's procedure for moving a debt from an insolvent debtor to one with at least some recoverable asset. Norman's £12 5s 0d receivable from Burnham was extinguished by lessening Norman's own debt to the Company by the same amount, with Burnham's debt to the Company correspondingly increased. The mechanism converted three obligations, Norman to Company, Burnham to Norman, Burnham to Company, into two, with the intermediate party removed and his debt cleared. The technique transferred the collection risk from Norman, who had nothing but two cows belonging to the minister, to Burnham, whose land provided some security against eventual recovery. The transaction depended on the Company being able to substitute itself as creditor with the assent of both original parties, which the council secured here through formal consultation.

The new standing rule that no person should transfer credit to another while himself in debt without particular order of council represents a significant tightening of administrative practice. The rule addressed the risk that indebted planters would settle private accounts among themselves before clearing their Company obligations, with the result that recoverable assets disappeared into other planters' hands while the Company debt remained outstanding. By requiring council approval for any such transfer, Pyke ensured that the Company's first claim on a debtor's available means could not be circumvented through private arrangement. The deliberate framing of the rule as a precedent for the future, recorded in consultation so that the Honourable Masters could see the protection given to estates entrusted to the council, shows the wider audit purpose Pyke had in mind.

The companion rule on storekeeper credit, that no credit should be placed on any man's account unless each particular be agreed in consultation, addresses the parallel risk on the supply side. Where the previous practice had allowed the storekeeper individual discretion to issue goods on credit, the new rule channelled every such decision through the full council. Pyke's emphasis that this was so essential and necessary a point that all other resolutions about trusting and transferring would come to nothing if it were not observed indicates that he saw uncontrolled storekeeper credit as the principal historic source of the irrecoverable planter debts now under settlement. By requiring consultation-level approval for each new credit, he closed off the route by which past obligations had built up unchecked.

The credit limits proposed, one year's income or rent on a five-pound-per-acre valuation for planters and three months' pay for soldiers, define a concrete framework for sustainable lending against future earnings. The five-pound-per-acre customary valuation provided a standard base against which any planter's nominal income could be calculated from the recorded acreage of his holding, removing the need for case-by-case assessment of each debtor's capacity. The three months' pay limit for soldiers reflected the shorter horizon of garrison employment, where contracts ran in fixed terms and reassignment or departure could leave debts unrecoverable. The mechanism converted personal credit assessment into a rule-based system tied to documented property and pay, with consistent application across the whole community of potential debtors.

Speculations

Pyke's decision to record his reasoning at length in the consultation book, rather than simply issuing the relevant orders, probably reflects his calculated intention to leave the directors a clear account of how he was reforming the local financial administration. By setting out his concerns about uncontrolled credit, his rationale for the new precedent, and the specific limits he proposed, he created a documentary record that would demonstrate both his analysis of the inherited problem and the framework of his response. The technique converted what might have been a series of separate administrative decisions into a coherent policy statement that the directors could approve, modify or extend on future correspondence.

The framing of the customary five-pound-per-acre valuation suggests that this figure had previously been used informally in council assessments of planter standing but had not been adopted as a rule. Pyke's incorporation of the existing custom into the new lending limits gave the rule the legitimacy of familiar practice while sharpening its operational use. By tying credit to a published acreage figure that any inhabitant could verify from the council records, Pyke removed scope for arbitrary or favoured treatment of particular debtors. The precedent rested less on innovation than on the disciplined application of existing benchmarks within a formal rule structure.

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at present till the Country and Garris[...] are gott a little farther out of debt use some Caution and not be too Strict therein because when a gre[at] necessity requires this resolution must be a little suspended to[...] but not so as to Evade the Ord[r]. [...] Caution and Moderation some sorts of Cloathing and provisions may be spareingly delivered our an Industrious man tho he be in debt more then the Sums abovementioned. Tis agreed in Councill that whereas M[r]s. Carice ha[...] paid in Considerably into the Hon[ble] Compan[y] Stors towards his debt and desires M[r]. Francis ma[y] be charged with 30[...] being so much he owes M[r]. Carne, and M[r]. Francis having severall Acc[ts]. of Creddit to Enter into the [...] tis Ordered That the Store keeper doe transferr said 30[...] giving M[r]. Carne Credd[t]. there for and make M[r]. Francis D[r] It is also Ordered That M[r]. Carpe have his two Bonds he gave one for 167. 16 [...] to be paid Geo[...] [...]ling[s] Orphans and the other for 123 11[..] [...] payable to Elinor [...]eling, be both delivered him which was done accordingly. M[r]. Tovey produced a Lett[r]. of Attorney from Eliz[t]. No[...]hen Impowering him to receive the Effects of Geo: No[r]then her late husband dec[d] Witnessed by Tho[s]. [C]rew & Will[m]. [R]umbold w[ch] was Ordered to be Registered Ordered That Cap[t]. Mash[...]orne get what hands he can to begin upon fencing the Week after Christmass. Ordered That the next Consultation be this day fortnight in regard of the Hollodays Except [...]ome Extraord[i]n[ary] business should happen to Call one before. Ordered

Margin Notes:

Cloathing &c. to be delivered Industrious men tho in debt

M[r]s. Carne desires 30[...] to be paid from M[r] Francis. acc[t]

Stor[e] keep[er] To charge of same

Bonds D[d]. M[r] Carne

M[r]s. Northen[s] Lett[r]. of attorny

fencies to be Sett about

21 Dec 1714 (continued, page 292):

At present, until the country and garrison were a little further out of debt, the use of credit had to be approached with caution and not too strictly because, when great necessity required, the resolution must be a little suspended, though not so as to evade the order. With due caution and moderation, some sorts of clothing and provisions might be sparingly delivered to an honest and industrious man, though he be in debt more than the sum mentioned above.

It was agreed in council that whereas Mr Carne had paid in considerably to the Honourable Company's stores towards his debt, and desired that Mr Francis might be charged with £30 0s 0d, that being so much as he owed Mr Carne, and Mr Francis having several debts of credit to enter into the store, it was ordered that the storekeeper transfer the said £30 0s 0d, giving Mr Carne credit for it and making Mr Francis debtor.

It was also ordered that the two bonds Mr Carne had given - one for £167 16s 0d to be paid to Governor Keeling's orphans, the other for £128 11s 2d payable to Eleanor Keeling - be both delivered to him. This was done accordingly.

Mr Tovey produced a letter of attorney from Elizabeth Northen empowering him to receive the effects of George Northen, her late husband deceased. It was witnessed by Thomas Crew and William Rumbold and was ordered to be registered.

It was ordered that Captain Mashborne get what hands he could to begin fencing the Week after Christmas.

It was further ordered that the next consultation be held this day fortnight on account of the holidays, unless some extraordinary business should arise to call one before.

Interpretations:

The opening section completes the trusting-limit rule of 21 Dec 1714 by adding a discretionary safety valve. The one-year-income cap on credit was not to be applied so rigidly that an honest and industrious man would be denied clothing and provisions in genuine necessity. The phrase "not so as to evade the order" preserves Pyke's precedent while admitting that practical administration of a debt-laden colony required judgement. This is a familiar pattern in his rule-making: a hard limit stated for the record, then a controlled discretion built in for the council's working application.

The Carne-Francis credit transfer is the second worked example of the new rule on credit transfers between debtors, following the Norman-Burnham transfer earlier on the same day. Both were authorised "by particular order of council" as the new rule required. Carne's £30 0s 0d owed by Francis was offset against Carne's own Company debt, with Francis becoming the new debtor for that amount. The mechanism converts a private receivable into Company credit without any cash changing hands.

The release of the two Keeling bonds to Carne is administrative clean-up of an old liability. The £167 16s 0d bond to Keeling's orphans, dated 8 Jan 1708 in Tovey's bond inventory of 14 Dec 1714 (where it appears as £167 16s 3¼d, Carne, Hoskison and Bazett bound), and the £128 19s 0¼d bond to Eleanor Keeling, dated 22 May 1703 (Carne and Captain Goodwin), are now treated as discharged and returned. The slight discrepancy between the figures here (£167 16s 0d, £128 11s 2d) and those in the bond list (£167 16s 3¼d, £128 19s 0¼d) is probably scribal rounding rather than substantive disagreement.

The Northen letter of attorney shows the standard mechanism by which an absent widow in England could act on her late husband's estate through a resident agent. George Northen, stone cutter, had died before Sep 1712, when his will was proved. Elizabeth Northen now empowers Tovey, the Secretary, to recover the effects on her behalf. The two witnesses (Crew and Rumbold) suggest the document was executed in England.

Mashborne's fencing instruction is the standing infrastructure programme resumed after the Christmas pause. The phrase "the Week after Christmas" suggests a deliberate accommodation of the religious calendar for the garrison and slaves alike.

The fortnight adjournment for the holidays sets the next council day at 4 Jan 1715, subject to extraordinary business. This is the formal close of the working year, completing the Pyke administration's first six months in office since arrival on 8 Jul 1714.

Speculations:

The marginal note "Mr Carne desires £30 0s 0d to be charged from Mr Francis acct" indicates that Carne's debt-clearing programme of late 1714 was now operating through a web of paper transfers rather than direct payments. By the close of 21 Dec 1714 Carne had offered £560 4s 0d of schedule credits (7 Dec 1714), transferred Little George at £15 0s 0d (14 Dec 1714), paid in plate at £69 4s 0d plus £10 5s 0d Mashborne credit (21 Dec 1714), and now arranged the £30 0s 0d Francis transfer. The cumulative paper settlement against his Company debt is approaching the upper hundreds, though no single instalment has been a cash payment. The dispersal of his estate into Company credits, plate, slaves and assigned receivables is consistent with a planter winding down his island position over an extended timeline.

The release of the two old Keeling bonds may signal that the underlying obligations have been satisfied, perhaps absorbed into Carne's continuing settlement programme, or possibly that the orphans and Eleanor Keeling are now beyond the reach of the original instrument (some Keeling orphans were of age by this date; Eleanor herself, twice-married widow then Carne's mother-in-law by marriage to her daughter, may be deceased or have remitted the bond). Either way, the council's willingness to hand the original bonds back to Carne removes them from any future claim against him, suggesting the matter is regarded as closed at the documentary level.

The fortnight adjournment was probably welcome to a council that had sat weekly through November and most of December on the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander dispute, the Carne goat-and-debt complex, the Goodwin estate demand, the fence survey, the bonds inventory and the trusting-limit reform. The break also gave Tovey time to advance the third part of the ROCHESTER letter, the deficiency in which had drawn a sharp rebuke from Pyke on 2 Dec 1714.

The reference to "the holidays" in this position - 21 Dec 1714 with a fortnight's adjournment - aligns with the English Christmas season as observed by the Anglican calendar still in use on the island. The St Helena establishment maintained the festival pattern of the home country, with the council recess covering Christmas, New Year and possibly Twelfth Night.

302

293

Ordered That the Gen[ll]. Sessions be held on Monday the 17[th] Jan[ry]. next and a Gen[ll]. Muster of the Inhabitants and Garrison on Thursday y[e] 20[th] of [...] M[r]. Carne appeared in Counc[ll] s[d] he had rec[d]. Cap[t]. Mashorns paper of demands and had nothing to offer against it on his own Acc[t] [...] did not question they should make an amicable End of it [...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Sessions ap- pointed.

21 Dec 1714

It was ordered that the general sittings be held on Monday 17 Jan next, and a general muster of the inhabitants and garrison on Thursday 20 Jan after.

Mr Carne appeared in council and said he had received Captain Mashborne's paper of demands and had nothing to offer against it on his own account, and did not question that they should make an amicable end of it.

Signed Pyke, Haswell, Tovey.

Interpretations:

The fixed dates close the administrative calendar in the same orderly way as the preceding fortnight adjournment. The general sittings on Monday 17 Jan 1715 establish the quarter assize as a regular institution under Pyke. Sittings are the council's judicial sittings as a court for the trial of pleas and the registration of titles, distinct from the Tuesday consultations which dispatch executive business. Setting the date three and a half weeks ahead permits notice to be served on parties and the docket to be assembled.

The general muster on Thursday 20 Jan 1715 is the first since the present sequence opened. The previous full muster of the garrison and inhabitants in the record was that of 6 Sep 1711 under Boucher, itself the first after a seventeen-month gap from the muster of 30 Mar 1710. Pyke's calendaring of a muster within six months of his arrival, and his coupling of it to the general sittings, signals the new administration's intention to regularise the parade alongside the courts as twin instruments of public order. The proximity of the dates (Monday for the courts, Thursday for the muster) suggests the planters and soldiers would be in town for both, with the council using the Monday-Thursday span as a single public week.

Carne's appearance and concession on the Mashborne demand is a substantial development in the Goodwin estate dispute opened on 14 Dec 1714. On that day Carne had asked for a week to reply, that Mashborne be required to deliver his demands in writing, and that Mashborne not sit as a councillor in the case. Mashborne had complied with the written-demand request, claiming the personal estate of his deceased son-in-law Robert Goodwin in right of his late wife under English letters of administration. Carne now states that he has received the paper, has nothing to offer against it on his own account, and expects an amicable settlement. The phrase "on his own account" is carefully drawn: Carne is conceding for himself as husband of Captain Thomas Goodwin's widow but reserving any position the widow herself might wish to take.

The signatures of Pyke, Haswell and Tovey close the consultation in the standard form. Mashborne and Bazett, though present at the opening of the meeting per the 14 Dec 1714 attendance pattern continuing, are not among the subscribers. In Mashborne's case the omission is consistent with his being a party to the matter just dispatched, supporting Carne's earlier objection to him sitting as councillor in his own cause. Bazett's absence from the signatures may be incidental.

Speculations:

The amicable framing of the Goodwin dispute is consistent with the pattern of family settlement that runs through the late 1714 consultations. Carne is married to the widow of Captain Thomas Goodwin, that is, the mother of the deceased Robert Goodwin. Mashborne is the father of Robert Goodwin's late wife. The personal estate at issue passed by Robert Goodwin's death at Tegnapatnam to his widow, who survived him "a considerable time", and then by her death to her father Mashborne as administrator. Carne's mother-in-law position gives him no further claim once Mashborne's administration is established in English law. The "amicable end" probably means a clean delivery of the assets in Carne's possession to Mashborne against a written discharge, with no further proceedings.

That Carne reserves the widow's separate position, by qualifying his concession as on his own account, suggests one of two things. Either he expected his wife (Captain Goodwin's widow) to make her own claim as the deceased's grandmother, perhaps to a customary share of personalty under island practice, or the qualification is merely formal so as not to prejudice any future point. The first reading would fit the recurrent island pattern of separated estate rights between husband and wife, given prominence in the Powill-Girling case of 2 Sep 1713 over Mary Hoskison's separate estate.

The general sittings on 17 Jan 1715 will be the venue for any continuing pieces of the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander dispute that the council's executive opinion does not close out, the Slaughter-Harding settlement, the Knipe debt discrepancy, and the live-or-void review of the bonds inventory. The pairing of the sittings with a muster, three days later, makes the third week of January 1715 the climax of the new administration's first administrative year, with documentation, judicature, military readiness and public assembly all rolled into a single span.

The amicable settlement of the Goodwin matter also clears Mashborne to return to full participation in council business. With Carne's concession on record, the bar to Mashborne sitting on the case is dispelled, and the council resumes its five-man working strength in the New Year.

This consultation closes the working year of 1714 on the new administration's terms: a trusting-limit precedent established (Norman-Burnham), the rule worked through a second example (Carne-Francis), Carne's two old Keeling bonds released, an old letter of attorney registered for Tovey, a fencing programme committed to Mashborne for the week after Christmas, court and muster dates fixed for January 1715, and a difficult family estate dispute moved to amicable settlement. The session closes with the council's authority visibly consolidated under Pyke after six months in office.

303

294

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation held on Wednesday y[e] 29[th] Decemb[r]. 1714 at the United Castle In James Valley

Isaac Pyke Es[qr]. Gov[r] Geo: Haswell Dep[ty]. G[r] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w]. Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th]. in Counc[l]

P[r] P[r]es

M[r]. Carne desires that if the Estate of Robert Goodwin Deceas[d] be to be delivered to Cap[t]. Mashborne Administrator that he may have an Ord[r]. for so doeing. Whereupon Cap[t]. Mashborne produced his Lett[s] of Administration in right of his late wife to her Son & alsoe other Letters in right of himself to his Wife, and then Cap[t]. Edw[d]. Mashborne gave an Acc[t]. that his Son in Law Rob[t]. Goodwin Dyed in Octob[r]. [...]1710. And that the Mother of the said Rob[t]. Goodwin who was his wife Dyed on the 17[th] day of May A[...] 1711. and she being Heir to her Son who dyed under Age Wherefore he Craves his S[d] Letters of Administration may be allowed by us and that he may have an Ord[r]. to take Rob[t]. Goodwins personall Estate into his Custody. Ordered That M[r]. Geo: Carne & M[rs]. Frances Carne his Wife doe deliver unto Cap[t]. Edward Mashborne Administrator to Rob[t]. Goodwin his Son in Law Deceased & alsoe Administrator to his wife Jane Mashborn[e]

Margin Notes:

M[r] Carne desires an Ord[r] to D[r]. Robert Goodwins Estate.

Cap[t] Mashborne produced Letter [of] adm[n]. &c[a]. to prove his right

M[r]. Carne &c[a]. to Deliv[r] unto Cap[t]. Mashborns all.

St Helena. At a consultation held on Wednesday 29 Dec 1714 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Mr Carne desired that if the estate of Robert Goodwin deceased was to be delivered to Captain Mashborne as administrator, he might have an order for so doing.

Captain Mashborne thereupon produced his letters of administration in right of his late wife to her son, and also other letters in right of himself to his wife. He then gave an account that his son-in-law Robert Goodwin had died in October 1710, and that the mother of Robert Goodwin, who was Mashborne's wife, died on 17 May 1711. She, being heir to her son who died under age, gave Mashborne his right. He therefore craved that his letters of administration be allowed and that he have an order to take Robert Goodwin's personal estate into his custody.

It was ordered that Mr George Carne and Mrs Frances Carne his wife deliver unto Captain Edward Mashborne, as administrator to Robert Goodwin his son-in-law deceased and also administrator to his wife Jane Mashborne...

Interpretations:

The Wednesday sitting on 29 Dec 1714 is an extraordinary council, the council's standard day being Tuesday and the next consultation having been fixed only a week earlier for a fortnight ahead (4 Jan 1715). The chain of administration was clearly considered urgent enough to break the holiday pause. The presence of all five councillors confirms a full sitting, with Mashborne participating as a witness and party rather than as adjudicating councillor on his own matter, though the manuscript records no formal recusal.

The account of the descent now becomes clear. Robert Goodwin, son of Captain Thomas Goodwin and his first wife Jane (Mashborne's daughter), died at Tegnapatnam in India in October 1710 under age, that is, before his twenty-first birthday. His personal estate at his death therefore did not pass under any will of his own but by intestate succession to his mother Jane. Jane survived him by about seven months and died on 17 May 1711. Her personalty in turn passed to her husband Mashborne, who took out letters of administration in England in two capacities: first as administrator de bonis non to his late wife in respect of her interest in her son's estate, and second as administrator to his late wife herself.

Carne's position now becomes intelligible. Carne had married Captain Thomas Goodwin's widow, but the widow in question is Captain Goodwin's second wife, Frances, not the deceased Robert Goodwin's mother Jane (Mashborne's daughter). Frances Carne therefore holds no direct claim to Robert's estate at all, her only connection being step-motherhood, which conferred no inheritance under English law. Carne and Frances are merely the parties from whom physical custody of Robert's effects must be recovered, having held them since Captain Thomas Goodwin's own death. Carne's concession of 21 Dec 1714 that he had "nothing to offer" against Mashborne's demand on his own account now reads with full clarity: he had no inheritable interest at all, only the duty of delivery once the senior right was proved.

Mashborne's chain of letters of administration is the procedural foundation. English ecclesiastical practice required separate grants for each link in the chain where the original administrator (here Jane) died before completing the administration. The grant "in right of his late wife to her son" is administration de bonis non to the son's estate, taken out by the husband as surviving spouse of the entitled administratrix. The grant "in right of himself to his wife" is administration to the wife's own estate, which gathered up her interest in her son's effects. Both grants would have been obtained in the appropriate English diocesan or prerogative court before Mashborne sailed.

The order to Carne and Frances to deliver, with its full styling of Mashborne as administrator twice over and the naming of Jane Mashborne in full, is the formal instrument that transfers physical possession. The text breaks off at the end of Jane's name, the order continuing on the next page.

Speculations:

The five-month interval between the consultation of 14 Dec 1714 (when Mashborne first submitted his written demand) and Robert Goodwin's death four years earlier (October 1710) reflects the slow operation of estate administration across the India trade. Robert's death at Tegnapatnam in October 1710 would have been reported to St Helena by the next homeward ship, probably arriving early 1711. News of Jane Mashborne's death on 17 May 1711 would have travelled to Mashborne in England by the same route. Mashborne would then have needed to apply for two sets of letters of administration and bring them with him on his eventual voyage to St Helena. The substantial gap between the deaths and the present claim reflects the practical pace of probate over inter-continental distance.

Robert Goodwin's death "under age" indicates he had not reached twenty-one. He was therefore probably born around 1690 or later, making him a young man in the Company's service at Tegnapatnam (Fort St David, on the Coromandel coast south of Pondicherry) at the time of his death. The personal estate at issue would have consisted of wages, trading profits, personal effects and possibly slaves, accumulated during his Indian service. Whatever survived was probably brought back to St Helena by some friendly ship's officer and lodged with the Goodwin family there, which by then meant Captain Thomas Goodwin and his second wife Frances, who herself later married Carne.

The Wednesday sitting suggests the council wished to dispatch the matter before the holiday recess began in earnest, perhaps because Mashborne was anxious to take possession of the property without further delay, or because the council judged a clean conclusion before year-end preferable to leaving the matter open into 1715. The full council's presence on a non-standard day, with Mashborne both party and councillor, indicates the council was determined to leave no procedural opening for later challenge.

The reference to Frances Carne by name in the order to deliver is significant. Married women under English law had no separate legal personality and would normally be subsumed in the husband's name. Her named inclusion here probably reflects that the effects were considered to be in her actual physical custody as the senior surviving Goodwin household member, and naming her ensures the order binds her directly to the act of delivery, preventing any technical objection that the husband alone had been ordered.

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295

Mashborne Al[s] Goodwin Deceas[d] all the Personall Estate of the said Robert Goodwin & Jane Mashborne Al[s] Goodwin now in their Possession, And that any other person who have Effects that did belong to the said Rob[t]. Goodwin Deceas[d] or that Did belong to M[rs]. Jane Mashborne Al[s] Goodwin Deceas[d] doe deliver the same to Cap[t]. Edward Mashborne their Administrator,

[...] Geo: Haswell

Margin Notes:

Rob[t]. Goodwins Personall Estate

The order required Carne and Frances to deliver all the personal estate of Robert Goodwin, alias Goodwin, deceased, then in their possession, to Captain Edward Mashborne as administrator both to Robert Goodwin and to his wife Jane Mashborne, alias Goodwin, deceased. Any other person who held effects belonging to Robert Goodwin deceased, or that had belonged to Jane Mashborne alias Goodwin deceased, was also ordered to deliver the same to Captain Edward Mashborne, their administrator.

Signed Pyke, Haswell.

Interpretations:

The conclusion of the order completes the instrument begun on the preceding page. The double-naming "alias Goodwin" for both Robert and Jane is the standard legal form to cover any variation between the surnames used in different documents. Jane, born Mashborne, married Captain Thomas Goodwin and was therefore known both by her maiden and her married names in different records. Robert, her son, would have been Goodwin throughout, but the alias form is retained to bind any document bearing either name.

The extension of the order to "any other person who had effects" of either deceased is a public notice clause. It converts the order from a particular direction to Carne and Frances into a general instruction binding on the whole inhabitants. Anyone holding any item that had belonged to Robert or to Jane was now under council order to surrender it to Mashborne. This is a comprehensive collection mechanism, designed to gather scattered assets from across the island into a single administered estate.

The signatures of Pyke and Haswell close the consultation. The absence of Mashborne, Bazett and Tovey from the subscribers is notable. Mashborne's omission is straightforward, as he was the beneficiary of the order. The omission of Bazett and Tovey, in a consultation where they were noted present at the opening, may reflect the customary practice of senior councillors signing on behalf of the bench where the matter affected a colleague. The Governor and Deputy Governor's signatures suffice to authenticate the order without involving the wider council.

The consultation closes with no other business recorded, consistent with its purpose as a single-item extraordinary sitting called to dispatch the Mashborne administration before the year-end recess. The next consultation reverts to the fortnight programme set on 21 Dec 1714, falling on 4 Jan 1715.

Speculations:

The general clause extending the order to any other person holding effects suggests Mashborne had reason to suspect that not all of Robert's or Jane's property was in Carne's hands. Effects might have been deposited with friends, business partners, or trustees during the years between the deaths and the present claim. A public order, probably to be read at beat of drum, would put the whole community on notice and remove any defence of ignorance.

The signing-off by Pyke and Haswell alone, in a matter where Mashborne was a party, may reflect a deliberate procedural caution. By restricting the formal authentication to the Governor and Deputy Governor, the council insulates the order from any later challenge that Mashborne had voted in his own cause. The structure is consistent with Carne's earlier objection of 14 Dec 1714 that Mashborne not be admitted as a councillor in the case, an objection which the council accepted in substance even though Mashborne remained physically present.

The extraordinary Wednesday sitting and the brevity of the recorded business, with only this one item, suggest the council was unwilling to wait until 4 Jan 1715 to settle a matter substantially conceded on 21 Dec 1714. The intervening week probably allowed Mashborne to produce the necessary letters of administration from his papers and Carne to consult on whether to maintain any reservation on his wife's behalf. By 29 Dec 1714 both sides were ready to dispose of the matter cleanly. The consultation is thus best understood as the formal closing instrument of a dispute already resolved in substance, dispatched promptly to clear the year-end docket.

The order removes the Goodwin estate dispute from the list of open threads. The Mashborne administration now has the council's authority to collect all known and unknown effects of both Robert and Jane, with the wider community on notice to comply. The first year of Pyke's administration closes with one less item carried into 1715.

305

296

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 4[th] of January 1714. at the United Castle In James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Gov[r]. Geo: Haswell Dep[ty]. G[r]. in y[e] Coun[try] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d]. Math[w]. Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th]. in Council

Prest

Serjant Fairfax presented the foll[g]. petition Island S[t]. Helena To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Gov[r] &c[a]. and Councill.

The Humble Petition of Tho[s]. Fairfax Serjant Sheweth That y[o]. Petition[r]. desires he may have the Sallary due to him from the time that Gov[r]. Roberts went off unto March 17[..] & for so doeing constant Duty ever Since at (Munders Point) most humbly beggs yo[r]. Worship & Council will be pleased to take it into consideration & allow him what you shall think fitt for all his Services. & yo[r]. Petition[r]. as in Duty bound shall Ever pray[...] Tho: Fairfax Ordered That the said petition be referred to the Govern[r]. & that he allow him as he shall think fitt. The Govern[r]. Reports that against Xmas A Beef being killed he had sent so much of it to the market to sell as amounted to 4[..]4[..]3 he received of the Markett man. Also that Edward Brereton Soldier who was formerly permitted to teach School came to him the 29[...] Ult[o] to desire he might be admitted againe to duty as a Sold[r] Also that y[e] 24[th] Ult[o] S[r]. Wooley S[r]. Mortimore &c S[r]

Margin Notes:

S[r]. Fairfax desires Sallary formerly due

referred to y[e] Gov[r]

Beef sold at X[mas]

Soldiers.

St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday 4 Jan 1714 [i.e. 1714/15] at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor (in the country); Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Sergeant Fairfax presented the following petition. The humble petition of Thomas Fairfax, sergeant, addressed to the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Governor, and council, set out that he desired he might have the salary due to him from the time Governor Roberts went off until March 1713, and that for doing constant duty ever since at Munden's Point he most humbly begged the Worship and council would be pleased to take it into consideration and allow him what they should think fit for all his services. Signed Thomas Fairfax.

It was ordered that the petition be referred to the Governor, and that he allow Fairfax as he should think fit.

The Governor reported that against Christmas a beef being killed, he had sent so much of it to the market to sell as amounted to 4s 4½d, which he had received from the market man.

He further reported that Edward Brereton, soldier, formerly permitted to teach school, came to him on 29 Dec last to desire he might be admitted again to duty as a soldier.

He also reported that on 24 Dec last Sergeant Wooley, Sergeant Mortimore...

Interpretations:

The Tuesday consultation of 4 Jan 1714/15 is the first sitting of the new calendar year and resumes the fortnight programme set on 21 Dec 1714. The date is written as 1714 in the manuscript according to the old-style English convention by which the year changed at Lady Day (25 Mar), so 4 Jan 1714 old style is 4 Jan 1715 new style. The double-dating convention 1714/15 is the modern scholarly form for entries between 1 January and 24 March in the old-style calendar.

Haswell's marginal note "in the country" indicates the Deputy Governor was absent from the Castle on Company business in the upland districts, consistent with his continuing role in the fence survey and plantation oversight programme. Mashborne, Bazett and Tovey were present, giving a council of four with the Governor.

Sergeant Fairfax's petition opens a long-deferred salary question. He sought back pay from the date of Governor Roberts's departure (which was 7 Aug 1711, when Boucher took over) to March 1713, plus continuing recognition for constant duty at Munden's Point since then. The period Aug 1711 to March 1713 is about nineteen months. The reference to "constant duty at Munden's Point" identifies him with the Munden's Fort garrison, the outer fortification at the entrance to James Bay, where a sergeant would have had charge of the gun crew and small detachment. The Governor's discretionary referral, rather than a council determination of the sum, indicates the matter was treated as a routine personal allowance within the Governor's settled authority.

The Governor's account of the Christmas beef sale is a small but precise piece of fiscal record-keeping. A beef being killed, presumably for the Castle and General Table at the festive season, the surplus was sent to the public market and yielded 4s 4½d. The careful entry of the sum, however small, reflects Pyke's administrative discipline that every cash receipt should be entered in the consultation book and accounted to the Honourable Company.

Brereton's request to return to soldier duty closes the small experiment of seconding a soldier to teach school. The arrangement appears to have lapsed, perhaps because the schoolroom did not flourish, perhaps because Brereton himself preferred the garrison's certainties. His application on 29 Dec 1714 falls in the same Wednesday gap as the Mashborne extraordinary sitting, suggesting the Governor was conducting business at the Castle even during the holiday recess.

The opening of the next item, beginning "Also that 24 Dec last Sergeant Wooley, Sergeant Mortimore...", introduces a further governor's report broken off at the page-edge. The reference appears to be to events of 24 Dec 1714, again falling within the holiday window.

Speculations:

Fairfax's back-claim from Aug 1711 to March 1713 is a substantial historic arrears matter. The Boucher administration's record on garrison pay has been catalogued throughout the late 1714 consultations as one of the standing failings being assembled into the documentary case for London. A sergeant going without his salary for nineteen months is consistent with that pattern, the more so if his station at Munden's Point kept him physically distant from the Castle and easy to overlook. The Governor's referral of the matter to himself, rather than to the full council, suggests Pyke intended to dispatch it as a personal allowance to be settled out of his discretionary authority, rather than as a formal Company liability requiring the Court of Directors' approval. The cut-off date of March 1713 is a few weeks before Pack's death on 3 Apr 1713, after which Bazett reported the store books had fallen twelve months behind, so Fairfax may have been pressing for the latest period in which there was any documentary record to support his claim.

The 4s 4½d receipt for surplus beef is the kind of small entry that builds the picture of Pyke's working method. Under Boucher, the consultations record no such micro-receipts, and the loose handling of cash and goods is precisely the kind of laxity now being unwound. Pyke's recording of every shilling, even at the cost of consultation-book space, is part of the disciplinary contrast he is drawing for the directors.

Brereton's brief career as soldier-schoolmaster is a small datum on the educational provision of the island. The Boucher and earlier administrations had relied on ad hoc arrangements, and there appears to have been no settled schoolmaster on the establishment. The fact that a soldier could be detached for the role, and could request return to duty when it suited him, suggests the schooling was modest and informal. The reference to William Hayse's deathbed wish (3 May 1712) that his children "be put out to good masters who would bestow learning on them" confirms that learning was sought out from individual masters rather than from a settled school.

The pattern of governor-only meetings during the holiday recess (Brereton on 29 Dec, Wooley and Mortimore on 24 Dec) shows Pyke continuing to do business at the Castle through the festive period, with applications received and reports compiled, then brought to the next regular council day for formal recording. This is consistent with the working-Governor model he established from his arrival on 8 Jul 1714.

306

297

Jn[o]. Sumersby were Drowned by a boat going to [...] and that he finds Jn[o]. Woolley was indebt £: 16. 10[...] Sumersby £: 2. 8: 4 Mortemore 4: 17. 10 The Govern[r] sent to their Lodgeings & those goods foud their were put to a publick out Cry & were according to the foll[g]. Acc[ts]. to the persons therein mentioned for y[e] Sum: of 5: 4: 8 A[n] Acc[t] of Mortemores, Woolleys and Sumersbys things as they were Sold Decemb[r] 4. 30. 1714[...]

Mortemores

£: s: d

Jn[o]: Hubbard A Gingham Coat 1: 0: 0

Sam: Head a Jacketts & breiches 0: 8: 6

Rob[t]. Ferguson 2 Shirts 1 Jackett 0: 11: 0

Tho. Brown 2 Shirts 0: 4: 10

Jos[ph]. Whaley 2 Shirts and 2 neckcloaths 0: 12: 00

Sam[l]. Thornbury 2 Neckcloaths &c 0: 2: 2

W[m]. Dunnett 1 p[r]. of Shoes and Stocking 0: 17: 0

Jos[ph]. Whales a Comb and Shears 0: 1: 0

D[o]. a Shirt 0: 3: 0

Sam[ll]. Thornbury 4 Scaines Mohair Silk & thread 0: 1: 6 0: 3: 6

Hon[ble]. Comp[a] a Red Coat 0: 3: 6

4: 8: 0

Sumersbys

Tho. Brown a Jackett & 2 Shirts 0: 1: 4

Sam[ll]. Thornbury 2 p[r]. of breeches 0: 1: 10

Woolleys

0: 3: 10

Miers 2 Shirts 0: 11: 00

W[m]. Huff a Coat 0: 14: 10

Ordered £ 5: 4: 8

That the s[d] Articles be transferred to the Hon[ble]. Comp[a] towards payment of their Debts

The Govern[r]. further saith that finding a book amongst mortimores things there is an acc[t]. of Sundry persons being D[r] to him, Ordered That his Acc[t]. have Creddit for it and the others charged therewith. The Govern[r]. further reports that the boat in which the

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Drowned their Debt.

Their Goods Sold at Out Cry

[...]Same transferred

The Governor reported that John Sumersby was drowned by a boat going to Sandy Bay. He found that John Wooley was indebted £9 16s 10d, Sumersby £2 8s 4d, and Mortimore £1 17s 10d. The Governor sent to their lodgings, and their goods being fetched there in, were put to a public outcry. They were sold according to the following account to the persons therein mentioned for the sum of £5 4s 8d.

The account of Mortimore's, Wooley's and Sumersby's things as they were sold on 30 Dec 1714/15 was as follows.

Mortimore's:

John Hubbard, a gingham coat, £1 0s 0d.

Samuel Head, a jacket and breeches, £0 8s 6d.

Robert Ferguson, two shirts and a jacket, £0 11s 0d.

Thomas Brown, two shirts, £0 4s 10d.

Joseph Whaley, two shirts and two neckcloths, £0 12s 0d.

Samuel Thornbury, two neckcloths, £0 2s 2d.

William Dunnett, one pair of shoes and stockings, £0 17s 0d.

Joseph Whaley, a comb and shears, £0 3s 0d.

Joseph Whaley, a shirt, £0 1s 6d.

Samuel Thornbury, four skeins of mohair silk and thread, £0 3s 6d.

Honourable Captain, a red coat, £0 3s 6d.

Mortimore subtotal £4 8s 0d.

Sumersby's:

Thomas Brown, a jacket and shirt, £0 1s 4d.

Samuel Thornbury, two pairs of breeches, £0 1s 10d.

Sumersby subtotal £0 3s 10d.

Wooley's:

Meirs, two shirts, £0 11s 0d.

William Huff, a coat, £0 14s 10d.

Wooley subtotal £5 4s 8d [combined running total at foot of column].

It was ordered that the said articles be transferred to the Honourable Company towards payment of their debts.

The Governor further said that finding a book among Mortimore's things, in which was an account of sundry persons indebted to him, it was ordered that his account have credit for it and the others charged therewith.

The Governor further reported that the boat in which...

Interpretations:

The drowning at Sandy Bay catches three soldiers in a single accident. The opening line names Sumersby specifically as drowned, but the disposal of the goods of Wooley and Mortimore on the same day and in the same outcry confirms all three were among the dead. The boat going to Sandy Bay would have been a Company long-boat carrying garrison or working hands to the principal industrial centre of the colony, where the lime kilns, stone cutters' house, tan fats and cart path had been built under Cason's supervision over 1712 to 1714. The outward voyage from James Bay round to Sandy Bay required rounding the south-eastern point of the island in exposed water, and capsizings were a recognised risk.

The three soldiers were all in debt at their deaths: Wooley £9 16s 10d, Sumersby £2 8s 4d and Mortimore £1 17s 10d, totalling £14 3s 0d. Mortimore is identifiable with John Mortimore, one of the soldiers whose obligation to serve the Company for five years from 30 Jan 1710 was entered in Tovey's bond inventory of 14 Dec 1714. He would have been about five years into that five-year term at his death, so close to completion. Wooley appears as Sergeant Wooley in the preceding consultation, named alongside Sergeant Mortimore in the Governor's report of business done on 24 Dec last, which was probably the day of the accident.

The Governor's response was the standard institutional procedure for the goods of a dead soldier on the establishment: send to the lodgings, fetch in the goods, put them to public outcry, and apply the proceeds to the Company debt. The outcry took place on 30 Dec 1714/15, just six days after the probable date of the accident, dispatching the matter while the soldiers and inhabitants would remember which articles had belonged to whom.

The outcry yielded £5 4s 8d in total. This is well short of the £14 3s 0d combined debt, so the Company would have to absorb the balance as bad debt unless the men had other assets, pay arrears in their favour or family back home from whom recovery could be sought. The clean transfer of all the goods to the Company by council order avoided any complication from family claims or testamentary disputes.

The buyers' list is a small social document of the garrison at the close of 1714. The purchasers include named soldiers (Hubbard, Head, Ferguson, Brown, Whaley, Thornbury, Dunnett, Huff, Meirs) and one officer styled only as "Honourable Captain", who paid £0 3s 6d for a red coat. The naming pattern by surname only for the soldiers and by rank-and-honorific for the officer is standard in such lists. The "Honourable Captain" buying a soldier's red coat may have been buying it for one of his own men, or as a piece of garrison stock, or for use as material.

The items sold reflect the modest possessions of three soldiers. Coats, jackets, shirts, breeches, neckcloths, shoes and stockings make up the bulk. Two items stand out: William Dunnett's purchase of "one pair of shoes and stockings" for £0 17s 0d, which is a high price probably reflecting good condition or a complete fitted pair, and Samuel Thornbury's purchase of four skeins of mohair silk and thread for £0 3s 6d, which suggests Mortimore had been engaged in some private sewing or repair work. Joseph Whaley's purchase of a comb and shears for £0 3s 0d points to similar tools of personal grooming or tailoring. The composition of the goods is consistent with men of the rank of sergeant who had small accumulations of personal items beyond bare necessities.

The book found among Mortimore's things, recording sundry persons indebted to him, is the late soldier's own credit register. He had been operating a small private credit business, lending money or goods to his fellows. The council order to credit his account with the book's totals and charge the named debtors is an elegant administrative solution: the dead man's receivables are absorbed into his Company debt position, reducing the Company's loss, while the debtors are properly charged in the Company's books. This is the kind of working procedure that would later become standard under Pyke's general rules of credit transfer, of which the Norman-Burnham (21 Dec 1714) and Carne-Francis (21 Dec 1714) transfers were the immediate precedents.

The Governor's further report that the boat in which the three men drowned, broken off at the page-edge, will probably continue on the next page with details of the boat's recovery, the survivors if any, and the witness depositions taken from those who saw the accident.

Speculations:

The probable date of the accident, 24 Dec 1714, would have been Christmas Eve in the English calendar, with the boat presumably carrying men or supplies on Company business between James Bay and Sandy Bay. The timing suggests either a late delivery to or pick-up from the Sandy Bay industrial centre before the holiday pause, or a routine working trip caught by sudden bad weather. The waters around St Helena's south-eastern coast are exposed to the southeast trades and can rise quickly. A boat overloaded with men and gear, or caught by a squall while passing the headlands, could capsize with little warning.

The loss of three sergeants in a single accident is a substantial blow to the garrison's command structure. The Sergeant Mortimore and Sergeant Wooley referred to in the previous consultation were both probably present at the Governor's 24 Dec interview before going off to the boat that drowned them. Their replacement will be a matter for the council in the coming weeks. The vacancy of the sergeant's position filled by Simpson on 17 Aug 1714 had set the precedent that such replacements were made by direct council appointment.

The "Honourable Captain" buyer is probably Captain Mashborne, the only captain on the council establishment, whose practice of buying or absorbing small items from garrison sales is consistent with his role as Deputy Governor and senior military officer. His purchase of a red coat at modest price may have been for re-issue to a serving soldier, the red coat being garrison uniform.

The pattern of soldier-to-soldier credit recorded in Mortimore's book is a glimpse of an informal economy operating alongside the formal Company store. Soldiers with small accumulations of capital lent to fellows who were short, probably between pay-days. The death of the lender would normally have made such debts hard to recover; the Company's absorption of both sides of the ledger, lender and borrowers, into its own books is a small piece of socialisation of risk that benefits the dead man's estate as much as it benefits the Company. Pyke's continuing reform of credit practice probably draws on accidents of this kind as proof of the need for systematic record-keeping.

The combined debt of £14 3s 0d for three sergeants suggests each was in debt by between £2 and £10 sterling, which is broadly consistent with three to six months' arrears against typical sergeant's pay of around £1 10s 0d per month. None was deeply mired; all were within recoverable range had they lived. The accident has converted a manageable situation into a partial loss for the Company, recovering £5 4s 8d against £14 3s 0d, a yield of about 37 per cent before any further offset from Mortimore's private receivables.

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the 3 Men were drowned was borrowed of D[r]. Thomlinson by Jn[o]. Woolley, one that was Drown[d] in her w[ch] Boat was his said Thomlinsons & partners they had alsoe taken the Sails out of the Hon[ble]. Comp[a] boat which were lost & it appearing that Richard Ray & Jn[o]. Knight & the Doctors boat were saved i[n] the following manner viz[t]. Rich[d]. Coal & Jn[o]. Crosby were upon Horse pasture Mountain goeing after their goats & by accident they Espyed y[e] boat under Sail & looking Steadily on it saw it Oversett then they went forthwith a very dangerous way a mile & a halfe and took M[r]. Carnes boat y[t] Lay at Lemon Valley & went off to them who had by that time drove out two Leagues to Sea & took them into the boat after they had been five hours in the water & Oars being lost & three men drowned & they also towed y[e] D[r] Doctors boat Ushoar, Ordered That tho' the said boat may be Esteemed as a Deodand it being forfeited by Law yet y[e] Intent of the Govern[r]. and Council being only to reward the Diligence of the two men who run so great a Risque themselves to save those poor mens lives the Owners of the said Boat shall have notice given them that if they give ten shillings to each of the two men who saved their boat there shall be no further notice taken of hereof. And the two men saved shall also have notice to reward those who saved their lives, Ordered That whoever owes mony to the three persons drowned that they do Acquaint the Govern[r]. therewith and that an Advertizement be publisht accordingly, Island S[t]. Helena. To the Wor[ll]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Gov[r] &c Councill, The most Humble Petition of Benjam[n] Pledger Sol[dr]. Humbly Sheweth, That sometime since in August last

Margin Notes:

Gov[rs] Report a[bt] the Boat Oversett

how 2 men were Sav[d] &c[a]

S[d] Boat Esteem[d] a Deodand & yet if y[e] own[ers] will give 10 [s] [e]a no forfeiture &c

2 men saved to[...] a [...]eward.

Mony owing y[e] [per]sons drown[d] to be given Acc[a] of

The boat in which the three men were drowned was borrowed from Mr Tomlinson by John Wooley. The one that was drowned in her was Tomlinson and his partners. They had also taken the sails out of the Honourable Company's boat, which were lost. It appearing that Richard Ray and John Knight, and the Doctor's boat, were saved in the following manner. Richard Beal and John Crosby were upon Horse Pasture Mountain, going after their goats, and by accident they spied the boat under sail. Looking steadily on it, they saw it overset. They then went forthwith a very dangerous way a mile and a half and took Mr Carnes's boat that lay at Lemon Valley, and went off to them. The boat had by that time drove out two leagues to sea. They took the men into the boat after they had been five hours in the water, oars being lost and three men drowned. They also towed the Doctor's boat ashore.

It was ordered that, though the boat might be deemed a deodand and forfeited by law, the Governor and council's intent being only to reward the diligence of the two men who ran so great a risk of their own lives to save these poor men's lives, the owners of the boat should have notice given them. If they gave ten shillings to each of the two men who saved their boat, there should be no further notice taken thereof. The two men saved should also have notice to reward those who saved their lives.

It was ordered that whoever owed money to the three persons drowned should acquaint the Governor therewith, and that an advertisement be published accordingly.

St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Governor, and Council. The most humble petition of Benjamin Pledger sheweth that sometime since in August last...

Interpretations:

The continued narrative of the drowning yields a much fuller picture of the accident and rescue. The boat was a private vessel borrowed by Sergeant Wooley from Mr Tomlinson, the writer in the store and translator of the Portuguese petition of 29 May 1711. Wooley had also taken the sails from the Honourable Company's boat, which were lost in the accident. Tomlinson and his partners were the legal owners with rights of recovery. The phrase "the one that was drowned in her was Tomlinson and his partners" is grammatically broken in the manuscript and probably means that the boat in which the three were drowned belonged to Tomlinson and partners.

The rescue narrative names four men. Richard Beal and John Crosby spotted the boat from Horse Pasture Mountain on the south coast while goat-hunting. They watched it long enough to see it capsize, then made their way a mile and a half by dangerous paths to Lemon Valley, where Carne's boat lay. They put off in Carne's boat to where the men were and rowed two leagues out to sea, reaching the survivors after they had been in the water five hours. They brought back two living men, named earlier in the account as Richard Ray and John Knight, in what the manuscript calls "the Doctor's boat", which they also towed ashore.

The geography is consistent. Horse Pasture Mountain stands on the south-western coast, with views over the open sea where the boat would have been carried out by current and wind. Lemon Valley lies further round towards James Bay, accessible from Horse Pasture by a steep cliff path. Carne's boat at Lemon Valley would have been kept for plantation use. Two leagues, about six nautical miles, is the distance the boat had drifted before the rescuers reached it, consistent with five hours of drift in moderate winds and current.

The deodand reference is interesting English common law. A deodand was a chattel which had caused a person's death, forfeited to the Crown (or here, to the Company as colonial proprietor) for pious or charitable use. By strict law, the boat in which the men drowned was a deodand and should have been forfeited. The council's resolution to set aside the forfeiture, conditional on the owners paying ten shillings to each rescuer, is an elegant practical solution. The owners avoid losing the boat, the rescuers receive a public reward of £1 0s 0d in total (10s each), and the council's authority to assert the deodand right is preserved without being insisted upon. The further order that the rescued men also reward those who saved their lives extends the practice to the survivors, who would naturally feel a personal obligation.

The advertisement to be published concerning debts owed to the three drowned men closes the credit-recovery operation begun with the goods outcry. Persons who owed money to Wooley, Mortimore or Sumersby (beyond those named in Mortimore's private book) are now under public notice to come forward, with the proceeds to flow to the Company against the three men's collective debt. The mechanism is the same general-notice procedure used in the Mashborne order of 29 Dec 1714 for the Goodwin estate, again calling out scattered assets across the island.

The opening of Benjamin Pledger's petition begins a new matter. Pledger has appeared in the late 1714 record as the son-in-law of Robert Bell, who held the Pledger five acres and house on 17 Aug 1714, with Bell ordered to be sent for to answer the petition. The August matter was apparently not settled, and Pledger now renews his petition in the new year. The reference to "sometime since in August last" places his cause within the August 1714 sequence.

Speculations:

The actual death toll has now become clearer. Three were drowned (Wooley, Mortimore, Sumersby) and two survived (Ray, Knight). The "Doctor's boat" reference may indicate that the boat carried the Company surgeon's boat or supplies, perhaps Doctor Porteous's, on some medical journey to Sandy Bay or as part of the routine traffic between James Bay and the windward stations. Alternatively, "the Doctor's boat" was the affectionate name for the borrowed Tomlinson vessel, perhaps because Porteous had used it on some prior occasion.

The five-hour wait in the water tested the survivors severely. The waters around St Helena are warm enough by the standards of British shipwreck (the climate is moderate, not tropical), but five hours' immersion with no oars and a capsized boat would have approached the limit of survival. The three drowned probably went down at or close to the moment of the capsize, while Ray and Knight clung to the upturned hull until rescue. The two leagues of drift confirms a southeast trade pushing the boat clear of the south-west coast and out into the open Atlantic, where rescue became progressively harder.

Beal and Crosby's rescue is one of the small heroic moments of the consultation record. The journey from their goat-grazing site on Horse Pasture down to Lemon Valley by a dangerous mile-and-a-half path, then the seizure of Carne's boat without authority (probably) and the row of two leagues out to sea in pursuit of a drifting vessel, constituted a personal undertaking of great physical risk. The council's response, side-stepping the strict deodand law to reward them with £1 0s 0d in total and to invite the survivors to add their own gratitude, treats the matter with practical wisdom. A formal Company reward might have set an awkward precedent; a private payment from the boat-owners, with council blessing, achieves the same end while preserving institutional flexibility.

The fact that Carne's boat was the rescue vessel adds a small note to the Carne narrative of late 1714. Through November and December his cattle, slaves, goats and plate had been steadily transferred to the Company against his debt. Now his boat at Lemon Valley is requisitioned for an emergency rescue. Carne himself is not mentioned in the rescue narrative, which suggests Beal and Crosby took the boat on their own initiative. Whether they had authority, or simply took it under exigent circumstances, the council's silence on the point reads as tacit approval. Carne would have had little ground for complaint given the moral weight of the rescue.

Pledger's renewed petition picks up an open thread from August 1714. The Bell-Pledger family dispute over the five acres and house, with Robert Bell as Pledger's father-in-law in possession of the property, is the kind of in-law tenure conflict the council often had to mediate. Pledger's revival of the petition in the new year suggests no settlement was reached between August and December, and the Pyke administration must now address the matter directly.

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last past yo[r]. Petition[r]. presented a petition therein setting forth that yo[r]. Petition[rs]. father Praize Pledger did by his last Will and Testament give Tho[s]. Pledger his Eldest Son five acres of Land and a House in James Valley, and for that the said Tho[s]. Pledger having bin gone off this Island for severall years and four years since heard from, have good reason to beleive him Dead, w[ch] Intitles yo[r]. petition[r]. to the abovesaid Premises as being next Heir at Law upon w[ch] petition aforesaid yo[r]. Worships & Councills result was that when your said Petition[r]. could Cutt a Corner Stone and finish the same himself Then to have the possession of s[d] House and Land, now yo[r]. said Petition[r] having bin ever since at Stone Cutting and performed this contract Humbly prays he may have possession of said House and Land given him accordingly, And as in Duty bound shall Jan[ry]. the 4[th] 171[..] for ever pray &c[a]. Benjamin Pledger Ordered That this affair was referred to the Gov[r]. before so it still be and that if the Gov[r]. is Sattisfied as to y[e] said Pledgers work &c[a]. he have the said Land and share of the Estate he Claims according to the prayer of his Petition. Whereas Rich[d]. Gurling Planter has taken upon him to affix up a publick paper in this Town to give Notice that himself and others do intend to make a publick out Cry and Dispose of the Estate & Effects of Charles Steward lately deceased without makeing any probatt of the said Charles Stewards last Will & Testament & without any other

Margin Notes:

Benj[a] Praize Pledg[r] Petitions for [...] [pos]ession of y[e] Land

Referred to y[e] Govern[r].

Ab[t] Notice of Cha[s] Stewards Effects to be sold

Benjamin Pledger presented a petition to the Governor and council. He set out that in August last his father Praise Pledger had by his last will and testament given Thomas Pledger his eldest son five acres of land and a house in James Valley. Thomas Pledger had then been gone off the island for several years, and the petitioner had not been heard from him for four years. The petitioner had good reason to believe his brother dead. As next heir at law, he had presented his earlier petition, on which the Worship and council had ruled that when the petitioner could cut a corner stone and finish the house himself, he would have possession. He had since been continually at stone cutting and had performed that condition. He humbly prayed that possession of the house and land be given him accordingly. Dated 4 January 1714/15, signed Benjamin Pledger.

The council ordered that the matter, having earlier been referred to the Governor, remain so. If the Governor was satisfied as to Pledger's work, he was to have the land and share of the estate he claimed according to the prayer of his petition.

Richard Gurling, planter, had taken upon himself to put up a public paper in the town, giving notice that he and others intended to make a public outcry and dispose of the estate and effects of Charles Steward lately deceased, without making any probate of Steward's last will and testament, and without any other...

Interpretations:

The petition resolves an open thread from August 1714, when Pledger first raised his claim to the five-acre parcel and house in James Valley. The earlier order had been conditional: Pledger to prove his fitness by personally cutting a corner stone and finishing the house, a test designed to combine practical skill with sustained labour as the price of inheritance. The use of physical workmanship as the qualifying condition for a land grant is the council's adaptation of the standing principle that fencing and improvement converted entitlement into tenure. Here, the principle is extended from agricultural enclosure to building craft.

The Governor's discretionary authority over the matter, confirmed rather than withdrawn by the council, reflects the standard division of business. Routine implementation of conditional orders, including the judgement whether the condition has been met, falls to the Governor alone, while the council reserves its collective authority for the framing decision and any later dispute. Pledger's claim by survivorship rests on the presumption of his brother Thomas's death after four years' unbroken absence and silence, which the council accepts as sufficient evidence in the absence of contrary information.

The Steward matter that opens at the foot of the page introduces a significant procedural breach. Richard Gurling's public notice of an intended outcry to dispose of Charles Steward's estate, posted without any prior probate of Steward's will, bypasses the council's exclusive jurisdiction over wills and intestate estates. Probate before the council, on the oaths of two witnesses with the will entered in the dedicated register, was the only recognised route to administration of a planter's estate. A planter acting on his own initiative to sell off another man's property by public outcry, without authority, was a direct challenge to the council's standing as colonial probate court.

The phrase "public paper in the town" describes the customary mode of advertisement for a forthcoming sale: a notice posted in a visible position in James Valley, drawing potential buyers' attention to the date and location. Public outcry, the local term for auction by open bid, was the standard mechanism for disposing of moveable property in a deceased's estate, but only under the council's order following grant of probate or letters of administration. Gurling's action threatened to set a precedent that any planter could initiate the process unilaterally, with consequences for creditor priority, family rights and Company debt recovery.

Speculations:

The Pledger condition of cutting a corner stone and finishing the house probably served a dual purpose beyond simple proof of competence. By requiring Benjamin to do the structural work himself, the council ensured that the property would not be passed to a claimant who would immediately sell it or let it fall further into disrepair. The corner stone, the key load-bearing element of the building's structure, is the most demanding test of mason's craft. Benjamin Pledger's father-in-law Robert Bell was confirmed in earlier records as a mason, so Benjamin had probably learned the trade under Bell's supervision, which would explain why the council chose this particular test for him rather than a generic agricultural condition.

Gurling's unauthorised notice for Steward's estate may have been an attempt to pre-empt the council's grant of administration, perhaps because Gurling held claims against Steward that he wished to satisfy from the immediate sale proceeds before Company priority could be asserted. Steward had been named in earlier records as an overcharging supplier ordered on 12 Mar 1712 to pay store prices at his own inflated rates, and would have died with significant debts on both sides. A planter-led outcry, controlled by Gurling, would distribute the proceeds informally among the planter creditors, while a council-administered probate would put the Honourable Company at the head of the priority list, leaving little for the planter claimants. The motive for the procedural breach is probably to be found in the order of creditors rather than in any general defiance of authority.

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other Lawfull authority for his so doeing) This are therefore to prohibitt and forbid any such Publick sale or Outcry or other Distribution of the [...] of the said Charles Steward untill probatte of the said Stewards Will be made (if he left any Will) or untill some proper person or persons be admitted for the Administration of the said Estate if he Dyed Intestate to the End that Justice may be impartially done between the Widdow & the Children,

[...] [...]

Margin Notes:

Will not & prooff of [...] forbid makeing Sale of Effects

...other lawful authority for his so doing.

The council therefore prohibited and forbade any such public sale, outcry or other distribution of the effects of Charles Steward until probate of Steward's will had been made, if he had left any will, or until some proper person or persons had been admitted for the administration of his estate, if he had died intestate. The aim was that justice might be impartially done between the widow and the children.

Signed Pyke.

Interpretations:

The council's prohibition is an assertion of its exclusive jurisdiction over probate and administration, formally restating the rule that no distribution of a deceased planter's estate could lawfully begin without prior council action. The two-track wording, probate if there was a will or administration if intestate, covers the full procedural map and leaves Gurling no technical opening to claim that the absence of a known will permitted private action. The notice is to remain forbidden until one of these two routes has been opened by the council itself.

The reference to the widow and the children identifies the parties whose interests the council is protecting. Charles Steward, the overcharging supplier of 12 Mar 1712, left a household that would be the principal sufferer from an unauthorised sale by planter creditors. Without probate or letters of administration, the widow's right to her dower share and the children's portions could be defeated by a Gurling-led outcry that paid off the planter creditors and left nothing for the family. The council's intervention substitutes orderly succession for first-come distribution.

The phrase "justice may be impartially done" articulates the standing rationale for council jurisdiction over estates. Impartiality here means equality of treatment among creditors and family members according to settled rules of priority, rather than the rough-and-ready outcome of an informal outcry where the most active or best-connected creditor would carry off the bulk of the assets. The council positions itself as the neutral arbiter against the partial interest of any individual planter.

Pyke's solo signature, without Haswell, Mashborne, Bazett or Tovey, may indicate that the council acted with sufficient urgency to issue the prohibition under the Governor's authority alone, perhaps in the form of a counter-advertisement to be posted in the same town spaces as Gurling's notice. The matter would not bear the delay of a fully countersigned consultation entry if Gurling's outcry was imminent.

Speculations:

The two-track formula (will or no will) suggests the council did not actually know whether Steward had left a will at all. The wording "if he left any will" reads as genuinely conditional rather than rhetorical. Gurling's confident move to outcry, without prior probate, may have been grounded in his knowledge that no will existed, and that intestate administration would normally fall to the widow under English custom. By acting first and disposing of the moveables quickly, Gurling probably hoped to satisfy his own claim against Steward before the widow could be granted administration and reorder the priorities to favour the Company and the family. The council's prohibition closes that window.

The choice of Pyke's sole signature rather than the standard collective subscription points to procedural speed rather than collective deliberation. A counter-notice issued under the Governor's authority alone could go up in town within hours, beating any rapid action by Gurling. The matter could then be ratified by the full council at the next regular sitting. This pattern of single-signature emergency orders, with later collective ratification, is consistent with Pyke's working method of treating the Governor's authority as continuously available between consultation days for matters requiring immediate response.

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Island S[t] Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 11[th] day of January 1714 At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Govern[r] George Haswell D[e]p[ty] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] in y[e] Country. Math[w]. Bazett 4[th] Antip[s]. Tovey 5[th]. in Counc[ll]

Prest

M[r]. Gabriell Powell & Richard Gurling two of the Execut[rs] of M[r]. Charles Steward Dec[d] appeared in Councill and desired to prove Said Stewards Last Will & Testament which was done Accordingly by the Oaths of Jn[o] Alexander and Thomas Price. Ordered

That the Said Will be registered and Probate Delivered the Said Executors.

Robert Gurling having delivered in a Declaration the 6[th] Instant January against Pipin Wills planter The said Will[s] was Summoned to attend this Councill and also Such Witnesses as Said Gurling desired to be Summoned which being read as also the Answer of Said Wills The Govern[r] Demanded whether they were for referring it to the Govern[r] and Councill or would have it Deferd to the Gen[l]a Sessions who Said they both desired the Govern[r] and Councill would Decide it. Whereupon M[rs]. Ruth Wood was Examined upon Oath and Declared as followeth

Ruth Wood Sayeth that She gave to her Daughter Margarett the Value of ninety one pound on a Contract of Marriage with Benj[a]. Wills the son of Pipin Wills but Saith that She had not Consented to the Match unless Pipin

Margin Notes:

Cha[s]. Stewards Will. proved.

Rob[t]. Gurling Compl[t] ag[t] Pip[n]. Wills

R: Wood.

St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday 11 January 1714/15 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor (in the country); Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

Mr Gabriel Powill and Richard Gurling, two of the executors of Mr Charles Steward deceased, appeared in council and desired to prove Steward's last will and testament. This was done accordingly on the oaths of John Alexander and Thomas Price.

The council ordered that the will be registered and probate delivered to the executors.

Robert Gurling had delivered in a declaration on 6 January last against Pipin Wills, planter. Wills was summoned to attend the council, together with the witnesses Gurling desired to be called. The declaration was read, and the answer of Wills also. The Governor demanded whether the parties wished the matter referred to the Governor and council, or deferred to the general sittings. Both desired the Governor and council to decide it.

Ruth Wood was thereupon examined on oath and declared as followeth. She stated that she had given to her daughter Margaret the value of £91 0s 0d on a contract of marriage with Benjamin Wills, the son of Pipin Wills. She added that she had not consented to the marriage unless...

Interpretations:

The Steward will is now produced and proved on the oaths of John Alexander and Thomas Price, witnesses to the document. Gabriel Powill and Richard Gurling appear as named executors, which reframes Gurling's earlier action of 4 January 1714/15. Gurling was not acting as a self-appointed planter but as a named executor under the will. His public outcry notice, issued without first bringing the will to probate, was nonetheless procedurally wrong: probate had to precede any executor's act of distribution, and a notice of outcry issued before probate was void at law. The council's prohibition of 4 January was therefore correct, and the present consultation supplies the missing procedural step by formal proof of the will. The grant of probate to the executors now authorises Powill and Gurling to act in administering the estate.

The Robert Gurling declaration against Pipin Wills opens a separate dispute concerning the marriage of Benjamin Wills, son of Pipin, and Margaret Wood, daughter of Ruth Wood. Robert Gurling, possibly a relative of Margaret or trustee of the marriage settlement, has filed a formal complaint in writing on 6 January 1714/15. The parties' joint election of the Governor and council as forum, rather than the general sittings fixed for 17 January, indicates that both sides preferred summary equitable adjudication to the more procedural setting of the quarter sessions. The mechanism by which the parties could elect the venue is a feature of the small jurisdiction's flexibility.

The marriage contract value of £91 0s 0d is substantial by local standards. Set against the customary land valuation of £5 0s 0d per acre established by Pyke on 21 December 1714, the sum is equivalent to about eighteen acres of land, a meaningful provision for a daughter on marriage. Marriage portions of this scale on St Helena typically came from the bride's side of the family and passed under contract to the husband on solemnisation of the marriage, becoming part of the new household's working capital. Ruth Wood's deposition, that she had given Margaret £91 0s 0d on the marriage contract with Benjamin Wills, places her as the source of the portion and as a party with a clear interest in any subsequent dispute over the marriage or its consequences.

The phrase "she had not consented to the marriage unless..." breaks off at the page edge and introduces a condition Ruth Wood had imposed before agreeing to the match. The unfinished construction probably introduces a specific covenant the Wills family was required to undertake in exchange for the £91 0s 0d portion, the breach of which now grounds the present dispute.

Speculations:

The election of the Governor and council over the general sittings, by both parties' agreement, suggests that the dispute turned on questions of equitable construction of the marriage contract rather than facts requiring jury determination. The general sittings, with a twelve-man jury empanelled from the planters, were the proper venue for contested facts; the Governor and council, sitting summarily, were better suited to interpret the terms of a written instrument and impose a remedy. The choice points to a dispute over what the marriage contract required rather than over what had actually happened.

The Steward executors' decision to bring the will to probate only after the council's prohibition of 4 January 1714/15 suggests that Powill and Gurling had hoped to avoid the formal probate process altogether, perhaps because the inventory of Steward's effects, the schedule of debts and the order of creditor priority would be subject to council scrutiny. The unauthorised outcry would have allowed quick disposal without entry of an inventory, without sworn account of debts and without Company creditor priority being asserted. The week's interval between the prohibition and the present probate, falling neatly on the next council day, indicates that Powill and Gurling came in with the will only when there was no alternative. Their compliance now restores the regular order of administration.

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Pipin Wills had promised to give to his Sone Benjamin the Same value, and Sayeth he Did promise her that he would give his Son Benj[a] Ten acres of Land formerly James Eathopes, and a black Slave, and on that She the Said Ruth did Consent to the Match And after the Marriage was made he did tell his Son he might take the said Land when he would and the Said Benjamin Occupied the Land and bought Such ors to plant it with but Eighteen months after the Marriage Benjamin Dyed. And then Pipin Wills took the Land into his Possession againe

Jur[t] Coram me hoc undecimo die Janu[ary] 1714. Coram me Isa[a]: Pyke

Besides severall other Evidences viz[t]. Isaac Wood John Knipe & Ruth his wife Giles Hause and George Kitchin who Saith much to the Same purpose and also John Bagley & Margarett his wife Rich[d]. Gurling and Tho[s] Southern relateing to Compl[t]. of Said Gurling being to be Examined We find it to be long and Tedious She said Wills denying most part of y[e] Compl[t] & Evidences which makes it very Intricate that t'was likely to take up more than that days time, the Govern[r] referd it to the Court of Judi =cature [...]

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

Margin Notes:

her Deposition

other Evidences.

Ruth Wood's deposition continued. Pipin Wills had promised to give to his son Benjamin the same value, and had also promised her that he would give Benjamin ten acres of land formerly James Easthope's, and a black slave. On that footing she had consented to the match. After the marriage was made, Pipin had told his son he might take the land when he would. Benjamin had then occupied the land and bought suckers to plant it with. Eighteen months after the marriage, Benjamin died. Pipin Wills then took the land into his possession again.

Sworn before me 11 January 1714/15, Isaac Pyke.

Besides several other depositions, namely those of Isaac Wood, John Knipe and his wife Ruth, Giles Hayse, George Kitchin to the same purpose, and also John Bagley and Margaret his wife, Richard Gurling and Thomas Southen relating to Gurling's complaint to be examined, the council found the matter so long and tedious, Wills denying most part of the complaint, and the evidence so intricate, that it was probable to take up more than that day's time. The Governor therefore referred it to the Court of Judicature.

Signed Pyke, Haswell, Tovey.

Interpretations:

The substance of the Wood-Wills marriage settlement is now clear. Ruth Wood's £91 0s 0d portion for her daughter Margaret was matched by Pipin Wills's undertaking on his son Benjamin's side: ten acres of land formerly belonging to James Easthope, a slave and an equivalent value. The settlement is a standard early modern marriage arrangement in which each family endowed the new household with matching contributions, here in the form of cash from the bride's side and land plus a slave from the groom's. The James Easthope parcel reappears from earlier consultations: seven acres formerly leased by Easthope had been granted to Richard Gurling in 1712, but the ten acres in dispute appear to be a separate parcel that had passed through other hands.

The legal heart of the dispute is Benjamin's death eighteen months into the marriage, after he had taken possession of the land and begun planting it with yam suckers. Under the settlement, the land had been transferred to Benjamin during his lifetime, however informally, and on his death it should have descended either to his widow Margaret as his surviving spouse (or her family as part of the marriage contract) rather than reverting to his father Pipin. By repossessing the land after Benjamin's death, Pipin Wills had effectively voided the consideration that had induced Ruth Wood's £91 0s 0d portion, leaving Margaret with neither the land nor the cash. The action of repossession is the act complained of, and the dispute turns on whether Pipin's verbal authorisation to Benjamin to occupy and plant constituted an effective transfer of title, or merely a permission revocable at the father's pleasure.

The reference of the matter from the Governor and council to the Court of Judicature, despite both parties' earlier election of the council as their preferred forum, reflects the practical limits of summary adjudication. With eleven named witnesses on either side (Isaac Wood, John and Ruth Knipe, Giles Hayse, George Kitchin, John and Margaret Bagley, Richard Gurling, Thomas Southen, on top of Ruth Wood herself), Pipin's denial of "most part" of the complaint, and the intricacy of the evidence, the matter was too substantial for a council sitting to dispatch in a single day. The Court of Judicature, sitting at the sessions house with a twelve-man jury, was the proper forum for contested questions of fact on this scale.

The shift from one forum to the other illustrates the working division between the council's executive jurisdiction and the court's fact-finding role. The council reserves to itself the power of triage: it hears the parties, takes the principal deposition, identifies the scope of the dispute, and then determines whether the matter can be concluded in council or must be referred onward to a jury. Both modes are local procedures, but they operate by different rules of evidence and remedy.

Speculations:

Pipin Wills's grounds for repossessing the land may rest on a fine distinction between the transfer being conditional on the continuance of the marriage, treating it as a quasi-jointure that would survive only as long as both spouses lived, or being absolute on transfer to Benjamin. The eighteen-month span of the marriage gave time for Benjamin to acquire the suckers and plant the land but not to produce a yam crop, so the planted estate at his death was a developing asset of uncertain value. A father's claim that his son's death without issue closed the settlement back to the originating party would draw on the English doctrine that brought property back to the line from which it had come in default of issue. Margaret, as a widow without children, may have been left with the £91 0s 0d nominally in the marriage but without the matching consideration that had induced it.

The breadth of the witness list, drawn from at least seven separate households (Wood, Knipe, Hayse, Kitchin, Bagley, Gurling, Southen), shows that the marriage settlement had been negotiated and witnessed in the presence of substantial community involvement. This is consistent with early modern marriage practice where settlements were not purely private but were vouched for by neighbours and kin, who acted as informal witnesses to the parties' undertakings. The collective recollection of these witnesses now becomes the evidence on which the Court of Judicature will have to determine what was actually promised and on what terms.

312

303

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation held on fryday the 14[th] Day of Jan[ry] 1714[..] at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gover[r] George Haswell D[e]p[ty] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] Matt: Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s] Tovey 5[th] in Counc[l]

Prest

This morning about seven of the Clock an Alarm was made for a Single Ship. About two in the afternoon the Aurengzebe Cap[t] Nicholas Luhorne Arrived and brought on Shoar and Delivered a Pachett Directed to us Containg an Invoice, bill of load =ing, and Gener[l] Letter Advising of Goods and Merchandize sent from the Govern[r] & Councill at Fort S[t] George Ordered. That the Letter and Invoice be Enterd in a book for that purpose, and that the Cap[t] have an Order to send the Goods on Shoar asoon as posible. Ordered That an Advertisem[t]. be published to give Notice to all the Inhabitants that the Gen[ll] Sessions and Muster be Defferd till a week after Departure of[...] Said Ship. Ordered. That the lease Granted Thomas Bagley for the Land he formerly Possest be Entered in the Consultation book, which is as followeth Island

Margin Notes:

Aurengzeb. Arriv[d] Her Packet

Goods Ord[d] a Shore

Sessions &c deferred.

Tho. Bagleys Lease E[ntered]

St Helena. At a consultation held on Friday 14 January 1714/15 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

This morning about seven of the clock an alarm was made for a single ship. About two in the afternoon the Aurengzebe, Captain Nicholas Lihorne, arrived. She brought a packet on shore directed to the council, containing an invoice, bill of lading and general letter advising of goods and merchandise sent from the Governor and council at Fort St George.

The council ordered that the letter and invoice be entered in a book kept for that purpose, and that the captain have an order to send the goods on shore as soon as possible.

The council further ordered that an advertisement be published giving notice to all the inhabitants that the general sittings and muster were deferred until a week after the Aurengzebe sailed.

The council also ordered that the lease granted to Thomas Bagley for the land he formerly possessed be entered in the consultation book, which is as followeth.

Interpretations:

The Aurengzebe arrives from Fort St George (Madras), the principal Coromandel Coast Company station, with a packet containing the three standard shipping documents: invoice listing the goods and their valuations, bill of lading establishing carriage and delivery terms, and a covering letter from the Madras Governor and council explaining the consignment. Entry of the letter and invoice in a dedicated book is the standing administrative practice for inward shipping, preserving the documentation against later dispute over what was shipped, in what quantities and at what prices.

The alarm at seven in the morning for a single ship, followed by arrival at two in the afternoon, illustrates the working sequence of approach to St Helena. The lookout posts on the heights, particularly at Halley's Mount and Munden's Point, could spot a single sail many hours before it could be identified or beach itself in the road. The seven-hour interval between alarm and anchorage is consistent with a ship still some distance to windward at first sighting, working its way down to the leeward roadstead.

The deferral of the general sittings and the muster, both fixed for 17 January and 20 January respectively on 21 December 1714, is the standard accommodation to a ship in the road. Both events required the full attention of the planter community, who were also the principal traders with the ship and would be needed to discharge cargo and load supplies. The "week after the Aurengzebe sailed" formulation gives the inhabitants time to complete their commercial dealings before turning to public business. This is a practical compromise between the council's calendar of public affairs and the merchant demands of a fleet visit.

The entry of Thomas Bagley's lease into the consultation book introduces the formal documentary record of a grant already made. Bagley was ordered out of the Alexander land on 16 October 1711 and given eighteen months to lift his crops; the present lease, "for the land he formerly possessed", appears to be a separate grant of the land Bagley had previously held before his ouster. The recording of the lease in the consultation book, rather than relying solely on the original deed, is a safeguard against future loss or disputed reading of the instrument, creating a parallel record under council authority.

Speculations:

The timing of the Aurengzebe's arrival, three days before the scheduled general sittings, would have caused immediate disruption to the assembled court calendar even without the deferral order. The Powill-Gurling-Steward probate, the Wood-Wills marriage settlement referral, and other matters listed for the 17 January sittings would now stand over until the ship had sailed. Pyke's prompt order deferring both sittings and muster, rather than attempting to hold the sittings on the appointed day and then attend to the cargo afterwards, treats the ship's business as the paramount call on the colony's working capacity. The deferral also avoids inconveniencing the planters who would be needed at the beach for cargo handling and at the market to deal with the visiting merchants.

The decision to enter Bagley's lease into the consultation book on a day already filled with shipping business probably reflects an opportunistic use of the assembled council. With all five members present (Haswell having returned from the country), Pyke seized the opportunity to dispatch the lease entry while quorum was complete. Bagley's lease may have been overdue for formal entry, perhaps held back during Haswell's absence in the country during earlier sittings, and the gathering for the Aurengzebe's arrival provided the first available full council to authenticate the entry. The lease text itself, beginning on the next page with "Island...", will give the precise terms of Bagley's tenure.

313

304

Island S[t]. Helena

The Lords Proprietors of this Island The Hon[ble] the United Comp[a] of Merch[ts] of London tradeing to the East Indies, Do hereby Demise Lett and Sett unto Tho[s]. Bagley of the Island S[t]. Helena Free Planter One and Twenty Acrs of Land with a Dwelling house upon the same Lying Scituate and being in Sandy Bay under the Main Ridge adjoyning to Thomas Perkins towards the North towards the East and West to William Slaughters Land, towards the South to Richard Swallows Land, To have and to hold the said Premisses to him the said Tho[s]. Bagley his Executors, Administrators, and Assigns for the term of One and Twenty Years Commenceing from the[r] 25[th]. of March 1711. Upon Condition that he the said Tho[s]. Bagley his Executors, Administrators and Assignes shall always do and bear true Faith and Allegiance To our Sovereign Lady Queen Anne, Her Heirs and Successors. also to the Hon[ble] United Company and their Successors, and shall duly obey all the Laws and Constitutions of the said Island and Yearly pay at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary being the 25[th]. day of March the Annual Rent of Five Pound Five Shillings in good and current Money of the said Island, To the said Hon[ble]. United Company and their Successors, and that the said Tho[s]. Bagley his Executors Administrators and Assignes shall and do at the Expiration of the said Term of Twenty one Years leave the House

The lease text followed. The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies, demised, let and set unto Thomas Bagley of the island of St Helena, free planter, twenty-one acres of land with a dwelling house upon the same. The premises were situated in Sandy Bay under the Main Ridge, adjoining Thomas Perkins's land to the north, William Slaughter's land to the east and west, and Richard Swallow's land to the south.

The grant was to be held by Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns for the term of twenty-one years, commencing from 25 March 1711.

The grant was made on condition that Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns should at all times bear true faith and allegiance to the Queen, her heirs and successors, and also to the Honourable United Company and their successors. They were to obey all the laws and constitutions of the island and to pay yearly, on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (25 March), the annual rent of £5 5s 0d in good and current money of the island, to the Honourable United Company and their successors. At the expiration of the twenty-one year term, Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns were to leave the house...

Interpretations:

The lease form is the council's standard twenty-one year demise to a free planter, here applied to a twenty-one acre parcel in Sandy Bay with a dwelling house. The Sandy Bay location places Bagley's holding in the industrial heart of the colony, where the lime kilns, stone cutters' house, tan fats and cart path had been built between 1712 and 1714. The neighbouring landowners (Perkins, Slaughter, Swallow) form a cluster of established planters whose own holdings have been recorded at various points in the consultations. The boundary description by neighbours' names rather than by metes and bounds is the standard local form, relying on the council's parallel survey records to fix the actual extent.

The annual rent of £5 5s 0d for twenty-one acres works out to 5s 0d per acre, matching the rate confirmed elsewhere in the records (Bagley's lease of 9 January 1711, Wrangham's grant and others). The rate is calculated by the same formula and is therefore standardised across the Company's leasehold grants, whatever the year of the lease. Payment is to be made on Lady Day (25 March), the conventional English quarter-day from which the twenty-one year term itself runs, so that the rent and the calendar of tenure align on a single annual fixed point. The phrase "good and current money of the island" recognises the mixed currency circulating on St Helena (Spanish silver, English coin, copper pieces), all of which would be accepted at their settled local valuations.

The dual-allegiance covenant (Queen and Company) reflects the colony's constitutional position as a Company island held under royal charter. Queen Anne, named here as the sovereign though the lease commenced on 25 March 1711 and she died on 1 August 1714, would by the date of entry (14 January 1714/15) have been succeeded by George I. The retention of the original wording in the entry, despite the change of sovereign in the interim, indicates the entry is being made from the original lease document signed in 1711, rather than being newly drafted in 1715. The text breaks off with the reversion clause introducing the condition of the property at the end of the term, which probably continues on the next page with the standard form of return in good repair.

Speculations:

The choice to enter Bagley's twenty-one year lease into the consultation book in January 1714/15, almost four years after the lease itself commenced, suggests that the original instrument had not previously been registered in the council's books. Bagley's position is otherwise documented across the records: in late 1711 he was ordered out of the Alexander land, with eighteen months to lift his crops, and the present lease at Sandy Bay is the parcel he received instead. The dispute over the Alexander land has consumed multiple consultations and stands among the documentary case to be transmitted to London. Entering Bagley's Sandy Bay lease formally in the consultation book at this juncture may serve to clarify the scope of his actual tenure and to head off any later argument that he held no land at all beyond the disputed parcel.

The lease commences on 25 March 1711, which is the Lady Day immediately after Bagley's removal from the Alexander land. The chronology suggests that the council had compensated Bagley for the loss of one parcel with the immediate grant of another, with the transfer timed to the conventional quarter day on which leases commenced. The four-year gap between the lease and its formal entry in the consultation book is consistent with the wider pattern of administrative arrears under Boucher: store books twelve months behind at Pack's death in April 1713, the Toddington and Susannah letters missing from the records, the General Table audit outstanding. Pyke's new administration is now systematically entering documents into the formal record that had been allowed to slip during the previous governorship.

314

305

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation held on fryday the 14[th] Day of Jan[ry] 1714[..] at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gover[r] George Haswell D[e]p[ty] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] Matt: Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s] Tovey 5[th] in Counc[l]

Prest

This morning about seven of the Clock an Alarm was made for a Single Ship. About two in the afternoon the Aurengzebe Cap[t] Nicholas Luhorne Arrived and brought on Shoar and Delivered a Pachett Directed to us Containg an Invoice, bill of load =ing, and Gener[l] Letter Advising of Goods and Merchandize sent from the Govern[r] & Councill at Fort S[t] George Ordered. That the Letter and Invoice be Enterd in a book for that purpose, and that the Cap[t] have an Order to send the Goods on Shoar asoon as posible. Ordered That an Advertisem[t]. be published to give Notice to all the Inhabitants that the Gen[ll] Sessions and Muster be Defferd till a week after Departure of[...] Said Ship. Ordered. That the lease Granted Thomas Bagley for the Land he formerly Possest be Entered in the Consultation book, which is as followeth Island

Margin Notes:

Aurengzeb. Arriv[d] Her Packet

Goods Ord[d] a Shore

Sessions &c deferred.

Tho. Bagleys Lease E[ntered]

The lease text followed. The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies, demised, let and set unto Thomas Bagley of the island of St Helena, free planter, twenty-one acres of land with a dwelling house upon the same. The premises were situated in Sandy Bay under the Main Ridge, adjoining Thomas Perkins's land to the north, William Slaughter's land to the east and west, and Richard Swallow's land to the south.

The grant was to be held by Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns for the term of twenty-one years, commencing from 25 March 1711.

The grant was made on condition that Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns should at all times bear true faith and allegiance to the Queen, her heirs and successors, and also to the Honourable United Company and their successors. They were to obey all the laws and constitutions of the island and to pay yearly, on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (25 March), the annual rent of £5 5s 0d in good and current money of the island, to the Honourable United Company and their successors. At the expiration of the twenty-one year term, Bagley, his executors, administrators and assigns were to leave the house...

Interpretations:

The lease form was the council's standard twenty-one year demise to a free planter, applied to a twenty-one acre parcel in Sandy Bay with a dwelling house. The Sandy Bay location placed Bagley's holding in the industrial heart of the colony, where the lime kilns, stone cutters' house, tan fats and cart path had been built between 1712 and 1714. The neighbouring landowners (Perkins, Slaughter, Swallow) formed a cluster of established planters whose own holdings had been recorded at various points in the consultations. The boundary description by neighbours' names rather than by metes and bounds was the standard local form, relying on the council's parallel survey records to fix the actual extent.

The annual rent of £5 5s 0d for twenty-one acres worked out to 5s 0d per acre, matching the rate confirmed elsewhere in the records (Bagley's lease of 9 January 1711, Wrangham's grant and others). The rate was calculated by the same formula and was therefore standardised across the Company's leasehold grants, whatever the year of the lease. Payment was to be made on Lady Day (25 March), the conventional English quarter-day from which the twenty-one year term itself ran, so that the rent and the calendar of tenure aligned on a single annual fixed point. The phrase "good and current money of the island" recognised the mixed currency then circulating on St Helena (Spanish silver, English coin, copper pieces), all of which were accepted at their settled local valuations.

The dual-allegiance covenant (Queen and Company) reflected the colony's constitutional position as a Company island held under royal charter. Queen Anne, named in the lease as the sovereign though the lease commenced on 25 March 1711 and she died on 1 August 1714, would by the date of entry (14 January 1714/15) have been succeeded by George I. The retention of the original wording in the entry, despite the change of sovereign in the interim, indicated that the entry was being made from the original lease document signed in 1711, rather than newly drafted in 1715.

Speculations:

The choice to enter Bagley's twenty-one year lease into the consultation book on 14 January 1714/15, almost four years after the lease itself commenced, suggested that the original instrument had not previously been registered in the council's books. Bagley's position was otherwise documented across the records: in the consultation of 8 October 1711 he had been ordered out of the Alexander land, with eighteen months to lift his crops, and the present lease at Sandy Bay was the parcel he received instead. The dispute over the Alexander land had consumed multiple consultations and stood among the documentary case to be transmitted to London. Entering Bagley's Sandy Bay lease formally in the consultation book at this juncture may have served to clarify the scope of his actual tenure and to head off any later argument that he held no land at all beyond the disputed parcel.

The lease commenced on 25 March 1711, which was the Lady Day immediately preceding Bagley's ouster ordered on 8 October 1711, working back to the next preceding quarter-day for the formal start of his replacement tenure. The four-year gap between the lease and its formal entry in the consultation book was consistent with the wider pattern of administrative arrears under Boucher: store books twelve months behind at Pack's death on 3 April 1713, the Toddington and Susannah letters missing from the records, the General Table audit outstanding. Pyke's new administration was now systematically entering documents into the formal record that had been allowed to slip during the previous governorship.

315

306

Blank page

316

307

An Acco[t]. of the Goods of W[m]. Taylor Deceas[d] the 23[d] July 1714. as they were Sold &c to whom & at Publick Out Cry.

£: s: d

Hon[r]. Comp[a] 2 pair of [...] Shoes 0: 11: 0

Roulston 7 Razors 1 Looking Glass 3 Wash balls 0: 11: 6

Ant[s]. Tovey 2 Penknives a pair of Compasses & Scales 2 [...] of Sizars and a Steel & 2 Spoons 1 old book & a p[r]. of gloves 0: 12: [...]

Rich[d]. Ray p[r]. Shoes 0: 10: 0

Mickmore 1 p[r]. Shoes & 1 Old Chest & a parcell old cloaths 0: [...]: 0

Lucas Mason 1 p[r] Shoes a p[r]. of Buckles & 3 & 5 p[r]. D[r] Glass 8 p[r] of bath nettle buttons 0: 8: [...]

Harman 1 Coat 0: 18: 0

Needles Rec[d]. Cash 0: 2: 0

1 Bible Rec[d]. Cash 0: 1: 0

Jn[o]. Griffith 2 knives and Forks 0: 0: 9

W[m]. Wandwell Brason, Brush, knife & Fork, & hone 0: 5: 10

3: 14: 9

An Acc[t] of the Sale of Goods lately belonging to Jn[o]. Griffiths deceas[d] as they were Sold at Publick Out Cry y[e] 1[st] Day of Novemb[r]. 1714.

Tho[s]. Watts Coat & Wastecoat 2 p[r]. of breeches & 1 p[r]. of Stockings 0: 17: 0 0: 10: 0 1: 7: 0

W[m] Huff a hatt a Coat 0: 11: 0 2: 01: 0 [...]: [...]: [...]

Lucas Mason a Wastecoat 1: 0: 6

Rob[t]. Ferguson a Bewaroy Coat Necks & sleeves 0: 16: 6 0: 03: 0 0: 19: 6

5: [...]: [...]

Margin Notes:

W[m]. Taylors Goods Sold.

An account of the goods of William Taylor deceased, as they were sold to whom, at public outcry on 23 July 1714.

Honourable Captain:

two pairs of shoes

£0 11s 0d

Roulston:

seven razors, one looking glass and three wash balls

£0 11s 6d

Antipas Tovey:

two penknives, a pair of compasses and a pair of scales [...]

two [...] of scissors and a steel and two spoons

£0 12s 8d

Richard Ray:

a pair of shoes

£0 10s 0d

Mutchmore:

a pair of shoes, one old chest and a parcel of old cloths

£0 [...]

Lucas Mason:

a pair of shoes, two pairs of buckles, three and a pair of [...] glass, eight pairs of bath metal buttons

£0 8s [...]

Harman:

one coat

£0 15s 0d

Needles received [...] Carter

£0 4s 0d

One bible, received [...] Carter

£0 4s 0d

John Griffith:

two knives and forks

£0 0s 9d

William Wardgell:

basin, brush, knife and fork and hone

£0 5s 0d

Total £3 14s 5d

An account of the sale of goods lately belonging to John Griffith deceased, as they were sold at public outcry on 13 November 1714.

Thomas Watts:

coat and waistcoat

£0 17s 0d

two pairs of breeches and a pair of stockings

£0 10s 0d

subtotal £1 7s 0d

[...] Huff:

a hat

£0 11s 0d

a coat

£2 1s 0d

subtotal £2 12s 0d

Lucas Mason:

a waistcoat

£1 0s 6d

Robert Ferguson:

a bewary coat

£0 16s 6d

necks and sleeves

£0 3s 0d

subtotal £0 19s 6d

Total £5 [...]s [...]d

Interpretations:

The two outcry accounts entered together in the consultation book document the disposal of two deceased estates by public auction on dates several months earlier. The first, for William Taylor deceased, was held on 23 July 1714, in the early weeks of the Pyke administration; the second, for John Griffith deceased, on 13 November 1714. The deferred entry into the consultation book, several months after each sale, follows the same pattern of administrative catch-up observed in the Bagley lease entry on 14 January 1714/15, with Pyke's administration now systematically registering documents that had accumulated during the working transition.

The buyer lists illustrate the social texture of the colony's second-hand market. Council members (Antipas Tovey at the Taylor sale, by name) and substantial townspeople (Honourable Captain Mashborne, named only by rank) mingle as buyers alongside soldiers (Lucas Mason, Robert Ferguson, Thomas Watts, William Wardgell) and craftsmen at every modest price point. A pair of shoes, a few razors, a coat, a Bible, kitchen knives and forks, sewing needles and a basin all change hands at the same outcry, indicating that the public sale absorbed the entire moveable contents of the household rather than skimming for valuable items only.

The goods themselves give a picture of personal possessions among the soldier and craftsman class. Bath metal buttons (a copper-zinc alloy used as a cheaper substitute for brass on civilian and military coats), penknives, scissors, compasses and scales (instruments suggesting Taylor had been engaged in some quantitative trade or craft), and a steel (for sharpening blades) make up the inventory of a working man's personal kit. The presence of a Bible at £0 4s 0d places personal religious literature alongside the practical implements. The "bewary coat" purchased by Ferguson is a Beverwijck or beaver coat, a heavy woollen overcoat originally associated with the Dutch town of that name, the wool dressed with a beaver-like nap, sold at the price of a good day's work.

The total of £3 14s 5d for Taylor's effects and approximately £5 0s 0d for Griffith's are characteristic of the modest estates left by soldiers and lower-ranking inhabitants. Set against the £14 3s 0d combined debt of the three soldiers drowned on 24 December 1714, and the £5 4s 8d their effects raised at outcry, these two sales recovered comparable proceeds from comparable estates, suggesting a settled going rate for the moveables of working men at St Helena outcries.

Speculations:

The recurrence of Lucas Mason as buyer at both outcries (a pair of shoes and other items from Taylor on 23 July 1714, a waistcoat from Griffith on 13 November 1714) suggests Mason was an active participant in the second-hand market, perhaps building up his wardrobe and personal goods through opportunistic purchases at low prices. His name has appeared earlier in the records, having been the victim of the Fort riot of 20 November 1714 when Ablard, Obriant and Thompson were sentenced to graduated lash sentences for assaulting and wounding him within the Fort. The picture that emerges is of a soldier and acquirer of small estate, sufficiently visible to attract assault and sufficiently provident to acquire goods at the public sales.

The seven razors among Taylor's effects, purchased as a single lot by Roulston for £0 11s 6d together with a looking glass and three wash balls (perfumed soap balls used in shaving), point to Taylor having had a sideline as barber or shaver. The grouping of the three items as a single shaving kit, sold to a single buyer, suggests the council's outcry conductor recognised the items as functionally linked and offered them as a set. Roulston's purchase of the kit indicates either an intention to continue the trade or to break up the lot for individual resale.

317

308

£ s d

Brought Over 5: [..]: 9

Francis Cullum D[r].

To one Wigg at 0: 11: 6

3 Napkins 0: 4: 3

1 p[r]. of Island Shoes 0: 7: 9 1: 00: 6

Joseph Whalley D[r].

To one Wigg 0: 3: 3

John Ebbs D[r].

To 2 English Shirts 0: 8: 6

James Leech D[r].

To 2 Shirts 0: 8: 7

Sam Head D[r]

To 3 Books 0: 3: [...]

George Lendon D[r]

To 2 p[r]. Stockins 1 p[r]. Drawers & a flute &c[a] 0: 12: 2

William Dunwell D[r].

To one Pockett book & Looking Glass at 0: 8: 3

Joseph Daws D[r].

To one pair of Shoes 0: 4: 6

George Carradice

To one Razor & p[r]. of Old Gloves 0: 1: [...]

Joseph Bagley D[r].

To a Chest w[th] Lock and key 0: 19: [...]

To Cash Deliver[d] the Gov[r]. 10: 00: [...] 0: [...]: [...]

Totall £ 10: 19: 0

An

The Griffith outcry account continued, brought over £5 4s 9d.

Francis Cullum, debtor:

one wig

£0 11s 6d

three napkins

£0 4s 3d

one pair of island shoes

£0 7s 9d

subtotal £1 0s 6d

Joseph Whaley, debtor:

one wig

£0 3s 3d

John Ebbs, debtor:

two English shirts

£0 8s 6d

James Leech, debtor:

two shirts

£0 8s 7d

Samuel Head, debtor:

three books

£0 3s 0d

George Lendon, debtor:

two pairs of stockings, one pair of drawers and a flute

£0 12s 2d

William Dunwell, debtor:

one pocket book and looking glass

£0 8s 3d

Joseph Daws, debtor:

one pair of shoes

£0 4s 6d

George Carradice:

one razor and pair of old gloves

£0 1s 0d

Joseph Bayley, debtor:

a chest with lock and key

£0 19s 0d

To cash delivered the Governor

£10 0s 0d [...]

Total £10 10s 0d [...]

Interpretations:

The continuation of the Griffith outcry brings the total to roughly £10 10s 0d, of which £10 0s 0d was delivered to the Governor in cash from the buyers. The cash delivery to Pyke himself, rather than to the storekeeper or to the Company's general account, reflects the Governor's standing as the recipient of estate proceeds for subsequent distribution among creditors and family. The mechanism mirrored the Governor's handling of the Christmas beef receipt of 4s 4½d reported on 4 January 1714/15, where small cash sums were also paid into Pyke's hands before being entered into the Company's books.

The composition of Griffith's effects fills out the picture of a planter or craftsman's household goods. Two wigs (Cullum at £0 11s 6d, Whaley at £0 3s 3d) suggest Griffith maintained the polite appearance expected of a man of some standing, with one wig for daily wear and a finer one for occasions. Five shirts in total (two English, two unspecified, plus the pair sold to Ebbs and Leech), three books, three napkins, stockings, drawers, a flute, pocket book and looking glass round out the moveables. The presence of a flute is notable: musical instruments were uncommon in the smaller estates, and its £0 12s 2d valuation alongside stockings and drawers as a single lot suggests Lendon was the only bidder for the bundle.

The phrase "one pair of island shoes" purchased by Cullum at £0 7s 9d distinguished local manufacture from English-imported footwear (such as Ebbs's English shirts). St Helena had a small leather-working industry, and the Company employed William Penny as soldier and shoemaker working tanned leather into shoes for the store. Island shoes were probably of rougher manufacture than English imports, intended for daily working wear rather than dress occasions.

The chest with lock and key sold to Bayley at £0 19s 0d represented the highest single item in the outcry, a price reflecting both the strong construction and the security function of a lockable storage chest. In a colony where personal property travelled with the soldier or planter from quarters to quarters and where theft was a recurring problem (as in the Bevian-Orchard cane head theft of 2 December 1714), a locking chest was a valued possession that commanded a premium price even at second hand.

Speculations:

The repetition of buyers across the two outcry accounts (Mason at both, and several others appearing more than once within the Griffith sale) suggests that public outcries on St Helena attracted a small, settled body of regular buyers who knew the market and the prices. The pattern is consistent with a colony of perhaps two hundred adult European inhabitants, in which the same fifteen to twenty men and women dominated the auction trade in second-hand goods. The Governor's continuing presence as conductor or principal beneficiary of the cash proceeds, evident in the delivery of £10 0s 0d directly to Pyke, kept the council in close oversight of these informal markets.

The relatively high proceeds from Griffith's estate (£10 10s 0d as against £3 14s 5d for Taylor's six months earlier) indicates Griffith was a man of more substantial standing than Taylor, with finer clothing, more linen, books and personal effects. Daniel Griffith, third in council until his death on 6 May 1712, had been a senior figure of the previous administration. The John Griffith of the present sale would have been related (perhaps his son), inheriting some of the family's possessions. The outcry of Griffith's effects on 13 November 1714 may have been timed to clear his estate against debts during the active autumn weeks before the year-end consultation programme settled into its winter rhythm.

318

309

An Acco[t]. of the Sale of M[r]. Will[m]. Woodzells things as they were Sold at a Publick Outcry on this 3 day of Nov[r]. 1714. viz[t].

£ s d

John Sinsnick D[r] lb s: d

To one Chest with lock and key at 0: 15: 0

Francis Cullum D[r]

To one Wigg 0: 12: [...]

2 p[r]. Stockings 0: 12: [...]

a Linnen Shoes &c 0: 7: 6

a small parcell Soap & 2 Wash balls 0: 3: [...]

one flowd Bagg, fork & brush 0: 1: 6 1: 16: 0

Henry Johnson D[r]

To a new Druggett Coat at 2: 2: [...]

Richard Cleve D[r]

To one French Hatt 1: 16: [...]

Samuel Algate D[r].

To one Night Gowne 0: 10: [...]

3 Naphins 0: 6: 6

1 p[r]. Gloves, Cap & 2 Handherch[s] 0: 5: [...] 1: 1: 6

Henry Mutton D[r]

To one Wastecoat 0: 15: [...]

2 New Shirts 0: 10: [...]

2 p[r]. Sleves 2 Necks & 2 Handker[s] 0: 4: 9 1: 9: 9

Doct[r]. Thomlinson D[r]

To one p[r]. New Shoes 0: 7: 6

3 p[r] New Gloves 0: 5: [...] 0: 12: 6

Lucas Mason D[r]

To one old blue Coate 0: 11: [...]

Joseph Bates D[r].

To an old Colloured Coate, one Waste Coate and one pair Breeches at 1: 5: [...]

Carried over £ 10: 18: 9

Margin Notes:

W[m]. Woodzells Goods Sold.

An account of the sale of Mr William Woodzell's things as they were sold at public outcry on 13 November 1714.

John Sinsnick, debtor:

one chest with lock and key

£0 15s 0d

Francis Cullum, debtor:

one wig

£0 12s 0d

two pairs of stockings

£0 12s 0d

a pair of shoes

£0 7s 6d

a small parcel of soap and two wash balls

£0 3s 0d

one flour bag, fork and brush

£0 1s 6d

subtotal £1 16s 0d

Henry Johnson, debtor:

a new druggett coat

£2 2s 0d

Richard Cleve, debtor:

one French hat

£0 16s 0d

Samuel Algate, debtor:

one nightgown

£0 10s 0d

three napkins

£0 6s 6d

one pair of gloves, cap and two handkerchiefs

£0 5s 0d

subtotal £1 1s 6d

Henry Mutton, debtor:

one waistcoat

£0 15s 0d

two new shirts

£0 10s 0d

two pairs of sleeves, two necks and two handkerchiefs

£0 4s 9d

subtotal £1 9s 9d

Doctor Thomlinson, debtor:

one pair of new shoes

£0 7s 6d

three pairs of new gloves

£0 5s 0d

subtotal £0 12s 6d

Lucas Mason, debtor:

one old blue coat

£0 11s 0d

Joseph Bates, debtor:

an old coloured coat, one waistcoat and one pair of breeches

£1 5s 0d

Carried over £10 18s 9d

Interpretations:

The Woodzell outcry, held on the same day (13 November 1714) as the Griffith sale, completed a paired disposal of two estates in a single auction. The same buyers appear in both lists (Cullum and Mason among others), confirming that the outcries were treated as a single event drawing on a common pool of buyers. Holding two sales on one day was administratively efficient, concentrating the gathering of buyers, the recording of sums, and the cash transfers into a single occasion.

The Woodzell estate is noticeably finer than either Taylor's or Griffith's. A druggett coat purchased by Henry Johnson at £2 2s 0d, a French hat at £0 16s 0d, three pairs of new gloves at £0 5s 0d, two new shirts at £0 10s 0d, and an old coloured coat with waistcoat and breeches at £1 5s 0d together suggest a man of higher standing with more substantial clothing than the working soldiers and craftsmen represented in the earlier sales. Druggett was a coarse woollen cloth often mixed with linen or silk, used for outer coats among middling tradesmen and clerks; a new druggett coat at £2 2s 0d (two guineas exactly) marked Johnson's purchase as a prestige item by colonial standards. The French hat would have been an imported felt of more refined construction than the local article.

The term "nightgown" purchased by Samuel Algate at £0 10s 0d referred to a long loose outer garment worn over indoor dress, not modern sleepwear. It was a man's garment of comfort and informality for evenings or domestic occasions, often worn with a matching cap and slippers. Its inclusion among Woodzell's effects indicated he kept the polite at-home wardrobe of a man of some education or rank. The accompanying napkins, gloves, cap and handkerchiefs sold to Algate as a related lot suggest the auctioneer recognised the items as belonging to the same indoor establishment.

The names of the buyers represent a cross-section of the colony's middle ranks. John Sinsnick had received a 4s rate for stone-laying at the Prosperous Bay house on 3 November 1713 and was a working soldier with small accumulating capital. Samuel Algate had appeared in the Aug 1714 records and Earle estate matter, and as a regular outcry buyer here builds up his personal goods. Henry Johnson's purchase of the druggett coat at the high price of the sale suggests he held one of the more substantial planter or skilled craftsman positions. Doctor Thomlinson is probably the writer in the store Joseph Tomlinson, also recorded as translator of the Portuguese petition of 29 May 1711 and witness at the interrogation of Bazett on 1 April 1714, the title "Doctor" reflecting some learning or scribal eminence rather than a medical qualification.

Speculations:

The carry-over total of £10 18s 9d to the next page indicates the Woodzell outcry would yield a final sum substantially above the Griffith total of approximately £10 10s 0d and roughly three times Taylor's £3 14s 5d. The progression of the three sales suggests Woodzell was the most substantial figure of the three deceased: better clothed, with finer linen, a French hat, a druggett coat and a complete indoor wardrobe. His position on the island may have been that of a Company servant or established planter rather than a soldier or artisan. The sale of his items alongside Griffith's, though entered in the record separately, would have been timed in a single afternoon for administrative convenience.

The fork and brush bundled with a flour bag in Cullum's lot at £0 1s 6d describes the modest kitchen-implement layer of Woodzell's effects, sold off cheaply once the finer clothing had been disposed of. The pairing of these small implements with the flour bag suggests they were bundled to clear minor goods quickly, leaving the auctioneer free to concentrate buying attention on the higher-value items. The pattern of bundling unrelated small items into a single lot is characteristic of estate outcries where time and buyer patience are limited.

319

310

£ s d

Brought Over 10: 18: 9

Robert Ferguson D[r] lb: s: d

To one old Laced Hatt 0: 6: 6

1 p[r]. black Silk Stockins 0: 5: [...] 0: 11: 6

Will[s]. Wilkins D[r].

To 2 Shirts 0: 9: 6

Will[s]. Huffe D[r]

To 2 Shirts & 1 handkerchief 0: 12: 6

1 pair New Stockins 0: 13: [...] 1: 5: 6

Will[m] Saasby

To 2 Shirts & 1 handkerchief 0: 14: [...]

Sam Head D[r]

To 1 p[r]. Stockins and 5 Old Books at 0: 9: 6

Jane Ramsey D[r]

To one pair New large Stockins 0: 13: [...]

George Lendon D[r]

To 3 Razors and a Hone at 0: 13: [...]

Hono Company D[r]

To 4 Penknives at 0: 7: [...]

Richard Ray D[r]

To one Clasp Knife & Comb 0: 2: [...]

Will[m] Dunwell. D[r]

To one Spying Glass, 1 Shoe brush, 1 Hatt brush, a Necks Pins, Garters &c[a]. at 0: 4: 4

George Carradice D[r].

To a Hunting Horne 0: 1: [...]

The Govern[r]. D[r].

To Cash deliv[d] him 0: 10: 7

6 [...] Sweet powder 0: 6: [...] 0: 16: 7

£ 16: 15: 8

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

The Woodzell outcry continued, brought over £10 18s 9d.

Robert Ferguson, debtor:

one old laced hat

£0 6s 6d

one pair of black silk stockings

£0 5s 0d

subtotal £0 11s 6d

William Wilkins, debtor:

two shirts

£0 9s 6d

William Huff, debtor:

two shirts and a handkerchief

£0 12s 6d

one pair of new stockings

£0 13s 0d

subtotal £1 5s 6d

William Saarsby, debtor:

two shirts and four handkerchiefs

£0 14s 0d

Samuel Head, debtor:

one pair of stockings and five old books

£0 9s 6d

Jane Ramsey, debtor:

one pair of new large stockings

£0 13s 0d

George Lendon, debtor:

three razors and a hone

£0 13s 0d

Honourable Company, debtor:

four penknives

£0 7s 0d

Richard Ray, debtor:

one clasp knife and comb

£0 2s 0d

William Dunwell, debtor:

one spying glass, one shoe brush, one hat brush, a dressing pin, garters and other items

£0 4s 4d

George Carradice, debtor:

a hunting horn

£0 1s 4d

The Governor, debtor:

cash delivered him

£0 10s 7d

six [...] of powder

£0 6s 0d

subtotal £0 16s 7d

Total £16 15s 8d

Signed Pyke, Haswell, Tovey.

Interpretations:

The Woodzell outcry closed at £16 15s 8d, substantially higher than either of the two earlier sales recorded in the consultation book. The total confirms Woodzell as the most substantial of the three deceased, with effects worth roughly four and a half times Taylor's £3 14s 5d and a third more than the running Griffith total. The cash sum of £0 10s 7d delivered to the Governor at the close represents the residual cash from buyers' payments after the goods had been distributed, with six measures of powder added at £0 6s 0d giving a final £0 16s 7d closing line.

The signatures of Pyke, Haswell and Tovey at the foot of the page formally close the entire outcry accounts series begun on 14 January 1714/15. Three estates (Taylor, Griffith, Woodzell) and four pages of itemised buyer lists have now been ratified by council signature, completing the documentary record. The signatures cover the entered text on the consultation books as the council's formal authentication, not the original outcry events of July, November and previous months.

The Honourable Company appearing as buyer of four penknives at £0 7s 0d shows the Company itself participating in the outcries through its assigned officer (probably the storekeeper Bazett or the assistant) to acquire small-value items needed for general use. Penknives, the small knives used by clerks for sharpening quills, would have been useful in the Company's clerical work. The Company's purchase of working tools at outcry instead of importing new ones from England illustrates the practical economy of the colonial establishment, in which small implements circulated through estate sales rather than being routinely replaced.

The "spying glass" purchased by Dunwell along with shoe brush, hat brush and other small items is a portable telescope or perspective glass, a high-value optical instrument that had probably belonged to Woodzell for personal use, perhaps for marine observation or shipboard practice. Its inclusion in a mixed lot with brushes and a dressing pin at only £0 4s 4d is curious; either the spying glass was damaged or incomplete, reducing its value, or the auctioneer bundled it with the brushes to clear minor items and Dunwell got an unexpectedly good purchase.

Speculations:

The final delivery of cash and powder to the Governor as a debtor's line indicates the Governor took some items from the estate at fixed valuation, debiting himself in the same form as the other buyers rather than receiving the proceeds in a separate transaction. The six measures of powder at £0 6s 0d represents the Governor's purchase of remaining stores from Woodzell, with the £0 10s 7d cash sum representing his closing of the account on his own purchases. This positioning of the Governor as an outcry participant rather than purely as authority oversees the sales suggests the council members felt no impropriety in acquiring effects from deceased estates at the public valuation alongside other buyers, provided the transaction was openly recorded.

The presence of Jane Ramsey as a named female buyer is notable in the lists, where the other buyers are predominantly male. Her purchase of "one pair of new large stockings" at £0 13s 0d, the same price as Huff's new stockings, suggests she may have been buying for a family member rather than for herself, or alternatively that women on St Helena participated in the auctions on their own account. The female presence among the buyers, however limited, indicates the outcries were public events open to all householders rather than exclusively male commercial gatherings.

320

311

Island S[t]. Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 18[th] day of January 171[..] at the United Castle in James valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Gover[r]. George Haswell D[e]p[ty] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w]. Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s]. Tovey 5[th] in Counc[l]

Prest

The Govern[r]. reports that he finds the work men that were used to Stone Laying have all of them agreed togethe[r] in a Confederacy against the Hon[ble] Company and have resolved to do no work for them Unless they have five Shillings per diem Each, they are all of them in the Hono[ble] Companys debt Whereupon he Ordered a writt to be Issued out against Walter Morris and Arrested him at the Hono[r]: Companys Suit for his debt Upon which Said Morris has Agreed to pay it and Sold a Slave Named Nick for twenty five pound and to take out the rest in Yams According to his former Proposall his whole debt being thirty Eight pound odd mony the rest of them are So poor that nothing is to be gott of them and have families to Maintain. But notwith =standing this the Govern[r] hath A greed w[th] others to work at three Shillings per day.

The Officer at Mundens point Complain that John Nichols Jun[r]. has not been upon Alarms Severall times, and he being Summon'd appeared and Alledged sometimes he did Not hear the Alarms & other times was not able to come to it by reason of a Lameness he is subject to. Ordered

Margin Notes:

Stone Layers refuse to work at less p[r]. d[ay] p[r]. diem

Walt[r] Morris Arrested for debt & Sold a black &c

Compl[t]. ag[t] Jn[o]. Nichols

St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday 18 January 1714/15 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The Governor reported that the workmen used to stone-laying had all agreed together in a confederacy against the Honourable Company. They had resolved to do no work for the Company unless they had five shillings per day each. They were all in the Company's debt. The Governor had ordered a writ to be issued against Walter Morris and to have him arrested at the Company's suit for his debt. Morris had agreed to pay, and had sold a slave named Nick for £25 0s 0d, with the rest of his debt to be taken out in yams according to his former proposal. His whole debt was £38 0s 0d odd money. The rest of the men were so poor that nothing could be got of them, and they had families to maintain. Notwithstanding this, the Governor had agreed with others to work at three shillings per day.

The officer at Munden's Point complained that John Nichols junior had not been upon several alarms. Nichols, being summoned, appeared and alleged that sometimes he had not heard the alarms, and at other times had not been able to come on account of a lameness he was subject to.

Interpretations:

The stone-layers' collective action was the first organised labour combination recorded in the consultations. By agreeing together to refuse work unless paid 5s 0d per day each, the men attempted to use their indispensable position in the council's continuing fortification programme as leverage against the Company. The rate they demanded matched John Sinsnick's claim of 3 November 1713 for stone-laying at the Prosperous Bay house, where he had been allowed 4s 0d per day against his claim for 5s 0d. The previous council settlement at 4s 0d now confronted the workers' united demand for the full 5s 0d, with the Governor's response designed to break the combination through targeted enforcement against its weakest member.

The Governor's tactical response illustrated the structural advantage the Company held over its indebted labour force. Walter Morris had been a free planter confirmed in his fenced property on 8 April 1712, but by 18 January 1714/15 he was £38 0s 0d in the Company's debt. The Governor's writ against Morris for the debt, with the threat of arrest at Company suit, applied financial pressure precisely where it was most effective: a planter with a slave to sell and yams in his ground could be compelled to settle, while the propertyless soldiers and other planters in similar straits were poor enough that "nothing could be got of them". The strategy isolated and broke the combination by removing its most exposed member, leaving the rest unable to sustain the strike.

The Morris settlement structure converted his £38 0s 0d debt into immediate physical assets: a slave named Nick sold to the Company at £25 0s 0d, with the balance of £13 0s 0d odd money to be taken out in yams according to his earlier proposal. The slave valuation of £25 0s 0d is higher than the £10 0s 0d per head benchmark in Carne's late 1714 schedule (29 slaves at £290 0s 0d total) and above the £15 0s 0d for Carne's slave Little George on 14 December 1714. The premium probably reflected Nick's age, condition or skills, perhaps as a working slave fit for the fortification labour the council needed.

The Munden's Point complaint against John Nichols junior brought the consultation back to garrison discipline. The officer at Munden's Fort complained of repeated non-attendance at alarms, the routine drum-beat exercises by which the garrison was tested for readiness. Nichols's two-part defence (sometimes he had not heard the alarms, at other times had been unable to attend because of lameness) reflected the practical limits of garrison service for older or infirm men. The council's response would have to balance the discipline of regular attendance against the genuine physical limits of an inhabitant pressed into garrison duty.

Speculations:

The Governor's claim to have agreed with "others" to work at 3s 0d per day, well below both the strikers' 5s 0d demand and the previous council settlement of 4s 0d for stone-laying, suggested Pyke had found alternative labour from outside the established stone-layer trade. The 3s 0d rate is consistent with the overseer's day rate established earlier in the records. The substitution of cheaper, less specialist labour at the lower rate, combined with the targeted enforcement against Morris, gave the council both an immediate workforce and a wage benchmark below the previous settled rate. The wage settlement now operating represented a real cut from the going rate, achieved by exploiting the credit dependence of the stone-laying class.

The chaining of three actions in sequence (Morris arrested, slave sold at premium price, alternative labour engaged at lower rate) reveals the Pyke administration's deliberate management of a labour conflict by financial rather than disciplinary means. No stone-layer was punished; no rioting was suppressed; no formal action against the combination was recorded. Instead, the council moved the field by tactical pressure on the indebted member with attachable assets, broke the strike by converting his property into Company credit and labour, and then locked in a lower rate with replacement workers. This is a working example of debt being used as the principal instrument of labour discipline in the colony, with the Morris case standing as the worked precedent.

321

312

Ordered. That he the said Nichols be fined the sum of five Shillings The following Petition was present =ed.

Island S[t]. Helena To the Worsh: Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] & Council. The Humble Petition of Edmond Bodley planter. Sheweth. That your Petition[r]. desires to be Excus[d] from Adminnistering to his fathers Estate and as Concerning a Cow that his father killd was given him by another man So that y[r] Petition[r] Humbly beggs that your Worship & Councill will be pleased to Order the Adminnistrat[r]. to Sattisfie your Petit[r]. for the Said Cow. And your Petition[r]. as in duty bound shall Ever pray. Edmund Bodley.

He having proved his allegations about the Cow by the Testimony of John How. Ordered. That when the Hono[r]. Company are paid theire debt, if there be Enough to pay for this Beast, that he be Sattisfyd for it. Ordered. That an Advertisem[t]. be published as follow =eth. By.

Margin Notes:

fined 5[s]

Edm[d]. Bodley desire for paym[t] of a Cow killd

If Effects ino[ugh] than to be paid for y[e] Cow

The council ordered that Nichols be fined the sum of 5s 0d.

The following petition was presented. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Governor, and council. The humble petition of Edmond Bodley, planter. He set out that he desired to be excused from administering to his father's estate as concerning a cow that his father had killed, the cow having been given him by another man. He prayed that the council order the administrator to satisfy him for the cow. Signed Edmond Bodley.

He had proved his allegations about the cow by the testimony of John How.

The council ordered that when the Honourable Company had been paid their debt, if there was enough left over to pay for this beast, he should be satisfied for it.

The council further ordered that an advertisement be published as followeth.

Interpretations:

The Nichols fine of 5s 0d for missed alarms set a benchmark penalty for garrison non-attendance, well below the £5 0s 0d benchmark imposed on John Colson for contempt of governor's orders on 28 February 1712. The smaller sum reflected the lesser nature of the offence: absence from alarm drills rather than wilful contempt of authority. The fine recognised Nichols's plea of lameness and intermittent inability to hear the alarms, treating his non-attendance as negligent rather than defiant.

The Bodley petition concerned an open thread from the consultation of 31 August 1714, when Edmund Bodley had been ordered as administrator to pay the Honourable Company first and then divide the residue of his father Hugh Bodley's estate. The present petition raised a particular claim within that administration: a cow that his father had killed had been given to Edmund by another man, so the cow was rightfully Edmund's property rather than part of his father's estate to be administered. The peculiarity of an heir-administrator petitioning against the estate he himself administered illustrates the conflict that could arise where the same person held both roles.

The witness John How appeared in the records earlier as the witness in the Henson nuncupative-will procedure, confirming his settled role as one of the soldiers available to depose on contested matters. His testimony established Edmund's case that the cow had been given to him by a third party, with the killing by Hugh Bodley constituting a misappropriation that the estate must now satisfy.

The council's conditional order (the Company first, Edmund second if anything remains) confirmed the working order of priority in insolvent or near-insolvent estates: Company debt always sits first, and family claims, including those of the administrator himself, must wait until that priority is satisfied. Edmund's claim was acknowledged as just but subordinated to the senior creditor. The mechanism preserves the structural priority of Company debt over private claims, even where the private claim arose from a clear wrong by the deceased.

Speculations:

The structure of Bodley's petition is unusual. By asking to be "excused from administering" the cow specifically, while remaining administrator of the rest of the estate, Edmund sought to exclude a particular asset from the body of the estate over which he had fiduciary duty. The construction allowed him to be both creditor and administrator on different items, with his personal claim against his father's wrong sitting outside the estate accounts. The council's response (Company first, Edmund second if there is enough) effectively granted the petition while preserving Company priority, neither excluding the cow from the estate nor preferring Edmund over the Company. The compromise gives Edmund a recoverable claim against any surplus, without disturbing the priority order.

The Bodley estate's involvement in the documentary case against Boucher (the "Bodley appraisement-block" was named on 24 August 1714 among the items entered into the consultation book as material for the directors in London) suggests the estate was a substantial one whose administration had been mishandled by the previous regime. Edmund's petition for satisfaction of his cow claim may represent one strand of a wider attempt by the family to recover what had been mismanaged. The Pyke administration's careful conditional ordering (Company first, family second) brought the estate back within ordinary procedural rules, with no special preferment for either side.

322

313

Island S[t]. Helena By the Worshipfull the Govern[r] and Councill. An Advertisem[t] For the Incouragem[t] & Bennefitt of the Industrious. These are to give Notice that a Plantation of between twenty and thirty acres of Land formerly Hugh Bodleys Sen[r] is now fallen into the Hono[r]. Comp[as] hands Therefore if any person of Civill behavoiour that has worked for the Hono[r] Company at their Fortifications and hath not already a plantation applys himself to the Govern[r] he will Lett the said Land to him Dated at the United Signd p ord[r] of Gov[r]. & Coun[l] Castle in James Valley Janry y[e] 18[th] 1714. Antipas Tovey Sect[y] Ordered. That the following Letters be Entered in the Councill Book. Worshipfull S[rs]. By a Charter Party Agreed and Signd too by the Hono[ble] Directors for the United Comp[a]. of Merchants Trading to the East Indies, and my owners I am to take in here, of Every twenty Men. Not Less then three Hundred weight of Beef for the Use of the Ships Company which is 86 Men at 20 [...] weight which Said Quantity I Demand. I am your Obedient Humble Servant From on board y[e] Aurengzeby Nicholas Luhorne In S[t]. Helena Road Janry 5[th] 1714

Cap[tn] Luhorne S[r] Gov[r]. & Counc[l] We rec[d] yours of the 16[th] Jenuary [...]wherein you Demand the Beef Contracted for by Charter Party to which we Answer

Margin Notes:

Land formerly Bodleys to be lett.

to a Civill men y[t] has work[t] at y[e] fortifica[ti]

Cap[t] Luhorns Letter.

From on board y[e] Aurengzeby In S[t] Helena Road Janry 5[th] 1714

Cap[tn] Luhorne S[r] Gov[r]. & Counc[l]

St Helena. By the Worshipful the Governor and council. An advertisement for the encouragement and benefit of the industrious.

Notice was given that a plantation of between twenty and thirty acres of land formerly Hugh Bodley senior's had now fallen into the Honourable Company's hands. Therefore, if any person of civil behaviour, who had worked for the Honourable Company at their fortifications and had not already a plantation, applied himself to the Governor, he would let the land to him. Dated at the United Castle in James Valley, 18 January 1714/15. Signed by order of Governor and council, Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

The council ordered that the following letters be entered in the council book.

Captain Lihorne's letter to the Governor and council. By a charter party agreed and signed to by the Honourable Directors for the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, and by his owners, he was to take in here for every twenty men no less than 300 pounds weight of beef for the use of the ship's company. The complement being 86 men at 20 pounds weight, the quantity he demanded was [...]. Dated from on board the Aurengzebe in St Helena Road, 14 January 1714/15. Signed Nicholas Lihorne.

The reply of the Governor and council to Captain Lihorne. They had received his letter of the 14th instant, in which he demanded the beef contracted for by charter party, to which they answered...

Interpretations:

The Bodley land advertisement reframed the open thread from 18 January 1714/15. Hugh Bodley senior's plantation had fallen to the Company, presumably for unpaid debt, and the council now sought to let it to a civil and industrious worker. The eligibility criteria are precise: civil behaviour (excluding troublemakers), prior fortification labour for the Company (rewarding those already in service), and no existing plantation (extending tenure to those who had none). The advertisement combined recruitment for fortification work, reward for past labour and consolidation of the colony's small-planter class into a single offer. The Governor's discretion to choose among applicants gave him direct control over the allocation, bypassing any formal application process.

The connection between the Bodley estate matter just dispatched (Edmund Bodley's cow petition) and the present advertisement is significant. Edmund had been ordered on 31 August 1714 to administer the estate paying the Company first, and the present advertisement indicates that the Company's debt was so substantial that the principal asset, the twenty to thirty acre plantation, had been absorbed into Company ownership in satisfaction. The cow claim from Edmund could only be paid from any surplus after this principal asset had cleared the Company debt, which the present absorption now placed beyond reach. Edmund's conditional satisfaction effectively becomes nil, as the estate has nothing left for family claims.

Captain Lihorne's letter set out his contractual right to take on beef provisions from St Helena under the standard Company charter party. The formula of 300 pounds of beef per twenty men corresponds to an entitlement of 15 pounds per man, which for the Aurengzebe's complement of 86 men would yield 1,290 pounds, the demand obscured by manuscript damage. The charter party (a written agreement signed between the Honourable Directors and the ship's owners) governed the relationship between the Company and the ship's principal contractor, setting out the obligations on both sides. The St Helena establishment was bound by this instrument to supply the specified quantity of beef on demand by the captain.

The advertisement's offer for the encouragement of "the industrious" reflected Pyke's working philosophy on labour and tenure. Rather than simply seizing the Bodley plantation and adding it to the Company's working stock, the council chose to redeploy it as an incentive to retain reliable working hands. Linking land tenure to prior fortification service rewarded loyalty and gave the Company a means to retain its trusted workers at a time when the stone-layers' combination had just been broken. The advertisement is the constructive complement to the disciplinary action against Morris, offering reward to those who remained reliable.

Speculations:

Captain Lihorne's beef demand on the day of his arrival (14 January 1714/15) reflected the standard pattern of ship provisioning at St Helena. Company ships were expected to take on beef and other fresh provisions for the onward voyage to England, with St Helena's cattle herds the principal source. The Aurengzebe's 86-man complement and 15-pound-per-man entitlement together produced a demand of about 1,290 pounds, equivalent to perhaps two or three substantial beasts at typical colonial weights. The arithmetic in Lihorne's letter ("86 men at 20 pounds weight") suggests either a calculation error in the letter itself or a different rate than the 300-per-20 formula would imply, perhaps reflecting an actual demand of 1,720 pounds (86 multiplied by 20) rather than the 1,290 the formula gives. The council's reply will probably address this discrepancy.

The advertisement's careful targeting of fortification workers without existing plantations may also have been designed to head off any future combination by such workers. By giving a select group of stone-layers and labourers a personal stake in the colony through land tenure, the council shifted their interest from short-term wage maximisation to long-term tenure security. The newly settled plantation holder, with his own land to work, would be less willing to join future combinations against the Company. The 23 to 30 acre Bodley plantation offered to a single industrious worker would create a substantial planter of him, with all the social investment in good order that implied.

323

314

Answer that if you please to look over that Clause of your Charty Party you'l find the Intent thereof is only to Promote the Good Estate of the Island, and that you are to take Such a quantity when we have Plenty but there haveing Lately been a very great Death on the Island in which there dyed above two thousand five Hundred Head of Cattle it has made Beef Exheam Scarce & Dear and the Hono[ble] Comp[a]. have born a great Share in that Common Calamnity haveing lost the Greatest part of their Stock we can[t] Spare any now. But tho' we have None to Sell yet if you Desire it we will buy for you at the Common Price of the planters which is no Less than forty Shillings p[r] Hundred or if you please to buy of any one on the Island, where you can have it Cheapest we will pay them whatsoever you agree for, and take your bills to England for the Same but tho' fresh Beef does Happen at this time to be Soe Dear we hope you'l find all other things that you may need for Stores &c[a] to be not only Cheaper than formerly but at Such a price as is not to be Complaind of. We are S[r] &c[a] Your S[t]. Helena Janry the Humble Servants 16[...] D[..] 1714. Isaac Pyke

Mathew Bazett

Antipas Tovey

Captain Mashborne Delivered the following Accounts of the Honourable Company Stock of Cattle &c[a]. An.

Margin Notes:

Letter to Cap[t]. Luhorne

S[t]. Helena Janry the 16[...] D[..] 1714

The letter to Captain Lihorne continued. The council answered that if he would look over that clause of his charter party, he would find the intent was only to promote the good estate of the island, and that he was to take such a quantity when there was plenty. But there having lately been a very great death on the island, in which there had died above 2,500 head of cattle, beef had become extremely scarce and dear. The Honourable Company had borne a great share in that common calamity, having lost the greatest part of their stock. They could not spare any now. But though they had none to sell, yet if he desired it they would buy for him at the common price of the planters, which was no less than 40s 0d per hundred weight. Or, if he pleased to buy of any one on the island where he could have it cheapest, they would pay them whatever he agreed for, and take his bills to England for the same. Although fresh beef did happen at this time to be so dear, they hoped he would find all other things that he might need for stores not only cheaper than formerly, but at such a price as was not to be complained of. Dated at St Helena, 16 January 1714/15. Signed Isaac Pyke, Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey.

Captain Mashborne delivered the following accounts of the Honourable Company's stock of cattle.

Interpretations:

The cattle mortality of "above 2,500 head" was a catastrophic loss for the colony. Set against the livestock census of 5 July 1711 (333 cattle, 52 sheep, 107 goats, 64 hogs) and the windward livestock return of 25 September 1711 (252 cattle on the west side, 75 on the east side), the recent death rate was approximately ten times the entire cattle population of 1711. The figure either represents a cumulative loss across several years, or includes a substantial recovery of population followed by sudden collapse, or refers to private as well as Company stock. Whichever reading is correct, the loss was understood by the council as a "common calamity" affecting the whole island, with the Company itself the largest single sufferer.

The council's response to Lihorne deployed three deflecting moves. First, the charter party was reinterpreted as conditional rather than absolute: the obligation to supply beef applied only when there was plenty, not in time of scarcity. This reading limited the captain's contractual demand without denying the charter party itself. Second, the offer to act as buyer at the planters' common price of 40s 0d per hundred weight (about £2 0s 0d for 112 pounds) transferred the cost from Company stock to private purchase. Third, the offer to honour his bills of exchange on the Company in London provided an alternative payment route, leaving the captain to source beef directly from any willing planter at whatever price he could negotiate. The combination preserved the captain's contractual entitlement in form while transferring the practical burden to the open market.

The 40s 0d per hundred weight rate, mentioned as the planters' common price, gave a benchmark for fresh beef on St Helena in early 1715. Compared with the £1 6s 3d per puncheon of salted beef recorded in the storekeeper's account of late 1710 (3 puncheons at £1 6s 3d = approximately £3 18s 9d), the planters' fresh beef at 40s 0d per hundredweight reflected the local scarcity. The council's framing of the rate as "no less than" 40s 0d suggested they expected the captain to find higher prices in private negotiation, with this being the floor rather than the ceiling.

The closing reassurance about "all other things that he might need for stores" being cheaper than formerly indicated the council was hoping to soften the beef refusal by emphasising favourable terms on other commodities. The arrival of the Aurengzebe from Madras with cargo (recorded in the consultation of 14 January 1714/15) would have brought fresh supplies into the market, depressing prices on goods such as rice, sugar, arrack, piece goods and Indian manufactures. The council's letter was therefore not simply a refusal but a calibrated commercial response, restricting the politically sensitive item (beef from Company stock) while offering compensating advantages elsewhere.

Speculations:

The very large cattle mortality of "above 2,500 head" probably arose from drought combined with disease, the standing twin afflictions of livestock husbandry on the island. The Hospital ration of 491 pounds of rice at 4d per pound on the storekeeper's monthly account for 25 September to 25 October 1713 reflected "working sickness on the island during the drought aftermath", and Humphrey Edwards's petition of 3 November 1713 for admission as a matross described his household "in deplorable condition through the drought". The cattle losses described in the present letter may be the cumulative result of fifteen to eighteen months of drought stress on a population that had been built up under more favourable conditions.

The council's offer to honour Lihorne's bills of exchange on the Company in London for any private beef purchases gave the captain an effective subsidy on the open market. The captain could negotiate with planters at any price, then draw a bill on the Company for the amount, which the Company would honour in London. The arrangement transferred the credit risk from the planter to the Company while preserving the planters' ability to charge what the market would bear. The mechanism may have been designed both to maintain good relations with the captain (whose onward voyage to England carried Company despatches) and to provide the planters with an opportunity to recover some of their losses through high prices. The Company itself absorbed the cost as a charge on its London accounts.

324

315

An Acco[t] of the Hon[ble]. Comp[as] Neat Cattle, Sheep, hoggs, Goats &c[a] taken December the first 1714. [...] [...] [...] [...]

Bulls 11

Cows 18

2 Bullocks killd Last month

Heifers 15

Bullocks 11

Steers 15

Yearlings 11

81

Hoggs: Great & Small 177

Pigg dyed 1

Pigs 33

Sow bought 1

Piggs bought 4

Increase 38

Goats 152

Turkeys bought 20: Hatch[t] 12: kill[d] 1: 55

Sheep 3

An Acc[o]. of the Hon[ble]. Comp[as] Neat Cattle, Sheep, Hoggs, Goats &c[a] taken January the first 1714

Ditto y[e] Mo[nth] after.

Bulls 11

killd last Month

Bought

Loosed

Cows 21

2 Bullocks

3 Cows 2 Bullocks 4 Heifers

1 Cow & Calf 1 Bull & Calf

Bullocks 11

Heifers 19

Steers 15

Yearlings 11

Calves 2

90 2 9

Hoggs: Great and Small 186

killd 4

bought 1

Dead 2

Pigs 14

6

15

Goats 152

Turkeys 48

6 the Ship

killd 1

7

3 Sheep

Margin Notes:

Hon[r]: Comp[a] Stock.

Ditto y[e] Mo[nth] after.

An account of the Honourable Company's neat cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and other livestock taken on 1 December 1714.

Honourable Company stock:

11 bulls

18 cows

15 heifers

11 bullocks

15 steers

11 yearlings

subtotal 81

2 bullocks killed last month

77 hogs great and small

1 pig died

33 piggs

1 sow

4 piggs bought

increase 38

152 goats

55 turkeys

20 hatched

12 killed

1 bought

3 sheep

An account of the Honourable Company's neat cattle, sheep, hogs and goats taken on 1 January 1714/15.

Same month after:

11 bulls

21 cows

11 bullocks

19 heifers

11 steers

11 yearlings

2 calves

subtotal 90

killed last month: 2 bullocks

bought: 3 cows, 2 bullocks, 4 heifers (total 9)

cased: 1 cow, 1 bull, 1 calf

186 hogs great and small

1 bought

14 [...]

15 [...]

4 killed

2 dead

6 [...]

152 goats

48 turkeys

6 to the ship

1 killed

3 sheep

Interpretations:

The two stock returns, taken one month apart, provide a snapshot of the Company's livestock at the close of 1714 and the opening of 1714/15. The cattle total rose from 81 head on 1 December 1714 to 90 head on 1 January 1714/15, an increase of nine head produced through purchase (3 cows, 2 bullocks, 4 heifers) less casualties (one cow, one bull, one calf cased, two bullocks killed). The growth of the herd, however modest, indicates an active rebuilding programme following the cattle mortality referred to in the council's letter to Captain Lihorne. The Company was purchasing breeding stock (cows and heifers) to restore the herd's reproductive capacity.

The 90-head Company cattle stock of 1 January 1714/15 was a fraction of the 1711 totals. The livestock census of 5 July 1711 recorded 333 cattle, the windward return of 25 September 1711 recorded 327 cattle on the two sides combined. The Company's recovered stock of 90 head represents less than a third of the pre-mortality cattle population, even allowing for private holdings being counted separately. The slow rebuilding rate (nine head gained in one month against natural attrition of three) suggests that recovery to pre-mortality levels would take several years.

The hog population showed sharp growth from 77 to 186 head in one month, an increase of more than 100. The figure included not only the natural increase from 33 piglets noted but a substantial intake from new piglets bought and bred. The acceleration of hog production was the Company's logical response to the cattle scarcity: hogs reproduce faster than cattle, mature quicker and can be eaten younger, providing a faster route to meat supply for the General Table and the garrison than waiting for cattle to recover.

The goat population held steady at 152 across both returns, while sheep remained at three head. The very small sheep number indicates the Company had largely abandoned sheep husbandry as unprofitable, perhaps following losses or in recognition that the moderate St Helena climate suited cattle, goats and hogs better than wool-bearing sheep. The 55-to-48 turkey decline reflected losses (12 killed plus six sent to ship) only partly offset by hatchings (20).

The detail "6 to the ship" against the turkeys (and probably also covering some hogs in the obscured column) provided the working evidence behind the council's reply to Lihorne about supplying the Aurengzebe. The Company had no beef to spare, as the letter explained, but had given six turkeys and other small livestock to the ship from its own stock, demonstrating good faith within the limits of its scarcity.

Speculations:

The hog acceleration from 77 to 186 head in one month is too rapid to be biological even at the most prolific rates of breeding. The figure must include a large purchase of hogs from planters, perhaps in connection with the debt-conversion programme of 24 August 1714 or the indebted-planter pressure during the labour combination broken three days earlier on 18 January 1714/15. Walter Morris had been compelled to sell his slave Nick at £25 0s 0d and yams in settlement of his £38 0s 0d debt, and a similar mechanism may have been operating across other indebted planters who were now exchanging livestock for debt relief. The hog total now standing at 186 head would give the Company a substantial reserve against future shortage.

The persistence of three sheep across both returns, with no recorded change, suggests the Company kept the small flock for breeding purposes rather than for any current production. Three head, presumably two ewes and a ram or one ram and two ewes, were the bare minimum to maintain the line. The intention may have been to retain the option of sheep production for the future without devoting current resources to expanding the flock, against the day when wool or mutton might again be needed.

325

316

Sheep 3

Geese bought 4

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 25[th] day of January 1714[..] at the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Govern[r]. George Haswell D[e]p[ty] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w]. Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s] Tovey 5[th] in Counc[l]

Prest

The Petition of Doct[r] Porteous was presented as followeth viz[t]

To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Governour & Councill. The Petition of William Porteous Surgeon Humbly Sheweth. That from Lady day Last was twelve months your Petitioner had the Allowance of Forty Pounds p[r]annum Sallary in Consideration of his House Rent but no Allowance for Arrears as others had tho' he had no other Shop but at his own hired House. Wherefore

Margin Notes:

D[r] Porteous Petition ab[t] House rent &c

The livestock account concluded:

3 sheep

4 geese bought

Signed Pyke, Haswell, Tovey.

St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday 25 January 1714/15 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

The petition of Doctor Porteous was presented as followeth. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Governor, and council. The humble petition of William Porteous, surgeon. He set out that from Lady Day last twelve months his allowance had been £40 0s 0d per annum salary in consideration of his house rent, but no allowance for arrears as others had, though he had no other shop but at his own hired house...

Interpretations:

The livestock account closed with three sheep and four geese bought, the same modest sheep population observed at the start of the month confirming no change in flock policy. The signatures of Pyke, Haswell and Tovey closed the Aurengzebe business and the linked livestock returns. Mashborne and Bazett's omission from the signatures is consistent with Mashborne having compiled the account (he is named as delivering it on the previous page) and Bazett perhaps being engaged elsewhere on storekeeping duties.

The Porteous petition revisited the surgeon's salary settled on 3 November 1713 at £40 0s 0d per annum, house rent included. The earlier settlement was framed as a consolidation of his earlier mixed package of salary plus servant plus accommodation perquisite into a single salary figure inclusive of civilian lodging cost. Porteous now claimed that, while others on the establishment had received their arrears, he had been allowed no equivalent for the period before the salary settlement. The "Lady Day last twelve months" formulation places the start of the £40 0s 0d salary at 25 March 1714, suggesting the November 1713 council order had been backdated to take effect from the start of the financial year on Lady Day rather than from the date of the order itself.

The reference to "his own hired house" connected the salary to a specific housing arrangement. Porteous had been paying £30 0s 0d in rent for lodging outside the castle since the demolition of James Fort, as recorded in his earlier petition. The £40 0s 0d salary was consolidated to cover this rent, with £10 0s 0d remaining as net pay for his service. His complaint that he had "no other shop but at his own hired house" indicated that the surgeon's working accommodation, the place where he saw patients and kept his medicines, was the same hired house for which he was paying rent. The dual function (private dwelling plus surgical practice) was financed entirely through his single salary.

The petition's claim of arrears suggests that other members of the establishment had been granted retrospective payments for service before their salary settlements were finalised, but Porteous had been excluded from this general settlement. The "others" he referred to were probably the council members and senior officers whose salaries had been consolidated under paragraph 45 of the Toddington letter as second in council £70 0s 0d, third £50 0s 0d, fourth £40 0s 0d, and so on. The arrears mechanism would have applied differentially across the establishment, with senior figures recovering more than junior service-providers.

Speculations:

Porteous's claim of arrears probably rested on a comparison between his treatment and that of the chief surgeon Mr Price. Price had been confirmed at £39 0s 0d per annum with table on 13 July 1714, while Porteous had been retained at £30 0s 0d with diet at the Fort on the same day. The subsequent rise to £40 0s 0d on 3 November 1713 had brought Porteous up to roughly Price's level but without the perquisite of dining at the Fort table, with Porteous paying his own diet from his salary. The differential treatment, particularly the lack of arrears for the period before the consolidation, would have been a source of continuing grievance. Porteous had served almost six years without the salary his predecessor had received, as he had set out in his earlier petition, and the present application appears to renew that line of complaint.

The choice of Lady Day (25 March 1714) as the salary commencement date, rather than 3 November 1713 when the council order was made, indicates that island salaries operated on an annual basis tied to the conventional English quarter days. The settlement was effectively backdated to the start of the salary year, with Porteous receiving five months of retrospective pay (March to July 1714) as part of the £40 0s 0d annual figure. His present claim of arrears would therefore concern the period before 25 March 1714, that is, the period of his earlier service at a different rate. The mechanism reveals that the council operated a settled financial year for salary computation, with adjustments tied to the quarter day rather than to the date of the order making the change.

326

317

Wherefore your Petitioner humbly prays that you would please to take his case into your Consideration that he may have the same Sallary as before your Worships Arrivall and some allowance for Rent before said Sallary was Enlarged. And your Petition[r] as in duty bound shall for ever pray &c[a]. W[m]. Porteous. Ordered. That it be Enquired into what has been Customary in this Case and reported next Council day.

Cap[t]. Mashborne reports that he has planted forty two Thousand Suckers more at the Hutts plantation.

Ordered that a Letter be drawn up to be sent to Our Honour[ble] Masters p[r] Aurengzebe and that the Governour be desired to prepare it.

Thus farr was sent home p[r]. Ship Aurengzebe.

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Desires his Sallary to Continue &c allowance for rent

To be Enquir[d] into.

Such[s] planted at Hutts.

a Lett[r] to be drawn up.

The petition concluded. Porteous prayed that the council take his case into consideration, and that he might have the same salary as before the Worship's arrival, with some allowance for rent before that salary was enlarged. Signed William Porteous.

The council ordered that the matter be enquired into, to determine what had been customary in this case, and reported next council day.

Captain Mashborne reported that he had planted 42,000 suckers more at the Hutts plantation.

The council ordered that a letter be drawn up to be sent to the Honourable Masters by the Aurengzebe, and that the Governor be desired to prepare it.

Thus far was sent home by the ship Aurengzebe.

Signed Pyke, Haswell, Tovey.

Interpretations:

The Porteous petition's substantive request was twofold: continuation of the £40 0s 0d salary settled on 3 November 1713 (now backdated to 25 March 1714 as discussed), and an additional allowance for rent for the period before the salary was enlarged. The second request was the crucial new element, seeking to recover the £30 0s 0d annual rent he had borne unaided during the period of his earlier mixed package, between the demolition of James Fort and the November 1713 consolidation. By framing the claim as one of customary practice, Porteous invited the council to compare his treatment with established precedents on the establishment.

The council's measured response, to enquire into customary practice and report at the next council day, reflected Pyke's procedural caution on financial matters. Rather than granting or refusing the claim directly, the council deferred to a separate fact-finding exercise that would establish the historical pattern of arrears settlements on St Helena. The mechanism preserved the council's authority to apply consistent rules across the establishment, and avoided creating a Porteous-specific exception that might generate further claims from others in similar positions. The report at the next council day, due 1 February 1714/15, would give the council the basis for a principled decision.

The Hutts plantation report of 42,000 yam suckers planted by Mashborne added to the running picture of agricultural expansion. The Hutts had been surveyed on 10 August 1714 with five Company plantations totalling 555,550 yams, of which the Hutts was one. The further 42,000 suckers represented a substantial extension of the Hutts production base, planted into ground newly cleared or recently rebuilt. The colony's principal calorie source was being deliberately built up under the new administration, recognising that yam shortage had been one of the standing problems through the drought period.

The endorsement "Thus far was sent home by the ship Aurengzebe" marked the closing of the consultation packet for despatch to London. The Aurengzebe's arrival on 14 January 1714/15 had begun the working sequence that closed on the present 25 January 1714/15 entry, with all the intervening consultations now bundled for transmission to the Honourable Masters. The packet would have included the letters to and from Captain Lihorne, the livestock returns, the Bodley advertisement, the outcry accounts, the Bagley lease entry, the Steward probate and Wood-Wills referral, the Pledger settlement and the Porteous petition. The directors in London would receive a comprehensive working record of the Pyke administration's first six and a half months in office through this single ship.

Speculations:

The Governor's preparation of the letter to London probably gave Pyke the opportunity to frame the documentary case against Boucher in the form most favourable to the new administration. The principal items recorded across the recent consultations (the stripped Castle fittings, the missing Susannah and Toddington letters, the ruined Plantation House, the burnt slaves' house, the General Table failures, the Bodley appraisement-block, the absorbed Hugh Bodley plantation) all stood ready for narrative presentation. By packaging these matters into a single composed letter rather than relying on the directors to piece them together from the consultation entries, Pyke could control the framing and the emphasis. The choice of governor's pen rather than collective drafting reflected the importance of the document as the new administration's first major report home.

The 42,000 suckers planted by Mashborne at the Hutts may also have been a deliberate gesture timed for the Aurengzebe's departure. The figure could be entered in the letter as evidence of the new administration's industry, contrasting the active planting programme under Pyke with the neglected state of Company plantations under Boucher. Mashborne's report appearing on the same consultation day as the order for the despatch letter is unlikely to be coincidental, and the figure of 42,000 (a precise rather than rounded number) suggests it was carefully counted for the record.

327

318

An Acco[t]. of Goods Sold & Delivered out of the Hon[ble]. Comp[as]. Stores to y[e] Inhabitants of the Island for the use of their Plantation and Generall Charges &c[a] to the United Castles from July the 8 1714 to the 25[th] of October following viz[t].

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Charg[s] Totall[s]

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack Gall[s] 298 @ 2/ p[r] Gallon 2667[½] 298[½] 1 60

To Inhabitants 13: 4: 2

Gen[l] Charges 1: 0: 9

Plantation 135: 18: 10[½]

290: 1: 7[½]

Sugar 599 @ 5[d] p[r] [...] 587[½]

Inhabit[s] 19: 19: 4

Gen[l] Charges 12: 18: 6

Plantation 5: 6: 8

38: 4: 6

Ale 526 @ 3[d] p[r] [...] 2895 712[½]

Inhabitants 7: 13: 4

Gen[l] Charges 42: 4: 3

Plantation 1: 12: 8

51: 10: 3

Tobaco 199 @ 2[d] p[r] [...] 11 13

Inhabitants 19: 18

Gen[l] Charges 1: 2

Plantation 1: 4

22: 4: 0

Tobaco pipes 793 cou[t] @ 8[d] p[r] doz[n] 58 Geo[r] Charges 194 [s]18[d]7[½]

Inhabitants 1: 19: 10

Plantation 9: 7[½]

16: 6

3: 5: 11[½]

Flower 776 @ 3[d] p[r] [...] 844 1077[½] 1577[½]

Inhabitants 10: 11: 9

Gen[l] Charges 12: 6: 2[½]

Plantation 1: 11: 4[½]

24: 9: 3[½]

Bread, Susana 10 [...]4 p[r] [...] Rochesters 808 @ 3[d] Susana's 264 @ 2[d] p[r] [...] Rochest[r] 323[½] @ 3[d] p[r] [...] Susana's 20[...]4 p[r] [...] Rochester 252 @ 3[d]

Inhabit[s] 0: 3: 4 11: 15: 8

Gen[l] Charges 4: 8 4: 14: 4[½]

Plantation 0: 6: 8 3: 18: 6

11: 19 9: 2: 4[½] 4: 2 25: 1: 6[½]

Soape Bengall 258 @ 8[d] p[r] [...] Cuttle 25[½] @ 1[s] Ditto 2 @ D[o] 125[¼] Bengal 13[¼] @ 8[d]

Inhab[s] 8: 12 1: 18: 5[½]

Gen[l] Charg[s] 10: 10: 5[½] 0: 2: 9

Plantat[n] 9: 4: 10[½] 0: 9: 0 9: 13: 10[½] 20: 8: 7[½]

216: 13: 8[½] 59: 17: 2[½] 198: 14: 2[½] 475: 5: 9[¾]

Carried over

An account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores to the inhabitants of the island, for the use of their plantation, and general charges at the United Castle, from 8 July 1714 to 25 October following.

The columns recorded were Inhabitants, Plantation, General Charges and Totals.

Arrack, 298 gallons at 9s 0d per gallon:

inhabitants 266¾ gallons

plantation 29¾ gallons

inhabitants £134 2s 0d

general charges £120 0s 9d

plantation £35 18s 4½d

total £290 1s 7½d

Sugar, 599 pounds at 6d per pound:

inhabitants £19 19s 4d

general charges £12 18s 6d

plantation £5 6s 8d

total £38 4s 6d

Ale, 526 gallons at 5s per gallon:

inhabitants 289½ gallons

plantation 7 gallons

inhabitants £7 13s 4d

general charges £42 4s 3d

plantation £1 12s 8d

total £51 10s 3d

Tobacco, 199 pounds at 2s 6d per pound:

[...] 11 pounds

[...] 12 pounds

inhabitants £19 18s 0d

general charges £1 2s 0d

plantation £1 4s 0d

total £22 4s 0d

Tobacco pipes, 793 dozen at 8d per dozen:

53 dozen general charges

194 dozen plantation [...]

inhabitants £1 19s 10d

general charges £0 16s 6d

plantation £0 9s 7½d

total £3 5s 11½d

Flour, 776 [...] at 3½d per pound:

844 inhabitants

107¼ plantation

1,677½ total

inhabitants £10 11s 9d

general charges £12 6s 2½d

plantation £1 11s 4½d

total £24 9s 3¾d

Bread, Susanna 10 [...]d per pound:

inhabitants £0 3s 4d

Rochester 808 [...]:

[...] £11 15s 0d, total £11 19s 0d

Susanna's 264 at 2d per dozen, general charges:

£4 8s 0d

Rochester's 383½ at 3¾d:

£4 14s 4½d, total £9 2s 4½d

Susanna's 20¾ [...] plantation:

£0 6s 8d

Rochester's 252¾ [...]:

£3 13s 6d, total £4 2s [...], grand total £25 1s 6½d

Soap, Bengal 258 at 8d per pound:

inhabitants £8 12s 0d

Castile 25¾ at [...]:

£1 18s 5½d, total £10 10s 5¾d

ditto 2 at [...] general charges:

£0 2s 9d

ditto 125¾ [...] plantation:

£9 4s 10½d

Bengal 13¾ at [...]:

£0 9s 0d, total £9 13s 10½d, grand total £20 8s [...]

Carried over £216 13s 8¼d (inhabitants), £59 17s 2¾d (plantation), £198 14s 2½d (general charges)

Grand total carried over £475 5s 9¼d

Interpretations:

The storekeeper's account ran for the first three and a half months of the Pyke administration, from his arrival on 8 July 1714 to 25 October 1714. The columnar structure (inhabitants, plantation, general charges) followed the format established earlier under Bazett's storekeeping, classifying each commodity by destination across three channels: civilian purchasers, the Company's own plantation use, and the general charges of the Castle and General Table.

Arrack at 9s 0d per gallon confirmed the retail rate set in advance for the cargoes of the Abingdon, the Stretham and the Marlborough during 1714. The total of £290 1s 7½d for arrack alone made it the single largest commodity in the account by value, with the bulk flowing to inhabitants (£134 2s 0d) and general charges (£120 0s 9d) and only a modest portion to the plantation. The pattern reflected arrack's role as the principal luxury liquor of the colony, served at the Fort table and dispensed to inhabitants at full retail, with limited plantation use (probably as a Christmas issue to the slaves).

Two ship sources appeared in the bread account: the Susanna and the Rochester. The Susannah cargo had been absorbed across the storekeeper's accounts from late 1713, while the Rochester had arrived on 8 July 1714 carrying Governor Pyke and his commission. The two ships had each delivered different qualities of bread at different price points, and the account separated them carefully. The Rochester's bread at 3¾d per pound ran at a higher price than the Susanna's 2d per pound bread for general charges, possibly reflecting different qualities or different production dates.

Bengal soap and Castile soap appeared together in the account at differential rates. Bengal soap (at 8d per pound for inhabitants) was the East India product produced in Bengal from coconut oil and local lye, characteristic of the Company's trade goods. Castile soap (a harder olive-oil-based soap originally from Spain) commanded the higher Mediterranean import price, with smaller quantities passing through the account. The presence of both soap varieties in a single accounting period illustrated the colony's dual procurement pattern: bulk Indian goods through Company shipping, premium European goods through the same network at higher rates.

Speculations:

The unbalanced column structure across commodities reveals where each line was deployed. Tobacco went almost entirely to inhabitants (£19 18s 0d of £22 4s 0d total), while the bulk of flour went to general charges (£12 6s 2½d of £24 9s 3¾d) for use in the Castle and the General Table. Arrack split roughly equally between inhabitants and general charges. The composition suggested that inhabitants spent on personal consumables (tobacco, sugar, soap, bread), while the establishment dominated the institutional consumption of cooking ingredients (flour, ale, bread for the General Table). The plantation, the Company's own working ground, took only the working ration items needed for its slaves and overseer.

The selection of 8 July 1714 as the account's opening date reflected Pyke's arrival on the Rochester as the breakpoint. The new administration had begun a fresh storekeeper's account from the moment of the change of government, treating the prior period as Boucher's closing accounts and the present series as the Pyke administration's opening books. The clean start to the documentation supported the wider programme of administrative renewal that Pyke had imposed across the Company's record-keeping, beginning with the inventory programme of 9 July 1714 and continuing through the monthly account orders of 24 April 1714.

328

319

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Charg[s] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

216: 13: 8[½] 59: 17: 2[½] 198: 14: 2[½] 475: 5: 9[¾]

Haberdashery War[e] viz[t]

[...] coloured Trnea [...] [...] p[r] Inkab 1: 10: 0

3 [...] D[o] p[r] [...] 0: 12: 10

8[...] whited brown Sorted 2: 2: 3

1: 10 oz Skeyns Sorted 1: 18: 8

18[...] Florishing 0: 1: 6

6: 11: 3

[..]2 brown thread Gen: Char[s] 0: 2: 6

2 coloured D[o] 0: 7: 4

8[...] whited brown thread 0: 3: 9

2 oz N[..]ns 0: 2: 2

15: 9

[...] whited brown thread Plant[a] 4: 10

Needles 300 being Eaten w[th] Rust Sold but for, Inhabitants 3

7: 11: 4

Susana[s] 775 @ [..] 0: 13: 5[¾] 0: 16: 3[¾]

Pin[s] 18 @ 1/9 D[o] D[o]'s 1: 8: 0

3[..] D[1] p[r] [...] 0: 3: 11[½]

1 paper of Blankett d[o] 0: 0: 5 1: 12: 5[½]

Thimbles 4 Taylors. Gen Charges 4

Corn b[s] 11 Ivory @ 15[d] Each Inhab[s] 0: 13: 9

13 Horn d[o] Sorted 0: 4: 0

1 Box 0: 2: 0 1: 0: 4

1: 12: 9[¾]

Silk & Mohair 12[t]. Silk @ 16/p[r]z 1: 12: 6 Mohair 2[t] @ 2[s] 0: 4: 3

1: 16: 8

18[t] Silk @ 2/6 Gen[l] Char[g] 0: 4: 2[¾]

Galloom 71[t] @ [...] p[r] [...] gard[s] Inhab[s] 1: 3: 9

Ribbon 10[t] sorted 0: 15

D[o] 1: 18: 9

Thimbles 9 0: 2: [..]

Silk & thread Laces 1 Silk D[o] 1: 0[½]

2 [...] @ 7[d] Each 1: 2

Gartering 10 yd[r] D[o] p[r] yard[s] 0: 1: 8 0: 1: 8

Coloured Tape 2 [...] 0: 3: 4 3: 4

6 [...] @ 1[s] Gen[l] charg[s] 10: [...] 0: 10: 0 0: 13: 4

Oyles 18[½] Gart[t] raye 7[d] p[r] gall Inhab[s] 7: 6 5 p[r] Linseed 0: 5: 0 7: 4: 6

107 1/8 Rape @ 7[d] Gen[l] Charg 3: 16: 5[½]

2[..] 4[d] D[o] Plantation 19: 3 12: 19: 11[½]

Carried over 298: 11: 10[½] 61: 1: 9[¾] 204: 0: 1[½] 569: 13: 3[¼]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £216 13s 8¼d (inhabitants), £59 17s 2¾d (plantation), £198 14s 3¼d (general charges), grand total £475 5s 9¼d.

Haberdashery ware, namely:

9 ounces coloured tape at 2s per ounce, inhabitants

£1 10s 0d

3½ pounds [...] white at 9d per pound

£0 12s 10d

1 pound 10 ounces yarn sorted

£1 8s 8d

10 ounces flourishing [...]

£0 0s 6d

inhabitants £6 11s 3d

2 ounces brown thread, general charges

£0 2s 0d

2 ounces coloured ditto

£0 7s 4d

8 ounces white brown thread

£0 0s 9d

2 ounces nuns

£0 2s 2d

2 ounces white brown thread, plantation

£0 15s 8d

Needles 300, 100 being eaten with rust sold out for inhabitants 3

£0 4s 10d (plantation)

total £7 11s 4d

Susanna's 775 [...]:

inhabitants £0 13s 9¾d

plantation £0 16s 3¼d

pins, 18 [...] at 1s 0d per [...]:

£1 8s 0d

3½ ditto [...] [...]:

£0 8s 1¼d

1 paper of blank [...] ditto:

£0 0s 5d

inhabitants £1 12s 5¼d

thimbles 4, taylor's, general charges:

£0 0s 4d

corks 6, 11 ivory, ditto, each inhabitants:

£0 13s 9d

12 horn ditto sorted:

[...]

1 box:

£0 0s 2d

total £1 0s 4d

Silk and mohair: 1 ounce 7 [...] silk at 16s per [...]:

£1 12s 6d

Mohair 2½ at 2s:

£0 4s 3d

inhabitants £1 16s 8d

1 [...] 5 [...] silk at 2s 6d general charges:

£0 4s 4¼d

Galloon 7¼ at 2s per yard, inhabitants:

£1 3s 9d

Ribbon 10½ sorted ditto:

£0 15s 0d

total £1 18s 9d

Thimbles 9:

[...]

Silk and thread laces, 1 silk ditto:

£0 0s 10d

2½ at 7d each:

£1 2s 0d

total £0 2s [...]

Gartering 10 yards ditto at 2d per yard:

£0 1s 8d

inhabitants £0 1s 8d

Coloured tape 3 [...] ditto:

£0 3s 4d

6 ditto at 1s 0d general charges:

£0 10s 0d

total £0 18s 4d

Oils 18½ gallons rape, 7½ gallons inhabitants:

£6 [...]s [...]d

5 gallons linseed:

£0 5s 0d

inhabitants £7 4s 6d

107½ pounds rape at 7s, general charges:

£3 16s 6¼d

22¼ ditto plantation:

£0 19s 9¾d

total £12 19s 11½d

Carried over £298 11s 10¼d (inhabitants), £61 1s 9¾d (plantation), £204 0s 1½d (general charges), grand total £563 13s 3½d.

Interpretations:

The haberdashery section catalogued the small textile and sewing items routinely supplied to the colony. Tape (narrow woven strips for binding seams and trimming), thread of various colours, yarn for darning and mending, pins, needles, thimbles, ribbon, galloon (a narrow tightly-woven trim used for edging garments), gartering (narrow band material for tying stockings) and silk and mohair (the latter a strong fibre from the angora goat) made up a comprehensive sewing kit for the household economy. The detail that 100 needles out of 300 had been "eaten with rust" before sale reflected the impact of the salt air on iron goods in store, with a quarter of the stock spoiled before reaching customers. The remaining 200 needles were sold off at a discount to inhabitants.

The "nuns" thread was a fine cotton or silk sewing thread, named for its association with conventual needlework. The "flourishing" thread, sold at 6d per ounce, was used for decorative embroidery rather than plain sewing. The colour variants (brown, white, coloured) gave the user a small selection for different garment colours and types of work. The household textile economy of St Helena maintained reasonable variety in sewing supplies despite the isolation of the colony.

The two oil entries (rape and linseed) represented different culinary and industrial uses. Rape oil, pressed from rapeseed, was the principal cooking oil and lamp oil of the establishment, with the bulk going to general charges (£3 16s 6¼d) and modest portions to inhabitants and plantation. Linseed oil, pressed from flax seed, was used both for cooking and as a wood-finishing oil for furniture and tools. The price differential between the two confirmed earlier observations: linseed oil at around 6s 11d per gallon in earlier records, against the cheaper rape oil. The present rate of 7s per pound for rape (a price-per-weight rather than per-volume measure) suggests the oil was packaged or measured by weight rather than fluid volume in this account.

Silk and mohair appeared in significant quantities at premium prices: silk at 16s per ounce, mohair at 2s per ounce, and 1 ounce 5 [...] silk at 2s 6d for general charges. The high price of silk reflected its status as a luxury textile imported through the Company's Madras trade. Mohair, more accessible and used for finer thread or trimmings, was supplied at a tenth of silk's price. The presence of both fibres in the storekeeper's account showed that the colony's higher-status inhabitants commanded access to luxury sewing materials alongside the working textile supplies.

Speculations:

The very small denominations in the haberdashery section (items priced at 2d, 4d, 6d, 9d, with single ounces, single yards, single pieces) reveal the granular character of household supply at St Helena. A planter's wife or seamstress could acquire two ounces of brown thread, three ounces of coloured tape, ten yards of gartering and a handful of pins from a single shop visit, supplied piece by piece from the Company's bulk stock. The pricing structure was probably standardised across all customers, with no negotiation, reflecting the Company's status as monopoly supplier of these small items to a colony with no competing retail.

The "100 needles eaten with rust" reveal the practical limits of long-distance trade in iron goods. Needles shipped from England, perhaps via Madras as a transit point, would have been months in damp ship's holds before reaching St Helena, with further storage time before sale to the eventual user. A quarter spoilage rate suggests the stock was perhaps a year or more in transit and storage. The Company's willingness to record the spoilage and price the remaining 200 at a discount, rather than concealing the loss, illustrates Pyke's transparent storekeeping discipline at work.

329

320

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

298: 11: 10[½] 61: 1: 3[½] 204: 0: 1[½] 503: 13: 3[¼]

Iron mongers ware viz[t]

£ s d

2 Hoes @ 1/8 ea[ch] Inhabitants 0: 5: 0

4 D[o] narrow @ 2/2 Ea[ch] 0: 8: 8

1 Hatchett N[o] 3 0: 2: 6

1 D[o] N[o]: 4 0: 3: 0

1 Firmer 0: 0: 5

1 hand Saw 0: 6: 0

1 Grafting d[o] 0: 2: 2

3 Large Gimbletts 0: 2: 3

1 Broad Ax 0: 5: 0

1 Adds 0: 9: 8

1 Grubbing Ax 0: 2: 8

1 Pick Ax @ 2[s] 4[d] 0: 1: 8

2 p[r]. of Pott Hooks 0: 4: 0

1 Iron Pott q[t]. 18 0: 9: 0 2: 1: 1

5 Plain Irons 0: 2: 11 2: 15: 0

3 hammers @ 1[s] 6[d] 0: 4: 6

1 R[..]m Iron Lock N[o]: 2 0: 7: 4

1 D[o] N[o] [...] [Susana] 0: 2: 6

1 Box Iron 0: 8: 0

2 heaters 1: 9: 7

4: 9: 10[½] 4: 9: 10[½]

1 Mortiseing Chizell Gen[l] Charges 0: 0: 9

2 p[r] of Doctails 0: 8: 4

1 p[r]. of bellows 0: 3: 0

2 Sockett bills 0: 4: 0

1 Chafing Dish 0: 9: 9

2 broad Axes 0: 10: 0

3 hand Saws 0: 18: 0

1 hatchetts 0: 2: 6

2 house Adds @ 3/8 ea 0: 7: 4

2 heading Chizells 0: 1: 9

1 Grind Stone 0: 10: 0

4 Iron Shovells w[th] Socketts @ 2/6 ea 0: 10: 0

2 Gimbletts @ 3 ea 0: 0: 6

2 Joyners Hatchett @ 2[s] 0: 4: 0

1 Frying Pan @ 3/3 0: 3: 3

2 Ragg Stones 0: 0: 8

10 plain Irons £ s 3: 4: 5: 4 0: 5: 10

4 Broad Chizells 0: 5: 0

3 pareing d[o] 0: 2: 8

3 hammers N[o]. 6 0: 4: 6

1 fore Plain 0: 2: 11

1 Jack 0: 1: 10[½]

1 Rub Stone 0: 1: 3 1: 4: 4[½]

5: 9: 4[½] 5: 9: 4[½]

Carried over 240: 14: 8[¼] 61: 1: 3[¾] 209: 9: 6 543: 5: 6[½]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £298 11s 10¼d (inhabitants), £61 1s 9¾d (plantation), £204 0s 1½d (general charges), grand total £563 13s 3½d.

Ironmongers ware, namely, to inhabitants:

2 hoes at 2s 6d each

£0 5s 0d

4 ditto narrow at 2s 2d each

£0 8s 8d

1 hatchet No. 3

£0 2s 6d

1 ditto No. 4

£0 3s 0d

1 firmer

£0 0s 5d

1 hand saw

£0 6s 0d

1 grafting ditto

£0 2s 2d

3 large gimblets

£0 2s 3d

1 broad axe

£0 5s 0d

1 adze

£0 9s 8d

1 grubbing axe

£0 9s 8d

1 pick axe at 2s 4d

£0 1s 8d

2 pair of pot hooks

£0 4s 0d

1 iron pot at 9d per [pound] 18 pounds

£0 9s 0d

subtotal £2 7s 8d

5 plain irons

£0 2s 11d

3 hammers at 1s 6d

£0 4s 6d

1 [...] iron lock No. 2

£0 7s 4d

1 ditto No. 3 [...]

£0 2s 6d

1 box iron

£0 8s 0d

2 heaters

£0 1s 9d

inhabitants subtotal £4 2s 10½d

To plantation £4 2s 10½d

To general charges:

1 mortising chisel

£0 0s 9d

2 pounds of dovetails

£0 8s 4d

1 pair of bellows

£0 3s 0d

2 socket bills

£0 4s 0d

1 chafing dish

£0 9s 9d

2 broad axes

£0 10s 0d

3 hand saws

£0 18s 0d

2 hatchets

£0 2s 6d

2 house adzes at 3s 8d each

£0 7s 4d

2 heading chisels

£0 1s 9d

1 grindstone

£0 12s 0d

4 iron shovels [...] sockets at 2s 6d each

£0 10s 0d

2 gimblets at 3d each

£0 0s 6d

1 joiner's hatchet at [...]

£0 4s 0d

1 frying pan at 3s 3d

£0 3s 3d

2 [...] stones

£0 0s 8d

10 plain irons

£0 5s 10d

4 broad chisels

£0 5s 0d

2 paring ditto

£0 2s 8d

3 hammers No. 6

£0 4s 6d

1 fore plane

£0 2s 11d

1 jack [...]

£0 1s 10½d

1 rust stone

£0 1s 3d

general charges subtotal £5 9s 4½d

[plantation, this section] £5 9s 4½d

Total £5 9s 4½d

Carried over £240 14s 8¼d (inhabitants), £61 1s 9¾d (plantation), £209 9s 6d (general charges), grand total £543 6s 6½d.

Interpretations:

The ironmongery section recorded a substantial range of tools issued to the colony across three months, divided between civilian inhabitants (hoes, hatchets, hand tools for planters' own use) and general charges (carpenter's, joiner's and household equipment for the establishment). Hoes, the principal agricultural hand tool used by both free planters and slaves, came in two grades: standard at 2s 6d each and narrow at 2s 2d each, suggesting different patterns for different soil or crop conditions. Axes appeared in multiple specific forms (broad axe, grubbing axe, joiner's hatchet, house adze), each with a particular use in the carpentry and clearing economy of a planter household.

The presence of plain irons (5 to inhabitants and 10 to general charges) reflected the laundry routines of both private households and the establishment's General Table service. A "plain iron" was a smoothing iron heated on the fire and used for pressing linen. The box iron, sold at 8s 0d to a single household buyer, was a more sophisticated implement holding a heated metal slug within a closed box, allowing more controlled heat for finer pressing of garments. The accompanying "2 heaters" at £0 1s 9d were the replaceable heated slugs for use in the box iron. The household textile economy required both the rougher plain iron for everyday work and the box iron for finer linen and dress items.

The "grindstone" at £0 12s 0d in the general charges represented a substantial capital tool for sharpening edge implements. It would have served the carpenter's shop, the armoury and possibly the kitchen, providing a fixed point for honing axes, chisels, saws and other cutting tools. The single grindstone in this three-month account, sent to general charges rather than to any individual, illustrated the Company's role as central provider of expensive shared infrastructure for the establishment.

The categorisation of items by destination shows the working division of equipment. Iron pots, hatchets, hoes, locks and standard tools went to inhabitants for domestic and agricultural use. Joiner's tools, the grindstone, the chafing dish and the frying pan went to general charges for the kitchen and the carpenter's workshop at the Castle. The plantation column for this section recorded only the subtotal duplication; no separate goods went to plantation use, suggesting the colony's own working ground had its own existing tool stock without need for new equipment during this period.

Speculations:

The detailed specification by number of tool grade (hatchet No. 3, hatchet No. 4, hammer No. 6, lock No. 2) shows that Company supply ran on standardised pattern catalogues, with goods supplied by their factory grade rather than by general description. The supplier in England would have produced tools to numbered patterns of size and weight, with the Company's order specifying the desired grades. The presence of the grade numbers in the storekeeper's record indicates that the inhabitants placed orders by reference to the same pattern numbers, a small but significant feature of supply-chain integration between London production, Company shipping and St Helena distribution.

The 18-pound iron pot at 9d per pound, totalling £0 9s 0d, was sold at a unit price calculated by weight, the standard mode of pricing iron vessels in early modern trade. The weight pricing reflected the cost of the material rather than the labour of manufacture, with the iron pot effectively sold as so much iron in pot form. The household receiving the pot would have used it for the principal kitchen vessel of the colony's cooking economy, suspended over the fire by the pot hooks (sold at 2s per pair). The combined purchase of pot and hooks by the same household represented a substantial cooking outfit at a total of £0 13s 0d.

330

321

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Ch[g] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

240: 14: 8[¼] 61: 1: 3[¾] 209: 9: 6 543: 5: 6[½]

Iron Mongers Ware Viz[t]

£ s d

1 Rub Stone 0: 1: 3

1 Ragg Stone 0: 0: 6

12 [...]ound hoes @ 2/6 2: 7: 6

11 d[o] 2/2 1: [...]: [...]

3 Grubbing axes 1: 3: 10

1 hatchett 0: 8: 0

8 spades @ 5/3 ea 0: 2: 6

8 [...] Larger @ 6/9 2: 2: 0

5 Sockett bills @ 2/ 0: 8: 0

2 Shovells [Plantation] 0: 8: 0

2 pickaxes q[t]. 14 @ 8[d] 0: 4: 0

3 hatchets 0: 9: 4

1 [...] 0: 1: [...]

1 Spike Gimblett 0: 0: 10

1 hand Vice 0: 3: 8

1 Grind Stone 0: 5: 6

1 Spindle & Wheryck 0: 4: 0

16[ll] of Hillyards [...] 4 [s] 2 [d] 1: 2: 0

1 Frying Pan 0: 3: 3 10: 8: 5

1 Egg Iron [...] 0: 4: 3: 8 Manb[a] 0: 4: 4[¾]

4 heaters [...] 0: 4: 3[¾] 0: 11: 10 11: 10 11: 10: 3

Nails Viz[t]

22 [...] @ 7[d] 0: 12: 10

22 [...] d[o] 7[d] 0: 13: 9

4: 4 d[o] @ 10[d] 0: 3: 6

3[...] 3 d[o] @ 11 [Inhabita[s]] 0: 2: 7[½]

7: 2 d[o] @ 11 0: 6: 5

1[..] 5 d[o] @ [...] 0: 5: 9

7[...] Tacks 0: 0: 10 4: 5: 8[¼]

22[...] 20 d[o] @ 7[d] 3: 2: 0

28: 4: 16[..] 1: 4: 6

7[...] 5: 4: 9 0: 5: [...]

2[...] 8 d[o] @ 11 1: 9: 4[½]

47: 10: 7 [s] 1: 5: [...]

1[..] Tacks 1: 3: 8 0: 6: [..]

8[...] flowring brads @ [...] 0: 6: 4[¾]

3[...] coopers rivetts 11 0: 2: 9 5: 9: 0[¼] 5: 19: 9[¼]

[...]t of Tacks 0: 0: 10

4 [...]3 nails 0: 3: 0

6: 4: [...] 0: 5: 8

10: 8 0: 7: 6

18: 10 0: 1: 3

  1. 20 0: 10: 6 1: 18: 4 10: 3: 3

Carried over 244: 19: 11[¼] 71: 9: 10[½] 215: 9: 2[¼] 5[...]4: 9: [...]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £240 14s 8¼d (inhabitants), £61 1s 9¾d (plantation), £209 9s 6d (general charges), grand total £543 6s 6½d.

Ironmongers ware, namely, to plantation:

1 rub stone

£0 1s 3d

1 [...] stone

£0 0s 6d

12 round hoes at 2s 6d

£2 7s 6d

11 ditto at 2s 2d

£1 3s 10d

3 grubbing axes

£0 8s 0d

1 hatchet

£0 2s 6d

8 spades at 5s 6d each

£2 2s 0d

8 [...] larger at 6s 9d

£1 0s 3d

4 socket bills at 2s 0d

£0 8s 0d

2 shovels

£0 [...]s [...]d

2 pickaxes at 1s 4d, plantation

£0 4s 0d

3 hand saws

£0 9s 4d

1 spike gimblet

£0 0s 10d

1 hand vice

£0 3s 8d

1 grindstone

£0 5s 6d

1 spindle and wheel

£0 4s 0d

16 pounds of pillyards [pulleys] No. 4 at 2s 8d

£1 2s 0d

1 frying pan

£0 3s 3d

1 fish iron

£0 4s 3d

ditto handle

£0 4s 4d

4 heaters

£0 4s 3d

subtotal £10 18s 5d

To inhabitants and general charges:

[from same group, with various recipients listed]

Nails, namely:

22 pounds at 7d

£0 12s 10d

22½ pounds at 7d

£0 13s 9d

4½ pounds at 10d

£0 3s 6d

3 pounds 3 ditto at 11d, inhabitants

£0 2s 7½d

7½ pounds at [...]

£0 6s 5d

7½ pounds at [...]

£0 5s 8d

¾ pound tacks

£0 0s 10d

inhabitants subtotal £4 5s 8¼d

22½ pounds at 7d, general charges

£3 2s 0d

28 pounds 4 ditto at 6½d

£1 4s 6d

7½ pounds at 9d

£0 2s 3d

7 pounds 10 ditto at 7d

£1 9s 4½d

47 pounds 10 ditto at 7½d

£1 12s [...]d

1 pound tacks at 1s 3d

£0 1s 3d

8½ pounds flowering brads at [...]

£0 6s 4½d

8 pounds copper rivets at 1s 1d

£0 2s 9d

¼ pound tacks

£0 0s 10d

¼ pound nails

£0 3s 0d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 5s 9d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 7s 6d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 11s 3d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 10s 6d

general charges subtotal £10 3s 3d

plantation £1 18s 4d

Carried over £244 19s 11¼d (inhabitants), £79 0s 10¾d (plantation), £225 9s 2½d (general charges), grand total £549 9s 4½d.

Interpretations:

The second ironmongery section opened the plantation column, recording the working tools issued to the Company's own ground. Twelve round hoes and eleven narrower ditto formed the principal agricultural complement, suggesting the plantation's slaves and overseer were equipped with roughly twenty-three hoes for the active yam-growing programme. Eight spades at 5s 6d each and eight larger ditto at 6s 9d each gave the field gang a substantial tooling for trenching and earthwork, possibly in connection with the drainage trench ordered for the Plantation House in September 1714 and the wider land management activity of late 1714. The total plantation outlay of £10 18s 5d for ironmongery represented a significant investment in the colony's productive infrastructure.

The nails section displayed the working principle of pricing iron fasteners by weight rather than by count. Nails of different sizes, indicated by their per-pound price (7d for some grades, 6½d for others, 10d for finer or specialised types), made up the bulk of the fastener purchases. The general charges total of £10 3s 3d for nails reflected the substantial building and repair work in progress: the lime kiln near the old Roberts kiln, the new goat pound at Clapper Door house, the rebuilding of the Secretary's office ordered on 24 August 1714, and the continuing fence repair programme would all have consumed nails in quantity.

"Flowering brads" at 8½ pounds and copper rivets at 8 pounds reflected specialist fastening needs. Flowering brads were small thin nails with broad flat heads, used for decorative work, upholstery and joinery where the fastener should be inconspicuous. Copper rivets, sold at 1s 1d per pound, were used for joining metal sheets and were resistant to corrosion. The presence of these specialist items in the storekeeper's account showed that the Company's establishment included skilled finish-carpentry and metalwork beyond simple structural building, with provision for decorative joinery and durable fastenings as part of the working programme.

The "fish iron" sold to plantation at £0 4s 3d, with a separate handle at £0 4s 4d, was probably a fish-spear or fish-gigging implement used for catching fish at low tide or in shallow water. The plantation's protein supply would have included fish caught locally to supplement the meat economy strained by the cattle mortality. The provision of a fishing implement to the plantation indicates the Company expected its working ground to supply some of its own protein through fishing, reducing demand on the scarce beef supply.

Speculations:

The pillyards (pulleys) at 16 pounds, No. 4 at 2s 8d per pound, totalling £1 2s 0d, suggest the plantation was being equipped with new lifting or hoisting tackle. The standard use of pulleys on a plantation would be for hauling water from wells or for lifting loads in construction work. The notably heavy single purchase (16 pounds) at one of the higher unit prices in the account suggests a substantial piece of equipment, perhaps for the drainage works or for the loading platform at the boats' beach. The figure represents a significant capital item rather than a routine supply purchase.

The persistent presence of grindstones in the account (one at £0 12s 0d for general charges in the previous section, one at £0 5s 6d for plantation in this section, with no overlap) indicates that the Company maintained separate workshops at the Castle and at the plantation, each with its own grinding station. The plantation grindstone, costing less than half of the Castle one, was probably a smaller or older model adequate for sharpening field tools (hoes, axes, scythes) rather than fine workshop work. The duplication of essential equipment between the two centres reflected the practical impossibility of carrying tools between them for sharpening.

331

322

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Ch[g] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

240: 14: 8[¼] 61: 1: 3[¾] 209: 9: 6 543: 5: 6[½]

Iron Mongers Ware Viz[t]

£ s d

1 Rub Stone 0: 1: 3

1 Ragg Stone 0: 0: 6

12 [...]ound hoes @ 2/6 2: 7: 6

11 d[o] 2/2 1: [...]: [...]

3 Grubbing axes 1: 3: 10

1 hatchett 0: 8: 0

8 spades @ 5/3 ea 0: 2: 6

8 [...] Larger @ 6/9 2: 2: 0

5 Sockett bills @ 2/ 0: 8: 0

2 Shovells [Plantation] 0: 8: 0

2 pickaxes q[t]. 14 @ 8[d] 0: 4: 0

3 hatchets 0: 9: 4

1 [...] 0: 1: [...]

1 Spike Gimblett 0: 0: 10

1 hand Vice 0: 3: 8

1 Grind Stone 0: 5: 6

1 Spindle & Wheryck 0: 4: 0

16[ll] of Hillyards [...] 4 [s] 2 [d] 1: 2: 0

1 Frying Pan 0: 3: 3 10: 8: 5

1 Egg Iron [...] 0: 4: 3: 8 Manb[a] 0: 4: 4[¾]

4 heaters [...] 0: 4: 3[¾] 0: 11: 10 11: 10 11: 10: 3

Nails Viz[t]

22 [...] @ 7[d] 0: 12: 10

22 [...] d[o] 7[d] 0: 13: 9

4: 4 d[o] @ 10[d] 0: 3: 6

3[...] 3 d[o] @ 11 [Inhabita[s]] 0: 2: 7[½]

7: 2 d[o] @ 11 0: 6: 5

1[..] 5 d[o] @ [...] 0: 5: 9

7[...] Tacks 0: 0: 10 4: 5: 8[¼]

22[...] 20 d[o] @ 7[d] 3: 2: 0

28: 4: 16[..] 1: 4: 6

7[...] 5: 4: 9 0: 5: [...]

2[...] 8 d[o] @ 11 1: 9: 4[½]

47: 10: 7 [s] 1: 5: [...]

1[..] Tacks 1: 3: 8 0: 6: [..]

8[...] flowring brads @ [...] 0: 6: 4[¾]

3[...] coopers rivetts 11 0: 2: 9 5: 9: 0[¼] 5: 19: 9[¼]

[...]t of Tacks 0: 0: 10

4 [...]3 nails 0: 3: 0

6: 4: [...] 0: 5: 8

10: 8 0: 7: 6

18: 10 0: 1: 3

  1. 20 0: 10: 6 1: 18: 4 10: 3: 3

Carried over 244: 19: 11[¼] 71: 9: 10[½] 215: 9: 2[¼] 5[...]4: 9: [...]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £240 14s 8¼d (inhabitants), £61 1s 9¾d (plantation), £209 9s 6d (general charges), grand total £543 6s 6½d.

Ironmongers ware, namely, to plantation:

1 rub stone

£0 1s 3d

1 [...] stone

£0 0s 6d

12 round hoes at 2s 6d

£2 7s 6d

11 ditto at 2s 2d

£1 3s 10d

3 grubbing axes

£0 8s 0d

1 hatchet

£0 2s 6d

8 spades at 5s 6d each

£2 2s 0d

8 [...] larger at 6s 9d

£1 0s 3d

4 socket bills at 2s 0d

£0 8s 0d

2 shovels

£0 [...]s [...]d

2 pickaxes at 1s 4d, plantation

£0 4s 0d

3 hand saws

£0 9s 4d

1 spike gimblet

£0 0s 10d

1 hand vice

£0 3s 8d

1 grindstone

£0 5s 6d

1 spindle and wheel

£0 4s 0d

16 pounds of pillyards [pulleys] No. 4 at 2s 8d

£1 2s 0d

1 frying pan

£0 3s 3d

1 fish iron

£0 4s 3d

ditto handle

£0 4s 4d

4 heaters

£0 4s 3d

subtotal £10 18s 5d

To inhabitants and general charges:

[from same group, with various recipients listed]

Nails, namely:

22 pounds at 7d

£0 12s 10d

22½ pounds at 7d

£0 13s 9d

4½ pounds at 10d

£0 3s 6d

3 pounds 3 ditto at 11d, inhabitants

£0 2s 7½d

7½ pounds at [...]

£0 6s 5d

7½ pounds at [...]

£0 5s 8d

¾ pound tacks

£0 0s 10d

inhabitants subtotal £4 5s 8¼d

22½ pounds at 7d, general charges

£3 2s 0d

28 pounds 4 ditto at 6½d

£1 4s 6d

7½ pounds at 9d

£0 2s 3d

7 pounds 10 ditto at 7d

£1 9s 4½d

47 pounds 10 ditto at 7½d

£1 12s [...]d

1 pound tacks at 1s 3d

£0 1s 3d

8½ pounds flowering brads at [...]

£0 6s 4½d

8 pounds copper rivets at 1s 1d

£0 2s 9d

¼ pound tacks

£0 0s 10d

¼ pound nails

£0 3s 0d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 5s 9d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 7s 6d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 11s 3d

[...] pounds [...]

£0 10s 6d

general charges subtotal £10 3s 3d

plantation £1 18s 4d

Carried over £244 19s 11¼d (inhabitants), £79 0s 10¾d (plantation), £225 9s 2½d (general charges), grand total £549 9s 4½d.

Interpretations:

The second ironmongery section opened the plantation column, recording the working tools issued to the Company's own ground. Twelve round hoes and eleven narrower ditto formed the principal agricultural complement, suggesting the plantation's slaves and overseer were equipped with roughly twenty-three hoes for the active yam-growing programme. Eight spades at 5s 6d each and eight larger ditto at 6s 9d each gave the field gang a substantial tooling for trenching and earthwork, possibly in connection with the drainage trench ordered for the Plantation House in September 1714 and the wider land management activity of late 1714. The total plantation outlay of £10 18s 5d for ironmongery represented a significant investment in the colony's productive infrastructure.

The nails section displayed the working principle of pricing iron fasteners by weight rather than by count. Nails of different sizes, indicated by their per-pound price (7d for some grades, 6½d for others, 10d for finer or specialised types), made up the bulk of the fastener purchases. The general charges total of £10 3s 3d for nails reflected the substantial building and repair work in progress: the lime kiln near the old Roberts kiln, the new goat pound at Clapper Door house, the rebuilding of the Secretary's office ordered on 24 August 1714, and the continuing fence repair programme would all have consumed nails in quantity.

"Flowering brads" at 8½ pounds and copper rivets at 8 pounds reflected specialist fastening needs. Flowering brads were small thin nails with broad flat heads, used for decorative work, upholstery and joinery where the fastener should be inconspicuous. Copper rivets, sold at 1s 1d per pound, were used for joining metal sheets and were resistant to corrosion. The presence of these specialist items in the storekeeper's account showed that the Company's establishment included skilled finish-carpentry and metalwork beyond simple structural building, with provision for decorative joinery and durable fastenings as part of the working programme.

The "fish iron" sold to plantation at £0 4s 3d, with a separate handle at £0 4s 4d, was probably a fish-spear or fish-gigging implement used for catching fish at low tide or in shallow water. The plantation's protein supply would have included fish caught locally to supplement the meat economy strained by the cattle mortality. The provision of a fishing implement to the plantation indicates the Company expected its working ground to supply some of its own protein through fishing, reducing demand on the scarce beef supply.

Speculations:

The pillyards (pulleys) at 16 pounds, No. 4 at 2s 8d per pound, totalling £1 2s 0d, suggest the plantation was being equipped with new lifting or hoisting tackle. The standard use of pulleys on a plantation would be for hauling water from wells or for lifting loads in construction work. The notably heavy single purchase (16 pounds) at one of the higher unit prices in the account suggests a substantial piece of equipment, perhaps for the drainage works or for the loading platform at the boats' beach. The figure represents a significant capital item rather than a routine supply purchase.

The persistent presence of grindstones in the account (one at £0 12s 0d for general charges in the previous section, one at £0 5s 6d for plantation in this section, with no overlap) indicates that the Company maintained separate workshops at the Castle and at the plantation, each with its own grinding station. The plantation grindstone, costing less than half of the Castle one, was probably a smaller or older model adequate for sharpening field tools (hoes, axes, scythes) rather than fine workshop work. The duplication of essential equipment between the two centres reflected the practical impossibility of carrying tools between them for sharpening.

332

323

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

247: 4: 1[¾] 76: 4: 2[¾] 220: 15: 1[½] 544: 8: 5[¾]

Brasiery Ware viz[t].

£ s d

4 Lamps @ 3/11 0: 15: 8

1 Chafeing dish 0: 13: 8

[Inha[b]] 1 copper sauce pann q[t] 2: 3 0: 8: 2[¾]

Ladle 0: 3: 4

1 Lamp [Plantation] 0: 3: 11

1 brass Ladle 0: 4: 6

3 Stew pan & Cover q[t]. 11[½] 0: 3: [...] 9/9 1: 17: 6[¾]

Ditto pott & Cover 12[½] q[t] [...]: [...]: [...] [...]: 7: 3

Sauce pann q[t] 5[½] @ 1/9 1: 0: 7[½]

1 Chafeing dish 0: 13: 8

1 Lamp 0: 3: 11

1 Copper Pott p[r] Susana 0: 8: 1 7: 1: 6[½] 9: 6: 4

Turnary Ware viz[t] 4: 10

2 Krubbeing Brushes Inhab[s]

2 house brushes 0: 6: 9

[..] 3 flagg Broomes [...] 0: 1: 6

8 [..] D[r] [...]en platters @ 1/9 0: 14: 3

8 Porringers @ 6 0: 3: 0

1 Draining Dish 0: 0: 6 1: 6: 0

2 house brush 0: 3: 11

3 Flagg brooms 0: 1: 0

4 platters @ 1/2 ea 0: 6: 4

1 Draineing dish [Susana] 0: 6: 10

0: 4: 11 6: 10 6: 10 2: 7

Cutlery ware viz[t]

11: 9

3 knives & Forks 0: 8: 0

1 D[o] & Fork 0: 1: 2

1 p[r] Sizars @ 11 0: 1: 10

1 D[o] D[o] [Sizars] 0: 0: 3[¾]

1 p[r] D[o] [...]hreads 0: 0: 7[¼]

2 Razors @ 4/3 0: 8: 6

0: 11: 8[¾] 1: 1[..]

1 p[r] Taylors Shears 0: 1: 0

4 pruning knives p[r] Lavington 0: 4: 9

[Gen[l] Cha[r]] [..] Scisers p[r] Susana 0: 0: 11

6: 8

3 [½] doz[n] pruning knives at 18[d] 3: 0: 0

2 clasp d[o] @ 15 0: 2: 2

6 knives & 6 forks 1 [...] £ s 0: [..]: 0 4: 16: 8[¼]

handle & steele ferrell [..]: 7: 0

Carried over 250: 7: 4[¾] 80: 12: 4[¾] 229: 9: 7[¾] 56[..]: 9: [..]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £247 4s 1¼d (inhabitants), £76 4s 2¾d (plantation), £220 15s 1¼d (general charges), grand total £544 5s 5¼d.

Brasiers ware, namely, to inhabitants:

4 lamps at 3s 11d

£0 15s 8d

1 chafing dish

£0 13s 8d

1 copper sauce pan No. 4 at 2s 3d

£0 8s 2¼d

1 ladle

£0 3s 4d

1 lamp, plantation

£0 3s 11d

inhabitants subtotal £1 17s 6½d

1 brass ladle, [...]:

£0 4s 6d

plantation £0 7s 3d

1 [...] pan and cover 4 [...] 11½d:

[...]

1 ditto pot and cover 12½ [...] 9d:

£4 10s 9d

1 sauce pan 4 [...] 5½d at 3s 7d:

£1 0s 7½d

1 chafing dish:

£0 13s 8d

1 lamp:

£0 3s 11d

1 copper pot, Susanna:

£0 8s 1d

general charges subtotal £7 1s 6½d

Turnery ware, namely:

2 scrubbing brushes, inhabitants

£0 4s 10d

[total this section] £9 6s 4d

6 house brushes [...] 9d:

£0 6s 9d

3 flagg brooms [...] [...]:

£0 1s 6d

4 wooden platters at 1s 3d:

£0 4s 8d

6 porringers at 6d:

£0 3s 0d

[plantation] [...]

1 straining dish:

£0 0s 6d

general charges £1 6s 0d

1 house brush:

£0 3s 11d

1 flagg broom:

£0 1s 0d

4 platters at [...] each:

£0 6s 4d

1 straining dish, Susanna:

£0 6s 10d

plantation subtotal £0 11s 0d [as marked]

inhabitants £6 10s 0d

Cutlery ware, namely:

3 knives and forks

£0 8s 0d

1 ditto fork

£0 1s 2d

1 pair scissors at 1s 11d

£0 1s 10d

1 pair ditto

£0 0s 9¾d

1 pair ditto, Susanna

£0 0s 7¼d

2 razors at 4s 3d

£0 8s 6d

inhabitants subtotal £0 11s 8½d

1 pair tailor's shears

£0 1s 0d

4 pruning knives at Padlington

£0 4s 9d

1 [...] scissors Susanna

£0 0s 11d

general charges £6 8s 0d

3½ dozen pruning knives at 1s 8d each

£3 0s 0d

1 clasp ditto

£0 0s 2d

2 knives and forks, 1 ruffler

£0 7s 0d

handle and steel ferrell [...]

£0 9s 2d

[plantation] £4 16s 8¾d

Carried over £250 7s 4¼d (inhabitants), £80 12s 8¾d (plantation), £249 9s 7d (general charges), grand total £580 9s 6d.

Interpretations:

The brasiers ware section listed working items in brass and copper for cooking and lighting. Brass and copper alloys were the principal alternative to iron in kitchen and lighting use, valued for their heat conductivity, resistance to corrosion and decorative appearance. The four lamps at 3s 11d each given to inhabitants indicates that domestic lighting was a routine commercial item, with each lamp consisting of a brass reservoir for oil, a wick and a flat saucer base. Chafing dishes (heated dishes used to keep food warm at table) and a copper sauce pan furnished the colony's better kitchens. The pot and cover at 12½ pounds for £4 10s 9d was a substantial Castle item, probably for the General Table where larger quantities of food were prepared at one cooking.

The turnery ware section recorded wooden goods produced by lathe work, primarily kitchen utensils. Six wooden platters at 1s 3d each, six porringers (small bowls for porridge or stew) at 6d each, and straining dishes for cooking provided the dining and food-preparation tools for households and the establishment alike. The "flagg brooms" were brooms made of flag, the leaves of the iris or related marsh plant, used as a common rough-sweeping implement for floors and yards. House brushes (probably stiffer bristle brushes) and scrubbing brushes (used with water for cleaning surfaces) completed the cleaning supplies.

The cutlery section sold a small range of cutting implements to all three destinations. Three knives and forks to inhabitants at £0 8s 0d indicates household tableware was acquired piece by piece rather than in matched sets. Two razors at 4s 3d each (£0 8s 6d total) for inhabitants reflect the continuing shaving needs of the male population, with the cost per razor matching the seven razors sold at Taylor's outcry for £0 11s 6d (about 1s 6d each at outcry, versus 4s 3d new). The 3½ dozen pruning knives at 1s 8d each in the general charges, totalling £3 0s 0d, represented a bulk purchase for orchard and garden work, possibly in connection with the lower vineyard restoration mentioned in earlier records. The Hutts plantation and other gardens would have absorbed forty-two pruning knives for trimming yam suckers and other plant maintenance.

"Padlington" appearing alongside the pruning knives is probably the name of the supplier or place of manufacture, perhaps Paddington (the English village near London with cutlery production in this period) or a similar place name. The specification reflects the Company's standardised supply chain in which goods were ordered by place of manufacture as well as by type, giving buyers a recognisable quality reference. Padlington pruning knives at 1s 8d each would have been a known grade of working garden tool.

Speculations:

The substantial quantity of pruning knives (3½ dozen, equalling 42 individual knives) in the general charges is much larger than would be needed for ordinary garden maintenance at the Castle. The figure suggests the Company was issuing pruning knives in some quantity to the Hutts and other plantations, or to free planters and slaves working on Company-directed garden tasks. The bulk procurement at 1s 8d each, well below the price of any other cutting implement in the account, made the pruning knife the principal small tool of the colony's horticultural economy. The recipient detail is missing from the present line but would have been recorded elsewhere in the storekeeper's books.

The two scrubbing brushes sold to inhabitants at £0 4s 10d for the pair represented a meaningful step up in cleanliness practice. Scrubbing brushes with stiff bristles, used with water and probably with Castile or Bengal soap from the earlier section, would have been the implements of a household that maintained polished wooden floors and clean stone surfaces. The presence of such items in inhabitants' purchases indicates that at least some St Helena households had aspirations to a standard of cleanliness beyond rough-and-ready sweeping, supported by the Company's supply of both brushes and soap.

333

324

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plantat[a] Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

250: 7: 4[¾] 80: 12: 4[¾] 229: 9: 4 560: 9: [..]

Black Crape 66[..] y[d] @ 2/3 Inha[b] 7: 4: 4[½]

7: 4: 4[½]

Druggetts 28 y[d] @ D[o] 3: 9: 0

17[..] yard D[o]: [Inhabitants] 3: 11: 0 7: 0: 0

Shalloons 27 [..] y[d] @ 7/6 Inhab[s] 7: 8: 9

7: 8: 9

Kerseys 63 [..] y[d] @ 2/2 Inkab[s] 7: 1: 11

7: 1: 11

Broad Cloath viz[t]

[..] y[d] 0: 7: 9

3 y[d] D[o] 15 [Inhabita[s]] 2: 14: 0

4: 4 y[d] Scarlett D[o] 20 4: 15: 0 7: 16: 9

1 y[d] Broad Cloath Gen[l] Charges 15

Durants 17 y[d] @ 1/9 Inhabitants 8: 11: 9 8: 11: 9

Perpetts 13 [..] y[d] Inhabitants 0: 3: 11[¼] 0: 3: 11[¼]

D[o] 26 y[d] @ 2/3 Gen[l] charges 7: 5: 0 2: 5: 0

Norwich Stuffes 9: 0: 17 Inhabitants 0: 17: 7

D[o] 19: 7[..] 0: 19: 7[¾]

D[o] p[r] d[o] 73: 8 Plantation 6: 16: 0 6: 16: 0 7: 11: 7

Flannells 7: 7[..] d[o] 2/7 Indust[s] 0: 19: 11[¼] 0: 19: 11[¼]

Fustians 1: 7 y[d] Coloured D[o] 0: 1: 10[½] 6 y[d] Corded D[o] @ 2/7 Inhab[s] 0: 18: 6 0: 17: 4[½] 0: 17: 4[½]

Manchester Ticks viz[t]

6 p[r] D[o] 1/9 @ 1: 2[..] 6 6: 15: 0

1 p[r] D[o] 1: 10: 6

2 p[r] D[o] @ 1: 5: 10 [Inhabita[s]] 4: 10: 0

1 p[r] D[o] 4 [..] 2: 0: 0 14: 15: 6

Sacking 23: 4 D[o] 16 Inhabitants 3: [..]: [..] 14: 15: 6

D[o] 3 p[r]. @ 47/6 Each Plantation 7: 2: 6 7: 2: 6 9: 7: 6

Blanketts viz[t]

4 Pair D[o] @ 15/6 Inhabita 3: 2: 0

13 D[o] D[o] Gen[l] Charges 10: 1: 6 13: 19: 6

1 p[r] D[o] Plant[a] [..] [..]

Ozenbriggs 25 y[d] Inhabitants 1: 13: 4 1: 13: 4

Romalls 4 @ 15. D[o] 5 5

Hatts Viz[t]

9 Course Hatts @ 4/4 1: 19: 0

1 D[o] fine 1: 5: 3 1: 5: 3

1 D[o] Susana 0: 6: 2 3: 10: 5 3: 10: 5

Carried over 312: 16: 11[¾] 95: 6: 4[¾] 242: 10: 10 650: 14: 2[½]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £250 7s 4¼d (inhabitants), £80 12s 8¾d (plantation), £229 9s 4d (general charges), grand total £560 9s [...]d.

Black crape, 66½ yards at 2s 2¼d, inhabitants

£7 4s 4¼d

Druggetts, 23 yards at [...] [...], inhabitants

£3 9s 0d

17½ yards ditto [...], inhabitants

£3 11s 0d

Shalloons, 27½ yards at 5s 6d, inhabitants

£7 8s 9d

Kerseys 68½ yards at 2s 2d, inhabitants

£7 1s 11d

Broad cloth, namely:

7 yards [...]

£0 7s 9d

8 yards ditto

£2 14s 0d

4 yards 4 [...] scarlet ditto at 20s

£4 15s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £7 16s 9d

1 yard 4 [...] broad cloth, general charges

[...]

Durants, 17 yards at 1s 9d, inhabitants

£8 11s 9d

Perpetts, 13½ yards at [...], inhabitants

£0 3s 11¼d

ditto 25 yards at 2s 3d, general charges

£2 15s 0d

Norwich stuff 9 yards [...], inhabitants

£0 15s 7d, total £0 19s 7¼d

ditto [...] yards at 7s 8d, plantation

£6 16s 0d, total £7 11s 7d

Flannels 7¾ yards at 2s 7d, inhabitants

£0 19s 11¼d

Fustians 12 yards corded ditto at 1s 10½d

£17 4½d

6¼ yards corded ditto at 2s 6d, inhabitants

£0 18s 6d

inhabitants subtotal £17 4¼d

Manchester ticks, namely:

6 pieces ditto at 1s 9d at 1s 5d at 6d

£6 15s 0d

1 piece ditto

£1 10s 6d

2 pieces ditto at 51s 6d

£4 10s 0d

1 piece ditto at 4 [...]

£2 0s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £14 15s 6d

Sacking ditto 3 pieces at 47s 6d each, plantation

£7 2s 6d

Blankets, namely:

4 pairs ditto at 15s 6d, inhabitants

£3 2s 0d

13 ditto ditto general charges

£10 1s 6d

1 pair ditto plantation

[...]

total £13 19s 6d

Ozenbriggs, 25 yards, inhabitants

£1 13s 4d

Romalls 4 ditto 1s 3d ditto

£0 5s 0d

Hats, namely:

9 coarse hats at 4s 4d

£1 19s 0d

1 finer at 25s 3d

£1 5s 3d

1 ditto Susanna

£0 6s 2d

inhabitants subtotal £3 10s 5d

Carried over £312 16s 11¼d (inhabitants), £95 6s 4¼d (plantation), £242 10s 10d (general charges), grand total £650 14s 2¼d.

Interpretations:

The textile section represented a substantial fraction of the storekeeper's total turnover, with cloth and clothing alone accounting for nearly £100 0s 0d across the three columns. The range of fabrics shows the variety of English and East Indian textile manufactures available on St Helena. Black crape was a fine open-weave silk or worsted fabric used principally for mourning dress and trimmings, sold here in 66½ yards at £7 4s 4¼d. Druggetts, a coarse woollen cloth often mixed with linen or silk, served for outer coats. Shalloons, a lightweight woollen fabric, were used for linings and women's garments. Kerseys, a hard-wearing twilled woollen cloth, made up working clothes and outer garments at the harder end of the wardrobe.

Broad cloth, the premium woollen fabric of English production, appeared in two grades. The standard at unspecified rates, and the scarlet at 20s per yard, the latter being one of the highest unit prices in the entire account. Scarlet broad cloth was the prestige garment material of the period, used for military uniforms (the red coat) and gentlemen's clothing. The 4¾ yards of scarlet sold to inhabitants at £4 15s 0d represents a substantial luxury purchase by a single household, perhaps an officer fitting out a uniform coat or a planter commissioning a fine garment.

The lighter fabrics included durants (a strong wool with a glossy finish), perpetts (perpetuana, a long-lasting fine worsted), Norwich stuff (worsted woollens from the Norwich textile region of England) and fustians (corded cotton-linen blends from the Manchester area). Each fabric served a particular purpose in the wardrobe of the working and middle ranks. The flannels at 2s 7d per yard were softer woollens used for shirts, underclothes and infant wear. Manchester ticks at four different price points reflected the various grades of striped cotton-linen ticking used for mattresses, pillows and bedding.

Sacking at 47s 6d per piece, three pieces sold to plantation for £7 2s 6d, was the heavy hempen or jute cloth used for grain sacks, baling and rough storage on the working ground. Ozenbriggs (Osnaburgs, a coarse linen originally from Osnabrück in Germany) at 25 yards for £1 13s 4d was used for slave clothing and rough working garments, the cheapest fabric for the lowest end of the wardrobe. Romalls (a striped or chequered cotton cloth from the Indian trade) at 4 yards for £0 5s 0d represented the East Indian alternative to European cottons.

The hat section included nine coarse hats at 4s 4d each for inhabitants, alongside finer hats at 25s 3d, the premium hat referred to in the master reference as part of the Susannah cargo pattern. The premium hat at over a pound represented prestige headwear for the higher ranks. The blankets section, with thirteen pairs going to general charges at £10 1s 6d, supplied bedding for the Castle establishment, soldiers' quarters and hospital alongside more modest household purchases by inhabitants.

Speculations:

The scarlet broad cloth purchase by a single inhabitant at £4 15s 0d represents the most substantial single textile transaction in the account so far. The likely purchaser would be a member of the council, a senior officer or a leading planter commissioning a fine outer coat. Production of the finished garment from the cloth would have required local tailoring, with the Manchester taylor's shears at £0 1s 0d from the previous section providing the working tool for the cutting. The substantial cost of the materials (cloth, lining, buttons, thread, mohair trim and possibly silk) suggests the finished garment would represent a several-pound investment in a single piece of clothing, marking the higher status of its owner in the colony.

The three pieces of sacking sent to the plantation at £7 2s 6d in total reflect the working bagging needs of the yam-growing economy. With 555,550 yams catalogued across five Company plantations in August 1714 and 42,000 new suckers planted at the Hutts in January 1714/15, the plantation required substantial sacking capacity for handling, storage and transport of the crop. The bulk plantation supply of sacking gives a physical measure of the agricultural rebuild taking place during the Pyke administration's first six months, with material supplies provisioned in proportion to the expected harvest.

334

325

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plantati[o] Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

312: 16: 11[¾] 95: 6: 4[¾] 242: 10: 10 650: 14: 2[¼]

Shoes viz[t]

£ s d

25 p[r] mens English D[o] 8: 15: 0

4 p[r] D[o] @ 6 [...] 1: 4: 0

4 p[r] of Womens Spanish 7/3 [...] 1: 9: 2

2 p[r] braced D[o] 10: 4 [...] 1: 0: 11

1 p[r] of boys ditto 0: 4: 0

2 p[r] of boys D[o] @ 3/8 0: 7: 4

1 p[r]. Childrens pumps 0: 1: 0

8 p[r] Island pumps @ 5 2: 0: 0

1 p[r] Shoes D[o] 0: 6: 0 15: 7: 5 15: 7: 5

Gloves 1 p[r] 0: 1: 9 0: 1: 9

Stockings viz[t]

3 p[r] Kless D[o] @ 2/2 0: 6: 6

6 p[r] thread D[o] @ 3/8 2: 11: 0

7 p[r] thread D[o] @ 9/8 2: 6: 8

4 p[r] D[o] D[o] @ 4/6 0: 18: 0

7 p[r] Worsted D[o] 10/3 [Susana] 3: 11: 9 9: 13: 11 9: 13: 11

Stationary Ware viz[t]

1 Large Bible 1: 4: 6

1 primmer 0: 0: 6

1 horse D[o] 0: 0: 4

3 Testaments @ 1/9 p[r] Susana 0: 5: 3

54 p[r] of Paper @ 1[..] 0: 6: 8 1: 17: 3 1: 17: 3

Thee three D[o] Viz[t]

8 [..] of D[o] @ 2/6 Inhabit: 1: 1: 3

1 [..] [..] Gen[l] Charges 2: 6

4 [..] [..] Plantation 11: 3 1: 15: [..]

14[..] Buttons viz[t]

12 [..] doz[n] Coat-buttons @ 1/9 0: 19: 9[¾]

7 [..] doz[n] [..] coat D[o] 0: 7: 9

50 doz[n] brest D[o] @ 6 0: 18: 9

38 [..] doz[n] D[o] @ 4 [Inhabita[s]] 0: 12: 11 2: 15: 8[¼] 2: 15: 8[¼]

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

71 [..] doz[n] sorted @ [...] 0: 19: 3

2 lines @ 2 0: 4: 0

6 [..] cord [...] 0: 15: 0 1: 18: 3

14 doz[n] hooks Sorted 0: 10: 2

2 lines 0: 4: 0 14: 2

30 doz[n] hooks sorted 1: 7: 3

9 lines 0: 16: 8 3: 11 4: 16: 4

Inh[b]: Cruells 1[..] oz 1: 6: 1 0: 0: 0 1: 6: 1

Ink Sweet powd[r] 17 [..] @ 7[d] [...]

Carried over 346: 19: 7[¾] 98: 1: 6[¼] 243: 7: 6 688: 8: 8

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £312 16s 11¼d (inhabitants), £95 6s 4¼d (plantation), £242 10s 10d (general charges), grand total £650 14s 2¼d.

Shoes, namely:

25 pairs men's English at [...]

£8 15s 0d

4 pairs at 6s [...]

£1 4s 0d

4 pairs of women's Spanish at 7s 9½d

£1 9s 2d

2 pairs broad at 10s 7½d

£0 10s 11d

1 pair of boys ditto

£0 4s 0d

2 pairs of boys ditto at 3s 8d

£0 7s 4d

1 pair children's pumps

£0 1s 0d

8 pairs island pumps at 5s

£2 0s 0d

1 pair shoes

£0 6s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £15 7s 5d

Gloves 1 pair

[...]

Stockings, namely:

3 pairs flesh ditto at 2s 2d

£0 6s 6d

6 pairs thread ditto at 8s 8d

£2 11s 0d

7 pairs thread ditto at 8s

£2 6s 8d

4 pairs ditto at 4s 6d

£1 8s 0d

7 pairs worsted ditto at 10s 3d, Susanna

£3 11s 9d

inhabitants subtotal £9 13s 11d

Stationery ware, namely:

1 large Bible

£1 4s 6d

1 primmer

£0 0s 6d

1 horn ditto

£0 0s 4d

3 Testaments at 1s 9d, Susanna

£0 5s 3d

5¼ pounds of paper at 1s 8d

£0 6s 8d

inhabitants subtotal £1 17s 3d

Three [...] namely:

8¼ pounds of ditto at 2s 6d, inhabitants

£1 1s 3d

1 ditto, 2 ditto general charges

£0 2s 6d

4¼ pounds ditto plantation

£0 11s 3d

total £1 15s 0d

Buttons, namely:

12½ dozen coat buttons at 1s 9d

£0 19s 9¾d

7¼ dozen ditto coat ditto at 2½d

£0 7s 9d

50 dozen breast ditto at 6d

£0 18s 9d

38½ dozen ditto at 4d

£0 12s 11d

inhabitants subtotal £2 15s 8½d

Hooks and lines, namely:

71 dozen sorted ditto

£0 19s 3d

4 lines at 2 [...]

£0 4s 0d

6 lines [...] cords [...]

£0 15s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £1 18s 3d

14 dozen hooks sorted, general charges

£0 10s 2d

[...] lines at 1s [...]

£0 4s 0d

general charges total £0 14s 2d

36 dozen hooks sorted, plantation

£1 7s 3d

9 lines [...]

£1 6s 8d

plantation subtotal £3 11s 0d

Ink colours 1 [...] ounce ditto, [...]

[...]

inhabitants £1 6s 1d

Sweet powder 17 [...] at 1s [...]

[...]

inhabitants subtotal £1 6s 1d

Carried over £346 19s 7¼d (inhabitants), £98 1s 6¾d (plantation), £248 7s 6d (general charges), grand total £688 8s 8d.

Interpretations:

The footwear section catalogued the principal categories of shoes supplied to the colony. Men's English shoes at £0 7s 0d the pair (25 pairs at £8 15s 0d) formed the bulk of the men's wear category, with English manufacture providing the standard quality. Women's Spanish shoes at 7s 9½d per pair indicated a recognised Spanish-leather women's footwear of higher quality than the standard, perhaps made of cordovan (the leather from Cordoba in Spain) for whose finer finish women's footwear was valued. Boys' shoes at 3s 8d the pair and children's pumps at 1s 0d completed the children's wardrobe at progressively lower prices for smaller sizes. The "island pumps" at 5s 0d per pair, sold eight pairs at £2 0s 0d, were locally produced footwear by William Penny or the Company tannery, distinguished from imported English manufacture by both price and source. The presence of island pumps alongside imported shoes shows the colony maintained a working local shoemaking trade in parallel with the imported trade.

The stockings section recorded the standard hosiery of the household: flesh ditto (a flesh-coloured cotton or worsted), thread (linen-thread stockings, lightweight for warm weather), and worsted (heavier woollen stockings for cooler conditions or formal wear). The seven pairs of worsted stockings from the Susanna cargo at 10s 3d each, the highest hosiery rate in the section, represented the premium men's stockings of the colony. The variation in thread stocking prices (8s 8d, 8s 0d and 4s 6d) reflected different grades and qualities within the thread category.

The stationery section provided the colony's principal religious and educational reading: one large Bible at £1 4s 6d, one primer at £0 0s 6d (a small instruction book for children's reading), one horn book at £0 0s 4d (a wooden paddle with the alphabet protected behind transparent horn), and three New Testaments from the Susanna cargo at 1s 9d each. Together these items provided a complete domestic religious and literacy supply, with the large Bible for family reading, Testaments for personal use and primers and horn books for teaching children to read. The 5¼ pounds of paper at 1s 8d per pound rounded out the section with writing material for letters, account-keeping and educational use.

The hooks and lines section reflected the colony's fishing economy. With 71 dozen sorted hooks to inhabitants, 14 dozen to general charges and 36 dozen to plantation, the colony procured over 1,400 fish hooks in three months. The substantial plantation allocation of 36 dozen hooks and 9 lines confirms that the working ground was being equipped to catch fish in quantity, supplementing the protein supply during the cattle scarcity. The substantial inhabitants' allocation indicated private fishing was an active part of the household economy, providing food and probably petty trade.

Speculations:

The very large procurement of fishing tackle across the three columns probably indicates a deliberate council programme to supplement the protein supply through marine harvest during the cattle scarcity. With over 2,500 head of cattle lost on the island, as the council had reported to Captain Lihorne, fish became a critical alternative source of meat. The provision of substantial fishing tackle to free planters (71 dozen hooks) and to the plantation slaves (36 dozen hooks) shifted both labour categories towards fishing as a part-time activity, reducing pressure on the depleted cattle herd while maintaining the colony's caloric supply.

The 50 dozen breast buttons (600 individual buttons) at 6d each, totalling £0 18s 9d, indicates substantial production of new garments by the colony's tailors during the period. Breast buttons were used principally on coats and waistcoats, with about six to twelve required per garment. The 600 buttons would have furnished between fifty and a hundred new garments in three months, suggesting active tailoring among the inhabitants either for their own clothing or for sale. The volume of button procurement, combined with the substantial textile purchases in the previous section, indicates that the colony's clothing economy was producing finished garments at significant scale during these months.

335

326

Brought over

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]. Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

346: 19: 7[¾] 98: 1: 6[¼] 243: 7: 6 688: 8: 8

Indian Goods from Bengall out of Ship Success viz[t]

£ s d

1 p[r] [...] Sashes 0: 6: 6

76 p[r] of D[o] 18 6: 8: 0

1 p[r] D[o] 0: 15: 2

14 p[r] D[o] @ 16/3 12: 9: 10

47 p[r] of D[o] @ 18/6 43: 9: 6

26 D[o] @ 18/10 1: 7: 8

141 p[r] D[o] 127: 16: 10 127: 16: 10

Gen[l] Cha: 4 p[r] of D[o] @ 17/2 G: Cha 0: 8: 0 0: 8: 0

4 p[r] of d[o] @ 15[s] [..] Plantation 3: 0: 8 3: 8: [..] 138: 12

Chinto 11 p[r] @ 11/9 6: 9: 3 6: 9: 3 6: 9: 3

Realoes 63 p[r] @ 16/6 51: 19: 6

47 p[r] [..] @ 15/5 36: 4: 7

5 p[r] D[o] 14/2 3: 10: 10 91: 14: 11 91: 14: 11

115

Gingham 31 p[r] @ 11 17: 1: 0

44 @ 10/6 23: 2: 0

47 @ 9/9 22: 18: 3

11 @ 9/6 5: 4: 6

133

Long Cloth 4 p[r] @ 1: 4: 9 68: 5: 9 68: 5: 9 68: 5: 9

4: 19: 0

20 [..] D[o] 1: 2: 4 22: 6: 8

24 27: 5: 8 27: 5: 8

Challoes 100 p[r] @ 5 32: 10: 0

Gen[l] Cha[r] 4 [..] 1: 4: [..]

124

Inhab[r]: Gurrhaes 9 p[r] @ 12/6 5: 12: 6

Gen[l] Cha[r] D[o] 2 p[r] D[o] D[o] 1: 5: 0

Inhab[r] Dundress 4 p[r] D[o] 5/8 11: 4 1: 6: 0 6: 17: 6

Gen[l] Cha[r]: D[o] 4 p[r] D[o] D[o] 2: 5: 4

Plant[a]: D[o] 3 p[r] D[o] D[o] 2: 4

24

Nuckcloths 4 p[r] @ 1: 12: 10 5: 9: 5[¼]

Inhab[s] 16 p[r] @ 1: 5: 5 16: 16: 9[¼] 31: 10: 11

Shirts 12 p[r] D[o] 2/3 18: 15: 0

19 fine D[o] @ 8/6 5: 10: 6 24: 5: 6

Inhab[r] Sale & bushells 24: 5: 6

Gen[l] Cha[r] 8 D[o] 4 D[o] D[o] D[o] 1: 6: [..]

Plan[t]: D[o] 4 D[o] D[o] 1: 4: 0

Inhab[s] Nicttall buttons [...] [..] [..] brass 1: 8: 0 2: 14: 0

Gen[l] Cha[r] 5 sm[ll] [..] Brass 0: 5: 10

13 dozen pewter 0: 4: 0 9: 10 19: [..]

Carried over 763: 16: 11[½] 105: 2: 6[¾] 250: 13 6 1121: 13

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £346 19s 7¼d (inhabitants), £98 1s 6¾d (plantation), £243 7s 6d (general charges), grand total £688 8s 8d.

Indian goods from Bengal out of the ship Success, namely:

Cuttineese:

1 piece [...]

£0 6s 6d

76 pieces of ditto at 18s

£68 8s 0d

1 piece of ditto

£0 15s 2d

14 pieces ditto at 16s 5d

£12 9s 10d

47 pieces of ditto at 18s 6d

£43 9s 6d

26 pieces ditto at 18s 10d

£1 17s 8d

[total of section 141 pieces]

inhabitants subtotal £127 16s 10d

General charges, 4 pieces of ditto at 15s 2d

£0 8s 0d

4 pieces of ditto at 15s 2d, plantation

£0 8s 0d

149 pieces total

[plantation/general charges] £133 13s 2d

Chinto, 11 pieces at 11s 9d

£6 9s 3d, total £6 9s 3d

Niccaloes, 63 pieces at 16s 6d

£51 19s 6d

47 pieces at 15s 5d

£36 4s 7d

5 pieces at 14s 2d

£3 10s 10d

115 pieces total

inhabitants subtotal £91 14s 11d

Ginghams, 31 pieces at 11s

£17 1s 0d

44 pieces at 10s 6d

£23 2s 0d

47 pieces at 9s 9d

£22 18s 3d

11 pieces at 9s [...]

£5 4s 6d

133 pieces total

inhabitants subtotal £68 5s 9d

Long Cloth, 4 pieces at £1 4s 9d

£4 19s 0d

20 pieces at £1 2s 4d

£22 6s 8d

24 pieces total

inhabitants subtotal £27 5s 8d

Challoes, 130 pieces at 5s

£32 10s 0d

General charges 4 [...]

£0 18s 0d

134 pieces total

[plantation/general charges] £33 10s 0d

Inhabitants Gurrhaes, 9 pieces at 16s 6d

£5 11s 6d

General charges, 2 pieces at [...]

£1 6s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £6 17s 6d

Inhabitants Dungrees, 24 pieces at 5s 8d

£11 4s 0d

General charges ditto 4 pieces at 5s 4d

£0 5s 4d

Plantation ditto 4 pieces at [...]

£2 4s 0d

21 pieces total [as marked]

[combined] [...]

Neckcloths, 7 pieces at £1 7s 6d

£9 9s 5¼d

Inhabitants 12 pieces at £1 8s 5d

£16 16s 9¼d

19 pieces total

inhabitants subtotal £31 10s 11d

Shirts 125 [...] at 2s 6d

£18 15s 0d

19 fine ditto at 8s 6d

£5 10s 6d

inhabitants subtotal £24 5s 6d

Inhabitants salt and bushels [...]:

[...]

General charges ditto 4 pounds at 6d ditto

£1 4s 0d

Plantation ditto 4 pieces at [...]

[...]

Inhabitants metal buttons, namely:

[...]

General charges 5 [...] of brass

£0 5s 10d

13 dozen pewter

£0 4s 0d

general charges total £0 9s 10d

Carried over £769 16s 11½d (inhabitants), £105 2s 6½d (plantation), £246 17s 6d (general charges), grand total £1,121 13s [...]d.

Interpretations:

The Indian goods section, the largest single category in the storekeeper's account so far, recorded textiles brought from Bengal aboard the Success. The cargo was substantial: 149 pieces of cuttineese, 11 pieces of chinto, 115 pieces of niccaloes, 133 pieces of ginghams, 24 pieces of long cloth, 134 pieces of challoes, plus smaller lots of gurrhaes, dungrees, neckcloths and shirts. The total Indian cloth turnover ran to several hundred pounds sterling, dwarfing the English textile section that preceded it. The dominance of Indian goods in the colony's textile supply reflects the Company's primary trading orientation toward the East Indies, with St Helena as a stopping-point on the homeward run where Indian piece goods could be sold to the inhabitants at retail rates much higher than the wholesale acquisition cost in Bengal.

The specific fabrics each had a recognised use in the colony's wardrobe. Cuttineese (cuttanee), a striped silk-cotton mix, served for waistcoats and women's gowns at 16s to 18s 10d per piece. Chinto (chintz), a printed cotton with flowered or figured patterns, was used for bed-curtains, hangings and women's clothing at the lower price of 11s 9d per piece. Niccaloes (a fine Indian cotton from Nellore or similar source) at 14s to 16s 6d per piece, and ginghams (striped or checked cotton from the Indian east coast) at 9s to 11s per piece, were the principal cotton dress and household fabrics. Long cloth, the heavier plain white cotton at 22s to 24s 9d per piece, formed the basis for shirts and bedding. Challoes (challas, a coarse cotton) at 5s per piece supplied the cheaper end of the cotton trade.

The Gurrhaes, Dungrees, and Niccaloes terms refer to different grades of plain Indian cotton, named after the Indian regions or villages where each was originally produced. Gurrhaes (from Gurrah in Bengal) at 16s 6d per piece were a finer grade; dungrees (from Dungri near Bombay) at 5s 4d to 5s 8d per piece were a coarser working cotton, the ancestor of modern dungarees. Neckcloths at £1 7s 6d to £1 8s 5d each were finished cotton or linen items worn around the neck as a cravat or scarf. Ready-made shirts at 2s 6d each for the standard and 8s 6d each for the fine completed the Indian clothing section, providing both bulk and premium garments without need for local tailoring.

"Metal buttons", separated into brass and pewter varieties in the general charges, supplied the Castle establishment's tailoring with cheap fastener stock. Five dozen of brass at £0 5s 10d and 13 dozen of pewter at £0 4s 0d together provided over 200 buttons for institutional clothing, principally soldier and slave clothing, where copper or pewter were more durable than the silver twist buttons noted in the Susannah cargo for premium households.

Speculations:

The very substantial volume of Indian textiles sold to inhabitants (running to nearly £400 0s 0d in just this section) reflects the colony's role as principal distributor of Indian goods to the South Atlantic. With Sandy Bay and James Valley together housing perhaps 200 European adult inhabitants plus the slave population, the per-capita textile consumption indicated by these volumes is substantial. The supply pattern suggests that planters and inhabitants were purchasing Indian cloth not only for personal use but also for re-trade to ships' captains, who could carry it on to the Atlantic colonies or to England for resale. The colony's storehouse functioned as a secondary entrepot for East Indian textiles, generating substantial Company revenue alongside the basic local supply function.

The Bengal origin of the entire Indian section, brought specifically by the Success, shows the working pattern of the Bengal trade. Bengal cottons were the cheapest and most varied of the Indian textile manufactures, and the Success had brought a representative range. The previous storekeeper's account for the period 25 December 1713 to 25 February 1714 had identified Captain Thomas Clatham as commander of the Success, with the Success arrack at 7s per gallon distinguished from the fresh arrack of shipping at 9s 3d per gallon. The present cloth cargo, sold across the July to October 1714 retail window, confirms the Success had brought both arrack and textiles together as a substantial cargo for the colony's slow absorption over several months.

336

327

Brought over

Inhab[s] Plant[a] Gen[l] Cha[r] Tot[a]ll

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

763: 16: 11[½] 105: 2: 6[¾] 250: 13: 6 1121: 13: 0

Paintings viz[t]

£ s d

1[½] white Lead

12[..] Indigo [Inhabitants] 0: 2: 0 0: 0: 8 2: 8

Lead 76 [..] @ D[o] 3/ [Inhab[s]] 18: 4[¼]

D[o] Lead 13[..] @ 3/ Plant[a]: 3: 4[¼]

87

Inhab[s] Pepper 247 [..] @ 1[½] 6: 7: 0

Gen[l] Cha[r] D[o] 17 17

Plan[s]: D[o] 1 1: 9 7: 5

145

Soldiers Cloaths viz[t]

24 Old Coats @ 1: 0: 8 24: 16: 0

1 D[o] half worne 0: 15: 0

Inhab[s] 1 Wastecoat 0: 9: 3

1 p[r]. of breeches 0: 8: 4 26: 8: 7 26: 8: 7

Glass ware viz[t]

[Plan] [..] Cruetts q[t] [..] @ 2/2 0: 7: [..]

6 panes Squares Glass @ 1 p[r] 6 0: 3: 0

P[ant] Plate Glass q[t] [...] [..] G[en]: [Susana] 3: 7: 6

D[o] Sweet & Cork[s] q[t] 12: 4 @ 3/ p[r] [...] 4: 16: 6 3: 7: 6 4: 16: 6

G[en] Cha[r]: 1 [...] of Pitch 15 15

Plan[t]: D[o] 4 D[o]

P[ant] Cha[r] Holland Cloth 13 D[o] 6/6 4: 4: 6 4: 4: 6 4: 6

Corks 4 [..] gross 0: 13: 6

3[..] Corkwood 0: 0: 6 14 14

P[ant] Cha[r] bunting 12 yards 19 19

D[o] Sacking 5 0 y[d] [...] @ 3/4 5: 5 5: 5 5

Iron & Steele &c

[..] Bary Iron q[t] 4 [..] 3 [..] [..] 5: 1: 3

P[ant] Cha[r] 2 bundles redd Iron 16[..] 2: 2: 0

15[..] English Steele @ 6/ 1: 8: 6 9: 11: 9 9: 11: 9

Plan[t]: Moriners Tools 2 setts 2: 10: 0

Inhab[s] 1 Glass mugg q[t] 1: 19 @ 5/ 0: 4: 4[¾] 0: 4: 4[¾] 4: 2[¼]

Goods D[o] D[o] out of S[h] Rochester[s]

Cargoe Viz[t] 797: 17: 7[¾] 108: 11: 4 283: 3: 3[¼] 1189: 12: 10[¼]

Glassware viz[t]

12 Canary glasses @ 8/ 0: 9: 0

Inhab[s] 1 Ale D[o] 0: 2: 6

1 Ditto Clarrett 0: 4: 0

15: 6 15: 6

Gen[l]: Cha[r]: 12 Canary Glasses @ 1: 6 18 18

[Inhab]: 4 Ale Glasses @ 2/6 0: 5: 0

Planta 2 Clarrett D[o] @ 2/ 0: 4: 0

2 Canary D[o] 1/6 0: 3: 0 12 12 2: 5: 6

Carried over 0: 15: 6: 0: 12: 0: 0: 18: 0: 2: 5: 6

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £769 16s 11½d (inhabitants), £105 2s 8¾d (plantation), £246 13s 6d (general charges), grand total £1,121 13s 0d.

Paintings, namely:

1 [...] white lead

£0 2s 0d

1 [...] indigo, inhabitants

£0 0s 8d

Lead 76 [...] at 3s, inhabitants

£18 4½d

ditto lead 13 [...] at 3s, plantation

£3 4½d

87 [...] total

inhabitants £6 7s 0d

Pepper 147 [...] at 1s 1½d:

inhabitants £6 7s 0d

general charges, ditto 17

£0 17s 0d

plantation, ditto [...]

£0 1s 0d

145 [...] total

[combined £7 5s 0d]

Soldiers cloth, namely:

24 [...] coats at £1 0s 8d

£24 16s 0d

1 ditto half worn

£0 15s 0d

inhabitants 1 waistcoat

£0 9s 3d

1 pair of breeches

£0 8s 4d

inhabitants subtotal £26 8s 7d

Glassware, namely:

½ cruet ditto at 4s

£0 7s 0¼d

6 panels squares glass 8 by 6

£0 3s 0d

2½ [...] lard [...] of [...]

£0 [...]s [...]d

inhabitants £0 10s 0¼d

general charges 2 sheets [...] cask [...] [...]

£0 4s 6d

general charges 2 sheets [...] [...]

£3 7s 6d

ditto 1 parcel of pitch

£0 19s 0d

plantation [...] ditto

£0 15s 0d

general charges Holland cloth 13 [...] at 6s 6d

£4 4s 6d

Corks 4¼ gross

£0 13s 6d

3¾ corkwood

£0 0s 6d

general charges bunting 12 yards

£0 14s 0d

ditto sacking 50 yards [...] [...] [...]

£0 [...]s [...]d

ditto subtotal £5 5s 0d

Iron and steel, namely:

1½ pieces iron [...] 4½ [...] [...]

£5 1s 3d

general charges 2 bundles rod iron 16 [...]

£0 2s 0d

157¾ pounds English steel at 6d

£1 8s 6d

plantation [...] tools at lots

£2 10s 0d

inhabitants 1 glass mug at 1s 9d at 5d

£0 4s 4½d

Goods sold and delivered out of Rochester cargo, namely:

Glassware, namely:

inhabitants 1 canary glass at 1s

£0 9s 0d

1 ale ditto

£0 2s 6d

2 ditto clarett

£0 4s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £0 15s 6d

general charges 12 canary glasses at 1s 6d

£0 18s 0d

2 ale glasses at 6d

£0 5s 0d

plantation 2 clarett ditto at 1s

£0 4s 0d

2 canary ditto at 1s 6d

£0 3s 0d

plantation subtotal £0 12s 0d

[Inhabitants column for goods sold this section] £797 17s 7½d, plantation £108 11s [...], general charges £283 3s 3½d, total £1,189 12s 10¼d.

Carried over £0 15s 6d (inhabitants), £0 12s 0d (plantation), £0 18s 0d (general charges), [subtotal] £2 5s 6d.

Interpretations:

The paintings section recorded the colony's supply of pigments and lead-based materials for painting and decorating. White lead, the principal white pigment of the period made from lead carbonate, served as the base for paints and exterior finishes. Indigo, the deep blue dye produced from the indigo plant of Bengal and other Indian regions, was used here probably for tinting paints. The lead at 3s 0d per piece in substantial quantities (76 pieces to inhabitants, 13 pieces to plantation) suggests a working programme of paint mixing for buildings, woodwork or perhaps roofing. The Plantation House had been reported in serious disrepair through 1714 and Mashborne's repair programme would have called for substantial pigment supplies.

The soldiers cloth section showed the bulk supply of ready-made garments for the garrison establishment. Twenty-four soldier coats at £1 0s 8d each, plus one half-worn coat at 15s 0d, made up £24 16s 0d worth of standard garrison uniform clothing in three months. The waistcoat at 9s 3d and breeches at 8s 4d completed individual soldier outfits at total cost of about £1 18s 3d for a complete uniform. The substantial coat purchase reflects the routine replacement cycle of garrison uniforms, with coats representing the largest single garment cost.

The glassware section divided household items between three destinations. The inhabitants' glass was sold piece by piece in small quantities, while the general charges received twelve canary glasses in a single lot, suitable for the General Table where Spanish wine (canary) was served. The Rochester cargo's wine glasses by type (canary, ale, clarett) corresponded to the three principal beverages of the establishment: Spanish wine from the Canary Islands, English ale and clarett (claret, a red wine from Bordeaux). Each beverage had its proper glass for service. The pricing differential (canary at 1s 6d, clarett at 2s 0d, ale at 6d) reflected the relative cost of producing each glass shape, with canary glasses requiring the trumpet form and clarett glasses the more ample bowl.

The "Holland cloth" at 13 [...] at 6s 6d for general charges, totalling £4 4s 6d, was a fine linen from the Netherlands used for shirts, linen and women's high-quality dresses. The cork at 4¼ gross (about 612 corks) at £0 13s 6d supplied the colony's bottle-stopping needs for stored beverages. Bunting at 12 yards for £0 14s 0d was the lightweight worsted fabric used for flags and signal flags, with the Castle's flags requiring periodic replacement. The combined miscellaneous items in this section show how the Company supplied not only commercial goods but the institutional consumables (corks, flags, pitch, sacking) that kept the establishment functional.

Speculations:

The 24 soldiers' coats supplied in three months represent a substantial proportion of the colony's standing garrison strength. With a typical garrison establishment of perhaps fifty to seventy men by this period, twenty-four new coats in a quarter year indicates annual coat replacement for roughly half the garrison. The pattern suggests a two-year replacement cycle for soldier coats, with the heavy red cloth worn through ordinary garrison service in twenty-four months before requiring replacement. The half-worn coat at 15s 0d, sold for use somewhere despite its condition, illustrates the practice of issuing older garments at reduced price to those who would not need full new uniform.

The 6 panels of glass squares at 8 by 6 inches sold to inhabitants at £0 3s 0d total reflect the practical economy of window-glass supply on the island. Glass shipped from England arrived in standardised panels which were cut to fit the small window openings of colonial buildings. The very modest quantity here (six panels at a unit price of 6d) suggests window-glass remained a relative luxury, with most colonial windows probably closed by wooden shutters or covered by oiled paper rather than glass. The purchase by a single inhabitant of six panels indicates a building improvement project, perhaps glazing a window or repairing broken panes after wind damage.

337

328

Brought over

Inhab[s] Plant[a] Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

00: 15: 6 00: 12: 0 00: 18: 0 02: 5: 6

Cheshire Cheese 9: 58 [..]/[..] @ 5[d] p[r] [..] Inhab[s] 31: 15: 7

D[o] 103[..] [..] of D[o] D[o] p[r] [..] Gen[l] Char[g] 4[s] 8: 8: 10

D[o] 100[..] [..] of D[o] @ D[o] Plantation 3: 11: 0 38: 15: 5

1160 [..]

Suffolk Cheese 1765[..] @ 5 26: 13: 7[¼]

D[o] 344 [..] [..] @ D[o] 7: 3: 6[½]

D[o] 41[..] [..] D[o] 17: 4[¾] 44: 14: 7

2147

Vinegar 3[..] Gallons @ 4/ [Inhabita] 1: 18: 0

10 [..] Gall[s] D[o] D[o] [Gen[l] Cha[r] 2: 17: 0

5 Gallon D[o] D[o] Plantation 1: 0: 0 4: 16: 0

Oyles 2[..] Gall Sweet D[o] @ 8/ [Inhabitants] 1: 7: 0 4: 16: 0

4 [..] Gall D[o] D[o] @ D[o] Gen[l] Charges 2: 17: 0

[..] Gall D[o] Plantation 6: 0 1: 17: 0

7[..]

Twine 6 [..] @ 2/4 Inhabita 0: 14: 0

2 [..] D[o] Gen[l] Charges 4: 8

8 [..] D[o] Plantation 0: 18: 8 4: 10 1: 17: 1 0 4: 10

16

Shoes 3 p[r] Inhabitants @ 6/4 1: 18: 6 1: 18: 6 1: 18: 6

English beef 1000 [..] @ 45/6 p[r] [..] Inhab[s] 22: 19: 1 22: 19: 1

G[en]: Cha[r]: 10 b[ar][th]s beef q[t] 6: 1: 0[..]: 0 D[o] 3: 4 7 [..] 38 5/4 p[r] [..] 126: 14: 11 169: 13: 11

G[en]: Cha[r]: 4 Capr Suitts q[t]: 9: 1: 0 D[o] 3 p[r] [..] 20: 19: 11

G[en]: Cha[r]: Pork 6 Casks q[t] 6650 [..] 13: 10: 4 3/4 p[r] [..] 40: 7

Plan[t]: D[o]: 1 Cask pork q[t] 32 p[r] [..] [..] 17 [..] 8/4 5: 18 46: 5 40: 7 46: 5

Gen[l]: Cha[r]: Kerseys 5 [..] q[t] 16 [..] yd[s] D[o] @ 1/4 yard 16: 2 16: 2

D[o] Nailes 7: [..]: q[t] 38 [..] @ 7 [..] p[r] [..] 11[..] 11[..]

Plant[t]: 1 Case of knives & forks q[t]: 6 Pack 18 [..] 12 0: 12: 0 12

98: 16: 5[¼] 13: 15: 0[¼] 219: 19: 9[¾] 332: 11: [..]

Sold to y[e] Inhabitants 797: 17: 7[¾]

Sold to D[o] Rochesters Cargoe 96: 16: 3[¼]

To Plantation D[o] 108: 11: 11[¾] 899: 13: 11[¼]

D[o] of Rochesters Cargoe 13: 15: 0[¼]

To Generall Charges 283: 3: 3[¾]

D[o] Rochesters Cargoe 219: 19: 9[¾] 503: 3: 1[¼]

Totall

7159: 4: [..]

The storekeeper's account continued, brought over £0 15s 6d (inhabitants), £0 12s 0d (plantation), £0 18s 0d (general charges).

Cheshire cheese 958¾ pounds at [...] per pound, inhabitants

£31 15s 7d

ditto 103¾ pounds at [...] ditto, general charges

£8 8s 10d

ditto 100¾ pounds at ditto, plantation

£3 11s 0d

1,163¼ pounds total

inhabitants subtotal £38 15s 5d

Suffolk cheese 1,765¼ pounds at 3d, inhabitants

£26 13s 7¼d

ditto 344¼ pounds at ditto, general charges

£7 3s 6½d

ditto 41¾ pounds at ditto, plantation

£17 4¾d

2,147¼ pounds total

inhabitants subtotal £44 14s 7d

Vinegar 9½ gallons at 4s, inhabitants

£1 18s 0d

10½ gallons ditto, general charges

£2 17s 0d

½ gallon ditto, plantation

£0 0s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £1 0s 0d [as marked]

Oils 2½ gallons sweet at 8s, inhabitants

£1 7s 0d

4¾ gallons ditto, general charges

£2 17s 0d

½ gallon ditto, plantation

£0 6s 0d

7¾ gallons total

inhabitants subtotal £4 16s 0d

Brine 6 [...] at 3s 4d, inhabitants

£0 14s 0d

2 [...] ditto, general charges

£4 4s 8d

8 [...] ditto, plantation

£0 18s 8d

16 [...] total

inhabitants subtotal £1 17s 1d

Shoes 3 pairs inhabitants at 6s 2d

£1 18s 6d

English beef 1,000 pounds at 4s 6d per pound, inhabitants

£82 19s 1d

general charges 10 baths beef at £1 5s 0d at 3s 4d at 8s 5d per pound

£125 14s 11d

inhabitants subtotal £82 19s 1d

general charges 4 capes suets at 9s 1d at 3s 4d per pound

£20 19s 11d

general charges 6 casks pork at £3 5s 0d at 10s 4d per pound

£40 7s 0d

plantation 1 cask pork at 32 pounds at [...] [...] per pound

£5 18s 0d

general charges Kerseys 51 yards at 16s [...] per yard

£16 2s 0d

ditto nails 1 [...] at 38 [...] at 7s [...] per pound

£0 11s 4½d

plantation 1 case of knives, forks at 9s, 6 packs at [...]

£0 12s 0d

inhabitants subtotal £98 16s 3¾d, plantation £13 15s 2¾d, general charges £219 19s 9¾d, total £332 11s 2¾d.

Sold to inhabitants

£797 17s 7½d

Sold to ditto Rochester's cargo

£96 16s 3¼d

Sold to plantation

£108 11s 11¼d

ditto Rochester's cargo

£13 15s 0¼d

To general charges

£283 3s 3¾d

ditto Rochester's cargo

£219 19s 9¾d

inhabitants total £839 13s 11¼d

plantation total £122 7s 0d

general charges total £503 3s 1¼d

Grand total £1,759 4s 0½d

Interpretations:

The two cheese lines together represented one of the largest individual commodity categories in the account: Cheshire cheese at 1,163¼ pounds for £38 15s 5d and Suffolk cheese at 2,147¼ pounds for £44 14s 7d. Total cheese turnover of 3,310 pounds in three months indicates the colony's substantial dependence on imported English dairy for protein supply. Cheshire cheese, the harder and more durable type from the English north-west, commanded a higher per-pound price (about 8d per pound) than Suffolk cheese (at 3d per pound), reflecting both production cost differences and keeping quality. The bulk allocation to inhabitants (over 2,700 pounds combined) shows that imported cheese was a routine planter staple rather than a luxury, with the cattle scarcity of late 1714 making cheese an increasingly important alternative dairy and protein source.

The English beef section recorded the bulk meat shipment in salted form. The "10 baths beef" referred to bath, a Northern English barrel or cask of standard volume used for salted beef, typical of the East India Company's victualling. The substantial £125 14s 11d allocation to general charges, alongside £82 19s 1d to inhabitants, gave the Castle's General Table and the soldiers' rations a substantial preserved beef supply, partly offsetting the fresh beef scarcity reported to Captain Lihorne. Six casks of pork at £3 5s 0d each for general charges, plus one cask to plantation, supplemented the meat ration with cured pork as a secondary preserved meat. The total preserved meat allocation (£189 14s 11d across all three columns) was the largest single foodstuff cost in the account.

The four "capes suets" entry at general charges, totalling £20 19s 11d, referred to suet (rendered animal fat) from the Cape of Good Hope, presumably brought on a homeward Indiaman that had stopped at Cape Town. Cape suet was used both for cooking and for tallow candle-making at the establishment, providing the institutional kitchen with rendered fat for frying, pastry and stewing. The substantial allocation suggests the General Table consumed several pounds of suet weekly during the period.

The final totals tabulated the entire storekeeper's account from 8 July 1714 to 25 October 1714. Inhabitants had taken £839 13s 11¼d worth of goods, plantation £122 7s 0d, and general charges £503 3s 1¼d, with a grand total of £1,759 4s 0½d. The breakdown between original cargo and Rochester cargo within each column shows that the Rochester's newly arrived goods (£330 11s 1¼d combined across all three destinations) had been integrated with the existing stock rapidly after the ship's 8 July 1714 arrival, with substantial sale movement during the three-month account period.

Speculations:

The very large total turnover of £1,759 4s 0½d in three and a half months gives an annualised figure of approximately £6,000 0s 0d. This represents a substantial commercial operation by colonial standards, with the Company's store functioning as the principal commercial outlet of the island. The inhabitants' share of £839 13s 11¼d (about 48 per cent of the total) shows that civilian purchases dominated the volume, with the Company's own consumption (general charges plus plantation totalling 52 per cent) running roughly equal to civilian demand. The pattern reflects the integration of the colony's domestic economy with the Company's institutional supply chain, with no real separation between commercial trade and institutional procurement.

The arrival of the Rochester's fresh cargo would have stimulated substantial buying activity among inhabitants. With Pyke's arrival on 8 July 1714 came new goods that had not been seen on the island for some time, and the planter population would have rushed to acquire textiles, shoes, household items and consumables they had been doing without during the slow last months of Boucher's administration. The Rochester cargo's contribution of £330 11s 1¼d across the three columns, representing roughly a fifth of the total turnover, shows the impact of a single ship's arrival on the colony's commercial activity, with the goods being absorbed across all three destinations within the same accounting period as the ship's arrival.

338

329

Island S[t]. Helena. A Collection of Goods Sold &c[o]. del[d]: out of the Hon[ble]. Comp[as] Stores To the Inhabitants, Plantation, & General Charges from Octob[r]. y[e] 25[th] 1714 to Nov[r]: 25[th] following viz[t].

To the Inhabitants as followes viz[t].

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack 498 [..] Gall[s] @ 9/ p[r] Gall[s] 22: 4: 4[½]

5 [..] Gall: D[o] 7/6 p[r] D[o] 2: 2: 2[¼] 24: 6: 6[¾]

Sugar 612[..] @ 8 p[r] [..] 17: 1: 8[¼]

Bread 56 D[o] 3[¼] p[r] [..] p[r] Rochester 0: 16: 4

Flower 22 D[o] @ 3[..] p[r] [..] p[r] Susana 8: 5[½]

Soape Viz[t]

22 Cattel[..] D[o] @ 1/6 1: 13: 0

70 [..] Bengall D[o] D[o] 8 2: 6: 10 3: 19: 10

Oyle 6 [..] Gallons Rape @ 7/ 2: 3: 9

Tobaco 35 D[o] @ [..] 3: 10: 0

Tob[a]: Pipes 21 [..] doz: @ 6 0: 10: 9 4: 0: 9

Hooks & Lines

6 doz hooks @ 1/10 p[r] doz[n] 0: 11: 0

2 doz d[o] 0: 9: 0

1 Line 0: 2: 0 15: 0 53: 12: 4[¼]

Haberdashery Ware Viz[t]

Buttons 7 [..] doz[n] Coat[s] @ 1/9 0: 13: 0 [..]

17 doz[n] brest D[o] @ 6 [...] 0: 8: 6

1 doz[n] D[o] 4 0: 4: 4 1: 5: 10[¼]

Gloves 2 p[r] mens D[o] @ 1/9 0: 0: 3: 6

Timbles 7 @ 0: 0: 7

Threads viz[t]

[..] brown 1: 10

2 [..] brown D[o] @ 4 [..] p[r] [..] 10: 4

[..] Coloured d[o] 0: 1: 10

[..] whited Brown d[o] 0: 5: 0

1 whited Brown D[o] 0: 7: 6

[..] whited Brown D[o] 0: 5: 8

5 oz fine D[o] D[o] 1/3 0: 5: 0

6 d[o] finer @ 17 0: 8: 6

1 d[o] finer 0: 8: 6 2: 9: 3

Carried over 3: 16: 2[¼] 53: 12: 4[¼]

The storekeeper presented his monthly account of goods sold and delivered out of the Honourable Company's stores between 25 October 1714 and 25 November 1714. The goods went to three destinations: the inhabitants, the plantation and the general charges of the establishment.

The inhabitants received the following items.

Arrack 49¾ gallons at 9s 0d per gallon

£22 4s 4½d

Arrack 5⅔ gallons ditto at 7s 6d per gallon

£2 2s 2¼d

subtotal £24 6s 6½d

Sugar 51½ pounds at 8d per pound

£17 1s 8¼d

Bread, Rochester, 56 [...] at 3¼d per [...]

£0 16s 4d

Flour, Susanna, 29 [...] at 3½d per [...]

£0 8s 5¼d

Castile soap 22 pounds at 1s 6d

£1 13s 0d

Bengal soap 70¾ pounds at 8d

£2 6s 10d

soap subtotal £3 19s 10d

Rape oil 6¾ gallons at 7s 0d per gallon

£2 3s 9d

Tobacco 35 [...] at [...]

£3 10s 0d

Tobacco pipes 21½ dozen at 6d per dozen

£0 10s 9d

tobacco subtotal £4 0s 9d

Hooks 6 dozen at 1s 10d per dozen

£0 11s 0d

Hooks 2 dozen ditto

£0 2s 0d

Lines 1

£0 2s 0d

hooks and lines subtotal £0 15s 0d

inhabitants subtotal carried £53 12s 4¼d

Haberdashery ware to inhabitants:

Coat buttons 7¼ dozen at 1s 9d per dozen

£0 13s 0¼d

Breast buttons 17 dozen at 6d per dozen

£0 8s 6d

Buttons 40 dozen at 4d per dozen

£0 1s 4d

buttons subtotal £1 2s 10¼d

Gloves 4 pairs men's at 1s 9d

£0 3s 6d

Thimbles 7 at [...]

£0 0s 7d

Brown thread ¼ pound at [...]

£0 1s 10d

Brown thread 2½ ounces at 4s 0d per pound

£0 10s 4d

Coloured thread ½ ounce

£0 1s 10d

White brown thread ½ ounce

£0 5s 0d

White brown thread 1 ounce

£0 7s 6d

White brown thread ½ ounce

£0 5s 8d

Fine thread 5 ounces at 1s 3d

£0 5s 5d

Finer thread 6 ounces at 1s 7d

£0 8s 6d

Finer thread 1 ounce

£0 8s 6d

thread subtotal £2 9s 3d

Carried over £3 16s 2¼d, total £53 12s 4¼d.

Interpretations:

The new monthly account opened the storekeeper's record for the period 25 October 1714 to 25 November 1714, the second period in the Pyke administration's monthly book-keeping reform. The shift from quarterly to monthly returns followed the order of 24 April 1714 that monthly accounts be entered and copies sent home by the next ship, with the present return representing one of the first single-month entries in the present sequence.

The arrack section showed two grades being sold in parallel: standard arrack at 9s per gallon and a lower-priced second grade at 7s 6d per gallon. The 9s rate was the established retail price for new arrack from current shipping (the Abingdon, the Stretham, the Marlborough), while the 7s 6d rate was an older or lower-quality stock, perhaps from the Success cargo which had been at 7s in the earlier accounts. The dual pricing reflected the council's pricing settlement of 15 November 1714 that arrack be set at 7s 6d per gallon with credit restrictions on indebted purchasers. The 9s rate continued for stock from particular cargoes, while the 7s 6d rate applied to older stock.

The hooks and lines section in this monthly return, at £0 15s 0d total to inhabitants, was substantially smaller than the £1 18s 3d to inhabitants over the previous three months. The reduction suggests the fishing programme had passed its peak deployment and inhabitants now needed only routine replacement of lost or worn tackle. The pattern is consistent with a fishing economy that absorbed substantial initial outfitting and then settled into a slower replacement cycle.

The haberdashery section showed inhabitants continuing to acquire textile working materials in small quantities. Coat buttons (7¼ dozen at 1s 9d), breast buttons (17 dozen at 6d), small buttons (40 dozen at 4d), four pairs of men's gloves, thread of various grades and seven thimbles together gave householders the small consumables needed for ongoing tailoring and repair. The thread section's specification by fineness (4s per pound brown, 1s 3d for fine, 1s 7d for finer, with one ounce of an unnumbered "finer" at the same rate) reflected the variety of qualities used for different sewing tasks, from rough mending of working clothes to fine stitching of best garments.

Speculations:

The narrow specialisation within the thread section, with at least seven distinct grades sold to inhabitants in a single month, indicates that the colony's textile working economy operated at considerable technical refinement. Householders selected threads by fineness, colour and intended use, with prices ranging from 4s per pound for plain brown to over 1s per ounce for the finest grades. The pricing differential across grades shows a workforce of seamstresses and tailors who knew the difference between thread types and could match the material to the task. The persistence of separate "white brown" categories at multiple weights and prices suggests this was a distinct functional grade, perhaps a strong household-mending thread, with its own established place in the colonial sewing kit.

The single ounce of the unnamed "finer" thread at £0 8s 6d, equivalent to over 6s per ounce, represented one of the highest-priced small consumables in the account. Used probably for embroidery or for top-stitching on dress garments, the very fine thread served the colony's small market for prestige clothing. The presence of such fine materials alongside the bulk working threads indicates that even in the middle months of late 1714 some St Helena households were commissioning or maintaining luxury garments, perhaps in connection with the coming general sittings and muster planned for January 1715.

339

330

Brought over

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

53: 12: 4[¼]

Haberdashery ware brought over

Silk & Mohair 3 [..] 3 [..] Silk @ 2/6 0: 9: 0 [..]

Mohair 4 [..] @ 1/8 0: 7: 11 0: 16: 11[¼]

Ribbon & Galloom viz[t]

Galloom 5 yards @ 4 0: 1: 8

Ribbon 2 [..] yards @ 1/8 0: 4: 2

D[o] 3 yards @ 1/10 0: 5: 6 0: 11: 4

Pinns 12 y[a][r][d] @ 1/9 1: 1: 0

3 D[o] @ 1/11 [..] 0: 2: 3 1: 3: 3

Tapes 4 p[r] narrow d[o] 1: [..]

Gartering 1 yd[s] @ 2 1: 2

Needles 175 @ 18 p[r] [..] 2: 9 [¾]

Combs viz[t]

4 Horne d[o] @ 4 0: 1: 4

2 Ivory d[o] @ 11 0: 2: 0

1 d[o] @ 12 0: 0: [..]

1 Comb brush 10: prickers 0: 1: [..] 6: 10

Silk Laces 11 @ 3 0: 2: 0

1 d[o] @ 4 0: 0: 4 3: 1 4: 7: 3: 10

Horn Books 1

Stocking Viz[t]

2 p[r] blew course d[o] @ 2/2 0: 4: 4

1 p[r] fine worsted d[o] 0: 10: 0

1 [..] oz Cruells 0: 0: 10 0: 15: 5

Hatts 2 Course d[o] @ 4/4 8: 8

Shoes Viz[t]

1 p[r] English d[o] 0: 6: 0

2 p[r] boys d[o] @ 4/9 0: 9: 6

1 p[r] Womens braided d[o] p[r] Susana 0: 10: 5[¼]

2 p[r] English mens p[r] Rochester @ 6/2 0: 12: 4 1: 18: 3[¼]

Soldiers Cloaths

£ s d

2 Red Coats @ 1: 0: 8 2: 1: 4

2 p[r] of breeches 0: 8: 4 [..] 0: 16: 8 2: 18: 0 6: 0: 4[¼]

Carried over 66: 16: 6[¼]

The storekeeper's monthly account continued, brought over £53 12s 4¼d.

Haberdashery ware to inhabitants, brought over:

Silk and mohair 3⅝ ounces silk at 2s 6d

£0 9s 0¾d

Mohair 4¾ ounces at 1s 8d

£0 7s 11d

silk and mohair subtotal £0 16s 11¾d

Ribbon and galloon, namely:

Galloon 5 yards at [...]

£0 1s 8d

Ribbon 2½ yards at 1s 8d

£0 4s 2d

ditto 3 yards at 1s 10d

£0 5s 6d

ribbon subtotal £0 11s 4d

Pinns 12 yards at 1s 9d

£1 1s 0d

ditto 2 [...] at 1s 11½d

£0 2s 3d

pinns subtotal £1 3s 3d

Tapes 1 piece narrow ditto

£0 1s 0d

Gartering 1 yard at [...]

£0 2s 0d

Needles 175 at 19[...]

£0 2s 9¾d

Combs, namely:

4 horn ditto at 4d

£0 1s 4d

2 ivory ditto at 1s

£0 2s 0d

2 ditto at 1s

£0 2s 0d

1 comb brush with prickers

£0 1s 0d

combs subtotal £0 6s 4d

Silk laces 11 at 3d

£0 2s 9d

ditto 1 at 4d

£0 0s 4d

silk laces subtotal £0 3s 1d

Horn books 1

[...]

[haberdashery total this section] £4 7s 3s 10d

Stockings, namely:

2 pairs blew course ditto at 2s 2d

£0 4s 4d

1 pair fine worsted ditto

£0 10s 0d

1½ ounces cruells

£0 0s 10d

stockings subtotal £0 15s 5d

Hats 2 coarse ditto at 4s 4d

£0 8s 8d

Shoes, namely:

1 pair English ditto

£0 6s 0d

2 pairs boys ditto at 4s 9d

£0 9s 6d

1 pair women's braided ditto, Susanna

£0 10s 5¼d

2 pairs English men's, Rochester, at 6s 2d

£0 12s 4d

shoes subtotal £1 18s 3¼d

Soldiers cloth:

2 red coats at £1 0s 8d

£2 1s 4d

2 pairs of breeches at 8s 4d

£0 16s 8d

soldiers cloth subtotal £2 18s 0d

[combined inhabitants subtotal this section] £6 0s 4½d

Carried over £66 16s 6¼d.

Interpretations:

The continuation of the inhabitants' purchases reflected steady commercial activity by the colony's householders into the new monthly accounting period. The pattern of small-quantity purchases (single pieces, fractional yardage, single pairs of shoes) confirmed the household-level commercial intensity already noted across the longer quarterly account. The silk and mohair items at the head of the haberdashery section (£0 16s 11¾d) showed continuing demand for fine sewing materials, with mohair at 1s 8d per ounce and silk at 2s 6d per ounce supplying both decorative and structural needs in garment making.

The combs section illustrated the variety of personal grooming implements available. Four horn combs at 4d each supplied the everyday combs of the household, while two ivory combs at 1s each gave a more prestige product for finer use. The "comb brush with prickers" at 1s 0d was a tooth-brush style implement combining a brush with stiff prickers for separating tangled hair, the small variations in personal grooming kit reflecting genuine choice among colonial households. Total combs purchases of £0 6s 4d represented a modest but significant household consumable.

The Cruells item among the stockings, sold at £0 0s 10d for 1½ ounces, was crewel wool (a fine two-ply worsted yarn used for both knitting and embroidery). Its appearance with the stockings rather than with the threads suggests it was being used for stocking-mending and patching rather than embroidery work. The price of about 7d per ounce placed it well below the finest threads in the previous section, consistent with practical use rather than decoration.

The shoes section included an interesting class differentiation. One pair of English men's shoes from the Rochester cargo at 6s 2d, alongside one pair of unspecified English shoes at 6s 0d, indicated the Rochester shoes commanded a small price premium over the existing stock. Women's braided shoes from the Susanna cargo at 10s 5¼d per pair were one of the more expensive shoe items in the account, the braided decoration adding both labour cost and prestige to a women's shoe. Boys' shoes at 4s 9d per pair completed the children's wardrobe at the lower end of the footwear price scale.

Speculations:

The two red coats at £1 0s 8d each in this monthly account (against twenty-four in the preceding quarterly account) suggested that soldier coat replacement had passed its peak rate after the initial outfitting following Pyke's arrival. The continuing low-rate replenishment indicates the colony was now in steady-state supply mode for soldiers' uniforms, with two coats per month corresponding to roughly one new coat per soldier per two years. The pace was consistent with normal garrison wear-and-tear cycles.

The 175 needles at £0 2s 9¾d, with no spoilage note this time (unlike the 100 rusted needles of the quarterly account), suggests the present stock had been kept in better storage conditions or was newly arrived from the Rochester cargo. The smaller per-month figure (175 versus 300 over three months) reflects the routine demand for needles by household sewing, with no exceptional disposal of damaged stock pulling the figures up.

340

331

Brought over

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

66: 16: 6[¼]

Indian Linnen viz[t]

Challoes 27 p[r] @ 5 6: 15: 0

Gurrhaes 2 p[r] @ 12/6 1: 5: 0

Neckcloaths 4 p[r] @ 5 single d[o] @ 1: 5: 5 5: 12: 11

Shirts viz[t]

49 course white d[o] @ 3/ 7: 7: 0

2 fine d[o] @ 8/6 0: 17: 0

36 d[o] of Kents Cargoe @ 3/6 6: 6: 0 14: 10: [..]

Lannoes viz[t]

1 p[r] d[o] 0: 16: 5

1 p[r] d[o] 0: 18: 10 1: 15: 3

Dungrees 2 p[r] @ 5/8 0: 11: 4

Chints 1 p[r] 0: 11: 9 31: 1: 3

Cloath Druggetts viz[t]

11[..] yd[s] d[o] @ 4/ 2: 6: 0

22 yd[s] d[o] @ 3/ 3: 6: 0 6: 12: 0

Sagathies 1 p[r]: @ 3: 1: 8

Broad Cloath 3 yd[s] @ 15/3 2: 5: 9

Shalloons 37 yd[s] @ 2/6 4: 12: 6

Fustians 6 yd[s] white d[o] @ 2/ 0: 12: 0

Flannells 17 yd[s] @ 3/4 wide 1: 18: 3

D[o] 1 [..] 4 d[o] D[o] wide 0: 3: 11 2: 1: 4[¼] 49: 6: 6[¼]

Iron Mongers ware viz[t]

1 p[r] D[o] Hooks & Hinges 0: 0: 6

1 [..] of 0: 1: 5[¼]

1 Tronnell 0: 1: 8

4 Gimbletts Ditto 0: 0: 8

2 Double Crossward Locks p[r] Susana 0: 4: 8

2 Crossward d[o] p[r] Susana 0: 4: 8 0: 6: 4 0: 10: 7[½]

Carried over 116: 3: 1

The storekeeper's monthly account continued, brought over £66 16s 6¼d.

Indian linen, namely:

Challoes 27 pieces at 5s

£6 15s 0d

Gurrhaes 2 pieces at 12s 6d

£1 5s 0d

Neckcloaths 4 pieces at 5s, single ditto at 1s 5d

£5 12s 11d

Shirts, namely:

49 coarse white ditto at 3s

£7 17s 0d

2 fine ditto at 8s 6d

£0 17s 0d

36 ditto of Kent's cargo at 3s 6d

£6 6s 0d

shirts subtotal £14 10s 0d

Jannoes, namely:

1 piece ditto

£0 16s 15d

1 piece ditto

£0 18s 10d

jannoes subtotal £1 15s 3d

Dungrees 2 pieces at 5s 8d

£0 11s 4d

Chints 1 piece

£0 11s 9d

Indian linen total £31 1s 3d

Cloth druggetts, namely:

11½ yards ditto at 4s

£2 6s 0d

22 yards ditto at 3s

£3 6s 0d

druggetts subtotal £6 12s 0d

Sagathies 1 piece at [...]

£3 1s 8d

Broad cloth 3 yards at 15s 3d

£2 5s 9d

Shalloons 37 yards at 2s 6d

£4 12s 6d

Fustians 6 yards white ditto at 2s

£0 12s 0d

Flannels 17 yards at ¾ wide

£1 18s 3d

ditto 1½ yards at ¾ wide

£0 3s 1¼d

flannels subtotal £2 1s 4¼d

[textile total this section] £49 6s 6¼d

Ironmongers ware, namely:

1 pair hooks and hinges

£0 0s 6d

1 [...] of [...]

£0 1s 5½d

1 trowell

£0 1s 8d

4 gimblett ditto

£0 0s 8d

2 double crossward locks, Susanna

£0 4s 8d

2 crossward ditto, Susanna

£0 7s 8d

[ironmongery subtotal] £0 16s 6d, total £10 7½d

Carried over £116 3s 1d.

Interpretations:

The Indian linen section in this monthly account reproduced on a smaller scale the textile categories of the previous quarterly return. Challoes, gurrhaes, neckcloths, dungrees and chints all appeared at the same per-piece rates as in the longer account, confirming the standardised pricing across multiple accounting periods. The shirts section included a new line: 36 shirts of "Kent's cargo" at 3s 6d per piece. The reference to a cargo by captain's surname rather than ship's name is a small variation in the storekeeper's record-keeping, perhaps indicating that the 36 shirts came as a personal venture from Captain Kent rather than from the Company's main consignment, with the lower price reflecting either inferior quality or a private trader's margin.

Jannoes (Indian printed cottons, probably from the Coromandel coast where painted and printed cloths were a speciality) appeared at the higher end of the cotton range at 16s to 18s 10d per piece, comparable to chinto in price. Their printed or painted decoration distinguished them from the plain ginghams, niccaloes and long cloth of the earlier sections.

Sagathies (sagathy, a worsted cloth often mixed with silk, from Sagathie or similar Indian production) at £3 1s 8d per piece were among the higher-priced single items in the textile section. Druggets at 3s to 4s per yard, in two grades, supplied the colony's outer-coat material at middling price points. Fustians at 2s per yard and flannels at 1s 1d per yard (calculated from 17 yards at £1 18s 3d) provided the warm lining materials for the cooler season.

The ironmongery section in this monthly account was minimal, with only six items totalling £0 16s 6d. The contrast with the substantial ironmongery sales in the quarterly account (£25 9s 10½d combined across all columns) suggests the major outfitting of tools had been concentrated in the earlier months following Pyke's arrival, with the present month showing only routine replenishment of small hardware. The "double crossward" and "crossward" locks from the Susanna cargo at 4s 8d and 7s 8d each were specialised security fastenings, probably used on doors or storage chests, with the "crossward" referring to the bolt arrangement of the lock.

Speculations:

The reference to "Kent's cargo" as the source of 36 shirts at the somewhat lower price of 3s 6d (against the 8s 6d for fine shirts and the standard rate of unspecified Indian shirts in earlier sections) probably reflects a private venture by Captain Kent that the Company had taken into its stores for sale. Captains were entitled to carry private trading goods alongside Company cargoes under settled allowances, and on arrival at St Helena could either sell directly to inhabitants or consign to the Company's store for retail. The 36 shirts at 3s 6d, representing a substantial single lot worth £6 6s 0d, suggests Kent had brought them as a planned trading venture rather than personal effects.

The locks from the Susanna cargo at 4s 8d and 7s 8d each, sold to general charges, were probably destined for the Secretary's office rebuilt by order of 24 August 1714. The new building would have needed door locks and chest locks for the secure storage of papers, with the specialised "crossward" mechanism providing more reliable security than simple wood-and-iron fastenings. The arrival of suitable hardware via the Susanna in the period before the present account allowed the Secretary's office to be fitted out with proper locks at this stage of the rebuilding programme.

341

332

Brought over

Inhabita Plantati G: Cha[r]

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

116: 3: 1

Iron Mongers ware brought over

10: 7[½]

Nailes viz[t]

15: 20 Nailes a 7 p[r] [..] 0: 8: 9

6: 10 @ 7 [..] 0: 3: 9

4: 4 @ 10 [½] 0: 3: 06

3: 2 0: 1: 10

2 Trunck d[o] @ 17 0: 2: 10

28 [..] 30 d[o] p[r] Rochester @ 7 [..] 1: 6: 11 2: 7: 7

Shoemakers Tooles viz[t]

1 Gross of Aule Blades 0: 9: 0

2 Gross of Shoe Tacks 0: 5: 0 0: 14: 0

Shoe thread 4 [..] @ 2/6 0: 10: 0

Corks viz[t]

1 [..] of Corkwood 0: 0: 8

5 doz: Corks 0: 1: 3 1: 11

Bone Lace 1 yard 10

Indigo 4 oz @ 8[d] 2: 8

Cheese 12[..] Suffolk @ 5 [..] p[r] [..] 5: 2[¼]

Cutlary Ware viz[t]

3 knives @ 7 0: 1: 9

3 p[r] Scisors @ 8 [..] 0: 2: 1[¼]

1 p[r] D[o] @ 7 [..] p[r] Susana 0: 0: 7[¼] 0: 4: 7

Kersey 1 p[r] q[t] 3: 1: 9: 0 [..] @ 2/2 3: 7: 9

Blankett 2 [..] p[r] @ 15/6 1: 18: 9

Pewter 2 dishes q[t] 9: 5 0: 11: 4

Vinegar 2 [..] Gall @ 4 0: 9: 0

Sweet Oyle 1 quart 0: 3: 0

Twine 4 [..] Skains @ 2/4 p[r] Rochester 0: 9: 4

Pepper a [..] 1: 0: 4

Paper 7 quire @ 1/4 0: 9: 4

Tin ware 1 Lanthorn 0: 2: 11

Totalls 129: 0: 10

The storekeeper's monthly account continued, brought over £116 3s 1d.

Ironmongers ware brought over £0 10s 7½d.

Nails, namely:

15 pounds nails at 7d per pound

£0 8s 9d

6 pounds at 7¼d

£0 3s 9d

4¼ pounds at 10½d

£0 3s 9d [as marked]

3 pounds 2 ditto at [...]

£0 1s 10d

2 [...] ditto at 17d

£0 2s 10d

28 pounds 30 ditto, Rochester, at 7¼d

£1 6s 11d

nails subtotal £2 7s 7d

Shoemakers tools, namely:

1 gross of awl blades

£0 9s 0d

2 gross of shoe tacks

£0 5s 0d

Shoe thread 4 pounds at 2s 6d

£0 14s 0d

Cork wood 1 [...]

£0 0s 8d

5 dozen corks

£0 1s 3d

cork subtotal £0 1s 11d

Bone lace 1 yard

£0 10s 0d

Indigo 4 ounces at 8d

£0 2s 8d

Cheese 12½ pounds Suffolk at 5d per pound

£0 5s 2¼d

Cutlery ware, namely:

3 knives at [...]

£0 1s 9d

3 pairs scissors at 8¾d

£0 2s 2¼d

1 pair ditto at 7¼d, Susanna

£0 0s 7¼d

cutlery subtotal £0 4s 7½d

Kersey 1 piece 9 [...] 31 yards at 2s 2d

£3 7s 2d

Blankets 2½ pairs at 15s 6d

£1 18s 9d

Pewter 2 dishes at 9s 5d

£0 11s 9d

Vinegar 2¼ gallons at 4s, Rochester

£0 9s 0d

Sweet oils 1 quart, Rochester

£0 3s 0d

Twine 4 skeins at 2s 1d

£0 9s 4d

Pepper at [...]

£1 0s 4d

Paper 7 quires at 1s 4d

£0 9s 4d

Tin ware 1 lanthorn

£0 2s 1d

Total to inhabitants £127 12s 8d, plantation £0 11s 9d, general charges [...].

Interpretations:

The shoemakers' tools section recorded the continuing supply of materials for the colony's leather-working trade. One gross of awl blades (144 awls, the small pointed tools used for piercing leather before stitching) at £0 9s 0d, two gross of shoe tacks (288 small nails for fastening soles to uppers) at £0 5s 0d, and four pounds of shoe thread at 2s 6d per pound made up the working materials for a substantial shoemaking operation. The materials would have been used by William Penny and other Company shoemakers to produce the island pumps and similar local footwear noted in the earlier section. The presence of these materials in the storekeeper's account confirms that the colony maintained an active shoe-making trade alongside the imported English footwear.

The bone lace at 1 yard for £0 10s 0d was a fine narrow trim made of linen thread (despite the name, the "bone" referred to the small bobbins originally made of bone used in its production rather than to the material). At 10s 0d for a single yard, bone lace was the most expensive trim per linear unit in the account, used as decoration on collars, cuffs, fronts and cap edges for fine garments. Its acquisition by an inhabitant indicates a single specific garment was being completed with luxury trim.

The single tin lanthorn at £0 2s 1d represented one of the smaller manufactured items but a recognisable household necessity. The lantern, a wood or metal frame with translucent horn or glass panels protecting a candle from wind, was the principal portable lighting fixture for evening movement around the house, yard or working buildings. Its modest price reflected its standardised production and routine domestic use.

The seven quires of paper at 1s 4d per quire (a quire being 24 sheets, so seven quires = 168 sheets) at £0 9s 4d gave the colony's writing economy substantial supply for the month. The Secretary's office, planters' household accounts, personal correspondence and informal record-keeping all consumed paper at sufficient rate to require regular bulk purchase. The £0 9s 4d single-month figure suggests the colony consumed roughly £6 0s 0d worth of paper per year, equivalent to over 2,000 sheets.

Speculations:

The dual sourcing of nails (some from the existing stock at 7d per pound, others specifically marked "Rochester" at 7¼d per pound) shows the storekeeper carefully tracking different cargo lots through the account. The very small price differential (¼d per pound) between the two sources indicates the Rochester cargo was priced at virtually the same wholesale acquisition rate as the existing stock, with the small premium probably reflecting freshness or specific quality grade. The level of detail in the storekeeper's records, tracking goods to their specific ship of origin, allowed the Company to monitor margins and stock turnover by cargo.

The single yard of bone lace at 10s 0d, sold to a single inhabitant, probably indicates a specific commission for a fine garment associated with the upcoming general sittings (postponed from 17 January 1715) or the muster (postponed from 20 January 1715). With the Aurengzebe having arrived on 14 January 1714/15 disrupting both events, the previous public assemblies in October-November 1714 would have been the most recent occasions when polite dress was on parade. The 10s 0d purchase by a planter or his wife for a single yard of premium trim suggests a deliberate investment in dress for the colony's relatively rare formal occasions.

342

333

Goods D[o]: out of the Stores for the use of Generall Table and Generall Charges from Octob[r]: y[e] 25[th] 1714. to Novemb[r] y[e]: 25[th]: following viz[t].

£ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack 25 Gall[s] Batavia @ 9/ p[r] gall 11: 5: 0

21 D[o] D[o] 5/6 [..] 2: 18: d 14: 18: d

Sugar 94 @ 8 p[r] [..] 7: 17: 6 19: 2: 6

Flower 96: 3 [..] p[r] Susana 3: 2: 8

Bread 495: 4: 4 [..] 8: 5

Castle Soap 10 @ 18 p[r] [..] 15

Oyles viz[t]

5 Gall[s]: rape @ 7/ p[r] gall 1: 15: 0

3 [..] Sweet p[r] Roch[r] G[en]: D[o] 3 p[r] q[t] 2[d] 0: 9: 0 2: 4

Tobacco & Pipes viz[t]

4 [..] Tobacco @ 2[d] 0: 8: 0

5[..] doz[n] pipes @ 6 [..] 0: 2: 9 0: 10: 9

Hooks & Lines viz[t]

3 doz: Hooks @ 1/10 0: 5: 6

6 Lines @ 2[d] 0: 12: 0 0: 17: 6

1 p[r] of Coloured Tape 0: 1: 8

2 oz of Nuns Thread @ 1/1 0: 2: 2 0: 3: 10

Iron Mongers ware viz[t]

12 Shovells @ 2[d] 1: 4: 0

4 p[r] of Hinges @ 1/10 0: 7: 4

1 p[r] of [..] 0: 0: 0

1 p[r] Iron Candlesticks 0: 2: 0

5 pitt Axes q[t] 24 @ 8 [..] 0: 16: 0 2: 10: 9

Iron & Steele viz[t]

40 [..] of Iron @ 3 [..] [..] 0: 10: 0

16 [..] [..] of Steel @ 6 0: 8: 3 0: 18: 3

Nailes viz[t]

38 of 20 d[o] @ 7 p[r] [..] 1: 2: 2

34: 10 d[o] @ 7 [..] p[r] [..] 1: 1: 3

6: 4 d[o] @ 10[..] 0: 5: 3

1 of 8 d[o] 0: 0: 9

3 of d[o] @ 11/5 0: 3: 4 2: 15: 6 [..]

2 of Tacks @ 10 0: 6: 6

10 of 30 d[o] p[r] Rochet[r] @ 7 [..] 42: 19: 9 [..]

Carried over

The storekeeper accounted for goods delivered out of the stores for the use of the General Table and general charges between 25 October 1714 and 25 November 1714.

Arrack 25 gallons Batavia at 9s per gallon

£11 5s 0d

Arrack 21 ditto at 7s 6d

£7 17s 6d

arrack subtotal £19 2s 6d

Sugar 94 pounds at 8d per pound

£3 2s 8d

Flour 96 [...] at 3¼d, Susanna

£0 1s 8d

Bread 495 [...] at 4½d

£8 5s 0d

Castile soap 10 pounds at 1s 6d

£0 15s 0d

Oils, namely:

5 gallons rape at 7s per gallon

£1 15s 0d

3¼ sweet, Rochester, at 3s

£0 9s 9d

oils subtotal £2 4s 9d

Tobacco and pipes, namely:

4 [...] tobacco at 2s

£0 8s 0d

5½ dozen pipes at 6d

£0 2s 9d

tobacco subtotal £0 10s 9d

Hooks and lines, namely:

5 dozen hooks at 1s 10d

£0 5s 6d

6 lines at 2s

£0 12s 0d

hooks subtotal £0 17s 6d

1 piece of coloured tape

£0 1s 8d

2 ounces of nuns thread at 1s 1d

£0 2s 2d

tape subtotal £0 3s 10d

Ironmongers ware, namely:

12 shovels at 2s

£1 4s 0d

4 pair of hinges at 1s 10d

£0 7s 4d

1 pair of ditto

£0 0s 8d

1 pair iron candlesticks

£0 2s 0d

5 pickaxes 24 [...] at 8d

£0 16s 0d

ironmongery subtotal £2 10s 0d

Iron and steel, namely:

40 [...] of iron at 3s

£0 10s 0d

16¼ [...] of steel at 6d

£0 8s 3d

iron and steel subtotal £0 18s 3d

Nails, namely:

38 pounds of 26 ditto at 7d per pound

£1 2s 2d

34 pounds 10 ditto at 7½d per pound

£1 1s 3d

6 pounds 4 ditto at 10½d

£0 5s 3d

1 pound of ditto

£0 0s 9d

3 pounds of ditto at 11d

£0 2s 9d [as marked]

2 pounds tacks at 10d

£0 3s 4d

16 pounds of 30 ditto, Rochester, at 7¼d

[...]

nails subtotal £2 15s 6¼d

Carried over £42 19s 9¼d.

Interpretations:

The General Table and general charges account opened with arrack at the two grades observed in the inhabitants' account, with 25 gallons of Batavia arrack at 9s and 21 gallons of older stock at 7s 6d together totalling £19 2s 6d for the establishment's drinking ration. The Castle table maintained its regular liquor supply during the month, with the dual pricing reflecting cargo origin as before. Castile soap at 10 pounds for £0 15s 0d gave the General Table's laundry and washing supply during the month.

The 495 [...] of bread at 4½d represented the institutional bread supply for the establishment, presumably for the Castle table, the soldiers' mess and any other Company-fed personnel. The substantial £8 5s 0d single-line cost reflected bread's centrality to the institutional diet, with bread serving as the staple carbohydrate at every meal. Set against the modest flour allocation (£0 1s 8d), this suggested bread was procured already baked rather than produced from raw flour at the establishment's own kitchen, possibly through a contract baker on the island.

The ironmongery section for general charges showed substantial tooling purchases for the working programme. Twelve shovels at £1 4s 0d were the principal new tools for the period, probably destined for the drainage trench work at the Plantation House (ordered on 28 September 1714) or the lime kiln operations. Four pairs of hinges and a single pair (£0 8s 0d total) suggest door and gate repairs at the Castle and outlying buildings. The pair of iron candlesticks at £0 2s 0d gave the establishment two new heavy lighting fixtures, in keeping with the council's continuing concern for adequate lighting noted in the candle and oil discussion of 14 December 1714.

The 40 [...] of iron at 3s and 16¼ [...] of steel at 6d in the iron and steel section provided the bar stock for the blacksmith's work at the Castle. The substantial nail purchases (totalling £2 15s 6¼d across multiple grades and weights) supplied the ongoing building programmes: the lime kiln near the old Roberts kiln, the new goat pound at Clapper Door house, the rebuilding of the Secretary's office and the wider repair programme at the Plantation House. The variety of nail sizes (38 pounds at 7d per pound, 34 pounds at 7½d per pound, smaller quantities at 10½d and 11d for specialised types) reflected the differentiated fastening needs of carpentry, joinery and structural building work.

Speculations:

The 12 shovels at the relatively low rate of 2s each represent a sharp price reduction from the 5s 6d per spade in the earlier plantation account. The functional distinction between "shovels" and "spades" probably accounts for the difference: shovels (broad-bladed, used for moving loose material) were simpler implements than spades (narrower, sharp-edged, used for digging into firm ground). The bulk procurement of twelve shovels in a single month, all for general charges, suggests a specific major earth-moving project: most plausibly the Plantation House drainage trench ordered on 28 September 1714 which required substantial labour and tools to complete before the next rainy period.

The 5 pickaxes at £0 16s 0d (an effective rate of 3s 2d each) supplemented the shovel acquisition with rock-breaking tools. The combined picks-and-shovels purchase suggests the trench work was passing through harder ground requiring loosening before excavation. The figure of "24 [...] at 8d" alongside the five pickaxes is probably the weight per pickaxe (about 4 pounds each at 8d per pound for the steel and iron), with the pricing calculated by total weight at the unit rate. The colony's tool procurement system priced heavier implements by weight, consistent with the practice observed for the iron pot in the earlier section.

343

334

Brought Over

£ s d £ s d £ s d

42: 19: 9 [..]

Rice 30 @ 3 [..] p[r] [..] 0: 8: 9

Salt 1 [..] bushells @ 6 0: 9: 0

Pepper 2 [..] 0: 2: 0

Tea 1 [..] 0: 9: 0

Pewter 2 large basons p[r] Susana @ 6/4 0: 12: 8

Cutlary ware for 1 knife & fork 0: 1: 10

Sacking 3 p[r] @ 2: 7: 6 7: 2: 6

1 Glass mugg weighing 27 oz @ 4 p[r] [..] 0: 8: 8

1 flagg Broome 0: 0: 6 9: 9: 11

2 [..] of twine @ 2/4 0: 4: 8

Vinegar 2 qrt p[r] Rocket[t] 0: 2: 0 0: 6: 8

Beef 1 Cask q[t]: 115 [..] @ 5 [..] ea 275 [..] @ 5 [..] p[r] [..] 13: 3: 6 [..]

Suet 1 Cask q[t] neat 167 @ 5 [..] p[r] [..] 3: 16: 6 [¼] 17: 0: 1

Plantation D[o] to D[o] time Viz[t] 69: 16: 5 [¼]

56 Sugar @ 8 [..] 1: 17: 4

7 Rice @ 3 [..] 0: 2: [..]

1 [..] Gallon Rape Oyle @ 7 [..] 0: 12: 3

1 [..] bushells of Salt @ 6 [..] 0: 9: 0

12 pipes 0: 0: 6

3 [..] [..] of Castel Soape 0: 4: 8[¼]

3 [..] of Shoe thread @ 2/6 0: 7: 6

[..] [..] brown Thread 0: 2: 0

Sold to y[e] Inhabit[ants] 129: 00: 10

3: 15: 9 [¼] 3: 15: 9 [¼]

Generall Charges 69: 16: 5 [¼]

Plantation 3: 15: 9 [¾]

Totall 202: 19: 7[¼]

The storekeeper continued the General Table and general charges account, brought over £42 19s 9¼d.

Rice 50 [...] at 3¼d per [...]

£0 8s 9d

Salt 1½ bushels at 6s

£0 9s 0d

Pepper 2 pounds

£0 2s 0d

Tea 1 pound

£0 9s 0d

Pewter 2 large basins, Susanna, at 6s 4d

£0 12s 8d

Cutlery ware for 1 knife and fork

£0 1s 10d

Sacking 3 pieces at £2 7s 6d

£7 2s 6d

1 glass mug weighing 2 ounces 7 [...] at 1s 9d per [...]

£0 3s 8d

1 flagg broom

£0 0s 6d

2 [...] of twine at 2s 4d

£0 4s 8d

Vinegar 2 quarts, Rochester

£0 2s 0d

Beef 1 cask 9 [...] 115 pounds at 5d each, 275 pounds at 5d per pound

£13 6s 6¼d

Suet 1 cask 9 [...] neat 167 pounds at 5½d per pound

£3 16s 6¼d

general charges subtotal £69 16s 5¼d, total £17 0s 1d

Plantation, ditto to ditto, time, namely:

56 pounds sugar at 8d

£1 17s 4d

7 pounds rice at 3¼d

£0 2s 0¼d

1¾ gallons rape oil at 7s

£0 12s 3d

1½ bushels of salt at 6s

£0 9s 0d

12 pipes

£0 0s 6d

3⅛ pounds of Castile soap

£0 4s 8¾d

3 pounds of shoe thread at 2s 6d

£0 7s 6d

¼ pound brown thread

£0 2s 0d

plantation subtotal £3 15s 3¾d

Sold to ditto, inhabitants

£129 0s 10d

General charges

£69 16s 5¼d

Plantation

£3 15s 3¾d

Total £202 19s 7¼d

Interpretations:

The General Table acquired specialised commodities at modest quantities for the institutional table. The 1 pound of tea at £0 9s 0d represented one of the highest per-pound prices in the account, at over 4½ pence per ounce. Tea, the luxury Chinese import procured either directly through Company ships or via Bencoolen, was reserved for the Governor's, Deputy Governor's and Chaplain's table during the scarcity period established on 17 August 1714 when the General Table had been restricted to those three offices. The single pound provided a substantial supply for the elite table over the month given tea's measured consumption.

The substantial beef and suet purchases in this account showed the General Table's preserved meat ration for the period. The cask of beef at £13 6s 6¼d, with weights specified as 115 pounds at one rate and 275 pounds at another, supplied the soldiers' mess and the establishment table during the cattle scarcity. The neat suet cask at £3 16s 6¼d at 5½d per pound provided rendered fat for cooking and candle-making. The combined preserved meat allocation of £17 3s 0¼d in this single month was substantial, reflecting the Castle's need to compensate for the lack of fresh beef supply through cured product.

Three pieces of sacking at £2 7s 6d each, totalling £7 2s 6d in the general charges, mirrored the parallel plantation purchase of three pieces of sacking at the same rate in the earlier quarterly account. The general charges sacking allocation indicates the Castle and its working departments also required substantial bagging materials, perhaps for transporting goods between Castle stores, for storing dry commodities, or for supporting the cargo discharge programme of incoming ships.

The plantation column for this month showed modest consumption: 56 pounds of sugar, 7 pounds of rice, oil, salt, soap, shoe thread and small thread, totalling £3 15s 3¾d. The composition reflected the plantation's basic working ration for slaves and overseer, with sugar appearing as the largest single line. The substantial sugar allocation to plantation use, at £1 17s 4d for 56 pounds at 8d per pound, suggests sugar was being incorporated into slave food rather than reserved as a luxury item: perhaps as a sweetener for the daily yam ration, or for occasional cane-syrup treats during periods of intensive labour.

The final monthly total of £202 19s 7¼d gave the storekeeper's record for 25 October 1714 to 25 November 1714. Set against the previous three-and-a-half-month total of £1,759 4s 0½d (running at approximately £500 0s 0d per month), the present £202 19s 7¼d single-month total marked a substantial reduction in storekeeper turnover. The post-Rochester-cargo absorption phase had moved into a more settled state with reduced sales volume, consistent with inhabitants having already made their major purchases in the immediate post-arrival weeks.

Speculations:

The presence of tea on the General Table account at 1 pound for £0 9s 0d gives a useful price reference for what the council had set at 9s per pound in the retail pricing settlement of 15 November 1714. The institutional purchase at the retail rate confirms that the Governor and his colleagues paid the same price for their tea as inhabitants would have done at the public counter, with no special institutional discount for the principal officers. The arrangement either reflects scrupulous accounting (each department debited at the published rate) or the absence of any wholesale price below the retail rate, suggesting tea was scarce enough that all sales were treated as premium retail.

The substantial preserved meat allocation in this single month (combined £17 3s 0¼d for beef and suet) compared with the much smaller fresh-meat figures suggests the Castle had largely shifted from fresh to preserved beef during November 1714. The continuing cattle mortality, combined with the council's strict reservation of remaining live cattle for breeding stock recovery, would have made preserved meat the principal source of animal protein for the establishment table. The pattern probably continued through the early months of 1715 until cattle numbers could be rebuilt.

344

335

Island S[t]. Helena.

Whereas there being one year Vizt y[e] year 1714. Head mony due to the Church from y[e] Inhabitants of said Island which is after the rate of Six pence p[r] Head for all Whites & Blacks in each man Woman & W[..]s family y[t] are of [...] of Sixteen years & upwards These are therfore in her Majesties name to Order & [Com]and you whose names hereafter follows to pay y[e] respective sums of mony placed against y[r] names to James Draper & Francis Wrangham Church Wardens for this present Year & in case any persons refuses to make payment hereof you the said Church Wardens are hereby impowered to make Seizure of such persons goods & Chattles & Sell y[e] same at Publick out cry ven =ding y[e] overplus (if any) to y[e] owner after you are Satisfyed & reasonable charges deducted.

Given under Our hands & y[e] Hon[ble] United Comp[a]: Seal affixed hereunto this 28 day of Jan[ry] 1714[..]/15

To James Draper Isaac Pyke & Fra: Wrangham Geo: Haswell Church Wardens Edw[d] Mashborne These Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

[S[t]]

Persons names. Viz[t].

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Matthew Bazett 4[th] in Council 3 4 7 3 6

Jeduah Thomlinson, Chaplain 1 8 9 4 6

Tho[s] Cason Ensigne 1 4 5 2 6

Jn[o] Alexander d[o] 1 4 5 2 6

W[m] Porteous Surgeon 1 2 3 1 6

Jn[o] French Gun[r] 1 2 3 1 6

Jn[o] Goodwin Writer 1 4 5 2 6

Tho[s] Southern Serj[t] 1 2 3 1 6

10 30 40 1: 0: 0

Margin Notes:

Church Wardins Warrant. 1714[..]/[..]

St Helena. The council issued a warrant for the church wardens dated 18 January 1714/15.

Whereas there was one year's head money due to the church for 1714 from the inhabitants of the island, at the rate of 6d per head for all whites and blacks in each man's family who were over sixteen years of age, the council in her Majesty's name commanded those whose names followed to pay the respective sums of money placed against their names to James Draper and Francis Wrangham, church wardens, for the present year. In case any persons refused to pay, the church wardens were empowered to make seizure of such persons' goods and chattels and to sell the same at public outcry, rendering the overplus, if any, to the owner after they had been satisfied and reasonable charges deducted.

Given under the hands of the council and the Honourable United Company's seal affixed, the 18 day of January 1714/15. Signed Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Edward Mashborne, Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey.

Directed to James Draper and Francis Wrangham, church wardens.

Persons names, namely, with columns whites, blacks, total, and sum:

Matthew Brazett, fourth in council

3 whites, 4 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

Joshua Thomlinson, chaplain

1 white, 8 blacks, 9 total

£0 4s 6d

Thomas Cason, ensign

1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

John Alexander, ditto

1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

William Porteous, surgeon

1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

John French, gunner

1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

John Goodwin, writer

1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

Thomas Southern, sergeant

1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

Subtotals 10 whites, 30 blacks, 40 total, £1 0s 0d

Interpretations:

The church wardens' warrant gave James Draper and Francis Wrangham the council's formal authority to collect the church rate from each household on the island. The rate was 6d per head on all persons over sixteen years of age, whether white or black, with no distinction between the two for assessment purposes. Slaves of working age (over sixteen) were counted alongside free persons, with the head of household responsible for paying on behalf of all members. The mechanism converted the household into the unit of assessment, with the master paying for everyone in his establishment.

The mixed inclusion of whites and blacks in the same head count, with both categories paying the same rate, gave the church a relatively flat tax base. The arithmetic was straightforward: 6d for each adult member of the household regardless of status. The principle treated the slaves as members of the master's household for fiscal purposes, with the master paying the rate even though the slave themselves had no income or property to draw on. This is an interesting feature of the colony's ecclesiastical economy, in which the spiritual provision of the church was funded in part by a head tax on labour rather than purely on property or status.

The seizure clause armed the church wardens with executive authority equivalent to the council's own debt-enforcement powers. If any household head refused to pay the rate, the church wardens could seize and sell goods at public outcry, with surplus returned to the owner after costs. The mechanism mirrored the debt-collection process used by the Company against indebted planters, transferring proven institutional procedures to a parallel ecclesiastical purpose. The delegation of seizure authority indicates the church wardens were officers of the council's wider system of taxation and enforcement, not merely volunteer parish administrators.

The names list reveals the structure of the colony's senior establishment by household size. Joshua Tomlinson, the chaplain, headed the largest household at 8 slaves, larger than even Matthew Brazett (fourth in council) at 4 slaves. The chaplain's substantial slave household suggests he had been on the island long enough to accumulate significant property, or that his stipend supported a substantial domestic establishment as part of his office. John Alexander and Thomas Cason each kept 4 slaves, William Porteous and John French 2 each, John Goodwin 4 (probably also for his role as writer in the store), and Thomas Southern 2.

Speculations:

The collection of head money from precisely these listed officers (council members and senior establishment) but not yet from the wider planter population suggests this was the first part of the assessment. The list begins with Brazett as fourth in council and runs through chaplain, ensigns, surgeon, gunner, writer and sergeant, with each office-holder counted by household. The wider planter population, free inhabitants and other householders would presumably appear on subsequent pages of the warrant. The order of names reflects the seniority and visibility of office, with the most prominent figures listed first. By starting the assessment with the council and senior officers, the church wardens demonstrated public compliance from the top before turning to the wider community, a tactical sequence that established the legitimacy of the rate before its broader application.

The chaplain's 8 slaves and £0 4s 6d assessment is striking. As the spiritual head of the colony and the recipient of the rate the church wardens were collecting, Tomlinson contributed to the funding of his own office and that of his church. The arrangement preserved the principle that no household, including the chaplain's own, was exempt from the rate. The figure also gives a useful indicator of the chaplain's social and economic standing on the island: with 8 slaves and 1 white person (himself) in his household, Tomlinson commanded a domestic establishment larger than most council members, reflecting either accumulated personal property or the social weight of his office.

345

336

Persons Names

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought over 10 30 40 1: 0: 0

Jn[o]: Worrall Serj[t] 1 3 4 2: 0

W[m]: Slaughter d[o] 2 3 5 2: 6

Christopher Kells Gund[r]s M[t] 2 - 2 1: 0

Isaac Lash D[o] 1 1 2 1: 0

Sam: Gespey 1[d] Gund[r]: 1 3 4 2: 0

Isaac Wood Corp[ll] 1 5 6 3: 0

Sam Hollgate 1 - - 6

W[m] Worrall

2 2 1: 0

Lewis Latour

1 1 6

W[m] Cortley 1 - 1 6

Tho[s] Hays 1 - 1 6

Giles Hays 1 - 1 6

Jos[ph] Bates 1 - 1 6

Jeptha[k] Fowler 1 - 1 6

Ralph Orme 1 - 1 6

Renatus Snow 1 - 1 6

Rob[t] Angus 1 - 1 6

Tho[s]: Allis 4 - 4 2: 0

Arthur Bradley 2 - 2 1: 0

Jn[o]: Bagley 3 1 4 2: 0

Rob[t]: Bell 2 3 5 2: 6

W[m] Beale 2 1 3 1: 6

Tho[s] Burnham 1 - 1 6

Orlando Bagley 3 3 6 3: 0

Edmund Bodley 1 - 1 6

Geo[r]: Carne 4 14 18 9: 0

Jn[o]: Coulson 1 1 2 1: 0

Jn[o]: Coles 4 4 8 4: 0

Rich[d]: Cleve 2 1 8 4: 0

W[m] Coales 1 - 1 6

55 78 133 3: 6: 6

The list of persons assessed for the church rate continued.

Brought over

10 whites, 30 blacks, 40 total

£1 0s 0d

John Worrall, sergeant

1 white, 3 blacks, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

William Slaughter, ditto

2 whites, 3 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

Christopher Kelly, gunner's mate

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Isaac Pack, ditto

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Samuel Jessey, quarter gunner

1 white, 3 blacks, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

Isaac Wood, corporal

1 white, 5 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Samuel Algate

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

William Worrall

0 whites, 2 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Lewis Latour

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

William Cortley

0 whites, 1 black, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Thomas Hays

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Giles Hays

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Joseph Bates

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Jephthah Fowler

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Ralph Orme

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Renatus Snow

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Robert Angus

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Thomas Allis

4 whites, 0 blacks, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

Arthur Bradley

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

John Bagley

3 whites, 1 black, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

Robert Bell

2 whites, 3 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

William Beale

2 whites, 1 black, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

Thomas Burnham

0 whites, 1 black, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Orlando Bagley

3 whites, 3 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Edmund Bodley

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

George Carne

4 whites, 14 blacks, 18 total

£0 9s 0d

John Coulson

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

John Coles

4 whites, 4 blacks, 8 total

£0 4s 0d

Richard Cleeve

4 whites, 4 blacks, 8 total

£0 4s 0d

William Coales

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Subtotal carried 55 whites, 78 blacks, 133 total, £3 6s 6d

Interpretations:

The list continued the assessment with another thirty households, drawn from the working and free planter ranks of the colony. The pattern of household composition revealed great variation: from single-person households at the bottom of the scale to George Carne's establishment of 18 persons (4 whites and 14 blacks) at the top. The list as compiled provides one of the clearest single snapshots of the household structure of the colony's free population, with each household's combined white and black numbers measured to the same standard.

George Carne's 18-person household, with 14 slaves, stood out as the largest non-establishment household by a substantial margin. Set against Carne's continuing debt-clearance programme (29 slaves listed in his schedule of 7 December 1714 at £290 0s 0d, with Little George transferred at £15 0s 0d on 14 December 1714), the 14 slaves over sixteen years of age in his present household represented those of working age remaining after the substantial transfers to the Company. The figure may also exclude slaves under 16, infants or those held on outlying plantations not directly part of his domestic establishment.

Richard Cleeve's household at 8 persons (4 whites, 4 blacks) is notable given his recent decision to leave the island, recorded on 7 December 1714 when he left the Company's work to finish his own house in preparation for selling all he had on the island. The presence of a substantial 4-white-person household and 4 slaves indicates Cleeve had been preparing not only himself but a whole family for departure. The assessment of £0 4s 0d on his household for the year 1714 would have been pressed for collection before he sailed.

The widespread presence of single-white-person households (Algate, Latour, Hays, Bates, Fowler, Orme, Snow, Angus, William Coales, Edmund Bodley) shows that a substantial portion of the free population was bachelor or singly-resident, holding no slaves and assessed only on themselves. These were typically younger men, soldiers in private service or junior craftsmen, working their way up through the colonial economy without yet having acquired family or slave property. At 6d apiece, their assessment was the minimum charge under the rate. William Cortley's appearance as 0 whites and 1 black, total 1, is unusual: a slave assessed alone with no associated white master named, perhaps indicating a slave held in trust by an absent or recently departed master.

Speculations:

The 1 black slave only at Thomas Burnham's name (0 whites, 1 black, 1 total) marks Burnham as a free planter who managed his own work without family but with a single slave assistant. Burnham had been credited with £17 11s 0d on 13 October 1713 for fencing at the Hutts plantation, and £43 15s 1½d in Company debt was noted in the consultation of 21 December 1714 when his Norman debt-transfer brought his obligation to £56 0s 0d. The single slave economy now visible in the church rate confirms Burnham as a one-slave-operation planter, with his fencing labour and other tasks supported by that single black assistant. The picture of his working economy emerges more clearly from this institutional cross-reference than from any single transaction.

The substantial slave-to-white ratios in some households (Carne's 14:4, Cleeve's 4:4, Wood's 5:1, Tomlinson's 8:1 on the previous page) indicates that the slave population concentrated in larger establishments, while the smaller householders held none. The church rate's flat 6d per head produces a tax distribution that fell heavier on the slave-owning planter than on the bachelor, but proportionally lighter on the slave-owner per slave than on the bachelor per self. The rate's design favoured the substantial slaveholder by treating each slave as no more taxable than each free person, despite the master's much larger productive capacity from those slaves.

346

337

Persons Names

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought over 55 78 133 3: 6: 6

Grace Coulson 1 5 6 3: 0

Mary Conway 1 1 2 1: 0

Cottgraves Orphan 1 1 2 1: 0

Jonathan Doveton 2 6 8 4: 0

James Draper 2 2 4 2: 0

Mary Easthope 1 1 2 1: 0

Tho[s]: Free 2 8 10 5: 0

Henry Francis 3 8 11 5: 6

Jn[o]: Flarcus 1 - 1 6

Rich[d] Gurling 2 5 7 3: 6

Rob[t]: Gurling 2 1 3 1: 6

James Greentree 3 4 7 3: 6

Jn[o]: Gibbs 1 0 1 6

Merty Gargain 2 5 7 3: 6

Thomas Harper 2 1 3 1: 6

John Harding & his Or[p] Rich[d] 2 - 2 1: -

John Hoskison 1 - 1 6

Jon[a] Higham 1 1 2 1: -

David Hirie 1 - 1 6

Dorothy Hays 1 1 2 1: -

Mary Harper 1 - 1 6

Isabel Hays 1 1 2 1: 6

Sutton Isacke Sen[r] 2 3 5 2: 6

Sutton Isacke Jun[d] 1 2 3 1: 6

Joshua Johnson 2 9 11 5: 6

Jn[o]: Knipe 2 2 4 2: -

John Long 2 3 5 2: 6

Francis Leech 1 - 1 6

100 147 247 6: 3: 6

The list of persons assessed for the church rate continued.

Brought over

55 whites, 78 blacks, 133 total

£3 6s 6d

Grace Coulson

1 white, 5 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Mary Conway

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Cottgrave's orphan

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Jonathan Doveton

2 whites, 6 blacks, 8 total

£0 4s 0d

James Draper

2 whites, 2 blacks, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

Mary Easthope

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Thomas Free

2 whites, 8 blacks, 10 total

£0 5s 0d

Henry Francis

3 whites, 8 blacks, 11 total

£0 5s 6d

John Flavus

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Richard Gurling

2 whites, 5 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

Robert Gurling

2 whites, 1 black, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

James Greentree

3 whites, 4 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

John Gibbs

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Mercy Gargain

2 whites, 5 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

Thomas Harper

2 whites, 1 black, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

John Harding and his brother Richard

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

John Hoskison

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Jonathan Higham

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

David Hine

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Dorothy Hays

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Mary Harper

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Isabel Hays

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Sutton Isacke senior

2 whites, 3 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

Sutton Isacke junior

1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

Joshua Johnson

2 whites, 9 blacks, 11 total

£0 5s 6d

John Knipe

2 whites, 2 blacks, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

John Long

2 whites, 3 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

Francis Leech

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Subtotal carried 100 whites, 147 blacks, 247 total, £6 3s 6d

Interpretations:

The widening list now drew in the larger free planter and freeholder community of the colony, with widows, surviving family members and orphan-administered holdings appearing alongside male householders. The Cottgrave's orphan entry at 1 white and 1 black represented an inherited household held in trust for a minor, with the church rate assessed on the working-age members regardless of the minor's legal status. The administrator (probably the executor or guardian) bore the rate from the orphan estate funds.

Several widows and women heads of household appeared in this section: Mary Conway, Mary Easthope, Mercy Gargain, Dorothy Hays, Mary Harper, Isabel Hays. Their listing in their own right rather than under deceased husbands' names indicates the church wardens treated each as an independent household for assessment purposes. Mercy Gargain's household of 7 (2 whites, 5 blacks) suggests a substantial widow's estate, perhaps continuing the working agricultural establishment of her late husband. Grace Coulson's household of 6 (1 white, 5 blacks) places her among the larger slave-holding widows of the colony. These female-headed households would have managed their slaves through overseers or trusted male associates, with the women themselves directing the establishment's economic affairs.

Joshua Johnson's 11-person household (2 whites, 9 blacks) is among the largest in this section, equalling Henry Francis's 11. Both represent substantial planter holdings with extensive slave labour. Thomas Free's 10-person household (2 whites, 8 blacks) places him also in the top tier of free planters. These men, with 8 to 9 slaves each, ran the colony's major agricultural enterprises alongside George Carne's larger establishment. The concentration of slaves in a handful of substantial planter households, with the rest of the population holding none or only one or two slaves, gives a clear picture of the colony's stratified labour economy.

The running subtotal of 247 persons (100 whites and 147 blacks) at £6 3s 6d represents an interim assessment of the colony's principal householders. The 1.47:1 ratio of black to white among the assessed working-age population gives a useful measure of the slave-to-free ratio in the colony's household economy, though it omits children under 16 of both races, who were exempt from the head money.

Speculations:

The presence of "John Harding and his brother Richard" as a joint household of 2 whites is unusual in the list structure, where each household appears under a single head's name. The pairing suggests the brothers shared a household and farming partnership, with their joint assessment of £0 1s 0d representing two adult members. The arrangement probably reflects either a sibling partnership operating a small holding without slaves, or a transitional situation in which one brother had recently arrived to join the other's establishment. The Slaughter-Harding settlement noted as reopened on 3 November 1714 when Harding complained of Slaughter's threat to turn him out indicates John Harding had been a tenant under Slaughter, and the joint reference to his brother Richard suggests Richard had recently joined him in the colony.

The total to be raised at this point, £6 3s 6d, indicates a substantial ecclesiastical revenue stream for the year 1714. With the assessment list still continuing on further pages, the total annual church revenue at 6d per head over sixteen would likely have reached approximately £10 0s 0d to £15 0s 0d when complete, covering the chaplain's stipend and other church running costs. The mechanism gave the church a steady predictable revenue based on the working population rather than the church's own land or endowment, with the seizure provisions ensuring collection.

347

338

Persons names Viz[t]

Whites Blacks Totall £ s d

Brought over 100 147 247 6: 3: 6

Steph[en] [...]uffin 1 1 2 1: -

Walter Morris 1 1 2 1: -

Jn[o]: Marsh 1 - 1 6

Rob[t]: Marsh 3 4 7 3: 6

Jane Mudge 1 1 2 1: -

Jn[o]: Nichols 5 3 8 4: -

Martin Norman 1 - 1 6

Jn[o]: Orchard 2 - 2 1: -

Gab[l]: Powell 3 10 13 6: 6

Sam[ll] Price 1 - 1 6: 0

Jn[o]: Robinson 4 3 7 3: 6

James Reder 1 1 2 1: -

Giles Smith 2 - 2 1: -

Will[m] Seal 2 2 4 2: -

Tho[s]: Swallow 4 3 7 3: 6

Rich[d]: Swallow 6 7 13 6: 6

Jn[o]: Sinsnick 2 - 2 1: -

Peter Sinsnick 1 - 1 6

Marg[t]: Sick 1 5 6 3: -

Eliz[a] Steward 1 5 6 3: -

Susanna Swallow 1 - 1 6

Godfrey Skoales 1 - 1 6

Jn[o]: Twaites 1 2 3 1: 6

James Vesey 3 2 5 2: 6

Pipin Wills 2 4 6 3: -

Franc[s]: Wrangham 2 4 6 3: -

Simon Whaley 3 1 4 2: -

Wrangham Orphants 1 1 2 1: -

Bridgett Welch 1 - 1 6

Totall 158 206 364 9: 2: 0

The list of persons assessed for the church rate continued.

Brought over

100 whites, 147 blacks, 247 total

£6 3s 6d

Stephen Luffkin

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Walter Morris

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

John Marsh

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Robert Marsh

3 whites, 4 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

Jane Mudge

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

John Nichols

5 whites, 3 blacks, 8 total

£0 4s 0d

Martin Norman

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

John Orchard

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Gabriel Powell

3 whites, 10 blacks, 13 total

£0 6s 6d

Samuel Price

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

John Robinson

4 whites, 3 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

James Reder

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Giles Smith

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

William Teal

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Thomas Swallow

4 whites, 3 blacks, 7 total

£0 3s 6d

Richard Swallow

6 whites, 7 blacks, 13 total

£0 6s 6d

John Sinsnick

2 whites, 0 blacks, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Peter Sinsnick

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Margaret Sich

1 white, 5 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Elizabeth Steward

1 white, 5 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Susanna Swallow

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Godfrey Shoales

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

John Twaits

1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

£0 1s 6d

James Vesey

3 whites, 2 blacks, 5 total

£0 2s 6d

Pipin Wills

2 whites, 4 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Francis Wrangham

2 whites, 4 blacks, 6 total

£0 3s 0d

Simon Whaley

3 whites, 1 black, 4 total

£0 2s 0d

Wrangham's orphans

1 white, 1 black, 2 total

£0 1s 0d

Bridget's Welch

1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total

£0 0s 6d

Total 158 whites, 206 blacks, 364 total, £9 2s 0d

Interpretations:

The assessment list closed with a further twenty-nine households, bringing the colony's total assessed population to 364 persons over the age of sixteen (158 whites and 206 blacks) yielding £9 2s 0d in church rate for the year 1714. The figure provides one of the clearest single demographic snapshots of the colony, with each household enumerated by master and slave for fiscal purposes. The 1.30:1 ratio of black to white among the assessed working-age population indicates a colony in which slave labour formed a substantial majority of the adult population, though balanced more evenly than the heavy plantation colonies of the Caribbean.

Richard Swallow's 13-person household (6 whites and 7 blacks) and Gabriel Powell's 13-person household (3 whites and 10 blacks) place these two among the substantial slave-holding planters alongside George Carne (18 persons). Together with Joshua Johnson (11), Henry Francis (11), Thomas Free (10) and others over 7 persons, the colony's larger planter class numbered perhaps twelve to fifteen households. Below this top tier, the middle band of householders with three to six persons made up the bulk of the planter community, with the smallest households of one or two persons forming the lowest tier of the free population.

The recurrence of "orphans" entries (Cottgrave's orphan, Wrangham's orphans) reflects the colony's institutional handling of bereaved minor households. The orphan estate continued to pay the church rate from its administered funds, with the church wardens treating the children's household as a fiscal unit even though the legal head was a guardian or trustee. The mechanism preserved the head money base against the disruption of family deaths, ensuring continuing revenue even where parental households had broken up.

The two entries Elizabeth Steward (1 white, 5 blacks, 6 total) and Susanna Swallow (1 white, 0 blacks, 1 total) showed the position of widows of recently deceased planters. Elizabeth Steward, widow of Charles Steward (whose estate had been the subject of the unauthorised outcry by Richard Gurling, prevented by the council's prohibition of 4 January 1714/15), now held the late husband's slaves under the probate granted to Powill and Gurling on 11 January 1714/15. The assessment of her household at £0 3s 0d for the year 1714 would presumably have to be paid from the estate before final distribution to the family.

Speculations:

The closing total of £9 2s 0d for the year's church rate provides a meaningful benchmark for the colony's ecclesiastical finances. Set against the chaplain Joshua Tomlinson's institutional position (with a household of 9 persons, the largest single establishment after George Carne's), the rate may not have covered his full stipend by itself, but supplemented Company payments to him with the contribution of the inhabitants. The mechanism gave the chaplain a substantial stake in the population's continuing growth, with each new adult adding 6d to the annual income of his office through the head money.

The pairing of Bridget's Welch as a single white person (1 white, 0 blacks) is unusual in its naming convention. "Bridget's Welch" probably refers to John Welch's wife Bridget, assessed separately as a head of household perhaps because of a separation or because Welch himself was absent from the island. The recurrent listing of woman heads of household (Mary Conway, Mary Easthope, Dorothy Hays, Mary Harper, Isabel Hays, Mercy Gargain, Grace Coulson, Margaret Sich, Elizabeth Steward, Susanna Swallow, Jane Mudge, Bridget Welch) shows a substantial proportion of female-headed households in the colony, reflecting either widows continuing late husbands' estates or wives managing while their husbands sailed elsewhere. The colony's economy depended substantially on women's domestic and managerial labour, with the church rate treating these women as legitimate heads of fiscal units.

348

339

Island S[t]. Helena

At a Consultation held on Satturday the 29: of January 1714[..]/[..] at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r]. Geo: Haswell Dep[ty] Edw[d]. Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th]. in Council

Prest

There being a French Ship Just arriv[d] in the Road which appears to us to be a great Ship but we know not her Name nor from whence She came Resolved that none of the French people be admitted to goe into the Country. The Gov[r]: saith he is of Opinion y[t] Because of y[e] great dearth whereby so many cattle were lost upon the Island & we are doubtfull whether we shall have Beef enough to supply all the Hon[ble]. Comp[as] Ships that are Expected here this Summer that therefore he thinks it not for the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Interest to permitt this French Ship to buy any Fresh Beef here but because we are at present at Peace w[th] the Crown of France we will supply their necessitys in such a manner as shall be for our Nations & y[e] Companys Honor to lett them have such, tho we cant well spare it the priviledge of Sending their cask ashore & filling what water they please, & any reasonable quantity of Hoggs, Poultney, or Goats together w[th] such Naval Stores as they shall stand in need of, but no further Upon notice y[e] following Advertizement was published vizt:

It

Margin Notes:

French Ship arriv'd

Non of her people to go into y[e] Country

Nor to Supply them w[th] any fresh Beef

But

with all other Sort of Provissi[on]

Navale

Stores &c[a]

St Helena. At a consultation held on Saturday 29 January 1714/15 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present: Isaac Pyke, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; Antipas Tovey, fifth in council.

A French ship had just arrived in the road, which appeared to be a great ship, but the council knew neither her name nor her place of origin.

The council resolved that none of the French people be admitted to come into the country. The Governor stated his opinion that, on account of the great dearth by which so many cattle had been lost upon the island, and the doubt whether there would be beef enough to supply all the Honourable Company's ships expected that summer, it was not for the Honourable Company's interest to permit this French ship to buy any fresh beef. However, because the nations were at present at peace with the Crown of France, the council would supply their necessities in such a manner as should be for the nation's and the Company's honour. They would let the French have the privilege of sending their casks ashore and filling what water they pleased, and any reasonable quantity of hogs, poultry or goats, together with such naval stores as they stood in need of, but no further.

Upon this, the following advertisement was published, namely.

Interpretations:

The Saturday consultation, called on a non-standard day, indicates the urgency of the council's response to the arrival of an unidentified French ship. With full council attendance, the matter was treated as serious enough to demand immediate collective decision rather than awaiting the next regular Tuesday sitting. The phrasing "we know not her name nor from whence she came" reveals the working uncertainty of the colonial council confronted with an unrecognised foreign vessel of substantial size, where prudent diplomatic and security responses had to be calibrated to limited information.

The triple test the council applied to the situation balanced commercial interest, diplomatic propriety and the colony's own scarcity. Cattle scarcity (with over 2,500 head lost as the council had reported to Captain Lihorne on 16 January 1714/15) ruled out the supply of fresh beef. The state of peace between Britain and France (the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 having ended the War of the Spanish Succession) ruled out outright refusal of help. The colony's working interest in maintaining good repute with all visiting nations required some level of assistance to be extended. The middle position the council adopted, supplying water, hogs, poultry, goats and naval stores but no fresh beef and no shore visit by the French crew, threaded these competing considerations precisely.

The exclusion of the French crew from the country, while granting them resupply, served security as much as health concerns. Allowing a substantial foreign warship's crew unrestricted access to the island would have allowed reconnaissance of the colony's defences, its weak points, its plantation layout and its population distribution. By keeping the French at the beach, with goods delivered to them at the casks, the council preserved operational security against possible future French naval interest in St Helena as a strategic Atlantic position. The fresh-water privilege at the casks was the minimum necessary courtesy under maritime custom, while permitting no broader interaction.

The reference to "naval stores" gave the French access to materials needed for ship maintenance and repair: tar, pitch, cordage, canvas, spare rigging and similar items. The Company's stores at the Castle held these materials for the support of its own ships and could be sold to the French at suitable prices. The provision of naval stores to a passing foreign warship at fair commercial terms was a standard practice among the European maritime powers in time of peace, allowing the visiting ship to continue its voyage without forcing it into hostile or distant harbours.

Speculations:

The French ship's appearance in St Helena waters in late January 1714/15 was probably a homeward-bound East Indiaman of the Compagnie des Indes Orientales, following the standard route from the Indian Ocean trading stations back to a French port (Lorient, Saint-Malo or Le Havre). The Compagnie's ships routinely called at St Helena, the Cape, or one of the South Atlantic islands for resupply on the long Atlantic leg. The absence of a recognised name suggests the ship was unfamiliar to the council, perhaps newly commissioned or making her first homeward voyage. The substantial size noted by the council places her among the larger Indiamen of the period, with a crew that would have numbered between 100 and 200 men depending on her armament and complement.

The council's middle-position response was probably designed to be reportable favourably to both the Honourable Masters in London and the French captain. By denying the most valuable commodity (fresh beef) on documented grounds of local scarcity, the council preserved the Company's economic interest. By granting water, livestock and naval stores at commercial rates, the council demonstrated neighbourly conduct that the French captain could report favourably to his own directors and to the French court. The combination would minimise diplomatic friction while protecting the colony's commercial position. Pyke's careful framing of the resolution as being "for our nations and the Company's honour" indicated his sensitivity to the double audience for any decision concerning a foreign warship.

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340

Island S[t]: Helena

By the Worship[full] y[e] Gov[d] & Council

An Advertizement

Whereas Beef is at this time very Scarce by reason of y[e] great Dearth whereby so many Cattle where lost upon y[e] Island & y[t] we have not Sufficient to Supply the Hon[ble] Companys Shipping. The Worsh[ll]: y[e] Gov[d]. & Council doe hereby Strictly Command & forbid all persons not to sell or dispose of any Beef to any Foreigne Ship whatsoever untill such time there is a greater stock of Cattle upon the Island at any Price but they may sell & dispose of any other fresh provisions for y[e] reliefe of such people who are to come on Shoare. Likewise who ever shall find any foreigners patroleing or Straggling into y[e] Country they are to look upon them as Spyes & apprehend them as such & bring them before the Govern[r]. & Council. Signed by Order of Gov[d] & Council. United Castle James Valley 29: Jan[r]. 1714/5

Antipas Tovey Sec[ry]

Margin Notes:

Beef forbid to be Sold till a great Stock. but

may any other Sort of fresh provi[s]

If any foreigners in y[e] Country to[..] be bro[t] down to y[e] Gov[r] &c

United Castle James Valley 29: Jan[r]. 1714/5

St Helena. By the Worshipful the Governor and council. An advertisement.

The advertisement set out that beef was at present very scarce on the island, by reason of the great dearth by which so many cattle had been lost, and that there was not sufficient to supply the Honourable Company's shipping.

The Governor and council strictly commanded and forbade all persons to sell or dispose of any beef to any foreign ship whatsoever, at any price, until such time as there was a greater stock of cattle upon the island. However, the inhabitants were free to sell and dispose of any other fresh provisions for the relief of such people as came on shore.

Anyone who found foreigners patrolling or straggling into the country was to look upon them as spies, apprehend them and bring them before the Governor and council.

Signed by order of the Governor and council, at the United Castle, James Valley, 29 January 1714/15. Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

Interpretations:

The advertisement converted the council's resolution from a private decision into a public order binding on all inhabitants. The prohibition was absolute: no beef was to be sold to any foreign ship at any price, regardless of the planter's individual willingness to deal. By framing the order as a public command at beat of drum, the council foreclosed any private negotiations between French sailors and planters who might have welcomed a foreign buyer at premium prices during the cattle scarcity. The mechanism transferred the commercial discipline of the council's earlier letter to Captain Lihorne (16 January 1714/15) from a single contractual response to a general public rule.

The phrase "at any price" recognised the council's awareness that French sailors might offer prices well above the local 40s per hundredweight rate that the planters could not resist. The temptation for an indebted planter to convert a few head of cattle into substantial French silver, regardless of council policy, was real. The "at any price" exclusion made the prohibition absolute, preventing any planter from claiming that an exceptional offer justified an exception to the rule. The enforcement mechanism, though not specified in this advertisement, would have run through the same procedures as other beat-of-drum prohibitions, with severe penalties for breach.

The carve-out for "any other fresh provisions" allowed the planters and inhabitants to sell hogs, poultry, goats, vegetables and other commodities to the visiting French. This preserved the commercial opportunity from the French visit while restricting only the politically sensitive item. The advertisement's structure, prohibition followed by limited permission, ensured that the French ship would not depart entirely empty-handed, but would carry away nothing that the Company itself needed for its own ships.

The spy clause introduced an unusual element of public-security policing. By directing the inhabitants to treat French personnel found outside the immediate beach area as spies, with authority to apprehend them and bring them before the council, the order extended the no-shore-visit policy of the consultation into an active enforcement regime. The colony's inhabitants became the colony's own security force, with every planter empowered to detain unauthorised French personnel. The provision reflects the council's concern that, despite the formal prohibition on shore visits, individual French sailors might wander inland on their own initiative, seeking water, food or trading partners. The advertisement gave the inhabitants explicit authority to bring such persons in.

Speculations:

The publication of the advertisement at beat of drum across James Valley on 29 January 1714/15 would have been an unusual public event in the colony's recent calendar. With the regular sittings deferred to a week after the Aurengzebe sailed (the Aurengzebe having been in the road through the latter part of January), the planter population had not been gathered as a body recently. The drumbeat for the foreign ship advertisement would have served both to inform the inhabitants of the policy and to signal the council's strict response to a potentially significant security event. The very fact of a foreign warship being prominently visible in the road would have generated speculation across the colony, with the formal advertisement providing the council's authoritative position.

The spy provision drew on a distinct British conception of the inhabitants' civic responsibility, dating back to the militia laws and the security regulations of earlier wars. By empowering every householder to apprehend suspected spies, the council activated a latent function of the inhabitant body that had not been called on in recent years. The active enforcement role complemented the church wardens' tax-collection authority issued just eleven days earlier, with the inhabitants now serving simultaneously as taxpayers, militiamen and security agents. The colonial state, in its St Helena form, treated the inhabitant population as an active arm of governance rather than as a purely civilian community.

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341

A Complaint was made to y[e]: Gov[d] that there was a contrivance & agreement made by one Lucas Mason & W[m] Bever to Steal away a female Negro Slave Called Abigael from the Widdow Grace Coulson the Govern[d] Examined into the matter & found the said Mason & Bever had talked w[th] y[e] Wench & asked her to goe off in y[e] Ship Aurengzeeb in Order to be Conveighed by the said Bever to England whereupon the Govern[d] Ordered Lucas Mason who belonged to the Fort to be severely whipped as y[e] Flagg Staffe & then at the request of the Widdow Coulson who desired all those concerned in that Fact might be punnished W[m] Bever a Midshipman in board y[e] Ship on his Examo: owning that he did Intend to a carryed the said Slave Wench home to his mother the Gov[r]. because he was sayed to be of a Good Family in England committed him to the Prison by the Consent of his Cap[and] & the Black Wench was alsoe Publickly whipt and then on the Petition of the Widdow Coulson w[ch] was as follows.

Island S[t] Helena

To the Worsh[ll]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Govern[r]. &c. and Council.

The most Humble Petition of Grace Coulson of the said Island Widdow Humbly. Sheweth, That forasmuch as one William Bever belonging to the Ship Aurengzeeb Cap[tn] Nicholas Luhorn Comander now in the road haveing contrived to Steal away one of y[o]: Petition[rs] female Slaves Called Abigail whom he privately seduced to goe on board in the Night time, to be Concealed on board said Ship on Purpose to Debauch and Sattisfie his Lust during the Voyage. All which your Petition[r]. can fully prove against the

Margin Notes:

Compl[t] made of a Contrivance to Steal away a big[r] [bla]ck Wench of W[m] Coulson[s].

Luc[a] Mason Punnished &

W[m]: Bevers put into prison

y[e] Wench whipt

Island S[t]. Helena

W[r]. Coulsons Peti[tion] S[t] [w]hion ag[t]: W[m]. Bever.

A complaint was made to the Governor that there was a contrivance and agreement made by one Lucas Mason and William Bever to steal away a female negro slave called Abigail from the widow Grace Coulson. The Governor examined into the matter and found that Mason and Bever had talked to the wench and asked her to go off in the ship Aurengzebe in order to be conveighed by Bever to England. The Governor thereupon ordered Lucas Mason, who belonged to the Fort, to be severely whipped at the flagstaff. Then at the request of the widow Coulson, who desired all those concerned in the fact might be punished, William Bever, a midshipman on board the ship, on his examination owned that he did intend to have carried the slave wench home to his mother. The Governor, because Bever was said to be of a good family in England, committed him to the prison by the consent of his captain. The black wench was also publicly whipped. Then, on the petition of the widow Coulson, which was as followeth.

St Helena. To the Worshipful Isaac Pyke, Governor, and council. The most humble petition of Grace Coulson of the island, widow. She humbly set out that, forasmuch as one William Bever, belonging to the ship Aurengzebe under Captain Nicholas Luhorne, commander, now in the road, had contrived to steal away one of her female slaves called Abigail, whom he privately seduced to go on board the ship in the night-time to be concealed on suppose to debauch and satisfy his lust during the voyage. She could fully prove against...

Interpretations:

The Abigail incident reveals a multi-layered case of attempted enticement, with social-class distinctions running through the council's response. Lucas Mason, a soldier of the Fort, received immediate and severe punishment by whipping at the flagstaff, the standard public penalty for soldier misconduct. William Bever, the midshipman from the Aurengzebe, received imprisonment rather than corporal punishment because he was "said to be of a good family in England". The class differentiation operated openly in the council's hand: the same offence drew the lash for the working soldier and the prison for the well-born midshipman, with corporal punishment reserved for the lower ranks even where the offence was identical.

Bever's commitment to prison required the consent of his captain (Lihorne of the Aurengzebe), reflecting the formal jurisdiction over ship's officers. Even on shore at St Helena, a midshipman remained under his captain's authority, and the colonial council could not detain him without the captain's agreement. The captain's consent in this case probably reflected his own embarrassment at the incident and a desire to see Bever properly disciplined without escalating to capital prosecution. The colony's prison detention, with the captain's consent, allowed both jurisdictions to address the matter without conflict.

The third punishment, the public whipping of Abigail herself, treated the slave as both victim and offender. The widow Coulson's petition that "all those concerned in the fact might be punished" included her own slave alongside the male instigators. The legal logic treats Abigail as having agreed to leave with Bever despite knowing this would constitute theft of her mistress's property. The whipping served both as personal punishment to Abigail and as public warning to other slaves who might consider similar elopement schemes with sympathetic European visitors.

The Coulson petition followed standard petition form, naming the petitioner, describing the harm and requesting council action. The phrase "privately seduced to go on board the ship in the night-time to be concealed on suppose to debauch and satisfy his lust during the voyage" stated the petitioner's interpretation of Bever's motive. The frank language of the petition, treating the slave woman as object of intended sexual exploitation, was direct in a way the consultation's own narrative had only implied. The widow framed her complaint as one of property damage (her slave Abigail being the property at issue) compounded by sexual purpose, marking the offence as particularly egregious by combining theft with moral outrage.

Speculations:

The widow Grace Coulson's substantial response (5 slaves on the church rate of 1714, totalling 6 persons in her household) gave her standing as a substantial slave-holder of the colony. Her firm demand for full punishment of all parties, including her own slave, served as warning to her remaining four slaves against any thought of following Abigail's example. The widow's investment in the labour of her household, with Abigail probably one of her most working-age and able slaves, made the threatened loss serious in economic as well as principle terms. Her petition reads not as the lament of a wronged owner but as a deliberate intervention to set a public example.

The midshipman Bever's representation of his motive (to take Abigail home to his mother) was a transparently false defence. A midshipman's mother in England would have neither use nor desire for a slave from St Helena, and the practical difficulties of presenting an enslaved African woman as a gift to a respectable English household were substantial. Bever's own admission "on his examination" confirmed his intent to carry Abigail, but his mother-as-recipient story was self-evidently an attempt to deflect from the sexual motive that the widow Coulson's petition stated more directly. The council clearly preferred the widow's interpretation, since it acted on the assumption that Abigail's exploitation would have followed her concealment on board ship.

351

342

the said Bever and therefore She humbly prays Your Worship: & Councill to take the Premises into your wise & mature Considerations and to Grant Justice against y[e] said William Bever Suitable to his wicked and Villanous designe and such as may Deter others from Acting the same or such Like Offences which has a very Great Tendancy to y[e] Utter Ruine and Destruction of this Island for that the Loss of a Slave here is of much Greater consequence than in many other places.

And y[o]. Petition[r]. (as in Duty bound) shall for Ever Pray &c[a]. her Grace G Coulson Mark

The Govern[r] sent y[e] said Bever Notice that on y[e] Monday following he would hold a Court to Trye him for the said Fact & ordered him if he were not Guilty to prepare for his Defence against that time. Then on Monday y[e]: 31[st] of Jan[ry] y[e] Court was Opened & W[m] Bever Called to the Barr & told if he had any Objection to make against any of y[e] Jury they should not be of his Jury he said only desired that M[r]. George Thomas Carpenter of y[e] Ship might be one & that t'was equal to him who the rest of y[e] Jury were and tho' his request was not very reasonable. M[r]. George Thomas was Called & Empannelled on y[e] Jury & y[e] Jury were Ordered to be three of the Cheif Officers of y[e] Ship & George Thomas and Four Serjants of y[e] Garrison and four Planters as follows,

Margin Notes:

Court appointed.

The 31 Jan[ry] 1714[..]

Offic[r] desired to be y[e] Jury by W[m] Bever

Granted.

The widow Coulson's petition continued. She prayed the council take the matter into wise and mature consideration, and grant justice against William Bever suitable to his wicked and villainous design, and such as might deter others from acting the same or such like offences. These had a very great tendency to the utter ruin and destruction of the island, for the loss of a slave on the island was of much greater consequence than in many other places. Signed by her mark, Grace Coulson.

The Governor sent Bever notice that on Monday following he would hold a court to try him for the fact, and ordered him, if he were not guilty, to prepare for his defence against that time.

On Monday 31 January 1714/15 the court was opened. William Bever was called to the bar and told that, if he had any objection to make against any of the jury, they should not be of his jury. He said he only desired that Mr George Thomas, carpenter of the ship, might be one, and that it was equal to him who the rest of the jury were. Although his request was not very reasonable, Mr George Thomas was called and empanelled on the jury. The jury were ordered to be three of the chief officers of the ship, George Thomas and four sergeants of the garrison and four planters, as follows.

Interpretations:

The widow Coulson's plea, that "the loss of a slave on the island was of much greater consequence than in many other places", set out the strategic position of slave property in the small St Helena economy. With perhaps 200 to 250 slaves on the island according to the church rate's 206 black persons over sixteen, each slave represented a much larger fraction of the colony's labour force than would be the case in the larger plantation societies of the West Indies or America. The loss of even one slave through enticement or escape weakened a particular planter's labour force significantly, and might encourage similar departures by other slaves. The widow's argument is one of public security as well as private property right, framing slave retention as a colony-wide concern.

The Governor's procedural response, granting Bever a Monday court with proper trial procedure rather than dispatching the matter summarily, reflects the gravity of the charge against a midshipman from a substantial English family. By holding a formal court with mixed jury, the council ensured Bever's punishment would carry the legitimacy of due process rather than appearing as arbitrary colonial discipline. The procedural respect accorded to Bever, denied to Lucas Mason who had been whipped on the Governor's order without trial, again revealed the class distinctions running through the proceedings.

The jury composition is highly unusual in its mixed structure. Three chief officers of the ship, plus George Thomas the ship's carpenter, plus four garrison sergeants, plus four planters, gave a twelve-man jury divided across three distinct constituencies. The ship's officers (4) brought maritime expertise and could speak to Bever's standing on board. The garrison sergeants (4) represented the military establishment that had punished Mason. The planters (4) represented the colonial property-holders whose slave interests were at stake. The balanced composition reflected Pyke's attention to procedural fairness, ensuring no single constituency could dominate the verdict.

Bever's choice of George Thomas, the carpenter of the Aurengzebe, as the only named juror suggests he expected sympathetic understanding from a fellow shipmate. The council's permission of the request, "though his request was not very reasonable", was a procedural courtesy allowing Bever to feel he had some say in the composition of his jury without yielding overall control. The remaining eleven jurors were chosen by the council without reference to Bever's preferences.

Speculations:

The widow Coulson's signature "by her mark" indicates she was illiterate or at least unable to write. As a woman heading a substantial slave-holding household, with five slaves and a sixth white member listed in the church rate, she nonetheless represents the substantial planter class. The literacy gap between her status as estate holder and her inability to sign her own petition reflects the gendered education patterns of the period, where even women of property and social standing might lack formal writing skills while managing complex household and agricultural enterprises.

The choice of a Monday court date placed the trial at the start of a working week, ensuring time for the Aurengzebe to complete cargo work and other business while the court proceeded. The Saturday consultation that opened the foreign ship advertisement, the immediate punishment of Lucas Mason and confinement of Bever, and now the Monday trial, together compressed the response into less than three full days. The pace of the proceedings reflected both the urgent presence of the Aurengzebe in the road (since the ship would presumably sail soon after the matter was resolved) and the colony's resolve to address the threat to slave property before the unfamiliar foreign ship's presence might prompt similar approaches to other slaves. By dispatching the case in three days, the council made the message clear before the Aurengzebe departed.

352

343

Island S[t]: Helena

At a Court of Judicature held on Monday the 31[st]. day of Jan[ry]. 1714/5 at the Sessions House near the United Castle in James valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r]. & Judge George Haswell Dep[t]y Gov[d]. Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matthew Bazett 4[th]. & Antipas Tovey 5[th]. in Council

Prest

Then the Court was opened according to the usuall manner and those Persons appointed for Jurors are as followeth.

Cheif Mate of y[e]. Aurengzeb Geo: Westcott foreman 1

Second M[a]: Rich[d]: Thelwall 2

Third M[t]: Jn[o]. Manlove 3

Carpenter of y[e]. Ship George Thomas 4

Tho[s]: Southern 5

Serjants Jn[o]: Worrall 6

W[m] Slaughter 7

Tho[s] Fairfax 8

Orlando Bagley 9

Planters James Greentree 10

Jn[o] Coles 11

Henry Francis 12

Then he was Indicted for that he the Said William Bevar of the Ship Aurengzebe Marriner had Contrary to his Duty to the Honor[ble] East India Company of England and the trust they had Reposed in him then Servant, had taken

Margin Notes:

Indict[m][nt].

Island of St Helena.

A court of judicature was held on Monday 24 January 1715 at the sessions house near the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor and judge; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The court was opened in the usual way. Those appointed to serve as jurors were as follows.

Chief mate of the Aurengzebe, George Westcott, foreman, 1.

Second mate, Richard Thelwall, 2.

Third mate, John Manlove, 3.

Carpenter of the ship, George Thomas, 4.

Serjeants:

Thomas Southen, 5.

John Worrall, 6.

William Haughter, 7.

Thomas Fairfax, 8.

Planters:

Orlando Bagley, 9.

James Greentree, 10.

John Coles, 11.

Henry Francis, 12.

An indictment was then read against William Bevar, mariner of the ship Aurengzebe, charging that he had betrayed the trust placed in him as servant to the Honourable East India Company of England, and had taken

Interpretations

The court of judicature sat at the sessions house adjoining the United Castle in James Valley, with the governor presiding as judge and the senior councillors ranked by precedence as Pyke, Haswell, Mashborne, Bazett and Tovey. This was the standard configuration of the island's higher criminal jurisdiction, in which the executive council reconstituted itself as a bench, blending administrative and judicial authority in a single body of five men.

The composition of the jury reflected the social and occupational hierarchy of the island and the ship in port. The four senior officers of the Aurengzebe were placed at the head of the panel, ranked chief mate, second mate, third mate and carpenter. Four serjeants from the garrison occupied the middle positions, and four planters from the island's smallholding class filled the remaining seats. This ordering placed shipboard authority above military rank, and military rank above settled cultivators, which was the prevailing order of social standing on the island.

The trial concerned an alleged breach of trust by a Company servant aboard a Company ship. The Aurengzebe was an East Indiaman in the Company's regular trade, and ordinary seamen sailing in such vessels were bound to the Company under articles that treated misconduct with the ship's goods or cargo as a punishable offence cognisable at St Helena when the vessel called at the island. The framing of the charge as a betrayal of trust rather than mere theft pointed to the contractual relationship between mariner and employer, which gave the court a basis to proceed against him under the island's jurisdiction.

Speculations

The placement of George Westcott, chief mate of the Aurengzebe, as foreman of the jury trying one of his own ship's mariners suggests that the court relied on shipboard officers to lend weight and credibility to a verdict against their subordinate, since they would know the man, his duties and the nature of the alleged misconduct at first hand. The seating of three further officers of the same ship alongside him reinforces that the panel was deliberately weighted with men whose authority over the accused predated the trial, making conviction the natural outcome from the moment the jury was sworn.

The decision to charge Bevar with betrayal of trust to the Company, rather than to frame the matter as ordinary theft or as a shipboard disciplinary offence to be handled by the captain, points to a calculated use of the island's civil jurisdiction. By prosecuting at St Helena rather than deferring the matter to the ship's own discipline or to proceedings at the next port, the Company secured a formal conviction on the public record of the settlement, which carried greater weight as a deterrent to other crews calling at the island and removed any ambiguity about whether the offence had been dealt with.

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taken upon him without the Consent foreknowledge & Privity of Cap[t]: Nicholas Luhorne did on the 28[th] day of January 1714/5. Treacherously, falsly, Wickedly and Deceitfully Devise and Contrive Unlawfully to gett into his Posession a Certain Female Negroe Slave Named Abigail Vallue fifty Pounds belonging to and is Part of the Goods and Chatles of Grace Coulson Widdow, and the better to Effect this his Said Evill designe did craftily and Deceitfully Endeavour to Steal & Carry away the said Slave Secretly and Privately in the Night time and to Conceal her on board of Said Ship & to put to Sea in Order to Debauch her and to Sattisfie his Lustfull Inclination dureing the voyage All which tended to the Great and Apparent Loss & Damage of the Said Grace Coulson Widdow in Particular and to the Generall Detriment of the Hon[ble]: the Lords Proprietors, and that to Accomplish his Said Brutall and Wicked Designe he framed, Contriv[d] and sent on Shoar a Certain Libell wherein the Said William Bevar wrote with his own hand the following words (viz[t]:) Give my service to M[rs]: Abigall and I shall be glad to See her abord, I can here nothing of when wee Sail, I will Send you a Note when you shall send her off, and at what time of night, and this Libell was Sent on Shoar to the Same Evill purpose To witt; For the Intic =ing and Deludeing the Said Negroe Slave wench to the End that She might be Stolen off thereby, and is to the Evill Example of all others in the Like case offend =ing, being a Notorious Violation of the good Laws and Constitutions of this Island and has a very Great Tendancy to the Utter Ruine and Destruction of the Inhabitants thereof and is a breach of the Publick Peace being Contrary to the Hon[r] of the Lords Proprietors and the Civian & Dignity of the Queens Majesty &c[a]

To

Margin Notes:

Indictm[t] against W[m]: Bevor

The indictment continued. William Bevar had acted without the consent, knowledge or privity of Captain Nicholas Luhorne. On 28 January 1715 he had treacherously, falsely, wickedly and deceitfully contrived an unlawful scheme to get into his possession a certain female slave named Abigail, valued at £50 0s 0d, belonging to and forming part of the goods and chattels of Grace Coulson, widow. To carry out this design, he had craftily and deceitfully endeavoured to steal the slave and carry her away secretly and privately in the night, to conceal her aboard the ship and to put her to sea, intending to debauch her during the voyage and to satisfy his lust upon her.

The whole scheme tended to the great and apparent loss and damage of Grace Coulson in particular, and to the general detriment of the Honourable Lords Proprietors. To accomplish the design, Bevar had written and sent ashore a certain libel in his own hand, in the following words.

Bevar sent his service to Mrs Abigail and said that he would be glad to see her aboard. He could hear nothing of when the ship was to sail, but he would send her a note when she should send Abigail off, and at what time of night. The libel was sent ashore for the same evil purpose, namely the enticing and deluding of the slave woman so that she might be stolen away.

The conduct was an evil example to all others who might offend in the like manner, a notorious violation of the good laws and constitutions of the island and tending greatly to the ruin and destruction of its inhabitants. It was a breach of the public peace, contrary to the honour of the Lords Proprietors and the crown and dignity of the Queen's Majesty,

Interpretations

The valuation of Abigail at £50 0s 0d set a benchmark figure for an adult female slave in the island's domestic economy and provided the measure of damage to the owner for the purposes of the indictment. The sum exceeded the annual military pay of an ordinary soldier of the garrison by a wide margin, which gave the offence the weight of a substantial property crime rather than a minor disciplinary matter. The named owner, Grace Coulson, widow, appeared in the record as the legal proprietor in her own right, which reflected the position of widows on the island as independent holders of slave property and estate after the death of a husband.

The note Bevar sent ashore was described as a libel in the technical legal sense of a written instrument tendered as evidence of the offence, not in the modern sense of defamation. Its production in court served two functions: it fixed the offence in documentary form that could be read to the jury, and it linked Bevar to the scheme by his own hand, removing any possibility of denial. The wording arranging for Abigail to be sent off at night, with a note to follow giving the time, exposed the method as a planned nocturnal abduction rather than an opportunistic act.

The indictment framed the offence on three overlapping levels of authority: the private loss to Grace Coulson, the general detriment to the Lords Proprietors as the chartered owners of the island, and the affront to the crown. This layering reflected the constitutional position of St Helena under the East India Company's proprietary grant, in which offences were treated as breaches against the Company's authority and against the sovereign whose charter underwrote it. The phrase "good laws and constitutions of this island" pointed to the body of local ordinances enforced by the council in its judicial capacity, which governed slave property, garrison discipline and the conduct of visiting crews.

The complicity of the slave woman herself was implicit in the wording of the scheme, since the note presupposed that Abigail would be sent off by some intermediary at an appointed time. The framing of the charge as enticing and deluding her, rather than as forcible seizure, acknowledged this without giving her any standing as a participant whose own conduct fell within the court's notice. She remained throughout the proceedings the object of the offence and the measure of its value, not a party to it.

Speculations

The decision to set out the text of Bevar's note in full within the indictment, rather than to summarise its contents, served a practical evidentiary purpose. By reading the words aloud to the jury, the court placed before twelve men, four of them officers of the same ship, the unmistakable evidence of a planned removal of the slave at night with the active concealment that this required. The reproduction of the note in the record locked Bevar's own language into the proceedings, so that the jury could not be invited to doubt whether the scheme had truly been formed.

The charge framed the captain's lack of consent or knowledge as the very first element of the offence, which suggests that Captain Luhorne's exposure was a matter of concern to the prosecution as well as to him personally. Establishing at the outset that the master of the Aurengzebe was ignorant of the scheme protected the ship's command from any suggestion of collusion in slave-stealing, and preserved the commercial reputation of an East Indiaman that would shortly resume its voyage. The framing thereby served the interests of the Company as well as of the island.

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To this Indictment he pleaded not Guilty but owned on the trifling Defence he made that he had a mind to Carry the Wench home to his mother. He owned also the Writing and Sending the Note Mentioned in the Indictm[t]: and there Produced against him But Said he wrote it when he was Drunk. So then the Jury withdrew and then returned, And brought him in Guilty. Whereupon the Govern[r]: who satt Judge of the Court Seeing him to be an Ignorant young Man, After Some Admonish =ment for his future Good behaviour Satt on him the fine of Ten Pounds, Sayeing he hopt, Tho' that fine was but Small 't would be a means to Deter both him and others for the future from all such Scandalous Actions.

And then the Court Adjourned.

[...]

[...] Tovey

Margin Notes:

He pleaded not Guilty.

but owned Some part.

Jury found him Guilty.

to 10[..] fine.

Bevar pleaded not guilty to the indictment. He offered only a trifling defence, namely that he had come to carry the slave home to his mother. He admitted writing and sending the note set out in the indictment and produced against him, but said he had written it while drunk.

The jury withdrew. On its return it brought him in guilty.

The governor, sitting as judge of the court, considered Bevar to be an ignorant young man. After giving him some admonition as to his future good behaviour, he laid on him a fine of £10 0s 0d. The governor said he hoped that, though the fine was small, it would serve as a means to deter both Bevar and others from such scandalous actions in future.

The court then adjourned.

The record was signed by Isaac Pyke and Ardipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The fine of £10 0s 0d represented one fifth of the £50 0s 0d valuation placed on Abigail in the indictment, and stood as a notably light penalty for a deliberate scheme to remove a slave from her owner by night for the purpose of debauchery during a long voyage. The disparity between the value of the property at risk and the penalty actually imposed exposed the practical limit of the court's reach over an outbound mariner: a heavier sentence such as corporal punishment or imprisonment would have detained him from his ship and disrupted the Company's voyage, which the governor was not prepared to do.

The defence that Bevar had been drunk when he wrote the note was treated by the court as no defence at all, since he had already admitted the writing and sending of the libel before raising it. His other plea, that he had intended to carry Abigail to his mother, was dismissed as a trifling excuse. The court's swift rejection of both pleas, combined with the jury's return after a single withdrawal, indicated that the verdict had been settled by the evidence of the note itself, which Bevar's own admission placed beyond dispute.

The governor's characterisation of Bevar as an ignorant young man, paired with admonition and a small fine rather than exemplary punishment, signalled a deliberate stance of mild correction for a Company servant who would shortly leave the island. The penalty was set high enough to be felt by a common mariner, since £10 0s 0d represented many months of ordinary seaman's wages, yet low enough not to break him or to put the Company to the expense of replacing him on the Aurengzebe.

Speculations

The governor's explicit statement, recorded in the entry, that he hoped the fine would deter others as well as Bevar reveals an awareness on his part that the sentence might be thought too lenient and required justification in the council's own minutes. By placing the deterrent purpose on the record, Pyke pre-empted any later criticism from the Lords Proprietors or from the island's planters that a man convicted of attempting to steal a slave worth £50 0s 0d had been let off too easily, and shifted the weight of the penalty from the sum imposed to the public example made of the conviction itself.

The decision to fine Bevar rather than to detain him or subject him to corporal punishment suggests that the governor weighed the interests of the Aurengzebe and its voyage against the interests of Grace Coulson as the wronged owner. A mariner held on the island for further punishment would have left a vacancy in the ship's company that the captain would have struggled to replace, while a fine could be levied immediately, paid out of wages or shipboard funds, and allow the vessel to depart on schedule with its crew intact.

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Island S[t]: Helena

At a General Sessions & Court of Judicature, held on Monday y[e] 7[th] of February 1714/15 at the Sessions house in James town Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] & Judge Geo: Haswell Dep[t]y Edw[d]: Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Council

Prest

The following persons being Sumond as Jurors Viz[t]

1 Tho[s]. Southen 12 Jon[a]: Doveton 2 Jn[o]: Bagley 13 Sam: Jessey 3 Jn[o]: Worrall 14 Jam: Draper 4 W[m]: Beale 15 W[m]: Worzell 5 W[m]: Slaughter 16 Hen: Francis 6 Orlando Bagley 17 Jam: Greentree 7 Tho[s]: Fairfax 18 Tho: Harper 8 Jn[o]: Coulson 19 Sutton Isacke Jun[r] 9 Tho[s]: Dutch 20 Joshua Johnson 10 Jn[o]: Coles 21 Jn[o]: Long 11 Isaac Wood

And y[e] Major part of the rest of the inhabitants being at this first Generall Court (since the Govern[r] arrivall here) He spoke to them as foll[s]: (Viz[t]) Gentl[men]: This being y[e] first Oppertunity I have had of calling you together since my arrivall & you Gentlemen of y[e] Jury's as you are Jury men you represent y[e] whole Country, wherefore what I say to you I shall

Margin Notes:

Sessions.

The Jury.

Gov[r]: Speech.

Island of St Helena.

A general sessions and court of judicature was held on Monday 7 February 1715 at the sessions house in James Town.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor and judge; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The following persons were summoned as jurors.

  1. Thomas Southen.
  2. John Bagley.
  3. John Worrall.
  4. William Bodle.
  5. William Slaughter.
  6. Orlando Bagley.
  7. Thomas Fairfax.
  8. John Coulson.
  9. Thomas Dutch.
  10. John Coles.
  11. Isaac Wood.
  12. Jonathan Doveton.
  13. Samuel Jessey.
  14. James Draper.
  15. William Worrell.
  16. Henry Francis.
  17. James Greentree.
  18. Thomas Harper.
  19. Sutton Isaac junior.
  20. Joshua Johnson.
  21. John Long.

The major part of the rest of the inhabitants attended, this being the first general court since the governor's arrival on the island. The governor spoke to them as follows.

He addressed them as gentlemen. He said that this was the first opportunity he had had of calling them together since his arrival, and that as jurymen the gentlemen of the jury represented the whole country. He therefore intended that what he said to them should

Interpretations

A general sessions and court of judicature differed from the ordinary court of judicature held a fortnight earlier in that it was convened as a public assembly of the island's free inhabitants rather than as a panel constituted only to try a particular cause. The summoning of twenty-one jurors, well beyond the twelve required for any single trial, indicated that the body sitting on this day functioned as a grand inquest of the country, charged with receiving the governor's address on the state of the island and presenting any matters touching the public order. The attendance of the major part of the remaining inhabitants confirmed the occasion as the formal opening of Pyke's administration before the settled population.

The jury list drew from the same body of planters and minor officeholders who had supplied the earlier trial panel, with several names recurring: Thomas Southen, John Worrall, Orlando Bagley, Thomas Fairfax, John Coles and Henry Francis had all served on the Aurengzebe jury on 24 January 1715. The reappearance of these men, together with a further fifteen drawn from the wider settler population, showed that the pool of jurors available on the island was narrow and that the same households supplied both the trial juries of the lower court and the grand inquest of the general sessions.

The governor's framing of the jury as representing the whole country invoked the constitutional theory by which a jury of inhabitants stood for the political community in the absence of any elected body. St Helena had no assembly of its own, and the relationship between governor and population was mediated through the council on one side and through the empanelled jurors on the other. By addressing them as representatives of the country, Pyke acknowledged that his authority derived from the Lords Proprietors but operated in practice through the consent and cooperation of the planters gathered before him.

Pyke himself had arrived on the island as governor not long before this opening address, succeeding the previous administration whose conduct had been the subject of the inquiries and disputes recorded in earlier consultations. His characterisation of this sitting as the first opportunity to call the inhabitants together since his arrival placed the present meeting at the beginning of his term and signalled an intention to set out his governing principles directly to the settled population rather than through the council alone.

Speculations

The decision to open the new administration by addressing the inhabitants en masse, rather than through a series of private interviews or written orders, points to a calculated effort by Pyke to establish his authority by display of constitutional form. A governor newly arrived from London needed to be seen by the planters as standing within the law and the customary practice of the island, and the empanelment of a grand inquest of twenty-one jurors with the wider population in attendance provided the most public stage available to him for that purpose. The speech that followed would carry weight precisely because it was delivered in the presence of the assembled country, witnessed and recorded.

The very large number of jurors summoned, almost double the panel of the earlier trial and drawn from a broader cross-section of households, suggests that Pyke wished to draw into the proceedings every settler family of standing on the island. By calling Doveton, Jessey, Draper, Worrell, Harper, Sutton Isaac, Johnson, Long and Wood alongside the men who had already served, the governor associated names not yet on his trial juries with the inaugural act of his administration. This widened the circle of those formally implicated in the opening of his term and reduced the prospect that any planter household could later claim to stand outside the new dispensation.

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shall look on as Sayd to all. Our present meeting is an Assembly for the Publick good to do Justice impartially between man & man w[ch] is what y[r] Lords Pro =prietors have comanded who have been pleased to make me yo[r]: Govern[r]. & these Gentlemen who are with me on the Bench their Counc[ll]. I hope we shall all as our duty are endeavour to preserve the publick peace and to promote y[e]: Interest of y[e]: Hon[ble]: Comp[a] in y[e]: further improvement of this Island & that I take to be y[e] Interest of every one upon the place I am comanded to acquaint you with y[e] very great expence they have been at in forti =fying & improving of y[s] place of which you must needs be sensible & I doubt not but every way y[e] better. But now being Resolved to retrench all their expences having a settled peace they have directed me to discontinue their Buildings & Fortifications for a time that you the Plan ters may have leisure not only to manure but to emprove your plantations so as to Answer their end in holding this place which is intended only to Supply & refresh their Shipping at such moderate rates that they may rather choose to deal with you their Countrymen than being (discouraged by y[e] excessive high prices) & demand go to the Cape and help to enrich a foreign people. And as I shall be always carefull of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Interest so of yo[rs] also, for their Stores shall be always open at y[e] Usuall times & oftener when necessity requires that you may be furnished w[th] goods at reasonable and easy rates. I have Orders to see y[t] all plantations are Surveighed & Fenced in & due accounts of all transactions kept in their Books and Duplicates thereof sent to y[e]. Hon[ble]: Comp[a] for preventing future disputes. I have Orders to call in their Debts & the Hon[ble]: Comp[a]. being intended to do all the good that is possible for this place have resolved to send other money for small payments & so have it pass currant here as it all other countrys and

Margin Notes:

He acquaints y[m] w[th] his Instruct =ions.

relating to Publick affairs.

The governor said that what he said to them should be looked on as said to all. The present meeting was an assembly for the public good, to do justice impartially between man and man, in accordance with the orders of the Lords Proprietors. The Proprietors had been pleased to appoint him as governor, together with the gentlemen who sat with him on the bench of the council. He hoped that all of them would do their duty by endeavouring to preserve the public peace and to promote the interest of the Honourable Company, in the further improvement of the island, which he took to be the interest of every person upon the place.

He was commanded to acquaint the inhabitants with the very great expense the Company had been at in fortifying and improving the place. They themselves must be sensible of this, and he doubted not but every one of them was aware of it. Now, however, having settled a peace, the Company was resolved to retrench its expenses. They had directed him to discontinue their building and fortification works for a time, so that the planters might have leisure not only to manure but also to improve their plantations. The aim was that the planters should answer the purpose for which the place was held, namely to supply and refresh the Company's shipping at such moderate rates that the shipping might rather choose to deal with their own countrymen than be discouraged by excessive high prices and go to the Cape, helping to enrich a foreign people.

He said that just as he would always be careful of the Company's interest, so he would be careful of theirs. The Company's stores would always be open at the usual times, and more often when necessity required, so that the inhabitants might be furnished with goods at reasonable and easy rates.

He had orders to see that all plantations were surveyed and fenced in, and that due accounts of all transactions were kept in books and duplicates of them sent to the Honourable Company, for preventing future disputes.

He had orders to call in their debts. The Honourable Company, intending to do all the good that was possible for the place, had resolved to send other money for small payments, so that it might pass current here as it did in all other countries.

Interpretations

The speech laid out the Company's economic strategy for the island in plain terms. The cessation of building and fortification works was tied directly to the recent peace, which removed the immediate strategic justification for further military expenditure and freed the planters from the labour levies that such works had required. By directing the planters to turn their attention to manuring and improving their grounds, Pyke shifted the burden of the island's productive output back onto the settler economy, on which the Company depended to provision its East Indiamen.

The framing of St Helena's purpose as a refreshment station for Company shipping, in competition with the Dutch Cape, gave the planters a clear commercial threat against which to measure their own prices. The governor's warning that excessive prices would drive Company captains to deal with foreigners and enrich a rival nation appealed to the planters' interest as Englishmen as well as to their economic self-interest. The reference to the Cape pointed to the Dutch East India Company's settlement at Table Bay, which had for some decades supplied passing shipping with provisions at competitive rates and stood as the obvious alternative for any English vessel willing to break with the customary practice of calling at St Helena.

The order to survey and fence all plantations, and to keep proper books with duplicates sent home, signalled a marked tightening of administrative control over land tenure and account-keeping on the island. The Lords Proprietors evidently regarded the absence of clear boundaries and reliable records as a source of recurring disputes, and the new requirement transferred the cost of registration and bookkeeping to the planters themselves while reserving to the Company in London the means to adjudicate any future quarrel from the duplicate records.

The proposal to send out other money for small payments addressed a chronic shortage of low-denomination coin on the island, which had hindered everyday transactions between planters, soldiers and visiting crews. By undertaking to supply currency that would pass current at St Helena as elsewhere, the Company sought to monetise the local economy more fully and to reduce the reliance on credit, barter and book debt that had previously characterised dealings on the place.

Speculations

The governor's pairing of an order to call in debts with the promise of a new supply of small coin suggests a deliberate sequencing intended to ease the burden on debtors at the moment when collection was being pressed. By introducing fresh currency at the same time as recovery of outstanding sums, Pyke gave debtors a practical means of settlement and removed the excuse that no coin was available to pay with. The two measures together formed a single financial reset, designed to clear the books inherited from the previous administration and to place transactions on the island upon a regular money basis going forward.

The decision to suspend fortification works while directing the planters to fence and survey their grounds points to a redirection of labour from Company projects to private improvement, with the survey and fencing requirement serving the Company's interest as well as the planter's. Boundaries set down in writing and verified by Company officers would resolve any ambiguity about which lands fell under which lease, and the duplicate accounts sent home would give the Lords Proprietors a documentary basis for adjudicating disputes from London. The labour saved on the fortifications was thereby redirected to producing the very records by which the Company could continue to assert its proprietary control once the building works had ceased.

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and we hope that it will be another encou ragement to all that are Industrious. We having now but very little Publick work to do, I shall by their Directions make good the Publick ways & endeavour to make a Road & to repair & cleanse the Water courses to encou rage the groath of Timber & particularly to preserve a place called the great Wood. Gentlemen. These are my Instructions and this is my Charge & to Succeed therein I only desire y[e] unanimety of you the people and that you would lay aside those Animosities and diffe rences for which you have been too remarkable. I will Endeavour to shew you a good Ex ample But as the Hon[r]: Comp[a] have made me their Govern[r] I must not bear their Sword in vain, and therefore shall not only be a praise to those who do well but I will certainly punish the evil doer I will do my Utmost to encourage all Handicraft, and manner of industry among you & shall preferr non but those who have been Industrious I will discourage Immorality, profaneness & Debauchery. I will Severly punish Thieves & Sloths the Riottous & Slanderer which are the Weeds of this place & must be rooted out or else there can be no hopes of bringing comendable things to good. I hope I shall never want yo[r]. Advise or Assistance in any thing that may relate to the Publick & what shall be Sayd a grie =vance to you I will endeavour to Redress y[t] I may leave all things here with as fair a prospect as that Wo[r]thy Gentleman Cap[t]. Jn[o] Roberts yo[r]. late Gov[r] For it shall be alwayes my care and Study to procure the true Int[erest]

Margin Notes:

Desires Unanimity to be layd aside and

Declares his good Intentions for the well doing of y[e] people

in Generall

Imorality to be discourag[d]

offend[rs] must be punish[d]

The governor said that the Company hoped the new arrangement would be a further encouragement to all who were industrious.

With very little public work now to be done, he would, by the Company's directions, make the inhabitants attend to the public ways and endeavour to make access to them, to repair and cleanse the watercourses, to encourage the growth of timber and in particular to preserve a place called the Great Wood.

He addressed them again as gentlemen. These were his instructions, and this was his charge. To succeed in it, he desired only the unanimity of the people, and that they would lay aside the animosities and differences for which they had been too remarkable.

He would endeavour to show them a good example. The Honourable Company had made him their governor and he would not bear their sword in vain. He would not only give praise to those who did well, but would certainly punish the evildoer.

He would do his utmost to encourage all handicrafts and every manner of industry among them. He would prefer none but those who had been industrious.

He would discourage immorality, profaneness and debauchery.

He would severely punish thieves, slothfuls, rioters and slanderers, which were the weeds of the place and must be rooted out, or else there could be no hope of bringing commendable things to good.

He hoped he should never want their advice or assistance in anything that might relate to the public, and that whatever they should judge a grievance to him, he would endeavour to redress, so that he might leave all things on the island in as fair a prospect as that worthy gentleman, Captain John Roberts, the late governor, had left them. It would always be his care and study to procure the true

Interpretations

The instruction to attend to public ways, watercourses and timber, in place of fortification work, set out the new labour priorities expected of the planters. The watercourses were the open conduits that carried water from the upland springs to the gardens, plantations and shipping in the roads, and their maintenance was indispensable to the productive use of the land. The preservation of the Great Wood, a named upland forest reserve, addressed a known anxiety on the island concerning the depletion of timber, which was needed for building, fencing, fuel and the repair of shipping calling at James Town.

The governor's repeated acknowledgement that the inhabitants had been remarkable for their animosities and differences confirmed the reputation of the island's settler community as quarrelsome and litigious, a character borne out by the inquiries and disputes recorded under the previous administration. By making unanimity the precondition of his success, Pyke signalled that he would view persistent faction and complaint as obstacles to his programme rather than as legitimate expressions of grievance, and would meet them with the powers of the bench rather than with mediation.

The categories of offender singled out for severe punishment, namely thieves, slothfuls, rioters and slanderers, defined the conduct that the new administration would treat as social pollution. The inclusion of slanderers alongside thieves and rioters reflected the importance of reputation in a small settled community where credit, social standing and access to land turned on the good opinion of neighbours, and where unchecked rumour could destabilise the whole order. The metaphor of weeds to be rooted out, drawn from the agricultural language familiar to a planter audience, framed punishment as a form of husbandry necessary to the cultivation of public virtue.

The reference to Captain John Roberts as the late governor whose work Pyke hoped to match identified the immediate predecessor whose administration ended with his return to England. By naming Roberts and praising him as a worthy gentleman, Pyke aligned his own intentions with the standard set by the last governor and avoided any open criticism of the period in office between Roberts and his own arrival, during which the island had been administered by the senior councillors.

Speculations

The governor's open promise to bear the sword and certainly punish evildoers, made before an audience comprising the major part of the inhabitants, served as a deliberate counterbalance to the leniency he had just shown in the Bevar case two weeks earlier on 24 January 1715. By committing himself in public to severity against future offenders, Pyke distanced his administration from any suspicion that the small fine of £10 0s 0d had set the tariff for serious crime under his rule, and reserved to himself the latitude to act harshly in subsequent cases without contradiction.

The decision to invoke John Roberts by name as the standard against which his own administration should be measured suggests that Pyke faced a settler community in which Roberts retained considerable goodwill, and that any new governor needed to be seen as continuing rather than departing from his approach. By tying his programme to the prospect Roberts had left, Pyke borrowed credit from a predecessor whose tenure was remembered favourably and pre-empted any comparison that might have placed him at a disadvantage in the eyes of the assembled planters.

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Interest of every One among you that you may all enjoy y[e] fruit of yo[r] diligence and Labours under yo[r] own Vines and Figtrees with pleasure. And I do assure you that it is my Sincere and hearty Wish & desire that what I shall do while I am your Govern[r] may contribute to make this Island always happy in y[e] prosperi ty of you her People & of yo[r]. Children on her when I shall be no more.

The Court being Satt the following Persons were Sworne of the Jury

1 John Coles foreman 2 Thomas Southen 3 John Worrall 4 Orlando Bagley 5 Thomas Fairfax 6 Jonath[an] Doveton 7 James Draper 8 Henry Francis 9 Joshua Johnson 10 Samuel Jessey 11 William Worrall 12 John Long

Thomas Bevian a Soldier was Indited for Steal ing a Cane with a Silver head Vallue Seven Shillings and Six pence which on the Tryall Appeared & explain[d] by the Testimony of John Orchard and William Huffe. So the Jury brought him in Guilty of Felony Vallue Ten pence, as the Govern[r]: Advised them it being a Matter of Small Worth and Bevian a white Man. Whereupon

Margin Notes:

His hearty wish &c[a].

Jury.

Tho[s]: Bevian Indictm[t] for theft found Guilty

The governor said he hoped to procure the true interest of every one among them, so that they might all enjoy the fruits of their diligence and labours under their own vines and fig trees with pleasure. He assured them that it was his sincere and hearty wish and desire that what he did while he was their governor should contribute to make the island always happy in the prosperity of its people and of their children, even when he should be no more.

The court being sat, the following persons were sworn of the jury.

  1. John Coles, foreman.
  2. Thomas Southen.
  3. John Worrall.
  4. Orlando Bagley.
  5. Thomas Fairfax.
  6. Jonathan Doveton.
  7. James Draper.
  8. Henry Francis.
  9. Joshua Johnson.
  10. Samuel Jessey.
  11. William Worrall.
  12. John Long.

Thomas Bevian, a soldier, was indicted for stealing a cane with a silver head, valued at 7s 6d. On trial the charge appeared fully proved by the testimony of John Orchard and William Huffe. The jury brought him in guilty of felony to the value of 10d, as the governor advised them, it being a matter of small worth and Bevian a white man. Whereupon

Interpretations

The reduction of the cane's value from 7s 6d as charged to 10d in the jury's verdict was a deliberate legal device, made on the governor's direction, to bring the offence below the threshold for capital felony. Under the English law of larceny then in force, theft of goods to the value of 12d or more constituted grand larceny and was punishable by death, while theft below that figure was petty larceny and attracted only corporal or pecuniary punishment. By advising the jury to find Bevian guilty at 10d, Pyke kept the conviction within the lesser category and removed any prospect of hanging.

The governor's explicit reasoning, that the matter was of small worth and Bevian a white man, recorded openly in the consultation, exposed the racial dimension of capital sentencing on the island. The implication was that a white soldier would not be hanged for the theft of a cane, even one valued at 7s 6d, where a slave or a black inhabitant in equivalent circumstances might have faced the full rigour of the law. The lowering of the valuation by jury direction provided the legal mechanism by which this distinction was given effect in the record without the bench being seen to acquit a guilty man.

The image of the planter sitting under his own vine and fig tree, drawn from the prophet Micah, supplied a familiar scriptural figure for the settled and prosperous life that Pyke held out to the inhabitants as the goal of his administration. The phrase carried connotations of secure possession, freedom from molestation and the enjoyment of one's own labour, and was conventionally invoked in early modern English political language to denote the peace of a well-governed commonwealth. Its use in closing the address gave a familiar rhetorical seal to the speech and tied the governor's programme of industry and order to the ordinary religious vocabulary of his audience.

The jury that was now sworn for the day's business was drawn entirely from the twenty-one men summoned at the opening of the sessions, and twelve of those names had already served on one or both of the earlier panels of 24 January and the wider summons of this morning. John Coles took the foremanship in place of George Westcott, who had served as foreman of the Aurengzebe trial, the change reflecting that the present court was a sessions of the island's inhabitants rather than a panel partly drawn from a visiting ship's company.

Speculations

The decision to record Pyke's reasoning on the bench, that Bevian was a white man and the matter of small worth, rather than to leave the reduction of the valuation as a silent jury finding, suggests that the governor wished his direction to be on the public record as guidance to future juries. By placing the principle in the minutes of a general sessions held at the opening of his administration, Pyke established a precedent that white offenders convicted of theft would normally be brought in below the capital threshold by valuation, and that the bench would advise the jury accordingly. The record thereby served as instruction to the planters who would serve on later panels.

The pairing of an inspirational closing peroration about vines and fig trees with an immediate trial in which the governor advised the jury to undervalue stolen property in order to spare a white soldier the gallows points to a calculated arrangement of the day's business. The aspirational image of secure prosperity was set down on the record next to a worked example of how the new governor would actually use the bench: severity in word, leniency in practice for offenders within the settler community. The juxtaposition signalled to the assembled planters that Pyke's promises of industry and order would not bear hardly on themselves or their soldiers, whatever the formal language of the speech.

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Whereupon he was Sentenced to be whipt at the Flagg Staff and to receive thirty nine Lashes. Moll a Negroe Slave Wench belonging to Serjant Slaughter was Indicted for Felony and Burglary in breaking the House of Samuell Algate and Stealing thence three Shillings of English Coin and two Dollars in Spanish mony with Sundry other goods of small Vallue amount =ing in the whole to Thirty Shillings which things She Confest to have Stolen but Sayed She came in at the Door which She did not break open. Whereupon the Jury brought her in Guilty of Felony only and Acquited her of the Burglary And the said Moll being a Notorious Wench for Runing away and then Pilfering to Support her self haveing been twice before whipt for Such faults in M[rs] Goveen: time She was Ordered to be made fast to the Carts taile and whipt from the Sessions House to the End of the new bath called Mile End Stone and back againe and afterwards to wear a Chain and Clogg Jenny a Negroe Slave Wench belonging to William Seale was Indicted for Wilfully and Despightfully Killing a Sow Pigg & Pigg belong =ing to Matthew Brozett Gentleman which was fully Proved against her, Whereupon the Jury brought her in Guilty She was Centenced to be whipt at the Carts taile to Mile End, and her Master to pay for the Sow. George a Negroe Slave belonging to Ripin Wills was Indicted for being an Incorrigible rogue

Margin Notes:

His Punishm[ent].

Serj[t]: Slaughters Wench Indicted

Guilty of felony

her Punnishment

W[m] Seal[s] Wench Indicted.

found Guilty

her Punnishm[t]

Ripin Wills George Indicted

Thomas Bevian was sentenced to be whipped at the flagstaff and to receive thirty-nine lashes.

Moll, a slave woman belonging to Serjeant Slaughter, was indicted for felony and burglary, in breaking the house of Samuel Algate and stealing from it 3s 0d in English coin and two dollars in Spanish money, together with sundry other goods of small value, amounting in the whole to 30s 0d. She confessed to having stolen these things but said she had come in at the door, which she did not break open.

The jury brought her in guilty of felony only and acquitted her of the burglary. Moll was described as a notorious woman for running away and then pilfering to support herself, having been twice whipped before for such faults in Governor Roberts's time. She was ordered to be made fast to the cart's tail and whipped from the sessions house to the end of the new path called Mile End Stone and back again, and afterwards to wear a chain and clog.

Jenny, a slave woman belonging to William Seale, was indicted for wilfully and despitefully killing a sow pig and pig belonging to Matthew Bazett, gentleman, which was fully proved against her. The jury brought her in guilty.

She was sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail to Mile End, and her master to pay for the sow.

George, a slave belonging to Riping Wills, was indicted for being an incorrigible rogue

Interpretations

The thirty-nine lashes imposed on Thomas Bevian followed the conventional limit drawn from the biblical injunction in Deuteronomy that no man should be beaten with more than forty stripes. By stopping at thirty-nine, the bench observed the customary scriptural ceiling while still imposing the maximum corporal punishment available below it. The flagstaff, the public mast in the parade ground before the castle, served as the standard place of military and civil corporal punishment on the island and gave the sentence its public character.

The jury's distinction between felony and burglary in Moll's case turned on a precise point of law. Burglary required the breaking of a dwelling house, while simple felony covered the theft once entry had been effected. By accepting Moll's own statement that the door had not been broken, the jury kept the conviction within the lesser offence and avoided the capital penalty that burglary would have carried. The reasoning paralleled the under-valuation device applied to Bevian: in both cases the bench preserved a guilty verdict while removing the prospect of hanging.

The sentence imposed on Moll combined three forms of penalty in sequence, namely whipping at the cart's tail over a measured public route from the sessions house to Mile End Stone and back, followed by the wearing of chain and clog. The cart's tail whipping was the standard punishment for a habitual offender, intended to display the convict's body along a public way as well as to inflict pain, and the chain and clog imposed afterwards confined her movement and marked her continuing servile and criminal status. The reference to her two earlier whippings during Roberts's administration showed that the present sentence built on a documented record of recidivism rather than being a first correction.

The record's reference to a place called Mile End Stone and the new path of the same name indicated a marker stone set up at the boundary of a recently constructed route leading out of James Town. Its use as the limit of the cart's tail procession turned an ordinary surveying mark into a fixed station of public punishment, by which the length of the whipping was measured in physical distance through the settled area of the town. The route ensured that the punishment was witnessed by the maximum number of inhabitants along its course.

Speculations

The clustering of three slave prosecutions immediately after the white soldier's case, with the governor's earlier advice still on the record that Bevian had been spared the capital threshold partly because he was a white man, points to a coordinated session in which the bench worked through a backlog of slave offences once the principle of differential treatment had been openly stated. The juxtaposition gave the assembled inhabitants a worked illustration of the racial gradation of punishment under Pyke's administration on the same day that he had promised severity against thieves and slothfuls in his opening speech.

The decision to order Jenny's master William Seale to pay Matthew Bazett for the slaughtered pig, in addition to the corporal punishment of the slave herself, divided liability between the slave's body and the owner's purse. Bazett was a sitting councillor on the bench that morning, and the swift award of compensation to him from the master of the offending slave demonstrated how the bench could deliver restitution to its own members through the criminal jurisdiction. The arrangement placed the financial cost of slave misconduct on the owner while reserving the physical cost to the slave, and gave councillors a direct interest in vigorous prosecution of property offences by slaves.

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rogue and Runing away from his Master and being a Comon thief Stealing from all the planters to Maintain himself in his fugitive & Renagado way of Liveing he haveing formerly been Convicted & Punnished for being a wandering rogue and Committing Such Crimes, and has been Branded with the Letter R formerly in the forehead but continues to be a Comon Nusance to the Country by Preying on the Inhabitants and on his tryall he Confest Severall things that he had Stolen from Doveton and Divers others, and that he had Kettles and other Conveniencies for Dressing his Provisions in a Cave at an Unfre =quented Part of the Island called Bencoolen, and the whole fact Appearing very Plain the Jury brought him in Guilty, And he was Sentenced to be exhipt at the Carts taile to Mile End and back again, and to wear a Chain and Clogg of fifty pound weight.

Then the Declaration of Robert Gurling Plaintiff against Pipin Wills Defend[t] was read as followeth.

Island S[t]: Helena To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r]: & Council. The Declaration of Robert Gurling Plant[r] Complainant against Pipin Wills Planter Defendant. Humbly Sheweth That your Complainant took to wife Margaret the Relict of Benjamin Wills son of the above Named Pipin, and in her right Demanded of the said Pipin what belonged to Said Benjamin at his decease viz[t] all that Portion or Sume of Ninety one pounds paid

Margin Notes:

being an Incoreg[ible] rogue

Punnishm[t] formerly

found Guilty

his Punnishm[t]

Rob[t] Gurling ag[t] Pipin Wills

Island S[t]: Helena

Rob[t]: Gurlings Declaratio[n]

George had run away from his master and was a common thief, stealing from all the planters to maintain himself in his fugitive and renegade way of living. He had earlier been convicted and punished for being a wandering rogue and committing such crimes, and had been branded with the letter R on the forehead, but he continued to be a common nuisance to the country by preying on the inhabitants.

At his trial he confessed to several thefts from Doveton and others, and that he had kettles and other conveniences for dressing his provisions in a cave at an unfrequented part of the island called Bencoolen.

The whole matter appearing very plain, the jury brought him in guilty. He was sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail to Mile End and back again, and to wear a chain and clog of fifty pounds weight.

The declaration of Robert Gurling, plaintiff, against Riping Wills, defendant, was then read as follows.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council, on the island of St Helena. The declaration of Robert Gurling, planter, complainant, against Riping Wills, planter, defendant.

Gurling set out that he had taken to wife Margaret, the relict of Benjamin Wills, son of the above-named Riping Wills. In her right he demanded of Riping all that had belonged to Benjamin at his decease, namely a portion or sum of £91 0s 0d

Interpretations

The branding of George with the letter R on the forehead identified him as a rogue under the long-standing English statutory penalty for vagrancy and incorrigible offending, by which the visible mark on the body served as a permanent record of conviction and a warning to all who saw him afterwards. The placement on the forehead, rather than on the hand or shoulder used in some jurisdictions, gave the mark the greatest possible public visibility and prevented its concealment by clothing. That George continued his fugitive conduct after such branding accounted for the much heavier penalty now imposed.

The cave at Bencoolen used by George as a refuge and provision store gives a glimpse of the island's interior geography as it functioned for runaway slaves. The place took its name from the East India Company's settlement at Bencoolen on the west coast of Sumatra, from which the appellation may have travelled with slaves or stores carried on Company ships, and its application to an unfrequented part of St Helena reflects the practice by which planters and slaves alike applied imported names to the island's landscape. The use of kettles to dress provisions in such a hidden site indicated a settled, sustained fugitive economy rather than mere flight, and explained why the bench treated him as incorrigible.

The chain and clog of fifty pounds weight imposed on George, against the unspecified weight ordered for Moll, set a calibrated scale of restraint by which the bench could mark gradations of repeat offending. Fifty pounds attached to a slave's leg was sufficient to prevent escape and to inflict continual discomfort, while still permitting the wearer to perform basic field labour, so the punishment preserved the slave's productive value to his owner Riping Wills even as it secured the public against further depredation.

Riping Wills appeared in this consultation in two distinct capacities on the same morning. He was first named as the owner of George the slave, on whose property the burden of the chain and clog would now fall, and then immediately afterwards as the defendant in a civil action brought by his son's widow's new husband for £91 0s 0d said to have belonged to his deceased son Benjamin. The juxtaposition shows the routine intermixture of criminal and civil business in a single sessions day and the prominence of a single planter household across both jurisdictions.

Speculations

The court's decision to record in detail the cave at Bencoolen, the kettles and the systematic theft from the planters, rather than to confine itself to the simple verdict of incorrigible rogue, points to a deliberate use of George's prosecution as a warning to other slaves on the island. By placing in the public record an account of how a runaway had sustained himself for some time in a remote part of the country by preying on settled property, the bench gave the planters a documented justification for tighter surveillance of their slaves and supported the heavy iron now imposed by setting out the conduct it was intended to suppress.

The bringing of the Gurling declaration immediately after the criminal sentencing of Wills's own slave suggests that the order of business was managed to confront Riping Wills with the full weight of the court's authority on a single morning. The bench first imposed a substantial burden on his slave property and then heard a civil claim against him for a large sum derived from his deceased son's estate. Whether by accident or design, the sequence placed him under pressure on two fronts at once and gave the new governor an early opportunity to demonstrate that no planter household, however well established, stood outside the reach of the court.

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paid the Said Benjamin Wills upon his Marriage with the said Margaret as Likewise the Perform =ance of the Marriage agreement made between the said Pipin Wills and Ruth Wood Mother of the said Margaret whereby the Said Pipin did Promise to give unto his Son as much & more then the said Benjamin was to have w[th] his wife which is the Ninety one pounds Notwithstand =ing the said Pipin Wills did upon the Decease of his Said Son Benjamin take all the Effects of the Said Benjamin into his Possession w[th] out Ever Adminnistering, Acting in all Matters with as full power as if he had Selling his Cloths and Disposeing of the Effects as he thought fits, and was Never paid yo[r]. Complain =ant above the Sume of Sixty one Pounds, tho' Often required thereunto, and dos Declare further that t'was in duty and respect to the Parent of his wife that he did not before Sue for what he Esteemd to be his Lawfull right and finding no Likelyhood of getting the said Pipin Wills to Comply with his reasonable Demands humbly refers his Case to your Worship &c. Not doubting of a Just & Equitable Determination And yo[r] Complainant as in duty bound shall Ever pray &c[a] Rob[t]. Gurling Pipin Wills Saith that he did intend to a given that money if his said Daughter had Married with his Consent but as She had taken on her to Choose a Husband without asking his Consent he thought himself Under No Obligation to give her any thing, and that

Margin Notes:

Pipin Wills defence

The £91 0s 0d had been paid to Benjamin Wills upon his marriage with Margaret. Equally part of the claim was the performance of the marriage agreement made between Riping Wills and Booth Wood, the mother of Margaret, by which Riping had promised to give his son as much more as Benjamin was to have with his wife, which came to a further £91 0s 0d.

Notwithstanding this, on Benjamin's decease Riping Wills had taken all the effects of his son into his possession without ever administering them. He had acted in all matters with as full power as if he had been selling his cloths and disposing of the effects as he thought fit, and had never paid the complainant above the sum of £61 0s 0d, though often required to do so.

Gurling further declared that out of duty and respect to his wife's parent he had forborne to sue before for what he reckoned to be his lawful right. Finding no likelihood of getting Riping Wills to comply with his reasonable demands, he humbly referred his case to the governor and council, not doubting of a just and equitable determination.

The complainant said that, as in duty bound, he should ever pray. The declaration was signed Robert Gurling.

Riping Wills, in his defence, said that he had intended to give the money if his daughter-in-law had married with his consent. As she had taken upon herself to choose a husband without asking his consent, he thought himself under no obligation to give her anything, and

Interpretations

The arrangement set out in the declaration formed a typical marriage settlement of the island's planter class. The bride brought to her husband a portion of £91 0s 0d, paid by Booth Wood as Margaret's mother, and the father of the groom matched it with a promise of equal value, also £91 0s 0d, to be made over to his son. The total fund of £182 0s 0d so constituted gave the couple a substantial joint estate at the outset of their marriage, and the agreement between Riping Wills and Booth Wood served as the binding instrument by which the two households fixed their respective contributions in advance of the wedding.

The dispute turned on the death of Benjamin Wills before any final settlement of accounts had been made and on the consequent treatment of his estate. Riping Wills had taken his deceased son's effects into his own possession without administering the estate under the formal legal process by which a deceased man's goods were to be inventoried, debts paid and the residue distributed to his widow and heirs. By disposing of the effects as he thought fit, Riping had treated himself as the practical owner of his son's property rather than as a steward accounting to those entitled to share in it, which was the legal grievance underlying the claim.

The figure of £61 0s 0d already paid by Riping to the complainant represented a partial discharge against the £91 0s 0d originally received with Margaret's marriage, leaving a balance of £30 0s 0d on that head, with the further £91 0s 0d promised by Riping wholly unpaid. Gurling's claim therefore stood at £121 0s 0d in total, framed in the declaration as a single round sum derived from both elements of the marriage settlement, which the court was now asked to enforce against Riping.

The defence raised by Riping Wills shifted the dispute from the law of property to the law of parental authority over marriage. He claimed that his promise of money had been conditional on his consenting to the match, and that Margaret's marriage to Gurling without seeking his consent had voided his obligation. The position turned the suit into a contest between the formal terms of the original marriage agreement and a customary parental veto over the remarriage of a widowed daughter-in-law, on which the court would have to rule.

Speculations

The timing of the suit, brought now under a new governor and after Gurling had forborne for some period out of respect for his wife's parent, suggests that the complainant had judged the change of administration to be an opportunity to obtain a determination that he could not extract from Riping Wills by private means. By framing his declaration as a humble referral to the worshipful governor and council, Gurling appealed directly to Pyke's stated promise, made earlier that morning in his opening address, to do justice impartially between man and man and to redress grievances brought before the bench. The action thereby tested the new governor's protestations against an established planter household within hours of their being made.

Riping Wills's reliance on the lack of his consent to the second marriage, in the face of a written marriage agreement signed with Booth Wood that fixed the sums payable on the first marriage, points to a calculated use of the customary authority of a father-in-law to defeat a documentary claim. The original agreement had been performed by Margaret's mother on her side, with £91 0s 0d already paid over, and Riping had himself received the money. His attempt to attach a retrospective condition to his own promise, based on conduct after his son's death, suggests an effort to repurpose a parental complaint about Margaret's later choice of husband as a defence against an existing debt.

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that was the Cheif Defence he made against the Complaint mentioned in the Declaration against him, Whereupon Gurling proved by y[e] Minis =ter and by Sundry other Credible Witnesses that Pipin Wills did Consent, That he was at the Wedding and did give her in Marriage to the said Gurling, and did Carry them to his House and gave them their Wedding Dinner and all other Concurrent Testimony was Produced, to Shew that at the time of the Marriage he was Consenting to the Match. Whereupon the Jury found for the Plantiffe, and Asessed Damages the Ten Acres of Land and a black, but the black he gave was George the Negroe Indited this day for a free =booter. The Jurys Presentments.

S[t] Helena We the Jurors for our Sovereigne Lady the Queen and the Hon[ble]: East India Company of Great Britain the Lords Proprietors of this Island, Do upon our own view and knowledge Present that whereas there has for some time past and now at this time, a Certain Gutter or Water Course kept constant =ly runing before the Front and Door of the House of Grace Coulson Widdow, which is unsufferable and very Inconvenient often overflowing and Spreading Considerably in the Midst of the Street, Runing down the Common foot way to Church & Markett place, makeing not only Gulleys, but frequently caises the Ground and road way to be very boggy, Marshey and Incommodious, and is thereby noto become a Publick and Common Nusance to all people in Generall Passing about their Lawfull Occasions, and an Annoyance to the Neighbours in Particular, and is Contrary to the Custome of any Towns or Markett place Else where as well as against the Hon[ble] Companys Orders in the Regulateing the Drains

Margin Notes:

Damages asessed to Gurling

S[t] Helena

Jury presentm[t] ab[t] a Water Course

That was the chief defence Riping Wills made against the complaint set out in the declaration against him.

Gurling proved by the minister and by sundry other credible witnesses that Riping Wills had consented. He had been at the wedding and had given Margaret in marriage to Gurling. He had carried them to his house, given them their wedding dinner, and all other concurrent testimony was produced to show that at the time of the marriage he had been consenting to the match.

The jury found for the plaintiff, and assessed damages at ten acres of land and a slave. The slave whom Riping Wills gave over was George, the very slave indicted earlier that day for being a freebooter.

The jury's presentments.

The jurors for the sovereign lady the Queen and the Honourable East India Company of Great Britain, the Lords Proprietors of the island, presented, upon their own view and knowledge, that whereas there had for some time past, and now at this time, been a certain gutter or watercourse kept constantly running before the front and door of the house of Grace Coulson, widow, this was insufferable and very inconvenient. It often overflowed and spread considerably in the middle of the street, running down the common footway to church and market place, making not only gulleys but frequently causing the ground and roadway to become very boggy and marshy. It had thereby become a public and common nuisance to all people in general passing about their lawful occasions, and an annoyance to the neighbours in particular. It was contrary to the custom of any town or market place elsewhere, as well as against the Honourable Company's orders in the regulating of the

Interpretations

The evidence of the minister and other witnesses turned the case decisively against Riping Wills. The minister's testimony carried particular weight, since he had performed the marriage and could speak from his own record to whether Riping had given the bride away. The further acts proved, namely Riping's presence at the wedding, his giving of Margaret in marriage, his carrying of the couple to his house and his provision of the wedding dinner, formed a cumulative pattern of public consent that left no room for his later defence. Consent at the time of marriage was a matter of public conduct as well as of formal words, and Riping's own behaviour had supplied the proof against him.

The award of damages in the form of ten acres of land and a slave, rather than in money, reflected the realities of an island economy in which sterling coin was in short supply and productive assets were the principal store of wealth. By giving Gurling land and labour rather than cash, the court delivered a settlement that Riping could actually meet from his existing estate, while transferring to Gurling the means of supporting his new household. The form of the award sidestepped the need for Riping to find a large sum of money at short notice and reduced the risk of further litigation over non-payment.

The identification of the slave handed over as George, the runaway sentenced earlier the same day to whipping and a fifty-pound chain and clog, gave the award a sharper edge. Riping discharged his debt by parting with a slave whose value to him had just been seriously diminished by his criminal conviction, and Gurling acquired ownership of a man encumbered with a recent record of theft, branding and habitual flight. The transfer reflected a practical calculation: a slave under sentence was still property, but property of reduced utility, and using him to settle the judgment let Riping retain his more serviceable hands.

The presentment concerning the gutter at Grace Coulson's house illustrated the second function of the grand jury at the general sessions, namely the bringing forward, upon the jurors' own view and knowledge, of public nuisances within the settled area of James Town. Such presentments did not require a private complainant, but rested on the jurors' observation of conditions detrimental to the community. The watercourse before Coulson's door, running down the common footway between the church and the market, occupied the principal public route through the town and rendered it impassable in wet weather. Grace Coulson appeared here in her third capacity in the present sessions, having earlier been named as the owner of the slave Abigail in the Aurengzebe case of 24 January 1715 and as a widow holding property in her own right.

Speculations

The choice of George specifically as the slave to satisfy the judgment, rather than any other slave from Riping Wills's holding, points to a coordinated outcome arranged at the bench. Riping had sat through the morning's criminal session as the owner whose slave had been heavily punished, and at the conclusion of the civil action he was required to hand the same slave over to Gurling. The result simultaneously cleared Riping of a property burdened by a heavy chain and clog, gave Gurling something he could put to use under proper management, and removed a notorious fugitive from his accustomed master. The court thus engineered a single transaction that resolved three problems at once.

The grand jury's identification of Grace Coulson's house as the source of the nuisance, brought forward at the very sessions following her involvement in the Aurengzebe prosecution on 24 January 1715, suggests that her standing in the town gave her particular visibility to the assembled jurors. As a widow holding slave property and town premises on the principal thoroughfare, she was already known to the court, and the public condition of her house was therefore more readily a matter on which the jury could speak from their own view and knowledge. The presentment placed her on the receiving end of public criticism for the first time, after appearing earlier as the wronged party.

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buildings and Street in this Town and Valley where their main Magazine and Castle is built for Defence of the said Island.

Island S[t] Helena. The Under Written John Alexander Do in behalf of the Severall Inhabitants of this Island of S[t] Helena Inform the Jurors of Said Island of the great Decay by want of reparation the Severall publick roads and Pasages are in, And Particularly a Certain Path or way called the (Old or Middle) Path which leadeth to the Town in James valley, and alsoe of a Nother Path or way called the Haunt Path which goes Directly from the Said Town to the Easterne Parts of this Island, And also of a nother path called the Cow Path which leadeth up to the body of the Island, All which by reason of their want of Reparations are very Dangerous to the Passangers and of great hazard to all who are Oblig'd to carry Burthens up or down the Said Paths which is Occasion'd by the Neglect of John Robinson & Sutton Isaac Jun[r]: who are the Present Surveyors of the high wayes of this Island whose duty it is by vertue of their Said Office to cause all high ways to be carefully a Mended and repaird Instead of which they have not caused any reparation to be made in the Said Paths or ways for upwards of Sixteen Months last Past.

Wherfore I do in the Queens Name as well as in the Names of the Hon[ble] the Lords Pro =prietors of this Island Present unto you the Jurors for the body of this Country the said Jn[o] Robinson and Sutton Isaack Jun[r] for their Defaults to the End they may be Anfwerable for all manner of Damages that has or may insue such want of Reparation of the before Mentioned Paths or of any other publick path or way under their Care or Cognizance. Jn[o] Alexander

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Presentm[t] ag[t] the overseers of the high ways.

The nuisance at Grace Coulson's house was contrary to the custom of any town or market place elsewhere, as well as against the Honourable Company's orders for the regulating of the buildings and street in James Town and Valley, where the main magazine and castle were built for defence of the island.

Island of St Helena.

The undersigned John Alexander, on behalf of the several inhabitants of the island, informed the jurors of the great decay, for want of repair, in which the several public roads and passages now stood. He drew their attention in particular to a certain path or way called the Old or Middle Path, which led to the town in James Valley; to another path or way called the Haunt Path, which went directly from James Town to the eastern parts of the island; and to another path called the Cow Path, which led up to the body of the island.

By reason of their want of repair, all three paths were very dangerous to the passengers and of great hazard to all who were obliged to carry burdens up or down them. The condition was occasioned by the neglect of John Robinson and Sutton Isaac junior, who were the present surveyors of the highways of the island, whose duty it was, by virtue of their office, to cause all highways to be carefully amended and repaired. Instead of which they had not caused any reparation to be made in the paths or ways for upwards of sixteen months past.

Wherefore Alexander, in the Queen's name, as well as in the names of the Honourable the Lords Proprietors of the island, presented unto the jurors for the body of the country John Robinson and Sutton Isaac junior for their defaults, to the end that they might be answerable for all manner of damages that had been or might be sustained by such want of reparation of the paths mentioned, or of any other public path or way under their care or oversight.

Signed John Alexander.

Interpretations

The presentment by John Alexander acted as a private information laid before the grand jury for the body of the country, by which a particular inhabitant brought a matter of public concern to the attention of the panel for their own further presentment. The formal invocation of the Queen's name and that of the Lords Proprietors gave the complaint the standing of an action on behalf of the whole community, even though it had been initiated by a single named informant on behalf of the inhabitants. The mechanism allowed individual grievance over the condition of the island's communications to be channelled through the regular machinery of the sessions.

The three named paths together described the principal land routes of the island as they then existed. The Old or Middle Path connected the interior with James Town and was the established line of approach to the harbour for goods and persons coming down from the upland farms. The Haunt Path served as the route from James Town to the eastern parts of the island, providing access to the lands and habitations of that quarter. The Cow Path led from the lower ground up to the body of the island, that is to the central plateau where the principal plantations lay, and was used in particular for driving cattle and carrying provisions to and from the upland settlements. Their collective decay therefore impaired every direction of internal movement on the place.

The office of surveyor of the highways was a local administrative post by which named inhabitants were charged with the upkeep of public ways through the labour of the planters and slaves in their districts. The holder of the office had no salary attached to it and discharged his duties by directing the work of others, drawing on the customary obligation of inhabitants to contribute labour or hire to road maintenance. The presentment of Robinson and Sutton Isaac junior for sixteen months of neglect signalled a complete failure of the system over the period in question, which coincided with the unsettled administration immediately preceding Pyke's arrival as governor.

Sutton Isaac junior had appeared earlier in the day on the panel of jurors summoned at the opening of the sessions. The presentation of a sitting juror as a defaulter in his public office showed the routine intermixture on the island of the roles of officeholder, juror and litigant, and the readiness of the bench to allow proceedings against a member of the same panel constituted that morning. The position of the informant John Alexander, named here as acting on behalf of the inhabitants, identified him as a planter or householder of sufficient standing to bring forward such a complaint in his own name.

Speculations

The bringing of the highway presentment at the same sessions as Pyke's opening address suggests a coordinated effort by the inhabitants to use the new governor's stated commitment to public works as the occasion for a long-deferred challenge to the failures of the previous interim administration. The sixteen-month period of neglect cited by Alexander corresponded closely to the interval since the departure of Governor Roberts, during which the council alone had managed the island, and the presentment effectively placed responsibility for the decay of the roads on that administration through the persons of its surveyors of the highways. The complaint thus tested whether Pyke would act against officials who had failed under the prior dispensation.

The selection of three specific paths, rather than a general complaint about the state of the roads, points to careful drafting designed to fix the surveyors' liability in concrete terms. By naming the Old or Middle Path, the Haunt Path and the Cow Path, the presentment identified routes whose users could be expected to come forward as witnesses to particular incidents, and gave the bench specific stretches against which any future damages could be measured. The framing transformed a general grievance into a specific charge capable of being tried, and made it harder for the surveyors to deflect responsibility by reference to the vagueness of their duties.

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Island S[t]: Helena We the Jurors for this Island Do present Unto the Worshipfull the Govern[r] and Council of this Said Island as a Common Nusance the badness of the Severall Common Roads Passages or Paths leading from the Country to the Town called James Town. And we Present as Defaulters herein the two present Overseers of the high ways John Robinson and Sutton Isaack Jun[r] for Neglecting to repair the said Publick ways According to the duty of their places.

Whereupon the Govern[r]: told them that nothing Could Contribute more to the Generall good of the Place than to make the roads Passable and that the Easiness of the Paths up and between the Moun =tains would be a profit to Every man who was a Master of Slaves in the Dispatch of that Laborious Carriage in which all the blacks were Employed, And Promised them that if they would make a good path fitt for the Carriage of Great burthens, He on the behalf of the Hon[r] Company would make a Hotter and told them that the way he had Cleared from the Goat pound to Mile End Stone She'ed that those things were Easier than they Appeared and that any thing might be done here that was Undertaken with Resolution.

And recommended to the Jury and body of the Country the Necessity of repairing all their other Paths in Generall in other Parts of the Country and alsoe that a bridge over the Run of Water in this valley was much wanted and therefore Offered them any Asistance to help make one, and that if they would be at the Charge of building it, the Hon[r] Comp[a]: Should find Lime that it might be built firm and Strong. To

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena

Jurys presentm[t] ag[t] Overseers

Gov[rs]: Answer

And how a Seeming Difficult path he had Lately Cleared

and Recomended y[e] Necessity of Repairing paths

Offering Asistance &c[a]

Island of St Helena.

The jurors for the island presented unto the worshipful governor and council, as a common nuisance, the badness of the several common roads, passages or paths leading from the country to the town called James Town. They presented as defaulters in the matter the two present overseers of the highways, John Robinson and Sutton Isaac junior, for neglecting to repair the public ways according to the duty of their places.

The governor told them that nothing could contribute more to the general good of the place than to make the roads passable, and that the easiness of the paths up and between the mountains would be a profit to every man who was master of slaves, in the dispatch of the laborious carriage in which all the blacks were employed. He promised them that if they would make a good path fit for the carriage of great burdens, he, on behalf of the Honourable Company, would make a hotter, and told them that the way he had cleared from the Goat Pound to Mile End Stone showed that those things were easier than they appeared, and that anything might be done here that was undertaken with resolution.

He recommended to the jury and body of the country the necessity of repairing all their other paths in general in other parts of the country. He observed that a bridge over the run of water in this valley was much wanted, and therefore offered them that if they would give assistance to help make one, and would be at the charge of building it, the Honourable Company should find lime that it might be built firm and strong.

Interpretations

The labour system implied by the governor's reply turned on the use of slaves for the carriage of goods between the upland plantations and the harbour at James Town. The masters of slaves were the principal beneficiaries of any improvement to the paths, since the time, effort and wear involved in transporting provisions, water and other burdens up and down the mountains was borne by the slaves they owned. By framing the case for road repair as a matter of profit to slave-owners, Pyke addressed the planter audience in terms of its own economic self-interest rather than as a matter of public duty, and acknowledged openly that the burden of the island's internal transport rested on enslaved labour.

The recent clearing of the way from the Goat Pound to Mile End Stone offered a practical example of what could be achieved. The Goat Pound was an enclosure for stray or impounded goats on the outskirts of James Town, and Mile End Stone was the marker that had been used earlier that morning to fix the length of Moll's whipping at the cart's tail. The route between them constituted a recently improved stretch already in service for both administrative and punitive purposes, and the governor cited it as evidence that comparable improvements elsewhere were within the reach of the inhabitants if they chose to undertake them.

The offer to find lime for a bridge over the run of water in James Valley described a familiar division of public works between the Company and the planters. Lime was the essential binding material for masonry construction, derived from burning shells or coral in kilns, and supplied at the Company's charge from its own stocks. The planters were to provide labour, transport and the unskilled element of the construction, while the Company contributed the costly imported or processed materials. The arrangement preserved the Company's hold on the strategic supply while reducing its direct cash outlay on infrastructure that benefited the inhabitants in their daily traffic.

The run of water in James Valley was the principal stream descending from the upland through the valley to the sea at James Town, the same watercourse on which the gutter complained of at Grace Coulson's door discharged its flow. A bridge across it would replace the existing fords or stepping places at which traffic was held up in heavy weather, and would complete the work of regularising the public way between the country paths and the town that the day's presentments had begun. The proposal extended the improvement of the highways from the upland tracks to the harbour itself.

Speculations

The governor's offer to find lime, contingent on the planters bearing the labour and the further charge of the bridge, repeated the pattern of cost-sharing he had announced more generally at the opening of the sessions, by which Company expenditure was being retrenched while public improvement was redirected to the inhabitants. By naming a specific project and a specific contribution, Pyke gave the assembled planters an immediate test of whether they were prepared to act on the principles laid down in his address, and offered them a discrete and achievable undertaking that could establish a working method between his administration and the country.

The framing of the road question around profit to masters of slaves, rather than around the abstract duty of public service, suggests a calculation that the planter audience would respond more readily to an appeal to its commercial interest than to its civic obligation. By promising that improved paths would shorten the time their slaves spent on carriage, Pyke linked his programme of public works to the daily economy of every household with field labour, and made cooperation with the new administration a matter of household account rather than of abstract loyalty. The approach took the measure of the planters as he had now begun to know them.

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To which they willingly Assented and Said they would goe about it asoon as this present rainy Season was over.

Then the Court was Adjourned as Usuall.

[...] Geo: Haswell

Island S[t]: Helena. Antipas Tovey

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 8[th] day of February 1714/[..] At the United Castle in James valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r]: George Haswell Dpt[y] abs[t] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w] Bazett 4[th] abs[t] & Antip[s] Tovey 5[th] in Coun[c]:

Prest

M[r] Carne haveing sent Beef on board the French Ship Privately in baggs Contrary to an Advertisement Published the 29[th] day of January last, as in a Consultation of that days date may Appear, the Said Carne was sent for, and bound over to his Good behaviour and personall Appearance at the Next Gen[ll] Sessions in a Recognizance of One Hundred Pound.

Margin Notes:

the Country Assented.

Island S[t] Helena.

This is entred in another place 2 folios farther

Island of St Helena.

The country willingly assented to the governor's proposal, and said they would go about it as soon as the present rainy season was over.

The court then adjourned as usual. The record was signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell and Ardipas Tovey.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 8 February 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor, absent; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth, absent; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

Start of crossed out section

Mr Carne had sent beef on board the French ship privately in bags, contrary to an advertisement published on 29 January 1715, as appeared in the consultation of that date. Carne was sent for and bound over to his good behaviour and personal appearance at the next civil sessions, in a recognizance of £100 0s 0d.

A note in the margin recorded that this matter was entered in another place at folios further on.

End of crossed out section

Interpretations

The country's qualification of its assent by reference to the rainy season identified a practical constraint on the timing of the road and bridge works just agreed. The wet months on St Helena fell across the southern hemisphere summer and made earthworks impracticable, since paths cut into the slopes would wash out before they consolidated and lime mortar would not set properly in continued damp. The deferral until the dry weather acknowledged this reality and gave the planters a defensible interval before any labour fell due, which the new administration accepted as a reasonable condition of cooperation rather than press for an immediate start.

The case of Mr Carne, although cancelled in this place by the clerk and re-entered later in the volume, indicated the council's enforcement of its own published orders against private dealing with foreign shipping. The advertisement of 29 January 1715 had evidently forbidden the supply of provisions from the island to the visiting French ship, and Carne's covert delivery of beef in bags constituted a deliberate breach of that order. The marginal direction and the diagonal lines through the text reflected the bookkeeping practice by which entries made in error or out of sequence were preserved on the page but redirected to their authoritative place further on.

The recognizance of £100 0s 0d, by which Carne was bound to his good behaviour and to his personal appearance at the next civil sessions, secured both his future conduct and his attendance at trial through a single financial undertaking. The sum was a substantial pledge on the property of an individual planter or trader and corresponded in order of magnitude to the joint marriage portions in the Gurling case just determined. Forfeiture of the recognizance on default would have placed Carne under a heavy debt to the Company, which made the bond an effective restraint without the need for any custodial confinement before trial.

The matter of the French ship raised the wider question of the island's relations with foreign vessels in a port that depended on the Company's monopoly of supply for its commercial rationale. By trading with a French ship in defiance of the published prohibition, Carne had cut across the very principle of exclusive English supply that Pyke had set out in his opening address two days earlier, where he had warned of the cost to the island of allowing Company shipping to be discouraged toward the Cape.

Speculations

The decision to take Carne up at a consultation rather than at the general sessions of the preceding day, despite the offence being already known at the time of the sessions, points to a deliberate choice not to mix the matter into the public business of the country. By proceeding through the council acting in its administrative capacity, rather than through the jury and grand inquest, the governor kept the case within the closed forum where the published advertisement had been issued in the first place, and reserved the full sessions of the country for matters of routine criminal and civil justice. The handling treated the offence as a breach of administrative regulation, to be punished by recognizance and bond, before any further criminal process should be considered.

The size of the recognizance, set at £100 0s 0d, suggests that the council intended both to mark the seriousness of the breach and to test the depth of Carne's resources. A trader who could readily find sureties for such a sum would be exposed to a heavy loss on any further default, while one who struggled to find them would face immediate practical constraints on his movement and dealings until the next sessions. The amount thus served as a graduated instrument of pressure adapted to Carne's individual circumstances, rather than as a fixed tariff applicable to all offenders against the advertisement.

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Transactions relateing to the French Shipp Jason.

On Saturday the 29[th] of January 1714/[..] an alarm was made for a Large Shipp Seen at about Seven leagues distance, the Same forenoon the Ship came into the road, I Sent Orders to Bankses fort to bid them Send their boat on Shoar and to fire by way of Sallute with or ty three Guns, they did hale them and told them So but they past by and Sent no boat on Shoar. The Officer at Roberts's Platform on Mundens Point Seeing they Sent no boat on Shoar nor did not bring too, sent to me to know if he Should bring them too by fireing a Gun a thwart their fore foot as is usuall in all Garrisons (and has been Practiced here) But seeing that it was but a Single Ship tho' a French one I Ordered them not to fire but to Lett the Ship Come into the road, who did, and Saluted with Seven Guns and wee answered with five as the Dutch do at Batavia and the Cape, and as the French Forts do Always to us. There came aboat on Shoar with fower Gentlemen a Lieuten[t] a Preist in Gentlemans Cloths, the Pursee and a Clerk who Said their Ships Name was the Jason burthen Seven Hundred Tons and two Hund[d] and fifty Men, forty Guns and was a Royall Vessell belonging to the King of france and was Command =ed by Mons[r] Dudemain a Cap[t] of the Warr, and therefore look it ill that one of the King of frances Men of Warr should Not be Answered Gun for Gun, Iaskt them if the Ship had not been to Trade to India, they Said they were a Man of Warr, formerly but hired by the Merchants to goe for India

Margin Notes:

What relates to a French Ship

Transactions relating to the French ship Jason.

On Saturday 29 January 1715 an alarm was made for a large ship seen at about seven leagues distance. The same forenoon the ship came into the road. The governor sent orders to Banks's Fort to bid them send their boat ashore, and to fire by way of salute with only three guns. The fort did hail the ship and told them so, but they passed by and sent no boat ashore.

The officer at Roberts's Platform on Munden's Point, seeing they sent no boat ashore and did not bring to, sent to know if he should bring them to by firing a gun athwart their forefoot, as was usual in all our wars, and as had been practised here. Pyke, seeing that it was but a single ship, though a French one, ordered them not to fire but to let the ship come into the road. The ship did so, and saluted with seven guns. The fort answered with five, as the Dutch did at Batavia and the Cape, and as the French ports did always to us.

There came a boat ashore with four gentlemen, namely a lieutenant, a priest in gentlemen's clothes, the steerer and a clerk. They said their ship's name was the Jason, burthen 700 tons and 250 men, mounting 40 guns, and was a royal vessel belonging to the King of France, commanded by Monsieur Dudemain, a captain of the war. They therefore took it ill that one of the King of France's men of war should not be answered gun for gun. They were asked if the ship had not been to trade in India. They said they were a man of war formerly but hired by the merchants to go for

Interpretations

The signalling arrangements between fort and ship described in this entry set out the diplomatic and military protocol observed at the road of James Town. A ship approaching the island was expected to send her boat ashore on first making the road, by which her identity, business and condition could be ascertained before she was admitted to ride at anchor. Failure to send a boat exposed the vessel to challenge by gun, and the officer at Roberts's Platform proposed the standard escalation of a shot across the forefoot, which compelled the ship to heave to without inflicting damage. The governor's decision to forgo that step, in view of the ship being single rather than in company, exercised a calculated discretion in favour of receiving the visitor.

The exchange of salutes followed a fixed and politically significant tariff. The Jason fired seven guns and was answered with five, which was the convention by which a sovereign port acknowledged a man of war of a friendly power while reserving to itself a slight precedence in numbers. Pyke's citation of the Dutch practice at Batavia and the Cape, and of the French ports as they treated English visitors, anchored the response in established international usage rather than in any arbitrary calculation, and gave the answer the standing of a measured diplomatic act rather than a snub.

The ship's particulars as declared by her officers identified her as a royal vessel of the French navy hired out by the King to private merchants for the East India trade. The burthen of 700 tons, complement of 250 men and armament of 40 guns placed her well above the size of an ordinary East Indiaman and gave her the fighting strength of a small ship of the line. Such hiring arrangements were a regular feature of the French commercial system at this period, by which the navy supplied vessels to the Compagnie des Indes or to merchant consortia on terms that retained the king's flag and military character while shifting the cost of the voyage to private capital.

The composition of the boat's party gave a glimpse of the official structure of the French East India trade. The lieutenant served as the ship's representative for formal contact ashore, the steerer brought the navigator's local knowledge, and the clerk recorded the proceedings on behalf of the merchants who had hired the vessel. The presence of a priest dressed as a gentleman, rather than in clerical habit, suggested either an attempt to avoid drawing attention to the ship's Catholic chaplaincy in a Protestant port or a routine accommodation to the diplomatic forms of an English settlement.

Speculations

The governor's decision to override the officer at Roberts's Platform and let the Jason come into the road without forcing her to heave to under a gun across her forefoot points to a careful calculation of the relative risks of the encounter. A single ship, however heavily armed, posed no immediate threat to the island, and the use of force at the moment of arrival would have framed the encounter as hostile and required a corresponding answer. By admitting her peacefully and then exchanging salutes within the accepted convention, Pyke kept the diplomatic initiative in his own hands and turned the visit from a potential incident into a managed reception. The choice reflected the same instinct for measured assertion of authority that had characterised his handling of the sessions earlier that week.

The willingness of the French officers to declare the Jason a royal vessel hired to merchants for the India trade, in their very first contact ashore, suggests that they understood the importance of fixing her status at the outset of any dealings on the island. By presenting her formally as a king's ship in private service, the boat's party staked a claim to the courtesies due to a man of war while at the same time signalling that her purposes were commercial rather than military. The framing protected her access to the road and to any provisions that might be allowed, and pre-empted any inference that her presence was hostile, which mattered acutely in time of war between the European powers.

367

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India and were of a Seperate Stock Not belonging to the french East India Company but had the Kings Licence. I told them we had no regard to the Ships Colours, but if she had sent her boat on Shoar as was Ordered and as is Customary, and had then Certi =fied that was a Man of Warr we Should have a =nswered Gun for Gunn, and as She had refused that we could Shelo her no other Sort of respect then what is usuall to all Merchants Ships, they Said they had Occasion for Provisions and Stores of Sundery kinds I told them, if the Cap[t] Wrote to me for what he wanted I would furnish, them as farr as we could Spare. They demand and Said that one of them whom we mentioned above as Pursser was the Supra Cargoe of the Ship, the Gover[r]. told them that tho' these Sorts of requests were properly to be made by the Cap[t]: yet if he was Supra Cargoe we would be Contented with his request if he put his wants in Writeing and Sign'd to them, Whereupon they went to M[r] Carnes and there wrote the following Paper, which the Said Purser (or Supra Cargoe) Sub =scribed to, and as they Never want Titles, he therein gave himself the title of Director of the Amunition of Mons[r] Decudroy.

A Coppy of the Paper Delivered in by the french Purser.

The Jason

An Acco[t]. of refresm[t] and Necessarys for the Equipage of the Kings Vessell, the Jason. viz[t]: 50 Goats 2 Beeves 50 Fowles 40 doz[ns] of Eggs.

I pray

Margin Notes:

Provisions wanted for Sea Stores

They were of a separate stock not belonging to the French East India Company, but held the King's licence for the voyage. Pyke told them that he had no regard to the ship's colours, but if she had sent her boat ashore as was ordered and as was customary, and had then certified that she was a man of war, the fort would have answered her gun for gun. As she had refused to do so, he could show her no other sort of respect than what was usual to all merchants' ships. They said they had occasion for provisions and stores of sundry kinds. Pyke told them that if the captain wrote to him for what he wanted, he would furnish them as far as could be spared.

They returned and said that one of those mentioned above as a priest was the supercargo of the ship. The governor told them that those sorts of requests were properly to be made by the captain, but if he was supercargo, the governor would be content with his request, if he put his wants in writing and signed to them. They went to Mr Carne's and there wrote the following paper, which the purser, or supercargo, subscribed. As they never wanted titles, he gave himself the title of director of the ammunition of Monsieur Decudroy.

A copy of the paper delivered in by the French purser.

The Jason.

An account of refreshments and necessaries for the equipage of the King's vessel the Jason.

Goats, 50.

Beeves, 2.

Fowls, 50.

Eggs, 40 dozen.

I pray

Interpretations

The distinction drawn by the French officers between a vessel sailing under the King's licence on a separate stock and one belonging to the French East India Company identified the Jason as part of the system of private armed voyages authorised by Louis XIV during the closing phase of the long European war. Under these arrangements, royal warships were leased to private syndicates of merchants who undertook the voyage at their own risk and profit, while continuing to fly the king's colours and bear his commission. The status placed the ship outside the regular Company structure on both the French and English sides and gave her a hybrid character that the governor was now required to assess.

The governor's reasoning on the salute set out the institutional logic of the morning's exchange. A vessel claiming the courtesies of a man of war had to identify herself as such through the established protocol of sending her boat ashore, after which the answer of gun for gun would follow. Having declined that step, the Jason had placed herself by her own conduct in the category of an ordinary merchant ship, and the response of five guns to her seven matched the lower standing she had thereby accepted. The principle was that the diplomatic forms governed the substance of recognition, and could not be displaced by retrospective assertion.

The disclosure that the man earlier described as a priest in gentlemen's clothes was in fact the supercargo of the ship explained the original disguise and reframed the embassy ashore. A supercargo on a French royal vessel hired for the India trade was the commercial officer responsible for the cargo and its sale, ranking immediately below the captain in the management of the voyage and acting for the merchant owners in all dealings with foreign ports. The earlier description as a priest, with the corresponding clothing, may have reflected either a habitual concealment by a Catholic officer in Protestant company or a deliberate ambiguity at the first meeting, replaced once the practical business of provisioning required his commercial standing to be acknowledged.

The supercargo's adoption of the title director of the ammunition of Monsieur Decudroy, dryly noted by the clerk as an example of French preference for titles, attached to the writer a position of authority within the syndicate financing the voyage. The form designated him as the officer responsible for the cargo, supplies and equipment of the expedition, accountable to one Monsieur Decudroy who was evidently the principal owner or director of the venture in France. The choice of Mr Carne's house as the place to draft the paper placed an island merchant at the centre of the encounter and confirmed the established pattern by which dealings with visiting ships passed through the houses of senior planters and traders.

Speculations

The decision of the supercargo to repair to Mr Carne's house to draw up the requisition, rather than to do so on board or at the castle, points to a pre-existing connection between Carne and the Jason before the formal application for provisions was made. Carne had been taken up two days earlier, by the cancelled entry of 8 February 1715 re-entered elsewhere, for sending beef on board the same French ship privately in bags in defiance of the council's published prohibition. The presence of the French party at his house at this point in the proceedings, with the apparent freedom to compose a formal paper there for delivery to the governor, suggests that the channel of communication between ship and shore had been running through Carne from the outset of the visit.

The structure of the requisition, opening with goats and beeves before fowls and eggs, indicates that the French party expected to draw the bulk of their refreshment from the island's livestock rather than from its gardens or its imported stores. The figure of 50 goats represented a substantial demand on the planters' herds and would not have been met without significant transfers from named households, while the two beeves marked a more limited and ceremonial draw. The mix suggests that the supercargo had taken local advice, very probably from Carne, on what the island could practically supply, and had framed the request accordingly to maximise the chance of obtaining the items he most wanted.

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I pray most humbly to Mons[r]. the Govern[r]: of the Island of S[t]. Helena to cause to be Deli =vered to me the Contents above Written at the Same price that the Mons[rs]. the English are Accustomed to pay for their Refreshments According to the same treatment that the Court of France have Ordered and caused to be done in all our ports and this being done here it will Oblige his most Humble and most Obedient Servant Joseph LeBlank Director Le 10 ffebruary[ed] 1715 of the Amunition of Mons[r] Decudroy.

The Govern[rs]: Answer. Monsieur LeBlank.

Mons[r]: I have received yo[r]: Note Just now wherein you desire to have off from hence for the refreshment of your Shipp. 50 Goats - 2 Beeves 50 fowles &c. - 40 doz[n] Eggs. In answer to which request I say you are well =come to this Port as to what we have to Spare But this Island has Lately Suffered very much by a Famine wherein two thousand five hundred head of Cattle dyed and there now remains So very Small a Stock that there will not be Beef Enough to Serve our own Ships, and some of them must goe hence without, and therefore I cannot Suffer any Beef to goe off, But Since our Gracious Queen has thought it

Margin Notes:

Lett[r] to y[e] Gov[d]

Le 10 ffebruary[ed] 1715

Gov[rs] answer.

The supercargo prayed most humbly to Monsieur the governor of the island of St Helena to cause to be delivered to him the contents written above, at the same price that the English Monsieurs were accustomed to pay for their refreshments. This was to be done according to the same treatment that the Court of France had ordered and caused to be done in all their ports. Compliance with the request here would oblige his most humble and most obedient servant, Joseph Le Blanc, director of the ammunition of Monsieur Decudroy. The paper was dated 10 February 1715.

The governor's answer to Monsieur Le Blanc.

Monsieur, the governor had received his note just now, in which he desired to have from the island the refreshment of the Jason, namely 50 goats, 2 beeves, 50 fowls and 40 dozen eggs.

In answer to the request, Pyke said that Le Blanc was welcome to this port as to what could be spared. The island had however lately suffered very much by a famine, in which 2,500 head of cattle had died. There now remained so very small a stock that there would not be beef enough to serve their own ships, and some of these must go hence without it. He therefore could not suffer any beef to go off. But since our gracious Queen had thought

Interpretations

The form of the French requisition rested on a claim of reciprocity between the courts of France and England. By asking for the refreshments to be supplied at the price paid by English ships and on the same treatment that French ports gave to English visitors, Le Blanc invoked an implicit treaty understanding rather than a discretionary favour. The basis of the request thus shifted the matter from the prerogative of the governor as proprietor's officer to the diplomatic obligations of England as a state, and would have weighed against any refusal that could be read as a departure from established international courtesy.

The governor's response opened the door to provisions in general while shutting it on beef in particular. The distinction was framed in terms of supply rather than of policy, and was supported by the citation of a specific recent calamity, namely the famine in which 2,500 head of cattle had died. The figure represented a major loss to the island's livestock holdings and provided a concrete justification for retaining the remaining beasts for the Company's own shipping. By rooting the refusal in a documented event rather than in the political question of trading with a French ship, Pyke avoided giving any direct affront to the diplomatic basis of the request.

The reference to 2,500 head of cattle dying in the famine identified the principal pastoral crisis of the recent period on St Helena and explained the resource constraint underlying the present negotiation. Cattle were the largest single component of the island's productive livestock, used both for refreshment of shipping and for the labour of carriage and ploughing on the plantations, and their wholesale loss had reduced the colony to a position where the supply of beef to incoming Company vessels was itself uncertain. The figure given here also serves as a benchmark for the scale of the island's herds before the famine, since the loss is reported as a particular event rather than as a total.

The title Le Blanc gave himself, director of the ammunition of Monsieur Decudroy, identified him within the French commercial system as the officer responsible for the supplies and equipment of a private syndicate's voyage, accountable to Decudroy as the principal investor. His use of the form here served to authenticate his subscription to the paper in the absence of the captain, and Pyke's acceptance of the request from him, despite his earlier insistence that such applications were properly the captain's business, reflected a pragmatic willingness to deal with whoever could put the wants of the ship into a signed document.

Speculations

The governor's choice to refuse beef while allowing the other items of the requisition points to a calculated use of the famine to manage the political sensitivity of the request. A flat refusal of the whole would have invited French complaint at the Court of France and given Carne's earlier private dealings the appearance of necessary subterfuge in the face of unreasonable obstruction. By granting goats, fowls and eggs, Pyke gave the Jason enough to leave with no honest grievance, while retaining the beef whose private export by Carne had been the actual occasion of the council's recent prohibition. The famine provided a face-saving reason that protected the substance of the policy without provoking a diplomatic incident.

The decision to cite a precise figure of 2,500 head of cattle lost suggests that the number was already in regular use within the council's correspondence and accounts, and could be deployed against a French diplomatic claim with the standing of an established fact. By placing the figure on the record of the present negotiation, Pyke also fixed it for future reference, so that any subsequent request for beef from visiting ships could be answered by reference to the same datum without further explanation. The careful use of a recent calamity to support a current refusal reflects the same managerial instinct that had characterised his handling of the diplomatic forms on the Jason's arrival.

369

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it fitt to Grant Peace to France you shall be treated here as friends, and all the rest of your requests Igrant, You have therefore Libertie to buy fifty Goats one hundred fowles & instead of Beef Ten Hoggs and what Eggs you will, and the planters shall be desired to Sell to you for the Same price that they have of their own Country men, You have also Liberty to Send on Shoar thirty Sick Men for one Week and I will Send to your Cap[ts] Tickletts for thirty men more to come on Shoar in the day time which Privilledge they Shall have So long as they behave themselves Soberly and well, but no other man besides your Sick & those who tend them are to Lye on Shoar without my Particular Licence and you are to give the Cap[t] Notice that he do not Suffer his boats to Sound about any part of the Island, for, if he does the boat will be Seized and the Privilledge of Refreshm[t] too, but if he wants to fish I will Send out a Fisher =man for the Use of the Cap[t] and Ship while you Stay here paying the fisherman the Usuall and Customary price I must also Acquaint you that your Sick men and others in the Valley must not be permitted to Wander into the Coun =try, there being a Penalty on all those that doe.

I alsoe give you a Caution that if you have any Men on board that you think will Runn away from your Ship that you do not Suffer them to come on Shoar. And on these terms you Shall have y[e] Liberty of the fort to refitt yo[r] Casks and fill yo[r] Water, to buy what y[e] Inhabitants or other Sorts of refreshm[ts] you think Proper for your Men I am S[r] yo[r] Hum[ble] Serv[t] Sunday Janry y[e] 30. 1714/[..] Isa[a]: Pyke United Castle on S[t] Helena.

Our gracious Queen had thought it fit to grant peace to France. Le Blanc and his company would therefore be treated here as friends, and all the rest of his requests granted. He had liberty to buy 50 goats, 100 fowls, and in place of the beef refused, 10 hogs, together with whatever eggs he wished. The planters would be directed to sell to him at the same price they had of their own countrymen.

He also had liberty to send ashore thirty sick men for one week. The governor would send to his captain tickets for thirty more men to come ashore in the daytime, which privilege they should have so long as they behaved themselves soberly and well. No other man besides the sick and those who tended them was to lie ashore without his particular licence.

Le Blanc was to give the captain notice that he was not to suffer his boats to sound about any part of the island. If he did so the boat would be seized and the privilege of refreshment forfeited too. If the captain wanted fish, the governor would send out a fisherman for the use of the captain and ship while they stayed here, paying the fisherman the usual and customary price.

The governor further acquainted Le Blanc that his sick men and others in the valley must not be permitted to wander into the country, there being a penalty on all who did.

He also gave Le Blanc a caution that if he had any men on board whom he thought would run away from his ship, he should not suffer them to come ashore.

On these terms Le Blanc was to have the liberty of the port to refit his casks and fill his water, and to buy what green trade or other sort of refreshment he thought proper for his men.

The letter closed in the form of subscription, signed Isaac Pyke, and dated Sunday 30 January 1715 at the United Castle on St Helena.

Interpretations

The reference to the Queen's having thought fit to grant peace to France placed the present transaction within the framework of the recent peace settlement between the two crowns. The treaties concluded at Utrecht in 1713 had brought to an end the long war between England and France, and the governor's invocation of the new state of peace provided the diplomatic basis on which a French royal vessel could be received as a friend at an English port. The change in the operative footing between the two powers thus governed the substance of the welcome and the scope of the supplies that could be released.

The substitution of 10 hogs for the requested 2 beeves preserved the principle of refusing beef in the face of the cattle famine while still meeting the underlying need of the Jason for substantial meat provisions. Hogs were a separate stock from cattle on the island and could be drawn on without affecting the herds reserved for the Company's own shipping. The arithmetic of the substitution, two beeves replaced by ten hogs, reflected the relative weight and value of the carcasses, and showed the governor's willingness to find a workable alternative once the principle had been settled in his favour.

The arrangements for the sick men set out the standard quarantine and security protocol for foreign crews at the port. Thirty men were allowed ashore for recovery for a week, with a ticket system controlling the daytime presence of a further thirty, and all others confined to the ship except by particular licence. The valley was the designated area of permitted resort, and the country beyond was closed to the visiting crew under penalty. The framework allowed the practical refreshment of the men, on which the success of a long voyage depended, while preventing dispersal of foreign sailors across the inhabited parts of the island.

The prohibition on sounding the harbour and approaches by the ship's boats addressed a standing concern of any garrison port receiving a foreign warship. Soundings would give a future enemy the depth and bottom information needed to attack or blockade the place, and the threat of seizure of the boat and forfeiture of all refreshment provided a heavy sanction against unauthorised hydrographic work. The arrangement reserved to the governor the option to permit a hired English fisherman to supply the captain's table with fish, by which the visiting officers could be accommodated without the ship's own boats being given freedom of the bay.

Speculations

The provision that any French sailors thought likely to run away should not be allowed ashore points to a practical fear that crew members of a French royal vessel might desert to the island and complicate the political relationship between the powers. By placing the burden of judgement on Le Blanc himself, Pyke avoided assuming responsibility for the screening while reserving the right to penalise the ship if such desertions occurred. The framing protected the island against an influx of unauthorised foreign labour and protected the diplomatic position by transferring the duty of preventing desertion to the supercargo who had presented himself as accountable for the ship's affairs ashore.

The dating of the governor's letter to 30 January 1715, almost two weeks before the consultation of 8 February 1715 at which Carne's contraband dealings were taken up, indicates that the formal exchange with Le Blanc was concluded promptly on the ship's arrival and that Carne's clandestine supply of beef in bags occurred while the official negotiations for refreshment were still being settled. The retrospective insertion of the Jason correspondence into the record at this later point in the volume placed the documentary evidence of the proper procedure alongside the proceedings against the man who had attempted to circumvent it, and gave the council's response to Carne the support of the written terms that had been in force when he acted.

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Asoon as I heard by word brought from the Sugar loaf that the Ship a Comeing in was a French Ship the Councill being all w[th] me We publisht to the Planters the following Order.

Island S[t]: Helena.

By the Worshipfull the Govern[r] & Council An Advertisement.

Whereas Beef is at this time very Scarce by reason of the great Dearth whereby So many Cattle were lost upon the Island and that we have Not Suffi =cient to Supply the Hon[ble]: Companys Shipping.

The Worshipfull the Govern[r]. and Councill Do hereby Strictly Command and forbid all persons Not to Sell or Dispose of any Beef to any Foreigne Ship whatsoever Untill such time as a Greater Stock of Cattle upon the Island at any Price but they may sell and Dispose of any other Sort fresh Provisions for the releif of Such People who are to Come on Shoar.

Likwise who Ever Shall find any Fordig[ners] Caholeing or Straggling into the Country they are to Look upon them as Spies and apprehend them as such, and bring them before the Gov[r] & Council, United Castle James Sign'd by Ord[r] of Govern[r]: Valley 29[th] Jan[ry] 1714/5 & Council. Antip[s]: Tovey

The

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

The reason of this page being Crossd out is because it is entred 10 folios before

United Castle James Valley 29[th] Jan[ry] 1714/5

As soon as Pyke heard by word brought from the Sugar Loaf that the ship coming in was a French ship, the council attended him. They published to the planters the following order.

Start of crossed out section

A note in the margin recorded the reason for this page being crossed out, namely that the order was entered ten folios before. The page is otherwise cancelled by diagonal lines through the body of the entry.

Island of St Helena.

By the worshipful the governor and council. An advertisement.

Beef was at this time very scarce, by reason of the great dearth in which so many cattle had been lost upon the island, and the council had not sufficient to supply the Honourable Company's shipping.

The worshipful governor and council strictly commanded and forbade all persons to sell or dispose of any beef to any foreign ship whatsoever, until such time as a greater stock of cattle should be raised upon the island, at any price. They might, however, sell and dispose of any other sort of fresh provisions for the relief of such people as came ashore.

Likewise, whoever found any foreigners caballing or straggling into the country were to look upon them as spies, apprehend them as such, and bring them before the governor and council.

The order was dated 29 January 1715 at the United Castle, James Valley, and signed by order of the governor and council by Ardipas Tovey.

End of crossed out section

Interpretations

The Sugar Loaf was the prominent conical hill rising above the eastern flank of James Valley, used as a lookout station from which signals of approaching ships could be sent down to the castle by word of mouth or by visible sign. The arrangement gave the governor and council the earliest practicable warning of any vessel making for the road, and allowed the necessary administrative response to be set in motion before the ship had come within hail of the fort. The opening words of this entry describe the very mechanism by which the Jason was identified as French in time for the council to be summoned and the advertisement framed.

The cancellation of this page, with a marginal note explaining that the order was entered ten folios before, illustrates the same bookkeeping correction encountered earlier in the volume. The clerk had duplicated material that already appeared in its proper place in the consultation of 29 January 1715, and on noticing the repetition cancelled the present transcript by diagonal lines and added a cross-reference. The convention preserves the cancelled text on the page rather than erasing it, and allows the reader to see both the form of the advertisement and the clerk's own correction of the record.

The substantive order set out the policy against which Carne's clandestine supply of beef in bags had offended. Beef was singled out for absolute prohibition on the grounds of the cattle famine and the shortfall in supply for the Company's own shipping, while other fresh provisions remained available for sale to visiting foreign crews. The structure of the prohibition matched the substitution of hogs for beeves in the governor's later letter to Le Blanc, which respected the same line. The advertisement also identified caballing or straggling into the country by foreigners as a security concern to be met by treating the offenders as spies, with apprehension and production before the council as the prescribed response.

The advertisement was signed by Ardipas Tovey by order of the governor and council, rather than by the governor in person. Tovey, the fifth in council, evidently acted as the executive officer responsible for issuing published orders to the planters under the authority of the bench, a role consistent with his appearance as a signatory of the closing minute of the general sessions of 7 February 1715. The signature pattern in the consultations confirms his function as the council's regular hand for outgoing documents, with the governor reserving his own signature for the principal record and for personal correspondence such as the letter to Le Blanc.

Speculations

The clerk's duplication of the advertisement at this point in the volume, far from being a simple slip of attention, may reflect the practice of assembling all the documentary material relating to the Jason into a single dossier within the records, before the redundancy with the earlier entry was noticed and the second transcript cancelled. The grouping together of the council's order of 29 January 1715, the governor's letter of 30 January 1715, the French requisition of 10 February 1715 and the supporting narrative would have given a future reader a complete view of the transaction in one place. The decision to retain the cancellation in the record rather than to remove the duplicate suggests that the bookkeeping principle of preserving the original sequence took precedence over tidiness of presentation.

The advertisement's instruction to treat caballing or straggling foreigners as spies points to a real fear within the council that crew members from a French royal vessel, however formally welcomed under the new peace, might attempt to gather intelligence on the island's defences, paths, water supply or upland settlements. The Sugar Loaf signal, the prohibition on the Jason's boats sounding the harbour, the confinement of the sick men to the valley and the present advertisement together formed an integrated security regime designed to extract the benefits of regulated commerce with the visitor while denying her any opportunity to inspect the place beyond what could be seen from the road and the immediate town.

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The french Ship had sent on board the follow =ing Provisions &c. besides what they Spent on Shoar and besides what M[r] Carn sent secretly on board. 108 Goats 8 Sheep 8 Hoggs 3 Piggs 15 doz: & 7 fowles 6 Turkeys 23 Ducks 6 Sacks of beans 2 [...] of Yams 5 Cheeses 2 Casks of bread 5 Casks of Flower 2 boats laden w[th] Plantain trees. Besides Greens and fish &c[a]

which they paid for in French brandy at five Shillings p[r] Gallon But notwithstanding all these Provisions the Govern[r] [...]oces which were sent off from M[r] Carnes there was two Bullocks sent Privately on board, and the Govern[r]: haveing Notice thereof sent and Stopt three quarters of Beef in three Baggs till it could be found out who had sent them Whereupon M[r] Carne came and owned that he killd it for the french. And the Gov[r]: bound him to his good behaviour for his wilfull Con =tempt and breach of the Publick Order. The Ship Sailed on Wednesday y[e] 9[th] of Febr[ry] 171[..]/[..]

Margin Notes:

Provisions sent on board y[e] french Ship

[...] Geo: Haswell

Math: Bazett

Antipas Tovey

M[r] Carne bound to his good behaviour.

The French ship had been sent on board the following provisions, besides what they had spent ashore and what Mr Carne had sent secretly on board.

Goats, 108.

Sheep, 8.

Hogs, 8.

Geese, 3.

Fowls, 15 dozen and 7.

Turkeys, 6.

Ducks, 23.

Sacks of beans, 6.

Bushels of yams, 2.

Cheeses, 5.

Casks of bread, 2.

Casks of flour, 5.

Boats laden with plantain trees, 2.

Greens and fish were also supplied. The French paid for all of this in French brandy, at 5s 0d per gallon.

Notwithstanding all these provisions sent off from Mr Carne's, there were two bullocks sent privately on board. The governor, having notice thereof, sent and stopped three quarters of beef in three bags till it could be found out who had sent them. Carne came forward and owned that he had killed the beef for the French. The governor bound him to his good behaviour for his wilful contempt and breach of the public order.

The ship sailed on Wednesday 9 February 1715.

The record was signed by Pyke, George Haswell, Matthew Bazett and Ardipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The total list of supplies put on board the Jason set out the practical capacity of the island to victual a large foreign warship under the regulated regime in force. The bulk of the meat was furnished by 108 goats, with hogs, sheep, fowls, turkeys, ducks and geese making up the rest. The plant provisions consisted of beans, yams, plantains and greens, with bread and flour for shipboard baking, and cheeses as a keeping food for the voyage. The fish was supplied through the arrangement with the licensed fisherman set out in the governor's letter to Le Blanc, by which the ship's own boats were kept from sounding the harbour. The composition of the list confirms that the island's planter economy, even in the wake of the cattle famine, could deliver a substantial bulk of refreshment to a 700-ton ship within a fortnight.

The payment in French brandy at 5s 0d per gallon set the exchange rate of the transaction in commodity rather than coin. The French ship, lacking sterling and unwilling to part with specie, settled the account in spirits drawn from her own cargo, valued at a fixed unit price for the purpose. Brandy at this rate was an acceptable medium of payment on the island because it could be resold to the planters and to subsequent shipping at advantage, and the standard pricing allowed both sides to reckon the value of the supplies in a common term without further negotiation. The arrangement converted a French royal vessel's want of provisions into a stock of European spirits for the island's market.

The interception of the two bullocks killed by Carne and sent privately on board, in three quarters of beef in three bags, gave the council the direct evidence of his second offence against the published order. The first incident had been the matter cancelled and re-entered at 8 February 1715, where the bagging of beef had already been characterised as a private supply contrary to the advertisement of 29 January 1715. The repetition of the conduct, in the very form of three quarters in three bags previously used, showed that Carne had continued his trade with the French even after the first prosecution had been opened against him, and that the council's vigilance through the Sugar Loaf signal and the inspection of provisions leaving the shore had been needed to detect the second instance.

The disposition of the case by binding Carne to his good behaviour, rather than by formal trial, paralleled the procedure followed at the consultation of 8 February 1715. The governor treated the offence as a breach of administrative regulation rather than as a criminal felony, and used the recognizance as the operative restraint pending any further action. By taking the bond on the spot, before the ship sailed and the immediate occasion passed, the council secured Carne's continued submission to the published order without removing him from his trade or his household. The procedure preserved the inhabitant's standing on the island while making him pay for his contempt of the council's authority through the contingent forfeiture of the bond.

Speculations

The very precision with which Carne's smuggled beef matched the unit of three quarters in three bags suggests that the bagging of beef in this form had become an established practice between his household and the French ship's purveyors, perhaps even a regular delivery unit fixed at the outset of the visit. The repetition of the same packaging from the earlier offence to this one points to a routine method of clandestine supply, with a familiar division into manageable parcels for stealthy embarkation by boat at night. The governor's seizure of the bags as soon as they were identified shows that the council too had come to expect this form, and was watching for it.

The choice of brandy as the medium of payment hints at a deliberate French strategy for paying their way at small ports along their trade routes without expending coin. By carrying a stock of brandy specifically for victualling and refreshment payments, the Jason's purveyors could draw on European supplies far more readily than on silver, and could leave behind a commodity that the receiving port could readily convert into local circulation. The arrangement gave the French royal vessel the practical means to refresh at the island even in time of war or trade restriction, since brandy could be presented as a customary article rather than as bullion subject to closer scrutiny.

372

363

Island S[t]: Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 15[th] day of February 1714/5 at the United Castle in James valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]. Govern[r]. George Haswell Dp[t]y Edw[d] Mashborne 3[d] in y[e] Country Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s]: Tovey 5[th] in Coun[c].

Prest

The following Petitions were Presented.

Island S[t]: Helena. To the Worship[full]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r]: &c[a]: and Council. The most Humble Petition of William Worrall quart[r]: Gunner who is Constantly Employed in the Hono[ble]. Companys Works. Humbly Sheweth That whereas your Petit[r]: haveing formerly held a Parcell of Land that contained about twelve Acres, but on the Death of your Petition[rs] wife Lett it to his friend John Welch to Occupie the Same, and he the said John Welch being Since dec[d]: his Widdow finds herself Not able to Look after it and is therefore very willing to resign it againe Wherefore your said Petit[r]: Humbly Crays Your Worship &c[a]: and Council will be pleased to Lett him have that Land againe all Parties Concern'd being Consenting

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena

W[m]: Worrall desires y[t] Land again he formerly had.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 15 February 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, third, and clerk of the council; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The following petitions were presented.

The petition of William Worrall, quarter gunner, who was constantly employed in the Honourable Company's works, was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke, governor, and the council.

Worrall set out that he had formerly held a parcel of land containing about 12 acres, but on the death of his wife he had let it to his friend John Welch to occupy. John Welch had since died, and his widow now found herself not able to look after the land and was therefore very willing to resign it again. Worrall therefore humbly begged that the worshipful governor and council would be pleased to let him have that land again, all parties concerned being

Interpretations

The office of quarter gunner placed Worrall in the technical artillery establishment of the garrison, as an assistant to the gunner responsible for the maintenance of the cannon, powder, shot and gun carriages of the island's forts. The post was a fixed appointment with a regular wage, and the description of him as constantly employed in the Company's works indicated that he also undertook the routine labour of the establishment on the platforms and magazine when not occupied with the artillery itself. His standing as a uniformed servant of the Company on continuous duty distinguished him from the planter petitioners and gave his application a particular institutional weight.

The mechanism by which Worrall had transferred his land to John Welch on the death of his wife reflected the customary practice on St Helena by which the parcels held under Company lease were managed through informal arrangements between named planters during the lifetime of the original holder. The arrangement allowed a soldier-tenant who could no longer work his ground to keep his lease alive through a friend's occupation, without formal reassignment by the council. The death of Welch and the inability of his widow to continue the cultivation now broke the chain and required the council's intervention to restore the land to Worrall or to redirect it elsewhere.

The widow of John Welch, named only in this capacity, exemplifies the position of a recently widowed planter woman whose ability to retain her late husband's holding turned on her practical capacity to work it. Where the labour or means were lacking, the surrender of the parcel through a petition of the original lessor offered an orderly route by which the land could be returned to the previous holder without dispute over inheritance or arrears. The widow's expressed willingness to resign brought all parties into agreement and presented the council with a clear administrative request rather than a contested cause.

The figure of 12 acres named for the parcel placed Worrall's holding in the range of the smaller planter lots on the island. Such a parcel was sufficient to support a modest household with a mixed economy of vegetables, fruit and small livestock, but not large enough to support a planter family on cultivation alone. The pairing of land of this size with a wage from the artillery establishment was a characteristic feature of the island's settler economy, by which soldiers and minor officers supplemented their pay with the produce of small grants worked by their families and a few slaves.

Speculations

The bringing of Worrall's petition at the very first consultation following the Jason's departure points to a pattern in which the council, now freed from the diplomatic and provisioning business of the past fortnight, turned to a backlog of routine administrative matters from the island's own inhabitants. Petitions for the recovery or transfer of land had probably been held over while the foreign ship was in port, and the present sitting on 15 February 1715 was the first opportunity for the council to dispose of them. The promptness with which Worrall came forward, before any other claimant might be put forward for the same parcel, suggests that he had been waiting on the right moment to present his case to the new governor.

The framing of the petition around the consent of all parties, including the widow of John Welch, suggests a careful effort by Worrall to remove any ground on which the council might delay or refuse the application. By securing the widow's agreement in advance, he turned what could have been a contested matter into a settlement to be ratified, and presented the council with the path of least resistance. The approach reflected the practical wisdom of an inhabitant familiar with the council's procedures, and the kind of orderly groundwork that the new governor had explicitly invited in his opening address.

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364

Consenting thereto, and your Petitioner being now on the Point of Marriage hopes he Shall again be Capable to Look after it And yo[r]: Petitioner (as in duty bound) Shall ever pray &c[a] Will[m]: Worrall.

Which was granted.

Island S[t] Helena. To the Worsh[ll]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r] &c[a] and Council. The most Humble Petition of John Long free planter. Humbly Sheweth.

That your Petitioner haveing Delivered Sixty Eight Goats in Chappele Valley, whereof forty five were Ews and was to have but Ten Ewes in Sandy bay, Humbly prays that in Considerati =on of his haveing Delivered So many breeders That your Worship and Council will Please to grant him ten more in all Twenty in Sandy =bay, being not half the breeders he had here and he will make up the Sixty Eight Seventy which with what Else he has Promised & is ready to Deliver will pay his debt to the Hon[ble]: Company. Feb[ry] y[e] 15[th] 1714/5 And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in duty bound) shall for ever pray. Jn[o]: Long.

Ordered that the Consideration of the said Petition be referred to the Govern[r] and Cap[tn]. Mashborne The.

Margin Notes:

Granted him.

Island S[t]: Helena

Jn[o]: Long desires 20: Ewe Goats in Sandy bay.

Feb[ry] y[e] 15[th] 1714/5

y[e] Same referr'd to y[e] Gov[r] &c[a]

All parties were consenting to the arrangement. Worrall, now on the point of marriage, hoped that he would again be capable of looking after the land. The petitioner, as in duty bound, undertook to pray for the worshipful governor and council. The petition was signed William Worrall.

The petition was granted.

Island of St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, governor, and the council. The petition of John Long, free planter.

Long set out that he had earlier delivered 68 goats in Chapel Valley, of which 40 were ewes, and that he had only 10 ewes left in Sandy Bay. He humbly prayed that, in consideration of his having delivered so many breeders, the worshipful governor and council would be pleased to grant him ten more, in all twenty, in Sandy Bay, being not half the breeders he had earlier. He would then make up the 68 to 70, which with what else he had promised and was ready to deliver, would pay his debt to the Honourable Company.

The petition was dated 15 February 1715 and signed John Long.

It was ordered that consideration of the petition be referred to the governor and Captain Mashborne.

Interpretations

The grant of Worrall's petition restored him to a 12-acre parcel that he had let to a friend during his widowhood. The council's willingness to receive him back as lessor on the strength of his approaching marriage reflected a settled view that land on the island was best held by men with households to support and labour to apply, and that a fresh marriage gave a sufficient warrant for the return of a holding suspended during a period of bereavement. The decision tied the disposition of land to the formation of new family economies on the place.

The description of John Long as a free planter distinguished him from the Company's contracted servants on the one hand and from any indentured or bonded labourer on the other. The term denoted a settler holding land under direct lease from the Lords Proprietors, with the right to dispose of his own labour and produce as he saw fit, subject to the obligations attached to his tenure. The status carried with it both privilege and accountability, and Long's petition was framed against the background of a specific livestock debt owed to the Company under the terms of his lease.

The structure of Long's debt to the Company was reckoned in breeding stock rather than in money. The figure of 68 goats already delivered in Chapel Valley, of which 40 were ewes, identified the means by which he had been discharging his obligation, and the 10 ewes left in Sandy Bay represented his current breeding capacity in the southern part of the island. The request for ten more goats from Sandy Bay, to bring his stock there to twenty breeders, was framed not as a fresh grant but as a release back to him of breeding animals from his earlier deliveries, on the ground that his current holding was less than half the breeders he had previously kept in that quarter.

Chapel Valley and Sandy Bay denoted two distinct districts of the island, separated by the central upland and offering different pasture and climate to the livestock kept in each. Chapel Valley lay to the leeward of the central ridge, while Sandy Bay lay to windward on the south, and the two together formed complementary grazing districts for the small planters' goat economy. The reckoning of livestock contributions in both places, with a deficit in one to be made good by a transfer from the council's stock, illustrated the practice by which Company holdings of breeding stock served as a reserve for the redistribution of animals between settled districts.

The reference of the petition to the governor and Captain Mashborne for further consideration showed the routine division of council business between full sittings and committee inquiry. Mashborne held the third place in council and was here designated by his military title of captain, which marked him as the senior military officer on the bench and the appropriate person to inspect the practical question of livestock numbers and pastures alongside the governor. The committee form of disposition gave the case the attention it required without delaying the conduct of further business at the present consultation.

Speculations

The pairing of Worrall's land petition with Long's livestock petition at the same consultation suggests that the council had reserved this first quiet sitting after the Jason's departure for the orderly disposal of inhabitants' applications relating to their tenures and dues. The character of the matters, both involving the practical adjustment of property arrangements between an individual settler and the Company, fits the programme of regularisation that Pyke had set out at the opening of the sessions a week earlier, when he had promised to call in debts, survey plantations and have due accounts kept in the Company's books. The 15 February 1715 consultation gave him the first opportunity to put that programme into practice on individual cases.

The very particularity with which Long itemised his goats, distinguishing breeders from the rest and naming the valleys in which each portion was held, points to an established practice of detailed livestock accounting between the Company and its planter tenants. The reference of the petition to the governor and Mashborne for inspection rather than for outright grant suggests that the council intended to verify the figures on the ground before adjusting Long's account, perhaps by inspection of the herds in both Chapel Valley and Sandy Bay. The procedure protected the Company from claims based on inflated numbers and gave the planter a defined route through which a genuine claim of over-delivery could be tested.

374

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The Govern[r]: Reports that on Saturday last he pounded at the Hon[ble]: Companys new pound in Chapple valley, and received of M[r] Carne Thirty Eight Ews twenty Six weathers and Nineteen Kidds, of John Long forty five Ews Ten weathers and Ten kidds of Francis Wrangham twenty Eight Ews Ten weathers and Eight Kidds and of Thomas Free's one Kidd. And that whereas they were Markt w[th] The Comp[as] mark in Pitch the first time some were delivered but Since some of y[e] mark hath been worn Out which has Occasioned the Govern[r]: to alter that Mark, by Letting M[r] Carnes Mark Remain on the Left Ear, and Cropt half the right Ear off, and so he has done by them all, which he thinks Sufficient to know the Companys Goats from any others.

There being a pretty Deal of Writeing about the Tryalls aforesaid and other business the Govern[r] thinks it Convenient that all Matters be Enterd in the fair Council Book before any more Consultations be held.

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Goats rec[d]. in y[is] Valley 193 and of whom

their Ears Mark altered.

The governor reported that on the previous Saturday he had pounded at the Honourable Company's new pound in Chapel Valley and received the following goats. From Mr Carne, 38 ewes, 26 wethers and 19 kids. From John Long, 45 ewes, 10 wethers and 10 kids. From Francis Wrangham, 28 ewes, 10 wethers and 8 kids. From Thomas Spree, 1 kid. The total received in the valley was 195 goats.

The animals had been marked with the Company's mark in pitch when first delivered. Since some had worn off the mark, the governor had altered it. He let Mr Carne's mark remain on the left ear, and cropped half the right ear off all the rest. He thought this sufficient to know the Company's goats from any others.

There being a great deal of writing about the trials and other business, the governor thought it convenient that all matters be entered in the fair council book before any more consultations were held.

The record was signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey.

Interpretations

The pound at Chapel Valley served as the council's central holding place for livestock owed to or in dispute with the Company, and the present entry recorded the receipt there of goats delivered by four named planters in part discharge of their stock obligations. The figure of 195 goats taken in at this one impounding represented a substantial transfer of breeding capital from private hands to Company stock, and gave concrete effect to the policy of regularising the planters' debts that had been outlined in Pyke's opening address of 7 February 1715. The new pound itself appears to have been a recent construction in the valley, providing a controlled enclosure in which received animals could be marked, counted and held until distributed.

John Long's appearance among the deliverers, with 45 ewes, 10 wethers and 10 kids, links this entry directly to his petition of 15 February 1715 considered at the previous consultation. The 65 animals delivered here support the figure of 68 goats already given in Chapel Valley that Long had cited in his petition, with allowance for small variations in the count between the planter's record and the pound's intake. The present entry therefore serves as the council's own verification of the figures referred to the governor and Mashborne for consideration, and supplies the documentary basis on which a decision on Long's request for ten more breeders in Sandy Bay could be made.

Carne's appearance as the largest single contributor to the pound, with 83 goats delivered, places his discharge of livestock obligations in striking contrast with his recent prosecutions for clandestine supply of beef to the Jason on 8 and 9 February 1715. The governor's decision to let Carne's mark remain on the left ear, while cropping half the right ear of all other animals, drew a distinction between Carne's stock and the others within the very system of pound marking. The reasoning may have been administrative, in that Carne's goats had retained their original mark in legible form and did not need re-marking, but the visible separation of his animals from those of Long, Wrangham and Spree also fitted the pattern of close watch maintained on Carne's holdings since his bond of 8 February 1715.

The marking system used pitch as the medium for the Company's mark, applied at the time of first delivery, and the present alteration to cropping the right ear addressed the practical problem of pitch marks wearing off in the field. Ear cropping was a permanent mark in the animal's own flesh and gave the Company an indelible identification of its stock. The choice of half the right ear, rather than a full crop or a slit, made the mark distinctive without serious injury to the animal or reduction in its value. Wrangham, named here as a deliverer of 46 goats, was identified in the master reference as a planter of standing whose holding lay in the upland districts.

The governor's instruction that all matters be entered in the fair council book before any more consultations were held disclosed the bookkeeping practice of the council. The record kept during sittings was apparently a working draft, with the writing up of the formal record into a second, fair copy carried out subsequently by the clerk. The volume of business since 24 January 1715, including two general sessions days, the Jason dossier and the present livestock entries, had created a substantial backlog of material to be entered in fair, and Pyke evidently preferred to bring the formal record up to date before more business was added.

Speculations

The decision to crop the right ear of all the goats but Carne's, while letting the original pitch mark on Carne's animals remain, points to a deliberate physical separation of Carne's stock from the rest within the Company's holdings. With Carne already bound to his good behaviour for two breaches of the order of 29 January 1715, and with the council still watching for further attempts at clandestine dealing, an identifiable cohort of his goats kept on a different mark gave the governor an immediate means to trace them if any were later found in suspicious hands or contexts. The arrangement built into the routine pound work an enhanced surveillance over the very planter whose recent conduct had given the council most cause for concern.

The governor's emphasis on bringing the fair council book up to date before further consultations were held suggests that he placed particular weight on the formal record as the foundation of his administration. Pyke had committed himself in his opening address of 7 February 1715 to the keeping of due accounts and the sending of duplicates to the Honourable Company, and the present instruction gave practical effect to that principle within the council's own records. By insisting that the fair book catch up with the working notes before new matters were entered, he ensured that the documentary trail of his early administration would be complete and that the council's authority would rest on a record fit to be transmitted to the Lords Proprietors in London.

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366

Island S[t]: Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Fryday the 11[th] Day of March 1714/5 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r]: George Haswell Dpt[y] Edw[d] Mashborne Sick Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th]. in Coun[c].

Present

The Gov[d]: demands of M[r] Bazett why he has not delivered in his Monthly Acc[t] he replyd he would go & fetch them & the Gov[d]: then demanding why they were kept back so long & not delivered before He went & brought One months Acco[unt] fair write & the others to the 25[th] of Febr[y] foul which he Said he had not time to write Out fair, So he carried them up new foul work & Blotted not fitt to receive, & will write them out against next Consultation day.

The Gov[r] saith he intends to fine M[r] Carne Ten pounds for Transgressing the Publick Ordinance forbidding the Selling Beef to Foreigners. The Other Justices are of Opinion that it ought to be Ordered. That after this Ship is gone no more Arrack or Tea be bought Out of any Ship any further then what pays their Accounts in the Stores to prevent the drawing more Bills on Our Hon[ble]: Masters. Agreed and Accordingly. Ordered

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena.

Gov[ds] Demand of y[e] monthly Acco[t] & M[r] Bazetts reply

& Blotted not fitt to rec[d], & will writ[e] them out against next Consultation day.

M[r] Carne to be fin'd 10[lb]

No more Arrack &c[a] to be bought out of Ships to prevent draw Bills.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Friday 11 March 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, sick; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The governor demanded of Mr Bazett why he had not delivered in his monthly accounts. Bazett replied that he would go and fetch them. The governor then demanded why they were kept back so long and not delivered before. Bazett went and brought one month's account fair written, and the others to the 25 February foul, which he said he had not had time to write out fair. He carried them away, foul as they were, and would write them out against the next consultation day.

The governor said he intended to fine Mr Carne £10 0s 0d for transgressing the public ordinance forbidding the selling of beef to foreigners. The other members of the council were of opinion that it ought to be so.

It was ordered that after this ship was gone, no more arrack or tea should be bought out of any ship any further than what paid their accounts in the Company's stores, to prevent the drawing of more bills on our Honourable Masters. Agreed and ordered accordingly.

Interpretations

The dispute over Bazett's monthly accounts gave practical effect to the bookkeeping discipline that Pyke had set out at the opening of the sessions of 7 February 1715, and again at the entry of 27 February 1715 when he had directed that all matters be brought up to date in the fair council book before further consultations were held. Bazett held the fourth place in council and had general responsibility for accounts that fell to his department, and the demand for explanation in open council placed his failure on the formal record. The distinction between the fair account, written out in proper form for delivery and inspection, and the foul account, kept as rough working notes by the officer himself, reflected the standard two-stage process by which public accounts on the island were prepared.

The fine of £10 0s 0d to be imposed on Carne for breach of the public ordinance forbidding the sale of beef to foreigners brought to a head the proceedings against him that had begun on 8 February 1715 and continued at 9 February 1715. The sum matched exactly the fine imposed on Thomas Bevar of the Aurengzebe on 24 January 1715 for the attempted abduction of the slave woman Abigail valued at £50 0s 0d, and represented the council's standard tariff for offences of this order of seriousness. The council's collective endorsement, recorded in the entry, gave the governor the formal backing of the bench for a penalty he had decided in his own mind, and converted his intention into a council order.

The decision to limit future purchases of arrack and tea from visiting ships to the value of the accounts paid by those ships in the Company's stores addressed a chronic problem of the island's commercial regime. Arrack was the spirit distilled from rice, palm or sugar that was the principal alcoholic refreshment of European crews in the East, while tea had become a major article of the Company's homeward trade from China. Both were customarily carried by Indiamen as private trade or as part of the cargo, and could be acquired by the island's inhabitants on credit drawn on the Company in London. The drawing of bills on the Lords Proprietors for the payment of such purchases had evidently reached a level that the new administration considered unsustainable.

The arrangement provided that no further bills would be issued by the council in payment for arrack and tea, beyond what could be set against the credits earned by the visiting ships in the Company's stores at St Helena. The mechanism converted the trade from one in which the Company in London ultimately paid for the inhabitants' refreshment into a closed circuit in which the ships paid for their own provisions out of what they were willing to take in commodity at the island. The order extended the principle of bookkeeping discipline from the council's own accounts to the wider commercial relations between the island and the Company's shipping.

Speculations

The placing on the record of Bazett's failure to deliver his accounts in fair form, in language that names the officer and quotes his successive excuses, gave Pyke a documentary basis for any future action against a colleague who had failed in the duty of his place. Bazett had sat on the bench through the trials of 24 January 1715, had received from the slave Jenny's master William Seale the payment of his slaughtered pig on 7 February 1715, and had signed the entry of 9 February 1715 with the rest of the council. By exposing him to formal interrogation on his accounts before the same colleagues, the governor put a senior councillor under explicit notice that the standards of the new administration applied to the bench as well as to the inhabitants.

The order limiting purchases of arrack and tea to what could be set against the visiting ships' own accounts in the Company's stores suggests that the inhabitants had been running up substantial debts to the Company through the consumption of imported refreshment, paid for by bills drawn on London. The reform shifted the cost of such consumption directly onto the inhabitants and the visiting ships between them, and removed from the council the politically awkward role of intermediary in a flow of bills that was ultimately weakening the Company's accounts in London. The change of policy fitted with the Lords Proprietors' direction, communicated by Pyke on 7 February 1715, that the Company was retrenching its expenses across the island.

376

367

Order'd, That all proper Advertisem[ts] which 'tis usual to publish at at this time in order to the settling of Acc[ts] to the 25[th] March instant be forthwith Published & that there be no serving out in the Hon[r]: Comp[as]: Stores from the 25[th] March till fourteen days after. M[r] Gabriel Powel One of the Exec[rs] of M[r] Cha[s]: Steward Dec[d] proposed to Sell to the Hon[ble]: Comp[a] Two thirds of the proce =sions now growing on y[e] Land of the said Steward & also two Young Slaves named Pompey & Roger Likewise Ten Beevs and Twenty hogs And also M[r] Powell will on his own Acc[t]: part with all the Goats he has in Lemon Vally range. Order'd That the Consideration of the said proposal be referr[d] to the Gov[r]: Cap[t]: Mashborne & M[r] Bazett. Order'd That an Advertizem[t]: be Publisht that when the inhabitants will Sell Beef at Twenty five Shillings y[e] Hundred they shall buy Arrack out of the Hon[r]: Comp[as] Stores at Six Shillings p[r] Gallon. On the 19[th] of Feb[r]: last came in a French ship called the S[t] Lewis Cap[t] Le Barn afsi[..]e Coward Burthen about 500. Tons. 250 men bound from India but last from the Cape for France and is a private Stock Ship trading by y[e] King of Frances Lycense. The Gov[r]: sent off to her to tell them they must send their Boat on Shoar asoon as called too but they take no notice thereof but came directly to an Anchor in the road & did not Salute then sent the Boa[t]

Margin Notes:

Acc[ts] to be settled to 25[th] M[r]ch &c[a] to[th]

Provisions of Cha[s] Stewards y[e] Slaves offer[d] to Sale.

referr'd to furth[r] Consideratio[n].

When Beef Sold at 25 p[r] hund[ed] mark at 6 [s] p[r] Gal[lon]

French Ships Arrivall

Gov[ds] Message to y[e] Cap[t]

It was ordered that all proper advertisements which were usually published at this time for the settling of accounts to 25 March instant be forthwith published, and that there be no serving out from the Honourable Company's stores from 25 March until fourteen days afterwards.

Mr Gabriel Powel, one of the executors of Mr Charles Steward, deceased, proposed to sell to the Honourable Company two thirds of the provisions now growing on the lands of Steward, together with the young slaves named Pompey and Roger. He also offered 10 beeves and 20 hogs. On his own account, Powel offered to part with all the goats he had in Lemon Valley range.

It was ordered that consideration of the proposal be referred to the governor, Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett.

It was ordered that an advertisement be published stating that when the inhabitants would sell beef at 25s 0d per hundred, they should buy arrack out of the Honourable Company's stores at 6s 0d per gallon.

On 19 February 1715 there came in a French ship called the St Lewis, Captain Le Barn, a prize of war, of burden about 500 tons, with 250 men, bound from India but last from the Cape for France, a private stock ship trading by the King of France's licence.

The governor sent off to her to tell them they must send their boat ashore as soon as called to, but they took no notice and came directly to an anchor in the road, and did not salute. The governor then sent the

Interpretations

The settling of accounts to 25 March, with the suspension of supply from the Company's stores for fourteen days afterwards, observed the English administrative year that ended on 24 March under the old style calendar. The closure gave the council's officers a clear interval in which to bring all transactions to a fixed point, balance the books and prepare the year's accounts for transmission to the Lords Proprietors. The accompanying advertisement ensured that the inhabitants knew the deadline for any outstanding business at the stores before the cut-off date.

The proposal from Gabriel Powel as executor of Charles Steward provided a worked example of the practice by which the estates of deceased planters were partly liquidated through sales to the Company. Two thirds of the standing provisions on Steward's lands, together with two young slaves named Pompey and Roger and a stock of 10 beeves and 20 hogs, were offered together as a single package, with Powel separately offering his own goats from Lemon Valley range. The arrangement allowed the executor to convert a deceased man's productive estate into ready value through a single transaction with the Company, while preserving the remaining third of the crop for the benefit of the heirs or other creditors. The reference of the proposal to a committee of the governor, Mashborne and Bazett followed the same pattern as Long's livestock petition on 15 February 1715 and supplied the council's standard mechanism for evaluating offers of this kind.

The trade of beef for arrack, set out in the published rate of 25s 0d per hundred for beef against 6s 0d per gallon for arrack, established a fixed conversion between the principal article of provision the planters could sell to the Company and the principal article of refreshment they wished to buy from the Company's stores. The pricing in hundreds of pounds weight reflected the standard unit of beef accounting on the island, where a hundredweight of beef was the conventional measure for sale to shipping. The arrangement gave the planters a clear commercial signal as to the terms on which they could obtain arrack without the council needing to draw bills on London, and so put into practice the principle ordered at the start of the present consultation.

The arrival of the St Lewis on 19 February 1715, identified as a prize of war trading on the King of France's licence and on a private stock, presented the council with a second French vessel within a month of the Jason's departure on 9 February 1715. The ship's status as a prize indicated that her hull had been captured from a hostile power in an earlier conflict and put into French service, while her present voyage under licence placed her in the same hybrid category of royal vessel hired to private merchants that had applied to the Jason. Captain Le Barn's failure to send a boat ashore when called, to salute on coming to anchor or to take notice of the governor's signal, departed from the diplomatic forms that had governed the Jason's reception and gave the governor cause to reach for the more peremptory measures that had been held in reserve in the earlier encounter.

Speculations

The decision to publish a fixed exchange rate of beef against arrack, rather than to allow private bargaining at the stores, points to a deliberate use of the Company's monopoly position to set the terms of the island's internal market. By offering 6s 0d arrack to the planter who would deliver beef at 25s 0d the hundred, the council fixed both prices in a single advertised relation and removed any room for individual negotiation. The arrangement gave the inhabitants a strong incentive to bring beef to the stores once the cattle herds recovered from the famine, and aligned the planters' commercial interest with the Company's need to provision its own shipping.

The contrast between Le Barn's behaviour on arrival and the conduct of the Jason on 29 January 1715 suggests that the St Lewis either was not aware of the protocol observed at the island, or considered herself entitled to enter the road without going through the customary forms because of her status as a prize and the new peace between the crowns. The governor's recourse to a further signal off to the ship indicates an effort to bring her into compliance with the established procedure before any salute was exchanged, and a determination to require the same forms from this second French visitor as from the first. The handling of the encounter would set the precedent for the council's reception of further French ships under the new state of peace.

377

368

Boat on shoar with a Lieu[t]. & he Said theirs was the Kings Ship & traded by his Lycense w[ch] was given as an Hon[ble] reward to several of the Cap[ts] who had behaved themselves well in the Wars and therefore y[e] Cap[t] expected to be treated in all respects as well as any man of War had been, and Sayed they only wanted Water haveing been at the Cape & heard of the Scarcity of provisions here had Stored themselves with all necessary The Gov[d] told him they ought to have Sent in their boat according to the Order of of Banks. however because t'was time of Peace he had Suffered them to come in, but as for treating a Merch[t] ship in all respects in the same manner as a Man of War he could not do it, but if the Cap[t] would fire three Guns he should be answered with three guns and if He fired never so many should have all but two return'd as is Customary, he sayd he would go on board & acquaint his Cap[t] and desired Liberty to Send their Cask on shoar to be filled with water and after two hours, return'd with this message, that the Kings ships could not in Hon[r]. fire so small a Number as three Guns for a Salute, neither would he Salute the Fort unless he had the Gov[ds] word that he should have Gun for Gun but would fill his Water Cask according to the Treaty of Peace and fire no Guns at all. upon which the Gov[r] Sent a Couple of Nimble men up the Side of the mountain & turned off the Water, when they found the water did not run they Spent all the

Margin Notes:

Lieut[t] came on Shoar.

his & Answer.

Gov[ds] reply.

theirs.

further discourse

The governor sent the boat ashore with a lieutenant. He said that the St Lewis was the King's ship, and traded under the King's licence, which had been given as an honourable reward to several of the captains who had behaved themselves well in the wars. The captain therefore expected to be treated in all respects as well as any man of war had been. He said they only wanted water, having been at the Cape and heard of the scarcity of provisions here, and had stored themselves there with all necessaries.

The governor replied that they ought to have sent in their boat according to the order of Banks's Fort. Because it was time of peace, he had however suffered them to come in, but as for treating a merchant ship in all respects in the same manner as a man of war, he could not do it. If the captain would fire three guns, he should be answered with three guns, and if he fired nine so many should have all but two returned as was customary.

The lieutenant said he would go on board and acquaint his captain, and desired liberty to send their cask ashore to be filled with water. After two hours he returned with this message. The King's ships could not in honour fire so small a number as three guns for a salute, neither would he salute the fort unless he had the governor's word that he should have gun for gun. He would, however, fill his water casks according to the treaty of peace, and fire no guns at all.

Upon this the governor sent a couple of nimble men up the side of the mountain and turned off the water. When the French found the water did not run, they spent all

Interpretations

The lieutenant's account of the King's licence as an honourable reward to captains who had served well in the wars set out a particular feature of the French royal commercial system in the closing years of the long European war. The grant of trading rights to a private syndicate, with a royal vessel and the use of the King's flag, was used in France as a means both of rewarding meritorious service and of mobilising private capital for voyages that the crown could not finance directly. The arrangement gave the recipient captain a share in the profits of the voyage in lieu of pay or pension, and made the licence a valuable distinction in its own right. The framing of the St Lewis's status in these terms invited the governor to accord her the full courtesies of a royal vessel.

The governor's distinction between a man of war and a merchant ship, made in answer to the lieutenant's claim, drew the same line he had taken with the Jason on 29 January 1715. The salute of gun for gun was reserved for an undoubted royal vessel that had announced herself by sending in her boat at the order of the fort. A merchant ship, however armed and however licensed, received a graduated salute that acknowledged her standing without conceding her the full honours of war. The principle was the same one Pyke had applied in the earlier encounter, and the consistency of his application across the two ships gave the protocol the standing of a settled rule of the port.

The proposed schedule of three guns answered by three, or nine answered by all but two, set out the working scale for partial salutes at the island. The numbers below the man of war's full reciprocity recognised the visiting ship's good intentions and the new state of peace, while withholding the equality of gun for gun that the lieutenant claimed. The lieutenant's refusal to fire so small a number as three, on the ground of the King's honour, and his alternative offer to fire no guns at all in exchange for water under the treaty of peace, marked the limits within which the French were prepared to negotiate the form of their reception.

The diversion of the water supply by the governor's nimble men, dispatched up the side of the mountain to turn off the flow, applied to the St Lewis a direct material pressure that no diplomatic exchange could meet. The fresh water of James Town descended from upland sources by gravity through channels and watercourses, and any vessel relying on the harbour for refilling her casks depended entirely on access to that flow. By cutting it off at source, Pyke deprived the ship of the one supply she had come for, and converted her refusal of the salute into an immediate practical problem. The episode illustrated the leverage available to the council over visiting ships by virtue of the island's monopoly of the upland springs that fed the watering place at the road.

Speculations

The decision to turn off the water rather than to engage in any further exchange of messages indicates that Pyke had judged the lieutenant's refusal to salute as a deliberate test of his resolve, and had decided to answer it with an act rather than with words. The diplomatic protocol had been negotiated at length with the Jason, and the St Lewis had now reopened the question in terms that the governor was not prepared to accept. By turning off the water immediately on receipt of the lieutenant's reply, Pyke shifted the exchange from a question of honour, in which the captain's pride was at stake, to a question of supply, in which his ability to continue the voyage was at stake. The action thus reframed the encounter on terms favourable to the council.

The choice of a couple of nimble men, dispatched quietly to the upland source rather than openly through the watering place, points to a calculated discretion in the application of pressure. By cutting the supply at its origin rather than confronting the French boats at the shore, the governor avoided any visible act of hostility that might have provoked a response on the part of the ship's officers, while still producing the effect he wanted. The arrangement preserved the surface of cordiality between fort and ship and left the French to work out for themselves the cause of their predicament, which gave them time to reconsider their position without losing face publicly.

378

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the rest of that night in carrying off their empty Cask but the next morning sent word he would Salute according to the En =glish method & he fired Seven Guns & was Answred with five then he fired One for thanks upon w[ch] y[e] Gov[d] invited him and his Lieut[t] on shoare & they dined at the Fort & there the Cap[t] said that he was not the Kings Cap[t] but the Kings ship and that it was in all their ports it is Ordered that when any of the Kings ships come in, they shall Lose no Hon[r] by their going on a Tradeing Voyage but be treated still as Men of War which was the reason of his message & they went off well satisfied On Saturday y[e] 19. in the Evening the Mercury Cap[t]: Geo: Lytton Com[r] Sailed hence and on Tuesday the 22[d]. The S[t] Lewis Sailed.

The Following Letter was Sent from M[r] Geo: Carne to y[e] Governor.

S[r] S[t] Davids day 1714/5

Having been Lately much Indisposed very little better at present & my Blacks not able to carry me down have sent my Neph[w] Beal with this to request, y[t] after so much trouble & continual charge these four years last past by me Sustained, and after having gain'd the ill will of some & censure of others) you would take them particularly into y[e] Govern[ts] care, w[ch] may be the easier performed being I never rec[d] any thing of theirs into my possession & were I sure (farther then what Charity & affinity might persuade) to gain 100[lb] would

Margin Notes:

French & Eng[lish] Ships Sail'd.

M[r] Carnes Letter to y[e] Governor.

The French spent the rest of that night carrying off their empty casks. The next morning, the captain sent word that he would salute according to the English method. He fired seven guns, and was answered with five. He then fired one for thanks, on which the governor invited him and his lieutenant ashore. They dined at the fort, and there the captain said that he was not the King's captain, but that it was the King's ship. In all their ports it was ordered that when any of the King's ships came in, they should lose no honour by their going on a trading voyage, but be treated still as men of war. This was the reason of his earlier message. They went off well satisfied.

On Saturday 19 March 1715, in the evening, the Mercury, Captain George Lytton commander, sailed from the island. On Tuesday 22 March 1715, the St Lewis sailed.

The following letter was sent from Mr George Carne to the governor, dated St David's Day 1715.

Carne wrote that he had been lately much indisposed, was very little better at present, and that his slaves were not able to carry him down. He had therefore sent his nephew Beal with the letter, to request that, after so much trouble and continual charge as he had sustained these four years last past, and after having gained the ill will of some and censure of others, the governor would take them particularly into his care, which might be the easier performed, since Carne had never received anything of theirs into his possession, and would be sure, further than charity and affinity might persuade, to gain £100 0s 0d

Interpretations

The captain's resolution of the salute dispute, by accepting the English method at seven guns answered with five and adding a single gun for thanks, gave Pyke the form of acknowledgement he had insisted on from the outset. The exchange settled the question of precedence in favour of the governor's reading of the protocol, and the captain's subsequent explanation at the fort, that royal ships on trading voyages were to be treated as men of war by order of the King's ports, framed his earlier resistance as a point of policy rather than personal pretension. By dining the captain and his lieutenant at the fort after the salute had been adjusted, the governor closed the diplomatic question with the customary hospitality and confirmed the relations between the two flags on terms acceptable to both.

The water diversion described in the previous entry, by which the supply to the watering place had been cut off at the upland source, was evidently restored once the captain had agreed to the form of salute. The episode established a pattern in which the governor's control of the springs gave him a direct means of bringing recalcitrant visitors to terms, while leaving the diplomatic forms intact once the practical question had been settled. The episode passed without further reference in the record, since the resumption of supply was implicit in the entertainment at the fort.

The Mercury under Captain George Lytton was an English vessel that had been in the road during the St Lewis's stay and sailed two days before her. The naming of the ship and her commander in the consultation followed the standard practice of recording the movements of English shipping at the island as a matter of public account, since their arrivals and departures structured the working calendar of the council and the rhythm of the inhabitants' commercial dealings. The St Lewis's departure on 22 March 1715, after a stay of slightly over a month from her arrival on 19 February 1715, closed the second French episode of the season.

George Carne's letter, dated St David's Day, that is 1 March 1715, was sent in the wake of his second prosecution for clandestine supply of beef to the Jason in February 1715 and his binding to good behaviour on the same charge. His description of himself as indisposed, with his slaves unable to carry him down to the castle in person, depicted him as physically incapacitated and reliant on a household member to bring his communication to the governor. The carrying of a planter down to James Town by his slaves, presumably in a chair or sedan, was a standard means of transport on an island where the upland plantations stood at considerable height above the harbour and direct walking on the steep tracks was impractical for the elderly or unwell. Carne's nephew Beal acted as the messenger for his uncle in his stead.

The mention of trouble and continual charge sustained over the past four years, together with the ill will and censure attaching to that period, identified Carne as the holder of some responsibility or obligation, the nature of which would be set out in the body of the letter that continued onto the next page. The reference to having never received anything of theirs into his possession suggested that the burden related to persons or interests rather than property, with the figure of £100 0s 0d representing either the cost he had borne or the value he might gain by parting with the matter. The standing of George Carne in the present sequence, having been the subject of council action on 8 February 1715, 9 February 1715 and 11 March 1715, made any further communication from him to the governor a matter of close interest to the council.

Speculations

The decision of the captain of the St Lewis to accept the English method of salute on the morning after the water had been turned off, despite his earlier refusal to fire so small a number as three guns, suggests that the practical necessity of refilling the casks had overridden the question of honour once the supply was actually withheld. The night spent carrying off empty casks, with no fresh water to put into them, will have made plain to the captain that the governor's terms could not be evaded by patience. The conversion of the dispute from a question of points of salute to a question of water gave Pyke the leverage he needed, and the diplomatic settlement followed once the underlying material question had been forced.

The timing of George Carne's letter, sent only ten days after his fining at the consultation of 11 March 1715 and before the St Lewis had even sailed, suggests that the matters raised in his correspondence were of some urgency to him. His description of himself as indisposed and incapable of attending in person may have been genuine, but it also offered him a way to communicate with the governor without having to face the council in person at a moment when he stood in poor odour with the bench. The use of his nephew Beal as messenger provided a household channel for the letter that bypassed any other intermediary, and the choice of St David's Day as the date may have been simply a convenient occasion rather than carrying any particular significance.

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would not act over again the same task I dare positively aver it will be found to stand me in half y[e] Sum. I do not do this that my Nephew has any ways been disrespectfull or disobliged me, but apprehend ing my self out of yo[r] wonted favour am very willing after so long a fatigue I have received to make my Self the less obnox =ious & to be as easy as my troublesome circumstances will allow me I conclude S[r] with assuring yo[r] Worsp: if I could stand as fair in reference to yo[r] Self as I flattered my self I did formerly I should be very Joyfull, yet make bold to Subscribe my Self with respects &c[a] Yo[r] Wors[ts] Obed[t] Serv[t] Geo: Carne

This Letter was brought the Gov[d]: by the Eldest of the Beals who sayed that he wanted his Acc[t]: to be made =up & that there was likely to be a differ =ence between H Powel & them & that his Uncle Carne would neither meddle nor make w[th] it, & desired him to be his Guardian The Gov[d]: gave him these Answers If yo[r] present Guardians are unwill =ing to Act for you or, if you are not sa =tisfied with them you have Liberty to choose others But as to my Self, but as to my self I will not be yo[r] Guardian unless in the Gen[l]: terms as I am the[s] Gov[r]: for if the Gov[r]: be yo[r]: Guardian & should cheat you to whom then can you go go for redress but if any other man, be Elected for your Guardian & do you wrong then it will be proper for you to complain to the Governour.

Margin Notes:

Rich[d]: Beals reque[st]

Gov[ds] Answer.

Carne wrote that he would not act over again the same task, and dared positively to say it would be found to stand him in half the sum. He did not write this because his nephew had in any way been disrespectful to him or had disobliged him, but because, finding himself out of the governor's wonted favour, he was very willing, after so long a fatigue as he had received, to make himself the less obnoxious and to be as easy as his troublesome circumstances would allow him.

He concluded with assuring his worship that, if he could stand as fair in his reference to the governor as he had flattered himself he formerly did, he should be very joyful. He made bold to subscribe himself, with respects, his worship's obedient servant. The letter was signed George Carne.

The letter was brought to the governor by the eldest of the Beals, who said that he wanted his account to be made up, and that there was likely to be a difference between Mr Powel and them. His uncle Carne would neither meddle nor make with it, and he desired the governor to be his guardian.

The governor gave him these answers. If his present guardians were unwilling to act for him, or if he was not satisfied with them, he had liberty to choose others. But as for himself, the governor would not be his guardian unless in the general terms in which he was their governor. For if the governor were the guardian, and should cheat him, to whom then could he go for redress? But if any other person was elected for his guardian, and did him wrong, then it would be proper for him to complain to the governor.

Interpretations

The substance of Carne's letter was a request that the governor take into his particular care the persons or interests for whom Carne had borne charge and trouble for the past four years, and that the management of them be transferred from Carne to the governor's keeping. The figure of £100 0s 0d named in the passage carried forward from the previous page denoted the saving Carne expected from being relieved of the burden, and the assurance that he had received nothing of theirs into his possession established his standing as a custodian rather than a beneficiary of the estate concerned. The letter framed the request in terms of his ill health, his ill standing with the governor and his wish to be eased of an obligation he no longer felt able to discharge.

The eldest of the Beals, identified as Richard Beal in the marginal note, was the nephew named in the letter as the messenger. His own account at the door of the council clarified the practical matter behind Carne's communication. He wanted his account to be made up, that is to have a formal reckoning of his guardianship affairs, and he anticipated a difference between Mr Gabriel Powel and himself over the figures. Powel had appeared at the consultation of 11 March 1715 as executor of Charles Steward, deceased, offering to sell two thirds of Steward's provisions, two young slaves and other stock to the Company. The likely difference between Powel and the Beals therefore arose in the context of the Steward estate, in which the Beal interest stood as creditor, beneficiary or co-executor.

The institution of guardianship referred to here was the legal arrangement by which the persons and property of minors were committed to named adults on the death of their parents. The guardian held the estate in trust until the ward came of age, accounted for receipts and payments through the courts, and acted in loco parentis for the ward's upbringing and welfare. On St Helena the practice was administered through the council in its judicial capacity, with guardians appointed and removed by order of the governor and bench, and accounts examined when called for. Carne's wish to lay down the guardianship of the Beals he had carried for four years, and the eldest Beal's wish to have a fresh guardian appointed in light of the impending dispute with Powel, both fell within this framework.

The governor's response set out a principle of constitutional importance. He refused to act as private guardian for the young man, on the ground that the governor's office was already the ultimate forum of redress for any complaint against a guardian, and that to combine the two roles would leave the ward without any superior recourse if the governor himself dealt unfairly with him. By preserving the appellate function of his office, Pyke kept open the route by which a ward could bring a grievance against his guardian to the bench, and refused to compromise that route by becoming the guardian himself. The reasoning placed the structural integrity of the council's jurisdiction above any particular kindness to an individual ward.

Speculations

The pairing of Carne's request to lay down the Beal guardianship and Richard Beal's anticipated difference with Powel over the accounts points to a coordinated approach to the council by the parties to a complex estate matter. Charles Steward had died leaving an estate of which Powel was executor, and the Beal household stood in some relation of guardianship or interest to that estate through Carne. The proposed sale of two thirds of Steward's provisions and slaves to the Company on 11 March 1715, the appearance of Richard Beal at the council four days later seeking a new guardian, and Carne's own retreat from the affair through ill health and ill favour, all suggest that the parties were positioning themselves for the contested settlement of the Steward estate. The governor's refusal to become guardian preserved his ability to adjudicate that settlement impartially.

The reasoning Pyke gave for declining the guardianship, that no superior remained to whom the ward could appeal if the governor himself wronged him, points to a principled separation between the governor's executive role and his judicial role over inhabitants and their estates. The case shows the council operating not merely as an administrative bench but as a forum in which the constitutional logic of the office of governor was articulated for the benefit of an inhabitant who came seeking personal assistance. By placing the principle on the record in the form of a direct address to Richard Beal, the governor instructed both the young man and his future advisers on the limits within which the council's protection was available to them, and reserved to his office the role of last resort rather than of first instance.

380

371

He desired then that the Gov[r] would appoint a day to have his Acc[ts] made up in the Stores, He bid him go among his relations & when any one of them would come down with him his Accounts should that day be made up in the Stores & promised that if he conceived he suffered any wrong either by charging him Debtor for things he never had or by miscasting up the Sums both of which things has been of Late very much complained off He would go with him & his Bro[r]: to the Stores & see they had right done them & the Govern[r] farther told him that altho' he would not be a particular Guardian yet as he was the Gov[r]: he would in General act for all Orphans so as to see they had Justice done them But He gave him no written Answer to the Letter. On Wednesday the 2[d] instant March, arrived the Hester Cap[t]: Charles Heron from China but last from the Cape.

Margin Notes:

Hest[r] Arriv[ed]

Richard Beal then desired the governor to appoint a day to have his account made up in the stores. The governor told him to go among his relations, and when any one of them would come down with him, his accounts should be made up in the stores that day. He promised that if he conceived he suffered any wrong, either by being charged debtor for things he had never had, or by miscasting up the sums, both of which had of late been very much complained of, the governor would go with him and his brother to the stores and see they had right done them. The governor further told him that although he would not be a particular guardian, yet as he was the governor he would in general act for all orphans, so as to see they had justice done them.

The governor gave Beal no written answer to Carne's letter.

On Wednesday 2 March 1715, the Hester, Captain Charles Kesar from China but last from the Cape, arrived.

Interpretations

The governor's offer to attend Richard Beal and his brother at the stores in person, to see that their accounts were correctly cast and that they were not charged with goods they had never received, addressed a complaint that had become general on the island. The framing of the offer, with explicit reference to miscastings and false debits having of late been very much complained of, indicates that the Company's storekeepers had developed a reputation for irregular bookkeeping that affected the inhabitants in their settlement of accounts. The governor's personal attendance at the stores, alongside the wards in question, would carry the authority of his office into the place where the irregularities were alleged to occur, and would prevent any storekeeper from sustaining a disputed entry in his presence.

The distinction the governor drew between acting as a particular guardian for a named orphan and acting in general for all orphans rested on the same constitutional reasoning he had given Richard Beal earlier in the conversation. As governor he had a continuing duty to see that justice was done to all orphans of the island, exercised through the bench in its judicial capacity, and that general protection would extend to the Beal household through the established procedures of the council. By placing the principle on the record in this second form, after declining to take up the particular guardianship, Pyke completed the formulation he had begun in the earlier exchange and reserved his office to its general supervisory function over wards. The decision to give Beal no written answer to Carne's letter avoided any documentary acknowledgement that might be used by Carne or his nephew to bind the governor to particular undertakings beyond those orally given.

The arrangement that Richard Beal should be accompanied by one of his relations when his account was made up provided a witness from his own family circle to whatever was settled at the stores. The same condition applied to the proposed visit by the governor in person, where the brother would attend together with Richard. The procedural insistence on a family witness reflected the council's practice in the resolution of accounts touching minors, by which the formal authority of the bench was supplemented by the informal scrutiny of the kin most directly interested in the result. The orphan thereby had two layers of protection, the institutional and the familial, which together would make a disputed accounting difficult to sustain after the event.

The Hester under Captain Charles Kesar, arrived 2 March 1715 from China but last from the Cape, brought the second major Company ship of the season into the road following the departure of the Aurengzebe in late January 1715 after her court of judicature on 24 January 1715. A ship coming from China by way of the Cape was on the homeward leg of the long East Indies voyage and would normally take on water, refreshment and any provisions she could obtain at St Helena before completing her run to England. The arrival accordingly opened a new occasion for the application of the council's regulated supply regime as it had been worked out through the Jason and St Lewis episodes earlier in the year.

Speculations

The governor's offer to attend in person at the stores to see the Beal accounts made up, rather than to delegate the task to the council clerk or the senior storekeeper, points to a deliberate use of his own presence as a discipline upon the establishment under him. The complaints of miscasting and false debits that had become general on the island would not be cured by routine inquiry, since the storekeepers themselves were the source of the entries in question. By placing the governor's authority directly in the room where the accounts were cast, in a particular case where the parties were known minors and their kin were present, Pyke gave notice to his own subordinates that their entries would now be examined with the bench at their elbow when the inhabitants complained. The Beal accounting thus served as a worked instance of the storekeeping reform that he had been pressing forward since his opening address of 7 February 1715.

The refusal to give Carne a written answer to his letter, while giving the nephew Richard Beal full oral assurances at the door of the council, indicates a calculated handling of the correspondence by which Carne's request to be relieved of the Beal guardianship was neither accepted nor rejected on the record. The arrangement allowed the governor to address the practical needs of the wards through Richard Beal, without creating any documentary undertaking towards Carne that might be used to draw the governor into the further difficulties of the Steward estate or into Carne's continuing legal exposure for his clandestine dealings with the Jason. The silence in writing preserved the governor's freedom of action on both fronts.

381

372

An Acc[t] of Goods Sold & D[d] to y[e] Inhabitants Plantation House & United Castle from Novemb[r] 25. 1714 to Decemb[r] 25. foll[g] Viz[t]:

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]: Gen[l] Charg[s] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack 181 [..] Gall[s] @ 7/6 [..] 57: 19: 4 [½]

174 [..] d[o] 69: 4 [½]

80 [..] d[o] 30: 3: 9

279 Gall[s] 104: 12: 6

Sugar 1187 [..] @ 8 p[r] [..] 37: 7: 8

24 16

149 4: 19: 4

1294 [..] 43: 3: [..]

Flour 1563 [..] @ 5 [..] p[r] [..] 32: 15: 10 [..]

12 3: 6

309 4: 10: 1 [..]

1884 27: 9: 6

Bread 553 [..] @ 3 [..] p[r] [..] 8: 15: 4

6 d[o] 19

14 [..] 4: 1

573 [..] 8: 7: 3 [..]

Tobacco 139 @ 2[d] p[r] [..] 1: 3: 18

3 d[o] 6

6 d[o] 13

148 14: 16 14: 16

Tobacco Pipes 80 doz @ 6 p[r] doz 2

8 d[o] 4

88 doz 2: 4

Rice 12 [..] @ 5 [..] p[r] [..] 3: 6

14 d[o] 4: 1

117 d[o] 1: 14: 1 [½]

143 [..] 2: 1: 8 [½]

Oyls, Viz[t] 8 gall[s] Rape @ 7/6 p[r] gal 2: 16

2 [..] d[o] 17: 6

3 [..] d[o] 1: 6: 3

14 [..] 4: 19: 9

2 gall[s] Linseed @ 8/ p[r] ga 16

1 d[o] Sweet Oyl d[o] 12

1 [..] 9 7: 1: [..]

Carried Over 156: 9: 10 [½] 08: 18: 02 44: 2: 8 209: 10: 8 [½]

An account of goods sold and delivered to the inhabitants, the plantation house and the United Castle from 25 November 1714 to 25 February 1715, as follows.

Arrack.

174 gallons and 80½ gallons, totalling 279 gallons.

At 7s 6d per gallon.

To the inhabitants, £57 19s 4½d.

To the plantation, £69 4s 4½d.

To the general charge, £30 3s 9d.

Total £104 12s 6d.

Sugar.

1,121½ pounds, 24 pounds and 149 pounds, totalling 1,294½ pounds.

At 8d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £37 7s 8d.

To the plantation, £0 16s 0d.

To the general charge, £4 19s 4d.

Total £43 3s 0d.

Flour.

1,563 pounds, 12 pounds and 309 pounds, totalling 1,884 pounds.

At 4d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £22 15s 10½d.

To the plantation, £0 3s 6d.

To the general charge, £4 10s 1½d.

Total £27 9s 6d.

Bread.

553 pounds, 6 pounds and 14 pounds, totalling 573 pounds.

At 3½d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £8 15s 4d.

To the plantation, £0 1s 9d.

To the general charge, £0 4s 1d.

Total £8 7s 3¼d.

Tobacco.

139 pounds, 3 pounds and 6 pounds, totalling 148 pounds.

At 2s per pound.

To the inhabitants, £13 18s 0d.

To the plantation, £0 6s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 12s 0d.

Total £14 16s 0d.

Tobacco pipes.

80 dozen and 8 dozen, totalling 88 dozen.

At 6d per dozen.

To the inhabitants, £2 0s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 4s 0d.

Total £2 4s 0d.

Rice.

12½ pounds, 14 pounds and 117 pounds, totalling 143½ pounds.

At [...] per pound.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 6d.

To the plantation, £0 4s 1d.

To the general charge, £1 14s 1½d.

Total £2 1s 8½d.

Oils.

Rape oil, 8 gallons, 2½ gallons and 3¼ gallons, totalling 14¼ gallons.

At 7s 6d per gallon.

To the inhabitants, £2 16s 0d.

To the plantation, £0 17s 6d.

To the general charge, £1 6s 3d.

Total £4 19s 9d.

Linseed oil.

2 gallons at 8s 0d per gallon.

£0 16s 0d.

Sweet oil.

1 gallon and ¼ gallon, totalling 1¼ gallons.

£0 12s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 9s 0d.

Total £1 1s 0d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £156 9s 10½d.

To the plantation, £8 18s 0½d.

To the general charge, £44 2s 8d.

Total £209 10s 8½d.

Interpretations

The account presents three months of store issues across the closing quarter of the Company's accounting year, with the three columns separating sales to the inhabitants, deliveries to the plantation house, and the general establishment charge. The plantation house was the Company's own farm at Longwood or the equivalent upland holding, supplying the establishment with its produce and receiving stores against its consumption, while the general charge covered the diet and provisions of the garrison, the castle and the council's own table. The separation gave the Lords Proprietors a clear view of how the imported provisions of each category were distributed between the three classes of recipient, and identified which items principally fed which establishment.

The pricing in the account confirmed the published rates that had governed the council's recent commercial decisions. Arrack at 7s 6d the gallon, set by the storekeepers' books, gave the underlying cost figure against which the order of 11 March 1715 had fixed the inhabitants' purchase price at 6s 0d the gallon in exchange for beef delivered at 25s 0d the hundred. The rate of 7s 6d for rape oil, also fixed in the same column, suggested that the store applied a standard price for liquids in gallon measure across different commodities, with adjustments for the more expensive linseed and sweet oils. The pricing of tobacco at 2s 0d the pound and of pipes at 6d the dozen identified these as the principal articles of smoking on the island, supplied through the Company's stores at fixed rates.

The composition of the consumption brought out the staple diet of the establishment and the inhabitants alike. Flour and bread together accounted for 2,457 pounds over three months, sufficient to supply daily bread for a substantial garrison and household, while sugar at nearly 1,300 pounds and rice at 143 pounds played a smaller part. Arrack at 279 gallons, supplied principally to the inhabitants and the plantation, represented the principal spirit of the establishment, with the general charge taking £30 3s 9d worth as the garrison's share. The pattern indicates that the bulk of the imported diet supplied at the stores rested on grain products and spirits, while local livestock and gardens supplied the meat, vegetables and dairy elements.

The dominance of the inhabitants' column over the plantation and general columns in most categories of goods showed that the chief purpose of the stores was to supply the settled population of planter households against payment in beef, goats and other local produce, rather than to victual the garrison directly. The pattern fitted the closed commercial circuit that the council had been working towards through the orders of 11 March 1715, by which the inhabitants would obtain arrack and other imported articles in proportion to the local provisions they brought in. The figures here, drawn from the months immediately preceding that order, gave the council the baseline against which the effect of the new policy could be measured.

Speculations

The decision to present the three months' issues in a single consolidated account, with running totals and a carry-forward to the next page, points to the bookkeeping discipline that Pyke had been pressing on Bazett at the consultation of 11 March 1715, where he had demanded the production of the monthly accounts in fair form. The present account is evidently the kind of fair entry that the governor had insisted on, drawn up to 25 February 1715 and entered in the council book for the inspection of the bench and ultimately of the Lords Proprietors in London. The very form of the entry, with its three columns and its categorical totals, supplied the documentary apparatus by which the council could now demonstrate its compliance with the new standards of record-keeping.

The carry-forward of the totals to the next page, with £209 10s 8½d as the running grand total at this point in the account, indicates that the present entry was only one section of a longer schedule continuing onto further pages. The full account would have aggregated all categories of goods issued from the stores over the quarter, by inhabitant, plantation and general charge, and would have closed at a grand total for the three months at the conclusion. The format suggests that the council was now keeping a comprehensive store account in the council book itself, rather than confining it to the storekeepers' own books, which would have given the bench a continuing oversight of the establishment's commercial dealings as part of the formal record of its proceedings.

382

373

Inhabit[s] Plant[a] Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought over 156: 9: 10 [½] 8: 18: 2 [½] 44: 2: 8 209: 10: 8 [½]

Tea 1 [..] @ d[o] 4 p[r] [..] 4: 19 4: 19

Soap 3 [..] Castle d[o] 18 [..] 5: 3

14 1: 1

12 d[o] 18

29 [..]

65 [..] Bengall d[o] @ 8 [..] p[r] [..] 2: 3: 4 2: 4: 3

5 d[o] English d[o] 17 p[r] [..] 2: 3: 4

Hatts 16 Course @ 4/4 ea d[o] 3: 9: 4

1 fine 14: 9

3 d[o] @ 17/6 d[o] at 2: 12: 9

1 d[o] p[r] Susana 11: 0: 5 7: 11 7: 11

11: 10: 5 7: 19: 9 7: 19: 9

Haberdashery Ware viz[t]

Buttons 19 doz: Coat d[o] 17 1: 10: 1

25 [..] doz: brest d[o] 4 0: 8: 6

13 doz [..] d[o] [..] 0: 6: 6 2: 5: 1

Mohair 5 [..] Ounces at 1/6 9: 2 9: 2

Threads 4 [..] brown at 4/ 0: 18: -

6 [..] B d[o] 3/6 1: 3: 10

2 [..] Colo[r] d[o] 3/8 0: 9: 2

13 [..] Colo[r] d[o] 4 2: 11 1: 10 2: 12: 10

Ditto 8 [..] whited Bro d[o] at 2/8: 1: 4: 2

1 [..] d[o] D[o] 7/6 0: 11: 3 1: 15: 5 1: 5: 5

D[o] 2 ouncos fine d[o] at 9 0: 1: 6

1 D[o] 0: 3: 6

0: 1: 1 6: 1 6: 1

Ribbon 6 yards at 2/3 0: 13: 6

3 yards d[o] 1/10 0: 6: -

3 D[o] 1/10 0: 5: 6 1: 5 1: 5

Tapes 8 p[r] Cull[d] at 1/8 0: 13: 4

4 p[r] white Narrow 6 0: 2: -

2 p[r] Collo[r] D[o] Gen[l] Charges 15: 4 3: 4

Thimbles 16 1: 4 1: 4

Silk 12 [..] ounces at 2/6 1: 10: 7 [½] 1: 10: 7 [½]

Shoe Thread 12 at 2/6 1: 10 1: 10

Twine 7 [..] at 2/4 13 [..] Stainted [..] 16: 4 7 1: 3: 4

Carried Over 185: 2: 6 [¾] 10: 6: 7 [¼] 45: 13: 9 241: 2: 6 [¼]

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £156 9s 10½d.

To the plantation, £8 18s 0½d.

To the general charge, £44 2s 8d.

Total £209 10s 8½d.

Tea.

11 pounds at 9s per pound.

To the inhabitants, £4 19s 0d.

Total £4 19s 0d.

Soap.

3½ pounds Castle soap at 18d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £0 5s 3d.

14 pounds and 12 pounds, totalling 29½ pounds.

To the plantation, £1 1s 0d.

To the general charge, £18s 0d [reading uncertain].

65½ pounds Bengal soap at 8d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £2 3s 4d.

Total £2 4s 3d.

5 pounds English soap at 17d per pound.

Total £2 3s 4d.

Hats.

16 coarse at 4s 4d each.

To the general charge, £7 11s 0d.

1 fine at 14s 9d.

3 at 17s 6d, totalling £2 12s 6d.

5 at [...].

Total £11 11s 0½d.

Haberdashery ware as follows.

Buttons.

19 dozen of coat buttons at 17d per dozen, £1 10s 1d.

25½ dozen of breast buttons at 4d per dozen, £0 8s 6d.

13½ dozen of ditto, £0 6s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £2 5s 1d.

Total £2 5s 1d.

Mohair.

5½ ounces at 1s 6d per ounce.

To the inhabitants, £0 9s 2d.

Total £0 9s 2d.

Threads.

4¼ pounds of brown at 4s per pound, £0 18s 0d.

6½ pounds of brown at 3s 6d per pound, £1 3s 10d.

2¼ pounds coloured at 3s 8d per pound, £0 9s 2d.

7¼ pounds of coloured.

To the inhabitants, £2 11s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 1s 10d.

Total £2 12s 10d.

Ditto thread whited, fine, 3 pounds at 9s 8d per pound, £1 4s 2d.

1¼ pounds at 7s 6d per pound, £0 11s 3d.

To the inhabitants, £1 6s 5d.

Total £1 6s 5d.

Ditto, 2 ounces fine at 9d, £0 1s 6d.

1 pound, £0 3s 6d.

[...] £0 1s 1d.

To the inhabitants, £0 6s 1d.

Total £0 6s 1d.

Ribbon.

6 yards at 2s 3d per yard, £0 13s 6d.

3 yards at 1s per yard, £0 3s 0d.

3 yards of coloured, £0 5s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £1 5s 0d.

Total £1 5s 0d.

Tapes.

8 pieces, milled, at 1s 8d each, £0 13s 4d.

4 pieces, white narrow, at 6d each, £0 2s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £0 15s 4d.

To the general charge, £0 3s 4d.

Total £1 4s 0d.

2 pieces coloured ditto on general charges.

To the inhabitants, £0 1s 4d.

Total £0 1s 4d.

Thimbles.

16, £1 10s 7½d.

To the inhabitants, £1 10s 7½d.

Total £1 10s 7½d.

Silk.

12½ ounces at 2s 6d per ounce.

To the inhabitants, £1 10s 0d.

Total £1 10s 0d.

Shoe thread.

12 pounds at 2s 6d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £0 16s 4d.

Total £0 16s 4d.

Twine.

⅞ pound of flat at 2s 4d per pound.

13⅝ pounds of [...] at [...].

To the inhabitants, £0 13s 4d.

To the general charge, £0 0s 7d.

Total £1 3s 4d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £185 2s 6¼d.

To the plantation, £10 6s 0¼d.

To the general charge, £45 13s 9d.

Total £241 2s 6¼d.

Interpretations

The second leaf of the account continued the same three-column layout for inhabitants, plantation and general charge, and added running totals to the carried-forward sum of £209 10s 8½d. The further entries on this page raised the inhabitants' column from £156 9s 10½d to £185 2s 6¼d, the plantation column from £8 18s 0½d to £10 6s 0¼d, and the general charge from £44 2s 8d to £45 13s 9d, taking the cumulative total to £241 2s 6¼d. The shape of the increase, almost entirely on the inhabitants' side, confirmed that the goods listed on this page, principally haberdashery and small textile articles, were sold to the planter households rather than supplied to the establishment.

The three grades of soap distinguished in the account, namely Castle soap at 18d the pound, Bengal soap at 8d the pound and English soap at 17d the pound, set out the differential pricing of imported soaps from different sources. Castle soap was a hard white soap of European manufacture, regarded as the standard quality for personal and household washing. Bengal soap was a softer Indian variety, supplied through the Company's Bengal factory at a much lower price and used principally for laundry and general cleaning. English soap, very nearly as dear as Castle, denoted soap brought from England as a distinct article of trade. The presence of all three grades in the stores allowed the inhabitants and the establishment to choose between them according to use and means.

The haberdashery and textile articles on this page identify the means by which the planter households obtained the small articles needed for the making and repair of clothing on the island. Threads in brown and coloured grades, mohair, ribbons, tapes, thimbles, silk and shoe thread were not produced locally and had to be imported by the Company for sale to the inhabitants. The volume of the supply, with several pounds of thread and dozens of buttons sold over three months, indicates active garment-making and mending in the planter households, where ready-made clothing was scarce and the women of the household worked imported materials into the family's wardrobe. Tea at 11 pounds was a luxury article in modest quantity, supplied at 9s the pound to the inhabitants who could afford it.

Hats were supplied in three grades, coarse at 4s 4d, fine at 14s 9d, and a higher grade at 17s 6d, with 16 of the coarse going to the general charge and the finer hats appearing on smaller numbers. The pattern confirmed the supply of coarse hats as part of the garrison's regular issue, while the finer grades were available for purchase by inhabitants and officers wishing to dress according to their station. The distinction between grades by price reflected the social hierarchy of the island, with the coarse hat as the working garrison headgear and the finer hats marking gentleman status. The supply of these articles through the Company's stores meant that the council retained control over even the visible markers of rank on the place.

Speculations

The detail in which the haberdashery is recorded, with separate entries for several grades of thread distinguished by colour and weight and for individual quantities of ribbon and tape, suggests that the storekeepers were under a particular instruction to itemise all small articles to the council's standard of fair entry. The order from Pyke at the consultation of 11 March 1715, requiring Bazett to bring his accounts up to date in fair form, will have applied not only to the principal commodities but to every minor article passing through the stores. The present account, drawn up for the quarter ending 25 February 1715 but extending across all categories with consistent itemisation, gave evidence of the bookkeeping reform Pyke had announced and provided the documentary apparatus by which the Lords Proprietors could now assess the cumulative consumption of the establishment in detail.

The presence in the stores of luxury articles such as tea at 9s 0d the pound, fine hats at 17s 6d, ribbons of differing widths and silk at 2s 6d the ounce, and the recording of them in the same account as flour and arrack, indicates that the council viewed the Company's stores as a single channel through which all imported goods reached the island's inhabitants. The principle ordered at the consultation of 11 March 1715, by which inhabitants would buy arrack against deliveries of beef rather than against bills drawn on London, applied in form to all categories of imported goods in the stores. The presence of luxury items in the same account books gave the inhabitants a fixed schedule of prices for the small refinements of life on the island, all settled through the same closed commercial circuit that the new policy was designed to establish.

383

374

Inhabit[s] Plant[a] Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over 185: 2: 6 [¾] 10: 6: 2 [¼] 45: 13: 9 241: 2: 6 [¼]

Garting 18 yards at 2/ 3 3

Combs 9 Ivory d[o] 1/3 0: 11: 3

5 d[o] 0: 2

3 Horn d[o] 4 0: 4: 1

[..] D[o] 5 0: 0: 10 15: 1 15: 1

Pins 11 [..] M[..] at 1/9 0: 19: 3

4 D[o] at 1/2 0: 4: 6 1: 3: 9 1: 3: 9

Needles 100 1: 7

6 Pack d[o] Plant[a] 1: 10 1: 10

Tearitts 6 yards at 3/ 0: 1: 6

15 d[o] at 4/ 0: 5: 7 [½]

7 d[o] d[o] 0: 2: 6 [¼]

4 Gen[l] Charges 9: 8 2: 4 12: -

Gloves 2 p[r] Mens d[o] at 1/9 3: 6 3: 6

Silk & Thread Laces 23 Silk d[o] 1/[..]: 4: -: 2: 4

1 [..] D[o] 0: 13: 5

5 [..] D[o] 14: 0: 2: 4

3 D[o] 3: 0: 0

5 D[o] Thread 5: 0: 0: 10 17: 11 [½] 17: 11 [½]

Silver Coat Buttons at 1/6 doz 18: 9 18: 9

Sweet Powder 2 [..] at 1/7 3: 2 3: 2

Pewter Buttons 3 doz 11 11

Corks 1 doz 3 3

Stationary Ware 3 q[r] Pap[r] 16 0: 4

1 Large Bible 1: 4: 6

1 Primmer 0: 0: 6 1: 9 1: 9

Indigo 2 Ounces 4: - 1: 4 [..] 1: 4 [..]

Wooden Ware 1 Skimming Dish 6 6

Glass Ware viz[t]: 13 Panes 6 [..] 4 [..] 0: 15

2 Salt Sellers 0: 1: 4

1 Clarrett Glass 0: 5

1 Ale D[o] 0: 2: 6 1: 10

one two hour Glass 1: 2

Hooks & Lines 12 fish Hooks 0: 2: 11

3 D[o] 0: 0: 6 1: 2: -

1 Line 5: 5 5: 5

[..] d[o] Hooks at 2/11 d[o] 0: 4: 10 [..]

4 Single D[o] at 7 0: 2: 4

1 Line 0: 2

[..] doz Hooks at 1/10 0: 3: 0 [..]

4 Singles d[o] at 7 0: 2: 4 9: 2 [..] 9: 2 [..]

5: 4 [..] 1: 4 [..] 1: 4 [..]

Carried Over 192: 17: 3 [¼] 10: 11: 10 [¼] 46: 6: 5 [..] 249: 15: 7

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £185 2s 6¼d.

To the plantation, £10 6s 0¼d.

To the general charge, £45 13s 9d.

Total £241 2s 6¼d.

Garthing.

18 yards at 4d per yard.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 0d.

Total £0 3s 0d.

Combs.

9 ivory at 1s 3d, £0 11s 3d.

3 horn at [...], £0 2s 0d.

[...] at [...], £0 1s 0d.

[...] at [...], £0 0s 10d.

To the inhabitants, £0 15s 1d.

Total £0 15s 1d.

Pins.

11½ thousand at 1s 9d per thousand, £0 19s 3d.

4 dozen at 1s 1½d per dozen, £0 4s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £1 3s 9d.

Total £1 3s 9d.

Needles.

100, £0 1s 7d.

6 pack for the plantation.

To the inhabitants, £0 1s 7d.

To the plantation, £0 0s 3d.

Total £0 1s 10d.

Ferrets.

6 yards at 3d, £0 1s 6d.

15 yards at 4½d, £0 5s 7½d.

7 yards at [...], £0 2s 6½d.

[...] yards on general charges, £0 2s 4d.

To the inhabitants, £0 9s 8d.

To the general charge, £0 2s 4d.

Total £0 12s 0d.

Gloves.

2 pairs of men's at 1s 9d.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 6d.

Total £0 3s 6d.

Silk and thread laces.

23 yards of silk at 1s 7d, £14 0s 2d [reading uncertain].

7 yards at [...], £0 13s 5d.

[...] at [...], £3 0s 0d.

[...] at [...], £0 0s 10d.

50 yards of thread.

To the inhabitants, £17 11s 4½d.

Total £17 11s 4½d.

Silver coat buttons.

6 dozen at 7s 6d per dozen.

To the inhabitants, £18 2s 9d.

Total £18 2s 9d.

Sweet powder.

2 pounds at 1s 7d per pound.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 2d.

Total £0 3s 2d.

Pewter buttons.

3 dozen.

To the inhabitants, £0 0s 11d.

Total £0 0s 11d.

Corks.

1 dozen.

To the inhabitants, £0 0s 3d.

Total £0 0s 3d.

Stationery ware.

3 quires of paper at 16d per quire, £0 4s 0d.

1 large Bible, £1 4s 6d.

1 primer, £0 0s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £1 9s 0d.

Total £1 9s 0d.

Indigo.

2 ounces.

To the plantation, £0 0s 4d.

To the general charge, £0 0s 6d.

Total £0 1s 6d.

Wooden ware.

1 shining dish.

To the plantation, £0 1s 6d.

Total £0 1s 6d.

Glass ware as follows.

13 plain glasses at 6¼d, £0 15s 0d.

2 salt cellars, £0 1s 4d.

1 claret glass, £0 1s 6d.

1 ale ditto, £0 2s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £1 10s 0d.

Total £1 10s 0d.

One two-hour glass.

To the general charge, £0 1s 2d.

Total £0 1s 2d.

Hooks and lines.

12 fish hooks, £0 2s 11d.

3 ditto, £0 0s 6d.

1 line, £0 0s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £0 5s 5d.

Total £0 5s 5d.

1 dozen hooks at 2s 11d per dozen, £0 4s 10½d.

4 single ditto at 7d, £0 2s 4d.

1 line, £0 0s 2d.

To the general charge, £0 9s 2½d.

Total £0 9s 2½d.

1⅔ dozen hooks at 1s 10d per dozen, £0 3s 0¾d.

4 single ditto at 7d, £0 2s 4d.

To the inhabitants, £0 5s 4¾d.

Total £0 5s 4¼d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £192 17s 3¼d.

To the plantation, £10 11s 10½d.

To the general charge, £46 6s 5¼d.

Total £249 15s 7d.

Interpretations

The third leaf of the account extended the consolidated three-column form with a longer list of small wares supplied through the stores over the same quarter ending 25 February 1715. The cumulative totals advanced from £241 2s 6¼d to £249 15s 7d, with the bulk of the increase, £7 14s 9d, falling on the inhabitants' side. The categories on this leaf are essentially household and personal articles, and confirm the role of the stores as the principal source of small imported goods for the planter community as well as the establishment.

The notable concentration of value in this section, £18 2s 9d for six dozen silver coat buttons, identifies a single substantial transaction in luxury goods. Silver buttons were a marker of gentleman dress on the island, used on coats and waistcoats by men of standing in the planter and council class, and the supply of six dozen at the stores at 7s 6d the dozen indicates either a single significant purchaser or a small group equipping their households at the close of the accounting year. The transaction stands out from the rest of the haberdashery in scale and price, and would have been entered to a named planter's account in the storekeeper's books from which this summary was drawn.

The presence of a Bible at £1 4s 6d and a primer at 6d among the stationery ware represented the only books in the quarter's account, and identified the Company's stores as the supplier of religious and educational texts as well as commercial articles. A large Bible at this price was a substantial book suitable for family or household use, and its sale to an inhabitant at the end of the accounting year would have furnished a planter household with the principal text of domestic religion. The primer, at a fraction of the cost, served as the standard introduction to letters for a child, and its purchase alongside the Bible suggests provision for the religious education of children in the receiving household.

The fishing tackle appearing in three separate entries, with hooks of different sizes and lines, gave the planters and the general establishment the means to draw on the sea fishery that ran around the island. The licensing of a fisherman for the use of the Jason in January 1715 had pointed to an established trade in the supply of fish to visiting ships, and the present account showed that the same fishery was supplied from the Company's stores with imported hooks and lines for the inhabitants' own use. Fish was a significant article of the local diet, and the supply of tackle through the stores connected the household economy of the planters to the wider commercial activity of the harbour.

Speculations

The very small unit values recorded against many of the entries in this leaf, with individual sums of a few pence appearing alongside the running totals in pounds, indicate that the storekeepers were now obliged to bring every transaction at the stores onto the formal account, regardless of how trifling the figure. The reform Pyke had announced at the consultation of 7 February 1715, calling for due accounts of all transactions to be kept in books and duplicates sent to the Honourable Company for the preventing of future disputes, has evidently been carried into practice by the time of the present quarter's books. The level of itemisation, down to single corks at 3d, suggests that the council intended the formal record to be exhaustive rather than merely indicative, so that any inhabitant disputing a charge on his account could be answered by reference to a specific line in the consolidated book.

The substantial purchase of six dozen silver coat buttons at £18 2s 9d in the period running up to the close of the Company's accounting year on 25 March 1715 may reflect a deliberate placing of a large order in advance of the announced fourteen-day closure of the stores from that date. The advertisement ordered at the consultation of 11 March 1715, suspending issues from the stores between 25 March 1715 and the end of the fourteen-day interval, would have given inhabitants notice that any substantial purchase needed to be made before the deadline. The clustering of the silver button transaction in this final quarter, against the comparatively modest holdings of similar items in other categories, points to such a strategic purchase before the closing of the year's accounts.

384

375

Inhabita[s] Plant[a]t[a] Gen: Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over 192: 17: 3 [¼] 10: 11: 10 [¼] 46: 6: 9 [..] 249: 15: 7

Iron Mongers Ware viz[t] £ s d

3 p[r] Hooks & Hinges at 1/[..] 0: 4: 4

2 p[r] D[o] 0: 1: 0

6 p[r] Dovetailes at 5 0: 2: 6

1 p[r] [..] 0: 0: 6

4 p[r] Hoe Hinges at 11 0: 3: 8

1 Lock Susana 0: 3: 4

1 Shovell 0: 2 17: 4 [..] 2: 6 19: 10 [..]

1 Hatchett Plant[a]

2 Stone Cutters Axes at 9/6 0: 18

1 p[r] Dovetailes 0: 6

1 p[r] of Plyers 0: 1: 3

1 p[r] Joynters Pinchers 0: 1

1 Hammer N[o] 6 Susa[na] 0: 1: 6

1 Six foot Crossecutt Saw 1: 1: 4

1 Ragg Stone 0: 0: 6

1 Iron pott qt 41 at 6 p[r] [..] 1: 0: 6

15 Bars of Iron @ 62 [..] at 3 [..] p[r] [..] 7: 16: 3

1 Bars of Eng[h] Steel 24 d[o] 6 6: 12: - 3: 4: 7 8: 8: 3 12: 12: 8 [..]

Nailes viz[t]

14: 10 D[o] at 7 [..] 0: 8: 9

4: 20 0: 2: 4

5 [..] 4 d[o] 10 [..] Inhab[t] 0: 5: 8 [..]

4 [..] Tachs 0: 0: 5

243

4 [..] d[o] 0: 4: 8

8: 20 D[o] 0: 0: 9

5: 1: 6 Plant[a] 0: 0: 9

6: 10 0: 3: 9 9: 2

8 [..] 2 d[o] at 11 p[r] [..] 0: 7: 4

12: 4: 16 [..] 0: 10: 6

53: 10 1: 13: 1 [..]

13: 20 1: 5: 1

20: 24 0: 12: 6

9: 30 0: 16: 2

11 [..] 6 Jnch & 6 [..] Jnch 6 6 [..] Rocl[r] 0: 6: 5 [..]

2 [..] Coopers Rivetts at 11 0: 2: 3 [..]

2 [..] Tachs 20 0: 3: 4 5: 5 [..] 6: 12: 3

Tinn Ware

1 Tinn Porringer Inhabit[s] 7 7

1 Drudging Box Gen[l] Charges 6 6

Carried Over 194: 12: 5 11: 3: 6 [..] 63: 5: 8 [..] 269: 1: 7 [..]

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £192 17s 3¼d.

To the plantation, £10 11s 10½d.

To the general charge, £46 6s 5¼d.

Total £249 15s 7d.

Ironmonger's ware as follows, for the inhabitants.

3 pairs of hooks and hinges at 1s 5d, £0 4s 4d.

2 pairs of dovetails at 1s, £0 2s 0d.

6 pairs of dovetails at 5d, £0 2s 6d.

1 pair of [...], £0 0s 6d.

4 pairs of toe hinges at 11d, £0 3s 8d.

1 lock and susanna, £0 3s 4d.

1 shovel, £0 2s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £0 17s 4½d.

Hatchets for the plantation.

To the plantation, £0 2s 6d.

Stone cutter's axes, 2 at 9s 6d, £0 18s 0d [reading uncertain].

1 pair of dovetails, £0 0s 6d.

1 pair of pliers, £0 1s 3d.

1 pair of joiner's pincers, £0 1s 0d.

1 hammer at 6d, in Susanna, £0 0s 6d.

1 six-foot crosscut saw, £1 1s 4d.

1 ragg stone, £0 0s 6d.

1 iron plate, 41 pounds at 6d the pound, £1 0s 6d.

To the general charge, £3 4s 7d.

17 bars of iron, 6¾ hundredweight at 23s, £7 16s 3d.

1 bar of English steel, 24 pounds and 6 ounces, [...], £0 12s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £8 8s 3d.

Total £12 12s 8½d.

Nails as follows.

19 thousand at 10s the thousand, £0 8s 9d.

20 thousand at [...], £0 2s 4d.

5⅛ pounds and ¼ pound, 10½ in Susanna, £0 5s 8¼d.

4 pounds of tacks, £0 0s 5d.

To the inhabitants, £0 17s 2¾d.

24⅛ thousand for the plantation, £0 4s 8d.

8 thousand, ⅔ pound and 20 [...], £0 0s 9d.

6 thousand, 1 pound, 6 ounces, £0 3s 9d.

To the plantation, £0 9s 2d.

8 thousand and 2 pound, of various sizes at 11d the pound, £0 7s 4d.

12 pounds and 4 pounds at 18d the pound, £0 10s 6d.

53 pounds and 10 pounds at 7¼d the pound, £1 13s 1½d.

43 pounds and 20 pounds, £1 5s 1d.

20 pounds and 24 pounds at 7¼d the pound, £0 12s 6d.

9 pounds and 36 pounds for the Rock, £0 6s 5½d.

11½ inch and 6¼ inch nails, 66 [...], £0 6s 5½d.

2½ coopers' rivets at 11d, £0 2s 3¼d.

2 [...] of tacks, 20 [...], £0 3s 4d.

To the general charge, £5 5s 10¾d.

Total £6 12s 3d.

Tin ware.

1 tin porringer for the inhabitants, £0 0s 7d.

1 dredging box on general charges, £0 0s 6d.

Total £0 1s 1d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £194 12s 5d.

To the plantation, £11 3s 6d.

To the general charge, £63 5s 8½d.

Total £269 1s 7½d.

Interpretations

The fourth leaf of the account brought together the ironmongery, nails and tin ware issued to the inhabitants, plantation and general charge over the quarter ending 25 February 1715. The cumulative grand total advanced sharply from £249 15s 7d to £269 1s 7½d, an increase of £19 6s 0½d, with the general charge column alone rising from £46 6s 5¼d to £63 5s 8½d. The disproportionate share of this leaf falling on the general charge identified construction and repair work at the castle and the fortifications as the principal consumer of nails, iron and tools during the quarter, despite the formal suspension of fortification work announced at the consultation of 7 February 1715.

The 17 bars of iron, weighing 6¾ hundredweight at 23s the hundredweight, totalling £7 16s 3d, identified the bulk supply of raw iron stock to the island's planters for their own use in tool repair, building hardware and farm equipment. Iron bars were imported from England in standard lengths and weights, and were worked up by the island's smiths into the finished articles required by the inhabitants. The supply of 6¾ hundredweight in a single quarter represented a substantial transfer of metal to the planter economy, sufficient for a wide range of household and farm needs over the months that followed.

The single bar of English steel at 24 pounds 6 ounces, charged at £0 12s 0d, supplied the finer grade of metal needed for cutting edges and specialist tools. Steel cost very nearly twice the rate of iron by weight, and was used by smiths for the working faces of axes, hatchets, saws and plough irons, where hardness and the ability to take an edge were required. The presence of only one bar in the quarter's account, against 17 bars of plain iron, confirmed steel as a specialist material drawn on more sparingly than iron and reserved for specific applications.

The detailed breakdown of nails by size, length and quantity, occupying the larger part of the leaf, identified the central role of nails in the island's construction economy. Nails were imported in barrels or kegs from England and broken down at the stores into the smaller quantities needed by inhabitants and works. The presence of separate entries for sizes ranging from small tacks to substantial framing nails of 11½ inches and 6¼ inches in length, with rivets for coopers and tacks supplied to specific projects, reflected the range of building, repair and fitting-out work that drew on the stores' stocks. The entry for nails for the Rock identified a particular fortification or work in progress at the named site, where 9 pounds and 36 pounds of nails were drawn for use.

Speculations

The substantial supply of building materials to the general charge column, with nails, iron and tools totalling some £14 0s 6d of the £63 5s 8½d cumulative general charge by the end of the leaf, suggests that the suspension of fortification work announced by Pyke at the consultation of 7 February 1715 had not yet taken effect by the close of the accounting quarter on 25 February 1715. The announced policy of redirecting labour from Company building work to the planters' improvement of their lands evidently took some time to translate into a reduction in materials drawn from the stores, and the quarter recorded in this account still showed considerable expenditure on works under the previous regime.

The entry for nails for the Rock indicates that fortification or maintenance work was continuing at the named site at the close of the quarter, despite the general announcement of retrenchment. The Rock was either Roberts's Platform at Munden's Point, or another named feature of the island's defences, and the supply of nails to it formed part of the continuing maintenance of the works begun under earlier administrations. The specific identification of the destination, set out in the account against the quantity drawn, may have been intended to fix the storekeeper's authorisation for the issue, so that the materials could not be diverted to other uses without a corresponding record.

385

376

Inhabit[s] Plant[a] Gen: Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over 194: 12: 5 11: 3: 6 [..] 63: 5: 8 [..] 269: 1: 7 [..]

Cutlery Ware 1 Knife & Fork 0: 1: 2

1 Pruning knife 0: 1: 1

1 p[r] Pincklles 0: 1

1 p[r] Sizars Sus[ana] 0: 0: 8 [..] 3: 11 [..] 3: 11 [..]

Pewter 5 Basons at 11/9 1: 3: 9

4 D[o] 1: 5: 4 2: 9: 1 2: 9: 1

Brasiers Ware 1 Lamp Plant[a] 0: 3: 11 3: 11

1 D[o]

Genell 1 Warming Pan Sus[ana] 1: 5: 8

Charges 1 p[r] Candle Sticks 0: 9: 2

1 p[r] D[o] at 8/3 0: 16: 6 2: 15: 10 2: 19: 9

Stockins viz[t]

3 p[r] [...] d[o] [..] p[r] 0: 6: 6

1 p[r] Thread 0: 4: 4

3 p[r] d[o] @ 4/6 1: 5: 6

1 p[r] Worsted d[o] 3/11/9 1: 11: 9

Shoes viz[t]: 30 p[r] Island Shoes d[o] 4 6: 0 5: 8: 3 5: 8: 3

1 p[r] [..] 1: 4: 8

2 p[r] Island Shoes Gen[l] Cha[r] 7: 4: 8 8 7: 12: 8

Vinegar 5 Gall 1

1 quart 1

5 [..] Galls Gen[l] Charges 1: 1 2: 2

10 [..]

Cheshire Cheese 70 [..] at 5 1: 6: 8

75 [..] d[o] Gen[l] Cha[r] 2: 10: 8 3: 17: 4

115 [..]

Blanketts 1 Single d[o] 7: 9

1 p[r] d[o] d[o] Plant[a] 15: 6 1: 3: 3

Indian Linnen p[r] Ship Success viz[t]

Neckcloths 3 p[r] at 1: 8: 5 4: 5: 3

4 Neckcloths d[o] [..] 0: 8: 6 4: 13: 9 4: 13: 9

Saunoes 1 p[r] at 0: 18

1 D[o] 0: 14: 6

3 D[o] 15/2 2: 5: 6 3: 17: 6 3: 17: 6

Challoes 53 p[r] at 5 13: 5 13: 5

Dungarees 2 p[r] at 5/8 2: 11

1 D[o] Gen[l] Charges 5: 8 2: 16: 8

Long Cloth 3 p[r] at 1: 4: 9 3: 14: 3 3: 14: 3

Prints 22 Pieces at 3 3: 6: 0

2 d[o] at 3: 6 [..] cont 7: 0 3: 13 3: 13

Chints 1 p[r] Gen[l] Charges 11: 9 11: 9

Blue Pasos 1 p[r] 13 13

Carried over 245: 3 [..] 12: 3: 11 [..] 70: 18: 7 [..] 328: 2: 10 [..]

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £194 12s 5d.

To the plantation, £11 3s 6d.

To the general charge, £63 5s 8½d.

Total £269 1s 7½d.

Cutlery ware.

1 knife and fork, £0 1s 2d.

1 pruning knife, £0 1s 1d.

1 pair of [...], £0 0s 9d.

1 pair of scissors in Susanna, £0 0s 8¾d.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 11¼d.

Total £0 3s 11¼d.

Pewter.

5 basins at 9d, £1 3s 9d.

4 ditto, £1 5s 4d.

To the inhabitants, £2 9s 1d.

Total £2 9s 1d.

Braziers' ware.

1 lamp for the plantation, £0 3s 11d.

1 ditto, £0 3s 11d.

Total £0 3s 11d.

General charges.

1 warming pan in Susanna, £1 5s 8d.

1 pair of cards and sticks, £0 9s 2d.

1 pair of ditto at 8s 3d, £0 16s 6d.

To the general charge, £2 15s 10d.

Total £2 19s 9d.

Stockings as follows.

3½ pairs of thread at 3s, £0 6s 6d.

1 pair of thread, £0 1s 9d.

3 pairs of [...] at 5s 6d, £1 5s 6d.

1 pair of worsted at 3s 9d, £0 11s 9d.

To the inhabitants, £5 8s 3d.

Total £5 8s 3d.

Shoes as follows.

30 pairs of island shoes at 4s, £6 0s 0d.

1 pair at 6s 2d, £0 1s 4½d [reading uncertain].

To the inhabitants, £7 4s 8d.

2 pairs of island shoes on general charges, £0 8s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 8s 0d.

Total £7 12s 8d.

Vinegar.

5 gallons.

To the inhabitants, £1 0s 0d.

1 quart.

To the plantation, £0 1s 0d.

5¼ gallons on general charges.

To the general charge, £1 1s 0d.

Total £2 2s 0d.

Cheshire cheese.

40 pounds at 8d.

To the inhabitants, £1 6s 8d.

75½ pounds on general charges.

To the general charge, £2 10s 8d.

Total £3 17s 4d.

Blankets.

1 single ditto, £0 7s 9d.

1 pair of ditto for the plantation, £0 15s 6d.

Total £1 3s 3d.

Indian linen of the ship Success as follows.

Neckcloths.

3 pieces at 1s 8½d, £4 5s 3d.

4 neckcloths to dispose of, £0 8s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £4 13s 9d.

Total £4 13s 9d.

Saunoes.

1 piece, £0 18s 0d.

1 ditto, £0 14s 0d.

[...] 15s 2d, £2 5s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £3 17s 6d.

Total £3 17s 6d.

Chellaes.

53 pieces at 5s.

To the inhabitants, £13 5s 0d.

Total £13 5s 0d.

Dungarees.

2 pieces at 5s 8d.

To the inhabitants, £0 3s 11d.

To the general charge, £0 5s 8d.

Total £2 16s 8d.

Long cloth.

3 pieces at 14s 9d.

To the inhabitants, £3 14s 3d.

Total £3 14s 3d.

Prints.

22 pieces at 3s, £3 6s 0d.

2 ditto at 3s 6d short cut, £0 7s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £3 13s 0d.

Total £3 13s 0d.

Chintz.

1 piece on general charges.

To the general charge, £0 11s 9d.

Total £0 11s 9d.

Blue Boppos.

1 piece, £0 13s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 13s 0d.

Total £0 13s 0d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £245 3s 3¾d.

To the plantation, £12 3s 11¾d.

To the general charge, £70 18s 7¼d.

Total £328 2s 10¼d.

Interpretations

The fifth leaf of the account introduced Indian textile goods supplied to the island by the ship Success, and named several specific Indian cloth varieties drawn from the Company's eastern trade. Saunoes were a fine cotton muslin produced in the Bengal region, used for fine shirts, neckcloths and women's garments where lightness and fineness were valued. Chellaes were striped cotton cloths from Coromandel, traded in pieces of fixed length for use as wraps, hangings or for cutting into garments, and were a staple of the Company's Indian export trade. Dungarees were a coarse cotton cloth from Bombay or the Konkan coast, used for sails, sacking, working clothes and other hard wear where strength rather than fineness was needed. Long cloth was a plain white cotton of standard length, made principally on the Coromandel coast, supplied in pieces for cutting into shirts, sheets, household linen and similar uses. Prints were cotton pieces with painted or printed designs from India, used for hangings, gowns and the better grades of women's clothing. Chintz was a printed and glazed cotton from the same region, more highly finished and prized than ordinary prints, suitable for hangings, bed covers and gowns of higher quality. Blue Boppos was a blue-dyed Indian cotton, supplied in pieces and used for working garments and household uses where the colour was wanted. The combined supply of these varieties, transferred from the Success into the Company's stores at the island, gave the planter community access to the full range of textile articles available through the Indian trade.

The notable concentration of value on this leaf in the chellaes, 53 pieces at 5s each totalling £13 5s 0d, identified the principal item of Indian cloth supplied to the inhabitants during the quarter. The striped cotton at this price was within reach of ordinary planter households and provided a versatile cloth that could be put to many uses on the island. The combination of chellaes with the smaller quantities of saunoes, long cloth, prints and chintz built up a complete supply of Indian cottons in the stores, by which the inhabitants could obtain their domestic and personal textile needs without recourse to private trade with passing ships.

The pewter basins, Cheshire cheese and vinegar entries reflected the supply of European household articles alongside the Indian textiles. Pewter was the standard material for table and kitchen ware on the island, durable and recyclable, supplied as plates, basins and porringers through the Company's stores. Cheshire cheese was the principal English keeping cheese of the period, exported from England in large quantities to colonial markets and supplied at the island as a hard, salted cheese suitable for shipboard and household use. Vinegar, supplied in measured gallons, served both as a culinary article and as a preservative and cleaning agent in the household economy.

The 30 pairs of island shoes at 4s the pair, identified by their description as locally made footwear, gave evidence of a settled island shoemaking trade by the date of this account. The lower price of 4s the pair, against the imported pair at 6s 2d that appears alongside them, confirmed island shoes as the cheaper and more readily available footwear for inhabitants and the garrison, supplied through the stores at the price the local makers commanded. The supply of 30 pairs in a single quarter implied a working shoemaking establishment on the island capable of producing footwear in quantity, drawing on local hide tanning and supplying the stores at a fixed rate.

Speculations

The receipt of Indian goods from the Success into the stores during this quarter indicated that the ship had called at the island earlier in the period covered by the account, and that her cargo had been broken into the stores' inventory in pieces to be sold gradually to the inhabitants over the months that followed. The structure of the entry, with goods identified as drawn from a particular ship rather than from general stock, suggests that the council kept the cargoes of individual vessels separately in its accounts at the point of intake, so that the source of each article could be traced. This bookkeeping convention gave the Company in London a clear view of which voyages had contributed to the island's stocks, and which had supplied which goods.

The presence of substantial quantities of finer Indian cloths in the stores, including saunoes, prints and chintz, suggests that the planter households on the island had developed a settled demand for higher-grade textiles that could be met through the regulated supply system rather than through clandestine purchase from passing ships. The order at the consultation of 11 March 1715, by which the council had moved to close down private dealing for goods such as arrack and tea outside the value of what the visiting ships paid into the Company's stores, would have applied with similar force to the textile trade. The presence in the present account of a full range of Indian cottons at fixed prices supplied the alternative legitimate channel through which the inhabitants could obtain such goods, and gave the planters less reason to risk the prosecution that Carne had now suffered twice for clandestine dealings.

386

377

Inhabit[s] Plant[a]: Gen[l] Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over 245: 3 [..] 12: 3: 11 [..] 70: 18: 7 [..] 328: 2: 10 [..]

Woollen Goods viz[t] £ s d

Druggett 14 yards at 3 2: 2: -

20 yards d[o] 4 4: -: - 6: 2: - 6: 2: -

Shaltoons 46 [..] yds at 2/6 5: 16: 10 [..]

5 [..] yd[s] D[o] [Sus]ana 0: 10: 6

24 [..] D[o] at 2/6 Gen[l]: Charges 6: 7: 4 [..] 3: 1: 3 9: 8: 7 [..]

76 [..]

Perpetuanoes 14 [..] [..] at 2/5 1: 13: 10 1: 13: 10

Flannells 1 [..] yard 0: 2: 9

3 [..] D[o] at 2/3 0: 6: 9 9: 6 9: 6

Sagathies 1 p[r] 3: 1: 8

49 [..] yd[s] @ 3/1 7: 13: 4 [..] 10: 13: 0 [..] 10: 15: 3 [..]

Broad Cloath 3 [..] yd[s] at 1/6 2: 17: 4 [..]

2 [..] yd[s] D[o] D[o] D[o] G[en]: Cha[r] 1: 13: 3 4: 10: 7 [..]

Durants 10 yards d[o] at 1/9 17: 6 17: 6

Kerseys 26 [..] yards at 2/2 2: 17: 5 2: 17

Fustians 9 [..] yards Coll[d] 0: 14: 7 [..]

8 [..] yd[s] whited D[o] @ 2 0: 13: 4

3 [..] yards Tufted D[o] D[o] p[r] 0: 7 1: 14: 11 [..] 1: 14: 11 [..]

Manchett Tick 3 p[r] at 30/6 4: 11: 6 4: 11: 6

Surratt Chints 73 p[r] at 4/6 16: 8: 6 16: 8: 6

Black Crape 18 [..] yds at 2/3 [..] 2: 1: 4 2: 1: 4

Soldiers Cloaths viz[t]

2 Red Coats at 1: 0: 8 2: 1: 4

5 Waste Coats D[o] 9/4 2: 6: 8

4 p[r] Breeches 8/3 1: 13 6: 1 6: 1

Salt 1 Bushell 6 6

Copper 3 [..] 3 3

Huckabacks 1 p[r] Tabling y[d] 30 7/8: 10:

yards at 5/6 2: 13: 1 11: 3: 1 14: 3: 1

1 p[r] D[o] Napkining y[d] 26 [..] D[o] [..] 2: 13: 1

Sacking 2 p[r] D[o] at 7/6 4: 15: -

13 yards of D[o] 1: 3: 9 5: 18: 9 5: 18: 9

1: 10 1: 10

Hair Sieve 1 D[o]

Carried Over 307: 14: 4 [..] 12: 3: 11 [..] 93: 8: 9 [..] 413: 7: 1 [..]

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £245 3s 3¾d.

To the plantation, £12 3s 11¾d.

To the general charge, £70 18s 7¼d.

Total £328 2s 10¼d.

Woollen goods as follows.

Druggets.

19 yards at 3s, £2 2s 0d [reading uncertain].

20 yards at 4s, £4 0s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £6 2s 0d.

Total £6 2s 0d.

Shalloons.

46⅔ yards at 2s 6d, £5 16s 10½d.

5⅓ yards on Susanna, £0 10s 6d.

24⅔ yards at 2s 6d on general charges, £3 1s 3d.

To the inhabitants, £6 7s 4½d.

To the general charge, £3 1s 3d.

Total £9 8s 7½d.

Perpetuanoes.

14 yards at 2s 5d.

To the inhabitants, £1 13s 10d.

Total £1 13s 10d.

Flannels.

1 yard, £0 2s 9d.

3 yards at 2s 3d, £0 6s 9d.

To the inhabitants, £0 9s 6d.

Total £0 9s 6d.

Sagathies.

1 piece, £3 1s 8d.

49¾ yards at 3s 1d, £7 13s 4½d.

To the inhabitants, £10 15s 0¾d.

Total £10 15s 0¾d.

Broad cloths.

3¾ yards at 14s 6d, £2 14s 4½d.

2½ yards on general charges, £1 16s 3d.

To the inhabitants, £2 14s 4½d.

To the general charge, £1 16s 3d.

Total £4 10s 7½d.

Durants.

10 yards at 1s 9d.

To the inhabitants, £0 17s 6d.

Total £0 17s 6d.

Kerseys.

26½ yards at 2s 2d.

To the inhabitants, £2 17s 5d.

Total £2 17s 5d.

Fustians.

9¼ yards filled, £0 14s 7½d.

8 yards of white at 2s, £0 13s 4d.

3 yards of tufted on disposal, £0 7s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £1 14s 11½d.

To the general charge, £4 11s 6d.

Total £4 11s 6d.

Manchester ticking.

3 pieces at 30s, £4 16s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £4 16s 6d.

Total £4 16s 6d.

Surat chintz.

73 pieces at 4s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £16 8s 6d.

Total £16 8s 6d.

Black crape.

16⅛ yards at 2s 7¼d.

To the inhabitants, £2 1s 4¼d.

Total £2 1s 4¼d.

Soldiers' clothes as follows.

2 red coats at £1 0s 8d, £2 1s 4d.

5 waistcoats, £2 6s 8d.

4 pairs of breeches at 8s 3d, £1 13s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £6 1s 0d.

Total £6 1s 0d.

Salt.

1 bushel, £0 6s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 6s 0d.

Total £0 6s 0d.

Copper.

3, £0 3s 0d.

To the general charge, £0 3s 0d.

Total £0 3s 0d.

Huckabacks.

1 piece tabling of 30¼ yards at 5s 6d, £8 10s 0d.

1 piece of napkining of 26½ yards at 2s, £2 13s 1d.

To the general charge, £11 3s 1d.

Total £11 3s 1d.

Sacking.

2 pieces at 7s 6d, £4 15s 0d.

13 yards of ditto, £1 3s 9d.

To the general charge, £5 18s 9d.

Total £5 18s 9d.

1 piece [...], £1 0s 0d.

To the general charge, £1 0s 0d.

Total £1 0s 0d.

Hair sieve.

1, £0 [...]s [...]d.

Carried over.

To the inhabitants, £307 14s 4½d.

To the plantation, £12 3s 11½d.

To the general charge, £93 8s 9½d.

Total £413 7s 0¼d.

Interpretations

The sixth leaf of the account brought together the woollen and mixed-fibre cloths supplied through the stores during the quarter, alongside ready-made soldiers' clothing and certain household textiles. The cumulative grand total advanced from £328 2s 10¼d to £413 7s 0¼d, an increase of £85 4s 2d, with the inhabitants taking £62 11s 0¾d of the additional charge and the general charge column rising by £22 10s 2¼d. The figures confirmed the breadth of the textile supply, with English woollens drawn from the same stocks as the Indian cottons recorded earlier.

The variety of woollen cloths supplied through the stores reflected the established categories of the English drapery trade of the period. Drugget was a coarse woollen or half-woollen cloth used for outer garments and floor coverings, supplied in two grades at 3s and 4s the yard. Shalloon was a light, twilled woollen lining cloth from Chalons in France, made in England under the same name, used principally for lining coats. Perpetuana was a durable plain-woven worsted, supplied for coats and gowns where hard wear was wanted. Flannel was a soft woollen cloth used for under-garments and lighter coverings. Sagathy was a fine woollen cloth used for outer wear and clerical dress. Broadcloth was the principal fine woollen of England, fulled and pressed to a smooth finish, used for the best coats and gowns. Durant was a glazed worsted used for linings and women's gowns. Kersey was a coarse twilled woollen made in the West Riding, used for the working clothes of soldiers and labourers. Fustian was a mixed cotton and linen cloth in various finishes, including the cut-pile tufted variety, used for hard-wearing garments and household uses. The combined range made the stores a complete drapery for the island's clothing needs.

The Surat chintz at 73 pieces, totalling £16 8s 6d, represented the largest single line on the leaf and continued the pattern of Indian textile supply begun on the previous leaf with the Indian cottons from the Success. Surat was the principal port of the Company's western Indian trade, on the Gulf of Cambay, and the chintzes despatched from there were the higher grade of printed cotton supplied to the colonial markets. The supply of 73 pieces in a single quarter indicates the scale of the inhabitants' demand for these textiles, and confirms the stores as the principal channel through which Indian cottons reached the planter community.

The entry for soldiers' clothes, with 2 red coats at £1 0s 8d each, 5 waistcoats and 4 pairs of breeches, gave a glimpse of the issue of uniform clothing to the garrison through the stores. The red coat at £1 0s 8d was the standard military coat of the period, dyed with madder or other red pigment and made up to a uniform pattern, supplied to soldiers as part of their annual issue. The waistcoats and breeches completed the soldier's outfit, supplied at unit prices that allowed the Company to charge the garrison's account for the clothing on a per-item basis. The presence of these articles in the inhabitants' column rather than in the general charge suggested that the issue was being made to individual soldiers against their own accounts rather than against a general establishment charge for the garrison.

Huckaback was a coarse linen cloth with a raised surface, woven specifically for table linen and napkining, named after the Dutch huckaback weave from which it was derived. The supply of 30¼ yards of huckaback for tabling at 5s 6d the yard, together with 26½ yards for napkining at 2s the yard, provided the linen for the establishment's table at the castle. Sacking was a coarse hempen or jute cloth used for sacks, bags and packaging, supplied here in pieces and yards for the general charge. The presence of these utilitarian textiles in the general charge column reflected the establishment's continuing need for table linen and packaging materials at the castle and stores.

Speculations

The marked weight of textile goods in the present account, with woollens, Indian cottons and ready-made clothing accounting for the bulk of the increase on this leaf and the previous one, suggests that the cargoes received from the Success and other Company ships in the latter part of 1714 had built up substantial textile stocks in the stores at the close of the accounting year. The closing of the year on 25 March 1715, with the fourteen-day suspension of issues announced at the consultation of 11 March 1715, would have given the storekeepers a clear interval to inventory the remaining stock and to report its standing to the Lords Proprietors. The detailed enumeration of every variety and grade in the present account supplied the documentary base for that inventory.

The presence of separate entries for soldiers' red coats, waistcoats and breeches at fixed unit prices implies a system of clothing issue to the garrison in which individual soldiers were debited for their own clothing against their pay. The arrangement made each soldier accountable for the cost of his uniform, and converted what might otherwise have been a charge on the establishment into a transaction between the storekeeper and the soldier. The framework would have placed pressure on the soldiers to maintain their clothing in good order, since the cost of replacement fell directly on their pay rather than on the Company's general account.

387

378

Inhabit[s] Plant[a] Gen: Cha[r] Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought Over 307: 14: 4 [..] 12: 3: 11 [..] 93: 8: 9 [..] 413: 7: 1 [..]

Beef & Pork viz[t] £ s d

2 Casks Beef 224 p[r] m[o]: 1086 [..] 22: 7: 0 [..] at 5 [..] p[r] [..]

Pork 1 Cask of 340 at D[o] 7: 1: 8 29: 14: 4 [..] 29: 14: 4 [..]

Beef 2 Casks 995 ea[ch] 22: 7: 9

Pork 2 Casks 476 at 8 p[r] [..] 15: 17: 4 38: 5: 1 67: 19: 5 [..]

Pitch 2 Barrills at 3: 4: 10 [..] ea[ch] 6: 9: 9 6: 2: 9

Totall 337: 8: 8 [..] 12: 3: 11 [..] 138: 3: 7 [..] 487: 16: 3 [..]

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] Tovey

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £307 14s 4½d.

To the plantation, £12 3s 11½d.

To the general charge, £93 8s 9½d.

Total £413 7s 0¼d.

Beef and pork as follows.

Beef.

2 casks, 224 pounds, number 1086, weight 22 hundredweight 1 quarter 7 pounds, at [...] the hundredweight, £22 [...]s [...]d.

Pork.

1 cask of 340 pounds at ditto, £7 1s 8d.

To the inhabitants, £29 14s 4½d.

Beef.

2 casks, 995 weight, £22 7s 9d.

Pork.

2 casks, 476 weight at [...] the hundredweight, £15 17s 4d.

To the general charge, £38 5s 1d.

Total £67 19s 5½d.

Pitch.

2 barrels at 3s 4d [...].

To the general charge, £6 2s 9d.

Total £6 2s 9d.

Total.

To the inhabitants, £337 8s 8¾d.

To the plantation, £12 3s 11½d.

To the general charge, £138 3s 7½d.

Total £487 16s 3¾d.

The account was signed by Pyke, George Haswell and Ardipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The closing leaf of the account drew the quarterly schedule to its conclusion with the entries for beef, pork and pitch, and gave the final grand total of £487 16s 3¾d for goods sold and delivered to the inhabitants, the plantation house and the United Castle from 25 November 1714 to 25 February 1715. The inhabitants' column closed at £337 8s 8¾d, the plantation house at £12 3s 11½d, and the general charge at £138 3s 7½d, with the inhabitants accordingly accounting for slightly more than two thirds of the total, the general charge for slightly more than a quarter, and the plantation house for the small remaining share. The shape of the account confirmed the dominant role of the inhabitants as the principal recipients of the stores' issues, with the establishment's own needs forming a substantial but secondary call.

The beef and pork entries on this leaf identified salt provisions supplied from the stores rather than fresh meat taken from the island's herds. Salt beef and pork were imported in barrels from Ireland and England, packed in brine, and used as the keeping protein both for shipboard rations on outward voyages and for issue at the establishment when fresh meat was scarce. The cattle famine cited by Pyke in his letter to Le Blanc of 30 January 1715 had reduced the island's herds to a level where the supply of fresh beef to the Company's shipping was uncertain, and the issue of salt beef from the stores to inhabitants and general charge filled the gap on the establishment's table. Pork, supplied here in casks of 340, 476 and 995 pounds, occupied a regular place in the establishment's diet, and the issue of two casks totalling 476 pounds to the general charge was the principal protein supplied to the garrison during the quarter.

The pitch entry, with two barrels at 3s 4d the [...] supplied to the general charge for £6 2s 9d, identified a basic ship and building material drawn through the stores. Pitch was the tar derived from pine resin or coal, used for sealing the seams of boats, for caulking buildings, and for waterproofing ropes and timbers. The presence of pitch in the general charge column rather than in the inhabitants' indicated its use in Company works at the castle, the platforms or on Company-owned boats. The supply of two barrels in a single quarter pointed to active maintenance work on shipping or fortification timbers during the period covered by the account.

The signatures of Pyke, Haswell and Tovey at the foot of the account gave the formal authentication of the three principal officers of the council. Pyke signed as governor, Haswell as deputy governor and Tovey as the fifth in council. The absence of signatures from Mashborne, recorded as sick at the consultation of 11 March 1715, and from Bazett, the officer whose default in producing the accounts had been the subject of the governor's complaint at the same consultation, was conspicuous. The completion of the formal account in fair form, signed by three of the five councillors, brought the quarterly statement to a close in compliance with the bookkeeping standards Pyke had been pressing upon his colleagues since his arrival.

Speculations

The conspicuous absence of Bazett's signature from the foot of the completed account, taken with his earlier failure to produce the monthly accounts on demand at the consultation of 11 March 1715, suggests that the relationship between the governor and his fourth councillor on the matter of bookkeeping had not been resolved by the date the present account was authenticated. Bazett had carried his foul papers away from the council on 11 March 1715 with a promise to write them out fair against the next consultation day, and the present account, completed and signed by the other three principal officers, may have been the document he was required to produce. The omission of his signature, if it was deliberate, signalled that he had still not delivered his part of the work, and that the bench had proceeded without him to authenticate what was in their hands.

The size of the closing grand total of £487 16s 3¾d for one quarter of the establishment's commercial dealings gave the council a clear measure of the scale of the stores operation under their direction. At an annualised rate of nearly £2,000 for the value of goods issued, with two thirds running to the inhabitants and a substantial share to the general charge, the stores account stood as a major item in the council's administration of the island's affairs. The systematic itemisation of the account, with prices, quantities and recipient categories all recorded against every line, provided the Lords Proprietors in London with the documentary basis for assessing the effectiveness of the council's commercial administration, and gave Pyke himself a baseline against which to measure the effect of the reforms he had been pressing forward since his opening address of 7 February 1715.

388

379

Island S[t]: Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 15[th] day of March 1714/5 at the United Castle in James valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r] George Haswell Dept[y] Edward Mashborne 3[d] Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s]: Tovey 5[th]. in Counc[l].

Prest

Ordered That this day the Bills be begun to be deliver'd out as there shall be Occasion and that the Governour be made Debter for what are Signd to the Treasury.

The Govern[r]: had Deliver'd to him Signd by all the Councill the following Bills. Thirty Bills at forty Shillings Each £ 60: 00: 0[..] Forty Ditto at twenty Shillings Each 40: -: - Forty Ditto at five Shillings Each 10: -: - Sixty Ditto at two Shillings & Six Pence 7: 10: £117: 10: Which he is Accountable for as Cash.

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] [...]

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Blank Bills Signd.

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 15 March 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, third; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

It was ordered that the blank bills should be begun to be delivered out this day, as there should be occasion, and that the governor should be made debtor for whatever bills were signed to the treasury.

The governor had delivered to him, signed by all the council, the following bills.

30 bills at 40s 0d each, £60 0s 0d.

40 bills at 20s 0d each, £40 0s 0d.

40 bills at 5s 0d each, £10 0s 0d.

60 bills at 2s 6d each, £7 10s 0d.

Total, £117 10s 0d.

The bills were such that the governor was to be accountable for them as cash.

The record was signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey.

Interpretations

The bills delivered to the governor on this day represented the issue of a local paper currency on the island, prepared in fixed denominations and authenticated by the signatures of all the councillors. The 30 bills at 40s 0d, 40 bills at 20s 0d, 40 bills at 5s 0d and 60 bills at 2s 6d gave a structured set of denominations covering the principal values at which transactions on the place required formal payment. The total of £117 10s 0d in 170 individual bills provided the governor with a working stock of paper instruments to be issued against transactions as occasion arose, with each bill bearing the signatures of all five councillors as the guarantee of its authenticity.

The arrangement put into practice the policy announced by Pyke at his opening address of 7 February 1715, when he had told the inhabitants that the Honourable Company had resolved to send other money for small payments, so that it might pass current here as it did in all other countries. The present issue was evidently the local mechanism by which the new money was being put into circulation, with the council itself authenticating the bills and the governor charged with their distribution to the inhabitants. The denomination structure addressed precisely the problem Pyke had identified, namely the lack of small coin for everyday transactions, by issuing bills as small as 2s 6d to bridge the gap between the higher values customarily reckoned in sterling and the petty payments of ordinary trade.

The framing of the arrangement, by which the governor was to be made debtor to the treasury for the bills as cash, established the accounting basis for the issue. The governor took the bills onto his own account as if they were money, and would be required to account for them either by returning unspent bills to the treasury or by accounting for the transactions in which they had been spent. The mechanism converted the council's authentication of the bills into a charge against the governor's personal accountability, and protected the Company against any irregular issue or unaccounted disposal. The procedure made Pyke himself the responsible officer for the proper use of the new paper money in the same way that any storekeeper or paymaster was personally responsible for the cash and stock entrusted to him.

The 170 bills issued on this single occasion gave the island a substantial new supply of local circulating medium. The number and range of denominations indicated that the inhabitants were expected to use the bills for many small transactions rather than a few large ones, and the inclusion of bills as low as 2s 6d allowed them to be passed in the trade in eggs, fowls, vegetables, fish and small services that would not have justified a payment in sterling coin. The arrangement gave the island a means of monetising its internal economy, and freed the inhabitants from the customary reliance on credit and book debt in dealings between themselves.

Speculations

The decision to authenticate the bills with the signatures of all five councillors, rather than relying on the governor's signature alone or on a less elaborate procedure, suggests that the council intended each bill to carry an unmistakable proof of its origin and to be difficult to counterfeit. With Bazett's bookkeeping defaults still recent in the council's deliberations and with the wider question of irregularity in the storekeepers' accounts now being addressed through the Beal accounts and the governor's personal attendance at the stores, the inclusion of all five signatures on each bill gave the inhabitants confidence that the council itself stood behind the instrument and that no single officer's irregularity could undermine its value. The procedure made the bills the joint obligation of the bench as a body, and built the council's collective authority directly into the small change that would now circulate on the island.

The conspicuous return of Bazett's name to the bench at this consultation, after his default at the consultation of 11 March 1715 and his absence from the signatures on the quarterly stores account, suggests that the council had drawn his bookkeeping back into compliance during the four days between the two sittings. The fact that he was present and that the council were proceeding to issue bills under the joint authentication of all five members implies that the accounts had been brought up to date by the time of the present meeting, or at least that the council were satisfied to resume normal business with him on the bench. The handling of his default may thus have been brief and contained, with the issue of the bills serving as a moment of restored collective working.

389

380

Island S[t]: Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 22 day of March 1714/5 At the United Castle in James valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r]: George Haswell Dpty Edw[d]: Mashborne 3[d]: Sick Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antip[s]: Tovey 5[th] in Coun[c]:

Prest

The Govern[r]: Reports that M[r] Carne has been with him and has acknowledged his fault in transgressing the Order for forbidding the Selling of Beef to Foreigners Ships, He askt the Gover[ds] Pardon and Promised to pay the Ten Pounds Asest upon him. The Govern[r]: Saith that whereas he has delivered out yesterday and to day Severall Cash Notes he thinks it very Necessary for the Credit of the Said Notes and the Satisfaction of the Inhabitants to Publish an Advertizem[t] forthwith that whoever has received any of these Notes and are Dissatisfyed therewith if they come to the Gov[ern]: he will Im =mediately pay them in Silver Money the Sums mention'd in each Note. and that if any of y[e] People who keep Tipling or Publick Houses, Shall under =value the said Notes by refuseing to take them in Payment as Currant Cash, or Should take them for less then the Sums therein Mentioned, they Shall be Lookt upon as Publick Defrauders and be Severely Punnished. Ordered. That

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena

M[r] Carne owns his fault

Cash Notes Deliv[d]

Order thereupon

in case refused

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 22 March 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Edward Mashborne, third, sick; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The governor reported that Mr Carne had been with him and had acknowledged his fault in transgressing the order forbidding the selling of beef to foreign ships. He had asked the governor's pardon and promised to pay the £10 0s 0d assessed upon him.

The governor said that, whereas he had delivered out yesterday and today several cash notes, he thought it very necessary, for the credit of the notes and the satisfaction of the inhabitants, to publish an advertisement forthwith. The advertisement was to state that whoever had received any of the notes and was dissatisfied with them, if they came to the governor, he would immediately pay them in silver money the sums mentioned in each note. It was also to state that if any of the people who kept tippling or public houses should undervalue the notes, by refusing to take them in payment as current cash, or should take them for less than the sums therein mentioned, they would be looked upon as public defrauders and severely punished.

It was ordered that

Interpretations

Carne's appearance before the governor in person, with an acknowledgement of his fault and an undertaking to pay the £10 0s 0d assessed at the consultation of 11 March 1715, closed the proceedings against him on the beef matter. His earlier letter of 1 March 1715, sent through his nephew Beal, had pleaded ill health and ill standing with the governor as reasons for asking to be relieved of the Beal guardianship, and had not addressed the pending fine. The present submission, made between the date of the fine and its payment, restored him to compliance with the council's order and removed the immediate prospect of further action against him. The pattern of his conduct across the period, with two clandestine deliveries of beef to the Jason, his binding to good behaviour and now his submission and payment of the fine, illustrated the working of the council's graduated procedure for handling repeat offenders against a published order.

The cash notes the governor had begun to deliver out on 21 March 1715 and 22 March 1715 were the bills authenticated by all five councillors at the consultation of 15 March 1715, issued in denominations from 2s 6d to 40s 0d to a total of £117 10s 0d. The decision to publish an advertisement so soon after the notes had begun to circulate, addressing both the inhabitants who might be dissatisfied with them and the public house keepers who might undervalue them, indicated that the credit of the new paper currency was the governor's immediate concern at the outset of its issue. The success of the scheme depended on the inhabitants accepting the notes at face value in their own dealings, and any early reluctance or discount would have undermined the whole arrangement.

The governor's offer to redeem any note immediately in silver money at the face value provided the practical backing for the new paper currency. The promise of convertibility on demand, made personally by the governor, gave each note the standing of a claim against the council's silver reserve, and assured any recipient that he could obtain coin if he distrusted the paper. The arrangement followed the standard model of a paper currency backed by a guaranteed metallic conversion at par, and gave the notes the credit they needed to circulate freely at the values printed on them.

The threat directed at tippling and public house keepers identified the principal commercial setting in which the small denominations of the new currency would first be tested. Public houses on the island sold arrack, beer and provisions to soldiers, mariners and inhabitants in small transactions for which the new notes had been specifically designed. If the keepers of these houses refused the notes or accepted them only at a discount, they would set a market rate of exchange against the council's official par value and would undermine the credit of the currency in its principal use. The framing of any such conduct as public defrauding, punishable severely, brought the matter within the criminal jurisdiction of the council and gave the governor a direct mechanism to enforce the par value of the notes in the public houses.

Speculations

The decision to publish the advertisement immediately, after only two days of issue of the new notes, suggests that the governor had already detected some hesitation or undervaluing of the notes in the first transactions in which they had been used. The selection of tippling and public houses as the named subject of the warning, rather than retailers or shopkeepers in general, suggests that the first reports of trouble had come from those establishments where soldiers and sailors had attempted to spend the new notes on drink and refreshment. The governor's swift intervention, combining the offer of silver conversion to the dissatisfied with the threat of severe punishment to those who undervalued the notes, addressed the problem from both sides at once.

The timing of Carne's submission and payment offer, on 22 March 1715, immediately after the council had issued the new cash notes on 15 March 1715 and begun delivering them out on 21 March 1715 and 22 March 1715, may have given him a practical means of discharging the £10 0s 0d fine through the new currency itself. The structured denominations of the bills, including bills at 40s 0d, would have allowed him to pay the fine in five 40s 0d notes or in a combination of larger and smaller denominations, drawn from his own holdings or obtained from others. The mechanism of the fine and the issue of the new currency may have intersected in his case, with the notes circulating from his hand into the council's treasury and completing the cycle of issue and return that the bookkeeping arrangement had been designed to control.

390

381

That Such an Advertisement be Published which is as followeth.

Island S[t]: Helena. By the Worshipfull Govern[r]. &c[a] Council An Advertizem[t].

These are to give Notice to all Persons that whereas there are Cash Notes Issued out to Pass as money in the Stores Signed by Govern[r] & Council If any are be Dissatisfyed with them they may Apply them =selves to the Govern[r]: who Immediatly will give Silver money in Exchange for them Acording to the Sums therein Mention'd.

And if any who keep Tipling or Publick Houses Shall under vallue the Said Notes by Refusing to take them in Payment or Currant Cash or shall take them for less then the Sums therein Mention'd they Shall be Lookt upon as Publick Defrauders and be Severely Punnished.

Dated at the United Signed p[er] order of Gov[r] and Castle this 22[d] Day of Councill. March 1714/5 Antip[s] Tovey Sect[ry]

Thus farr hath been Copy'd out & Sent home p[r] Ship Hester Cap[t]: Charles Kesar Com[and]:

[...] Geo: Haswell

[...] [...] Tovey

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena

Advertizem[t]: about Cash Notes

Penalty.

Dated at the United Castle this 22[d] Day of March 1714/5

It was ordered that an advertisement be published, in the following terms.

Island of St Helena. By the worshipful the governor and council, an advertisement.

This was to give notice to all persons that, whereas there were cash notes issued out to pass as money in the stores, signed by the governor and council, if any were dissatisfied with them they might apply themselves to the governor, who would immediately give silver money in exchange for them according to the sums therein mentioned.

If any who kept tippling or public houses should undervalue the notes by refusing to take them in payment as current cash, or should take them for less than the sums therein mentioned, they would be looked upon as public defrauders and severely punished.

The advertisement was dated at the United Castle on 22 March 1715, and signed by order of the governor and council by Ardipas Tovey, secretary.

The record showed that thus far the council book had been copied out and sent home by the ship Hester, Captain Charles Kesar commander.

The record was signed by Pyke, George Haswell and Ardipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The published advertisement gave formal effect to the policy on the new cash notes set out in the consultation immediately preceding it. The text confined the silver redemption offer to the governor in person, rather than to any other officer of the establishment, so that the practical control of any run on the silver reserve remained in his own hands. The penal clause directed at public house keepers placed the new currency under the protection of the council's criminal jurisdiction, with the threat of severe punishment for any deliberate undervaluing of the notes in everyday trade. The combination of voluntary redemption and compulsory acceptance at par provided the legal framework within which the notes were intended to circulate.

The signature of Ardipas Tovey as secretary to the council, by order of the governor and council, identified his standing as the executive officer responsible for issuing published orders to the inhabitants. The position parallels his earlier role at the advertisement of 29 January 1715 forbidding the sale of beef to foreign ships, and at the closing minute of the general sessions of 7 February 1715. The pattern confirmed Tovey as the regular signing hand for the council's outgoing documents, alongside his place as fifth in council on the bench.

The note that the council book had been copied out and sent home by the Hester under Captain Charles Kesar identified the present consultation, dated 22 March 1715, as the closing entry of the consignment despatched to the Lords Proprietors in London. The Hester had arrived from China by way of the Cape on 2 March 1715, and the recording of her name as the vessel by which the duplicate was sent confirmed her departure from the island as the next homeward stage of her voyage. The sending of a fair copy of the proceedings home by the next available Indiaman gave practical effect to the policy Pyke had set out at his opening address of 7 February 1715, that due accounts of all transactions should be kept in books and duplicates of them sent to the Honourable Company for the preventing of future disputes.

The dispatch of the council book at this point in the year coincided with the close of the Company's accounting year on 25 March 1715, the date set in the order at the consultation of 11 March 1715 for the settling of accounts and the temporary suspension of issues from the stores. The completion of the duplicate, including the fair copy of the stores account totalling £487 16s 3¾d for the quarter ending 25 February 1715, allowed the Lords Proprietors in London to receive both the formal record of the proceedings of the council and the supporting commercial accounts in a single consignment. The arrangement gave the Company a complete documentary view of the early months of Pyke's administration, drawn up to the standards of bookkeeping he had announced and pressed forward against the resistance of Bazett and the irregularities of the storekeepers.

Speculations

The decision to send home the duplicate of the council book at exactly the close of the first complete quarter of Pyke's administration, with a freshly issued local currency and a comprehensive fair stores account both included in the record, suggests that the governor was anxious to place before the Lords Proprietors as complete and orderly a representation of his early conduct as possible. The events of the quarter included the trial of Bevar on 24 January 1715, the general sessions of 7 February 1715, the Jason episode through January and February 1715, the St Lewis visit through February and March 1715, the prosecution and submission of Carne and the issue of the new paper currency, all set out in proper form. The dispatch gave the Lords Proprietors a documented record of decisive administration in the place of the unsettled interim period that had preceded Pyke's arrival.

The framing of the criminal penalty against public house keepers as severe punishment, without specifying the form, gave the council the latitude to fit the response to the particular offender once an actual case arose. The vague threat carried more force in advance of any prosecution than a specific tariff would have done, since each public house keeper would weigh the possibility of cart's tail whipping, fining, branding or other punishment against the small profit available from discounting a note by a few pence. The framing was characteristic of Pyke's administrative style, which used the threat of severity in published orders to govern conduct in advance, while reserving the bench's latitude to act mildly or harshly in actual cases as the circumstances seemed to require.

391

382

Island S[t]: Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 29[th]: of March 1715. at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r] Cap[t]: Geo: Haswell Dep[ty] Cap[t]: Edw[d]: Mashborne 3[d]: Sick Matth[w]: Bazett 4[th] & Antipas Tovey 5[th] in Coun[c]:

Prest

The Gov[d]. reports that he had given M[r] Wrangham a Note to the Store to have Credit for forty Eight Grown Goats & Eleven Kidds amounting to Twenty Six Pounds fifteen Shillings. Ordered That the Tea bought of Cap[t]. Kesaer being very good be Sold out at the Stores One Catty of that with one Pound of the other Tea in the Store that not being so good at Eighteen Shill[s] for a Catten of the fine & a Pound of the ordinary.

M[r] Bazett delivered in his Acco[t]: of Sales in the Hon[r] Comp[as]: Stores from the 25[th] Dec[r] 1714 to the 25[th] Feb[ry] 1714/5 - 10 were Ordered to be Entered in the fair Consultation book.

M[r] Tovey Delivered in his List of all the Acco[ts] of Familys Land &c Cattle as sent to the Sec[ry]s Office between the 8[th] & 21[st] Instant w[ch] was Ordered to be Entered in the fair Consultation book.

Margin Notes:

Island S[t]: Helena

Wrangham Cred[r] for Goats

Price of Tea

Store Acc[ot]s D[d]

Acc[ts] of Familys &c[a]

Island of St Helena.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 29 March 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present in council were Isaac Pyke, governor; Captain George Haswell, deputy governor; Captain Edward Mashborne, third, sick; Matthew Bazett, fourth; and Ardipas Tovey, fifth.

The governor reported that he had given Mr Wrangham a note to the store to have credit for 48 grown goats and 11 kids, amounting to £26 15s 0d.

It was ordered that the tea bought from Captain Kesar, being very good, be sold out at the stores in a parcel of that mixed with one pound of the other tea in the store, which was not so good, at 18s 0d for a parcel of the fine and a pound of the ordinary.

Mr Bazett delivered in his account of sales in the Honourable Company's stores from 25 December 1714 to 25 February 1715. It was ordered to be entered in the fair consultation book.

Mr Tovey delivered in his list of all the accounts of families' land and cattle, as sent to the secretary's office between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715. It was ordered to be entered in the fair consultation book.

Interpretations

Wrangham's note for 48 grown goats and 11 kids at a credit of £26 15s 0d gave him a substantial unit price for breeding stock once the kids and grown animals were valued together. The arrangement followed the pattern established at the pound on 26 February 1715, when Wrangham had been one of the four planters delivering goats into the new Chapel Valley pound alongside Carne, Long and Spree. The present transaction converted his livestock deliveries into a credit at the stores against which he could draw imported goods, completing the closed commercial circuit that the order at the consultation of 11 March 1715 had been designed to establish. The mechanism of the credit note allowed the planter to take provisions, textiles or arrack from the stores up to the value of his livestock deliveries, without the need for any bills to be drawn on the Lords Proprietors in London.

The order on the tea identified Captain Charles Kesar of the Hester as the supplier of the better grade tea recently brought into the stores. The Hester had arrived from China by way of the Cape on 2 March 1715 and was the vessel by which the duplicate council book had been sent home, as recorded at the consultation of 22 March 1715. Her cargo had evidently included tea drawn directly from the Chinese trade, of a higher quality than the stock previously held at the stores, and the council's decision to sell it in mixed parcels of fine and ordinary tea at 18s 0d for the parcel allowed the storekeepers to dispose of both grades together while preventing inhabitants from buying only the better tea and leaving the inferior stock on the shelves. The arrangement protected the council's investment in the older stock at the same time as it gave the inhabitants access to the new and better article.

Bazett's delivery of his account of sales from 25 December 1714 to 25 February 1715, with the formal order that it be entered in the fair consultation book, brought to a conclusion the dispute over his bookkeeping that had been opened at the consultation of 11 March 1715. The period covered by the present account overlapped with the consolidated stores account of £487 16s 3¾d for the quarter ending 25 February 1715 already entered in the council records and signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey. The present submission by Bazett may therefore have been a separate departmental account for a particular sphere of the stores' operations, or may have been the same material reorganised under his own signature for the purposes of his personal accountability. Either way, the order for entry in the fair consultation book established that Bazett had finally complied with the bookkeeping discipline the governor had been pressing on him.

Tovey's list of all the families' land and cattle, compiled between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715 and sent to the secretary's office, gave practical effect to the order in Pyke's opening address of 7 February 1715 that all plantations should be surveyed and fenced in, and that due accounts of all transactions should be kept. The compilation of a register of every family's land and cattle holdings, prepared over a fortnight by the secretary's office and now ordered into the fair consultation book, provided the council with the documentary base for any future dispute over property and stock. The arrangement made the council the central repository of land tenure and livestock holdings on the island, and gave the Lords Proprietors in London a complete picture of the settler economy at the close of the first quarter of Pyke's administration.

Speculations

The formal entry of Bazett's account and Tovey's register into the fair consultation book at the same consultation suggests that the governor had reserved this sitting for the completion of the bookkeeping reforms he had been pressing forward since his arrival on the island. The bringing in of two separate documentary submissions on the same day, each ordered into the fair record, gave the consultation the character of a closing audit of the first quarter of the administration. The combination of the stores account, the families' land and cattle register and the cash notes issued at the consultation of 15 March 1715 placed before the council a documented picture of the island's commercial, agrarian and monetary affairs at the close of the Company's accounting year on 25 March 1715, ready to be communicated to the Lords Proprietors in London.

The pricing of the mixed tea parcels at 18s 0d for a portion of the fine grade with a pound of the ordinary suggests that the council had calculated a price by which the cost of the older stock could be effectively subsidised by the value of the new and better tea. The standard pricing of tea at the stores had been 9s 0d the pound, as recorded in the quarterly stores account for the period ending 25 February 1715, and the present arrangement appears to have set the parcel price at twice the standard, with the new tea carrying the value of the older alongside it. The mechanism allowed the storekeepers to clear the older stock without having to discount it openly, and gave the inhabitants the option of obtaining the better tea at a fixed unit price that included a measure of the inferior grade as part of the same transaction.

392

383

Mess[rs]: Middleton Nash & Holland gave the following Lett[r]: under covert to the Govern[r] viz[t]: S[r] The accompanying Lett[r] you'l please to forward to our Hon[ble]: Masters by the Next Ship departs your Port, We take this occasion of returning our Sincere thanks for the good Treatment wee have received from you w[ch] we must Impute to your consideration of our being Company Servants, for we could not otherwise lay any Claim to the least Part therein, S[t] Helena S[r] yo[r]: Hum[ble]: Ser[v]: March 23 17 14/15 Phillip Middleton To the Worsh[ll]: Isa: Pyke Esq[r]: Ja: Nash Govern[r]: of S[t]: Helena R: Holland

The foll[g]: Petition was Presented Viz[t] To the Worsh[ll]: Gov[r]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r] [Gov[r]:] Coun[c]l. The Hum[ble]. Petition of James Greentree Richard Gurling & Jonathan Doveton Humbly Sheweth That whereas Rob[t]: Leach dec[d] in his last Will gave unto his Son Richard Leach ten Acres of Land with his Dwelling house after the Decease of his wife also two Cows w[ch] Died in the Dry weather, one third of his Estate to his wife the other two thirds amongst the rest of his Children so that the

Margin Notes:

Supra Cargos Letter.

S[t] Helena March 23 17 14/15

To the Worsh[ll]: Isa: Pyke Esq[r]: Govern[r]: of S[t]: Helena

Execut[rs] of Rob[t] Leach their Petitio[n]

Messrs Middleton, Nash and Holland gave the following letter under cover to the governor.

They addressed the governor as sir. They asked him to forward the accompanying letter to their Honourable Masters by the next ship that departed his port. They took the occasion of returning their sincere thanks for the good treatment they had received from him, which they must impute to his consideration of their being Company servants, since they could not otherwise lay any claim to the least part of it.

They subscribed themselves the governor's most humble servants. The letter was dated St Helena 23 March 1715 and signed Phillip Middleton, James Nash and Richard Holland. The cover was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor of St Helena.

The following petition was then presented.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and the council. The humble petition of James Greentree, Richard Gurling and Jonathan Doveton.

They set out that Robert Leach, deceased, had in his last will given to his son Richard Leach 10 acres of land with the dwelling house, after the decease of his wife, and also two cows that had died in the dry weather. He had given one third of his estate to his wife and the other two thirds among the rest of his children, so that

Interpretations

The covering letter from Middleton, Nash and Holland identified three Company servants then at St Helena, evidently supercargoes or junior factors who had landed from a recent ship and had received good treatment from the governor during their stay. The reference to their Honourable Masters and the description of themselves as Company servants placed them in the regular establishment of the Company's commercial operations in the East, distinct from the planters and garrison of the island. Their letter of thanks was sent under cover to the governor with a request that he forward an enclosed letter to London by the next ship, which gave the governor's office the practical function of postal relay for the Company's commercial correspondence between the East and the home court.

The three petitioners James Greentree, Richard Gurling and Jonathan Doveton appeared together as the parties interested in the estate of Robert Leach, deceased. Greentree and Doveton had served on the jury panels of the Aurengzebe court of judicature on 24 January 1715 and at the general sessions of 7 February 1715, while Richard Gurling was the same complainant whose declaration against Riping Wills had been determined on 7 February 1715 with the award of ten acres and the slave George. The three together formed a group of planters with an interest in the Leach estate, presumably as kin of the deceased through marriage or other connection, who came forward to seek the council's intervention in the administration of his will.

The will of Robert Leach as recited in the petition set out a standard pattern of testamentary disposition on the island. Ten acres of land together with the dwelling house were settled on Richard Leach the son, subject to the life interest of the widow, while one third of the remaining estate went to the widow absolutely and two thirds were divided among the other children. The arrangement gave the widow her customary widow's third in the personal estate, secured the homestead for the son after his mother's death, and provided for the other children through their share of the residue. The death of the two cows in the dry weather was incidental to the main dispositions but pointed to a recent period of drought on the island that had reduced the estate's livestock holdings between the making of the will and its execution.

The presentation of a petition by three persons jointly rather than by a single complainant indicated that the matter was one in which several beneficiaries or trustees had a common concern, and that they had agreed on the form of the application to the council. The opening of the petition with a recital of the testator's dispositions, before any complaint or request was set out, followed the standard form by which the council was asked to act upon a will, with the recital establishing the legal basis on which the bench was being asked to intervene. The continuation of the petition beyond the visible text would set out the particular matter on which the petitioners sought the council's order.

Speculations

The decision of Greentree, Gurling and Doveton to bring the petition jointly, rather than each on his own behalf, suggests that the three had a coordinated interest in the Leach estate that arose from their respective marriages or family connections. Gurling's recent successful suit against Riping Wills, in which the council had awarded him ten acres of land and the slave George on 7 February 1715, had established him as a planter who used the council's jurisdiction to enforce family claims acquired through marriage. The present petition, brought less than two months later, may reflect a similar interest acquired through his wife Margaret or through some other family connection to the Leach household, with Greentree and Doveton joining him as fellow claimants under the same will.

The notice in the petition that two cows of the estate had died in the dry weather indicates that the dry season on St Helena since the close of the previous year had been hard enough to reduce specific livestock holdings on at least one estate, in addition to the wider cattle famine of 2,500 head referred to in the governor's letter to Le Blanc of 30 January 1715. The recurring references to drought and livestock losses across the consultations of this period suggest that the island had been suffering from a sustained period of poor pasture conditions, and that the recovery of the herds promised by Pyke at his opening address of 7 February 1715 was being set back by continuing dry weather even as the new policy was being put into effect.

393

384

the abovenamed Rich[d]. Leach hath nothing left to bring him up & y[o]. Petition[rs]. haveing an oppertunity of binding him an Apprentice if they had the Vallue of tenn Pounds to give w[th] him. Therefore y[o]. Petition[rs] Humbly desires to know of yo[r]. Worsh[ll]. & Council if we might allow him Tenn Pounds out of the other Childrens Parts & be safe, or whether he ought to be taken care of by the Parish & yo[r]. Petitioners shall as in Duty bound Ever Pray. James Greentree, Jonathan Doveton, Richard Gurling.

Resolv[d]. That if the Boy be Out to a Stone Cutter, Carpenter Joyiner or to a Taylor The Gov[d]. & Council will agre to it.

Island S[t]: Helena An Account of Store goods Sold and delivered to the inhabitants to the Use of the United Castle and Plantation house from December y[e] 25[th] 1714 to february the 25[th] following Vizt:

Verte

Margin Notes:

Coun[cs] Resol[t]

Island S[t]: Helena

The above-named Richard Leach had nothing left to bring him up. The petitioners had an opportunity of binding him an apprentice, if they had the value of £10 0s 0d to give with him. They therefore humbly desired to know from the worshipful governor and council whether they might allow him £10 0s 0d out of the other children's parts and be safe, or whether he ought to be taken care of by the parish. The petitioners said that, as in duty bound, they should ever pray. The petition was signed James Greentree, Jonathan Doveton and Richard Gurling.

The council resolved that if the boy was put to a stone cutter, carpenter, joiner or to a tailor, the governor and council would agree to it.

Island of St Helena.

An account of store goods sold and delivered to the inhabitants, to the use of the United Castle and plantation house, from 25 December 1714 to 25 February 1715, as follows.

Interpretations

The petition revealed that Robert Leach's will, despite its disposition of land and shares to his widow and other children, had left the son Richard nothing on which he could be brought up before reaching his majority. The dwelling house and ten acres were settled on him only after his mother's death, which gave him no current means of maintenance, and the dry season had carried off the two cows that might otherwise have provided a contribution to his keeping. The three petitioners, evidently kin or trustees of the family, had arranged a placement for Richard as an apprentice but lacked the £10 0s 0d premium customarily paid to the master to take him on. The petition therefore sought the council's authority to draw the £10 0s 0d from the shares of the other children under the will, so as to avoid the boy falling on the parish for his maintenance.

The mechanism of apprenticeship as set out in the petition followed the standard English practice by which a boy in need of a trade was bound to a master craftsman for a term of years, with a premium paid at the outset in exchange for the master's undertaking to teach the trade, provide board, lodging and clothing, and discharge the apprentice at the end of his term with the freedom of the trade. The premium of £10 0s 0d was within the customary range for an apprenticeship to an honest craft, and the petitioners' offer to draw the sum from the other children's parts under the will gave the council a precise mechanism by which to authorise the transaction without resort to the parish.

The alternative of placing the boy under parish care brought into the consultation the established English parochial structure that had been carried over to the island. The parish on St Helena was responsible for the maintenance of orphans, paupers and the elderly without family support, with the cost being borne by the rates levied on the inhabitants. The petitioners' question whether the council would allow the £10 0s 0d to be taken from the shares of the other children, or whether the boy should fall on the parish, framed the matter as a choice between private settlement at the cost of the siblings and public maintenance at the cost of the whole community. The council's resolution favoured the private route, but only on condition that the boy was bound to one of four named trades.

The four trades specified by the council, namely stone cutter, carpenter, joiner and tailor, identified the skilled crafts the bench considered suitable for an orphan to learn and likely to support him in independent livelihood. Stone cutter, carpenter and joiner were the principal building trades on the island, all in demand for the construction and maintenance of houses, fortifications and shipping, while a tailor would supply the clothing needs of the planter community out of the imported textiles drawn through the stores. The list excluded less skilled occupations such as labourer or servant, and reserved the apprenticeship to a trade that would give Richard Leach a settled craft to support him in adult life. The bench thereby exercised a paternal oversight of the boy's future even as it authorised the disposition of his siblings' shares for the premium.

Speculations

The reduction of Richard Leach's prospects from heir of his father's house and land to an orphan boy in need of a trade, brought about by the death of the two cows in the dry weather and the bare provision of the will, illustrated how precarious the planter economy could be at the household level when a head of family died with limited liquid means. The will had been adequate to a household with its full stock of livestock, but the loss of the cows between the making of the will and its execution had stripped the estate of the working capital needed to maintain the son until his inheritance fell in on his mother's death. The petitioners' resort to the council for authority to draw on the siblings' shares pointed to the rigidity of testamentary dispositions in the face of changing circumstances, and to the council's role as the supplementary authority that could adjust the strict provisions of a will to meet a need not anticipated by the testator.

The council's specification of four particular trades, rather than a general authority to bind the boy to any honest craft, suggests that the bench was consciously shaping the labour structure of the next generation on the island. By directing the boy to one of the building trades or to tailoring, rather than to retail, husbandry or shipboard work, the council was acting to maintain the local supply of skilled craftsmen on whom both the inhabitants and the establishment depended for their continuing operations. The decision to authorise the apprenticeship on condition of placement in one of these four trades gave the council an instrument by which to direct orphan boys away from less productive callings and toward those of evident value to the island's working economy.

394

385

Inhabit[s] Plantat[n] Gen[l] Charg Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Arrack 216 [..] Galls @ 7/6 Inh[ab] 81: 5: 7 [..]

129 [..] 346 [..] GC 48: 11: 3 129: 16: 10 [..]

Sugar 1171 [..] @ 8 p[r] [..] Inh[ab] 39: 1: 2

8 [..] pt 5: 4

543 [..] GC 18: 2: 4

1723 [..] 57: 8: 10

Sugar Candy 25 @ 12 Inh[ab] 1: 5

1 [..] Pla[nt] 1

26 1: 6

Tobacco 100 @ 2/ Inh[ab] 10

1 Pla[nt] 2

7 GC 14 10: 16

168

Tobacco pipes 119 [..] doz @ 6 [..] Inh[ab] 2: 19: 10 [..]

2 [..] Pla[nt] 1

19 GC 9: 5

140 [..] 3: 10: 4 [..]

Bread 1829 @ 3 [..] p[r] [..] Inh[ab] 26: 11: 8 [..]

13 [..] Pla[nt] 3: 11 [..]

525 [..] GC 7: 13: 3 [..]

236 [..] 34: 8: 11

Flour 1616 [..] @ 3 [..] p[r] [..] Inh[ab] 23: 11: 4

28 [..] Pla[nt] 8: 2

371 [..] GC 5: 8: 4 [..]

2015 [..] 29: 7: 10 [..]

Rice 36 @ 3 [..] Inh[ab] 10: 6

34 Pla[nt] 9: 11

152 GC 2: 4: 4

222 3: 4: 9

Bengal Soap 115 @ 8: 3: 16: 8

English d[o] 106 @ 17: 7: 10: 8 [..] 11: 7: 4 [..]

Castle d[o] 16 @ 18 [..] Pla[nt] 1: 4

60 GC 4: 10 17: 1: 4 [..]

76 [..]

Oyles 7 [..] Gall[s] Rape @ 7: 2: 14: 3

[..] Sweet d[o] 6 3: 3

2 [..] Rape @ 7/ 19: 3

8 [..] d[o] @ 23: 1: 3 Pla[nt]

Linsed 4 d[o] 8 2 GC 4: 8: 9

Sweet 2 [..] @ 12: 1: 5: 6 8: 8: 3

199: 12: 10 8: 13: 3 [..] 92: 2: 0 [..] 295: 9: 2 [..]

Arrack.

216 gallons at 7s 6d for the inhabitants, £81 5s 7½d.

129¼ gallons for the plantation, £4 18s 0d.

346¼ gallons for the general charge, £48 11s 3d.

Total £134 18s 0d.

Sugar.

1,171¾ pounds at 8d for the inhabitants, £39 1s 2d.

543½ pounds for the plantation, £5 4s 0d.

1,723¼ pounds for the general charge, £18 2s 4d.

Total £129 16s 10½d for 1,723¼ pounds and 57 [...]s 8s 10d for the carry, with grand total £62 7s 6d [reading uncertain].

Sugar candy.

¼ pound and ½ pound at 2s for the inhabitants, £0 15s 0d.

1/26 pound for the plantation, £0 1s 0d.

Total £1 6s 0d.

Tobacco.

100 pounds at 2s for the inhabitants, £10 0s 0d.

1 pound for the plantation, £0 2s 0d.

7 pounds for the general charge, £0 14s 0d.

168 pounds total, £10 16s 0d.

Tobacco pipes.

119¼ dozen at 6d for the inhabitants, £2 19s 10½d.

2 dozen for the plantation, £0 1s 0d.

19 dozen for the general charge, £0 9s 5d.

140½ dozen total, £3 10s 4½d.

Bread.

1,829 pounds at 3½d for the inhabitants, £26 11s 8½d.

13½ pounds for the plantation, £0 3s 11¼d.

525½ pounds for the general charge, £7 13s 3¼d.

236½ [...], £34 8s 11d.

Flour.

1,616½ pounds at 3¼d for the inhabitants, £23 11s 4d.

28 pounds for the plantation, £0 8s 2d.

371½ pounds for the general charge, £5 8s 4¼d.

2,015½ pounds total, £29 7s 10¼d.

Rice.

36 pounds at 3¾d for the inhabitants, £0 10s 6d.

34 pounds for the plantation, £0 9s 11d.

152½ pounds for the general charge, £2 4s 4d.

222½ pounds total, £3 4s 9d.

Soap.

Bengal soap, 112 pounds at 8d, £3 16s 8d.

English soap, 106 pounds at 17d, £7 10s 8½d.

Inhabitants total for Bengal and English, £11 7s 4½d.

Castle soap, 16 pounds at 18d for the plantation, £1 4s 0d.

60 pounds for the general charge, £4 10s 0d.

76 pounds total, £17 1s 4½d.

Oils.

7½ gallons of rape at 7s, £2 14s 3d.

Sweet, 8 [...], £0 6s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £3 3s 0d.

Rape, 2¾ gallons at 7s for the plantation, £0 19s 3d.

8¼ gallons.

Linseed, 4¼ gallons at 8s, £2 2s 0d.

[...] at 8s, £1 1s 3d.

Sweet, 2½ gallons at 12s, £1 5s 6d.

To the general charge, £4 8s 9d.

Total £8 8s 3d.

To the inhabitants, £199 12s 10d.

To the plantation, £8 13s 3¼d.

To the general charge, £92 2s 0¼d.

Total £295 9s 2¼d.

Interpretations

The opening leaf of the present store account, drawn for the same quarter from 25 December 1714 to 25 February 1715 as the consolidated account already entered in the council records, returned to the same categories of arrack, sugar, tobacco, bread, flour, rice, soap and oil, with figures that differ from those of the earlier account in their level of detail and in the precise weights assigned to each column. The arrack column closes at 691¼ gallons against the 279 gallons recorded in the earlier consolidated account at the same standard price of 7s 6d the gallon, indicating that this present account covers a broader scope of issues than the earlier summary. The sugar column likewise records over 3,400 pounds against the 1,294½ pounds of the earlier summary, with bread and flour also at substantially higher volumes.

The bread at 1,829 pounds for the inhabitants, with further quantities for the plantation and general charge totalling 2,368 pounds in all, identified bread as the principal grain article supplied through the stores at the unit price of 3½d the pound. Flour at 2,015½ pounds, similarly distributed across the three columns, complemented the bread supply and gave the inhabitants the raw material for their own baking where the household maintained an oven. Bread baked at the establishment was the standard daily ration of the garrison and the household table at the castle, while flour drawn by the inhabitants supported domestic bread-making in the planter households across the upland districts.

Sugar candy at small quantities, sold at 2s the pound to the inhabitants and the plantation, identified a refined sugar product distinct from the ordinary sugar at 8d the pound. Sugar candy was the crystalline form of refined sugar, produced by slow evaporation and used for medicinal purposes, sweetening of beverages and confectionery. The small quantities supplied through the stores reflected its character as a luxury or specialist article rather than as a staple sweetener, and its appearance in the account alongside the much larger sugar issues confirmed the segregation of the two grades by use and price.

The continuing supply of all three grades of soap, namely Bengal soap at 8d, Castle soap at 18d and English soap at 17d, repeated the differentiation established in the earlier consolidated account and confirmed Bengal soap as the working soap of the planter households at the cheapest rate. The 112 pounds of Bengal soap delivered to the inhabitants at £3 16s 8d represented the staple cleaning supply, while the 106 pounds of English soap at the higher rate served those who could afford a better quality. Castle soap supplied to the establishment at the castle and to the plantation house identified the highest grade reserved for institutional use.

Speculations

The reappearance of the same quarterly period in two separately drawn store accounts, namely the consolidated account already entered ending with the signatures of Pyke, Haswell and Tovey and the present account now beginning, suggests that the council had organised its record-keeping to produce both a summary and a detailed return for the Lords Proprietors in London. The summary form gave the bench and the Company a quick view of the totals by category, while the detailed form provided the full breakdown of weights, prices and recipients against which any individual entry could be checked. The two accounts together would have given the Lords Proprietors a thorough documentary picture of the stores' commercial activity, with cross-checking possible between the two presentations.

The substantially higher volumes recorded in the present account, against the same dates and the same unit prices, suggest that the earlier consolidated account may have covered only a particular sphere of the stores' issues, such as those passing through a single storekeeper or branch of the establishment. The present account, with its uniformly higher figures, may then represent the comprehensive return for the whole quarter, with the earlier summary being an extract or departmental account drawn from the same underlying records. The reconciliation between the two would have been part of the bookkeeping discipline Pyke had been pressing on Bazett, and the entry of the present account into the fair consultation book at the consultation of 29 March 1715 brought both presentations into the formal record at the same time.

395

386

Inhabit[s] Plantat[n] Gen[l] Charg Totall

£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d

Brought over 199: 12: 10 8: 13: 3 [..] 92: 2: 0 [..] 295: 9: 2 [..]

Shoes Viz[t] £ s d

43 pair Engl[h] d[o] @ 6/2: £13: 5: 2

13 p[r] Isl[d] d[o] 4 2: 12

1 p[r] Child d[o] [..]

4 d[o] Womens braided @ 10/[..]: 2: 1: 10

18 18

Stockings Viz[t] 1 p[r] Soldiers £ 2: 2

3 p[r] Thread d[o] 4/6 13: 6

1 p[r] Childrens

3 p[r] Mens thread d[o] @ [..] 2: 9

3 p[r] Womens d[o] @ 10 2: 6 1: 2: 5 1: 2: 5

Hatts, Viz[t] 17 Coarse d[o] @ 4/4 ea: £3: 13: 8

1 fine Carolina 12: 6

1 d[o] 12: -

3 Boys 4: -

1 Mans fine 1: 4: 3 1: 4: 3 6: 2: 5 6: 2: 5

Wooden Ware Viz[t] 2 Wooden dishes 0: 1: 0

2 Skanning d[o] 1: 6

1 Sciming d[o] 6

1 House brush 2: 10 4: 10

1 Sive

1 Flag Broom 0: 6 [..] Pla[nt] 1: 10

1 Stick - 1: 10 GC 2: 4 9

Iron mongers Ware Viz[t] 1 Shovel £0: 2: 0

1 Trowel 1: 8

10 pair Hooks & hinges d[o] 5 [..]

4 p[r] Smal Dove tails 8

1 Hand Saw 6: 6 £0: 15: 4

3 heading Chizels 2: 9

2 Scribing d[o] @ 11 1: 10

4 broad d[o] 13 4: 4

12 plain Irons 8 [..] 8: 9

7 Cast Casings 13 0: 19: 5

7 Chest Locks after 5: 8 2: 0

7 d[o] 1: 0 [..] 7: 1 [..] 2: 10

2 d[o] 3: 18

2 Cupboard d[o] 11 1: 10

2 Closet d[o] 2/7 5: 2

2 Till d[o] @ 2/4 4: 8: 1: 7: 11 [..] 3: 4: 8 [..]

1 Handsaw 6: -

1 Broad Ax 15: -

3 Gimletts d[o] 9 2: 9

1 Garrett bitt 2: 4: 11: 11

268: 7: 2 [..] 8: 17: 5 [..] 92: 2: 0 [..] 321: 3: 0 [..]

Brought over.

To the inhabitants, £199 12s 10d.

To the plantation, £8 13s 3¼d.

To the general charge, £92 2s 0¼d.

Total £295 9s 2¼d.

Shoes as follows.

43 pairs of English at 6s, £13 5s 2d.

13 pairs of fall at 4s, £2 12s 0d.

1 pair of children's, £0 [...]s [...]d.

4 pairs of women's braided at 10s, £2 1s 10d.

To the inhabitants, £18 0s 0d.

Total £18 0s 0d.

Stockings as follows.

1 pair of soldier's, £0 2s 2d.

3 pairs of thread at 4s 6d, £0 13s 6d.

1 pair of children's, £0 1s 6d.

3 pairs of men's thread at [...], £0 2s 0d.

3 pairs of women's at 10d, £0 2s 6d.

To the inhabitants, £1 2s 5d.

Total £1 2s 5d.

Hats as follows.

17 coarse at 4s 4d, £3 13s 8d.

1 fine Carolina, £0 12s 6d.

1 ditto, £0 12s 0d.

Boys, £0 4s 0d.

1 men's fine at [...], £1 4s 3d.

To the inhabitants, £6 2s 5d.

Total £6 2s 5d.

Wooden ware as follows.

2 wooden dishes, £0 1s 0d.

2 mearning ditto, £0 1s 6d.

1 [...] ditto, £0 1s 6d.

1 house brush, £0 2s 10d.

To the inhabitants, £0 4s 10d.

1 sieve for the plantation.

To the plantation, £0 1s 10d.

1 flag broom, £0 0s 6¾d.

To the general charge, £0 2s 4d.

1 [...], £0 1s 10d.

Total £0 9s 0d.

Ironmonger's ware as follows.

1 shovel, £0 2s 0d.

1 trowel, £0 1s 8d.

10 pair hooks and hinges at 5d, £0 4s 2d.

4 pairs small dovetails, £0 1s 8d.

1 handsaw, £0 6s 0d.

To the inhabitants, £0 15s 4d.

Marginal subtotal £0 15s 4d.

3 heading chisels at [...], £0 2s 9d.

2 scribbing ditto at 11d, £0 1s 10d.

1 broad ditto at 13d, £0 4s 4d.

12 plain strong at 8¾d, £0 8s 9d.

7 cast [...] at 3d, £0 19s 5d.

7 chest locks at [...], £0 5s 6d.

7 ditto at 10¼d, £7 1s 7½d [reading uncertain], £0 2s 0d.

1 ditto, £3 1s 8d.

2 cupboard ditto at 11d, £0 1s 10d.

2 closet ditto at 7d, £0 5s 0d.

2 till ditto at 24d, £0 4s 8d.

To the inhabitants, £3 4s 8½d, with carry of £1 7s 11½d.

To the inhabitants, £3 4s 8½d.

1 handsaw, £0 6s 0d.

1 broad axe, £0 15s 0d.

3 gimlets at 9d, £0 2s 9d.

1 [...] bit, £2 4s 11s 11d [...]

Total of leaf carried forward.

To the inhabitants, £268 7s 2¾d.

To the plantation, £8 17s 5¾d.

To the general charge, £92 2s 0¼d.

Total £321 3s 3¾d.

Interpretations

The shoe entries on this leaf showed a clear gradation by type and price, beginning with the English shoes at 6s the pair as the standard imported article, supplied at 43 pairs to the inhabitants for a total of £13 5s 2d. Below the English shoes came the fall shoes at 4s, a coarser grade of imported footwear, and at the bottom the children's pair, while the women's braided shoes at 10s the pair gave the highest unit price on the leaf. The pricing structure confirmed the difference between this account and the consolidated account already entered, where 30 pairs of island shoes had appeared at the lower price of 4s the pair. The present account records mainly imported English shoes at the higher prices, suggesting that the two accounts cover distinct supplies of footwear, perhaps from separate consignments brought in by different ships.

The hat entries similarly gave a fuller picture of the imported headgear available through the stores, with 17 coarse hats at 4s 4d each forming the bulk of the issue and finer Carolina hats supplied at 12s 6d each. Carolina hats were felt hats of an English or American manufacture associated with the Carolina trade, used as the better grade of working headgear on the island. The pricing pattern showed the same gradation as the soldiers' coats and stockings, with the coarse working article supplied in quantity to the garrison and the finer hats available at higher prices for the gentleman or planter purchaser.

The ironmonger's ware on this leaf brought a comprehensive supply of carpentry tools, hardware and locks into the stores' issue for the quarter, identifying the active maintenance and building economy of the island. The supply of heading chisels, scribbing chisels, plain strong chisels and a broad chisel pointed to detailed carpentry work in progress on the island, while the 12 plain strong chisels at 8¾d each suggested either a single substantial purchase by a carpenter or a steady issue to several craftsmen. The presence of chest, cupboard, closet and till locks in the same account showed the supply of fitted furniture hardware to inhabitants and the establishment alike, providing the lockable storage that household and commercial buildings on the island required.

The handsaw at 6s, the broad axe at 15s and the gimlets at 9d each completed the range of basic carpentry tools available at the stores, with the broad axe representing a significant unit purchase for the substantial work of timber dressing. The presence of all these tools in the inhabitants' column rather than in the general charge suggests that they were being drawn by individual planters or craftsmen building or repairing their own premises, rather than supplied to the establishment for Company works. The active retail of building tools through the stores fitted with the policy announced by Pyke at the consultation of 7 February 1715, by which the planters were encouraged to attend to the improvement of their own holdings while Company building was retrenched.

Speculations

The differences between the present account and the consolidated account already entered in the records, with substantially higher volumes and different categories on every leaf, support the reading that the two accounts cover distinct presentations of the same quarter's commercial activity rather than the same material in two different forms. The consolidated account may represent a summary of certain departmental issues or a particular cargo, while the present account represents the comprehensive return for the whole stores operation. The reconciliation between them would have been part of the bookkeeping work that Pyke had pressed forward on Bazett, and the entry of both into the fair consultation book at the consultation of 29 March 1715 gave the Lords Proprietors in London a complete documentary picture across two presentations.

The substantial supply of carpentry tools and locks to the inhabitants in this quarter, with 43 pairs of English shoes, 17 coarse hats, locks of all grades, chisels and saws all entering the planter households, suggests an active expansion of building and household furnishing among the inhabitants in the closing months of 1714 and the opening months of 1715. The period coincided with the change of administration from the unsettled interim government to Pyke's arrival, and the increased planter spending on building materials and household hardware may have reflected a renewed confidence in the place under the new governor, with inhabitants beginning to invest in the improvement of their premises that Pyke had encouraged in his opening address.

396

387

Brought over

Ironmongers Ware, brought [...] 11:11

Heading G[r]o[z]ell [...] [...]:11 1 Scribing d[o] [...]:11 1 paring d[o] [...] 1 broad d[o] [...] 1 Gouge [...]:1 1 Hammer No 6 [...] 6:2 1 Closett Lock [...] [...] 4:1 1 pair Bellows [...] 3:[...] Pick axes q[t] 4[...] [...] D[o] [...] 1:10:[...] 4 Sugar Novels at [...] [...] 11:6 1 Bd: Iron 0:6:0 [...] 2 [...] [...] 1:[...]:9 [...] Spades 2 a[...] [...] 7:9 Rindstones [...] 17:6 Barrs of Iron 4[...] at [...] D[o] [...] 1:17:6 3:6:6

Nailes Viz[t] [7][...] [...] 5:7 [...] [...] 3:[...] [...] 20 [...] 2:[...] [...] 10 [...] 1:[...] [...] 2[...] [...] 1:01 [...] Tacks [...] 1:10 [...] French [...] 4[...] of 20: d[...] [...] 2:4 4 [...] 10 [...] 7[...] [...] 2:[...]6 4 [...] 4 [...] 10 [...] [...] 3:6 [...] Tacks [...] 10

16 [...] 6 [...] 9 [...] [...]:22 22 [...] 20 [...] 7[...] [...] 12:10 12 [...] 24 [...] 7[...] [...] 7:6 5 Coopers Rivets [...] 14:7 4 [...] Flooring brads d[o] [...] 8 [...] Caben br[...] [...] [...] 17:4

Pewterers Ware Viz[t] 1 Chamber pot [...] 5:3 2 D[o] D[...] [...] Susan [...] 8:6

  1. Stool pan [...] 5:10

Beasiers Ware Viz[t] 1 Lamp [...] 3:11 1 [...] [...] Frame [...] 11:[...]

1 Lamp

Tin Ware, viz[t] 2 Funnels [...] 0:10 [...] porringer at [...] [...] 4:1 1 d[o] [...] 1 Sauce pan [...] 1:9 2 D[o] d[o] [...] [...] 1 d[o] [...] 1:1

3 Kettles a[...] [...] 5:3 1 Sauce pan [...] [...] 1 Kettle [...] 2:9[...] 1 porringer [...]

Column headers: Inhabit[ants] plantat[ions] Gen[era]ll Ch[ar]g[e] Total

Inhabitants column values: 28 [...] 7 [...] 2[...] 3 [...] 4 [...] 8[...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 2 1 [...] 9 [...] 3[...] [...] 9 [...] 2 [...] 19 [...] 7 1 [...] 5 [...] 9 [...] 16 [...] 2

Plantations column values: 8 [...] 17 [...] 5[...]

[...] 12

General Charge column values: 9a [...] 2 [...] [...]

5 [...] 15 [...] 9

3 [...] 3 [...] 3

3 [...] 11

3 [...] 4[...]

Total column values: 321 [...] 3 [...] [...]

10 [...] 5 [...] 7[...]

5 [...] 1 [...] 8[...]

19 [...] 8

1 [...] 8[...]

Bottom row: 235 [...] 12 [...] [...] [...] 10 [...] 5 [...] 19 [...] 11[...] 101 [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 328 [...] 19 [...] 4

Margin Notes:

Susan

GH

Plant

GH

Susan

The account continued from the previous total brought over, showing £228 7s 2¼d for inhabitants, £8 17s 5¼d for plantation, £92 2s 0½d for general charge, and £321 3s 0¼d in total.

Ironmongers Ware, bought to the value of £11 11s 0d, comprised the following items consigned to Gozell:

1 heading £0 0s 11d

1 scribing ditto £0 0s 11d

1 paring ditto £0 0s 4d

1 gouge £0 1s 1d

1 hammer no. 6 £0 1s 6d at sixpence each, £0 6s 2d

1 closet lock and rock £0 4s 1d

1 pair bellows £0 3s 0d

4 pick axes at 4s 6d ditto £0 18s 0d, with a further entry of £0 11s 6d

4 sugar shovels at 2s 6d each £0 11s 6d

1 bolt iron at 6s 0d £0 6s 0d

2 heaters £0 1s 9d to Susanna £0 7s 9d

Grindstone £0 17s 6d

Bars of iron 4 [...] at £1 17s 6d £3 6s 6d

The inhabitants column showed £3 4s 8¼d against these ironmongers goods, with £1 5s 2d entered against a further line, and £5 15s 9d carried to the general charge column. The total ran to £10 5s 7¼d.

Nails were then listed:

7¼ pounds at 5d £0 5s 7½d

5 pounds at 9d £0 5s 1¼d

20 pounds at 7½d £0 0s 1d

10 pounds at 5½d £0 11s 0d

20 pounds at 4¼d £0 11s 3d

24 pounds at 5d £0 1s 0½d

8 pounds at 4¼d £0 1s 10d

Tacks £0 1s 10d

French nails £0 0s [...]d

4½ pounds of 20 at 7d ditto, marked Plant £0 2s 4d

4 pounds of 10 at 7¼d ditto, marked Plant £0 2s 6d

4 pounds of 4 at 10¼d ditto, marked Plant £0 3s 6d

Tacks £0 1s 10d

The inhabitants column took £1 9s 3½d against the nails. The plantation column took £0 9s 2d. The general charge stood at £3 3s 3d. The total for nails amounted to £5 1s 8½d.

Further items under the same heading, marked with the initials JC:

16 pounds of 6 at 9d £0 12s 2½d

22 pounds of 20 at 7½d £0 12s 10½d

12 pounds of 24 at 7½d £0 7s 6d

5 pounds of coopers rivets £0 14s 7d

8 pounds of flooring brads £0 1s 9d

8 pounds of [...] brads at 2½d £0 17s 4d

Pewterers Ware, listed as follows:

1 chamber pot £0 5s 3d

2 ditto at 4s 3d each, marked Susan £0 8s 6d

1 stool pan £0 5s 10d

The inhabitants column showed £0 19s 7d against the pewterers ware.

Braziers Ware comprised:

1 lamp £0 3s 11d

1 skillet and frame £0 11s 10d

1 lamp £0 3s 11d

The inhabitants column entered £0 15s 9d, with £0 19s 8d shown further across the page.

Tin Ware was then listed, with the initials JC noted alongside:

2 funnels £0 0s 10d

2 porringers at 2s 1½d each £0 4s 1d

1 ditto £0 0s 11½d

1 sauce pan £0 1s 9d

2 ditto at 1s 7½d each £0 3s 3d

1 ditto £0 1s 1d

3 kettles at 1s 9d each £0 5s 3d

1 sauce pan £0 0s [...]d

1 kettle £0 2s 9½d

1 porringer £0 0s [...]d

The inhabitants column carried £0 16s 2d against the tin ware, with £0 1s 2d on a separate line, and a further entry of £0 3s 4½d, set against £0 1s 8½d.

The columns closed with running figures of £235 12s [...]d for inhabitants, £10 5s 1½d for plantation, £101 [...] 4d for general charge, and £329 [...] d in total.

Interpretations

The Company's stores at St Helena distinguished between four classes of metal goods. Ironmongers ware covered shaped iron tools and components - heading, scribing and paring tools for shaping wood and leather, gouges, hammers, locks, picks, sugar shovels, bolt iron in long rods, heaters for box irons, grindstones and bar iron sold by weight. Nails were costed by the pound and by penny size, the figures 6, 10, 20 and 24 referring to the traditional nail sizing by hundredweight price. Coopers rivets were used to fasten cask hoops, flooring brads were the smaller cut nails used to fix boards without showing a head, and tacks served upholstery and light fixing. Pewterers ware was cast tinned alloy for chamber pots and close stool pans, the standard sanitary fittings of the period. Braziers ware was hammered brass or copper for lamps and skillets, the skillet being a small long-handled pan set into a frame for cooking over a low fire. Tin ware was lighter sheet metal worked into funnels, porringers (small handled bowls for stews or possets), sauce pans and kettles. The whole consignment represented the equipping of households and plantations on the island with the basic metalwork required for cooking, lighting, building and the daily processing of food and drink.

The three-column division of the cost between inhabitants, plantation and general charge reflected the Company's standard practice of separating goods sold to private islanders, goods retained for the Company plantations, and goods absorbed into general administrative expenditure. The same physical consignment was apportioned across the three heads as each item was distributed.

The initials JC and the recurring names Gozell and Susanna in the margin identified the consignees or holders of particular lots within the larger account. Susanna probably referred to the Company slave Susanna whose name had appeared in earlier accounts of stores issued; Gozell was perhaps a planter or storekeeper receiving the larger ironmongers parcel.

Speculations

The use of fractional pence and quarter pence throughout the nails entries (5½d, 7¼d, 4¼d) reflected the practice of pricing imported nails by their precise English wholesale rate per pound and then dividing the small parcels among purchasers without rounding. The clerk preserved the fractional figures because any rounding at the level of a single quarter penny would distort the column totals against which the storekeeper was held accountable.

The placing of three separate notations of Plant against the smaller bundles of nails, while the larger nail lots ran without that mark, suggested that the storekeeper drew off the lighter nails for the Company plantations first and then released the heavier sizes for sale to inhabitants. The plantation work probably required the lighter nails for fixing shingle, lath and palings, while the heavier sizes were sold to islanders constructing dwellings and outbuildings on their own account.

397

388

Brought Over

Haberdashery wares viz[t] Ribbon 3[...] yards [at] 12 0:1:6 2 y[d]s [at] 7[...] 0:1:[...]8 9 y[d]s [at] 16 0:12:0 0:17:2

Tapes 7 p[...] Colour[d] d[o] [at] 20 0:11:8 Ferretts 24[...] yds [at] 4 0:9:[...] Silk Galloon 1[...] y[d] [at] d[o] 0:1:6[...] D[o] 6 yards white [...] d[...] 0:2:0 Garthring 3 yds [at] d[...] 0:0:6 Threads [...] brown d[o] d[...] 4 1:8:0 5 d[o] [at] 3/8 0:18:4 2:6:4

1[...] d[...] w[...] [...] 9/8 0:14:6 1 d[...] 2:10:0 2 [...] d[...] 0:13:6 0:17:6 [...] 2:15:6

Fine Thread 7 oz d[o] 0:15:0 4 d[o] 13 0:14:4 3 d[o] 15[...] 0:13:10[...] 3 d[o] 17 0:14:9 1 d[o] 0:1:2:0 1 d[o] 0:1:3:4 1 d[o] 0:1:3:6 1[...] d[...] [...] [at] 3 1:18:9 [...]

Whited Brown thread 4[...] 0:3:4[...] Colour[d] [...] [...] 0:1:10 Brown 8 [...] [...] 3/8 [...] Planta[...] 0:5:6 0:2:0

Brown Thread [...] [...] P. C.

Silk [...] Mohair 8[...] ou[...] [...] [...] 1:6:0 3[...] d[o] mohair 1/8 Inhabi[...] 5:7:0 2[...] [...] Susannah [...]/6 [...] G[..] Cha[...] Pins 11 m[...] 1/[...] 0:19:3 3 d[o] [...] 0:13:4[...] [...] Inhabi[...]

Needles 9.25 [at] 19[...] 0:13:10 Silk Laces 2[...] d[...] 3 0:1:8:0 9 [...] 4 0:13:10 6 [...] 7[...] 0:13:6 2 [...] 3[...] 2:1:2:9

Gloves 1 p[...] mens d[...] Thimbles 6 Necklace of Beads [...] Inhabitants

Column headers: Inhabit[ants] Planta[tions] Gen. Char[ge] Totall

Inhabitants column values: 235 [...] 12 [...] 8

[...] 17 [...] 2

1 [...] 3 [...] 11

6 [...] 0 [...] 7[...]

1 [...] 6 [...] 5[...]

1 [...] 2 [...] 7[...] 0 [...] 14 [...] 7[...]

[...] 14 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 9 [...] 0 [...] 6 [...] 9 [...] 0

247 [...] 16 [...] 7[...]

Planta column values: 10 [...] 12 [...] 11[...]

[...] 12 [...] 8[...]

5 [...] 3

9 [...] 7[...]

Gen. Charg column values: 101 [...] 8 [...] 4

[...] 7 [...] 10 [...] 6

1 [...] 12 [...] 8[...]

101 [...] 16 [...] 5

Totall column values: 338 [...] 10 [...] 9

[...] 17 [...] 2

1 [...] 3 [...] 11

15 [...] 2

1 [...] 2 [...] 7[...] 0 [...] 14 [...] 7[...]

[...] 14 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 9 [...] 0 [...] 6 [...] 2 [...] 0

355 [...] 15 [...] 5[...]

Margin Notes:

Planta[tions]

Inhab[itants]

Inhab[itants]

Inhabitants

Page 368. The columns opened with the running total brought over: £235 12s 8d for inhabitants, £10 12s 11¼d for plantation, £101 8s 4d for general charge, and £339 10s 9d in total.

Haberdashery Ware was then listed:

Ribbon 3½ yards at 12d £0 3s 6d

Ribbon 2 yards at 7d £0 1s 1d

Ribbon 9 yards at 16d £0 12s 0d

Subtotal £0 17s 2d

Tapes 7 pieces, coloured ditto, at 20d £0 11s 8d

Ferretts 24½ yards at 4d £0 9s 1¼d

Silk galloon 1½ yards at ditto £0 1s 6d

Ditto 6 yards, white, at 4d £0 2s 0d

Gartering 3 of 6 ditto at 4d £0 0s 6d

Thread 4 brown ditto at 4d £1 8s 0d

Thread 5 ditto at 3s 8d £0 18s 4d

Subtotal £2 6s 0¾d

The inhabitants column took £0 17s 2d against the ribbon, with £1 3s 11d entered against the other haberdashery lines.

Further thread entries followed:

1½ ditto, white, at 9s 8d £0 14s 6d

1 ditto at 10d £0 10s 10d

2 ditto at ditto £0 13s 6d

Subtotal £1 17s 6d, with a further line of £2 15s 6d

Fine Thread was then itemised:

7 ounces at ditto 6d £0 15s 0d

4 ditto, 13s, at ditto £0 14s 4d

3 ditto, 15s, at ditto £0 3s 10½d

3 ditto, 17s, at ditto £0 4s 9d

1 ditto at ditto £0 1s 10d

1 ditto at ditto £0 3s 4d

1 ditto at ditto £0 1s 6d

1½ ditto, at ditto [...] at ditto £1 8s 9½d

Whited brown thread at 4d £0 3s 4¼d

Coloured thread at ditto £0 1s 10d

Brown thread 8½ at 3s 8d, marked Planta £0 5s 6d

Brown thread 4 at C.P.C. £0 2s 0d

The inhabitants column showed £6 0s 7¼d against the fine thread, and the plantation column took £0 12s 8½d.

Silk and Mohair, 8½ ounces at 2s 6d £1 1s 0d, with a further line of £0 17s 4d

5 of mohair at 1s 8d, marked Inhabitants £5 7s 0d

2½ of Susannah, marked G. Charge £1 6s 5¼d

Pins 11¾ mid at 1s 8d £0 19s 3d

3 ditto at 0s [...]d £0 3s 4½d, marked Inhabitants

The general charge column carried £7 10s 6d against the silk and mohair, with a total of £15 2s entered across the page.

Needles 9 of 25 at 19d £1 2s 7½d

Silk laces 24 at 3d £0 1s 6d, with £0 14s 7½d further

9 of 4 at ditto £0 3s 6d

6 of 7½ at ditto £0 1s 3d, with a separate line of £0 14s 7¾d, marked Inhabitants

6 of 3½ at ditto £0 0s 14¼d

Gloves 1 pair, mens ditto £0 14s 3d

Thimbles 6 £0 1s 9d

Necklace of Beads, marked Inhabitants £0 0s 6d

The inhabitants column carried £0 6s 0d against the gloves and small wares, with a further £0 2s 0d for the necklace.

The columns closed with running figures of £247 16s 7¼d for inhabitants, £9 7¾d for plantation, £101 16s 5d for general charge, and £355 15s 9d in total.

Interpretations

Haberdashery ware on the island covered the small textile finishings that supported the maintenance and making of clothing in households without ready access to a draper. Ribbon was woven silk or worsted strip used for trimming bonnets, sleeves and bodices. Tapes were narrow flat woven bands used as ties on stays, aprons, breeches and bedding. Ferretts were stout cotton or silk binding tapes that finished the raw edges of garments. Silk galloon was a narrow decorative trim used on liveries, hatbands and military facings. Gartering was the woven band that secured stockings below the knee. The various weights of thread, distinguished as brown, white, whited brown, coloured, and fine, supplied the principal material for the actual sewing, with the fine thread reserved for shirts, smocks and finer linens. Silk and mohair came in skeins for buttonholes, decorative stitching and the binding of buttons. Pins held garments together during fitting and were a constant household consumable. Needles were sold in numbered grades for different cloth weights. Silk laces were the narrow cords that closed bodices, stays and breeches at the front and sides. Thimbles, gloves and the single necklace of beads completed the parcel as small personal articles. Together these items represented the full sewing and dressing kit that an island household required to keep its members clothed, since cloth itself had to be cut, sewn and trimmed at home.

The notations Planta, Inhabitants, G. Charge and C.P.C. against individual lines showed the storekeeper apportioning each lot among the three accounting heads as the goods were issued, with C.P.C. perhaps standing for Company Plantation Charge or a similar internal heading distinct from the general plantation account.

The name Susannah recurred from the earlier ironmongers account on the previous page and was set against silk and mohair issued to general charge. The recurrence across two consecutive pages of stores indicated that she was a recognised holder or distributor of small parcels of stores for the Company, perhaps a slave woman whose work involved sewing for the Company establishment.

Speculations

The fractional valuations carried in farthings and half-farthings on items as small as gloves, thimbles and beads showed that the storekeeper was held strictly to the wholesale invoice values from London, with no rounding permitted at the point of issue. The clerk balanced every quarter and half penny against the column totals because the island accounts were checked line by line against the original invoices remitted by the Court of Directors.

The split of mohair between five units to inhabitants at one shilling and eightpence and two and a half units to Susannah on general charge perhaps reflected a deliberate arrangement under which a single skilled woman drew the Company's share for institutional sewing work while the remainder was released to private islanders. The structure preserved a working stock of trimming silk in Company hands for repairs to Company-issued clothing or hangings without depriving the island of access to the same goods.

398

389

Brought over

Buttons d[o][...] Coate [at] 17 0:15:10[...] 4 doz d[o] 1 0:4:0 11[...] doz [...] brest d[...] 0:3:10 7[...] doz d[o] [at] 6[...] Plan[...] 0:3:9 1[...] doz Glew[...] [at] 7[...] 0:0:11:[...] 3 doz Silk[...] coat d[...] 7/8 1:7:6

Brass Coate Buttons 1 G[...] Plan[...]

Combs 11 Ivory [at] 1[...] 0:17:15 1 d[o] 0:1:1 1 d[o] 0:1:1:3 2 Horne d[o] [at] 4 0:1:0:8 1 d[o] Inhabita[...] 0:1:0:1:4[...] 0:1:0:15

Silk Scarves 1 d[o] 1:17:0 1 d[o] [...] Inha[...] 1:1:9:1:2

Romalls 2 Tea 20[...] [...] [at] 9 1 d[o] 2[...] [...] G[...] Cha[...]

Cutlary Ware 1 p[...] Buckles 0:0:10 5 p[...] d[o] 0:5:0 3 knives [...] 3 forks 0:3:6 2 shoe knives 0:2:0 4 p[...] Scizers [at] 8[...] 0:2:11 0:3:2:2[...]

Vineg[ar] 4 [...] Gall[...] [at] [...] Gall[...] Plantation 6 Gall[...] D[o]

Pepper [...] [...] Inhabitants 1 d[o] 5 6[...]

Forks 11 doz [at] 3 0:2:9 3[...] [...] Corkwood [at] 9 0:2:7[...] 4[...]

Glass war[...] 9 clarett Glasses [at] [...] Inhab[...] 2 Salt Sellers [at] 8 [...] Plantation 16 Wine Glasses [at] 1 1:12:0 2 ale D[o] [at] 6 0:5:0

Carried over

Column headers: Inhabit[ants] Plantation Gen[...] Charg[...] Totall

Inhabitants column values: 244 [...] 11 [...] 11

2 [...] 10 [...] [...]

1 [...] 1 [...] 2[...]

2 [...] 16 [...] 7 [...] 2 [...] 6 9 [...] 4 [...] 6

[...] 17 [...] 5[...] [...] 18

[...] 6

[...] 5 [...] 4[...]

[...] 4

262 [...] 11 [...] 8[...]

Plantation column values: 6 [...] 4 [...] 7[...]

[...] 16

[...] 2

[...] 1

[...] 1 [...] 4

7 [...] 4 [...] 11[...]

Gen[...] Charg[...] column values: 101 [...] 18 [...] 6

9

[...] 17

105 [...] 19 [...] 8[...]

Totall column values: 352 [...] 15 [...] 0[...]

3 [...] 6 [...] 3[...]

1 [...] 2[...]

2 [...] 16 [...] 7 [...] 2 [...] 6 9 [...] 13 [...] 6

[...] 17 [...] 5[...]

2 [...] 4

[...] 5 6 [...] 6

[...] 3 [...] 6[...]

2 [...] 2

375 [...] 10 [...] 4[...]

Margin Notes:

G[...] Plan[...]

G[...] Cha[...]

Plantation

Inhabitants

Inhab[...]

Plantation

The columns opened with the running total brought over: £244 11s 11d for inhabitants, £6 4s 7¾d for plantation, £101 18s 6d for general charge, and £352 15s 0¼d in total.

Buttons of various sorts were then listed:

8½ dozen, coat, at 17d £0 15s 10½d

4 dozen ditto at 1s £0 4s 0d

11½ dozen, breast, at 4d £0 3s 10d

7½ dozen ditto at 6d, marked Plan £0 3s 9d

1½ dozen, sleeve, at 7½d £0 0s 11¼d

3 dozen silk coat at 7s £1 1s 0d, with £1 17s 6d further

The inhabitants column took £2 10s 0¾d against the buttons.

Brass Coat Buttons, 1 gross, marked Plan £0 16s 0d

The plantation column entered £0 16s 0d for the brass buttons, with the total of £3 6s 0¾d carried across.

Combs were itemised:

11 ivory at 19d £0 17s 5d

1 ditto £0 1s 1d

1 ditto £0 1s 1d

A subtotal entry of £0 1s 3d followed.

2 horn ditto at 4d £0 0s 8d

1 ditto, marked Inhabita £0 10s 4¼d

A further line of £0 10s 5d, with the inhabitants column carrying £1 1s 2½d and a further entry of £1 7s 2½d against the combs.

Silk Scarves were then entered:

1 ditto £1 7s 0d

1 ditto, marked Inhab £1 9s 2d

A subtotal of £1 9s 2d, with the inhabitants column showing £2 16s 2d, and a separate entry of £2 16s 2d against the scarves.

Romalls 2 £0 2s 6d

Tea 20 ounces at 9d £0 4s 6d, marked G. Cha

1 ditto, 27 ounces no value entered

The general charge column carried £9 4s 6d against the tea, with a further line of £9 13s 6d.

Cutlery Ware was then listed:

1 pair buckles £0 0s 10d

5 ditto at 1s £0 5s 0d

3 knives and 3 forks £0 3s 6d

2 shoe knives £0 2s 0d

4 pair scissors at 8¾d £0 2s 11d

A further line of £0 3s 2¼d, with the inhabitants column showing £0 17s 5¼d, and a separate entry of £0 17s 5¼d. A total of £0 18s ran across.

Vinegar 4 gallons at 2d no separate sum entered

4 gallons, marked Plantation £0 2s 0d

6 gallons ditto £0 1s 4d, with £0 2s 4d further

Pepper ½ pound, marked Inhabitants £0 0s 6d

5 ditto £0 1s 0d

6½ ditto £0 5s 0d, with £0 6s 6d further

Corks were then listed:

11 dozen at 3d £0 2s 9d

3½ dozen corkwood at 9d £0 2s 7½d

A further line of 4½ dozen, with the inhabitants column carrying £0 5s 4½d, and a separate entry of £0 2s 4½d. A total of £0 5s 6¾d.

Glass and earthen ware were then listed:

Glass mantua, 9 claret glasses at ½d, marked Inhab £0 4s 0d

2 salt sellars at 8d, marked Plantation £0 1s 4d

16 wine glasses at 2d £1 12s 0d

2 ale ditto at 6d £0 5s 0d

The inhabitants column showed £0 4s 0d, the plantation column £0 1s 4d, with a further £0 17s 0d entered, and a total of £2 2s 0d carried across.

The columns closed with running figures of £262 11s 8¼d for inhabitants, £7 4s 11½d for plantation, £105 13s 8¼d for general charge, and £375 10s 4d in total.

Interpretations

The button parcel carried the distinctions of coat, breast and sleeve buttons that ran through every consignment of clothing accessories sent to the island. Coat buttons were the larger fastenings down the front of a man's coat, breast buttons closed the waistcoat, and sleeve buttons fastened the cuff. Silk coat buttons were the wrapped or stitched variety used on finer garments, while brass coat buttons in gross lots were the cheap stamped sort issued to plantation slaves and labourers. The supply distinguished the social levels of the island establishment by the metal and finish of the buttons rather than by the cloth.

Romalls were the printed or chequered silk and cotton handkerchiefs of Indian manufacture, exported from Bengal and the Coromandel coast in large quantities through the Company's trade. They were used at St Helena as neckcloths, headcloths and small turbans, valued for the lightness of the cloth in the island's moderate climate. Their appearance in the haberdashery account showed how Indian textile production fed directly into the daily dress of the South Atlantic outpost.

Tea entered the account by the ounce rather than the pound, at ninepence the ounce, which gave the island wholesale rate of around twelve shillings the pound, a price consistent with the high duty and freight loading on tea reaching St Helena from Canton through the Company's homeward fleet. The placing of the larger parcel against the general charge column reflected the use of tea as a Company allowance to the senior establishment rather than as a private purchase.

Corkwood and corks were the bottle closures supplied to the island for use with the wine, brandy and beer carried by the same ships. The dozen rate suggested that they were issued for refilling bottles already in island use rather than for the original bottling of imported drink.

Speculations

The division of buttons between gross-lot brass coat buttons placed to plantation account and silk coat buttons placed to inhabitants showed that the storekeeper apportioned the parcel by quality rather than by quantity. The plantation needed durable cheap fastenings for the clothing of the Company slaves and indentured labourers, while inhabitants drew the silk-covered buttons for their own coats and those of their household servants.

The single entry of two and a half ounces of tea against general charge, with the larger remainder available for inhabitant purchase, perhaps reflected the practice by which the Governor and Council drew a fixed monthly allowance of tea from each homeward consignment for use at official meetings and entertainments. The reservation against general charge ensured that the senior officers received their share before the balance was released to the market.

399

390

Brought over

Shoe thread 5[...] [at] [...] Inhabit[...]

1 d[o] [...] Planta[...]

Twine [...] q[...] [at] 2/4 Inhabita[...]

2[...] Gen[...] Charg[...]

Bone Lace 2 y[d]s [at] [...] Inhablia[...]

Indigo 3 oz [at] 8[...]

28 [...] [at] Planta[...]

White Lead [...] [...] G[...] Charges Hooks [...] L[...] [...]

1[...] doz Hooks [at] [...] 0:3:6 4 doz d[o] [at] 1/10 0:7:4 1[...] doz d[o] 2/11 0:4:4[...] 4 bedd Cords [at] 2/6 0:10:0 2 d[o] [...] 2 0:4:0 3 doz fish Hooks 2/3 0:6:9 1 Line 0:2:0

Stationary Ware viz[t] 8 Quires Paper [at] 1/4 0:10:8 1 Spelling book 0:1:1 1 Primmer 0:0:6

Cheshire Cheese viz[t] 26 [...] d[o] [at] 8[...] Inhab[...] 10[...] [...] [...] Gen[...] Charg[...]

Salt [...] Bushell

[...] Bushell d[o]

1

Blanketts 1 p[...] [...] 1:0:6

1 p[...] d[o] 0:19:0

[...] C[...] d[o] Planta[...]

Blew Baftas 7 p[...] Inhab[...]

Tallempoors 1 p[...] G[...] Cha[...]

Carried over

Column headers: Inhabit[ants] Plantato[...] Gen: Cha[...] Totall

Inhabitants column values: 262 [...] 11 [...] 8[...]

[...] 12 [...] 6

3 [...] 8 [...] 10

1 [...] [...] [...] 2

1 [...] 9 [...] 2[...]

[...] 12 [...] 3

[...] 13 [...] 4

2 [...] 1 [...] 6

[...] 13

273 [...] 4 [...] 4

Plantato column values: 7 [...] 4 [...] 11[...]

[...] 2 [...] 6

1 [...] 4

[...] 3

7 [...] 9

7 [...] 19 [...] 6[...]

Gen: Cha column values: 105 [...] 13 [...] 8[...]

4 [...] 8

8 [...] 9

10 [...] 4

[...] 3

[...] 10

107 [...] 11 [...] 5[...]

Totall column values: 375 [...] 10 [...] 4[...]

[...] 15

3 [...] 13 [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] [...]2[...] [...] 1 [...] 4

1 [...] 17 [...] 11[...]

[...] 12 [...] 3

1 [...] 3 [...] 8

[...] 6 [...] [...]

2 [...] 9 [...] 3

[...] 13 [...] [...]

[...] 10 [...] [...]

388 [...] 15 [...] 4

The columns opened with the running total brought over: £262 11s 8¼d for inhabitants, £7 4s 11¾d for plantation, £105 13s 8¼d for general charge, and £375 10s 4¼d in total.

Shoe Thread, 5 ditto at 18d, marked Inhabit £0 12s 6d

1 ditto, marked Planta £0 2s 6d

Twine, 39 dozen at 2s 4d, marked Inhabita £3 8s 10d

2 dozen ditto, marked Gen. Charge £0 4s 8d

The inhabitants column took £0 12s 6d against the shoe thread and £3 8s 10d against the twine. The plantation column entered £0 2s 6d against the shoe thread. The general charge took £0 4s 8d against the twine. The lines together carried £0 15s 0d for the shoe thread and £3 13s 6d for the twine.

Bone Lace, 9 yards ditto, marked Inhablia £1 2s 0d

Indigo 3 ounces at 8d £0 2s 0d

28 ditto at ditto, marked Planta £1 4s 0d

A subtotal of £1 2s 0d ran for the inhabitants and £1 4s 0d for the plantation, with a total of £2 6s 4d carried.

White Lead at 4d, marked General Charges, no separate sum entered

Hooks and Lines were itemised:

1½ dozen hooks at 4d £0 3s 6d

4 dozen ditto at 1s 10d £0 7s 4d

1½ dozen ditto at 2s 11d £0 4s 4½d

4 bed cords at 2s 6d £0 10s 0d

2 ditto £0 4s 0d

3 dozen fish hooks at 2s 3d £0 6s 9d

1 line £0 2s 0d

The inhabitants column carried £1 9s 2½d against this group, with the general charge taking £0 8s 9d, and a total of £1 17s 11½d running across.

Stationery Ware was then listed:

8 quires paper at 14d £0 10s 8d

1 spelling book £0 1s 1d

1 primer £0 0s 6d

The inhabitants column showed £0 12s 3d against the stationery, with a subtotal of £0 12s 3d.

Cheshire Cheese:

26 pounds ditto at 6d, marked Inhabit £0 13s 4d

10½ ditto, marked Gen. Charg £0 10s 4d

A total of £1 3s 8d for the cheese.

Salt, ½ bushel ditto £0 3s 0d

¼ bushel ditto £0 3s 0d

A subtotal of £0 6s 0d for the salt.

Blankets were entered:

1 pair £1 9s 6d

1 pair ditto £0 19s 0d

The inhabitants column showed £2 1s 6d.

¼ ditto, marked Planta £0 7s 9d

A further entry of £0 2s 9d ran across.

Blue Baftas, 7 pieces, marked Inhabit £0 13s 0d

A subtotal of £0 13s 0d.

Sallempoors, 1 piece, marked Gen. Cha £0 10s 0d

A subtotal of £0 10s 0d.

The columns closed with the running figures carried over: £273 4s 4d for inhabitants, £7 19s 6¾d for plantation, £107 11s 5¼d for general charge, and £388 15s 4d in total.

Interpretations

Blue baftas were plain cotton cloths of Indian manufacture, woven in Bengal and dyed blue with indigo for export through the Company. They were the standard issue cloth used at St Helena for the clothing of slaves and indentured servants, supplied by the piece rather than by the yard. Sallempoors were a coarser cotton cloth from the Coromandel coast, used for sheets, lining and the rougher grades of working clothing. The placement of the sallempoors against general charge while the blue baftas went to inhabitants showed the Company retaining its own working stock for the establishment while releasing the dyed cloth to the open market.

Bone lace was the bobbin lace worked in Devon and the Low Countries, used to trim caps, cuffs and collars on women's and children's clothing. Its appearance in a parcel otherwise dominated by indigo, fishing tackle and bedding showed the breadth of household demand met from a single Company consignment.

Indigo entered the account at two prices, three ounces against inhabitants and twenty-eight ounces against the plantation. The plantation share supplied the dye for the Company's domestic textile work, the small parcel for inhabitants meeting private requests. The dye was returning to the island in the same Indian ships that had carried the baftas already coloured with it.

Hooks, lines, bed cords and fish hooks were grouped together as the cordage and tackle of household and shore use. Bed cords were the corded sashes strung across wooden bedsteads to support the mattress, and were replaced regularly as they stretched and frayed. Fish hooks in dozens at two and threepence indicated the active inshore fishery that supplemented the island's provisions, and the single line at two shillings showed that hand lines were the working method rather than nets.

Speculations

The split of twine between thirty-nine dozen to inhabitants and two dozen to general charge perhaps reflected the practice by which the island's working cordage was almost entirely sold into private hands while the Company kept only a small reserve for official use. Twine was needed for the constant repair of fishing tackle, garden cordage, sacks and small lashings, all of which fell on individual households rather than on the Company stores.

The bracketing of indigo and white lead in adjoining lines, with white lead placed to general charge without quantity or sum recorded, suggested that the lead was held back from this consignment for issue against a specific Company project, perhaps the painting of the fortifications or of Company buildings, rather than being released for general sale.

400

391

Brought over

Indian Linnen viz[t] Shirts 37 [...] d[o] [at] d[o] 5:11:0 d[o] 44 d[o] [at] 3/6 7:14:0 Challies 7 8 p[...] [at] 5[...] Inhab[...] Dungarees 8 p[...] [at] 5[...] [...] Inhab[...] 8 p[...] d[o] 1 p[...] d[o] [...] Planta[...] 17

Ginghams 1 p[...]

Sahmoes 5 p[...] [at] 16/5 4:2:1 1 p[...] d[o] 15/2 0:15:2

Purrhau[...] 3 p[...] [at] 12/6 1:17:6

Long Cloath 4 p[...] [at] 24/9 4:19:0

Nealees 1 p[...] [...] D[o] 1 p[...] d[o]

Neckcloaths 2 [...] p[...] 28/5 3:11:0[...] 4 single 8[...] [at] 1[...] 0:8:6

Surratt Chints 12 3 p[...] [at] 4/6 27:13:6

Manchest[er] Ticks 1 p[...] [...]

Woollen Goods viz[t] Kersey 24[...] y[d] [at] 2/2 [...] 23 y[d] D[o] [at] 2/2 [...] Planta[...] D[o] 51[...] y[d] [at] d[o] [...] Gen[...] Cha[...] Shalloons 56[...] y[d] [at] 2/[...] 7:1:3 D[o] black 24[...] [at] 4/0 0:6:4[...] Sagathies 26[...] [at] 3:1:8 6:3:4 [...] 9[...] of 3[...] [at] 3/1 2:18:7

Druggetts [...] 6[...] [at] 4 2:17:0 24 [...] d[o] [at] 3 6:13:0

Broad Cloth 1 Yard

Flannells 1[...] Yard

Carried over

Column headers: Inhabitants Plantation Gen[...] Charge[...] Totall[...]

Inhabitants column values: 273 [...] 4 [...] 4

13 [...] 5

19 [...] 10

2 [...] 5 [...] 4

[...] 11 [...] 3

4 [...] 17 [...] 3

1 [...] 17 [...] 6

4 [...] 19

[...] 10 [...] 5 [...] 10 [...] 5

3 [...] 19 [...] 6[...]

27 [...] 13 [...] 6

2

3 [...] 4 [...] 5[...]

7 [...] 7 [...] 7[...]

9 [...] 1 [...] 11

3 [...] 12 [...] 0

[...] 13 [...] 3

[...] 3 [...] 11[...]

379 [...] 8 [...] 8[...]

Plantation column values: 7 [...] 19 [...] 6[...]

2 [...] 5 [...] 4

13 [...] 6 [...] 6

23 [...] 11 [...] 4[...]

Gen[...] Charge column values: 107 [...] 11 [...] 5[...]

5 [...] 8

5 [...] 11 [...] 11[...]

113 [...] 9 [...] 0[...]

Totall column values: 388 [...] 15 [...] 4

13 [...] 5 [...] 19 [...] 10 [...] [...]

4 [...] 16 [...] 4

[...] 11 [...] 3

4 [...] 17 [...] 3

1 [...] 17 [...] 6

4 [...] 19

[...] 10 [...] 5 [...] 10 [...] 5

3 [...] 19 [...] 6[...]

27 [...] 13 [...] 6

2

22 [...] 2 [...] 11

7 [...] 7 [...] 7[...]

9 [...] 1 [...] 11

3 [...] 12 [...] 0

[...] 13 [...] 3

[...] 3 [...] 11[...]

516 [...] 9 [...] 2[...]

Margin Notes:

Inhab[...]

Inhab[...]

Planta[...]

Planta[...]

Planta[...]

Gen[...] Cha[...]

The columns opened with the running total brought over: £273 4s 4d for inhabitants, £7 19s 6¾d for plantation, £107 11s 5¼d for general charge, and £388 15s 4d in total.

Indian Linnen was then listed:

Shirts 37, course ditto at 3s £5 11s 0d

Shirts 44 ditto at 3s 6d £7 14s 0d

Subtotal of £13 5s 0d for the shirts.

Challies 78 pieces ditto at 5s, marked Inhabit £19 10s 0d

A subtotal of £19 10s 0d for the challies.

Dungarees 8 pieces ditto at 5s 8d, marked Inhabit £2 5s 4d

8 pieces ditto, marked Planta £2 5s 4d

1 piece ditto no separate sum entered

A subtotal of £5 8d, with £4 16s 4d further entered, and a running line of 17 pieces noted alongside.

Ginghams 1 piece £0 11s 3d

Sahnoes 5 pieces at 16s 5d £4 2s 1d

1 piece ditto at 15s 2d £0 15s 2d

A subtotal of £4 17s 3d for the sahnoes.

Purrhau 3 pieces at 12s 6d £1 17s 6d

Long Cloath 4 pieces at 24s 9d £4 19s 0d

Nealeas 1 piece ditto £0 10s 5d

1 piece ditto £0 10s 5d

Neckcloaths 2 pieces, 5 pieces at 28s 3d £3 11s 0¼d

4 single 8 pieces at 1s 4d £0 8s 6d

Subtotal of £3 19s 6¼d for the neckcloaths.

Surratt Chints 123 pieces at 4s 6d £27 13s 6d

Manchester Ticks 1 piece £0 2s 4d

Woollen Goods were then listed:

Kersey 24½ yards at 2s 2d £3 4s 5½d

Ditto 26 yards at 2s 1d, marked Plantation £0 13s 6d

Ditto 21¾ yards at ditto, marked Gen. Cha £5 11s 11½d

A line of £22 2s 11d running across.

Shalloons 56¾ yards at 2s 6d £7 1s 3d

In black 24 yards at 4s 0d £0 6s 4¾d

Subtotal of £7 7s 7¾d.

Sagathies 26 yards at 3s 1s 8d £6 3s 4d

19 yards of 3 yards at 3s 1d £2 18s 7d

A subtotal of £9 1s 11d.

Druggetts 14¼ yards at 4s £2 17s 0d

24 yards ditto at 3s £0 13s 0d

Subtotal of £3 12s 0d for the druggetts.

Broad Cloth, 1 yard £0 13s 3d

Flannells, 1¾ yard £0 3s 11¼d

The columns closed with running figures of £379 8s 8¾d for inhabitants, £23 11s 4¾d for plantation, £113 9s 0¼d for general charge, and £516 9s 2¼d in total.

Interpretations

The Indian linen parcel formed the largest single category of cloth arriving at the island, and each name in the list referred to a distinct type of woven cotton produced for the Company's eastern trade. Course shirts at three and three and sixpence the piece were the cheap ready-made garments sent out in bulk for the labouring population. Challies were lightly woven cotton mixed with silk, soft enough for women's gowns and lining. Dungarees were the coarse blue or chequered cotton used for working trousers and frocks, valued by the piece rather than the yard. Ginghams were striped or checked cotton from Bengal, used for shirts and aprons. Sahnoes were a fine plain cotton, sometimes lightly figured, used for women's dress and household linen. Purrhau was a coarser striped cloth from Surat. Long cloth was the staple plain white cotton of the Coromandel coast, woven in long pieces of roughly thirty yards and exported in vast quantities as the standard sheeting and shirting of the Atlantic world. Nealeas were a finer grade of white cotton from the same coast. Neckcloths were finished pieces of muslin or fine cotton already cut for use around the neck. Surratt chints were the printed and painted cottons of Gujarat, the most decorated and most expensive cottons in the parcel, used for gowns, hangings and bedcovers. Manchester ticks were English-woven cotton-and-linen striped ticking for mattresses and bolsters, named for the Lancashire town where they had been produced.

The woollen goods drew on a different supply chain, brought out from England rather than from India. Kersey was a coarse twilled woollen used for working coats and breeches, made principally in Yorkshire. Shalloons were a lightweight twilled wool used for linings and women's gowns. Sagathies were a serge woven in the West Country, hard-wearing for outer garments. Druggetts were a coarse mixed woollen and linen cloth used for cheaper coats and floor coverings. Broad cloth was the heavy plain woollen of the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire trade, the standard fabric for a man's best coat. Flannel was the light woollen used for shirts, petticoats and infant clothing. The pairing of the Indian and English cloths in a single consignment showed how the island drew its full wardrobe from two opposite ends of the Company's trading network in the same fleet.

The placing of twenty-six yards of kersey and the parcel of dungarees against the plantation column showed the storekeeper apportioning the cheaper and more durable cloths to the Company establishment, leaving the lighter and printed cottons for sale to inhabitants.

Speculations

The exceptional volume of Surat chints, at 123 pieces valued at over twenty-seven pounds and placed wholly to inhabitants, perhaps reflected a deliberate calculation by the storekeeper that printed cotton was the most actively traded cloth on the island and would clear quickly into private hands. The Company gained a rapid return on the most expensive Indian goods by releasing the whole parcel for sale rather than retaining any of it for institutional use.

The single yard of broad cloth and the one and three-quarter yards of flannel, entered at the close of the woollen section, perhaps represented small remnants from a larger consignment broken up at the Company's London warehouses, included here to clear the books rather than to meet any specific island requirement. The minimal quantities suggest that the storekeeper was reconciling the homeward invoice against the actual cloth landed.

401

392

Brought over

Fustians 6 Corded [...] [at] 0:12:0

d[o] Colour[d] 4 yards [at] 1/6 0:6:0

Double House Linnen 12 [...] [at] 2/3

Perpetuanos 24[...] [at] 2/3 Gen[...] Cha[...]

Bunting [...] [at] 20 Gen Charg[...]

Beef [...] Pork viz[t]

1 Cask of Beef 94[...] 1 Cask of d[o] 109 283 p[...] q[...] 1 Cask d[o] 1:06 3 [...] q[...] 1245 [...] 4[...] [...] [...] 45 [...] [...] [...] [...] Sutt[...] 1 Cask q[...] 170 [at] 6 1 d[o] 259 [at] 6[...] [...] 10:14:6 429

1 Cask Pork 110 p[...] 1 d[o] 62 1 d[o] 60 232 [...] 28 [at] [...]

Ship Quensh[...] [...] viz[t] 1045 Beef 436 Pork [...] 1476 [at] 5 p[...] 30:18:0

Sold to y[e] Inhabitants the Sum of 381:13:8[...] To Plantac[i]ons 23:11:4 Gen Charges 192:16:10[...] Totall [...] 598:2:0[...]

Column headers: Inhabit[...] Planta[...] Gen: Charg[...] Totall

Inhabitants column values: 379 [...] 8 [...] 8[...]

[...] 18

1 [...] 7

[...] 30 [...] 15

381 [...] 13 [...] 8[...]

412 [...] 8 [...] 8[...]

Planta column values: 23 [...] 11 [...] 4[...]

23 [...] 11 [...] 4[...]

Gen: Charg column values: 113 [...] 9 [...] 0[...]

2 [...] 14 3 [...] 4

34 [...] 13 [...] 0

10 [...] 14 [...] 6

30 [...] 18 [...] 0

192 [...] 16 [...] 10[...]

Totall column values: 516 [...] 9 [...] 2[...]

[...] 18

1 [...] 7

2 [...] 14 3 [...] 4

7 [...] 6 [...] 10 [...] 6

598 [...] 2 [...] 1[...]

28 [...] 17 [...] 0[...]

The columns opened with the running total brought over: £379 8s 8¾d for inhabitants, £23 11s 4¾d for plantation, £113 9s 0¼d for general charge, and £516 9s 2¼d in total.

Fustians, 6 yards, corded ditto £0 12s 0d

Ditto coloured, 4 yards at 6s £0 6s 0d

A subtotal of £0 18s 0d entered against the inhabitants column.

Double House Linnen, 12 yards at 2s 3d £1 7s 0d, with a further entry of £1 7s 0d running across.

Perpetuanoes, 24 yards at 2s 3d, marked Gen. Cha £2 14s 0d, with a separate entry of £2 14s 0d.

Bunting, 4 yards at 10d, marked Gen. Charge £0 3s 4d, with a further line of £0 3s 4d.

Beef and Pork were itemised:

1 cask of beef, 94 pieces no separate sum entered

1 cask of ditto, 109 pieces no separate sum entered

1 cask ditto, 283 pieces and one quarter no separate sum entered

1 cask ditto, 100 pieces no separate sum entered

A subtotal of 700 pieces and one quarter, 1,245 pounds 4 ounces no separate sum entered

At 45 ditto £34 18s 0d entered against the general charge column.

Suet, 1 cask, 170 pounds at 6d no separate sum entered

1 ditto, 259 pounds at 6d £10 14s 6d

A subtotal of 429 pounds and £10 14s 6d.

1 cask pork, 110 pieces no separate sum entered

1 ditto, 62 pieces no separate sum entered

1 ditto, 60 pieces no separate sum entered

A subtotal of 732 pieces at 28 pounds, at 8d £30 18s 0d, entered against the general charge column.

Ship purchases were then itemised:

1,045 pounds beef no separate sum entered

456 pounds pork 1,476 pounds and 5 pints no separate sum entered

The inhabitants column showed £30 15s 0d against the ship purchases, with £76 10s 6d running across.

The columns closed with running figures of £381 13s 8¾d for inhabitants, £23 11s 4¾d for plantation, £192 16s 10¾d for general charge, and £598 2s 1¼d in total.

The grand summary was then set out. Sold to the inhabitants the sum of £381 13s 8¾d. To plantation £23 11s 4¾d. General charges £192 16s 10¾d. Total £598 2s 0¼d, with a line of £412 8s 6¾d further entered, and £28 17s 0¼d set against it.

Interpretations

Fustian was a stout cotton-and-linen mixed cloth, woven principally in Lancashire and used for waistcoats, breeches and the linings of heavier garments. Corded fustian had a ribbed surface running with the warp, which gave it the durability required for working clothes; coloured fustian had been dyed in the piece for finer wear. House linen, doubled and of broad width, was the standard cloth for tablecloths, towels and bedsheets, brought from the Low Countries or from Lancashire. Perpetuanoes were a strong twilled woollen made in the West Country, used for outer coats and breeches and noted for the durability that gave the cloth its name. Bunting was the light open-weave woollen used for the cutting and stitching of flags and signal colours, supplied here to the general charge for the use of the fort and the shipping.

The beef, suet and pork casks set down to general charge represented the salted provisions retained by the Company for the establishment, the garrison and the homeward shipping. The casks were entered by piece count and by weight in pounds, with the small remainder bought from the ships themselves to make up shortfalls in the Company stores. Beef ran at around eightpence and pork at sixpence the pound, prices consistent with the standing rates for salt provisions on the Indian and homeward voyage. Suet was the hard fat rendered from the carcasses, used in cooking and in the making of candles and ship's tallow.

The closing summary set the entire consignment under three heads. Goods sold to inhabitants drew £381 13s 8¾d, plantation took £23 11s 4¾d, and general charges absorbed £192 16s 10¾d, the whole running to £598 2s 0¼d. The inhabitants thus took roughly two-thirds of the consignment by value, the general charge took just under a third, and the plantation drew only a small share. The shape of the account showed the Company's stores at St Helena functioning more as a market for the islanders than as a supply for the Company plantation.

Speculations

The presence of three casks of beef weighing over twelve hundred pounds and three casks of pork running to over seven hundred pieces, all placed to general charge with no allocation to inhabitants, perhaps reflected the rationing of salt provisions exclusively to the garrison, the slaves on the Company establishment and the victualling of homeward ships at the road. The Company kept the salt meat under its own hand because it formed the strategic reserve against shortages, against ship demands and against the failure of fresh provisions on the island.

The recording of beef and pork bought from the ships, at 1,045 pounds of beef and 456 pounds of pork, perhaps showed the storekeeper making up the cask weights against the original London invoices by purchasing the surplus carried by captains and pursers at anchorage. The mechanism allowed the storekeeper to reconcile the books against the invoiced weights without troubling the Company to ship additional provisions on the next outward voyage.

402

393

Island S[t] Helena

An Acco[t] of Familie[s], Land, [...] Cattle on said Island for the Year 1714 as Given In to the Secretary[']s Office, the 21: of March 1714/15

Verte

Island St Helena.

An account of families, land and cattle on the island for the year 1714, as given in to the secretary's office on 21 March 1715.

The page closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the account itself ran on the reverse.

Interpretations

The heading marked the opening of the annual island census, a return required from each planter household and gathered by the secretary's office for delivery to the Court of Directors in London. The return covered three heads: families, by which the secretary meant white householders together with their dependants, servants and slaves; land, meaning the leased and granted holdings on which each family lived and planted; and cattle, meaning the stock of oxen, cows, sheep, goats and pigs maintained on each holding. The three together gave the Company the basis on which it judged the productive capacity of the island, the labour available for public works and the population on which the garrison and shipping depended for fresh provisions.

The dating of the return on 21 March 1715 placed it at the close of the old-style year, when the secretary drew the books to a head for the twelve months running. The account itself was titled as for the year 1714 because under the old calendar the year had not yet turned. The return thus closed the planting year before the new accounting year opened on 25 March.

403

394

for 1714

Persons Names.

Matthew Bazett the[...] in Coun[cil] [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 8 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] [...] 4

Tho[s] Cason Ensigne [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] [...] 7

Jn[o] Alexander Ditto 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 4 [...] 8 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 6

Joshua Tomlinson [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 6 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 12

Jn[o] French Gunner [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2

W[m] Porteous Surgeons [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3

Jn[o] Goodwin Writer [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] [...] 4

Tho[s] Southen [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 4 [...] 8 [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] 3

John Worrall [...] Serjants W[m] Slaughter [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 6 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 6

Christ[r] Kell [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 8 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Isaac Leech [...] Gun[r] Mates [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1

Isaac Wood Corporal [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 6

Sam[l] Jessey W[m] Worrall [...] Gu[n]d Gun[...] [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 7 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] 2

Lewis Latour [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Humph[ry] Edwards [...] Montross[...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 6 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Francis Funge Armourer [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Tho[s] Hayse Giles Hayse [...] Montrosses [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 4 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Ralph Orme Soldier [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Sam[l] Allgates Corporal [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Joseph Bates Montross [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...]

2 [...] 25 [...] 33 [...] 31 [...] 91 [...] 30 [...] 16 [...] 12 [...] 2 [...] 60

Column headers: Whites: Men Women [...] [...] Totall[...]

Blacks: M[en] Women [...] [...] Totall

Matthew Bazett, in council 3 white women, 2 white boys, 8 white total 3 black men, 1 black girl, 4 black total

Thomas Cason, ensign 1 white woman, 4 white boys, 5 white total 2 black men, 3 black women, 2 black boys, 7 black total

John Alexander, ditto 1 white man, 2 white women, 4 white boys, 8 white total 3 black men, 1 black woman, 2 black boys, 6 black total

Joshua Tomlinson, reaper 1 white boy, 1 white total 6 black men, 3 black women, 1 black boy, 2 black girls, 12 black total

John French, gunner 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white girl, 4 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 2 black total

William Porteous, surgeon 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 3 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 3 black total

John Goodwin, writer 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 4 white total 3 black men, 1 black woman, 4 black total

Thomas Southern 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 4 white girls, 8 white total 2 black men, 1 black girl, 3 black total

John Worrall, serjeant 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 4 white total 1 black man, 2 black women, 1 black boy, 4 black total

William Slaughter, serjeant 2 white women, 1 white boy, 3 white girls, 6 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 3 black total

Christopher Kell 1 white man, 2 white women, 3 white boys, 8 white total

Isaac Leech, gunner's mate 1 white man, 1 white boy, 2 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

Isaac Wood, corporal 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 5 white total 2 black men, 2 black women, 2 black boys, 6 black total

Samuel Pessey 1 white man, 3 white boys, 7 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 3 black total

William Worrall, gunner's mate 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white total 2 black girls, 2 black total

Lewis Latour 1 white woman, 1 white total

Humphrey Edwards, montross 3 white boys, 3 white girls, 6 white total

Francis Funge, armourer 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 2 white total

Thomas Hayse 1 white boy, 3 white girls, 4 white total

Giles Hayse, montross no figures entered

Ralph Orme, soldier 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 3 white total

Samuel Allgate, corporal 1 white woman, 1 white total

Joseph Bates, montross 1 white woman, 1 white total

The columns closed with the running totals: 2 white men, 25 white women, 33 white boys, 31 white girls, 91 white total. 30 black men, 16 black women, 12 black boys, 2 black girls, 60 black total.

Interpretations

The return divided the population into white men, women, boys and girls and black men, women, boys and girls. The two categories of black were drawn from the Company's plantation slaves and from the slaves held by private planters in their households. The figures showed that the slave population on the holdings recorded on this page ran to 60 against 91 whites, with the slave men more than ten times the number of slave women, while the white population was much more evenly divided between the sexes. The disparity in the slave figures reflected the Company's practice of purchasing predominantly male slaves at Madagascar and the Guinea coast for plantation and Company labour.

The list opened with members of the council and the principal officers of the establishment, before running into the serjeants, corporals, gunners and montrosses of the garrison. A montross was a junior artilleryman who assisted the gunners in serving the cannon, ranking below a corporal of the train. The order of entry, beginning with the councilman Matthew Bazett, then the ensigns John Alexander and Thomas Cason, and running through the officers and tradesmen of the fort, perhaps reflected the order in which the heads of household had presented themselves at the secretary's office to give in their returns, with seniority determining priority.

The presence of slaves in the households of the council, the ensigns, the surgeon and the writer showed that ownership of slave labour ran through the whole administrative establishment, not merely the plantation. The reaper Joshua Tomlinson kept 12 slaves against a single white boy in his household, the largest slave count on the page and consistent with active use of slave labour on a working plantation. The smaller holdings of the soldiers and montrosses, several of whom had no slaves at all, reflected the limited means of the lower garrison ranks.

Speculations

The very low proportion of slave women to slave men, at 16 to 30 across the page, perhaps reflected a deliberate Company preference for male slaves on the outward voyage from Madagascar, since male slaves were valued for plantation work, fortification labour and water carriage, while female slaves were imported in smaller numbers for domestic service in the senior officers' households. The result was a slave population structurally unable to reproduce itself on the island, requiring continuing fresh purchases from each Madagascar voyage to maintain numbers.

The absence of any figure against the name of Giles Hayse, montross, while his brother or kinsman Thomas Hayse had entered a household of four whites, perhaps indicated that Giles was unmarried and lodged with the elder Hayse rather than maintaining a separate household. The secretary recorded his name to mark his presence on the island establishment but entered no figures because he commanded no household of his own.

404

395

Matthew Bazett the[...] in Coun[cil] Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 10 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 10 [...] 26 Land: 35 [...] 20 [...] 55

Tho[s] Cason Ensigne Neat Cattle: [...] 8 [...] [...] [...] [...] 7 [...] 15 Land: [...] [...] 45 [...] 45

Jn[o] Alexander Ditto Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 5 [...] 17 Land: 58 [...] [...] [...] 58

Joshua Tomlinson [...] Neat Cattle: [...] 6 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 11 Land: [...] [...] 1 [...] 1

Jn[o] French Gunner Neat Cattle: [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 6 Land: 88 [...] 5 [...] 93

W[m] Porteous Surgeons Neat Cattle: [...] 7 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] 7 [...] 16 Land: 29 [...] [...] [...] 29

Jn[o] Goodwin Writer Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 6 Land: 12 [...] 8 [...] 20

Tho[s] Southen Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 5 Land: [...] 3 [...] 3

John Worrall [...] Serjants W[m] Slaughter Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: 7 [...] 2 [...] 9

Neat Cattle: [...] 4 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 9 Land: 5 [...] 6 [...] 11

Christ[r] Kell Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 8 [...] [...] 10 [...] [...] [...] 6 [...] 25 Land: 48 [...] 30 [...] 78

Isaac Leech [...] Gun[r] Mates Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 Land: 32 [...] [...] [...] 32

Isaac Wood Corporal Neat Cattle: [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 10 Land: 5 [...] 12 [...] 17

Sam[l] Jessey W[m] Worrall [...] Gu[n]d Gun[...] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 Land: 31 [...] 1 [...] 32

Lewis Latour Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] 15 [...] 15

Humph[ry] Edwards [...] Montross[...] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Francis Funge Armourer Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 4 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Tho[s] Hayse Giles Hayse [...] Montrosses Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 Land: 10 [...] 20 [...] 30

Ralph Orme Soldier Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Sam[l] Allgates Corporal Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Joseph Bates Montross Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Totals: Neat Cattle: 5 [...] 67 [...] 6 [...] 24 [...] [...] [...] 62 [...] 164 Land: 360 [...] 168 [...] 528

Column headers: Neat Cattle: Bull[...] / Cow[s] / Bul[...] / [...] / [...] / C[al]ves / Totall Land: [...] / [...] / [...] / [...] / Totall

The table carried two principal columns. Neat Cattle was subdivided into Bull, Steer, Bullock, Oxen, Heifer and Calves and Total. Land was subdivided into Acres, Owned and Leave and Total. The figures ran down opposite the names recorded on the previous page.

The return ran as follows:

Matthew Bazett, in council 2 bulls, 10 steers, 1 bullock, 3 oxen, 10 calves, 26 total 35 acres owned, 20 acres leave, 55 acres total

Thomas Cason, ensign 8 steers, 7 calves, 15 total 45 acres leave, 45 acres total

John Alexander, ditto 2 bulls, 5 steers, 2 bullocks, 3 oxen, 5 calves, 17 total 58 acres owned, 58 acres total

Joshua Tomlinson, reaper 6 steers, 1 bullock, 4 calves, 11 total 1 acre leave, 1 acre total

John French, gunner 2 bullocks, 2 oxen, 6 total (entered separately as 2 bullocks and 2 oxen, with a total of 6) 88 acres owned, 5 acres leave, 93 acres total

William Porteous, surgeon 7 steers, 2 bullocks, 7 calves, 16 total 39 acres owned, 39 acres total

John Goodwin, writer 1 steer, 3 bullocks, 2 calves, 6 total 12 acres owned, 8 acres leave, 20 acres total

Thomas Southern 2 steers, 3 calves, 5 total 3 acres owned, 3 acres total

John Worrall, serjeant no neat cattle entered 7 acres owned, 2 acres leave, 9 acres total

William Slaughter, serjeant 4 steers, 1 bullock, 4 calves, 9 total 5 acres owned, 6 acres leave, 11 acres total

Christopher Kell 1 bull, 8 steers, 10 bullocks, 6 calves, 25 total 48 acres owned, 30 acres leave, 78 acres total

Isaac Leech, gunner's mate 3 bullocks, 3 calves, 6 total 32 acres owned, 32 acres total

Isaac Wood, corporal 4 steers, 1 bullock, 4 calves, 10 total 5 acres owned, 12 acres leave, 17 acres total

Samuel Pessey no neat cattle entered no land entered

William Worrall, gunner's mate 3 bullocks, 3 calves, 6 total 31 acres owned, 1 acre leave, 32 acres total

Lewis Latour no neat cattle entered 15 acres leave, 15 acres total

Humphrey Edwards, montross no neat cattle entered no land entered

Francis Funge, armourer 2 bullocks, 2 calves, 4 total no land entered

Thomas Hayse 1 bullock, 1 total 10 acres owned, 20 acres leave, 30 acres total

Giles Hayse, montross 1 bullock, 1 total no land entered

Ralph Orme, soldier no figures entered

Samuel Allgate, corporal no figures entered

Joseph Bates, montross no figures entered

The columns closed with the running totals: 5 bulls, 67 steers, 6 bullocks, 24 oxen, 62 calves, 164 total head of neat cattle. 360 acres owned, 168 acres leave, 528 acres total.

Interpretations

The cattle return divided each holding by the function of the beast rather than by sex alone. A bull was the breeding male kept ungelded, a steer was a young male castrated for fattening, a bullock was a working ox in its mature condition used at the plough or for haulage, and an ox was the fully grown draught beast in regular use for ploughing, carting and the haulage of stone and timber. Heifers were the young females not yet calved, though none was entered against the names on this page. Calves were the new stock of the year. The proportion of steers and bullocks to bulls reflected the controlled breeding of the island herd, with five bulls serving over a hundred and fifty other head, the surplus males being gelded to keep the herd manageable and to direct the meat supply toward the garrison and the shipping.

The land column distinguished acres owned from acres held by leave. Owned land was that granted to the planter by Company patent and held as freehold, subject only to the conditions of the original grant. Acres of leave were land held with the permission of the Company on a more provisional footing, perhaps for grazing, woodcutting or temporary cultivation, without the security of the freehold patent. The total acres held by each planter combined the two categories. The page showed 360 acres in freehold against 168 acres of leave, indicating that around two-thirds of the recorded holdings rested on formal Company grants.

The largest holdings on the page belonged to the gunner John French at 93 acres and to Christopher Kell at 78 acres, while the councilman Matthew Bazett held 55 acres. The land distribution did not follow the order of seniority in the establishment, with active planters drawing larger acreages than the senior officers, whose principal income came from their Company salaries.

The blank entries against Samuel Pessey, Humphrey Edwards, Ralph Orme, Samuel Allgate and Joseph Bates showed that several members of the garrison maintained households without keeping cattle or holding land, drawing their subsistence wholly from the Company stores and their wages from the establishment.

Speculations

The high proportion of steers among the recorded cattle, at 67 head against only 24 oxen in working condition, perhaps reflected the slow process by which young males were brought forward to working age on the island. The herd was structured to maintain a continuing supply of fresh draught animals over several seasons, since the steep ground and the demand for haulage to the fort and the harbour wore out the working beasts at a steady rate.

The 15 acres of leave held by Lewis Latour without any acres of freehold, and with no cattle entered against his name, perhaps reflected the provisional position of a recent arrival or a planter whose grant had not yet been formalised. The Company gave such men leave to occupy and improve a parcel of ground in advance of patent, allowing them to establish themselves on the island before the formal grant was perfected at the secretary's office.

405

396

Persons Names.

Brought over 2 [...] 25 [...] 33 [...] 31 [...] 91 [...] 30 [...] 16 [...] 12 [...] 2 [...] 60

Benj[a] Pledger Sold[r] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Jeptha Fowler D[o] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Crenatus Snow D[o] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Hugh Bodley Ser[v]t to W[...] W[m] Portley Marsh[...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Rob[t] Adam[s] Orphans [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1

Thomas Allis 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2

Robert Angus [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

[...] Bagley [...] 2 apprentices 2 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 9 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 2

Olando Bagley [...] apprentice 2 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 9 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 5

Tho[s] Burnham 1 [...] [...] 4 [...] 2 [...] 7 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Robert Bell 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 4

W[m] Beale 1 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 2

Arthur Bradley 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 6

Jon[a] Beals Orphans

George Larne 4 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 10 [...] 8 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 4 [...] 17

Jn[o] Coales 4 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 4 [...] 11 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] [...] 7

W[m] Coales 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 5

Rich[d] Cleave 1 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 2 [...] 8 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...]

John Coulson [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1

Grace Coulson [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 9

Mary Conway [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

23 [...] 38 [...] 58 [...] 60 [...] 179 [...] 53 [...] 26 [...] 23 [...] 13 [...] 115

Column headers: Whites: Men Women [...] [...] [...]

Blacks: Men Women [...] [...] Totall

The return continued under the same heading for the year 1714, with the columns again divided into Whites (men, women, boys, girls and total) and Blacks (men, women, boys, girls and total). The running totals brought over stood at 2 white men, 25 white women, 33 white boys, 31 white girls, 91 white total, and 30 black men, 16 black women, 12 black boys, 2 black girls, 60 black total.

The page ran as follows:

Benjamin Pledger, soldier 1 white woman, 1 white total

Jeptha Fowler, ditto 1 white woman, 1 white total

Crenatus Snow, ditto 1 white man, 1 white total

Hugh Bodley, serjeant of the mounted no figures entered

William Portley, marshal no figures entered

Robert Adams, orphans 1 white boy, 1 white girl, 2 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

Thomas Allis 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white girl, 5 white total 2 black men, 2 black total

Robert Angus 1 white woman, 1 white total

Bagley and two apprentices 2 white men, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 3 white girls, 9 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 2 black total

Orlando Bagley and apprentices 2 white men, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 3 white girls, 9 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black boy, 1 black girl, 5 black total

Thomas Bournham 1 white man, 4 white boys, 2 white girls, 7 white total

Robert Bell 1 white man, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 5 white total 2 black men, 1 black girl, 4 black total

William Beale 1 white man, 1 white woman, 4 white boys, 1 white girl, 7 white total

Arthur Bradley 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 3 white total 2 black men, 1 black girl, 2 black total

John Beale's orphans no figures entered

George Carne 4 white men, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 4 white girls, 10 white total 8 black men, 3 black women, 2 black boys, 4 black girls, 17 black total

John Coales 4 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 4 white girls, 11 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 4 black boys, 7 black total

William Coales 1 white man, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 5 white total

Richard Cleave 1 white man, 1 white woman, 4 white boys, 2 white girls, 8 white total

John Coulson 1 white woman, 1 white total

Grace Coulson 1 white woman, 1 white total 2 black men, 3 black women, 2 black boys, 2 black girls, 9 black total

Mary Conway 1 white woman, 1 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

The columns closed with the running totals: 23 white men, 38 white women, 58 white boys, 60 white girls, 179 white total. 53 black men, 26 black women, 23 black boys, 13 black girls, 115 black total.

Interpretations

The continuation of the return moved out of the garrison and the principal officers into the body of the island planters and their dependants. The lower ranks of the militia appeared first, with the soldiers Benjamin Pledger, Jeptha Fowler and Crenatus Snow each entered with the smallest possible household. Hugh Bodley as serjeant of the mounted held a serjeant's rank in the small troop of horse maintained on the island for the carrying of messages and the patrolling of the cattle grounds. William Portley as marshal held the office of the island's executive officer for the service of warrants and the management of prisoners, working under the direction of the council.

The category of orphans under Robert Adams and again under John Beale showed the practice by which the council placed the children of deceased planters under the care of named guardians, with the orphans' households counted separately in the return so that the secretary could track the maintenance of the children and the management of the estates from which they drew their subsistence. The entries did not include figures against the John Beale orphans, perhaps indicating that the household had been dissolved or that the orphans had been transferred to another guardian since the previous return.

The entries against Bagley and Orlando Bagley showed two separate households each described as carrying two apprentices, the indentured young men bound by Company contract to learn a trade under a planter. The apprentices were counted within the white total of the household rather than under a separate head. The practice followed the standard English form of indenture, by which the apprentice lived and ate within the master's house for the term of his bond.

The largest slave households on the page belonged to George Carne with seventeen slaves and Grace Coulson with nine. The Carne holding was the largest single recorded slave concentration of the return so far, and the entry suggested an active planter operating on the scale of the Company plantation itself. Grace Coulson's holding showed a single woman maintaining a substantial slave establishment, perhaps as the widow of a deceased planter who had retained the household after the death of her husband.

Speculations

The pattern of households recorded against the women Grace Coulson and Mary Conway, each entered as a single white woman with slaves on the holding, suggests that the secretary recognised the female head of household where there was no surviving male relative on the island to take the formal headship. Coulson's nine slaves and Conway's single slave girl perhaps reflected the working capacity that each had inherited or maintained in widowhood. The practice gave the secretary an accurate count of the slaves on the island, since concealing the holding under another man's name would have distorted the return.

The two Bagley households, each entered with nine whites including two apprentices, perhaps reflected the deliberate placing of apprentices at separate masters in the same family connection. The arrangement allowed the elder kinsman to oversee both households while keeping each apprentice under a different formal indenture, securing the trade succession across two related establishments without combining them into a single legal household.

406

397

Column headers: Neat Cattle: Bull[...] / Cows / Bullocks / [...] / [...] / Calves / Totall Land: [...] / [...] / [...] / Totall

Brought over (from previous page) Neat Cattle: 5 [...] 67 [...] 6 [...] 24 [...] [...] [...] 62 [...] 164 Land: 360 [...] 168 [...] 528

Benj[a] Pledger Sold[r] Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 3 Land: 5 [...] [...] [...] 5

Jeptha Fowler D[o] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Crenatus Snow D[o] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Hugh Bodley Ser[v]t to W[...] W[m] Portley Marsh[...] Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Rob[t] Adam[s] Orphans Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Thomas Allis Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 6 [...] 14 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Robert Angus Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 3 Land: 18 [...] 30 [...] 48

[...] Bagley [...] 2 apprentices Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Olando Bagley [...] apprentice Neat Cattle: [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 10 Land: 36 [...] 3 [...] 39

Tho[s] Burnham Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 5 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 5 [...] 11 Land: 23 [...] 76 [...] 99

Robert Bell Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 Land: 22[...] [...] 6 [...] 28[...]

W[m] Beale Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 Land: 20 [...] 31 [...] 51

Arthur Bradley Neat Cattle: [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Jon[a] Beals Orphans Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 Land: [...] 20 [...] 20

George Larne Neat Cattle: 3 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 5 [...] 18 Land: 60 [...] [...] [...] 60

Jn[o] Coales Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 14 [...] 12 [...] 6 [...] [...] [...] 13 [...] 46 Land: 100 [...] 11 [...] 111

W[m] Coales Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 16 [...] 3 [...] 8 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 9 [...] 43 Land: 30 [...] 25 [...] 55

Rich[d] Cleave Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 3 Land: 15 [...] 5 [...] 20

John Coulson Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Grace Coulson Neat Cattle: [...] 4 [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 4 [...] 10 Land: 15 [...] [...] [...] 15

Mary Conway Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] 4 [...] 8 [...] [...] 1 [...] 9 Land: 25 [...] 5 [...] 30

[unmatched row] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] 6 [...] 30 [...] 35[...]

Totals: Neat Cattle: 13 [...] 137 [...] 24 [...] 52 [...] 7 [...] 3 [...] 119 [...] 355 Land: 734[...] [...] 410 [...] 1144[...]

The table again carried the two principal columns. Neat Cattle was subdivided into Bull, Cows, Bullocks, Steers, Heifers, working and Calves and Total. Land was subdivided into Acres Owned, Acres Leave and Total. The figures ran down opposite the names recorded on the previous page.

The running totals brought over stood at 5 bulls, 67 steers, 6 bullocks, 24 oxen, 62 calves, 164 total head of neat cattle, with 360 acres owned, 168 acres leave and 528 acres total.

The return ran as follows:

Benjamin Pledger, soldier 1 cow, 1 heifer working, 3 calves, total entered separately 5 acres owned, 5 acres total

Jeptha Fowler, ditto no neat cattle entered no land entered

Crenatus Snow, ditto no neat cattle entered no land entered

Hugh Bodley, serjeant of the mounted 3 bullocks, 3 calves, 6 total no land entered

William Portley, marshal no neat cattle entered no land entered

Robert Adams, orphans 1 bull, 6 cows, 1 bullock, 6 calves, 14 total no land entered

Thomas Allis 1 cow, 1 bullock, 1 heifer working, 3 calves, total entered separately 18 acres owned, 30 acres leave, 48 acres total

Robert Angus no neat cattle entered no land entered

Bagley and two apprentices 6 cows, 1 bullock, 4 calves, 10 total 36 acres owned, 3 acres leave, 39 acres total

Orlando Bagley and apprentices 1 bull, 5 cows, 5 calves, 11 total 23 acres owned, 76 acres leave, 99 acres total

Thomas Bournham 3 cows, 2 calves, 5 total 22 acres owned, 6 acres leave, 28½ acres total

Robert Bell 3 bullocks, 3 calves, 6 total 20 acres owned, 31 acres leave, 51 acres total

William Beale 1 bullock, 1 total no land entered

Arthur Bradley 1 cow, 2 bullocks, 3 calves, total entered separately 20 acres leave, 20 acres total

John Beale's orphans 3 bulls, 5 cows, 2 bullocks, 3 steers, 5 calves, 18 total 60 acres owned, 60 acres total

George Carne 1 bull, 14 cows, 12 bullocks, 6 steers, 13 calves, 46 total 100 acres owned, 11 acres leave, 111 acres total

John Coales 2 bulls, 16 cows, 3 bullocks, 8 steers, 2 heifers working, 3 calves, 9 calves, 43 total 30 acres owned, 25 acres leave, 55 acres total

William Coales 2 cows, 1 calf, 3 total 15 acres owned, 5 acres leave, 20 acres total

Richard Cleave no neat cattle entered no land entered

John Coulson 4 cows, 1 bullock, 1 steer, 4 calves, 10 total 15 acres owned, 15 acres total

Grace Coulson 1 cow, 4 steers, 1 heifer working, 9 calves, total entered separately 25 acres owned, 5 acres leave, 30 acres total

Mary Conway no neat cattle entered 5 acres owned, 30 acres leave, 35 acres total

The columns closed with the running totals: 13 bulls, 137 cows, 24 bullocks, 52 steers, 7 heifers working, 3 calves, 119 calves, 355 total head of neat cattle. 734½ acres owned, 410 acres leave, 1,144½ acres total.

Interpretations

The continuation of the cattle return introduced two new categories not entered on the previous page. Cows now appeared as a distinct head separate from steers, and heifers in working condition were entered as a further class between the breeding females and the calves. A cow was the mature breeding female that had calved at least once; a heifer was the young female yet to bring her first calf, but the entry of heifers working showed those that had been broken in to light draught labour, perhaps in the yoke for the lighter ploughing or for hauling provisions about the holding. The use of female cattle for work was uncommon in English practice but reflected the limited supply of oxen on the island, which forced planters to put the younger females to harness where the steers and bullocks could not be spared.

The largest holdings on the page belonged to George Carne with 46 head of cattle on 111 acres and to John Coales with 43 head on 55 acres. The two together held nearly a quarter of the cattle recorded across both pages of the return. The concentration of stock in their hands placed them among the principal commercial graziers of the island, with the capacity to supply the Company stores and the homeward shipping with fresh beef and breeding stock.

The estate of John Beale's orphans, entered with 18 head of cattle on 60 acres of freehold, showed how the secretary tracked the maintenance of a deceased planter's holding for the benefit of his children. The figures recorded the stock and land as held in trust, with the council overseeing the management until the orphans should come of age and take the inheritance into their own hands. The substantial scale of the estate explained why the council had taken the trouble to maintain the holding as a separate household rather than merging it into a guardian's account.

The blank cattle entries against Jeptha Fowler, Crenatus Snow, William Portley, Robert Angus, Richard Cleave and Mary Conway, with several of those names also showing no land, indicated households drawing their subsistence from Company wages, from petty trade or from the rent of small parcels of ground held under another planter, rather than from independent stockraising. The garrison soldiers and the marshal in particular held no cattle, since their living came from the Company establishment.

Speculations

The combined island total of 1,144½ acres held across the two pages of the return, divided between 734½ acres in freehold and 410 acres of leave, perhaps reflected the practical limit of arable and grazing ground available to the recorded planters at this date. The Company had set the boundaries of the patented grants in earlier years on the lower and more accessible ground, while the more recent acres of leave covered ground at the margins of the cultivated land where the planters had pushed grazing out into the hills and valleys without formal patent. The leave figures perhaps marked the active frontier of settlement on the island.

The entry of seven heifers working across the second page, against none on the first, perhaps reflected the practice of the smaller planters in pressing female cattle into the yoke where the larger planters such as Carne and Coales could rely on their substantial stock of oxen and bullocks. The smaller households, lacking the cattle to keep mature breeding females clear of harness work, drew on the young females to make up the working strength, at the cost of slower herd reproduction.

407

398

Persons names.

Brought over 23 [...] 38 [...] 58 [...] 60 [...] 179 [...] 53 [...] 26 [...] 23 [...] 13 [...] 115

Marg[t] Cotgroves Orphan [...] [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2

James Draper 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 7 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2

Jonathan Doveton 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 7 [...] 4 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 11

Mary Easthope [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Tho[s] Free [...] W[m] Ser[v]ts 3 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 8 [...] 6 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 13

J[n]o Fleurus 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

W[m] French's Orphans [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Henry Francis 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 [...] 5 [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 4 [...] 15

Richard Gurling 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 5 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 6

Robert Gurling 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 0 [...] 4 [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] 3

James Greentree 2 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 7 [...] 12 [...] 5 [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 7

John Gibbs 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Mercy Gargen[?] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 5 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 5

Jonathan Higham [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...]

John Harding [...] Bro[...] Sisters 2 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] [...] 5

Martin Norman 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Mary Harper Widow [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2

Mary Harper Jun[r] Widow [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 2

Dorothy Hayse Widow [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1

Isabel Hayse Widow [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 4

Joshua Johnson 1 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 7 [...] 6 [...] [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 12

Sutton Isaake Sen[r] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 3

Sutton Isaake Jun[r] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 3 [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 3

John Knipe 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2

Column headers: Whites: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

Blacks: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

The return continued under the same heading. The running totals brought over stood at 23 white men, 38 white women, 58 white boys, 60 white girls, 179 white total, and 53 black men, 26 black women, 23 black boys, 13 black girls, 115 black total.

The page ran as follows:

Margaret Cotgrove's orphan 1 white girl, 1 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

James Draper 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 4 white girls, 7 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 2 black total

Jonathan Doveton 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 3 white girls, 7 white total 4 black men, 3 black women, 2 black boys, 2 black girls, 11 black total

Mary Easthope 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 3 white total 1 black man, 1 black total

Thomas Free and white servants 3 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 2 white girls, 8 white total 6 black men, 2 black women, 3 black boys, 2 black girls, 13 black total

John Fluxeus 1 white man, 1 white total

William French's orphans 1 white girl, 1 white total

Henry Francis 2 white men, 1 white woman, 3 white girls, 6 white total 5 black men, 3 black women, 3 black boys, 4 black girls, 15 black total

Richard Gurling 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 5 white total 4 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 6 black total

Robert Gurling 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 4 white total 2 black men, 1 black girl, 3 black total

James Greentree 2 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 7 white girls, 12 white total 5 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 7 black total

John Gibbs 1 white man, 1 white total

Mercy Gargen 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 1 white girl, 3 white total 4 black men, 1 black woman, 5 black total

Jonathan Higham 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white girl, 3 white total

John Harding and brothers and sisters 2 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 5 white total

Martin Norman 1 white man, 1 white total

Mary Harper, widow 1 white woman, 1 white total

Mary Harper junior, widow 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 1 white girl, 6 white total 9 black total

Dorothy Hayse, widow 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

Isabel Hayse, widow 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 4 white total

Joshua Johnson 1 white man, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 2 white girls, 7 white total 6 black men, 3 black boys, 3 black girls, 12 black total

Sutton Isaake senior 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 1 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 3 black total

Sutton Isaake junior 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 3 white girls, 6 white total 1 black man, 1 black boy, 1 black girl, 3 black total

John Knipe 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white girl, 5 white total 2 black men, 2 black total

Interpretations

The continuation of the return brought several widows and orphans into the count. Mary Harper appeared twice in succession, as Mary Harper and Mary Harper junior, distinguished as the elder and younger widow of the same name within the island connection. Dorothy and Isabel Hayse, also entered as widows, belonged to the Hayse family connection already noted in the earlier part of the return through Thomas and Giles Hayse. The four widows together represented a substantial body of female heads of household, several of them maintaining slaves on their holdings, and indicated that the death rate among adult male planters had created a stratum of women managing estates on their own account.

The entry of Thomas Free and white servants placed his household separately from the apprentices recorded earlier under the two Bagleys, since white servants were not bound under formal indenture but served on contractual terms of hire. The entry of three white men in his household, with substantial slave labour at 13 head, marked Free as one of the more active commercial planters of the island, perhaps directing both white wage-paid labour and slave labour on the same holding.

The notation of John Harding and brothers and sisters described a household formed by adult siblings living together rather than by a married couple with children. The siblings together kept five whites in the household, the secretary recording the family unit under the eldest brother's name. The form preserved the integrity of the joint family establishment in the count without artificially attributing the household to a single head.

The largest slave holdings on the page belonged to Henry Francis at 15, Thomas Free at 13, Joshua Johnson at 12 and Jonathan Doveton at 11. The four men together commanded 51 slaves between them, nearly half the slaves entered on this page. The concentration suggested that a handful of substantial planters dominated the working slave population of the island.

Speculations

The entry of Mary Harper junior as a widow with six whites and nine slaves on her holding, against the elder Mary Harper's single-person household, suggests that the younger widow had inherited the substantial estate of her late husband while the elder Mary Harper retained only a small dwelling of her own. The naming convention preserved by the secretary, with junior and senior used to distinguish the two women, perhaps reflected a household practice within the Harper family by which the surviving women continued to bear the husband's name in the secretary's records.

The single-figure households of John Fluxeus, John Gibbs, Jonathan Higham, Martin Norman and the elder Mary Harper, each entered as a lone man or woman with no further dependants and no slaves, perhaps reflected the position of small planters or aged dependants living on detached parcels of the island's land without active cultivation. The secretary recorded their presence to maintain the integrity of the census while signalling that they drew no productive return from their holdings.

408

399

Column headers: Neat Cattle: Bull[...] / Cows / Bullocks / Heifers / [...] / Yearling[s] / Calves / Totall Land: [...] / [...] / Lease / Totall

Brought over (from previous page) Neat Cattle: 13 [...] 137 [...] 24 [...] 52 [...] 7 [...] 3 [...] 119 [...] 355 Land: 734[...] [...] 410 [...] 1144[...]

Marg[t] Cotgroves Orphan Neat Cattle: [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 7 [...] 9 Land: 23 [...] 5 [...] 28

James Draper Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Jonathan Doveton Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 16 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] [...] 15 [...] 40 Land: 142[...] [...] 9 [...] 151[...]

Mary Easthope Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Tho[s] Free [...] W[m] Ser[v]ts Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 9 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] 9 [...] 22 Land: 71 [...] 26[...] [...] 97[...]

J[n]o Fleurus Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: 12 [...] [...] [...] 12

W[m] French's Orphans Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Henry Francis Neat Cattle: [...] 4 [...] [...] 5 [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] 13 Land: 40 [...] 27 [...] 67

Richard Gurling Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 13 [...] 3 [...] 4 [...] [...] 4 [...] 12 [...] 37 Land: 31 [...] 11 [...] 42

Robert Gurling Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] Land: 30 [...] 6 [...] 36

James Greentree Neat Cattle: [...] 9 [...] [...] 6 [...] [...] [...] 9 [...] 24 Land: 79 [...] 58 [...] 137

John Gibbs Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 Land: 10 [...] 20 [...] 30

Mercy Gargen[?] Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 Land: 19 [...] 12 [...] 31

Jonathan Higham Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

John Harding [...] Bro[...] Sisters Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 7 Land: [...] 13[...] [...] 13[...]

Martin Norman Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 4 Land: 10 [...] [...] [...] 10

Mary Harper Widow Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] Land: 10 [...] [...] [...] 10

Mary Harper Jun[r] Widow Neat Cattle: [...] 8 [...] [...] 4 [...] [...] [...] 8 [...] 21 Land: 127 [...] 33 [...] 160

Dorothy Hayse Widow Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 Land: 12[...] [...] [...] [...] 12[...]

Isabel Hayse Widow Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 Land: 15 [...] 2[...] [...] 17[...]

Joshua Johnson Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 5 Land: 14[...] [...] 20 [...] 34[...]

Sutton Isaake Sen[r]

Sutton Isaake Jun[r]

John Knipe

Totals: Land: 1321[?]

The table again carried the two principal columns. Neat Cattle was subdivided into Bull, Cows, Bullocks, Steers, Heifers, Yearlings and Calves and Total. Land was subdivided into Acres Owned, Acres Leave and Total. The figures ran down opposite the names recorded on the previous page.

The running totals brought over stood at 13 bulls, 137 cows, 24 bullocks, 52 steers, 7 heifers, 3 yearlings, 119 calves, 355 total head of neat cattle, with 734½ acres owned, 410 acres leave and 1,144½ acres total.

The return ran as follows:

Margaret Cotgrove's orphan no neat cattle entered no land entered

James Draper 2 bullocks, 7 calves, 9 total 23 acres owned, 5 acres leave, 28 acres total

Jonathan Doveton 1 bull, 16 cows, 3 bullocks, 2 steers, 3 heifers, 15 calves, 40 total 142½ acres owned, 9 acres leave, 151½ acres total

Mary Easthope 2 bulls, 9 cows, 2 bullocks, 9 calves, 22 total 71 acres owned, 26½ acres leave, 97½ acres total

Thomas Free and white servants no neat cattle entered 12 acres owned, 12 acres total

John Fluxeus 4 cows, 5 bullocks, 4 calves, 13 total 40 acres owned, 27 acres leave, 67 acres total

William French's orphans 1 bull, 13 cows, 3 bullocks, 4 steers, 4 yearlings, 12 calves, 37 total 31 acres owned, 11 acres leave, 42 acres total

Henry Francis 1 bullock, 1 calf, total entered separately 30 acres owned, 6 acres leave, 36 acres total

Richard Gurling 9 cows, 6 bullocks, 9 calves, 24 total 79 acres owned, 58 acres leave, 137 acres total

Robert Gurling 2 bullocks, 2 calves, total entered separately 10 acres owned, 20 acres leave, 30 acres total

James Greentree 3 cows, 2 calves, 5 total 19 acres owned, 12 acres leave, 31 acres total

John Gibbs no neat cattle entered no land entered

Mercy Gargen 3 cows, 1 bullock, 3 calves, 7 total 13½ acres leave, 13½ acres total

Jonathan Higham 2 cows, 2 calves, 4 total 10 acres owned, 10 acres total

John Harding and brothers and sisters 1 cow, 1 calf, 2 total 10 acres owned, 10 acres total

Martin Norman no neat cattle entered no land entered

Mary Harper, widow no neat cattle entered no land entered

Mary Harper junior, widow no neat cattle entered no land entered

Dorothy Hayse, widow no neat cattle entered no land entered

Isabel Hayse, widow no neat cattle entered no land entered

Joshua Johnson 9 cows, 8 bullocks, 4 steers, 8 calves, 21 total 127 acres owned, 33 acres leave, 160 acres total

Sutton Isaake senior 1 cow, 1 calf, 2 total 12½ acres owned, 12½ acres total

Sutton Isaake junior 3 bullocks, 2 calves, 5 total 15 acres owned, 2½ acres leave, 17½ acres total

John Knipe 2 cows, 1 bullock, 3 calves, 5 total 14½ acres owned, 20 acres leave, 34½ acres total

The columns closed with a running figure of 1,221 acres entered against the foot of the land totals.

Interpretations

A new category appeared in the cattle return on this page, namely yearlings, the young cattle that had passed the calf stage but had not yet reached the working age of the steer or the breeding age of the heifer. The four yearlings entered against William French's orphans showed the careful tracking of the growing stock on a holding under the guardianship of the council, since the secretary recorded each grade of immature cattle separately to maintain an accurate account of the estate held in trust for the children.

The largest holdings on the page belonged to Joshua Johnson with 160 acres carrying 21 head of cattle, Jonathan Doveton with 151½ acres carrying 40 head, and Richard Gurling with 137 acres carrying 24 head. The acreage and stock taken together placed these three among the substantial planters of the island, working at a scale comparable to George Carne and John Coales on the earlier pages. The concentration of cattle on Doveton's holding, at 40 head, was the heaviest of the three.

The blank cattle entries against the four widows Mary Harper, Mary Harper junior, Dorothy Hayse and Isabel Hayse showed that none of them maintained stock or land in her own name, even though the household count on the preceding page had recorded slaves in the holdings of Mary Harper junior and Dorothy Hayse. The pattern suggested that the slaves held by the widows had been retained for domestic and personal service rather than for grazing or cultivation, with the cattle and land of the deceased husbands having either passed to other heirs or returned to the Company.

The orphans of William French, entered with 37 head of cattle on 42 acres, formed the heaviest stocking ratio on the page, with nearly one beast to each acre. The figures showed that the council had preserved the working stock of the deceased planter's holding intact for the benefit of the children, perhaps to maintain the value of the estate against the day when the orphans should come of age.

Speculations

The single twelve-acre holding of Thomas Free, recorded with no cattle but with three white men, six black men and a substantial household totalling twenty-one persons on the previous page, perhaps suggested that his operation rested on labour-intensive cultivation rather than on stockraising. The use of white servants and slaves on a small parcel of ground pointed to garden cultivation, perhaps producing vegetables, fruit or arrack for sale to the shipping and to the inhabitants, where intensive labour on a confined plot returned more than grazing on the same ground.

The recording of yearlings as a separate category on this page, where the previous page had grouped the immature stock simply under calves, perhaps reflected a deliberate refinement of the return by the secretary at the council's direction. The closer tracking of each grade of immature cattle gave the council a more accurate forecast of the working stock that would come of age in successive seasons, allowing the planning of cattle supply to the garrison and the shipping with greater precision than the earlier consolidated count under calves had permitted.

409

400

Persons names

Brought over

Stephen Lufkin [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

John Long [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 3

Francis Leeth [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Rob[t] Marsh [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 7 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 7

John Marsh [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Walter Morrice [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Jane Mudge [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...]

Maxwells Orphan

John Nichols 3 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 8 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] 2

J[n]o Orchard [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2

Gabriel Powell 3 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 7 [...] 6 [...] 4 [...] 3 [...] 4 [...] 17

Samuel Price 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 2

J[n]o Robinson [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...]

Thomas Swallow 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 3

Richard Swallow 4 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 6 [...] 14 [...] 7 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 8

William Kate [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 7 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...]

Margaret Stik[?] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 9 [...] 3 [...] 5 [...] 5 [...] 15

Giles Smith [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2

John Sinsneck[?] [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2

Column headers: Whites: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

Blacks: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

The return continued under the same heading, with the columns again divided into Whites (men, women, boys, girls and total) and Blacks (men, women, boys, girls and total). The running totals were brought over without separate figures recorded on this page.

The return ran as follows:

Stephen Lufkin 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 1 white girl, 5 white total 1 black man, 1 black total

John Long 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 5 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 3 black total

Francis Leech 1 white woman, 1 white total

Robert Marsh 2 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 2 white girls, 7 white total 3 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black boy, 2 black girls, 7 black total

John Marsh 1 white man, 1 white total

Walter Morrice 1 white man, 1 white total

Jane Mudge 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 3 white total 1 black man, 1 black total

Maxwell's orphan no figures entered

John Nichols 3 white men, 2 white women, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 8 white total 2 black men, 2 black total

John Orchard 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white total

Gabriel Powell 3 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white girl, 7 white total 6 black men, 4 black women, 3 black boys, 4 black girls, 17 black total

Samuel Price 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white total

John Robinson 2 white men, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 6 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 4 black total

Thomas Swallow 2 white men, 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 5 white total 2 black men, 1 black woman, 3 black total

Richard Swallow 4 white men, 2 white women, 2 white boys, 6 white girls, 14 white total 7 black men, 1 black girl, 8 black total

William Rate 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 3 white girls, 7 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 1 black girl, 3 black total

Margaret Sikes 1 white woman, 2 white girls, 3 white total 9 black men, 3 black women, 5 black boys, 5 black girls, 15 black total

Giles Smith 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white total

John Sinsnick 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white total

Interpretations

The continuation of the return ran through a further set of planter households, with several names of substantial standing appearing on the page. Gabriel Powell with 17 slaves on his holding and Margaret Sikes with 15 represented two of the larger slave households on the island, comparable to those of George Carne and Henry Francis on the earlier pages. The presence of a woman holding fifteen slaves as the apparent sole head of her household marked Margaret Sikes as a substantial planter in her own right, perhaps the widow of a deceased planter who had retained the working slaves of the estate. The pattern echoed the earlier entries of Grace Coulson and Mary Harper junior.

Richard Swallow's household, with fourteen whites and eight slaves, was the largest white household of the page. The four white men entered under his name perhaps included grown sons or kin living on the holding, since the standard household structure of a married couple with children would not have run to four adult males on a single holding without additional white labour or extended family within the count.

The form Maxwell's orphan, entered without any figures, indicated a household nominally maintained under the council's care but presently empty of dependants, perhaps because the orphan had died, been transferred elsewhere or come of age since the previous return. The secretary kept the name on the books to preserve the legal continuity of the estate, even where no figures were currently entered against it.

The pairing of Thomas Swallow and Richard Swallow on adjacent lines, with the John Marsh and Robert Marsh, perhaps showed the practice of related kin maintaining separate households on different parcels of the same family connection. The recording of each as an independent household preserved their separate legal standing in the return while marking the family tie through the shared surname.

Speculations

The substantial slave holding of Margaret Sikes at fifteen, against a household of only three whites consisting of herself and two daughters, perhaps reflected the working capacity of an estate inherited from a deceased husband and maintained intact under his widow's management. The disparity between the white household of three and the slave establishment of fifteen suggested that the holding produced for the market rather than for domestic subsistence, with the slaves directed to cultivation and stockraising under an overseer or trusted slave driver in the absence of an adult male head.

The recurrence of three or four adult white men within several households on this page, against the more usual pattern of one or two on the earlier pages, perhaps reflected the migration of younger men into established planter households as wage servants, kinsmen or junior partners. The arrangement allowed the senior planter to maintain a larger working establishment without the cost of further slave purchases, while giving the younger men access to land and stock through the family connection rather than through formal patent in their own names.

410

401

Column headers: Neat Cattle: Bull[...] / Cows / Bullocks / Heifers / [...] / Yearling[s] / Calves / Totall Land: [...] / [...] / Lease / Totall

Brought over (from previous page) Land: 1321[?]

Stephen Lufkin Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 3 Land: 10 [...] 1 [...] 11

John Long Neat Cattle: [...] 6 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] [...] 5 [...] 16 Land: 20 [...] [...] [...] 20

Francis Leeth Neat Cattle: [...] 5 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 6 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Rob[t] Marsh Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 8 [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] 6 [...] 20 Land: 40 [...] 10 [...] 50

John Marsh Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 4 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Walter Morrice Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 Land: 10 [...] 1[...] [...] 11[...]

Jane Mudge Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 7 Land: 20 [...] [...] [...] 20

Maxwells Orphan Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 10 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

John Nichols Neat Cattle: [...] 5 [...] [...] [...] [...] 4 [...] [...] 9 Land: 40 [...] [...] [...] 40

J[n]o Orchard Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Gabriel Powell Neat Cattle: 5 [...] 22 [...] 14 [...] 11 [...] [...] [...] 27 [...] 89 Land: 216 [...] 39 [...] 255

Samuel Price Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

J[n]o Robinson Neat Cattle: [...] 8 [...] 7 [...] 4 [...] [...] [...] 8 [...] 21 Land: 20 [...] 25 [...] 45

Thomas Swallow Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 9 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 6 [...] 21 Land: 41 [...] 31 [...] 71

Richard Swallow Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 9 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 5 [...] 17 Land: 39 [...] 36 [...] 75

William Kate Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] 4 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 8 Land: 40 [...] [...] [...] 40

Margaret Stik[?] Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 8 [...] 6 [...] 4 [...] [...] [...] 7 [...] 26 Land: 70 [...] 8 [...] 78

Giles Smith Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 3 Land: 10 [...] 31 [...] 41

John Sinsneck[?] Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Totals: Land: 1957[?]

The table again carried the two principal columns. Neat Cattle was subdivided into Bull, Cows, Bullocks, Heifers, Steers, Yearlings and Calves and Total. Land was subdivided into Acres Owned, Acres Leave and Total. The figures ran down opposite the names recorded on the previous page.

The running figure of 1,381 acres was entered against the head of the land column, carrying forward from the close of the previous page.

The return ran as follows:

Stephen Lufkin 2 cows, 1 calf, 3 total 10 acres owned, 1 acre leave, 11 acres total

John Long 6 cows, 1 bullock, 2 heifers, 2 steers, 5 calves, 16 total 20 acres owned, 20 acres total

Francis Leech 5 cows, 1 calf, 6 total no land entered

Robert Marsh 2 bulls, 8 cows, 2 bullocks, 2 heifers, 6 calves, 20 total 40 acres owned, 10 acres leave, 50 acres total

John Marsh 2 cows, 2 calves, total entered separately no land entered

Walter Morrice 1 bullock, 1 heifer, 1 yearling, 2 calves, total entered separately 10 acres owned, 1½ acres leave, 11½ acres total

Jane Mudge 2 cows, 2 bullocks, 2 calves, 7 total 20 acres owned, 20 acres total

Maxwell's orphan 3 cows, 3 bullocks, 2 calves, 10 total no land entered

John Nichols 4 heifers, 2 calves, 9 total 40 acres owned, 40 acres total

John Orchard 2 cows, 1 bullock, 2 calves, total entered separately no land entered

Gabriel Powell 5 bulls, 22 cows, 14 bullocks, 11 steers, 27 calves, 89 total 216 acres owned, 39 acres leave, 255 acres total

Samuel Price no neat cattle entered no land entered

John Robinson 8 cows, 7 bullocks, 4 steers, 8 calves, 21 total 20 acres owned, 25 acres leave, 45 acres total

Thomas Swallow 1 bull, 9 cows, 2 bullocks, 2 steers, 6 calves, 21 total 41 acres owned, 31 acres leave, 71 acres total

Richard Swallow 2 bulls, 9 cows, 1 bullock, 5 calves, 17 total 39 acres owned, 36 acres leave, 75 acres total

William Rate 2 bullocks, 4 steers, 2 calves, 8 total 40 acres owned, 40 acres total

Margaret Sikes 1 bull, 8 cows, 6 bullocks, 4 steers, 7 calves, 26 total 70 acres owned, 8 acres leave, 78 acres total

Giles Smith 1 cow, 1 bullock, 1 calf, 3 total 10 acres owned, 31 acres leave, 41 acres total

John Sinsnick no neat cattle entered no land entered

The columns closed with a running figure of 1,951 acres entered against the foot of the land totals.

Interpretations

The substantial herd recorded against Gabriel Powell stood out as the largest single cattle holding of the return. At 5 bulls, 22 cows, 14 bullocks, 11 steers and 27 calves to a total of 89 head on 255 acres, the holding ran ahead of the largest concentrations on the earlier pages, including John Coales at 43 head and George Carne at 46 head. The five breeding bulls on Powell's holding alone matched the original total of bulls recorded across all the earlier pages, indicating that Powell was operating as a principal breeder of cattle for the island market. The scale of his slave establishment, at 17 head on the previous page, was consistent with the labour required to manage a herd of that size on so substantial an acreage.

Margaret Sikes appeared as a substantial cattle holder in her own right, with 26 head on 78 acres of which 70 were freehold. Taken together with the 15 slaves on her household recorded on the previous page, her establishment ranked among the larger commercial holdings on the island. The pattern echoed Grace Coulson's nine-slave holding on a smaller acreage and reinforced the picture of widows continuing to manage substantial estates after the death of their husbands.

The blank cattle and land entries against Samuel Price and John Sinsnick, both recorded with married couples on the previous page but with no figures here, suggested that they kept their households on rented dwellings without stock or land of their own. The recording of small white households without independent holdings perhaps indicated tradesmen, servants or wage labourers who drew their subsistence from work for other planters rather than from any holding of their own.

The recording of Maxwell's orphan with ten head of cattle and no land entered indicated that the council had preserved the working stock of the deceased planter's estate in the orphan's name, perhaps with the cattle grazing on land held under another planter's leave while the orphan's holding remained vacant. The arrangement preserved the value of the estate against the day when the orphan should come of age.

Speculations

The closing land figure of 1,951 acres ran below the maximum acreage that could practically have been cultivated and grazed on the island, suggesting that perhaps no more than a fifth of the island's surface was held by the planters under formal patent or leave. The remainder consisted of the central hill country, the steep windward gullies and the Company plantation reserves, ground that perhaps remained outside the planter system either through unsuitability for settlement or through deliberate Company reservation against future requirements.

The recording of bullocks and steers as distinct categories on this page, with Powell entering 14 bullocks and 11 steers separately, perhaps reflected a more deliberate classification by Powell or his clerk than that adopted by other planters. The two categories represented different stages of the same male beast - the steer fattening for slaughter and the bullock broken to work - and the careful separation in Powell's entry suggested an operation organised on commercial principles, with the herd structured to deliver both working oxen and beef cattle in succession.

411

402

Persons names

Brought over

Peter Sinsnick 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

Eliz[a] Steward [...] Children [...] 1 [...] 6 [...] [...] 6 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 4 [...] 2 [...] 11

Susanna Swallow [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 2 [...] 4

Godfrey Shoales 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

John Twaites 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 3

James Vesey 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 1 [...] 5 [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] [...] 1 [...] 4

C[?]ipan Wills 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 2 [...] [...] 2 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 5

Francis [...]anglaw[?] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3 [...] 5 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 7

[...]nghams Orphans 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] 1

Simon Moosley[?] 1 [...] 2 [...] 3 [...] 2 [...] 8 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Bridgett Withers [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] 3

Rob[t] Greenes Estate [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1

Officers [...] Soldiers 77 [...] 81 [...] 113 [...] 134 [...] 405 [...] 144 [...] 55 [...] 57 [...] 46 [...] 302 125

Column headers: Whites: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

Blacks: Men Women Boys Girls Totall

The return continued under the same heading. The columns again carried Whites (men, women, boys, girls and total) and Blacks (men, women, boys, girls and total), with the running totals brought over without separate figures recorded on this page.

The return ran as follows:

Peter Sinsnick 1 white man, 1 white woman, 5 white girls, 7 white total

Elizabeth Steward and children 1 white woman, 6 white girls, 6 white total 4 black men, 1 black woman, 4 black boys, 2 black girls, 11 black total

Susanna Swallow 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 2 white girls, 4 white total

Godfrey Shoales 1 white man, 4 white total

John Frater 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 1 white girl, 5 white total 1 black man, 1 black girl, 2 black total

James Vesey 1 white man, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 1 white girl, 7 white total 1 black man, 2 black women, 1 black girl, 4 black total

Captain Witt 1 white man, 1 white woman, 2 white boys, 1 white girl, 5 white total 1 black man, 1 black woman, 1 black boy, 1 black girl, 5 black total

Francis Wrangham 1 white man, 1 white woman, 3 white boys, 5 white total 4 black men, 1 black woman, 1 black boy, 1 black girl, 7 black total

Wrangham's orphans 1 white girl, 1 white total 1 black girl, 1 black total

Simon Worsley 1 white man, 2 white women, 3 white boys, 2 white girls, 8 white total 1 black man, 1 black total

Bridget Withers 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 white boy, 3 white total

Robert Greenwell's estate no figures entered 1 black man, 1 black total

Officers and soldiers 77 white men, 81 white women, 113 white boys, 134 white girls, 405 white total 125 unaccounted, with subordinate figures of 144, 55, 57 and 46 black, 302 black total

Interpretations

The list closed with several distinct categories that warrant separate notice. Elizabeth Steward and children appeared as the head of a household of six whites supported by an establishment of eleven slaves, the entry showing the secretary's recognition of a widow continuing the work of her husband's holding through her own headship. The pattern matched that observed in the entries of Grace Coulson, Mary Harper junior and Margaret Sikes on the earlier pages, with the female household head retaining the labour force inherited from the deceased planter.

The orphans of Francis Wrangham were entered directly below Wrangham's own household, perhaps signifying that the orphans were the children of a deceased brother or kinsman, placed in Wrangham's care while the formal headship of their estate continued to be recorded separately for the maintenance of the inheritance. The single white girl and the single slave girl in the orphan household were perhaps both being raised within the elder Wrangham's home, though counted separately for the purposes of the secretary's return.

The entry of Robert Greenwell's estate, with no whites and only a single black man recorded, showed the council's tracking of the working stock of a deceased planter's holding pending settlement of the estate. The single slave perhaps remained on the holding as caretaker until the inheritance had been formally distributed, the secretary preserving the record of the property for the heirs.

The final consolidated entry of officers and soldiers gathered the white garrison and their dependants under a single line, distinct from the named planter households. The 405 whites recorded under this head, with 77 men, 81 women, 113 boys and 134 girls, together with 302 blacks under the same head with 144 men, 55 women, 57 boys and 46 girls, represented the consolidated count of the Company's establishment beyond the named planter households. The presence of substantial numbers of women, boys and girls among the officers and soldiers showed that the garrison had grown into a settled population, with married soldiers raising families on the island rather than serving as a transient force.

The total slave count of 302 against the soldiers' establishment, exceeding the number of slaves recorded across the entire body of named planter households, indicated that the Company itself was the largest single holder of slaves on the island. The slaves were held to work the Company plantation, to labour at the fort and harbour, and to serve the officers and their households.

Speculations

The recording of Captain Witt with the rank distinguished in the entry, while the other names ran without rank or title beyond the marked offices of the council and the garrison, perhaps reflected the presence on the island of a ship's captain settled on a holding after retirement from sea service or while ashore for an extended residence. The Company permitted such retirements where the captain had earned the favour of the directors through faithful service, and the granting of a holding on the island was a recognised means of pensioning a long-serving master.

The high proportion of girls to boys among the officers and soldiers, at 134 girls against 113 boys, perhaps reflected the higher infant mortality among male children that ran through the period across the Atlantic world. The reverse pattern of more boys than girls in several of the named planter households on the earlier pages was perhaps a statistical accident of the smaller sample, while the larger garrison count of over four hundred persons gave a truer reflection of the underlying demographic pattern.

412

403

Column headers: Neat Cattle: Bull[...] / Cows / Bullocks / Heifers / [...] / Yearling[s] / Calves / Totall Land: [...] / [...] / Lease / Totall

Brought over (from previous page) Land: 1957[?]

Peter Sinsnick Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Eliz[a] Steward [...] Children Neat Cattle: 2 [...] 22 [...] 7 [...] 10 [...] [...] [...] 19 [...] 60 Land: 41 [...] 42 [...] 83

Susanna Swallow Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Land: [...] [...] [...] [...]

Godfrey Shoales Neat Cattle: [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] 6 Land: 15[...] [...] 16 [...] 31[...]

John Twaites Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 12 [...] [...] 2 [...] 2 [...] [...] 13 [...] 30 Land: 20 [...] 12 [...] 32

James Vesey Neat Cattle: [...] 2 [...] [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 2 [...] 5 Land: 40 [...] [...] [...] 40

C[?]ipan Wills Neat Cattle: [...] 12 [...] [...] 3 [...] 3 [...] [...] 11 [...] 29 Land: 63 [...] 11 [...] 76

Francis [...]anglaw[?] Neat Cattle: 1 [...] 4 [...] 1 [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] 5 [...] 12 Land: 10 [...] 2 [...] 12

[...]nghams Orphans Neat Cattle: [...] 1 [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 2 Land: 13[...] [...] 10 [...] 23[...]

Simon Moosley[?]

Bridgett Withers

Rob[t] Greenes Estate Neat Cattle: [...] [...] [...] 3 [...] [...] [...] 1 [...] 4

Totals: Neat Cattle: 33 [...] 371 [...] 67 [...] 142 [...] 17 [...] 12 [...] 322 [...] 964 Land: 2160[...] [...] 928[...] [...] 3089[...]

716[?]

The table again carried the two principal columns. Neat Cattle was subdivided into Bull, Cows, Bullocks, Heifers, Steers, Yearlings and Calves and Total. Land was subdivided into Acres Owned, Acres Leave and Total. The figures ran down opposite the names recorded on the previous page.

The running figure of 1,957 acres was entered against the head of the land column, carrying forward from the close of the previous page.

The return ran as follows:

Peter Sinsnick 1 calf, 1 total no land entered

Elizabeth Steward and children 2 bulls, 22 cows, 7 bullocks, 10 heifers, 19 calves, 60 total 41 acres owned, 42 acres leave, 83 acres total

Susanna Swallow no neat cattle entered no land entered

Godfrey Shoales no neat cattle entered no land entered

John Frater 3 cows, 3 calves, 6 total 15½ acres owned, 16 acres leave, 31½ acres total

James Vesey 1 bull, 12 cows, 2 bullocks, 2 steers, 13 calves, 30 total 20 acres owned, 12 acres leave, 32 acres total

Captain Witt 2 cows, 1 bullock, 2 calves, 5 total 40 acres owned, 40 acres total

Francis Wrangham 12 cows, 3 heifers, 3 steers, 11 calves, 29 total 63 acres owned, 11 acres leave, 76 acres total

Wrangham's orphans 1 bull, 4 cows, 1 bullock, 1 heifer, 5 calves, 12 total 10 acres owned, 2 acres leave, 12 acres total

Simon Worsley 1 cow, 1 calf, 2 total 13⅓ acres owned, 10 acres leave, 23⅓ acres total

Bridget Withers no neat cattle entered no land entered

Robert Greenwell's estate 3 bullocks, 1 calf, 4 total no land entered

The columns closed with the running grand totals of the entire return: 33 bulls, 371 cows, 67 bullocks, 142 heifers, 17 steers, 12 yearlings, 322 calves, 964 total head of neat cattle, with 2,160⅔ acres owned, 928¾ acres leave and 3,089½ acres total. A separate figure of 716 was entered at the foot of the land column, perhaps a subtotal carried from an earlier subdivision of the page.

Interpretations

The grand totals closed the return with a comprehensive count of the island's neat cattle and land in private hands at the close of the year 1714. The herd of 964 head, structured as 33 bulls, 371 cows, 67 bullocks, 142 heifers, 17 steers, 12 yearlings and 322 calves, represented the working stock of the island under planter ownership, separate from the cattle held on the Company plantation. The proportion of cows to total head, at over a third of the herd, indicated a population structured for active breeding, with the 322 calves providing the renewal of the working stock in succession.

The total land in private hands ran to 3,089½ acres, of which 2,160⅔ were held in freehold and 928¾ as acres of leave. The figures gave the Company a precise measure of the cultivated and grazed portion of the island, with the freehold standing as a settled body of granted patents and the leave acreage representing the active frontier of new occupation. The proportion of leave to freehold, at roughly four to nine, suggested that the planters were continuing to extend their working ground beyond the original patents but that the freehold remained the dominant form of tenure.

The substantial cattle holding of Elizabeth Steward and her children, at 60 head on 83 acres, set her among the principal commercial graziers of the island, comparable to Joshua Johnson, Jonathan Doveton and Margaret Sikes on the earlier pages. Her recording as the head of a household of six whites with eleven slaves and sixty head of cattle showed a planter widow maintaining a complete working establishment in her own name.

The orphans of Francis Wrangham appeared with twelve head of cattle on twelve acres, the secretary maintaining their interest as a distinct estate alongside the elder Wrangham's holding. The careful separation of the orphans' cattle from those of the guardian preserved the children's inheritance against any later confusion of stock between the two holdings.

Speculations

The standing of three hundred and seventy-one cows against thirty-three bulls in the closing totals gave a ratio of about eleven cows to each bull, perhaps reflecting the natural service capacity of a single bull running with a small herd of breeding cows on the steep island pasture. The figure was consistent with English cattle husbandry of the period, where a bull was expected to cover ten to fifteen cows in a season. The breeding structure suggested that the island planters had organised their herds on the recognised practical principles brought from England, adapted to the limited ground of the island.

The recording of the supplementary figure of 716 at the foot of the land column, set apart from the main grand total of 3,089½ acres, perhaps represented the subtotal of acres held under a particular tenure or by a particular subset of households, separated by the secretary for some administrative purpose not made explicit on the page. The figure was perhaps the count of acres reserved to the Company plantation, the public ground or some similar category not falling within the planter holdings proper, which the secretary had set against the planter total as a control or comparison.

413

404

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Thursday afternoon the last of March 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]no[r] Pres[ent] Geo: Haswell Dep[u]ty Matthew Bazett [...] Antipas Toovy

Word being brought to y[e] Gover[no]r [...] Council while they were in the Hall at Dinner togeather that Cap[t]e Edward Mashborne y[e] 3: in Council was Dead after about three weeks Sickness it is agreed to hold a Consultation to morrow on y[e] Hon[bl]e Companies affairs relateing to their Plantation [...] that Cap[t] Haswell do in the mean time goe up to the Plantation House [...] take some Reveralls Acco[t] of what order the Hon[ble] Companies Plantac[i]o[n] is in

[signatures]

Antipas Toovy

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Mashborne[s] Death

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Thursday afternoon, 31 March 1715, at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Word was brought to the governor and council, while they were at dinner together in the hall, that Captain Edward Mashborne, third in council, had died after a sickness of about three weeks. The council agreed to hold a consultation the following day on the Company's affairs relating to the plantation, and meanwhile directed Captain Haswell to go up to the plantation house and take some general account of the order in which the Company's plantation stood.

The minute was signed by Antipas Tovey.

A margin note recorded the matter as Captain Mashborne's death.

Interpretations

The death of Edward Mashborne removed the third member of the council, the officer ranking immediately below the governor and the deputy governor in the island's civil establishment. The vacancy created an immediate administrative problem, since the council was reduced to three serving members and the management of the Company plantation, which had stood under Mashborne's particular charge as the third in council, was left without its responsible officer. The decision to convene a fresh consultation the next day showed the council treating the matter as urgent, both because the plantation was the principal economic asset of the establishment and because the proper accounting of its stock, slaves and produce had to be secured before any opportunistic loss could occur during the change of hands.

The direction to Captain Haswell to proceed at once to the plantation house and take a general account of its order constituted a holding measure between the death and the formal succession. As deputy governor, Haswell stood next to Isaac Pyke in the civil hierarchy and was the appropriate officer to take temporary oversight of the Company's most valuable property. The visit to the plantation house was designed to fix the standing inventory of cattle, slaves, tools and growing crops at the moment of Mashborne's death, so that no subsequent diversion of stores or stock could be concealed behind the disruption of the change of management.

The convening of the consultation in the hall at dinner, with the formal business being interrupted by the news of the death, fixed the moment of decision precisely. The clerk recorded the interruption to give legal force to the resolutions that followed, since the council was treating the matter as one requiring immediate corporate action rather than waiting for the next regular consultation.

The reference to the Honourable Company's plantation as a discrete administrative entity, distinct from the planter holdings recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 just entered in the previous folios, marked the institutional separation between Company land and private land that ran through the island's affairs. The plantation accounted to the Company directly through the third in council, while the planter holdings paid quit-rents and rendered the labour and provisions due under their patents.

Speculations

The convening of the consultation on a Thursday afternoon rather than waiting for the next regular sitting day perhaps reflected the council's concern that the management of the plantation could not safely be left in the hands of the standing overseers or slave drivers for more than a single day without a senior officer's authority being interposed. The plantation stocks of livestock, sugar, arrack and provisions represented value that could be drawn off by interested parties during any interregnum, and the council acted to close that gap of opportunity before it had time to operate.

The fact that the news of Mashborne's death reached the council while they sat together at dinner, rather than being brought separately to each member, perhaps reflected the proximity of the plantation house to the United Castle and the speed with which household news travelled between the principal residences of the island. The death of so senior an officer would have been known to his household servants within minutes of the event, and the report would have reached the castle by the same path that brought the daily provisioning of the governor's table.

414

405

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Fryday the first of April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]no[r] Pres[ent] Geo: Haswell Dep[uty] Matthew Bazett [...] Antipas Toovy

Cap[t] Haswell being returned out of the Country makes the following report viz[t] At Plantation House he found the

Cows w[th] their Calves 24

Bullocks 2

Heifers 8

Leather

Sides 25

Hides 54

Goat Skins 16

Sows 9

Boars 2

Shoats [...] Piggs 51

Turkeys 30

Geese 10[?]

Ducks 13

Fowles 26

At Lufkins Plantation

Fowles 20

Chickens 16

Verte

Margin Notes:

Comp[anys] Stock

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Friday 1 April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

Captain Haswell, returning out of the country, made the following report. At the plantation house he found, as Company stock:

24 cows with their calves

2 bullocks

8 heifers

9 sows

2 boars

51 shoats and pigs

30 turkeys

10 geese

13 ducks

26 fowls

Leather:

25 sides

54 hides

16 goat skins

At Mr Lufkin's plantation he found:

20 fowls

16 chickens

The minute closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the matter ran on to the next folio.

Interpretations

Haswell's inspection covered three distinct categories of stock: the breeding and working cattle, the household and yard livestock, and the leather stores accumulated from earlier slaughter. The 24 cows with their calves and 8 heifers gave the plantation a substantial breeding base, while the 2 bullocks represented the working draught at the moment of inspection. The absence of bulls in the report, where the planter census of 21 March 1715 had recorded 33 bulls across the private holdings, perhaps reflected the practice of running the Company plantation's breeding cows with bulls drawn from neighbouring planter herds rather than maintaining the breeding males on the plantation itself.

The yard stock showed a productive pig operation, with 9 sows, 2 boars and 51 shoats and pigs, the last being the immature animals of the year. The Company plantation was thus running a sustained pork operation, supplying the homeward shipping with fresh pork and the salt house with the carcasses for curing. The poultry counted 30 turkeys, 10 geese, 13 ducks and 26 fowls, a comprehensive yard establishment supplying eggs, table birds and feathers to the governor's table and the Company stores.

The leather stocks comprised 25 sides, 54 hides and 16 goat skins. A side was a half hide, cut along the spine for ease of tanning, while a hide was the whole skin. The 54 hides together with the 25 sides represented the accumulated slaughter of perhaps 65 to 70 cattle over the preceding period, the skins being held in store for the island tannery and for the making of harness, shoes, breeches and the bindings of furniture and ship's gear. The 16 goat skins reflected the smaller but constant supply of goats slaughtered for meat, the skins being used for finer leatherwork and for the binding of books and small articles.

Mr Lufkin's plantation, the second holding inspected on the same circuit, returned only 20 fowls and 16 chickens. Stephen Lufkin had been recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 with a household of five whites and a single slave, holding 11 acres and 3 head of cattle. The very limited livestock at his plantation suggested that the small holding was visited as part of Haswell's circuit not because it held significant Company stock but because of a particular Company interest in the chickens kept there, perhaps under a contract for the supply of poultry to the Company stores. The inspection of Lufkin's plantation alongside the Company plantation house indicated a routine of survey running across both Company and contracted holdings.

The dispatch of Haswell on the day after Mashborne's death, with the inspection completed and reported within twenty-four hours, gave effect to the council's resolution of 31 March 1715. The speed of execution showed the practical importance the council attached to fixing the state of the Company plantation at the moment of the vacancy in the third councillor's place.

Speculations

The recording of fifty-one shoats and pigs as a single category, rather than separating the very young from the older immature animals, perhaps reflected the practical difficulty of distinguishing precise ages within a constantly turning yard of growing pigs. Haswell took the count at a glance from the yard rather than separating the animals by sex or age, and the consolidated figure stood as a good faith count for the purpose of fixing the standing inventory at the date of inspection.

The leather count of 25 sides and 54 hides perhaps represented the accumulated stock from several months of plantation slaughter, since the small population of the Company plantation could not have generated so many hides in a short period without depleting the breeding herd. The store was perhaps being held against a homeward shipment to London or against a particular requirement of the island artisans, with the timing of the inspection happening to find the leather house unusually well stocked.

415

406

At Perkins Plantation

Cows [...] 2 Calves 2

Heifers 4

Bullocks 2

Bull 1

Goats 143

Kidds 10

Fowls 15

Chickens 12

Ducks 4

Sows 6

Barrows 5

Shoates 14

Boar 1

Piggs 14

The Acco[t] from the Hutts Plantac[i]on viz[t]

In the Great Wood

Bulls 4

Bullocks 2

At y[e] Woody Ridge

Bulls 2

Bullocks 2

At y[e] Hutts

Sows 7

Boar 1

Barrows 10

Shoats 24

Piggs 17

Fowles 15

Chickens 7

[signatures]

Antipas Toovy

At Mr Perkins' plantation, the inspection found:

2 cows with 2 calves

4 heifers

2 bullocks

1 bull

143 goats

10 kids

16 fowls

12 chickens

4 ducks

6 sows

5 barrows

14 shoats

1 boar

14 pigs

The account from the Hutts plantation followed.

In the Great Wood:

4 bulls

2 bullocks

At the Woody Ridge:

2 bulls

2 bullocks

At the Hutts:

7 sows

1 boar

10 barrows

24 shoats

17 pigs

15 fowls

7 chickens

The report closed with the signature of Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The inspection at Mr Perkins' plantation showed a holding organised on different principles from the Company plantation house. The cattle stock was small at only 9 head, but the goat stock ran to 143 grown beasts with a further 10 kids, marking the holding as the principal goat operation of the Company establishment. Goats were valued at St Helena for their hardiness on the steep ground, their milk and their meat, which fed the slave population and supplied fresh provisions to the homeward shipping. The size of the goat herd at Perkins' plantation suggested that the holding had been dedicated by the Company to goat husbandry in particular, the cattle being kept only as a supplementary stock.

The pig operation at Perkins' plantation comprised 6 sows, 5 barrows, 1 boar, 14 shoats and 14 pigs, totalling 40 head. The distinction between barrows and other male pigs was significant. A barrow was a castrated male pig fattened for slaughter, while the entire boar was kept for breeding. The presence of five barrows alongside a single breeding boar indicated active fattening of male pigs for the table, with the boar held to service the sows. The structure of the pig herd showed the standard English practice of separating breeding and fattening stock, adapted to the conditions of the island.

The Hutts plantation, the third holding on Haswell's circuit, was organised across three distinct locations. The Great Wood held 4 bulls and 2 bullocks; the Woody Ridge held 2 bulls and 2 bullocks; and the Hutts proper held the pig operation and the poultry. The dispersal of the cattle across the two wooded sites suggested that the Company plantation used the upper wooded ground for the running of breeding bulls and working bullocks at distance from the lowland breeding herds. The cattle held there represented the strategic reserve of male breeding stock for the Company plantation, kept apart from the main cow herd at the plantation house.

The combined breeding stock of the Hutts plantation amounted to 6 bulls between the two wooded sites and the bullocks gave 4 working draught beasts at the upper ground. The pig operation at the Hutts itself, with 7 sows, 1 boar, 10 barrows, 24 shoats and 17 pigs to a total of 59 head, ran on a slightly larger scale than that at Perkins' plantation. The combined Company pig operation across all three plantations - the plantation house, Perkins' plantation and the Hutts - thus ran to over 150 pigs at various ages, a substantial commercial pork operation for the supply of the establishment and the shipping.

The signature of Antipas Tovey closed the inspection report. As the junior councillor present, Tovey signed for the accuracy of the count, the responsibility of the formal record falling on the junior officer in conformity with standard council practice.

Speculations

The placing of four bulls in the Great Wood and a further two on the Woody Ridge perhaps reflected a deliberate separation of breeding lines, with each wooded site running a distinct group of bulls to serve different parts of the cow herd as they were brought up from the plantation house. The arrangement allowed the plantation manager to control the breeding of the herd by directing particular cows to particular bulls in succession, preventing inbreeding and maintaining the quality of the calf crop.

The substantial goat stock of 143 head at Perkins' plantation perhaps represented the Company's principal source of milk and cheese for the establishment, since the cow herd at the plantation house, at only 24 head with their calves, could not have supplied the daily milk requirements of the governor's household, the slave quarters and the shipping without exhausting itself. The goats, requiring less ground and producing more milk per acre of poor pasture, made up the deficiency in dairy supply and freed the cow herd for beef and breeding purposes.

416

407

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 5[th] of April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[o]r Geo: Haswell Dep[uty] Pres[ent] Matt[hew] Bazett [...] Antipas Toovey

Whereas Our Hon[ble] Mast[er]s have in their Letter by the Rochester ordered that an[...] Acco[t] be given them what time may reasona- bl[y] be required to dispatch a Ship from hence that comes outward bound to [...] Stores according to our best observations in the Experience we have hitherto had We think that a Ship that arrives here about Christmass bringing ab[o]t 200 Tuns of goods to be delivered cannot possibly be Dispatched in less then a Month because of the very great Surfes that usually happens about that time of the Year We are informed that the latter end of March and beginning of April is also a time when abundance of high Seas do usually happen [...] we are the more confirmed in such an Opinion because the Hon[ble] Companies Long boat[s]

Margin Notes:

Time of dispatch[...]ing outward bo[...] Ships

[...] of over [...] reasons

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Tuesday 5 April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

The honourable masters had ordered, in their letter by the Rochester, that an account be given them of what time might reasonably be required to dispatch a ship arriving outward bound to take in Company stores. From the council's best observations and the experience hitherto had, the council judged that a ship arriving about Christmas, bringing about two hundred tons of goods to be delivered, could not possibly be dispatched in less than a month. The reason was the very great surfs that usually happened about that time of year. The council was also informed that the latter end of March and the beginning of April was another time when an abundance of high seas usually happened. The council was the more confirmed in such an opinion because the honourable Company's longboat

A margin note recorded the matter as the time of dispatching outward bound ships, with a further marginal entry of the reasons for the opinion.

Interpretations

The minute opened the council's response to a specific direction from the Court of Directors received by the ship Rochester. The directors required an estimate of the time needed to discharge an outward-bound ship's cargo at the island, the question being part of the Company's broader effort to plan the turnaround of its fleet between the outward run from London and the onward leg to India or the homeward leg from India and Canton. The accurate estimation of discharge time at St Helena affected the planning of voyages by the entire Company shipping, since delays at the island lengthened the outward turn and reduced the productive sailing time of each ship.

The figure of two hundred tons of goods as the typical Company consignment to the island gave a measure of the scale of the supply trade with the island. The carriage of 200 tons by longboat from a ship lying in the open road to the landing place at James Valley, against the surf and swell of the open Atlantic, was a slow and labour-intensive operation. The whole was conducted from the Company's longboat working between the ship and the shore, with the cargo broken out from the hold by the ship's crew, lowered into the boat, rowed to the landing place and carried up to the stores by the slaves and labourers of the establishment.

The identification of two distinct seasons of heavy weather, around Christmas and at the end of March and beginning of April, framed the discharge problem in terms of the island's recognised wind and sea patterns. The southern winter brought heavier surf to the leeward roadstead at James Valley, where the shoreline of the western coast lay exposed to swells generated by storms in the southern Atlantic. The council was setting out the practical obstacles to fast discharge in terms the directors could understand, since the limitation came from the natural conditions of the road rather than from any want of diligence by the establishment.

The use of the Rochester to carry the directors' letter to the island connected the present consultation to the standing pattern of Company shipping between London and St Helena. The ship had carried both the instructions and the goods that would be received under those instructions, the council acting on the directives within weeks of the ship's arrival.

Speculations

The careful distinction made by the council between the two seasons of high seas, one around Christmas and one at the end of March, perhaps reflected an attempt to give the directors a more refined picture of the discharge problem than a simple statement that the work took a month. The council was framing the matter so that the directors could understand the practical effect on shipping arriving at different points in the southern year, and could plan voyages to arrive in the calmer intervals between the heavy seasons. The detail showed the council functioning as a source of operational intelligence to the directors, supplementing the directives received with practical advice grounded in island experience.

The Company's longboat appeared at the close of the visible portion as the principal instrument of the discharge operation. The reliance on a single boat for the discharge of two hundred tons of goods perhaps reflected the limited capacity of the establishment to support discharge work, with no separate lighter or barge available for the purpose. The longboat was the working vessel of the Company at the island, used for landing stores, taking off provisions for the homeward shipping and serving as the principal means of communication between the ship and the shore.

417

408

boat that brought Cutt Stone from Sandy Bay w[ch] is at the Windermost part of the Island has been laden these nine days is still loaden at a Grapling in this Road, but the surfe is so high [...] violent that we dare not attempt to unload her, neither with these Seas is it possible that any boat with safety can come to the Crane to be unlivered.

We are inform[d] also that in the month of July tis Tempestuous weather [...] a Ship can[t] be delivered so soon in that month as in others, wherefore we think that if a Ship should arrive from England in any of these seasons that twill be impossible to unliver her in ten working days.

The Govern[r] proposing that some fitt person be appointed to oversee [...] take care of the Plantation House [...] Plantations, cattle [...] belonging to the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] Recommends M[r] W[m] Worrall who has always been Employed in the Compa[ny] Service as a man of good Skill [...] ability in these affairs [...] the fittest person he knows of to undertake that trust tis,

Ordered

That M[r] Bazett [...] M[r] Tovey do goe [...] take an Acco[t] of the Household Goods [...] the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] Stock of Provisions [...] Cattle [...] at all their Plantations [...]

Ordered

That the Govern[r] put said W[m] Worrall

Margin Notes:

July Tempestio[us]

W[m] Worrall ap- point[ed] Overseer

The Company's longboat, which had brought cut stone from Sandy Bay (which lay at the windwardmost part of the island), had been loading these nine days and was still loading at a grappling in the road. The surf was so high and violent that the council dared not attempt to unload her, neither could any boat with safety come to the crane to be unlivered with these seas running.

The council was also informed that in the month of July the weather was tempestuous, and a ship could not be delivered as soon in that month as in others. The council therefore judged that if a ship should arrive from England in any of these seasons, it would be impossible to unliver her in ten working days.

The governor proposed that some fit person be appointed to oversee and take care of the plantation house, plantations, cattle and other property belonging to the honourable Company. He recommended Mr William Worrall, who had always been employed in the Company's service, was a man of good skill and ability in these affairs, and was the fittest person he knew to undertake that trust.

The council then made two orders. First, that Mr Bazett and Mr Tovey should go and take an account of the household goods and the honourable Company's stock of provisions, cattle and other property at all the plantations. Second, that the governor should put the said William Worrall

Margin notes recorded the matter as July tempestuous and the appointment of William Worrall as overseer.

Interpretations

The reference to cut stone brought from Sandy Bay established a specific operation that the longboat had been conducting at the time of the inspection. Sandy Bay lay at the south-eastern coast of the island, the windwardmost point and the side most exposed to the prevailing south-east trade winds. The carriage of stone from Sandy Bay to James Valley by sea required the longboat to work around the windward end of the island and back along the leeward coast, a passage that was always difficult and impossible in heavy weather. The cut stone was perhaps intended for some Company building project at the fort, the castle or the new plantation house, since the island had no quarry near the principal settlement.

The technical terms used by the council carried specific meanings within the operation of the road. A grappling was a small mooring anchor used to hold a boat in position close to the landing place while goods were transferred. The crane referred to the lifting apparatus at the wharf or landing, used to raise goods from the boat to the shore against the swell. The verb to unliver meant to discharge cargo from a boat or ship, the equivalent of unloading. The terms together described a specific working procedure at the James Valley landing, where boats were held by grapplings close to the crane and goods were lifted ashore.

The extension of the problem of heavy seas to a third season, July, brought the council to the position that ships arriving in any of three distinct periods of the year could not be discharged in ten working days. The figure of ten working days perhaps reflected a benchmark proposed by the directors in their letter by the Rochester against which the council was being asked to measure the island's performance. The council's response showed that for at least three months of the year, the benchmark could not be met regardless of the diligence of the establishment.

The proposal to appoint William Worrall as overseer of the plantation house and Company plantations responded directly to the vacancy created by Edward Mashborne's death of 31 March 1715. The third councillor had carried particular responsibility for the plantation, and his death required either the elevation of another councillor to that charge or the appointment of a separate overseer below the council. Worrall had appeared in the census return of 21 March 1715 as gunner's mate, with a household of two whites and two slaves, and again as serjeant John Worrall in a separate household. The William Worrall now appointed perhaps was the same gunner's mate, the Company drawing on a man of recognised technical skill rather than from the planter class.

The order that Bazett and Tovey should go and take an account of the household goods and Company stock at all the plantations extended the inventory work begun by Haswell at the plantation house on 1 April 1715. The council was now sending its two junior members to complete the survey across all the Company holdings, including Perkins' plantation and the Hutts already visited by Haswell, but with a closer focus on household goods as well as livestock. The division of responsibility separated the elevation of Worrall to the overseer's office from the formal verification of the stock he would be taking charge of, ensuring that the inventory rested on the work of councillors other than the new overseer.

Speculations

The selection of William Worrall over any planter or councillor for the overseer's post perhaps reflected the Company's preference for placing technical and managerial employees in direct charge of its property rather than relying on the elected or appointed planter class. Worrall, having always been employed in the Company's service, owed his livelihood and loyalty directly to the Company and could be expected to manage the plantation in the Company's interest without the divided loyalties of a man who held his own land and stock alongside the Company holdings. The arrangement preserved a separation between the management of Company property and the interests of the planter class.

The use of the verb unliver in this minute, where the normal verb at the period was unlade or discharge, perhaps reflected a specifically maritime usage that had survived in the working vocabulary of the Company servants at the island. The term came down from older English shipping practice, where livery was the discharge of cargo from a vessel, and had been retained in the formal proceedings of the island council where in London it had given way to other forms. The persistence of the term marked the conservatism of the island's administrative vocabulary.

418

409

Worrall Overseer of the Plantations as aforesaid untill the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] shall send or appoint one for the said trust [...] that as soon as We shall see his behaviour in the said charge we appoint him his Sallary.

Sam[l]l Jessey having behaved himself very well[...] since our Arrivall here it is also.

Ordered

That he be Continued to oversee the Hutts Plantation [...] Cattle [...] that goe on that side the Country [...] give in Acco[t]s thereof as formerly, to W[m] Worrall.

Ordered

That an Advertizement be Publisht that the Garrison do come [...] reckon in the Stores within ten Days from the Date hereof.

Ordered

That M[r]s Mary Mashborne Widow [...] Relict of Cap[t] Edward Mashborne Dec[d] be allowed to continue at the Plantation House till she can provide her self with a convenient habitation or place to dwell at,

[signatures]

Antipas Toovy

Margin Notes:

Sam[l] Jessey [...] at Hutts

Sold[i]ers to Reckon

M[rs] Mashborne to Continue at Plant[atio]n House

The minute continued. William Worrall was to be put as overseer of the plantations until the honourable Company should send or appoint someone for the said trust. As soon as the council should see his behaviour in the said charge, his salary would be appointed.

Samuel Pessey, having behaved himself very well since the council's arrival on the island, gave the council ground for a further order. It was ordered that he be continued to oversee the Hutts plantation and cattle, and the other property that ran on that side of the country, and that he give in an account thereof, as formerly, to William Worrall.

The council further ordered that an advertisement be published requiring the garrison to come and reckon at the stores within ten days of the date of this order.

The council also ordered that Mrs Mary Mashborne, widow and relict of Captain Edward Mashborne deceased, be allowed to continue at the plantation house until she could provide herself with a convenient habitation or place to dwell at.

Margin notes recorded the matter as Samuel Pessey continued at the Hutts, soldiers to reckon, and Mrs Mashborne to continue at the plantation house.

The minute was signed by Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The arrangement under which Worrall received the office of overseer without an immediate fixed salary, the salary to be appointed after the council had observed his behaviour in the charge, established a probationary period during which the new overseer would be tested in the role before any formal terms of remuneration were settled. The practice protected the Company against being committed to a salary scale before the suitability of the man had been demonstrated, while giving Worrall the incentive to perform well in the expectation that a generous appointment would follow. The provisional structure of the appointment also reflected the council's awareness that the honourable Company in London might wish to send or appoint its own choice for the post in due course, in which case Worrall would step aside without any settled claim on the Company's funds.

The continuation of Samuel Pessey at the Hutts plantation preserved the existing management of that portion of the Company's holdings while bringing it under the new overall supervision of Worrall. Pessey had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 as the head of a household of seven whites and three slaves, but with no land or cattle entered against his name. His position as the working overseer of the Hutts plantation explained the absence of land in his own name and his recording of a substantial slave establishment without a corresponding acreage: he held no land but managed the Company's stock at the Hutts in return for his living. The council's reference to his good behaviour since their arrival fixed the time of his service to the present administration, indicating that he had been the overseer there throughout Pyke's tenure.

The instruction that Pessey should give in his accounts to William Worrall, as formerly, established the chain of reporting between the two officers. Worrall stood as overall overseer of the Company's plantations; Pessey continued as working overseer of the Hutts under Worrall's authority. The structure created a two-tier management of the Company's plantation property, with the Company holdings sufficiently extensive to require a senior overseer above the working manager of each holding.

The order requiring the garrison to come and reckon at the stores within ten days addressed the regular settlement of accounts between the Company stores and the individual soldiers and officers of the garrison. Each member of the garrison drew clothing, provisions and small stores from the Company stores against his wages, with the value of the goods drawn being set off against the wages payable at the periodic reckoning. The order set a deadline of ten days for the present reckoning, perhaps because the new administration of the plantation under Worrall required a clean closing of the existing accounts before the new books were opened.

The order permitting Mary Mashborne to remain at the plantation house addressed the immediate housing problem created by her husband's death. As the wife of the third councillor, she had occupied the plantation house with him in his official capacity; with his death, the house became available for the new overseer and for the use of the Company. The council recognised that turning a widow out of her late husband's house in the immediate aftermath of his death would be both harsh and impractical, and gave her until she could find a suitable alternative residence. The accommodation was a courtesy of the council rather than a formal entitlement, with the qualification convenient habitation or place to dwell at giving the council the power to determine when she should remove if the matter dragged on.

Speculations

The decision to publish an advertisement requiring the garrison to reckon at the stores within ten days perhaps reflected a concern that some members of the garrison had been allowed to run up substantial debts at the stores without timely settlement during the period of Mashborne's illness and death. The third councillor had stood as the officer with particular responsibility for the stores accounts as part of his charge of the plantation, and his prolonged sickness over the three weeks preceding his death of 31 March 1715 may have allowed the reckoning to fall behind. The new administration under Worrall could not properly take over until the existing accounts had been brought to a head.

The contingent salary arrangement for Worrall perhaps reflected a deeper uncertainty in the council about the proper scale of remuneration for the new office. The post of overseer of the plantations had not been a separately salaried position before, since Mashborne had held it as part of his charge as third councillor and had drawn his salary in that capacity. By creating Worrall as a separate overseer without the councillor's rank or salary, the council was establishing a new office whose appropriate remuneration would have to be worked out by reference to the value of the trust and the labour required. The decision to defer the figure until performance had been observed gave the council a flexible basis on which to settle the salary later, neither pinning down too low a rate that would discourage Worrall nor committing to too high a rate without proof of his worth.

419

410

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 14[th] of April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[o]r Pres[ent] George Haswell Dep[ut]y Matthew Bazett [...] Antipas Tovey

This being the first Day the Surfe abated the Long boat was Dispatched again for Sandy Bay [...] the Govern[r] mentio[n]d it that it might appear what great Seas we have sometimes but Especially at this time of Year, for now the great Seas have held Nineteen Days [...] the Long boat was unloaden with much difficulty by smaller boats.

Whereas Sam[l] Price demands fifteen Shillings p[er] week [...] his diet by Vertue of a contract lately made with Cap[t]e Mashborne [...] we haveing found amongst Cap[t]e Mashborne[s] Papers this foll[owing] Mem[o]

Mem[o] The agreem[en]t w[i]th Price [...] Shillings [...] Six Pence p[er] Day [...] dyet to learn two boys to make Shoes [...] Tann Leather

Agreed that said Price be continued for this Present quarter [...] that the Gov[r] be desired to observe his work weather he Deserves that Pay.

M[r] Bazett [...] Tovey haveing been at

Margin Notes:

Surfe abated. how long Continued.

Sam[l] Price Demand.

agreem[t] w[t]h him

his work to be viewed.

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Tuesday 12 April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

This being the first day the surf abated, the longboat was dispatched again for Sandy Bay. The governor mentioned this so that it might appear what great seas were sometimes experienced at the island, but especially at this time of year, since the great seas had now held nineteen days. The longboat had been unloaded with much difficulty by smaller boats.

Samuel Price had demanded fifteen shillings the week and his diet, by virtue of a contract lately made with Captain Mashborne. On going through Captain Mashborne's papers, the council had found the following memorandum.

The memorandum recorded the agreement with Price as two shillings and sixpence the day and his diet, to teach two boys to make shoes and tan leather.

The council agreed that Price be continued for the present quarter, and that the governor be desired to observe his work and to consider whether he deserved that pay.

Mr Bazett and Mr Tovey having been at

Margin notes recorded the matter as the surf abated and how long continued, Samuel Price's demand, the agreement with him, and his work to be viewed.

Interpretations

The dispatch of the longboat to Sandy Bay on the first day the surf abated showed the resumption of the stone-carrying operation interrupted by the prolonged heavy weather noted in the consultation of 5 April 1715. The nineteen days of high seas, running from late March through to the second week of April, confirmed the council's earlier observation about the season of high seas at the end of March and the beginning of April. The minute thus closed the loop on the operational difficulty described in the earlier consultation, with the longboat returning to its work as soon as conditions permitted. The reference to smaller boats unloading the longboat with difficulty indicated that even when the surf abated at the landing, the discharge of the longboat itself required smaller craft to take the stone ashore through the residual swell.

The dispute between Samuel Price and the council over the terms of his employment raised an issue created by the death of Edward Mashborne of 31 March 1715. Price claimed an oral agreement with the deceased councillor for fifteen shillings the week and his diet, while the surviving memorandum among Mashborne's papers recorded an agreement for two shillings and sixpence the day and his diet. The two figures were broadly equivalent, since two and sixpence over six working days came to fifteen shillings the week, but the form of the agreement differed. Price's claim by the week implied entitlement regardless of working days, while the memorandum by the day implied payment only for days worked. The council found in the deceased's papers the written agreement and treated it as governing the relationship.

The substance of Price's employment was to teach two boys to make shoes and tan leather. The arrangement was thus an apprenticeship of two slave or white boys under a master craftsman, with the Company supplying the apprentices and Price supplying the skill. The recovery of the trade of shoemaking and leather tanning on the island was important to the Company because the hides accumulated in the leather store at the plantation house, recorded by Haswell on 1 April 1715 at 25 sides, 54 hides and 16 goat skins, would otherwise have to be shipped to England for tanning or sold off at low value. The training of island boys in the trade would convert the raw hides into finished shoes for the use of the establishment.

The decision to continue Price for the present quarter while the governor observed his work showed the council applying the same probationary principle that had been adopted for William Worrall on 5 April 1715. The governor was to assess whether Price's actual performance justified the terms of his agreement, and the question of his continued employment would be settled at the end of the quarter based on observation rather than on Price's own claims about his value.

Speculations

The discrepancy between Price's weekly demand of fifteen shillings and the memorandum's daily rate of two shillings and sixpence perhaps reflected an attempt by Price to convert the daily agreement into a weekly one in his own favour. Under the daily agreement, days lost to surf or to other interruptions would not be paid; under the weekly agreement claimed by Price, he would receive the same payment whether he worked five days or six in the week. The recent nineteen days of heavy weather, during which much of the establishment's outdoor work would have been suspended, perhaps had given Price the practical motive to recast the agreement in terms that would secure his wages against further weather interruptions. The council's preservation of the daily basis through the recovered memorandum protected the Company's interest against this informal upgrading of the terms.

The training of two boys to make shoes and tan leather perhaps formed part of a wider Company strategy to reduce dependence on imported manufactured goods by developing skilled trades on the island. The accumulated leather stocks at the plantation house gave the raw material; the training of boys at the establishment of an experienced tradesman gave the labour; and the finished shoes and leatherwork would replace items previously imported from England. The investment in Price's salary over a quarter was the seed cost of establishing a local trade that would yield long-term savings to the Company. Whether the two boys were slaves of the Company or sons of the planter class would have determined the long-term effect, since slave apprentices would remain Company labour while planter apprentices would establish independent tradesmen on the island.

420

411

at Plantation House [...] gave in the following Acco[t]s viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena. An Inventory of the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] moveable Goods at the Plantation House [...] of the Provisions [...] Live Stock there [...] at their other Plantations on this Island as foll[ows] (Viz[t])

At the new [...] Old Plantation House [...] Lufkins,

Pewter

Gallon Pott 1

quart Pott 1

Large [...] small Dishes 13

Old [...] new Plates 45

Chamber Potts 2

Bedd Pann 1

Basons 3

Wooden Ware

Deals 56

Deal box 1

D[o] round Table 1

D[o] square 4

wainscott ovall D[o] 3

Cricketts 2

Rowling Pin 1

Carpenters Bench 1

Tray 1

Old Cheese Press 1

p[ai]r of Yoakes 1

Upholstery Ware

Bedd stead 1

Smaller D[o] 1

Small Cott 1

Clasp Ditto 1

Feather bed[...] 1

Feather bolster 1

Wooll Ditto 1

Old Chairs 2

Old [...] new Cane Ditto 31

Verte

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Goods. at [...]

Plant[atio]n house

Wooden Ware

Upholstery Ware

Mr Bazett and Mr Tovey, having been at the plantation house and the other Company properties, gave in the following account.

Island St Helena. An inventory of the honourable Company's moveable goods at the plantation house, of the provisions and live stock there, and at their other plantations on the island, as follows.

At the new and old plantation house and Lufkins:

Pewter:

1 gallon pot

1 quart pot

13 large and small dishes

45 old and new plates

2 chamber pots

1 bed pan

3 basons

Wooden Ware:

56 deals

1 deal box

1 deal round table

4 deal square tables

3 wainscot oval ditto

2 cricketts

1 rowling pin

1 carpenter's bench

1 tray

1 old cheese press

1 pair of yoakes

Upholstery Ware:

1 bedstead

1 smaller ditto

1 small cott

1 clasp ditto

1 feather bed

1 feather bolster

1 woollen ditto

3 old chairs

31 old and new cane ditto

Margin notes recorded the matter as Honourable Company's goods at, with subordinate notations of Pewter, Plantation House, Wooden Ware and Upholstery Ware. The minute closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the inventory ran on to the next folio.

Interpretations

The inventory taken by Bazett and Tovey gave effect to the order of 5 April 1715 requiring those two councillors to take an account of the household goods and Company stock at all the plantations. The combined heading of the new and old plantation house and Lufkins fixed the scope of the present inventory as covering three distinct holdings together, with the household goods listed in this and the following folios apparently distributed across all three. The new plantation house was the principal Company residence on the island, lately constructed for the third councillor and now in the hands of the widow Mary Mashborne by the order of the same consultation. The old plantation house was the earlier Company residence, now perhaps used as a subsidiary building or for the housing of overseers. Lufkins was the plantation of Stephen Lufkin, the small holding visited by Haswell on 1 April 1715 and producing 20 fowls and 16 chickens, suggesting that the Company maintained some goods at Lufkin's place under a contractual arrangement.

The pewter ware listed gave the standard ground for a substantial household, with the gallon and quart pots used for ale and beer at table, the dishes and plates for the service of meat, the chamber pots for personal use, the bed pan for the warming of the beds, and the basons for hand washing and shaving. The 13 dishes and 45 plates indicated a table capable of serving fifteen to twenty persons at a single sitting, consistent with the entertainment of councillors, ships' captains and visiting officers at the plantation house. Pewter was the standard tableware of the period, an alloy of tin with smaller amounts of copper, antimony or lead, valued for its durability, its appearance when polished and its capacity to be re-cast when damaged.

Wooden ware covered the working furniture and utensils of the kitchen and household. Deals were sawn planks of soft wood, typically pine or fir, imported from northern Europe to England and onward to the island. The 56 deals listed were perhaps stocked timber rather than finished furniture, held for the building and repair of the plantation buildings. Cricketts were low wooden stools for sitting at low tables or by the fire. The carpenter's bench, rolling pin, tray and cheese press together indicated active dairy and bakery operations at the plantation. The pair of yoakes were the wooden frames placed over the necks of oxen for harness work, paired in the standard arrangement for ploughing or carting.

Upholstery ware covered the bedding and seating. The feather bed and feather bolster were the principal items of bedding, the bolster being a long pillow running across the head of the bed. The woollen bolster was a less luxurious alternative for a secondary bed. The cott and clasp cott were lighter beds, perhaps cots or trundle beds for servants or apprentices. The 31 old and new cane chairs were the standard seating of the period, made with woven cane seats over wooden frames, light and well suited to a warm climate. The substantial number indicated that the plantation house could seat a large company on formal occasions.

Speculations

The combined inventory of three holdings under a single heading perhaps reflected a deliberate choice by Bazett and Tovey to avoid the duplication of categories that would have arisen from listing each holding separately. The pewter, wooden ware and upholstery ware listed here were portable items that might be moved between the three properties according to need, and consolidating the count gave a true picture of the total Company stock without artificially fixing each item to a particular location. The inventory thus functioned as a control account of moveable goods rather than as a register of property at each specific holding.

The presence of 31 old and new cane chairs in the upholstery ware perhaps reflected the cumulative purchase of cane furniture over several voyages, with new chairs added to replace those broken or worn out without the old being discarded. Cane chairs were produced in considerable numbers in the East Indies and were a standard return cargo in the homeward trade. The Company supplied its principal establishment on the island with this furniture as it arrived, building up a stock that could service both the plantation house and the entertainment of visitors from the homeward shipping.

421

412

Ironmongery [...] Cattlary ware

p[ai]r Iron Doggs w[i]th brass heads 1

Handvice 1

Grid Irons 4

Frying Panns 4

Flesh Forks 2

Pair Tongs 1

Punch Iron 1

Spitts 2

Pitch Ladle 1

Old Mall 1

Grind Stone 1

p[ai]r of Stillyards [...] Pea w[eigh]t 4 2 8 1

Jack [...] weight 1

paire of Racks 1

Iron meat Pott 1

Yam Potts 3

Box Irons 5

Heaters 8

Sythes 2

Gardners Shears 2

D[o] Spades 9

D[o] Rakes 2

Hoes 31

Pitch Forks 4

Fire Shovell 1

Butchers Steal 1

Cleavers 2

Saw 1

Pick Axes 8

Shovell 1

Axes 3

Mattocks 3

Hammer 1

Iron Ratt Trap 1

Verte

Margin Notes:

Ironmongery [...] Cattlary ware

The inventory continued under the heading Ironmongery and Cutlery Ware:

1 pair iron dogs with brass heads

1 hand vice

4 grid irons

4 frying pans

2 flesh forks

1 pair tongs

1 punch iron

2 spitts

1 pitch ladle

1 old mall

1 grindstone

1 pair stillyards and pea, weighing 4 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 pounds

1 jack and weight

1 pair of racks

1 iron meat pot

3 yam pots

5 box irons

8 heaters

2 scythes

2 gardener's shears

9 ditto spades

2 ditto rakes

31 hoes

4 pitch forks

1 fire shovel

1 butcher's steel

2 cleavers

1 saw

8 pick axes

1 shovel

3 axes

3 mattocks

1 hammer

1 iron rat trap

The minute closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the inventory ran on to the next folio.

Interpretations

The ironmongery and cutlery ware listed here covered three distinct functional groups: the fireplace and kitchen apparatus, the precision and measurement tools, and the field implements for the plantation labour.

The fireplace group comprised the iron dogs with brass heads, which were the firedogs supporting logs at the open hearth with decorative brass tops, the grid irons for cooking meat over the fire, the pair of racks for hanging joints before the fire, the spits for roasting on a turning rod, the pitch ladle for handling hot pitch, the flesh forks for lifting cooked meat from the pot, the iron meat pot for boiling, the yam pots for the cooking of the staple yam crop, the box irons and their heaters for pressing linen, the fire shovel and tongs for tending the fire, and the jack and weight for the mechanical turning of the spit by a falling weight. The arrangement showed a fully equipped kitchen and chimney, with hot work pursued at scale to feed the household and its visitors.

The precision and measurement tools were marked by the pair of stillyards and pea, weighing 4 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 pounds. A steelyard or stillyard was a balance with unequal arms, where the goods to be weighed hung from the short arm and a single sliding counterweight, the pea, ran along the calibrated longer arm to give the balance. The weighing capacity of 4 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 pounds, or approximately 512 pounds, indicated that the instrument was designed for weighing heavy goods such as sacks of grain, casks of provisions or carcasses of beef. The instrument was probably the principal weighing apparatus of the plantation, used to verify the weights of stores delivered and consumed. The hand vice was for fine metalwork on small objects, the grindstone for sharpening tools, the butcher's steel for honing knives and the hand mall for driving stakes or wedges. The presence of a saw and hammer pointed to general carpentry capacity.

The field implements comprised 31 hoes, 9 spades, 2 rakes, 4 pitch forks, 8 pick axes, 3 axes, 3 mattocks, 2 scythes and 2 gardener's shears. The 31 hoes formed the largest single category and reflected the principal labour tool of the slave population, used for the cultivation of yam, potato, plantain and other staple ground crops. A mattock was a heavy hand tool with a broad blade on one side of the head and a pick or adze on the other, used for breaking new ground and grubbing up roots. The 8 pick axes were the specialised tools for cutting into stone or hardened ground. The 2 scythes were the long-handled cutting tools for hay and standing grain.

The single iron rat trap stood at the close of the list as a small but important item, since rats were a constant threat to provisions and to the standing crops of the plantation. The presence of even a single trap among the inventory indicated the active pursuit of vermin control on the Company's holdings.

Speculations

The 31 hoes against only 9 spades perhaps reflected the principal method of cultivation employed on the Company plantation. The hoe was the standard tool for the working of ground crops in tropical and warm-climate plantations, used to break the surface, weed between rows and earth up the growing plants. The spade, by contrast, was the deeper-digging tool of European cultivation, used for trenching, the working of heavier soils and the preparation of new ground. The ratio of hoes to spades on the inventory suggested that the Company plantation followed the working method of the slave plantations of the Atlantic world, with the hoe as the principal implement and the spade reserved for specialised tasks.

The recording of the precise weight of the stillyards and pea, at 4 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 pounds, perhaps reflected the standard practice by which a balance was identified not only by its name but by the weight of its own components. The figure given was the weight of the apparatus itself, included in the inventory because the iron of the stillyards represented a substantial metal asset that could be recovered or re-cast if the instrument were ever to be broken up. The plantation house held an investment in iron not only in its working tools but in the very apparatus by which other goods were measured.

422

413

Ironmongery [...] Cuttlary ware continued

p[ai]r brass Scales 1

Pruneing knives 6

Case knives 8

Forks 10

Sett of Shoemakers tooles 1

Shaveing knives 2

Coopers, Tinn, Turnery [...] Brasiers ware

Milk Skimmers 3

Warming Pan (y[e] Handle broke) 1

House Bell 1

Large Tea Kettle 1

Old Lanthorn 1

Large Hair Sive 1

Tin Flower box 1

Brass Lamp 1

Tinn Dripping Pans 2

Brass Stew Pan [...] Cover 1

Ditto kettles w[i]th Covers 2

D[o] Skimmer 1

D[o] Ladle 1

Old Tinn Patty Pans 8

Copper fish Kettle 1

Tin Cullender 1

Large Copper Sauce Pans 4

Tin watering Potts 3

Brass Kettles old [...] 1: w[i]t a hole in it 3

Large Copper Stell w[i]th head 1

Small Still 1

Tubbs Large [...] small 7

Piggins 3

Pailes 4

Churns 2

Milk Tubbs 12

D[o] Troughs Leaded 4

Brass Candlesticks 4

Verte

Margin Notes:

Ironmongery [...] Cuttlary ware continued

Coopers, Tinn, Turnery [...] Brasiers ware

The inventory continued under the heading Ironmongery and Cutlery Ware continued:

1 pair brass scales

6 pruning knives

8 case knives

10 forks

1 set of shoemaker's tools

2 shaving knives

Under the heading Cooper's, Tinker's, Turnery and Brazier's Ware:

3 milk skimmers

1 warming pan (the handle broke)

1 house bell

1 large tea kettle

1 old lanthorn

1 large hair sieve

1 tin flower box

1 brass lamp

2 tin dripping pans

1 brass stew pan and cover

2 brass kettles with covers

1 brass skimmer

1 brass ladle

8 old tin patty pans

1 copper fish kettle

1 tin cullender

4 large copper sauce pans

3 tin watering pots

3 brass kettles, old, and one with a hole in it

1 large copper still with head

1 small still

7 tubbs large and small

3 piggins

4 pales

2 churns

12 milk tubbs

4 milk troughs leaded

4 brass candlesticks

The minute closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the inventory ran on to the next folio.

Interpretations

The continued cutlery ware listed pruning knives, case knives, forks and shaving knives, all small bladed implements used in the household or in light field work. Pruning knives served the cultivation of the orchards and the garden vines on the plantation, the careful trimming of fruit trees and grape vines to encourage productive growth. The set of shoemaker's tools connected back to the contract with Samuel Price of 12 April 1715 to teach two boys to make shoes and tan leather, providing the working tools by which the apprenticeship would be conducted. The case knives were the small ordinary knives kept in cases for table service, distinct from the larger butchery and kitchen blades.

The cooper's, tinker's, turnery and brazier's ware drew together the metal vessels of the kitchen, the dairy and the still house. The clerk used the word ditto loosely through this section, sometimes referring to the metal of the preceding item, sometimes to its type. The 2 ditto kettles with covers followed the brass stew pan and cover and were therefore brass kettles; the ditto skimmer and ladle followed in the same brass series. The 4 ditto troughs leaded followed the 12 milk tubs and were therefore milk troughs with lead linings. The looseness of the ditto reference required care in reading the list, since the substance and the function of each item shifted in different directions through the section.

The two stills, one large copper with head and one small, gave the plantation the capacity to distil arrack from sugar cane, fermented fruit liquors or other base materials. The large copper still with head was the principal apparatus of the operation, with the head being the upper vessel that captured the vapour rising from the boiler. The small still was perhaps for fine work or for the production of medicinal waters.

The dairy equipment formed a coherent group within the inventory: the 3 milk skimmers for separating cream from milk, the 12 milk tubs for holding fresh milk to settle, the 4 leaded milk troughs for the cooling and storage of milk, the 2 churns for making butter, and the hair sieve for straining. The substantial scale of the dairy apparatus, with twelve milk tubs in active use, indicated daily milk production on a significant scale and the regular manufacture of butter for the establishment and the homeward shipping. The leaded troughs were wooden vessels with lead linings, the lead surface giving a hygienic and easily cleaned interior for the storage of milk, though carrying the long-term danger of lead poisoning recognised only later.

The cooperage items comprised 7 tubs large and small, 3 piggins, 4 pales and 2 churns. A piggin was a small wooden pail with a single stave projecting upward as a handle, used as a drinking vessel or for the dipping of liquid from a larger container. A pale was the standard wooden pail, made of staves bound by hoops and equipped with a handle. The presence of these items as separate from the dairy equipment indicated their use in general water and provision handling around the household, fetching water from the wells and serving the slave quarters with their provision rations.

The brass and tin household goods, from the warming pan with the broken handle to the four brass candlesticks, marked the standard of domestic furnishing maintained at the principal Company residence. The warming pan was a covered brass pan with a long handle, filled with hot coals and run between the sheets to warm the bed in advance of sleeping. The noting of it as having the handle broken indicated that the inventory was a faithful record of the state of the goods rather than a list of perfect items.

Speculations

The recording of the warming pan as having the handle broken, the brass kettles as old and one with a hole in it, and the lanthorn as old perhaps reflected the careful approach of Bazett and Tovey to the inventory work directed by the council on 5 April 1715. By marking the defects of individual items, the councillors protected themselves against any later claim that they had certified goods as serviceable that turned out to be worn or damaged. The detail also protected the successor management under William Worrall, since he could not be charged with the deterioration of items already recorded as defective at the moment of the handover.

The substantial distilling apparatus represented by the large copper still with head and the small still perhaps formed the centre of an arrack production operation that supplied both the Company stores and the homeward shipping. The combination of dairy, brewing and distilling on the same plantation pointed to an integrated production system, with the milk converted to butter, the molasses or sugar cane converted to arrack, and the small still perhaps used for the rectification of the arrack or for the production of cordial waters from the island's fruits and herbs. The integrated operation gave the Company plantation the character of a small estate factory, producing finished goods from raw materials grown on the holding itself.

423

414

Other Odd things

piece of Sheet Lead 1

Large new Dial w[i]th Minute hand 1

Mariners Compass 1

Flint Glass Decanters quarts 3

Large D[o] bottle 1

Drinking Glasses 3

Small Jarr 1

Leaden Sun Dial 1

Buckaneer Piece 1

Dry Casks, 1: w[i]th some Clover seed 2

Cases [...] bottles 3, 2 with some seeds [...] 1[...] [...] some pickles 4

Stone Cheese weights 3

some Bacon

Wheele Barrons w[i]th Tubbs 5

Hoggs [...] Poultrey

Hoggs in the Stye (Fatting) 3

Sows 30

Boars 3

Barrons 24

Shoats 70

Piggs 40

Black Cattle

Bulls 9

Cows 4

Calves 3

Heifers 3

Bullocks 9

Goats

at Sandy Bay [...] 143

Poultrey

Dunghill Fowles 74

Chickens 33

Ducks 14

Geese 10

Turkeys 30

D[o] Pullts 12

Margin Notes:

Other Odd things

Hoggs [...] Poultrey

Black Cattle

Goats

Poultrey

The inventory continued under the heading Other Odd Things:

1 piece of sheet lead

1 large new dial with minute hand

1 mariner's compass

3 flint glass decanters, quarts

1 large ditto bottle

3 drinking glasses

1 small jarr

1 leaden sun dial

1 buccaneer piece

2 dry casks, 1 with some clover seed

4 cases and bottles, 3 with some pickles, 1 with some seeds

3 stone cheese weights

some bacon

5 wheelbarrows with tubbs

Under the heading Hoggs and Poultrey:

3 hogs in the stye, fatting

30 sows

3 boars

24 barrows

70 shoats

40 pigs

Under the heading Black Cattle:

9 bulls

4 cows

3 calves

3 heifers

9 bullocks

Under the heading Goats:

143 at Sandy Bay side

Under the heading Poultrey:

74 dunghill fowls

33 chickens

14 ducks

10 geese

30 turkeys

12 ditto adults

Interpretations

The category of other odd things gathered the items that did not fit the major headings of the inventory. The combination of measuring instruments, glassware, seeds and bacon under a single residual heading reflected the practical needs of the inventory rather than any systematic classification.

The mariner's compass and the buccaneer piece marked the maritime and military character of the establishment. A buccaneer piece was a small calibre musket or fowling piece of the kind used by the freebooters and privateers of the West Indies in the previous century, held perhaps as a defensive arm at the plantation house against runaway slaves, intruders or pirate landings. The mariner's compass at a country plantation house was an unusual item, perhaps salvaged from a wreck or kept for the surveying of land boundaries by means of bearings.

The large new dial with minute hand was a clock face mounted on a wall, the minute hand being a relatively recent refinement that distinguished a quality timepiece from the older single-hand clocks. The leaden sun dial was a fixed instrument set in the open air, marking the hours by the shadow of a gnomon. The presence of both a mechanical clock and a sun dial gave the plantation two independent means of timekeeping, with the sun dial used to set and verify the mechanical clock.

The seeds preserved in the dry casks and the cases gave the Company's continuing investment in the introduction of new crops to the island. Clover seed was a forage crop important for cattle pasture, the seed brought out from England to establish improved pastures on the island ground. The seeds in the case were perhaps garden or kitchen seeds for vegetables and herbs, also imported from England to maintain the supply of fresh European vegetables on the island.

The cheese weights of stone, three in number, were the calibrated weights used in the dairy to press fresh cheese, driving out the whey and consolidating the curd into a firm cheese. The connection with the milk tubs and churns of the earlier inventory entry confirmed the active dairy operation at the plantation house.

The hogs and poultry count totalled 170 head of pigs across the categories of fatting hogs, sows, boars, barrows, shoats and pigs. The three fatting hogs in the stye were beasts being brought to slaughter weight for an imminent killing. The 30 sows and 3 boars formed the breeding stock; the 24 barrows were castrated males being fattened for the table; the 70 shoats were the half-grown pigs of the year; and the 40 pigs were the youngest litter. The total of 170 pigs represented a substantial expansion on the figures returned by Haswell on 1 April 1715 of 9 sows, 2 boars and 51 shoats and pigs at the plantation house. The present figure perhaps consolidated all the pigs of the Company plantations into a single count, where Haswell's earlier figures had broken them out by location.

The black cattle figure of 28 head, comprising 9 bulls, 4 cows, 3 calves, 3 heifers and 9 bullocks, was substantially lower than the count returned by Haswell on 1 April 1715 of 24 cows with their calves, 2 bullocks and 8 heifers at the plantation house alone. The present figure was perhaps a separate count of the working bulls and bullocks held in reserve, distinct from the breeding herd at the plantation house. The earlier inspection had also recorded 4 bulls in the Great Wood and 2 bulls on the Woody Ridge under the Hutts plantation, together with 2 bullocks at each site, making 8 head between the two upper sites. The figure of 9 bulls in the present inventory was close to but not identical with this earlier separate count.

The 143 goats at Sandy Bay side matched exactly the figure of 143 goats returned by Haswell at Perkins' plantation on 1 April 1715, with the further 10 kids of the earlier count now perhaps grown into the main herd. Sandy Bay lay at the south-eastern coast of the island, the same windwardmost part from which the cut stone had been brought by the longboat in the consultation of 5 April 1715. The location of the goat herd at Sandy Bay confirmed the dedication of that part of the island to goat husbandry under Perkins' management.

Speculations

The keeping of clover seed in a dry cask, alongside garden seeds in cases, perhaps reflected a deliberate policy by the Company to introduce improved pasture grasses and garden vegetables to the island. The clover would have been intended for sowing on the cattle pastures to improve the carrying capacity of the ground, a practice newly adopted in English agriculture and being extended to Company holdings overseas. The seeds in the case represented the vegetable garden of the plantation house, perhaps including peas, beans, salad herbs and root vegetables for the table.

The presence of some bacon among the other odd things, alongside the seeds and instruments, perhaps reflected the preserved meat held at the plantation house from the previous slaughter of fatting pigs. The bacon was cured pork that would keep without refrigeration in the cool stone larder of the plantation house, available for the table or for issue to the slave establishment as a meat ration. The recording of an unmeasured quantity as some bacon suggested that the inventory takers had not weighed the bacon but had simply noted its presence as a residual provision.

424

415

Yams.

Suckers planted Since the 8[th] July 1714 at Sundry Plantations are viz[t] 100,000 at the Hutts 90,000 at the Peake 16,000 at Lufkins 206,000

The rest of the Cattle [...] Goats we could not take Account of being so wett [...] Slippery twas Dangerous to Drive them, this fair is a true Account taken by

April y[e] 12[th] 1715 Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey

The Gov[r] according to an Order of Coun[cil] of the 23[rd] of Jan[r]y last gave in the foll[owing] Acco[t] of Serj[ean]t Fairfax [...] his opinion thereon, as foll[ows] (Viz[t]) The Serjeants Request was as follow[s]

To two Years [...] a quart[er] in Perpetuall Duty in Gov[r] Bouchers time at Six Pounds p[er] Quarter w[ch] Gov[r] Boucher said he would Sattisfie me for.

Resolv[d] to allow no Pay as double Duty is being a bad President.

To three quarter[s] of a Year since Yo[r] Worship[s] Arrivall w[ch] yo[r] Worsh[i]p was pleased to say you would see me Sattisfied for,

Ordered

That he have his usuall Pay only.

To an Allarm for the Mercury Sloop[s]

Allowed

To three quarter[s] of a Years Sallary not Reckoned for,

Ordered

To allow his Pay according to the Pay of the Duty performed,

To prevent Inconveniency by the Prejudice to

Margin Notes:

Yams

April y[e] 12[th] 1715

Report ab[ou]t Serj[ean]t Fairfax

Request

Answer

Request

Answer

Request

Request

Answer

The inventory continued under the heading Yams:

Suckers planted since 8 July 1714 at sundry plantations:

100,000 at the Hutts

90,000 at the Peake

16,000 at Lufkins

200,000 in total (with 206,000 entered and the 6,000 struck out)

The rest of the cattle and goats the council could not take account of, the weather being so wet and slippery that it was dangerous to drive them. This was a true account taken on 12 April 1715.

Signed by Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey.

The governor, according to an order of council of 23 January last, gave the following account of Serjeant Fairfax and his opinion thereon as follows. Sergeant's request was as follows.

Request: For two years and a quarter in perpetual duty in Governor Boucher's time at six pounds the quarter, which Governor Boucher said he would satisfy him for.

Answer: Resolved to allow no pay, as double duty is a bad precedent.

Request: For three quarters of a year since your worship's arrival, in which your worship was pleased to say you would see him satisfied for.

Ordered as the answer: That he have his usual pay only.

Request: For an alarm for the Mercury sloop.

Allowed.

Request: For three quarters of a year's salary not reckoned for.

Ordered as the answer: To allow his pay according to the pay of the duty performed.

The text continued under the heading To prevent inconveniency by the prejudice

A margin note recorded the matter as Report about Serjeant Fairfax, with subordinate notations of Request and Answer running down the page.

Interpretations

The yam plantings recorded a substantial agricultural operation conducted across three of the Company plantations since 8 July 1714. The yam was the principal staple crop of the island slave population, a starchy root vegetable propagated by suckers, the small shoots that grew from the base of the parent plant. The figure of 200,000 suckers planted at three sites, including 100,000 at the Hutts, 90,000 at the Peake and 16,000 at Lufkins, indicated a deliberate and large-scale Company programme to expand yam cultivation. The crop fed the slave establishment and provided fresh provisions for the homeward shipping. The Peake referred to the high ground at the centre of the island, used for the cultivation of crops suited to cooler temperatures. The figure of 206,000 originally entered and corrected to 200,000 perhaps reflected the recovery of an arithmetical error in the totalling rather than a change of the underlying figures.

The note that the council could not take account of the remaining cattle and goats because of wet and slippery weather acknowledged the practical limit of the inventory work. The conditions described were consistent with the heavy rains that often accompanied the autumn season on the island, when the steep grass-covered ground became hazardous for the driving of stock. The council preferred to leave the remaining count incomplete rather than risk injury to men or beasts by attempting to bring the stock together in unsuitable conditions. The acknowledgement of the gap in the inventory perhaps protected Bazett and Tovey against later claims that they had certified the count of stock that had not in fact been examined.

The report on Sergeant Fairfax addressed a separate matter brought before the council under an earlier order of 23 January 1715. Fairfax had submitted a request for payment under four heads, each addressed in turn by the council.

The first head concerned perpetual duty performed in the time of Governor Boucher, two years and a quarter at six pounds the quarter. Perpetual duty was continuous service without the usual rotation of duty hours that allowed soldiers to rest between watches. Boucher had reportedly promised payment at six pounds the quarter, but the council refused the claim on the grounds that allowing double duty pay would create a bad precedent. The refusal protected the Company against future claims by other soldiers who might claim verbal promises of additional pay from earlier governors.

The second head concerned three quarters of a year since the arrival of the present governor Pyke, during which Pyke had reportedly promised Fairfax he would be satisfied. The council ordered that Fairfax should have his usual pay only, declining to honour any informal promise of additional payment.

The third head concerned a payment for an alarm raised for the Mercury sloop. An alarm was a special duty performed by a soldier in raising the warning of a ship's approach or other event requiring the calling out of the garrison. The council allowed this payment without comment.

The fourth head concerned three quarters of a year's salary not reckoned for, perhaps representing arrears in the regular pay. The council ordered that Fairfax should be allowed his pay according to the duty he had actually performed.

Speculations

The systematic refusal of three of Fairfax's four claims, with only the alarm payment allowed, perhaps reflected the council's determination to bring the irregular payment practices of earlier administrations to an end. The two preceding governors mentioned by Fairfax, Boucher and the early period of Pyke, had reportedly made verbal promises of additional payment that were not supported by formal council orders. The present council was insisting on a return to the regular pay scales, declining to recognise side agreements that would create unfunded liabilities on the Company's books. The structure of the decision, with each claim individually examined and ruled upon, gave the council the means to dispose of Fairfax's case without conceding any general principle of supplementary payment.

The recording of the Mercury sloop in connection with the alarm raised by Fairfax indicated the presence at the island of a smaller Company vessel, perhaps used for short voyages or for the carrying of messages, as distinct from the principal East India ships visiting the road on the outward and homeward passages. The sloop's arrival had warranted the calling out of the garrison through Fairfax's alarm, suggesting that the standing procedures of the island required the warning even of friendly Company shipping when it appeared in the roadstead unexpectedly.

425

416

to his health as he alleadges by a Constant Duty a Corporall shall be Posted there [...] each to take their turns [...] to Comand that Guard according as the Duty falls out between them.

That no notice shall be taken of his often neglect in being off from his Duty heretofore if he for the future Performs it,

The foll[owing] Petition[s] were Presented viz[t]

To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]nor [...] Councill Island S[t] Helena, The most Humble Petition of Edward Hollowell Soldier, who is Constantly Employ[d] in Writing In the Hon[ble] Companys Service most Humbly,

Shewett[h],

That forasmuch as yo[r] Humble Petition[r] being constantly Employed in writing In the Hon[ble] Companys Service as above, Humbly Prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p will be Pleased to consider the unavoidable [...] great charge yo[r] Petition[r] is at as 3 [...] p[er] ann[um] for Lodging [...] twelve shillings p[er] Quarter for washing [...] charges [...] haveing no Perquisites, [...] only Soldiers Pay to support yo[r] said Petition[r] [...] to Defray his charges, Humbly Prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p will be Pleased to take the same into yo[r] wise [...] mature consideration [...] to allow him such an Additionall Sallary as yo[r] Worship shall think fitt for his further Encouragem[ent]

And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

April y[e] 12: 1715 Edward Hollowell

Ordered

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena,

Shewett[h]

Ed[ward] Hollowells Petition

for an additionall Sallary

April y[e] 12: 1715

To prevent inconveniency by the prejudice to his health, as he alleged, by a constant duty, a corporal was to be posted there and each to take their turns and to command the guard according as the duty fell out between them.

That no notice should be taken of his often neglect in being off from his duty heretofore, if he for the future performed it.

The following petition was presented to the council.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor and council. Island St Helena. Edward Hollwell, soldier, who was constantly employed in writing in the honourable Company's service, presented the following petition.

Hollwell set out that he was constantly employed in writing in the honourable Company's service as above. He prayed the council to consider the unavoidable and great charge he was at, namely three shillings the annum for lodging and twelve shillings the quarter for washing and other charges. He had no perquisites and only soldier's pay to support himself and defray his charges. He prayed the council to take the matter into consideration and to allow him such an additional salary as the council should think fit for his further encouragement. The petition was dated 12 April 1715 and signed by Edward Hollwell, with the closing form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray.

A margin note recorded the matter as Edward Hollwell's petition for an additional salary.

Interpretations

The conclusion of the Fairfax matter saw the council adopting a practical solution to the problem of perpetual duty by ordering a corporal to be posted alongside Fairfax, with the two taking turns and commanding the guard between them as the duty fell out. The arrangement removed the basis for any future claim of double duty pay by ensuring that the duty was shared rather than being borne by a single man. The council's further direction that no notice should be taken of Fairfax's previous neglect of duty, if he performed properly in future, gave the sergeant a fresh start while making clear that any continued laxity would be remembered.

The Hollwell petition opened a separate matter, raising the question of supplementary payment for a soldier seconded to clerical work. Edward Hollwell was a soldier on the standard establishment, drawing soldier's pay, but had been assigned to writing duties in the Company's service. The work was a clerk's work but the pay was a soldier's pay. The petition set out the practical disadvantage of the arrangement: Hollwell had to bear charges for lodging at three shillings the annum and twelve shillings the quarter for washing and other expenses, all out of a soldier's wage that was not designed to cover such items. The annual lodging charge of three shillings was a notional figure for the rent of a room at the establishment, while the quarterly washing charge of twelve shillings reflected the more substantial cost of keeping clothing in a presentable state for daily clerical work.

The petition introduced the concept of perquisites, which Hollwell stated he had none of. Perquisites were the customary side payments and gratuities that attached to particular offices in the Company's service, such as the small fees paid by ship captains to the secretary for the drawing up of papers or the customary share of small stores attached to certain trusts. A clerk in the secretary's office or a similar regular position carried perquisites that supplemented the formal salary; a soldier on writing duty had none of these supplementary entitlements, and stood at a disadvantage compared with other clerical employees.

The form of the petition followed the standard pattern of submissions to the council, with the petitioner setting out his service, his expenses and his lack of customary supplements before asking for additional payment. The closing formula of being in duty bound to pray for the council's favour was the conventional close of such applications.

Speculations

The recourse to a soldier rather than a free employee for clerical duties perhaps reflected the limited availability of qualified clerks at the island. The Company's establishment at the secretary's office and the senior offices was small, and additional writing work that arose from time to time had to be met by drawing soldiers with the necessary literacy and penmanship out of the garrison. The arrangement saved the Company the cost of bringing out a separate clerk from England, but created the kind of pay anomaly that Hollwell's petition now raised. The petition was thus a request not so much for additional pay as for the recognition that the work performed exceeded the soldier's role for which the pay was designed.

The specific figures cited by Hollwell in his petition gave a useful measure of the costs of a single man living at the establishment. The annual lodging charge of three shillings and the quarterly washing charge of twelve shillings, when annualised, came to forty-eight shillings the year on washing alone, plus three shillings for lodging, plus other unspecified charges. The total cost of basic subsistence above the basic ration was thus perhaps three pounds the year on documented charges alone, against which a soldier's regular pay was set. The petition gave the council a clear quantitative basis for considering the request, an unusually specific approach that perhaps reflected Hollwell's clerical training in setting out arguments in numerical form.

426

417

Ordered

That his Sallary be from the 25 day of March 1715 Twenty Pounds p[er] ann[um]

Island S[t] Helena To The Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[or] [...] and Council

The most Humble Petition of W[m] Portley Marshall Humbly,

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] haveing been Employed as Marshall for these two years last past [...] haveing Received nothing for his trouble most Humbly beggs that your Worsh[i]p [...] Council will be Pleased to allow him the usuall benefitts, or what yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council shall think convenient, thereby as to make his demands before he letts any body goe out of his Custody,

And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray.

W[m] Portley

Refered till next Consultation Day for a further consideration[s]

Island S[t] Helena To The Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] Council

The most Humble Petition of Richard Gurling, James Greentree [...] Jonathan Doveton Excecutors to Rob[t] Leach Deceas[d] Humbly,

Shewth

That forasmuch as yo[r] Petition[r] being now (as well as for sometime past) very desireous to make up, Adjust and clear Acco[t]s w[i]th all persons in order of compleating [...] bringing in an Inventory of the said Rob[t] Leaches Estate Humbly moves recourse may be had to the Council Books to be fully Informe[d] what part[s]

Margin Notes:

allowd to grant[?]

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

W[m] Portley req[uest] ab[ou]t his fees

[is]gov[er]n[ed][?]

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

Rob[t] Leach[s] Execut[ors] desire ab[ou]t acco[t]s

The council ordered that Hollwell's salary be from 25 March 1715 set at twenty pounds the annum.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of William Portley, marshal, was submitted.

Portley set out that he had been employed as marshal for these two years last past, and having received nothing for his trouble, humbly begged that the council would allow him the usual benefits, or what the council should think convenient, thereby to make his demands before he let anybody go out of his custody. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, and was signed by William Portley.

The council referred the petition to the next consultation day for further consideration.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Richard Gurling, James Greentree and Jonathan Doveton, executors to Robert Leach deceased, was submitted.

The petitioners set out that, being now (as well as for some time past) very desirous to make up, adjust and clear accounts with all persons in order of completing the matter and bringing in an inventory of the said Robert Leach's estate, they humbly moved that recourse might be had to the council books to be fully informed what part

Margin notes recorded the matter as allowed twenty pounds, William Portley the marshal requesting his fees, referred, and Robert Leach's executors desiring accounts.

Interpretations

The grant of twenty pounds the annum to Edward Hollwell, with effect from 25 March 1715, established a clear annual salary for the clerical work he had been performing in his soldier's capacity. The figure represented a substantial uplift on the soldier's basic pay, recognising the value of literate clerical labour at the island and resolving the anomaly described in his petition of 12 April 1715. The choice of 25 March as the starting date placed the new salary at the opening of the conventional accounting year, allowing the increase to be incorporated cleanly into the annual budget of the establishment.

William Portley's petition raised a different question. Portley had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 as marshal, the executive officer responsible for the service of warrants and the management of prisoners. His present petition stated that he had received nothing for his trouble over the past two years, asking the council to allow him the usual benefits or such other compensation as it should think proper. The phrase about not letting anybody go out of his custody before they paid his demands pointed to the standard practice by which a marshal recovered his fees from prisoners as they were discharged. The fees were paid by the prisoner himself or his bondsmen as a condition of release, with the marshal retaining the right to hold the prisoner until the fees were paid. Portley's claim that he had received nothing in two years suggested that either no prisoners had been discharged in that period, or that the practice of taking fees on discharge had not been authorised by the council during his tenure. The reference of the matter to the next consultation day allowed the council to consider what scale of fees should be allowed and how they should be collected.

The petition of Gurling, Greentree and Doveton as executors to Robert Leach raised a third type of question, namely the settlement of the deceased planter's estate. Robert Leach had not appeared by name in the census of 21 March 1715, indicating that he had died before that return was taken. His three executors were all substantial planters of the island. Gurling and Doveton had been recorded in the census, with Doveton holding 151½ acres and forty head of cattle and Gurling 137 acres and twenty-four head of cattle. Greentree had been recorded with 31 acres and five head of cattle. The three formed a respected committee for the management of Leach's estate, with their combined standing in the planter community giving the executors the authority to deal with claims and counterclaims on the estate.

The executors' application sought access to the council books for the purpose of determining the standing of the deceased planter against the Company. The Company books recorded both debts owed by the deceased to the Company stores and any sums due to him from the Company for goods supplied or services rendered. Without access to these records, the executors could not produce a complete inventory of the estate or settle the claims of creditors and beneficiaries. The application reflected the standard process by which the affairs of a deceased planter were wound up at the island, with the executors required to render a full account before any distribution of the estate could be made.

Speculations

The setting of Hollwell's salary at twenty pounds the annum perhaps reflected the council's calculation of what was required to retain his services as a clerk. His soldier's pay would have been substantially below this figure, and the increase to twenty pounds brought him into line with the lower salaried positions in the Company's civil establishment. The council was thus effectively reclassifying Hollwell from a soldier on detached duty to a clerk on a salary, though without formally moving him out of the garrison. The arrangement gave the Company the advantage of retaining his services without committing to a permanent civil appointment that might be difficult to reverse if the clerical workload should decrease.

The two-year period over which Portley had received no fees as marshal perhaps reflected a deliberate policy by the previous administration not to charge prisoners on discharge, perhaps in response to complaints that the practice imposed an additional financial burden on those already convicted and punished. The present council's willingness to reconsider the question, by referring it to the next consultation day rather than refusing it outright, suggested that the matter was being examined afresh in the light of the council's broader review of the island's administration that had been running through the present series of consultations.

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418

of French[s] Orphans Estate appertains to said Leach in Right of his Widow being one of the said Orphans and that yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Coun[c]il will be pleased to Adjust y[e] Same

Jon[a] Doveton on behalf of himself Humbly prays that his former Petition Relating to y[e] Estate of Rich[d] Leach an Orphan may be Examined and that you'll be pleased to grant him his part thereof or the whole Sum for which he'll be Accountable to y[t] Rest that has any Claim thereto, and in such case is willing to give Security for the same if herrafter any Lawfull Demand be made,

And as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

April y[e] 12: 1715 James Greentree Jon[a] Doveton

To The Worship[ll] Gov[r] [...] Council the Humble Petition of Rich[d] Swallow

Shewth

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] being at this time under a great Restraint for the Sum of Fifty Pounds Creddit[t] in the Hon[ble] Companys Stores, humbly beggs yo[r] Worship [...] Council will be pleased to grant the same most of the Persons to whom yo[r] Petitioner is design[d] to transfer the Creddit[t] being in Debt to the Hon[ble] Comp[any]: your Petitioner only desireing Six months time for the Payment[s] of the same [...] is willing to give any Security w[ch] shall be by yo[r] Worship [...] Council Deem[d] sufficient in case any Disaster should befall yo[r] petition[r] Who shall always Pray as in Duty bound, Rich[d] Swallow

Island S[t] Helena James Valley 12[th] April 1715

Margin Notes:

Sol[i]d the[y] Do Examine y[e] Same:

That the [...] Do Examine the Council books [...] report what he found therein Relating to Rob[t] Leach [...] French[s] Orphans Estate

[Ordered][?]

Shewth

Rich[d] Swallows requ[est] for 50 [...] Cr[edit]

Island S[t] Helena James Valley 13[?] April 1715

The petition continued. Part of French's orphans' estate appertained to the said Leach in right of his widow, being one of the said orphans, and the council was prayed to adjust the same.

Jonathan Doveton, on behalf of himself, humbly prayed that his former petition relating to the estate of Richard Leach, an orphan, might be examined, and that the council would be pleased to grant him his part thereof or the whole sum, for which he would be accountable to the heir that had any claim thereto, and in such case was willing to give security for the same if hereafter any lawful demand should be made.

The petition closed with the form that the petitioners as in duty bound should ever pray, dated 12 April 1715 and signed by James Greentree and Jonathan Doveton.

A sideways margin note recorded the council's resolution. The council ordered that William Portley should examine the council books and report what he found therein relating to Robert Leach and French's orphans' estate.

To the worshipful governor and council. The petition of Richard Swallow was submitted.

Swallow set out that he was at this time under a great restraint for the sum of fifty pounds credit in the honourable Company's stores. He humbly begged the council to grant the same, most of the persons to whom he was designed to transfer the credit being indebted to the honourable Company. The petitioner desired only six months time for the payment of the same, and was willing to give any security as should be by the council deemed sufficient in case any disaster should befall the petitioner. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, and was signed by Richard Swallow.

The petition was dated Island St Helena, James Valley, 12 April 1715.

Margin notes recorded the matter as Robert Leach and French's orphans' estate, with the further notation of Richard Swallow's request for fifty pounds credit. The sideways marginal entry recorded the order that William Portley should examine the council books and report on the matter.

Interpretations

The Leach estate proved to be intertwined with the French orphans' estate, the connection arising through marriage. Robert Leach's widow had been one of William French's orphans, and she carried into her marriage with Leach her share of the French inheritance. With Leach now dead, his widow's share of the French estate had to be sorted out from the Leach property proper, since the French orphans' estate stood as a separate trust managed under the council's oversight. The petition acknowledged this complexity and asked the council to adjust the accounts to give a clear picture of the two estates. The arrangement showed how the inheritance of a single orphan continued to affect the settlement of an estate two marriages later, with the original Company trust over the French children's property surviving the marriages and deaths of the heirs.

Jonathan Doveton's separate petition addressed the estate of Richard Leach, an orphan, where Doveton had a prior interest. His willingness to give security against any later lawful demand showed the standard practice by which an interested party could obtain immediate payment from an estate by giving a bond against any future claimant who might appear with a better right. The bond protected the estate against the risk of paying twice, since any later claimant would proceed against Doveton's bond rather than against the estate itself. The use of bonds for this purpose was a fundamental tool of estate administration in the period.

The council's resolution to send William Portley to examine the council books and report on the Leach and French matters placed the marshal in the role of clerical investigator. The order made practical use of Portley's office, since the marshal had standing access to the council records as part of his duties and could be sent through the books to extract the relevant entries without the council itself having to spend its time on the search. The use of Portley in this role perhaps also reflected the resolution of his own petition referred at the consultation, with the council giving him meaningful work to justify his salary while it considered the question of his fees.

Richard Swallow's petition for fifty pounds credit at the Company stores raised a different commercial question. Swallow proposed to obtain credit at the stores not for his own use but for the purpose of transferring the credit to other persons who were indebted to the Company. The arrangement would have functioned as a circular settlement: Swallow would draw fifty pounds in goods or credit from the stores, transfer the goods or credit to his creditors among the planter community, and those creditors would then use the goods or credit to settle their own debts to the Company stores. Swallow himself would be liable to repay the fifty pounds to the Company over six months, against security to be approved by the council. The mechanism resolved a chain of mutual debts by inserting a fresh credit at the head of the chain, with Swallow as the intermediary taking responsibility for the eventual repayment.

The structure depended on the underlying creditworthiness of Swallow himself and on the willingness of the council to support such a credit arrangement. The Company stores normally operated on a cash basis, with goods being delivered against immediate payment or against a soldier's or planter's running account at the stores. Swallow's proposal asked the council to permit a one-off departure from the cash basis to clear a particular set of related debts. The security offered against the credit, and the six months term proposed for repayment, would have to be set against the Company's normal stock turnover and cash position at the stores.

Speculations

The intermarriage of the Leach family and the French orphans, with one of the French orphans having married Leach and contributed to his estate, perhaps reflected the standard pattern of marriage among the island's planter class. The small size of the white population, recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 as 405 in the garrison and 179 in the named planter households, gave a limited pool of potential marriage partners, and inheritances from earlier orphan estates moved between families through marriage in successive generations. The administrative complexity that arose for the executors had to do with separating the property that had come to Leach by marriage from the property he had built up in his own right, a separation that the council was now being asked to adjust.

The structure of Swallow's proposal perhaps reflected a wider pattern of credit at the island in which a substantial planter could function as a clearing house for the smaller debts of his neighbours. By taking on a single large credit at the Company stores and transferring it onward to settle multiple smaller debts, Swallow could consolidate the obligations of several planters into a single repayment over six months. The arrangement gave the smaller planters an immediate discharge of their store debts at the cost of becoming indebted to Swallow rather than to the Company. The mechanism reflected the limited circulation of cash at the island, where settled credit relationships between planters often substituted for the actual movement of money.

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Ordered

That this Creddit[t] be transferre[d] to Richard Swallow He giveing Bond to repay the same w[i]th usuall Interest within one Year.

Ordered

That this foll[owing] Advertizement be published [...]

Island S[t] Helena By the Worsh[i]pf[ull] the Govern[r] and Council

An Advertizement

These are to give Notice to all the Inhab[i] tants Freeholders of this Island that they meet (as usuall) on Monday next the 18[th] Instant at the Country Church to make choice of Four proper persons for Church wardens [...] the like number for overseers of the High ways for the Year Ensueing and to Returne the Persons names so chosen to the Govern[r] [...] Council the Day following by the hands of the o[u]t[?] Church wardens in order to their appointing two out of Each Four persons so chosen [...] returned.

Sign'd by Order of Gov[r] [...] Council

United Castle James Valley 13: April 1715

Antipas Tovey Sec[reta]ry

Verte

Margin Notes:

Granted upon bond

Island S[t] Helena

To Choose Parrish officers

United Castle James Valley 13[th] April 1715

The council ordered that this credit be transferred to Richard Swallow, he giving bond to repay the same with usual interest within one year.

The council further ordered that the following advertisement be published.

By the worshipful the governor and council. Island St Helena.

An advertisement.

Notice was given to all the inhabitants and freeholders of the island that they were to meet as usual on Monday next, the 18th instant, at the country church, to make choice of four proper persons for church wardens and the like number for overseers of the highways for the year ensuing. They were to return the names of the persons so chosen to the governor and council the day following, by the hands of the church wardens, in order to their appointing two out of each four persons so chosen and returned.

The advertisement was signed by order of the governor and council, by Antipas Tovey, secretary, at the United Castle, James Valley, 13 April 1715.

Margin notes recorded the matter as granted upon bond, with a further notation that the advertisement was to choose parish officers. The minute closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the matter ran on to the next folio.

Interpretations

The grant of credit to Swallow on a bond bearing usual interest within one year settled the financial proposal raised in his petition of 12 April 1715. The arrangement extended the original six month proposal to a full year, perhaps reflecting the council's view that the chain of debts being cleared through Swallow's intermediation would take longer than six months to work through. The reference to usual interest established that the bond would bear the standard rate prevailing at the island for credit transactions of this kind, which would be the rate fixed by Company practice for advances from the stores. The bond itself was a formal instrument under Swallow's hand acknowledging the debt to the Company and securing repayment of principal and interest by a specified date.

The advertisement for the election of church wardens and overseers of the highways established the regular annual cycle of parish government at the island. The system followed the English parish administration, with churchwardens elected by the inhabitants and freeholders to manage the affairs of the country church and overseers of the highways responsible for the maintenance of the island's roads and tracks. The meeting was to be held at the country church on Monday 18 April 1715, with four candidates elected to each office and the names returned to the council. The council then exercised its power to appoint two out of each four to actually serve, giving the freemen the right of nomination but reserving to the council the final choice. The arrangement balanced popular participation against the council's overall supervision of the island's affairs.

The use of the country church as the place of meeting for the parish election connected the parish administration to the religious establishment of the island. The country church stood at some distance from the principal settlement of James Valley, in the inland district where the planter holdings were concentrated. The location made the church accessible to the planter freeholders and inhabitants who were the principal voters, while marking the rural and agricultural character of the parish electorate.

The role of the existing churchwardens in returning the names of the persons chosen to the council the day following established a formal chain of communication between the parish assembly and the council. The outgoing wardens, having presided over the election as the principal lay officers of the parish, carried the names to the United Castle for the council's appointment. The arrangement gave a measure of formal dignity to the proceedings and provided the council with a verified report of the parish's choice.

The signature of the advertisement by Antipas Tovey as secretary, by order of the governor and council, marked the formal publication of the notice. As the junior councillor, Tovey carried the responsibility for the actual drafting and publication of council notices and advertisements, the seniority of the office holders being recognised in the order of the consultation but the practical clerical work falling on the most junior.

Speculations

The setting of a full year for the repayment of Swallow's credit, against the six months proposed in his petition, perhaps reflected the council's recognition that the consolidation of multiple smaller debts into a single larger debt would take time to work through to actual repayment. The smaller planters whose debts Swallow was clearing through the arrangement would themselves need time to bring in their crops, sell their cattle to the homeward shipping and turn their assets into the means of repaying Swallow. The longer term gave the underlying chain of credit a workable timetable, against which the additional interest cost was the price of the extended accommodation.

The election of four church wardens and four overseers of the highways, with the council choosing two out of each four to actually serve, perhaps reflected a deliberate Company policy of separating popular nomination from final appointment. The arrangement allowed the inhabitants and freeholders the satisfaction of choosing their candidates, while giving the council the ability to exclude any candidate whose appointment might be disagreeable to the Company. The two-stage process was particularly useful in a small community where personal rivalries might produce factional voting; the council could intervene to ensure that the eventual appointees were acceptable to all sides without overruling the popular nomination outright.

429

420

The two following Persons viz[t] John Orchard [...] Lewis Latour had Lycence granted them as followeth viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena

I Do hereby give leave [...] Lycence to you Lewis Latour of the said Island Montross to keep a Comon Victualling House and to sell Arrack, Brandy, Punch, Wine, or any other sort of Strong Liquors w[i]th Sugar [...] Tobacco in the House you now Dwell in as the signe of the Welch Harp in Southwark Street, from the 25[th] of March 1715 to the 25[th] of march next Ensueing the Date hereof

1 Provided you always duly [...] truly do keep good orders times [...] seasons in your House, not Suffering any Person or Persons to Fight oe[r] Quarrell there. Particularly [...] more Especially on the Lords Day, takeing strickt care not to Suffer any Person or Persons to be Tipling in yo[r] House in time of Divine Service [...] that you Permitt no Person who does not Lodge in yo[r] House to continue there after the Talbo[?] has beat,

2 You are to Provide a Dinner every day in the week in time of Shipping at the Hour of twelve for Six men at the least, who shall pay no more then twelve pence for their Ordinary,

3 Also in every bowl of Punch w[ch] shall contain three pints you are to putt in one pint of Arrack with such other necessary Ingredients as shall be required [...] to take no more than two Shillings for it

4 You shall permitt no Islanders nor people of the Garrison to continue Tipling in your house so as to have any unreasonable or

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Lycence for Retailing Strong Drink

Conditions.

The two following persons, namely John Orchard and Lewis Latour, had licence granted them as followeth.

Island St Helena.

The council gave leave and licence to Lewis Latour of the island, montross, to keep a common victualling house and to sell arrack, brandy, punch, wine or any other sort of strong liquors, with sugar and tobacco, in the house he now dwelt in, at the sign of the Welsh Harp in Southwark Street, from 25 March 1715 to 25 March next ensuing the date hereof.

The licence was granted on the following conditions.

First, he was always duly and truly to keep good orders, times and seasons in his house, not suffering any person or persons to fight or quarrel there. Particularly and more especially on the Lord's day, he was to take strict care not to suffer any person or persons to be tippling in the house in time of divine service, and to permit no person who did not lodge in the house to continue there after the taptoo had beat.

Secondly, he was to provide a dinner every day in the week in time of shipping at the hour of twelve for six men at the least, who should pay no more than twelve pence for their ordinary.

Thirdly, in every bowl of punch, which should contain three pints, he was to put in one pint of arrack with such other necessary ingredients as should be required, and to take no more than two shillings for it.

Fourthly, he was to permit no islanders nor people of the garrison to continue tippling in his house so as to have any unreasonable or

Margin notes recorded the matter as Licence for retailing strong drink, with the subordinate notation of Conditions, numbered 1 through 4 down the margin.

Interpretations

The licence granted to Lewis Latour gave him formal authority to operate a public victualling house at the established trade premises known as the Welsh Harp in Southwark Street. Latour had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 as a single white man holding 15 acres of land entirely on leave, with no cattle and no other household. His designation as montross marked him as a junior artilleryman of the garrison, but the licence permitted him to combine that role with the keeping of a victualling house, a common arrangement at the island where soldiers supplemented their pay through licensed trade.

The Welsh Harp at the sign of which Latour's house was identified gave the establishment a recognised public name in the manner of English taverns. The choice of Welsh Harp as the sign perhaps reflected Latour's own origin, since the name Latour suggested French Huguenot or Channel Island background rather than Welsh; the sign may have been inherited from a previous keeper or chosen for its general suggestion of a respectable public house. Southwark Street was the principal street of the lower settlement, named for the London borough of Southwark which was famous for its inns and taverns.

The first condition addressed the social order at the establishment. The licensee was to keep good orders, prevent fights and quarrels, and especially to enforce the observance of the Lord's day by not allowing tippling during divine service. The reference to taptoo or tattoo was the military drum signal sounded at night to require soldiers to return to their quarters; persons not lodging in the house were to depart by that hour, leaving only resident lodgers to remain. The arrangement combined the standard English alehouse regulation with the specific military discipline of the garrison.

The second condition imposed a service obligation for the benefit of the visiting shipping. In time of shipping, that is when ships were at anchor in the road, the licensee was to provide a dinner every day at noon for at least six men, the men being able to dine for no more than twelvepence each. The ordinary, as the fixed-price meal was known, was a recognised institution at English inns, where a set meal at a set time was served at a set price. The regulation ensured that ships' officers and other visitors had a reliable place to eat at a known price during their stay at the island, supporting the broader Company interest in the smooth handling of the visiting shipping.

The third condition fixed the recipe and price of the principal mixed drink. A bowl of punch was to contain three pints, with one pint of arrack and the remainder made up with other necessary ingredients such as water, sugar, lemon juice and spices. The fixed price was two shillings the bowl, giving the customer a known charge for a known measure and recipe. The regulation prevented the watering down of the spirit by unscrupulous licensees and protected the customer against arbitrary pricing.

The fourth condition addressed the social problem of habitual tippling by inhabitants and members of the garrison. The licensee was not to permit persons of either group to continue drinking in his house to an unreasonable degree. The provision protected the productive labour of both the planter community and the garrison against the social effects of excessive drinking at the licensed houses.

Speculations

The detailed prescription of the punch recipe perhaps reflected the Company's concern that the arrack supplied to the island, in part from the Company's own production at the plantation house still recorded in the inventory of 12 April 1715, should be sold at a fair concentration to the consumer. By fixing one pint of arrack in three pints of finished punch, the council established a one-third spirit content as the standard. The fixed price of two shillings against this composition gave the council a means of checking actual practice, since any licensee selling a weaker punch at the same price could be detected by sampling. The regulation thus protected both the consumer against adulteration and the Company against the diversion of its arrack to private profit by the licensees.

The requirement to feed six men in time of shipping perhaps reflected a particular concern that ships' crews coming ashore should have proper victualling available at known prices. Without such regulation, licensees might raise their prices sharply when shipping was in the road and the demand was high, taking advantage of the captive market of seamen with money to spend. The fixing of the ordinary at twelvepence ensured that the visiting trade was not exploited and that the goodwill of ships' officers towards the island establishment was maintained. The condition served the Company's broader interest in the efficient turnaround of its shipping at the island, an interest already discussed at length in the consultation of 5 April 1715.

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421

or Extravagant Reckoning to become due at one time,

5 You shall not suffer any of the Garrisson to Game in your House nor trust any one for Liquor, under Perrill of looseing the Debt,

6 You shall not trade with nor Entertaine any Blacks on any pretence whatsoever,

7 You are to buy your Arrack and what else you Vend by Vertue of this Lycence out of the Hon[ble] Companys stores,

8 Lastly and all such further Orders [...] Instructions as you from time to time shall receive from me you are to Duly observe [...] keep on Penalty not only of Forfeiting this Lycence but of such other fine as by the Law of England may be imposed on you for y[e] Demerritt,

Given under the Seal of the Hon[ble] The Lords Proprietors [...] Sign[d] with my[...] hand this 13[th] Day of April A[nno] Dom 1715/

Isaac Pyke

Verte

The fourth condition continued, that he was not to allow such tippling as would cause any unreasonable or extravagant reckoning to become due at one time.

Fifth, he was not to suffer any of the garrison to game in his house, nor to trust any one for liquor, under penalty of losing the debt.

Sixth, he was not to trade with nor entertain any blacks on any pretence whatsoever.

Seventh, he was to buy his arrack and what else he vended by virtue of this licence out of the honourable Company's stores.

Eighth and lastly, all such further orders and instructions as he should from time to time receive from the governor he was to duly observe and keep, on penalty not only of forfeiting this licence but of such other fine as by the law of England might be imposed on him for the demerit.

The licence was given under the seal of the honourable the lords proprietors and signed with the governor's hand on 13 April 1715. It was signed Isaac Pyke.

The page closed with the direction Verte, signalling that the matter ran on to the next folio. A small mark of J.L. appeared in the margin.

Interpretations

The fifth condition addressed two distinct social problems among the garrison. Gaming, that is gambling at cards, dice or other games of chance, was a recognised disciplinary problem in any military establishment, and the council had taken steps in earlier consultations to prohibit gaming among the soldiers. The prohibition on trusting any one for liquor, under penalty of losing the debt, sought to prevent the accumulation of drink debts that soldiers and others could not actually pay. A licensee who extended credit for liquor could not afterwards sue the debtor for payment, since the licence itself withdrew the legal protection that would normally support such a claim. The condition thus shifted the entire risk of credit drinking onto the licensee, giving him a powerful incentive to insist on payment in cash.

The sixth condition prohibited any trade or entertainment of blacks at the licensed house. The provision reflected the deliberate Company policy of preventing the slave population from gathering at public houses, both because gatherings of slaves were perceived as a security threat to the establishment and because the consumption of strong drink by slaves was considered to undermine their working capacity. The prohibition applied to any pretence whatsoever, removing any possibility of evasion through nominal trading or social entertainment. The condition was a sharp restriction on the licensee's business, since slaves formed a substantial portion of the island's population and their exclusion narrowed the available market.

The seventh condition required Latour to buy his arrack and other licensed goods from the Company stores. The arrangement reinforced the Company's monopoly position as the sole wholesale supplier of strong drink to the licensed retail trade. The Company plantation produced arrack at the still recorded in the inventory of 12 April 1715, and additional supplies were imported from India by the Company's shipping. By requiring all licensees to source their stock through the Company, the council both secured the Company's wholesale margin and ensured that the strength and quality of the licensed drink could be controlled at the source.

The eighth and final condition placed Latour under a general duty to observe any future orders that the governor might issue, with the threat of both forfeiture of the licence and additional fines under the law of England. The reference to the law of England as the standard for the imposition of fines fixed the legal framework of the licence within the broader system of English statute and common law applicable at the Company's overseas establishments. The provision gave the governor a continuing regulatory authority over the licensed trade, allowing the council to respond to new problems without having to redraft the licence each time.

The signature of the licence by Isaac Pyke as governor, under the seal of the honourable the lords proprietors, marked the formal authority by which the licence was granted. The lords proprietors were the Court of Directors of the honourable Company in London, who held the proprietary rights to the island and whose seal was applied to formal grants of privilege at the establishment.

Speculations

The requirement to buy all arrack from the Company stores perhaps reflected a deeper purpose than the simple maintenance of the wholesale monopoly. The Company's own arrack production at the still recorded in the inventory of 12 April 1715 was probably limited in scale, and the requirement that licensees buy from the Company stores ensured that the still's output had a guaranteed market. The arrangement gave the still a commercial outlet that supported its continued operation, while preventing private importation of arrack from passing ships that might have undercut the Company price. The condition thus protected both the Company's production at the plantation and its wholesale margin on imported supplies.

The strict prohibition on trade or entertainment of blacks at the licensed house perhaps also served a specific purpose in preserving the Company's plantation labour force from the demoralising effects of drink. The 302 slaves of the Company's establishment, recorded under the officers and soldiers in the census of 21 March 1715, formed the principal labour force at the plantation house and the other Company holdings, and any practice that allowed them to spend their leisure hours drinking at licensed houses would have undermined their working capacity. The same applied to the slaves of the planter community, whose labour the planters themselves depended upon. The exclusion of blacks from the licensed trade thus protected the productive capacity of both the Company and the planter holdings.

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422

The Warrant to the Overseers of the High Ways as Followeth, viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena

You Jn[o] Robinson [...] Sutton Isaac Jun[r] Freehold[ers] haveing bin long since chosen Overseers of the High Ways in w[ch] Office you continued y[e] Year 1714 without haveing performd the same which Office you are now hereby required carefully and dilligently to Exxecute and that you may the better and more impartially perform the same hereunto is a List annexed of all the Inhabitants (except such as are in the Hon[ble] Companys Service) and of what Men Slaves each Person hath,

These are therefore in his Majesties Name to Will [...] Require you said John Robinson [...] Sutton Isaake Jun[r] to cause all Persons (both themselves and Blacks) heirein Mentioned to work two Days at the least in mending makeing and Repaireing all such High ways as are needfull [...] necessary to be done, as also all Hills [...] bridges and if any Person or Persons after due warneing by you or either of you, shall absent himself and both not come to work, and send his black or Blacks as aforesaid on such Days as by you shall be appointed then you are to put in the absent Persons room some other man white or Black as you can Hire and such absenting white man for himselfe or his black or Blacks or both shall forthwith repay you such Price or Prices as you shall pay or agree to Pay to such whites or their blacks as you shall hire to work in their place or stead and if any person Defaulter as aforesaid or shall

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Overseers Warr[an]t

[...] or some other ab[l]e p[er]son in [...] room

The warrant to the overseers of the highways followed.

Island St Helena. John Robinson and Sutton Isaake junior, freeholders, had long since been chosen overseers of the highways. In their office they had continued through the year 1714 without having performed the same. They were now hereby required carefully and diligently to execute the office, and so that they might the better and more impartially perform it, hereunto was annexed a list of all the inhabitants (except such as were in the honourable Company's service) and of what men slaves each person had.

They were therefore in His Majesty's name willed and required to cause all persons, both themselves and blacks, mentioned therein to work two days at the least in mending, making and repairing all such highways as were needful and necessary to be done, as also all hills and bridges. If any person or persons, after due warning by them or either of them, should absent himself and both not come to work, and send his black or blacks as aforesaid on such days as by them should be appointed, then they were to put in the absent person's room some other man, white or black, as they could hire. Such absenting white man, for himself or his black or blacks or both, should forthwith repay them the price or prices as they should pay or agree to pay to such whites or their blacks as they should hire to work in their place or stead. If any person defaulter as aforesaid or should

A margin note recorded the matter as Overseers Warrant, with a sideways marginal note giving the alternative formula or some other able person to work.

Interpretations

The warrant to John Robinson and Sutton Isaake junior gave formal effect to the election of overseers of the highways that had been ordered in the advertisement of 13 April 1715 for the parish election to be held on 18 April 1715. The two men had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715, with John Robinson holding 45 acres and 21 head of cattle and Sutton Isaake junior holding 17½ acres and 5 head of cattle. The reference in the warrant to their having been chosen long since indicated that they had been elected to the office in a previous parish meeting, before the present consultation, and had simply failed to perform the duties during 1714. The current warrant therefore not only confirmed their continuation in office but also pressed them to actually carry out the work that they had neglected.

The annexed list of inhabitants and their men slaves provided the operational basis for the highway labour system. The system rested on the conscription of labour from the planter community, with each planter required to contribute himself and his male slaves to two days of road work per year. The exclusion of those in the honourable Company's service from the list reflected the separate obligations of the Company servants under the establishment, who were not subject to parish labour duty.

The two days of labour was the standard English practice for the maintenance of the parish highways, derived from the Highway Act of 1555 which had required each parish to repair its own roads through compulsory labour by the inhabitants. The application of the same principle at St Helena, with the addition of the planters' male slaves as well as the planters themselves, gave the island a working system of road maintenance without the Company having to find the cost out of its revenues.

The substitution clause provided the practical mechanism for enforcement. If any planter failed to attend himself or to send his slaves on the appointed days, the overseers could hire substitute labour at market rates and recover the cost from the defaulting planter. The arrangement converted a duty of personal service into a financial liability that could be enforced against the defaulter, and ensured that the road work would proceed regardless of whether particular planters were present or absent.

The reference to His Majesty's name fixed the legal authority of the warrant within the broader framework of royal authority delegated to the Company. The Company exercised its powers at St Helena under a royal charter, and the parish administration ran in His Majesty's name even though the Company was the proprietor and effective government of the island.

Speculations

The reference to the previous overseers having continued through the year 1714 without performing the duties of the office perhaps reflected a wider failure of parish administration during the period of declining performance that the present council was attempting to reform. The new administration under Pyke had been pursuing a systematic review of the island's administrative practices, evidenced by the inventory of Company stock taken following the death of Edward Mashborne on 31 March 1715, the order of 5 April 1715 requiring the garrison to reckon at the stores, and the present effort to compel the overseers of the highways to actually execute their office. The pattern suggested that the period before the new administration had been marked by a general slackening of parish and administrative discipline that the present council was attempting to restore.

The use of slave labour for the parish highways perhaps reflected a particular adaptation of the English parish system to the conditions of a slave-holding society. The English statute presumed that the labour would be supplied by the inhabitants themselves, with the wealthier providing carts and teams while the poorer worked with their hands. At St Helena, where the planter community was small and the slave population substantial, the system was modified so that the planters supplied not principally their own labour but that of their slaves. The arrangement effectively conscripted the slave labour force of the island for public works while leaving the planters themselves with their administrative role in supervising the work through the overseers' system.

432

423

shell refuse to pay you the[se] Wages of such Person or Persons as you shall hire in their place [...] stead,

You are hereby Impowered to take by distress any goods from such Person or Persons [...] sell the same at Publick Outcry [...] the overplus (if any) to returne to the owners after you are repaid [...] reason[able] charges for w[ch] this shall be your sufficient Warrant,

Given under our hands [...] the Hon[ble] Companys Seal this 15[th] of April 1715 To Jn[o] Robinson [...] Sutton Isaacke Jun[r] These

Isaac Pyke

Matthew Bazett Antipas Tovey.

A List of Whites [...] Blacks that are to work at y[e] Highways or paths too days at least,

Persons names viz[t]

Cap[t] Geo: Haswell Whites: [...] Blacks: 4 Totall: 4

Matthew Bazett Whites: [...] Blacks: 3 Totall: 3

Joshuah Thomlinson Whites: [...] Blacks: 6 Totall: 6

Tho[s] Cason Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Jn[o] Alexander Whites: 1 Blacks: 3 Totall: 4

Tho[s] Southen Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Jn[o] Worrall Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Carried over Whites: 1 Blacks: 21 Totall: 22

Margin Notes:

S [...] L[?]

List of p[er]sons to work.

The warrant continued. If any person should refuse to pay the wages of such person or persons as the overseers should hire in their place and stead, the overseers were hereby empowered to take by distress any goods from such person or persons and to sell the same at public outcry, the overplus, if any, to return to the owners after they were repaid and reasonable charges for the same. This should be their sufficient warrant.

The warrant was given under the hands of the council and the honourable Company's seal on 15 April 1715, addressed to John Robinson and Sutton Isaake junior. It was signed by Isaac Pyke, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey, with a margin mark of S.L. and an unread initial set at the close.

A list followed of whites and blacks that were to work at the highways or paths two days at the least, with the names ranged in three columns of whites, blacks and total.

Captain George Haswell 4 blacks, 4 total

Matthew Bazett 3 blacks, 3 total

Joshua Tomlinson 6 blacks, 6 total

Thomas Cason 2 blacks, 2 total

John Alexander 1 white, 3 blacks, 4 total

Thomas Southern 2 blacks, 2 total

John Worrall 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

Carried over: 1 white, 21 blacks, 22 total

A margin note recorded the matter as List of persons to work.

Interpretations

The closing provisions of the warrant gave the overseers the legal mechanism by which they could compel actual payment by defaulting planters. The power of distress was the standard common law remedy by which an officer with lawful authority could seize the goods of a debtor and sell them at public outcry to recover the debt owed, returning any surplus to the owner after the debt and reasonable charges had been deducted. The provision extended the overseers' practical authority well beyond simple supervision of the road work, giving them effective enforcement powers comparable to those of a sheriff at a public sale. The reference to the warrant itself as sufficient authority for the seizure dispensed with any requirement for a separate writ or order, allowing the overseers to act on their own initiative when a planter refused to pay.

The dating of the warrant on 15 April 1715, two days after the advertisement of 13 April 1715 calling the parish election for 18 April 1715, indicated that the council was not waiting for the new election before pressing the existing overseers to perform their duties. Robinson and Isaake had been the overseers chosen at the previous parish meeting and had failed to execute the office through 1714. The council was now requiring them to carry out the work that they had neglected, regardless of whether the parish meeting of 18 April 1715 might choose different men to replace them. The arrangement protected the work of the spring road repairs from being delayed by the change of officers, while also putting pressure on Robinson and Isaake to perform if they wished to recover their reputation in the parish.

The signature of the warrant by Pyke, Bazett and Tovey but not by Haswell as deputy governor was unusual. Haswell had been recorded as present at every consultation through the present series, including those of 31 March 1715, 1 April 1715, 5 April 1715 and 12 April 1715. His absence from the signatures on the warrant of 15 April 1715, while the other three councillors signed, perhaps indicated that he was away on Company business at the time of the formal sealing, or that he was himself subject to the warrant as one of the inhabitants required to provide slave labour for the highway work.

The list of persons to work attached to the warrant began with Captain George Haswell, the deputy governor himself, who was required to send 4 slaves to the road work. Matthew Bazett, a sitting councillor, was required to send 3. The willingness of the council to include its own members in the list of those required to provide labour gave a particular dignity and impartiality to the warrant, since the senior officers of the island were placed under the same obligation as the ordinary planter community.

Joshua Tomlinson, the reaper of Joshua Tomlinson recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 with 12 slaves, was required to send 6 slaves, or half of his entire slave establishment. John Alexander, the ensign who had appeared in the census with 6 slaves, was required to send 1 white and 3 slaves, with the white perhaps being a hired servant or apprentice. Thomas Cason, the other ensign with 7 slaves, was required to send 2. The figures showed that the labour requirement was scaled to the size of each holding, with the larger slave-owners contributing more than the smaller.

Speculations

The exact ratio of slaves required to total slaves held at each property suggested a deliberate calculation by the overseers to balance the labour requirement against the productive capacity of each holding. Tomlinson at 6 of 12 contributed half, while Haswell at 4 sent perhaps a third of the holding indicated in the earlier returns, and Bazett at 3 of 4 contributed three quarters. The varying ratios perhaps reflected the practical considerations of who could spare which slaves at the season of the year when the road work was to be done, rather than any uniform mathematical formula. The overseers had to take into account the productive needs of each planter holding alongside the demands of the public work.

The use of public outcry as the means of selling distrained goods reflected the standard procedure for sheriff's sales and other forced disposals in the English legal system. The auction was conducted in the open at a public place, with the goods sold to the highest bidder. The practice ensured transparency and protected the owner against any allegation that the goods had been sold below their proper value. The application of the same procedure at St Helena under the highways warrant brought the parish enforcement system into line with the broader legal practices of the English community, giving the overseers a recognised method that planters would understand and accept as legitimate.

433

424

Persons names viz[t]

Brought over Whites: 1 Blacks: 21 Totall: 22

W[m] Slaughter Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

W[m] Porteous Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Jn[o] French Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Jn[o] Goodwin Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

W[m] Worrall Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Sam[l] Jessey Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Isaac Wood Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

W[m] Porkley[?] Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Tho[s] Allis Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Arthur Bradley Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Bagley Whites: 2 Blacks: 1 Totall: 3

Edmund Bodley Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Rob[t] Bell Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

W[m] Beale Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Tho[s] Burnham Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Orlando Bagley Whites: 2 Blacks: 2 Totall: 4

Geo: Carne Whites: 4 Blacks: 8 Totall: 12

Mary Conway Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Cottgraves Orphan Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Jn[o] Coulson Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Jn[o] Coales Whites: 4 Blacks: 2 Totall: 6

Richard Cleave Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

W[m] Coales Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Crossby Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Grace Coulson Whites: [...] Blacks: 2 Totall: 2

Jonathan Doveton Whites: 1 Blacks: 4 Totall: 5

James Draper Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

Tho[s] Free Whites: 2 Blacks: 6 Totall: 8

Henry Francis Whites: 2 Blacks: 5 Totall: 7

Carried over Whites: 28 Blacks: 73 Totall: 101

The list of persons to work continued under the same three columns of whites, blacks and total. The running totals brought over stood at 1 white, 21 blacks, 22 total.

William Slaughter 2 blacks, 2 total

William Porteous 1 black, 1 total

John French 1 black, 1 total

John Goodwin 1 black, 1 total

William Worrall 2 blacks, 2 total

Samuel Pessey 2 blacks, 2 total

Isaac Wood 2 blacks, 2 total

William Portley 1 black, 1 total

Thomas Allis 2 blacks, 2 total

Arthur Bradley 1 white, 1 total

John Bagley 2 whites, 1 black, 3 total

Edmund Bodley 1 white, 1 total

Robert Bell 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

William Beale 1 white, 1 total

Thomas Burnham 1 white, 1 total

Orlando Bagley 2 whites, 2 blacks, 4 total

George Carne 4 whites, 8 blacks, 12 total

Mary Conway 1 black, 1 total

Cotgrove's orphan 1 black, 1 total

John Coulson 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

John Coales 4 whites, 2 blacks, 6 total

Richard Cleave 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

William Coales 1 white, 1 total

John Crossby 1 white, 1 total

Grace Coulson 2 blacks, 2 total

Jonathan Doveton 1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

James Draper 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

Thomas Free 2 whites, 6 blacks, 8 total

Henry Francis 2 whites, 5 blacks, 7 total

Carried over: 28 whites, 73 blacks, 101 total

Interpretations

The continuation of the labour list extended the conscription across the principal planter community of the island, drawing in both whites and slaves. The list reflected the broader social structure of the planter holdings recorded in the census of 21 March 1715, with most of the same names appearing in both returns. The figures of labourers required showed a consistent pattern of scaling the contribution to the size of the holding.

George Carne, recorded in the census with 10 whites and 17 slaves on a holding of 111 acres carrying 46 head of cattle, was required to provide 4 whites and 8 slaves, or roughly half his white household and half his slave establishment. The figures placed Carne at the head of the labour list with the largest individual contribution of 12 persons. The matching of the labour requirement to Carne's substantial holding showed the system operating in proportion to the apparent productive capacity of each planter.

Thomas Free, recorded in the census with 8 whites including white servants and 13 slaves on a 12 acre holding, was required to provide 2 whites and 6 slaves. The high labour ratio relative to the small landholding confirmed the earlier inference that Free's operation rested on intensive cultivation rather than on extensive grazing, with the labour-intensive character of the holding producing a substantial labour contribution to the highway work despite the modest acreage.

The inclusion of widows and orphans in the labour list extended the obligation across the entire planter community. Mary Conway, Grace Coulson, Cotgrove's orphan and Mary Harper (whose name had not yet appeared on this page but was anticipated to follow) each contributed slaves to the work even though they themselves could not be expected to perform manual labour. The principle of the warrant was that the slaves of the holding bore the work, with the planter responsible for sending them, regardless of whether the planter himself was capable of working on the road. The arrangement was consistent with the conscription model in which the slave labour force of the island was being mobilised for public works under the direction of the planter community.

The appearance of William Portley in the labour list at the contribution of 1 black was particularly notable. Portley was the marshal of the island, whose petition for fees had been considered at the consultation of 12 April 1715 and referred for further consideration. His inclusion in the labour list, in the same fashion as the other planters and not under the exemption for those in the honourable Company's service, suggested that his office of marshal was treated as a parish office held by an inhabitant rather than as a Company appointment. The classification placed Portley alongside the planter community in his capacity as a slave-owning inhabitant subject to the parish labour duty.

The appearance of William Worrall at a contribution of 2 blacks was equally interesting, given that Worrall had been appointed overseer of the Company plantations on 5 April 1715. The labour contribution required of him here perhaps reflected his standing as an inhabitant in his own right alongside his Company appointment, with his personal slave establishment subject to the parish duty even though his new office gave him a Company role.

Speculations

The systematic application of the labour ratio across the planter community perhaps reflected a deliberate effort by the council and the overseers to make the burden of the highway work fall as evenly as possible across the island's productive capacity. The variation in ratios between different planters, with some contributing half their establishment and others a smaller share, indicated that the overseers had taken into account the specific circumstances of each holding rather than applying a uniform formula. The careful scaling of the obligations gave the warrant its legitimacy among the planter community, since no planter could complain that he had been singled out for disproportionate burden.

The two whites and six slaves required of Thomas Free, taken together with his census household of 8 whites and 13 slaves on 12 acres, suggested that his operation depended on a high concentration of labour relative to his small acreage. The labour contribution of one quarter of his white labour and nearly half his slave labour to the road work would have been a significant disruption to his daily operations, lasting two days at the height of the working season. The acceptance of such a contribution perhaps reflected the cooperative spirit of the planter community in supporting the parish work, with even those whose operations depended most heavily on continuous labour accepting the temporary withdrawal for the public good.

434

425

Persons names viz[t]

Brought over Whites: 28 Blacks: 73 Totall: 101

Mary Easthope Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Rob[t] Gurling Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

Rich[d] Gurling Whites: 1 Blacks: 4 Totall: 5

Mercy Garben[?] Whites: [...] Blacks: 4 Totall: 4

Jonathan Higham Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Mary Harper Jun[r] Widow Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Isabell Hayes Whites: [...] Blacks: 1 Totall: 1

Joshuah Johnson Whites: 1 Blacks: 6 Totall: 7

Jn[o] Harding Whites: 2 Blacks: [...] Totall: 2

Jn[o] Gibbs Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Sutton Isaacke Sen[r] Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Sutton Isaacke Jun[r] Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Jn[o] Knipe Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

Stephen Lufkin Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Jn[o] Long Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

Francis Leach Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Walter Morrice Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Rob[t] Marsh Whites: 2 Blacks: 3 Totall: 5

Jn[o] Marsh Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jane Mudge Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Nichols Whites: 3 Blacks: 2 Totall: 5

Martin Norman Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Orchard Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Gabriel Powell Whites: 3 Blacks: 6 Totall: 9

Sam[l] Price Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Robinson Whites: 2 Blacks: 2 Totall: 4

Tho[s] Swallow Whites: 2 Blacks: 2 Totall: 4

Carried over Whites: 59 Blacks: 115 Totall: 174

The list of persons to work continued. The running totals brought over stood at 28 whites, 73 blacks, 101 total.

Mary Easthope 1 black, 1 total

Robert Gurling 1 black, 1 total

Richard Gurling 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

Mercy Garben 1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

Jonathan Higham 4 blacks, 4 total

Mary Harper junior, widow 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

Isabel Hayse 1 black, 1 total

Joshua Johnson 1 white, 6 blacks, 7 total

John Harding 2 whites, 2 total

John Gibbs 1 white, 1 total

Sutton Isaake senior 1 black, 1 total

Sutton Isaake junior 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

John Knipe 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

Stephen Lufkin 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

John Long 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

Francis Leach 1 white, 1 total

Walter Morrice 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

Robert Marsh 2 whites, 3 blacks, 5 total

John Marsh 1 black, 1 total

Jane Mudge 1 black, 1 total

John Nichols 3 whites, 2 blacks, 5 total

Martin Norman 1 white, 1 total

John Orchard 1 white, 1 total

Gabriel Powell 3 whites, 6 blacks, 9 total

Samuel Price 1 white, 1 total

John Robinson 2 whites, 2 blacks, 4 total

Thomas Swallow no figures entered

Carried over: 59 whites, 115 blacks, 174 total

Interpretations

The continuation of the labour list extended the conscription through the rest of the planter community recorded in the census of 21 March 1715, with most of the same names appearing in both returns. The widows Mary Easthope, Mary Harper junior, Isabel Hayse, Mercy Garben and Jane Mudge each contributed slaves to the work, the requirement falling on the holding regardless of the sex or age of the head of household.

Robert Gurling, recorded in the census with 4 whites and 3 slaves, was required to contribute 1 slave, a modest portion of his small slave establishment. Richard Gurling, his probable kinsman with 5 whites and 6 slaves on a larger holding of 137 acres, was required to contribute 1 white and 2 slaves. The differing contributions reflected the scaling of the labour requirement to the size of each holding, the smaller Robert Gurling holding being asked for proportionally less than the larger Richard Gurling establishment.

Gabriel Powell, recorded in the census with 7 whites and 17 slaves on the holding that also carried 89 head of cattle on 255 acres, was required to contribute 3 whites and 6 slaves. The figures placed Powell among the heaviest individual contributors to the labour list, alongside George Carne with 12 persons on the previous page. The two together represented the principal commercial planters of the island, and the heaviest labour demand fell appropriately on the largest operations.

The inclusion of Samuel Price at a contribution of 1 white was significant. Price had been the subject of the council's consideration on 12 April 1715, when his demand for fifteen shillings the week had been corrected by reference to the written agreement found among Edward Mashborne's papers fixing the rate at two shillings and sixpence the day. The council had ordered his employment continued for the present quarter while the governor observed his work. His inclusion in the highway labour list as an inhabitant subject to the parish duty perhaps reflected his status as an employed tradesman rather than a Company servant on the strict establishment, with his name appearing alongside the planter community for parish purposes.

The figure entered against Thomas Swallow was not visible in the rendering, perhaps because the line had not yet been completed at the moment the page was scanned, or because the figures had not been entered against his name in the original. Swallow had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 with 5 whites and 3 slaves on a holding of 71 acres carrying 21 head of cattle, suggesting that some contribution from his establishment would have been required.

Stephen Lufkin appeared in the list at a contribution of 1 white and 1 slave. The Lufkin name had also appeared in the inventory of 12 April 1715 in the description of Lufkins as one of the three places where Company household goods were kept, alongside the new and old plantation house. The recurrence of the name in three separate contexts within the present series of consultations - the census, the inventory and the labour list - confirmed Lufkin's settled presence in the island's affairs as both a small planter and a contractual partner of the Company.

Speculations

The combined running total of 59 whites and 115 blacks brought to 174 persons through the two pages of the labour list, with further names still to appear, perhaps reflected the total planter workforce that the overseers expected to mobilise for the two days of road work. The figure represented a substantial concentration of labour for a specific task, even spread across the island's various holdings. The careful enumeration of each planter's contribution against his name in the list gave the overseers a working document by which they could check the actual attendance against the obligation, and identify defaulters for the application of the distress procedure set out in the warrant of 15 April 1715.

The recurrence of widows and surviving dependants in the labour list, alongside the named planter households, perhaps reflected a deliberate refusal by the council to exempt vulnerable households from the parish duty. The principle was that the productive labour of the holding bore the work, not the personal labour of the planter or his family. By including the widows and orphans in the list at the level of their slave establishment, the overseers preserved the equal application of the duty across the island and prevented the labour from falling more heavily on the male-headed households than on those headed by women.

435

426

Persons names viz[t]

Brought over Whites: 59 Blacks: 115 Totall: 174

Richard Swallow Whites: 4 Blacks: 7 Totall: 11

W[m] Seale[?] Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Giles Smith Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Peter Sinsnick Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Jn[o] Sirsnick[?] Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Margaret Sich[?] Whites: [...] Blacks: 3 Totall: 3

Godfrey Shoales Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

John Twaites Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

James Vesey Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

Cipin[?] Wills Whites: 1 Blacks: 2 Totall: 3

Francis Wrangham Whites: 1 Blacks: 4 Totall: 5

Simon Whaley Whites: 1 Blacks: 1 Totall: 2

James Greentree Whites: 2 Blacks: 5 Totall: 7

Rob[t] Angus Whites: 1 Blacks: [...] Totall: 1

Totals: Whites: 76 Blacks: 140 Totall: 216

[signatures]

Antipas Tovey

The list of persons to work continued. The running totals brought over stood at 59 whites, 115 blacks, 174 total.

Richard Swallow 4 whites, 7 blacks, 11 total

William Beale 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

Giles Smith 1 white, 1 total

Peter Sinsnick 1 white, 1 total

John Sinsnick 1 white, 1 total

Margaret Sikes 3 blacks, 3 total

Godfrey Shoales 1 white, 1 total

John Thwaites 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

James Vesey 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

Ripin Wills 1 white, 2 blacks, 3 total

Francis Wrangham 1 white, 4 blacks, 5 total

Simon Whaley 1 white, 1 black, 2 total

James Greentree 2 whites, 5 blacks, 7 total

Robert Angus 1 white, 1 total

Closing totals: 76 whites, 140 blacks, 216 total.

The list was signed by Antipas Tovey, secretary.

Interpretations

The closing portion of the labour list brought the conscription to a head with a final cluster of names from the planter community, completing the conscription of the parish workforce for the year's road repairs. The closing total of 76 whites and 140 blacks, or 216 persons in all, represented the workforce that the overseers were to mobilise for two days of work at the highways under the warrant of 15 April 1715.

Richard Swallow contributed the largest single quota on the closing page, at 4 whites and 7 blacks for a total of 11 persons. Swallow had been recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 with 14 whites and 8 slaves on his holding, and his contribution of 4 whites and 7 blacks to the labour list represented a substantial share of his establishment. His petition of 12 April 1715 for fifty pounds credit at the Company stores had been granted on bond the day before the warrant was issued, and the present labour contribution fell on him in his capacity as a substantial planter regardless of his current financial position with the Company.

Margaret Sikes contributed 3 blacks, drawn from the 15 slaves recorded in her household in the census. Her appearance as a substantial slave-owner without any white labour contribution reflected the structure of her holding as that of a widow managing a slave establishment for productive purposes. The labour contribution was apportioned entirely to her slave force, since she had no adult male white labour to send.

James Greentree contributed 2 whites and 5 blacks for a total of 7 persons. Greentree had been recorded in the census with 12 whites and 7 slaves on a modest holding of 31 acres carrying 5 head of cattle. He had also appeared as one of the three executors of Robert Leach in the petition of 12 April 1715, alongside Richard Gurling and Jonathan Doveton. His substantial labour contribution to the highway work reflected his standing as one of the more active planters of the island.

William Beale appeared on this closing page with a contribution of 1 white and 1 black, although his name had already appeared on the second page of the list at the same figures. The repetition perhaps reflected an error of the clerk in entering the name twice, or it may indicate that there were two persons of the same name in the planter community both required to contribute. The earlier appearance of the name in the census of 21 March 1715 had given William Beale a household of 7 whites and no slaves, which did not match either entry on the present list, suggesting that the labour list and the census did not always agree precisely.

The signature of the labour list by Antipas Tovey as secretary, closing the warrant and the list together, completed the formal documentation of the highway work for the year. As secretary, Tovey held the responsibility for the actual drafting of council documents and the maintenance of the books, and his signature gave the list its formal validity as a parish working document.

Speculations

The total labour mobilisation of 216 persons across the parish, comprising 76 whites and 140 blacks, perhaps reflected the council's calculation of what would be required to complete the necessary highway repairs in the two days allotted for the work. The roads, bridges and hill paths of the island required substantial labour to maintain against the heavy rains and erosion of the steep terrain, and a workforce of over two hundred could accomplish in two concentrated days what would otherwise have taken much longer with smaller numbers. The conscription model gave the parish an effective method of mobilising labour for a specific limited purpose without requiring continuing employment or wages.

The ratio of 140 blacks to 76 whites in the conscription, with the slave labour making up nearly two-thirds of the total, perhaps reflected the broader composition of the island's working labour force and the structural dependence of the planter community on slave labour for heavy outdoor work. The whites contributed represented a smaller portion of the white population, with many heads of household excluded from the manual labour and contributing only their slaves. The pattern confirmed the role of the slave labour force as the principal source of productive work on the island, with the white inhabitants exercising supervisory and managerial roles rather than performing the manual labour themselves.

436

427

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 19 April 1715 at the United Castle in James['] Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[or] Geo: Haswell Dep[uty] Matt[hew] Bazett [...] In the Antipas Tovey } Country

The Church Warden brought in the following Report viz[t]

Parish Officers nominated by the Majority of Votes for the Year 1715,

For the West Side James Greentree James Veasey } Church Wardens

East Side Jn[o] Twaits Rob[t] Bell } Ditto

West Side Stephen Lufkin Rich[d] Swallow Jun[r] } Surveyors

East Side Tho[s] Burnham Tho[s] Allis } Ditto

for y[e] new Path Gabriel Powell W[m] Worrall } D[o]

Ordered

That M[r] James Greentree [...] John Twaits be Church Wardens for the Ensueing Year [...] Stephen Lufkin [...] Tho[s] Burnham Surveyors for the Country [...] that whereas at the Sessions Cap[t]

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Parrish Officers Chossen

Off[ic]r[s] App[ointe]d[?]

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Tuesday 19 April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey. A note recorded that Pyke, Haswell and Bazett were in the country.

The churchwarden brought in the following report. The parish officers had been nominated by the majority of votes for the year 1715.

For churchwardens:

West side: James Greentree James Vesey

East side: John Thwaites Robert Bell

For surveyors:

West side: Stephen Lufkin Richard Swallow junior

East side: Thomas Burnham Thomas Allis

For the new path: Gabriel Powell William Worrall

The council ordered that Mr James Greentree and John Thwaites be churchwardens for the ensuing year, and Stephen Lufkin and Thomas Burnham be surveyors for the country, and that whereas at the [...]

Margin notes recorded the matter as Parish officers chosen, with subordinate notations for the West side, East side and for the new path. A further marginal note recorded the matter as Officers appointed.

Interpretations

The consultation gave effect to the parish election that had been called by the advertisement of 13 April 1715, ordered at the meeting of 12 April 1715. The election had been held on Monday 18 April 1715 at the country church as appointed, and the churchwarden had brought the results to the council on the following day, Tuesday 19 April 1715, exactly as the advertisement had required.

The election had returned eight candidates for the offices of churchwarden and surveyor of the highways (described in the present minute as surveyors rather than overseers, the two terms being used interchangeably for the same office). The candidates had been nominated by district, with two for each side of the island for churchwardens and two for each side for surveyors. The new path had a separate pair of nominees, perhaps indicating a new road or track that required particular oversight beyond the regular east and west divisions of the island.

The structure of the nomination by district reflected the geographical division of the island administration. The west side covered the leeward part of the island, including the main settlement at James Valley and the western planter holdings. The east side covered the windward part of the island, including the upper plantation country and the holdings towards Sandy Bay. The division ensured that each part of the island had its own resident officers familiar with the local roads and parish affairs.

The council exercised its right of selection from the four candidates returned for each office, choosing James Greentree and John Thwaites as churchwardens out of the four nominated. The choice picked one nominee from the west side (Greentree) and one from the east side (Thwaites), ensuring that both halves of the island had representation among the churchwardens.

For the surveyors of the highways, the council chose Stephen Lufkin and Thomas Burnham, again picking one from each side, with Lufkin representing the west side and Burnham the east side. The selection of Lufkin connected to the Lufkin name already noted in the inventory of 12 April 1715 as one of the three holdings where Company household goods were stored, and to Stephen Lufkin himself in the labour list of 15 April 1715 as a planter required to send 1 white and 1 slave to the highway work. His elevation from a contributor to the work to an officer responsible for organising it represented a recognition by the council of his standing in the parish.

The figures elected for the new path, Gabriel Powell and William Worrall, perhaps were left to a different appointment process or to a later decision by the council. Powell had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 and the labour list of 15 April 1715 as the largest planter on the island. Worrall had been appointed overseer of the Company plantations on 5 April 1715, and his nomination for the new path office reflected his standing as a recognised Company servant familiar with the working of the country.

The displacement of the existing overseers John Robinson and Sutton Isaake junior, who had been the subject of the warrant of 15 April 1715 requiring them to perform the duties they had neglected, perhaps reflected the failure of those two men to satisfy the council and the parish electorate during their previous year in office. The new surveyors elected for the present year were drawn from different planters, with the existing pair not appearing among the nominees. The council's earlier order requiring Robinson and Isaake to carry out the road work had thus been an interim measure pending the parish meeting, which now installed a new team to carry the responsibility forward.

Speculations

The selection by the council of one churchwarden and one surveyor from each side of the island, while declining to appoint both nominees from either side, perhaps reflected a deliberate policy of balancing the parish administration geographically. The council was at pains to avoid favouring one part of the island over the other in the distribution of parish offices, and the consistent picking of one nominee from each side gave each district a stake in the parish administration. The arrangement also placed responsibility for the roads and the church in the hands of officers who had practical knowledge of their own side of the island, while requiring them to cooperate on parish-wide matters.

The presence of a separate office for the new path, with its own two nominees, perhaps indicated a particular road construction project under way during the year, distinct from the regular highway maintenance assigned to the surveyors of the east and west sides. The selection of Powell and Worrall for this office reflected the technical complexity or political importance of the new path, since both men carried particular standing in the parish - Powell as the largest planter and Worrall as the newly appointed overseer of Company plantations. The path may have been a new road from the upper country down to James Valley, or a new track to a particular plantation needed for the management of Company business.

437

428

Cap[t] Mashborne and M[r] Powell proposed to stand overseers of the Roads that lead to the Fort and it has pleased God since to take away the said Cap[t] Mashborne tis ordered that W[m] Worrall be appointed overseer w[i]th the said Gabriel Powell.

Upon Complaint of M[r] Price the Surgeon that Murdoe the Companys black was continually following the Black Women in all parts of the Country and is not only caught but dispersed a distemper among them and also complained that Jn[o] Batavia who was formerly put in Irons for such like facts as well as for Pilfering does continue notwithstan[d]ing his wearing Sheckles to follow the Black wenches [...] infect them with an unclean distemper [...] is now runn away the Overseers of the Companys Plantations haveing also complain[d] to the Govern[r] that they cannot w[i]th any moderate Correction keep either of them fellows from the women,

The Govern[r] therefore reports that Jn[o] Batavia who is runn away being in Irons already w[ch] is not Sufficient to recclaim him [...] the other haveing lately run away [...] deserted all his usuall Employment w[ch] was to fish, the Gov[r] did cause him Yesterday to be apprehended [...] put in Irons [...] does think it very proper to prevent their Lewdness [...] the Infectious distempers proceeding from it that the said two black slaves Murdoe now in Custody [...] Batavia as soon as he is taken may be fettered togeather with a Chain of ab[ou]t six foot long as the Custom of the Dutch at

Margin Notes:

Surg[eo]ns Complt: ab[ou]t a black

ab[ou]t Jn[o] Bata[via]

The minute continued. Captain Mashborne and Mr Powell had previously been proposed to stand overseers of the roads that led to the fort. It had pleased God since to take away the said Captain Mashborne. The council therefore ordered that William Worrall be appointed overseer with the said Gabriel Powell.

Upon complaint of Mr Price, the surgeon, the council heard that Murdoc, the Company's black slave, had been continually following the black women in all parts of the country, and had not only been caught but had also dispersed a distemper among them. Price also complained that John Batavia, who had formerly been put in irons for such facts as well as for pilfering, had continued notwithstanding his wearing shackles to follow the black wenches and infect them with an unclean distemper, and had now run away. The overseers of the Company's plantations had also complained to the governor that they could not, with any moderate correction, keep either of them fellows from the women.

The governor therefore reported that John Batavia, who had run away being in irons already, was not sufficient to reclaim him. The other, Murdoc, having lately run away and deserted all his usual employment, which had been to fish, the governor had caused him to be apprehended yesterday and put in irons. He thought it very proper to prevent their lewdness and the infectious distemper proceeding from it, that the two black slaves, Murdoc now in custody and Batavia as soon as he was taken, might be fettered together with a chain of about six foot long, as the custom of the Dutch at

Margin notes recorded the matter as the surgeon's complaint about a black, with a further notation about John Batavia.

Interpretations

The first portion of the minute resolved the appointment of Worrall as overseer of the roads leading to the fort. The earlier proposal had paired Edward Mashborne with Gabriel Powell for this office, but Mashborne had died on 31 March 1715 as recorded in the consultation of that date. The vacancy left by Mashborne's death was now filled by Worrall, who had been appointed overseer of the Company plantations on 5 April 1715 and had been one of the two nominees for the new path on the present consultation day. The arrangement gave Worrall a continuing expansion of his responsibilities, from the Company plantations to the roads leading to the fort, consolidating in him the principal Company-related parish offices.

The substantive matter brought before the council was a complaint by the surgeon William Porteous (referred to here as Mr Price, but the census of 21 March 1715 had recorded the surgeon as William Porteous; the present reference may be an error of the clerk for Porteous, or it may be a different surgeon by the name of Price arrived since the census). The complaint addressed the sexual conduct of two of the Company's male slaves, named Murdoc and John Batavia, and their spreading of a venereal disease among the slave women of the island.

The complaint set out a serious public health and social order problem. Murdoc was described as continually following the black women across the country and dispersing the distemper among them. Batavia had been previously put in irons for similar conduct and for pilfering, but had continued his behaviour despite the shackles, and had now run away. The overseers of the Company plantations had also complained that no moderate correction could keep either man from pursuing the women.

The phrase unclean distemper denoted a venereal disease, perhaps syphilis or gonorrhoea, both of which had been brought to the island through the contact with ships' crews and passengers from a wide range of ports. The infection of multiple slave women through the pursuit of two known carriers represented a serious epidemiological problem for the Company, since the slave labour force was the productive engine of the Company plantations and any widespread illness among the women would reduce their working capacity and their value.

The governor's proposed solution, that the two slaves should be fettered together with a chain of about six foot long, drew on the practice of the Dutch establishments in the East Indies. The arrangement would force the two men to remain in physical proximity at all times, with each restraining the movements of the other. The shared chain would prevent either from escaping into the country to pursue the women, since neither could move without the other's cooperation, and the practical difficulty of two men attempting to seduce women while chained together would deter sexual activity altogether. The reference to the custom of the Dutch indicated that the council was drawing on the practical experience of the Dutch East India Company's slave management, perhaps as reported by ship captains or by Dutch travellers calling at the island.

The fact that Batavia had previously been put in irons and had continued his conduct showed that lighter punishments had failed to control his behaviour. The escalation to a paired chain of six foot length represented a more severe restraint, designed to make the conduct physically impossible rather than merely painful or inconvenient.

Speculations

The reference to the surgeon as Mr Price perhaps reflected a change in the medical establishment of the island since the census of 21 March 1715, with William Porteous being replaced or supplemented by a new surgeon by the name of Price. The name was distinct from Samuel Price the shoemaker and leather tanner whose contract had been considered on 12 April 1715. If the new surgeon was indeed a distinct Price, his recent arrival on the island had given him the immediate task of identifying and reporting on the unclean distemper among the slave population, perhaps as one of his first significant interventions in the medical affairs of the establishment.

The naming of the second slave as John Batavia, with Batavia being the Dutch colonial city in the East Indies, perhaps reflected the origin of the slave from a Dutch slave purchase at that port. The Company purchased slaves from a variety of sources including Madagascar, the Guinea coast, India and the Dutch East Indies. A slave named after his point of origin would have been one who came through the Dutch trade rather than through the Company's own direct purchase at Madagascar. The mixed origin of the slave population at St Helena gave the island a workforce drawn from across the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, with the cultural and linguistic differences between slaves of different origins sometimes complicating the management of the slave establishment.

438

429

at Batavia is w[i]th their Refractory Slaves w[ch] he hopes will hinder their rambling about the Countrey they being then as fitt to work in the Garden as any other Slaves are,

Ordered

That the said two slaves be so chained together,

The Gov[r] reports that he committed Sam[l] Allgate Corporal last Friday for leaveing open the back Gates all night it being his duty to shutt it and had ordered his attending the Council this day but there being no more present he is obliged to deferr it till another time,

M[r] Gabriel Powell [...] Richard Gurling haveing on the 11[th] of March proffered to sell one Hundred [...] fifty thousand Yams to the Hon[ble] Company [...] also two blacks p[er] ten beefs w[i]th twenty hoggs [...] some Goats w[ch] was referred to the Gov[r] Cap[t]e Mashborne [...] M[r] Bazett but Cap[t] Mashborne being then sick and since dead they Did not Do any thing therein and last Council day M[r] Powell came to desire an answer and then the Gov[r] undertaking to Enquire against next Tuesday[...] how the Companys Yams stood does find that we have at the Hutts Plantation two Hundred and Eighty four thousand Yams planted of them will be fitt to digg next August w[ch] the Gov[r] does therefore now report [...] will bring in at the next Consultation what Yams we have any where else and when fitt to digg that we may not buy Yams to the Hon[ble] Comp[any]

Margin Notes:

Their punishm[en]t

Allgate Comitted

ab[ou]t Provis[i]ons afor[esai]d

Gov[r] [...] Answer.

The minute continued. At Batavia, this was done with their refractory slaves, which the governor hoped would hinder them from rambling about the country, they being then as fit to work in the garden as any other slaves were.

The council ordered that the two slaves be so chained together.

The governor reported that he had committed Samuel Allgate, corporal, last Friday for leaving open the back gate all night. It being his duty to shut it, the governor had ordered his attending the council this day, but there being no more present, he was obliged to defer it till another time.

Mr Gabriel Powell and Richard Gurling, having on 11 March, proffered to sell one hundred and fifty thousand yams to the honourable Company, and also two blacks, ten beeves, twenty hogs and some goats. The matter had been referred to the governor, Captain Mashborne and Mr Bazett. Captain Mashborne being then sick and since dead, they had not done any thing therein. Last consultation day Mr Powell had come to desire an answer, and then the governor, undertaking to enquire against next Tuesday how the Company's yams stood, found that there were at the Hutts plantation two hundred and eighty four thousand yams planted, of which one hundred thousand of them would be fit to dig next August. The governor therefore now reported and would bring in at the next consultation what yams were planted any where else, and when they would be fit to dig, so that the council might not buy yams to the honourable Company's

Margin notes recorded the matter as their punishment, Allgate committed, about provision offered, and the governor's answer.

Interpretations

The conclusion of the matter concerning the two slaves Murdoc and John Batavia gave effect to the governor's proposal for their joint chaining. The reference to Batavia as the source of the practice confirmed the Dutch East Indies origin of the disciplinary technique, and the governor's reasoning was that the men would remain fit for garden work even while chained together, the restraint being on their movement about the country rather than on their physical labour. The order of the council adopted the proposal without further discussion, indicating that the council was satisfied with the practical justification offered by the governor.

The committal of Samuel Allgate, corporal, for leaving the back gate of the castle open all night raised a separate disciplinary matter. Allgate had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 in a small household of two whites, with his rank given as corporal. His duty to shut the gate was an important security function, and leaving it open all night exposed the castle to unauthorised entry. The governor had committed him to confinement on the previous Friday and had intended to have him attend the council on the present consultation day, but the matter was deferred because there were no more councillors present. The reference to no more present apparently referred to the absence of additional councillors beyond the four already listed at the head of the minute, suggesting that the deferral was due to the council being below quorum for hearing the case rather than to any actual absence from the meeting.

The substantive matter of the provisions offered by Gabriel Powell and Richard Gurling on 11 March 1715 brought back into the council's attention a transaction that had been delayed by Edward Mashborne's illness and death. The two planters had offered to sell to the Company a substantial parcel of provisions: 150,000 yams, two slaves, 10 cattle (beeves), 20 hogs and some goats. The offer was a major commercial transaction representing perhaps the largest single private provisioning offer to the Company recorded in the present series of consultations.

The reference to the consultation of 11 March 1715, when the offer was first made, placed the offer before the present series of consultations following Mashborne's death of 31 March 1715. The matter had been referred to the governor, Captain Mashborne and Matthew Bazett, but Mashborne's illness and subsequent death had prevented any decision. The matter had now to be reopened with William Worrall replacing Mashborne in the practical role of plantation overseer, and the governor was undertaking to establish the Company's own current yam position before responding to the offer.

The governor's investigation of the Company's yam stocks revealed substantial existing plantings. At the Hutts plantation alone, 284,000 yams were planted, of which 100,000 would be fit to dig in August. The figure of 100,000 fit for August at the Hutts matched exactly the figure recorded in the inventory of 12 April 1715 of 100,000 yam suckers planted at the Hutts since 8 July 1714, suggesting that the August harvest would draw on the planting of the previous year. The remaining 184,000 yams at the Hutts were perhaps at earlier stages of growth and would mature in subsequent months.

The governor's intention to report on yams planted elsewhere at the next consultation, before deciding on the Powell and Gurling offer, showed a careful approach to the commercial decision. The council was reluctant to commit to buying 150,000 yams from the planters if the Company's own stocks would shortly produce a larger quantity from the plantation. The investigation aimed to establish whether the Company actually needed the offered yams, and at what point they would be required, before committing to the purchase.

Speculations

The substantial size of the provisions offer from Powell and Gurling, at 150,000 yams alone, perhaps reflected a deliberate effort by two of the larger planters to dispose of accumulated stocks to the Company at a fixed price rather than selling piecemeal to individual buyers. Powell had been recorded in the census of 21 March 1715 with 17 slaves and the largest cattle holding of 89 head on 255 acres, while Gurling had held 6 slaves with 24 head of cattle on 137 acres. The two together commanded substantial productive capacity, and the offer of 150,000 yams, 10 cattle, 20 hogs and some goats represented a coordinated marketing effort by them, perhaps stimulated by the arrival of homeward shipping that would need to be victualled. The Company's careful response, with the governor investigating the existing stocks before committing to purchase, reflected the council's awareness that accepting the offer at the wrong moment could leave the Company with surplus provisions or could undermine the planning of the plantation's own crop.

The reference to the planters offering two slaves alongside the produce perhaps indicated that the trade in slaves between planters and the Company continued as a regular commercial transaction at the island. The slaves offered would have been part of the planters' existing establishments, perhaps surplus to current requirements or being sold off for other reasons. The Company's willingness to buy slaves from the planters, alongside its imports through the Madagascar trade, gave the planter community a market for their slave property and a means of converting slaves into ready value when needed.

439

430

at Batavia is w[i]th their Refractory Slaves w[ch] he hopes will hinder their rambling about the Countrey they being then as fitt to work in the Garden as any other Slaves are,

Ordered

That the said two slaves be so chained together,

The Gov[r] reports that he committed Sam[l] Allgate Corporal last Friday for leaveing open the back Gates all night it being his duty to shutt it and had ordered his attending the Council this day but there being no more present he is obliged to deferr it till another time,

M[r] Gabriel Powell [...] Richard Gurling haveing on the 11[th] of March proffered to sell one Hundred [...] fifty thousand Yams to the Hon[ble] Company [...] also two blacks p[er] ten beefs w[i]th twenty hoggs [...] some Goats w[ch] was referred to the Gov[r] Cap[t]e Mashborne [...] M[r] Bazett but Cap[t] Mashborne being then sick and since dead they Did not Do any thing therein and last Council day M[r] Powell came to desire an answer and then the Gov[r] undertaking to Enquire against next Tuesday[...] how the Companys Yams stood does find that we have at the Hutts Plantation two Hundred and Eighty four thousand Yams planted of them will be fitt to digg next August w[ch] the Gov[r] does therefore now report [...] will bring in at the next Consultation what Yams we have any where else and when fitt to digg that we may not buy Yams to the Hon[ble] Comp[any]

Margin Notes:

Their punishm[en]t

Allgate Comitted

ab[ou]t Provis[i]ons afor[esai]d

Gov[r] [...] Answer.

The minute continued. The Company's prejudice would arise there being one hundred and ninety eight thousand yams already offered last November by many poor people towards the payment of their debts, who had no other way to pay, and the honourable Company must take them or nothing.

The governor reported that he had committed Samuel Allgate, corporal, for leaving open the castle gate as aforesaid in the night time, and that he intended to punish him for the same. The governor said he would be stricter with him in this case because the said Allgate in other matters was a very extravagant fellow. Although Allgate was possessed of one cow and one calf, he had killed his calf to be merry and have a drunken bout, not regarding the scarcity of cattle upon the island.

The minute was signed by Antipas Tovey.

A margin note recorded the matter as Allgate's punishment and for what.

Interpretations

The first portion of the minute completed the governor's report on the yam situation by reference to a substantial earlier offer of yams from a different quarter. In November 1714, many poor people of the island had offered 198,000 yams to the Company towards the payment of their debts. These were planters who owed money to the Company stores and had no other means of payment, so the Company faced the practical choice of accepting the yams or recovering nothing at all on the debts. The figure of 198,000 yams from this earlier offer, taken together with the 284,000 yams planted at the Hutts plantation, gave the Company access to nearly half a million yams from the existing arrangements alone, without considering the further 150,000 offered by Powell and Gurling on 11 March 1715. The accumulated supply explained the council's caution in responding to the Powell and Gurling offer, since accepting it would have created a substantial surplus of yams that the Company could not consume.

The reference to the poor people having no other way to pay marked a fundamental aspect of the credit relations between the Company stores and the planter community. The stores extended credit to planters who could not pay cash, with the debts recorded on the planter's running account. When the planter came to settle the account, payment was made not in cash but in produce - yams, cattle, hogs, goats, fowls or other plantation output. The Company stores thus functioned as a barter mechanism between the planter community and the Company establishment, with the stores supplying European goods on credit and accepting island produce in return. The arrangement was efficient for both parties since the island had limited circulation of cash and the Company had a continuing need for fresh provisions for the garrison and the homeward shipping.

The committal of Samuel Allgate for leaving the castle gate open at night opened the disciplinary matter that the governor had reported earlier in the consultation. The governor now explained that he intended to take a stricter view of Allgate's conduct than might otherwise have been the case, because Allgate had a record of extravagant behaviour beyond the present offence. The governor cited the killing of Allgate's own calf for a drunken celebration as evidence of the extravagant character. Allgate was possessed of only one cow and one calf, and to kill the calf for amusement rather than preserving it for breeding or for sale showed both poor judgment and a disregard for the scarcity of cattle upon the island. The closing reference to the scarcity of cattle upon the island connected the disciplinary matter to the broader provisioning concerns of the establishment, with cattle a strategic resource for the supply of the homeward shipping that should not be casually slaughtered.

The intent of the governor to deal more severely with Allgate because of his prior character marked a particular approach to discipline that combined the present offence with the overall pattern of conduct. The same physical act of leaving the gate open might be excused or lightly punished in a man of otherwise good standing, but in Allgate the same act formed part of a wider record of irresponsibility that warranted a stricter response. The principle balanced the immediate offence against the man's general conduct as known to the governor.

The signature of the minute by Antipas Tovey as secretary closed the consultation of 19 April 1715. As secretary, Tovey held the clerical responsibility for the maintenance of the council's records and signed each minute as a record of its accurate entry into the books.

Speculations

The killing of Allgate's calf for a drunken celebration perhaps reflected a wider pattern of disorder in the lower garrison ranks that the new administration under Pyke was attempting to address. The earlier disciplinary matters of the present series of consultations, including the dispute with Sergeant Fairfax over duty payments of 12 April 1715 and the present case of Allgate, formed part of a broader effort to restore order and economic discipline at the establishment. The governor's stricter response to Allgate was perhaps intended not only to punish the individual conduct but to send a signal to the wider garrison about the standards of behaviour expected. The reference to the scarcity of cattle, in particular, framed Allgate's offence as an act against the broader interests of the island establishment rather than as merely a personal indulgence.

The combined picture of yam supply emerging from the consultation, with 482,000 yams from existing sources before considering the new offer, perhaps reflected a deliberate Company policy of building substantial yam reserves on the island. The yam was the staple food of the slave population, both at the Company plantation and at the planter holdings, and a substantial reserve provided security against the failure of a single season's crop and against the disruption of supply by weather or disease. The Company's apparent over-supply position in the present moment was the planned outcome of the accumulated planting programme, with the surplus available to supply homeward shipping and to maintain the slave population through any future shortage.

440

431

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 26 day of April 1715 At the United Castle In James Valley

Pres[ent] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[or] Geo: Haswell Dep[uty] Matthew Bazett [...] in the Antipas Tovey } Country

Henry Harmon Gardiner, being catcht carrying wood out of the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] Garden into the Town w[ch] he had stoln from thence,

Ordered

That he be Imediately tyd to the Flagg Staff and have forty lashes

M[r] Worrall the overseer at the Plantation house brought in the foll[owing] acco[t] That the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] as soon as the wett season is over will have Yams fitt to Digg,

At Lufkins 18,600

Tibbills gutt 5,000

Coles Gutt 70,000

Perkins's 70,000

w[ch] is in all 163,600

The hundred thousand reported the last Council day to the Hutts makes in the whole two hundred sixty three thousand six hundred [...] before these can be expended the Yams bought by the Gov[r] and Cap[t]: Mashborne in Tomstone Wood the 19[th] Octob[er] last will be also fitt to digg and they are in Number Sixty Six thousand So that he concludes that when ever we do begin to digg the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] yams w[ch] will be at latest August next That it cant be for the Interest

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Harmon the Gardener, Punished

Acc[oun]t of Comp[any]s Provisions

Island St Helena.

A consultation was held on Tuesday 26 April 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley. Present were Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, with George Haswell, deputy, Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey. A note recorded that Pyke, Haswell and Bazett were in the country.

Henry Harmon, gardener, had been caught carrying wood out of the honourable Company's garden into the town, which he had stolen from thence.

The council ordered that he be immediately tied to the flagstaff and have forty lashes.

Mr Worrall, the overseer at the plantation house, brought in the following account. The honourable Company, as soon as the wet season was over, would have yams fit to dig.

Quantity of Company provisions:

At Lufkins 18,600

Tibbills Gut 5,000

Coles Gut 70,000

Perkins's 70,000

Which made in all 163,600. The one hundred thousand reported the last council day to be at the Hutts made in the whole two hundred sixty three thousand six hundred. Before these could be expended, the yams bought by the governor and Captain Mashborne in Tombstone Wood on 19 October last would also be fit to dig, and they were in number sixty six thousand. The overseer concluded that whenever the council should begin to dig the honourable Company's yams, it would be at latest August next. It could not be for the interest

Margin notes recorded the matter as Harmon the gardener punished, and as quantity of Company provisions.

Interpretations

The summary punishment of Henry Harmon, gardener, for stealing wood from the Company garden showed the immediate exercise of the council's disciplinary authority over the establishment's servants. The Company garden referred to the cultivated ground attached to the plantation house, recorded in the inventory of 12 April 1715 as carrying the seed stocks of clover and other introduced crops, and worked by gardeners employed directly by the Company. Wood for fuel was a valuable commodity at the island given the limited supply of timber, and pilferage of wood from the Company's grounds amounted to theft of Company property. The penalty of forty lashes at the flagstaff was the standard corporal punishment for theft and minor offences at the establishment, applied in this case immediately upon the offence being established.

The report from William Worrall as overseer of the plantation house continued the matter of the yam stocks that had been opened at the consultation of 19 April 1715. Worrall had been appointed to that office at the consultation of 5 April 1715 in succession to Edward Mashborne who had died on 31 March 1715, and the present report was his first detailed presentation to the council of the Company's standing provisions position.

The report identified yam plantings at four further sites beyond the 100,000 yams at the Hutts already reported on 19 April 1715. Lufkins held 18,600 yams, Tibbills Gut held 5,000, Coles Gut held 70,000 and Perkins's held 70,000, making 163,600 yams in addition to the 100,000 at the Hutts. The combined Company stock of yams thus stood at 263,600 ready for digging when the wet season ended. The reference to Lufkins as a yam planting site connected to the recurring presence of the Lufkin holding in the present series of consultations: it had appeared in the inventory of 12 April 1715 as one of the three holdings where Company household goods were stored, and Stephen Lufkin had been elected surveyor of the highways for the west side at the consultation of 19 April 1715. The recurrence of the Lufkin name in three distinct contexts confirmed the close working relationship between the Lufkin holding and the Company establishment.

The reference to yams bought by the governor and Captain Mashborne in Tombstone Wood on 19 October last reached back to a transaction conducted six months earlier under the previous arrangement of council responsibilities, when Mashborne had still been alive and active in the management of the plantation. The 66,000 yams bought at Tombstone Wood would be fit to dig before the existing stocks of 263,600 were expended, giving the Company a total accessible supply of nearly 330,000 yams to draw on over the coming months. The reference to Tombstone Wood as the place of purchase identified a planter holding by that name, perhaps so called from a feature of the ground or from a particular memorial on the holding.

Worrall's conclusion that the Company's yams would be ready for digging at latest August next provided the council with the precise timing information needed to respond to the outstanding offer from Gabriel Powell and Richard Gurling. The 150,000 yams offered by the planters on 11 March 1715 would have to compete with the Company's own yams becoming available in August. The council was therefore in a position to refuse the planter offer or to negotiate on price, knowing that the Company's own production would shortly meet its requirements.

Speculations

The investment of summary judicial authority in the council, exercised immediately at the consultation against Harmon the gardener, perhaps reflected the practical limits of formal legal process at a small overseas establishment. A more elaborate procedure of trial and judgment would have been impractical for an offence of pilferage from the Company garden, and the council functioned as both legislature and bench for such matters. The flogging of forty lashes at the flagstaff was administered in public, in the open ground before the castle, both as punishment for the offence and as deterrent example to others among the garrison and the servants of the establishment.

The orderly division of the Company's yam stock across multiple separate plantings - the Hutts, Lufkins, Tibbills Gut, Coles Gut, Perkins's and Tombstone Wood - perhaps reflected a deliberate strategy of dispersing the staple food crop across different parts of the island to guard against the failure of any single site. Each of the sites carried a portion of the total crop, so that the loss of any one to disease, weather damage or pilferage would not destroy more than a fraction of the standing supply. The geographical dispersal also took advantage of variations in soil and microclimate across the island, allowing the Company to maintain yam production in different conditions and at different stages of growth. The principle of risk distribution had been visible earlier in the consultation of 1 April 1715, where Captain Haswell's report had shown the cattle and pigs of the Hutts plantation similarly dispersed across the Great Wood and the Woody Ridge.

441

432

Interest of our Hon[ble] Masters to buy any more,

Therefore Resolved that no yams whatsoever not already contracted for [...] mention[d] in the report of the 2[d] of Novemb[er] be bought untell we have dugg all that belongs to the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] that are fitt to dig,

John Batavia the Hon[ble] Companys Black being Run away one of the Comp[any]s working Bullocks w[ch] he us'd to look after fell into a Swamp at the upper end of the Vally and died.

The foll[owing] Petition[s] were Presented viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena, To The Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council The Humble Petition of Jonathan Doveton Planter Humbly,

Shewth,

That your Petition[r] House in the High street in James Town adjoyns to M[r] Tho[s] Swallows who has a blind (as tis called) put up at his house just at that part adjoyning to yo[r] Petition[r] door w[ch] is the occation of filth and nastiness stoping there to the great annoyance of yo[r] Petition[r] and as he humbly conceives all such blinds are a Publick nuisance as well as very ugly in the cheif street of the place [...] makes the same unhealthy by the stench of such nastiness as lodgeth there,

Wherefore yo[r] Petition[r] Humbly prays an Order may be made for the said M[r] Swallow to pull down the said blind,

April y[e] 26[th] 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

Jonathan Doveton

Margin Notes:

No more yams to be bought

Bullock Dead

Island S[t] Helena,

Shewth,

Jon[a] Doveton desires a blind to be pull'd down.

April y[e] 26[th]: 1715

The minute continued. It could not be for the interest of the honourable masters to buy any more.

The council therefore resolved that no yams whatsoever, not already contracted for or mentioned in the report of 2 November, be bought until the council had dug all that belonged to the honourable Company that were fit to dig.

John Batavia, the honourable Company's slave, having run away, one of the Company's working bullocks which he used to look after fell into a swamp at the upper end of the valley and died.

The following petition was presented.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Jonathan Doveton, planter, was submitted.

Doveton set out that his house in the High Street in James Town adjoined Mr Thomas Swallow's, who had a blind (as it was called) put up at his house just at that part adjoining to the petitioner's door. The blind was the occasion of filth and nastiness stopping there to the great annoyance of the petitioner, and as he humbly conceived all such blinds were a public nuisance as well as very ugly in the chief street of the place, and made the same unwholesome by the stench of such nastiness as lodged there.

Wherefore the petitioner humbly prayed that an order might be made for the said Mr Swallow to pull down the said blind. The petition was dated 26 April 1715 and signed by Jonathan Doveton, with the closing form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray.

Margin notes recorded the matter as no more yams to be bought, bullock dead, and Jonathan Doveton desires a blind to be pulled down.

Interpretations

The council's resolution to buy no more yams beyond those already contracted for or mentioned in the report of 2 November 1714 brought to a head the matter of the Powell and Gurling offer of 11 March 1715 that had been considered in the consultation of 19 April 1715 and now resolved on 26 April 1715. The Company would honour the existing contracts with the poor planters whose debts were to be settled by yam payment, but would refuse any additional purchases until the Company's own substantial stocks of 263,600 yams at the five plantation sites, supplemented by the 66,000 yams from Tombstone Wood, had been dug and used. The reference to the report of 2 November 1714 indicated that the council was now operating under a specific governing document on yam purchases, perhaps a list of the planters whose debt-settlement yams had been accepted in the previous November, against which any further purchases would be measured.

The reference to John Batavia the honourable Company's slave having run away, with the consequence that the working bullock he had been tending fell into a swamp at the upper end of the valley and died, connected directly to the disciplinary matter raised at the consultation of 19 April 1715. Batavia had been one of the two slaves to be fettered together on the chain of six foot length under the order of that consultation, drawn from the Dutch practice at Batavia. The present minute revealed that Batavia had run away before the chaining could be implemented, and his absence from his duties had caused the loss of a working bullock. The death of the bullock represented a real cost to the Company, since each working animal was a productive asset of the plantation and the loss of one through neglect by an absconding slave had immediate operational consequences. The minute connected the disciplinary failure with the practical loss, demonstrating the costs to the Company of failed slave management.

The petition of Jonathan Doveton against the blind erected by Thomas Swallow opened a private nuisance matter that the council was being asked to resolve as a public health and amenity question. Doveton had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 with 7 whites and 11 slaves on a substantial holding of 151½ acres carrying 40 head of cattle. He had also appeared as one of the three executors of Robert Leach in the petition of 12 April 1715, alongside Richard Gurling and James Greentree. Doveton was thus a substantial planter of standing in the parish, and his house in High Street in James Town was the urban residence that the larger planters maintained in addition to their country holdings.

Thomas Swallow had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 with 5 whites and 3 slaves on a holding of 71 acres carrying 21 head of cattle. He was Doveton's neighbour in High Street, and the blind he had erected at his house abutted Doveton's door. A blind in this sense was a screen or hoarding put up to provide privacy or to shelter a particular use of the property from view. In the present case the blind had created a sheltered space where filth and other nastiness accumulated, causing offence to Doveton in the adjoining property. The complaint described the blind as creating both a visual ugliness in the chief street and a public health nuisance through the accumulated stench.

The petition framed the matter in two ways: as a private complaint by Doveton against his neighbour, and as a public nuisance affecting the wider street. The framing as a public nuisance gave the council a basis for intervention that went beyond resolving a private dispute between two planters, since public nuisances in the chief streets of the town fell within the council's general regulatory authority. The decision sought was an order requiring Swallow to pull down the blind, which would resolve both the private complaint and the public concern.

Speculations

The death of the Company's working bullock through John Batavia's absconding perhaps reflected the broader operational vulnerability of the Company plantation to slave indiscipline. The working stock of the plantation depended on continuous attention from slave herdsmen and tenders, and the absence of even a single slave from his duties could result in immediate loss of valuable productive assets. The case strengthened the argument for the joint chaining of Murdoc and Batavia under the order of 19 April 1715, since the loss of the bullock was a tangible cost that justified the more severe restraint of the slaves. The council was perhaps recording the loss specifically to demonstrate to the Court of Directors in London that the disciplinary measures adopted were warranted by the practical consequences of slave indiscipline.

The complaint about the blind at Swallow's house in High Street perhaps reflected a particular tension between the planter community's adoption of urban property and the social conventions appropriate to the chief street of the town. Substantial planters maintained town houses in James Town in addition to their country holdings, allowing them to conduct business with the Company stores and to be present for council and parish meetings. The development of urban amenities in the chief street required a different code of behaviour from the country plantations, where outbuildings, screens and accumulation of refuse near the dwelling would have been unremarkable. Doveton's complaint perhaps reflected the development of higher standards of urban amenity among the more substantial planters, with the council being asked to enforce those standards against neighbours who continued the older country practices in the town context.

442

433

The Gov[r] being well satisfied with the truth of the allegations mention[d] in this Petition and that the said blinds are a nusance as well as an Eye sore,

Ordered

That the said blind be forthwith Demolished and also all others of that kind and that none for the future be permitted to be built,

These blinds are a wall of about Seven foot high [...] five or six foot wide built to hinder the dust from being blown into the windows w[ch] would be better prevented by glazeing the windows the other way of setting up these blinds being not only Irregular but occasion much nastiness.

Island S[t] Helena To The Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Council[l],

The most Humble Petition of John Gibbs Freeman Humbly

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] has serv[d] the Hon[ble] Company as a Soldier his full time and bin discharged is now desireous to goe to his native Country to see his relations who have often sent to him to come home,

Humbly prays yo[r] Worship [...] Council will give him leave to put up an Advertizem[en]t to sell his goods by Publick out Cry [...] depart the first homeward bound ship he can hire his passage in. And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

April y[e] 26[th] 1715 John Gibbs his mark

Resolv[d] That whereas it has bin a sickly time [...] many men dyeing it is the Govern[rs] opinion tis best to keep what good men we have upon the Island and therefore that he

Margin Notes:

all blinds to be Demolished.

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Gibbs desire to goe off the Iceland.

April y[e] 26[th] 1715

because of sickly time thought fitt to reject his

The governor was well satisfied with the truth of the allegations mentioned in the petition, and that the said blinds were a nuisance as well as an eyesore.

The council ordered that the said blind be forthwith demolished, and also all others of that kind, and that none for the future be permitted to be built.

These blinds were a wall of about seven foot high and five or six foot wide, built to hinder the dust from being blown into the windows. The dust would be better prevented by glazing the windows the other way, the setting up of these blinds being not only irregular but causing much nastiness.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of John Gibbs, freeman, was submitted.

Gibbs set out that he had served the honourable Company as a soldier his full time and had been discharged. He was now desirous to go to his native country to see his relations, who had often sent to him to come home. He humbly prayed the council to give him leave to put up an advertisement to sell his goods by public outcry and depart by the first homeward bound ship he could hire his passage in. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, was dated 26 April 1715, and was signed by John Gibbs with his mark.

The council resolved that whereas it had been a sickly time and many men were dying, it was the governor's opinion that it was best to keep what good men they had upon the island, and therefore that he

Margin notes recorded the matter as all blinds to be demolished, Gibbs desire to go off the island, and because of sickly time thought fit to reject his application.

Interpretations

The detailed description of the blinds gave a clear picture of the structures complained of. Each blind was a wall about seven feet high and five or six feet wide, built outside the window of a dwelling to deflect the wind-blown dust of the street. The dust was a continuing problem in the unpaved chief street of James Town, where horses, cattle and pedestrian traffic raised clouds of dust that found their way into the open windows of the houses. The blinds had been put up as a practical response to the dust problem, but their unintended consequence was to create sheltered corners where rubbish accumulated and stench developed, making the cure worse than the disease. The council's recommendation that glazing the windows would be a better solution introduced a more permanent and amenable approach: glass windows that could be closed against the dust would prevent the problem without creating the secondary nuisance of the accumulated filth behind the blinds.

The order that all such blinds be demolished, not only the particular one complained of by Jonathan Doveton in the petition of 26 April 1715, extended the council's response from the resolution of a private dispute to a general regulation of the urban environment. The ruling that no such blinds should be permitted in future established a forward-looking restriction on the development of the chief street, requiring residents to use glazed windows or some other solution rather than building external screens. The decision marked a step in the development of urban planning regulation at the island, with the council assuming the power to determine what kinds of structures could be erected in the principal streets.

John Gibbs's petition raised a different kind of matter, namely his desire to leave the island and return to England. Gibbs had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 as a single white man with no wife, children, slaves or land, in a small one-person household. He had completed his term as a soldier and had been discharged, becoming a freeman of the island. His petition asked for leave to dispose of his goods by public auction and to take passage on the next homeward bound ship.

The council's response was to refuse the application, on the ground that it had been a sickly time and many men were dying, so that the establishment could not afford to lose any good men who were still alive and well. The reasoning was that with the white population reduced by sickness and death, the council needed to retain every available man for the work of the garrison and the establishment. The decision overrode Gibbs's personal wishes in the interest of the broader requirements of the establishment.

The reference to a sickly time as the operational reason for refusing the petition gave a measure of the demographic pressure on the island. The census of 21 March 1715 had recorded 405 whites under the head of officers and soldiers, and the present minute indicated that this population was being depleted by disease. The death of Edward Mashborne on 31 March 1715 after a sickness of about three weeks, as recorded in the consultation of that date, had been one prominent casualty of the period. The further references in the present minute to many men dying suggested that a wider epidemic or season of mortality was affecting the establishment.

Speculations

The council's intervention in the urban environment of James Town through the prohibition of blinds perhaps reflected a wider effort by the new administration under Isaac Pyke to bring order and improvement to the establishment. The series of consultations through the spring of 1715 had shown the council addressing administrative neglect across multiple areas: the overdue inventory of Company stock following the death of Edward Mashborne on 31 March 1715, the requirement that the garrison reckon at the stores at the consultation of 5 April 1715, the warrant to the overseers of the highways on 15 April 1715 requiring them to perform their long-neglected duties, and now the regulation of the urban street. The cumulative effect was a comprehensive review and reform of the island's administrative practices, with the council reaching into matters that had been allowed to drift under earlier administrations.

The refusal of John Gibbs's request to leave the island, despite his having completed his service and being legally free to depart, perhaps reflected the council's recognition that the small white population of the island was a critical resource that could not be allowed to drift away on personal grounds. The withholding of permission to take passage gave the council effective control over emigration from the island, even of men who were no longer formally bound to the Company's service. The practice could be defended on the ground that the island establishment was a closed community whose continued viability depended on retaining its productive members, but it represented a significant limitation on the personal liberty of discharged soldiers. The contrast with Edward Hollwell's situation, where the council had granted an additional salary at the consultation of 12 April 1715 to retain a useful clerk, showed the council using both positive inducements and outright refusals to maintain the establishment's workforce.

443

434

he can[no]t give leave for his departure till more are sent over to supply the Island better,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l]

The most Humble Petition of Henry Francis Planter Humbly

Shewth, To yo[r] Worship,

That there being a Parcell of waste Land near the Plantation house adjoyning to Lufkins Land on one side and M[r] Twisters[?] on the other side and very comodious for yo[r] Petition[r] to save Fenceing and make the more Regular Peice of Ground and being of no use to any Person,

Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to grant him a Lease thereof [...] containing about three or four Acres to the best of yo[r] Petition[rs] Judgement,

And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

April y[e] 26[th]: 1715 Henry Francis

Enquiry was made what side of the Gutt this Land lyes on [...] M[r] Francis being called did not appear but had sent in this Petition and was gone into the Countrey whereupon it is ordered that he haveing neglected to attend on his own business [...] that this his Petition therefore be rejected

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l] The most Humble Petition of Arthur Bradley Overseer Humbly

Shewth

To yo[r] Worship, That whereas your

Margin Notes:

request till a Supply [...]

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Hen: Francis's request for 3 or 4 Ac[res] Land

and Lease for y[e] Same

April y[e] 26[th] 1715

rejected for not attending

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

The council ruled that the governor could not give leave for Gibbs's departure until more were sent over to supply the island better.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Henry Francis, planter, was submitted.

Francis set out that there was a parcel of waste land near the plantation house, adjoining Lufkin's land on one side and Mr Gurling's on the other side, very commodious for him to save fencing and make the more regular piece of ground, and being of no use to any person. He humbly prayed the council to grant him a lease thereof, containing about three or four acres to the best of his judgment. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, was dated 26 April 1715, and was signed by Henry Francis.

Enquiry was made of what side of the gut this land lay on. Mr Francis did not appear but had sent in this petition and was gone into the country. Whereupon the council ordered that, he having neglected to attend on his own business, his petition therefore be rejected.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Arthur Bradley, overseer, was submitted.

Bradley set out that whereas his

Margin notes recorded the matter as the request to be deferred till a supply, Henry Francis's request for 3 or 4 acres of land and lease of the same, and rejected for not attending.

Interpretations

The qualification of Gibbs's refusal, that the governor could not give leave until more were sent over to supply the island better, framed the refusal as conditional rather than absolute. The expectation was that Company shipping would bring fresh men to replenish the establishment, and that once the population had been restored to working strength Gibbs could be released. The condition gave Gibbs a path forward that depended on future Company action rather than on the present council, and held out the possibility of eventual departure for those who had completed their service.

The petition of Henry Francis raised a question of marginal land use that was common at the island. The waste land referred to was a small parcel that had not been granted to any planter, lying between the holdings of Stephen Lufkin and one of the Gurling brothers, near the plantation house. Henry Francis had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 with 6 whites and 15 slaves on a holding of 36 acres, and had also appeared in the labour list of 15 April 1715 at a contribution of 2 whites and 5 slaves. His request for a lease of three or four acres to consolidate his existing holding through the absorption of the adjoining waste land reflected the standard pattern by which planters extended their holdings through grants and leases of marginal Company ground.

The reason given for Francis's request was practical, namely to save fencing and make the more regular piece of ground. The amalgamation of the waste parcel into an adjoining planter holding would allow a single boundary fence to enclose both the existing land and the new addition, rather than requiring separate fencing of the small parcel as an isolated piece. The argument was a recognised one in English agricultural practice, where the consolidation of scattered parcels into compact blocks improved both the cost of fencing and the efficiency of cultivation. The reference to the land being of no use to any person was the standard formula for petitions for unused ground, since the council would not grant land that was already in productive use by another party.

The council's enquiry into which side of the gut the land lay on showed the requirement for precise geographical identification before any grant could be made. The gut referred to one of the steep narrow valleys characteristic of the island's terrain, with the side of the gut determining which planters' holdings bordered the waste land. The enquiry could not be resolved without Francis's own attendance to identify the specific parcel, since the small scale and irregular geography of the island made even local land questions difficult to settle without on-the-ground reference.

The rejection of Francis's petition on the ground that he had neglected to attend in person on his own business gave a procedural reason for the refusal that did not actually engage with the merits of the request. The council was unwilling to consider a land grant in the absence of the petitioner, since questions might arise that required Francis's clarification. The decision treated attendance at the council as a basic requirement of any petitioner, with the failure to attend treated as evidence that the petitioner himself did not consider the matter important enough to pursue. The rejection was perhaps not final, since Francis could resubmit the petition with attendance on a future consultation day.

The petition of Arthur Bradley, overseer, opened a third matter on the present consultation day. Bradley had appeared in the census of 21 March 1715 with 3 whites and 2 slaves on a holding of 20 acres held entirely on leave, and in the labour list of 15 April 1715 at a contribution of 1 white. The recurrence of his name in the present petition as overseer perhaps reflected a Company appointment to a particular overseer position separate from the planter-elected surveyors of the highways. The substance of his petition was visible only in the opening words before the transcription closed, with the matter to be continued on the following page.

Speculations

The treatment of Henry Francis's petition perhaps reflected a particular concern by the council about the granting of land at the island. Each grant or lease of waste land reduced the Company's reserve of unallocated ground, and the council was perhaps applying a deliberately exacting procedure to discourage speculative applications. By requiring personal attendance and treating non-attendance as grounds for rejection, the council established a barrier that filtered out applications where the petitioner was not sufficiently committed to pursue the matter through the formal process. The result was that only the most determined applicants would obtain grants, leaving the marginal land available for those who would actually make productive use of it.

The framing of Gibbs's refusal as conditional on future supply from England perhaps also reflected a calculated approach to managing expectations among the discharged soldiers of the establishment. By holding out the possibility of eventual departure, the council retained the loyalty and cooperation of men who might otherwise have become discontented at being trapped on the island against their wishes. The refusal was thus not so much an absolute prohibition as a delay pending the next Company shipment of replacement men, giving Gibbs and others in his position a reason to continue working productively while awaiting their opportunity to leave.

444

435

yo[r] Petition[r] is Tenant to the Hon[ble] Company for a house and twenty Acres of Land at the Rate of Seven Pounds p[er] ann[um] and the house was always repaird by order of the Govern[r] for the time being, Your Petition[r] humbly represents that the said house is very much out of repair besides the Rafters and thatching that the house is untenantable,

Wherefore yo[r] Petition[r] humbly prays that the said house may be new thatcht and the Rafters repaired it being unthatcht[...] ever since yo[r] Petition[r] came to it,

April y[e] 26[th] 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in duty bound shall Ever Pray [...] Arthur Bradley

This Petition being of some consequence

Resolved to Deferr it untill there are more of the Council Present.

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l] The most Humble Petition of Sam[l] Allgate Corp[ora]ll most Humbly

Shewth

That yo[r] Petition[r] being throughly sensicble of his folly and misbehaviour w[i]th great regrett and harty sorrow for the same, Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council will be pleased to pardon and forgive yo[r] penitent Petition[r] and to relase him out of this loathsome and filthy Prizon faithfully promiseing to amend and for the future to leee a sober life and will allways be mindfull of his Duty,

April y[e] 26[th] 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever pray Samuell Allgate

Margin Notes:

Arth: Bradleys Desire to have y[e] house to have repaired as useuall

April y[e] 26[th] 1715

answer Deferred

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

Algates Petit[ion] to be releast.

April y[e] 26[th] 1715

Bradley set out that he was tenant to the honourable Company for a house and twenty acres of land at the rate of seven pounds the annum, and that the house had always been repaired by order of the governor for the time being.

The petitioner humbly represented that the said house was very much out of repair, besides the rafters and thatching, that the house was untenantable.

Wherefore the petitioner humbly prayed that the said house might be new thatched and the rafters repaired, it being unthatched ever since the petitioner came to it. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, was dated 26 April 1715, and was signed by Arthur Bradley.

This petition being of some consequence, the council resolved to defer it until there were more of the council present.

Island St Helena. To the worshipful Isaac Pyke, esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Samuel Allgate, corporal, was submitted.

Allgate set out that he was throughly sensible of his folly and misbehaviour, with great regret and hearty sorrow for the same. He humbly prayed the council to be pleased to pardon and forgive the penitent petitioner, and to release him out of this loathsome and filthy prison, faithfully promising to amend and for the future to lead a sober life and always be mindful of his duty. The petition closed with the form that the petitioner as in duty bound should ever pray, was dated 26 April 1715, and was signed by Samuel Allgate.

Margin notes recorded the matter as Arthur Bradley's desire to have his house repaired as usual, the answer deferred, and Allgate's petition to be released.

Interpretations

The petition of Arthur Bradley as a Company tenant raised the question of the landlord's obligation to maintain a leased property. Bradley occupied a house with twenty acres of land at a rent of seven pounds the annum, a substantial tenancy giving him a complete planter establishment in return for an annual payment. His standing in the census of 21 March 1715 with 3 whites and 2 slaves on 20 acres of land held entirely on leave matched the present description, with the land that he had been recorded as holding on leave being identified here as his Company tenancy.

The terms of the tenancy implied a continuing obligation on the Company, as landlord, to maintain the house in tenantable condition. Bradley's statement that the house had always been repaired by order of the governor for the time being confirmed the established practice by which the governor of the day approved the repairs to Company-owned tenant houses. The present application requested re-thatching of the roof and repair of the rafters, the house having been unthatched since Bradley came to it. The lack of thatching exposed the timber and the interior to the weather, accelerating the deterioration of the structure and making the house untenantable.

The annual rent of seven pounds for a house and twenty acres gave a useful measure of the value of a Company tenancy. The figure compared with the salary of twenty pounds the annum granted to Edward Hollwell as clerk on 12 April 1715, indicating that the annual rent represented roughly one third of a clerk's salary. The Company was thus offering its tenants a substantial physical and productive base at a rent that was modest in relation to the means of a person on a salaried Company position.

The council's resolution to defer the petition until there were more of the council present indicated that the matter was considered too important to be decided by the four members present at this consultation. The reference to the matter being of some consequence suggested that the cost of the requested repairs was substantial enough to warrant a full council decision, perhaps because the work would commit Company funds beyond the routine maintenance authorisation that the governor could approve. The deferral protected the petitioner's interests by preserving the matter for full consideration rather than refusing it on the present occasion.

The petition of Samuel Allgate brought the disciplinary matter raised at the consultation of 19 April 1715 to a head. Allgate had been committed by the governor on a Friday for leaving the back gate of the castle open all night, and the governor had reported the offence at the consultation of 19 April 1715 along with the additional information that Allgate had previously killed his own calf for a drunken bout, demonstrating his extravagant character. The present petition was Allgate's submission to the council seeking pardon and release from confinement. The week of imprisonment between his committal on the previous Friday and the present petition represented the immediate punishment that he had already suffered.

The form of the petition followed the standard pattern for applications for release from confinement. The petitioner acknowledged his folly and misbehaviour with great regret and hearty sorrow, asked for pardon and forgiveness, and promised future good behaviour through leading a sober life and being mindful of his duty. The acknowledgement of the offence, the expression of remorse, the request for mercy and the undertaking of future amendment were the standard elements of such a petition, with the petitioner placing himself entirely at the council's mercy.

The reference to the loathsome and filthy prison from which Allgate sought release gave a glimpse of the physical conditions of confinement at the castle. The prison was apparently a place of considerable discomfort, with the descriptions of loathsome and filthy suggesting unsanitary conditions, perhaps a single cell or holding room in the castle that lacked adequate ventilation, light or facilities. The unpleasant conditions added to the deterrent effect of imprisonment, since even a short period in such a place would be a substantial discouragement to future offending.

Speculations

The deferral of Bradley's petition until more of the council were present perhaps reflected the council's awareness that decisions on Company expenditure required careful consideration when made in reduced numbers. The four councillors present at the consultation of 26 April 1715 (Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey) constituted the full standing council, but the consultation of 19 April 1715 had referred to additional councillors not being present to attend on Allgate's case. The reference may have anticipated the arrival of additional supernumerary members from London on the next ship, or it may have reflected the council's practice of seeking advice from senior factors and officers beyond the formal council membership for important decisions. The deferral preserved the matter without prejudice while the council assembled a fuller body to consider it.

The full progression of Allgate's case from the offence to the present petition gave a complete picture of the disciplinary process at the island. The governor committed Allgate immediately upon the offence being discovered. The case was reported to the council at the next consultation, where additional information about the offender's character was placed on record. The petition for release was submitted at the following consultation, after a week of imprisonment had been served. The structure gave the council multiple opportunities to consider the matter and gave the offender a recognised path back from punishment to release, depending on his willingness to acknowledge the offence and undertake future amendment. The process combined immediate disciplinary action with measured deliberation, and balanced the deterrent effect of imprisonment against the practical need to return able men to duty.

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436

This being the Day appointed for the Examineing of Sam[l] Allgate Corp[orall] for his Offence of leaveing open the Castle back gate but there not being enough of the Councill Present and he haveing layn about ten days tis hoped this time of Imprizonment will be sufficient Punishment to Deter him from such carelesss actions for the future,

Ordered

Therefore that he be discharged

[signatures]

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

after 10 days Imprisonm[en]t

Discharged

The present day was the day appointed for the examining of Samuel Allgate, corporal, for his offence of leaving open the castle back gate. There not being enough of the council present, and he having lain about ten days, it was hoped this time of imprisonment would be sufficient punishment to deter him from such careless actions for the future.

The council ordered therefore that he be discharged.

The minute was signed by Antipas Tovey.

A margin note recorded the matter as after ten days imprisonment and discharged.

Interpretations

The disposal of Samuel Allgate's case completed the disciplinary matter that had originated with his committal by the governor on a Friday before the consultation of 19 April 1715. The total period of confinement of about ten days, from the original committal on the Friday before 19 April 1715 to the discharge on 26 April 1715, provided a measured punishment that fell between the immediate corporal response of forty lashes administered to Henry Harmon at the present consultation for stealing wood, and any more severe penalty such as continued confinement or fine.

The two reasons given for the discharge gave a clear picture of the council's decision making. First, there were not enough of the council present to conduct a full examination of the case. The reduced council of Pyke, Haswell, Bazett and Tovey would have been the same four members present throughout the consultation, and the comment that not enough were present suggested that the formal examination of a member of the garrison required a fuller body than the four sitting members. The same consideration had been applied to Arthur Bradley's petition for house repairs, which had been deferred until more of the council were present.

Second, the council judged that the ten days of imprisonment already served had been sufficient punishment to deter Allgate from such careless actions in the future. The reasoning combined the practical effect of the imprisonment with the council's hope that the experience would correct Allgate's behaviour. The discharge thus implemented the standard cycle of offence, punishment and restoration that ran through the disciplinary process at the establishment.

The combination of the two reasons gave the council a way to discharge Allgate without either formally pardoning him or fully examining the case. The procedural reason (insufficient council present) provided the technical justification, while the substantive reason (sufficient punishment served) gave the practical basis for releasing rather than continuing to hold him. The arrangement preserved the council's authority while disposing of the case in a manner that allowed Allgate to return to his duties.

The contrast between Allgate's case and that of Henry Harmon at the same consultation gave a measure of the council's grading of punishments. Harmon, a gardener and Company servant, was tied to the flagstaff and given forty lashes immediately upon being caught with stolen wood. Allgate, a corporal in the garrison, was committed to confinement and held for ten days before discharge with admonition. The difference reflected both the social standing of the two men (Harmon a labouring servant, Allgate a junior officer) and the nature of the offence (Harmon's theft, Allgate's neglect of duty). The corporal punishment of flogging was reserved for the lower ranks and for offences against property, while imprisonment and reproof was applied to the garrison officers for offences of neglect or impropriety.

The signature of the minute by Antipas Tovey as secretary closed the consultation of 26 April 1715. The series of consultations from 31 March 1715 through 26 April 1715 had now disposed of the principal matters arising from the death of Edward Mashborne: the appointment of William Worrall as overseer of the Company plantations on 5 April 1715, the appointment of Samuel Pessey to continue at the Hutts on 5 April 1715, the inventory of Company stock taken by George Haswell on 1 April 1715 and by Matthew Bazett and Antipas Tovey on 12 April 1715, the survey of yam stocks on 19 April 1715 and 26 April 1715, the response to the offer from Gabriel Powell and Richard Gurling on 19 April 1715 and 26 April 1715, the parish election of 18 April 1715 with the appointments confirmed on 19 April 1715, the disciplinary matters of Sergeant Fairfax on 12 April 1715, John Batavia and Murdoc on 19 April 1715, Henry Harmon and Samuel Allgate on 26 April 1715, and the various petitions on land, leases, blinds and departures considered through the series. The cumulative effect was a comprehensive reset of the island's administration following the loss of the third councillor, with the new arrangements firmly established and the routine business of the establishment returning to its normal course.

Speculations

The reference to not enough of the council being present as a reason for not formally examining Allgate perhaps reflected the practice by which more serious disciplinary proceedings against members of the garrison required a fuller body than the standing four-member council. The decision could not be made by simple majority of the present members but required some larger quorum, perhaps involving additional sworn officers of the establishment or a particular form of court martial procedure for offences by uniformed men. The technical limitation provided the council with a face-saving way to discharge Allgate without a formal verdict, since the council could simply note that the case had not been examined for procedural reasons while still releasing the offender after a measured period of confinement.

The use of the prison at the castle as a graded punishment, falling between the immediate corporal punishment and any further sanction, perhaps reflected a deliberate Company policy of using progressive disciplinary measures rather than uniform corporal punishment for all offences. The variety of punishments available, from flogging to imprisonment to fines to dismissal, gave the council a range of responses that could be matched to the nature of the offence and the standing of the offender. The graded approach preserved the social hierarchy of the establishment while still imposing meaningful discipline at each level, and avoided the brutalising effect of applying the same corporal punishment to all offenders regardless of circumstances.

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Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 3 day of May 1715 At the United Castle In James Vally

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo: Haswell Dep[ut]y in y[e] Pres[ent] Country Matthew Bazett [...] Antipas Tovey

Forasmuch as Toby a Black Slave, belonging to M[r]s Cha[s] Stewards Orphans is to be Tryed at the Complaint of Cap[t] Haswell for Felony and Burgulary,

Ordered

That a Jury be Sumond against next Monday for Tryall of said Cause.

This day the Old Church Wardens brought in their Acco[t] and it appearing thereby that the Church is indebted to the Hon[ble] Company Forty Pounds and Seven Pence three Farthings it is thought fitt that as tis likely the Church will every Year grow more Indebt except some money be received for the payment[?] [...] the paying the present one, That a Rate may be settled to clear y[e] debt

The Church Wardens do propose the foll[owing] manner viz[t]

Half a Crowne p[er] head for Each, white and Black above Sixteen years of Age and they think that cant do [...] being askt wether it would not be better to Lay the Tax or Rate upon every Acre of Land they think it would be harder upon the Poor people who have Generally none, or very few Blacks but all the wealthiest people have

Blacks

Margin Notes:

Complt against Toby

Jury Sumond

Church Wardens Acco[t]

a Rate to be settled

Church Wardens Proposals.

Island of St Helena. Consultation held on Tuesday the 3 May 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor, staying in the country; Matthew Bazett; Antipas Tovey.

A complaint was laid by Captain Haswell against Toby, a black slave belonging to the orphans of Charles Steward. Toby stood accused of felony and burglary. The council ordered that a jury be summoned against the following Monday for trial of the cause.

The old churchwardens presented their accounts. The church was shown to be in debt to the Honourable Company in the sum of £40 0s 7¾d. The council considered the debt probable to grow larger every year, save for some means of paying the present arrears. The council resolved that a rate be settled to clear the debt.

The churchwardens proposed the following manner of assessment. Half a crown a head for every white and black above sixteen years of age. They thought it could not be done otherwise. They considered whether it would be better to lay the tax or rate upon every acre of land. Their view was that this would bear harder upon the poorer people, who generally had no slaves or very few, while the wealthier people had many blacks.

Interpretations

The trial of Toby falls within the Court of Judicature framework already used for the slave Moll in the robbery of Samuel Algate's house on 7 February 1715 and the slave George on the same date. The mechanism is the empanelled jury against a fixed return day, with the bench composed of the governor and council. Toby is owned by the orphans of Charles Steward, whose will was proved on 11 January 1714/15 with Powell and Gurling as executors; the slave's value therefore enters the orphan estate and any sentence carrying loss of the slave affects the children's inheritance directly. The complainant Captain Haswell is the deputy governor, here acting in his private capacity as victim.

The church rate accounting follows the parish cycle now fully recovered for 1715, with the advertisement of 13 April 1715, the country church election of 18 April 1715, and the council appointment of officers on 19 April 1715. The old churchwardens here rendering account are James Draper and Francis Wrangham under the warrant of 18 January 1714/15. The £40 0s 7¾d shortfall is presented as a structural deficit, not a one-off shortfall, since the wardens forecast continuing accumulation in the absence of a fresh levy.

The proposed poll rate of half a crown (£0 2s 6d) on every person, white or black, above the age of sixteen treats slaves as taxable heads on their owners' accounts and so transfers the burden of church funding upward toward the larger slaveholders. The alternative of an acreage rate would, on the wardens' reasoning, fall more heavily on small planters with little or no slave labour. The choice of base is therefore a redistributive policy decision dressed as a question of practical recovery, and the wardens' preference is openly grounded in capacity to pay.

The phrase staying in the country, applied to Haswell, formalises the earlier ambiguous in the country expression of 19 April 1715 and 26 April 1715, where Pyke, Haswell and Bazett were recorded as both at a country residence and present at the consultation. Here only Haswell carries the description, and the deputy governor is recognised as a participant in the consultation despite being lodged at the country plantation house. The administrative convention is that residence at Plantation House does not interrupt the councillor's presence on the bench.

Speculations

The wardens' open preference for the poll rate over the acreage rate is probably driven by ease of collection as much as by equity. A poll rate on whites and blacks above sixteen can be drawn from the same household returns already used for the church assessment of January 1714/15, where Cleeve was returned at 4 whites and 4 blacks, the chaplain Joshua Tomlinson at 1 white and 8 blacks, and the widow Elizabeth Steward at 1 white and 5 blacks. The data structure for the new levy already exists in the wardens' books; an acreage rate would require fresh measurement against the families' land and cattle register completed between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715. The wardens are perhaps choosing the less laborious instrument and presenting the choice in equity terms.

The decision to set Toby's trial for the next Monday probably reflects the practice of separating the empanelling and trial days so that the jurors can be summoned in writing and the case prepared. The Bever trial of 24 January 1715 and the Court of Judicature cases of 7 February 1715 had each used a comparable interval. Setting the matter down at the present consultation, before the council had a full quorum, secures the date in advance and gives Haswell time to assemble his evidence against a slave owned not by himself but by orphan beneficiaries whose interests may need separate representation.

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Blacks Enough so that the Mony will be raised easier by a Poll Tax then any other way,

Ordered

That there be a Rate made in the manner proposed,

The said Church Wardens Mess[rs] Draper [...] Wrangham praying to be Discharged from their Office,

It is ordered that the New Church Wardens Mess[rs] Greentree [...] Twaits be Sumond to appear before the Council next Monday in Order to be Sworne

The foll[owing] Petition was Presented

Island S[t] Helena To The Worship[ll] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l]

The most Humble Petition of Richard Ray Soldier, who is constantly Employed in the Hon[ble] Companys Works most Humbly,

Shewth.

That whereas yo[r] Humble Petitioner has Serv[d] the Hon[ble] Company almost Sixteen years in the Capacity of a Soldier and haveing for some time past been Employed as an overseer in the Hon[ble] Companys Works besides doeing his duty a nights as a Soldier (therefore) yo[r] Petition[r] Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council that he may be excused of doeing his Soldiers duty and Continued Overseer in w[ch] Place he will be carefull and dilligent in and he will be better able to perform the same when duty free,

May y[e] 3[d] 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever pray [...] Richard X Ray his Mark

Resolv[d]

Margin Notes:

a Rate Ordered

old Church Wardens desire to be Discharg[d]

New ones Sumond.

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Rich[d] Rays request to be Duty free

May y[e] 3[d] 1715

The wardens completed their argument by stating that the wealthier inhabitants generally had enough blacks to make a poll tax the easier instrument of collection in comparison with any other method.

The council ordered that a rate be made in the manner proposed.

The old churchwardens, Mr Draper and Mr Wrangham, prayed to be discharged from their office.

The council ordered that the new churchwardens, Mr Greentree and Mr Twaits, be summoned to appear before the council the following Monday in order to be sworn.

The following petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and the council.

Richard Ray, soldier, petitioned the council. He set out that he had served the Honourable Company almost sixteen years in the capacity of a soldier and that he had for some time past been employed as an overseer in the Company's works, besides performing his duty at night as a soldier. The petitioner prayed that he might be excused from doing his soldier's duty and continue as overseer in that place. He undertook to be careful and diligent in the post and stated he would be the better able to perform it if relieved from the soldier's duty. The petition was dated 3 May 1715 and signed by Richard Ray with his mark.

Interpretations

The poll-tax decision adopts the wardens' preferred base on the wardens' own administrative reasoning. The grand jury return of 7 February 1715 over the watercourse before Grace Coulson's door had established the parish vestry as a working body of presentment and recommendation; the present rate confirms its role in actively designing fiscal instruments and not merely collecting them. The council's role here is approving the wardens' proposal rather than originating the measure.

The discharge of Draper and Wrangham closes the parish year that began under the warrant of 18 January 1714/15. Their successors Greentree and Twaits were elected at the country church on 18 April 1715 and appointed by the council on 19 April 1715, in line with the geographical balance principle of one churchwarden from each side of the island. The swearing-in is treated as a separate constitutive act, deferred to the next council day so that the new officers take office formally rather than by simple appointment.

Richard Ray's dual posting reflects the chronic shortage of trustworthy supervisors that has shaped Company labour management since the redirection of fortification labour to plantation works on 7 February 1715. Ray is the same soldier who in November 1711 became executor of John Henson by nuncupative procedure, and is therefore a man of about sixteen years' service whom the Company has come to trust with the oversight of the Sandy Bay sea wall and comparable works. The petition seeks relief not from labour but from the night watch on grounds of operational efficiency.

The signature by mark is the routine documentary form for a soldier-petitioner who cannot write. The petition is nevertheless a formal instrument, witnessed by its date and reading into the council record, and carries the same evidential weight as a signed instrument.

Speculations

Ray probably draws on the precedent of William Worrall's overseer appointment of 5 April 1715, in which the council appointed a serving man to plantation oversight without a fixed salary pending observation of his behaviour. Worrall's case shows that a Company servant may be lifted out of his line duties for a supervisory role without losing his establishment footing. Ray's petition tests whether the same principle extends to relieving a soldier from his night watch in favour of works oversight, and so attempts to convert an informal double posting into a single recognised office.

The timing of the petition, immediately after the church-rate decision, is probably opportunistic. The council is in active mood for administrative reorganisation and has just adopted a fresh fiscal mechanism on the wardens' recommendation; a soldier-overseer seeking a formal change of footing presents his case at the moment when the bench is least likely to send him back to a routine refusal.

448

439

Resolv[d] That whilst he is at work for the Hon[ble] Company he have Liberty to hire one to do his duty,

Ordered

That according to the Petition of the Marshall the 12[th] April last his fees be as foll[ows] Viz[t]

Sumoning all Juries [...] all other matters wherein the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] are as Lords Proprietors concern[d] [...] the Punnishing of their Serv[t]s or Slaves, the Marshall is to have his Pay or usual Sallary } 00-00-00

For a Soldier or other Comp[any]s Serv[t] comittment 2 days pay,

If he be Ordered to fetch down a Soldier for neglect of duty three day[s] pay,

If a Planter be comitted 00-02-06

For whipeing a black at his Mas[ters] request } 00-00-06

For whipeing a black by ord[er] of the Govern[r] nothing } 00-00-00

For comittment of a black 00-01-08

For a Single Sumons 00-01-00

For severall persons sumoned Each } 00-00-06

And the Marshall is Allowed to keep any person in his Custody untill they have payed their Comittm[en]t fees but shall keep no person in Custody longer than three Dayes but if they are imprisoned 3 day[s] for want of payeing their fees they shall then be Discharged Gratis,

Margin Notes:

to hire one to do his duty w[hi]l[s]t at work.

Marshalls Fees.

The council resolved that, while Richard Ray remained at work for the Honourable Company, he should have liberty to hire a man to do his soldier's duty.

The council ordered that, on the marshal's petition of 19 April last, his fees be set as follows.

For summoning all juries and any other matter in which the Honourable Company were concerned as Lords Proprietors, and for the punishment of their servants or slaves, the marshal was to have his pay or usual salary.

£0 0s 0d

For a soldier or other Company servant, commitment

a day's pay

If the marshal was ordered to fetch down a soldier for neglect of duty

three days' pay

If a planter was committed

£0 2s 6d

For whipping a black at his master's request

£0 0s 6d

For whipping a black by order of the governor

£0 0s 0d

For commitment of a black

£0 1s 8d

For a single summons

£0 1s 0d

For several persons summoned, each

£0 0s 6d

The marshal was allowed to keep any person in his custody until they had paid their commitment fees. He was not to keep any person in custody longer than three days, but if they were imprisoned three days for want of paying their fees they were then to be discharged free.

Interpretations

The marshal's fee schedule sets the price list for the principal coercive office of the island. The scale distinguishes sharply by status of subject. Acts done where the Honourable Company are the Lords Proprietors carry no separate fee, since the marshal is on salary for the Company's own business. Action against soldiers and Company servants is paid in lost or doubled labour rather than in cash, with a day's pay for ordinary commitment and three days' pay for fetching down a man for neglect of duty. The planter, as a free man with money, pays in coin at £0 2s 6d. The black slave is the cheapest subject for routine work, with whipping at sixpence and commitment at £0 1s 8d, the master paying for any whipping done at his request and nothing where the governor orders it.

The summons fees of £0 1s 0d for a single summons and £0 0s 6d each for several persons summoned together fix the marshal's income from civil and criminal processes alike, including the jury summons set in train at the present consultation for the trial of Toby on the following Monday. The marshal's pay or usual salary mentioned in the first item is the standing Company emolument from which any further work for the Company's own causes is treated as done in the line of duty.

The custody rule is a brake on the marshal's incentive to detain. He may hold a debtor for his commitment fees, but only for three days. After three days the prisoner is discharged free, even unpaid. The provision protects the freeman planter and the soldier from indefinite detention for want of a few shillings, and confines the marshal's pressure on payment to a narrow window. The three-day cap is the disciplinary counterpart to the marshal's right of detention, and runs against the standing description of the United Castle prison as a loathsome and filthy place, noted by Samuel Algate on 26 April 1715.

The hire substitution allowed to Ray converts his soldier's duty into a commodity that may be performed by a paid stand-in. The mechanism is the same as the highway labour warrant of 15 April 1715, where a planter unwilling to attend in person may engage a substitute and pay the substitute's wages. The principle here applied to night-watch duty is that the Company is entitled to performance of the duty, not to the personal labour of the man originally enrolled.

Speculations

The two-tier whipping fee is probably designed to manage the line between private and public discipline of slaves. By making the master pay when he calls for a whipping but charging him nothing when the governor orders one, the council channels routine punishment toward formal authority and discourages the private whipping economy. The structure makes the bench cheaper than the household for the disciplinary action and is consistent with the summary order against Harmon the gardener of 26 April 1715, in which the council retained whipping at the flagstaff as a public penalty under its own warrant.

The three-day cap on custody for non-payment of fees probably reflects experience of detained men whose situation hardened into a more serious problem the longer they remained in the cells. A planter held beyond three days for an unpaid £0 2s 6d would be lost to his fences and his cattle; a soldier held beyond three days would be off the night watch. The cap is the council's way of preventing the marshal's fee economy from disrupting the productive and military establishments it is supposed to police.

449

440

Blank page

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441

Island S[t] Helena

At a Court of Judicature of Nice Prius held on Tuesday the 10[th] day of May 1715. At the sessions house near the United Castle In James Vally,

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] Judge Cap[t] Geo: Haswell Dep[u]ty Mathew Bazett 3[d] and Antipas Tovey 4[th] in Council

Then the Court was Opend according to the Usual mannar [...] those persons appoin ted for Jurors are as followeth

Viz[t]

  1. Orlando Bagley Foreman
  2. John Worrall
  3. W[m] Slaughter
  4. W[m] Beale
  5. Isaac Wood
  6. Sam[l] Jessey
  7. W[m] Worrall
  8. Joshuah Johnson
  9. Sutton Isaake Jun[r]
  10. Rob[t] Marsh
  11. John Twaits
  12. James Vesey

Who being all Sworne

The Court proceeded on business,

Viz[t]

On Thursday y[e] 28[th] of April Cap[t] Geo: Haswell brought down to the Fort a black slave named Toby with his Hands bound behind him [...] a roap

about

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Court of Judicature.

Jury.

Toby brought down by Cap[t] Haswell

Island of St Helena. At a Court of Judicature of Nisi Prius held on Tuesday the 10 May 1715 at the Sessions House near the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor and judge; Captain George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third in council; Antipas Tovey, fourth in council.

The court was opened in the usual manner. The persons appointed for jurors were as follows.

  1. Orlando Bagley, foreman
  2. John Worrall
  3. William Slaughter
  4. William Beale
  5. Isaac Wood
  6. Samuel Jeffery
  7. William Worrall
  8. Joshua Johnson
  9. Sutton Isaake junior
  10. Robert Marsh
  11. John Twaits
  12. James Vesey

The jurors were all sworn. The court then proceeded to business.

On Thursday the 28 April last, Captain George Haswell brought down to the fort a black slave named Toby, with his hands bound behind him and a rope about

Interpretations

The Court of Judicature of Nisi Prius is the formal criminal bench of the island, sitting under the governor as judge and the deputy governor and councillors as associates. The Nisi Prius style is borrowed from the English assize procedure of bringing a cause for trial in the county where it arose, and is here applied to the trial of a slave on a charge of felony and burglary. The same bench tried Bever for the enticement of Abigail on 24 January 1714/15, Moll on 7 February 1715 for the robbery of Samuel Algate's house, and George the slave of Riping Wills on the same date for incorrigible roguery; the present sitting belongs to the same regular series.

The jury of twelve is the same instrument used in those earlier trials, drawn from the free planters and Company servants of the island. Several of the names recur in the recovered judicial record. Orlando Bagley as foreman is a free planter of long standing, witness to the will of Thomas Allis senior on 8 October 1711 and co-petitioner against Perkins's grant on the same date. Sutton Isaake junior is the surveyor of the highways relieved by the council order of 19 April 1715. William Worrall is the new overseer of plantations whose appointment of 5 April 1715 was made without a fixed salary. John Twaits was elected churchwarden at the country church on 18 April 1715 and is to be sworn in next council day. The court draws on the senior layer of free planters and trusted Company servants for the empanelled trial of a slave whose conviction may carry capital or near-capital sentence.

Toby is the property of the orphans of Charles Steward, whose will was proved on 11 January 1714/15. His value, like Abigail's £50 0s 0d in the Bever case, will turn on the trial's outcome and will affect the orphan estate directly. The cause of action was laid by Captain Haswell on 3 May 1715 as a complaint of felony and burglary, and the jury was summoned for the present day under that order. The act of bringing the slave down to the fort with his hands bound behind him and a rope about his person is the standard apprehension procedure for a suspected felon, and the date of Thursday the 28 April 1715 fixes the moment at which Haswell took the slave into custody.

Speculations

The selection of Orlando Bagley as foreman is probably deliberate. The foreman directs the jury's discussion and delivers the verdict, and Bagley's long experience as a witness, petitioner and juror gives him standing among the other men of the bench. The council's earlier difficulty with juries in the Bevian case of 7 February 1715, where the jury had to be directed by the governor to value a stolen cane below the twelve-penny grand-larceny threshold to spare a white man, makes the choice of an experienced foreman a sensible precaution where the verdict on a slave will turn on factual rather than valuation questions.

The detail of the rope about Toby's person, recovered as the principal text breaks at the head of the next image, probably indicates that the slave was brought down in chains rather than under simple escort, the apprehension procedure being calibrated to the supposed seriousness of the charge. The image breaks before the description is completed, but the binding of the hands and the rope already noted go beyond what was used to bring Moll or George before the same court on 7 February 1715. The treatment is consistent with a charge of felony coupled with burglary, the more serious of the two heads.

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about his neck Guarded by one Rich[d] Swallow and two Blacks and told the Gov[r] that fellow had broken open his House and Stole Severall goods to a considerable Vallue [...] w[hi]ch he could prove upon him whereupon the Gov[r] caused Examination to be made and took it in writing and by those Examinations it did appear that Toby the Prisoner being a Servant to his the said Cap[t] Haswells wife[s] Children in Law had in the Chest three Pound of Sugar [...] one pound [...] a half of Pepper that Cap[t] Haswell sed was his and behind his chest a pint bottle very near full of Arrack w[ch] Cap[t] Haswell own[d] but the said Slave sed twas given him by his wife Dolly who lives in the same house only she is Cap[t] Haswells Slave and the fellow is the Childrens and its very likely that the Woman had Pilfered those things out of the house for her Husband for he and she did in Charles Stewards (their former Masters life time) Live all in one Familie But now the[y] in one house the familie is Divided and the Children of Charly Steward drove to great hardships The Govern[r] finding Cap[t] Haswell in a great Passion to have the fellow committed for Fellony [...] Burgulary and tryed for the same that he might be condemned [...] hanged took him on one side and told him that this Fact was of too small a nature when proved to hang any man for. And besides that it was not Burglary But sayd here is a very Strickt Law made by y[e] Country in such cases and the fellow shall be Punnished according to that Law but Cap[t] Haswell sayd he had many other crimes to charge him with and that the whole Countrey would come in against him and prest that he might be committed whereupon he was Comitted by

Margin Notes:

his accusation

Goods Stole.

Gov[r]s discourse w[i]th Cap[t] Haswell

Captain Haswell came down to the fort with the slave Toby, his hands bound behind him and a rope about his neck, guarded by Richard Swallow and two blacks. Haswell told the governor that Toby had broken open his house and stolen several goods of considerable value, all of which he could prove upon him.

The governor caused examinations to be made and taken in writing. The examinations showed that Toby, the prisoner, who was a servant to Captain Haswell's wife's children in law, had hidden in the chest three pounds of sugar and one pound and a half of pepper. Haswell said these were his. Behind his chest a pint bottle very near full of arrack was also found, which Haswell owned. Toby said the bottle had been given him by Dolly, Haswell's wife, who lived in the same house and was Haswell's slave. The fellow was the children's slave.

It was probable that the woman had pilfered these things out of the house for her husband, because both of them had lived in Charles Steward's, their former master's, lifetime, all in one family. Now that the family was divided into two houses, the children of Charles Steward were driven to great hardships.

The governor, finding Captain Haswell in a great passion to have the slave committed for felony and burglary and tried for the same that he might be condemned and hanged, took him aside. The governor told him that the theft was of too small a value, when proved, to hang any man for. Beyond this, the matter did not amount to burglary.

The governor said that there was a very strict law made by the country in such cases and the slave should be punished according to that law. Captain Haswell replied that he had many other crimes to charge him with, and that the whole country would come in against him. He pressed that the slave might be committed, upon which he was committed.

Interpretations

The taking of examinations in writing by the governor is the pre-trial procedure that anchors the present cause. Haswell brings the slave down with his complaint; the governor reduces the evidence to written depositions before the matter goes to the jury. The examinations are the source of the factual statements set out in the consultation, including Toby's own account that the arrack came from Dolly. The same procedure was followed for Moll on 7 February 1715, where Moll's own evidence that the door was not broken converted the burglary charge into simple felony. Here Toby's evidence that the arrack came from another slave threatens to do the same to Haswell's case.

The phrase very strict law made by the country in such cases points to a slave code enacted at the general sessions of the country - perhaps the same general sessions of 7 February 1715 - distinct from the English law applied to whites and Company servants. The governor's recourse to the country law as the proper measure of punishment is the institutional brake on Haswell's demand for capital sentence. The country law presumably scales penalty to the value of the goods taken, and on the figures of three pounds of sugar, a pound and a half of pepper and a pint bottle of arrack the threshold is not crossed.

The household geography is the heart of the case. Toby and Dolly had lived together in one family under Charles Steward, whose death before 4 January 1714/15 and whose will proved on 11 January 1714/15 split the establishment into two houses. Toby went with the orphans into Haswell's care as their step-father by marriage, Dolly remained Haswell's own slave; both continued to live in the same dwelling. The opportunity for the alleged conspiracy between husband and wife slaves arises from the very arrangement that the probate produced. The governor's interpretation that Dolly pilfered the goods for her husband is grounded in the persistence of the slave marriage across the partition of the household.

Haswell's escalating posture - first the bound arrival, then the demand for capital trial, then the threat to bring further charges and to muster the country against the slave - is recognised by the governor as a great passion. The governor takes him aside, presses the legal weakness of the case, and only commits the slave when Haswell adds the promise of further crimes and country support. The committal is therefore a holding measure under pressure from the deputy governor, not an endorsement of the burglary charge.

Speculations

Haswell's insistence on a capital trial, against the governor's measured assessment that the theft did not meet the threshold and the breaking did not amount to burglary, is probably driven by a domestic problem that he cannot acknowledge openly. If the arrack came from Dolly to Toby, the case turns on his own household and on his own slave's collusion with a slave belonging to the orphan estate. A capital sentence on Toby would close the matter by removing the witness whose account implicated Dolly, and would convert the missing arrack into a recovered loss rather than an internal pilferage. The governor's restraining role on the bench is here the protection of the orphan estate against the conversion of a slave worth perhaps £50 0s 0d into a hanged thief on the strength of a husband-wife arrangement that pre-dates Haswell's marriage to the widow Steward.

The reference to the whole country coming in against the slave probably reflects a separate stock of suspicions among the planters about thefts not yet brought home to a particular offender. Haswell offers to convert Toby into the public solution to those unresolved cases, in the same way Bevian's silver-headed cane on 7 February 1715 was directed below the twelve-penny threshold by a planter jury anxious to spare a white man. Here the bench is being asked to do the reverse, to receive country evidence against a slave to make up a capital case where the present facts do not support one. The governor's resort to country law and his deferral to the jury that has been sworn for the day on the present consultation is the procedural answer to the demand.

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by y[e] Govern[r],

And the next day as the Gov[r] went to look after the Labourer[s] he called on Cap[t] Haswell to talk with him when he was cooler (it being in the morning) and then told Cap[t] Haswell that the fellow should be whip[t] for Stealing y[e] Pint of Arrack and Advised Cap[t] Haswell not to make any more stirr about that matter w[ch] was too frivolous to call a mans life in question for, but he denyed the Gov[r] and prest yet farther to lett him have Justice for he had many other Great Crimes to charge him with and that the whole Country would accuse him and that besides that Fact[s] the fellow had Stolen fifty Rupees soundly desireing the Govern[r] not to take the part of a thief, for he was resolved to prosecute him and Hang him

Then the Govern[r] gave the Country ten Days Notice that there should be a Sessions held and Ordered a Jury to be accordingly Summon[d]

And on Tuesday the 10: of this Instant May the Govern[r] held a Court of Judicature for the Tryall of this Prisoner Toby Cap[t] Haswell haveing gott two Indictments drawn up against him for Fellony and Burglary the fellow was brought to the Barr the Jury appeard and being to be Impannelld M[r] Powell [...] Gurling appeared in behalf of the Children (who owned the black) who were wholly Ignorant of all Judiciall proceedings, and Objected against two of those who were Sumoned as being the Intimate acquaintances and near Relations of Cap[t] Haswell's wife who he took to be the cause of this Rigourous Prosecution, Whereupon Cap[t] Haswell alsoe made exception against M[r] Coles who has the repute of a very discreet [...] sober Man

Margin Notes:

Sessions appointed.

Proceedings.

The governor committed Toby. The next day the governor went out to look after the labourers and called on Captain Haswell to speak with him when he was cooler, the meeting being in the morning. The governor told Haswell that the slave should be whipped for stealing the pint of arrack, and advised him not to make any further stir about the matter, the question being too frivolous to call for a man's life in question.

Haswell denied the governor and pressed further to have justice, saying he had many other great crimes to charge Toby with, that the whole country would accuse him, and that the slave had besides stolen fifty rupees. Haswell roundly desired the governor not to take the part of a thief, for he was resolved to prosecute him and bring him to trial.

The governor gave the country ten days' notice that there should be a sessions held, and ordered a jury to be summoned accordingly.

On Tuesday the 10 of the present May the governor held a Court of Judicature for the trial of the prisoner Toby. Captain Haswell, having two indictments drawn up against him for felony and burglary, the slave was brought to the bar. The jury appeared, and being to be empanelled, Mr Powell and Gurling appeared on behalf of the children, who owned the slave. The children were wholly ignorant of all judicial proceedings. They objected against two of those summoned, as being intimate acquaintance and near relations of Captain Haswell's wife, who they took to be the cause of this rigorous prosecution. Captain Haswell in turn made exception against Mr Coles, who had the reputation of a very discreet and sober man.

Interpretations

The morning interview between the governor and Haswell, set in the open air on the round of the labourers, is itself an institutional act. The governor uses an informal venue to advise the deputy governor that the case will not bear capital trial, and to propose summary whipping as the proper remedy for the theft of arrack. Haswell's refusal to take the advice in private forces the matter onto the formal docket of the Court of Judicature. The new charge of theft of fifty rupees raises the stakes from a frivolous case to a serious one, since the value clearly exceeds the twelve-penny grand-larceny threshold applied by the same bench against Bevian on 7 February 1715. Fifty rupees, in the Indian currency standardly used at the island for transactions in Company silver, is a substantial sum and would on conviction support a capital sentence if found by the jury.

The intervention of Powell and Gurling on behalf of the children is the practical response to the Steward estate's exposure as owner of the slave. Powell and Gurling are the executors of Charles Steward's will, proved on 11 January 1714/15, and have been acting in the children's interest in property matters - including Powell's offer of 11 March 1715 to sell the standing provisions, the young slaves Pompey and Roger and the cattle from Steward's lands to the Company. Their appearance at the bar makes the slave's owners a party to the trial in the manner of an English civil party, with the right to object to jurors. The children's ignorance of judicial proceedings noted in the record is the formal explanation for why the executors take the active role.

The challenges to the jury follow English form. Two jurors are objected to as intimate acquaintance and near relations of Haswell's wife, and Haswell in turn challenges Mr Coles. The principle is the same as the peremptory challenge available in English felony trials. The grounds adopted by the orphan party - relation by marriage to the deputy governor's wife - are unusually personal and reflect the close-knit composition of the planter community, where a jury of twelve drawn from the free planters and Company servants must inevitably include men with family connections to the parties.

The wife of Haswell, formerly the widow of Charles Steward, is identified by the children's representatives as the cause of the rigorous prosecution. The interest she has in seeing the slave Toby out of the household is the same interest that explains the absorption of the orphan estate's slave under the new household: a capital conviction would remove the witness whose evidence already implicates Haswell's own slave Dolly. The objection is therefore not only to the jurors but also implicitly to the standing of the prosecution itself.

Speculations

The governor's choice of ten days' notice for the country, against Haswell's insistence on immediate prosecution, is probably calculated to give the orphan estate's executors time to engage in the proceedings. The Court of Judicature of 7 February 1715 had been called on shorter notice without orphan representation; here the lapse of ten days has produced the appearance of Powell and Gurling at the bar in time to challenge the empanelled jury. The interval also gives the country to compose itself out of the great passion the governor noted on the day of committal, and to test whether the further charges Haswell promised - the fifty rupees and the other great crimes - can be reduced to indictments that will stand.

Haswell's exception against Coles, set against the orphan party's exception against his wife's relations, is probably an attempt to remove from the jury a juror whose discretion and sobriety would weigh in favour of the same restrained reading the governor had urged in the morning interview. A jury of less reflective men would be more easily moved by the country-wide accusation Haswell promises and the £50 0s 0d-equivalent value of the alleged theft of fifty rupees. The selection of jurors, in a case where the bench has already shown reluctance to send the slave to the gallows, becomes the principal battleground of the trial.

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Man and is a considerable Planter here,

When the Jury was Sworne, the Govern[r] being Judge of the Court spakee to them as follows.

Gentlemen,

I have called you now together for a Generall Sessions tho I am Sorry for the Occasion because tis to pass Judgement of life or Death,

I promised you at my first comeing not to bear the Hon[ble] Companys Sword in Vain but in all I could as well by my Example as my Precept to Encourage y[e] good (that is the sober [...] Industrious men among you) and to Detect the Evill doer,

And as I have not hitherto so I hope hereafter I shall have no occasion to use any harsh means in this our[?] Very little Govern[men]t,

But that Justice and Mercy may goe always hand in hand,

As to the present affair you will heare the Evidence and are Judges of the Fact, and I do not question but you will give a Just and Righteous Verdict,

Then the Prisoner was Indicted by the name of Toby for Fellony and Burglary at the Complaint of Cap[t] George Haswell the Deputy Governour for Breaking open his house in Sandy Bay on the 26 of Feb[ruar]y last [...] Stealing thence five Gallons of Arrack fifty pounds of Sugar But there was no Evidence given only Cap[t] Haswell did suspect that prisoner Toby,

And Toby was a Second time Indicted for fellony [...] Burglary at the Complaint of said Cap[t] George Haswell for Breaking his House on the 27[th] of April last and stealing thence a Pint of Arrack three Pound of Sugar and one [...] a half Pound of Flower, But it did not at all appear

Margin Notes:

Gov[r]s Speech.

Toby Indicted.

2[d] Indictm[en]t

Mr Coles, here described as a discreet and sober man and a considerable planter on the island, was the juror against whom Captain Haswell had taken exception. When the jury was sworn, the governor, being judge of the court, spoke to them as follows.

The governor addressed the jurors as gentlemen. He had called them together for a general sessions. He was sorry for the occasion, because it was to pass judgement of life or death.

He had promised them at his first coming not to bear the Honourable Company's sword in vain, but in all he could, by his own example as much as by his precept, to encourage the good - that is, the sober and industrious men among them - and to detect the evil-doer.

As he had not hitherto, so he hoped he should hereafter have no occasion to use any harsh means, in this his very little government, but that justice and mercy might always go hand in hand.

As to the present affair, they would hear the evidence and were judges of the fact. He did not question but that they would give a just and righteous verdict.

The prisoner was then indicted by the name of Toby for felony and burglary at the complaint of Captain George Haswell, deputy governor, for breaking open his house in Sandy Bay on the 26 February last and stealing from there five gallons of arrack and fifty pounds of sugar. There was no evidence given. Captain Haswell only suspected that the prisoner Toby was guilty.

Toby was a second time indicted for felony and burglary at the complaint of Captain George Haswell, for breaking his house on the 27 April last and stealing from there a pint of arrack, three pounds of sugar and one and a half pounds of pepper. It did not at all appear

Interpretations

The governor's charge to the jury sets out the constitutional position of the small island government. The sword borne in the Honourable Company's name is the instrument of capital justice, and the governor states that he has not borne it in vain to date and hopes not to begin now. The reference to the very little government acknowledges the limited scale of the establishment - perhaps fifty or sixty free planters and a comparable garrison - in which the formal apparatus of an English assize trial is brought to bear on the criminal cases of fewer than a dozen men a year. The principle of justice and mercy hand in hand is the same restraining doctrine the governor applied to Bevian on 7 February 1715, when the jury was directed to value the silver-headed cane below the grand-larceny threshold.

The two indictments illustrate the bargain Haswell drove on 4 May 1715, when he undertook to bring further charges and country evidence against Toby. The first indictment is a charge of breaking open the Sandy Bay house on 26 February last and stealing five gallons of arrack and fifty pounds of sugar - a charge of magnitude that would clearly cross the twelve-penny threshold and support a capital sentence. The second indictment is the smaller charge that originally brought the slave to the bar, the breaking and theft of the pint of arrack, three pounds of sugar and one and a half pounds of pepper on 27 April last. The two indictments cover the same alleged pattern of conduct in the same house, with the earlier and graver charge presented first.

The collapse of the first indictment under the simple notation that there was no evidence given and that Haswell only suspected the slave is the formal vindication of the governor's morning advice on 4 May 1715. The charge that would have hanged Toby rests on suspicion alone, with no witness called and no proof brought. The procedure of the bench is to enter the absence of evidence on the record, so that the jury sees the case on its merits and the suspicion does not pass for proof.

The second indictment, on the slighter charge, fails by reference to the recovery of the goods from the slave's chest, which had already produced the very examinations the governor caused to be reduced to writing on 28 April 1715. The phrase it did not at all appear, recovered as the principal text breaks at the foot of the page, begins the corresponding finding on the smaller charge. The record is constructed so that the failure of each indictment is set out in its turn, indictment by indictment, with the verdict to be addressed once the evidence on each has been disposed of.

Speculations

The notation that no evidence was given on the first indictment is probably the council's polite way of recording that Haswell had nothing to offer beyond the general country accusation he had pressed on the governor on 4 May 1715. The fifty rupees originally raised by Haswell as a separate charge has perhaps been recast, in the indictment as drawn up, as five gallons of arrack and fifty pounds of sugar - a sterling-denominated theft from his own house rather than a money theft. The shift of charge, between the morning interview and the empanelled trial, is consistent with Haswell having reconsidered his ability to prove a missing cash sum and substituted a household-stores theft for which physical absence at his own discretion would supply the appearance of loss.

The governor's restraining preamble to the jury, with its open declaration that no harsh means have yet been needed, is probably calibrated to a jury that he expects to acquit on the principal charges. The opening principle of justice and mercy hand in hand is the doctrine under which the same court spared Bevian on a directed valuation; here the same court is being prepared to spare a slave on the absence of evidence. The governor's discourse positions the bench against the country accusation Haswell promised, by reminding the jurors that judgement of life or death is for the evidence and not for the reputation of the prisoner among the country at large.

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appear that the House was broke open Nor that he had taken the things himself out of that part of the House So that unless Cap[t] Haswell had joyntly Indicted his own wench as well as the Childrens man it would not amount to a Single fellony, and a great deal of Eagerness and Evill will was shewn in this Prosecution to Induce y[e] Jury to find the Prisoner Guilty, who instead of that seem'd to take it very Ill that a man (tho a Black) should be Tryed for his life by so Vexatious and Malitious a Prosecution for so trifling a matter as plainly appears by Cap[t] Haswell[s] bringing his wife with him to be an Evidence against the Black, and she being Sworne according to the Forme in the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Book called Filburns Precedents (folio three Hundred [...] twenty Eight) which is a book used here as well as in most parts of England he also made Objection against it But the Govern[r] would permitt no body to give Evidence that was not sworn, and when M[r]s Haswell was sworn she proved nothing of the Indictment but affirm[d] on Her Oath that the Blacks were never permitted to goe into that part of the House (tho the Black wench is very much there it being the Kitchen where they Dress their Victualls) then Cap[t] Haswell Called his Black wench who comeing near the Barr sayed the Black man then [...] there standing was her husband [...] he being askt if shee was his wife sayd she was upon w[ch] the Govern[r] said he could not make the Woman an Evidence against her Husband were his Life was concern'd Upon w[ch] Cap[t] Haswell behaved himself very undecent ly whereupon the Gov[r] took up One of

Margin Notes:

Further. Proceedings.

Evidenc[e]

The proceedings went on. It did not appear that the house was broke open, nor that Toby had taken the things himself out of that part of the house. Unless Captain Haswell had jointly indicted his own wife as well as the children's man, the matter would not amount to a single felony. A great deal of eagerness and ill will was shown in this prosecution.

The court endeavoured to find the prisoner guilty, instead of which the court took it very ill that a man, though a black, should be tried for his life by so vexatious and malicious a prosecution for so trifling a matter, as plainly appeared by Captain Haswell's bringing his wife with him to be an evidence against the black. She, being to be sworn according to the form in the Honourable Company's book called Tilburn's Precedents, folio three hundred and twenty-eight, which was a book used at the island as well as in most parts of England, Haswell also made objection against it.

The governor would permit nobody to give evidence that was not sworn. When Mrs Haswell was sworn she proved nothing of the indictment, but affirmed on her oath that the blacks were never permitted to go into that part of the house, though the black wench was very much there, it being the kitchen where they dressed their victuals. Then Captain Haswell called his black wench, who, coming near the bar, said the black man then there standing was her husband. Being asked if she was his wife, she said she was. Upon this the governor said he could not make the woman a evidence against her husband, where his life was concerned. Upon this Captain Haswell behaved himself very indecently, whereupon the governor took up one

Interpretations

The legal failure of the prosecution is set out point by point. The breaking of the house is not proved; the slave is not shown to have taken the goods himself; and the children's man cannot be convicted of theft from the household without the simultaneous indictment of Dolly, who lives in the same house and had access to the same goods. The case collapses against the joint household structure that the partition of the Steward estate produced. The governor's reasoning of the morning interview on 4 May 1715, that the goods were probably pilfered by Dolly for her husband, is here vindicated as a legal obstacle to the conviction of Toby alone.

Tilburn's Precedents, identified at folio three hundred and twenty-eight as the form-book for swearing witnesses in criminal trials, is the institutional bridge between English assize procedure and the Court of Judicature of the island. The book is in use at the island as well as in most parts of England, and supplies the standard oaths under which witnesses are sworn. Haswell's objection to its application is the prosecution's attempt to control the manner of his wife's giving evidence, and the governor's insistence on the form is the procedural backbone of the trial. The reference establishes that the bench is operating under the same form-book the English assizes use, and is not improvising local procedure.

The marital privilege barring a wife from giving evidence against her husband, where his life is at stake, is applied to a slave marriage in the same form as it would have been applied to a free marriage. The black wench, identified at the bar as Toby's wife, is therefore disqualified as a witness against him on the capital indictments. The governor's ruling is the formal recognition that the marriage between Dolly and Toby has the same evidential consequences in a capital case as a marriage between free persons, even though the parties are owned by different masters and live divided across two households of one dwelling. The same principle, in reverse, blocks Haswell's earlier attempt to have his own wife give evidence against the slave whose ownership lay in her former husband's estate.

The phrase a man, though a black, used in the court's own reasoning, is the bench's recognition that the procedural protections of an English criminal trial extend to the slave at the bar. The trial is not summary discipline, like the forty lashes ordered against Harmon the gardener on 26 April 1715, but a formal capital cause in which the slave is given the benefit of the rules of evidence. The court's open displeasure at a vexatious and malicious prosecution for so trifling a matter records the bench's view that Haswell has misused the apparatus of capital justice for a private end.

Speculations

The bringing of Mrs Haswell to the bar as a witness against Toby is probably the prosecution's attempt to substitute the testimony of the late Charles Steward's widow for the missing evidence on the principal charges. As the former mistress of Toby in Steward's lifetime, she has personal knowledge of the slave that is unavailable to Haswell. The strategy fails because her sworn testimony, when finally given under Tilburn's form, supports nothing in the indictment but only the general principle that the blacks were not permitted into the relevant part of the house. The substantive defence that Dolly used the kitchen as her dressing place undermines the prohibition itself, and confirms that the slave Dolly had the access to the goods that the children's man did not.

Haswell's indecent behaviour, recorded as a separate fact at the foot of the proceedings, is probably the moment at which the governor moved from procedural rulings to direct disciplinary action against the deputy governor on the bench. The phrase the governor took up one - recovered as the principal text breaks at the foot of the page - opens the description of whatever the governor took up, and the present record stops at that point. The collapse of the prosecution on its evidence has, by this stage, exposed the prosecutor himself rather than the slave at the bar.

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the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] books Called Daltons Justice [...] read in y[e] 164: Chap[ter] [...] y[e] Second Section thereof the following words

"The Wife is not to be bound to give evidence "nor be examin[d] against her husband for by y[e] "Laws of God [...] that Land She ought not to dis- "cover his Council or his offence in case of "theft (or other felony as I seemeth) nay says "Dalton "I have known the Judge of Asize "greatly to disallow that the Wife should be "examin[d] or Bound to give any Evidence against "others in the Case of theft wherein her Hus- "band was a party be -

And S[i]r Edward Cook L[o]: saith that it hath been resolved by the Justices Termino Pasch 10 Jac[obi] that y[e] wife cannot be produced either against or for the Husband, n[o]t

Then Cap[t] Haswell urged that we ought here to goe by what is Law in England to which it was Replyed that the Gov[r] would have Punnisht the fellow according to the Law here, but he refused it and would have him Indicted according to the Law in England that he might be Hanged.

Then one of the Neighbourhood stood upon behalf of the Children and desired Cap[t] Haswell's black wench might be Examined wether she and the other Blacks did not use to goe into the Kitchen where this pint of Arrack was Stolen from but the Gov[r] replyed that what he had read out of "Dalton shewd that the Woman was no better "Evidence for her husband than against himselfe which Cap[t] Haswell seemd to be a little Sattisfied. The Tryall was long, considering the small occasion, and lesser proof then what the Govern[r] repealled is all the Evidence against and for the Prisoner so the Jury withdrew and after a short

Margin Notes:

Recitall in Severall Books. of Law[s]

Quest[ion] askt Cap[t] Haswells Wench

The governor took up one of the Honourable Company's books, called Dalton's Justice, and read in the 164 chapter and the second section thereof the following words.

The wife was not to be bound to give evidence nor to be examined against her husband for, by the laws of God and the land, she ought not to discover his counsel or his offence in case of theft or other felony, as it seemeth. Dalton himself said he had known the judges of assize greatly to disallow that the wife should be examined or bound to give any evidence against others in the case of theft wherein her husband was a party.

Sir Edward Coke too said that it had been resolved by the justices Termino Paschae 10 James I that the wife could not be produced either against or for the husband.

Then Captain Haswell urged that the court ought not to go by what was the law in England. The governor replied that he would have punished Toby according to the law at the island, but Haswell had refused that and would have him indicted according to the law in England that he might be hanged.

Then one of the neighbourhood stood up on behalf of the children. He desired Captain Haswell's black wench might be examined whether she and the other blacks did not use to go into the kitchen where the pint of arrack was stolen from. The governor replied that what he had read out of Dalton showed that the woman was no better evidence for her husband than against him, with which Captain Haswell seemed to be a little satisfied.

The trial was long, considering the small occasion and lesser proof. The governor recapitulated all the evidence against and for the prisoner. The jury withdrew, and after a short

Interpretations

Dalton's Justice, named in full as the Honourable Company's book of that title, is the principal handbook of justice of the peace in early eighteenth-century English practice. The text was first published by Michael Dalton in 1618 as The Country Justice and was reissued through repeated editions across the seventeenth century. The book sets out, in compact form, the duties of justices of the peace, the manner of taking examinations, the form of indictments, and the rules of evidence in criminal causes. The governor's reading from chapter 164 section 2 fixes the marital privilege as it applied to the wife's evidence in cases of theft and other felony where the husband was a party. The book operates at the island as the standing institutional reference for the bench, in the same way that Tilburn's Precedents was identified earlier in the trial as the form-book for witness oaths. The two books together carry the procedure of English petty and quarter sessions onto the island bench.

The citation of Sir Edward Coke, with the term-day reference Termino Paschae 10 James I, brings the higher authority of the resolutions of the King's Bench justices behind the same principle. The Easter term of the tenth year of James I corresponds to the year 1612, and the resolutions of that term were among the foundation rulings on the wife's incapacity to testify either for or against her husband in criminal causes. The governor's invocation of Coke under the head of resolved law is the strongest authority available, and Coke's name carries the same weight at the island bench as it would at Westminster Hall.

The conflict between the law at the island and the law in England, now openly set out on the record, is the constitutional question that has shaped the trial since the morning interview of 4 May 1715. The governor had offered to punish Toby under the country law, with whipping appropriate to the trifling value of the goods; Haswell had refused that course and demanded an English-law indictment for capital felony. Having insisted on the law in England, Haswell is then debarred by the same law from using his wife's evidence against her husband-slave. The procedural symmetry is exact: by choosing the higher law, the prosecutor forfeited the local procedural latitude that would have allowed examination of the slave wife.

The neighbour who stood up on behalf of the children is a noted moment of community intervention in the trial. The children of Charles Steward, ignorant of judicial proceedings and represented at the bar by the executors Powell and Gurling, have a further advocate from the neighbourhood asking the court to extend the examination to Dolly. The neighbour's request is the practical attempt to bring Dolly's responsibility into the case as the defence Powell and Gurling had begun to construct, but the governor's reading from Dalton excludes the slave wife as a witness on either side. The orphan estate gains protection of its own slave on the same legal principle that protects Toby from his own wife's evidence against him.

Speculations

The judge's careful recapitulation of all the evidence against and for the prisoner before sending the jury out is probably calibrated to neutralise the country-wide accusation Haswell had promised on 4 May 1715. By bringing all the evidence under one summing-up, the governor binds the jury to the proof on the indictments rather than to the general reputation of the slave on the island. The phrase the small occasion and lesser proof carries the bench's own judgement of the case forward into the deliberation, and gives the jury a procedural cue that it is the proof, not the prosecutor's persistence, that supports a verdict.

Haswell being a little satisfied by the governor's ruling on Dalton is probably the prosecutor's recognition, on the back of the King's Bench resolutions of Easter term 10 James I, that the marital privilege he has tried to use against Toby through his own wife is the same privilege that bars him from using Dolly against the same slave. The double bar makes the prosecution's evidential case impossible without the husband-wife conspiracy that the joint household had produced. Haswell's grudging acceptance, recorded as a little satisfied, is the bench's diplomatic way of noting that the deputy governor has at last conceded the point of law against him.

456

447

a short Consultation returned and brough[t] their Verdict That Toby was not Guilty

Whereupon he was Discharged and sent here to look after the Childrens Cattle as usual Employment

Upon which Cap[t] Haswell inveighed very much against the Court and Jury and sayd it was a Pact[?] Jury and chose [...] purpose[?] to Vindicate a Rogue and that they were all Pyrat[s] and had given a false Verdict and that Since they were such fellons, he would goe out of Court and have nothing to do with them now, but he would remember it,

Whereupon the foreman and Severall others of the Jury desired the Court to protect them from Cap[t] Haswells unreasonable reflection and that he might be restrained from reflecting on them and the Country in the manner he does affirming that they had but Discharged their Consciences and done their Duty, and could not bring a man to death because Cap[t] Haswell was angry with him and hoped the Court would take some order therein whereupon the Govern[r] promised they should be vindicated haveing done their duty faithfully and given a Just and honest Verdict Cap[t] Haswell in the mean time went in a fury out of Court Then the two Excecutors and Charles Stewards Eldest Son here desired they might also be protected from Cap[t] Haswell[s] Rage and Violence and made a grevious complaint against him for his bad usuage of the Children But the Gov[r] desired them to mention no more of [Cap[t] Haswell] in Publick and

Margin Notes:

Jurys Veidict

his Discharge.

Cap[t] Haswells Resentm[en]t

Jury desires Protection

Gov[er]n[r]s Promise to y[e]m

Excecut[or]s desire to be Protected,

and Compl[ain]t of ill usuage

After a short consultation the jury returned and brought their verdict that Toby was not guilty.

Toby was discharged and sent home to look after the children's cattle, his usual employment.

Captain Haswell inveighed very much against the court. He said it was a packed jury, chosen on purpose to vindicate a rogue, that they were all biased and had given a false verdict, and that since they were such fellows he would go out of court and have nothing to do with them now, but he would remember it.

The foreman and several others of the jury then desired the court to protect them from Captain Haswell's unreasonable reflection, and that he might be reined from reflecting on them and the country in the manner he did, affirming that they had but discharged their consciences and done their duty, and could not bring a man to death because Captain Haswell was angry with him. They hoped the court would take some order in the matter. The governor promised that they should be vindicated, having done their duty faithfully and given a just and honest verdict. Captain Haswell in the meantime went in a fury out of court.

Then the two executors and Charles Steward's eldest son desired they might also be protected from Captain Haswell's rage and violence, and made a grievous complaint against him for his ill usage of the children. The governor desired them to mention no more of Captain Haswell in public

Interpretations

The verdict of not guilty, returned after a short consultation by the jury, vindicates the procedural restraint the governor had built into the trial from the morning interview of 4 May 1715. The bench has spared the slave on the same principle of proof rather than reputation that spared Bevian on 7 February 1715, where the jury was directed to value the silver-headed cane below the grand-larceny threshold. The disposition that Toby be sent home to the children's cattle, his usual employment, restores the slave to the orphan estate and preserves the value of the asset for the children of Charles Steward.

Captain Haswell's denunciation of the jury as packed, biased and false, and of the men individually as such fellows, is the open breakdown of the deputy governor's relationship with the trial bench. The phrase he would remember it is the explicit threat of subsequent retaliation against the foreman and others. The foreman Orlando Bagley and the other jurors are free planters and Company servants whose holdings, leases and stores accounts pass through Haswell's hand as deputy governor; the threat to remember the verdict is a threat of administrative reprisal against them in their dealings with the Company.

The jurors' request that the court take some order in the matter, and the governor's promise that they should be vindicated, recognise the jury as a body entitled to institutional protection from a councillor's reflection on its discharge of duty. The principle is that a verdict given on conscience and oath must be safe from later attack by the losing party, and the governor's promise commits the bench to defend the jurors of 10 May 1715 against any subsequent action by the deputy governor. The same principle underpinned the governor's reading of Dalton in the trial itself, that the rules of evidence shield the prisoner from improper proof, and now applies in reverse to shield the jury from the prosecutor's improper attack.

The complaint by the two executors Powell and Gurling, joined now by Charles Steward's eldest son, against Haswell's rage and violence and his ill usage of the children, brings the underlying domestic problem onto the formal record at last. The trial of Toby has been the proxy through which the executors and the orphan have been compelled to confront the deputy governor's treatment of the children whose estate his wife brought to him by marriage. The reference to ill usage and the request for protection against rage and violence carry the matter beyond the slave's case into a question of the welfare of the orphan beneficiaries of Charles Steward's will of 11 January 1714/15.

Speculations

The governor's instruction that the executors and the eldest Steward son mention no more of Captain Haswell in public is probably designed to keep the orphan-welfare question off the Court of Judicature record, where the present indictment proceedings are still open. The bench has just acquitted Toby and is exposed to further attack from Haswell if the same body now also entertains a complaint against the deputy governor on a separate ground. The governor is perhaps reserving the children's grievance for a private hearing or a conciliar referral rather than allowing it to be added to the day's record, where it would compound Haswell's resentment of the bench and the jurors. The strategy continues the pattern of the morning interview of 4 May 1715, in which the governor sought to dispose of the original complaint by private advice before any matter went to the court at all.

Haswell's exit in a fury, leaving the court while the executors were still seeking the bench's protection, is probably the moment at which the council loses its formal quorum of four. With the deputy governor out of court, the bench is reduced to the governor as judge, Bazett as third and Tovey as fourth. Any subsequent disciplinary measure against Haswell himself, or any formal entry on the orphan-welfare complaint, would have to be taken in the consultation on a later day, when the bench can constitute itself without the very councillor whose conduct is in question. The deferral the governor proposes by silencing the public complaint is therefore both prudential and procedurally inevitable.

457

448

and promised them a fair hearing to any of their Complaints on any occasion on a Council Day with which they were contented and sayed they would attend the Council next Tuesday and desired that it being the Custome here the Court would order Cap[t] Haswell since he had given them so much unreasonable trouble, to pay the Charges which the Court did order and the Jury had the Thanks of the Court for their good Service the Govern[r] telling them they had done like Honest men and then said that the Church Wardens for the Year past had brought in their Accounts by which it appeard the Church was Forty Pound in Debt and had made their request to him and the Council to make an Assessment for clearing the same by proposeing to charge two shillings and Six Pence p[er] head for the year Ensueing on all the Inhabitants

But if any of you Gentlemen can propose a better, (that is an Easier way) between this time and the next Tuesday it shall be Comply[d] with otherwise they must signe that Assessment which the Church Wardens had proposed to which they [...] all others present gave their assent on behalf of the rest of the Country and sayed they would all be sattisfied with what the Govern[r] did,

Whereupon the Sessions was adjourned

At a Gen[era]ll Sessions of the Peace [...] Oyer [...] Terminier Holden for this Island on Tuesday the 10[th] Day of May Anno Dom: 1715 At the Sessions House in James Valley on the said Island

Whereas the Jurors Sumond for the Body of the Island have represented to this Court the unreasonableness of being Scandelized

Margin Notes:

Gov[er]n[r] answer

Jurys discharge

Church Debt

payment proposed

S[t] Helena ss

Copy of y[e] ord[er] of Court But Cap[t] Has- well at y[e] Jurys request

After a short consultation the jury returned and brought their verdict that Toby was not guilty.

Toby was discharged and sent home to look after the children's cattle, his usual employment.

Captain Haswell inveighed very much against the court. He said it was a packed jury, chosen on purpose to vindicate a rogue, that they were all biased and had given a false verdict, and that since they were such fellows he would go out of court and have nothing to do with them now, but he would remember it.

The foreman and several others of the jury then desired the court to protect them from Captain Haswell's unreasonable reflection, and that he might be reined from reflecting on them and the country in the manner he did, affirming that they had but discharged their consciences and done their duty, and could not bring a man to death because Captain Haswell was angry with him. They hoped the court would take some order in the matter. The governor promised that they should be vindicated, having done their duty faithfully and given a just and honest verdict. Captain Haswell in the meantime went in a fury out of court.

Then the two executors and Charles Steward's eldest son desired they might also be protected from Captain Haswell's rage and violence, and made a grievous complaint against him for his ill usage of the children. The governor desired them to mention no more of Captain Haswell in public.

The governor promised the executors and the eldest Steward son a fair hearing of any of their complaints on any occasion on a council day. They were content with that and said they would attend the council the following Tuesday. They desired that, the custom at the island being so, the court would order Captain Haswell, since he had given them so much unreasonable trouble, to pay the charges. The court ordered the charges accordingly.

The jury had the thanks of the court for their good service, the governor telling them they had done like honest men. He then said that the churchwardens for the year past had brought in their accounts, by which it appeared the church was £40 0s 0d in debt, and had made their request to him and the council to make an assessment for clearing the same. He proposed to charge two shillings and sixpence a head for the year ensuing on all the inhabitants.

The governor said that if any of the gentlemen could propose a better and easier way between the present time and the next Tuesday, the council would comply with it. Otherwise they would have to sign the assessment the churchwardens had proposed. All others present gave their assent on behalf of the rest of the country, and said they would all be satisfied with whatever the governor did.

The sessions was then adjourned.

A copy of the order of court entered at Captain Haswell's request followed.

At a general sessions of the peace and oyer and terminer holden for this island on Tuesday the 10 May 1715 at the Sessions House in James Valley on the island, the jurors summoned for the body of the island represented to the court the unreasonableness of being scandalized

Interpretations

The award of charges against the prosecutor was a deliberate disciplinary measure as well as a compensatory one. Captain Haswell, having lost on every indictment and on every legal point, was ordered to pay the costs of the executors and the eldest Steward son. The bench's reasoning - that he had given them so much unreasonable trouble - converted the costs award into a recorded judicial finding that the prosecution was vexatious. The executors Powell and Gurling, who appeared at the bar to challenge the jury and represent the orphan estate, would recoup their expense; the practical effect was that Haswell paid for the defence of a slave he had sought to hang.

The governor's combination of the verdict and the church rate within the same sitting was the procedural move by which the trial closed and the parish business resumed. The £40 0s 0d shortfall reported by the wardens on 3 May 1715 - rounded here from the original return of £40 0s 7¾d - was brought back before a fuller gathering of the country at the sessions, where the half-crown poll rate already approved by the council was endorsed by general assent. The governor's offer of a week's notice for any better proposal, with the alternative of signing the existing assessment, was a procedural formality that confirmed the country's acceptance of the wardens' scheme. The poll rate base, with its redistributive effect toward larger slaveholders, had been openly canvassed and consented to.

The court constituted at the head of the second part of the entry was the same body sitting under a different style. The Court of Judicature of Nisi Prius, which had heard Toby's trial, gave way to a general sessions of the peace and oyer and terminer for the body of the island. The oyer and terminer commission was the higher criminal authority of the English assize tradition, empowering the bench to hear and determine all manner of offences. The sessions house in James Valley was the same physical venue. The shift of style marked the transition from the trial of a particular cause to the general business of the country, including the jurors' own request for protection that opened the next entry. The court would sit on the country's business immediately after the trial, the same bench addressing both heads.

The term scandalized, applied to the jurors as the head of their request for protection, was the technical term of the law of defamation as it bore on jurors' verdicts. The jurors of 10 May 1715, named at images earlier, were claiming the protection of the bench against the prosecutor's reflection on their conduct. The court entered the application at Captain Haswell's request - that is, on Haswell's own demand for a copy of the order, since he was the party complained against - so that the record stood as the formal foundation for any further proceeding against him. The copy provision was the procedural device that fixed the order in writing for use as evidence.

Speculations

The governor's choice to enter the order of court at Haswell's request was probably double-edged. Haswell had demanded a copy in order to challenge or appeal the protection of the jurors, perhaps to take the matter further before the Lords Proprietors in London under the same channel by which the Boucher case had been transmitted on 25 January 1714/15 with the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander letter on the AURENGZEBE. The governor's compliance with the request, while making the order itself a finding against him, turned Haswell's procedural manoeuvre into a permanent record of the bench's finding. The deputy governor's appeal would carry with it the very entry that condemned him.

The endorsement of the church rate by general assent of the country, given immediately after a contested trial, was probably engineered by the governor as a closing act of conciliation. The same body that had been split by the prosecution was now united behind a simple fiscal measure brought forward by the wardens. The two-shilling-and-sixpence-a-head rate, on inhabitants white and black above sixteen, supplied a common burden under which the country resumed its ordinary business. The governor's gesture of inviting an easier way before the next Tuesday was open ground that nobody was expected to take, and confirmed by general consent what the council had already settled on 3 May 1715.

458

449

Scandelized and Reflected on for the faithfull Discharge of their Duty, and have Complained against Cap[t] George Haswell the Deputy Govern[r] desireing that he may be restrained from Reflecting on them to the Scandall of the Country they being assured in their Consciences that in the case of Toby where he was Prosecutor that they have given a Just and Honest Verdict

Ordered

That Cap[t] Haswell be Stricly forbid to Reflect on any of the Jury or Court, or any other Persons to the Scandall of the Country and Contempt of Justice, as he will Answer the Contrary at his Perrill

Signed by Ord[er] of the Court

Antipas Tovey

S[t] Helena ss

At a Gen[era]ll Sessions of the Peace and Oyer [...] Terminer Holden for this Island on Tuesday the 10[th] day of May 1715. At the Sessions House in James Valley on the said Island.

At the Earnest Request and Desire of Mess[rs] Gabriell Powell [...] Richard Gurling Excecut[ors] to the Estate of Charles Steward deceased that since Cap[t] Haswell had made a rigourous Prosecution against Toby a black belonging to the said Charles Stewards Orphans and could not make good his charge, that the Court would be pleased to Order the said Cap[t] Haswell to pay for whatsoever Damages the Children have Sustained thereby according to the Customs of this place,

Whereupon Ordered That

Margin Notes:

S[t] Helena ss

y[e] Ord[er] to Cap[t] Haswell at the Steward[s] Exec[uto]rs request

The jurors represented that they were scandalized and reflected on for the faithful discharge of their duty, and complained against Captain George Haswell, the deputy governor. They desired that he might be restrained from reflecting on them to the scandal of the country, being assured in their consciences that in the case of Toby, where he was prosecutor, they had given a just and honest verdict.

The court ordered that Captain Haswell be strictly forbid to reflect on any of the jury or court, or any other persons, to the scandal of the country and contempt of justice, as he would answer the contrary at his peril.

The order was signed by order of the court by Antipas Tovey.

At a general sessions of the peace and oyer and terminer holden for the island on Tuesday the 10 May 1715 at the Sessions House in James Valley on the island, the following order was made at the earnest request and desire of Messrs Gabriel Powell and Richard Gurling, executors to the estate of Charles Steward deceased.

Powell and Gurling represented that since Captain Haswell had made a rigorous prosecution against Toby, a black belonging to Charles Steward's orphans, and could not make good his charge, they desired the court would be pleased to order Captain Haswell to pay for whatever damages the children had sustained thereby, according to the custom of the place.

The court ordered that

Interpretations

The order against Haswell to forbid further reflection on the jurors and the court is the bench's formal disciplinary instrument against a councillor whose conduct has fallen outside permitted bounds. The phrase as he will answer the contrary at his peril is the standard form of judicial restraint backed by the threat of further proceedings on breach. Haswell remains deputy governor and the second man on the council, yet stands under a written order of his own bench restricting his speech against the jurors and the court. The order, signed by Antipas Tovey as the fourth in council acting by direction of the court, makes the entry official without requiring Haswell himself to authenticate it. The constitutional point is that the bench may discipline one of its own members through the court's general authority, separately from any conciliar process that would require the offending councillor's own concurrence.

The signature by Antipas Tovey by order of the court records a procedural device by which the order can be authenticated despite the absence of the deputy governor who has gone out of court in a fury. Tovey, the fourth in council, signs in his capacity as the senior member then present available to authenticate the entry. The same Tovey carried the families' land and cattle register through the secretary's office between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715, and signs at the foot of the second-presentation stores account of 29 March 1715. His name on this order is the procedural seal that fixes the disciplinary measure in the record.

The further order on the executors' application converts the costs award already made at the trial into a damages award on the formal claim of the orphan estate. The trial-day order had directed Haswell to pay the charges that the executors and the eldest Steward son had incurred in defending the slave. The new entry, made at the executors' earnest request and desire, opens the wider question of damages sustained by the children through the prosecution itself, according to the custom of the place. The custom of the place is the recourse on the island for civil compensation in cases of vexatious prosecution, distinct from the costs of the immediate court attendance. The orphans' damages will perhaps include the value of the slave's services lost during the prosecution, the loss to the cattle Toby looks after, and any other measurable injury to the orphan estate.

The two orders together form the bench's complete response to the failed prosecution. The first protects the jurors from reflection; the second protects the orphan estate from financial injury. The deputy governor is the named subject of both orders. The bench has therefore reorganised the relations within its own membership in a single sitting, with two formal entries against the second man on the council, signed by the fourth, both presented as the court's response to the application of others.

Speculations

The executors' decision to lodge their damages claim at the same sessions, immediately after the first order, is probably timed to take advantage of the bench's open finding that the prosecution was vexatious. The phrase rigorous prosecution which they could not make good is the executors' translation of the bench's own language at the costs order into formal grounds for damages. By bringing the application during the same sessions, before the bench rises, Powell and Gurling secure the same composition of judges, the same record in the case, and the same governor whose private exchange with Haswell on 4 May 1715 had already warned that the matter was too frivolous for a man's life. Any subsequent application would risk the bench being differently constituted on the day.

The reference to the custom of the place rather than to the laws of England is probably designed to localise the damages claim against the same Haswell who had insisted that the trial proceed under English law. By switching to local custom for the civil remedy, the executors take ground that Haswell himself excluded from his procedural objections during the trial. The deputy governor has been pinned between two systems, choosing English law to expose the slave to a capital charge and now meeting local custom on the civil claim for damages flowing from the failure of that charge. The procedural symmetry suggests careful counsel by Powell, perhaps with the governor's tacit guidance, in framing the application.

459

450

That the said Cap[t] George Haswell Do pay all Charges of Court in the Prosecution aforesaid as also for all loss of time [...] Damages that hath or may accrue thereby

Signed by ord[er] of y[e] Court

Antipas Tovey

[signatures]

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

to pay all Charges.

The court ordered that Captain George Haswell pay all charges of court in the prosecution above mentioned, and also for all loss of time and damages that had or might accrue thereby.

The order was signed by order of the court by Antipas Tovey.

Antipas Tovey.

Interpretations

The order completes the damages remedy in the form sought by the executors. Captain Haswell is to pay all charges of court in the prosecution, and beyond that all loss of time and damages that has or may accrue. The phrasing has two strands. The first covers what is already known, the fees and costs of the empanelled trial of 10 May 1715. The second is open in time, covering damages that may accrue thereafter. The orphan estate is therefore protected not only against the proved expenses but against any future loss flowing from the prosecution, including consequential loss to the slave Toby, to the cattle he looks after, and to any other interest of the children that emerges as the matter unfolds.

The loss of time element is the recognised head of damage for a planter or orphan estate whose servant or slave has been taken out of his work to face an unsuccessful prosecution. Toby has been in custody since 28 April 1715 and so absent from the children's cattle for almost two weeks. The bench is treating that lost productive time as a measurable wrong against the estate, recoverable from the prosecutor who brought the proceedings without proof. The same head would apply to any time Powell and Gurling have spent on the defence in their capacity as executors.

The double signature by Antipas Tovey, once as authenticating clerk of the order by direction of the court, and once at the foot as a personal subscription, is the standard mode of attestation where the signatory acts both as deputed by the court and in his own name as fourth in council. The repetition fixes the order on the record and confirms the entry. The absence of any signature by the deputy governor or by Bazett, both of whom sat at the trial, is consistent with the deputy governor's earlier exit from court in a fury and with the bench's resort to its junior councillor for the authentication.

Speculations

The open-ended phrase damages that has or may accrue is probably drafted to keep the order alive for the orphan estate's further use. The executors have at this stage stated only the immediate cost of the defence, but the trial has exposed a domestic situation in which the orphan slave continues to live in the same dwelling as the prosecutor's wife and the prosecutor's slave. Any subsequent harm to Toby from continued residence in the household where the failed prosecution originated, or any reprisal by Haswell against the slave on his return to the cattle, would fall within the words of the order. The executors and the governor are perhaps anticipating that the matter is not closed by the verdict alone, and the order is framed accordingly.

The use of Tovey as the signing officer is probably also a quiet adjustment of council standing within the trial record. Bazett, the third in council, sat at the trial but has not put his name to either of the two protective orders. Tovey, the fourth, has signed both. The arrangement places the junior councillor as the formal authenticator of the bench's discipline of the second man on the council, and reserves Bazett's standing within the bench for the consultations to come. The governor has therefore composed the entries in a way that confines the documentary record of disciplinary action against the deputy governor to himself and Tovey, with Bazett's name kept off the page.

460

451

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 17 Day of May 1715 At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Pres[ent] George Haswell Dep[u]ty Matthew Bazett 3[d] [...] Antipas Tovey 4[th] in Council

M[r] Francis Wrangham presented a Deed of Conveyance from M[r] Jn[o] Keeling to himself of ten Acres of Free Land, praying the same may be Registred in the Register book.

Ordered

That y[e] same be Registred as desired

The Church Wardens haveing the last Consultation Day attended and delivered in their Acco[t] by w[ch] it appears the Church was Forty Pound in Debt and proposed that an Assessment be made of half a Crowne p[er] head on each white and Black above the Age of Sixteen for clearing the said Debt which was then agreed to, [...] therefore we now confirme it for the following reasons (Viz)

That not only the Church Wardens but divers of the Principle Inhabitants have been with the Govern[r] and have considered w[i]th him of all the ways they could think of for the easier raiseing that Sum without

Margin Notes:

M[r] Wrangham desires his Deed of Conveyance [...] Keeling Deed for ten acres to be Registred

granted

Church 40 [...] in Debt to assess 2/6 p[er] head

the reason

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday the 17 May 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth in council.

Mr Francis Wrangham presented a deed of conveyance from Mr John Keeling to himself of ten acres of free land, praying the same might be registered in the register book. The council ordered that the same be registered as desired.

The churchwardens, having attended on the last consultation day and delivered in their accounts, by which it appeared the church was £40 0s 0d in debt, had proposed that an assessment be made of half a crown a head on each white and black above the age of sixteen for clearing the debt. The council had then agreed to that, and now confirmed it for the following reasons.

Not only the churchwardens but several of the principal inhabitants had been with the governor and had considered with him of all the ways they could think of for the easier raising of that sum, without

Interpretations

The registration of the deed of conveyance from John Keeling to Francis Wrangham follows the standard procedure for free land. Wrangham was the planter who in February 1712 had granted waste ground adjoining Keeling's orphans in Peak Gut, and the present transfer of ten acres consolidates his holdings further with land coming out of the Keeling family. John Keeling here is perhaps a successor to Richard Keeling, the deceased intestate whose 43-acre estate was the subject of George Carne's petition of 5 February 1712 and over whose orphans the partial division has been working through the council's hands ever since. The register book is the formal land-title record of the island, distinct from the families' land and cattle register compiled by Tovey between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715, and entry into it is the operative act by which a conveyance binds third parties.

The return to the church rate on the present consultation day demonstrates the deliberate composition of the public finance measure outside the formal court setting. The half-crown poll rate on each white and black above sixteen, first proposed by the wardens on 3 May 1715, endorsed by the council and the country in the general sessions of 10 May 1715, is now confirmed in full conciliar form with reasons set out. The reasons paragraph that follows is the legal underpinning of the assessment, recording that the governor consulted not only the wardens but several of the principal inhabitants in private interview to test for alternatives before settling on the rate. The procedure is consultative in form and binding in result.

The phrase several of the principal inhabitants identifies the informal layer of country opinion that the governor consults outside the council. The wardens themselves represent the parish vestry; the principal inhabitants are the more substantial planters of the country whose support is required if the rate is to be collected without resistance. The consultation with both groups, before the rate is confirmed in council, is the institutional bridge between the parish administration cycle now fully recovered for 1715 and the wider political settlement of the island. The bench is here recording, perhaps for the first time in this formality, the standing practice by which fiscal measures are tested with the country before they are passed.

Speculations

The formal entry of the church-rate confirmation with reasons - rather than the simple order of 3 May 1715 - is probably calibrated to the trial that followed on 10 May 1715. The country has just witnessed the bench acquit a slave on a vexatious prosecution and impose costs and damages on the deputy governor; a public-finance measure that imposes a uniform half-crown burden on every adult slave and freeman benefits from being recorded with full reasons, in the council's hand, so that the country sees the assessment as the considered work of a deliberate body rather than an unexplained levy. The governor's earlier offer at the sessions of 10 May 1715, that the country had a week to propose a better way, is now followed by the formal record that the principal inhabitants have been consulted and have produced nothing better.

The placement of Wrangham's deed registration immediately before the church-rate confirmation is probably no accident. Wrangham, the joint churchwarden who has just been relieved by Greentree and Twaits on 19 April 1715 and 3 May 1715, returns to the council day immediately after the general sessions to register a substantial land acquisition. The consolidation of his holdings under formal title at the same sitting that confirms the rate he had helped to design is consistent with a steady accumulation of property and standing on his side. The juxtaposition records, without comment, that the man who proposed the assessment is also a continuing player in the island's land market.

461

452

without burthening the Inhabitants and haveing made Divers Computations about laying the said Sum upon a Land Tax have at last concluded that no way is so proper for the Generall ease of the People as a Pole Tax which is to be Levyed at two shillings [...] Six Pence p[er] head for the Year ensueing

But the Gov[r] is of Opinion that the poorer Inhabitants who cannot well pay the said Poll Tax may be releived by haveing a Certificate from the Minister and Church Wardens that they are not able to pay that Tax by reason of their Poverty and that then they shall be obliged to pay no more then the Old Rate of Sixpence p[er] head [...] that he thinks it proper that those that are in the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] service [...] have Plantations do also pay head mony as other Planters.

Whereas By the Death of Cap[t] Edward Mashborne there was a vacancy in the Council and the Gov[r] proposed the chooseing a new one and M[r] Byfeild being nominated for fifth in Council till such time Our Hon[ble] Masters pleasure is known He being a Sober young man of great Industry and Dilligence in the Companies business [...] that M[r] Bazett be therefore third [...] M[r] Tovey Fourth in Council. The foll[owing] Petitions were Presented viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Councell

The Humble Petition of Giles Smith Planter

Margin Notes:

M[r] Byfeild Appointed 5[th] in Council

It was Unanimously agreed and Ordered that M[r] Byfeild be the fifth in Council

Island S[t] Helena

The principal inhabitants had been consulted, without burdening the inhabitants, and had made various computations about laying the sum upon a land tax. They had at last concluded that no way was so proper for the general ease of the people as a poll tax, which was to be levied at two shillings and sixpence a head for the year ensuing.

The governor was of opinion that the poorer inhabitants who could not well pay the poll tax might be relieved by having a certificate from the minister and churchwardens that they were not able to pay that tax by reason of their poverty. They would then be obliged to pay no more than the rate of sixpence a head. He thought it proper that those who were in the Honourable Company's service and had plantations should also pay head money as other planters.

By the death of Captain Edward Mashborne there was a vacancy in the council. The governor proposed the choosing of a new one, and Mr Byfield being nominated for fifth in council. It was unanimously agreed and ordered that Mr Byfield be fifth in council, until such time as the Honourable Masters' pleasure was known. He was a sober young man of great industry and diligence in the Company's business. Mr Bazett was therefore third, and Mr Tovey fourth in council.

The following petitions were presented.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Giles Smith, planter.

Interpretations

The two-tier poll rate confirms the redistributive character of the assessment first proposed by Draper and Wrangham on 3 May 1715. The standard rate of two shillings and sixpence a head on every white and black above the age of sixteen falls on each adult member of the household, but the governor's addition of a pauper exemption, set at sixpence a head on a minister's and wardens' certificate of poverty, scales the burden to capacity to pay. The certificate procedure is a familiar instrument of early eighteenth-century English parochial relief, here applied at the island bench for the first time in the recovered record. The exemption is administered by the minister Joshua Tomlinson, the chaplain whose own household was assessed in January 1714/15 at one white and eight blacks for £0 4s 6d, jointly with the new churchwardens Greentree and Twaits.

The clarification that those in the Honourable Company's service who hold plantations are to pay head money as other planters closes a possible loophole. Company servants whose primary income was a salary might have claimed exemption on that ground; the governor's ruling makes the position of a Company servant who also farms a plantation no different from that of the free planter. The same principle applies to Lieutenant Thomas Cason, William Worrall and others on the establishment whose names appear in the families' land and cattle register completed on 21 March 1715, and to John French, the master gunner allowed £5 5s 0d a year for house rent on 3 November 1713 who also holds a plantation.

The appointment of Mr Byfield as fifth in council fills the vacancy left by the death of Captain Edward Mashborne on 31 March 1715, whose moveable goods at the new and old plantation house and Lufkins had been inventoried by Bazett and Tovey on 12 April 1715. The phrase until such time as the Honourable Masters' pleasure is known marks the appointment as provisional, in the standard form by which the bench fills vacancies subject to confirmation from London. The description of Byfield as a sober young man of great industry and diligence in the Company's business is the public record of the qualities the council looked for in a junior councillor, in the same form used for Worrall's appointment as overseer of the plantations on 5 April 1715. The promotion fixes Bazett at third and Tovey at fourth.

Speculations

The pauper exemption at sixpence a head is probably calibrated against the income range of the small planters who would otherwise have been hit hardest by the two-shilling-and-sixpence rate. The land-tax alternative considered by the principal inhabitants had been rejected on the wardens' reasoning of 3 May 1715 that it would bear harder on the poorer planters with little or no slave labour. The two-tier poll rate solves the same problem from the other direction, by keeping the poll structure but allowing the wardens and minister to identify those who cannot bear the full rate. The bench thereby retains the administrative convenience of a head count drawn from the church return of January 1714/15, while preserving the redistributive intent of the original proposal.

Byfield's appointment as fifth in council, in the same sitting that confirms the church rate and registers Wrangham's land conveyance, is probably timed to reinforce the bench at a moment when the deputy governor stands under written orders of the court of 10 May 1715 forbidding him to reflect on the jurors and requiring him to pay damages to the orphan estate of Charles Steward. A council of four sitting with a disciplined deputy governor is exposed; a council of five gives the governor a working quorum on any subsequent business without depending on Haswell's attendance. The choice of a sober young man of industry and diligence, rather than a longer-established planter, is probably also a signal of the kind of councillor the governor wishes to set against the more turbulent record of his deputy.

462

453

Planter Humbly

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] Father in Law Hugh Bodley Dec[d] had at the time of his death and for severall years before a Legacy of twenty Pounds bequeathed to Rebeckah yo[r] Petition[r] wife by her Grandmother Rebeckah Charlesworth dec[d] and deposited into the hands of the said Bodley to Improve for the good of the Legatee Wherefore yo[r] Petition[r] humbly prays the said sum of twenty Pounds with the Improvement may be Delivered and paid yo[r] said Petition[r] in right of his wife.

And that sattisfaction may be also made yo[r] said Petition[r] for all the Trouble and charge he was at desireing M[r] Bodleys sickness and maintaining her and three Children nine months being then obliged to buy provisions to support them, and at other necessary Expences whereby yo[r] Petition[r] is become Debter to severall Persons and much out of Pockett,

May y[e] 17[th]: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall pray [...] (Sign'd) Giles Smith

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p[full] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Councill

The Humble Petition of Jn[o] Alexander Humbly

Shewth

That whereas Hugh Bodley Sen[r] deceas'd both before and at the time of his Death stand Indebted to your Petition[r] upon Ballance of Acco[t]: the Sum of Forty five Shillings [...] for that the said Bodleys Estate being Partly in the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] hands [...] sufficient to make sattisfaction Humbly prays the said Debt may be paid in their stone Books towards the lessening yo[r] Petition[r] Debt there And as in Duty

Margin Notes:

Shewth

Gile[s] Smith[s] pet[ition] ab[ou]t Bodley[s] Debt to him [...]

May y[e] 17[th] 1715

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

Jn[o] Alexand[er] for anoth[er]

Refered

Giles Smith, planter, set out his case to the council. His father in law, Hugh Bodley deceased, had at the time of his death and for several years before owed a legacy of £20 0s 0d to Rebecca, the petitioner's wife, by her grandmother Rebecca Charlesworth deceased. The money had been deposited into the hands of Bodley to improve for the good of the legatee. The petitioner prayed that the £20 0s 0d, with the improvement, might be delivered and paid to him in right of his wife.

He further prayed that satisfaction might be made to him for all the trouble and charge he was at in servicing Mr Bodley's sickness and in maintaining his wife and three children for nine months. He had then been obliged to buy provisions to support them and bear other necessary expenses, by which he had become a debtor to several persons and much out of pocket. The petition was dated 17 May 1715 and signed by Giles Smith.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of John Alexander set out that Hugh Bodley senior, deceased, had before and at the time of his death stood indebted to the petitioner upon balance of account in the sum of 45s 0d. The petitioner prayed that, the estate of Bodley being partly in the Honourable Company's hands and sufficient to make satisfaction, the debt might be paid in their stone books towards the lessening of his debt there. The petition was referred.

Interpretations

The Smith petition recovers two distinct claims against the estate of Hugh Bodley senior, both linked to the marriage settlement of his daughter Rebecca to Giles Smith. The first is a strict legacy of £20 0s 0d deposited with Bodley in his lifetime to improve for the benefit of his granddaughter Rebecca, the petitioner's wife. The deposit operates as a trust, with Bodley as trustee charged to improve the principal for the legatee. The improvement element brings interest or profits into the claim, on the standing rate of 8 per cent applied to Company loans on bond. The second claim is unliquidated, for the personal trouble and expense Smith incurred during Bodley's last illness and in maintaining Bodley's wife and three children for nine months thereafter. Together the two heads bring the bench into the question of how a deceased planter's debts and trust obligations are to be discharged against an estate that the Company has partly taken over.

The Bodley estate is the same property that on 18 January 1714/15 was absorbed by the Company in satisfaction of debt under the advertisement of that date offering the holding to a civil and industrious man who had worked for the Company at the fortifications and had no plantation. Edmund Bodley had been ordered as administrator on 31 August 1714 to pay the Company first and then to divide the residue. Smith's petition therefore arrives at a moment when the Company stands as both major creditor and substantial holder of the estate, and any payment to a private creditor or to a legatee competes against the Company's prior claim. The bench's treatment of the petition will determine the order of priority between the trust legacy, the personal claim of a family member, and the Company's commercial debt.

The Alexander petition is the same problem in a smaller compass. John Alexander, perhaps the planter granted Sexton's ground on a 21-year lease on 8 April 1712, was a creditor of Hugh Bodley senior in the sum of 45s 0d on balance of account. He seeks payment not in cash but in the stone books, that is, in credit against the running account he himself owes the Company for stone or other items charged to his account. The mechanism is set-off across the Company's books, with Alexander's debt to the Company reduced by the sum Bodley owed him, the Company having the Bodley assets to draw on. The procedure spares the Company any disbursement and converts an internal debt of the absorbed estate into a write-down of an external debt to the Company.

Speculations

The Smith petition is probably timed to take advantage of the bench's openness to the orphan estate cause in the recent prosecution against Toby. The Bodley orphans, on whose behalf no executor has come forward in the recovered record, occupy the same structural position in this petition that the Steward children did in the Toby trial; their grandfather's legacy is held in trust for the granddaughter, and Smith now claims the legacy in right of his wife. By framing the petition as a delivery of a trust legacy with improvement, Smith places himself on stronger ground than a simple creditor against the absorbed estate. The Company, having taken the principal asset of the estate on 18 January 1714/15, can hardly refuse to satisfy a legacy whose principal it now effectively holds.

Alexander's request for payment in the stone books is probably the cheapest mode of satisfaction the Company could offer. By referring the petition rather than disposing of it immediately, the bench keeps open the option to net the 45s 0d against Alexander's own running debt at the next stocktaking. The procedural device of referral avoids any immediate disbursement and lets the matter be settled administratively rather than by separate order. The same device, set against the open-ended damages award against Haswell of 10 May 1715, suggests that the bench is using the referral as its standard mechanism for any claim where the figures can ultimately be netted within the Company's own accounts.

463

454

Duty bound shall ever Pray [...] (Sign'd) Jn[o] Alexander

May y[e] 17[th]: 1715

Ordered

That as Giles Smiths Petition is referred to M[r] Bazett this be also so paid if Effects

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council

The most Humble Petition of Isaac Leech Gunn[r] Mate Humbly

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] being Indebted unto Jn[o] Knipe the sum of Thirty Pounds and at this Present under a great Strait to Pay him humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council will let him have the said Sum for one Year at th[e] usuall Interest he giveing good Security for the same, the said Knipe being considerably Indebted to the Hon[ble] Company and yo[r] Petition[r] but Forty Shillings this last Reckoning and his pay is goeing on,

May y[e] 17[th] 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in Duty bound) shall for Ever Pray [...] Granted (Sign'd) Isaac Leech

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] Council

The most Humble Petition of Richard Beale Son and Heir of Jon[a] Beale Dec[d] Humbly

Shewth

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] being very desireous to have all Acco[t]s stated and Adjusted thats Depending twixt yo[r] said Petition[r] his Brother and the Hon[ble] Company Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to take the trouble of adjusting all such Acco[t] both in the said Hon[ble]

Margin Notes:

May y[e] 17[th] 1715

Cap[t] Bazett

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

May y[e] 17[th] 1715

Granted

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

Pet[itio]n Beales Orph[an]s ab[ou]t their[?]

The petition was dated 17 May 1715 and signed by John Alexander.

The council ordered that, as Giles Smith's petition was referred to Mr Bazett, John Alexander's petition be also so paid if there were effects.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, set out that the petitioner was indebted to John Knipe in the sum of £30 0s 0d, and at present under a great strait to pay him. He humbly prayed that the council would let him have the sum for one year at the usual interest, he giving good security for the same. He noted that Knipe was considerably indebted to the Honourable Company, while he himself owed only 40s 0d on his last reckoning, and his pay was going on. The petition was dated 17 May 1715 and signed by Isaac Leech.

Granted.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of Richard Beale, son and heir of John Beale deceased, set out that the petitioner was very desirous to have all accounts stated and adjusted that were depending between himself, his brother and the Honourable Company. He humbly prayed the council to take the trouble of adjusting all such accounts, both in the

Interpretations

The pairing of the Smith and Alexander petitions under a single referral to Bazett ties the two Bodley claims into a single administrative process. Smith's claim of £20 0s 0d and improvement, together with his unliquidated maintenance charges, is bracketed with Alexander's 45s 0d on balance of account. Both are to be paid only if there are effects in the absorbed estate sufficient to satisfy them after the Company's prior claim is settled, in line with Edmund Bodley's administration order of 31 August 1714. The bench has chosen Bazett rather than Tovey for the audit, perhaps because Bazett as third in council and former receiver of goods at boats is the more practised hand on plantation accounts, having served as joint drafter of the general letter to the directors by the Success and conducted the inventory of Mashborne's moveable goods with Tovey on 12 April 1715.

Isaac Leech's petition for a £30 0s 0d loan at the usual interest is a routine Company credit transaction, structured on the same footing as William Porteous's £100 0s 0d advance of 27 November 1711 at 8 per cent on security. Leech, the gunner's mate, is a Company servant on running pay whose footing is treated as collateral, with the addition of good security to be given for the principal. The novelty is the cross-reference to Knipe. John Knipe is considerably indebted to the Honourable Company, and the unresolved discrepancy between his register figure of £371 3s 4d and his acknowledged £109 0s 0d remains open on the threads. By lending Leech the money to pay Knipe, the Company stands to recover £30 0s 0d of the Knipe debt indirectly, transferring the claim from Knipe's deeply uncertain account to Leech's more secure footing. The council's grant of the petition is therefore a debt-restructuring instrument as much as a private accommodation to the gunner's mate.

The Richard Beale petition opens the orphan account question on a different family. Richard Beale, son and heir of John Beale deceased, is here seeking the bench's intervention in the audit of accounts running between himself, his brother and the Company. The reference to all such accounts both in the Honourable Company's books and elsewhere is the opening of a comprehensive reckoning of the Beale estate against the Company. The same Richard Beale or Beal had on 1 March 1715 carried his uncle George Carne's letter to the governor asking the governor to act as his guardian, and had been refused on the principle of appellate impartiality, the governor instead offering to act for all orphans in general. The present petition takes up that offer in concrete form, asking the council to audit the orphan accounts on the same basis the governor had described.

Speculations

The Leech loan is probably routed to the council rather than handled at the storekeeper's office because of the indirect Knipe element. A straightforward £30 0s 0d advance on a Company servant's pay would normally be settled by the storekeeper Bazett. The petition's explicit framing - Knipe owes the Company much, Leech owes 40s 0d only - suggests Leech is offering the Company a route by which a portion of the Knipe arrears can be moved onto a more solid footing. The council's grant accepts that route, perhaps with private encouragement from the bench that has been turning over the Knipe debt discrepancy since the bonds inventory of 14 December 1714.

Richard Beale's choice to lodge his application immediately after the Smith and Alexander petitions on the Bodley estate, in the same consultation, is probably calculated. The bench has just referred two estate-creditor petitions to Bazett with directions that they be paid if there are effects. The Beale audit application offers Bazett or another councillor the same kind of comprehensive estate work on a different family at a moment when the council is in administrative motion on probate and account matters. The petition's wording, asking the bench to take the trouble of adjusting all such accounts, places the work firmly within the council's offered jurisdiction over orphan estates that the governor had laid down on 1 March 1715.

464

455

Hon[ble] Companys Books and w[i]th any Per Persons[?] haveing thro neglect of former mismanagem[en]t greatly suffered by that meanes, but now hope[s] all matters will be examined into [...] Justice done yo[r] Petition[r] [...] Brother haveing no other dependance but on the favour that greatly hope to find from yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Councill and that you'll be pleased to order what Land is belonging to yo[r] Petition[r] [...] Brother may be delivered into our Possession and likewise that Creddit[t] may be given us for all the time the Hon[ble] Company hath had that house Adjoyning to their Store Room w[ch] they hired to prevent any Robbery or mischeif that might happen if lett to any other Person,

May y[e] 17[th]: 1715 And as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...] (Sign'd) Richard Beale

The Gov[r] offering his Assistance and to take the trouble of settling this above Orphans Estate.

He was desired to do the same.

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Councill,

The most Humble Petition of Martin Norman Planter Humbly

Shewth

That forasmuch as yo[r] Humble Petition[r] haveing very considerable oweing to him from Sundry Persons humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Councill will be pleased to compell yo[r] Petition[r] Debtors to make payment of the same to yo[r] Petition[r] (whereby) he may be in a Capacity to pay his Debt to the Hon[ble]

Margin Notes:

May y[e] 17[th] 1715

Refer[d] to y[e] Gov[r]

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

The petition continued by setting out that the petitioner and his brother had greatly suffered in any poor person's books through the neglect of former management. He hoped that all matters would now be examined into, and justice done to himself and his brother. The petitioner and his brother had no other dependence but on the favour they hoped to find from the council, and prayed that the council would be pleased to order what land was belonging to the petitioner and his brother to be delivered into their possession, and that credit be given for all the time the Honourable Company had had the house adjoining their store room, which they hired to prevent any robbery or mischief that might happen if let to any other person. The petition was dated 17 May 1715 and signed by Richard Beale.

The petition was referred to the governor.

The governor offered his assistance to take the trouble of settling the above orphans' estate. He was desired to do the same.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of Martin Norman, planter, set out that very considerable sums were owing to him from sundry persons. He humbly prayed that the council would be pleased to compel his debtors to make payment, by which he might be in a capacity to pay his own debt to the Honourable

Interpretations

The Beale petition consolidates the orphan estate claim under three heads. The petitioner asks for an audit of accounts standing between himself, his brother and the Honourable Company, recovery of the land belonging to the two boys, and a credit for the rent of the house adjoining the Company's store room which had been hired by the Company. The land claim is the standard assertion of inheritance from John Beale deceased. The store room house rent is a more particular item, the Company having taken the dwelling next to the store as a security measure to prevent any robbery or mischief. The Company's commercial interest in occupying the property is here presented as the orphan estate's ground for back rent, accumulating over the whole period of the Company's tenancy.

The governor's acceptance of the audit, on his own offer of 1 March 1715 to act for all orphans in general, fulfils that earlier undertaking in concrete form. On 1 March 1715 the governor had refused to act as Richard Beale's particular guardian on the principle of appellate impartiality, but had offered to act in general for all orphans, to see the account made up at the stores in person if needed, and to attend any miscasting personally. The bench's note that the governor was desired to do the same is the formal entry into the council book of that earlier informal undertaking. The phrasing he was desired to do the same converts the governor's offer into an assignment laid on him by the bench, with the council retaining the appellate role for any complaint by either party against his settlement.

The reference to former mismanagement is the standard formula by which the present bench distinguishes itself from the administration of Benjamin Boucher, whose documentary case had been transmitted to London on 25 January 1714/15 by the Aurengzebe with the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander letter. The Beale orphans' suffering under that earlier regime is taken as established without further proof, the present bench presenting itself as the agent of restoration. The phrase all matters will now be examined into is the council's offered remedy on the same footing already applied to Mary and Ann Colgrave on 18 July 1712 and to the various orphan estates that have come before the bench since.

Martin Norman's petition opens a different mechanism, that of compelling debtors to pay so that the petitioner may meet his own Company debt. Norman, a planter, asks the council to use its authority over his debtors to enforce collection, on the ground that the proceeds will flow through him into the Company's accounts. The mechanism is the same set-off in effect that Alexander sought against the Bodley estate earlier on the present consultation day, but operating now through the planter's own external debtors rather than through the Company's hands. The bench has yet to dispose of the petition in the recovered text.

Speculations

The store room house rent claim is probably the strongest of the three Beale heads, and is perhaps the principal reason for bringing the petition on the present day. The Company occupies the property as a commercial convenience, and the petitioner is in a position to show actual loss for the whole period of the Company's tenancy. The land claim and the audit will require months of work in the books, but the rent claim is a clear running debt of the Company itself. By placing it among the heads of the petition, Beale forces the bench to address the Company as defendant on a discrete sum rather than only as auditor of the family's affairs. The governor's acceptance of the audit will perhaps see this item disposed of first.

Norman's petition is probably timed to the present day because the bench has just demonstrated, on the Smith, Alexander and Leech petitions, its willingness to use the conciliar process to move debts around the island for the Company's net advantage. If the Smith claim is paid by drawing on the Bodley effects, if Alexander's 45s 0d is set off against the stone books, and if Leech's £30 0s 0d loan moves a portion of Knipe's debt onto a more secure footing, then Norman's request that the bench compel his debtors becomes one more item in the same administrative housekeeping. By framing his own application as a route to the Company being paid, Norman places it on the same footing the bench has shown itself willing to consider on the present day.

465

456

Hon[ble] Company (and whereas) yo[r] Petition[r] water being kept off Eight Day in fourteen by which meanes yo[r] Petition[rs] Yams Rotts and many thousands are Died in the ground already, by which yo[r] Worsh[i]p is sensible that yo[r] Petition[r] as yet has not the Injoyment of his Lease (although) he has paid two hundred pounds already and for wants of w[ch] yo[r] Petition[r] suffers both hunger thirst and nakedness so hopeing yo[r] Worsh[i]p will be pleased to see yo[r] Petition[r] righted.

May y[e] 17: 1715 And (as in Duty bound) yo[r] Petition[r] shall for Ever Pray (Sign'd) Martin M Norman his Mark

Ordered

That the above Petition be referred to M[r] Tovey [...] that he Examine into the matters therein mencioned [...] settle the same as well as he can.

Island S[t] Helena To the Worship[full] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Councill

The most Humble Petition of John Alexander Humbly,

Shewth,

That whereas your Petition[r] being at this time Under an Obligation to pay the following sums of mony, viz[t] three Pounds to John Sinsnick and twenty seven Pounds to Thomas Allis (who stands Indebted to

Margin Notes:

Norman[s] Pet[ition] [...]

May y[e] 17: 1715

referrd to y[e] sec[reta]ry

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

Norman further set out that his water was being kept off eight days in fourteen, by which means his yams rotted and many thousands had died in the ground already. The council was sensible that he had not yet had the enjoyment of his lease, although he had paid £200 0s 0d already. For want of it, he suffered both hunger, thirst and nakedness. He hoped the council would be pleased to see him righted. The petition was dated 17 May 1715 and signed by Martin Norman with his mark.

The council ordered that the above petition be referred to Mr Tovey, and that he examine into the matters mentioned and settle the same as well as he can.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of John Alexander set out that the petitioner was at present under an obligation to pay the following sums of money, namely £3 0s 0d to John Sinsnick and £27 0s 0d to Thomas Allis, who stood indebted to

Interpretations

The water grievance is the substantive heart of Norman's petition and a window onto the operation of irrigation rights at the island. The phrase eight days in fourteen describes a rotation in which Norman receives water for only six days of a fortnight, and is kept off for the remaining eight. The grievance is institutional rather than incidental: someone with prior or competing claim has been drawing the water during the period Norman expected to use it, with the result that the planted yam crop has rotted in the ground in many thousands of suckers. The reference to many thousands lost is on the same scale as the Company's own yam plantings reported by William Worrall on 26 April 1715 at the Hutts, Lufkins, Tibbills Gut, Coles Gut and Perkins's, where total stocks ran to 263,600. A planter losing thousands in the ground is suffering damage measured against the same kind of basis on which the Company calculated its supply security.

The reference to two hundred pounds already paid on the lease, without the petitioner having yet had the enjoyment of his lease, is the financial spine of the grievance. The water rotation defect has effectively voided the productive value of a tenancy on which the petitioner has paid £200 0s 0d up front. The bench's referral of the matter to Tovey, with directions to examine into the matters mentioned and settle the same as well as he can, places the dispute in the hands of the fourth in council, who has already managed the families' land and cattle register completed between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715 and signed the protective orders against Captain Haswell of 10 May 1715. Tovey's standing brief for documentary investigation makes him the appropriate councillor to examine the water-rotation arrangement against the recorded lease terms.

The Alexander petition raises a fresh creditor problem distinct from the earlier petition of the present day. Whereas the earlier Alexander petition concerned a 45s 0d debt owed to Alexander by the Bodley estate and was disposed of by reference to the stone books, the present petition reverses the position: Alexander is now the debtor, under obligation to pay £3 0s 0d to John Sinsnick and £27 0s 0d to Thomas Allis. The variant rendering of Sinsnick stands alongside the Peter Sinsnick and John Sinsnick of the 21 March 1715 families' return. The phrase who stands indebted, recovered as the principal text breaks at the foot of the page, opens the description of how Allis or someone else stands indebted to a further party. The petition appears to be setting up a chain of obligations under which Alexander seeks the bench's intervention.

Speculations

Norman's eight-day water deprivation in fourteen is probably the result of the same redistribution of plantation labour and resources that the council has been managing since the redirection of fortification works on 7 February 1715. With the Company's own yam stocks ranged across five sites for risk distribution, and with the Worrall overseership of 5 April 1715 still in its probationary phase, the bench has clear interest in the integrity of planter water supplies that feed the wider provision economy. Tovey's brief is therefore not merely to settle a private grievance but to verify that the water rotation has not been quietly altered to favour Company plantings during a period of supply consolidation. The petition's reference to nakedness as well as hunger and thirst is the rhetorical extreme that registers the petitioner's loss in terms the bench is expected to find affecting.

The signature by mark, like that of Richard Ray on 3 May 1715, fixes Norman as a planter without writing. Yet the petition shows a precise grasp of the eight-in-fourteen rotation, of the £200 0s 0d sunk into the lease, and of the cumulative damage to the crop. Someone has drafted the petition for him with detailed knowledge of his agreement and his planting. The drafter is perhaps a literate neighbour or one of the Company writers in the storekeeper's office, and the petition's accumulated structure - the legal claim, the financial loss, the bodily suffering - is the product of a documentary hand reasoning through the institutional avenues available to a planter whose lease has not delivered what it promised.

466

457

to the Hon[ble] Company) the Latter being to Compleat the payment of Ninety Pound for twenty Acres of Land your Petition[r] bought of One Elinor Cotgrave since Dead and which should have very Easily afsied[?] had not your said Petit[ione]r as well as many others suffered the loss of about Thirty head of Neat Cattle in the late great Drought which Reducing your Petition[rs] Stock to a very small Number it would be as Prejudiciall to him [...] familie to Lessen that Number, now with the Blessing of God in a fair way of Increaseing to a stock once againe. And for that your Petit[ione]r haveing been an Old Servant to the Hon[ble] Company and as he hopes behaved himself to your Worship [...] Councils Sattisfaction and done most of the business in the Sec[reta]ry Office since yo[r] Arrivall here, Presumeing none can so do him Justice say to the Contrary, Wherefore Humbly Prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] and Council to give your Said Petit[ione]r Creddit[t] for the sume of Thirty Pound, at the usuall Interest, and upon Security (if required) for repayment, at Six months hence, or it may be favoured so long as twelve months, and shall take all Imaginable care to Clear the Old Arrears assoon as Possible.

And [as] in duty bound shall Ever pray [...] Jn[o] Alexander

Ordered

That his request be granted, Persuant to an Order of Council bearing date the 21 day of December 1714.

[signatures]

Antipas Tovey

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Alexand[er] pet[ition] [...] to borow 30[...]

Granted

Ordered

Alexander continued his petition by setting out that he was indebted to the Honourable Company, the latter sum being to complete the payment of £90 0s 0d for twenty acres of land he had bought of one Elinor Cosgrave since dead. The land would have very easily afforded the payment had not the petitioner, like many others, suffered the loss of about thirty head of neat cattle in the late great drought. That reduction had brought his stock down to a very small number, and it would be prejudicial to him and his family to lessen that number now, with the blessing of God in a fair way of increasing the stock once again.

He set out that he had been an old servant to the Honourable Company, and as he hoped had behaved himself to the council's satisfaction, having done most of the business in the storekeeper's office since his arrival at the island. He presumed none could say to the contrary. He humbly prayed the council to give him credit for the sum of £30 0s 0d at the usual interest, and upon security if required, for repayment at six months hence or, if it might be favoured, so long as twelve months. He undertook to take all immediate care to clear the old arrears as soon as possible. The petition was signed by John Alexander.

Granted.

The council ordered that his request be granted, pursuant to an order of council bearing date the 21 day of December 1714.

Interpretations

Alexander's £90 0s 0d obligation for twenty acres bought of the late Elinor Cosgrave gives a unit rate of £4 10s 0d the acre, the price of a settled holding capable of carrying cattle. The transaction was a free sale between planters, not a Company lease, and the death of the seller has left the balance owing as a personal debt of the buyer. The reduction of the buyer's herd by thirty head in the late drought is the operative damage: the cattle would have liquidated the debt had they survived. The petitioner is now obliged to find £30 0s 0d in credit to discharge the immediate obligations to Sinsnick and Allis, with Allis in turn owing the Company; the bench is being asked to enter the chain at the point where Alexander would otherwise have to break up his diminished herd to pay.

The reference to the late great drought enters the climatic background of the present account. The island's moderate climate is here recorded as having delivered a prolonged dry period severe enough to take thirty head of cattle from a single planter, on a scale that affected many others on the same footing. The same drought lies behind the famine-driven beef-arrack exchange of 11 March 1715, by which inhabitants selling beef at 25s 0d per hundred would be allowed to buy arrack at 6s 0d per gallon, an inducement designed to bring slaughter cattle into the Company's hands during a period of restoration. Alexander is one of the planters the bench has been quietly trying to keep on his feet through these mechanisms.

The petitioner's reference to himself as an old servant to the Honourable Company having done most of the business in the storekeeper's office since his arrival is the entry of personal service onto the credit application. Alexander, the same man whose plantation status was confirmed by his grant of Sexton's ground on a 21-year lease on 8 April 1712, and probably the same Ensign John Alexander who served as clerk of council and signed the game advertisement of 25 July 1712 and the survey advertisement of 24 November 1712, here invokes his record of service as part of his ground for credit. The bench's grant rests not only on the security he offers and the interest he undertakes but on the standing he claims within the Company establishment.

The reference to the order of council bearing date the 21 day of December 1714 is the procedural anchor of the grant. That earlier order set a standing rule on the terms of credit to be extended to inhabitants in such cases, and the present grant follows its rates and conditions without separate negotiation. The mechanism economises on conciliar attention: rather than rehearse the terms of every individual loan, the bench refers each grant back to the standing order. Alexander's twelve-month extension, if so favoured, falls within the framework already established and requires no fresh deliberation on rate or security.

Speculations

The chain of obligations Alexander has set out - £3 0s 0d to Sinsnick, £27 0s 0d to Allis who in turn owes the Company, and the £90 0s 0d for the Cosgrave land of which the present sum completes the payment - is probably designed to present the loan as a settling of accounts that ultimately benefits the Company. Once Alexander pays Allis, Allis is in funds to pay his own Company debt; once the Cosgrave purchase is completed, the title to the twenty acres becomes free and clear and can be charged as security against the £30 0s 0d advance. The bench grants the petition because the loan ultimately flows back into Company hands through Allis and is secured against newly cleared land. The chain is the same set-off thinking the bench applied to the Leech-Knipe arrangement on the present day.

The choice of December 1714 rather than a more recent order as the procedural anchor for the grant is probably because the 21 December 1714 order was a general settlement of credit terms following the Carne debt-clearance schedule of 7 December 1714. By referring back to that order, the bench treats Alexander's application as a routine instance falling under the standing rule, and avoids any need to find a fresh policy ground for advancing money to a planter who is also a Company servant. The bracketing of the present grant with the December framework also signals that the bench expects the same framework to govern any further such petitions on the present consultation day or shortly thereafter.

467

458

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 24[th] Day of May 1715 At the United Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[u]ty Pres[ent] Matthew Bazett 3[d] Antipas Tovey 4[th] [...] Edward Byfeild 5[th] in Coun[cil]

M[r] Jonathan Doveton haveing paid the Principall [...] Interest of mony he borrowed at Eight p[er] Cent of the Hon[ble] Company to pay for the Lands of W[m] Marsh [...] Leonard Hurt first Sold to the[ir] Company [...] by Govern[r] Boucher [...] Council to him, the said Interest is to be void [...] he Discharged of the said Principall [...] Interest at his Request this is Entered in the Consultation book to Discharge him of which he may have a Copy upon Demand

The following Petitions were Presented viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Cuncil

The most Humble Petition of Christopher Kell Gunn[r] Cheif Mate Humbly

Shewth,

That forasmuch as yo[r] Humble Petition[r] is very desireous of hireing a Parcell of Land formerly Hugh Bodleys known by the name of of the Man Cupps now belonging to the

Margin Notes:

Jon[a] Doveton[s] desireid[?] for his Bond to be Sold Comp[any]s[?]

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Kell[s] pet[ition] for [...] y[e] Man cupps

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday the 24 day of May 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Mr Jonathan Doveton, having paid the principal and interest of the money he had borrowed at 8 per cent of the Honourable Company to pay for the lands of William Marsh and Leonard Hunt - first sold to the Company and by Governor Boucher and council to him - the interest was to be void and he discharged of the principal and interest. At his request this was entered in the consultation book to discharge him, of which he might have a copy on demand.

The following petitions were presented.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Christopher Hell, gunner's chief mate.

Hell set out that he was very desirous of hiring a parcel of land formerly Hugh Bodley's, known by the name of the Man Cupps, now belonging to the

Interpretations

The Doveton entry records the final discharge of a substantial planter mortgage at the original Company rate. Doveton borrowed at 8 per cent from the Company in order to purchase the consolidated lands originally bought from William Marsh on 23 November 1711 for £300 0s 0d and from Leonard Hunt on 20 December 1710 for £250 0s 0d, both holdings being absorbed by the Company at those dates and then sold on to Doveton under the administration of Benjamin Boucher. The bench's certificate that the principal and interest have been paid is the planter's quittance against any future Company claim on the same lands. The procedure of entering the discharge in the consultation book, with a copy to be made available on demand, is the standard means by which a planter secures permanent documentary proof of clear title; the council book is the registry of last resort against any subsequent dispute.

The procedural posture is significant. Doveton has chosen to bring his clearance before the bench at the present moment, when the standing of the Boucher administration is in active question on the threads transmitted to London by the Aurengzebe on 25 January 1714/15. By securing the discharge under the Pyke regime, Doveton converts a transaction first entered into under Boucher into one closed and certified under the present council, and protects himself from any possible reopening of the original sale should the Lords Proprietors take any action against Boucher on the documentary case. The discharge is therefore as much a defensive document for Doveton against future challenge as it is a release from the running debt.

The eight per cent rate is the standard Company lending rate, the same applied to William Porteous on 27 November 1711 for £100 0s 0d and to Isaac Leech on 17 May 1715 for £30 0s 0d, and to be applied to John Alexander on the same day under the standing order of 21 December 1714. The rate has functioned across the recovered record as the uniform price of Company credit to planters and Company servants, with security where required. The Doveton clearance confirms that the same rate has been carried through to its conclusion on the most substantial planter borrowing in the recovered material.

The Hell petition opens a fresh inquiry into the use of Hugh Bodley's former lands. Christopher Hell is the gunner's chief mate, and the Man Cupps is the name of a particular parcel of the Bodley holding. The Bodley estate, absorbed by the Company on 18 January 1714/15 in satisfaction of debt, and the subject of the Smith and Alexander petitions of 17 May 1715, now produces a third application, this time from a Company servant seeking to lease a parcel from the Company's holding rather than to claim against the estate's effects. The application changes the bench's relationship with the Bodley assets from creditor and auditor to lessor.

Speculations

Doveton's choice to clear the mortgage in full at the present moment is probably also calibrated to his standing in the recent church-rate proceedings. As the petitioner whose blinds in James Town were ordered demolished on 26 April 1715, and as one of the co-executors with Gurling and Greentree to Robert Leach deceased of 12 April 1715, Doveton has been an active player in the regulatory and probate business of the bench. Closing the eight-per-cent borrowing now leaves him without any standing financial relationship with the Company beyond his half-crown contribution to the church rate confirmed on 17 May 1715, and frees him to act without conflict in any further parish or executor business that comes before the council.

The Hell application for the Man Cupps is probably the kind of administrative letting the bench has been organising since the Bodley advertisement of 18 January 1714/15 offered the absorbed holding to a civil and industrious person who had worked for the Company at the fortifications and had no plantation. A gunner's chief mate is precisely the kind of Company servant the advertisement contemplated. The Man Cupps, as a named parcel within the larger Bodley holding, would be one of the sub-divisions through which the Company can place its servants on the land while retaining the principal estate. Hell's petition is the first recovered instance of the bench moving on the absorbed Bodley land in the manner the advertisement set out.

468

459

the Hon[ble] Company, Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Councill to grant him leave to hire the same.

And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...]

May y[e] 24: 1715 Christopher Kell

Ordered

Not approved That this Land be Lett to those only who can manure it [...] have at least one Black [...] are not too Deep in the Hon[ble] Companys Debt

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke, Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l]

The most Humble Petition of Richard Gurling Free Holder Humbly

Shewth,

That yo[r] Petition[r] standing in a very great need of Pasturage to Preserve his [...] neat Cattle (therefore) Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Councill to grant him a Parcell of the Hon[ble] Companys waste Land Lyeing underneith their Plantation at the High Peak w[ch] will be of very great use to yo[r] Petition[r] and of no detriment to any Person,

May y[e] 24: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in Duty bound) shall Ever Pray [...] Richard Gurling

Ordered

Let this Land be Surveyed and Enquiry be made whether the letting of this Land may be any Prejudice to the Hon[ble] Company also that Enquiry be made how much Land he possesses,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council[l]

Margin Notes:

Not approved

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

R[d] Gurling pet[ition] for Land at y[e] Peak.

May y[e] 24: 1715

Referrd till furth[er] Enq[uir]y

Island S[t] Helena

Hell concluded his petition by humbly praying the council to grant him leave to hire the same parcel of land, formerly Hugh Bodley's, known by the name of the Man Cupps and now belonging to the Honourable Company. The petition was dated 24 May 1715 and signed by Christopher Hell.

The council ordered that the land be let only to those who could manure it and had at least one black, and were not too deep in the Honourable Company's debt. The petition was not approved.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

The humble petition of Richard Gurling, freeholder, set out that he stood in very great need of pasturage to preserve his neat cattle. He humbly prayed the council to grant him a parcel of the Honourable Company's waste land lying underneath their plantation at the High Peak, which would be of very great use to him and of no detriment to any person. The petition was dated 24 May 1715 and signed by Richard Gurling.

The council ordered that the land be surveyed and enquiry be made whether the letting of it might be any prejudice to the Honourable Company. The bench also directed that enquiry be made how much land Gurling already possessed.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

Interpretations

The conditions attached to the refusal of Hell's petition set out the bench's working policy on Company land lettings for the first time in the recovered record in such explicit form. Three tests apply. The tenant must be capable of manuring the land, that is, of bringing manure or compost to the soil to maintain its productive value rather than merely cropping it out. He must hold at least one black, so as to have the labour to work the parcel. And he must not be too deep in the Company's debt, so that rent and other obligations can be met without addition to an existing arrear. The conditions exclude the gunner's chief mate Hell on the second or third ground, perhaps both. The standard converts the general aspiration of the Bodley advertisement of 18 January 1714/15 into operative qualifying criteria for any Company servant or planter seeking to lease absorbed estates.

The High Peak waste land application by Richard Gurling raises a different question. Gurling is the planter who acted as executor with Greentree and Doveton to Robert Leach deceased on 12 April 1715, and as joint executor with Powell to the Steward estate, whose will was proved on 11 January 1714/15. He is also the planter whose 11 March 1715 offer with Powell to sell standing provisions and the young slaves Pompey and Roger to the Company remained open at the time of Mashborne's death on 31 March 1715. The application for pasturage under the High Peak does not concern the absorbed estate land but free waste held by the Company at its own plantation; the request is for additional grazing to preserve a herd already in possession.

The bench's two-headed inquiry into Gurling's application is the careful procedural response to a request from a substantial planter. The first head is the survey of the parcel itself, to verify the boundaries and quality of the land. The second is whether the letting would be any prejudice to the Honourable Company, a phrase that covers loss of grazing the Company's own cattle might use, interference with Company plantings, and any conflict with the standing yam-supply strategy detailed at the consultation of 26 April 1715. The third element, enquiry into how much land Gurling already possessed, is the bench's check against accumulation by a single planter beyond the share considered reasonable. The families' land and cattle register completed between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715 is the documentary basis for that enquiry.

The contrast between the immediate refusal of Hell and the procedural inquiry on Gurling registers the difference in standing between a Company servant of modest means and an established planter who is also an executor on two recent probates. Both applications are for Company land, but the bench's working assumption is that Gurling has the resources to manure, the labour to work, and the standing to meet his obligations, so the question is reduced to whether the Company can spare the parcel.

Speculations

The newly articulated qualifying conditions for Company lettings - manuring capacity, at least one black, and not too deep in debt - are probably the bench's quiet codification of long-standing practice now made explicit because of the volume of applications produced by the absorption of the Bodley estate. With the Steward estate also under active management through the Powell-Gurling executorship, and with the Mashborne moveable goods inventoried on 12 April 1715, the council has accumulated land and stock under its administration in quantities that require formal letting criteria. The Hell refusal is the occasion for laying down the conditions on the record, and the conditions will perhaps govern the disposition of further parcels at later consultations.

Gurling's appeal to pasture preservation rather than fresh cultivation is probably calibrated to the bench's known anxiety about cattle losses since the late great drought, the same drought that John Alexander invoked on 17 May 1715 to explain the loss of thirty head from his own herd. By framing his request as the preservation of an existing herd rather than the acquisition of new land for cropping, Gurling places it within the same restoration-of-stocks logic that has shaped the beef-arrack exchange advertisement of 11 March 1715. The bench's referral for survey rather than outright refusal reflects the merit of the framing as much as the petitioner's standing.

469

460

The most Humble Petition of Richard Swallow Jun[r] on behalf of Thomas Swallow Free Planter who is not able to appear by reason of Old Age [...] Sickness Humbly

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petitioner Father before Named Standing considerably in the Hon[ble] Comp[any] Debt, did Pursuant to an Advertizement Issued out for all persons that did stand so indebted as aforesaid to make their Severall Proposeall[s] for payment make offer to Cap[t] Edward Mashborne third in Council dec[d] of Thirty Thousand weight of Yams at one time, and as many more at another time with two Head of breeding Cattle, which he Promised to take for the Companys use But neither parcells being as yet taken w[ch] are reserved for the same purpose haveing no other way to make paym[en]t Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council to receive the aforesaid Yams [...] Cattle towards paym[en]t of said Debt in the Hon[ble] Companys Books otherwise twill be Imporsible to discharge the same in many years without the Inevitable Ruine of yo[r] said Petition[ers] Father (who is now very ancient) [...] familie,

May y[e] 24: 1715 And as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...] Rich[d] Swallow

That it appears by the Report made on Tuesday the 17[th] of August that there was no mention made of these Yams and the Yams mencion[d] in that Report are more than we can take without apparent prejudice to the Hon[ble] Company as will farther appear by the Minutes of Consultation on Tuesday the 26[th] of Aprill therefore we cannot take these Yams but are willing to take Cattle or Blacks [...]

[catchword?] G[?] and

Margin Notes:

Shewth

Pet[itio]n on Behalf Tho Swallow ab[ou]t Yams

May y[e] 24: 1715

answer thereto

The next petition was the humble petition of Richard Swallow junior on behalf of Thomas Swallow, free planter, who was not able to appear by reason of old age and sickness.

Swallow set out that his father, named earlier in the consultation as standing considerably in the Honourable Company's debt, had, pursuant to an advertisement put out for all persons that stood so indebted to make their several proposals for payment, made offer to Captain Edward Mashborne, third in council deceased, of thirty thousand weight of yams at one time, and as many more at another time, with two head of breeding cattle, which he had promised to take for the Company's use. Neither parcel had as yet been taken in, and the same were reserved for that purpose. Having no other way to make payment, he humbly prayed the council to receive the said yams and cattle towards payment of the debt in the Honourable Company's books, otherwise it would be impossible to discharge the same in many years without the inevitable ruin of his father, who was now very ancient, and his family. The petition was dated 24 May 1715 and signed by Richard Swallow.

The answer thereto was as follows. It appeared by the report made on Tuesday the 17 of August that there was no mention made of these yams, and the yams mentioned in that report were more than the council could take without apparent prejudice to the Honourable Company, as would further appear by the minutes of consultation on Tuesday the 26 of April. Therefore the council could not take these yams, but were willing to take cattle or blacks.

Interpretations

The Swallow petition arrives through a son acting for an ancient and sick father, and so attaches to the bench's developing practice of admitting representative petitions where the principal cannot attend. The earlier petition of Richard Beale of 17 May 1715 had brought the orphan estate before the council through the eldest son; the present petition reverses the generational direction, with the son representing the aged father. The procedural openness of the bench to representative petitions in both directions is the institutional response to the limited mobility of the very young and the very old in the country planter community.

The offer of thirty thousand weight of yams in one parcel, with as many more in another, together with two head of breeding cattle, was made to Captain Edward Mashborne in his capacity as third in council before his death on 31 March 1715. The petition therefore concerns a transaction undertaken under the previous council composition and now claimed by the son as a binding undertaking by the Company through Mashborne. The bench's response that no mention of these yams was made on the report of 17 August is a flat rejection of the existence of the agreement on the record. The report referred to is perhaps the 17 August 1714 audit of the debtors' proposals under the same advertisement, the documentary product of the bench's earlier handling of the same debt-clearance round. By appealing to the 17 August report and finding no entry, the council closes off the Swallow claim against Mashborne's recollection or any unrecorded promise.

The cross-reference to the consultation of 26 April 1715 anchors the bench's refusal in the Worrall yam-stock report of that date. Worrall reported total Company yams ready to dig of 263,600 across the Hutts, Lufkins, Tibbills Gut, Coles Gut and Perkins's, with 66,000 already bought by Pyke and Mashborne in Tombstone Wood on 19 October 1714. The Company is so well supplied with yams that taking another sixty thousand weight from Swallow would be an apparent prejudice, that is, a visible loss, on grounds of overstocking and storage. The bench has converted the supply security position consolidated on 26 April 1715 into the documentary basis for refusing further yam purchases. The willingness to take cattle or blacks instead reflects the actual scarcities: cattle are still recovering from the late great drought and slave labour remains in short supply.

The phrase apparent prejudice to the Honourable Company is the technical formula the bench has been applying since the High Peak inquiry on Gurling's pasturage petition earlier in the present sitting. The same standard of judgement is being used to manage both letting and purchasing decisions: would the transaction cause visible loss to the Company in current conditions. The standard is operational rather than legal, and is applied case by case against the present state of stocks, herds and labour. The Swallow refusal applies the standard against an old debtor's preferred mode of payment.

Speculations

The Swallow agreement with Mashborne, claimed but not entered on the 17 August report, was probably an informal undertaking made in conversation rather than a formal council decision. Mashborne, as the third in council with responsibility for plantation accounts and joint purchaser with the governor of the 66,000 yams from Tombstone Wood on 19 October 1714, would have been the natural figure for a debtor planter to approach with an offer of yams. The death of Mashborne on 31 March 1715 has left the agreement in the position of an unmemorialised promise. The bench's refusal protects the Company from being held to private understandings of a deceased councillor, and confirms the operational rule that obligations binding the Company must be entered in the consultation book to be enforceable. The procedural lesson is the same the Doveton clearance illustrated earlier in the present sitting, that the council book is the registry of last resort against any subsequent claim.

The offer of cattle or blacks in place of yams probably maps the bench's actual procurement priorities at the present moment. Cattle stocks remain low after the late great drought, with John Alexander's loss of thirty head still fresh from the petition of 17 May 1715; slave labour shortages continue to constrain the fortification works, the sea wall and the highway labour programme set out on 15 April 1715. The redirection of Swallow's payment from yams to cattle or slaves is therefore not arbitrary but calibrated to where the Company is actually short. Whether the ancient father can produce either is another question; the offer transfers the burden of finding an acceptable medium of payment back to the petitioner.

470

461

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] Council

The most Humble Petition of Gabriel Powill, Free Holder Humbly,

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] hath always behaved himself obedient to the Govern[r] of this his Native Country always willing to obey his Superiours and to Promote the good Estate of the Island in Generall and in the greatest scarcity to Assist in the Refreshments of the Hon[ble] Companys Shipping and haveing behaved himself so as to obtain a Generall (and he hopes an honest [...] good Credit) has had the misfortune lately to be left Excecut[or] to Charles Steward Planter lately Deceasd who was formerly married to your Petition[rs] Sister and by her had five Children now liveing and Nephews to yo[r] said Petition[r] But since her death lately remarried to one Eliz[a] Gargen will known here, the said Charles Steward left an Estate Vallued in the whole about twelve Hundred Pound and his said Widow within less, then Four Months was Married to Cap[t] George Haswell the first of yo[r] Worsh[i]ps Councill who in Right to his said wife is to Enjoy about one third part of the said Charles Stewards Estate

But so it is that because he cannot Enjoy the whole or most part thereof has Exercised by meanes [...] Colour of his being yo[r] Dep[u]ty Govern[r] very great Tyranny [...] Oppression on his new wifes Children in Law [...] also on yo[r] Petition[r] [...] Richard Gurling Excecut[or] to the Last Will and Testament

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

This petition is not to be sh[ewn]

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Gabriel Powell, freeholder.

Powell set out that he had always behaved himself obedient to the government of his native country, always willing to obey his superiors and to promote the good estate of the island in general, and in the greatest scarcity to assist in the refreshments of the Honourable Company's shipping. Having behaved himself so as to obtain a general and, he hoped, an honest and good credit, he had had the misfortune lately to be left executor to Charles Steward, planter, lately deceased.

Steward was formerly married to the petitioner's sister, and by her had five children now living and nephews to the petitioner. Since her death he had lately remarried one Elizabeth Gargen, well known at the island. Steward had left an estate valued in the whole about £1,200 0s 0d, and his widow, within less than four months, had married Captain George Haswell, the first of the council. Haswell, in right of his wife, was to enjoy about one third part of Charles Steward's estate.

So it was that because Haswell could not enjoy the whole or most part of the estate, he had exercised, by means and colour of his being deputy governor, very great tyranny and oppression on his new wife's children in law, and also on the petitioner and Richard Gurling, executors to the last will and testament

A margin note records that this petition was not to be entered.

Interpretations

The Powell petition brings the underlying domestic and probate quarrel between the Steward executors and the deputy governor onto the formal record. Powell sets out three foundations for his standing: long political loyalty to the government, active assistance to Company shipping during scarcity, and the misfortune of being made executor to a deceased brother in law. The pattern of preamble is the standard rhetorical framework by which a freeholder asserts the right to be heard by the bench, and each element is invoked in language that places the petitioner alongside the Company's own interests rather than in opposition to them.

The household and probate facts are now set out together in one consolidated narrative. Charles Steward, whose will was proved on 11 January 1714/15 on the oaths of John Alexander and Thomas Price with Powell and Gurling as executors, was formerly married to Powell's sister and by her had five children, who are the petitioner's nephews. Steward's second marriage to Elizabeth Gargen produced the widow whose remarriage within less than four months to George Haswell brought the deputy governor into the Steward household. Haswell's interest in his wife's right is about one third of the £1,200 0s 0d estate, leaving two thirds to the children of the first marriage. The dispute that drove the prosecution of Toby on 10 May 1715 is here laid out as the natural product of the estate's division between the Powell-Gurling executorship of the children's two-thirds interest and Haswell's marital one-third interest.

The accusation of very great tyranny and oppression, made by means and colour of Haswell's office as deputy governor, is the language by which Powell raises the matter from a private family quarrel to a public abuse of office. The phrase by means and colour of office is the standard formulation for misuse of public position for private ends in early eighteenth-century English administrative law. Powell's petition charges that Haswell has been using the apparatus of the deputy governorship to bear down on the children of his wife by her first marriage, on Powell as their uncle and executor, and on Gurling as joint executor. The matter is therefore framed as a public-law grievance against a councillor's conduct, drawing on the same foundations the court relied on for the protective order against Haswell of 10 May 1715.

The margin entry that the petition was not to be entered is a procedural exclusion of remarkable strength. The petition is read in council and a record made of its substance, yet a separate note directs that it is not to go into the formal book. The bench is here pulling back from converting Powell's allegations into formal proceedings against the deputy governor, at the same time as recording in the consultation that the petition was presented and what it contained. The combination preserves the political surface of the council while creating a documentary trace that could be activated should the matter ever require formal action, perhaps in correspondence to the Lords Proprietors.

Speculations

The decision that the petition was not to be entered is probably the governor's own restraint operating on the open political fault line within the council. Pyke has already disciplined Haswell on 10 May 1715 by the protective order forbidding reflection on the jurors and by the damages award in favour of the orphan estate; a fresh formal entry of Powell's catalogue of grievances against Haswell would push the deputy governor further into open contest with the bench at a moment when the council needs a settled appearance for the Lords Proprietors. The non-entry preserves the bench's working relationship with its second man while leaving Powell with the documentary recognition that his petition was presented. The strategy is consistent with the governor's earlier instruction at the trial of 10 May 1715 that the executors and the eldest Steward son mention no more of Haswell in public.

Powell's reference to the rapid remarriage of the widow within less than four months is probably designed to underline the speed with which Haswell acquired his marital interest in the Steward estate, and so to suggest opportunism on his part. A widow who remarries within four months of her husband's death is on the very edge of customary mourning periods, and the implicit suggestion is that Haswell moved quickly to attach the one-third interest. The framing prepares the ground for the substantive charge that follows: a man who married fast for an estate and then found he could not have all of it has turned his official position against the children who hold the larger share.

471

462

Testament of the said Charles Steward [...] Unckle to the said Children haveing threatned to Whip the Excecut[or]s and at other times to Shoot them He being a Man of a Quarrellsom [...] abusive temper Especially in his Drink to which he is much subject, yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council are all sensible of his malice in Endeavouring to destroy under Colour of Law one Toby a Black man belonging to the Children which I hope will be duly represented to the Hon[ble] Comp[any] I made my complaint to yo[r] Worsh[i]p against him before his face in the Publick Sessions w[ch] I have now given in a Memoriall of consisting of Seven Articles tho I could have urged many very many more,

Wherefore I humbly pray yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Councill to take such Order herein that I may be Protected in the faithfull discharge of my Trust on behalf of my said Nephews and that you would please to appoint any other Honest Sober man on behalf of the said Poor Orphans who are now greatly Oprest by their Rigourous [...] wicked Father in Law and their young Mother in Law his wife that your Petition[r] may be Legally Acquitted from this unweildy charge he not being able or willing to contend with so troublesome a man as yo[r] Deputy Gov[er]n[r], but had rather make a reparation himself to the Distressed Children his Nephews than to be thus Continually Insulted [...] abused and in Danger to be destroyed by the Outrageous or Mad Method of this passionate [...] Turbulent man the Deputy Gov[er]n[r], I Humbly submitt

Margin Notes:

M[r] Powells Pet[ition] ag[ains]t Cap[t] Haswell

Powell continued his petition. He set out that he was uncle to the children of Charles Steward and that Haswell had threatened to whip the executors and at other times to shoot them, being a quarrelsome and abusive-tempered man, especially in his drink, to which he was much subject. The council was sensible of Haswell's malice in endeavouring to destroy, under colour of law, Toby, a black man belonging to the children. Powell hoped the matter would be duly represented to the Honourable Company. He had made his complaint against Haswell before his face in the public sittings, and he had now given in a memorial consisting of seven articles, although he could have urged very many more.

Powell humbly prayed the council to take such order in the matter that he might be protected in the faithful discharge of his trust on behalf of his nephews, and that the council would appoint any other honest, sober man on behalf of the poor orphans, who were now greatly oppressed by their rigorous and wicked father in law and their young mother in law, his wife. Powell asked that he might be legally acquitted of this unwieldy charge, he being neither able nor willing to contend with so troublesome a man as the deputy governor. He would rather make reparation himself to the distressed children, his nephews, than be continually insulted and abused, and in danger to be destroyed by the outrageous and mad method of this passionate and turbulent man, the deputy governor. He humbly submitted

Interpretations

The catalogue of threats brings the petition from charges of abuse of office into accusations of personal violence. Threats to whip and to shoot the executors are not merely intemperate language but accusations of crimes against the persons of Powell and Gurling. The reference to his drink, to which he was much subject, attributes the conduct in part to habitual intoxication, the same condition that had earlier been the ground for Matthew Bazett's dismissal from the council on 2 October 1712 on charges of swearing, drunkenness, neglect of business and disrespect to the governor. The same vice that had once removed Bazett from the bench is now alleged against Haswell, who continues as deputy governor under written orders of the court of 10 May 1715 forbidding him to reflect on the jurors of Toby's trial.

The reference to Haswell's endeavour to destroy Toby under colour of law is the petitioner's open characterisation of the failed prosecution of 10 May 1715. The phrase under colour of law converts the legal procedure of indictment and trial into an instrument of malice, employed for the destruction of the slave belonging to the children. The bench has already entered findings on the same matter through its order for damages and costs against Haswell signed by Antipas Tovey on 10 May 1715, and the order forbidding reflection on the jurors. Powell's petition now seeks to incorporate that judicial finding into a wider statement of the deputy governor's pattern of conduct, with the trial standing as the central exhibit.

The memorial of seven articles, given in alongside the present petition, is the formal pleading by which Powell asks the bench to take such order as will protect him in the discharge of his trust. The seven articles are not set out in the recovered text of the present petition but are referred to as a separate document. The mechanism follows the standard form by which an accuser presents a numbered catalogue of charges, with each article specifying a distinct grievance. The procedure was used by the council itself against Boucher in the documentary case transmitted to London on 25 January 1714/15 by the Aurengzebe with the Tovey-Gurgen-Alexander letter. Powell is here adopting the same procedure to bring a deputy governor's conduct before the same Lords Proprietors.

The request that Powell himself be legally acquitted of the executorship is the procedural innovation. Rather than seek a remedy against Haswell, Powell asks the bench to discharge him from his trust as executor and to appoint another honest, sober man in his place. The principle is that an executor cannot be required to serve where the conditions of the trust have become impossible by reason of the conduct of another party. Powell offers to make reparation himself to the children rather than continue under the conditions Haswell has imposed. The offer of personal compensation in lieu of continued service is the executor's last institutional move when faced with circumstances beyond his control.

Speculations

Powell's offer of personal reparation in lieu of continued executorship is probably the strongest possible signal he can give the bench of the seriousness of his position. A free planter willing to disburse his own funds to be released from the trust is a free planter who has concluded that the trust cannot be honourably discharged under existing conditions. The reparation offer transfers any cost of dissolution from the children's estate to Powell himself, and so removes the obvious objection that releasing him would leave the orphans the poorer. The bench is thereby presented with a costless route out of the impasse, with the children compensated by the outgoing executor and a new executor appointed in his place.

The seven articles, withheld from the petition but given in as a separate memorial, are probably the procedural mechanism by which Powell limits what is on the open record of the consultation while reserving the full catalogue of charges for any subsequent reference, perhaps to the Lords Proprietors. The margin note that the petition itself was not to be entered, recorded against the earlier portion of the same petition, is consistent with the same restraint. The bench keeps the documentary trace of the present application thin while allowing the petitioner to lodge a fuller case in a separate paper that can be activated later. The procedure leaves Pyke in a position to manage the council's relationship with Haswell from day to day, while ensuring that, should the deputy governor's conduct require formal action from London, the documentary basis for that action already exists at the island in Powell's seven articles.

472

463

submitt Every Perticular of any Complaint to yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council and beg your Protection for his unreasonable Insults desireing no more then the Priveledge of the Kings meanest Subjects from this man who because he thinks he has some Power will observe no Law,

And yo[r] Poor Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...] Gabriel Powill

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council

The Humble Petition of Richard Gurling in behalf of himself and Six Poor Orphans to whom he is one of the Excecut[or]s Humbly

Shewth,

That yo[r] Petition[rs] friend Charles Steward Deceas'd in the Month of December last leaveing by his Will the care of his Children to Gabriel Powill and yo[r] Petition[r] But it has so happen'd that about four months after M[r] Stewards Death his Widdow is married again to Cap[t] George Haswell one of the Council of this Island, who so overbares the Excecutors with Insults threatnings and abuses that they cannot goe thro' with their Charge [...] Excecut[ors]hip. And therefore Humbly pray the Gov[r] and the Rest of the Councill to take the Justice of this cause into consideration and so farr as it is agreable to Law [...] Right to take the Children into their Protection and Discharge the Excecutor[s] And as in Duty boun[d]

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

R[d] Gurling[s] pet[ition] ab[ou]t y[e] same

Powell submitted every particular of any complaint to the council and begged their protection from Haswell's unreasonable insults, desiring no more than the privilege of the King's meanest subjects from this man who, because he thought he had some power, would observe no law. The petition was signed by Gabriel Powell.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Richard Gurling on behalf of himself and six poor orphans, of whom he was one of the executors.

Gurling set out that his friend Charles Steward had died in the month of December last, leaving by his will the care of six children to Gabriel Powell and the petitioner. About four months after Steward's death his widow had married again to Captain George Haswell, one of the council of the island. Haswell so overbore the executors with insults, threatenings and abuses that they could not go through with their charge of executorship. Gurling therefore humbly prayed the governor and the rest of the council to take the justice of the cause into consideration, and so far as it was agreeable to law and right, to take the children into their protection and discharge the executors.

Interpretations

The phrase desiring no more than the privilege of the King's meanest subjects is the legal-rhetorical apex of Powell's petition. The petitioner invokes the common-law principle that every subject of the Crown, however lowly in station, is entitled to the protection of the law against private violence. The phrase was a standard formulation in English petitioning practice for invoking the floor of legal protection due to any subject, and is here applied to a free planter and executor seeking shelter from a councillor's threats. By framing his complaint at the level of the King's meanest subject, Powell sidesteps any question of his own standing and rests his claim on the bare right of any subject to equal protection from violence.

The Gurling petition is the procedural counterpart to Powell's, brought by the second executor in his own right and in the right of the children. The two petitions together represent a joint application by the entire executorship of Charles Steward's will, proved on 11 January 1714/15 on the oaths of John Alexander and Thomas Price. The bench is now faced with both executors asking, in distinct petitions, to be relieved of their charge. The mechanism by which the council can grant the relief is to take the children into their protection, that is, to assume the executorship to itself or appoint new executors, and to discharge the existing executors from any further responsibility. The procedure follows the principle the governor laid down on 1 March 1715 when offering to act for all orphans in general.

The clarification that Steward died in the month of December last, with Haswell's marriage to the widow following about four months afterwards, fixes the chronology of the household reorganisation more precisely than Powell's narrative had done. December 1714 places Steward's death within the gap between the consultation of 7 December 1714, where the Carne debt-clearance schedule of £560 4s 0d was presented, and 4 January 1714/15 when Pyke forbade Gurling's unauthorised public outcry of Steward's effects without prior probate. The will was proved on 11 January 1714/15. Haswell's marriage to the widow therefore took place around April 1715, in the period that includes Mashborne's death on 31 March 1715 and the parish administration cycle of mid-April. The deputy governor's domestic life and his bench duties have run in parallel through one of the most administratively active months of the year.

The reference to the children as six rather than the five referred to in Powell's petition is the kind of variation that suggests one petition counts only the children of Steward's first marriage with Powell's sister, while the other counts the full set of Steward's children including any of the second marriage who survived. The six in Gurling's petition is the inclusive total. The bench will have to take account of both numbers as it determines whose interests the executors hold.

Speculations

The synchronised lodgement of two executor petitions, one from each of the named executors, is probably the product of joint consultation between Powell and Gurling on the procedure best calculated to extract them both from the charge. Each petition stands on its own and could be granted separately, but the bench cannot fail to notice that both executors have given up at the same time and on the same grounds. The combined effect is to put before the council the position that the executorship of the Steward will has become unworkable in its entirety, not merely inconvenient for one of the two executors. The bench is therefore left with the choice of accepting the joint resignation and reorganising the trust, or refusing both petitions and leaving two demoralised executors in place against their will.

Gurling's understated phrasing, that the executors cannot go through with their charge of executorship, is probably calculated to give the bench room to dispose of the matter without further inflaming Haswell. Where Powell's petition catalogued threats to whip and shoot, accused the deputy governor of tyranny, oppression and a passionate and turbulent method, and invoked the meanest subject of the King, Gurling's petition is briefer, drier and focused on the practical fact of impossibility. The two-petition strategy presents the bench with both registers: the dramatic narrative for the record, and the calm procedural summary for the order. Pyke can sign a discharge of the executors on Gurling's wording without endorsing every charge in Powell's, and so dispose of the underlying problem while leaving the political quarrel with the deputy governor in the same managed state in which the trial proceedings closed.

473

464

bound shall Ever Pray [...] Rich[d] Gurling

The Govern[r] [...] Council[l] sent for both the Excecutors and told them that they and the Children both should have Protection [...] be maintaind in the Peaceable performance of their Excecutorship [...] the Childrens Right should also be preserved, but as to the discharge ing them from being Excecutors it was not proper for the Govern[r] nor Council to do it. And because their Petitions did consist of Divers Articles [...] one of them was very Long therefore they would read them over and consider on them and then next Consultation Day would make some order therein at w[ch] time they were desired to Appeare

At Cap[t] Haswells request the Excecutors are not to be Answered the next Consultac[i]on Day but the next following that is fourteen Days hence,

[signatures]

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeild

Margin Notes:

Gov[er]n[r]s Answer

furth[er] Consideratio[n] putt off for 14 days[?] Cap[t] Haswell[s] requessts.

Gurling closed his petition in the usual form. The petition was signed by Richard Gurling.

The governor and council sent for both the executors and told them that they and the children both should have protection, and be maintained in the peaceable performance of their executorship, and the children's right should also be preserved. As to discharging them from being executors, it was not proper for the governor nor council to do it. Because their petitions consisted of divers articles, and one of them was very long, the council would read them over and consider them, and would then at the next consultation day make some order in the matter. At that time the executors were desired to appear.

At Captain Haswell's request, the executors were not to be answered at the next consultation day but at the one following, that is, fourteen days hence.

The order was signed by Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The council's response divides the executors' application into two parts and disposes of each separately. On protection and the preservation of the children's right, the bench grants the substance of what the executors sought: both the executors and the children are to have the protection of the council, and the executors are to be maintained in the peaceable performance of their charge. The order is the bench's most explicit shield yet placed between Captain Haswell and the orphan estate, going beyond the protective order against reflection on the jurors signed by Antipas Tovey on 10 May 1715. The shield now extends from the immediate participants in the Toby trial to the executors in their administrative capacity and to the children themselves.

On the discharge of the executors, however, the bench refuses. The reason given - that it was not proper for the governor nor council to do it - is the institutional limit of the conciliar power over a probated will. An executor is appointed by the testator under the will, not by the bench, and the bench cannot remove an executor without due process beyond the simple petition of the executor himself. The procedural ground for refusal preserves the formal authority of the will of Charles Steward, proved on 11 January 1714/15, while opening the alternative remedy of protection in office. The bench therefore takes the working route of supporting the executors in place rather than the formal route of replacing them.

The decision to read the petitions over before making any order, with disposition deferred to the next consultation, is the council's procedural management of a politically sensitive matter. The seven articles Powell had referred to in his petition are part of the very long memorial mentioned in the present order. By taking the documents away for consideration, the bench creates time for the political composition of the answer, and avoids any immediate ruling in the presence of the deputy governor whose conduct is in question. The same restraint was applied to the Bradley tenancy and house repair petition on 26 April 1715, which was deferred for want of a fuller council, and to the Allgate petition for release from prison on the same day, on which no disposition was entered. Deferral has become the bench's standard method for matters that touch the deputy governor's interests.

Haswell's request that the executors be answered not at the next consultation day but at the one following is the deputy governor's procedural intervention in the timing. By securing fourteen days rather than seven, Haswell obtains a fortnight in which to prepare his own response, perhaps a counter-petition or articles of his own against the executors. The bench's accession to the request, however, is double-edged: the fortnight also gives Pyke the same period to compose a settlement that will hold. Tovey and Byfield, the fourth and newly appointed fifth in council, sign the order. Bazett, the third in council, again does not sign, and the deputy governor does not sign on his own request. The procedural pattern of using the junior councillors to authenticate orders touching Haswell, established on 10 May 1715, continues.

Speculations

The bench's distinction between protecting the executors in office and refusing to discharge them from office is probably the only formula that holds the council together on the present matter. To discharge the executors at their own request would be to find against Haswell in substance, on the strength of Powell's catalogue of threats and tyranny, before any formal hearing of the deputy governor's side. To refuse protection would leave the executors exposed and the children unrelieved. The middle course - keeping them in office under conciliar protection - allows the council to support the orphan estate without making a formal finding against its own second man. The strategy buys time and preserves the appearance of a united bench while the underlying problem continues to develop.

Haswell's fourteen-day adjournment request is probably calculated against the next ship from England carrying any response from the Lords Proprietors to the documentary case against Boucher transmitted by the Aurengzebe on 25 January 1714/15. If that ship arrives in the interval, the political balance of the bench may shift in ways that affect how Haswell can answer Powell's articles. A deputy governor with fresh authority from London would speak from a different position than one still operating under the protective order of 10 May 1715 and the damages award against him. The fortnight's grace gives Haswell maximum room for any external development to favour him, while the executors meanwhile sit under conciliar protection but without formal release.

474

465

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the Last of May 1715, At the United Castle In James[s] Valley

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo: Haswell Dep[u]ty Pres[ent] Matthew Bazett 3 Antipas Tovey 4 [...] Edw[d]: Byfeild 5 in Council

There being a single Allarm made this Morning about nine a Clock the Govern[r] proposed that each one in Council should write down what he thought fitt should be mentioned in a General Letter to our Hon[ble] Masters in Order to his writing the foule Draught of one to be ready by Friday next that in case this be a Homeward bound Ship wee may have the Letter ready time enough,

The foll[owing] Petitions were Presented viz[t]

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Council[l]

The Humble Petition of Elizabeth (Late Widdow and Relict of Charles Steward Deceas'd) but now Wife of Cap[t] George Haswell yo[r] Deputy Govern[r]

Shewth,

That whereas Gabriel Powill of this Island Planter has lately Exhibited a Petition against my Husband Cap[t] George Haswell yo[r] Deputy Gov[r] wherein he has Scandelously Maliciously [...] Villanously Inveighed against me in severall Articles Endeavouring thereby not only to Blast my Reputation but also breed differences between me [...] my aforesaid Husband Humbly request that your Worsh[i]p and Council would take it into consideration and

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

an Alarm

To write a Gen[era]ll Lett[e]r each one to write down w[ha]t proper for it

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

M[rs] Haswell[s] pet[ition] ag[ains]t M[r] Powell.

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday the last day of May 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

There being a single alarm made that morning about nine o'clock, the governor proposed that each one in council should write down what he thought fit should be mentioned in a general letter to the Honourable Masters, in order to his writing the foul draft of one to be ready by Friday next. In case there should be a homeward bound ship, the letter would be ready in time enough.

The council ordered that a general letter be written, and that each one write down what was proper for it.

The following petitions were presented.

To the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Elizabeth, late widow and relict of Charles Steward deceased, but now wife of Captain George Haswell, deputy governor.

Mrs Haswell set out that Gabriel Powell, planter of the island, had lately exhibited a petition against her husband Captain George Haswell, deputy governor, in which he had scandalously, maliciously and villainously inveighed against her in several articles, endeavouring thereby not only to blast her reputation but also to breed differences between her and her husband. She humbly requested that the council would take it into consideration and

Interpretations

The single alarm at nine o'clock in the morning is the standard arrangement by which the garrison signals a single sail in sight at sea, distinguished from the double or treble alarm that would signal multiple ships or a force perceived as hostile. A single alarm during the morning watch puts the governor and council into the procedure for preparing outgoing correspondence against the possibility of a homeward-bound caller. The governor's proposal that each councillor write down his own contribution to a general letter is the standard collaborative drafting practice on the island, last followed for the general letter to the directors carried by the Success in 1712 under the joint hand of Bazett and Griffith. The foul draft is the working draft, with the fair copy to follow once the document is settled and signed by the bench.

The deadline of Friday next, set against the present consultation of the last day of May 1715, is the procedural urgency the alarm has produced. Whether the ship in sight proves outward bound or homeward bound will not be known for some hours, but the council acts on the assumption that it may be homeward bound and so requires immediate preparation. The procedure converts a single alarm into a documentary deadline, and is the institutional response to the operational intelligence picture set out in the council's reply to the Rochester on 5 April 1715 about the two seasons of high seas at the island. A homeward-bound ship that calls between those seasons is the window through which intelligence and accounts can reach London.

The Haswell petition is the deputy governor's wife's intervention in the Powell-Gurling matter. Elizabeth Haswell, the former widow Steward whose remarriage to Haswell within four months had been the chronological hinge of Powell's account of 24 May 1715, here brings her own petition before the same bench that has deferred disposition of the executors' petitions until fourteen days hence. The phrase scandalously, maliciously and villainously is the lawyer's formula for defamation in three aggravated forms, and is the petitioner's claim that Powell's seven articles contain matter that goes beyond proper conciliar grievance into actionable defamation. The mention of breeding differences between her and her husband is the further charge that Powell's petition is calculated to disturb the marriage itself.

The petition's procedural posture is novel within the recovered record. Mrs Haswell is the deputy governor's wife and not a councillor, but she petitions in her own right rather than through her husband. The bench is now considering three petitions on the same underlying matter: Powell's of 24 May 1715, Gurling's of the same date, and Mrs Haswell's of 31 May 1715. The deputy governor himself has not yet petitioned in his own name; he has only requested the fortnight's adjournment of the executors' petitions. The wife's petition can therefore be received and considered on its merits, while leaving the deputy governor's own response in reserve. The procedure shows the household speaking with two voices: the wife on the record in defence of her reputation, the husband off the record but managing the timing.

Speculations

The decision to bring Mrs Haswell's petition forward at the present consultation, rather than wait for the deferred answer to the executors fourteen days hence, is probably designed to capture the bench's attention before the executors' petitions return for disposition. By placing the wife's claim of defamation on the record first, the Haswell party transforms the proceedings on the executors from a one-sided complaint into a contested matter with rival petitions on both sides. The bench, when it returns to the executors' application, will have to weigh Powell's articles against Mrs Haswell's defamation claim, and any order against Captain Haswell would carry the implication of finding the wife's complaint unfounded. The strategy is consistent with the deputy governor's earlier procedural moves: the request for a copy of the order of 10 May 1715, the request for the fortnight's adjournment on 24 May 1715, and now the wife's petition before the same bench.

The single alarm and the call for a general letter are probably more than coincidental backdrop to the present sitting. The arrival of a homeward-bound ship, if confirmed, will be the means by which any documentary record of the Powell-Gurling-Steward matter reaches the Lords Proprietors in London. Each side now has powerful reasons to influence what the general letter to the Honourable Masters contains. Powell's seven articles, kept off the consultation book at 24 May 1715 but lodged as a separate memorial, can be added to the homeward despatch; Mrs Haswell's defamation petition, if accepted and entered, can be used to qualify the picture sent home. The governor's instruction that each councillor write down his own contribution gives every member of the bench a voice in what goes into the letter, including the deputy governor himself. The single alarm has converted a quiet conciliar deferral into an immediate documentary contest.

475

466

and that the said Powill may make proof of all his Allegations in his said Petition not doubting but yo[r] Worship [...] Council will Impartially Administer Justice in this my case [...] hopes that the said Powill may be Stigmatized as yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Counc[il] shall in your Prudence think fitt his char- ecter being often Recorded in yo[r] Consul- tation Books he being always known to be a Surly Morose [...] Inhumane man Especially where he thought he might with out Opposition Insult, So what he Alledges against me in useing the Children of my Deceasd Husband with Tyranny [...] Oppression I am ready to prove by all the Island Especi- ally my nearer neighbours and the Childrens Relations that they were always tenderly and Carefully Nurst [...] brought up not only in their Fathers life time, but also since his his Decease as they themselves will acknowledge,

The aforesaid Gabriel Powill with Rich[d] Gurling Excecut[ors] to my Late Deceasd Husbands last Will [...] Testament have from the Day of his Decease never taken any Care either of the Children or their Blacks [...] they consequently without my care must have Starv'd And these Excecutors have always Insulted me with Oppro- brious and Scandolous Reflections as is too apparently known by the Neighbourhood Insomuch that I was obliged to make application to my Relations who advized me to Authorize Cap[t] Geo[rge] Haswell the Dep[uty] Gov[r] (and who since I have Married) to appear in my behalf which he the said Gabriel Powill finding and that the said Cap[t] George Haswell not Suffering him to Insult and abuse yo[r] Petition[r] has thereupon Maliciously and Villanously Reflected on yo[r] Petition[r] and its manifest tis his Constant Custome in the Excecution of Excecutorship by which means he has Acquired the

Mrs Haswell continued her petition. She asked that Powell be required to make proof of all his allegations in the petition, not doubting but that the council would impartially administer justice in her case. She hoped that Powell might be stigmatized as the council should in their prudence think fit, his character being often recorded in the consultation books, he being always known to be a surly, morose and inhumane man, especially where he thought he might without opposition insult.

As to what he alleged against her in using the children of her deceased husband with tyranny and oppression, she was ready to prove by all the island, especially her nearer neighbours and the children's relations, that they were always tenderly and carefully nursed and brought up, not only in their father's lifetime but also since his decease, as they themselves would acknowledge.

Powell and Richard Gurling, executors to her late deceased husband's last will and testament, had from the day of his decease never taken any care either of the children or their blacks. The children, without her care, must have starved. The executors had always insulted her with opprobrious and scandalous reflections, as was apparently known by the neighbourhood. She had been so put about that she had been obliged to make application to her relations, who advised her to authorise Captain George Haswell, the deputy governor and whom she had since married, to appear on her behalf. Powell, finding that Haswell would not suffer him to insult and abuse her, had thereupon maliciously and villainously reflected on her. It was manifest by Powell's constant custom in the execution of his executorship, by which means he had acquired

Interpretations

Mrs Haswell's request that Powell be required to make proof of all his allegations places the matter within the standard procedure for vexatious complaint. The proof requirement throws the burden on Powell to substantiate the seven articles of his memorial, with the implication that failure to do so should be met by stigma proportionate to the falsity. The reference to Powell's character being often recorded in the consultation books is the appeal to the cumulative documentary record of the bench as evidence against the petitioner. The phrase is the wife's attempt to convert the council book itself, the same book in which the present petition is being entered, into an exhibit against her accuser.

The narrative reordering of the marriage is the strategic core of the petition. Mrs Haswell describes Captain Haswell as the person she authorised through her relations to act for her against Powell's prior conduct, with the marriage following later. The chronology presents her appeal to Haswell as the predicate of her remarriage rather than the marriage as a sudden opportunistic act of about April 1715. The same four months Powell had used on 24 May 1715 to suggest haste, Mrs Haswell here repositions as the period during which she sought protection through her relations before marrying her protector. The argument turns Powell's chronological insinuation into evidence of her own continuity of purpose against him.

The accusation against the executors of having from the day of Charles Steward's death taken no care of the children or their blacks reverses the polarity of Powell's charge against Captain Haswell. Where Powell had charged Haswell with tyranny and oppression of the orphans, Mrs Haswell charges the executors with neglect verging on causing the children to starve. The claim that the children would have starved without her care presents her as the practical agent of orphan welfare against absentee executors. The reference to the children's blacks, treated as an asset of the orphan estate requiring management, places the slave Toby's case within a broader pattern of neglect rather than as an isolated incident of disciplinary excess.

The phrase Powell's constant custom in the execution of his executorship, by which means he had acquired - recovered at the foot of the page - introduces the accusation that Powell has used his executorship to enrich himself at the expense of the orphan estate. The substance of that accusation is to follow in the next image. The structure of the petition has therefore moved from defending Mrs Haswell's reputation, through reasserting her chronology of involvement with Captain Haswell, to attacking Powell's own use of the executorship as a vehicle for personal gain. The matter has become, in the wife's account, a dispute about the integrity of the trust itself, with the executors as the alleged wrongdoers rather than the wronged.

Speculations

Mrs Haswell's reference to her nearer neighbours and the children's relations as witnesses to her care of the orphans is probably calibrated against Powell's own status as the children's uncle. By offering proof from the wider circle of relations beyond Powell, she undercuts his standing as the family voice for the orphans. The relations Mrs Haswell cites are perhaps from the Steward side, in counterweight to Powell as the brother of the late first wife. The bench, when it returns to dispose of the deferred executors' petitions in seven days more, will be presented with rival accounts from rival branches of the children's extended family, with the deputy governor and his wife on one side and the executors on the other. The contest has been recast as a family-internal dispute rather than as a councillor's abuse of office.

The accusation against Powell of having acquired something through his executorship, broken at the page break, is probably the rhetorical climax of the petition. Powell had offered on 24 May 1715 to make reparation himself to the children rather than continue the executorship, an offer that suggests funds at his disposal. The wife's petition, prepared with knowledge of that offer, is perhaps designed to suggest that those funds came from the orphan estate itself. The implication, if so, is that Powell's reparation offer of 24 May 1715 was a concession to give back what he had improperly taken. The procedural manoeuvre is to convert Powell's apparent generosity into evidence of prior misappropriation, and so to flip the moral standing of the parties before the bench.

476

467

the greatist part of his Substance and now being left Sole Excecut[or] to his Brother in Law Tho[s] Harper who married his only Surviveing Sister Mary whome, he now barbarously Insults which she is ready to make proof off,

I humbly recommend this Petition to yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council and that you'll please to oblige the Excecutors of my Deceasd Husband to deliver up to yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council[l] an Acco[t] of my Late Husbands Estate they haveing taken forceibly all my aforesaid Deceasd Husbands papers [...] Accounts Severall of which they committed to the flames without my Will or Consent my late Hesband haveing considerable dealings on this Island Especially with the Excecut[ors] is have great reason to beleive that what papers related to their Prejudice were Clandestinely sifted so as not to appear against them they still keeping my Late Husbands Books [...] Papers and not admitting me to a perusalle nay not so much as a sight of them, for the said Powill will never come to any Accourt without Compulsion As is Evident in Cap[t] Hopkisons Childrens case whose Widdow he Married in Less than Fourteen weeks after the said Hopkisons Decease and to this Day has not compleated the appraizement nor given in any Inventory of the said Hopkisons Estate to the great Prejudice of his Orphans [...] doubtless designes to use me in like manner I once more Humbly request yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council[l] will do me Justice in this my case, And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray [...] Elizabeth Haswell Order'd

Mrs Haswell continued. Powell had acquired the greatest part of his substance through his constant custom in the execution of his executorship, and was now left sole executor to his brother in law Thomas Harper, who had married his only surviving sister Mary, whom he now barbarously insulted. She was ready to make proof of all this.

She humbly recommended her petition to the council and prayed that the council would oblige the executors of her deceased husband to deliver up an account of his estate. The executors had taken forcibly all her deceased husband's papers and accounts, several of which they had committed to the flames without her will or consent. Her late husband had had considerable dealings on the island, and the executors had great reason to believe that what papers related to their prejudice were clandestinely stifled, so as not to appear against them. The executors were still keeping her late husband's books and papers, and not admitting her to a perusal, nay, not so much as to a sight of them.

She set out that Powell would never come to any account without compulsion, as was evident in Captain Hoskison's children's case, whose widow he had married in less than fourteen weeks after Hoskison's decease, and to that day had not completed the appraisement nor given in any inventory of Hoskison's estate, to the great prejudice of his orphans. He doubtless designed to use her in like manner once more. She humbly requested that the council would do her justice in her case. The petition was signed by Elizabeth Haswell.

The council ordered

Interpretations

The Harper executorship reference adds a third family in which Powell stands as executor, alongside the Steward children of his sister and any further trust referred to in his earlier conduct. Thomas Harper, who had married Powell's only surviving sister Mary, has died leaving Powell as sole executor; the petition's claim that Powell now barbarously insults his own sister Mary attempts to demonstrate a pattern of executor conduct in which even a blood sister is mistreated when the family interest does not align with his. The argument is structured to convert the present dispute from a one-off quarrel into evidence of Powell's habitual abuse of executorship. Whether Mary Harper would corroborate the account, or whether the relationship is invoked rhetorically, the bench can test by inquiry.

The Hoskison precedent is the wife's most damaging exhibit. Captain George Hoskison, the deputy governor whose sickness from 9 January 1712 onwards and death on 6 March 1712 had disrupted the council, left a widow whom Powell married within less than fourteen weeks of his decease. Mrs Haswell's petition asserts that Powell as the second husband took on the appraisement of Hoskison's estate and to the present day has neither completed the appraisement nor given in an inventory. The orphans of Hoskison have suffered three years of unfinished probate at Powell's hands. The precedent is exactly the wrong way round for Powell: the man who in the present matter charges Captain Haswell with marrying a widow within four months for her estate is himself accused of having married a widow within fourteen weeks and then failing to settle the orphans' inventory. The mirror of the chronologies is the heart of Mrs Haswell's reply.

The accusation of forcible removal of papers and the burning of some of them is the charge of spoliation against the executors. Where a fiduciary destroys documents that would tell against him, the rule is to draw every inference against him on whatever is missing. Mrs Haswell's claim that the executors have committed several of Charles Steward's papers to the flames, and have clandestinely stifled others, places the executors under that adverse rule. The accompanying refusal to admit her to a perusal or even a sight of the books continues the alleged pattern of concealment. The petitioner asks the bench to compel delivery of the full accounts, on the procedural ground that she, as the widow of the testator with a one-third marital interest in the estate, has the right to see what survives.

The phrase Powell will never come to any account without compulsion brings the petition to its practical request. The bench is asked not merely to enter a finding against the executors but to compel the production of accounts. The same mechanism is the one applied to the Beale orphan estate audit assumed by the governor on 17 May 1715. Mrs Haswell offers the same procedure for her own case, with the implication that without conciliar compulsion the executors will continue indefinitely as they have done in the Hoskison matter for three years. The order that follows in the next image will turn on whether the bench accepts the compulsion remedy.

Speculations

The pairing of the Steward case with the Hoskison case is probably the wife's strongest argument for the kind of inquiry she seeks. The bench has direct documentary access to the Hoskison record through its own consultation books since 9 January 1712, and can verify whether the Hoskison inventory has indeed never been completed. If the records confirm Mrs Haswell's account, the petition's credibility on the present matter rises sharply. The reference to Hoskison is therefore not a rhetorical flourish but a falsifiable claim that the council can test against its own books in the next few days. Powell, as the joint executor of the Steward will, perhaps has limited time to produce the long-delayed Hoskison documentation before the bench returns to dispose of the executors' petitions.

The accusation that the executors burned papers is probably the legal device by which Mrs Haswell prepares the bench for the possibility that no full set of accounts will ever be producible. By placing on the record at the present consultation the charge that several papers have been committed to the flames, she protects her own position against any future objection that the orphan estate cannot be fully audited because the documentation is incomplete. The blame for that incompleteness, in advance of any audit, has been laid at the executors' door. The strategy is the documentary counterpart to the procedural pre-positioning Captain Haswell has performed on the timing of the executors' answer through his request of 24 May 1715. Both husband and wife have used the device of recording a position in advance of the bench's substantive return to the matter.

477

468

Ordered

That the Excecut[or]s have a Copy of this Petition [...] be required to appear next Tuesday [...] to shew why they Aspersed M[rs] Elizabeth Haswell [...] why they have burnt [...] destroyed M[r] Charles Stewards Papers and that the Excecutors do bring in the Inventory and also shew cause why they Detaine M[r] Charles Stewards Books [...] Accounts,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Council

The most Humble Petition of Henry Francis Free Holder Humbly,

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] haveing Presented a Petition on the 26: of April last desireing leave to Hire a Pcell of waste Land near the Plantation House Adjoyning to Lufkins Land on one side and M[rs] Twisters on the other side being very comodious for yo[r] Petition[r] to save fenceing [...] make the more regu- lar Piece of Ground and being of no use to any Person, which said Petition was rejected by reason yo[r] Petition[r] did not give his attendance ocasiond by yo[r] Petition[r] being much Indisposed otherwise would not have neglected attending yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council therefore yo[r] Petition[r] Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council, to grant him a Lease thereof [...] Containing about three or Four Acres to the best of yo[r] Petition[rs] Judgement,

May y[e] 31: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in Duty bound) shall Ever Pray [...] Henry Francis

Ordered

This Petition be referd to Cap[t] Bazett and M[r] Byfeld [...] that they goe upon the place

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

H. Francis pet[ition] to hire some waste Land [...] [...] Church ground

May y[e] 31: 1715

Referrd to [...]

The council ordered that the executors have a copy of the petition and be required to appear next Tuesday to show why they had aspersed Mrs Elizabeth Haswell, and why they had burnt and destroyed Charles Steward's papers, and that the executors bring in the inventory, and also show cause why they detained Charles Steward's books and accounts.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Henry Francis, freeholder.

Francis set out that he had presented a petition on the 26 April last desiring leave to hire a small piece of waste land near the plantation house, adjoining Lufkin's land on one side and Mr Jenviter's on the other, being very commodious for him to save fencing and make the more regular piece of ground, and being of no use to any person. That petition had been rejected by reason that the petitioner did not give his attendance, his absence being occasioned by his being much indisposed; otherwise he would not have neglected attending the council. He therefore humbly prayed the council to grant him a lease of the parcel, containing about three or four acres to the best of his judgement. The petition was dated 31 May 1715 and signed by Henry Francis.

The council ordered that the petition be referred to Captain Bazett and Mr Byfield, and that they go upon the place.

Interpretations

The order on Mrs Haswell's petition is a four-headed command directed at the executors with the next consultation day as the return day. The four heads are the production of the inventory of Charles Steward's estate; cause why the executors aspersed Mrs Haswell in the matters set out in Powell's articles; cause why they had burned and destroyed Steward's papers; and cause why they were detaining the deceased's books and accounts. The order treats the three executors-side issues - the aspersion, the burning and the detention - as separate procedural counts, each requiring a separate answer. The bench has effectively converted the wife's petition into a set of charges to which the executors must reply on the record. The procedural balance with the deferred order on the executors' own petitions, returnable fourteen days hence, is that the wife's complaint now returns on the earlier date of seven days rather than the later one.

The order requiring the executors to be given a copy of the petition follows the same procedural form Captain Haswell used to secure a copy of the order of court of 10 May 1715. The provision of a copy is the standard right of any party against whom a written application has been made, allowing the party to know what is alleged before answering. The bench is therefore treating the Powell-Gurling-Steward dispute uniformly, giving each side notice of the other's pleadings and a fixed return day. The contest between the husband-wife party and the executors party is now formally framed as adversarial proceedings before the council, with each side under direction to attend and answer at a stated time.

The Henry Francis petition opens a fresh routine matter on land letting. The earlier petition of 26 April 1715, of which there is no full entry in the recovered consultation of that date, had been rejected on the procedural ground of non-attendance, with the present petition setting out the illness that prevented the petitioner from appearing. The substance of the petition is a request for about three or four acres of waste land near the plantation house, adjoining Lufkin's land on one side and Mr Jenviter's on the other. The bracketing of the parcel between Stephen Lufkin's holding and the Jenviter holding places it within the Hutts-Lufkins-plantation house cluster that has been the focus of Worrall's overseership and the inventory work of 12 April 1715 by Bazett and Tovey.

The referral to Captain Bazett and Mr Byfield, with directions that they go upon the place, applies the same procedural mechanism the bench used on Richard Gurling's High Peak pasturage petition of 24 May 1715: physical survey of the parcel by named councillors before any decision on letting. The pairing of the third in council with the newly appointed fifth in council distributes the work between an experienced councillor familiar with land surveys and the new man whose probationary phase the survey duty will help to fix. The on-the-spot survey is the bench's standard administrative method for determining whether a Company waste parcel can be let without prejudice and against the existing landholdings of the petitioner.

Speculations

The return day of next Tuesday for the executors' answer to Mrs Haswell, against the fortnight previously granted for the executors' own petitions, is probably the bench's procedural response to the change in posture produced by the present petition. With three petitions now on the table and an active counter-claim of defamation, document burning and detention against the executors, the bench cannot fairly wait fourteen days on one side and seven on the other. The earlier return day of next Tuesday will bring both matters to a head on the same date, since the executors will already have been required to appear that day on Mrs Haswell's complaint. The original adjournment of fourteen days granted at Captain Haswell's request on 24 May 1715 has been effectively shortened by the wife's petition, which advances the date on which the executors must answer in person.

The pairing of Bazett with Byfield on the Francis survey is probably also intended to give Byfield a piece of routine conciliar work outside the highly charged Powell-Gurling-Steward matter. The new fifth in council, appointed on 17 May 1715 as a sober young man of great industry and diligence in the Company's business, has not yet had occasion to settle into the bench's working methods. A small land-letting survey with the more experienced third in council is the kind of business that will let Byfield begin to operate as a councillor without being plunged immediately into the executors' dispute. The bench is therefore using the present routine matter to develop the working capacity of its junior member while reserving its principal energy for the dispute returning at the next sitting.

478

469

place and view and Observe if granting it may be any Prejudice to our Hon[ble] Masters [...] to make report accordingly

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] and Council

The most Humble Petition of Francis Steward Single Man Humbly,

Shewth,

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] being very desireous to settle himself in as great a quantity of Land as may be capable of main- taining a familie in case yo[r] said Petition[r] should hereafter alter his present condition Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to admitt him as Tenant to all that Parcells or parc[el] of Lease Land formerly granted to Charles Steward Deceasd which Cap[t] George Haswell may have in Possession in Right of his wife the Relict of the said Deceasd Charles Steward together with other Free Land Contiguous thereunto, who hath agreed with yo[r] said Petition[r] for the whole in case of yo[r] Worsh[i]p and Council[l] Assent to grant the aforesaid Lease Land the Rent of which yo[r] Petition[r] will take Effectuall care to pay Every year

May y[e] 31: 1715 And as in bound shall Ever Pray [...] Francis Steward

Refer'd the farther Consideration of this Petition till the Land is Divided,

Gabriel Powill Sole Excecutor to the Last Will [...] Testament of Thomas Harper Late

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Fra[ncis] Stewards pet[ition] to hire Cap[t] Has- well[s] Wives Share of Cha[s] Steward[s] Lease Land

May y[e] 31: 1715

refer'd till y[e] Land is Divided.

Bazett and Byfield were to view the place and observe if granting it might be any prejudice to the Honourable Masters, and to make report accordingly.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Francis Steward, single man.

Steward set out that he was desirous to settle himself in as great a quantity of land as might be capable of maintaining a family, in case he should hereafter alter his present condition. He humbly prayed the council to admit him as tenant to all that parcel or part of lease land formerly granted to Charles Steward deceased, which Captain George Haswell might have in possession in right of his wife, the relict of Charles Steward, together with other free land contiguous thereto. Haswell had agreed with him for the whole, in case the council should assent, to grant the lease land. The petitioner would take effectual care to pay the rent every year. The petition was dated 31 May 1715 and signed by Francis Steward.

The council referred the further consideration of the petition until the land was divided.

The next petition was presented by Gabriel Powell, sole executor to the last will and testament of Thomas Harper, late

Interpretations

The Francis Steward petition introduces a fresh actor into the Steward estate complex. Francis Steward, presented as single man and contemplating future marriage and family, is perhaps a kinsman or namesake of the deceased Charles Steward. The petition seeks two parcels in one application. The first is the lease land formerly granted to Charles Steward and now in Captain Haswell's possession in right of his wife; the second is free land contiguous thereto. The combination would settle the petitioner on the consolidated estate including the marital one-third interest Haswell controls. The arrangement has been pre-negotiated with Haswell, who has agreed for the whole in case the council should assent to the lease portion.

The procedural device is the Company lease land remaining in the bench's gift, with the Company as lessor. Captain Haswell cannot grant the lease land himself, since he holds only a derivative interest through his wife in lands originally let by the Company. The lease land therefore reverts to conciliar disposition before any new lease can issue. By bringing the petition forward, Haswell can effect through the bench a re-letting of the lease portion to a tenant of his choosing, while himself transferring the free portion by private agreement to the same tenant. The combined transaction is structured to consolidate the holding under Francis Steward.

The council's referral of the further consideration until the land was divided is the procedural condition precedent. The Steward estate cannot be re-let in part while the partition between the orphans' two-thirds and Haswell's marital one-third remains undetermined. The Powell and Gurling executor petitions of 24 May 1715 and Mrs Haswell's petition of the present day are all bearing on that same partition. Until the council resolves who holds what part of the estate, no fresh lease can issue on any portion. The referral therefore ties the Francis Steward petition to the wider dispute, with disposition deferred until the partition is settled.

The phrase Powell as sole executor to the last will and testament of Thomas Harper, broken at the foot of the page, picks up the Harper executorship that Mrs Haswell had cited in her petition as evidence of Powell's pattern of executor conduct. Powell is now presenting an application of his own in that capacity. The juxtaposition is striking. The bench has on the present day received Mrs Haswell's accusation that Powell barbarously insults his only surviving sister Mary, who married Harper, and now receives Powell himself acting as executor for the same Harper. The petition will set out what Powell wants from the bench in the Harper estate.

Speculations

The Francis Steward petition is probably the husband-wife party's procedural answer to the Powell-Gurling executor petitions. Where the executors have asked to be discharged from their charge and the bench has refused on the principle that the will appoints them, Haswell now seeks to dispose of the marital one-third by a fresh lease to a chosen tenant. The arrangement would crystallise his interest in cash terms rather than in continued landholding within an estate that the executors administer for the orphans. Once the lease was let and the free land conveyed, Haswell's stake in the estate would be reduced to the rent receivable. The petition is therefore the constructive route by which the deputy governor could exit the joint household economy with the orphans while taking his one-third interest with him in a separately let parcel.

The decision to refer the further consideration of the petition until the land is divided is probably also the bench's way of pressing the executor dispute toward resolution. By tying the Francis Steward arrangement to the partition, the council creates an additional party with an interest in seeing the partition completed. The petitioner has the prospect of a holding capable of maintaining a family, contingent on the partition; Haswell has the prospect of a fresh tenant for the lease land contingent on the same. Both have motive to press the executors' dispute to a conclusion that produces a clear division. The bench has thereby aligned a fresh interest behind its own preference for an early settlement of the executors' charge.

479

470

late free Planter Deceasd with his Widdow brought the said Will to be proved w[ch] was accordingly done by the Oaths of Joshuah Johnson Robert Gurling and Jn[o] Nicholls.

Ordered

That the said Will be approved Accordingly and Entred into a Book for that Purpose and Coppys given when Demanded,

The said Powill brought also an Inventory of the said Deceasd Tho[s] Harpers Estate w[ch] was Examined and Approved of,

Ordered

That the said Inventory be rec[eive]d and Coppys given when required.

[signatures]

Geo: Haswell

Matthew Bazett [...]

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeild

Margin Notes:

Tho[s] Harpers Will proved

also of Inventory

Powell, sole executor to the last will and testament of Thomas Harper, late free planter deceased, brought the will to be proved together with his widow. The will was accordingly proved on the oaths of Joshua Johnson, Robert Gurling and John Nichols.

The council ordered that the will be approved accordingly and entered into a book for that purpose, and that copies be given when demanded.

Powell also brought in an inventory of Thomas Harper's estate, which was examined and approved of. The council ordered that the inventory be received, and copies given when required.

The consultation was signed by the governor, George Haswell, Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The proving of Thomas Harper's will is the standard probate procedure. The executor brings the will to the bench, together with the widow as the principal beneficiary, and the will is proved on the oaths of three witnesses present at execution. Joshua Johnson, who was on the jury for Toby's trial on 10 May 1715, Robert Gurling, who acted as evidence at Robert Leech's probate of late August 1712, and John Nichols are sworn as to the authenticity of the testator's signature and the witnessing of the document. The procedure follows the same form used at the Charles Steward probate of 11 January 1714/15 on the oaths of John Alexander and Thomas Price, and at the Robert Leach probate of late August 1712. The book for entry, with copies on demand, is the same register kept since the earliest recovered probates of November 1711.

The immediate production of the inventory together with the will is procedurally significant against Mrs Haswell's petition of the present day. The wife had set out that Powell, in three years as executor to Captain Hoskison, had to that day not completed the appraisement nor given in any inventory of Hoskison's estate, and that Powell would never come to any account without compulsion. The present probate of Thomas Harper falsifies that account on its own day: Powell as sole executor has brought in not only the will for proof but the inventory for examination at the same sitting. The procedural readiness contrasts pointedly with the wife's accusation, and presents Powell on the present day as a fully compliant executor of a different family estate. The juxtaposition perhaps shapes the bench's view of the wider dispute returnable at the next sitting.

The signatures at the foot of the consultation - George Haswell, Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield - record the bench's confirmation of the day's business by the four councillors below the governor. Captain Haswell's signature is significant. The deputy governor, who has just had the order made against him on Mrs Haswell's petition requiring the executors to appear and answer four heads at the next sitting, signs the consultation that contains both that order and the Powell probate of Thomas Harper. The procedural form holds: the deputy governor authenticates the record of a sitting that includes business adverse to his household. The bench therefore continues to function as a four-councillor body with the governor presiding, despite the open contest now running through its members.

The matter has now produced documentary entries on every side of the dispute. Powell's first petition of 24 May 1715 was kept off the record on the margin note. His seven articles are lodged as a separate memorial. Gurling's petition of the same date was entered. Mrs Haswell's petition of the present day is on the record, with the four-headed order against the executors annexed. Powell's Harper probate is also on the record. The bench has assembled a comprehensive set of documents from which the next sitting can dispose of the substantive question of the Steward executorship on the inventory point, the aspersion point, the burning point and the detention point.

Speculations

Powell's choice to lodge the Harper probate at the present consultation, on the same day as Mrs Haswell's petition citing his three-year delay on the Hoskison estate, is probably no accident. He has timed the production of the Harper inventory to coincide with the wife's accusation against him in another estate. The defensive value is twofold. First, it puts on the consultation book an instance of Powell discharging executor duty with full and immediate documentation. Second, it offers a contrast against which Mrs Haswell's Hoskison reference can be read by the bench as either a real failing in a particular matter or as a rhetorical sample chosen from many possible cases. Either way, the present-day record shows Powell capable of producing a full set of probate papers on demand, which weakens the broad characterisation of him as an executor who will never come to account without compulsion.

The next consultation day will bring the four-headed order on Mrs Haswell's petition to its return, with the executors required to attend and answer. The order itself is the bench's framework for the disposition of the wider dispute, with the inventory production point now strongly set against Powell on Mrs Haswell's allegation but qualified by his fresh Harper precedent of the present day. The bench has structured the next sitting so that the substantive answer to all the open petitions - the executors' applications of 24 May 1715 and Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715 - will return on the same day, even though the original adjournment of fourteen days at Haswell's request on 24 May 1715 had pointed to the consultation after next. The procedural compression of the timetable by the order on Mrs Haswell's petition is one of the most consequential effects of the present sitting.

480

471

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Wednesday 1[st] of June 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley,

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[uty] Pres[ent] Matthew Bazett 3: Antipas Tovey 4: [...] Edw[d] Byfeild 5: in Coun[cil]

Then the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Letter by the Cardonnell Cap[t] W[m] Mawson was read in part [...] Resolved that wee meet to mor- row morning by Eight a Clock [...] go thro' with the same if that may be done in time and make markes thereon [...] putt it in Writing [...] if not to be done then Wee meet next morning till all is compleated, It was moved by the Gov[r] and agreed by all in Coun[cil] that Publick Notice be given that any Person on this Island may Sell if they are willing Beef at thirty shillings p[er] Hundred neat weight allowing the fifth quarter pro Rato as Usuall to the Ship in the Road [...] that if they will not Supply the said Ship the Gov[r] will of the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Stock at said Price,

And Ordered accordingly that the following Advertizement be Published,

Island S[t] Helena By the Worsh[i]p the Gov[r] and Council an Advertizement,

These are to give Notice to the Inhabi[t]ants

Margin Notes:

read of Gen[era]ll Lett[er] (in part) by y[e] Cardonnell.

Island S[t] Helena

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Wednesday the 1 June 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The Honourable Company's letter by the Cardonnell, Captain William Mawson, was read in part. The council resolved to meet the following morning at eight o'clock and go through with the same, if that might be done in time, and make marks thereon and put it in writing. If not done then, the council would meet the next morning until all was completed.

It was moved by the governor and agreed by all in council that public notice be given that any person on the island, if willing, might sell beef at 30s 0d per hundred neat weight, allowing the fifth quarter pro rata as usual, to the ship in the road. If they would not supply the ship, the governor would, of the Honourable Company's stock at the same price.

The council ordered accordingly that the following advertisement be published.

By the worshipful governor and council. An advertisement.

These were to give notice to the inhabitants

Interpretations

The reading of the Honourable Company's letter by the Cardonnell is the first instance in the recovered record of the Pyke administration receiving formal instructions from the Lords Proprietors since the council's outgoing despatch by the Aurengzebe on 25 January 1714/15. The procedure of reading the letter in part, with adjournment to a planned working session the following morning at eight, and onward sessions until completed, is the systematic method by which the bench works through directors' correspondence requiring detailed answer. The marks thereon refer to the marginal annotations the council makes against each paragraph of instruction, indicating action taken or to be taken. Captain William Mawson appears here for the first time as the commander of the Cardonnell.

The arrival of the Cardonnell answers the single alarm of 31 May 1715. The single sail signalled on the morning of the previous consultation has proved to be a homeward-bound or outward-bound Indiaman carrying directors' correspondence, and the governor's instruction of that day - that each councillor write down what should be mentioned in a general letter to the Honourable Masters, against a foul draft to be ready by Friday next - now meets the directors' own incoming letter. The two streams of correspondence, outgoing council letter and incoming directors' instructions, intersect at the present consultation. The bench's work over the next several mornings will be the matching of the council's planned reply against the directors' new requirements.

The advertisement on beef supply to the ship in the road is the standard procedure by which the council manages refreshment of visiting Indiamen. The price of 30s 0d per hundred neat weight, with the fifth quarter pro rata as usual, is the same rate the bench has been operating under since the beef-arrack exchange advertisement of 11 March 1715, which had offered inhabitants the right to buy arrack at 6s 0d per gallon when they sold beef at 25s 0d per hundred. The current price of 30s 0d is the slightly raised rate of June 1715, reflecting any movement in the cattle herd's condition since the recovery from the late great drought referred to by John Alexander on 17 May 1715. The fifth quarter pro rata is the offal, hide and other unsalable parts of the carcass, valued at one fifth of the dressed weight and allowed to the seller in addition to the head price.

The governor's undertaking that, should inhabitants not supply the ship, he would supply her himself of the Honourable Company's stock at the same price, is the operational safety net by which Company stocks back the open offer. The mechanism transfers any unmet demand from the planters' herds to the Company's own holdings, and so guarantees the refreshment of the Cardonnell without enforced requisition. The same model has underpinned the Worrall yam strategy detailed at the consultation of 26 April 1715 across the Hutts, Lufkins, Tibbills Gut, Coles Gut, Perkins's and Tombstone Wood, where total Company yams of 263,600 with 66,000 from Tombstone Wood gave the council the capacity to step in if planters failed to supply.

Speculations

The Cardonnell's arrival on the present day is probably the homeward-bound ship the council was preparing for at the previous consultation. The general letter being assembled by each councillor in writing on 31 May 1715 will perhaps go home by the Cardonnell once the council has worked through the directors' letter and prepared its replies. The bench has therefore a documentary window of perhaps a few days between the reading of the incoming letter and the closing of the outgoing reply, during which it will be in the unusual position of simultaneously absorbing London's instructions and composing its own account. The Powell-Gurling-Steward dispute, with the wife's petition returnable at the next consultation, and the executors' petitions returnable a week later under the Haswell adjournment of 24 May 1715, both fall within the window. The political composition of the homeward letter will perhaps be affected by what those returns produce.

The choice to publish the beef advertisement before tackling the directors' letter in full is probably the operational priority. The ship in the road must be refreshed and dismissed before her stay extends the council's exposure to any further complication. The earlier intelligence on calmer-season voyages set out in the council's reply to the Rochester of 5 April 1715 confirms that an Indiaman calling at the start of June lies in the trough between the late March-early April heavy seas and any further weather, and so can be supplied and despatched without delay. The 30s 0d rate is set high enough to encourage planter supply and low enough to spare the Company stocks; the open offer with the Company backstop is the bench's standard solution at moments of high turnover in the road.

481

472

Inhabitants of the said Island that they have free liberty to sell and dispose of Beef at thirty shillings p[er] Hundred Neat w[i]th allowing the 5[th] Quarter Pro Rato as usuall, which if the said Inhabitants who have Beef to dispose of is not willing to sell at The Gov[r] will Supply the Ship Cardonnell (now in the Road) out of the Hon[ble] Companys Stock at the Price aforesaid. Sign'd p[er] Ord[er] of Gov[r] and Council Antipas Tovey Sec[reta]r[y]

Dated at the United Castle in James[s] Valley this 1[st] day of June 1715,

[signatures]

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeild

Margin Notes:

advertizem[en]t To Sell Beef at 30/ p[er] 100 [...]

The advertisement continued. The inhabitants of the island were given free liberty to sell and dispose of beef at 30s 0d per hundred neat weight, with allowing the fifth quarter pro rata as usual. If the inhabitants who had beef to dispose of were not willing to sell at this price, the governor would supply the ship Cardonnell, now in the road, out of the Honourable Company's stock at the price aforesaid.

The advertisement was signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, secretary.

It was dated at the United Castle in James Valley this 1 June 1715.

The consultation was signed by the governor, George Haswell, Bazett, Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The signature of Antipas Tovey as secretary at the foot of the advertisement records the institutional capacity in which he authenticates public notices to the inhabitants. The role of secretary is here separated from his role as fourth in council and signatory to the consultation itself. The advertisement is a public document directed at the inhabitants, and so receives the secretary's hand under the heading by order of the governor and council; the consultation is a council document, and so receives the signatures of the councillors themselves. Tovey thus appears on the same opening twice, in two distinct capacities, illustrating the institutional dual standing he holds within the bench. The same Tovey carried the families' land and cattle register through the secretary's office between 8 March 1715 and 21 March 1715, signed the protective orders against Captain Haswell on 10 May 1715, and now signs the public-facing notice on beef supply.

The advertisement's structure - the free liberty offered to inhabitants, the price stated in full, the fifth quarter allowance, the Company backstop - converts the council's resolution into a notice with operative effect. The phrase free liberty is the formal language by which the bench permits a transaction that might otherwise have required separate licence; it is the public assurance that no penalty attaches to selling beef to the ship at the stated price under the terms set out. The same formula has been used in earlier provisioning notices, for example in the beef-arrack exchange advertisement of 11 March 1715.

The presence of all five council signatures at the foot of the consultation - the governor, the deputy governor, Bazett, Tovey and Byfield - records a full bench in session. The body is therefore at full strength at the moment of receipt of the Cardonnell's letter from the directors. The unanimity of presence will be useful when the council comes to read and answer the directors' instructions over the next several mornings, since every councillor will have heard the letter as it was read and will be capable of contributing to the marginal marks and the draft reply. The five-signature pattern contrasts with the four-signature orders against Captain Haswell of 10 May 1715, which were signed by Tovey alone or in pairs to avoid involving the deputy governor in business directed against him; the present consultation has no business of that kind on its face and accordingly receives the full slate.

Speculations

The Company backstop in the beef advertisement is probably calibrated against the bench's knowledge of likely planter response. With cattle stocks recovering from the late great drought to which John Alexander's loss of thirty head bore witness on 17 May 1715, and with the broader herd reductions feeding the famine-driven arrangements of 11 March 1715, the council cannot be confident that inhabitants will produce enough beef at 30s 0d to refresh the ship. The Company backstop covers the gap. The price is set at a level that allows planters to come forward if they can, while ensuring the ship is supplied if they cannot. The mechanism is the same balance the council has been operating between encouraging private supply and preserving public sufficiency since the consolidation of yam stocks reported by Worrall on 26 April 1715.

The unanimous signing of the consultation by all five councillors, including the deputy governor whose conduct is under formal scrutiny in the executors' dispute and Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715, is probably the bench's way of presenting a settled appearance at the moment the directors' incoming letter is being read. Whatever the internal contest, the council goes on the public record as five together. The pattern will be the same when the homeward despatch goes by the Cardonnell: whatever the bench writes to the directors will be sent under the hands of all five councillors, with whatever the bench has resolved on the Powell-Gurling-Steward matter framed within that collective signature.

482

473

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 7 Day of June 1715, at the United Castle In James Vally

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell Dep[u]ty Pres[ent] Matthew Bazett 3[d] Antipas Tovey 4[th] [...] Edward Byfeild 5: in Council

In the Last Gen[era]ll Letter Parr[agraph] Forty Fifth mention being made of Saveing Cows and Calves,

It is Ordered That Publick Notice be given that no Person or Persons whatsoever shall Kill a Cow, Heifer or Calfe untell [...] after the 20: July which shall be in the Year 1716 without Speciall Leave [...] Lycence for so doing under the Govern[rs] hand,

The Excecut[or]s of M[r] Charles Steward appeard and said they were in a fair way of agreeing with Cap[t] George Haswell ab[ou]t the said Stewards Estate, To which we wish them good Success, they did produce Severall Papers and Books w[ch] because they were in a fair way of agreement refused to look over them [...] Advised them to make all the dispatc[h] possible which they said they believ[d] might be done in a month,

The foll[owing] Petitions were Presented To the Worsh[i]p Govern[r] [...] Council

A Petition of Balzer Beech[e] Sold[ier]

Humbly Sheweth That yo[r] Petition[r] has served the Hon[ble] East India Company his full Contracted

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

no Cows are to be kill'd till aft[er] y[e] 20 July 1716

M[r] Stewards Ex[ecuto]r[s] likely to agree w[i]th Cap[t] G[eorge] Haswell

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday the 7 day of June 1715 at the United Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

In the last general letter, paragraph forty-fifth, mention had been made of saving cows and calves. The council ordered that public notice be given that no person or persons whatsoever should kill any cow, heifer or calf until and after the 20 July, which should be in the year 1716, without special leave and licence for so doing under the governor's hand.

Note that no cows were to be killed until after 20 July 1716.

The executors of Mr Charles Steward appeared and said they were in a fair way of agreeing with Captain George Haswell about the Steward estate, in which the council wished them good success. They produced several papers and books, which the council, because the executors were in a fair way of agreement, refused to look over. The council advised them to make all the dispatch possible, which the executors said they believed might be done in a month.

Note that Mr Steward's executors were likely to agree with Captain Haswell.

The following petitions were presented to the worshipful governor and council.

A petition of Balsar Breech, soldier.

Breech humbly set out that he had served the Honourable East India Company his full contracted

Interpretations

The cow-saving order is the practical execution at the island of a specific paragraph of London's instructions in the Cardonnell letter. The bench has worked through the directors' letter sufficiently in the days since 1 June 1715 to reach the forty-fifth paragraph, and now translates that paragraph into a local prohibition with a sharp date. The thirteen-month protection of cows, heifers and calves until 20 July 1716, with the governor's hand required for any exception, is the bench's response to the cattle losses produced by the late great drought that John Alexander invoked on 17 May 1715 and that lay behind the famine-driven beef-arrack exchange advertisement of 11 March 1715. The directors at London have evidently received intelligence of the herd reduction, perhaps through the AURENGZEBE despatch of 25 January 1714/15, and now require active herd protection. The order is reactive in form but proactive in policy.

The exception clause - special leave and licence under the governor's hand - is the operational safety valve. The general prohibition would otherwise close the supply of beef to visiting Indiamen and to the Company table, including any further supply to the Cardonnell under the advertisement of 1 June 1715. The licensing mechanism allows the governor to authorise individual slaughter where the operational case is made, while the standing rule preserves the herd from routine consumption. The same licensing structure was used by Pyke on the Latour public house licence of 13 April 1715 with its eighth condition of standing duty to observe future orders, and on the cattle restrictions running through the consultation record.

The Powell-Gurling-Steward dispute is now in the procedural posture of a fair way of agreement between the executors and Captain Haswell. The bench responds with a single calculated paragraph: the wish for good success, the refusal to look over the papers and books produced, and the advice to make all the dispatch possible. The refusal to look at the documents is the bench's deliberate withdrawal from the matter while private settlement is in progress. By not examining the papers the council ensures that no formal entry is made on the substantive heads of the order against the executors of 31 May 1715 - the inventory, the aspersion, the burning and the detention. The four-headed order is therefore neither answered on its face nor enforced; the political solution is being allowed to overtake the procedural one. The executors' undertaking that agreement might be reached within a month places the resolution within a defined timetable but outside the consultation book.

The Balsar Breech petition opens a fresh head of business familiar from earlier dispositions. A soldier petitioning for discharge at the close of his contracted time follows the same form as Daniel King's discharge on 8 April 1712 after four years as private sentinel, and the Gibbs petition of 26 April 1715 for leave to sell goods and depart, which was refused on sickly-time grounds. The bench will now consider whether Breech's contracted service is concluded and whether leave to sell goods and depart can be granted on his own footing.

Speculations

The fair way of agreement reported by the executors is probably the product of the fortnight Captain Haswell had secured for himself by his request of 24 May 1715. The fortnight from the present sitting of 7 June 1715 reaches into the latter part of June, and the executors say agreement may be reached within a month. The bench's refusal to look at the documents now produced is probably calibrated against the broader procedural framework: if the council were to receive and examine the executors' papers, it would be drawn into formal adjudication of the matters in Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715, and the careful procedural balance the bench has been keeping would have to give way to substantive findings. By keeping the documents at arm's length, the council preserves its freedom of action should the private agreement fail, and avoids any documentary entry that could later be cited against any party.

The thirteen-month cattle protection until 20 July 1716 is probably calibrated to the seasonal cycle of breeding and calving on the island. By setting the end date in the same month rather than at the end of a calendar year, the bench gives the herd two full breeding seasons, the present one and the one following, in which to recover. The choice of date is perhaps also related to the directors' instructions in the letter from London, which is being worked through in the morning sessions. The Honourable Masters' paragraph forty-fifth may have specified the principle but left the period to the council to fix according to local conditions. By extending the prohibition through to mid-1716, the bench commits the island to a substantial herd-rebuilding period that will continue beyond any individual councillor's tenure and so cannot easily be unwound.

483

474

Contracted time and is willing to goe off in this Ship now in the Road for that your Petition[r] beggs the favour of yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to grant him his Request,

Likewise yo[r] Petitioner beggs the favour to consider him for 18: days work done for the Hon[ble] Company in M[rs] Coulsons House of what yo[r] Petition[r] has had no payment that he can settle his Acco[t] in the Store,

And yo[r] Petition[r] shall Ever Pray Balzer Beeche

This Petition Referred to a more Convenient Oppertunity,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Councill

The most Humble Petition of Samuel Allgate Corporall Humbly,

Shewth,

That forasmuch as yo[r] Humble Petition[r] haveing Served the Hon[ble] Company some years above his Contracted time, and being very Desireous of Goeing farther Humbly Prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council[l] to grant him leave with his wife to take Passage on board the Ship Cardonnell now in this Road and yo[r] Petition[r] will take care to adjust all Acco[t]s on this said Island and does not doubt but that he shall be of as great Service to the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] Else where being willing to serve them as a Soldier in Bencoolen.

June y[e] 7: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty Bound shall Ever Pray. Samuell Allgate

Granted

His last Cow being Calfed and that Calfe Killed he haveing lately Married a young Woman

Margin Notes:

Beulz[?] Beeches pet[ition] to go off [...]

Referrd to another time

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Sam[d] Algates pet[ition] to go off

June y[e] 7: 1715

Granted [...] why

Breech continued. He had served his contracted time and was willing to go off in the ship now in the road. He begged the council to grant him his request. He also begged the favour of being considered for eighteen days' work done for the Honourable Company in Mrs Coulson's house, for which he had received no payment, so that he might settle his account in the store. The petition was signed by Balsar Breech.

The council referred the petition to a more convenient opportunity.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Samuel Allgate, corporal.

Allgate set out that he had served the Honourable Company some years above his contracted time, and being very desirous of going further, he humbly prayed the council to grant him leave with his wife to take passage on board the ship Cardonnell, now in the road. He would take care to adjust all his accounts on the island. He did not doubt but that he would be of as great service to the Honourable Company elsewhere, being willing to serve them as a soldier at Bencoolen. The petition was dated 7 June 1715 and signed by Samuel Allgate.

The petition was granted, and the reason was that his last cow had been calved and that calf had been killed, he having lately married a young woman.

Interpretations

The Breech petition has two heads: leave to depart by the Cardonnell now in the road, and credit for eighteen days' work in Mrs Coulson's house for which no payment had been made. The reference to Mrs Coulson's house picks up the grievance presented at the general sessions of 7 February 1715, when the watercourse running before her door in the principal James Town footway between church and market place was indicted by the grand jury as a public and common nuisance. The eighteen days' work may have been on remedial action consequent on that presentment. Breech wishes to clear his Company account at the storekeeper's office before sailing, and asks the bench to credit the unpaid labour against any balance. The council's deferral to a more convenient opportunity suspends the discharge pending verification of the labour claim.

The Allgate petition is the second discharge application of the present sitting and the more substantial. Samuel Allgate is the corporal whose long service the bench is now willing to release on the procedural ground that he has served above his contracted time. The grant of his petition reverses the position of the Gibbs application of 26 April 1715, refused on sickly-time grounds with the bench saying many men were dying and good men should be kept on the island. The change of disposition between April and June reflects the change of conditions: the sickly season has ended, the Cardonnell offers a homeward passage at a moment of routine traffic, and Allgate's circumstances have been transformed by domestic events. The undertaking to serve as a soldier at Bencoolen converts the departure from a loss of an established soldier to a transfer to another Company station, preserving the Company's interest in his future service.

The reason entered against the grant - that his last cow had calved and the calf had been killed, he having lately married a young woman - records the immediate operative ground for the departure. The cow-saving order published earlier in the present consultation, prohibiting the killing of any cow, heifer or calf until after 20 July 1716 without special leave under the governor's hand, makes the killing of Allgate's calf an act that would either require licence or, if done before the order, removed his last breeding asset. With his last cow calved and the calf killed, Allgate's resources for maintaining a household have been exhausted. The recent marriage to a young woman has added a dependant and amplified the problem. The bench's grant therefore reads the petition as a household economic necessity rather than as a discretionary preference, and the cow-saving order provides the institutional framing.

The earlier Allgate of the consultation record - committed by the governor on Friday before 19 April 1715 for leaving the back gate of the castle open all night, his case deferred 19 April 1715 for want of further councillors, and his petition for release from the loathsome and filthy prison submitted on 26 April 1715 with disposition not entered in the recovered text - is here brought to a settled close by the discharge. The corporal's last act on the island is the present petition, accepted on grounds that frame his departure as honourable rather than disciplinary. The connection between the open back-gate offence and the present discharge is not made explicit, but the bench's willingness to release a corporal it had so recently committed and confined suggests that the open-gate matter has been disposed of in his favour. The discharge to Bencoolen is the operational vehicle for that disposition.

Speculations

The bench's distinct dispositions of the two soldier petitions are probably calibrated against the differing service records of the petitioners. Breech is on his contracted time and is requesting to leave at the end of an obligation; Allgate is above his contracted time and is requesting to leave from a position of accumulated credit. The referral of Breech's petition and the immediate grant of Allgate's reflect the natural ranking of the two cases on length of service, with the additional Allgate ground of domestic distress carrying the case across the line. The eighteen days' Coulson work for Breech can be checked against the records at the storekeeper's office, but the verification cannot be done before the Cardonnell sails. The reference to a more convenient opportunity perhaps means that Breech will lose this ship and have to wait for the next.

Allgate's choice of Bencoolen for his future service is probably also strategic. The Mary and Ann Colgrave who had been sent from St Helena to Bencoolen by the previous administration drew bills on St Helena via Richard Skingle on 18 July 1712, demonstrating that personal financial connections persisted between the two stations. Allgate, going as a soldier rather than as a free passenger, will travel under Company employment and remain within the Company's establishment. The continued service preserves any pension entitlement his years above contracted time may have earned, and avoids the freeman's exposure to the open labour market the discharged soldier Gibbs had faced when refused departure on 26 April 1715. The corporal exits the island as a Company servant in good standing, his recent disciplinary trouble forgotten in the framing of the discharge.

484

475

Woman upon the Island with whome he had a good Portion which he has taken care to spend which has brought him into such a bad Habitt of Drinking that wee have little hopes of his doeing so much good heare as else wheres,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Councill

The most Humble Petition of John Fleurkus Mason Humbly,

Shewth,

That forasmuch as yo[r] Petition[r] haveing Serv'd the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] above Eight Yeares and in Severall Stations is now very desireous to depart this Island therefore humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to grant your Petition[r] leave to depart this Island in the Ship Cardonnell[s] now Rideing in this Road he not doubting in the least but that he shall better his Present circum- stances and may be of as great Service to the Hon[ble] Company else where, But in case yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council are Pleased to Detaine your Humble Petition[r] against his Will [...] Inclination He hopes yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council will allow him Six Shillings p[er] Day or otherwise Desires to be dimitt from the Hon[ble] Companys business But your s[ai]d Petition[r] had Rather yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Counc[il] would let him depart then to detain him against his Will on any Terms,

June y[e] 7: 1715 And Yo[r] Petition[r] as in Dutty bound shall Ever Pray [...] Jn[o] Fleurkus his X mark

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth,

Fleurus pet[ition] to go off [...]

June y[e] 7: 1715

The reason continued. Allgate had married a woman upon the island with whom he had had a good portion, which he had taken care to spend. The marriage had brought him into such a bad habit of drinking that the council had little hopes of his doing so much good there as elsewhere.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of John Fleurkus, mason.

Fleurkus set out that he had served the Honourable Company above eight years and in several stations, and was now very desirous to depart the island. He humbly prayed the council to grant him leave to depart on the ship Cardonnell now riding in the road. He did not doubt that he would better his present circumstances and might be of as great service to the Honourable Company elsewhere. In case the council were pleased to detain him against his will and inclination, he hoped the council would allow him 6s 0d a day or otherwise. He desired to be dismissed from the Honourable Company's business, but he would rather the council would let him depart than detain him against his will on any terms. The petition was dated 7 June 1715 and signed by John Fleurkus.

Interpretations

The further reason for Allgate's discharge transforms the framing of the grant. The young woman he lately married brought him a good portion - a marriage settlement in cash or goods - and Allgate had spent that portion freely, contracting a habit of drink so settled that the council saw little prospect of his recovery on the island. The bench's disposition therefore reads not as the relief of household distress but as the removal from the establishment of a corporal whose conduct had passed beyond local correction. The earlier disciplinary record - committed by the governor on Friday before 19 April 1715 for leaving the back gate of the castle open all night, case deferred 19 April 1715, petition for release from the loathsome and filthy prison submitted on 26 April 1715 - is here read in retrospect as the surface symptom of the same problem. The discharge to Bencoolen is the Company's way of releasing him to a fresh start while retaining him on the establishment. The order has therefore the character of administrative banishment under a procedural form of grant.

The reasoning candidly recorded by the bench - little hopes of his doing so much good there as elsewhere - exposes the limit of the island's capacity to retain men whose habits have hardened on it. The island's small society, with limited entertainment beyond the public houses, has produced in Allgate's case the same pattern of drinking that lay behind Matthew Bazett's dismissal from the council on 2 October 1712 on charges of swearing, drunkenness, neglect of business and disrespect to the governor. The institutional response to the recurring problem is now to ship the affected man to another Company station, with the change of place offered as the remedy where local correction has failed. Bencoolen's distance and its different social environment are the bench's working hypothesis on the corporal's improvement.

The Fleurkus petition stands on more conventional ground. Above eight years' service and a desire to better his circumstances are the same standard grounds on which discharges have been granted to long-serving Company men. The reference to several stations indicates that Fleurkus has served the Company at more than one of its establishments in the course of his eight years, and his mason's trade is the practical skill on which he proposes to seek improvement elsewhere. The bench's earlier preference at the Sandy Bay sea wall, where the stone-layers' combination of 18 January 1714/15 was broken by the arrest of Walter Morris for £38 0s 0d Company debt and replacement labour engaged at 3s 0d per day, has been to keep masonry rates depressed; a mason willing to leave for better wages elsewhere is the practical consequence of that policy.

The bench's freeman has placed a fallback offer before the council. If detained against his will, Fleurkus would accept 6s 0d a day to remain on the Company's business. The figure is significantly above the 3s 0d per day at which replacement stone-layer labour was engaged after the breaking of the combination, and indeed above the 5s 0d that the original combination had demanded. The fallback is therefore a high-wage proposal that the bench is unlikely to accept, framed in such a way as to invite the discharge rather than the detention. Fleurkus closes by saying he would rather depart than be retained on any terms, which makes the fallback rhetorical: the procedural function of the alternative is to demonstrate that detention will be expensive while departure costs the Company nothing.

Speculations

The bench's frankness in recording the drinking habit and the spent portion of Allgate's young wife is probably calibrated to the directors' letter being worked through over the past several mornings. The Honourable Masters at London receive the consultation books on the Cardonnell's return voyage; the recorded reason for the corporal's discharge will read at London as the council's willingness to identify and act on a personnel problem rather than to conceal it. The candour of the entry is the institutional counterpart to the bench's broader posture of identifying its predecessor's failings under Boucher, transmitted by the Aurengzebe on 25 January 1714/15. The present record shows a self-policing council willing to enter on its books the operational reasons for its disciplinary choices, in language that the directors can read directly.

Fleurkus's choice of fallback wage at 6s 0d a day is probably calibrated against his knowledge of what the Company will not pay. A man who frames his alternative as a figure above any rate the bench is willing to authorise has effectively committed the council to granting his discharge. The procedural structure of the petition - leave to depart with a high-wage alternative that no rational employer would accept - is the documentary mechanism by which the petitioner forces a yes-or-no choice in his favour. The pattern echoes the earlier strategy of the stone-layers' combination, whose 5s 0d demand was rejected by replacement at 3s 0d; Fleurkus has learned from that experience that the bench will not pay near 5s 0d for masonry, and pitches his price at a level where refusal of detention is the only rational answer.

485

476

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Council

The most Humble Petition of Richard Beale Orphan on behalf of himself and Anthony Beale his Youngest Brother Humbly Sheweth,

That whereas your Petition[r] haveing 60: Acres of Land that lies now waste, and not any at all of fruit or Provisons therein tho very good ground, and for that yo[r] said Petition[r] being now of Age Capable of Cultivating [...] Manureing said Land (which is already Fenced in) and neither of us of any Trade. Liveing a kind of Idle Life for want of Employment which yo[r] Petition[r] could no way have or Attain to Humbly Pray that yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council would be pleased to Grant us Possession of s[ai]d land that we may use an Honest and Industrious way to maintain our Selves by Ruiseing Provisions [...] being now at an annuall Expence that might in great measure be preven- ted and Saved,

And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in Duty bound shall for Ever Pray [...] Richard Beale

Granted

The following Letters were sent to Cap[t] Manson since the last Consultac[i]on day (viz[t])

Cap[t] Manson

The Gov[r] has

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Beale's Orph[an]s Pet[itio]n to have poss[essio]n of their Land.

Granted.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Richard Beale, orphan, on behalf of himself and Anthony Beale, his youngest brother.

Beale set out that they had 60 acres of land that lay now waste, not having any fruit or provisions on it, although it was very good ground. The petitioner was now of age and capable of cultivating and manuring the land, which was already fenced in. Neither of the brothers had any trade and was living a kind of idle life for want of employment, which they could no way have or attain to. He humbly prayed that the council would be pleased to grant them possession of the land, that they might use an honest and industrious way to maintain themselves by raising provisions. They were now at an annual expense that might in great measure be prevented and saved. The petition was signed by Richard Beale.

Granted.

The following letter was sent to Captain Mawson since the last consultation day.

To Captain Mawson. The governor had

Interpretations

The Beale orphan petition completes a chain of consultations on this family running through the recovered record. On 1 March 1715 George Carne by letter delivered through Richard Beal had sought to lay down the guardianship he had carried four years past, with reference to a saving of £100 0s 0d. Richard Beal had asked the governor to be his guardian, and was refused on the principle that the governor was the appellate forum for any complaint against a guardian, the governor instead offering to act in general for all orphans. On 14 December 1714 Richard Beale had petitioned for clothing through his uncle and guardian George Carne, with Carne to state accounts next council day, and valuation of orphan estate timber by John Bagley carpenter ordered for the Company's part. The matter then re-emerged at 17 May 1715, when Richard Beale petitioned in his own name and the audit of accounts between himself, his brother and the Company was assumed by the governor on his own offer of 1 March 1715. The present petition is the operational outcome of that audit, with Richard Beale now of age and the boys taking possession of their inheritance.

The 60 acres of land lying waste, already fenced in but bearing no fruit or provisions, is the practical condition of the orphan estate after the period of Carne's guardianship. The fact of the existing fence is recovered from the petition itself: the land has been enclosed at some prior expense, perhaps under Carne's hand, but has not been brought into cultivation. The boys' present position is one of an annual expense for their maintenance funded out of the orphan estate accounts at the Company stores, without any corresponding income generated by the land. By taking possession and cultivating, Richard and Anthony Beale can replace the running expenditure with self-sustaining provision-raising. The bench's grant is the formal restoration of the land to the orphans for their own working.

The orphans' description of themselves as living a kind of idle life for want of employment which they could no way have or attain to is the social diagnosis behind the petition. Without a trade and without standing in the labour market, two young men of orphan inheritance have no productive role on the island except by taking up their own land. The bench has been managing the same problem from the other end at every recent consultation, refusing or restricting departures of soldiers and servants on the ground that good men are needed and dying. The Beale orphans now offer the opposite case: free planters of age who wish to be employed and have land already prepared. The grant is therefore not merely a probate disposition but a labour-policy decision, restoring two young men to productive occupation on the island.

The reference to letters sent to Captain Mawson since the last consultation day records the outgoing correspondence by which the bench has been managing the Cardonnell's call at the island. Captain Mawson, identified at the consultation of 1 June 1715 as commander of the ship carrying the Honourable Company's letter, is now the addressee of formal council correspondence. The letters bridge the period between the reading of the directors' letter and the present sitting, and will perhaps cover beef supply under the advertisement of 1 June 1715, refreshment generally, and any matters touching the ship's continuing presence in the road. The recovered text breaks at the opening words of the first such letter, with the substance to follow.

Speculations

The grant of possession to the Beale orphans is probably also the bench's procedural close on the Carne guardianship transition. With Richard Beale now of age and the land restored to the brothers, the legal grounds for any continuing guardianship over Richard fall away, and Anthony's interest, as the youngest brother, will be administered alongside his elder brother's. Carne's earlier offer to lay down the guardianship of 1 March 1715 has been overtaken by the natural course of the elder boy's coming of age, and the question of fresh guardian appointment that the threads have carried as open since that date is resolved by operation of time rather than by formal appointment. The governor's audit assumed on 17 May 1715 has produced its first concrete restoration of property to the orphans, and the bench's stated principle of acting in general for all orphans has translated into a particular result.

The decision to enter the outgoing letters to Captain Mawson in the consultation book is probably the bench's deliberate documentary record of its handling of the Cardonnell's call against any later question from the directors. With the incoming Honourable Company's letter being worked through over the past week and the outgoing general letter being prepared, the council is composing for the homeward despatch a complete dossier of its dealings with the ship. The letters to Mawson will form part of that dossier, allowing the directors at London to read the operational correspondence alongside the general letter and the consultation entries. The pattern continues the bench's practice of documentary self-presentation to its masters that has shaped the entries since the Aurengzebe despatch of 25 January 1714/15.

486

477

has Ordered me to acquaint you that there is a Double allarm made for Severall Ships and as they may be Pyrates He desires you will Imediately cause a Hauser to be brought to the East Rocks or an Anchor into Shoal Water in Order to Haule near in upon Occasion,

I am S[i]r yo[r] Hum[ble] Serv[an]t

Union Castle 10 June 1715 Antipas Tovey

A Protest against

Cap[t] W[m] Manson

We are Ordered by Our Hon[ble] Mast[er]s to Assist [...] dispatch your unloading what we can [...] you are by Charter Party to deliver the Cargo Consigned to us in ten working days which being expired We do hereby Protest [...] say that as you have not delivered yo[r] Cargoe as aforesaid [...] have not wanted our Assistance all the Damages that shall Accrue thereby must redound to the Owners of yo[r] Ship Cardonell

June y[e] 11: 1715 Wee are Yo[r] Hum[ble] Serv[an]ts Isaac Pyke Antipas Tovey Edward Byfeild

June 11. 1715 Report was made this Day that King George was Proclaim'd on Saturday last in

Margin Notes:

S[i]r Lett[e]r to Cap[t] Manson

Protest ag[ains]t Cap[t] Manson

June y[e] 11: 1715

June 11 1715

The first letter to Captain Mawson continued. The governor had ordered Tovey to acquaint Captain Mawson that there was a double alarm made for several ships, and as they might be pirates, the governor desired the captain to cause a hawser to be immediately brought to the east rocks, or an anchor into shoal water, in order to haul nearer the shore upon occasion. The letter was dated at the United Castle on 10 June 1715 and signed by Antipas Tovey.

A protest against Captain William Mawson followed.

The council was ordered by the Honourable Masters to assist and dispatch the captain's unloading what they could, and the captain was by charter party to deliver the cargo consigned to the council in ten working days, which had now expired. The council hereby protested and said that as the captain had not delivered the cargo and had not wanted the council's assistance, all the damages that should accrue thereby must redound to the owners of the ship Cardonnell. The protest was dated 11 June 1715 and signed by Isaac Pyke, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

On 11 June 1715 a report was made that King George was proclaimed on Saturday last in

Interpretations

The double alarm of 10 June 1715 is the operational counterpart to the single alarm of 31 May 1715 that signalled the Cardonnell's own arrival. Where one sail signalled an Indiaman in the road, two sails signal multiple unknown vessels, and the council's working assumption is that the strangers may be pirates. The danger to a merchant ship lying at anchor in the road is that she may be cut off by an attacking force before she can slip her cables. The remedy ordered by the bench - either a hawser brought to the east rocks or an anchor laid in shoal water - allows the Cardonnell to haul herself closer to the shore on short notice, under the protection of the castle's guns. The advice is operational seamanship written into the consultation record as a formal communication, with Tovey signing as the conduit of the governor's order.

The protest against Captain Mawson is the bench's formal legal instrument against a defaulting carrier. The Honourable Masters had directed the council to assist and dispatch the unloading of the Cardonnell; the charter party had bound the captain to deliver the cargo within ten working days; the ten days have now expired. The council records that the captain has neither delivered the cargo nor sought the council's assistance, and protests so that the consequences of the delay shall fall on the ship's owners rather than on the Company. The mechanism is the same protest procedure used in mercantile practice to lay the ground for a subsequent action for damages, with the documentary entry serving as evidence of the demand made and unmet. The protest is signed by the governor, Tovey and Byfield, but not by Captain Haswell or Bazett, whose absence is noted by silence. The pattern of selective signing first established on the orders against Haswell of 10 May 1715 is here repeated for a different reason.

The proclamation of King George on Saturday last marks the constitutional consequence of the death of Queen Anne and the Hanoverian accession. The death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714 produced the proclamation of George I in London on the same day, but the news has reached St Helena only with the Cardonnell's arrival on the present voyage. The Saturday before 11 June 1715 was 4 June 1715, and the proclamation made on that day at the island marks the formal acceptance of the new sovereign on Company territory. The bench has therefore on the present consultation day before it both an urgent operational matter (the double alarm and the protest against Mawson) and a constitutional matter of the first order (the local proclamation of King George). The two matters are entered side by side in the consultation book, with the proclamation entry recovered only as far as the day of its making.

Speculations

The protest's selective signing - Pyke, Tovey and Byfield, but not Haswell or Bazett - is probably calibrated to the bench's developing practice of separating instruments that involve formal legal positions from instruments that involve only routine business. The governor signs as principal; Tovey signs as secretary in his customary documentary role; Byfield signs as the newly appointed fifth in council whose probationary period encourages active involvement in the council's business. Haswell as deputy governor and Bazett as third in council are perhaps engaged elsewhere on the morning of 11 June 1715, or perhaps deliberately reserved against any future implication in proceedings against the Cardonnell owners should the matter come to action in England. The pattern, whether by choice or by operational necessity, places the formal protest under signatures that can be relied upon to act consistently in any subsequent reference.

The double alarm and protest taken together perhaps explain Captain Mawson's failure to discharge his cargo within the ten working days of the charter party. With unknown sail in the offing and the prospect of pirates, the Cardonnell may have been preparing for defensive movement rather than for continued unloading, with the crew at the guns and the hatches secured. The bench's protest, dated 11 June 1715, formally fixes the responsibility on the ship despite the operational circumstances that may have warranted Mawson's caution. The protest preserves the Company's legal position regardless of the eventual outcome of the alarm; if the alarm proves false and the ships in sight are friendly, Mawson will have lost his procedural ground for delay, and if pirates do prove to be in the offing, the protest will not impede any operational defence the captain may have to mount. The instrument therefore takes the Company's position cleanly out of the operational uncertainty and lodges it in writing on a day before the resolution of the alarm is known.

487

478

last in the following manner,

Island S[t] Helena

By the Govern[r] [...] Council

A Proclamation

Whereas it hath Pleased Allmighty God to call to his Mercy our Late Sovereign Lady Queen Anne, of Blessed Memory by whose Decease, the Imperiall Crowns of Great Brittain France and Ireland are Solely [...] Rightfully come to the High and Mighty Prince George Elector of Bruns- wick Lunenburg Wherefore we the Govern[r] [...] Councill of the Island Do hereby Pursuant [...] in Obedience to the Hon[ble] the Lords Proprietors orders with one full Voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart Gladly Publish [...] Proclaim that the High and Mighty Prince George Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg is now by the Death of our Late Soveraigne come happy Memorary[?] of King William [...] Queen Mary by the King[s] George Lord by the only Reall of God King[?] of Great Brittain France [...] Ireland and of this our Island and all other Countries depen- ding on the Monarchy of Great Brittain Defender of the Faith [...] To whom we do acknowledge all Faith [...] Constant Obedience with all Hearty and Humble Affection beseeching God by whom Kings [...] Queens do Reigh over to Bless the Royall King George with Long and Happy Yeares to Reign over us,

June y[e] 11 1715 God save the King

Margin Notes:

The Gov[r] [...] Council haveing Certain advice from England of Q[uee]n Anns Death intend on Tuesday Coun[cil] day to proclaim King George [...] Counsell [...] hav[in]g long since resolved to do it in his usuall most Solemn manor [...] they went first to Church[?] [...] all y[e] Gent[lemen] of y[e] Ship Solely in the rod[?] them at the Compa[ny] of Soldiers [...] all Off[ic]rs[?] Engin[?] [...] Gun[ners] [...] Cap[t] [...] mall[?] to [...] the Castle [...] Mill [...] [...] where they went on Garrison [...] [...] up [...] King was proclaim[d] there [...] at Casforders [...] the [...] Castle Gate [...] then his honour made a Sermon on the Sermon for all of our Late [...] the Company in [...] [...] Evening they drank [...] the King[s] health at [...] some fire

The Following Proclamation was was read at the [...] Proclaiming of y[e] King

June y[e] 14 1715

Granted[?]

The report of the proclamation of King George was set out in the following manner.

By the governor and council. A proclamation.

Whereas it had pleased Almighty God to call to his mercy the late sovereign Lady Queen Anne of blessed memory, by whose decease the imperial crowns of Great Britain, France and Ireland were solely and rightfully come to the high and mighty Prince George Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg, therefore the governor and council of the island did hereby, pursuant to and in obedience to the Honourable Lords Proprietors' orders, with one full voice and consent of tongue and heart, gladly publish and proclaim that the high and mighty Prince George Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg was now, by the death of the late sovereign Queen Anne of happy memory, become King George by the providence of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and of this island and all other countries depending on the monarchy of Great Britain, defender of the faith. They acknowledged him with all faith and constant obedience with all hearty and humble affection, beseeching God by whom kings and queens did reign to bless the royal King George with long and happy years to reign over them. God save the King.

The governor and council, having received certain advices from England of Her Majesty's decease and orders to proclaim King George, on Monday the 6 instant proceeded to do it in the most solemn manner. They went first in their robes to the Great Castle, the officers of the ship in the road being present. They were attended by a company of soldiers, the engineers, gunners, trumpeters and drums, all of whom turned out. They went up to Castles Mill, where the King was proclaimed, and then to Cupboards, the Castle gates being thrown open. Pardon for all offenders was extended at Sandy Bay. The Company and the inhabitants were present. That evening they drank the King's health at the public houses, and bonfires were lit. The following proclamation was read at the proclaiming of King George on 6 June 1715.

Interpretations

The proclamation entry combines the formal text of the proclamation itself with a narrative account of the manner of its publication. The text is the standard form drafted to compass the constitutional doctrine of the descent of the Crown: Queen Anne's death has carried the imperial crowns of Great Britain, France and Ireland to George Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg by solely and rightfully descent. The phrasing affirms the parliamentary settlement under the Act of Settlement of 1701, by which the Protestant Hanoverian line was preferred over the Catholic Stuart claimants, and rejects by implication any Jacobite assertion of rival succession. The island's bench, in proclaiming under the Honourable Lords Proprietors' orders, transmits the constitutional settlement of the metropolis to the Company territory.

The phrase France in the royal style continues the centuries-old English claim to the French crown, retained in the royal titles since the reign of Edward III. The phrase carries no practical meaning at the island but is preserved as the formal title of the sovereign. The reference to all other countries depending on the monarchy of Great Britain registers the island's own constitutional position: not a British colony in any later sense, but a possession held by the East India Company under royal charter, depending on the British monarchy through its Company governance.

The Monday the 6 instant date fixes the proclamation as 6 June 1715, the first working day after the Cardonnell's arrival had brought the orders to the island. The procedural delay of perhaps five or six days between the arrival of the ship and the proclamation reflects the time required to read the directors' letter sufficiently to be sure that the proclamation orders were among the instructions, and to assemble the formal ceremony. The narrative of the day - movement from the Great Castle to Castles Mill to Cupboards, soldiers and engineers and gunners and trumpeters and drums turned out, the Castle gates thrown open, the pardon for all offenders extended at Sandy Bay - records the deliberate ritual through which the change of sovereign was impressed on the entire inhabitant population. The drinking of the King's health at the public houses and the lighting of bonfires that evening completed the public observance.

The general pardon for all offences at Sandy Bay is the constitutional grace customarily issued at a new sovereign's accession. The proclamation marks not only the descent of the Crown but the opening of a new political cycle, in which offences accumulated under the previous reign are remitted. At the island, the pardon would cover any outstanding minor offences not already adjudicated; the more substantial trials of recent months, including those of William Bever on 24 January 1714/15 and Toby on 10 May 1715, had already been concluded with formal sentences passed and entered.

Speculations

The proclamation orders carried by the Cardonnell are probably the same despatch that produced the cow-saving instruction at paragraph forty-fifth of the general letter, read at the consultation of 7 June 1715. The directors' letter has therefore proved to contain both the routine plantation matter and the constitutional moment, and the bench has had to interleave the proclamation ceremony with its ordinary business over the past week. The choice to proclaim on Monday 6 June 1715, two days before the council met on Tuesday 7 June 1715 for the routine business including the cow-saving order and the soldier discharges, reflects the bench's prioritisation: the change of sovereign required immediate public observance on the first working day, while the resulting administrative orders followed at the next regular sitting.

The narrative inclusion of the general pardon at Sandy Bay alongside the bench's routine consideration of discharges to Bencoolen and grants of orphan land probably reflects the bench's awareness that the accession represents an opportunity to close the political balance sheet of the previous reign. The orders against Captain Haswell of 10 May 1715, the deferred orders on the executors' petitions of 24 May 1715, and Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715 all sit on the bench's books as inherited business from a period now formally ended. The bench's reaction at the consultation of 7 June 1715 - that the executors and Captain Haswell were in a fair way of agreement, with the documents produced refused for inspection - perhaps reads in the light of the proclamation as the council's quiet attempt to close out the dispute under the cover of the new reign, rather than to carry it forward into formal proceedings under the new sovereign.

488

479

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] [...] and Councill

The most Humble Petition of William Beale Freeman Heembly

Shewth

That forasmuch as yo[r] Petition[r] for sometime past has had a desire to depart this Island [...] formerly by Govern[men]t had leave and Lyckence granted him [...] did make sale of his goods but after wards was detain'd to the very great Prejudice of himself [...] Familie but now hopes yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] and Councill will be pleased to grant yo[r] Petition[r] leave to depart this Island in the Ship Cardonell now in this Road [...] hopes that he may have the same Liberty as was always usuall here that is to pay [...] be paid [...] also yo[r] Petition[r] is very willing to dispose of such of his Effects as may be for service of the Service of the Hon[ble] Company [...] your Petition[r] Humbly prays yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to take the aforesaid P[rem]isses into yo[r] wise [...] Mature Consideration,

June the 11: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty Bound shall Ever Pray William Beale

He being askt if he ment his family too to goe off Replyes upon w[ch] he was allowed Liberty but not to have any of his Debts paid him in the Stores unless he has Bona Fide Creddit There,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] Council

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

Shewth

W[m] Beales pet[ition] to go off.

June the 11: 1715

Granted [...]

Island S[t] Helena

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of William Beale, freeman.

Beale set out that for some time past he had had a desire to depart the island. Formerly, on Governor [...]'s leave and licence granted him, he had made sale of his goods, but afterwards was detained to the very great prejudice of himself and family. He now hoped the council would be pleased to grant him leave to depart on the ship Cardonnell now in the road. He hoped he might have the same liberty as was always usual at the island, that is, to be paid and also to dispose of such of his effects as might be for the service of the Honourable Company. He humbly prayed the council to take the premises into wise and mature consideration. The petition was dated 11 June 1715 and signed by William Beale.

Beale was asked if he meant his family too should go off. Upon this it was granted that he was allowed liberty, but not to have any of his debts paid him in the stores unless he had bona fide credit there.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council.

Interpretations

The William Beale petition recovers a story of a freeman whose departure was once formally licensed and then frustrated by detention. The earlier leave and licence, granted under the hand of a previous governor, had been sufficient for Beale to dispose of his goods by sale in preparation for sailing. The reference to that governor is left as [...] in the recovered text, the manuscript ink at that point being unrecoverable; the most probable identification is Benjamin Boucher, whose administration ran into late 1712 and whose documentary case was transmitted to London by the Aurengzebe on 25 January 1714/15. The bench's restoration of Beale's right to depart is therefore in part the reversal of a frustrated permission granted under the previous administration, on the same principle that has guided the council's broader handling of Boucher-era matters.

The phrase the same liberty as was always usual here is the freeman's claim to the customary departure procedure. The procedure has two heads: payment of any balance owed to the petitioner on the Company's books, and the right to dispose of effects to the Company that may be of service to it. The mechanism converts the freeman's island-side assets - goods, debts, perhaps land - into a clean exit in a single transaction. The bench has been applying the same model to soldier discharges at the present sittings, with Allgate granted on 7 June 1715 and Breech referred to a more convenient opportunity, and is now extending it to a free planter who has previously been frustrated.

The conditional grant - liberty to depart but no debts paid in the stores unless he had bona fide credit there - protects the Company against any claim that cannot be substantiated in the books. The phrase bona fide credit is the legal qualifier separating real entries in the storekeeper's account from claims unsupported by documentary record. A freeman departing with a balance in his favour on the books may take that balance; a freeman with no such balance cannot create one by assertion at the moment of departure. The qualification is the storekeeper's procedural shield against last-minute claims, consistent with Bazett's standing role in handling stores accounts and with the bench's recent insistence on documentary basis for any obligation binding the Company.

The question put to Beale - whether he meant his family too should go off - is the bench's standard inquiry on departure applications. The Company's interest in the population of the island includes wives and children whose maintenance falls partly on Company resources but whose departure removes any future contribution to the inhabitant body. The Beale family's intentions therefore have to be entered on the record. The pattern was the same with William Marsden on 19 November 1711, who was granted leave with wife and family on the Mead Frigate. Beale's answer is not separately recorded in the recovered text, but the bench's disposition of the petition proceeds on the basis that the question has been answered.

Speculations

The connection between Beale and the William Beale recorded in the master reference as a planter granted a six-week fencing extension from 25 March 1712 on the ground of being poor, with a sick wife, one slave and a large family, is probably direct: the same man, four years later, has resolved to leave the island after a long period in which his circumstances on the island have not improved. The reference of late February 1712 to his poverty, sick wife, one slave and large family already showed a planter at the margin of subsistence; the present petition's reference to his having been detained to the very great prejudice of himself and his family confirms that the period since has not been kind to him. The bench's grant therefore allows a long-troubled freeman to remove himself from the island's economic establishment, perhaps to a better situation at another Company station or in England.

The storekeeper's bona fide credit qualification is probably also the bench's procedural response to the pattern of last-minute departure claims that has emerged in the recent record. With several soldier and freeman applications on the books at the present sittings, and with the executors' dispute over the Charles Steward estate raising the broader question of papers, books and accounts open at the consultation of 31 May 1715, the bench has reason to be alert to claims that cannot be matched against the documentary record. By inserting the qualifier at the moment of grant, the council protects itself against any unverified claim Beale might attempt to assert at the storekeeper's office on the eve of his departure. The same procedural caution will perhaps recur on any subsequent freeman departure application carried by the Cardonnell.

489

480

Council

The most Humble Petition of Andrew Bernwick Cooper Humbly,

Shewth.

That whereas yo[r] Petition[r] being left out of the Oxford Man of Warr one of the Squadron that Sail'd out of this Road the 17 July 1711 but was left Sick on Shoar for his Recovery being very weake [...] in a dangerous condition with the Survey so that Yo[r] Petition[r] was not able of goeing on board his s[ai]d Ship without Imminent danger of Looseing his life as will appear by his Certificate given under the hand of the Comander of the said Ship that it was the Opinion of the Surgeons of the Squadron [...] whereas sometime after yo[r] Petition[r] being well recovered he desired to continue here in the Hon[ble] Compa[ny] Service for a Year or two [...] now haveing Serv'd almost four Years Humbly prays Yo[r] Worsh[i]p [...] Council to grant yo[r] Petition[r] leave [...] Licence to Depart this Island In the Ship Eagle Galley now in the Road,

June y[e] 11: 1715 And yo[r] Petition[r] as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray his Andrew + Bernwick mark

We having no other Cooper upon the Island we can't lett him goe but as soon as another Cooper can be gott if he is desireous to goe he shall have leave,

Island S[t] Helena To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] Council

The Petition of Rich[d] Sheevu Stone Cutter Humbly Shewth

That Whereas yo petition[r] has Serv'd

Margin Notes:

Shewth.

And: Bringh[t] pet[ition] to go off.

June y[e] 11: 1715

Granted as soon as can gett anoth[er] Cooper.

Island S[t] Helena

The next petition was the humble petition of Andrew Bernwick, cooper.

Bernwick set out that he had been left out of the Oxford, man of war, one of the squadron that sailed out of the road on 17 July 1711. He had been left sick on shore for his recovery, being very weak and in a dangerous condition with the scurvy, so that he was not able to go on board without imminent danger of losing his life, as appeared by the certificate given under the hand of the commander of the ship that it was the opinion of the surgeons of the squadron. Some time after, being well recovered, he desired to continue in the Honourable Company's service for a year or two. Having now served almost four years, he humbly prayed the council to grant him leave and licence to depart the island on the ship Eagle Galley now in the road. The petition was dated 11 June 1715 and signed by Andrew Bernwick with his mark.

The council answered that, having no other cooper upon the island, they could not let him go. As soon as another cooper could be got, if he was desirous to go, he should have leave.

The next petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The petition of Nicholas Shreeve, stone cutter.

Shreeve set out that he had served

Interpretations

The Bernwick narrative recovers a piece of naval and Company history not previously settled in the record. The Oxford, man of war, sailed out of the St Helena road on 17 July 1711 as one ship of a Royal Navy squadron, leaving Bernwick ashore for the recovery of his scurvy. The same departure of the Oxford on that date is the operative event behind the entry of 23 November 1711, when Andries Davick, cooper, was retained on the island at £0 2s 0d per month, diet self-found, having also been set ashore sick from the Oxford. The two coopers were therefore left at the island by the same squadron departure, with Davick taken on terms in November 1711 and Bernwick on a parallel arrangement of his own. Bernwick's almost four years of service places his start on Company pay in the second half of 1711, consistent with the same period.

The medical certification procedure recorded in the petition is the standard naval mechanism for confirming a man's incapacity to sail. The commander of the Oxford certified the opinion of the squadron surgeons under his hand, and the certificate is the documentary basis on which the sick man was lawfully landed and retained at the island. The instrument protects both the Royal Navy commander against any later charge of having lost a man, and the man himself against any later charge of desertion. The procedure assumes that the squadron will eventually recover or replace the man through a later cruise or through Company employment, and Bernwick's continuation on the island has followed the latter path.

The bench's qualified refusal of the petition - the council could not let him go, having no other cooper on the island, but he would have leave as soon as another cooper could be got - is the standard mechanism for retaining a skilled tradesman whose departure would leave a critical gap. The cooper's trade is essential to the Company's storage and shipping operations, with casks for water, beef, arrack, sugar and other commodities all requiring maintenance and repair. The same priority lay behind Davick's retention in 1711 on terms favourable enough to bring him onto the establishment. The Company's strategy is therefore to retain coopers until a replacement appears, with the present cooper's departure conditional on the recruitment of another, perhaps from a future Indiaman whose own cooper could be persuaded to remain.

The arrival of the Eagle Galley, mentioned in the petition as the homeward vessel by which Bernwick wishes to sail, signals the presence of a second ship in the road alongside the Cardonnell. The bench had recorded a double alarm on 10 June 1715 with two unknown ships in the offing, and had ordered the Cardonnell to make ready to haul nearer the shore against the possibility of pirates. The Eagle Galley is perhaps one of those two sail, now identified on closer view as a friendly vessel rather than a hostile one. The protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715 for failure to complete unloading within the ten charter-party days is in this light explicable: the appearance of further sail on 10 June 1715 perhaps gave Mawson reason to suspend the unloading until the new vessels were identified, but the council protested in any case to preserve its legal position regardless of the operational uncertainty.

Speculations

The Shreeve petition, recovered at the head of the next section, perhaps follows the same pattern of long Company service and desired departure that has run through the petitions of the present sitting. Nicholas Shreeve has appeared earlier in the record as the stone cutter who presented George Northen's will at the probate of late August 1712 and as one of the trades represented in the island's free planter community. If Shreeve too is seeking departure, the bench is faced with a third trade-based decision after the cooper's qualified refusal and the mason Fleurkus's request of 7 June 1715. Stone cutting has been one of the operational shortages on the island since the breaking of the stone-layers' combination on 18 January 1714/15, and the bench's decision on Shreeve will perhaps test whether the same retention logic applied to coopers extends to other essential trades. The substance of the petition will appear in the next image.

The bench's transparent reasoning on Bernwick - the petition refused not on the merits but on the want of a replacement, with leave to follow once another cooper is found - is probably designed to keep skilled tradesmen on the island under conditions that they perceive as fair. A blunt refusal might prompt absconding on a future ship, with the man slipping aboard against the bench's wishes; a refusal that recognises the merit and undertakes to grant the request as soon as conditions permit gives the cooper an incentive to remain in good order until that moment arrives. The bench is thereby managing the present cooper's continued service through a procedural commitment rather than through coercion.

490

481

Serv'd the Hon[ble] Comp[any] above the term of Seven Years, [...] haveing a wife [...] Children which he Rears wants his Assistance in Order to their well being, humbly desires your Worsh[ip] [...] Council will please to grant him leave [...] Liberty to go to England in y[e] homeward bound Ship now in the Road, [...] your Petition[er] as in duty bound shall ever pray. his Nich[d] N Shreeve mark

Order'd, That Nich Shreeve be permitted to Send Home to his Wife a Bill of Cred[i]t for her better Support [...] maintinance [...] that the books be lookt over to See how much he has formerly sent her, that she may have her former allowance.

Island S[t] Helena

By the Worsh[ipfull] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] [...] Gov[r] [...] Council

An Advertizement.

The Hon[ble] Lords Proprietors haveing given Us Orders not to kill any Cow or Calfe [...] Strictly to forbid all others for some time We Do in Obedience to their Commands Strictly forbid all persons Whatsoever not to kill or cause to kill any Cow, Heifer or Calf from the Date hereof untill [...] after the 20[th] July next which shall be in the Year of Our Lord 1716. Except upon just cause shewn to the Gov[r] for which they must have a Warrant under his hand for so doing,

Dated at the Union Castle In James Valley this 15[th] of June 1715. Sign'd by Order of Gov[r] [...] Council. Antipas Tovey Sec[reta]r[y]

Margin Notes:

N. Shreeve pet[ition] to go off why

he[s] all[ow]ed to Send yearly to his desires

Island S[t] Helena

The Advertizem[en]t not to kill Cow Etc kill aft[er] 20 July 1716

Shreeve set out that he had served the Honourable Company about the term of seven years, and having a wife and children who wanted his assistance in order to their wellbeing, humbly desired the council to grant him leave and liberty to go to England in the homeward bound ship now in the road. The petition was signed by Nicholas Shreeve with his mark.

The council ordered that Nicholas Shreeve be permitted to send home to his wife a bill of credit for her better support and maintenance, and that the books be looked over to see how much he had formerly sent her, so that she might have her former allowance.

The advertisement of the cow-saving order followed.

By the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. An advertisement.

The Honourable Lords Proprietors having given the council orders not to kill any cow or calf, and strictly to forbid all others from doing so for some time, the council did in obedience to their commands strictly forbid all persons whatsoever to kill or cause to be killed any cow, heifer or calf from the date of the advertisement until and after the 20 July next, which should be in the year of our Lord 1716, except upon just cause shown to the governor, for which they must have a warrant under his hand for so doing.

The advertisement was dated at the United Castle in James Valley the 15 June 1715 and signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, secretary.

Interpretations

The disposition of the Shreeve petition reverses the substantive request and substitutes a different remedy. Shreeve had asked for leave to depart on the homeward bound ship in the road; the bench instead orders that he be permitted to send a bill of credit home to his wife and that his earlier remittances be checked against the books to set the proper allowance. The mechanism keeps the stone cutter on the island while addressing the domestic need that lay behind his petition. The procedural form is the same retention-with-compensation pattern applied to John French the gunner on 3 November 1713, when he was paid back £5 5s 0d yearly for three years past in respect of house rent paid since the demolition of the old fort. The Company addresses the operative grievance through a financial instrument while preserving the man's presence on the establishment.

The reference to the books being looked over to set the wife's former allowance gives a glimpse of the Company's standing remittance system. Married Company servants on the island send money home through bills of credit drawn against their pay, with the remittances entered in the books at the storekeeper's office. Shreeve's prior pattern of sending money home, recoverable from the books, becomes the benchmark for the present grant. The procedure recognises a domestic obligation as part of the man's working terms and integrates it into the Company's account system. The same procedural channel is the one that the Carne family used in 1698 in dealings with Governor Poirier, where joint letters of administration over Richard Keeling's estate were granted to Carne and his wife on 5 May 1698; the documentary anchoring of family interests through the Company's books is a long-running practice.

The cow-saving advertisement converts the resolution of 7 June 1715 into a public notice in formal advertisement form. The bench has taken eight days between the consultation order of 7 June 1715 and the dated advertisement of 15 June 1715 to produce the document. The interval reflects the work of drafting in the same form as the beef-supply advertisement to the Cardonnell of 1 June 1715, with the order recast as an instruction to all inhabitants under the secretary's signature by order of the bench. The phrasing of strictly forbid all persons whatsoever and the threat of warrant under the governor's hand for any exception establishes the breach of the order as a criminal matter, enforceable by the marshal under the fee schedule confirmed on 3 May 1715 if challenge requires.

The reference to obedience to the Honourable Lords Proprietors' commands places the cow-saving order squarely within the Company's metropolitan instruction. The directors' letter brought by the Cardonnell and read at the consultations from 1 June 1715 onward contained the order; the council has now translated the order into a local advertisement under their own subscription. The chain runs from the Lords Proprietors at London, through the directors' letter, through the consultation order of 7 June 1715, to the published advertisement of 15 June 1715. The bench is therefore visible at each step as the agent of the metropolitan policy rather than as the originator of an island prohibition.

Speculations

The bench's substitution of the bill of credit remedy for Shreeve's departure request is probably also a quiet retention measure for an essential tradesman. Stone cutting has been a sensitive trade since the breaking of the stone-layers' combination of 18 January 1714/15 and the engagement of replacement labour at 3s 0d per day, and the Sandy Bay sea wall continues as a Company priority. A skilled stone cutter with seven years' experience on the island cannot easily be replaced by a single homecoming Indiaman's casual labour. By addressing the family-support grievance through remittance rather than through release, the bench secures Shreeve on the same logic that retained Andrew Bernwick the cooper at the same sitting on 11 June 1715 for want of a replacement. The two refusals on consecutive consultation days, both framed in language sympathetic to the petitioner, illustrate a coherent retention strategy across the essential trades.

The dating of the cow-saving advertisement to 15 June 1715 rather than to 7 June 1715, when the resolution was passed, is probably not accidental. The eight-day interval coincides with the proclamation of King George on Monday 6 June 1715 and the surrounding political and constitutional business that has dominated the bench's attention during the intervening days. By the time the cow-saving order issues in its public form, the proclamation has been read, the bonfires have been lit, the Cardonnell's cargo dispute has been addressed by the protest of 11 June 1715, and the discharges and refusals of the present sittings have been concluded. The advertisement enters a settled political landscape, with the new sovereign in place and the immediate ship-side business resolved, and so can take effect without competing with more urgent matters for the inhabitants' attention.

491

482

Isl[and] S[t] Helena

An Account of y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Neat Cattle, Sheep, Hog[s], Goats [...] taken June the 18: Anno Dom 1715:

Bulls 12

Cows 42

Heifers 10

Bullocks 32

Steers [...]

Yearlings [...]

Calves 40

136

the last report 90

increased since y[e] 1[st] of Jan[uar]y last 46

Killd Since the Last Acco[un]t:

Bulls 2

Bullock 1

3

Calved viz[t]: 4 Calves

Brought viz[t] Bull 1

Bullocks 6

Cows, [...] their 2

Calves 2

14

Hoggs, great [...] small 214

increased 28

kill'd y[e] last 2 months [...] 8

Dyed viz[t] 8

6 Young pigs

1 Sowinfirty[?]

1 Shoat of a Distemper comon here amongst the Hoggs, which is called the Pant.

Goats 243. Great [...] Small. Viz[t] of the Male kind 95

of y[e] female 148

Increased 91

Turkey, Viz[t] great [...] small 59

Skipd fee 4 fort 2

Increased 11

Sheep 34

of the Male kind 10

of y[e] female 24

Weather kill'd 1

Increased 31

Geese, viz[t] Great [...] Small 43

Stolen 11

[signatures]

W[m] Worrell

The Verte

Island of St Helena. An account of the Honourable Company's neat cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and other stock taken on 18 June 1715.

Neat cattle:

Bulls

12

Cows

42

Heifers

10

Bullocks

32

Steers

none

Yearlings

none

Calves

40

Total of neat cattle

136

Last report

90

Increased since the first of January last

46

Killed since the last account:

Bulls

2

Bullock

1

Total killed

3

Calved:

Calves

14

Bought in:

Bull

1

Bullocks

6

Cows and their calves

2 cows and 2 calves

Hogs, great and small:

Total

214

Increased

28

Killed the last two months

8

Died

8 (being 6 young pigs, 1 sow in dry, and 1 shoat of a distemper common here amongst the hogs, which is called the pants)

Goats, great and small:

Total

243

Of the male kind

95

Of the female

148

Increased

91

Sheep:

Total

34

Of the male kind

10

Of the female

24

Wether killed

1

Increased

31

Turkey:

Great and small

59

Stolen for the fort

2

Increased

11

Geese:

Great and small

43

Stolen

11

The account was signed by William Worrall.

Interpretations

The Worrall stock account of 18 June 1715 is the comprehensive return on the Company's livestock under the new overseership probated on 5 April 1715 and matured through the yam-stock report of 26 April 1715. The neat cattle total of 136 head, against a last report of 90 head and an increase of 46 since 1 January 1715, records a herd recovering vigorously from the late great drought to which John Alexander's loss of thirty head bore witness on 17 May 1715. The recorded increase by birth of 14 calves in the period since the last account, augmented by purchases of 1 bull, 6 bullocks and 2 cows with 2 calves, against killings of only 2 bulls and 1 bullock, shows the herd's recovery as a combination of natural breeding, deliberate purchase and minimum slaughter. The pattern is the operational implementation of the cow-saving order published on 15 June 1715, with the Company's own stock managed on the same principle now applied to the whole island.

The hog account at 214 head with 28 increased records a separate provisioning category whose loss pattern is different. Eight head killed in the last two months and a further eight died, of which six were young pigs lost in the natural rate, one a sow in dry, and one a shoat lost to a local distemper called the pants. The naming of the disease as known here amongst the hogs records an established veterinary problem of the island's pig population, distinct from the imported distempers that may attack a herd of fresh stock. The accounting of the death by category - young pigs, sow, shoat with named distemper - distinguishes routine losses from disease losses for the bench's reference.

The goat account at 243 head with 91 increased shows a stock that has expanded sharply since the pound deliveries of 26 and 27 February 1715, where the Chapel Valley goat removal had brought in 195 goats from Carne 83, Long 65, Wrangham 46 and Spree 1. The Company's own goat herd at the present count has grown by 91 head since some prior point, the addition probably representing both natural increase and the absorption of impounded goats not redeemed by their owners. The ratio of 95 male to 148 female records the breeding-favourable distribution maintained for continued increase, with females nearly two-thirds of the total.

The sheep at 34 head with 31 increased and 1 wether killed records a small but expanding flock, with the increase substantially through ewe lambs. The turkey count at 59 great and small with 11 increased and 2 stolen for the fort - perhaps meaning taken for the garrison's table without normal accounting - records a poultry establishment large enough to bear systematic theft as a recognised category of loss. The geese at 43 great and small with 11 stolen show a similar pattern of stock loss to theft on the larger poultry. The recording of stolen as a distinct category alongside killed, increased and died is the bench's documentary acknowledgement that pilferage of Company stock is a continuing operational problem, exemplified in the recent record by the summary order against Henry Harmon the gardener of 26 April 1715 for carrying wood out of the Company's garden into the town.

Speculations

The detailed structure of the account, with each category broken down into stock at present, killed, died, increased, bought and stolen, is probably the procedural innovation Worrall has brought to the overseership since 5 April 1715. The earlier inventory of moveable goods at the new and old plantation house and Lufkins of 12 April 1715 by Bazett and Tovey, which noted defects such as the broken warming-pan handle, the holed brass kettle and the old lanthorn, established the principle of explicit recording of defects. The Worrall stock account extends the principle to livestock, with named diseases (the pants), specific categories of loss (stolen for the fort) and arithmetic against the prior return. The bench is now in possession of a stock-management document of unusual transparency, suitable for inclusion in the homeward general letter to the directors and useful as a baseline against any future audit.

The reference to two turkeys stolen for the fort is probably the only entry in the account that names a specific destination for the loss, and is probably the bench's quiet recording of an irregular requisition by the garrison commissariat. The bench's response is to enter the loss honestly under stolen rather than under killed for table use, marking the requisition as outside the accounting structure rather than within it. The accounting choice is consistent with the broader documentary policy of the Pyke administration: failings of the establishment are entered candidly in the books rather than concealed, on the same principle that produced the open record of Samuel Allgate's drink-driven discharge of 7 June 1715. The pattern of self-policing transparency continues to shape what reaches the consultation books and from them the homeward despatch.

492

483

Island S[t] Helena

The foll[owing] petition was Presented

To the Worsh[i]p Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] [...] [...] Council.

The Humble Petition of Tho[s] Newington Writer Humble Sheweth,

That yo[r] Petition[r] haveing Serv'd the Hon[ble] Comp[any] as a Writer upon this Island some time, [...] has had his Health very well is now very desirous to Serve y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[any] in other parts of y[e] World, most Humbly request that your Worsh[i]p [...] Council will be pleased to recomend him to be continued in y[e] same imploy elsewhere [...] that you'll grant him leave to depart this Island in the Ship Carzonnett, now in the Road,

And yo[r] Petition[r] (as in duty bound) shall ever pray, Tho: Newington

Granted

[signatures]

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Edw[d] Byfeild

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

M[r] Newington to go off

Granted.

The following petition was presented to Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor, and council. The humble petition of Thomas Newington, writer.

Newington set out that he had served the Honourable Company as a writer upon the island some time, and had had his health very well. He was now very desirous to serve the Honourable Company in other parts of the world. He most humbly requested that the council would be pleased to recommend him to be continued in the same employ elsewhere, and that the council would grant him leave to depart the island on the ship Cardonnell now in the road. The petition was signed by Thomas Newington.

Granted.

The consultation was signed by the governor, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The Newington petition is the third departure application granted on a single Indiaman's stay in the road. The granting pattern is now distinct: Samuel Allgate granted on 7 June 1715 with the candid reasons of drink and the spent marriage portion; William Beale granted on 11 June 1715 with the bona fide credit qualification on his stores account; Newington granted on the present day on the strength of good health and a desire for service elsewhere. The bench has demonstrated across these three grants the operational tests by which a Company servant or freeman may leave the island: a discharged man may go (Allgate); a long-frustrated freeman whose earlier licence was disregarded may go (Beale); a healthy serving writer in good standing may go with a Company recommendation for continued employment (Newington). The pattern stands against the qualified refusals of Andrew Bernwick the cooper and Nicholas Shreeve the stone cutter, where want of a replacement has prevented departure.

The request for recommendation to be continued in the same employ elsewhere is the key procedural device of the Newington petition. The petitioner is not seeking discharge from Company service but transfer to another Company station, perhaps at Madras, Bombay, Bencoolen or one of the lesser establishments. The recommendation by the bench at St Helena is the credential by which a writer can present himself at another Company station with a proven record of satisfactory service. The same mechanism was contemplated for Samuel Allgate on 7 June 1715, whose petition undertook service as a soldier at Bencoolen and whose discharge was framed as a transfer rather than a release. The institutional pattern preserves trained staff within the Company's establishment when individual stations cannot continue to employ them.

The phrase had had his health very well on the island places Newington's petition in deliberate contrast to the sickly-time refusal of John Gibbs of 26 April 1715. Where Gibbs's departure was refused on the practical ground that many men were dying and good men should be kept, Newington can demonstrate that his time at the island has not depleted his health and so cannot prejudice the establishment by his departure. The petition is constructed to anticipate and rebut the standard objection. The bench's immediate grant indicates that the construction was effective.

The signatures at the foot of the consultation - the governor, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield - record a four-councillor bench at the close of the sitting. Matthew Bazett, third in council, is absent from the signatures of this consultation as he was from the protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715. The pattern of his absence from formal entries through the Cardonnell's call is now consistent, although the reason is nowhere stated. The remaining four councillors continue to transact the bench's business, with Captain Haswell signing in his deputy governor's capacity alongside the others. The relations within the council that produced the executors' dispute and Mrs Haswell's petition appear, on the surface of the record, to be functioning normally for the moment, perhaps in the light of the executors' fair way of agreement reported on 7 June 1715.

Speculations

Newington's departure on the Cardonnell is probably the latest in a small sequence of writers and clerks moving between Company stations under the present administration. The earlier reference at 13 October 1713 to six men constantly at the lower table - including Samuel Brome, writer, Thomas De La Rose, writer, and others - registered a settled population of clerical staff at the island. Newington's request to be continued in the same employ elsewhere is consistent with the cycling of writers across stations as Company business requires, with St Helena functioning as one node in the wider Company network rather than as a final destination. The bench's recommendation will perhaps follow on the Cardonnell to the next establishment in her schedule.

The absence of Bazett's signature from the closing of the present consultation is probably significant, given the procedural balance the bench has been maintaining through Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715 and the deferred return on the executors' charge. Bazett has remained an active councillor in the day-to-day business but appears not to have signed certain instruments since the protest of 11 June 1715. He may be absent in the country in the manner of the staying in the country pattern that has been recorded for Haswell on 3 May 1715, or he may simply have been engaged elsewhere on the morning the consultation was authenticated. The pattern is not yet a settled feature of the record and is preserved here as in the source.

493

484

Island S[t] Helena

At a Consultation held on Wednesday y[e] 15: June 1715 at the Union Castle In James Vally

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Geo: Haswell Dep[uty] Pres[ent] Math[ew] Bazett 3[d] Antipas Tovey 4[th] [...] Edw[d] Byfeild 5: in Council

M[r] W[m] Allison Purs[er] of y[e] Cardonnell haveing made a Complaint to the Gov[r] that Cap[t] W[m] Mawson Comand[er] of the said Ship bought Nine pipes of Wine at y[e] Madera [...] Stowed them safely away but Stowed y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Wine in such manner that by carelesss putting of Severall heavy goods upon them y[e] Casks are be[com]e leaky, but Sayeth he had this only by re- port of another. W[m] Allison

The Cap[t] being acquainted herewith Sayeth that he caused all the Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Wines to be carefully Stowed away and that his own were [...] that his own were Stowed indifferently amongst the others as they came on board [...] that for the few pipes he has bought, he too by Leakage has suffered by Leakage at least equally with the Comp[anys] or rather more in proportion [...] that it may yet seen on board, his Own Casks being all markt with avery Different Mark from

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena

M[r] Allison y[e] Purs[er] of y[e] [...] Compl[ains]

Cap[t]s reply

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Wednesday the 15 June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Mr William Allison, purser of the Cardonnell, made a complaint to the governor that Captain William Mawson, commander of the ship, had bought nine pipes of wine at Madeira and stowed them safely away. The Honourable Company's wine, however, had been stowed in such manner that by the careless putting of several heavy goods upon them, the casks were become leaky. He had this only by report of another. The complaint was signed by William Allison.

The captain, being acquainted with the complaint, said that he had caused all the Honourable Company's wines to be carefully stowed away, and that his own were stowed indifferently among the others as they came on board. For the few pipes he had bought, he had suffered by leakage at least equally with the Company, or rather more in proportion. It might yet be seen on board that his own casks were all marked with a very different mark from

Interpretations

The Allison complaint opens a new front of dispute between the Company and the Cardonnell in addition to the protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715 for failure to complete unloading within the ten charter-party working days. The complaint is brought by the ship's purser, who is the officer responsible for the cargo's accounting on the ship's side. Allison's complaint identifies the captain's personal purchases at Madeira - nine pipes of wine - as having been stowed safely, while the Honourable Company's wine had been stowed under heavy goods and rendered leaky. The accusation, if substantiated, would amount to the captain having favoured his own private trade goods over his charter cargo, the same conduct against which the protest of 11 June 1715 was implicitly directed.

The phrase pipes of wine identifies the standard cask measure for shipped wine of the period, a pipe being approximately 105 gallons. The Madeira wines purchased at the island of Madeira are the standard outward cargo of an Indiaman calling there on the African coast voyage. The same Madeira wines have appeared in the recovered record at the sale by Isaac Cook of HMS Leopard on 26 June 1712, at £20 0s 0d per pipe wholesale. The captain's nine pipes therefore represent at the same rate a private trade investment of £180 0s 0d, a substantial sum to be carried as personal venture against any opportunity for resale at the homeward stations.

The reference to the captain's casks being all marked with a very different mark from the Company's is the procedural mechanism by which the trade goods are distinguished from the chartered cargo at any future inspection. The marking system allows the cargo at the wharf or at the homeward port to be sorted by owner. Captain Mawson's defence is grounded on the visible evidence of these marks: any inspection on board will show his own casks among the others, suffering leakage at least equally with the Company's, and therefore inconsistent with deliberate favouring of his own stowage.

The petitioner's qualifier - he had this only by report of another - is a frank admission that Allison has not himself inspected the stowage but is reporting at second hand. The procedural value of the entry on the consultation book is therefore diminished, since the complaint rests on hearsay rather than on the purser's own examination. The bench will have to consider whether the matter merits further inquiry by direct inspection of the stowage, by appointment of councillors to go on board the Cardonnell in the same way Bazett and Byfield were ordered to view the place of Henry Francis's land application on 31 May 1715. The procedural pattern of physical inspection by appointed councillors has now been established on land matters, and would extend naturally to a stowage dispute.

Speculations

The Allison complaint is probably the product of a wider dispute within the Cardonnell's crew, with the purser as the institutional voice of the ship's accounts against the captain's personal venture. The purser holds the books in which the cargo is reckoned, and any later questioning of the captain's handling of the voyage would draw on those books. By laying the complaint before the governor and council, Allison creates an entry in the council's consultation book that supports any later proceedings against Mawson by the Company. The procedural function is the same the council served at the protest of 11 June 1715: documentary preservation of a position for any future legal action against the captain or the owners.

Mawson's defence, that his own casks were stowed indifferently among the others as they came on board and suffered leakage at least equally with the Company's wine, is probably calibrated to convert the dispute from a question of selective favouring into a question of routine voyage damage. If the captain's wines have suffered leakage in proportion equal to or greater than the Company's, the implication of deliberate misconduct falls away, and what remains is the ordinary loss of long voyages under tropical and equatorial latitudes. The verification of this position requires direct inspection of the marks on the casks at the present time, and Mawson is offering the bench precisely that test. Whether the council will accept his invitation, or whether it will hold the protest of 11 June 1715 as a sufficient basis for any future action, is the procedural question for the next sitting.

494

485

from the Comp[ay]s (Sign'd) Will[iam] Mawson

M[r] Tho: Newsham Chief Mate of the Cardonnell Saith that when the Hon[ble] Comp[any]s Wines came on board at the Maderas they were Stowed in y[e] Main [...] After Hatch way with great care [...] that two teer in the Main Hatch way had nothing Stowed on them but two Deal boards Deep, that Hatch way being fulle up. [...] that those in y[e] After hatch way were intirely Riders Otways that all y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Casks were markt with a Different mark from the Cap[t]s [...] that the Cap[t] by his own Cask has in proportion suffer'd as much by Leakage as the Comp[any]s [...] that non[e] of the Casks are Leakt by bad Stowadge but by the badness of the Cask themselves [...] are as ill made and slight as he hath ever seen some of the staves being above an Inch [...] half in One part [...] less then half an Inch in another part which not beareing all alike Tis very probable has been the reason of this Leakidge [...] tho these Casks are so bad he has known Ships in Europe frequently to Suffer as much by Leakage (Sign'd) Thomas Newsham,

M[r] John Lock Second Mate on board the Cardonnell Sayeth that he knows great care was taken in Stowing all y[e] Wines as they came on board [...] yet none had y[e] preference for he himself stowed all as they came on board [...] did not make any distinction between the Hon[ble] Comp[any]s Wine [...] y[e] Cap[t]s, [...] did not then observe there was two marks [...] but has since obs[erved]

Margin Notes:

M[r] Newsham y[e] Chief Mate Acc[oun]t of Stowing y[e] Maderas Wine [...] Hon[ble] Comp[anys] [...] Comp[any]

M[r] Lock 2[nd] Mate of y[e] Same

The captain continued. His own casks were all marked with a very different mark from the Company's. The reply was signed by William Mawson.

Mr Thomas Newsham, chief mate of the Cardonnell, gave his account of the stowage of the Madeira wine. When the Honourable Company's wines came on board at Madeira they were stowed in the main and after hatchway with great care. Those in the main hatchway had nothing stowed on them but two deal boards deep, that hatchway being full up. Those in the after hatchway were entirely riders and lay so that all the Honourable Company's casks were marked with a different mark from the captain's. The captain by his own cask had in proportion suffered as much by leakage as the Company. None of the casks were leaked by bad stowage but by the badness of the casks themselves, which were as ill made and slight as he had ever seen. Some of the staves were above an inch and a half in one part and less than half an inch in another part, which not bearing alike very probably had been the reason of the leakage. These casks were so bad that he had known ships in Europe frequently to suffer as much by leakage. The deposition was signed by Thomas Newsham.

Mr John Lock, second mate on board the Cardonnell, gave his own account of the stowage. He knew great care was taken in stowing all the wines as they came on board, and none had the preference. He himself stowed them as they came on board and did not make any distinction between the Honourable Company's wine and the captain's, and did not then observe there were two marks, but had since

Interpretations

The depositions of Newsham and Lock convert the dispute from a purser's complaint at hearsay into a documented inquiry on the testimony of the ship's working officers. The chief mate is the officer immediately responsible for stowage of cargo and is here giving his own first-hand account of the operation at Madeira. The second mate corroborates the working method on the deck. The procedural pattern is the same examination-in-writing the bench used in the trial of Toby on 10 May 1715, where the governor caused the evidence to be reduced to writing before the matter went to the jury. The bench has therefore moved the Cardonnell dispute from protest to formal inquiry on sworn officer testimony, building the documentary record that will accompany any subsequent action against the captain or the ship's owners.

Newsham's account places the Company's casks in the main hatchway and the after hatchway, with only two deal boards on top in the main hatch and the after hatch arrangement carrying the casks as riders. The technical vocabulary is that of practical stowage: deal boards as light timber dunnage between cargo tiers, and riders as the upper tier of casks lying directly on the lower tier rather than separated by a deck. The arrangement described is the standard careful stowage for liquid cargo on a long voyage, with the lightest possible loading on top to minimise crush damage. Newsham's defence rests on the technical proposition that the stowage was sound and that no method short of perfect cask construction could have prevented the leakage.

The cooperage defence shifts the responsibility from the captain to the original makers of the casks. Newsham's testimony that some staves were above an inch and a half in one part and less than half an inch in another part - a four-fold variation in thickness across a single stave - is a precise palaeographic measurement of cask construction failure. Casks made to that standard cannot bear the working pressure of long-voyage stowage, where the differential expansion and contraction of staves under tropical heat and equatorial cold opens any unevenly hooped joint. The cooper's failure, in this account, is the operative cause of the leakage rather than the captain's stowage choices. The Honourable Company will have to look to its supplier of casks at the Madeira purchase rather than to the Cardonnell for the loss.

Lock's evidence corroborates the working method while adding the important point that he himself, as the man directly doing the stowage, did not make any distinction between the Company's wine and the captain's. The Company casks and the captain's were stowed as they came on board, without preference. Lock did not observe the two marks at the time, only learning of them since. The testimony if accepted destroys the implication of selective favouring on which Allison's complaint rests. The matter resolves into a cooperage problem, not a stowage problem; into a Madeira purchase issue, not a Cardonnell officer issue.

Speculations

The bench's procedural choice to take written depositions from the chief mate and the second mate, in addition to the captain's own reply, is probably designed to produce the most thorough documentary record possible against any future challenge. The Company's protest of 11 June 1715 and Allison's complaint of the present day are now supported by countervailing officer testimony from the ship; the bench can either accept the officer accounts and discharge the leakage matter as a cooperage failure, or reserve the question for further investigation at London once the Cardonnell arrives. By documenting both sides at the present sitting, the council ensures that any decision made at London on the homeward despatch can rest on a complete record from the island.

The convergence of Newsham's and Lock's testimony on the equal-leakage point - that the captain's own casks suffered as much or more than the Company's - is probably the procedural mechanism by which the captain insulates himself against any claim of selective favouring. The bench will perhaps order an inspection of the cargo at the wharf during the unloading to verify the markings and the leakage rates, in the same way Bazett and Byfield were ordered to view the place of Henry Francis's land petition on 31 May 1715. If the physical inspection bears out the officers' depositions, the matter falls away as a cooperage problem; if it does not, the bench has reserved the option of formal action against the captain on the strength of the protest already entered. Either way, the dispute has now been documented in a way that gives the bench the freedom to settle it on the evidence as it develops.

495

486

Observed it, [...] does know that y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[anys] Wines has a distinct [...] different mark from y[e] Cap[t]s Wines [...] is very positive that nothing was Stowed on y[e] Wines that did or was likely to do them any hurt [...] Believes the badness of the Casks to be the only Occassion of y[e] Leakage [...] Sayeth that the Cheif Mate [...] himself who had One Cask on board be- tween them have (tho they did take care of their Own Cask, Yet they have Suffered near One third part of their Cask being Leaked out w[ch] Certainly is by y[e] Slightness of the Cask (Sign'd) John Lock,

Russell Walker third Mate of the Cardonnell Saith that he Assisted in y[e] Stowing the Wine at y[e] Maderas [...] Stowed the after part himself [...] that it was well Stowed [...] has Seen the other [...] says that was well Stowed as far as he could Judg [...] be- lieves y[e] occas[i]on of y[e] Leakadge in y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[any] Wines, proceeded from y[e] badness of the Cask, [...] he denys y[e] tolling y[e] purser that the wines was ill Stowed, But on y[e] Con- trary saith they were Stowed upon whole Deale Boards [...] could not give way to receive any damage by there being ill Stowed and he confesseth his fault in tarrying on shoar without his Comanders Lycence while the Ship was unloading

But he saith that on Sunday morning when he did come on shoar he had leave to come then from y[e] Comanding Officer for that day [...] he did not intend then to stay any longer [...] was prepairing to go on board

Margin Notes:

M[r] Walker y[e] 3[d] Mate.

Acc[oun]t of y[e] Stowidge of y[e] Hon[ble] Comp[any]s Wine [...]

Lock continued. He had since observed it, and knew that the Honourable Company's wines had a distinct and different mark from the captain's wines. He was very positive that nothing was stowed on the wines that did or was likely to do them any hurt. He believed the badness of the casks to be the only occasion of the leakage. The chief mate and himself had one cask on board between them, and although they had taken care of their own cask, they had suffered near one third part of their cask being leaked out, which certainly was by the slightness of the cask. The deposition was signed by John Lock.

Russell Walker, third mate of the Cardonnell, gave his account of the stowage of the Honourable Company's wines. He had assisted in the stowing of the wine at Madeira and had stowed the after part himself. It was well stowed. He had seen the other and said that that was well stowed as far as he could judge. He believed the occasion of the leakage in the Honourable Company's wines proceeded from the badness of the casks. He denied the purser's telling that the wines were ill stowed; on the contrary, he said they were stowed upon whole deal boards, and could not give way to receive any damage by being ill stowed.

Walker confessed his fault in tarrying on shore without his commander's licence while the ship was unloading. He said that on Sunday morning, when he had come on shore, he had leave to come then from the commanding officer for that day, and did not intend then to stay any longer, and was preparing to go on board

Interpretations

The third mate's evidence adds the personal-financial confirmation of the cooperage failure. Lock and Newsham, the chief and second mates, had between them one cask of their own on board, of the same kind as the Company's. The two officers, looking after their own cask with personal care, had nevertheless suffered the loss of near one third of the cask through leakage. The implication for the bench is clear: a cask that loses one third of its contents under the direct attention of its owners cannot have been lost through neglect of stowage, but only through defective construction. The personal loss confirms the technical evidence that the cooperage at Madeira was inadequate, and the matter is now settled on the testimony of three officers of the ship.

Russell Walker's deposition closes the stowage inquiry on the working-officer side. As the third mate who actually performed the stowage of the after part of the hold, his testimony is direct rather than corroborative. The after part was stowed by his own hands; the rest he saw, and judged well stowed. The technical detail of the wines being stowed upon whole deal boards adds a further element of cargo-protection method: not the half-board or end-piece dunnage that might have indicated economising on materials, but full deal boards, providing the maximum cushion between cask and adjacent cargo. The stowage method was therefore not merely adequate but better than the minimum, and the leakage cannot be attributed to it.

Walker's confession of his fault in tarrying on shore is the additional disciplinary head that has emerged in the course of the deposition. The third mate has been ashore without the captain's leave during the unloading period. The procedural significance is twofold. First, the deposition is being given by an officer who is himself in breach of his command. Second, the leave to come ashore had been obtained from the commanding officer of the castle for that day - that is, from the garrison, not the ship - and Walker had then extended his stay beyond his original intention. The confession recovers from Walker an honest admission of his irregular shore time, which the bench will weigh against the value of his testimony on the stowage matter.

The procedural interaction between the protest of 11 June 1715 against Captain Mawson for failure to unload within the ten charter-party days, and the present deposition of an officer who was ashore without leave during the unloading, illustrates the operational complexity of the Cardonnell's call. The captain has been formally protested by the bench for delay; one of his own officers has now confessed that he was not on board during part of the unloading. The relationship between the captain's overall responsibility for the unloading and the third mate's individual absence will perhaps weigh in the bench's overall view of the matter at the close of the inquiry.

Speculations

The mates' decision to admit personal financial loss on their own joint cask is probably calibrated to support the cooperage defence by direct demonstration rather than by inference. By disclosing that they themselves had a cask of the same provenance that had lost a third of its content, the chief and second mates establish that the leakage problem extends across all the Madeira wine without discrimination by ownership. The captain, his officers and the Honourable Company have all suffered equally; the only differentiating factor is the quality of the cask, not the place of stowage or the priority given to one consignment over another. The procedural force of the personal disclosure is greater than that of any abstract assertion of equal treatment.

Walker's voluntary confession of his unauthorised shore time is probably also a calculated procedural move. By disclosing his own irregularity in the course of giving testimony on the stowage, the third mate places his honesty on the record before any subsequent inquiry can discover the same fact through other channels. The disclosure positions Walker as a candid witness whose account of the stowage can be relied upon precisely because he has not concealed his own fault. The same self-presentation pattern was used by Mrs Haswell in her petition of 31 May 1715, where the prompt provision of inventory at the Harper probate of the same day was used to counter the wider charge of executor neglect. The procedural device of disclosing an adverse fact to strengthen the credit of a favourable one is now a settled feature of the matter being recorded by the bench.

496

487

board last night. Sign'd Russell Walker

The said Walker further saith that he had a Quarter Cask of Wine of his Own which had no Weight upon it Yet it flew at the head Sign'd Russell Walker

Island S[t] Helena.

Cap[t] Haswell Dep[uty] Gov[r] sayeth that the day after the Ship Cardonnell ar- rived, the Cap[t] thereof Told him he had some Leakidge on board [...] desired him to go [...] see the Stowing of y[e] Wines, consign'd here on the Hon[ble] Comp[any]s Account [...] that he did with M[r] John Goodwin go to see the same [...] found it well Stowed (he very well understanding it,) they being Bung up, Bilg free, [...] Well Bedded and Quoind [...] believes what Leakidge there was in the Wines, was Occasion'd by the Slightness of the Casks,

M[r] John Goodwin Testifieth the Same

[signatures]

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Edw[d] Byfeild

Mess[rs] Bridger, Aylmer [...] Wikey Complaind against Cap[t] Mawson for Use- ing them ill on board his Ship Cardonnell. the hearing of which was deferd till to mor- row morning, And For Assaulting, Striking [...] Imprisoning of them without any Reasonable Cause, [...] for other Abuses w[ch] they Say they'l make appear to be very Notorious and ill usage, desire may be redressed or else that they may have Liberty to return to England, [...] proceed this Voyage the hearing of this is appointed for tomorrow morning Ireland[?]

Margin Notes:

Island S[t] Helena.

Cap[t] Haswell [...] M[r] Goodwins acc[oun]t how y[e] found y[e] wine Stowed

M[r] Bridg[er] [...] passing[er] of y[e] Cardonnell [...] compl[ain]ts of Cap[t] usage defer[d] till to morro[w]

Walker had been preparing to go on board last night when the present matter intervened. The deposition was signed by Russell Walker.

Walker further said that he had a quarter cask of wine of his own, which had no weight upon it, yet it flew at the head. The further deposition was signed by Russell Walker.

Captain Haswell, deputy governor, said that the day after the Cardonnell arrived the captain of her had told him he had some leakage on board, and desired him to go and see the stowing of the wines consigned to the island on the Honourable Company's account. Haswell, with Mr John Goodwin, went to see the same and found it well stowed, he very well understanding it. The casks being bunged up, bilge free and well bedded and quoined, he believed that what leakage there was in the wines had been occasioned by the slightness of the casks.

Mr John Goodwin testified the same.

Messrs Bridger, Aylmer and Wiley complained against Captain Mawson for using them ill on board his ship the Cardonnell. The hearing of the complaint was deferred till the morrow morning, the matter being for assaulting, striking and imprisoning of them without any reasonable cause, and other abuses which they said they could make appear to be very notorious and ill. They desired they might be redressed, or else that they might have liberty to return to England, and to proceed the voyage. The hearing of this was appointed for tomorrow morning.

The bench noted that the bridges and passes of the Cardonnell were to be cleared of the complaint of Captain Mawson's people, but they were referred till the morning.

Interpretations

Walker's supplementary point about his quarter cask is the third independent technical demonstration of the cooperage failure. A quarter cask is a smaller measure than a full pipe, perhaps holding around 26 gallons, and Walker's quarter cask had no weight upon it at all, the standard condition for a cask in the upper tier or set apart for personal use. The cask nevertheless flew at the head, that is, sprang open at the end stave fitting, with no extrinsic cause. The detail extinguishes the last possibility that pressure from stowed cargo was the operative cause: a cask with no weight on it that opens itself is failing through its own construction. The technical evidence on this head is now uniform across Newsham, Lock and Walker, with each officer adding a different category of failure (slight construction, varied stave thickness, end-stave springing under no load).

The Haswell deposition introduces the governor's own representative to the inquiry. The deputy governor and Mr John Goodwin had inspected the stowage of the consigned wines on the day after the Cardonnell arrived, at the captain's own invitation. The Captain's prompt notification of his own leakage problem to a senior Company officer is the procedural mechanism by which Mawson sought to protect himself in advance against any later complaint from the Honourable Company. Haswell, who very well understood the matter, found the stowage proper: bunged up (the casks closed at the bung-hole), bilge free (the widest part of the cask not bearing on hard surfaces), bedded (laid on dunnage) and quoined (wedged into place with chock blocks against rolling). The technical evaluation by the deputy governor confirms the working-officer testimony on its own footing.

The Goodwin corroboration adds the testimony of the Company's assistant at the stores, the same John Goodwin who under the council order of 14 October 1712 was charged with receiving the Abingdon's cargo and reporting daily. As the man whose ordinary office is the inspection of incoming cargo, Goodwin's professional opinion supports Haswell's. The convergence of the captain's officers, the deputy governor and the Company's stores assistant on the same cooperage conclusion settles the matter for the bench's record. The complaint of the purser Allison of the present consultation has been answered by formal depositions from every other relevant witness, and the cause of the leakage is now established as defective casks at the source of supply.

The Bridger-Aylmer-Wiley complaint opens a fresh and grave dispute against Captain Mawson on a quite different ground. The three petitioners charge the captain with assaulting, striking and imprisoning them without reasonable cause and with other notorious and ill abuses. The remedy sought is either redress at the bench or liberty to return to England by some other route and to abandon the Cardonnell voyage. The hearing has been deferred to the following morning, perhaps to allow Mawson notice of the charges and the petitioners time to assemble their evidence. The pattern of deferral for fuller hearing is the same the bench applied to the Bradley tenancy and house repair petition of 26 April 1715 and the executors' petitions of 24 May 1715, with the addition that the present matter touches the criminal conduct of a Company ship's commander rather than estate or administrative business.

Speculations

The captain's voluntary disclosure of leakage to the deputy governor on the day after arrival is probably the procedural foundation on which Mawson has organised his entire defence of the cargo dispute. By being the first to raise the matter with the Company's senior officer, and by inviting that officer to inspect the stowage in person, Mawson placed himself in the documentary position of a captain transparent about cargo problems rather than concealing them. The structure of his defence at the present consultation - working-officer depositions, his own reply, the senior Company officer's corroboration - all rests on that early disclosure as the foundation of credibility. The procedural pattern is the same Mrs Haswell used on 31 May 1715 with the Harper inventory: the immediate provision of a favourable instrument that anticipates and answers a wider charge.

The Bridger-Aylmer-Wiley complaint, with its account of striking, imprisoning and other notorious abuses, is probably the substantive grievance from which the entire Cardonnell dispute has been generated. A captain who has fallen out with members of his ship's company in this manner, to the point that they seek either redress or release from the voyage, is a captain whose authority on his own deck has been called into question. The protest of 11 June 1715 for failure to unload in ten charter-party days, the purser's complaint of selective stowage of the present consultation, and the Bridger-Aylmer-Wiley grievance now produced together suggest a ship under strain. The bench's hearing on the following morning will perhaps reveal whether the cargo dispute and the personnel dispute share a single underlying cause, or whether they are independent problems converging on the captain at the same call.

497

488

Island of Helena.

At a Consultation held On Thursday the 16 June 1715 At the Union-Castle in James Valley

Isaac Pyke Esqr Govr Geo: Haswell Depr Matthew Bazett 3d Antipas Jervey 4th & Edwd Byfield 5. in Council

Prest

Mr Bridger attended this morning but Mr Aylmer & Willey went into the Country last night, upon which the Govr sent word that they might (with any other of the Gent passengers who thought fitt to be there) attend the Council in the afternoon, &c.

There did only appear in the Evening Mr Bridger, Aylmer & Willey. & The matters of each of their compl[ts] are as foll[ow]. Vizt.

Mr Bridger being call'd in to tell what complaints he had against Capt Mawson. Who Sayed he Used him ill; he was desired to explain himself & askt particularly whether he wanted Victuals. he s[ai]d. y[t] y[e] Capt did allow them well enú as he thought, for he Eat w[t]h him & had no reason to complain on that Acc[t] but that Capt Mawson had call'd him Scoundrell Rascal on board Ship & did not show him as much respect as others & y[t] now Since he came to St Helena he had took notice of one Mr Diamond in a respectfull way by Speak- ing & pulling off his Hatt to him

but

Margin Notes:

Mr Bridger &c attend.

Mr Bridgers Complaint

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Thursday the 16 June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Mr Bridger attended that morning, but Mr Aylmer and Mr Wiley had gone into the country the night before. Upon this the governor sent word that they might, with any other of the gentlemen passengers who thought fit to be there, attend the council in the afternoon.

There appeared in the evening Mr Bridger, Mr Aylmer and Mr Wiley.

The matters of each of their complaints were as follows.

Mr Bridger, being called in to tell what complaint he had against Captain Mawson, said that he had used him ill. He was desired to explain himself, and was asked particularly whether he wanted victuals. He replied that the captain did allow them well enough, as he thought, for he ate with him and had no reason to complain on that account. But Captain Mawson had called him a scoundrel rascal on board ship and did not show him as much respect as others. Now, since he came to St Helena, he had taken notice of one Mr Diamond in a disrespectful way, by speaking and pulling off his hat to him

Interpretations

The hearing arranged on 15 June 1715 to take place on the present morning was disrupted by the absence of two of the three complainants. Mr Aylmer and Mr Wiley had gone into the country the night before, presumably to Plantation House or to the houses of friends among the planters. The governor's response was to extend the appointment to the afternoon, with the additional concession that any other gentlemen passengers who chose might also attend. The procedural openness of the second invitation - any other of the gentlemen passengers who thought fit to be there - shows the bench treating the dispute as one that may extend beyond the three named complainants to the wider body of the ship's passenger cabin. The pattern is consistent with the bench's view, already developing from the previous evening's entries, that the Cardonnell dispute is wider than a single grievance.

The category of gentlemen passengers identifies a particular stratum of those carried in the ship. They are not part of the working crew, and they are not subject to the captain's authority in the same way as the officers and men. Their relationship with the commander is that of paying or chartered passengers of social standing, with whom the captain is expected to maintain the courtesies of his cabin. The complaint that follows is therefore not a dispute about ship's discipline but about social conduct between the captain and the better sort of his passengers.

Bridger's testimony when called in is the careful procedural opening of the hearing. Asked particularly whether he wanted victuals - that is, whether the food allowed at the captain's table had been insufficient - Bridger answered in the captain's favour. He had eaten with the captain and had no reason to complain on that head. The procedural separation of dietary complaint from personal-treatment complaint is the bench's standard early-modern shipboard inquiry framework: a passenger's victualling complaint is one category, his treatment complaint another. Bridger has cleared the captain on the first and proceeds to the second.

The substance of the second complaint is the captain's treatment of Bridger as compared with other passengers. Mawson called him a scoundrel rascal on board ship and showed him less respect than others. Since the Cardonnell came to St Helena, Mawson had taken notice of one Mr Diamond in a disrespectful way, by speaking to him and pulling off his hat in a particular manner. The detail of pulling off a hat is the conventional sign of acknowledgement between men of standing in the period, and the manner in which it was done - the precise inflection of the gesture - is the social signal that carried the slight. The complaint is therefore the gentleman passenger's grievance over hat-honour, the standard ground for a polite dispute in the age. The matter has not yet been fully set out as the recovered text breaks.

Speculations

The withdrawal of Aylmer and Wiley to the country on the night before the appointed morning hearing is probably calculated rather than accidental. Their absence forces the bench into the afternoon and gives them additional time, perhaps to confer with island planters known to them, or to arrange the order in which the three complainants will present their cases. The procedural advantage of delay is that the captain will then have to answer three sequential complaints rather than a single combined hearing, with each complainant tested by the bench in turn. The governor's response - to extend the appointment with an open invitation to other gentlemen passengers - converts the delay into an opportunity for the bench to widen the inquiry beyond the three named men.

Bridger's careful exclusion of any victualling complaint, before turning to the matter of personal treatment, is probably the procedural sign of a complainant who has rehearsed his case. A gentleman passenger who can affirm that the captain has fed him well at his own table while still maintaining a grievance about social respect is a complainant whose position is grounded in honour rather than in material loss. The bench will perhaps find the limited scope of the personal complaint more difficult to redress than a victualling or assault charge would have been. The Bridger-Aylmer-Wiley reference of the previous evening to striking, imprisoning and other notorious abuses suggested more serious matter; the present hearing of Bridger's particular complaint, on the calling of a name and the manner of a hat-honour, places the grievance lower than the original characterisation. The full extent of the complaint will perhaps emerge as Aylmer and Wiley follow.

498

489

but had took no notice of him. The calling names was denyed by Capt Mawson, & Mr Bridger could not say he ever call'd him any ill names particularly but as h'ws Spoke in Generall of those who were below sh[..] disorderly, & being ask't if he was One of them said no, Upon which the Govr told him then he could not take it to himself. Upon the whole it Seem'd Mr Bridger was Urg'd & perswaded to Join th[e] rest to complain as others were in the Country, were they went on purpose to gett those there to Joyn with them

Upon which y[e] Govr advising Mr Bridger better, then, to be led away after so Silly a manner & to incourage complaints. He desired Capt Mawson not to take any further notice of it, or shew any disco[n]tent to Mr Bridger since he saw twas his weakn[es]s. which he promised to do, & they both were made friends, & Mr Bridger seem'd very well Satisfied, So the Govr invited Mr Bridger to Sup with him

Then Mr Willy and Mr Aylmer complain'd the Capt: had imprison'd Willy on board the Ship & threatned to confine Aylmer & turn'd them from the Quarterdeck

The Cap[t]n Answ[r] Said the reason that he confined Mr Willy was because he was a very abusive man in Words & made a distur- bance in the Ship, & resisted him in the doing the busines[s] thereof.

The Chief Mate was Examind & sayd as followeth. Vizt. Upon Our arrival at y[e] Island of Madera being Oblidged to stow our hold for the reception of y[e] Honble Compys Wine Several goods of y[e] Factors could not be without removall

Margin Notes:

Capt: Mawsons reply.

Govrs advise to Mr Bridger

The Capt: & Mr Bridger recon- ciled.

Mr Willy & Mr Aylmers Compl[t]

y[e] Cap[t]s reply.

Mr Newshams Acct of y[e] dispute

Bridger had taken no notice of Mawson.

Captain Mawson denied the calling of names. Mr Bridger could not say that the captain had ever called him by any ill names in particular, but as he had spoken in general of those who were below to be disorderly, and being asked if he was one of them said no. Upon this the governor told him then he could not take it to himself. Upon the whole it seemed that Mr Bridger was urged and persuaded to join with the rest in complaint, as others were in the country, where he had gone on purpose to get those there to join with them.

Upon which the governor advised Mr Bridger better than to be led away after so silly a manner and to encourage complaints. The bench desired Captain Mawson not to take any further notice of it, or show any discontent to Mr Bridger, since he saw it was his weakness, which he promised to do. Both were made friends, and Mr Bridger seemed very well satisfied. The governor invited Mr Bridger to sup with him.

Then Mr Wiley and Mr Aylmer complained that the captain had imprisoned Wiley on board the ship and threatened to confine Aylmer, and turned them from the quarterdeck.

The captain answered and gave his reason. He had confined Mr Wiley because he was a very abusive man in words, and made a disturbance in the ship, and resisted him in the doing thereof.

The chief mate was examined and said as follows.

Upon our arrival at the island of Madeira, being obliged to clear our hold for the reception of the Honourable Company's wine, several goods of the factors could not be without removal.

Interpretations

The Bridger complaint collapses on examination. The captain denied calling Bridger any particular ill names, and Bridger himself could not point to any. The most the complaint amounted to was the captain's general reference to those below as disorderly; Bridger, on being asked, did not place himself among them. The governor's intervention - that Bridger could not take to himself a general reference that he himself denied applied to him - is the bench's procedural disposal of a grievance unsupported by particular instance. The procedural mechanism mirrors the disposal of the first indictment against Toby on 10 May 1715, where the case fell because there was no evidence given and the complainant had only suspected the slave; here too the complaint fails because the petitioner cannot specify the offence against him.

The bench's reading that Bridger had been urged and persuaded to join with the rest in complaint, and that the others were in the country precisely to draw further support, exposes the procedural structure of the Cardonnell passengers' grievance. The three complainants of 15 June 1715 were perhaps not so much a coherent group of injured men as a coalition assembled for the present hearing, with Aylmer and Wiley's withdrawal to the country on the previous evening serving the function of recruitment rather than withdrawal. Bridger's case was the weakest of the three, and the bench's settled view that he had been led after so silly a manner places his complaint in the lower register of social grievance.

The reconciliation of Bridger and Mawson under the bench's auspices is the procedural restoration of relations between a passenger and his captain. The bench's request that Mawson take no further notice and show no discontent to Bridger, and Mawson's promise to that effect, settles the matter without any formal finding against either party. The governor's invitation to Mr Bridger to sup with him is the social ratification of the reconciliation: a passenger who has just been corrected for being led after a silly manner is invited to the governor's table to dine, the gesture removing any lingering shame and re-establishing him in good standing on the island. The pattern of the governor's table as a venue for the closing of disputes is consistent with his earlier morning interview with Haswell of 4 May 1715, when the governor sought to dispose of the Toby complaint in private before any matter went to court.

Wiley and Aylmer's complaint, by contrast, is of a substantively different order. Wiley had been imprisoned on board the ship, and Aylmer had been threatened with confinement; both had been turned from the quarterdeck. These are physical-disciplinary actions by the captain, not slights of social register. The captain's defence on Wiley - that he was a very abusive man in words who made a disturbance in the ship and resisted the captain in dealing with it - shifts the case to the legitimate exercise of shipboard authority against a passenger who had defied it. The bench has begun the inquiry by examining the chief mate, whose account from the arrival at Madeira will set out the operational background to the disturbance.

Speculations

The bench's procedural choice to dispose of Bridger's case in a single sitting through reconciliation, before moving to the Wiley and Aylmer cases, is probably calculated to separate the weakest complaint from the stronger ones at the outset. By demonstrating that Bridger's grievance has no foundation, the bench reduces the credibility of the original combined complaint of 15 June 1715, where all three petitioners had appeared together with the same general charges of striking, imprisoning and other notorious abuses. Wiley and Aylmer must now establish their own complaints on their own facts, without the support of the Bridger element. The governor's structural management of the inquiry follows the same pattern by which he has separated administrative from political business throughout the recent record.

The chief mate's testimony, beginning at the Cardonnell's arrival at Madeira, is probably the bench's deliberate frame for the entire inquiry. By starting at the point of the Madeira call, the inquiry will recover the conduct of the voyage from the moment the Company's wine was loaded - the same wine whose leakage occupied the consultation of 15 June 1715 - and so situate the personal-discipline complaints within the context of the cargo dispute already addressed. The two strands of the Cardonnell matter, the cargo and the passengers, are perhaps to be unified through the chief mate's narrative of the voyage. The same Thomas Newsham whose stowage testimony of 15 June 1715 explained the leakage will now perhaps explain the disturbance, with the bench's view of the captain's authority on his ship resting on a single witness's account of both questions.

499

490

(as Hampers of Wine, Beer, Small boxes &c Whereupon I applyed to y[e] Gent Factors then on board, Vizt: Mr Willy particularly to desire they would receive some of their small parcels into their own care in y[e] Cabbin being at y[t] time capable & clear enú to receive them, the s[ai]d Mr Willey opposed there coming in there. I[..] told him y[t] it was seasonable they should have y[e] same care of their own Goods as I had, & proposed y[t] only to prevent embezelments & also that we might not loose y[e] Use of Our men by being drunk with their Liquors. told him that I was under Obligation to make place for his Masters Cargoe, & would also take care of his as far as lay in my power But answered That he was as well Obli[d]g'd to take care of his, & y[t] he would not Suffer 'em come in there. Went a Second time with as much application & Curtesie as possible, But Mr Willy Swore that Capt Mawson himself should not bring them in & that he would defend the Door with his Sword. Upon which I acquainted Capt Mawson, who imodiatly went down & a[..]ked himself to carry in y[e] s[ai]d Hampers, upon which Mr Willy Struggled & shove y[e] Capt who gave him a blow about y[e] head or face and had not I enterven'd would at that time have Asaulted y[e] Capt & gave him the worst Language y[t] could be expected from One intrusted by y[e] Honble Compy. As Rogue, Rascal, Scoundrel & other ill Lan- gúage, & threaten'd him to go on shoare & Clapt his hand upon his Britch & b[id] him kiss that & that he would call Capt. Mawson to an Account on Shoare.

he

The chief mate continued. The goods to be removed were such as hampers of wine, beer, small boxes and other items. Newsham then applied to the gentlemen factors then on board, and particularly to Mr Wiley, to desire that they would receive some of their small parcels into their own care in the cabin, the cabin being at that time capable and clear enough to receive them. Mr Wiley opposed their coming in there. Newsham told him that it was reasonable they should have the same care of their own goods as he had, and proposed it only to prevent embezzlements, and also that the ship might not lose the use of the men by their being drunk with their liquors. Newsham told him that he was under obligation to make place for his masters' cargo and would take care of Wiley's goods as far as lay in his power.

Wiley answered that he was as well obliged to take care of his goods, and he would not suffer them to come in there.

Newsham went a second time with as much application and courtesy as possible. Wiley swore that Captain Mawson himself should not bring them in, and that he would defend the door with his sword. Upon this Newsham acquainted Captain Mawson, who immediately went down and applied himself to carry in the hampers. Mr Wiley struggled and shoved the captain, who gave him a blow about the head or face. Had Newsham not intervened, Wiley would at that time have assaulted the captain. Wiley gave him the worst language that could be expected from one entrusted by the Honourable Company, such as rogue, rascal, scoundrel and other ill language, and threatened him to go on shore. Wiley clapped his hand upon his breech and bid him kiss that, and said that he would call Captain Mawson to an account on shore.

Interpretations

The chief mate's narrative restructures the dispute from a question of the captain's conduct to a question of the passenger's conduct. The Madeira loading sequence is set out as a normal piece of voyage practice: the hold being cleared to make room for the Honourable Company's wine consigned to the island, the small parcels of the passenger factors had to be moved temporarily into the cabin space. The proposal was reasonable on its face, was made with care to preserve the factors' interests, and was supported by a particular operational concern. The risk of the seamen becoming drunk on opened liquor casks in the hold during the work of stowage is a recognised problem of long voyages, and the move of beer and wine hampers into the secure cabin space is the procedural safeguard against it.

Wiley's response to Newsham was an outright refusal, repeated on a second application made with all possible courtesy. The escalation to a sworn declaration that Wiley would defend the cabin door with his sword against the captain himself converted the matter from a refusal of cooperation into a threat of armed resistance. The captain's intervention - going down to the cabin in person and applying himself to bring the hampers in - was the legitimate exercise of his authority over the ship's working space, with the cabin not the personal property of any passenger but accommodation provided under the voyage. Wiley's physical resistance, struggling and shoving the captain, was the breach of that authority, and the captain's blow about the head or face was the proportionate response within the bounds of shipboard discipline.

The chief mate's evidence that he intervened to prevent Wiley assaulting the captain establishes the threshold the bench will apply in considering the question of who was the original offender. Wiley spoke first, sworn defiance first, resisted physically first, and was prevented from assault only by the intervention of an officer. The captain's strike, by this account, was the response to physical aggression rather than the initiation of it. The mate's evidence on this point is precise and personal: he himself was on the scene and intervened. The procedural value of the testimony is high, in contrast to William Allison's purser's complaint of the previous day, which had rested on report of another.

The catalogue of language used by Wiley - rogue, rascal, scoundrel and other ill language - is the documentary record of the verbal abuse. The bench has met this catalogue before, in Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715 alleging defamation of her reputation by Powell's articles. The standard of language counted as scandalous is now fixed in the consultation books as a benchmark against which the present case can be measured. Wiley's threat to call the captain to an account on shore is the conventional language of a duel challenge, the gentleman's recourse where shipboard authority cannot be answered with shipboard means. The threat moves the dispute from the legitimate hierarchy of the ship to the private rule of personal combat, and is the kind of conduct on which a captain has no choice but to confine the speaker for the safety of the ship's good order.

Speculations

The chief mate's narrative is probably the strongest single deposition in the Cardonnell matter. Newsham was present at every step, made the application himself, fetched the captain, and intervened at the critical moment. The accumulated weight of his testimony - on the stowage of the wine on 15 June 1715 and on the disturbance with Wiley today - establishes him as the bench's principal witness on the wider dispute. The pattern is consistent with Newsham's role as the senior working officer of the ship, whose duty embraces both cargo and crew management. By concentrating its inquiry on his evidence, the bench builds a single coherent narrative of the voyage from the Madeira loading to the present confrontation, with Wiley's conduct emerging as the operative cause of the imprisonment of which he now complains.

Wiley's behaviour on board, as set out in the deposition, is probably also the operative cause of his having joined the original complaint of 15 June 1715. A factor who has been confined for armed defiance of his captain has every reason to seek redress by transferring the dispute to a venue where the captain is the defendant rather than the commander. By bringing the complaint at the island, with the bench as referee, Wiley converts an act of shipboard discipline into an alleged abuse of office. The procedural manoeuvre is the same Captain Haswell attempted at the trial of Toby on 10 May 1715, when the slave's prosecution sought to transfer the deputy governor's private trouble onto the criminal docket of the council. Both attempts have so far been seen through by the bench, with the underlying facts examined and the original aggressor identified through deposition of those present.

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491

which may not improperly be called Mutiny for all Capt[s] are in danger if so liable to be Asaulted by people in such humours & had it not been for pestering Our Decks in a dangerous port, for my own part I should have left 'em to no greater care then of a Common Sailors.

Mr Willy & Aylmer sayd the Capt & his Mate to be sure would make their Own cause as good as they could but they desired to be Judged by Mr Newcombs Testimony who was the Capts friend as well as theirs, who they believ'd would Speak the truth, Upon w[ch] he was call'd in & said as foll[ows]. Vizt.

Mr Stephen Newcomb Saith that there has been great disturbances on board y[e] Ship Cardonnell, & Sayeth that y[e] Gentlemen passengers have in his Judgment, Severall tho not all been the Ocea[s]ion of it & Sayes that he remembers that he has heard Mr Willey say Capt Mawson was no Gentlemen & that he was a Scoundral, & that Once in the Voyage y[e] s[ai]d Willy expos'd his backside to the Capt & bid him kiss his Ars[e]

A[n]d Saith that Mr Aylmer has in the mid night Sat to Drinking a Cup t[o] y[e] Moon & Order'd it to be Smug[d] that it might burn clearer to light him & has been very abusive to the Capt[n] & occasion'd many distur- bances to y[e] Ship & would knock against the Ceiling of y[e] Cabbin on purpose to disturb y[e] Capt that the said Aylmer is often drunk and abusive in his Liquor.

And Sayeth also that Willy has very often drank to the Kings Health & there

Margin Notes:

Mr Willy & Mr Bridger refer to Mr Newcombs Testimony

Mr Newcombs acc[t] of y[e] matter

Newsham closed his testimony. The conduct of Wiley might not improperly be called mutiny, for all captains were in danger of being assaulted by people in such humours, and had it not been for pestering the decks in a dangerous port, for his own part he would have left them to no greater care than that of a common sailor.

Mr Wiley and Mr Aylmer said the captain and his mate to be sure would make their own cause as good as they could. They desired to be judged by Mr Newcomb's testimony, who was the captain's friend as well as theirs, and who they believed would speak the truth. Upon this Newcomb was called in. His testimony was as follows.

Mr Stephen Newcomb said that there had been great disturbances on board the ship Cardonnell. The gentlemen passengers had, in his judgement, several though not all been the occasion of it. He remembered that he had heard Mr Wiley say Captain Mawson was no gentleman and that he was a scoundrel, and that once in the voyage Mr Wiley exposed his backside to the captain and bid him kiss his arse.

Newcomb said that Mr Aylmer had in the midnight sat to drinking a candle at the moon, and ordered it to be snuffed that it might burn clearer to light him. He had been very abusive to the captain and had occasioned many disturbances in the ship. He would knock against the ceiling of the cabin on purpose to disturb the captain. Aylmer was often drunk and abusive in his liquor.

Newcomb said also that Wiley had very often drunk to the King's health and then

Interpretations

The chief mate's characterisation of Wiley's conduct as not improperly called mutiny carries the gravest legal weight available in shipboard discipline. Mutiny is the resistance of constituted authority by the men of the ship, and the use of the word against a passenger rather than a member of the crew is a notable extension. The mate's reasoning is that the captain's authority over passengers is as essential to the safety of the voyage as his authority over crew, and that abusive interference with that authority creates the same operational risk. The reference to pestering the decks in a dangerous port is the operational consideration that Newsham invokes: a passenger who creates trouble while the ship is in harbour, perhaps with unknown sail in the offing of the kind reported in the double alarm of 10 June 1715, threatens the ship at her most exposed moment. Newsham would, by his own statement, have left such people to the care of a common sailor only, that is, treated them as ordinary seamen subject to the boatswain's rope's end rather than the captain's table.

The Wiley-Aylmer party's decision to call Mr Stephen Newcomb as their own witness is the procedural turning point of the inquiry. Newcomb is presented to the bench as a man known to both sides - friend to the captain and to the complainants - and so as a witness whose testimony will be received as impartial by both parties. The selection of an agreed witness is a recognised mechanism in informal arbitration, by which both sides commit themselves in advance to accept the testimony of a single trusted person. Wiley and Aylmer's confidence that Newcomb will speak the truth is the predicate of their submission to his evidence; whatever Newcomb says, they have committed themselves to be judged by it.

Newcomb's testimony then describes a sequence of acts by Wiley and Aylmer that confirms and extends the chief mate's account. Wiley had said the captain was no gentleman and that he was a scoundrel, and at one point in the voyage had exposed his backside to the captain and uttered the same gross phrase Wiley had used to Newsham at Madeira. The repetition of the gesture and the language across two separate incidents, and the corroboration by an agreed witness, makes the conduct a settled pattern rather than a single incident. Aylmer's behaviour is described as a different category of offence: drunken eccentricity such as sitting to drink to a candle held against the moon and ordering the candle snuffed for clearer light, abusive language to the captain, and deliberate physical interference with the captain's rest by knocking against the cabin ceiling. The combination is the picture of a passenger habitually drunk and deliberately disruptive.

The reference to Wiley's drinking the King's health, recovered as the principal text breaks, opens a further element of Newcomb's testimony. The toast to the King's health was the standard expression of loyalty in early Hanoverian shipboard practice, particularly important in the months immediately following the accession of King George on 1 August 1714. With the proclamation made at the island only on 6 June 1715 and the King's health drunk at the public houses with bonfires that evening, the toast carries continuing political weight. Wiley's frequent drinking to the King's health is therefore being recorded by Newcomb as a separate point, perhaps to introduce a circumstance that turns against him, or perhaps to introduce one in his favour. The next image will set out the qualification.

Speculations

The Wiley-Aylmer party's submission to Mr Newcomb as agreed witness is probably the gravest procedural mistake they could have made. Having staked their credit on his testimony, they cannot now contradict him without breaking the commitment by which they submitted. Newcomb has, on the recovered evidence, comprehensively confirmed the captain's account: Wiley's verbal abuse, his physical exposure, his confrontational language; Aylmer's drunkenness and deliberate disruption. The procedural device they chose - asking the bench to judge them by a mutual friend's testimony - has converted their complaint into a self-administered conviction. The pattern is unlike Mrs Haswell's careful petition of 31 May 1715, where the witnesses she offered were the nearer neighbours and children's relations she could be confident would support her; the Cardonnell complainants have miscalculated.

The chief mate's invocation of mutiny against passengers is probably also the council's procedural ground for moving the inquiry from a personal hearing to a question of shipboard order. If the bench accepts Newsham's characterisation, the captain's confinement of Wiley is no longer a complaint to be redressed but a justified act of shipboard discipline. The complainants' original demand of 15 June 1715 to be redressed or to have liberty to return to England and to abandon the Cardonnell voyage becomes the bench's procedural opportunity: the council can grant the abandonment of the voyage as a way of removing the disruptive passengers from the ship, while restoring the captain's authority over his deck and protecting the Cardonnell's remaining voyage. The inquiry has thus changed its character from a hearing of complaints against a captain to a settlement of the disposition of troublesome passengers.

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Said, I don't mean King George but my Own King James the Third for all the Whiggs are Rogues.

They then Seem'd Surprized that he should Speak of that, w[ch] they had desired him not to mention

The Govr told them they were not fitt persons to Serve the Honble Compys (who were the Kings best Subjects) & that such men ought not to proceed the Voyage, & he did not know whether 'twas safe to Send such persons any further or no but that 'twould be more for his Honr: Masters Interest to send them back again, which he thought was his duty

Mr Aylmer sayd he Used not to be often Drunk in y[e] Voyage & that (when the great disturbance was made) He did ask the Capts pardon for disturbing him They both did now heartily ask the Govrs & the Capts pardon promising to behave themselves better for the future And had not now complain'd but that they had been inform'd Since they came here that they were not Used well & that they should have had a Servant appointed to Wait on them & fetch their things, clean their Apartment & do what else they wanted.

They were asked who gave them such bad advice & information of what their Usage ought to be, but they were unwilling to tell & sayd they had been told so.

But the Govr being most desirous to make every body contented enquired no further of y[t] matter And they agreed to write a Note to the Capt to ask his pardon

&

Margin Notes:

Govrs opinion

Mr Aylmers Vindication

Query

Govr desirous to make y[m] easy

Newcomb closed his testimony. Wiley, when he had drunk the King's health, had said that he did not mean King George, but his own King James the Third, for all the Whigs were rogues.

Wiley and Aylmer then seemed surprised that Newcomb should speak of that, which they had desired him not to mention.

The governor told them they were not fit persons to serve the Honourable Company, who were the King's best subjects, and that such men ought not to proceed the voyage. He did not know whether it was safe to send such persons any further or no, but it would be more for his Honourable Masters' interest to send them back again, which he thought was his duty.

Mr Aylmer said he was not often drunk in the voyage, and that when the great disturbance was made he did ask the captain's pardon for disturbing him. Both Wiley and Aylmer now heartily asked the governor's and the captain's pardon, promising to behave themselves better for the future. They had not now complained but that they had been informed, since they came to the island, that they were not used well, and that they should have had a servant appointed to wait on them, fetch their things, clean their apartment and do what else they wanted.

They were asked who had given them such bad advice and information of what their usage ought to be, but they were unwilling to tell, and said they had been told so.

The governor, being most desirous to make everybody contented, enquired no further of the matter. They agreed to write a note to the captain to ask his pardon.

Interpretations

The Jacobite revelation transforms the inquiry. Wiley's qualification of the King's health toast - that he did not mean King George but his own King James the Third, and that the Whigs were rogues - is an open declaration of allegiance to the Stuart pretender against the proclaimed Hanoverian sovereign. The phrase his own King James the Third refers to James Francis Edward Stuart, son of the deposed James II and the figure for whom the Jacobite cause raised arms in Scotland and northern England during the rising that broke out in the latter half of 1715. At the present consultation of 16 June 1715, ten days after the formal proclamation of King George at the island on 6 June 1715, such a declaration is direct opposition to the lawful sovereign and to the constitutional settlement under which the Honourable Company holds its charter.

The procedural collapse of the complainants is immediate. Wiley and Aylmer's surprise that Newcomb had mentioned the matter, which they had asked him not to mention, exposes the complainants' awareness that the toast carried fatal implications. They had submitted to Newcomb's testimony in confidence that he would suppress the most damaging element of their conduct. The witness's choice to disclose it nevertheless, perhaps out of his obligation to speak the truth before the bench, places before the governor the full character of the men whose complaint had opened the inquiry. The procedural device of an agreed witness has now produced not merely the disposal of the personal-treatment complaints but a constitutional revelation against the principal complainant.

The governor's response - that the men were not fit to serve the Honourable Company, that they should not proceed the voyage, and that it was more for the Honourable Masters' interest to send them back again - converts the inquiry into a personnel decision. The bench will send them home to England rather than allow their continued passage in Company employment. The phrasing of more for his Honourable Masters' interest is the standard formula for exercising discretion in the Company's commercial favour. The directors at London will receive at the homeward despatch both the complainants' original petition of 15 June 1715 and the depositions of the present consultation, with the governor's order for their return forming the disposition of the matter.

The reconciliation that follows is the bench's softer landing for the wider matter. Aylmer's qualified admission - that he was not often drunk in the voyage, and that he had asked the captain's pardon when the great disturbance was made - is a partial concession on his particular behaviour. Both Wiley and Aylmer heartily asked the governor's and the captain's pardon, and promised to behave themselves better in the future. The bench has thus produced both a procedural finding against the men (that they will be sent home) and a social composition of the dispute (that they ask pardon and accept the captain's authority). The combination follows the same pattern by which Bridger's separate complaint had been disposed of through reconciliation and a supper invitation.

Speculations

The governor's choice to enquire no further into who had given the complainants such bad advice and information of what their usage ought to be is probably calibrated to keep the matter within the bounds of the Cardonnell itself. Wiley and Aylmer's vague statement that they had been told so points to some person at the island who had encouraged them in their grievance, perhaps in the country during their visit there on the night of 15 June 1715. The most natural source of such advice would be the planters and Company servants among whom they spent the night, perhaps men with their own complaints against the present administration. The governor's decision not to pursue the trail is probably designed to avoid extending the inquiry into the island's own political tensions, particularly the still-unresolved Powell-Gurling-Steward matter and the protective orders against Captain Haswell of 10 May 1715. A formal enquiry into who advised the Cardonnell passengers would risk opening fresh disputes within the small island society, on a day already heavy with the constitutional implications of Wiley's toast.

The Jacobite element of the testimony will probably be set down in the homeward despatch as an item of intelligence to the Lords Proprietors. With the rising in Scotland and the north of England now perhaps under way during the latter half of 1715, although news of the formal outbreak has not yet reached the island, the directors at London will be alert to expressions of Stuart sympathy among Company servants and passengers. The governor's documentary record of Wiley's toast - through the agreed-witness testimony of Newcomb and the complainants' own surprise that it had been mentioned - establishes the matter on the island's books in a form that can be transmitted to the metropolis without depending on the captain's own testimony. The bench's procedural composition of the day's record has therefore served both the immediate operational need to dispose of the disruptive passengers and the longer documentary need to inform the directors of the religious-political element among the Cardonnell's company.

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and did so, promising a Civiller behavoure for the future, And the Capt promised that all these matters should be forgot, and all being made friends they were dismist

It did appeare they had been privatly Urg'd by some body to complain, but we c[oul]d not discover who, only that 'twas some per- son in the Country.

For their had been a Written paper drawn for a General complaint against Capt Mawson & handed about amongst all the pasingers but none would Sighe it but those three above mencond whose easy temper might without much difficulty be prevail'd on by any designing man

Some gave the Govr an Account of One Mr Swarz but we could not think he could be so bad as to make these people fish in troubled Waters or to promote such com- plaints because he did not like their Captain but be it who it will, 'twas ill done, because some times from as Small matters as these when fomented in a Ship great disturbances do arise.

All parties being made friends the passen- gers went up into the Country again to divert themselves, & the Govr gave them liberty to shoot patridges & wild fowl, &c.

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Jervey

Edward Byfield

Margin Notes:

Complainants Sett on to it by persons in y[e] Country

Likely Mr Swarz

all made friends

Wiley and Aylmer did so, promising a civiller behaviour for the future. The captain promised that all these matters should be forgotten, and all being made friends they were dismissed.

It did appear that they had been privately urged by somebody to complain. The council could not discover who, only that it was some person in the country.

There had been a written paper drawn for a general complaint against Captain Mawson, and handed about among all the passengers, but only the three above mentioned signed it. Their easy temper might without much difficulty be prevailed on by any designing man.

Some gave the governor an account of one Mr Swarck, but the council could not think he would be so bad as to make these people fish in troubled waters, or to promote such complaints because he did not like their captain. Be it who it will, the matter was ill done, because sometimes from as small matters as these, when fomented in a ship, great disturbances did arise.

All parties being made friends, the passengers went up into the country again to divert themselves. The governor gave them liberty to shoot partridges and wild fowl.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The closing of the Cardonnell dispute through reconciliation rather than formal sentence is the governor's settled disposition. Wiley and Aylmer promise civility for the future, the captain promises forgetting of the matters complained of, and all parties are made friends. The procedural pattern is the same the bench applied to Bridger and Mawson at the morning sitting and to the Allgate matter on 7 June 1715. The Jacobite toast of which Newcomb had spoken, however serious as a matter of allegiance, is not pressed to formal proceedings against Wiley; the governor's earlier statement that the men were not fit to serve and should be sent back to England has been quietly absorbed into the present reconciliation. The complainants will continue the voyage as passengers, but on the captain's terms and with their grievances disposed of.

The discovery that the original complaint was the product of private urging by some person in the country opens a new question that the bench chooses not to pursue. The written paper for a general complaint against Captain Mawson, drawn up at some point and handed among all the Cardonnell's passengers, had attracted only the three signatures of Bridger, Wiley and Aylmer. The procedural force of the document was therefore weak, both because it gathered only three subscribers from the wider passenger body and because those three have now been characterised by the bench as men of easy temper. The reference to the prevailing on them by any designing man identifies the structural problem: the Cardonnell's passengers were susceptible to the influence of an island-side person with reason to embarrass the captain.

The naming of one Mr Swarck as the suspected agent of the design is the only specific identification in the recovered text. The governor declines to think Swarck would be so bad as to make these people fish in troubled waters, that is, to use them to exploit the disordered conditions on board for his own purposes. The phrase fish in troubled waters carries the same image used elsewhere in early modern administrative writing for the opportunistic exploitation of disorder by an interested party. Swarck's motive, if any, is left unspecified: the bench simply notes that he did not like their captain. The governor's restraint on this point - declining to pursue Swarck on the strength of unconfirmed information - is consistent with his earlier decision to enquire no further who had given the complainants such bad advice. The bench's working principle is to dispose of disputes by composition where it can, and to keep the inquiry within the bounds of the parties immediately before it.

The grant of liberty to the passengers to shoot partridges and wild fowl in the country is the social ratification of the reconciliation. The men whose complaint had occupied two consultation days, and who had stood under the threat of being sent back to England, are now treated as gentlemen guests of the island, with the freedom of the country and access to its sport. The grant carries no rent or qualification; it is a courtesy extended at the close of a settled dispute. The signature pattern at the foot of the consultation - George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield - records the deputy governor, the secretary and the new fifth in council as the authenticating bench. Matthew Bazett's signature is again absent, consistent with the pattern observed at the protest of 11 June 1715 and the Newington discharge of 14 June 1715.

Speculations

The governor's tactical reabsorption of his earlier finding - that the complainants were not fit to serve the Honourable Company and ought not to proceed the voyage - is probably the working pragmatism of a small council against a difficult disposition. To send Wiley and Aylmer back to England would require either holding them at the island until the next homeward ship or transferring them to a vessel already homeward bound, in either case with the management of two unruly passengers under Company custody. The reconciliation removes the practical burden by permitting the Cardonnell to take them on as before, with the threat of formal proceedings held in reserve. The disposition is consistent with the bench's wider practice during the Cardonnell's call of preferring composition over formal sentence where the operational interest is served.

The decision not to name Mr Swarck on the record beyond the bench's open scepticism is probably designed to avoid a separate dispute with another planter or Company servant arising from the present matter. With the Powell-Gurling-Steward dispute still in its fair way of agreement and the inherited disciplinary order against Captain Haswell of 10 May 1715 not yet absorbed, the council cannot afford another political contest with a country-side resident. The governor's refusal to think Swarck so bad therefore performs two functions: it preserves the bench's freedom to act against him later if information should harden, and it allows the present consultation to close without provoking him into a response. The same restraint will perhaps yield to formal action only if the next ship to call carries fresh information that confirms the suspicion.

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Island St Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 21. of June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Vally

Isaac Pyke Esqr Govr Geo: Haswell Depty Mathew Bazett 3d Antipas Jervey 4th & Edw Byfield 5th in Council

Prest:

This morning word was brought to y[e] Govr by Revd Mr Worrall that there was a paper Sett up at y[e] Ministers door, & did believe that it was a reflection on the Government &c.

Upon which the Govr bid him go & take it down & bring it to him which he did. and it is as followeth Vizt.

An Order of Govr Clark &c. Whereas Wee the Govr of Troy have heard the Complaints of the Barbarous, Rediculous & Scandelous Actions & treatments of Capt. Coxwain & his Lodgers & others in the Castle of Cap.

Do Order & direct the said Capt. Coxwain to continue the same & according to Our Laudable Custom mettigate their grievances by Starving them, that none be left alive to complain to Govr Honor or revenge it by drubbing him.

Wee

Margin Notes:

a Libel affixed at y[e] Parsons door.

Copy thereof.

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Tuesday the 21 June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

That morning word was brought to the governor by Mr William Worrall that a paper had been set up at the minister's door, and he believed it was a reflection on the government. The governor told him to go and take it down and bring it to him, which he did. The paper was as follows.

An order of Governor Clark.

The paper was framed as an order in the name of the Governor of Troy. He set out that he had heard of the harsh and absurd treatment dealt out by Captain Coxwain to his lodgers and others in the Castle of Capers. He directed Captain Coxwain to carry on in the same manner. By long-standing custom, he was to relieve their grievances by leaving them to starve, so that none remained alive to bring any complaint before him or to take revenge by beating him.

The paper was signed: we.

Interpretations

The libel posted at the minister's door is a classic early modern political pasquinade, a satirical paper placed in a public location to attack the conduct of authority while remaining anonymous. The choice of location is deliberate. The minister's door is a place every inhabitant passes, and posting there gives the libel maximum visibility while attaching it loosely to the chaplain's office without making the chaplain himself the target. The same procedural mechanism was used in classical Rome, where notices were affixed to the statue of Pasquino in the Piazza Navona, the practice from which the word pasquinade derives. The libeller's choice of a public church-related location places the document in the tradition of political satire that targets officials through allusion rather than direct accusation.

The transposition of the dispute into the language of the Trojan War is the libel's principal device. The author writes as the Governor of Troy, the captain in the libel is named Coxwain, the place is the Castle of Capers, and the targets are the lodgers and others. The substitution allows the libeller to attack the present government and its officers under cover of classical disguise, with each name carrying an obvious local meaning that the inhabitants would readily decode. The structure is a parodic warrant in the form of a Company instruction, with recital of complaints, mock authority and operative direction. The choice of administrative form is the satire on the bench's own paper, and is the libel's claim that the council's instruments themselves are absurd and oppressive.

The substance of the satire is precise. The mock order directs the captain to continue the alleged ill-treatment of his lodgers and to relieve their grievances by leaving them to starve, so that none remained alive to bring any complaint or take revenge. The two methods of mitigation are the inversion of recognised remedies: a grievance is to be addressed not by relief but by extermination of the grievants, and the alternative recourse of personal vengeance is foreclosed by depriving them of the strength to deliver it. The mock direction therefore charges the present administration with two related sins: tolerating ill-treatment of those in custody, and so administering its remedies that no complaint can survive. The substance of the satire turns on the loathsome and filthy prison of which Corporal Samuel Algate had complained on 26 April 1715 and the wider question of disciplinary practice on the island.

The single-word signature - we - is the satirist's mock subscription, the royal plural of an authority claiming to speak for the whole government in a single voice. The choice avoids identifying any individual signer while maintaining the appearance of official authentication. The bench will now have to determine the authorship of the paper, the proper response to it, and whether any action is needed against the placing of it at the minister's door. The proceedings that follow will perhaps include questioning of those known to be capable of the literary style, of those with grievances of the kind alluded to, and of any who were observed near the minister's door at the time of posting.

Speculations

The libel is probably the product of one of the Cardonnell passengers whose dispute the council disposed of on 16 June 1715 through reconciliation. Wiley and Aylmer were sent up into the country again on the close of that consultation to divert themselves, with liberty to shoot partridges and wild fowl. A man of Wiley's literary capacity - capable of composing the King James the Third toast and the worst language to be expected from one entrusted by the Honourable Company - is precisely the kind of figure whose disposition to satire matches the present libel. The Castle of Capers, with its play on a punning name, perhaps gestures at the Cardonnell's recent passage. The Mr Swarck against whom the governor declined to enquire further on 16 June 1715 is another possible candidate, an island-side person with reason to dislike the captain and the capacity to provoke a paper of this kind. The bench has not yet identified the author but the present occasion calls for fresh inquiry.

The choice to bring the matter to William Worrall, the overseer of the plantations on his probationary appointment of 5 April 1715, rather than to the chaplain Joshua Tomlinson at whose door the paper was posted, is probably the morning timing rather than a procedural distinction. Worrall is the man who happened to be passing the minister's door on the way to the bench, perhaps in connection with his cattle account of 18 June 1715 or other plantation business. The governor's prompt instruction to him to take down the paper and bring it to the bench is the correct conservancy response: the libel was to be removed from public view at once and brought to the council for examination, rather than left at the minister's door for further reading by the inhabitants. The procedural priority was to limit the libel's circulation while reserving the question of authorship and response to the formal consideration of the bench.

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Wee Council & Direct you to favour in- formers Mobb & Flatterers & on so Solid a Foundation. Build your fame, & establish your Divine right to Arbitrary power, To Slight men of Station, Birth & Sense, y[t] your greatness may not be Eclipsed, Discont Aspired, or folly be conspicious

Wee further charge you not to immitate Capt. Seaman either in Sense, management or quiet Governing of his Ship but continue full of your Self admiration, cherish your Smile &c (if possible) be more Stupid then ever which will recomend you to Ours & y[e] Ladys favours. Given at Our Court in Grub Street in the City of Troy in the first Year of Our Reigne the 18: June 1715.

Island St Helena.

Since was Published. By the Worth: Govr & Council An Advertizement.

These are to give Notice, that y[e] Honble Compa hath Upwards of One Hundred Rod of Morter or Wall to make in James[s] Valley, & that all materials to compleat y[e] Same work is within a Hundred Yards thereof. If any person or persons be willing to undertake the said work they may apply to y[e] Govr who will treat with him or them further about it.

Dated at y[e] Union Castle this 24. day of June 1715.

Signed by Order of Govr &c.

Antipas Jervey Secr.

Verte

Margin Notes:

Advertizem[t] to Erect Walling.

The paper continued. The mock order went on as follows.

The Governor of Troy directed Captain Coxwain to give favour to his former mob and to those who flattered him, on so solid a foundation as that. He was to build his name and establish his divine right to arbitrary power, and to slight men of station, birth and sense, lest his greatness be eclipsed, his dissent despised, or his folly conspicuous.

The Governor of Troy further charged Captain Coxwain not to imitate Captain Seaman, either in sense, management or quiet governing of his ship, but to continue full of self-admiration, to cherish his smile, and, if possible, to be more stupid than ever, which would recommend him to the favours of the governor and his lady.

The paper was given at the court at Grub Street in the City of Troy, in the first year of the reign of the supposed governor, dated 18 June 1715.

Such was the paper that had been published.

By the worshipful governor and council. An advertisement.

The advertisement gave notice that the Honourable Company had upwards of 100 rod of mortar or wet wall to make in James Valley, and that all materials to complete the work were within 100 yards thereof. If any person or persons were willing to undertake the work, they might apply to the governor, who would treat with them or them further about it.

The advertisement was dated at the Union Castle this 24 day of June 1715 and signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, secretary.

Interpretations

The libel's central political charge is the doctrine of arbitrary power. The mock order calls upon the supposed governor to build his name and establish his divine right to arbitrary power on a foundation of mob support and flattery, while slighting men of station, birth and sense. The phrase divine right to arbitrary power is the deliberate combination of two doctrines the parliamentary settlement of 1688 had been understood to reject: the Stuart claim of divine right of kings, and the absolutist claim of arbitrary power independent of law or counsel. The pairing is calculated to associate the present administration with the political theory that the Hanoverian succession proclaimed at the island on 6 June 1715 had defeated. By implication the libeller is charging the bench with proceeding on a constitutional theory at odds with the very settlement under which the new sovereign was proclaimed.

The reference to mob and flatterers identifies the social allies of the supposed administration as the lower elements of the population and the obsequious courtiers, against the dispossessed party of station, birth and sense whom the order is to slight. The libeller therefore positions himself as a man of standing whose merit is being passed over in favour of unworthy creatures of the governor. The charge is the standard country-party complaint against any administration the writer disapproves of, but its location at the minister's door of a small island under Company government places the conventional rhetoric in an unconventional setting.

The contrast with Captain Seaman is the libel's nautical comparator. The unnamed Captain Seaman represents the model of sense, management and quiet governing of a ship - the proper conduct of authority that Captain Coxwain is mocked for failing to imitate. The libeller's choice of a sea-going analogy invokes the same operational standard the chief mate Newsham applied to the Cardonnell on 16 June 1715, when he distinguished proper shipboard discipline from the disorder that troubled passengers had created. By calling on Coxwain to imitate Seaman, the libel implicitly identifies the present administration's conduct with the failed authority on the Cardonnell, and so links the present satire to the recent disputes brought before the bench.

The Grub Street dateline is the satirical reference to the London street that by 1715 had become synonymous with hack writers and political pamphleteers. By dating the paper at Grub Street in the City of Troy, the libeller acknowledges his own position as a writer of political libels in the cheap-press tradition, while continuing the Trojan disguise of the substantive content. The first year of the reign references both the supposed reign of the Governor of Troy and, by uncomfortable analogy, the first year of King George's reign, into which the mock administration is set. The 18 June 1715 date places the composition three days before its discovery at the minister's door on 21 June 1715.

The wet-wall advertisement of 24 June 1715 returns the consultation book to routine business. The hundred rod of mortar or wet wall to be made in James Valley is the standard linear-measure unit for masonry, a rod being 5½ yards or about 16½ feet, and a hundred rod therefore amounting to perhaps 550 yards of wall. The work is connected to the Sandy Bay sea wall programme and the broader infrastructure works under the threads, with all materials available within a hundred yards of the site. The undertaking is to be by treaty with the governor, the usual mechanism for contracting masonry work where wage rates and conditions can be negotiated case by case, as with the replacement stone-layer labour at 3s 0d per day engaged after the breaking of the combination on 18 January 1714/15.

Speculations

The reference to the favour of the governor and his lady in the libel's closing paragraph is probably calculated to drag the governor's domestic establishment into the dispute. The phrase echoes the language of court patronage, where the favour of a chief executive's wife was a recognised channel of personal advancement. The implicit suggestion is that the present administration runs on the same favour-and-flattery basis as a Stuart court. The libeller has therefore concentrated his attack on the structural features the bench would find hardest to address: arbitrary power, divine right, mob support, slighting of station, and household influence. The bench cannot answer such charges with a particular order or a specific instruction; it can only proceed against the author if and when he can be identified.

The juxtaposition of the libel with the wet-wall advertisement of 24 June 1715, with the dates only three days apart, is probably no accident in the bench's record-keeping. The advertisement is the bench's documentary answer to the libel: the present administration runs on practical engineering works open to public tender, with materials specified and treaty available, not on arbitrary favour to mob and flatterers. The consultation book is therefore composing its own implicit response by setting the routine administrative business immediately after the entry of the libel. The directors at London, when they read the homeward despatch carrying both items, will see at once the kind of public business the council is actually conducting alongside the satire that the bench has dignified by entering on the record.

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The Govr demanded of Capt Haswell & Capt Bazett the following Questions Vizt.

Q. Why the Books are not ready. A... They have not had time

Q. Why the Accounts are not made Up. A... They have not had time Yett.

Q. Whose fault it is A. No Bodys for three months are not Suffecient.

Q. When shall they be done. A. Not till Six months after the 25th of March which as Capt Bazett saith is the Usual time

Q. How many Men are Absalutely necessary to write at the Stores, & how those are employed. A. They Say they want more.

There are Capt Haswell Account- ant. Capt: Bazett Store keeper, Mr Byfield Mr Thomlinson, Mr John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin & Richard D[..]on

Mr William Allison purser of the Cardonnell being desirous to go for Great- Britain (& not proceed for Bencoolen) Proposed the Selling What goods he had on board & which were coming on shoar to Sell to the Honble Compa.

It is Order'd That what Goods

Margin Notes:

Govrs Dema[n]d of Capt Haswell & Bazett ab[t] y[e] Store acc[ts]

their Answr

how many assists them

Mr Allison proposeth to Sell his Goods.

The governor demanded of Captain Haswell and Captain Bazett the following questions.

Question. Why the books were not ready.

Answer. They had not had time.

Question. Why the accounts were not made up.

Answer. They had not had time yet.

Question. Whose fault it was.

Answer. Nobody's, for three months were not sufficient.

Question. When they should be done.

Answer. Not till six months after the 25 of March, which, as Captain Bazett said, was the usual time.

Question. How many men were absolutely necessary to write at the stores, and how those were employed.

Answer. They said they wanted more.

The assistants then at the stores were Captain Haswell as accountant, Captain Bazett as storekeeper, Mr Byfield, Mr Tomlinson, Mr John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin and Richard [...].

Mr William Allison, purser of the Cardonnell, being desirous to go for Great Britain and not proceed for Bencoolen, proposed the selling of what goods he had on board and which were coming on shore to the Honourable Company.

The council ordered that what goods he had

Interpretations

The bench's interrogation of Captain Haswell and Captain Bazett on the state of the books and accounts converts the long-running storekeeper-account problem from a thread on the open business to a formal proceeding under question-and-answer examination. The structure is the same the bench used for the Cardonnell officers on 15 June 1715: direct questions taken in order, with the answers entered word for word. The procedure preserves the responses on the record in a form that can be checked against later production. The dignity given to the questioning - both responsible officers examined together, the questions numbered in form - elevates the inquiry above ordinary administrative chasing and places it in the procedural class of a formal record.

Haswell's role as accountant and Bazett's as storekeeper are the two principal offices in the Company's stores establishment at the island. The accountant is responsible for the running ledger of receipts and disbursements; the storekeeper is responsible for the physical custody of goods and for the day-to-day accounts of issues and receipts. Together they should produce the quarterly stores accounts that the bench has been pressing to settlement since the consolidated quarter to 25 February 1715 totalling £487 16s 3¾d, signed by Pyke, Haswell and Tovey without Mashborne or Bazett, and the second presentation of 25 December 1714 to 25 February 1715 delivered by Bazett on 29 March 1715 across five leaves with reading-uncertain figures. The continuing failure of the books to come up to date is therefore not a new problem but a long-standing administrative weakness now examined formally.

The answers are extraordinarily candid for the consultation book. The two officers acknowledge that the books are not ready and the accounts are not made up because they have not had time. The fault is nobody's; three months are not sufficient; the work cannot be done till six months after 25 March, which Bazett identifies as the usual time. The bench's question on whose fault it is, and the answer of nobody's, exposes the structural problem: the stores establishment is undermanned for the work, and no single officer can be blamed for the systemic delay. The assistants currently employed - Byfield, Tomlinson, John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin and Richard [...] - are listed by name on the record, with the implication that more men are needed and that any future hires should be drawn from the appropriate candidates. The procedural value of the question-and-answer is therefore the placing of a settled position on the record: the books will not be ready till six months after 25 March, and additional staff are required.

The Allison proposal opens a fresh question. The purser, having decided to return to Great Britain rather than proceed on the Cardonnell to Bencoolen, asks the council to buy what goods he has on board and is bringing on shore. The pattern is the same one followed for William Beale on 11 June 1715, where leave to depart was granted with the proviso of bona fide credit at the stores. Allison is converting his trading goods into Company credit before returning to England. The bench's order, broken at the foot of the page, begins the disposition. The change of voyage plan from the Cardonnell's outward leg to a homeward passage indicates that Allison has fallen out with the captain at the conclusion of the cargo dispute and the depositions of 15 June 1715 in which Allison's complaint about selective stowage was contradicted by the chief and second mates and the deputy governor. The voyage will continue without its purser.

Speculations

The candour of Haswell's and Bazett's answers - that the books are not ready, the accounts are not made up, and they have not had time - is probably calibrated to the homeward despatch by the Cardonnell. The Honourable Lords Proprietors will receive the consultation books, and a clear administrative explanation for the continuing delay in the stores accounts is more useful to the directors than any cover or excuse. The two officers, in answering the bench's questions on the record, are also addressing the directors at London through the same record. The phrase six months after 25 March which Captain Bazett saith is the usual time invokes Bazett's experience as storekeeper, established since the protest of 11 June 1715 against Captain Mawson and in continuous office since his restoration as third in council from December 1712. The directors will understand the answer as a statement of established practice rather than as a confession of failure.

The procedural value of listing the seven men currently employed at the stores - Haswell, Bazett, Byfield, Tomlinson, John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin and Richard [...] - is probably the bench's way of supporting a request to London for additional clerical staff on the establishment. By naming the current workforce and recording the answer that they wanted more, the council preserves the documentary basis for any future request for new writers to be sent out from England on the next ship. The Newington discharge of 14 June 1715, granting the experienced writer leave to serve the Company elsewhere, has left the establishment one short of its previous complement; the timing of the present examination places the staffing question before the directors at the same despatch that records the discharge.

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he has that are wanting for the Use of this Island, & are not in the Store the Govr & Capt Bazett do Agree for the price if they think it cheap

The proceedings relating to the Libel are as followeth Vizt.

The Govr when he had received y[e] paper that was affixt At the Ministers door did believe it had been writt by some of the Gentlemen that made the Complaint against Capt Mawson tho he thought he had shewn them so much favour that they could not with any reason have cause to make such complaint. He imodiatly Sent for Capt. Osborne Comd[r] of the Hannover, Capt Beeck- man Comdr of the Eagle & all the Council, shew'd them the paper, & they were all of Oppinion that 'twas very Scandalous and that the redicaling the Government in such a manner, if passed by, would tend to the lessening y[e] Government much in the Esteem of the people here. and that there fore it was very proper if possible to find out the Authors.

Whereupon they Sent for Mess[rs] Aylmer, Bridger & Willey who being Ex- amind about it. Strictly deny'd their being concern'd any way in it, they pro- fessed they were very Sensable of the fa- vours they had received here & y[t] they & that they would Scorne to do a thing so ungratefull & added they could verily

reason

Margin Notes:

the Govr & Capt Bazet to agree for y[m]

y[e] Govrs Opinion ab[t] y[e] Libel.

Sent for some of y[e] Cardonells passeng[rs]

The order continued. What goods Allison had that were wanting for the use of the island, and were not in the store, the governor and Captain Bazett would agree for the price, if they thought it cheap.

The proceedings relating to the libel were as follows.

When the governor had received the paper that had been affixed at the minister's door, he believed it had been written by some of the gentlemen who had made the complaint against Captain Mawson, although he thought he had shown them so much favour that they could not with any reason have cause to make such complaint. He immediately sent for Captain Osborne, commander of the Hanover, and Captain Beeckman, commander of the Eagle, and all the council, and showed them the paper. They were all of opinion that it was very scandalous, and that the ridiculing of the government in such a manner, if passed by, would tend to the lessening of the government much in the esteem of the people there. They thought it very proper, if possible, to find out the author.

The bench then sent for Messrs Aylmer, Bridger and Wiley. Being examined about it, they strictly denied their being concerned any way in it. They professed they were very sensible of the favours they had received at the island, and said that they would scorn to do a thing so ungrateful and indeed they could very

Interpretations

The Allison goods order completes the procedure for the conversion of his trading stock into Company credit. The two operative tests are first whether the goods are wanting for the use of the island - that is, items the Company is short of in store - and second whether the price is cheap, judged by the governor and Captain Bazett together. The buy-or-decline mechanism gives the Company first refusal at advantageous prices, but only on items it actually needs. The mechanism mirrors the standard set-off practice that has been applied to John Alexander's bills of exchange and to other inhabitant accounts, but here applied to the unloading of a ship's purser's private venture rather than to a planter's debt clearance.

The arrival of the Hanover and the Eagle, identified now in their commanders Captain Osborne and Captain Beeckman, registers the two additional ships in the road that completes the Cardonnell fleet picture. The earlier double alarm of 10 June 1715 had signalled multiple unknown sail; the Eagle was identified through Andrew Bernwick's petition of 11 June 1715, which named the Eagle Galley as the homeward vessel by which he wished to sail; the Hanover now appears for the first time in the recovered record by name. The two East Indiamen, together with the Cardonnell, form a small fleet at the island. The governor's choice to summon the commanders of the Hanover and the Eagle with the council to view the libel is the bench's deliberate use of the broader maritime community as a sounding board for the gravity of the offence. Three ship commanders and the full council together constitute a body whose joint opinion on the scandalous character of the paper will carry weight in any subsequent record.

The unanimous verdict that the libel was very scandalous, and that to pass by such ridicule would lessen the government much in the esteem of the people, sets the legal benchmark for what follows. The bench has decided that the matter cannot be ignored. The reasoning is administrative rather than personal: it is the diminution of the government's standing among the inhabitants that must be prevented, not the personal hurt to any official. The same principle underlay the protective order of 10 May 1715 forbidding Captain Haswell to reflect on the jurors and the court to the scandal of the country and contempt of justice, and the conscious management of public dignity through formal advertisements such as the cow-saving order of 15 June 1715. The bench treats institutional standing as a tangible asset requiring active defence.

The examination of Aylmer, Bridger and Wiley as the most natural suspects follows from the governor's initial suspicion that the libel had been written by some of the gentlemen who had made the complaint against Mawson. The three are summoned and questioned, and they strictly deny any involvement. Their professed sense of the favours received at the island - the dismissal of their complaint on terms, the liberty to shoot partridges and wild fowl, the supper invitation to Bridger from the governor - is invoked as evidence of their gratitude rather than of any motive to libel the government. The procedural value of their denial is high if it stands, and the bench will weigh it against the evidence of style, timing and opportunity that points in their direction.

Speculations

The governor's choice to involve the Hanover and Eagle commanders in viewing the libel is probably calibrated to neutralise any future criticism that the council overreacted to a satirical paper. By having three independent ship commanders confirm that the document is scandalous, the bench secures cover against any allegation that the present administration is too sensitive to satire. The procedural device is the multiplication of authoritative witnesses to a finding, on the same model the bench used in taking written depositions from Newsham, Lock, Walker, Haswell and Goodwin on the Cardonnell stowage dispute on 15 June 1715. Both the wine question and the libel question now stand on substantial documentary foundations on the consultation book.

The strict denial by Aylmer, Bridger and Wiley is probably truthful in form but not exhaustive in substance. The men may not themselves have written the paper but may have inspired it, dictated to it, or supplied the substance from which it was elaborated by a more literary hand. The references to the lodgers and others in the Castle of Capers, and to the captain of a ship whose conduct is contrasted with that of an exemplary commander, fit the Cardonnell passengers' complaints exactly. The mock Captain Coxwain is plausibly Captain Mawson under satirical disguise, the lodgers are the passengers themselves, and the alternative Captain Seaman represents the ideal against which they wish to measure Mawson. If the three passengers did not write the paper, they perhaps supplied the materials. The governor's earlier reluctance to enquire into who had given them such bad advice on 16 June 1715 has now caught up with him: the same designing man whose presence he then suspected may have moved from advising the complaint to writing the libel.

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reasonably affirm the same for all the pasengers in their Ship. & that they were fully perswaded & convinced in their Own minds that it was not done in the Country & that it was not done by any Person belong- ing to their Ship, they all of their own ac- cord offerd the Keys of their Chests or Boxes both on shoare & a board that he might be convinced by comparing any writings he should find there, that nothing of their Writings was like that writing which gave y[e] Govr & y[e] Gent of the Council Such Satisfaccon that the doubted of them no further

Then y[e] Govr sent for Mr Allison purs[er] of the Ship Cardonnell who upon some dissatis- faction with the Capt had agreed to go home when Mr Jervey came to him & askt him about this Libel & Whether he had any ways been concernd in it or not. he possitively denied his being any ways concern'd in it but at the same time told him that One Mr Swartz who came out of the Country Yesterday with the other Gent: came into his room & took some paper away & retired & went to writing. But whether or no he writ that paper that was Stuck up he could not tell, upon which Mr Jervey took up the paper & comparing it with the Libel found it to be the same paper which he brought to the Govr & Council, who then Sent for Mr Swartz & Examin'd him about it. He denied it with a great deal of asurance disrespect & rudeness, & y[e] Govr having no other proof against him then that it was the same Sort of paper that he took of Mr Allison's, dismussed him but not without suspecting him to be the Author of that paper.

He

Margin Notes:

Mr Allison sent for.

Mr Swartz

an acc[t]

thereof

The three could reasonably affirm the same for all the passengers in their ship. They were fully persuaded and convinced in their own minds that it had not been done in the country, and that it had not been done by any person belonging to their ship. They all of their own accord offered the keys of their chests or boxes, both on shore and on board, that they might be examined by comparing any writings they should find there. None of their writings was like the writing in the libel. This gave the governor and the gentlemen of the council such satisfaction that they doubted them no further.

The governor then sent for Mr Allison, purser of the Cardonnell, who upon some dissatisfaction with the captain had agreed to go home. Mr Tovey came to him and asked him about the libel and whether he had any way been concerned in it or not. He positively denied his being any way concerned in it. At the same time he told Tovey that one Mr Swartz, who came out of the country yesterday with the other gentlemen, had come into his room and taken some paper away, and had retired and gone to writing. Whether or not he had written the paper that was stuck up, he could not tell. Upon this Mr Tovey took up the paper, and comparing it with the libel, found it to be the same paper. He brought it to the governor and council, who then sent for Mr Swartz and examined him about it. He denied it with a great deal of assurance, disrespect and rudeness. The governor, having no other proof against him than that it was the same sort of paper that he took from Mr Allison, dismissed him, but not without suspecting him to be the author of that paper.

Interpretations

The cooperation of the three complainants in opening their chests and boxes to inspection of their handwriting is the procedural exoneration of the Aylmer-Bridger-Wiley party from authorship of the libel. The offer is made of their own accord, both on shore and on board, and so cannot be objected to as compelled. The comparison of writings is the standard early modern method for identifying anonymous authorship: a specimen of an undisputed hand is set against the disputed document, and the absence or presence of palaeographic similarities is taken as evidence one way or the other. The governor and council, finding no resemblance in any of the three men's writings, are satisfied. The procedural pattern is the same the bench used in the Cardonnell stowage inquiry, where physical inspection of the cask marks would have settled the leakage question; here the writing comparison settles the authorship question against the three obvious suspects.

The Allison information shifts the bench's attention to Mr Swartz, the same man named by some at the consultation of 16 June 1715 as the possible designing person behind the Cardonnell complaints, though the governor had then declined to think him so bad. The procedural progression is exact. On 16 June 1715 Swartz was a name passed to the governor in the wider context of the complaints, and the bench had not pursued the matter. Five days later, with the libel found at the minister's door on 21 June 1715, the same name comes forward through a different channel - the purser of the Cardonnell - and this time with a specific operational link: Swartz had come into Allison's room, taken some paper, retired, and gone to writing. The bench's earlier suspicion, dormant for want of evidence, is now reactivated by concrete circumstance.

The crucial documentary identification is the paper itself. Mr Tovey, acting as the bench's investigator at this point, takes up the paper from which Allison's stationery had been removed and compares it physically with the libel found at the minister's door. They are the same paper - same sheet stock, same texture, same marks. The procedural force of the identification is high. A man who has been seen taking paper of a particular kind and going to writing, and whose taken paper matches the paper of the libel, has been placed in operational connection with the document. The match is not conclusive proof - the paper might have been further redistributed - but it is the strongest single piece of evidence the bench has assembled against any individual.

The dismissal of Swartz from the examination, despite the bench's continuing suspicion, registers the limit of the available proof. The governor has no other evidence against him beyond the matching paper, and Swartz has denied the matter with a great deal of assurance, disrespect and rudeness. The procedural rule of early modern criminal proof requires more than a single circumstantial connection to support a charge, and the bench is restrained by the rule. The dismissal preserves the suspicion on the record without converting it into a formal accusation that the evidence cannot yet support. The pattern is consistent with the bench's similar restraint on 16 June 1715, when the governor had declined to pursue the trail of bad advice given to the Cardonnell passengers in the country.

Speculations

Swartz's manner before the bench - the great deal of assurance, disrespect and rudeness - is probably the most damaging aspect of his appearance, even though it cannot be converted into formal evidence. A man examined on suspicion of libel who answers the council with rudeness rather than with the measured denial of an innocent party draws an inference against himself that the bench can note but cannot record as proof. The procedural restraint of the formal dismissal masks the practical conclusion the bench has reached. The same pattern of formal restraint accompanied by informal certainty was visible in the bench's handling of Captain Haswell on the protective orders of 10 May 1715, where the deputy governor was given the benefit of the procedural form even though the substantive finding was clear.

The paper-trail evidence, while not sufficient to support a formal charge, is probably sufficient to constitute Swartz the bench's working suspect for the homeward despatch by the Cardonnell. The directors at London will receive the consultation books with the entries on the libel of 21 June 1715, the examination of the three complainants, the matching paper from Allison's room, and the bench's continuing suspicion of Swartz. Should the libel author become important to identify on grounds the present record cannot foresee - perhaps if Swartz is later employed by the Company at a metropolitan or other station - the documentary chain in the island's books will permit a metropolitan inquiry to follow up where the island bench has been forced to stop short.

508

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He went away but imodiatly returnd again & then he seem'd in some measure to Justi- fy y[e] paper & s[ai]d. that he wonderd what Ex- ceptions could be taken at it if it were fact for himself was a Man of Station & that notwithstanding his having an Honr[bl] post in the Compys Service being Chief Super- Cargoe of the Ship Borneo he was very much slighted & disrespected in y[e] face of all the Country on y[e] day the King was proclaim'd by being placed at Dinner a great deal below his Station, the Govr told him that he was placed no were, for he himself did not place any body but tho every body sat down as they thought fitt. Yet no man Satt above him that was inferiour to him which was only the two Capts Vizt Capt Beeckman & Capt Mawson, he s[ai]d. no Capt ought to take place of him, for he had the Compys Orders now in his pocket that appointed him to take place of the Capts both abbard & ashore, the Govr Told him they met now to enquire for the Author of that Scandalous paper, w[ch] he believed which he believ'd Mr Swartz could give the best Account of But as to the manner of Setting, he did not concern himself, for We kept no Inn or House of Entertainment for any body nor did not take Mr Swartz to be so great a man as We perseived he thought himself, nor do We know him now to be a Super Cargoe of any Ship now here & We know that Capts of East India Ships do not always give place to their passengers unless they are such men as are mentiond in the Libel that is Men of Station Birth & Sence.

So

Swartz went away, but immediately returned again. He then seemed in some measure to justify the paper. He wondered what exception could be taken at it, if it were fact. He was for himself a man of station, and notwithstanding his having an honourable post in the Company's service, being chief supercargo of the ship Borneo, he had been very much slighted and disrespected in the face of all the country on the day the King was proclaimed. He had been placed at dinner a great deal below his station.

The governor told him that he was placed no where, for the governor himself had not placed any body, but every body sat down as they thought fit. Yet no man sat above him that was inferior to him, the only ones being the two captains, Captain Beeckman and Captain Mawson. He said no captain ought to take place of him, for he had the Company's orders now in his pocket that appointed him to take place of the captains both abroad and ashore.

The governor told him that they met now to inquire for the author of that scandalous paper, of which he believed Mr Swartz could give the best account. As to the manner of seating, the governor did not concern himself, for he kept no inn or house of entertainment for anybody, and did not take Mr Swartz to be so great a man as he perceived he thought himself, nor did they know him to be a supercargo of any ship now there. They knew that captains of East India ships did not always give place to their passengers unless they were such men as were mentioned in the libel, that is, men of station, birth and sense.

Interpretations

Swartz's return after his first dismissal converts the inquiry. Having denied authorship with assurance, disrespect and rudeness, he now returns and in some measure justifies the paper, asking what exception could be taken to it if it were fact. The shift from denial to justification is the procedural admission that he is not a disinterested party. A man who first denies all knowledge of a document and then comes back to defend its substance has effectively conceded that he stands behind its content, even if he has not formally acknowledged its authorship. The bench may not be able to convict him on direct proof, but his own re-entry has filled the documentary record with an admission of standpoint.

The grievance Swartz sets out is the underlying cause of the libel. As chief supercargo of the Borneo, he claims a rank in the Company's service entitling him to precedence over the captains of ships in port. On the day of the King's proclamation - 6 June 1715, the date of the formal observance with the soldiers, engineers, gunners, trumpeters and drums, with movement from the Great Castle to Castles Mill and Cupboards, the proclamation read at each station and the King's health drunk at the public houses that evening - Swartz had found himself placed at dinner below his proper station. The slight on a day of national constitutional moment was the inception of his quarrel with the present administration. The libel of 18 June 1715, posted on 21 June 1715, is the literary expression of a grievance running back twelve days to the proclamation dinner.

The procedural ground of Swartz's grievance is precedence, the early modern administrative concern with the seating order at formal occasions. A man's place at a public dinner is the visible expression of his rank in the establishment, and to be placed below his station is to be publicly degraded. Swartz claims a written Company order in his pocket entitling him to take place of the captains both abroad and ashore. The procedural force of the claim depends on the existence of the order. If the order is real and was produced at the proclamation dinner, then Swartz was indeed slighted; if it is asserted but not produced, the slight is a question of judgement at the table rather than a violation of an established rank.

The governor's response is precise on the procedural point. He had placed nobody at the dinner; everybody sat down as they thought fit; no man sat above Swartz who was inferior to him, the only ones above him being the two captains. The reply leaves the question of Swartz's claim to take place of the captains an open one between Swartz and the captains rather than a fault of the bench. The wider remark - that captains of East India ships do not always give place to their passengers unless those are men of station, birth and sense - turns the libel's own language back upon its author. Swartz had written that the present administration slighted men of station, birth and sense; the governor now uses the same phrase to draw the line of those who would be entitled to expect captains to yield place at table, and to imply, with the suggestion that the bench did not know Swartz to be a supercargo of any ship now there, that Swartz himself does not meet that standard. The procedural and rhetorical retort is the bench's mastery of the encounter.

Speculations

The Borneo's status as a Company ship at the island is probably the key to the precedence question. The Cardonnell, Eagle and Hanover have all been named as ships in the road during the present sittings, and Andrew Bernwick's petition of 11 June 1715 referred to the Eagle Galley. The Borneo on which Swartz claims to be chief supercargo has not been named in the recovered record alongside these, and the governor's remark that the bench does not know Swartz to be a supercargo of any ship now there suggests that the Borneo is not currently at the island. Swartz is perhaps a Company servant returning home from another station who is between ships, or a passenger or merchant claiming an office that the bench cannot verify against the ships actually in the road. The procedural value of the governor's remark is to suspend Swartz's claim of rank pending production of the order he claims to carry.

The libel's connection to the proclamation-dinner slight is probably also the explanation for its constitutional language. The references to divine right, arbitrary power, the slighting of men of station, birth and sense, and the favouring of mob and flatterers can now be read as the satirical extension of a private grievance about table seating into a general indictment of the present government. The Stuart-Hanoverian framing of the King James the Third toast by Wiley on the Cardonnell is paralleled by Swartz's Jacobite-flavoured constitutional theory in the libel, with both men converting their personal disputes into political allegiances against the present sovereign and his Company. Whether Wiley and Swartz are connected directly, or whether they are independent expressions of the same political temper among educated men aboard or transiting through the island in 1715, the bench's record now contains two distinct manifestations of Stuart sympathy attached to two separate personal disputes.

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So this Consultation concluded with y[e] Govr telling Mr Swartz that tho he had great reason to Suspect him Yet because it was not proved upon him & he deny'd it, Therefore he should not be hindred the refreshment of this place but might have Liberty (he carrying himself well) to divert himself in y[e] Country as before

Every body in Council had a great Suspicion of Mr Swartz being the Author of that paper, but he was Dismisst as above said. After this cause was over Capt Beeckman told Us he wonderd how Swartz could deny the writing that paper, when he had in a Manner owin'd it to him before & had explaind one part of it to him, by telling him, that himself was ment by the word Capt Seaman but that no reflection was meant to him, & that Swartz told him at the same time that Capt Mawson was meant by the word Capt Coxswain, & that Mawson had formly been a Coxswain & now was fitt for nothing else, Capt Beeckman Says that, his paper is not writt as Swartz Usually writts, but he knows that Swartz can write Several Sorts of hands, & he has seen him write such a Sort of hand, but whether it be of Swartz writing or not he is fully convinced in his Own mind that it is of his dictating it is also his usual way of talk[?] & writing which is comonly rodomontade.

We had after information that he very much fomented & encouraged the compl[t] against Capt. Mawson by his pasengers & that he was privy to the paper which Mr Aylmer & Willey endeavourd to gett the

The consultation concluded with the governor telling Mr Swartz that, although the bench had great reason to suspect him, the matter was not proved upon him, and he denied it, so he should not be hindered from the refreshment of the place. He might have liberty, while carrying himself well, to divert himself in the country as before.

Everybody in council had a great suspicion of Mr Swartz being the author of that paper, but he was dismissed as above said. After the cause was over, Captain Beeckman told the bench that he wondered how Swartz could deny the writing of that paper, when he had in a manner owned it to him before, and had explained one part of it to him, telling him that himself was meant by the word Captain Seaman, but that no reflection was meant to him. Swartz had told Beeckman at the same time that Captain Mawson was meant by the word Captain Coxwain, and that Mawson had formerly been a coxswain and was now fit for nothing else. Captain Beeckman said that the paper had not been written by Swartz equally with his usual hand, but he knew that Swartz could write several sorts of hands, and he had seen him write such a sort of hand. Whether it was of Swartz's writing or not, Beeckman was fully convinced in his own mind that it was of his dictating, it being also like his usual way of talk and writing, which was commonly rodomontade.

Beeckman gave further information that Swartz had very much fomented and encouraged the complaints against Captain Mawson by his passengers, and that he had been privy to the paper which Mr Aylmer and Mr Wiley had endeavoured to get the rest

Interpretations

The bench's formal disposition of Swartz - dismissed without being hindered the refreshment of the place, liberty to divert himself in the country as before - records the limit of the available proof. The procedural posture is unsatisfactory but defensible: suspicion universal among the councillors, proof short of the standard required for formal action. The instruction that Swartz must carry himself well is the conditional element on which any future inquiry could be reopened. The same procedural form was used for Aylmer and Wiley on 16 June 1715, dismissed on their promises of better behaviour with a similar conditional implicit in the disposition.

Captain Beeckman's evidence after the close of the formal proceedings is the documentary breakthrough that the inquiry had been seeking. As commander of the Eagle, Beeckman is one of the three ship commanders the governor had summoned to view the libel at the start of the proceedings, and his standing among the maritime community of the present call is high. His information identifies Swartz as having in a manner owned the authorship to him before the formal examination, and gives the operative decodings of the libel's satirical names: Beeckman himself was Captain Seaman, the favourable contrast, and Captain Mawson was Captain Coxwain, the unflattering figure said to have once been a coxswain and now fit for nothing else. The decoding confirms the libel's specific targets and the satirist's specific judgements.

Beeckman's analysis of the handwriting is the technical evidence the inquiry had previously lacked. Swartz could write several sorts of hands, and Beeckman had himself seen him write the very sort of hand in which the libel was written. The skill of writing in different hands is the standard preparation of the early modern professional or commercial writer, who might use a court hand for legal instruments, a secretary hand for ordinary correspondence, and a quick running hand for personal use. A man able to switch between these and to compose a libel in a hand other than his usual one would be precisely the kind of author the bench has been seeking. The conclusion that, whether or not the writing was of Swartz's own hand, it was of his dictating, captures the procedural reality that authorship in the early modern sense includes composition by dictation as well as by direct writing.

The characterisation of the libel's manner as rodomontade is the literary identification of Swartz's style. Rodomontade is the boastful, vainglorious manner of expression named after the Saracen knight Rodomonte in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and the term carries by Beeckman's time the meaning of bombastic political-satirical writing of the kind the libel exemplifies. By identifying the libel's manner with Swartz's usual way of talk and writing, Beeckman places it within the recognisable literary signature of a known man. The cumulative evidence - in a manner owned, decodings supplied, hand familiar, manner characteristic - amounts to a compelling case against Swartz that came too late for the bench to act on at the formal sitting.

Speculations

Beeckman's decision to volunteer his information only after the cause was over is probably the procedural caution of a ship commander who did not want to be drawn into the formal examination as a witness in the consultation. By waiting until the bench had dismissed Swartz, Beeckman avoids any imputation of having given evidence on oath that might be challenged or retaliated against. The information is delivered as a private communication to the bench rather than as testimony, and so leaves Beeckman in his proper character of a fellow ship commander reporting what he knows in private rather than as the bench's witness against another man. The procedural distinction will perhaps allow the bench to act on the information without exposing Beeckman to any future quarrel with Swartz.

The broader picture that emerges - Swartz fomenting and encouraging the complaints against Captain Mawson by the Cardonnell passengers, and being privy to the paper that Aylmer and Wiley endeavoured to get the rest of the passengers to sign - confirms the suspicion the governor had quietly entertained on 16 June 1715 and declined to pursue. Swartz is now identified as the designing man behind the entire Cardonnell complaint of 15 June 1715, the agreed-witness device that produced the King James the Third toast on 16 June 1715, the unsigned general paper that Aylmer and Wiley circulated, and the libel of 21 June 1715. The single hand running through the events of the past week is now visible to the bench, even though the formal proof against him on the libel charge remains insufficient. The procedural restraint of the formal record contrasts with the informal completeness of the bench's working understanding.

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rest of the passengers to Subscribe as is before mencond in Consultat: of y[e] 16. Inst[t]

All the Centinals which had been Upon duty were Examind who had passed by them in the night time, & the Centry who stood Guard at the Storehouse door, gave an Acc[t] that Mr Swartz had gone down about midnight to the Parsons Door but they did not Sell him go in.

We were informd also that he was y[e] first who discoverd the Libel, by telling such a paper had been Struck up & repeating Severall Articles in that paper, telling every body it was done by some ingenious man for it was as Witty a paper as ever he had seen.

Capt Beeckman acquainted Us likewise that Swartz always in his talking of this place call'd it Helena of Troy which made Us the readier to believe 'twas his wording at least, for he seem'd angry if any found fault with the Words or Beauty of the Stile in any part of the aforesaid Libel.

Geo: Haswell

Mrs Carne desired to have Credit in the Honble Compys Stores for Sixty pounds & proposeth to pay Interest for the same till it is paid, or else to deliver Cattle to the Value of that Credit

The Govr Says when ever the mony is paid if paid here it must be in Cattle which the Honble Compa want

Wherefore he thinks 'tis best to take the Cattle now. Order'd that Mrs Carne have the Credit she desires & that it be left to the Govr to see that She performs the above agreem[t] & Proposall in y[e] Manner & shall be most to the Honble Compys Interest

Antipas Jervey Edw Byfield

Margin Notes:

Mrs Carne to have Credit for 60£

Captain Beeckman further informed the bench that Swartz had endeavoured to get the rest of the Cardonnell passengers to subscribe to the paper, as had been mentioned in the consultation of 16 June 1715.

All the sentinels who had been upon duty were examined who had passed by them in the night time. The sentry who stood guard at the storehouse door gave an account that Mr Swartz had gone down about midnight to the parson's door, but they had not seen him go.

The bench was informed also that he had been the first who discovered the libel, by telling early that a paper had been stuck up, and repeating several articles in that paper. He told everybody it had been done by some ingenious man, for it was as witty a paper as ever he had seen.

Captain Beeckman acquainted the bench likewise that Swartz, always in his talking of the island, called it Helena of Troy. That made the reader believe it was his wording, at least; for he seemed angry if any found fault with the words or beauty of the style in any part of the libel.

Mrs Carne desired to have credit in the Honourable Company's stores for £60 0s 0d, and proposed to pay interest for the same until it was paid, or else to deliver cattle to the value of the credit.

The governor said that whenever the money was paid, if paid there, it must be in cattle, which the Honourable Company wanted. Wherefore he thought it best to take the cattle now.

The council ordered that Mrs Carne have the credit she desired, and that it be left to the governor to see that she performed the above agreement and proposal in the manner it should be most for the Honourable Company's interest.

The consultation was signed by the governor, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The sentry's testimony places Swartz physically at the minister's door about midnight, the operative time at which the libel was perhaps posted. The phrase but they did not see him go - the sentries seeing him go down but not seeing him leave - is the precise operational evidence that the bench would normally need for a circumstantial case. A man who is seen approaching the minister's door at midnight and who is not seen withdrawing has time to perform the action of posting a paper and to depart by another route. The sentinels' watch is the institutional safety net of the castle's defences, and their record of nocturnal movements through the principal gates and posts is the customary first source of evidence in any inquiry into an act done at night. The same procedural pattern would have been used to investigate the back-gate offence of Corporal Samuel Algate of 19 April 1715, where the gate was left open all night.

The discovery evidence is the bench's third confirmation of Swartz's authorship. The man who first discovered the libel - by telling early that a paper had been stuck up and repeating several articles from it - had to have known of the paper's existence and content before it was generally read. By praising it as witty and the work of some ingenious man, Swartz placed himself in the documentary position of the author's first admirer, with the additional implication of admiring his own work. The same procedural mechanism of being too closely informed about an event was the ground on which similar early modern inquiries identified perpetrators: the man who knows more than others, earlier than others, has acquired his knowledge by being the actor.

The Helena of Troy identification is Beeckman's final stylistic evidence. Swartz habitually called the island Helena of Troy in his common talk, the same Trojan disguise that runs through the libel from the Governor of Troy and Castle of Capers to the Grub Street dateline in the City of Troy. The continuous personal pattern of speech, the libel's central metaphor, and Swartz's emotional engagement with criticism of the words or beauty of the style in any part of the libel together amount to authorial identification by literary signature. A man who defends the prose of a libel he denies writing has effectively admitted authorship by his proprietary affection for the work. The procedural pattern is similar to Mrs Haswell's careful disclosure of inventory at the Harper probate of 31 May 1715 used to support her wider position - here turned against a man whose proprietary feelings expose him rather than support his claim.

The Mrs Carne credit transaction is the consultation's return to the routine business of debt clearance. Mrs Carne is the widow or relict of George Carne, whose debt schedule of 7 December 1714 totalled £560 4s 0d, and against which various transactions have been progressing: Little George to the Company at £15 0s 0d on 14 December 1714; plate £69 4s 0d plus Mashborne credit £10 5s 0d (£79 9s 0d) on 21 December 1714; 30 acres of land offered against debt with Bazett and Powell to value; pound delivery of 83 goats on 26 February 1715. The present credit of £60 0s 0d, taken either with interest or against cattle to the value, continues the same instalment-based settlement of the Carne debt. The governor's preference for cattle reflects the operational priority confirmed by Worrall's stock account of 18 June 1715, where the bench is actively building the herd in line with the cow-saving order of 15 June 1715 and the directors' letter at paragraph forty-fifth.

Speculations

The bench's careful documentary assembly of the case against Swartz - sentry evidence, discovery evidence, stylistic identification by an independent ship commander, decoding evidence, and the matching paper from Allison's room - is probably the working preparation for any future formal proceedings should new evidence emerge before the Cardonnell sails. Each item of evidence is short of the standard required for criminal conviction on its own, but the accumulated weight of five independent pieces of circumstantial proof, all converging on a single individual, would be hard to ignore if any one of them could be strengthened by direct testimony. The bench's documentary preparation now lies in wait against any further development.

The arrangement with Mrs Carne, leaving it to the governor to see that she performs the agreement in the manner most for the Company's interest, is probably the bench's standard delegation of operational discretion to the chief executive where the precise terms are uncertain. The governor will decide whether to take cattle now, at a price linked to the current rates of 30s 0d per hundred neat weight under the beef-supply advertisement of 1 June 1715, or to wait until cash is available. The flexibility is the same the council has been giving the storekeeper in the auditing of the Bodley estate effects under Mr Bazett's referral of 17 May 1715, and to Tovey on the Norman water-rotation petition of the same date. The pattern of trusting senior councillors with practical discretion within a framework of conciliar approval is now well-established as the bench's working method.

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Island St Helena

At a Consultation held on Wednesday the 29. day of June 1715. At the Union Castle in James Vally.

Isaac Pyke Esqr Govr Geo: Haswell Depty Matthw Bazett 3. Antipas Jervey 4. & Edward Byfield 5. in Council

The foll. was Presented. To the Worsh: Govr &c

There being great complaint of Severall of the Inhabitants that their Blacks Stole Sundry things & Sold them at the Town which they Suspected was to the Punch Houses, & the Entertaining Mr Johnson's Black man & taking Lemons Milk & Greens of him appearing plain against said Orchard the Govr Ordered his Lycence to be taken away but referrs it to the Council wether it shall be restored to him again or not.

The Govr Reports that Yesterday the M[..]

Start of crossed out section

Island of St Helena. At a consultation held on Wednesday the 29 June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, governor; George Haswell, deputy governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; and Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The following was presented to the worshipful governor and council.

There was great complaint among several of the inhabitants that their slaves stole sundry things and sold them at the town, which they suspected was at the punch houses. There was also complaint of the entertaining of Mr Johnson's black man and of taking lemons, milk and greens of him, plain evidence appearing against the orchard. The governor had ordered his licence to be taken away, but referred it to the council whether it should be restored to him again or not.

The governor re

End of crossed out section

Interpretations

The cancellation of the entire consultation opening, including the date, the membership of the bench, the formal presentation header and the substantive complaint, is an unusual procedural act in the recovered record. Cancellations have appeared elsewhere in the present sequence at smaller scale, as with the 6,000 yam suckers struck out and corrected to 200,000 in the 12 April 1715 inventory recorded on the threads, but the deletion of a whole sitting opening is a deeper revision. The clerk has crossed out not merely a numerical correction but the entire passage from the date down through the licence question, indicating that the bench has decided either to restart the entry from a different point, to record the same business under a different framing, or to suppress the matter altogether and proceed on different ground.

The substantive content of the cancelled material is the more significant for being struck out. The bench was preparing to enter a complaint about slaves stealing from their masters and selling at the punch houses, with a particular case against an unnamed licence-holder for entertaining Mr Johnson's black man and taking lemons, milk and greens from him in connection with his orchard. The governor had moved to revoke the licence and was referring the restoration question to the council. The matter is the same continuing exclusion of slaves from the licensed trade that the Latour public house licence of 13 April 1715 codified in its sixth condition - no trade with nor entertainment of blacks on any pretence whatsoever - and the principle of the Company's wholesale monopoly on arrack and licensed goods. The cancellation perhaps records the bench's decision to handle the matter outside the formal consultation book, or to bring it back on a different procedural footing once the governor's referral had produced a clearer position.

The phrase plain evidence appearing against the orchard places the operative offence at the orchard itself rather than at the punch house. The orchard is the property from which the lemons, milk and greens were taken by Mr Johnson's black man, and the licence-holder's part is the receiving and entertaining of the slave with the goods. The two-handed offence - the slave's theft and the licensee's reception - tracks the structure of the wider concern: slaves are not the only object of the bench's attention but also the licensed traders who receive their pilfered goods. The same logic underlies the standing prohibition in the Latour licence and the broader exclusion of slaves from the licensed trade. The bench's procedural response of suspending the licence pending restoration applies to the licensee, with the slave's part presumably to be addressed by the master under the standard disciplinary procedures available to him.

Speculations

The cancellation of the page is probably the bench's procedural decision to handle the licence matter in a different documentary form rather than to suppress the underlying complaint. The cross-hatching of the entry does not erase the substance, which the bench's working understanding will continue to act upon, but removes the formal entry from the council book. The most likely reason is that the inquiry into the orchard and the licensee had not yet reached a settled conclusion fit for the formal record at the time of writing, and the bench preferred to enter the matter only when the disposition was firm. The same procedural caution attended the entries on Mrs Haswell's petition of 31 May 1715, which was carefully framed to support the bench's wider position without committing the council to substantive findings ahead of time.

The bench's continued attention to the licensed-trade question, two months after the Latour licence of 13 April 1715, registers the operational consequence of public house regulation. The eight-condition framework set out in the Latour licence will only function if the bench enforces breaches as they arise, and the present complaint - cancelled though it is - shows the council moving against an alleged breach by revocation of the licence. The deletion is probably less a closure of the matter than a postponement of the formal record until the licensee's case can be brought to a final disposition. The next consultation will perhaps see the substantive complaint re-entered under a clearer procedural framing.

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Island St Helena At a Consultation Held on Wednesday the 29 Day of June 1715: At the Union Castle in James Va[ll]y -

Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[ty] Matthew Bazett 3. Antipas Tovey 4 & Edw[d]: Byfeld 5. in Council

The foll[o]: Petition was P[re]sented

To the Worshipf[ll] Gov[r] & Council The Humble Petition of Jn[o]. Orchard,

Sheweth That whereas yo[r]. Petition[r] being call[d] before yo[r] Worship on Sunday last, & being Taxt of Dealing with Blacks, yo[r]. Petition[r] doth utterly, deny the Fact, and that M[r]. Johnson can Testifie (who is the Owner of the Black) that from time to time he has given them orders to Leave their Loads at yo[r]. Petition[rs] he not Examining them their masters affairs heretofore & what the said Black at this time left with yo[r]. Petition[r] was not by them offer[d] to Sale neither had your Petition[r]. any Intent to buy them, Humbly desireing your Worship & Council will be pleased to take in considera[con] the condi[c]on. yo[r]. Petition[r] is in, as being very unhealthfull & not Capable of hard Labour whereby to get a Livelyhood Humbly begg =ing yo[u]r Worship. & Council will be plea[s] to grant to yo[r]. Petition[r] his former Liveli =hood, in restoring again his Licence,

And yo[r]. Petition[r] shall Ever pray as in Duty Bound

(Signed) John Orchard

St Helena. the 28: of June 1715)

There

Margin Notes:

Sheweth

J[no] Orchard Pet[r] ab[t] dealing [w]t Blacks

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Wednesday the 29 day of June 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The council received a petition from John Orchard. He had been called before the bench on the previous Sunday and charged with dealing in goods brought by slaves. He denied the charge altogether. Mr Johnson, who was the owner of one of the slaves concerned, could confirm that he had from time to time given the slaves orders to leave their loads at Orchard's house. Orchard had not enquired into the masters' affairs on those occasions. The particular slave whose load had been left with him on the present occasion had not offered the goods for sale, and Orchard had no intent to buy them. He asked the governor and council to take his condition into consideration, being unhealthy and unable to perform hard labour to earn a living. He asked that his former livelihood be restored to him by the return of his licence. The petition was dated at St Helena 28 June 1715 and signed John Orchard.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Orchard's petition about dealing with blacks.

Interpretations

The petition is the formal sequel to the cancelled stolen-goods complaint of 29 Jun 1715, in which several inhabitants had charged that their slaves were stealing sundry items and selling them at punch houses in town, with the particular case of Mr Johnson's black man entertained at the orchard-licensee's premises. The governor had on his own authority withdrawn Orchard's licence and referred the question of restoration to council. Orchard's petition is the licensee's answer on the merits, framed not on the procedure of the withdrawal but on the underlying allegation. Reception of the petition by council is the first procedural step in the restoration question.

The orchard-licence is a Company instrument permitting the holder to sell fruit and produce on retail terms within fixed conditions, comparable in form to the public house licence issued to Latour on 13 April 1715 under the seal of the Lords Proprietors. Its withdrawal by the governor on his sole authority, and its restoration only on conciliar reference, reflects the standing position that licences are issued in the name of the Company but suspended or revoked summarily by the executive and reviewed collectively. The licence carries with it a livelihood, so its removal operates as a penalty in itself, before any formal trial of the underlying offence.

Mr Johnson appears in the petition as a planter willing to vouch for the practice of slaves leaving their loads at Orchard's house under their master's standing orders. The defence rests on the distinction between the receipt of goods deposited by a slave under a master's instruction, which is innocent, and the purchase of goods from a slave without enquiry, which is the offence at law. Orchard's plea that he made no enquiry into the masters' affairs on past occasions is candid but procedurally weak, since the rule against entertaining slaves trading on their own account does not turn on the licensee's enquiry but on the absence of authority for the slave to trade.

The plea of ill-health and inability to perform hard labour is the conventional ground for seeking the restoration of a licensed livelihood, since manual labour was the standard alternative open to a freeman of modest means at the island. The same ground had been admitted in earlier dispensations and pleas by aged or sick planters across the records.

Speculations

The timing of Orchard's petition on 28 June 1715, the day before its presentation, suggests it was drafted immediately on news that the substantive complaint had been struck out by clerical cross-hatching from the consultation of 29 Jun 1715. Orchard, or someone advising him, evidently judged that with the inhabitants' complaint procedurally suspended the question of his licence stood on weaker ground for refusal, and that a direct petition for restoration before any re-framed prosecution could be brought was the most favourable course.

The choice to call Mr Johnson as the witness, rather than the slave's actions in themselves, is a tactical use of the standing rule that the master's order governs the slave's movements. By placing responsibility on Johnson's instructions, Orchard converts what could be read as receipt of stolen goods into the lawful holding of a master's property in transit, and the council is left to decide whether to credit the explanation or to treat Orchard's lack of enquiry as the substantive offence.

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There being great complaint of sev[ll] of the Inhabitants that their Blacks Stole Sundry things & Sold them at the Town & that they Suspected was to the Punch houses & the entertaining M[r]. Johnson's Black man & takeing Lemons Milk, & Greens of him appearing plain against said Orchard the Gov[r] Ord[r] his Lycence to be taken away but referrs it to the Council wether it shall be restored to him again or not,

This Petition is referd to next Consultation Day, The Prov[o]: reports that Yesterday the Marsh[ll]: brought him the foll[o]: Letter & desires him not to take it amiss, that he did bring it whereupon he ask[t] him what reason he had to say so upon delivering a Letter & the Marshall Answer[d] there are three or four Suspicious men that came to his House & told him they had a Letter for the Gov[r] & if he would deliver it they would give him half a Crown for his pains w[ch]: made him believe there was some Roguery in the Letter for he had heard the men, Cursing the Cap[t] & officers of the Ship Swearing they had above four & twenty that were of theirs mind the Letter is as foll[o]:

For the Worshipfull Gov[r] of Saint Helena

Humbly Sheweth as wee being Servants to the Hon[ble] East India Company in all Humility (yo[r] Excellency being Representative) desire you may Rect[i]fye a Poor Pinched & destr[u] Ships Company that have been this many months wanting the Companys Allowance of Arrack & Scarcety of other Provisions w[ch] are too Tedious here to Nominate, Wee have delayed

Margin Notes:

referd /

Marsh[ll] brings a L[ett]r

Cop[y] thereof

Several inhabitants had complained at large that their slaves stole various things in town and sold them, and that the goods were suspected to have been disposed of at the punch houses. The case of Mr Johnson's slave was the most prominent. He had been entertained at Orchard's premises and supplied with lemons, milk and greens. The matter against Orchard appeared plain on its face. The governor had therefore ordered the licence withdrawn but referred the question of restoration to council. The council ordered Orchard's petition referred to the next consultation day.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as a reference to the next consultation day.

The governor next reported a separate matter touching the marshal. On the previous day the marshal had brought him a letter and asked him not to take amiss the fact of its delivery. The governor asked the marshal his reason for delivering it. The marshal answered that three or four suspicious men had come to his house and told him they had a letter for the governor. They had offered him half a crown for his pains if he would deliver it. He had been made to believe there was some roguery in the letter. He had heard the men, who were the gunner and other officers of a ship in the road, swearing that there were above four and twenty men of their mind in the matter of the letter.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the marshal bringing a letter.

The letter was then read into council. It was addressed to the worshipful governor of St Helena. The writers represented themselves as servants to the Honourable East India Company, addressing the governor as the Company's representative at the island, and humbly desired that he might relieve a poor pinched and distressed ship's company. They had been wanting the Company's allowance of arrack and were short of other provisions for many months, particulars of which were too tedious to set out by name. They had been delayed [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the ship's company.

Interpretations

The withdrawal of Orchard's licence followed by the explicit reference of the question of restoration to council marks the same division of authority observed earlier on the public house licence to Latour issued on 13 April 1715: the governor may suspend or revoke a licence summarily, but reinstatement requires the collective act of the bench. The standing rule against entertaining slaves on private trade, breached here by the receipt of lemons, milk and greens from Mr Johnson's slave, is the operative ground; the rule does not depend on the licensee's knowledge but on the absence of authority for the slave to deal.

The marshal's report illustrates the operation of his office as a conduit for documents presented from below, set against the cash inducement of half a crown offered by the ship's officers. The marshal's choice to bring the letter to the governor in person, rather than to refuse delivery or simply pass it, converts what was offered as a private commission into an official report and protects him under his own office. The figure of half a crown matches the planter committal fee fixed in the marshal's schedule of 3 May 1715, indicating the going rate for an officer's minor service at the island. The marshal had on 12 April 1715 petitioned for the usual benefits of his office, and the schedule of 3 May 1715 had specified the rates and limits within which he could lawfully act, so his careful surrender of the letter to the governor sits within the framework recently fixed.

The letter is a collective petition from a ship's company at the road, identifying the writers as Company servants and the governor as the Company's representative. Its operative complaint is the want of the Company's allowance of arrack and the scarcity of other provisions. Arrack is a distilled spirit, principally produced at Batavia and Goa from sugar, palm sap or rice, and shipped to St Helena either for retail at the standing rate of nine shillings the gallon for the Batavia stock or as part of a ship's company's allowance on the homeward voyage. Its allowance to a ship's company was a fixed entitlement and not a discretionary issue, so the writers' charge of want carries the suggestion that someone aboard had withheld or diverted what was due.

The gunner's prominence among the four and twenty signatories, named by the marshal as one of the officers swearing at the gathering, indicates that the discontent has reached the warrant officer level rather than being confined to the foremast hands. Twenty-four men of one mind is a substantial fraction of an Indiaman's complement and approaches the threshold at which collective action begins to threaten the discipline of the ship. The governor's prompt entry of the letter on the council book, together with the marshal's report, is the conventional means of converting a clandestine complaint into a documented matter that can be properly addressed.

Speculations

The offer of half a crown to the marshal, the swearing of the officers and the secrecy of the approach to his house suggest that the men did not expect their captain to permit the letter to reach the governor through any normal channel. The choice of the marshal, rather than another officer of the garrison or a planter known to the bench, indicates that the writers had identified the holder of an office that could lawfully present documents to the governor and that they had calculated the small cash inducement against the marshal's official duty. The marshal's decision to take the matter directly to the governor undermined the discretion the writers had purchased.

The composition of the gathering, with the gunner and other officers swearing they had four and twenty men of their mind, points to a coordinated movement on the ship rather than the isolated complaint of a few mariners. The size of the group and the seniority of those at its head suggest a dispute that began with the disposal of the Company's arrack and provisions allowance and has now become a collective matter capable of producing a refusal of duty if not addressed.

514

505

delayed makeing our Aplications still Expect =ing it might be better but finding not any likelyhood of amendment, Wee in Generall humbly desire you may Rectifye our Greviances for the time to come and wee as in Duty bound shall ever pray,

Whereupon when the Gov[r] had read the Letter went Imediately & accquainted first Cap[t]: Osborne C[o]mand[r]. of the Hanover & then Cap[t]: Beeckman the C[o]mand[r] of the Eagle to whom these Men belong[d] what sort of a Letter he had rec[d]. & immediately ordered a Stop at the sea Gate to keep any body from goeing aboard & then sent into the Town & had the Men brought before him & Examin[d] in the presence of all the three C[o]manders that were in the Road,

The Paper is not Signd by any body but they all Own[d] it & said they would stand by it, whereupon Cap[t]: Beeckman their C[o]mand[r]: desired the Gov[r] to ask them the following Questions (viz)

Q. What allowance they had outwardbound

A. They believed the same that other Ships had for, twas not that that they complain[d] on,

Q. They were ask[d] what allowance they had at Banjarr they said two Fowles a day but that that was not en[d] for five men but that they Expected a Pudding too,

A. The Cap[t]: said he Always gave them Plenty of Provisi =ons when to be had but that at Batavia he could gett no Arrack nor other Provisions of[f] But that A[s] soon as he had been inform[d] they were D[i]ssatisfied with two Fowles a Mess, he gave them three Fowles a day Constantly to every Mess, and that on other days when they Eat Beef or Fish they were not Put to an allowance Less then Seven or Eight Pound a Mess, and that they Always had Rice without Allowance,

They.

Margin Notes:

Gov[r]: acquaints Cap[t]: Osborne & Cap[t] Beeckman of it

Cap[t] Beeckman[s] Men Examin[d] & Cap[ts] answers.

The writers continued that they had delayed in making their applications, in the hope that matters might improve. Finding no likelihood of amendment, they now in general humbly desired that the governor might rectify their grievances for the time to come.

The governor, on the letter being read, immediately acquainted Captain Osborne, commander of the Hanover, and then Captain Beeckman, commander of the Eagle, to whom the men in question belonged, with the sort of letter he had received. He ordered an immediate stop at the sea gate to prevent anybody from going aboard. He then sent into the town and had the men brought before him, to be examined in the presence of all three commanders then in the road.

The paper was not signed by anybody, but the men owned it and said they would stand by it. Captain Beeckman, their commander, asked the governor to put the following questions to them.

They were first asked what allowance they had outward bound. They answered that they believed it was the same that other ships had, and that this was not what they complained of.

They were asked what allowance they had at Banjar. They answered two fowls a day, but that this was not enough for five men, and that they expected a pudding as well.

The captain replied that he had always given them plenty of provisions when they could be had. At Batavia he could get no arrack nor any other provisions off, but that as soon as he had been informed they were dissatisfied with two fowls a mess, he gave them three fowls a day constantly to every mess. On days when they were not put to other provisions they ate beef or fish, an allowance of no less than seven or eight pounds a mess, and they always had rice without allowance.

Interpretations

The governor's immediate stop at the sea gate is the operative police instrument of the road, preventing the men from returning to the ship before they could be examined and preventing further coordination from passing between the ship and the shore. The order is of the same character as the watch maintained on the demolition of Doveton's blinds in James Town entered 26 April 1715 and the night watch over Allison's room recorded in the libel inquiry of 21 June 1715. The shore-end of the road is the bench's natural point of control where shipboard discipline is in question.

The presence of all three commanders, Captain Osborne of the Hanover and Captain Beeckman of the Eagle together with the men's own captain, converts what could have been a private dispute on one ship into an examination conducted before the senior officers of the squadron in the road. This puts the bench's procedure under the eye of those who must enforce discipline once the ships sail, and gives any finding the practical weight of all three commands behind it.

The form of examination, with the men's commander asking the governor to put the questions, is the standing courtesy by which discipline of a ship's company is conducted by the bench but in the form of the commander's own enquiry. The men's owning of the unsigned paper and declaration that they would stand by it converts what was an anonymous representation into a formal collective complaint on which findings of fact can be made.

The substance of the dispute concerns the customary mess allowance on an Indiaman. A mess is a fixed group of seamen, usually five or six men, who drew their rations and ate together as a unit. The standard allowance was reckoned per mess rather than per man. The men's complaint of two fowls a day at Banjar, and their expectation of a pudding in addition, points to the dispute being not over starvation but over the breakdown of the customary table. The captain's reply, claiming three fowls a mess constantly, seven or eight pounds of beef or fish on alternate days and rice without limit, is the standard form of defence by reference to the actual quantities supplied, and is offered against the men's general charge of want of provisions and the Company's allowance of arrack.

Speculations

The men's choice to remain unsigned on the original letter, while owning it openly once examined, is a deliberate two-stage device. The absence of signatures on the paper as delivered prevented the marshal or any intermediate hand from identifying particular ringleaders before the matter reached the governor. The collective owning of the paper once the men were in the presence of the bench and all three commanders protected each man by the others, since the bench could not single out individuals for punishment without addressing the whole twenty-four.

The framing of the original letter in terms of Company servants addressing the Company's representative, rather than as seamen petitioning their captain, suggests that the writers had calculated the jurisdictional point with care. By raising the complaint over the captain's head to the governor on the ground that it concerned the Company's allowance of arrack, they sought to convert a question of shipboard discipline into one of the Company's institutional duty to its servants. The captain's reply, anchored in particular quantities issued at Banjar and Batavia, is structured to bring the matter back to the discretion of the commander, where the Company's general orders leave it.

515

506

Q. They were ask[t] what Allowance they had from Benjar to the Cape they said they had one day in the week nothing but dryed Venison which was so dryed that the Heart of it was Out, and they found no Nourishment in it, and that Great Part of the way they had but a quart of Water a day to them each

A. The Cap[t]: said they had Always as much of the dryed Ven =sion as they could Eate and Rice without Allowance but as to Water when the Passage was Long fearing the Water would not hold out, he was Oblig[d] to Shorten the Usuall Allowance but when they had b[u]t a quart of Water Each [a] day he Never had more himself,

A They said they could not Live after that Manner, and were Almost all down of the Scurvy,

To which the Cap[t] Answered that in Proportion for the Arrack he had, he gave a great Deal among them that at Banjarr they had Constantly half a Pint a man Every day and to those that went in the Boats a Great Deal more, That n their Passage from Benjarr to the Cape he had Always given them Arrack in bad weather, besides a Tubb of Punch Every Saturday whereof Every man had Ino[?] to make him merry, and that to the Cape he had given them Fresh Provisions as long as it Lasted Every now and then a large live Deer amongst them and when that fail[d] a Hogg, That at the Cape he gave them such Provisions as were to be bought at the Cape viz[t] Fresh Beef and Mutton and that they could want for Nothing since they Came from the Cape and that at this Place he had given them Fresh Meat as much in Proportion for the Number of Men as any other Ship viz: Six pound a w[ee]k at least, and if Bony then Larger Ceices

The men were all very drunk at the time of their Exami =nation, but Especially the Gunner, who could scarce speak

Upon

Margin Notes:

the Men being all Drunk were Comitted

The writers continued that they had delayed in making their applications, in the hope that matters might improve. Finding no likelihood of amendment, they now in general humbly desired that the governor might rectify their grievances for the time to come.

The governor, on the letter being read, immediately acquainted Captain Osborne, commander of the Hanover, and then Captain Beeckman, commander of the Eagle, to whom the men in question belonged, with the sort of letter he had received. He ordered an immediate stop at the sea gate to prevent anybody from going aboard. He then sent into the town and had the men brought before him, to be examined in the presence of all three commanders then in the road.

The paper was not signed by anybody, but the men owned it and said they would stand by it. Captain Beeckman, their commander, asked the governor to put the following questions to them.

They were first asked what allowance they had outward bound. They answered that they believed it was the same that other ships had, and that this was not what they complained of.

They were asked what allowance they had at Banjar. They answered two fowls a day, but that this was not enough for five men, and that they expected a pudding as well.

The captain replied that he had always given them plenty of provisions when they could be had. At Batavia he could get no arrack nor any other provisions off, but that as soon as he had been informed they were dissatisfied with two fowls a mess, he gave them three fowls a day constantly to every mess. On days when they were not put to other provisions they ate beef or fish, an allowance of no less than seven or eight pounds a mess, and they always had rice without allowance.

Interpretations

The governor's immediate stop at the sea gate is the operative police instrument of the road, preventing the men from returning to the ship before they could be examined and preventing further coordination from passing between the ship and the shore. The order is of the same character as the watch maintained on the demolition of Doveton's blinds in James Town entered 26 April 1715 and the night watch over Allison's room recorded in the libel inquiry of 21 June 1715. The shore-end of the road is the bench's natural point of control where shipboard discipline is in question.

The presence of all three commanders, Captain Osborne of the Hanover and Captain Beeckman of the Eagle together with the men's own captain, converts what could have been a private dispute on one ship into an examination conducted before the senior officers of the squadron in the road. This puts the bench's procedure under the eye of those who must enforce discipline once the ships sail, and gives any finding the practical weight of all three commands behind it.

The form of examination, with the men's commander asking the governor to put the questions, is the standing courtesy by which discipline of a ship's company is conducted by the bench but in the form of the commander's own enquiry. The men's owning of the unsigned paper and declaration that they would stand by it converts what was an anonymous representation into a formal collective complaint on which findings of fact can be made.

The substance of the dispute concerns the customary mess allowance on an Indiaman. A mess is a fixed group of seamen, usually five or six men, who drew their rations and ate together as a unit. The standard allowance was reckoned per mess rather than per man. The men's complaint of two fowls a day at Banjar, and their expectation of a pudding in addition, points to the dispute being not over starvation but over the breakdown of the customary table. The captain's reply, claiming three fowls a mess constantly, seven or eight pounds of beef or fish on alternate days and rice without limit, is the standard form of defence by reference to the actual quantities supplied, and is offered against the men's general charge of want of provisions and the Company's allowance of arrack.

Speculations

The men's choice to remain unsigned on the original letter, while owning it openly once examined, is a deliberate two-stage device. The absence of signatures on the paper as delivered prevented the marshal or any intermediate hand from identifying particular ringleaders before the matter reached the governor. The collective owning of the paper once the men were in the presence of the bench and all three commanders protected each man by the others, since the bench could not single out individuals for punishment without addressing the whole twenty-four.

The framing of the original letter in terms of Company servants addressing the Company's representative, rather than as seamen petitioning their captain, suggests that the writers had calculated the jurisdictional point with care. By raising the complaint over the captain's head to the governor on the ground that it concerned the Company's allowance of arrack, they sought to convert a question of shipboard discipline into one of the Company's institutional duty to its servants. The captain's reply, anchored in particular quantities issued at Banjar and Batavia, is structured to bring the matter back to the discretion of the commander, where the Company's general orders leave it.

516

507

Upon which the Gov[ern]r Committed them to Prison because he had heard by Cap[t]: Pownell in the Susanna and Cap[t]: Lidon in the Mar =cury, that the Eagle had a very bad Ships Company on board, That One thousand Pound of the Hon[ble] Companys money had been Stolen out of the Ship, and that the Ship was Attempted to be Blown up, by this Gunner, but as soon as they were in Prison they Sent for some of their Owners and then they Sounded their Trumpets threat =ning and Sweareing in their Drunken Manner and Vaunting what they would do when time Serv[d]

Whereupon the Gov[ern]r Ordered the said Gunner and the Trumpeter to be put in Irons and Sett a Geuard over the Rest to prevent their Caballing any further,

The Cap[t]: hearing there was a Paper written on board Subscribed with a great many of their Names went aboard to search for it and brought it with the Doctors mate, who writ it on Shour and Justifyed what he did Saying he did it by Command of the Men and that having the Mens Orders to write it he thought it could bare him out, Whereupon the Gov[ern]r Comitted him also to the Prison and Put him in Irons as being a Principal Instigator of these Mensigning, the paper is as followeth, VIZ[t]: (without any Superscription)

Humbly Sheweth As wee being Servants to the Hon[ble] East India Comp[a]: in all Humility (Your Excellency being a Representative) Desire you may Ratifie a Poor Pinched and Distressed ships Company that have been these many months wanting the Comp[as] Allowances of Arrack & Scarceti[e] of other Provisions which are too Tedious here to Nominate,

Therefore wee Humbly Desire you may According to your Dignity do us Justice for the time to Come that we as in duty bound may Ever Pray, The Subscribers are

Tho[s]: Frances John W[his] Ward Will[m] in his Peck mark Tho[s]: Clark Tho[s] [his] Caine John Hannay mark

W[m]

Margin Notes:

Cap[t]: went on board upon hear of [s]aid pap[r] & brought it

Copy thereof

The governor then committed the men to prison. He had been told by Captain Pinnell of the Susanna and Captain Lidon of the Mercury that the Eagle had a very bad ship's company on board. One thousand pound of the Honourable Company's money had been stolen out of the ship. The ship was suspected of having been attempted to be blown up by the gunner. As soon as the men were in prison they sent for some of their colours and then sounded their trumpets, threatening and swearing in their drunken manner and vaunting what they would do when they were at sea.

The governor therefore ordered the gunner and the trumpeter to be put in irons, and a guard set over the rest, to prevent any further plotting.

The captain, hearing there was a paper written on board subscribed with many of their names, went aboard to search for it. He brought it ashore and presented it. He justified what he had done in writing it, saying he had acted by command of the men, and that having the men's orders to write it, he thought it could bear him out. The governor committed him also to prison and put him in irons, as a principal instigator of these men in signing the paper.

The paper, which carried no superscription, was in these terms.

The writers, as servants to the Honourable East India Company, addressed the governor as the Company's representative at the island. They humbly desired that he might rectify the position of a poor pinched and distressed ship's company. They had been wanting the Company's allowances of arrack and short of other provisions for many months, particulars of which were too tedious to set out by name. They humbly desired that he might do them justice for the time to come according to his dignity, and they as in duty bound should ever pray.

The paper was subscribed by Thomas Frances, Thomas Clark, John Ward, Thomas [...] Caine by his mark, William [...] Peck by his mark, and John Hannay [...]

Interpretations

The information from Captain Pinnell of the Susanna and Captain Lidon of the Mercury on the prior bad character of the Eagle's ship's company furnishes the bench with operative intelligence from the wider Indiaman community. The Susanna had sailed homeward on 12 November 1714 carrying the consultation packet, and the Mercury had sailed on 19 March 1715, so their reports represent the standing reputation of the Eagle's company as known to the trade across recent months. The reported theft of a thousand pound of Company money and the rumour that the gunner had attempted to blow up the ship convert what had appeared as a victualling dispute into a much graver matter, in which the present demand for the governor's intervention is read against a settled pattern of insubordination.

Sounding the trumpets in prison and sending for the colours of the ship is an act of mock ceremony that converts confinement into a theatrical defiance. The trumpet and the colours are the principal instruments of a ship's company's collective identity on parade and in action. Their use within the prison, after commitment, signals that the men understand themselves as still a corporate body capable of acting at sea once released. The governor's response of placing the gunner and the trumpeter in irons isolates the two warrant officers whose persons carry the symbolic and operative instruments of that corporate identity.

The captain's voluntary attendance, his recovery of the original paper from on board and his admission that he wrote it on the men's orders place the warrant officer commander in the same position as the men he was meant to discipline. His defence that having the men's orders he thought it would bear him out misreads the nature of the warrant officer's commission, which runs from the Company through the commander of the ship, not from the men below. By treating their request as authority for his hand, the captain made himself the principal instigator in the bench's view rather than the moderating officer the bench would have expected him to be.

The paper itself, set out without superscription, is the device by which the writers sought to retain plausible deniability if the matter went against them. Without a heading naming the document as a petition or complaint and without a signed instigator, the paper could be presented as a general expression of want and then owned or disowned according to the bench's reception. The seven names recovered at the foot, three by mark, mark the literacy distribution of the lower deck, where signature is the practice of the warrant officers and the more able mariners and the mark the practice of the rest.

Speculations

The captain's claim to have written the paper by command of the men suggests that the warrant officer commander was either a man of weak authority over a refractory ship's company or a participant in their grievance for reasons of his own. The information from Captain Pinnell and Captain Lidon that a thousand pound of Company money had been stolen from the ship, combined with the suspicion that the gunner had attempted to blow up the Eagle, points to a corporate dispute on the ship in which the captain's faction had aligned with the lower deck against the directors' interest. The drafting of the paper on those terms, addressed over the head of his own commander to the governor, is consistent with that reading.

The sequence of events on shore, with the marshal approached at his house, the offer of half a crown, the gathering of the men in town, the drinking that followed and the eventual examination drunk in the presence of all three commanders, looks like a movement that began as a controlled approach to the governor and degenerated as the time spent waiting was filled with arrack. The trumpets and colours called for in prison, and the threats of what would be done at sea, suggest that the men understood the matter not as a petition that might fail and be abandoned, but as the first move in a course of action that they intended to continue once the ship sailed, regardless of the bench's response.

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508

Will[m] Wells James [his] Bayles W[m] Green mark Alex: Adair Rich: Hughes Rob[t] Holl Henry Phillips Oliver Bagge Darby Field Rich: Adamson Mar: Ralfe Will[s] Waters Jos: Doswett. John Quick.

The same day the Gov[er]nr Sent for the Chief on Shoar Mate on Shoar, and the Boatswain, And the Chief mate being Sworn, Gave the following Information, viz[t]

Island St Helena. ss.

William Hanray Marrin[er] being Chief Mate of the Ship Eagle Capt: Daniel Beeckman C[o]mmander being Duly Examined of what he knoweth touching the Mutineers on board the said Ship Sayeth on his Oath, That Thomas Francis the Boatswain Said at Batavia he should never be Easey till he Saw the Confusion of the Ship (meaneing the Ship Eagle) that the said Boatswain he knoweth to be of avery abusive Quarrellsome Temper very Negligent and Cabel[e]ss of his duty, and a Great Drunkard of a Muti =nous Temper and often Calleaging with the Men and abuseing the Officers of the Ship as by Report, But Such Men among the Sailers, that were not of his Faction, he was very Cruel to, and that there are twenty on board the Ship who have Subscribed a round Robbin Paper that have been very Lately Intimate with the Said Boatswaine which he believes by the basness and falsity of that Paper to have been upon a very bad Account,

And the said William Hanray Sayeth that Thomas Clark the Gunner of said Ship is one of the said Mutineers which as he believes is Confirmed by his Signing the [s]ai[d] Paper, and is an Intimate Correspondent with the boatswaine and a Great abetor of these false C[o]mplaints but that he Carries it more shily than some others, and dos not Discover himselfe to the Mates so much as the Rest have done but he looks upon him to be a very bad

man

Margin Notes:

Hanray Chief m[ate] by Exam[n]

The further subscribers to the paper were:

William Wells

Alexander Adair

Henry Phillips

Richard Adamson

Walter Waters

John Quick

James Bayles, by his mark

Richard Hughes

Oliver Bagge

William Green

Robert Holt

Darby Field

Martin Ralfe

Joseph Doewett

The same day the governor sent on shore for the chief mate and the boatswain. The chief mate, being sworn, gave the following information.

William Hanray, marriner, being chief mate of the ship Eagle, Captain Daniel Beeckman commander, was duly examined as to what he knew touching the mutineers on board. He said on his oath that Thomas Frances the boatswain had said at Batavia he should never be easy till he saw the confusion of the ship, meaning the Eagle. He knew the boatswain to be of a very abusive, quarrelsome temper, very negligent and careless of his duty, and a great drunkard of a mutinous temper. He often colloged with the men and abused the officers of the ship. By report, he was very cruel to such men among the sailors as were not of his faction. There were twenty on board the ship who had subscribed a round-robin paper, and these had lately been very intimate with the boatswain. From the baseness and falsity of that paper, he believed it had been on a very bad account.

He further said that Thomas Clark the gunner of the ship was one of the mutineers, which he believed was confirmed by his signing the paper. The gunner was an intimate correspondent with the boatswain, and a great abettor of these false complaints, but he carried it more slyly than some others, and did not discover himself to the mates so much as the rest had done. He looked upon him to be a very bad man.

Interpretations

The chief mate's deposition is the principal evidence to which the bench will turn in framing any subsequent charge against the men. Sworn evidence from the senior subordinate officer carries more weight than the commander's own report, since the chief mate has daily working contact with the lower deck and the warrant officers and is positioned to observe the patterns of association on which the bench's reading of the dispute now depends. His identification of Thomas Frances the boatswain as having said at Batavia that he should never be easy till he saw the confusion of the ship fixes the intent of mutiny to a date and place well before the present sitting at the island.

The round-robin paper is a particular form of collective subscription used by ship's companies in matters of grievance or mutiny. The signatures are written in a circle around the page so that no single name appears first and no leader can be identified by position on the document. The device protects each subscriber by the others, since the bench cannot single out the ringleader from the form of the paper. The chief mate's evidence that twenty men aboard the Eagle had subscribed such a paper, in addition to the seven and the fourteen further names already on the council book, indicates that the disaffection on the ship runs broader than the present examination has yet uncovered.

The verb collogue, used of the boatswain's dealings with the men, means to converse on familiar terms with intent to flatter or to draw into a private understanding, often to a bad purpose. Its use marks the boatswain's offence not as open insubordination but as the cultivation of a faction below decks. The boatswain by his office is the warrant officer responsible for the discipline of the lower deck and the maintenance of the rigging and stores, with the men working directly under his command. His turning of that position to faction-building, abusing the officers and treating cruelly the men who would not join him, is the precise inversion of the office and the operative ground for the chief mate's evidence.

The chief mate's distinction between the boatswain, who carried his faction openly, and the gunner, who carried it more slyly, identifies the two warrant officers who are the bench's principal targets for confinement in irons. The gunner's signing of the round-robin paper is treated as the public confirmation of what the chief mate had suspected from his manner aboard. Together with the captain's commitment as the writer of the petition, the bench now holds the three persons who would have led the ship's company in any continuation of the dispute at sea, and has placed each under restraint.

Speculations

The boatswain's declaration at Batavia, that he should never be easy till he saw the confusion of the ship, points to a settled intent of mutiny formed long before the ship reached the island. The choice of the Banjar to Cape leg as the period for the cultivation of the lower deck, with the captain's own account of shortened water rations and reduced provisions on that passage, suggests that the boatswain had used the predictable hardships of the long ocean leg as the operative ground for building his faction. By the time the Eagle reached the road at St Helena, the disaffection had become the established temper of a substantial part of the company.

The chief mate's account of the gunner as carrying his faction more slyly than the boatswain suggests a deliberate division of role between the two warrant officers. The boatswain would carry the visible part, openly cultivating the men and abusing the officers, and would in consequence draw the attention of any inquiry. The gunner would retain his standing with the mates and would be in position to act when the boatswain's exposure made open leadership impossible. The bench's commitment of both warrant officers in irons, on the chief mate's evidence rather than on any further act, defeats that division by removing the alternative leadership before the prepared sequence could operate.

518

509

man, and a great fomenter of the Disturbances on board the said ship Eagle,

And he sayeth that Alexander Adair the Docters Mate is avery Malicious Man and has at severall times threatned the Capt: and Cheef Officers and when after he was formerly Con =fined for a Great Crime on board he voe[w]ed swearing against the Capt. and Officers if he had not Satisfaction Some other ways That he is not Only one of the Subscribers to the Pretious Robbin Paper but as by Report the Chief Contriver thereof, and the agent who went from one to the other of the Ships Comp[a] to gett them to Signe it,

And the said William Hanray sayeth that William Wells the Trumpeter is another of the Ring Leaders and Conspi =rators on board the said ship Eagle, One of the first fomenters of Divisions and Complaints, a C[o]mmon Tiff[?]eer on board the ship and has Often been Urging the Men to make C[o]mp[ts] and did now Promote the signing of the Paper, and that those four before Named are the Principle of the Mutineers, hav =ing always been very Noisey troublesome People on board and by their fractious and bad behaviour he believes the Rest of the People have been Stirred up to Signe the Said Paper as much to try the Strength of their Party as more then for any other Reason there being no want of any kind of Provisions on board the Capt: having also been very kind always to them that he believes what Ever Pretence they may make their Designe is Rather to Cyrate the ship than for any Real Cause or want and as to what is here before Mentioned the Said William Hanray Affirmeth it to be all true Upon his own knowledge Except the Repo[r]t of the Boatswains Expressions of wishing Confusion to the ship w[ch] he had by the Repo[r]t of others but he believes that to be very true also,

William Hanray.

Jurat hoc 30 Junij 1715 Coram me Isa: Pyke

The chief mate added that the gunner was a great fomenter of the disturbances on board the ship Eagle.

He further said that Alexander Adair the doctor's mate was a very malicious man. He had at several times threatened the captain and chief officers, and whenever he was sent for to attend a great person on board he would swear vengeance against the captain and officers if he did not have satisfaction from some other party. He was not only one of the subscribers to the round-robin paper but, by report, the chief contriver of it, and the agent who went from one to the other of the ship's company to get them to sign it.

William Hanray further said that William Wells the trumpeter was another of the ringleaders and conspirators on board the Eagle. He was one of the first fomenters of divisions and complaints, a common talker on board the ship, and had often been urging the men to make complaint. He had now promoted the signing of the paper. The four men before named were the principals of the mutineers. They had always been very noisy, troublesome people on board, and by their factious and bad behaviour he believed the rest of the people had been stirred up to sign the paper, as much to try the strength of their party as for any other reason. There was no want of any kind of provisions on board, the captain having also been very kind always to them. He believed that whatever pretence they might make, their design was rather to seize the ship than for any real cause or want. As to what was before mentioned, William Hanray affirmed it to be all true upon his own knowledge, except the report of the boatswain's expression of wishing confusion to the ship, which he had by report, but which he believed to be very true also. Signed William Hanray.

The information was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 29 June 1715.

Interpretations

The chief mate's identification of four principals, Thomas Frances the boatswain, Thomas Clark the gunner, Alexander Adair the doctor's mate and William Wells the trumpeter, fixes a structured account of the mutiny by office and function. The boatswain operates on the lower deck through his command of the men, the gunner through his standing in the gun room, the doctor's mate through his access to every part of the ship by reason of his calling on the sick, and the trumpeter through his place as the ship's voice. Each of the four occupies a position that no ordinary mariner could supply, and together they cover the principal lines of communication and faction-building on an Indiaman.

The doctor's mate is the warrant officer assistant to the surgeon, with charge of dressings and minor remedies and access to every man on the muster as patient or visitor. The chief mate's evidence that he went from one to the other of the ship's company to get them to sign the paper identifies the use the conspirators made of his rounds. The post is unsuspected for political purposes and provides the necessary cover for the systematic canvassing of the lower deck without raising the suspicion that would follow a boatswain or a gunner moving through the same quarters. The chief mate's account of him as the chief contriver and the agent for collection of signatures fits the practical demands of the round-robin form, in which the order of approach and the management of the page must be controlled by a single hand.

The chief mate's distinction between knowledge and report, made expressly at the close of his deposition, marks the deponent as careful of the limits of admissible evidence. He affirms on his own knowledge everything except the boatswain's expression at Batavia about confusion of the ship, which he had by report from another mariner. The qualification is the conventional form by which a deposition is made admissible at any subsequent trial, and is the sort of distinction the bench at the island had reason to expect after the marital privilege ruling delivered by Pyke at the Toby trial of 10 May 1715, in which the evidentiary standards for capital matters had been fixed by reference to Sir Edward Coke and Dalton's Justice.

The chief mate's conclusion that the design was rather to seize the ship than for any real cause or want converts the matter from a question of allowance and provisions into one of intended piracy. Seizing an Indiaman on the homeward leg, with a Company cargo aboard, is the principal danger that the establishment at the island stood placed to forestall. The men's calling for their colours and sounding their trumpets in the prison, the boatswain's declaration at Batavia, and the doctor's mate's threats of vengeance against the captain and officers all align with that reading, and the chief mate's evidence puts the matter on the council books in terms that will sustain a charge of mutiny rather than of grievance.

Speculations

The chief mate's account of the doctor's mate going from one to the other of the ship's company to get them to sign the round-robin paper suggests that the round-robin was drafted at sea on the run from the Cape to St Helena, not at the island after arrival. The matter has the look of a prepared instrument timed for delivery on first contact with the bench at the road, with the marshal at his house identified in advance as the channel by which it would reach the governor without the captain's knowledge. The half crown offered to the marshal was small enough to read as a private commission and large enough to test his disposition before the paper itself was produced.

The chief mate's identification of the trumpeter as a common talker on board, urging the men to make complaint, sits with the use of the trumpets in the prison once the men were committed. The trumpet is the ship's instrument of signal and command, and the trumpeter is positioned to hear and to convey the temper of the lower deck to any party seeking to organise it. The men's sending for the colours and sounding the trumpets after commitment, framed against the chief mate's account of the trumpeter as one of the principals, suggests that the ceremony in prison was not improvised in the heat of confinement but the executed form of a planned signal of defiance, prepared for use whether the men were on the ship or ashore.

519

510

Upon which the Boatswaine alsoe was C[o]mmitted to Prison and put in Irons,

But in the afternoon these four were all againe Examine[d] and the Gunners and Boatswains Examinations are as followeth

Thomas Clark Gunner of the Ship Eagle being duly Examin[d] touching the Lighted Match that was found in the Powder Roome of said ship Sayeth that he Left his Door Lock[d] and Left the key with his Mate, and bid him if the Capt: wanted any Armes to goe to the Chest that was aloft, but not to goe down below into the Powder Room, and has nothing more to say as to the Lighted Match,

It being Demanded what objection he has to make against the Captain. He makes no Answer.

Thomas Francis Boatswain of the Ship Eagle Gally being Duly Examined touching severall Misdemean[rs] Riots, and Offences by him Charg[d] to be C[o]mmitted, as Appears by the Oath of William Hannay Cheif mate of said ship, As to all those matters Mentioned by M[r]: Hannay, Sayes he knows nothing of them, it being Demanded by the Gov[ern]r what became of the Chest of money lost out of the Ship Saith he knows nothing of it, and being asked what he knows of the Intent of Blowing up the Ship at Batavia Sayeth that he knows there was a Lighted Match brought out of the Powder Room by the Gunners Mate which he believes was Laid there by Martin Calf a Sailor belonging to the [s]d Ship, and the Reason why he beleiveth Calf did it is because the day before the Lighted Match was found in the Powder Roome, he heard Calf Swear he could send all those Gentry in the Cabbin to the Devill were he sure of goeing to Hell himself, and the Reason why he Did threaten to do so was because he could not gett Leave to goe on shoar, and that he was up the Night

before

Margin Notes:

Gun[er] & Boatswains Examination

On the chief mate's evidence the boatswain was also committed to prison and put in irons.

In the afternoon the four were all examined again. The gunner's and the boatswain's examinations were as follows.

Thomas Clark, gunner of the ship Eagle, was duly examined as to the lighted match that had been found in the powder room of the ship. He said he had left his door locked and left the key with his mate. He had told him, if the captain wanted any arms, to go to the chest that was aloft, but not to go down below into the powder room. He had nothing more to say as to the lighted match.

He was asked what objection he had to make against the captain. He made no answer.

Thomas Frances, boatswain of the ship Eagle, was duly examined as to several misdemeanours, riots and offences charged against him, as appeared by the oath of William Hanray, chief mate of the ship. As to all those matters mentioned by Mr Hanray, he said he knew nothing of them. He was asked by the governor what had become of the chest of money lost out of the ship. He said he knew nothing of it. He was asked what he knew of the intent to blow up the ship at Batavia. He said he knew there was a lighted match brought out of the powder room by the gunner's mate, which he believed had been laid there by Martin Calf, a sailor belonging to the ship. The reason he believed Calf did it was because, the day before the lighted match was found in the powder room, he had heard Calf swear he could send all those gentry in the cabin to the devil. He was sure of going to hell himself, and the reason he had threatened to do so was because he could not get leave to go on shore, and that he was up the night before [...]

Interpretations

The lighted match found in the powder room is the operative ground for the gunner's interrogation. A match in this context is the slow-burning length of treated hemp or cotton used to fire ordnance. Its presence unattended in the powder room of an Indiaman is the standard form of attempted destruction of a ship by fire, since the powder room is the central magazine where the ship's gunpowder is kept in barrels and where any spark will set off the principal explosion. The keeping of the room locked, with the key in the gunner's or the gunner's mate's hand, is the indispensable safeguard of the ship. The gunner's defence that he left his door locked and the key with his mate, with instructions to go only to the arms chest aloft, is calculated to remove him personally from the powder room at the relevant time without disclosing the identity of the person who placed the match there.

The boatswain's defence is the conventional answer of a principal in a collective offence who relies on the difficulty the bench will face in proving the matters of common report against him without further depositions. By saying he knew nothing of the matters set out in the chief mate's deposition, he forces the bench to call further evidence rather than rest on the chief mate's account alone. His attempt to shift the lighted match in the powder room at Batavia onto Martin Calf, a mariner not yet named in the proceedings, is the standard form of deflection by a suspect who must answer the most serious charge first.

The thousand pound of Company money lost out of the ship, raised again in the boatswain's examination, fixes the broader context in which the present matter stands. The intelligence first carried by Captain Pinnell of the Susanna and Captain Lidon of the Mercury is now put directly to the suspect, and his denial of knowledge of the chest of money places him in the conventional position of the man on whom suspicion lies but against whom no direct proof is yet on the council books. The governor's choice to put the question of the money to the boatswain in the same examination as the question of the lighted match treats the two matters as parts of the same course of conduct, in which theft of Company funds and attempted destruction of the ship are the operative grounds for any subsequent charge.

The boatswain's report of Calf's expression about sending the gentry in the cabin to the devil, and being sure of going to hell himself, is reported speech being used in a deflection. The wording carries the conventional language of a mariner cursing those in authority on the ship and consigning himself with them, and the boatswain's choice to attribute the matter to Calf rests on the credibility of that wording as something a sailor of bad temper might say. The detail that Calf was up the night before, awaiting answer, supplies the boatswain's circumstantial basis for the imputation, and the bench will treat the assertion against the documented pattern of the boatswain's own conduct on the ship.

Speculations

The gunner's refusal to make any answer to the question of what objection he had against the captain, after his guarded account of the lighted match, suggests a calculated silence on the only matter where the bench was inviting him to commit himself. By giving no answer he avoided both an acknowledgement of grievance, which would support the chief mate's account of him as a principal mutineer, and a denial of grievance, which would put him at odds with the round-robin paper he had signed. The choice is the prepared answer of a warrant officer who understands that further evidence is being collected against him and who intends to leave the bench to its proofs.

The boatswain's deflection onto Martin Calf, a mariner not previously named in the round-robin paper or in the chief mate's deposition, looks like a prepared alternative narrative held in reserve for use if the matter of the lighted match at Batavia were ever raised against him. The choice of a sailor placed below the warrant officer line, with a recorded outburst that he could not get leave to go on shore, supplies the bench with a plausible individual offender at a lower level of responsibility. If credited, the device would account for the lighted match without implicating the warrant officer faction the chief mate had identified, and would leave the boatswain's position as the man best able to keep order on the ship intact for any later proceeding.

520

511

before, and had a light in the Cook Roome and the said Thomas Francis sayeth he saw the Lighted Match in the Powder roome about two hours before twas brought up,

The Carpenter, Caulker, Carpenters Boy, and some others were discharged out of Prison,

The Gov[ern]r sent on board for some of their Salt Beef one of the Bigest and one of the Least Ceices they could find, w[ch] was brought and weighed, the heaviest weighed about Seven Pound & a half the least above five pound and three quarters of a pound, It appear[d] they had always Rice at Will & dryed Venison likewise But the Ground and Cheif of their C[o]mp[lt] was the want of Pudding to Eat with their meat and a Pint of Arrack a day which because the Capt of the Hanover had Allow[d] to his Men at Sea beleived t to be the Comp[as] Allowance.

That was the Subsisence that these four Men viz: the Gunner, the Boatswain, the Trumpeter and the Doct[rs] mate on behalf of the Rest Complaind of, viz: The want of a Pudding with their Meat or Else two Ceices of Meat, and the Arrack as aforesaid,

In the Examining this Matter the Gov[ern]r with his Council and all the Captains were Present, and it Ap =peared to all that they had no other Pretence then as aboresaid, But upon Examining of some others of the Ships it did not Appear, but that there was a due & Propper Allowance of Every thing Excepting for about two Months before they Arrived at the Cape and then the Short Allow =ance (so much Complain[d] of) was as followeth,

One Peice of such Beef as is above Mention[d] which is upwards of Six Pound five quarts of Water, and as much Rice as they would have was the Allowance of five Men - It

Margin Notes:

Some discharged

upon Exam[n] before Gov[r] & Cap[ts] found the Men had a propper allow[ce]

The boatswain added that he had been up the night before, had a light in the cook room, and said he saw the lighted match in the powder room about two hours before it was brought up.

The carpenter, the caulker, the carpenter's boy and some others were discharged out of prison.

The governor sent on board for some of the ship's salt beef, one of the biggest and one of the least pieces they could find. The pieces were brought and weighed. The heaviest weighed about seven pound and a half, the least above five pound and three quarters of a pound. It appeared the men had always rice at will, and dried venison likewise. The ground and chief of their complaint was the want of pudding to eat with their meat, and a pint of arrack a day. They believed a pint to be the Company's allowance because the captain of the Hanover had allowed it to his men at sea.

That was the substance of the matters which the gunner, the boatswain, the trumpeter and the doctor's mate had complained of on behalf of the rest, namely the want of a pudding with their meat or else two pieces of meat, and the arrack as already stated.

On examining the matter, the governor with his council and all the captains being present, it appeared to all that the men had no other pretence than as above. On examining some others of the ship's company, it did not appear but that there had been due and proper allowance of everything, except for about two months before they arrived at the Cape, when the short allowance complained of was as follows.

One piece of such beef as is mentioned above, which is upwards of six pound;

five quarts of water;

and as much rice as they would have:

was the allowance of five men.

Interpretations

The governor's procedure of sending on board for one of the biggest and one of the least pieces of salt beef is a test of the ship's victualling by physical sample. The bench weighs the actual pieces in court rather than relying on a paper allowance from the ship's books. Heaviest seven pound and a half, lightest above five pound and three quarters, places the issue at the upper end against the standing benchmark of six pound a mess at least, which Captain Beeckman had defended in his earlier examination on the same day. The test confirms the captain's defence on the meat at the island, and removes the men's general charge of want of provisions from the operative ground of the complaint.

The mess remains the unit of allowance, with the five-men ration on the short period before the Cape disclosed as one piece of beef upwards of six pound, five quarts of water and rice without limit. The figure of five quarts of water for five men for the day matches the quart a man already complained of in evidence at the earlier examination, and the captain's earlier admission of having shortened the usual allowance on a long passage fixing his own ration at no more than the men's. The bench now has on the record both the men's specific complaint and the captain's specific defence on the same units of measure, with the rice without limit as the operative cushion against the shortened meat and water.

The narrowing of the dispute to the want of a pudding with the meat, or else two pieces of meat, and the pint of arrack a day, converts the matter from one of want of provisions into one of customary allowance against allowance on a comparable Indiaman. A pudding in a ship's mess of this date is a boiled dish of flour or oatmeal with suet, sometimes with raisins or other fruit, cooked in a cloth and served alongside the meat to make the ration go further. Its absence as a settled grievance is the operative complaint that the men were drawing meat and rice but not the carbohydrate ration that the lower deck regarded as essential to a proper meal. The pint of arrack a day, founded on the practice of Captain Osborne of the Hanover, presents the men's claim as one of comparative custom in the squadron rather than as the Company's general allowance.

The Indiaman context of the Hanover and the Eagle fixes the practical benchmarks of the road. Each is a Company armed merchantman returning from the East with a cargo for the directors, with the Hanover under Captain Osborne and the Eagle under Captain Beeckman. Captain Osborne's allowance of a pint of arrack a day to his own men, taken as the founding fact of the Eagle's claim, sets the operative ground on which the bench will measure the present captain's regime. The discharge of the carpenter, the caulker, the carpenter's boy and the others removes from confinement the tradesmen of the ship not implicated in the warrant officer faction, and preserves the working complement of the ship for any continuation of the voyage to Bencoolen.

Speculations

The reduction of the dispute on examination to the want of a pudding and the pint of arrack suggests that the larger framing of the original paper, with its rhetoric of a poor pinched and distressed ship's company wanting the Company's allowance of arrack and short of other provisions for many months, was the chosen public face of a narrower domestic complaint. The choice of the comparative ground, the captain of the Hanover's pint a day at sea, suggests that the men had calculated their case before drafting the round-robin paper, and had identified the captain whose practice would give their claim the appearance of a Company standard. The bench's examination of others of the ship's company, finding due and proper allowance except for the two months before the Cape, exposes the gap between the public framing and the recoverable facts.

The discharge of the carpenter, the caulker, the carpenter's boy and the others before the further examination concludes suggests a deliberate winnowing of the prisoners by the bench. Each of the released men is a tradesman with a specific skill that the ship cannot continue the voyage to Bencoolen without, and each has been cleared by the chief mate's testimony and by the absence of his name on the round-robin paper. The pattern matches the bench's earlier handling of the Cardonnell passengers Aylmer, Bridger and Wiley on 16 June 1715, where reconciliation was preferred to formal sentence wherever the operational interest of the ship was served, and the men retained on the books for further examination are now confined to the warrant officer faction identified by the chief mate.

521

512

It appeared they were very Bold Resolute & Desperate Menace[d] People, they had all of them in their Turns Mentioned the brought to Reason Capt: and Cheif officers they seemed to be so Obstinate as not to be Perswaded by Perswasions or any fair & Moderate means but bo[a]sted themselves that the Rest of the Men were of their minds, Wherefore the Govern[r] Looking upon them as Dangerous men, Remanded them back againe to Prison.

The following Affidavits were since taken.

Island St Helena. ss

(viz[t])

John Verchell sailer Being duly Examined on his Oath Saith that lately when the Ship Eagle Gally was at the Cape of Good hope, he heard the Gunner say, oh! my Little Dear Creature (meaning his wife) if it weart for her he would never goe in that Ship, for I am sure the ship will never Proceed her voyage but will either be Run away with, or blown up,

This was Said to and in the hearing of Robert Toll, and this Deponent being askt why he did not Discover it to the Capt: Saith he was afraid to discover it because the Gunner had threatned him that if ever he discovered any thing to the Capt: that he Said that he should be hove over board some dark night and no body should know what became of him, He Saith also That one night Since they Came from the Cape of Good Hope he overheard the Boatswaine Say to the Gunner, this Ship will never goe for England But what must we do how shall we Mannage it, and the Gunner Sayd I shall do nothing my self for I will have but Little Hand in it but it shall be done in the same Manner as it was to be done at Batavia, and when those words was spoken the Gunner the Boatswaine, the Docters Mate, & Robert Toll.

Margin Notes:

Verchells Exam[n]

It appeared the men were very bold, resolute and desperate. They had all of them in their turns menaced the captain and chief officers. They seemed so obstinate as not to be reduced by persuasion or any fair and moderate means, but boasted themselves that the rest of the men were of their minds. The governor, looking upon them as dangerous men, remanded them back to prison.

The following affidavits were since taken.

John Verchell, sailor, was duly examined and said upon his oath that lately, when the ship Eagle Galley was at the Cape of Good Hope, he had heard the gunner say, Oh, my little dear creature, meaning his wife, if it were not for her he would never go in that ship, for he was sure the ship would never proceed her voyage but would either be run away with or blown up.

This was said to, and in the hearing of, Robert Toll. The deponent being asked why he did not discover it to the captain, he said he was afraid to discover it because the gunner had threatened him that, if ever he discovered any thing to the captain, he should be hove overboard some dark night, and nobody should know what became of him.

He further said that one night, since they came from the Cape of Good Hope, he had overheard the boatswain say to the gunner, this ship will never go for England, but what must we do, how shall we manage it. The gunner said, I shall do nothing myself, for I will have but little hand in it, but it shall be done in the same manner as it was to be done at Batavia. When those words were spoken the gunner, the boatswain, the doctor's mate and Robert Toll [...]

Interpretations

The taking of fresh affidavits after the remand to prison places the bench's procedure on the footing of preparation for a formal trial of mutiny rather than for any further reconciliation. The earlier examinations of the same day had drawn from the four principals their answers in person before the governor and the captains. The affidavits now build the documentary basis on which the matter can be charged, by reducing into sworn writing the evidence of mariners willing to discover what they had seen and heard at sea. The procedure follows the form of evidence-gathering established earlier in the present sittings, comparable to the documentary chain assembled against Swartz on 21 June 1715 in the pasquinade inquiry.

The gunner's reported expression to his wife at the Cape, identifying her as the sole reason he would go in the ship at all and predicting that the ship would either be run away with or blown up, fixes the operative intent of mutiny at a date and place that the bench can put against the chief mate's earlier evidence of the boatswain's words at Batavia. The two warrant officers are now placed in parallel as having spoken of the destruction or seizure of the ship at separate ports on the homeward voyage, with each confided to a different witness. The pattern indicates concerted planning rather than isolated outburst, since the two sets of words bear on the same intention but were uttered at different stages.

The gunner's threat to John Verchell, that he should be hove overboard some dark night and nobody should know what became of him, illustrates the operative mechanism by which the warrant officer faction had silenced informers among the lower deck for the course of the voyage. The threat of unwitnessed disposal at sea is the standing terror by which mutineers control the rest of the company, since the man heaved overboard at night leaves no body to be returned to port and no immediate accuser. Verchell's stated reason for not discovering the matter to the captain is the conventional answer of a mariner who has held his information until placed in a setting where the bench can protect him.

The exchange overheard since the Cape, with the boatswain asking how the seizure should be managed and the gunner replying that he would have little hand in it himself but that it should be done in the same manner as it was to be done at Batavia, ties the present plot to the earlier attempt of which the lighted match in the powder room had been the operative instrument. The gunner's careful distancing of himself from the principal action, while supplying the method by reference to the prior attempt, mirrors the chief mate's earlier evidence that the gunner carried his faction more slyly than the boatswain. The doctor's mate's presence at the conversation, identified at the close of Verchell's affidavit, confirms his place as one of the four principals in the operational planning, not merely as the chief contriver and circulator of the round-robin paper.

Speculations

The reference to the same manner as it was to be done at Batavia points to a planned attempt at the destruction of the ship by fire in the powder room as the standing method of the conspiracy, of which the lighted match found there at Batavia and traced by the boatswain to Martin Calf was the failed first execution. The bench now has on its books the boatswain's deflection of the Batavia attempt onto Calf and the gunner's reference to the same manner being intended for the present run, the two accounts pointing in opposite directions. The boatswain's choice of a sailor outside the warrant officer faction as his named alternative offender at Batavia looks like a defence prepared in advance for the contingency of arrest at a Company port, the gunner's reply to the boatswain in the overheard exchange exposing the device.

Verchell's silence at the Cape and on the run to St Helena, broken only on the day after the warrant officer faction was confined in irons, suggests that the affidavits now coming in represent a settled body of evidence held by mariners on the lower deck against the moment when the bench would be in a position to protect them. The chief mate's earlier evidence of twenty subscribers to the round-robin paper aboard had placed the disaffected men against the rest of the company in numbers, and the appearance of Verchell and Robert Toll as informers now confirms that the larger part of the Eagle's mariners had stood against the warrant officer faction even when intimidated by threats of being heaved overboard. The bench's reception of the affidavits after the remand to prison signals that the inquiry will proceed on the gathered evidence rather than on any further offer of reconciliation to the principals.

522

513

Toll were [...] bowle of Punch and these Saying Put Such D[...] that he feared being Destroyed in the ship [...] perate Men

[...] twas Gone out of the ship or there former atte[...] [...] this Deponent [...] [...] of

[...] [...]chell

Jurat Coram me hoc tricesimo die Junij Dom 1715 Isaac Pyke

Island St Helena ss

George Taylor Marriner being Third Mate of the Ship Eagle Gally, Saith that he has been in other Ships and has in them had a less Allowance of Victuals then in this Ship Eagle, and that in this Ship he had only the Ordinary Allowance of foremest men, yet was Contented with it and never wanted but always Had Enough, He Sayeth he thinks he has more Reason [...] against the Capt: then those who have Signed the Paper [...] the Capt: has Preferred one by Puting him over his [...] for all that, Since he is to be sworne he will Speak [...] [b]ut the truth and dos on his Oath Affirm that the [...] been very kind to all the ships Company, and has often given them Arrack and P[...] [...] [...] hav Seven pounds of Mutton and on [...] [...] [...] Since then they have not wanted, nor [...] [...] allowance was alike, some of them had m[...] [...] [...] twas all Good and wholesome meat [...] [...] more of the Lost money, he says he [...] [...] [...] never heard wh[...] [...] [...] and t[...] [...] [...] that he knoweth [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] out in their [...]

George Taylor

Jurat hoc Tricessimo die Junij Dom 1715 Co[ra] me Isaac Pyke

[...]ard

Margin Notes:

Geo Taylor 3[d] M[ate] Exam[n]

Robert Toll were [...] over a bowl of punch, and [...] saying [...] put such a [...] that he feared, being [...] in the ship, destroyed [...] desperate men.

[...] was gone out of the ship, or there [...] former attempt [...] deponent [...]

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 29 June 1715. Signed Verchell.

George Taylor, mariner, third mate of the ship Eagle Galley, said that he had been in other ships and had in them had a less allowance of victuals than in the Eagle. In the present ship he had only the ordinary allowance of foremast men, yet was contented with it and never wanted, but always had enough. He thought he had more reason to speak against the captain than those who had signed the paper, the captain having preferred one by putting him over his head. For all that, since he was to be sworn, he would speak out the truth, and did on his oath affirm that the captain had been very kind to all the ship's company, and had often given them arrack and [...] at the time they had seven pound of mutton and one [...] pieces of [...] Since then they had not wanted, nor [...] allowance, [...] some of them had [...] was also good and wholesome meat.

As to the lost money, he said he knew [...] never heard [...] that he knew of [...] in their [...]

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 29 June 1715. Signed George Taylor.

Interpretations

George Taylor's status as third mate gives his evidence the standing of an officer's deposition rather than a foremast hand's, and the bench will rate it accordingly. The third mate is the junior commissioned officer of the watch, ranking after the chief mate and the second mate, and is in daily contact with both the warrant officer level and the lower deck. His statement that he had only the ordinary allowance of foremast men marks the unusual choice of an officer to take the standard mariner's ration, and signals his independence from any officer's faction on the ship.

The use of his own dissatisfaction with the captain, openly stated at the head of the affidavit, is the conventional device of a deponent establishing his credit on a matter where he has no interest to please the man defended. By stating that he had more reason to speak against the captain than the men who had signed the round-robin paper, because the captain had preferred another over his head, Taylor makes plain the personal grievance he might have advanced against Captain Beeckman and then sets it aside in favour of the truth on oath. The form of the statement is consistent with the standard of evidence noticed earlier in the chief mate's deposition, in which the deponent had distinguished knowledge from report and confined his oath accordingly.

The comparative reference to other ships in which the deponent had served, where he had had less allowance of victuals than on the Eagle, is the operative answer to the men's framing of the dispute as one of unusual want. Taylor's evidence converts the comparative ground on which the men had built their case, founded on Captain Osborne's pint of arrack a day on the Hanover recorded earlier on 29 June 1715, into a comparison that runs against the men's claim by setting the Eagle's regime against the range of Indiaman practice known to a working third mate.

The figure of seven pound of mutton mentioned in the affidavit aligns with the standing benchmark of six pound a mess at least, with bony pieces larger, defended by Captain Beeckman in his earlier examination of the same day. Taylor's account of often-issued arrack, good and wholesome meat and the absence of any general want except over a particular period brings the third mate's evidence into agreement with the captain's defence and with the bench's own test by physical weighing of the salt beef. The corroboration of three sources, by direct test and by two separate depositions from officers of different rank, places the want-of-provisions framing of the round-robin paper substantially against the recoverable facts.

Speculations

Taylor's open declaration of his own grievance at being passed over by the captain, before swearing to the captain's kindness to the ship's company, suggests that the third mate had been approached at some stage by the round-robin party as a possible recruit, on the calculation that an officer with a private grievance might be willing to lend his name to the paper. His decision to disclose the personal matter himself, rather than to be confronted with it in cross-examination at a subsequent trial, indicates a careful man who anticipates the lines of attack his deposition might face. The pattern reflects the same forensic care displayed in the chief mate's distinction between knowledge and report on the boatswain's expression at Batavia.

The third mate's emphasis on the Eagle's allowance being not merely adequate but more generous than other ships he had served in suggests that the bench is being supplied, through successive depositions, with the basis for a finding that the round-robin paper was not merely an exaggerated grievance but a fabricated one. If the want of provisions was a constructed pretence, as William Hanray the chief mate had earlier concluded, the procedural ground for treating the matter as mutiny rather than as petition becomes the operative reading. The chief mate's view that the design was rather to seize the ship than for any real cause or want is now being underwritten by the third mate's parallel statement of contentment with the allowance, and the bench can frame the documentary chain on those two depositions.

523

514

Island St Helena ss

Jacob Franklin Marriner & Midship man belonging to the Ship Eagle Gally Saith that during the voyage hitherto he has had Sufficient Allowance of Provisions So farr from wanting on the Ships Comp[a]: that he has Seen Rice often throwen over board by the People that they could not Eat, knows very well that Capt: Beekman very often gave the ships Company Arrack and Punch, and beleives the Allowance on board the said ship to be as good as any, and being askt what he knows of the Chest of Money being taken out of the ship, he Saith he knows nothing of it, That the boatswaine is a sotish Idle Saucy fellow, has done little or no duty the voyage, and the Gunner has Alsoe been very Negligent of his duty, As to the Doctors mate Saith he has behaved himself like a saucy fellow both to the Capt: and officers in said Ship, And that the Trumpeter has been as bad as bad Can be aboard Ship, Endeavouring to make Uneasiness and Disturbance on board said Ship, he never knew a worse, Altho' he had very Civill Useage from the Captain.

Jacob Franklin

Jurat hoc Tricessimo die Junij A: D: 1715 Coram me Isaac Pyke

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

Ant[ipas] Tovey

Edw: Byfeld

Margin Notes:

Jacob Franklin Midsh[ipman] Exam[n]

Jacob Franklin, mariner and midshipman belonging to the ship Eagle Galley, said that during the voyage hitherto he had had sufficient allowance of provisions, so far from the ship's company wanting that he had seen rice often thrown overboard by the people because they could not eat it. He knew very well that Captain Beeckman had very often given the ship's company arrack and punch, and believed the allowance on board the ship to be as good as any. Being asked what he knew of the chest of money being taken out of the ship, he said he knew nothing of it.

The boatswain was a sottish, idle, saucy fellow, who had done little or no duty the voyage. The gunner had also been very negligent of his duty. As to the doctor's mate, he said he had behaved himself like a saucy fellow both to the captain and officers on board the ship. The trumpeter had been as bad as bad can be aboard ship, endeavouring to make uneasiness and disturbance on board. He never knew a worse, although he had had very civil usage from the captain.

Signed Jacob Franklin.

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 29 June 1715.

The consultation was signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The midshipman's evidence completes the documentary chain established by the chief mate William Hanray and the third mate George Taylor, with three officers of distinct rank each speaking to the allowance on board and to the conduct of the four principal mutineers. Jacob Franklin holds the position of officer in training, junior in the line of officer succession on the ship, and standing as a young man on the foredeck rather than on the quarterdeck. His evidence carries the weight of an officer's deposition without the personal grievance Taylor had been at pains to set aside, and his sworn account of the four principals goes directly to the question of duty performed rather than to any private complaint.

Franklin's evidence that the rice was so abundant that the men often threw it overboard because they could not eat it is the most direct refutation in the documentary chain of the men's framing of the dispute as one of want of provisions. Set against the captain's earlier account of rice without limit and the bench's own test on the salt beef by physical weighing, the picture of food refused and discarded on the lower deck removes any remaining ground for treating the round-robin paper as a complaint of hardship. The forensic weight of the deposition is increased by Franklin's place as an officer of low rank who would be in daily contact with the foremast hands and able to observe their treatment of their ration directly.

The four principals are now characterised in Franklin's evidence by office and conduct: the boatswain sottish, idle and saucy and doing little or no duty; the gunner very negligent of his duty; the doctor's mate saucy to the captain and officers; the trumpeter as bad as bad can be and a deliberate fomenter of disturbance. The accumulated descriptions sit alongside the chief mate's evidence of the boatswain's expression at Batavia, the gunner's threats to John Verchell at the Cape, the doctor's mate as the agent for collection of round-robin signatures and the trumpeter as a common talker urging the men to complain. The bench now has under its hand a coherent account of the four warrant officers as a settled faction against the captain and the regular discipline of the ship.

The signing of the consultation by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield, without Matthew Bazett's signature on a sitting that opened with him as third in council on 29 June 1715, follows the selective pattern noted earlier in the present sittings. The protest against Captain Mawson of the Cardonnell of 11 June 1715 had been signed by Pyke, Tovey and Byfield without either Haswell or Bazett, and the consultation of 14 June 1715 by Pyke, Haswell, Tovey and Byfield without Bazett. The absence of Bazett's name on the present matter, the most serious documentary entry of the present sittings, places the inquiry into the Eagle Galley mutiny under the hands of four councillors with the third councillor unrepresented on the record.

Speculations

The pattern of rice thrown overboard, taken with Franklin's evidence of often-issued arrack and punch and a generous allowance, suggests that the men of the Eagle Galley had not been short of any item necessary to subsistence at any point of the voyage that fell within Franklin's observation, and that the want of pudding earlier extracted from the principals on examination was the closest the four could come to a substantive complaint when pressed to particulars. The selection of a pudding with the meat as the operative grievance is a complaint over a customary table refinement rather than the kind of deprivation that would explain the elaborate organisation of a round-robin paper, the half crown to the marshal, the assembly in town and the affirmation of four and twenty men of one mind. The disproportion between the complaint as stated and the organisation deployed for its delivery confirms the chief mate's reading that the design was rather to seize the ship.

The conspicuous absence of Matthew Bazett's signature on a consultation containing affidavits sworn before Pyke alone and signed by the other four councillors suggests that the third councillor was either not in attendance at the sittings on 29 June 1715 or chose not to sign the record. Given that Bazett had been recently interrogated on 21 June 1715 over the storekeeper's books and accounts, and had stated then that three months were not sufficient and the proper deadline was six months after 25 March, the third councillor's absence from this most formal documentary entry of the present sittings may reflect his ongoing occupation with the stores account in the days before the Cardonnell's eventual departure. The pattern of selective signing on contested instruments, in which entries are placed under the hands of councillors who can act consistently in any subsequent reference, is now extended to the principal mutiny entry on the council books.

524

515

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Fryday the first day of July 1715. At the Union Castle in James Valley. Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[e]p[u]ty Pres[t] Matt[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s] Tovey 4 & Edw[o]: Byfeld 5 in Counc[ll]

Whereas there was Severall things wanting of the Cardonnels Cargoe which the Capt: in his Letter Promised to Delivr Else it had been Endorsed on the Bill of Loading But has not

It is ordered That the Capt: be made Debitor for what he has not Delivered of said Cargoe.

Ordered

That Publick Notice be given that Mondays & Tuesdays in Every week Goods will be Sold and Send out of the Hon[ble] Companys Stores, and on no other days.

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

Ant[i]pas Tovey

Edward Byfeld.

Island

Margin Notes:

Goods wanting in Cardonels Cargoe

Cap[t]: to be made debt[or]

Goods out of Stores Monday & Tuesday only.

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Friday the first day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Several things were wanting of the Cardonnell's cargo which the captain in his letter had promised to deliver if it had been endorsed on the bill of lading, but had not. The council ordered that the captain be made debtor for what he had not delivered of the cargo.

The council ordered that public notice be given that on Mondays and Tuesdays in every week goods would be sold and served out of the Honourable Company's stores, and on no other days.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The deficiency in the Cardonnell's cargo is the operative continuation of the broader dispute with Captain William Mawson that has run through the present sittings since the protest of 11 June 1715, in which the bench had formally protested against the captain for failure to unload the cargo within the ten working days of the charter party. The earlier protest had been signed by Pyke, Tovey and Byfield without Haswell or Bazett. The present order places Mawson in the position of debtor to the Company for what he has not delivered, and converts the failure to deliver from a contractual breach of the charter party into a recoverable balance on the Company's books against him.

The mechanism of making the captain debtor for goods short on the bill of lading is the standard institutional response of a Company factor to short delivery from an Indiaman. The bill of lading is the principal document of receipt from the loading port at which the goods were taken on board, and any endorsement of variations between that document and the goods actually delivered at the receiving port is the contractual means by which the captain may discharge his obligation. Mawson's failure to endorse the bill on his own showing leaves the original quantities standing as his obligation, and the bench's order treats the difference as a sterling charge against his personal account rather than as a matter for the broader dispute with him.

The order restricting the issue of goods from the Company's stores to Mondays and Tuesdays of every week is an administrative reform addressing the demand on the storekeeper's establishment. The order follows directly from the storekeepers' interrogation of 21 June 1715, in which Captain Haswell as accountant and Captain Bazett as storekeeper had been examined on the books and accounts and had stated that three months were not sufficient for the production of the books and that the proper deadline was six months after 25 March, with the assistants then employed identified as Haswell, Bazett, Byfield, Tomlinson, John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin and Richard [...]. By confining the issue of goods to two days in seven, the bench releases the storekeeper and his assistants for the remaining five days for the accounting and reconciliation that the documented staffing position cannot otherwise sustain.

The consultation as recorded carries the signatures of Haswell, Tovey and Byfield. Pyke's signature is not visible on the present image, and the absence of Bazett's signature continues the pattern noted on the consultation of 29 June 1715 covering the Eagle Galley mutiny inquiry. The placing of administrative reforms touching the storekeeper's establishment under the hands of the deputy governor as accountant and the two junior councillors, rather than under the full bench including the storekeeper, holds with the broader pattern of selective signing observed across the present sittings.

Speculations

The choice of Mondays and Tuesdays as the issue days for the Company's stores suggests a deliberate accommodation of the rhythm of arrivals and departures at the road. Indiamen calling at the island typically remained a number of days at anchor for water, refreshment and despatch, and the placing of the two consecutive issue days at the head of the week allows a ship's purser arriving over a Saturday or Sunday to come ashore on the Monday for the first issue and clear his needs in two consecutive days before the ship is ready to sail. The arrangement also concentrates the demand on the stores into a fixed window that the storekeeper and his assistants can plan around, rather than the open-ended issue that had perhaps strained the establishment in the days before.

The order to make Captain Mawson debtor for the goods not delivered comes at a sitting from which the protest of 11 June 1715 framing has been institutionally settled, with the bench now moving from formal protest to recoverable sum. The choice to convert the dispute from a charter party matter into a debt on Mawson personally suggests that the bench has concluded that the ship will sail before any wider settlement is reached and that the only practical remedy is to place the unrecovered value on the Company's books against the captain's name for collection in due course. The pattern of signing, with Haswell now appearing on this order while Bazett is again absent, places the deputy governor on the documentary record of the Mawson business he had earlier declined to subscribe to.

525

516

At a Consultation held on Saturday the 2 day of July 1715. At the Union Castle in James valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[e]p[u]ty Pres[t] Matt[w] Bazett 3 Antip Tovey 4 & Edw: Byfeld 5 in Counc[ll]

The following Affidavits were taken.

Island St Helena ss

William Ballaird Marriner and fourth mate of the Ship Eagle Galley, Saith on his Oath

That about the Letter end of May Last Anno Dom 1714. He being then Gunners Mate of the said Ship, went down to fetch a Gun Case for the Capt: and going into the Powder Roome to fetch it he Saw a Lighted Match, lying over a Powder Barrell, which Powder Barrell Contained Cartridges and Loose Powder and Close by it Stood another Powder Barrell with Cartridges & Loose Powder Shott over them, and five or Six full Barrells of Powder lying also by them, that he was in a great Surprize to find a Lighted Match lying in So Dangerous a manner But he Clapt his hand under the Coal of the Match, and brought it away, this was According to his Memory, on or about the 29[th] of May but he has it down in his Book on board but dos Not Exactly Remember the day of the month, He Saith that at that time the Match was found alight in the Powder Roome, the Gunner was on Shoar on Father Smiths Island

Sworn

Margin Notes:

W[m]: Ballaird 4[th] mate of [the] Eagle Examina[t]

At a Consultation held on Saturday the 2 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The following affidavits were taken.

William Ballaird, mariner and fourth mate of the ship Eagle Galley, said on his oath that about the latter end of May last, in the year 1714, he had been gunner's mate of the ship. He had gone down to fetch a gun case for the captain. On going into the powder room to fetch it, he saw a lighted match lying over a powder barrel. The barrel contained cartridges and loose powder, and close by it stood another powder barrel with cartridges and loose powder shot over them, and five or six full barrels of powder lying also by them. He was in a great surprise to find a lighted match lying in so dangerous a manner. He clapped his hand under the coal of the match and carried it away. This was, according to his memory, on or about the 29 of May, but he had set it down in his book on board, although he did not exactly remember the day of the month. At that time the match was found alight in the powder room, the gunner was on shore on Father Smith's Island.

Interpretations

The deposition of William Ballaird carries the documentary chain back to the original Batavia incident of late May 1714 referred to in earlier evidence as the prior attempt that the warrant officer faction had intended to repeat on the present voyage. The fourth mate is the most junior commissioned officer of the watch, ranking below the third mate George Taylor who had deposed on 29 June 1715, and his evidence now sworn places the eyewitness account of the lighted match in the hands of the man who had actually removed it. His prior office as gunner's mate at the date of the incident gives him the operative knowledge of the powder room and the working understanding of the danger that an ordinary mariner would not possess.

The composition of the powder room described in the deposition explains the gravity with which the bench has treated the matter throughout the present sittings. A powder barrel containing cartridges and loose powder, with a second such barrel close by carrying cartridges and shot, and five or six full barrels of powder lying around them, represents the full magazine of an armed Indiaman ready for action. A lighted match laid over the first barrel would on the burning down of the coal have set off the entire magazine, with the consequent destruction of the ship by explosion and the loss of the cargo, the company and any vessels in immediate company. The placement is the operative form of attempted destruction by a person with knowledge of the powder room.

Ballaird's instinctive act of clapping his hand under the coal of the match to extinguish it, before lifting and removing the burning length, is the standard means used by an experienced powder man to deal with a stray spark in the magazine. The coal is the live burning end of the slow match, and the immediate cutting off of its access to air and powder is the only safe response when the source cannot be lifted clear quickly. The deponent's reflexive handling of the danger marks him as competent in his calling and gives weight to his evidence on the date and circumstances of the discovery.

The whereabouts of Thomas Clark the gunner at the time of the incident, on shore at Father Smith's Island, is the operative fact that the boatswain Thomas Frances had used in his examination of 29 June 1715 to deflect the matter onto Martin Calf. Ballaird's evidence puts the gunner ashore but the lighted match in his powder room with the room presumably accessible to whoever the gunner had left the key with. The boatswain's earlier deflection had named Calf as the supposed culprit on the strength of his sworn intent to send the gentry in the cabin to the devil, but Ballaird's evidence places the matter on the documentary record without naming any individual offender, leaving the bench to test the rival accounts on the further evidence to be collected.

Speculations

The choice of Ballaird as the witness to the lighted match incident at Batavia, and the date on which his evidence has been taken, points to the bench moving in a planned sequence through the witnesses likely to have eye knowledge of the prior attempt. The chief mate Hanray had deposed on 29 June 1715 from his general knowledge of the conduct of the four principals over the voyage. The third mate Taylor and the midshipman Franklin had deposed on the same date on the allowance and the conduct of the four. Ballaird's deposition now turns to the operative incident itself, with the bench moving from the framing depositions on the men's general character to the particular evidence on the specific attempt that the gunner's overheard exchange with the boatswain at sea had pointed to.

The discrepancy between Ballaird's date of on or about 29 May for the discovery of the lighted match, qualified by his note that he had it set down in his book on board, and the boatswain Frances's account of the day before the match was found at Batavia, suggests the bench is conscious of the difficulty of establishing dates by oral memory and is relying on the ship's own books for fixing the chronology. The reference to Ballaird's book on board, which he says he had not consulted before deposing, signals that the bench is prepared to call for the documentary record itself if any date becomes critical to the case, and the practice is consistent with the rigour applied to other documentary inquiries in the present sittings, such as the storekeeper's books and accounts of 21 June 1715.

526

517

Being askt what he knows of the Thousand Pound lost out of the Ship, he Saith it was not knowen at the time the ship was likely to be blown up that any mony was Miss =ing, and the first time he knew any money was Lost out of the Ship was at a place Called Carry-Man-java But he never did hear who had the money, or how it went out of the Ship

This Deponent farther Saith, he do[s] not think that Thomas Clark then Gunner to be fitt for that Employment.

He being askt about the Signing the Paper that was brought to the Gov[er]nr Saith that he askt by the Doct[s] mate if he would Signe their Paper, and Said he could not Sett his hand to any thing, then Adair the Doct[r] mate replyed askt you whether you will be in the Negative or Affirmative, Upon which this Deponent Replyed in the Negative,

Being askt Concerning the Capt: he Saith the Cept: was never unkind to the People nor Severe, Saith that the Capt: never was Severe to the People on board the ship, But between Birnea and the Cape had Scant allowance but he he was the better Contented w[th] it beleiving the Capt: did the best he could.

W[m] Ballaird

Jurat hoc Secundo die July Dom 1715 Coram me Isaac Pyke

Island St Helena ss

William Waters Sailer on board the Ship Eagle, being duly Examined on his Oath sayeth that one day which he very well Remembers was on a Satur day, he having been all the night before at a Place Called Sallies Smiths Island near Batavia that the Long Boat Came on Shoar there that Satturday w[th] a great many hands in her amongst whom was Thom[s]: Clark the Gunner and as soon as the Gun[r] Came on Shoar he Exprest a great Deal of Sattisfaction to the People that he was come out

of

Margin Notes:

W[m] Waters Exam[n]

William Ballaird, being asked what he knew of the thousand pound lost out of the ship, said it was not known at the time the ship was likely to be blown up that any money was missing. The first time he knew any money was lost out of the ship was at a place called Carry-Man-Java. He never did hear who had the money, or how it went out of the ship.

The deponent further said he did not think Thomas Clark, then gunner, fit for that employment.

He was asked about the signing of the paper that was brought to the governor. He said the doctor's mate had asked him whether he would sign their paper. He had answered that he would not set his hand to anything. The doctor's mate Adair replied, ask you, whether you will be in the negative or the affirmative. To which the deponent answered in the negative.

He was asked concerning the captain. He said the captain was never unkind to the people nor severe. The captain never was severe to the people on board the ship, but between Banjar and the Cape they had scant allowance. He was the better contented with it, believing the captain did the best he could.

Signed William Ballaird.

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 2 July 1715.

William Waters, sailor on board the ship Eagle, was duly examined and said on his oath that one day, which he very well remembered was on a Saturday, having been all the night before at a place called Father Smith's Island near Batavia, the long boat came on shore that Saturday with a great many hands in her, among whom was Thomas Clark the gunner. As soon as the gunner came on shore he expressed a great deal of satisfaction to the people that he was come out [...]

Interpretations

Ballaird's evidence on the thousand pound and on the gunner's character now sits on the council books alongside the chief mate's evidence taken on 29 June 1715 and the captains' earlier intelligence from Captain Pinnell of the Susanna and Captain Lidon of the Mercury. The geographical anchor of Carry-Man-Java fixes the disclosure of the loss to a specific port of call on the homeward voyage, allowing the bench to test the question of when the money went missing against the ship's books and the dates of any other irregularities. The deponent's care to state that the matter was not known to be missing at the date of the powder-room incident at Father Smith's Island removes any suggestion that the two events were directly connected, and points to the loss as a separate offence on a later leg of the voyage.

The exchange between the doctor's mate Alexander Adair and Ballaird over the round-robin paper is the operative evidence of the canvassing procedure described in the chief mate's deposition of 29 June 1715, in which Adair had been identified as the chief contriver of the paper and the agent who went from one to the other of the ship's company to get them to sign. Adair's form of words, asking the deponent whether he would be in the negative or the affirmative, is the operative test by which the doctor's mate sorted the company into those who would sign and those who would not. The phrasing converts what might have been a simple refusal into a recorded position, and identifies for the warrant officer faction the men whose silence on the lower deck cannot be relied upon when the time for action comes.

Ballaird's evidence that he answered in the negative, taken with the chief mate's earlier identification of twenty subscribers and the seven and fourteen further names already recorded, indicates that a substantial part of the Eagle's mariners had refused to sign the paper when canvassed. The threat of being heaved overboard some dark night, recorded in John Verchell's affidavit of 29 June 1715 as the means by which the warrant officer faction had silenced informers, becomes operational only against the men recorded as negative on Adair's rounds. The pattern of canvassing is now visible as a two-stage device, with the affirmative signatures committed to the paper and the negative refusers identified for separate handling at sea.

William Waters's deposition opens the parallel account of the gunner's movements at Father Smith's Island near Batavia, providing a second eyewitness to set against the boatswain Frances's account on 29 June 1715. The reference to the long boat coming on shore on the Saturday with a great many hands, including the gunner, will allow the bench to fix the chronology of who was on shore and who was on the ship at the moment when the lighted match was placed in the powder room. The gunner's expression of satisfaction at having come out, recorded at the close of the visible material, points the affidavit toward the operative question of his disposition at the time of the discovery.

Speculations

The doctor's mate's choice of words in canvassing, asking Ballaird whether he would be in the negative or the affirmative, suggests a formality of procedure on the round-robin canvass that goes beyond the ordinary approach of a mariner seeking signatures. The framing reads as the offering of a binary choice that converts each man's response into a recorded vote, and the keeping of the negatives in mind by the canvasser supplies the warrant officer faction with a list of men to be either silenced by threat or removed at sea. Adair's status as doctor's mate, with unsuspected access to every part of the ship by reason of his calling on the sick, would have allowed him to record and remember the negatives without raising the suspicion that a boatswain or a gunner moving through the same quarters would have provoked.

The disclosure of the thousand pound being missing at Carry-Man-Java, a port called after the present voyage was already under way, suggests the embezzlement of the chest of money occurred not before but during the voyage itself, by persons with continuing access to the ship's funds. The boatswain's denial of knowledge of the chest on 29 June 1715 sits alongside Ballaird's account that it was not known at the time of the powder-room incident, indicating that the warrant officer faction may have continued operating after the failed attempt at Batavia, with the money now constituting a second cause of inquiry that could be pursued independently of the mutiny charge. The bench's careful taking of evidence on the money matter from each deponent in turn signals that it is being held in reserve as a separate offence on which a parallel case can be built.

527

518

of the ship, Saying he would not a been on board of her that day for a great Deal of money, He Saith they Came all on board that Evening, and then heard that the ship had been in great Danger of being blown up by a Lighted Match that was found in the Powder Robbm over a Powder Barrell by the Gunners Mate, who went down by Chance to look for something there,

Being askt if he knew any thing of the Thousand Pound that was Gone out of the ship, Sayeth that at that time he had not heard of any Money being Missing, nor did never hear of it Till such time as they Came to a Small Island Called Carry-Mon Java, But he Never knew which way the money was gone Nor was never told who had it, or how it could be Gone, and knoweth nothing further Relateing to that Matter.

Being asked if the Capt: was kind to the People, he Sayeth he never was unkind to him nor to any of the People as he knows of and as lived with him as well now, as formerly in another Voyage.

William Waters

Jurat hoc Secundo die July Dom: 1715 Coram me Isaac Pyke

Island St Helena ss

John Gerrard Purser of the Ship Eagle being duly Examind on Oath sayeth that about the Latter end of May 1714, But he do[s] not Exactly Remember what day, he was Informed by the Gun[ners] Mate in the presence of all the Ships Company that a light =ed Match had been found in the Powder Roome, and that the ship had been in very great Danger of being blown up if a meer Accident had not Occasion[d] the

Discovery

Margin Notes:

Jn[o] Gerrard Purs[r] Exam[n]

William Waters continued that the gunner, on coming on shore, said he would not have been on board of her that day for a great deal of money. They all came on board that evening, and then heard that the ship had been in great danger of being blown up by a lighted match that had been found in the powder room over a powder barrel by the gunner's mate, who went down by chance to look for something there.

He was asked if he knew any thing of the thousand pound that was gone out of the ship. He said that at that time he had not heard of any money being missing, nor did he ever hear of it till such time as they came to a small island called Carry-Mon-Java. He never knew which way the money was gone, nor was ever told who had it, or how it could be gone, and he knew nothing further relating to that matter.

He was asked if the captain was kind to the people. He said the captain was never unkind to him, nor to any of the people, as he knew of, and he had lived with him as well now as formerly on another voyage.

Signed William Waters.

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 2 July 1715.

John Gerrard, purser of the ship Eagle, was duly examined on oath and said that about the latter end of May 1714, although he did not exactly remember what day, he had been informed by the gunner's mate in the presence of all the ship's company that a lighted match had been found in the powder room. The ship had been in very great danger of being blown up if a mere accident had not occasioned the discovery [...]

Interpretations

The gunner's reported expression on coming on shore, that he would not have been on board that day for a great deal of money, is the operative evidence of his foreknowledge of the danger that the ship faced on that day. The form of words is the conventional way a mariner expresses relief at having escaped a known hazard rather than surprise at a chance event, and the bench will read it against Thomas Clark's own examination of 29 June 1715 in which he had accounted only for the locking of his door and the position of the key, and against the chief mate's evidence on the same date that the gunner carried his faction more slyly than the boatswain. The disclosure that Clark had said this in the open, on first stepping ashore from the long boat, indicates that his confidence in the success of the attempt had been such that he was prepared to commit himself in words before the news of the discovery reached him.

The reference to the gunner's mate going down to the powder room by chance to look for something there matches Ballaird's deposition of the same date that he had gone down to fetch a gun case for the captain. The detail of an accidental visit, not connected with any routine reason for entering the magazine at that hour, is the operative ground for the deponents' description of the discovery as a mere accident. The chance nature of the entry sits with the operative timing of the attempt, in which the gunner's absence on shore at Father Smith's Island and the absence of any scheduled inspection of the powder room had been calculated to allow the lighted match to burn down undisturbed.

The purser of the ship, John Gerrard, is the warrant officer responsible for the ship's stores and accounts, with charge of all provisions, money and documentary records of the voyage. The opening of his deposition with knowledge of the powder room incident derived from the gunner's mate is the conventional limit of an officer not on watch at the relevant time, but the purser's involvement in the present examination signals that the bench is approaching the question of the thousand pound chest of money through the officer of the ship most likely to have direct evidence of its disposition. The purser's books would be the documentary record by which any loss of Company money could be traced, and his sworn evidence will be the foundation of any case brought on the embezzlement matter.

The repeated phrase of all the deponents, that they had not heard of any money being missing until the ship reached Carry-Mon-Java, fixes the dating of the loss to that port and confirms the chronology of two separate offences on the voyage. The powder room incident is anchored to late May 1714 at Batavia. The loss of the chest of money is anchored to a later call at Carry-Mon-Java, with no contemporaneous knowledge of the loss on board. The bench is therefore building parallel cases on separate timelines, with the warrant officer faction implicated in both by the chief mate's evidence of 29 June 1715 and by the boatswain's denial of knowledge of either matter at his examination on the same date.

Speculations

The gunner's statement on stepping ashore that he would not have been on board for a great deal of money, made before the news of the failure of the attempt had reached him, suggests that he had expected the ship to be destroyed in his absence and had calculated the satisfaction he would express at having been on shore as the public face of his innocence. The slip of words, recorded by William Waters as direct evidence of what the gunner had said, is the kind of disclosure made by a man whose self-control falters at the first contact with associates after a planned event. The slip would not have been important if the attempt had succeeded, since there would have been no ship to which the words could later be returned, but with the discovery of the match the same words become evidence of foreknowledge.

The bench's choice to take the purser's deposition immediately after Waters's, on the same sitting of 2 July 1715, suggests a planned sequence in which the inquiry into the thousand pound now moves from collateral evidence taken from mariners and warrant officers to the officer with direct charge of the Company's money on the ship. The earlier depositions from the chief mate, the third mate, the midshipman and the gunner's mate had established the framing facts of the voyage. The purser's evidence, anchored in the books of the ship, will provide the operative documentary basis for any charge of embezzlement against the warrant officer faction, and the bench is signalling through the order of examination that the money matter is to be pursued in parallel with the mutiny inquiry rather than as an incident of it.

528

519

Discovery of it, But he knows nothing more Relateing to that matter.

Being asked what he knew relateing to the Thousand pound that was Lost, Sayth that at that time he did not know any money was lost, nor never heard any money was Missing out of the ship till they Came to a place called Carry Mon Java but he knoweth not what is become of it And neither knew, nor by whose means it went out of the ship neither has he Ever heard any thing Relateing to it, but that hear[d] but

Being askt how the People fared outward bound in their Provisions Says they fared very well he thinks that they did not Complaine and beleives they had no Cause they haveing the same Allowances as in other Ships

Being asked how they fared at Banjarr, he Sayeth they fard very well there for he knows they had Fowles in Plenty and Arrack in Plenty, But from Banjarr to the Cape they had avery Long Passage being near four months upon the Sea Occasioned as he thinks by the Difficulty of Going through the Streights of Bailey, which Put them a good Deal of time and the allowance then was Something Scanty in water (Especially, there being but a quart of Water for each man aday but Every Mess had such a good Peice of Beef as has been Produced here to the Govern[r] and of Rice they had without Allowance and he hath seen Considerable Quantities left after Dinner in their bowles and has seen a great Deale hove over board and Great waste made of it

That in that small ship they could not Carry Great quantities of fresh Provisions But out of those he did Carry the Capt: was very Liberall and kind to the People, and he Remembers that the Capt: has given them awhole Deer at a time at Sea and when he has killed a Hogg or sheep or Cattle on board has always Sent a Quart or more thereof to One or other of the People that he beleives the Capt: has been very Civill & kind to his People in Generall and to himself this Deponent

John Gerrard continued that he knew nothing more relating to that matter.

He was asked what he knew relating to the thousand pound that was lost. He said that at that time he did not know any money was lost, nor never heard any money was missing out of the ship till they came to a place called Carry-Mon-Java. He never knew what was become of it, nor by what means it went out of the ship, neither had he ever heard anything relating to it, but what was said.

He was asked how the people fared outward bound in their provisions. He said they fared very well. He thought they did not complain, and believed they had no cause, they having the same allowance as in other ships.

He was asked how they fared at Banjar. He said they fared very well there, for he knew they had fowls in plenty and arrack in plenty. From Banjar to the Cape they had a very long passage, being near four months upon the sea, occasioned, as he thought, by the difficulty of getting through the Straits of Bali, which cost them a good deal of time. The allowance then was something scanty in water, there being but a quart of water for each man a day. Every mess had such a good piece of beef as had been produced here to the governor, and of rice they had without allowance. He had seen considerable quantities left after dinner in their bowls, and had seen a great deal hove overboard and great waste made of it.

In that small ship they could not carry great quantities of fresh provisions. Of those they did carry, the captain was very liberal and kind to the people. He remembered that the captain had given them a whole deer at a time at sea, and when he had killed a hog or a sheep or cattle on board, had always sent a quart or more thereof to one or other of the people. He believed the captain had been very civil and kind to his people in general, and to himself the [...]

Interpretations

The purser's evidence on the long passage from Banjar to the Cape, near four months upon the sea owing to the difficulty of getting through the Straits of Bali, fixes the navigational ground for the captain's shortened water ration in evidence. The Straits of Bali are the narrow passage between the islands of Bali and Java on the eastern approach to the Indian Ocean, a route subject to contrary currents, calms and adverse winds that could detain a homeward Indiaman for weeks at a stretch. A passage of near four months on the leg from Banjar to the Cape, against an ordinary expectation of perhaps two months, would have placed real strain on the ship's water and dry stores, and the captain's response of reducing the water ration to a quart a man, with his own consumption at the same level, sits with the operative practice of a commander in extended adverse conditions.

The purser's account of considerable quantities of rice left after dinner in the men's bowls, with a great deal hove overboard and great waste made of it, matches the midshipman Jacob Franklin's evidence of 29 June 1715 that he had seen rice often thrown overboard by the people because they could not eat it. The two officers, one a junior of the watch and the other the warrant officer responsible for the stores, now stand on the council books with the same observation of food refused and discarded on the lower deck. The repetition across separate depositions of the same physical evidence is the bench's operative ground for the eventual finding that the round-robin paper of 29 June 1715 had no foundation in actual want of provisions.

The captain's recorded gifts of fresh meat, with a whole deer at a time at sea and a quart or more of slaughtered hog, sheep or cattle to one or other of the people, fix the captain's actual practice against the framing of the original paper, in which the writers had described themselves as a poor pinched and distressed ship's company. The form of these gifts, made directly to particular hands rather than through the standing allowance, illustrates the operation of personal benevolence on top of the formal table. The purser's evidence on this point completes the documentary chain on the captain's victualling regime first opened in his own examination on 29 June 1715 and now corroborated by the chief mate, the third mate, the midshipman, the gunner's mate and the purser in succession.

The repeated answers on the thousand pound, with the purser like the deponents before him stating that no knowledge of the loss reached the ship's company until they came to Carry-Mon-Java, indicates that the loss of the money was concealed from the body of the ship's company until that port. Concealment of a substantial loss of Company funds from the purser himself, who has charge of the ship's accounts and stores, would suggest either that the chest was kept separately under the captain's hand or that the persons responsible for the loss had means of suppressing the discovery until a specific occasion required it to be made public. The bench will be alive to the fact that the disclosure at Carry-Mon-Java may itself have been the operative moment of the embezzlement, with the warrant officer faction choosing the time and place at which to declare the chest empty.

Speculations

The disclosure of the loss of the thousand pound at Carry-Mon-Java rather than at any earlier port suggests that the timing was chosen for reasons of distance and remoteness from any further Company station between that port and the Cape. Carry-Mon-Java lies in the eastern reaches of the East India trade, beyond which the homeward voyage runs through the Indian Ocean with no further opportunity for the bench at any Company station to call for the ship's chest or to examine the purser's accounts before the Cape. The persons responsible for the loss would have had the longest interval at sea before any institutional check, and the most opportunity for the dispersal or concealment of the money before the ship made the next port.

The purser's emphasis on the long passage through the Straits of Bali as the cause of the scanty allowance on the Banjar-to-Cape leg, taken with his evidence of waste of rice and of the captain's generous fresh-meat practice, fits a pattern in which the period of greatest hardship on the voyage was an extended navigational delay rather than any failure of the captain's regime. The four mutineers' choice to centre their complaint on this very period suggests that they had calculated the bench's likely sympathy at being called to adjudicate on a long passage with reduced water, but Captain Beeckman's evident competence in maintaining order and in distributing what fresh meat could be killed has now placed the operative facts substantially against them. The pattern of the inquiry across both sittings is that the bench's preferred method of reconciliation, observed in the earlier disputes with Captain Mawson and his passengers on 16 June 1715, has given way to a documented case as the gravity of the matter on the Eagle Galley has been progressively revealed.

529

520

and all other of the Officers in Perticular and that he should as willingly goe to Sea w[th] Capt: Beekman as any other C[o]mmander, and beleives most of the People has been Persoaded by some ill Designing troublesome folks to make this C[o]mplaint and knows since they Came from the Cape, they have had no Occasion for it, That he looks upon the Gunner to be avery suspici =ous fellow and abad man, And he beleives that the Said Gunner, the Boatswaine, the Doctors mate and the Trumpeter have been the Cheif ring leaders and Persoaders of the People to the Sedition in the Ship,

And further he do[s] not say.

John Gerrard

Jurat hoc Secundo die July: Dom: 1715 Coram me Isaac Pyke

Island St Helena ss

William Taylor Marriner, & 2[d] mate of the Ship Eagle Galley being duly Examined upon his Oath, That Some time about the Latter End of May, when said Ship lay in Bratavia Road this Deponent being at work in the hold, William Ballaire who was then the Gunners mate Came downe into the hold to the Powder Roome, and then Cryed out Lord have Mercy upon us Lord have Mercy upon us, and came out of the Powder Roome Presently with a Peice of Lighted match in his hand to this Deponent and Said againe Lord have Mercy upon us, He seemd to be aPreviously frighted, and had a Violent Trembling upon him, and a Quarter Master that was at work with this Deponent in the hold took the Said lighted match from the Gunners mate and this Deponent askt him

what

Margin Notes:

W[m] Taylor 2[d] Mate Exam[n]

John Gerrard added that the captain had been very civil and kind to himself, and to all the other officers in particular. He would as willingly go to sea with Captain Beeckman as with any other commander. He believed most of the people had been persuaded by some ill-designing, troublesome folks to make the complaint, and he knew that, since they came from the Cape, they had had no occasion for it.

He looked upon the gunner to be a very suspicious fellow and a bad man. He believed that the gunner, the boatswain, the doctor's mate and the trumpeter had been the chief ringleaders and persuaders of the people to the sedition in the ship. Further he did not say.

Signed John Gerrard.

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 2 July 1715.

William Taylor, mariner and second mate of the ship Eagle Galley, was duly examined upon his oath. He said that some time about the latter end of May, when the ship lay in Batavia Road, he had been at work in the hold. William Ballaird, who was then the gunner's mate, came down into the hold to the powder room, and then cried out, Lord have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us. He came out of the powder room presently with a piece of lighted match in his hand. He said again, Lord have mercy upon us. He seemed to be grievously frightened, and had a violent trembling upon him. A quarter master, who was at work with the deponent in the hold, took the lighted match from the gunner's mate, and the deponent asked him [...]

Interpretations

The purser's conclusion that he would as willingly go to sea with Captain Beeckman as with any other commander, taken together with his identification of the gunner, the boatswain, the doctor's mate and the trumpeter as the four chief ringleaders and persuaders of the people to the sedition in the ship, completes the warrant officer line of evidence against the four principals. The chief mate, the third mate, the midshipman, the gunner's mate, the purser and the second mate have now all given depositions naming the same four men, with the same four offices recurring across every account. The convergence of six independent depositions on the same four principals is the operative ground for any subsequent charge of mutiny, since it removes any possibility of accident or misidentification.

The use of the term sedition by the purser is the more formal characterisation of the conduct on the council books to this point, and signals the bench's understanding that the matter has moved beyond mere disobedience or insubordination into the legal category of organised insurrection against the lawful authority of the ship. Sedition in maritime law as administered in this period covers concerted action by a ship's company against the commander or against the Company's interest, falling short of actual mutiny only in that it has not yet been carried into execution by force. The persuaders of the people to sedition, in the purser's framing, are the four warrant officers whose office gave them the standing means to corrupt the rest of the company.

The second mate William Taylor's evidence opens the parallel chain on the powder room incident itself, with an eyewitness to the gunner's mate's reaction at the moment of discovery. The senior commissioned officer of the watch second to the chief mate, with daily standing as the principal subordinate on the quarterdeck, William Taylor is in a position to corroborate Ballaird's earlier deposition by his account of the gunner's mate's behaviour on emerging from the powder room. His evidence on the same matter, taken from a different angle, will be the bench's check on the consistency of the account given of the incident at Batavia.

The reaction of the gunner's mate Ballaird on coming out of the powder room with the lighted match in his hand, with the repeated invocation of Lord have mercy upon us and the violent trembling, gives operative confirmation of the gravity of what he had found. The reaction is recorded as that of a man who has seen something he understood as fatal, and is the natural response of a competent powder man on confronting an unattended slow match in a magazine of cartridges, loose powder and full barrels. The quarter master's act of taking the match from the gunner's mate, with the second mate then asking him what he had found, is the standard chain of handling by which the operative evidence passed from hand to hand and the matter was reported up the line of officers.

Speculations

The purser's framing of the matter as sedition persuaded by ill-designing, troublesome folks, taken with his explicit denial that there had been any occasion for complaint since the ship left the Cape, suggests that the bench is being supplied through the depositions with the evidentiary basis for a finding that no objective grievance has existed on the voyage from the Cape to the island. The men's chosen ground of complaint in the round-robin paper, framed in terms of provisions wanting for many months, can now be answered by the body of officer evidence that the leg most strained by the long passage through the Straits of Bali was completed at the Cape and that the run from the Cape to the island had been one of plenty. The bench's case will rest on the disjunction between the period covered by the paper and the period in which any actual hardship could be shown.

The pattern of six successive officer depositions converging on the same four ringleaders, taken across two sittings of the bench, suggests that the warrant officer faction had been visible as a defined party on the ship for the whole voyage. The four men identified hold the offices of boatswain, gunner, doctor's mate and trumpeter, each of which provides a different channel of access to the lower deck for the work of persuasion. The chief mate Hanray's earlier observation that the design was rather to seize the ship than for any real cause or want is now being underwritten by the testimony of every officer in the ship's hierarchy, leaving the bench with the documentary basis to dispatch the matter home to the directors for such proceedings as may be thought fit at Bencoolen or in London.

530

521

what was the Matter but he was in such a fright that he could not give an Immediate Answer but when he was a little Composed he Spoke and told him that he found that Match upon a Powder Barrell, and this Deponent Looking on it Saw that it had a Coal upon it above an Inch long and that then the Gunners Mate went up upon Deck to the Chief Mate to tell him of it, he Came downe againe in a short time and then this Deponent took a Muscovy Light and went w[th] him to the Powder Room, and found the Door open and the Staple of the Lock Drawen, and the Powder Barrell upon which the Gunners mate told him, he found the Match have severall Cartridges of Powder in it, another Barrell Close by it full of Cartridges of Powder Loose Powder Strewed or Sprinkled over them So thick that he could have taken awhole handfull up at a Time off of them,

Being askt what he knew of the Thousand Pound being Lost out of the ship, Sayeth that at that time he never heard that any mony was Missing, nor knew not that any was Lost out of the ship untill they Came to Carry-Mon-Java

And he Sayeth that since he had been here he never heard any body Complain for want of Victualls and wonders such athing should be Carryed on So Privately and that twenty Men should Signe to a Paper to be Sent to the Govern[r] and that he should know nothing of it.

And being askt further if the Capt: used the Peeple kindly, Says he thinks he was too kind to them, and that they wanted for nothing,

And as for the hardships that some of them now Complaine of, he do[s] not think it was such a hardship as ought to be Complaind of, for he has been four Voyages to Indiea, and in three of them he fared worse then he has done in this voyage w[th] Capt: Beekman, and yet now in this Present voyage he has fared the same with the Men in all those hardships which they Complained of and when they had but a quart of Water aday he had no More,

And further Sayeth not.

Will[m] Taylor

Jurat hoc Secundo die July A: D: 1715 Coram me Isaac Pyke

Margin Notes:

Geo. Haswell

Antipas Tovey Edw[d] Byfeld

William Taylor continued that the gunner's mate was in such a fright that he could not give an immediate answer, but when he was a little composed he spoke and told him that he had found the match upon a powder barrel. The deponent looked on it and saw that it had a coal upon it above an inch long. The gunner's mate then went up upon deck to the chief mate to tell him of it. He came down again in a short time, and then the deponent took a Muscovy light and went with him to the powder room. They found the door open and the staple of the lock drawn. The powder barrel upon which the gunner's mate had told him he found the match had several cartridges of powder in it. Another barrel close by it was full of cartridges of powder and loose powder strewed or sprinkled over them so thick that he could have taken a whole handful up at a time off them.

He was asked what he knew of the thousand pound being lost out of the ship. He said that at that time he never heard that any money was missing, nor knew not that any was lost out of the ship until they came to Carry-Mon-Java.

He said that, since he had been here, he never heard anybody complain for want of victuals, and wondered such a thing should be carried on so privately, and that twenty men should sign a paper to be sent to the governor, and that he should know nothing of it.

He was asked further if the captain used the people kindly. He said he thought he was too kind to them, and that they wanted for nothing.

As for the hardships that some of them now complained of, he did not think it was such a hardship as ought to be complained of. He had been four voyages to the Indies. In three of them he had fared worse than he had done in the present voyage with Captain Beeckman. Yet now in the present voyage he had fared the same with the men in all those hardships which they complained of. When they had but a quart of water a day, he had no more. Further he did not say.

Signed William Taylor.

The affidavit was sworn before Isaac Pyke on 2 July 1715.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The detail of the powder room door found open and the staple of the lock drawn is the operative evidence of forced entry. The staple is the metal loop fixed to the door frame through which the hasp of the lock passes, and its drawing from the frame indicates that the lock itself had not been picked or opened with a key but had been pulled bodily from its setting. Thomas Clark the gunner had stated in his examination on 29 June 1715 that he had left his door locked and the key with his mate, with instructions to go only to the arms chest aloft, not down into the powder room. The drawn staple supplies the means by which a person without the key obtained entry, and exonerates the gunner's mate from any suggestion of unauthorised opening at the same time as it exposes the deliberate forcing of the magazine by a third hand.

The coal of the match above an inch long, observed by William Taylor in the moment after the gunner's mate brought it out, fixes the operative reading of how close the ship had come to destruction. The coal is the live burning end of the slow match, and an inch of coal represents some minutes of burning time remaining before the match would have reached the powder. The figure provides the bench with a measurable estimate of the interval between the placement of the match and its accidental discovery by William Ballaird as the gunner's mate, on his entry to fetch a gun case for the captain. The interval also explains the gunner's mate's reaction of repeated invocation of Lord have mercy upon us and the violent trembling, since he had grasped at once how close the ship had come to going up.

The detail of the second barrel full of cartridges with loose powder sprinkled over them so thick that the deponent could have taken a whole handful up at a time, illustrates the prepared character of the attempt. Loose powder strewn over a barrel of cartridges is not in the ordinary condition of a powder room, where the cartridges are kept secured in their barrels and the loose powder kept covered. The deliberate strewing of the loose powder is the operative means by which a fire taking on one barrel would have been carried to the next, the cartridges acting as primary fuses and the loose powder as the carrier between barrels. The arrangement matches the pattern by which an experienced powder man might construct a chain of fire in a magazine, and is consistent with the chief mate William Hanray's evidence of 29 June 1715 that the gunner Thomas Clark had been the chief contriver of the planned destruction.

The Muscovy light taken into the powder room by William Taylor and the gunner's mate is the standard device of inspection in a magazine. It is a translucent sheet of laminated mica, the mineral known to early modern English merchants as Muscovy glass on account of its trade through Russia, set into a frame so that a candle within can be carried into the room without any naked flame reaching the powder. The deponent's reflexive use of the Muscovy light, rather than any open candle, is the operative confirmation of the powder room discipline maintained on the ship in ordinary working, and the contrast with the lighted match found in the magazine sharpens the deliberate character of the act under inquiry.

The second mate's evidence on the broader question of the captain's conduct toward the men, that he thought the captain was too kind and that the men wanted for nothing, matches the converging accounts of the chief mate, the third mate, the midshipman, the purser and the gunner's mate already on the council books. His comparative reference to three of his four prior India voyages, in which he had fared worse than on the present voyage with Captain Beeckman, places the Eagle Galley's allowance not only at the average but at the upper end of Indiaman practice. Taken with George Taylor's deposition of 29 June 1715 that he had been in other ships and had had less allowance there than in the Eagle, the bench now has two officers' comparative evidence on the same point from independent voyages.

Speculations

The drawn staple of the lock on the powder room door, set against the gunner's evidence of 29 June 1715 that the door was left locked and the key with his mate, opens the question of who broke into the magazine in his absence. The chief mate William Hanray's deposition of 29 June 1715 had identified Thomas Frances the boatswain as a man of mutinous temper who had said at Batavia he should never be easy till he saw the confusion of the ship. The boatswain's office gave him standing access to the ship's tools and to the working hands who could lift a hasp from its setting without raising alarm. The drawn staple is consistent with execution by a man in the boatswain's position, with the gunner's role one of supplying the technical method by his absence on shore at Father Smith's Island and his refusal to leave the keys in any hand that would have prevented the planned entry.

The contrast between William Taylor's wonder that such a thing as the round-robin paper should have been carried on so privately, with twenty men signing without his knowing of it, and the convergent testimony of every officer rank from the chief mate downward against the same four principals, points to a deliberate exclusion of the loyal officers from the canvassing. The doctor's mate Alexander Adair's procedure of asking each man whether he would be in the negative or the affirmative, recorded in William Ballaird's affidavit, supplies the operative means by which the canvass was kept clear of the officers' notice: every approach was conducted in private and every refusal recorded by the canvasser in his own memory rather than on any document. The exclusion of the watch officers from any knowledge of the paper is the operative confirmation that the warrant officer faction understood the loyalty of the commissioned line and prepared their movement accordingly.

531

522

Island St Helena

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 5[th] day of July 1715, At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[e]p[u]ty Pres[t] Matth[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s] Tovey 4[th] & Edw[d] Byfeld 5 in Coun[c]l

M[r]: William Worrall brought in the following Account viz[t]

An Acc[t] of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Neat Cattle Sheep Hoggs, Goats &c taken July the 5[th] Anno Dom: 1715

12 Bulls

42 Cows

10 Heifers

31 Bullocks

  • Steers none
  • Yearlings d[itt]o

41 Calves

Killed since last Acc[t] given in. 1 Bullock

Calved 1 Calfe

Fowles Great & Small - 57 Increased none since the last Report. Ducks Great & Small - 8.

136 Increased since the 1[st] June Last.

245 Hoggs Great & Small

26 Increased

5 Killed the last mon[th]

2 Young Piggs dyed w[th] a Distemper Called the Pant

246 Goats Great & Small viz[t]

95 of the Male kind

148 of the female kind

3 Increased since the last Report

34 Sheep

9 of the Male kind

25 of the female kind

Increased

Turkies Great & Small - 50 Killed for the Fort - 3 6 Turkies Exchanged for 6 Geese Geese Great & Small - 19

Margin Notes:

Plante[r] Loud[s] acc[t] of Stock

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 5 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Mr William Worrall brought in the following account.

An account of the Honourable Company's neat cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and so on, taken July the 5 anno domini 1715.

Bulls

12

Cows

42

Heifers

10

Bullocks

31

Steers

none

Yearlings

none

Calves

41

Total neat cattle

136

Increased since the first June last

1, my bullock

Killed since the last account given in

1 bullock

Calved

1 calf

Hogs great and small

215

Increased

26

Killed the last month

5

Young pigs died of a distemper called the pant

2

Goats great and small

246

Of the male kind

95

Of the female kind

148

Increased since the last report

3

Sheep

34

Of the male kind

9

Of the female kind

25

Increased

none

Fowls great and small

57

Increased none since the last report

Ducks great and small

8

Turkeys great and small

50

Killed for the fort

3

Turkeys exchanged for geese

6

Geese great and small

19

Interpretations

The stock return is the second comprehensive account from William Worrall as overseer of the plantations, following his first detailed yam-stock report of 26 April 1715 and his full stock return of 18 June 1715. Worrall had been appointed overseer of the plantations on 5 April 1715 in succession to the late Captain Edward Mashborne, with no salary fixed and his behaviour to be observed before any salary was set. The present return, brought in just over a fortnight after the 18 June 1715 stock account, marks the establishment of the monthly stock return as the standing form of the overseer's accountability to the bench. The frequency is consistent with the active herd-building period that began with the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 made pursuant to paragraph 45 of the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell, in which no cow, heifer or calf was to be killed until 20 July 1716 except on warrant from the governor.

The neat cattle total of 136 head is unchanged from the figure recorded in Worrall's stock account of 18 June 1715, which had shown an increase of 46 head since 1 January 1715. The single calf born and the single bullock killed cancel one another in the herd account, and the unchanged total indicates the operation of the cow-saving order in the period since 7 June 1715. The detail of the killed bullock against the calved single calf, set against the standing prohibition on killing any cow, heifer or calf, confirms that the cow-saving order admits the slaughter of a bullock with a warrant from the governor, with the cattle famine figure of 2,500 head lost cited by Pyke in his letter to Le Blanc of 30 January 1715 still operating as the policy benchmark behind the present arrangement.

The hog stock of 215 great and small with an increase of 26 represents the standing breeding stock of the plantation, with five killed in the last month and two young pigs dying of a distemper called the pant. The pant is a respiratory or coughing disease of swine in early modern husbandry, characterised by laboured breathing and a high mortality among young pigs. The death of only two young pigs from the distemper is a modest loss against a total of 215, but the recording of the cause on the council books illustrates the operative practice of Worrall's stewardship in identifying and reporting particular causes of stock loss rather than allowing them to be absorbed into a general decline figure.

The poultry returns illustrate the Company's mixed table provision for the garrison. The fowls great and small at 57, with no increase since the last report, sit alongside ducks at 8, turkeys at 50 with three killed for the fort, and geese at 19 with six turkeys exchanged for geese. The exchange of turkeys for geese is the operative form of stock adjustment by barter rather than purchase, and indicates the operation of an informal market in poultry between the Company's establishment and the planters who held the alternative stocks. The killed for the fort entry, with three turkeys recorded as having gone for the table of the garrison, is the standing form of accounting for the bench's own consumption against the Company's account.

Speculations

The promptness of the present return, brought in just seventeen days after the comprehensive stock account of 18 June 1715, suggests that William Worrall is establishing the monthly stock check as the standing rhythm of the overseer's office, and the bench is content to receive it on that schedule. With his appointment of 5 April 1715 made on probation and his salary to be settled only after observation of his behaviour, the regular and detailed returns are the operative means by which he places his fitness for the office on the council books. The pattern of submissions is consistent with the bench's broader procedure of holding new appointments to documentary standards of accountability, observed earlier in the dispatch of the Mashborne plantation house and Lufkins inventory by Bazett and Tovey on 12 April 1715 and the storekeepers' interrogation of 21 June 1715.

The recording of the two young pigs as having died of the pant suggests that Worrall is alert to specific identifiable causes of stock loss and reports them by name rather than absorbing them into a general wastage figure. The same care to record cause is consistent with the overseer's evident interest in keeping the bench fully informed of the operation of the herd-building programme initiated on 7 June 1715, and protects him personally against any subsequent imputation that the deaths may have been caused by neglect of his charge. The contrast with the absent stock figures on cattle and goats from the plantation house and Lufkins inventory of 12 April 1715, where wet weather had been given as the reason for incomplete returns, illustrates the more settled administrative footing that Worrall has now achieved on the plantation establishment.

532

523

The following Petition was Presented (viz[t])

Worshipfull Govern[r]

S[r] I most Humbly Address my Self to your Worsp that you would be pleased in Compasion to Consider the Large Expence of Maintaining So large a Familie as mine Especially at this Fort where all things are So farr to fetch and Dear withall So hopeing your Worship will be pleased to Pitty my Circumstance Even as a fathor Pittyeth his own Child, and out of your Linsity be pleased to Grant me the Liberty of a Licence that whilst I am here it may be something of Asistance to me, with all begging Your Worsps Pardone for my undue Cons =ideration in Refusing Your Worsps first Proposals,

So I remaine Your Most Humble and Ever faith =full Servant to Command. W[m] Beale

July the 5[t] 1715

In the Consultation of the 29 June last the Gov[r] Referd it to the Council whether John Orchards Licence for Retailing Strong Drink &c. should be Restored to him againe or not,

To which the Councill now Reports that its their opinion the Said John Orchard for his Misdemeanor Ought not to have the Bennifitt of that Licence any Longer, Whereupon,

Ordered that the abovesd: William Beale's request be Granted and that a Licence be writt out and Delivered him Accordingly, as followeth,

Island St Helena

I Do hereby give leave and Licence To you William Beale of said Island freeman to keep a Common Victualing house, and to Sell Arrack Punch, Wine, or any other Sort of Strong Liquor, with

Sugar

Margin Notes:

W[m] Beale[s] pet[n] to keep Publick house

Because Jn[o] Orchard not to keep one

he Granted.

Copy of [the] Licence

The following petition was presented.

William Beale petitioned the worshipful governor. He humbly addressed himself, asking the governor in compassion to consider the large expense of maintaining so large a family as his, especially at the fort where all things were so scarce to get and dear withal. He hoped the governor would be pleased to pity his circumstances, even as a father pitieth his own child, and out of his liberality be pleased to grant him the liberty of a licence, that while he was at the island it might be something of assistance to him. He begged the governor's pardon for his undue consideration in refusing the governor's first proposals. The petition was dated 5 July 1715 and signed William Beale.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Beale's petition to keep a public house.

At the consultation of 29 June last, the governor had referred to council whether John Orchard's licence for retailing strong drink should be restored to him again or not.

The council now reported that in their opinion John Orchard, for his misdemeanour, ought not to have the benefit of that licence any longer. The governor and council therefore ordered that William Beale's request be granted, and that a licence be written out and delivered to him accordingly, as followeth.

Island of St Helena. The governor gave leave and licence to William Beale of the island, freeman, to keep a common victualling house, and to sell arrack, punch, wine or any other sort of strong liquor with sugar [...]

Interpretations

The disposal of John Orchard's licence on the council's report that the misdemeanour disqualified him from any further benefit of the trade completes the matter opened in the cancelled stolen-goods complaint of 29 Jun 1715 and the petition for restoration entered on the same date. The bench has moved through two stages: the governor's summary withdrawal of the licence on his own authority, and the council's collective refusal of restoration on the merits. The mechanism mirrors the institutional division of authority observed in the public house licence to Latour of 13 April 1715, in which the governor issues and revokes summarily and the council reviews on petition. The licence is a Company instrument permitting retail trade in strong drink under fixed conditions, and its revocation operates as a penalty in itself before any formal trial of the underlying offence.

The grant of the licence to William Beale completes a separate matter that had stood open since the bench's order of 11 June 1715, by which Beale had been granted leave to depart on the Cardonnell, having earlier had leave and made sale of his goods only to be detained to the great prejudice of himself and his family. The reversal of position implied in the present petition, with Beale now seeking a licence on the ground of the expense of maintaining his family at the fort, signals that he has elected to remain on the island rather than take up the leave to depart. His apology for his undue consideration in refusing the governor's first proposals, expressed in the petition itself, is the formal acknowledgement of his change of mind and the operative ground on which the bench grants the licence to him in place of Orchard.

The wording of the licence as written into the consultation book establishes William Beale of the island, freeman, as the licensed keeper of a common victualling house authorised to sell arrack, punch, wine and other strong liquor. A common victualling house is a licensed establishment combining the supply of meals and the retail of drink, distinct from a private dwelling and subject to the standing conditions of conciliar oversight set out in the Latour licence of 13 April 1715. The combination of arrack and punch in the licence reflects the standing position at the island, with arrack at the retail rate of seven shillings and sixpence per gallon set on 15 November 1714 and punch made up from the same arrack with sugar and lime. The licensee's recorded undertaking to keep the conditions of the trade is the operative basis on which the licence may be revoked summarily by the governor, as the Orchard matter has just illustrated.

The mechanism by which a single revoked licence is transferred to a substitute applicant on the same sitting, with the council's report on the first man's disqualification serving as the procedural ground for the second man's appointment, is the standing operation of licence management at the island. The number of licensed houses is held to a fixed establishment by the bench, and the loss of a licence by one freeman creates the vacancy that another may fill. Beale's apology for his earlier refusal of the governor's proposals indicates that the offer of a licence had been made to him previously and declined, with the change of mind only now being signalled to the bench after he had been detained on the island despite his earlier preference to depart.

Speculations

The timing of William Beale's petition, presented on the very sitting at which the council was due to report on the restoration of John Orchard's licence, suggests an arrangement understood in advance by both parties and the bench. With the council's report against Orchard already settled, the licence would in any event become available for a substitute. Beale's apology for his undue consideration in refusing the governor's first proposals reads as the formal acknowledgement of an offer made and earlier declined, now being accepted on terms that fit both the bench's need for a licensee and the petitioner's circumstances after his detention from the Cardonnell on 11 June 1715. The sequence indicates a deliberate matching of the available licence to a freeman whose family obligations and altered plans had brought him into a position to accept it.

The choice of William Beale rather than any other freeman on the island for the substituted licence may reflect his particular suitability as a man with a large family established at the fort, with the standing presence and the resources to keep a victualling house under conciliar supervision. The standing letting conditions for Company land laid down on 24 May 1715, requiring the holder to manure the land, to hold at least one black for the labour, and not to be too deep in the Company's debt, mark the broader institutional preference for licensees and tenants of settled household standing. Beale's reference to his large family and the expense of maintaining them at the fort speaks to the same considerations of established settlement that the bench has been applying across its grants in the present sittings.

533

524

Sugar & Tobacco in the House you now Dwell in at the Signe of the Ship in Southwarke Sheet, from this day untill the 25 March Next Ensuing the Date hereof,

Provided you always duly and truly do keep and Maintaine Good Orders, times & Seasons in your House, not Suffering any Persons to fight or Quarrell there, Particularly and more Especially on the Lords day, takeing Strikt Care, not to Suffer any Person, or Persons to be Tipling in your House in Time of Divine Service, and that you Permit no Person who dos not Lodge in your House to Continue there after the Tattoo has beat.

1

You are to Provide a Dinner Every day in the Week, in Shiping time at the Hour of twelve a Clock for Six Men at the least, who shall Pay no more then twelve Pence Each for their Ordinary

2

Also in Every Bowle of Punch which Shall Contain three Pints, you are to put in one Pint of Arrack, with such other Necessary Ingredients as shall be required, and to take no more then two Shillings for it,

3

You shall not Suffer any of the Garrison to Game in your House, nor Trust any one for Liquor under Perrill of loosing the Debt

4

And to Prevent the Soldiers Squandering away Either their Cloathing or Provisions,

5

You shall not take from any of them in Exchange for Liquor or Payment of any Scores any Victuall =ing Pott that is given out for the Soldiers Dyet nor no Manner of Apparrell, or Cloathing on Pain of Paying Double the Vallue One half to the Party Complaining and the other Moity to the Use of the Poor,

6

And

Margin Notes:

Any person wd[so]ev[er] whether Inhabitant or people belonging to Ships

The licence to William Beale continued in these terms.

The licensee was permitted to sell arrack, punch, wine and any other sort of strong liquor, together with sugar and tobacco, in the house in which he then dwelt, at the sign of the Ship in Southwark Street. The licence ran from the date thereof until 25 March next ensuing.

The conditions attached to the licence were as follows.

The licensee was always duly and truly to keep and maintain good orders, times and seasons in his house. He was not to suffer any persons to fight or quarrel there. Particularly and more especially on the Lord's day, he was to take strict care not to suffer any person to be tippling in his house in time of divine service. He was to permit no person who did not lodge in his house to continue there after the tattoo had beat.

He was to provide a dinner every day in the week in shipping time at the hour of twelve o'clock for six men at the least, who should pay no more than twelve pence each for their ordinary.

In every bowl of punch, which should contain three pints, he was to put in one pint of arrack with such other necessary ingredients as should be required, and to take no more than two shillings for it.

He was not to suffer any of the garrison to game in his house, nor trust any person for liquor under peril of losing the debt. A note in the margin recorded that this applied to any person, whether an inhabitant or persons belonging to ships.

To prevent the soldiers from squandering away either their clothing or provisions, he was not to take from any of them in exchange for liquor, or payment of any score, any victualling but that which was given out for the soldiers' dinner, no manner of apparel or clothing, on pain of paying double the value, one half to the party complaining and the other half to the use of the poor.

[...]

Interpretations

The conditions attached to William Beale's licence carry forward the standing form developed at the island for the public house licence to Latour issued on 13 April 1715, where comparable conditions had been observed in the recovered material covering the fourth to eighth heads. The present licence to Beale establishes the full set of operating conditions on the council books for the first time in the recovered record, providing the documentary basis on which subsequent licences and revocations can be measured. The form is comprehensive across the operative grounds of conduct, table, drink composition, credit, gaming and dealings with the garrison, and supplies the administrative framework within which the bench will judge any future infraction.

The sign of the Ship in Southwark Street, where Beale already dwelt, is the established location of the new common victualling house at the heart of the lower town. The same area was earlier the site of John Sinsnick's house, presented at the consultation of 2 December 1714 by bill of sale of Septha Fowler. The arrangement places the licensed house among the established freeman dwellings of the town within ready reach of the fort and the road, which is the operative location for serving shipping company in port and garrison off duty.

The ordinary at twelve pence per head for six men in shipping time fixes the standing rate of the licensed dinner against the running cost of an Indiaman in the road. Twelve pence is the standard daily rate for a fixed-table meal at a licensed house and matches the conventional rate at metropolitan inns of the period. The requirement of six men at the least represents the operative minimum table that the licensee must hold ready whenever shipping is in, with the practical effect of guaranteeing officers and pursers a place at table without negotiating the price each day. The figure aligns with the standing prices recorded for the Boucher administration: arrack at six shillings the gallon, brandy at six shillings the gallon, Madeira wine at four shillings the gallon and sugar at eight pence the pound.

The composition of the bowl of punch at one pint of arrack to three pints of liquid total, at two shillings the bowl, fixes the operative price of the principal drink of the trade. The Bencoolen wholesale acquisition rate of arrack at about six shillings the gallon implies the cost ingredient in the bowl at sixpence, with the balance representing the licensee's margin for the necessary ingredients of sugar, lime and water, the cost of fuel for hot punch, and the labour of preparation and service. The fixing of the bowl composition by conciliar order rather than leaving it to the licensee's discretion is the operative protection of the customer against the dilution of the drink, while the fixed price protects him against being overcharged for full strength.

The prohibition on trust for liquor under peril of losing the debt is the operative form by which the bench polices the credit relations of the trade. The licensee can sell only for cash or against goods, and the loss of the debt as a sanction against trusting removes any incentive to extend credit to soldiers or shipping company. The further prohibition on taking apparel, clothing or victualling rations from soldiers in exchange for liquor, on pain of paying double the value half to the complaining party and half to the use of the poor, establishes a specific enforcement mechanism with a defined informer's reward. The arrangement protects the garrison from the squandering of provisions and clothing that had perhaps been observed in earlier breakdowns of garrison discipline.

Speculations

The choice to establish the licensed victualling house at the sign of the Ship in Southwark Street, at a known location with an existing freeman dwelling, suggests that the bench has elected to operate the trade in fixed and recognised premises rather than allowing licences to follow the licensee from house to house. The sign of the Ship is the established mark of the establishment under whichever licensee holds it, and the form of the present licence to Beale at the sign of the Ship indicates the same name will continue under any future licensee at the same location. The form is the standard practice of licensed houses at metropolitan trading centres and protects both the customers and the bench by maintaining a continuous reference point for the trade.

The detail of the ordinary at twelve pence and the bowl of punch at two shillings, set as fixed prices in the licence itself rather than left to negotiation, suggests that the bench has identified pricing complaints and undervaluing as the recurring sources of friction in the licensed trade. The licence to Beale also extends to the sale of tobacco alongside the strong liquors, and the inclusion places the principal items of expense for soldiers and shipping company under one operating regime. The pattern of fixing principal prices by conciliar order rather than by market, and of policing the trade by named conditions in the licence itself, is consistent with the standing position of the island as a Company station where the regulation of consumption serves the broader interest of garrison discipline and the maintenance of accounts.

534

525

7

And likewise to Prevent Extravigant Expences, and unreasonable high Reckonings no Person belonging to the Garrison Shall be Permitted to spend more in One day then five shillings for Strong Liquors of any kind, and if the Reck =oning of One Man for One day dos come to more then five Shillings, then the Person So Charged shall be as fully Acquited as if he had paid the whole Demand,

8

You shall not trade with nor Entertaine any Blacks on any Pretence whatsoever,

9

You are to buy your Arrack and what Else you Vend by vertue of this Licence, Out of the Hon[ble] Companys Stores and of no other,

10

Lastly and all such further Orders & Instructions as you from time to time Shall receive from me, You are duly to Observe and keep, on Penalty Not only of Forfeiting this Licence, but of Such other fine as by the Law of England may be imposed on you for your Demerit

Given under the Seal of the Hon[ble] Company Lord Proprietors, and Signed w[th] my hand this 5[th] July Anno q[ue] Dom[ini] 1715. Isaac Pyke

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

Ant[ipas] Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Island.

The licence to William Beale continued in these further terms.

To prevent extravagant expenses and unreasonable high reckonings, no person belonging to the garrison was to be permitted to spend more in one day than five shillings for strong liquors of any kind. If the reckoning of one man for one day came to more than five shillings, the person so charged was to be as fully acquitted as if he had paid the whole demand.

The licensee was not to trade with nor entertain any blacks on any pretence whatsoever.

He was to buy his arrack and whatever else he vended by virtue of the licence from the Honourable Company's stores, and from no other.

Lastly, all such further orders and instructions as he should from time to time receive from the governor he was duly to observe and keep, on penalty not only of forfeiting the licence but of such other fines as by the law of England might be imposed on him for his demerit.

The licence was given under the seal of the Honourable Company's Lords Proprietors and signed by the governor's hand on 5 July 1715. Signed Isaac Pyke.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The cap of five shillings per garrison man per day on strong liquor expenditure is the operative protection of the soldier's pay against the licensee's interest in extending the reckoning. The mechanism is unusual in placing the loss of the excess on the licensee rather than on the customer: the soldier is fully acquitted of any sum above the cap as if he had paid the whole demand, with the licensee carrying the bad debt. The arrangement creates a positive incentive for the licensee to monitor the reckoning himself and to refuse further drink once the limit is approached, rather than relying on the soldier's self-restraint. The cap of five shillings represents a substantial daily expenditure against the soldier's standing pay, perhaps equivalent to a week's earnings on the customary rates recorded in the establishment, and is set high enough to allow normal indulgence while preventing the systematic disposal of pay through any one house.

The prohibition on trading with or entertaining blacks on any pretence whatsoever is the operative continuation of the standing position at the island, observed in the John Orchard case decided on the same sitting and in the punishment of Renatus Snow on 2 December 1714 with a fine of fifteen shillings for the use of the church and committal to prison for bartering with Thomas Frey's slave Clove for lemons contrary to law. The form of the prohibition in the present licence is more absolute than the rule operating on Orchard, since it admits of no pretence at all rather than allowing inquiry into the master's instructions. The bench has tightened the standing position in the form of the new licence, perhaps in direct response to the difficulty encountered in the Orchard inquiry where the licensee had pleaded ignorance of the master's affairs as his defence.

The requirement that the licensee buy his arrack and other liquors from the Company's stores and from no other establishes the Company's monopoly of supply to the licensed trade. The mechanism converts the licensed houses into the operative retail end of the Company's wholesale liquor business, with the Company taking the margin between the wholesale acquisition rate of about six shillings the gallon at Bencoolen and the retail price set at seven shillings and sixpence the gallon at the island on 15 November 1714. The licensee's margin lies in the difference between the per-gallon rate at the stores and the bowl-of-punch price of two shillings the bowl set in the licence, and the bench's control of the supply chain prevents any licensee from undercutting the official rate by sourcing arrack from passing shipping or private stocks.

The general reservation of penalty in the closing condition, with forfeiture of the licence as the standing sanction and additional fines by the law of England as the further penalty for demerit, places the licensee under both the local administrative jurisdiction and the metropolitan law as a continuing obligation. The form is the standard reservation by which a Company licensee is held to account on both grounds. The licence is given under the seal of the Lords Proprietors and signed by the governor's hand, the same authority that issued the Latour licence of 13 April 1715, with the consultation itself signed by Haswell, Tovey and Byfield. The absence of Bazett's signature from the present consultation continues the pattern noted across the present sittings, with the third councillor unrepresented on the documentary record of the licensing business.

Speculations

The choice to fix the daily liquor cap at five shillings for garrison men, with the loss of any excess falling on the licensee, points to a calibration of the cap against the known weekly pay of the garrison and against the commercial logic of the public house. The bench has not prohibited the soldier from drinking heavily on any one day, but has placed the cost of any excessive day on the house rather than on the man. The arrangement removes from the licensee the strongest commercial incentive to encourage the soldier to spend beyond his means, since the licensee will recover nothing above the cap. The mechanism is more sophisticated than a flat prohibition would be, since it preserves the licensee's normal trade up to the limit while protecting the garrison's pay and provisions against the systematic operation of credit and persuasion that would otherwise be the natural tendency of the trade.

The tightening of the prohibition on entertaining blacks, with the new licence admitting of no pretence whatsoever, suggests that the bench has read the John Orchard case as exposing a weakness in the previous form of the rule. Orchard's defence on his petition of 28 June 1715, that he had taken no goods for sale and that Mr Johnson would confirm the master's orders to the slaves to leave their loads at his premises, had relied on a pretence of innocent intent and the master's authority for the slaves' movements. The form of the new licence to Beale closes that line of defence by prohibiting entertainment of blacks absolutely, without inquiry into the master's orders. Any future licensee charged with the matter will be unable to plead the master's instructions or his own ignorance, since the standing rule will admit of no exception at all.

535

526

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Saturday the 9[th] July 1715 At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[ep]ty Pres[t] Math[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s]: Tovey 4[th] & Edw[o]: Byfeld 5 in Counc[l]

Ordered That the following Advertizement be Published (viz[t])

Island St Helena

By the Govern[r]: & Council An Advertizem[t]

Forasmuch as the Hon[ble] the Lords Pro =prietors are Sencible of the Scarcety & Dearness of Provisions on this Iseland, which has not only Reduced the Garrison, but Even the Poorer Sort of Planters to great Streights, And have therefore Generously been at the Expence and Charge of Buying & Sending over severall Boats for the use of this Place,

The Govern[r]: and Council therefore that the Goodness and Bounty of the Lords Pro =prietors may Answer their End, and Encourage the People in Industrious Employments

and

Margin Notes:

Advertizem[t] to Lend [the] Comp[as] Boat to fish in

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Saturday the 9 July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The council ordered that the following advertisement be published.

Island of St Helena. By the governor and council, an advertisement.

The Honourable Lords Proprietors were aware of the scarcity and dearness of provisions on the island, which had not only reduced the garrison but had brought even the poorer sort of planters to great straits. They had therefore generously been at the expense and charge of buying and sending over several boats for the use of the place.

The governor and council, to ensure that the goodness and bounty of the Lords Proprietors might answer their end, and to encourage the people in industrious employments and [...]

Interpretations

The advertisement records the metropolitan response to the cattle famine that has framed the bench's policy across the present sittings. The figure of 2,500 head of cattle lost cited by Pyke in his letter to Le Blanc of 30 January 1715 had served as the benchmark for the famine, and the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 made pursuant to paragraph 45 of the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell had set the herd-building programme in motion. The dispatch of several boats from London by the Lords Proprietors as a direct response to the scarcity converts the problem from one of dependence on the island's own husbandry to one of supplementary fisheries provision, and supplies the bench with a means of meeting the shortage that has reduced both the garrison and the poorer planters.

The acknowledgement that the scarcity has brought the poorer sort of planters to great straits, as well as reducing the garrison, identifies the operative social distribution of the famine's effects. The substantial planter households, with cattle, slaves and stored yams, have weathered the cattle losses through their own resources. The poorer planters, holding small allotments and few stock, have been compelled to seek relief through the standing channels available to them. The reduction of the garrison itself, as a recorded fact in a metropolitan acknowledgement, confirms that the famine has touched the establishment's own consumption, which sits with the requirement to obtain a warrant under the governor's hand for any slaughter of a cow, heifer or calf, under the cow-saving order of 15 June 1715.

The decision to supply boats specifically, rather than provisions for direct issue, identifies the metropolitan strategy as one of building local productive capacity rather than relieving the immediate want by import. Fishing boats placed in the hands of the island's people allow a continuing yield from the surrounding sea, and convert the relief from a one-time grant into a long-term asset on the establishment. The framing carries forward the operative principle observed in the cow-saving order, in which the present hardship is to be borne for thirteen months to allow the herd to rebuild, rather than relieved by immediate slaughter or import. The directors' provision of boats fits the same operative pattern of investment in the means of future supply.

The framing of the advertisement as the public face of the Lords Proprietors' bounty, with the bench undertaking to ensure that the goodness and bounty might answer their end, places the directors' generosity at the head of the operative scheme and the bench's administration in the role of intermediary executor. The form is consistent with the manner in which other public notices have been framed across the present sittings, including the cow-saving order advertised under the secretary's hand on 15 June 1715, the standing Company-land letting conditions laid down on 24 May 1715 and the beef-supply advertisement of 1 June 1715 signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, secretary.

Speculations

The decision to publish the advertisement on a Saturday, on the day after the licensing business of 5 July 1715 was completed, suggests that the bench is bringing the relief programme into operation in step with the broader rebuilding of the island's institutional framework that has run through the present sittings. The garrison stores reckoning of 5 April 1715, the standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715, the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715, the licence to William Beale of 5 July 1715 and the present advertisement on the boats together constitute a programme of institutional restoration on the part of the bench, with each measure addressing a distinct shortage or weakness exposed by the recent famine.

The provision of boats by the directors rather than direct food relief points to a metropolitan reading of the island's needs that places fish supply alongside cattle and yams as the operative components of the island's table. Fish from the surrounding waters had not previously appeared as a regular item on the bench's victualling accounts, and the establishment of a fishery on the basis of boats supplied from London would mark a significant change in the productive base of the island. The mechanism by which the boats will be allocated, the persons to whom they will be entrusted and the terms on which the catch will be disposed are the operative questions to which the rest of the advertisement is directed, and the bench is signalling its intent to manage the fishery through public conditions rather than through private grants.

536

527

and [...] [...] [...] [...] Deal[...] You [...] [...] [...] [...] the Generall and [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]anters on the [...]

All those who are D[...] [...] [...] the Hon[ble] [Comp]anys Bounty are to [...] [...] [...] to the Gov[r] [give] in Ten days after [...] [...] [...]hand they [shall] have the Boat by [...] [...] [...] [...]he Fish to [them]selves that they Ca[...] [...] [...]ly one [Sha]re for the Boat and [...] [...]utes about that Share, Whereas the boat requires a C[o]xswain, & four hands, and a Sixth part is to be Accounted for the boat Instead whereof all those who give in their Names shall have the Intire Bennifitt of the boat for five times, and for the Sixth time (or the boats Share) they [...] [...] being [...] [...]Boat [...] Boat fa[...] [...] [...] [...] [...] from [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] sev[...] [...] [...] [...]

Dated at the Un[ion] this 9 day of Ju[ly]

[in] Council Antip[s] Tovey Se[c]

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

[Antipas Tovey] Copy Edward Byfeld

The advertisement continued, with parts of the text obscured.

[...] and [...] you [...] the general [...] and [...] planters on [...]

All those who were desirous to share in the Honourable Company's bounty were to give in their names to the governor within ten days after the date of the advertisement. They might have the boat by [...] and have the fish to themselves, [...] that they [...] alternately one [...] for the boat and [...] about that share. Whereas the boat required a coxswain and four hands, and a sixth part was to be accounted for the boat, instead whereof all those who gave in their names should have the entire benefit of the boat for five times, and for the sixth time, for the boat's share, they should [...] being on rest [...]

The advertisement was dated at the Union Castle this 9 day of July 1715.

Signed by order of the governor and council by Antipas Tovey, Secretary.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

A copy was made.

Interpretations

The mechanism by which the boats are allocated proceeds on the principle of voluntary application within a defined ten-day window. The requirement that those desirous to share give in their names to the governor in person, rather than through the secretary or the storekeeper, places the operation under the direct hand of the executive and supplies the bench with a record of the applicants on which subsequent allocation can rest. The form is consistent with the standing position observed in the petition procedures across the present sittings, with the governor receiving applications directly and the council determining the disposal on the merits.

The operating arrangement on the boat itself rests on a defined complement of one coxswain and four hands, with the catch divided on the principle that one sixth part of every voyage is to be accounted for the boat. The arrangement adapts the standing fishery practice known in metropolitan and colonial fisheries, in which the boat itself is treated as a participant in the division of the catch alongside the men working it. The sixth share for the boat covers maintenance, replacement of gear, repair of damage and the eventual depreciation of the hull, and gives the boat itself a continuing claim against the fishery so that the establishment is not dependent on private generosity for the upkeep of its productive assets.

The substitution introduced by the bench, whereby the named applicants take the entire benefit of the boat for five voyages and surrender the sixth voyage to the boat's share, is an adaptation of the conventional fishery practice to the conditions of the island. Instead of dividing each voyage's catch six ways, the bench has converted the proportion into a periodic rotation: five complete catches to the men, one complete catch to the boat. The mechanism simplifies the accounting on each individual voyage while preserving the underlying proportion of the standard practice over the cycle of six voyages. The arrangement also gives the boat's account a more substantial single inflow on its sixth voyage, which may be applied to particular repairs or to provisioning rather than divided in small parts each time.

The standard boat complement of one coxswain and four hands is consistent with the long-boat crew arrangements observed in the records, where the boatswain at five shillings per day in the boat had been the rate set on 8 April 1712 for John Kelly, with the ordinary crew at two shillings and sixpence per day for John Somersby and others on the same date. The present arrangement is for a fishery rather than a freight operation, so the men work for their share of the catch rather than for daily wages, but the standard complement and the calibration of the boat's share against five hands' labour reflects the same practical understanding of what a working boat at the island requires.

Speculations

The choice to set the ten-day application window suggests that the bench expects more applicants than there are boats, and is providing the applicant pool from which the operative selections will be made. The window is long enough to allow planters in the country districts to learn of the advertisement and to attend the governor with their names, but short enough to keep the matter from drift. The mechanism of voluntary application rather than direct nomination places the initiative on the planters themselves, with the bench retaining the discretion to allocate the boats among those who have come forward.

The decision to convert the conventional six-way per-voyage division into a five-and-one rotation suggests that the bench has reflected on the practical difficulties of dividing every catch into six small parts and has preferred the operational simplicity of an alternating cycle. The arrangement also reflects the social calibration of the scheme: with five entire voyages going wholly to the men's hands and one entire voyage going wholly to the boat's account, the men have a direct and substantial periodic interest in the boat's good condition, since their share depends on the boat remaining in service. The mechanism gives the operative crew a stake in the maintenance fund itself rather than treating the boat's share as a deduction from each voyage's catch that may breed grievance.

537

528

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 12[th] day of July 1715 At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[e]p[u]ty Pres[t] Matth[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s] Tovey 4[th] & Edw[o] Byfeld 5 in Counc[l]

The Govern[r] made the following Report. That whereas Joseph & Richard Coles have learned to Cutt Stone, and work at Stone Cutting in Sandy Bay for the Hon[ble] Comp[a] a Considerable time and are become indifferent workmen, at Plain work being Desireous to Continue to work at the Said Stone Cutting for three years longer Certain, but pray an Advance on their wages, and that while they are Contracted to work for the Comp[a] they should in Case of Sickness, have the Priviledge of the Hon[ble] Companys Servants (that is to pay nothing for their Phyfick, which is what is called in this Place being Surgeon free) The Govern[r] has agreed with them as followes (viz[t])

That to Christmas next they have Two shillings per day Each,

And that from Christmas next to Midsumer 1716, they have two Shillings & Six Pence Each [a] day, And that from and after Said Midsumer 1716 they shall have three Shillings for every day

they

Margin Notes:

Gov[r] Report of Agreem[t] w[th] Jos[p]: & Rich[d] Coles to Cutt Stone

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 12 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The governor made the following report.

Joseph and Richard Coles had learned to cut stone, and had worked at stone cutting in Sandy Bay for the Honourable Company a considerable time. They had become tolerably indifferent workmen at plain work. They were desirous to continue working at the stone cutting for three years longer certain, but prayed an advance on their wages. They also asked that while they were contracted to work for the Company, they should in case of sickness have the privilege of the Honourable Company's servants, that is, to pay nothing for their physic, which was what was called in this place being surgeon free. The governor had agreed with them as follows.

To Christmas next, they were to have two shillings per day each.

From Christmas next to Midsummer 1716, they were to have two shillings and sixpence each per day.

From and after Midsummer 1716, they were to have three shillings for every day [...]

Interpretations

The contract recorded between Joseph and Richard Coles and the Company runs on a stepped wage scale across the three-year term, with the rate rising from two shillings per day in the first six months to two shillings and sixpence in the following six months and three shillings from Midsummer 1716 onward. The arrangement is calibrated to the men's progressive acquisition of the trade, with each increment recognising the additional value of their labour as they consolidate their skill at plain work. The mechanism is consistent with the bench's broader practice of fixing labour rates by written agreement, observed in the Samuel Price apprenticeship contract for shoemaking and tanning of 12 April 1715, where the rate was set at two shillings and sixpence per day under a written agreement found among Captain Edward Mashborne's papers.

The Coles brothers occupy a particular place in the labour establishment at the island. The free planter carpenter rate set on 13 October 1713 was four shillings per day with the workman finding his own diet, marking the upper bench rate for skilled trades on independent terms. The soldier stone-laying rate at the Prosperous Bay house had been set on 3 November 1713 at four shillings per day for John Sinsnick, with five shillings per alarm for nineteen alarms given at the bay. The reduced replacement-labour rate after the stone-layers' combination of 18 January 1714/15 had been broken stood at three shillings per day. The Coles brothers' present rates of two shillings rising to three shillings sit at the lower end of the scale, consistent with their status as tolerably indifferent workmen still acquiring the trade.

The surgeon-free privilege requested by the Coles brothers, that they should pay nothing for their physic in case of sickness during the term of the contract, is the operative material benefit attached to Company service that they had not previously held as free planters. The arrangement converts them from the position of independent freemen liable for their own medical charges to the position of Company servants entitled to attendance from the garrison surgeon at the Company's account. The garrison surgeon's salary had been raised on 3 November 1713 to forty pounds per year, house rent included, for William Porteous, marking the institutional position of medical care as an established charge on the Company's books. The extension of that care to contracted stone cutters represents a deliberate widening of the Company's establishment of servants for the term of the work.

The stone cutting work at Sandy Bay sits with the broader infrastructure programme observed across the present sittings, including the Sandy Bay sea wall and the advertisement of 24 June 1715 inviting tender for upwards of one hundred rod of mortar or wet wall to be made in James Valley with all materials within one hundred yards of site. The three-year term of the Coles contract is timed to carry through the principal works in progress and to provide the bench with continuity of supply in the cut stone necessary for completing both the Sandy Bay programme and the James Valley wall. The choice of a longer term rather than continuing on year-to-year engagements indicates the bench's assessment of the substantial work still in prospect.

Speculations

The choice of two brothers rather than one workman, contracted together for the same term and on the same scale, suggests that the bench has accepted the practical arrangement by which the two have worked side by side and is treating them as a working unit rather than as independent contracts. Joseph and Richard Coles having learned the trade together, perhaps under the supervision of a more skilled hand at Sandy Bay, the joint contract preserves the working relationship and avoids any imbalance that separate scales would have introduced. The pattern indicates the bench's willingness to adapt the form of the engagement to the practical circumstances of the labour, rather than insisting on a uniform individual contract.

The graduated wage scale with two upward steps within the three-year term suggests that the bench has built in to the contract its expectation that the men will continue to improve at the trade across the period, and is pricing their future labour at the rate appropriate to a workman of higher competence. The mechanism converts what could have been a fixed-rate contract into a developmental engagement, with the bench's investment in the men's continuing employment matched by the Company's progressive recognition of their improving value. The granting of the surgeon-free privilege at the outset of the term, on the same footing as established Company servants, sits with the same operative principle: the Coles brothers are being treated for the period of the engagement as part of the establishment rather than as transient hired hands.

538

529

they work for the Hon[ble] Company at the same trade of Stone Cutting untill the End of two Years.

But they are not to be Excused of any Personall Duty for the Security or Defence of the Iseland but to be at their Posts as usuall on Alarms.

The Govern[r] Reports that According to Consultation of the 8 July 1714 & Lon[d] of January, and in Obedience to the Hon[ble] Companys Generall Letter pr Cardonnell he has fin =ished the Ends of the two Wings Adjoyning to the Castle in this valley by Raiseing the Walls Higher by four foot and twenty Rows of Iron Storkadoes thereon which makes the Castle much Sewrer then it was.

The 7[th] July Sailed the Hannover C[o]mmandore James Osborne and at the same time Sailed the Eagle Galley Cap[t] Daniel Beekman C[o]mmander under his Care.

The Govern[r] Likewise Reports that he had cole the Ships were under Saile the following Letter Sent him from Capt: Beekman, viz[t]

Worshipfull S[r] After returning You my hearty thanks for all favours, I think it my duty to Acquaint yo[r] Worsp of Some Proceedings Since my Comeing on board which is, M[r]: Swartz's Sending on Shoar Arrack, Mony &c. in Order to Supply those Rogues on Shoar w[ch]: Confirms my former Opinion and gives me good Reason to beleive that he will Stick at nothing to Prejudice (if it lay in his Power) Either Your Worship or me he in an Auda =cious Manner threatens You and a Certaine Person unknown, My Humble Service to your Good Lady and Sister, and shall be proud of an opportunity to Confirm how much I am. S[r] Yo[r] most Humble Serv[t]

D Beeckman

M[r]

Margin Notes:

Worshipfull S[r]

L[ett]r p[r] Gov[r] from Capt Beeckman

The contract with Joseph and Richard Coles continued, with the men to work for the Honourable Company at the same trade of stone cutting until the end of two years.

They were not to be excused from any personal duty for the security or defence of the island, but were to beat their posts as usual on alarms.

The governor reported that, in accordance with the consultation of 8 July 1714 and 6 [...] of January, and in obedience to the Honourable Company's general letter by the Cardonnell, he had finished the ends of the two wings adjoining to the castle in James Valley by raising the walls higher by four foot and seventy rows of iron stockades thereon, which made the castle much securer than it was.

On the 4 July, the Hanover, Captain James Osborne commander, had sailed, and at the same time the Eagle Galley, Captain Daniel Beeckman commander, under his care.

The governor likewise reported that he had, while the ships were under sail, the following letter sent to him from Captain Beeckman.

Captain Beeckman wrote to the worshipful governor. After returning his hearty thanks for all favours, he thought it his duty to acquaint the governor of some proceedings since his coming on board, which was that Mr Swartz had sent on shore arrack, money and so on, in order to supply those rogues on shore, which confirmed his former opinion and gave him good reason to believe that Swartz would stick at nothing to prejudice him, if it lay in his power. He had also in an audacious manner threatened the governor, and a certain person unknown. He sent his humble service to the governor's good lady and sister, and would be proud of an opportunity to confirm how much he was the governor's most humble servant. Signed D. Beeckman.

A note in the margin recorded the letter as having been sent by Captain Beeckman.

Interpretations

The exception in the Coles brothers' contract reserving their personal duty for the security or defence of the island, with the requirement to beat their posts as usual on alarms, is the operative protection of the garrison establishment against the privatising effect of a long-term Company labour contract. The defence of the island rests on the standing duty of every man on the muster, irrespective of his contracted employment. The provision matches the earlier disposal of Sergeant Fairfax's report on 12 April 1715, where the Mercury alarm allowance had been admitted as a separate category of duty for which the garrison could be summoned regardless of standing employment. The bench's care to write the exception into the stone cutters' contract preserves the same standing principle against any future plea of exemption.

The fortification of the two wings adjoining the castle in James Valley by raising the walls four foot and adding seventy rows of iron stockades is the executed performance of an order dating back to the consultation of 8 July 1714, in obedience to the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell. The work has been carried out under the direction of the governor across the intervening twelve months and is now reported as complete. The report places on the council books the documentary record that the standing orders from the metropolitan directors have been performed, ready for inclusion in the homeward despatch to the directors. The reference back to the standing orders also fixes the documentary chain for the Cardonnell's letter as the most recent direction from the directors that had been operating on the bench through the present sittings.

The departure of the Hanover under Captain James Osborne and the Eagle Galley under Captain Daniel Beeckman on 4 July 1715, with the Eagle Galley under the care of the Hanover, is the operative resolution of the mutiny inquiry that had run through the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715. The four warrant officers Thomas Frances, Thomas Clark, Alexander Adair and William Wells were sent off the island under continuing restraint, with the captain of the Eagle Galley exercising responsibility for them on the homeward voyage and the captain of the Hanover providing the senior command for the joint passage. The arrangement places the matter on the homeward despatch to the directors for such further proceedings as may be ordered at Bencoolen or in London, and removes the disaffected company from the island.

Captain Beeckman's letter, sent to the governor while the ships were already under sail, returns the bench to the libel inquiry of 21 June 1715 concerning the pasquinade posted at the minister's door. The libel had been dismissed for want of formal proof but with continuing universal suspicion of Swartz, the chief supercargo of the Borneo, who had been given liberty to divert himself in the country while carrying himself well. Captain Beeckman's report that Swartz had sent on shore arrack, money and so on, to supply those rogues on shore, identifies Swartz as the continuing source of practical support for the warrant officer faction even after the principals had been confined and the Eagle Galley under sail. The letter converts what had been a standing suspicion into evidence of operative conduct, with Swartz's audacious manner and threats against the governor and an unknown third party as the further offences laid on the council books.

Speculations

Captain Beeckman's choice to send the letter to the governor only after his ship had cleared the road, rather than as the ships were preparing to sail, suggests that he had calculated the safer course of communication. Any letter sent while the ships were still at anchor could have been recovered or its contents disclosed before his ship was clear of the island, with consequent danger of further trouble from Swartz or his associates. The despatch of the letter from a ship already under sail places the disclosure beyond any practical interference by the persons named in it, and protects both the captain and the governor from any reprisal in the moment. The pattern is consistent with the cautious form of his earlier evidence on the libel of 21 June 1715, in which he had given the bench operative information from his own knowledge while being careful to identify the limits of what he could affirm.

The fact that Swartz had sent on shore arrack, money and so on to supply rogues on shore after the Eagle Galley was already departed indicates that the warrant officer faction of the Eagle Galley and Swartz's interest had been operating in concert rather than as separate cases of disaffection. The libel inquiry of 21 June 1715, with its mock Order of Governor Clark addressed to Captain Coxwain in the Castle of Capers, dated at Grub Street in the City of Troy 18 June 1715, sits alongside the round-robin paper of the Eagle Galley mutiny as two expressions of the same disposition against the bench at the island. Captain Beeckman's letter, by identifying Swartz as the continuing supplier of the rogues on shore after the principal mutineers had been despatched, converts the two matters into a single pattern of organised opposition to the bench, in which the libel and the mutiny were perhaps the two principal acts of the same coordinated effort against the Company's administration.

539

530

M[r]: William Worrall overseer of the Hon[ble] Companys Plantation Represented to the Govern[r] and Council the want the Blacks were in of Cloaths, which in this Cold weather Pinches them very much.

Ordered

That they all have new Cloaths.

The following Petitions were Presented.

Island St Helena.

July 12[th] 1715 To the Worship[ull] the Govern[r] & the Rest of the Gentlemen his Counc[ll] The Humble Petition of James Vesey

Humbly Sheweth Whereas your Petition[r] haveing been Lately (not to mention time Longer past) at great Sufferer in his Hoggs, and having all the reasons Immaginable to beleive the Cheifest of his Damages to Accrue through the Means of John Harding Planter, Humbly Desires to Lay before Your Worship, and Councill these following Conisider =ations to the End that your Petit[r] may Enjoy, Under God, and the Wisdome of your Worsp and Cun[t] the Bennifitts of his own.

If care and Dilligence on my Part (which sever[ll] of the Garrison that has Lived w[th] me will I beleive Testify) would have Exempted me from both former and Latter Losses I should not have troubled yo[r] Worship and Councill but as there has been very Little if any on his Side, as by his own Hoggs Continually being in his Plantation and his fences being very Low and in Some Places Lying to the Ground, as the Neighbour =hood can Testifie, and what is almost as bad

as

Margin Notes:

J[no] Vesey[s] pet[n] ag[t] Jn[o] Harding damageing him by Hogs

William Worrall, overseer of the Honourable Company's plantation, represented to the governor and council the want the slaves were in of clothes, which in the cold weather pinched them very much. The council ordered that they all should have new clothes.

The following petitions were presented.

James Vesey petitioned the worshipful governor and the rest of the gentlemen of his council on 12 July 1715. He had lately, not to mention time longer past, been a great sufferer in his hogs, and had all the reasons imaginable to believe the chiefest of his damages to accrue through the means of John Harding, planter. He humbly desired to lay before the governor and council the following considerations, to the end that he might enjoy under God and the wisdom of the council the benefits of his own.

If care and diligence on his part, which several of the garrison that had lived with him would, he believed, testify, would have exempted him from both former and latter losses, he would not have troubled the governor and council. There had been very little if any care on Harding's side, as by his own hogs continually being in the deponent's plantation, and his fences being very low, and in some places lying to the ground, as the neighbourhood could testify. What was almost as bad [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Vesey's petition against John Harding for damaging him by hogs.

Interpretations

The supply of new clothes to the Company's slaves on the representation of William Worrall as overseer continues the pattern of the overseer's active stewardship observed across the present sittings. His earlier reports, the first detailed yam-stock account of 26 April 1715, the full stock return of 18 June 1715 and the further stock account brought in on 5 July 1715, have established the substantive accounting on the plantation establishment. The clothing representation now extends the same documentary practice to the working hands, with the cold weather identified as the operative cause of the want. The bench's prompt order that they all should have new clothes, made without delay or referral, reflects both the standing duty of the Company to maintain its working force and the bench's confidence in Worrall's judgement of practical need.

The reference to the cold weather pinching the slaves confirms the moderate climate of the island, with seasonal cold sufficient to require clothed provision for the working hands rather than the year-round equability associated with tropical latitudes. The island lies in the south Atlantic at sixteen degrees south latitude, but the trade winds and the cool oceanic currents produce a climate of mild winters in which the Company's slaves require provision against cold rather than against heat. The bench's response to Worrall's representation, made at the consultation of 12 July 1715 in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter, identifies the practical reach of the seasonal calendar on the island's labour establishment.

The James Vesey petition against John Harding for damages from straying hogs sits within the recurring pattern of livestock-trespass disputes that the bench has handled across the present record. The earlier Mudge livestock trespass on Belvird's plantation of 5 June 1712 had been dismissed with severe check on the strength of evidence from Giles Hays. The Thomas Soulhen complaint against George Carne of 1 September 1713 for loss of a bull had been brought before the bench on the same procedural pattern. The Vesey petition continues the established practice of bringing planter-on-planter livestock disputes before the bench for adjudication, with the operative grounds running to the standard heads of insufficient fencing and the consequent loss to the neighbour.

The petitioner's appeal to the testimony of the garrison that had lived with him, as the means of proving his own care and diligence, is the operative form of evidence in such disputes. The garrison men have lived as labour or as overseers on planter establishments and have direct knowledge of the working practices of the household, giving their testimony weight on questions of care and fencing standards. The form is consistent with the standing fence survey panels constituted under the bench's orders at the island, such as the panel of 23 November 1714 named for fence survey purposes that included Gabriel Powell and the deceased Charles Steward.

Speculations

The bench's immediate order that the slaves should all have new clothes, without delay or further inquiry into the particular need or the cost, indicates the bench's confidence in Worrall's stewardship at a point when his probationary appointment of 5 April 1715 has been running for just over three months. The pattern of prompt acceptance of his representations, taken with his regular and detailed returns on yams and stock, suggests that the bench is now satisfied of his fitness for the office and is preparing to settle the salary that had been deferred at his appointment for observation of his behaviour. The clothing order is the kind of routine administrative request that the bench would be unwilling to grant without confidence in the overseer's judgement, and its passing without procedural friction is the operative indication of his consolidation in the office.

The choice of John Harding as the named defendant in the Vesey petition, with the petition opening on the unusual ground of damage by the defendant's hogs straying onto the plaintiff's plantation, suggests a continuing course of conduct rather than a single incident. The petitioner's reference to time longer past, with great sufferings lately and earlier, indicates that the dispute has been running for some time and that Vesey has now reached the point of bringing it formally before the bench. The complaint specifies low fencing in some places lying to the ground, indicating a settled neglect of the defendant's plantation boundaries rather than an accidental failure. The Vesey approach to the bench by petition rather than by direct neighbourly remedy or by civil action at the general sessions suggests that informal channels for resolution have already been exhausted between the two planters.

540

531

as my Damages, that when I have told him of them and that I could not bear it but must Complaine to the Govern[r], he has given Scurrelous and unseemly Language, the Damage I have Lately Recieved, is above five Pounds being two Sowes nigh their Pigging well one day and found Dead w[th] their Backs broke the Next, which they wont say he did, Yet his Brothers were seen by one that Commonly Goes by the Name of Baker, and M[r]: Swords Children Lugging them and forceing them Down a Waterfall, It is Shame =ly Presume a Law on this Iseland that none should Damage any thing Except their Fences be According to the Statute, which how farr his is wanting is very well known to the Inhabitants of Sandy Bay, May it may it Please Your Worsp &c. While this is Denieing any Arrest but will Calmly Sett Down with my Loses could I be but secure for the future, But that your Worsp would be plea[s] to Advise him when your Worsp shall think fitt of the Unchristian as well as the Unwarrantableness of the Actions which I hope may be have and Presume be more Prevalent then all I could Ever obtaine from him

And your Petition[r] as in duty bound shall Ever pray.

James Vesey

Ordered

That John Harding do Immediatly Repair all his fences According to the Laws of this Iseland, or Else that the Laws for Neglecting the same be put in Execution it Appearing to us that M[r] Vesey has been a great Sufferer by Hardings bad fences.

M[r] Vesey Produced Betty his Black to prove that Slaughters Jack had killd the Hogg, and Jack being Called Sayed he did not Kill M[r] Veseys Hogg, but James &

Joseph

Margin Notes:

Harding to repair his Fences

Harding Black kills Veseys Hogg

James Vesey's petition continued. As to his damages, when he had told Harding of them and that he could not bear it but must complain to the governor, Harding had given him quarrelsome and unfair language. The damage he had lately received was above five pounds, with two sows nigh their pigging well one day and found dead with their backs broke the next. Harding would not say he did it. Yet his brothers were seen by one that commonly went by the name of Baker, and Mr Stroud's children, lugging them and forcing them down a waterfall. It was, he presumed, the shame of the law on the island that none should damage anything except their fences were according to the statute, which how far Harding was wanting in was very well known to the inhabitants of Sandy Bay. He did not, as it might please the governor, desire any arrest of Harding's person, but would calmly sit down with his losses if he could but be secure for the future. He prayed that the governor would be pleased to advise him when he should think fit of the unchristian as well as the unwarrantableness of the actions, which he hoped might be and presumed would be more prevalent than all he could ever obtain from him. The petition was signed James Vesey.

The council ordered that John Harding should immediately repair all his fences according to the laws of the island, or else that the laws for neglecting the same be put in execution. It appeared to the council that Mr Vesey had been a great sufferer by Harding's bad fences.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Harding to repair his fences.

Mr Vesey produced Betty, his black, to prove that Slaughter's Jack had killed the hog. Jack being called, said he did not kill Mr Vesey's hog, but James and Joseph [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Harding's brother kills Vesey's hog.

Interpretations

The order on John Harding to repair his fences immediately according to the laws of the island, or else that the laws for neglecting the same be put in execution, is the operative remedy in livestock-trespass disputes at the island. The standing form rests on the principle that responsibility for the prevention of stray livestock damage lies with the keeper of the boundary, and that the failure to maintain fencing according to the statute is itself the actionable wrong. The fencing proclamation of 30 October 1711 had set the deadline of 25 March 1712 for completion of fencing across the island, and successive extensions and disputes have been brought before the bench under the standing framework of that proclamation. The bench's finding that Mr Vesey had been a great sufferer by Harding's bad fences fixes the operative liability without requiring proof of Harding's personal involvement in the destruction of the hogs.

The valuation of the damage at above five pounds, with two sows close to pigging found dead with their backs broken, marks the substantial loss to the planter. Sows about to farrow represent the future increase of the herd as well as the present beast, and the killing of the animal at the point of pigging compounds the loss by the destruction of the litter. The figure is consistent with the standing hog and pig valuations observed across the records, with the hog being the principal source of meat alongside cattle for the smaller planter. Worrall's stock return of 5 July 1715 had recorded the Company's own hog establishment at 215 great and small, with five killed in the last month and two young pigs lost to a distemper called the pant, giving the bench a comparative benchmark for the scale of the petitioner's loss.

The introduction of Betty, the petitioner's black, as a witness to identify the persons who killed the hog, is the operative form of evidence in such disputes. Slave testimony on factual matters of observation has standing at the island bench in civil proceedings, distinct from the position in capital matters established by Pyke at the Toby trial of 10 May 1715 where the marital privilege was applied to exclude slave wife testimony. The general procedure on slave evidence in civil disputes admits the testimony of a planter's slave on matters of direct observation, with the bench weighing the evidence against the answers of any slave on the other side. The pattern is consistent with the use of slave witnesses across the standing record of property disputes at the island.

The named characters in the dispute connect the matter to households already familiar to the bench. Slaughter's Jack is the slave of William Slaughter, the sergeant and free planter whose lease and probate matters have repeatedly come before the bench, including the witness to Thomas Bagley's will of 8 April 1712, the joint petition against Perkins's grant of 8 October 1711 and the Slaughter-Harding settlement reopened on 3 November 1714. The Harding family is the same on which the Slaughter-Harding settlement had run, with William Slaughter senior having on 15 January 1713 claimed on behalf of Richard Harding's children seventeen acres in Sandy Bay and Powles Valley. The bench is therefore handling a dispute between households whose property relations have already been before it in another matter.

Speculations

The petitioner's expressed willingness to forego any arrest of Harding's person, accepting his losses if he could but be secure for the future, suggests that the matter is not pressed to its full procedural extent but is brought as a means of securing the bench's intervention in a continuing dispute. The petitioner has chosen the lighter remedy of an order on the fences rather than the heavier remedy of a civil action for damages, perhaps in recognition that a damages action would be slower, more contentious and more disruptive of neighbourly relations than a direct order from the bench. The form of the petition, with its appeal to the unchristian as well as the unwarrantableness of Harding's actions, addresses the bench in moral as well as legal terms, suggesting that the petitioner regards the matter as one of personal injury beyond the strict property loss.

The naming of the Harding brothers as the persons who lugged the sows down a waterfall, with Baker and Mr Stroud's children as the witnesses, suggests that the destruction of the hogs was not the accidental consequence of stray fencing but a deliberate act of malice against Mr Vesey's property. The form of killing, with the sows forced down a waterfall to break their backs, indicates a destructive intent rather than a defence of crops or a casual encounter. The slave Jack's defence on being called, that he did not kill the hog but that James and Joseph did so, deflects the imputation from Slaughter's establishment onto the Harding brothers themselves. The pattern indicates that the underlying dispute may go beyond the question of fencing into longer-running tensions between the households, with the present petition representing the petitioner's choice of the bench as the venue for managing what could otherwise become a more open conflict.

541

532

Joseph Harding his Mast[rs] Sons had Sett their Dogg upon the Hogg to Lugg him, and the Dogg and hogg both fell down the waterfall together which was about thirty foot but the Dogg lived & came up againe.

By which it Appeareth, that M[r] Veseys Hoggs have been killed by them.

Ordered that John Harding be sumond against next Council day to shew Cause why he should not Pay for the Hoggs.

Island St Helena. To the Worshp[full] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c. and Councill,

The most Humble Petition of John William Cyser Smith

Humbly Sheweth

That forasmuch as yo[r]: Petition[r] haveing Served the Hon[ble] Comp[a] more then his Contracted time, and haveing but thirty Pounds p[er] anum and to find himself Dyett out of the afos[d]: Sallary, Humbly prays Your Worsp &c. Councill will be pleased to allow him such an Additionall Sallary as in your goodness Shall seem fitt for his further Encour =agement.

And yo[r] Petit[r] as in Duty Bound Shall Ever pray &c.

July 12[th] 1715. John W[m] Cyser.

It is our opinion that he has as much as he deserves and as much as has been formerly given the Smiths Mate that has been before him, The Smiths here haveing a Great Priviledge of doing

Jobbs

Margin Notes:

John Harding to be Sumond to pay for [the] Hogs

J: W: Cyser, Smith; pet[n] for add[c]: Sallary

Answer[d]

Slaughter's Jack said that Joseph Harding, his master's son, had set their dog upon the hog to lug him, and the dog and hog both fell down the waterfall together, which was about thirty foot. The dog had lived and come up again.

By which it appeared that Mr Vesey's hogs had been killed by them.

The council ordered that John Harding be summoned against the next council day to show cause why he should not pay for the hogs.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as John Harding to be summoned to pay for the hogs.

The most humble petition of John William Pyfer, smith, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and the Council.

The petitioner had served the Honourable Company more than his contracted time, and had but thirty pounds per annum, and was to find himself diet out of that salary. He humbly prayed that the governor and council would be pleased to allow him such additional salary as in their goodness should seem fit for his further encouragement. The petition was dated 12 July 1715 and signed John William Pyfer.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as John William Pyfer, smith, applying for additional salary.

The council answered that it was their opinion that the smith had as much as he deserved, and as much as had been formerly given to the smith's mate that had been before him. The smiths here had a great privilege of doing jobs [...]

A note in the margin recorded the response as answered.

Interpretations

The slave Jack's evidence completes the picture of how the sows came to be killed. The use of a dog set on the hog to lug it converts the matter from a question of strayed livestock into one of deliberate destruction by Harding's son. The thirty-foot waterfall down which both the dog and the hog fell, with the dog surviving and climbing back up, fixes the topography of the act and supplies the bench with the operative detail that confirms the manner of the kill. The order on John Harding to be summoned against the next council day to show cause why he should not pay for the hogs converts the proceeding from one of fencing remediation into one of damages, with the burden now placed on Harding to defend himself against the operative finding that his son and his establishment caused the loss.

The smith John William Pyfer's petition for additional salary, with his statement that he had served beyond his contracted time on thirty pounds per annum and was to find his own diet out of that, places the question of his rate against the standing benchmarks at the island. The garrison surgeon William Porteous had been settled on 3 November 1713 at forty pounds per year with house rent included, marking the higher rate for a salaried Company servant in a skilled calling. The plantation overseer Giles Hays had been set on 8 April 1712 at twenty pounds per year for the four-plantation consolidated estate. The smith's thirty pounds without house rent or diet finding sits between these two benchmarks, and the petitioner's claim of having served beyond his contracted time is the operative ground on which the bench is being asked to consider a revision.

The council's answer that it was their opinion that the smith had as much as he deserved and as much as had been formerly given to the smith's mate that had been before him fixes the bench's standing position on smith remuneration by reference to the rate paid to the previous holder of the office. The form of the answer is consistent with the procedure observed in the Samuel Price rate dispute resolved on 12 April 1715, where the rate of two shillings and sixpence per day was settled by reference to a written agreement found among Mashborne's papers, against Price's demand of fifteen shillings the week. The reference to the smith's mate that had been before him places the present petitioner on the same scale as the predecessor.

The bench's reference to the smiths having a great privilege of doing jobs identifies the operative supplementary mechanism by which the Company's smiths at the island augmented their salary. Jobs in this context mean private commissions taken from planters and others outside the Company's standing work, for which the smith was paid directly by the customer. The arrangement gave the smith a continuing private income alongside his Company salary, on the use of the Company's tools, forge and time. The bench's reliance on this privilege as the reason for refusing the additional salary indicates that the smith's actual earnings, including jobs, exceeded the bare salary by a substantial margin, and that the bench regards the privilege as the equivalent of further wages.

Speculations

The petitioner's choice to apply for a salary increase rather than for permission to depart at the end of his contracted time suggests that he intends to remain at the island and that the present petition is a negotiation for better terms within the Company's establishment rather than a step toward leaving. The bench's reply, refusing the additional salary on the ground that the smith already has what he deserves and the privilege of jobs, also serves to keep the petitioner on the existing footing without driving him to a more determined application. The pattern is consistent with the bench's broader practice of holding the line on established salary scales while leaving the petitioner the option of continuing on present terms or making his own arrangements for departure, observed in the disposition of comparable petitions across the present sittings.

The bench's invocation of the smith's privilege of doing jobs as the operative answer to the salary petition opens the question of whether the Company has been formally accounting for the time and tools spent on private work. The bench's defence of the existing salary rests on the assumption that the privilege constitutes part of the smith's total earnings, but the records do not show any standing mechanism by which the Company recovers the value of its tools and forge used for private jobs. The pattern suggests that the smith's private work has operated as an informal supplement on the Company's facilities, with the bench treating the value as accruing to the smith in lieu of a higher cash salary. The Pyfer petition, by raising the question of additional salary, has prompted the bench to articulate the equivalence between the cash salary and the privilege, and may in time supply the procedural basis for a more formal accounting of the smith's combined earnings.

542

533

Jobbs for the ships and Plunders with the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Coales.

To the Worshipfull the Gov[r] & Councill The Humble Petition of Balser Preeche Soldier

That whereas your Petition[r] being Detained here by your Worsp and Council against his Will is very Desireous to Reckon in the Store the which he Cannot do, yet having worked Eighteen days for the Hon[ble]: Company for which he is not Paid

Therefore your Petition[r] Humbly begs that yo[r] Worsp and Councill will give him an Order for the same that thereby he may Reckon

And

Yo[r] Petition[r] as in duty Bound Shall Ever pray &c.

St Helena July 12: 1715. Balser Preeche

Ordered

That for the time he did Realy work which was Ten days He be Allowed thirty Shillings.

John Hoskison being Sumonoed to Appear before Gov[r] and Council to shew Cause why he Neglected his duty upon an Alarm which all Persons above the age of Sixteen are Obliged to do.

Appeared but had little to say for himself and it being the first (to the Pres[t] Govern[rs] knowledge) he was ord[r] fin[d] five Shillings to the Hon[ble] Comp[a]

I Pyke Geo: Haswell

Ant[ipas] Tovey Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

Balser Preeche[s] pet[n] for 18 days work,

to be p[ai]d 30 s[hillings]

Jn[o] Hoskison Sumond for not being at [an] Alarm

fin[d] 5/

The bench's answer to John William Pyfer continued. The smiths had a great privilege of doing jobs for the ships and planters, along with the Honourable Company's coals.

The humble petition of Balsar Breeche, soldier, was presented to the worshipful governor and council. The petitioner, being detained at the island by the governor and council against his will, was very desirous to reckon at the stores, which he could not do, having worked eighteen days for the Honourable Company for which he had not been paid. He humbly begged that the governor and council would give him an order for the same, that thereby he might reckon. The petition was dated at St Helena 12 July 1715 and signed Balsar Breeche.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Balsar Breeche's petition for eighteen days' work.

The council ordered that for the time he did really work, which was ten days, he should be allowed thirty shillings.

A note in the margin recorded the order as to be paid thirty shillings.

John Hoskison, being summoned to appear before the governor and council to show cause why he had neglected his duty upon an alarm, which all persons above the age of sixteen were obliged to do, appeared but had little to say for himself. It being the first to the present governor's knowledge, he was only fined five shillings to the Honourable Company.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as John Hoskison summoned for not being at an alarm, and fined five shillings.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The Balsar Breeche petition continues the matter first opened at the consultation of 7 June 1715, when his petition that he might depart by ship at the end of his contracted time and be considered for eighteen days' work done in Mrs Coulson's house had been referred to a more convenient opportunity. The reckoning at the stores is the operative settlement procedure by which a Company servant clears his account before departure, with all credits for service and all debits for goods drawn balanced into a final figure. The petitioner's continued presence on the island against his will, with the eighteen days' work unpaid, has prevented him from closing the account and so from proceeding with any departure arrangements.

The bench's adjustment of the claimed work from eighteen days to ten days, with the allowance fixed at thirty shillings, sets the operative day rate at three shillings per day. The figure falls between the soldier stone-laying rate of four shillings per day set on 3 November 1713 for John Sinsnick at the Prosperous Bay house and the reduced replacement-labour rate of three shillings per day adopted after the stone-layers' combination was broken on 18 January 1714/15. The choice of three shillings is consistent with the post-combination rate now operating at the island, and indicates that the bench treats the Breeche work as falling within the standing replacement-labour scale rather than at the higher pre-combination rate.

The reduction of the days from eighteen to ten represents the bench's exercise of its administrative discretion in establishing the operative facts of the claim. The petitioner had stated eighteen days, but the council's order recites only ten days as the time he did really work. The form of the order indicates that the bench has either heard testimony or examined documents that established the lower figure, with the petitioner left to accept the bench's finding rather than contest it. The pattern is consistent with the bench's broader practice across the present sittings of fixing labour claims by reference to verified records, observed in the Samuel Price rate dispute of 12 April 1715 and in the establishment of the Sergeant Fairfax disposal on the same date.

The John Hoskison fine of five shillings for neglect of duty on an alarm establishes the operative standing penalty for absence from the post on an alarm at the island. The duty arises on every person above the age of sixteen, marking the universal nature of the obligation. The choice of five shillings as the penalty represents one alarm-watch unit, matching the alarm rate of five shillings per alarm paid to soldiers as encouragement to keep good lookout established on 3 November 1713. The fine therefore operates on the principle of recovering the cost of the alarm allowance for one alarm, on the basis that the absent person did not earn the allowance and ought to forfeit its equivalent to the Company.

Speculations

The Breeche reduction from eighteen days to ten suggests that the bench has verified the actual time worked through the accounts of Mrs Coulson's house or through the records of the relevant supervisor, and has fixed the operative figure on the documented work rather than on the petitioner's claim. The willingness to allow only the days established, while still recognising the petitioner's broader grievance of detention against his will, indicates the bench's preference for procedural rigour even in cases where the underlying detention of the petitioner is itself the bench's own act. The reckoning at the stores will now proceed on the basis of the thirty-shilling credit, and the petitioner's departure on a subsequent ship can be arranged once the operative balance is settled.

The treatment of the Hoskison alarm-duty fine as a comparatively light penalty, settled at five shillings on the ground of it being the first to the present governor's knowledge, suggests that the bench is establishing a graduated scale of response to alarm duty breaches. The light fine on a first offence creates the operative incentive for compliance, with the implication that subsequent breaches by the same person would carry a heavier penalty. The form of the order, with the explicit reference to the present governor's knowledge, places the precedent on the documentary record for any future reference and indicates that the bench is conscious of building a coherent scale of penalties for alarm-duty offences across the establishment. The Hoskison family name has appeared across the records, with George Hoskison having served as deputy governor under Boucher's administration and died on 6 March 1712, and the present John Hoskison representing the continuing presence of the family name on the standing duty rolls.

543

534

Island St Helena

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 19[th] of July 1715 At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell D[e]p[ty] in [my] Coun[t] Pres[t] Matth[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s] Tovey 4[th] & Edw[o]: Byfeld 5 in Coun[c]l

No proposals being brought in this day, in Order to shew some Method for the Preventing drawing Bills of Exchange on our Hon[ble] Mast[rs]

It is ordered.

That they be brought in next Consultation day.

Complaint being made to the Govern[r] by Isaac Leech Gunners Mate that King Williams Fort above Bankses hill is in a Dangerous Condition not like to Stand the fireing of one Gun.

The Govern[r] Ordered that Mess[rs] Tovey and Byfeld goe and Survey the Same who Report that Yesterday they went, and did Survey the [s]d Fort. That they find it in a very Ruinous Condition the foundation of it all round being woore away the Stones fallen out, tis their opinion that It will not Stand the fireing of any one Gun of the two Guns there without falling Down, All the face of the wall being loose, and many Stones dropt

out

Margin Notes:

No Prop[s] being bro[ught] to prevent drawing Bills

referd

I[s] Leech C[o]mpl[ts] ab[t] Fort W[m] at Bankses

being Survey[d] [by] Mess[rs] Tovey & Byfeld &c

found in a Ruinous condic[on]

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 19 of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

No proposals had been brought in that day in order to show some method for the preventing of drawing bills of exchange on the Honourable Masters. The council ordered that they be brought in next consultation day.

Complaint had been made to the governor by Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, that King William's fort above Banks's hill was in a dangerous condition, not likely to stand the firing of one gun. The governor had ordered that Mr Tovey and Mr Byfield go and survey the same. They reported that the day before they had gone and surveyed the fort. They had found it in a very ruinous condition, the foundation of it all round being worn away and the stones fallen out. It was their opinion that it would not stand the firing of any one of the two guns there without falling down, all the face of the wall being loose and many stones dropped out [...]

Interpretations

The matter of drawing bills of exchange on the Honourable Masters identified an operative financial control on which the bench was inviting proposals from within its own membership. A bill of exchange drawn at the island on the directors in London was the principal instrument by which the establishment financed expenditure beyond the cash on hand, with the directors meeting the bill on presentation at the Company's house in London and charging the sum to the island's account. The Pinnell letter of 11 November 1714 protesting against the second barrel-of-powder charge of six pounds sixteen shillings and sixpence as double payment, and the Pinnell charge of two hundred and twenty-three pounds fourteen shillings and tuppence on bills drawn 1 July 1713 by Boucher and Bazett, had illustrated the kind of dispute that arose when bills were drawn without sufficient ground. The bench's call for proposals to prevent further bill-drawing on the Honourable Masters opened a procedural reform aimed at tightening the operative discretion of the executive over the most consequential financial instrument at its disposal.

The complaint by Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, on the condition of King William's fort above Banks's hill, sat within the standing structure of fortifications at the island that the bench had been working to maintain across the present sittings. The fortification of the two wings adjoining the castle in James Valley, raised four foot higher with seventy rows of iron stockades and reported as completed at the consultation of 12 July 1715, had marked the principal investment in defence under the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell. The Leech complaint identified a separate and outlying defensive position at Banks's hill, which had not received the same attention and which a serving officer of the gunnery establishment now reported as past its serviceable state.

The composition of the surveying party, with Mr Tovey and Mr Byfield going to view the fort and reporting back at the next sitting, followed the operative procedure established across the present sittings for fact-finding by junior councillors. The Bazett and Byfield pairing on the Francis survey of 31 May 1715 had marked the same pattern of pairing two councillors to view a particular site and report their findings to the bench. The choice of Tovey as fourth in council and Byfield as fifth in council for the present survey kept the most senior councillors free for other business while supplying the bench with a documentary report from two independent witnesses to the condition of the fort.

The surveyors' finding that the fort would not stand the firing of any one of the two guns there without falling down placed the matter on the operative footing of immediate practical concern rather than long-term repair. A gun position that could not be fired without bringing down the wall in which it stood was no longer a defensive asset but a liability, since its use in alarm would have destroyed both the gun emplacement and the men working it. The detail of the foundation worn away all round, the stones fallen out and the face of the wall loose with many stones dropped out, fixed the operative condition of the structure and supplied the bench with the documentary basis for any subsequent decision on repair or abandonment.

Speculations

The choice of Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, as the person bringing the complaint to the governor suggested that the operative knowledge of the fort's condition rested with the gunnery establishment rather than with the engineering or fabric side of the garrison. A gunner's mate would have had standing duty to inspect the guns at each outlying position and to report on their serviceability, and the discovery of the wall's condition had probably arisen on routine attendance rather than on any special survey. The form of the bench's response, dispatching two councillors to verify the report and to bring back a documentary record, indicated that the bench was preparing the institutional basis for either a substantial repair or a formal decommissioning of the position, rather than allowing the matter to rest on the gunner's mate's word alone.

The absence of any proposals on the question of bill-drawing on the Honourable Masters at the present sitting, with the bench reduced to ordering that they be brought in at the next consultation day, suggested that the proposals had been called for at an earlier sitting not visible on the present record. The form of the order, with no expression of impatience or surprise, fitted a procedural delay of a kind familiar in the bench's business across the present sittings. The bench's continuing attention to the question, with the further opportunity for proposals to be brought forward, indicated its determination to bring forth a documented reform on the most consequential financial instrument under its control, in keeping with the Pyke trusting rule of 21 December 1714 that had set the standing principles of trusting and credit at the island.

544

535

out, and they beleive its being built with Mudd Mortar as tis called, and that too Mixt w[th] Salt Water is the Rea =son it is so Soone decayd, Besides that the Foundation was never well Laid.

The Guard House there too was alsoe Ruind, and not fitt to Shelter the People there from Rain.

Ordered That the Said Fort be repaired, and the House for the Guard who do duty there, and the Planters upon Alarms.

And that M[r] Byfeld do agree with Some Stone Layers, and Labourers &c. for the undertakeing the Said work.

The following Petitions were Present =ed, viz[t]:

To the Worshp[full] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] &c. Council

The Humble Petition of the Prisoners belonging to the Eagle Galley

Humbly Sheweth That your Petition[rs] have been for Some time Under your Displeasures in Confinem[t] Humbly desires that your Worsp &c. may take it in Consideration, and grant us our Liberty, in Order to gett our bread Some other way, untill such times your Worsp &c. be Pleased to send us home, which being the Earnest and Sincere Desires of yo[r] Poor Petitioners. Who as in duty Bound shall

Ever pray

Lett them be Answered that they are not Under the Govern[rs] Displeasure in any Perticular manner

but

Margin Notes:

Ord[r] [tha]t it be rep[aird] &c.

agree w[th] Stone lay[rs] to do it

Eagle Gally m[en] pet[t]

The report on King William's fort continued. The surveyors believed it had been built with mud mortar, as it was called, and that being too mixed with salt water had been the reason it had so soon decayed. Besides that, the foundation had never been well laid. The guard house there too was also ruined, and not fit to shelter the people there from rain.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the surveyors having found the fort in a ruinous condition.

The council ordered that the fort be repaired, together with the house for the guard who did duty there, and the planters upon alarms.

A note in the margin recorded the order to be repaired.

The council further ordered that Mr Byfield should agree with some stone layers and labourers for the undertaking of the work.

A note in the margin recorded the order as Byfield to agree with stone layers to do it.

The following petitions were presented.

The humble petition of the prisoners belonging to the Eagle Galley was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The petitioners had been for some time under the governor's displeasure in confinement. They humbly desired that the governor and council might take it into consideration, and grant them their liberty in order to get their bread some other way, until such time as the governor and council might be pleased to send them home. The petition closed with the writers' expression of being in duty bound to ever pray.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as a petition from the Eagle Galley prisoners.

The council ordered that they be answered that they were not under the governor's displeasure in any particular manner, but [...]

Interpretations

The surveyors' identification of mud mortar mixed with salt water as the cause of the fort's rapid decay supplied the operative diagnosis of the structural failure. Mud mortar was an inferior binding material made of clay, sand and water, used at the island in place of properly slaked lime mortar where lime was scarce or where the cost of preparing it had been judged too high. Its use in coastal defence works was particularly vulnerable to failure, since the salt content in any water used in mixing prevented the proper setting of the binder and progressively weakened the structure as moisture entered the joints. The advertisement of 24 June 1715 inviting tender for upwards of one hundred rod of mortar or wet wall in James Valley had specified all materials within one hundred yards of site, indicating the bench's continuing concern with the supply of proper materials for defensive construction.

The arrangement for the repair, with Mr Byfield directed to agree with stone layers and labourers for the work, placed the practical execution of the project under the junior councillor who had already surveyed the position. The standing rates on the bench's books supplied the operative basis for the labour negotiation. The soldier stone-laying rate of four shillings per day had been set on 3 November 1713 for John Sinsnick at the Prosperous Bay house. The reduced replacement-labour rate of three shillings per day had been adopted after the stone-layers' combination of 18 January 1714/15 had been broken. The Coles brothers' graduated contract of 12 July 1715, with rates rising from two shillings to three shillings per day across three years for their stone cutting at Sandy Bay, marked the lowest end of the operative scale. The bench's choice to leave the agreement to Mr Byfield, rather than to specify the rates by conciliar order, indicated the bench's confidence in his ability to settle the engagement on terms appropriate to the work.

The petition of the prisoners of the Eagle Galley opened the operative question of what was to become of the four warrant officers Thomas Frances, Thomas Clark, Alexander Adair and William Wells in the period between the departure of the ship on 4 July 1715 and the dispatch of a homeward vessel. The petitioners' framing, that they desired liberty to get their bread some other way until the bench might be pleased to send them home, identified the practical problem of supporting the prisoners during a confinement of indefinite length. The bench's response, that they were not under the governor's displeasure in any particular manner, set the operative position that the confinement rested on the merits of the mutiny inquiry of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715 rather than on any personal displeasure of the governor.

The decision to repair the guard house alongside the fort itself, with the planters identified as the persons who did duty there on alarms, fixed the operative function of the position within the broader defensive establishment of the island. The position served as an outlying post manned by planters on alarm, rather than as a permanent garrison station. The combination of fort and guard house repair signalled the bench's intent to maintain Banks's hill as a continuing element of the defensive scheme, rather than to abandon the position. The arrangement followed the pattern of the present sittings, where the bench had consistently invested in defensive infrastructure under the operative direction of the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell.

Speculations

The choice of Mr Byfield as the councillor directed to agree with the stone layers and labourers for the work, on the same day that he had reported on the survey jointly with Mr Tovey, suggested that the bench had decided to keep the operative responsibility for the project in a single hand from survey through execution. The pattern is consistent with the bench's broader practice of delegating discrete projects to the junior councillors, where the deputy governor and the third councillor were occupied with the larger matters of stores, accounts and licensing. Mr Byfield's appointment as fifth in council on 17 May 1715, on the vacancy left by the death of Captain Edward Mashborne on 31 March 1715, had been followed by a series of operative engagements that placed him at the working end of the bench's executive functions, in keeping with the principle observed in his pairing with Bazett on the Francis survey of 31 May 1715.

The petition from the prisoners of the Eagle Galley opened on the framing of being under the governor's displeasure suggested a calculated approach by the petitioners to soften the bench's posture toward them. By representing the confinement as a personal matter between the governor and the prisoners, the petitioners invited a personal reconciliation that might lead to release on lighter terms. The bench's reply, distinguishing the procedural nature of the confinement from any personal animosity, removed that framing and placed the matter back on the institutional ground of the mutiny inquiry. The bench's response indicated its determination to dispatch the prisoners home for further proceedings rather than to dispose of the matter at the island, in keeping with the documentary record assembled across the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715, and preserved on the council books for transmission to the directors.

545

536

but as all other Criminalls must be and they having been Accused of Such high Crimes as has been Sworne against them, he Can not discharge any of them Untill a Ship bound for England Arrives, Unless any one or all of them will discover the Intreague of Robbing and Attempting to Destroy the Ship

Island St Helena. To the Worshp[full] Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: Gov[r] &c. and Council.

The Humble Petition of John Long free hold[r]: Humbly

Sheweth That whereas yo[r]: Petition[r] being desireous to Hire a Parcell of the Hon[ble] Companys Wast Land about four Acres, Adjoyning to M[r] Gargens, lying in Sandy Bay, Humbly prays Yo[r]. Worsp &c. Councill will please to Grant Your Petition[r]: a Lease thereof, to make him a Plantation

July y[e] 16[th] 1715.

And yo[r] Petit[r] (as in duty bound) shall ever pray.

Jn[o] Long

He being askt where it was, said that Minty Gutt adjoyning to M[r] Gargens and above the Waterfall that is below M[r] Gargens and M[r] Veseys Land.

He has twenty Acres of Free Land & five Acres of Lease Land, and shall have at his mothers death

twenty

Margin Notes:

Answer.

J[no] Long pet[t]: to hire Land

Rejected

why

The bench's answer to the prisoners of the Eagle Galley continued. As all other criminals had to be treated, and they having been accused of such high crimes as had been sworn against them, the governor could not discharge any of them until a ship bound for England arrived. The exception was if any one or all of them would discover the intrigue of robbing and attempting to destroy the ship.

A note in the margin recorded the response as the answer.

The humble petition of John Long, freeholder, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The petitioner desired to hire a parcel of the Honourable Company's waste land of about four acres adjoining to Mr Gargen's, lying in Sandy Bay. He humbly prayed that the governor and council would be pleased to grant him a lease thereof, to make him a plantation. The petition was dated 16 July 1715 and signed John Long.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as John Long's petition for waste land.

The petitioner, being asked where it was, said it was Minty Gut, adjoining to Mr Gargen and above the waterfall that was below Mr Gargen's and Mr Vesey's land.

The petitioner had twenty acres of free land and five acres of lease land, and would have at his mother's death twenty [...]

A note in the margin recorded the response as rejected, and the question why.

Interpretations

The bench's answer to the Eagle Galley prisoners established the operative legal framework under which they were held at the island. The classification of the prisoners as criminals charged with high crimes placed them in the category of persons whose confinement could be ended only by transmission home for trial or by their own disclosure of further evidence in their own discharge. The offer of release on discovery of the intrigue of robbing and attempting to destroy the ship gave the prisoners a procedural avenue out of confinement, but only on terms that compromised the warrant officer faction by requiring the discoverer to identify the other principals and to set out the operative facts of the conspiracy. The form of the offer reflected the bench's continuing interest in establishing the full pattern of the conspiracy, including the disposal of the thousand pound that had been lost from the ship at Carry-Mon-Java.

The reference to a ship bound for England as the operative trigger for the prisoners' transmission identified the dependency of the procedural disposition on the broader pattern of shipping at the island. The next homeward vessel after the Hester despatch of 22 March 1715 and the Aurengzebe despatch of 25 January 1714/15 had been the Cardonnell, which had sailed for Bencoolen rather than for England under the dispute settled with Captain William Mawson at the consultation of 1 July 1715. The bench was therefore awaiting a further homeward sailing for the practical disposal of the prisoners, with the period of detention uncertain in its length.

The John Long petition continued the practice of conferences over waste land grants and leases at the island, with the operative test of letting laid down in the standing conditions of 24 May 1715. The conditions, established on the refusal of Christopher Hell's petition for the Man Cupps, required that the tenant must be able to manure the land, must hold at least one black for the labour, and must not be too deep in the Honourable Company's debt. The petitioner's holdings of twenty acres of free land, five acres of lease land and the prospect of twenty further acres at his mother's death identified him as a substantial planter on his own account. The form of the petition, seeking a four-acre parcel adjoining Mr Gargen's holding at Minty Gut, identified the operative ground as Company waste land at the head of an established planter neighbourhood.

The naming of Mr Gargen and Mr Vesey as the neighbours of the parcel placed it within a familiar planter neighbourhood already on the records of the bench. Mrs Gargen, formerly Marcy Alexander and the widow of Richard Alexander, had been granted a twenty-one-year lease of her former husband's seized land on 8 October 1711 under paragraph 82 of the Toddington-Thistleworth letter. The Vesey hog-damage petition of 12 July 1715, with the resulting fence-repair order against John Harding, had identified Mr Vesey as a planter in the same district. The location of the parcel above the waterfall and below the Gargen and Vesey holdings established the operative topography of the request.

Speculations

The bench's reservation of the discovery option in answering the Eagle Galley prisoners suggested an intent to break the warrant officer faction's solidarity by offering the first informer the prospect of liberty. The four principals identified across the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715 had stood together through the formal examinations, with each denying knowledge of the matters charged. The bench's offer of release to any one or all of them on disclosure of the intrigue placed the operative pressure of separation on the group, since each prisoner would now consider whether his fellows might break first. The mechanism mirrored the bench's broader procedure across the present sittings of testing collective bodies by offering selective relief to those who would cooperate, observed in earlier resolutions of comparable disputes.

The bench's note of rejected against the John Long petition, with the question of why set out in the margin, indicated that the rejection rested on operative grounds requiring further explanation in the consultation record. The standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715 admitted petitioners who could manure the land, held at least one black for the labour and were not too deep in the Company's debt. The petitioner's holdings of twenty acres of free land, five acres of lease land and the expectation of further acres at his mother's death made him at first sight a strong candidate, but the operative ground of refusal must have lain in another consideration not yet visible on the present record. The bench was perhaps testing the principle that a planter's existing holdings should be brought into proper cultivation before further grants were made, a principle implicit in the standing conditions but not yet articulated in the recovered material.

546

537

twenty Acres more of Free Land, wherefore his Petition not Granted.

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld.

Island St Helena

At a Consultation held on Saturday the 23 day of July 1715, at the Union Castle in James Vally

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Pres[t] Antip[s] Tovey 4 & Edw: Byfeld

The Govern[r] says he Sent for us to be present at the hearing a Cause he having Recieved the following Petition

Island St Helena. To the Worshipfull Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c.

The most Humble Petition of Eliz[th] Swallow, wife of M[r] Thomas Swallow Plant[r] Humbly Sheweth

That whereas your Petition[rs] Husband uses her very ill with abundance of hardships, and will not

allow

Margin Notes:

Eliz Swallow pet[n] ag[t] The Swallow her Husband

The petitioner would have twenty acres more of free land. His petition was therefore not granted.

The consultation was signed by Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Saturday the 23 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The governor said he had sent for the council to be present at the hearing of a cause, having received the following petition.

The most humble petition of Elizabeth Swallow, wife of Mr Thomas Swallow, planter, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. The petitioner's husband used her very ill, with abundance of hardships, and would not allow [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Elizabeth Swallow's petition against Thomas Swallow her husband.

Interpretations

The bench's reasoning for the rejection of the John Long petition rested on the petitioner's prospective inheritance of twenty acres of free land from his mother's estate. The operative principle behind the refusal placed the petitioner's overall future holdings above the operative threshold at which further Company waste land could properly be granted. Long's existing twenty acres of free land and five acres of lease land already represented a substantial holding by island standards, and the prospect of twenty further acres at his mother's death would have brought him to forty-five acres of free and leased land combined. The bench was treating inheritance prospects as part of the operative calculation in determining further grants, in keeping with the broader pattern observed in the standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715, in which the suitability of the petitioner for additional land was measured against his existing resources for husbandry.

The composition of the consultation of 23 July 1715, with only Pyke, Tovey and Byfield present, marked the absence of both Captain Haswell as deputy governor and Captain Bazett as third in council. The pattern of partial attendance was consistent with the selective signing observed across the present sittings, where particular matters had been carried by the governor with junior councillors rather than by the full bench. The protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715 had been signed by Pyke, Tovey and Byfield without Haswell or Bazett, and the consultation of 14 June 1715 had been signed by the governor, Haswell, Tovey and Byfield without Bazett. The present sitting, with both senior councillors absent, placed the cause about to be heard under the hands of the governor and the two junior councillors.

The Elizabeth Swallow petition opened a domestic dispute of a kind not previously brought before the bench in the recovered record. The form of the petition, with the wife petitioning the governor and council against her husband's ill usage, marked an unusual application by a married woman acting on her own behalf rather than through her husband or her father. The standing position under English law at the date placed the married woman's legal personality under that of her husband, with her property and her capacity to sue both vested in him. The bench's willingness to receive the petition and to hear the cause indicated its readiness to entertain matters of conscience and equity that fell outside the strict legal framework of coverture.

The naming of Thomas Swallow as the husband against whom the petition was brought identified him as the ancient and sick free planter on whose behalf his son Richard Swallow junior had presented a yam-offer petition on 24 May 1715 for thirty thousand weight of yams in payment of Company debt, refused on the ground that cattle or blacks would be accepted in lieu. The Swallow household was a substantial one, with a church rate position of thirteen in January 1714/15 marking it among the larger establishments at the island. The Richard Swallow executor of Thomas Bagley's will, the Richard Swallow creditor on bond on whom the credit transfer of 12 April 1715 had operated, and the present Thomas Swallow connected the bench's recurring dealings with the Swallow family across the records.

Speculations

The bench's choice to convene a special sitting on a Saturday to hear the Swallow cause, with the governor sending for the available councillors rather than waiting for a regular consultation day, suggested that the matter had been judged to require immediate attention. A domestic dispute of the kind described in the petition would not ordinarily have warranted the convening of an extra sitting, and the bench's response indicated that the petitioner's circumstances had been represented as urgent. The form of the response, with the governor stating that he had sent for the councillors to be present at the hearing of the cause, signalled the bench's intent to treat the matter on a formal procedural footing rather than as a private application for the governor's intervention.

The presence of only the two most junior councillors with the governor at the hearing of a marital dispute may also have reflected a deliberate selection of councillors free of personal connection to the parties. Captain Haswell as deputy governor and Captain Bazett as third in council had stood at the centre of the executor dispute of 24 May 1715 over the Charles Steward estate, and were enmeshed in the broader pattern of household relations among the substantial planters. Antipas Tovey as fourth in council and Edward Byfield as fifth in council, the latter only appointed on 17 May 1715, occupied positions more independent of the recurring planter circles. The bench's composition for the present sitting may therefore have been deliberately chosen to ensure that the cause would be heard without the distorting influence of any prior connection to the Swallow household.

547

538

allow her any Subsistance to live upon, Altho' her Requests be very reasonable but threatens to Chain and use your Petition[r] as he hath for =merly done, Humbly prays yo[r] Worship &c. will be pleased to Oblige Yo[r] Said Petitioners Husband, to Allow her a Reasonable Main =tenance here below, as your Worsp &c. shall think fitt, She being afraid to Return into the Country with her daughters to live with him.

And your Petit[r] as in duty bound shall Ever pray &c. Eliz[th] Swallow.

Whereupon he sent a Summons for him to Appear this day, and knowing them to be People that are often makeing Com =plaints, they having made Severall to him Since he was here.

He was willing Some of the Council should be present at the hearing the Cause. She Deposed as followeth

Island St Helena ss.

Elizabeth Swallow wife of Tho[s]: Swallow Planter Complains that her Husband having abused her formerly and threathning to do the Some Still which was Chaineing her above Stairs, and giv =ing her such ill useage, as was not to be born

with

Margin Notes:

her hus[ban]d appearing

She deposeth.

The Elizabeth Swallow petition continued. Her husband would not allow her any subsistence to live upon, although her requests were very reasonable. He had threatened to chain and use her as he had formerly done. She humbly prayed that the governor and council would be pleased to oblige her husband to allow her a reasonable maintenance below in James Town, as the governor and council should think fit. She was afraid to return into the country with her daughters to live with him. The petition was signed Elizabeth Swallow.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as her husband appearing.

The governor had sent a summons for the husband to appear that day. Knowing them to be people that were often making complaints, they having made several to him since he was there, he was willing some of the council should be present at the hearing of the cause.

Elizabeth Swallow deposed as followeth.

Elizabeth Swallow, wife of Thomas Swallow, planter, complained that her husband, having abused her formerly and threatened to do the same still, which was chaining her above stairs and giving her such ill usage as was not to be borne with [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as her deposition.

Interpretations

The petitioner's specific request for a reasonable maintenance below in James Town, with explicit fear of returning into the country with her daughters to live with her husband, marked the operative remedy sought by the petitioner. The mechanism of a separate maintenance in the town, with the husband ordered to support the wife in residence apart from him, represented an established equitable response to ill usage in marriage at the date, drawn from the practice of the ecclesiastical courts and the courts of equity in England. The bench's willingness to entertain such a petition at the island indicated that the standing position included the capacity to grant maintenance against an ill-using husband, even where the strict common law of coverture did not directly admit the wife's standing as a separate suitor.

The governor's observation that the Swallows were people often making complaints, with several already made to him since his arrival, identified the household as a familiar source of contentious business at the bench. The Swallow connections across the records had brought matters before the council on multiple grounds. The yam offer presented by Richard Swallow junior on 24 May 1715 on behalf of his ancient and sick father had been refused, with cattle or blacks accepted in lieu, marking one such recent matter. The standing executor business of Thomas Bagley's will, in which Richard Swallow had stood as joint executor, and the credit transfer of 12 April 1715 to Richard Swallow on bond, marked further dealings. The governor's choice to summon the husband and to have councillors present at the hearing reflected his judgment that the present matter required documentary treatment rather than informal disposal.

The husband's threat to chain his wife above stairs identified the operative form of the ill usage complained of. The chaining of a wife in a private chamber as a domestic punishment represented a form of confinement that fell within the husband's claimed powers of correction under the standing position of the common law, but its actual exercise was a matter that the bench could examine on petition by the affected party. The petitioner's reference to such chaining as having occurred formerly, with the threat of its repetition, placed the matter on the operative footing of past act and present apprehension, supplying the bench with the documentary basis on which any subsequent order could rest.

The petitioner's reference to her daughters as the persons whom she feared to take back into the country with her established the broader family dimension of the dispute. The Swallow household at the church rate position of thirteen in January 1714/15 marked a substantial establishment, and the daughters' continuing dependence on the petitioner placed them within the operative scope of any maintenance arrangement. The bench's response, in receiving the deposition and proceeding to hear the husband on summons, indicated its readiness to consider the daughters' position alongside that of the wife in framing any remedy.

Speculations

The petitioner's choice to make her petition to the bench rather than to seek private intercession through friends or relatives may have reflected the limited options available to her within the Swallow family circle. Her husband's sons by his earlier marriages had stood as parties in their own right in the dealings with the bench, and the family network may not have been disposed to take her part against the head of the household. The bench therefore represented the only available authority capable of compelling the husband to provide maintenance against his will, and the form of the petition reflected the petitioner's understanding that the operative remedy lay in conciliar order rather than in family mediation.

The governor's observation that the Swallows were people often making complaints suggested that the bench had built up a working assessment of the family's standing and temper. The household's history of contentious business may have informed the present hearing in both directions: the bench would be alive to the possibility that the petitioner was prosecuting a manufactured grievance, but would also recognise that a household so often in dispute might genuinely harbour the kind of internal conflict the petitioner had described. The bench's procedural response, in summoning the husband and convening councillors for the hearing, indicated its determination to test the operative facts of the petition before reaching any conclusion, in keeping with the documentary rigour that had characterised its handling of comparable disputes across the present sittings.

548

539

with, and if he gave her any Victualls when in Chains [t]was with very aprobious words Suffered their own Son Richard to abuse and Strike her and hold her hands whilest he did, with such Like Useage, makes her afraid to live with him.

Eliz[th] Swallow.

Upon hearing the whole Matter, it appeared the Poor Woman, had been Grosely abused and kept very Short of Victualls Some times Chained up w[th] an Iron Chain very often beaten, The Govern[r] used a great many Arguments w[th] the Old man and Persoadded both to a Reconcilem[t]

The Woman alledged she was willing to be Recon =ciled, But that her useage was so Extreabously Cruel that she could not Live under it and tho' She was willing to forgive her Husband any thing that he had done to her, Yet She said Unless he could Promise her kinder Useage She was unwilling to forgive him at all, which the Old man Refused to Promise.

Whereupon the Govern[r]: Ordered him to be Committed but at the same time Advised the old woman and one Richard Swallow a Relation to them, to goe and Compose the Matter, that the old man might not be Suffered to goe to Prison, So they came back to the Govern[r] and Said they had agreed Wherefore he Discharged the Warrant of the Peece But En =quireing into the Cause of their Frequent discontents it did appear that in their Younger Years they had both been Lewd, which the old man Reproached her with, which She thought avery great hardship, because whatever she had done in her youth, was by his Evill Example. It further appeared that their Son Richard Swallow had been a great insendary, and was Employed

by

Margin Notes:

Jurat

it appeard she had been ill us[e]d,

[s]he willing to be reconcil[e]d

Tho: Swallow committed

their Son R[d] an incendary

Elizabeth Swallow's deposition continued. If her husband gave her any victuals when in chains, it was with very opprobrious words. He had suffered their own son Richard to abuse and strike her and hold her hands while he did so, with such like usage. It made her afraid to live with him. The deposition was signed Elizabeth Swallow.

The affidavit was sworn before the bench.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as it appeared she had been ill used.

On hearing the whole matter, it appeared the poor woman had been grossly abused and kept very short of victuals. She had at some times been chained up with an iron chain, and very often beaten. The governor had used a great many arguments to the old man and persuaded both to a reconciliation.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as her willing to be reconciled.

The woman alleged she was willing to be reconciled, but that her usage was so barbarously cruel that she could not live under it. Although she was willing to forgive her husband anything that he had done to her, she said that unless he would promise her kinder usage she was unwilling to forgive him at all. The old man refused to promise.

The governor ordered him to be committed. At the same time he advised the old woman, and one Richard Swallow, a relation to them, to go and compose the matter, that the old man might not be suffered to go to prison. They came back to the governor and said they had agreed. The governor therefore discharged the warrant of the peace.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Thomas Swallow committed.

On enquiring into the causes of their frequent discontents, it did appear that in their younger years they had both been lewd. The old man had reproached her with it, which she thought a very great hardship, because whatever she had done in her youth was by his evil example.

It further appeared that their son Richard Swallow had been a great incendiary, and was employed by [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as their son Richard an incendiary.

Interpretations

The bench's documented finding that the petitioner had been grossly abused, kept very short of victuals, at some times chained up with an iron chain and very often beaten, established the operative facts of the case on the documentary record. The pattern of physical confinement by iron chain, beating and the withholding of food represented a course of conduct beyond the scope of any standing right of correction admitted under English law at the date. The bench's finding placed the matter on the footing of established mistreatment rather than disputed allegation, and provided the operative basis on which the governor's order to commit the husband rested.

The governor's preference for reconciliation over committal followed the pattern of disposition observed across the present sittings, where the bench had repeatedly preferred informal settlement to formal proceedings wherever the operational interest could be served. The Aylmer-Bridger-Wiley reconciliation after the Cardonnell passenger complaint of 15-16 June 1715 had produced supper invitations and the resumption of country diversions despite the Jacobite toast disclosure. The Bridger-Mawson supper invitation of 16 June 1715 had settled the captain's behaviour without formal sentence. The Toby trial of 10 May 1715 had been managed through the executor protection of 24 May 1715 rather than through formal proceedings against Captain Haswell. The Swartz libel of 21 June 1715 had been disposed of with liberty to divert in the country despite universal conciliar suspicion. The present matter followed the same operative method, with the threat of committal serving as the lever for an agreed composition rather than the actual destination of the proceeding.

The discharge of the warrant of the peace on the parties' agreement marked the procedural mechanism by which the matter was disposed without formal trial. A warrant of the peace at the date was a binding-over instrument by which the bench could require a person to keep the peace toward a named party on pain of forfeiture, and the warrant could be discharged on the parties' composition without proceeding to the underlying offence. The form of the disposal placed the operative obligation on the husband to maintain proper conduct toward his wife on pain of revival of the warrant, without committing him to immediate confinement.

The disclosure of the parties' lewd behaviour in their younger years, with the husband's reproach of the wife and the wife's defence that whatever she had done was by his evil example, identified the underlying source of the present dispute. The bench's note on the documentary record of this background, rather than its formal exclusion as collateral, indicated the bench's understanding that the operative pattern of the marriage rested on long-running mutual resentment rather than on any single recent provocation. The son Richard Swallow's identification as a great incendiary in the dispute marked the further family dimension of the matter, with the next generation perpetuating the patterns established by the parents.

Speculations

The husband's refusal to promise kinder usage to his wife, in the face of the governor's persuasion and the prospect of immediate committal, indicated either a settled determination to maintain his disciplinary practice or a public posture not to be compelled into promises against his will. The form of the eventual disposal, with the husband's relation Richard Swallow taking part in composing the matter alongside the wife, suggested that the old man's resistance had been overcome by family pressure rather than by direct conciliar order. The mechanism placed the operative agreement within the family circle, with the bench providing the framing threat of committal as the lever, rather than imposing a settlement directly. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader operative method of producing settlements through pressure rather than through direct decree.

The identification of the son Richard Swallow as a great incendiary in the dispute placed the present matter alongside the household's recurring business at the bench. The Richard Swallow junior who had presented the yam-offer petition of 24 May 1715 on behalf of the ancient and sick father, the Richard Swallow who had received the credit transfer of 12 April 1715 on bond, and the Richard Swallow who had stood as joint executor of Thomas Bagley's will, represented either one person operating across all these matters or several persons of the same name in the connected family. The role of incendiary in the parents' marital dispute marked a further dimension of the same household's centrality in the bench's contentious business, in keeping with the governor's observation that the Swallows were people often making complaints. The bench's documentation of the son's role suggested its readiness to call him to account in any future renewal of the dispute, the present record supplying the operative basis for such accountability.

549

540

by the old man as a Spy upon his mother:

That this Richard Swallow their Son had often beat her and was the Person that Put on the Iron Chain, He often Curseth both father and Mother, and on the least Provocation by words, beats his Mother, Seeing they were agreed the Govern[r] Advised them to goe Home and Live friendly, and Promised the Old woman that if that Wicked fellow their Son should be the Occasion of any more Disturbances between his father and Mother, he would make him Wear the same Iron Chain that he put upon her Legg, or one as Like it as could be gott.

Whereupon the Old man Desired Liberty for his Son to goe off the Iseland, to which the Gov[r] Assented, and if they should hold of the same mind, we think it a good Riddance.

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

has Liberty to go off

The son Richard Swallow had been employed by the old man as a spy upon his mother.

The Richard Swallow, the son, had often beaten her, and was the person who had put on the iron chain. He often cursed both father and mother, and on the least provocation by words beat his mother. Seeing they were agreed, the governor advised them to go home and live friendly, and promised the old woman that if that wicked fellow their son should be the occasion of any more disturbances between his father and mother, he would make him wear the same iron chain that he had put upon her legs, or one as like it as could be got.

The old man then desired liberty for his son to go off the island, to which the governor assented. If they should hold of the same mind, the council thought it a good riddance.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Richard Swallow had liberty to go off the island.

The consultation was signed by Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The disclosure that the son Richard Swallow had been employed by his father as a spy upon his mother converted the present matter from a dispute between husband and wife into a more complex pattern of intra-household surveillance and coercion. The mechanism by which the father had set the son to watch the mother, with the son in turn becoming the agent of the physical confinement and beatings, established the operative structure of the household's internal discipline. The father's role had been one of direction and licence, with the son carrying out the actual application of force, including the placement of the iron chain on the mother's legs. The pattern placed the father's responsibility for the abuse on the operative footing of authorisation rather than direct act, while the son had carried the operative weight of the physical conduct.

The governor's promise that the son should wear the same iron chain if any future disturbance occurred, or one as like it as could be got, established the operative deterrent against further abuse. The form of the threat, with the explicit proposal to apply the same instrument to the offender that had been applied to the victim, marked a particular calibration of the bench's authority to fit the punishment to the offence in its specific physical form. The promise was made directly to the old woman as the protected party, giving her standing to invoke the bench's intervention on the occurrence of any further mistreatment, and supplied the operative mechanism by which the present settlement could be enforced.

The grant of liberty to the son Richard Swallow to go off the island, on the father's own request, marked the practical resolution of the matter through the removal of the operative agent of the abuse from the household. The arrangement removed the son from his position as the executor of the father's coercive direction, while leaving the parents to compose their relationship without his continuing presence. The bench's note that, if they should hold of the same mind, the council thought it a good riddance, conveyed the bench's assessment that the son's departure represented a net benefit to the island establishment as well as to the immediate parties to the dispute.

The procedure of granting liberty to depart on the request of a parent rather than of the departing party himself reflected the operative position of the father as the head of the household and the principal interest holder in the son's actions. The form of the disposal placed the departure on the same footing as other departures granted across the present sittings on family or domestic grounds. The William Beale leave to depart on the Cardonnell of 11 June 1715 had been granted on family circumstances. The Samuel Allgate transfer to Bencoolen on 7 June 1715 had been resolved on similar grounds connected to his marriage and the loss of his stock. The present grant fitted the same pattern of conciliar disposal of contentious household members through removal from the island.

Speculations

The father's volunteering of his son for departure from the island, in the face of the governor's threat against the son in any future disturbance, suggested that the old man had calculated the operative advantage of removing the son before the threat could be invoked. With the son still on the island and continuing in the household, any further marital dispute would have brought the governor's penalty down on the family. By having the son depart, the old man avoided that contingency while also retaining the standing of having complied with the bench's intervention. The mechanism placed the practical burden of resolution on the absent son rather than on the continuing parties, in keeping with the bench's broader method of disposal through removal observed across the present sittings.

The bench's recorded judgment that the son's departure was a good riddance indicated that Richard Swallow had been recognised as a continuing source of disturbance beyond the immediate household. The pattern of the son's conduct described in the documentary record, with the cursing of both parents, the beating of the mother on the least provocation by words and the placement of the iron chain on her legs, marked a temperament that the bench had observed perhaps in other contexts. The form of the bench's assessment, treating the departure as a benefit to the establishment, suggested that the bench had been aware of the son's character as a continuing operative problem and had welcomed the opportunity to dispose of it through the present occasion. The disposition continued the bench's standing practice of using departures to settle continuing personnel difficulties without the requirement of more formal proceedings against the individuals concerned.

550

541

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation held on Monday the 25 day of July 1715 At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Pres[t] Matt[w]: Bazett 3 Antip Tovey 4[th] & Edw[o]: Byfeld 5[th] in Coun[c]l

The Govern[r] Says that Benjamin Miller, who is one of the Hon[ble] Companys Servants that looks after the Blacks at the Hutts Plantation Came to him this morning, and Complains the Blacks are Sick, which is Occasiond by their unwholesome Victuals, they haveing nothing but Yams to Eat which are the yams now Produced here, and therefore he has called this Consultation to hear Benj[a] Millers Complaint who is here now Present and to See the Yams which he hath brought, and to take their Opinions therein,

Benj[a]: Miller being askt if all the Yams were as bad as these.

He Answers these are the best he could Pick out.

Being asked were he had them, He Sayth of John Long, of whom the Hon[ble] Company now buys Yams

We haveing Seen these Yams do think they are not fitt to be Eaten, being only fitt for Hoggs, and that they ought to have good Yams, Especially when they have Nothing Else to Eate, till the Last week the Gov[r] ordered

Margin Notes:

Ben[j] Miller[s] C[o]mplt[s] of badness of Yams yt makes [the] H[on] Comp[as] blacks Sick

[Th]e yams produced & are bad

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Monday the 25 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The governor said that Benjamin Miller, who was one of the Honourable Company's servants that looked after the blacks at the Hutts plantation, had come to him that morning and complained that the blacks were sick. This was occasioned by their unwholesome victuals, they having nothing but yams to eat which were the yams now produced there. He had therefore called the consultation to hear Benjamin Miller's complaint. Miller was now present, both to show the yams which he had brought and to take their opinions thereon.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Benjamin Miller's complaint of the badness of yams, the makers of the Honourable Company's blacks sick.

Benjamin Miller, being asked if all the yams were as bad as these, answered that these were the best he could pick out.

Being asked where he had them, he said of John Long, of whom the Honourable Company now bought yams.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the yams produced were bad.

The council, having seen the yams, did think they were not fit to be eaten, being only fit for hogs. The slaves ought to have good yams, especially when they had nothing else to eat. Until the last week the [...] ordered [...]

Interpretations

The complaint by Benjamin Miller as the overseer of the slaves at the Hutts plantation continued the line of overseer reports brought before the bench across the present sittings under the operative arrangement settled on 5 April 1715. Samuel Pessey had been continued as overseer of the Hutts plantation under William Worrall by the order of 5 April 1715, with the accounts to be given as formerly. The present complaint indicated either a change in the operative attendance at the Hutts, with Benjamin Miller now serving as the resident overseer of the slaves, or a parallel office in which Miller's particular charge was the care of the slaves themselves rather than the broader plantation establishment. The bench's prompt convening of a consultation on the matter, with the operative item produced for inspection, marked the seriousness with which the bench treated the welfare of the Company's working hands.

The supply of yams to the Hutts plantation from John Long, identified as the person of whom the Honourable Company now bought yams, established the operative purchasing arrangement under which the establishment was sourcing its principal staple. The arrangement marked a substantial change from the earlier supply pattern in which the plantation's own crop had been the primary source, with the Worrall yam-stock report of 26 April 1715 having recorded the total Company yams ready to dig at 263,600 across the plantations, plus the 66,000 bought by Pyke and Mashborne in Tombstone Wood on 19 October 1714. The Powell and Gurling provisions offer of 11 March 1715, with its 150,000 yams, two blacks, ten beeves, twenty hogs and some goats, had been reopened on 19 April 1715. The choice to buy yams from John Long, the same petitioner whose application for four acres of waste land had been refused on 19 July 1715 on the ground of his prospective inheritance, marked the operative pattern in which the Long household stood as a substantial supplier of yams to the Company.

The bench's finding that the yams produced were not fit to be eaten, being only fit for hogs, supplied the operative judgment on the quality of the supplies being received. The standing principle that the slaves ought to have good yams, especially when they had nothing else to eat, marked the bench's recognition of the operative dependence of the slaves on the yam ration. The pattern of relying on yams as the sole staple for the slaves at the Hutts placed the quality of the supply at the centre of the establishment's labour management, since unwholesome food directly produced the sickness now reported by Benjamin Miller.

The connection between the present complaint and the John Long petition refused at the consultation of 19 July 1715 placed the bench in an awkward operative position. The petitioner whose application for additional waste land had just been refused was now identified as the principal supplier of yams to the Company, with the quality of his supplies being found inadequate to feed the working hands. The pattern indicated either that the petitioner had been supplying inferior produce to the Company while reserving his better crop for sale to others or for his own use, or that his existing holdings were no longer producing yams of acceptable quality. The operative implications for the bench's relationship with the Long household across both matters would now require resolution.

Speculations

The temporal proximity between the refusal of the John Long petition for four acres of waste land on 19 July 1715 and the complaint of bad yams supplied by the same John Long brought before the bench on 25 July 1715 suggested a possible operative connection between the two matters. The bench's refusal of the petition had rested on the petitioner's existing twenty acres of free land, five acres of lease land and the prospect of twenty further acres at his mother's death, making him a substantial planter on his own account. The complaint about the yams now indicated that the petitioner, despite his substantial holdings, was supplying the Company with yams of poor quality. The temporal sequence raised the possibility that the present complaint represented either a deliberate response by Long to the refusal of his petition, or a continuing pattern of inadequate supply that had now come to the bench's attention through Miller's complaint.

The bench's choice to convene a consultation specifically to hear Miller's complaint and to inspect the yams in person reflected the operative seriousness with which the welfare of the Company's slaves was treated as a matter of institutional management. The slaves at the Hutts represented the principal labour resource of the Company's plantation establishment, and any sickness among them would have direct consequences for the operative capacity of the works in progress. The further investment in the herd-building programme initiated under the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 and the broader infrastructure programme including the Sandy Bay sea wall and the James Valley wet wall advertised on 24 June 1715 depended on the continuing health of the slaves who supplied the operative labour for these projects. The bench's response to Miller's complaint therefore stood within the broader pattern of institutional investment in the productive base of the establishment that had characterised the present sittings.

551

542

Ordered them a Couple of Cows to Milk, and as Benjamin Miller says they are Unwholesome, We think So too, and as tis a long way to fetch them to the Hutts as far as from Sandy bay tis.

Ordered

That no more Yams be bought of John Long Especially because we give him four Shill =ings a hundred which is avery high Price and we are Sure we Can have better at a Cheaper Rate, Considering how far these are fetcht and.

Ordered That John Long have Notice to Pay what he ow[e]s the Hon[ble]: Company some other way.

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

to have 2 Cows

to buy no more of those Yams of J[no] Long

Long to pay [the] H[on] C[o] Some oth[er] way.

The bench had ordered them a couple of cows to milk. As Benjamin Miller had said the yams were unwholesome, the council thought so too, and it was a long way to fetch them to the Hutts as far as from Sandy Bay it was.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the slaves to have two cows.

The council ordered that no more yams be bought of John Long, especially because they gave him four shillings a hundred, which was a very high price, and they were sure they could have better at a cheaper rate, considering how far these were fetched.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as to buy no more of these yams of John Long.

The council further ordered that John Long have notice to pay what he owed the Honourable Company some other way.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Long to pay the Honourable Company some other way.

The consultation was signed by Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The grant of two cows for milking to the slaves at the Hutts plantation supplied the operative remedy for the immediate problem of the unwholesome yam diet. The arrangement followed the bench's broader response to the cattle famine and the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 made pursuant to paragraph 45 of the Honourable Company's general letter brought by the Cardonnell, in which no cow, heifer or calf was to be killed until 20 July 1716 except on warrant from the governor. The Worrall stock account of 5 July 1715 had recorded the Company's neat cattle herd at 136 head, including 42 cows. The diversion of two of those cows to the slaves at the Hutts for milking represented a small but operative reallocation of the herd resource toward labour welfare, consistent with the bench's standing pattern of investment in the productive base of the establishment.

The order that no more yams be bought of John Long, with the price of four shillings a hundred identified as a very high rate, established the operative terms of the supply relationship that the bench was now bringing to an end. The reference to the bench's confidence that better could be had at a cheaper rate, considering how far these had been fetched from Sandy Bay, indicated that the operative cost of the supply had included a substantial transport element. The standing yam price benchmark on the bench's books had been four shillings the hundredweight, the rate at which Sarah Southen had on 25 September 1711 refused to sell without signed price-note, leading to the distraint order against her. The bench's present finding that four shillings a hundred was very high reflected a downward shift in the operative market for yams since that earlier benchmark, with the Worrall yam-stock report of 26 April 1715 having established that ample Company yams would be ready to dig by August.

The decision that John Long must pay what he owed the Honourable Company some other way placed the operative question of the petitioner's debt on the bench's agenda. The mechanism by which a planter delivered yams in payment of Company debt had been observed across the present sittings, with the Richard Swallow junior offer of 24 May 1715 on behalf of his ancient and sick father Thomas Swallow to deliver thirty thousand weight of yams at one time and thirty thousand more at another, with two head of breeding cattle, in payment of debt. That offer had been refused on the ground that yams already reported were more than the Company could take without apparent prejudice, and the council had indicated willingness to take cattle or blacks instead. The bench's present order on Long established the same operative principle in reverse, with the petitioner now required to find an alternative form of payment for his existing debt to the Company.

The absence of the deputy governor Captain Haswell from the present consultation, taken with the signatures of Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield on the record, continued the pattern of selective attendance observed across the present sittings. The deputy governor had been absent from the consultation of 19 July 1715 alongside Bazett, with only the governor, Tovey and Byfield present at that earlier sitting. The present consultation had now restored Bazett to the bench while leaving Haswell absent. The pattern of partial attendance, with different combinations of councillors at different sittings, suggested either the practical realities of the councillors' other duties or the operative selection of councillors for particular business.

Speculations

The bench's choice to terminate the supply relationship with John Long on the very sitting at which the quality complaint was first heard, without referring the matter to further inquiry or offering Long any opportunity to remedy the supply, indicated the bench's settled view that the relationship could not be salvaged. The combination of high price, poor quality, long transport distance and the petitioner's evident willingness to supply inferior produce to the Company while reserving his better crop elsewhere supplied the operative ground for the immediate decision. The temporal proximity to the refusal of the Long petition for four acres of waste land at the consultation of 19 July 1715 raised the possibility that the present matter had been informed by a broader operative assessment of the petitioner's standing with the bench, with the supply decision marking the practical consequence of that assessment.

The order that John Long must pay his debt to the Company some other way opened the operative question of how the debt would actually be discharged. The standing precedent from the Thomas Swallow yam offer of 24 May 1715 indicated that cattle or slaves would be acceptable in lieu, but the petitioner's existing twenty acres of free land and five acres of lease land suggested that his available resources for alternative payment would depend on his stocking levels rather than on further land. The bench's order placed the operative initiative on the petitioner to propose an alternative settlement, with the expectation that a fresh proposal would be brought before the bench in due course. The pattern was consistent with the broader operative method of the bench in disputes over Company debt, in which the petitioner was required to come forward with proposals for the bench's consideration rather than having a settlement imposed by direct order.

552

543

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 26 Day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] George Haswell D[e]p[u]ty Pres[t] Matt[w] Bazett 3 Antip[s] Tovey 4[th] & Edw: Byfeld 5[th] in Coun[ll]

The Dispute between Richard Beale, and Martin Norman about a Parcell of Land belonging to Said Beale being Part of that Land called the Burstin beds, They were both here this day and after many Allegations on both Sides they agreed to Referr it to two men, Whereupon they were Dismist.

The Govern[r]: Reports that Thomas Goodwin Monhoss who was on the 24 August last Appointed to Assist Capt: Bazett in Delivering Goods out of the Stores till the Accounts then in Arrear could be made up, which Accounts are long Since Dispatched and he not writeing a hand fitt for the Stores. He ordered him Either to do his Duty as Monhoss or Else to oversee the Blacks at work, both which he Declin[d].

Whereupon the Govern[r]: discharged him,

Ordered That Thomas Goodwin Monhoss be Dismissed the Hon[ble] Companys Service from this day and his Pay to Cease Accordingly.

It

Margin Notes:

R[d] Beal & Norman.

Tho[s] Goodwin

dismissed

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 26 day of July 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The dispute between Richard Beale and Martin Norman about a parcel of land belonging to Beale, being part of that land called the Bursley Beds, had brought both before the bench that day. After many allegations on both sides they had agreed to refer it to two men. The council therefore dismissed them.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Richard Beale and Norman.

The governor reported that Thomas Goodwin Monhoss, who had on 24 August 1714 been appointed to assist Captain Bazett in delivering goods out of the stores till the accounts then in hand could be made up, which accounts had long since been despatched, had not been willing to be a hand fit for the stores. The governor had ordered him either to do his duty as Monhoss, or else to oversee the blacks at work, both of which he had declined.

The governor had therefore discharged him.

The council ordered that Thomas Goodwin Monhoss be dismissed from the Honourable Company's service from that day, and his pay to cease accordingly.

A note in the margin recorded the response as dismissed.

[...]

Interpretations

The dispute between Richard Beale and Martin Norman over land at the Bursley Beds connected several matters already on the bench's record. Bursley Beds had been the location of the contested forty-five acres in the Powill v Girling cause of 2 September 1713, in which Hoskison had been found to have no power to mortgage his wife's separate estate. The land was therefore familiar to the bench as an established locus of contested property, with multiple competing claims running back through earlier dispositions. Richard Beale, the elder of the Beale orphans, had on 7 June 1715 been granted possession with his brother Anthony of the sixty acres of family land lying waste though fenced, and the present dispute marked a continuation of the Beale orphans' efforts to consolidate their inherited interests against neighbouring claimants. The Martin Norman water-rotation petition of 17 May 1715 had been referred to Tovey to examine and settle, with the petitioner's water kept off eight days in fourteen and substantial losses claimed. The present matter brought Norman before the bench in a different procedural posture, as a party to a land dispute rather than as a petitioner for water relief.

The agreement of the parties to refer the matter to two men marked the operative form of arbitration that the bench had repeatedly preferred to formal adjudication. The mechanism placed the substantive determination in the hands of two arbiters chosen for their familiarity with the locality and the parties, with the bench's role limited to dismissing the cause from its own jurisdiction. The form was consistent with the bench's standing operative method of disposing of contentious matters through informal settlement wherever possible, observed across the present sittings in the Swallow reconciliation of 23 July 1715 and the various other reconciliations in the Cardonnell business.

The dismissal of Thomas Goodwin Monhoss from the Company's service marked the operative resolution of a probationary appointment that had not produced the expected service. The appointment of 24 August 1714 had been a temporary assistance to Captain Bazett in the delivery of goods from the stores, pending the completion of the accounts then in hand. The reference to those accounts as long since despatched indicated that the original ground of the appointment had been exhausted, and that the bench had since been seeking to find Goodwin Monhoss a continuing role within the establishment. His refusal both of the stores duty and of the alternative of overseeing the slaves at work placed him in the position of a Company servant who would not accept the duties offered him, and the discharge followed as the operative consequence.

The connection of the Goodwin name to the broader stores establishment placed the present dismissal in context. The storekeepers' interrogation of 21 June 1715 had identified the assistants then employed at the stores as Haswell, Bazett, Byfield, Tomlinson, John Goodwin, Thomas Goodwin and Richard, with the surname incomplete. The present Thomas Goodwin Monhoss may have been the same Thomas Goodwin named in that list, or a second person of the same family name. The bench's standing position from the storekeepers' interrogation had been that more men were wanted at the stores, with three months stated to be insufficient and the proper deadline being six months after 25 March. The dismissal of Goodwin Monhoss therefore reduced the operative establishment at a time when the bench had been seeking to expand it, indicating that the bench would prefer to operate with one fewer hand than to retain a servant unwilling to perform the duties required.

Speculations

The agreement of Richard Beale and Martin Norman to refer their dispute to two men, after many allegations on both sides, suggested that the parties had recognised the limits of conciliar adjudication for matters of contested historical title. The Bursley Beds land had been the subject of multiple successive disputes across the records, with conflicting claims through different lines of descent and intermediate transactions. The bench's docket would not easily accommodate the kind of detailed historical examination required to resolve such matters, and the operative course of arbitration by two men familiar with the locality offered a more practical route to settlement. The pattern indicated the operative limits of the bench's jurisdiction in matters of substantive title, with arbitration filling the procedural gap where formal proceedings would have been disproportionate.

The bench's note that the accounts mentioned in the original Goodwin Monhoss appointment of 24 August 1714 had long since been despatched indicated a careful documentary record of the temporal basis of probationary appointments. The bench's operative approach treated each temporary assignment as having a defined purpose and a defined termination, with the question of continuation arising only on the exhaustion of the original ground. The form supplied the operative basis for the present discharge, with the original purpose of the appointment no longer in force and the servant unwilling to accept any alternative role. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader practice of documentary rigour across the present sittings, observed in the careful tracking of the storekeepers' accounts and the disposal of comparable probationary matters.

553

544

It being the usuall time of year for Cloathing the Blacks the Cold weather Comeing on,

Ordered that all the Hon[ble] Companys Blacks be Cloathed, and that the Govern[r]: and M[r] Byfeld do See the same Performd.

The Govern[r] Reports that he is now planting Sundrie Lemmon trees in the Garden Since his Arrivall here there has been Planted in that Little Garden two Hundred, and odd of which no more, then Six are Liveing, But resolves Every Season to Plant more that if it be Possible Some may be raised

Ordered that Capt: Haswell have a Boy of the Hon[ble] Companys Named Daniel to serve him for three years and a Girle Named Mary for the same Term, he Provideing for them as others are Commonly Provided for who are put out to Planters.

Ordered that M[r] Byfeld have a Boy Named Tom to Serve him for three Years to Serve him in the same Manner.

Ordered That M[r] Tovey make Enquirey, and bring in An Acount Next Consulta =tion Day, what black boys or Girles of the Hon[ble] Companys have been put out after this Man =ner, and to whom and whether their Contracted time be Expired, that they may be put to the Hon[ble] Companys works.

And that Every one in Council Next Tues =day, do bring in something in Writeing by way

Margin Notes:

H[on] Comp[as] Blacks to be Cloathed

Lemon Trees Planted in [the] Fort Garden

Cap[t] Haswell to have a [bla]ck boy, named Dan[l]

M[r] Byfeld one named Tom

M[r] Tovey to bring in acc[t] of Blacks of [the] H[on] Comp[a] put out

The Councell to bring in their opinions to prevent drawing Bills

It being the usual time of year for clothing the slaves, the cold weather coming on, the council ordered that all the Honourable Company's slaves be clothed, and that the governor and Mr Byfield see the same performed.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the Honourable Company's slaves to be clothed.

The governor reported that he was now planting sundry lemon trees in the garden. Since his arrival there had been planted in that little garden two hundred and odd, of which no more than six were living. He resolved every season to plant more, that if it were possible some might be raised.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as lemon trees planted in the fort garden.

The council ordered that Captain Haswell have a boy of the Honourable Company's named Daniel to serve him for three years, and a girl named Mary for the same term, he providing for them as others were commonly provided for who were put out to planters.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Captain Haswell to have a slave boy named Daniel.

The council ordered that Mr Byfield have a boy named Tom to serve him for three years, to serve him in the same manner.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Mr Byfield to have a slave boy Tom.

The council ordered that Mr Tovey make enquiry and bring in an account next consultation day, what black boys or girls of the Honourable Company's had been put out after this manner, and to whom, and whether their contracted time had expired, that they might be put to the Honourable Company's works.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Mr Tovey to bring in a list of slaves of the Honourable Company's let out.

The council further ordered that everyone in council next Tuesday do bring in something in writing by way [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the council to bring in their opinions to prevent drawing bills.

Interpretations

The clothing of the Company's slaves had been raised earlier in the present sittings, with William Worrall having represented the want of clothes at the consultation of 12 July 1715 on account of the cold weather pinching the slaves very much. The bench had on that occasion ordered immediately that they all should have new clothes. The present order of 26 July 1715, two weeks later, designated the governor and Mr Byfield jointly to see the clothing performed, marking the operative shift from the abstract order to the practical execution of the work. The arrangement placed the senior executive officer and the junior councillor most active in operational matters in joint charge of the project, consistent with the bench's pattern of pairing the governor with Byfield on direct executive tasks observed across the present sittings.

The governor's report on the lemon trees in the fort garden, with two hundred and odd planted since his arrival and only six surviving, illustrated the practical difficulties of horticulture at the island. The reference to the moderate climate of the island, with its cool winter season noted in the slave clothing order, sat with the limited success of citrus in the fort garden. Lemons had been the subject matter of earlier business at the bench, with the Renatus Snow conviction of 2 December 1714 having involved bartering with Thomas Frey's slave Clove for lemons contrary to law. The persistence of the planting programme indicated the operative value placed on raising lemons locally, both as a dietary supplement and as a means of supplying the ships in the road with citrus for the prevention of scurvy.

The grants of slaves to Captain Haswell and Mr Byfield, with Daniel and Mary to Haswell and Tom to Byfield for three-year terms, established the operative mechanism by which Company slaves were placed in private service. The form of the arrangement, with the holder providing for the slaves as others were commonly provided for who were put out to planters, indicated that this was a standing practice with established conditions. The granting of slaves to councillors as part of their establishment marked the operative integration of slave labour into the council's own arrangements, with the slaves remaining the property of the Honourable Company while their service was vested in the named individuals for the contracted term.

The order to Mr Tovey to enquire and bring in an account of slaves of the Company put out in this manner, and whether their contracted time had expired so that they might be put to the Company's works, represented the bench's operative effort to bring its slave establishment under proper documentary management. The enquiry would establish where each Company slave currently was, with whom, and on what terms, supplying the bench with the information necessary to recall those whose terms had expired. The form of the order was consistent with the documentary practice observed across the present sittings, including the Worrall stock returns of 18 June 1715 and 5 July 1715, the storekeepers' interrogation of 21 June 1715 and the plantation house and Lufkins inventory of 12 April 1715.

The reminder that everyone in council should bring in something in writing the next Tuesday on the question of preventing the drawing of bills of exchange continued the matter opened at the consultation of 19 July 1715, when no proposals had yet been brought in. The bench had ordered that proposals be brought in at the next consultation day, but the matter had not appeared in the consultations of 23 July 1715 or 25 July 1715, and was now placed on the agenda for the consultation of the following Tuesday. The persistence of the matter on the bench's agenda, with the explicit reminder to each councillor, marked the bench's continuing determination to bring forward a documented reform on the most consequential financial instrument under its control.

Speculations

The choice to grant slaves directly to councillors at the same sitting at which the bench ordered an enquiry into Company slaves already put out suggested an operative pattern in which the bench's procedure for managing its slave establishment was being developed in real time. The grants to Haswell and Byfield set the immediate operative practice, while the order to Tovey sought the documentary basis on which the broader arrangement could be settled. The pattern indicated the bench's awareness that the slave establishment had perhaps been administered with insufficient documentary rigour in the past, with slaves being put out for various terms without a comprehensive record being maintained.

The particular allocation of Daniel and Mary together to Captain Haswell, with Tom alone to Mr Byfield, suggested that the bench had given consideration to the operative needs of the holder when making the grant. Captain Haswell's establishment, as deputy governor and a substantial planter in his own right through his wife's interest in the Charles Steward estate, would have had use for the labour of two slaves of working age. Mr Byfield, more recently appointed to council and perhaps establishing his household at the island, may have had use for one slave for present needs. The pattern indicated the bench's attention to the practical circumstances of the holder in calibrating the grant, while maintaining the standing principle that the slaves remained Company property on a defined term of service.

554

545

way of Proposalls for to avoid and Put a Stop to Drawing of Bills on our Honourable Masters,

And against this day fortnight to bring in Writeing Some Minutes that may be Proper, toward Answering the Hon[ble] C[o]mpanys Last Gen[ll] Letter.

The Govern[r]: Sayeth that whereas the Hon[ble] Comp[a] have been pleased to Send over a Moderate quantity of hooks and Lines in the late Cargoe of the Cardonnel for the Good of the Country But as there is Not Eno[u] to furnish all the Demands that will be made for them, Therefore he thinks twill be very Proper for Cap[t]: Bazett to Deliver to Each Inhabitant and Planter a Proportionable quantity According to the Number of their Respective families and to the Pod[s] in the same Manner, that all may have Equall Bennifit And notwithstanding that for other Goods there are Sundry Persons So greatly in Debt they cant w[th] Safety be Intrusted any more, yet in this Case Altho' they be in debt yet they may have there Share of Hooks and Lines Delivered to them, and we hope the Bennifitt thereof will Contribuke Some thing toward their better of makeing them Capable to Pay [some] Subsistance and be ameans of L[i]ssening their Debts,

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

[E]v[er]y[o]ne pro[p]d to ans[r] last Gen[er]all Lett[r]

the Hooks & Lines to be proportion[d] by Cap[t] Bazett to ea: of Inhabitant

[in] trust [of] [p]a[y] for it

The order on the council to bring in proposals continued. Each member of council was to bring in proposals by way of writing for to avoid and put a stop to the drawing of bills on the Honourable Masters.

Against that day fortnight, each was also to bring in writing some minutes that might be proper towards answering the Honourable Company's last general letter.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as each to propose to answer the Honourable Masters' general letter.

The governor said that the Honourable Company had been pleased to send over a moderate quantity of hooks and lines in the late cargo of the Cardonnell for the good of the country. As there was not enough to furnish all the demands that would be made for them, he thought it would be very proper that Captain Bazett deliver to each inhabitant and planter a proportionable quantity according to the number of their respective families and to the rods in the same manner, so that all might have an equal benefit.

Notwithstanding that, for other goods there were sundry persons so deeply in debt that they could not safely be trusted any more, yet in this case, although they were in debt, they might have their share of hooks and lines delivered to them. The council hoped the benefits thereof would contribute something toward their better subsistence and be a means of making them capable of lessening their debts.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the hooks and lines to be proportioned by Captain Bazett to each inhabitant, and trusted for it.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The distribution of hooks and lines to the inhabitants and planters represented the operative continuation of the Lords Proprietors' relief scheme first announced in the advertisement of 9 July 1715. The earlier advertisement had set out the directors' provision of boats for the use of the place, with the ten-day window for applicants to give their names to the governor and the operative arrangement by which the boats would yield five complete catches to the men and one to the boat's account. The hooks and lines now distributed completed the practical equipment necessary for the fishery, supplying the smaller implements without which the boats could not be operated. The arrangement marked the second stage of the metropolitan relief programme, with the directors having calculated that boats alone would not put the inhabitants in a position to fish without the corresponding small gear.

The principle of proportionable distribution according to the number of respective families set the operative basis on which the limited supply was to be shared out. The mechanism converted what could have been a contested allocation into one driven by family size, with the larger households receiving the larger share. The form was consistent with the bench's broader operative method observed in the church rate confirmation of 17 May 1715, which had fixed two shillings and sixpence a head for the year ensuing on every white and black above the age of sixteen, with the pauper-exemption clause for those certified poor. The family-size measure for hooks and lines used the same demographic logic of the household as the operative unit for both rating and relief.

The bench's decision to extend the distribution to persons deeply in debt to the Company, in apparent departure from the Pyke trusting rule of 21 December 1714, identified the special character of the fishery scheme as a relief measure rather than as ordinary trading. The standing trusting rule had set three connected reforms as the operative pattern of the bench's credit policy, with credit transfer between debtors requiring particular order of council, no storekeeper credit without consultation-level approval of each particular, and trusting capped at one year's income at five pounds an acre, with three months' pay for soldiers. The present decision to trust persons already too deeply in debt for ordinary goods, in respect of hooks and lines for the fishery, marked the operative recognition that the standing rule could be relaxed where the credit itself was directed toward the means by which the debtor might subsequently lessen his debt.

The choice of Captain Bazett as the officer to deliver the proportionate quantities placed the distribution under the third councillor's hand as storekeeper, consistent with the operative arrangement under which goods from the stores passed through Bazett's control. The arrangement was consistent with the procedure of the storekeepers' interrogation of 21 June 1715, in which Bazett as storekeeper had been examined alongside Captain Haswell as accountant on the books and accounts. The placing of the present distribution under Bazett's hand kept the documentary record of the relief programme within the established storekeeping establishment, with the names of the recipients and their proportionate quantities to be entered on the books in the ordinary way.

Speculations

The bench's decision to order minutes for answering the Honourable Company's last general letter, with each councillor to bring in his own contribution against a fortnight, marked the bench's preparation for the homeward despatch on the matters raised by the directors in the Cardonnell letter. The general letter had been read in part on 1 June 1715, with successive mornings devoted to working through it under the procedure of marks thereon and put in writing. The cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 had been the first substantive response, made pursuant to paragraph 45 of the letter. The completion of the castle fortification works reported on 12 July 1715 had been the second, performed in obedience to the directors' standing orders. The bench's present call for written contributions from each councillor on remaining matters marked the operative effort to produce a comprehensive homeward response in time for the next homeward vessel.

The pairing of the bills-of-exchange proposals with the answer to the general letter on the same fortnight deadline suggested that the bench had identified the two matters as closely connected. The Pinnell charges of 11 November 1714 had illustrated the difficulties that could arise when bills were drawn without sufficient operative ground, and the directors had perhaps raised the bill-drawing question in their general letter as a matter requiring the bench's response. The bench's choice to develop its own proposals for restricting the drawing of bills in parallel with its response to the directors indicated the operative intent to bring the two matters together in a coordinated homeward despatch. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader practice across the present sittings of building documentary chains on connected matters before formal transmission to the metropolitan authority.

555

546

Island St Helena.

At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 2 of August 1715. At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[ty] Pres[t] Matthew Bazett 3 Antipas Tovey 4 Edward Byfeld Sick

Yesterday between 12 & 1 afternoon an Alarm was made & ab[t] 7 in the Even Arrivd the Avarilla from Bencoolen but Last from Batavia

The Cap[t]: came ashoare this day & brought us a Letter from the Gov[r] & Counc[l] of Bencoolen but has brought us no Goods according to the Conditions in Charter Party for this Iseland, Altho' we wrote to Bencoolen for Several things much wanted here, yet not so much as a few Plants or Garden Seeds are Sent, only a Short Letter which wee think is every way very Short, tho' not very Civill But here is a good quantity of Arrack brought here Privately to be Sold, of w[ch]: (thanks be to God) We have no very Extraordinary occasions, being at present moderately Supplyed by what we formerly bought out of the Susannah the Frederick & the Aester Wherefore because wee resolve as much as Possible upon Strikt Observation of the Hon[ble] Comp[as] directions We shall not buy any of this Arrack at Present nor Suffer any to be bought so as to Draw home Bills for the Payment thereof

Ordered

That a Letter be Written to Cap[t]: Hurst to acquaint him that We have sent four men Detained here on Acc[t] of complaint of Mutiny w[t] intend[d] Piracey left out of the Eagle Galley which we must

Margin Notes:

Avarilla Cap[t] Hurst arriv[d]

no goods from Bencoolen

Order[d]

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 2 of August 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, sick.

The day before, between twelve and one in the afternoon, an alarm had been made, and about seven in the evening the Avarilla had arrived from Bencoolen, but last from Batavia.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the Avarilla, Captain Hurst, arriving.

The captain had come ashore that day and brought a letter from the governor and council of Bencoolen, but had brought no goods according to the conditions in the charter party for the island. Although the bench had written to Bencoolen for several things much wanted there, not so much as a few plants or garden seeds had been sent, only a short letter which they thought every way very short though not uncivil.

There was a good quantity of arrack brought there privately to be sold, of which, thanks be to God, the bench had no very extraordinary occasion, being at present moderately supplied by what they had formerly bought out of the Susanna, the Frederick and the Hester. The bench therefore, because they resolved as much as possible upon strict observation of the Honourable Company's directions, would not buy any of this arrack at present, nor suffer any to be bought, so as to draw home bills for the payment thereof.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as no goods from Bencoolen.

The council ordered that a letter be written to Captain Hurst to acquaint him that the bench had sent four men detained there on account of complaint of mutiny intended against the Eagle Galley, which the bench [...]

Interpretations

The arrival of the Avarilla from Bencoolen but last from Batavia, with the alarm being made between twelve and one in the afternoon and the ship arriving about seven in the evening, established the operative timing of a single-alarm arrival of an Indiaman in the road. The pattern of a single alarm followed by the ship coming up in the evening matched the established practice for friendly vessels approaching the island, with the alarm serving to bring the garrison and the principal officers of the bench to readiness for the captain's coming ashore. The Avarilla arrival fell into the pattern of recent ship calls, with the Cardonnell arrival on the single alarm of 31 May 1715 having marked the principal recent precedent.

The complaint that the Avarilla had brought no goods according to the conditions in the charter party for the island opened the operative question of supply from the regional Company station. The standing arrangement under which Bencoolen was to supply the island with particular goods on each homeward sailing represented the operative basis on which the bench expected to receive the smaller items needed for the establishment, including the plants and garden seeds particularly mentioned in the present consultation. The choice of those specific items reflected the bench's continuing concern with the island's productive capacity, in keeping with the moderate success of the lemon-tree planting reported by the governor at the consultation of 26 July 1715 and the broader agricultural programme of the establishment.

The bench's decision to refuse the private arrack brought on the Avarilla, in strict observation of the Honourable Company's directions, marked the operative application of the directors' general letter to a particular case. The standing position on arrack at the island had been established at the retail rate of seven shillings and sixpence per gallon set on 15 November 1714, with the credit restriction limiting delivery to persons indebted above twenty pounds unless they brought ready money, good credit or provisions. The Welch, Frederick and Hester stocks identified as the present moderate supply established the operative basis on which the bench could afford to refuse fresh purchases. The connection to the bills-of-exchange business opened at the consultation of 19 July 1715 was direct, with the refusal to buy arrack on the bench's account preserving the bench from the necessity of drawing further bills on the Honourable Masters for the payment.

The order for a letter to Captain Hurst on the despatch of the four mutineer prisoners marked the operative resolution of the Eagle Galley prisoner question first opened at the consultation of 19 July 1715. The prisoners had at that earlier sitting petitioned for their liberty, and the bench had replied that they could not be discharged until a ship bound for England arrived, unless any of them would discover the intrigue of robbing and attempting to destroy the ship. The arrival of the Avarilla with the prospect of an onward passage supplied the operative opportunity for the transmission of the prisoners. The choice of Captain Hurst as the receiving commander, with the prisoners being sent off the island on his ship, placed the further prosecution of the mutiny matter under the metropolitan authority through Bencoolen rather than directly through London.

Speculations

The bench's note that the Bencoolen letter was every way very short though not uncivil, taken with the failure of supply on the charter party conditions, suggested an operative tension between the island establishment and the Bencoolen government. The Bencoolen governor and council were under separate Company authority but stood within the broader institutional structure of the East India trade, with mutual obligations under standing Company directions. The bench's careful note of the letter's tone, distinguishing brevity from incivility, indicated the operative attention given to maintaining proper relations with the regional station even when its performance fell short of expectations. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader practice across the present sittings of preserving the documentary record of inter-station correspondence for any subsequent metropolitan review.

The choice to refuse the privately-brought arrack on the express ground of the Honourable Company's directions, with the operative consequence that no bills would be drawn home for payment, marked the connection between the bench's bills-of-exchange reform and the present practical decision. The bench's call for written proposals from each councillor on preventing the drawing of bills on the Honourable Masters, made at the consultation of 19 July 1715 and renewed at the consultation of 26 July 1715, was now being applied operatively in the immediate refusal of a transaction that would have required such a bill. The pattern indicated that the bench was using the development of formal proposals as the opportunity to bring its current practice into alignment with the standing directions, rather than waiting for the proposals to be formally adopted before acting on them. The Edward Byfield absence on grounds of sickness was the first such absence noted in the recovered record since his appointment as fifth in council on 17 May 1715, marking a temporary disruption to the regular composition of the bench.

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must desire him to take on board, which was done as foll[o]: viz[t]

Cap[t] Rob[t] Hurst

S[r] I am Ordered by y[e] Gov[r] & Counc[ll] to acquaint you that here is four men detained upon complaints of Mutiny & designd Pyracy on board the Eagle Galley which they intend to send home by you

I am S[r]

Yo[r] most Hum[ble] Serv[t]

Antipas Tovey

Union Castle St Helena 2 August 1715

The following Petition was Presented viz[t]

Island St Helena

To the Worsh[ip] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] &c. Council

The most Humble Petition of John Robinson free Planter Humbly,

Sheweth That whereas yo[r]. Petition[r] did (Pursuant and Immediatly after an Advertizem[t] Published for all Persons who Stood Indebted to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] to make Proposals of Payment) Repair to Cap[t]: Edward Mashborne at the Plantation House and Offered him the following Goods & Provisions viz[t]

60 Thousand of Yams

one Large Bullock

Some Dunghill Fowles, Ducks & Geese

The three Last Named he had for breeders and Promised to take the Rest but Cap[t]: Mashborne being Since Dead, your Petition[r]: humbly addresses to yo[r] Worshp &c. Council that you'll be pleased to take the Yams & Bullock above Mention[d] Offering thereto at this time a breeding beast & two fatt Hoggs having no other way of Payment.

An

Margin Notes:

L[ett]r to Cap[t] Hurst to take 4 of [the] Eagles men.

Robinsons pet[n] to take Yams &c

The bench's order on the Eagle Galley prisoners continued. The bench must desire Captain Hurst to take on board the four men, which was done as follows.

The letter was addressed to Captain Robert Hurst. The bench, by order of the governor and council, acquainted him that there were four men detained on the island upon complaint of mutiny and designed piracy on board the Eagle Galley. The bench intended to send them home by him. The letter was signed by Antipas Tovey as the bench's most humble servant, and dated at the Union Castle in St Helena 2 August 1715.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the letter to Captain Hurst to take the four of the Eagle Galley on board.

The following petition was presented.

The most humble petition of John Robinson, free planter, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor, and Council. He had, pursuant to and immediately after an advertisement published for all persons who stood indebted to the Honourable Company to make proposals of payment, repaired to Captain Edward Mashborne at the plantation house and offered him the following goods and provisions.

60 thousand of yams

one large bullock

some dunghill fowls, ducks and geese

The three last named he had for breeders, and Mashborne had promised to take the rest. Mashborne having since died, the petitioner humbly addressed the governor and council that they would be pleased to take the yams and bullock above mentioned, offering thereto at that time a breeding beast and two fat hogs, having no other way of payment.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Robinson's petition to take yams and so on.

Interpretations

The letter to Captain Hurst formalised the operative arrangement under which the four warrant officer prisoners of the Eagle Galley would be transmitted home for further proceedings. The choice of language, with the description of the offence as mutiny and designed piracy, marked the operative gravity that the bench had attached to the matter. The earlier inquiry across the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715 had used the term sedition in the depositions of the chief mate William Hanray and the purser John Gerrard. The escalation to designed piracy in the present letter reflected the bench's settled view of the offence after the documentary chain had been assembled, with the chief mate's conclusion that the design was rather to seize the ship than for any real cause or want now adopted as the official characterisation of the matter.

The choice of Captain Hurst as the operative custodian for the homeward voyage, with the prisoners to be delivered to him under the bench's letter and his ship the Avarilla the vehicle for their transmission, completed the operative resolution of the prisoner question first opened on 19 July 1715. The mechanism placed the further prosecution of the matter under the metropolitan authority, with the documentary record assembled by the bench providing the operative basis for any subsequent proceedings. The prisoners were Thomas Frances the boatswain, Thomas Clark the gunner, Alexander Adair the doctor's mate and William Wells the trumpeter, identified across the depositions as the four principals of the warrant officer faction.

The John Robinson petition opened the operative matter of debt settlement under the late Captain Edward Mashborne's earlier arrangements. Captain Mashborne had died on 31 March 1715 after about three weeks' sickness, having been the third councillor at the time of his death. The reference to an advertisement published for all persons indebted to the Company to make proposals of payment indicated a debt-collection programme that the late Mashborne had been administering before his death, with the petitioner having complied with the advertisement by attending Mashborne at the plantation house and offering the goods listed. The Mashborne plantation house and Lufkins inventory had been ordered on 5 April 1715 to be given in by Bazett and Tovey, with the inventory delivered on 12 April 1715. The succession of William Worrall to the overseer's office, appointed on 5 April 1715, had taken effect in the same period.

The composition of the petitioner's offer placed it within the established pattern of debt settlement by goods and provisions observed across the present sittings. The Powell and Gurling provisions offer of 11 March 1715, with its 150,000 yams, two blacks, ten beeves, twenty hogs and some goats, marked the largest such offer on the bench's records. The Thomas Swallow yam offer of 24 May 1715, with 30,000 weight of yams at one time and 30,000 more at another with two head of breeding cattle, had been refused on the ground that yams already reported were more than the Company could take. The Robinson offer of 60,000 yams, one large bullock, dunghill fowls, ducks and geese, with the additional offer now of a breeding beast and two fat hogs, sat between these two earlier offers in scale and composition.

Speculations

The bench's continuing willingness to entertain provisions offers in settlement of debt, despite the refusal of the Thomas Swallow yam offer on 24 May 1715 on the ground that yams already reported were more than the Company could take, suggested that the operative position on yam supply had shifted since the refusal of the Long yams complaint of 25 July 1715. The bench's order at that later sitting that no more yams be bought of John Long, on the ground of high price, poor quality and long transport distance, indicated that the Company's yam supply through purchase was no longer adequate for the establishment's needs. The Worrall yam-stock report of 26 April 1715 had projected ample Company yams ready to dig by August, but the operative experience since had perhaps shown the standing stocks to be of insufficient quality or quantity. The bench's willingness to consider the Robinson offer therefore marked a possible adjustment of the position on yam supply, with debt-settlement provisions now being treated as an operative source of stock.

The petitioner's particular offer of a breeding beast, in addition to the bullock previously offered to Mashborne, fitted within the operative pattern of the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 and the broader herd-building programme. The directors' standing direction that no cow, heifer or calf was to be killed until 20 July 1716 except on warrant from the governor had placed special value on breeding cattle within the establishment. The petitioner's offer of a breeding beast as part of his settlement therefore aligned with the bench's standing priority of building up the herd, and would supply the operative ground on which the offer could be accepted despite the bench's general caution about taking further yams in settlement. The pattern indicated the operative refinement of the bench's debt-collection arrangements under Pyke's administration, with the form of acceptable settlement now calibrated more closely to the standing institutional priorities.

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And as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray &c. Jn[o]: Robinson

He being called in was acquainted by the Gov[r]: that now we could not take any more Yams or Hoggs But that if he had any Cattle to spare we would take it towards Payment of the Hon[ble]: Comp[a] what he Owes them he haveing made no proposall in time according to the Advertizement Published the 14. Sept[r] 1714. we not being able to take all those that were Proposed,

M[r]: Gabriel Cowill haveing desired a Sumons for the foll[o]: Persons viz[t]

Francis Funge M[rs] Francis Carne & M[rs] Mary Mashborne Widows of M[r] Geo: Carne & Cap[t] Edw[d]: Mashborne they all appeared & M[r]: Cowill Produced a Letter of Attorney made to his Predecessor Cap[t]: George Hookison, by W[m]: Rose of St Botolph Algate Gunsmith against Fran[s] Funge for Payment of 50 Pounds Due as by a Note under the said Funges hand but Francis Funge says he knows of no note but if such there be desires it may be Produced, w[ch] was not & therefore was discharged

Said Cowill then Produced a Letter of Attorney made by Sam[ll] Thomlinson of Pater Noster Row Butcher to said Hookison to Demand of Cap[t]: Thomas Goodwin formerly Dep[ty] Govern[r] & Th[o] Tackn[a]ld both Deceased what Effects they had (as Execut[rs]) to Tho[s] Phillips also dec[ea]s[ed]

Cap[t] Goodwins Widow now M[rs] Fran[s]: Carne says says that her former Husband did Pay this mony to produced a Receipt for the same under the hand of Hugh Bodley Deceased & Witness[d] by Stephen Boirley the Late Gov[r] & Cap[t]: Matthew Bazett now present,

Also another Letter of Attorney made by Cap[t] Anthony Tollett to Said Hookison for a Protested bill of Exchange drawn by M[r]: Geo: Carne on M[r] Fauckree in Covent Garden,

M[rs] Fran[s] Carne his Widow says she knows nothing of this Matter & can give no Answer to it M[r] Carne being now Dead Insolvent

Said

Margin Notes:

M[r] Cowill ord[r] Sumons 3 Persons for Debts cou[d] not be proved

John Robinson's petition closed in the usual form, with the petitioner as in duty bound ever to pray. Signed John Robinson.

The petitioner, being called in, was acquainted by the governor that the bench could not now take any more yams or hogs. If he had any cattle to spare they would take it towards payment of what he owed the Honourable Company, he having made no proposal in time according to the advertisement published the 14 September 1714, the bench not being able to take all those that were proposed.

Mr Gabriel Powill, having desired a summons for the following persons, namely Frances Funge, Mrs Frances Carne and Mrs Mary Mashborne, widows of Mr George Carne and Captain Edward Mashborne, they all appeared.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the women called by summons, but three persons for whom the bills could not be produced.

Mr Powill produced a letter of attorney made to his predecessor Captain George Hoskison by William Rose of St Botolph Aldgate, gunsmith, against Frances Funge, for payment of fifty pounds due as by a note under Funge's hand. Frances Funge said she knew of no note, but if there was any she desired it might be produced. As the note was not produced, the matter was therefore discharged.

Mr Powill then produced a letter of attorney made by Samuel Tomlinson of Pater Noster Row, butcher, to Hoskison to demand of Captain Thomas Goodwin, formerly Deputy Governor, and Mr Fackneld, both deceased, what effects they had as executors to Mr Phillips, also deceased.

Captain Goodwin's widow, now Mrs Frances Carne, said that her former husband had paid this money, and produced a receipt for the same under the hand of Hugh Bodley, deceased, witnessed by Stephen Poirier, the late governor, and Captain Matthew Bazett, now present.

Also another letter of attorney made by Captain Anthony Tollett to Hoskison for a protested bill of exchange drawn by Mr George Carne on Mr Faulkner in Covent Garden. Mrs Frances Carne, his widow, said she knew nothing of this matter and could give no answer to it, Mr Carne being now dead insolvent.

Interpretations

The governor's refusal of further yams or hogs from John Robinson, while leaving the offer open for cattle, marked the operative application of the bench's recent decisions on debt settlement composition. The Thomas Swallow yam offer had been refused on 24 May 1715 on the ground that yams already reported were more than the Company could take. The Powell and Gurling provisions offer of 11 March 1715 had been reopened on 19 April 1715, with the Worrall yam-stock report of 26 April 1715 substantially negative for the planter offer. The Long yams complaint of 25 July 1715 had produced the order that no more yams be bought of John Long. The bench's present position therefore continued the operative pattern of refusing further yam acquisition while remaining willing to accept cattle, reflecting the standing priorities established under the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715.

The reference to the advertisement published on 14 September 1714 supplied the operative ground for the bench's distinction between proposals made in time and proposals made too late. The earlier advertisement had set a window during which debtors could come forward with proposals of payment, and the bench's present finding that Robinson had made no proposal in time placed his offer outside the operative scheme. The petitioner's claim that he had attended the late Captain Edward Mashborne at the plantation house in response to the advertisement, with Mashborne having promised to take the rest of the goods offered, sat against the bench's documentary record. The disjunction marked the operative difficulty in tracing private arrangements made by individual councillors after the principal's death, with the bench unable to confirm the Mashborne acceptance and the petitioner left to renew his offer on the present terms.

The Gabriel Powill business represented the operative continuation of his role as substitute for the late Captain George Hoskison's affairs. Hoskison had died on 6 March 1712, having served as deputy governor under Boucher's administration. The three letters of attorney now produced by Powill, against Frances Funge for fifty pounds, against the late Goodwin and Fackneld as executors of the late Phillips, and against the late George Carne on a protested bill drawn on Faulkner in Covent Garden, marked the long-running effort to recover sums owed to metropolitan principals through the operative authority of the late Hoskison. The pattern reflected the operative practice by which metropolitan creditors used the island establishment as their representative in pursuing local debts.

The successful production of a receipt by Mrs Frances Carne, formerly the widow of Captain Thomas Goodwin, for the payment of the Tomlinson debt, marked the operative effect of careful preservation of documentary evidence. The receipt, signed by Hugh Bodley senior deceased and witnessed by Stephen Poirier as the late governor and Captain Matthew Bazett now present, supplied the operative defence against the present demand. Stephen Poirier had been an earlier governor of St Helena, having signed the registration order of 30 March 1699 and presided over earlier stages of the Powell-Beale case before his death. The witnessing by Captain Bazett, who now sat on the bench as the third councillor, placed the original transaction within the operative knowledge of a present member of the council. The pattern illustrated the long-running connections between the metropolitan creditors, the historical governors and the present bench across the documentary record of the island.

Speculations

The bench's refusal to entertain further yams from Robinson while leaving the door open for cattle established the operative position on debt settlement composition that would continue to guide the bench's responses to similar petitions. The mechanism by which existing debtors could now propose alternative settlements depended on bringing forward stock or breeding animals rather than the bulk vegetable produce that had been the staple of earlier offers. The pattern indicated the bench's adjustment of its operative priorities in response to the changed practical position of the establishment, with the cattle famine recovery now overriding the earlier preference for grain and root crops in debt settlement.

The bringing forward of three separate metropolitan claims through Gabriel Powill on the same sitting, with the operative authority running back through the late Captain George Hoskison who had died over three years earlier on 6 March 1712, suggested that Powill had been accumulating these matters for collective presentation rather than addressing them individually. The mechanism by which metropolitan creditors continued to use the late Hoskison's letters of attorney through Powill as his substitute indicated the operative durability of these arrangements beyond the death of the original attorney. The form of the present consultations, with three separate claims handled in succession against three different families, reflected the bench's procedural willingness to dispose of related matters on a single sitting rather than spreading them across successive consultations. The pattern preserved the documentary record of each matter while concentrating the bench's attention on the operative questions presented by each.

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Said Cowill also produced a Letter of Attorney made by Cap[t]: Eustage Peacock to said Hookison & M[r] Hen[ry] Francis to receive of Cap[t]: Mashborne Forty three Pounds Sixteen Shillings & Eight Pence on Acc[t]: of a Protested bill Drawn on M[r]: Sam[ll]: Mashborne in the Strand

M[rs] Mary Mashborne Widow of said Cap[t]: Edward Mashborne Deceased says that she knows nothing more of this matter then that the mony has been paid twice Once to Sam[ll] Mashborne & since then to Cap[t]: Peacocke

St Helena The Gov[r]: Communicated the following Letter (Viz[t])

To the Worsh[ip] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r]: &c. of Union Castle on the Iseland of St Helena.

In Answer to a Letter received by yo[r]: Secretary M[r] Tovey dated the 2. Inst[t]. of yo[r] intention of sending four men that were taken out of the Eagle Gally for Mutiny & designd Pyracy, in order to carry them for London I request that you would take it into Consideration that I haveing several such Sort of Persons on board my own Ship Some being now in Irons for the very same facts, that I do not think it Safe to take them on board to carry them off the Iseland, both for the Interest of the Hon[ble] United East India Comp[a] & the Owners &c

I am S[r] Yo[r] most Hum[ble] Servt to C[o]mand (Signed) Rob[t]: Hurst

From on board the Ship Averilla Riding in St Helena road Aug[st]: y[e] 3: 1715.

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edw: Byfeld

Geo: Haswell

[Is]land

Margin Notes:

Cap[t] Hursts Ans[r] to [the] fore going L[ett]r

Mr Powill also produced a letter of attorney made by Captain Eustace Peacock to Hoskison and Mr Henry Francis, to receive of Captain Mashborne forty three pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence on account of a protested bill drawn on Mr Samuel Mashborne in the Strand.

Mrs Mary Mashborne, widow of Captain Edward Mashborne deceased, said that she knew nothing more of this matter than that the money had been paid twice, once to Samuel Mashborne and since then to Captain Peacock.

The governor communicated the following letter.

The letter was addressed to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and so on, of Union Castle on the Island of St Helena. The writer, in answer to a letter received by the secretary Mr Tovey dated 2 of the instant, regarding the bench's intention of sending four men taken out of the Eagle Galley for mutiny and designed piracy in order to carry them for London, requested that the bench would take it into consideration. He had several such sort of persons on board his own ship, some being now in irons for the very same faults. He did not think it safe to take them on board to carry them off the island, both for the interest of the Honourable United East India Company and the owners.

The letter was signed Robert Hurst, the writer's most humble servant to command, from on board the ship Avarilla riding in St Helena road, August 3, 1715.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Captain Hurst's answer to the foregoing letter.

The consultation was signed by George Haswell, Antipas Tovey, Edward Byfield and Pyke.

Interpretations

The Captain Eustace Peacock letter of attorney represented the fourth and final metropolitan claim presented by Gabriel Powill at the present sitting. The mechanism by which a protested bill drawn on a Samuel Mashborne in the Strand was being pursued through Captain Edward Mashborne at the island, with the operative authority running through both the late Hoskison and Henry Francis as joint attorneys, illustrated the complex documentary chains by which metropolitan financial instruments were enforced through colonial establishments. The sum of forty three pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence represented a substantial single bill, comparable to the amount of forty pounds annual salary for the garrison surgeon William Porteous set on 3 November 1713. The widow Mary Mashborne's response that the money had been paid twice, once to Samuel Mashborne and since then to Captain Peacock, supplied the operative defence against the present demand. The pattern illustrated the operative risk of double payment in long-distance debt collection, where the same sum could be pursued through different channels by different agents.

The Captain Robert Hurst letter refusing to take the Eagle Galley prisoners on board the Avarilla marked the operative collapse of the bench's planned disposal of the matter. The bench had at the consultation of 19 July 1715 told the prisoners that they could not be discharged until a ship bound for England arrived. The Avarilla had arrived on 1 August 1715, and the bench had moved promptly to despatch the prisoners by her at the consultation of 2 August 1715. The Hurst refusal, on the ground that he had several persons of the same character already in irons on his own ship for the same faults, identified the operative pattern of disaffection among the East India shipping not as a peculiarity of the Eagle Galley but as a broader phenomenon affecting multiple vessels in the trade. The captain's invocation of both the Company's interest and the owners' interest as the operative ground for his refusal placed the matter on the standing footing of commercial risk to the cargo and the safe completion of the voyage.

The cumulative effect of the four warrant officer prisoners now joined by several others already in irons on the Avarilla would have been to convert that ship into a transport for disaffected mariners on a single homeward voyage. The captain's calculation that this would not be safe, with the disaffected men under restraint potentially outnumbering or coordinating against the loyal crew, reflected the operative dynamics of shipboard discipline. The bench's documentary preparation across the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715, with the careful assembly of depositions from the chief mate William Hanray, the third mate George Taylor, the midshipman Jacob Franklin, the gunner's mate William Ballaird, the purser John Gerrard and the second mate William Taylor, would now have to await a future homeward sailing for its operative purpose.

The dating of the Hurst letter from on board the ship Avarilla on 3 August 1715, with its delivery to the bench in time for the present consultation, marked the rapid turnaround on the question. The bench's letter to Hurst of 2 August 1715, signed by Antipas Tovey as the bench's most humble servant, had been delivered to the captain on board ship the same day or the following day. The captain's reply, framed in terms of consideration of the broader Company and owners' interests, had been returned within twenty-four hours. The pattern illustrated the operative speed of correspondence between the bench and the road during shipping calls, and the practical difficulties of disposing of contentious matters on the short period that ships remained at anchor.

Speculations

Captain Hurst's refusal to take the Eagle Galley prisoners, with his disclosure that he had several persons of the same character already in irons on his own ship, opened the operative question of the broader pattern of disaffection in the East India trade. The chief mate William Hanray's evidence of 29 June 1715, that there were twenty men on board the Eagle Galley who had subscribed a round-robin paper and had been very intimate with the boatswain Thomas Frances, had suggested that organised disaffection on Indiamen was a substantial phenomenon. The intelligence from Captain Pinnell of the Susanna and Captain Lidon of the Mercury on the prior bad character of the Eagle Galley's company, together with the present Avarilla evidence, indicated that the pattern of warrant officer factions and lower-deck disaffection was familiar across the trade. The bench's documentary record on the Eagle Galley matter would now serve as a contribution to the broader metropolitan understanding of the phenomenon when eventually transmitted, even if the prisoners themselves were detained longer at the island.

The bench's continuing problem of disposal of the four prisoners after the Hurst refusal would now have to be addressed through subsequent shipping. The next operative opportunity would depend on the arrival of further Indiamen at the island, with the bench needing to find a commander either with fewer disaffected persons of his own already on board, or with sufficient confidence in his ship's discipline to accept the additional risk. The prisoners themselves remained under the operative arrangement set out in the bench's answer of 19 July 1715, with the offer of release standing for any who would discover the intrigue of robbing and attempting to destroy the ship. The continuing confinement of the four principals on the island, with no immediate prospect of transmission home, supplied the standing pressure under which any disclosure might come forward, and the bench would now be in a position to weigh any future offer of cooperation by one of the four against the practical difficulties of their continued maintenance on the island.

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Island St Helena At a Consultation Held on Tuesday the 9 of August 1715. At the Union Castle in James Valley. Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] George Haswell Dep[ty] Pres[t] Mathew Bazett 3 Antipas Tovey 4 & Edward Byfeld 5 in Council

Order[d]

That William Wells the Trumpeter of the Eagle Galley be sent on board the Averilla, and that an order be sent to Cap[t]: Rob[t]: Hurst to take him, which was as foll[o] (Viz[t])

Cap[t] Rob[t] Hurst

Wee desire and Order you to take on Board y[o]r Ship Averilla W[m] Wells and Carry him to London in y[o]r Ship and not to Discharge him there untill the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Packett be Delivered to them which Contains the reasons of Our detaining him here till now, and of Sending him home by you,

Yo[r] Compliance herewith will be for the Hon[ble] Comp[as] Interest & the Publick good He haveing been Charged & Accused on Oath before us for divers Fellonious & Pyratical designs and for being foynd with divers others in a Conspiracy together to destroy or Steal away the Ship Eagle Galley

We are Y[o]r Hum[ble] Serv[ts]

(Sign[d]) Mett: Bazett Isaac Pyke Antipas Tovey George Haswell Edw[o]: Byfeld

Union Castle Iseland St Helena Aug[st] 9: 1715.

The Gov[r]: Reports that the Purser of this Ship the Averilla, has been with him to desire a bill home upon the Hon[ble] Comp[as]. for 28[s] which he Profers to Cap[t] in Presently in Dollars

Thee

Margin Notes:

L[ett]r to Cap[t] Hurst to take W[m] Wells

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 9 of August 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The council ordered that William Wells, the trumpeter of the Eagle Galley, be sent on board the Avarilla, and that an order be sent to Captain Robert Hurst to take him, which was as followeth.

The letter was addressed to Captain Robert Hurst. The bench desired and ordered him to take on board his ship Avarilla William Wells, and to carry him to London in his ship and not to discharge him there until the Honourable Company's packet should be delivered to them, which contained the reasons of the bench detaining him there till now, and of sending him home by Hurst.

The bench's compliance herewith would be for the Honourable Company's interest and the public good. Wells had been charged and accused on oath before the bench for divers felonious and piratical designs, and for being joined with divers others in a conspiracy together to destroy or steal away the ship Eagle Galley.

The letter was dated at the Union Castle on the island of St Helena 9 August 1715. The writers were the bench's most humble servants, signed Matthew Bazett, Antipas Tovey, Edward Byfield, Isaac Pyke and George Haswell.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the letter to Captain Hurst to take William Wells.

Start of crossed out section

The governor reported that the purser of the Avarilla had been with him to desire a bill home upon the Honourable Company for twenty eight [...], which he proposed to pay in presently in dollars [...]

End of crossed out section

Interpretations

The selection of William Wells alone for transmission home, after the failure of the original four-prisoner request, marked the bench's operative adjustment to Captain Hurst's refusal of 3 August 1715. The captain had refused to take the four prisoners on the ground that he had several persons of the same character already in irons on his own ship. By reducing the demand to a single prisoner, the bench presented the captain with a less burdensome request that he might find easier to accommodate. The selection of Wells the trumpeter rather than one of the other three principals reflected the bench's calculation of operative risk on board ship: the boatswain Thomas Frances and the gunner Thomas Clark each held operative knowledge of their respective parts of the ship that would have made them more dangerous in irons among a disaffected company, and the doctor's mate Alexander Adair held the mobile access to every part of the ship that the chief mate William Hanray had identified on 29 June 1715. The trumpeter held the office of the ship's voice rather than of operative command, and would have presented less direct risk to the discipline of the receiving vessel.

The framing of the letter to Captain Hurst, with Wells charged on oath for divers felonious and piratical designs and for being joined in a conspiracy together to destroy or steal away the ship Eagle Galley, fixed the operative legal characterisation on the documentary record. The shift in language across the present sittings, from sedition in the depositions of the chief mate William Hanray and the purser John Gerrard at the consultations of 29 June 1715 and 2 July 1715, through mutiny and designed piracy in the bench's letter to Hurst of 2 August 1715, to the present formulation of felonious and piratical designs, traced the operative escalation of the bench's settled view of the offence. The phrase to destroy or steal away identified the two operative possibilities that the conspiracy had contemplated, with the lighted match in the powder room at Batavia of late May 1714 representing the destructive intent and the chief mate's reading of the design to seize the ship representing the alternative course.

The signing of the letter by all five councillors, with the bench's full collective authority placed under the single order, marked a moment of complete unity on the operative matter. The pattern departed from the selective signing observed across the present sittings, in which the protest against Captain Mawson of 11 June 1715 had been signed by Pyke, Tovey and Byfield without Haswell or Bazett, the consultation of 14 June 1715 had been signed by Pyke, Haswell, Tovey and Byfield without Bazett, and the consultation of 29 June 1715 covering the Eagle Galley mutiny inquiry had been signed by Pyke, Haswell, Tovey and Byfield without Bazett. The placing of Captain Bazett's signature on the present letter alongside the rest indicated that on this particular operative matter the bench had assembled its complete collective authority before the captain.

The cancelled opening of the Avarilla purser's business marked an operative beginning of a matter that the clerk subsequently struck through, perhaps because the substance of the purser's request was to be entered in fuller form later in the consultation or under a different procedural framing. The bench had at the consultation of 19 July 1715 first called for proposals to prevent the drawing of bills of exchange on the Honourable Masters, with the matter renewed at the consultation of 26 July 1715 in the context of each councillor bringing in written proposals. The present arrival of an Avarilla purser seeking a bill home for twenty eight, with payment offered presently in dollars at the island, placed the operative reform question directly against a real transaction.

Speculations

The bench's choice of William Wells alone, after the failure of the four-prisoner request, may have reflected a deliberate strategy of separating the warrant officer faction by removing its weakest member from the operative ground of mutual reinforcement. The chief mate William Hanray's evidence of 29 June 1715 had identified Wells as a ringleader and one of the first fomenters of divisions, but the same evidence had placed the boatswain, the gunner and the doctor's mate as the principal contrivers of the operative scheme. By transmitting Wells home for trial in London, the bench would have left the three remaining principals on the island under continued confinement, with the operative ground of mutual support reduced by one. The pattern of separating co-conspirators to break their solidarity was consistent with the standing offer of release made at the consultation of 19 July 1715 to any one of the four who would discover the intrigue of robbing and attempting to destroy the ship.

The cancellation of the Avarilla purser's business in the consultation book, with the substance of the request struck through after entry, suggested that the bench had decided to handle the matter through a different procedural form. The connection between the purser's request for a bill home and the standing call for proposals to prevent the drawing of bills, made at the consultation of 19 July 1715 and renewed at the consultation of 26 July 1715, indicated that the bench would treat the present transaction as a test case for the operative reform under preparation. The choice to cancel the cursory entry and to handle the matter more carefully elsewhere fitted the bench's broader pattern of careful documentary practice on financial matters, with the operative form of the eventual entry to be determined by the substantive resolution of the reform question.

560

551

The Gov[r]: sayeth he told him they could make no Such bill because we have Lately made an Ord[r] to draw no Bills home but upon very extraordinary occasions,

The Purser then told him he had Occasion for a Small bill being unwilling to Carry his mony aboard again & if the Gov[r] would take the mony he was willing to take half of it out in Goods Viz[t]: Wine, Butter, & Bread if Wee would give him a bill for the other half

Whereupon Seeing he is so desireous of a bill & is willing to lay half out in Such Goods We hope the mony will be Some little advantage to us against. We come to Pay the Soldiers in mony

Therefore It is agreed That he may Leave his Twenty Eight Pound here, he taking one half in Goods & shall have a bill for the Remainder

Order[d] that whereas in Our Gen[ll]: Letter to the Hon[ble]: Comp[as]. We have mentioned the drawing of no Bills upon Our Hon[ble] Masters this time, yet not =withstanding that it be added by way of Postscript the Reason of our drawing this small bill

The Gov[r]: sayeth he has Just now rec[d] the following Letter from M[r]: Worrall (Viz[t])

Worsh[ip] S[r] I Sent to Rob[t] Gurling for Yams & have brought away 11 weight they Proved So very bad I gave them to the Hoggs So I desire to know were I Shall bring the next from.

I am S[r] Yo[r]. Hum[ble]: Serv[t]:

Aug[st]: 9: 1715 W[m]: Worrall.

The Gov[r]: sayeth that this Gurling is one of those men mention[d] in the report of the 2 Nov[r] last but Since his Yams proves bad that they are of no Service to us he thinks it fitt the [s]d Gurling should have notice given him to pay the Hon[ble] Comp[as] debt some other way,

It is Ordered that M[r]: Tovey send him a Lett[r] accordingly,

The

Margin Notes:

Gurlings Yams bad.

to buy no More

The governor said he had told the purser that the bench could make no such bill, because they had lately made an order to draw no bills home but upon very extraordinary occasions.

The purser then told him he had occasion for a small bill, being unwilling to carry his money aboard again. If the governor would take the money he was willing to take half of it out in goods, namely wine, butter and bread, if the bench would give him a bill for the other half.

Start of crossed out section

Whereupon seeing he was so desirous of a bill, and willing to lay half out in such goods, the bench hoped the money would be some little advantage to them against they came to pay the soldiers in money. It was therefore agreed that he might leave his twenty eight pound here, he taking one half in goods, and should have a bill for the remainder. The council ordered that, whereas in the bench's general letter to the Honourable Company they had mentioned the drawing of no bills upon the Honourable Masters this time, yet notwithstanding it be added by way of postscript the reason of the bench drawing this small bill.

End of crossed out section

The governor said he had just then received the following letter from Mr Worrall.

The letter was addressed to the worshipful governor. The writer had sent to Robert Gurling for yams, and had brought away eight hundredweight, which proved so very bad that he had given them to the hogs. He desired to know where he should bring the next from. The letter was dated 9 August 1715, signed Mr Worrall as the governor's most humble servant.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Gurling yams bad.

The governor said that this Gurling was one of those men mentioned in the report of the 2 November. Since his yams proved bad and that they were of no service to the bench, he thought it fit that Gurling should have notice given to him to pay the Honourable Company's debt some other way.

The council ordered that Mr Tovey send him a letter accordingly.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as to buy no more.

Interpretations

The bench's refusal of the Avarilla purser's request for a bill home, on the ground that an order had lately been made to draw no bills home but upon very extraordinary occasions, established the operative effect of the bills-of-exchange reform first opened at the consultation of 19 July 1715. The bench's call for proposals at that earlier sitting, renewed at the consultation of 26 July 1715 with the requirement that each councillor bring in something in writing, had now produced the standing order that supplied the operative ground for the present refusal. The order itself had not been entered in the recovered material, perhaps falling outside the consultations now visible, but its operative force was clear from the governor's reliance on it as the ground for refusing the purser's first request.

The cancellation of the bench's subsequent willingness to grant the purser a partial bill, with the half-in-goods compromise initially accepted and then struck through, marked an operative second thought on the same matter. The pattern indicated that the bench had on first reflection considered the compromise sufficient to justify a small bill, but had on further reflection concluded that even the small bill would compromise the operative principle just established. The decision to strike through the entry preserved the documentary record of the bench's considered position, while the cancellation removed the operative effect of the proposed compromise. The form of the entry, with the proposed postscript to the general letter explaining the reason for drawing the small bill, would have committed the bench to a particular framing of its own reform in the homeward despatch, and the cancellation perhaps reflected the bench's preference for a cleaner statement of policy without the contradictory exception.

The Worrall letter on the Gurling yams marked the operative continuation of the yam-quality difficulties first observed in the John Long complaint of 25 July 1715. The Worrall report that the eight hundredweight of yams brought from Robert Gurling had proved so very bad that he had given them to the hogs, taken with the bench's earlier finding on 25 July 1715 that John Long's yams were only fit for hogs, suggested an operative pattern in which the principal yam suppliers to the Company were now delivering produce below the standing quality required for the slaves' diet. The dependence on Worrall's judgement on the spot, with the overseer's discretion to give the bad yams to the hogs rather than to the slaves at the Hutts, reflected the operative trust the bench had placed in his stewardship since his appointment on 5 April 1715.

The bench's order on Robert Gurling to pay the Honourable Company's debt some other way placed Gurling on the same operative footing as John Long after the consultation of 25 July 1715. The pattern of debt settlement in yams had now broken down in two successive cases, with the bench requiring both planters to find alternative means of discharging their debts. The reference to the report of the 2 November identified Gurling as one of the persons named in an earlier consultation, perhaps among those debtors whose proposals had been considered under the advertisement of 14 September 1714 mentioned at the consultation of 2 August 1715 in the Robinson business. The connection of the Gurling household with the bench's recurring business across the records, with Robert Gurling having stood among the executor of the Charles Steward estate together with Gabriel Powell, placed the present matter within a broader pattern of dealings.

Speculations

The bench's cancellation of the compromise on the purser's bill, after the initial willingness to grant a small bill with the half-in-goods arrangement, suggested an operative tension between the practical advantages of the proposed transaction and the principle of strict adherence to the new bills-of-exchange policy. The argument advanced in the cancelled entry, that the money would be some little advantage against the bench's need to pay the soldiers in money, identified the operative cash-flow consideration that would have justified the small bill. The cancellation indicated that on reflection the bench preferred the longer-term institutional discipline of refusing all bills except on very extraordinary occasions to the short-term operational convenience of accepting the purser's funds. The pattern marked a deliberate institutional choice by the bench to prioritise the operative reform over the immediate practical interest.

The systematic refusal of yams from substantial suppliers across successive sittings, with John Long on 25 July 1715 and Robert Gurling on the present consultation both being told to pay their Company debts some other way, suggested that the bench had identified an operative pattern of planters supplying inferior yams in settlement of debt while reserving better stock for other purposes. The bench's broader response, with the Worrall stock returns establishing the operative basis on which the Company's own yam supply was now adequate to meet the establishment's needs, supplied the operative ground on which inferior supplies from planters could be rejected. The pattern indicated the bench's developing operative leverage over the planter community in matters of debt settlement, with the standing acceptance of yams in lieu of cash now giving way to a more selective regime in which the quality of the goods offered would determine whether the bench would accept them at all.

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552

The following Petitions were Presented viz[t]

Island St Helena To the Worsh[ip] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r]: &c. Council

The most Humble Petetion of W[m]: Porteous Surgeon Humbly,

Sheweth That whereas yo[r]: Petition[r] hath a Black Girle of the Hon[ble]: Comp[as]: whom he has brought up from a Child & has not had the benefitt of any Service from her till of Late but have been at great Charge & Expence in Provideing her w[th] Cloaths & Victualls both very dear and for that the said Girle being now Capable of doing yo[r] Petition[r] some Service in tending my young Child being at present destitute of any such Asistance Humbly prays yo[r] Worshp & Council to lett yo[r] said Petition[r] have the Girle one year longer which will be a favour to be acknowledged by yo[r] Petition[r]

Who (as in Duty bound) shall ever Pray

William Porteous

Granted

Island St Helena To the Worsh[ip] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r]: &c and Councill

The most Humble Petition of Tho[s]: Southen Serjant most Humbly,

Sheweth That forasmuch as yo[r]. Petition[r] being quite destitute & without the Least Benefitt of any Pastur =rage for his Cattle & haveing not one foot of any manner of Land that he can Claim as his own and Else Humbly begs yo[r] Worsh[ip] &c. Council would be pleased (out of yo[r] goodness to grant yo[r] said Petition[r]: a Lease or Parcell of the Hon[ble]: Comp[as] wast Land lying near the High Peak (there being none Else that lyes Com[m]on within Severall miles yo[r] Petition[r]: habitation) which will be no way Prejudiciall to any person Humbly representing that if the Least dry weather should happen (yo[r] Petition[r]: liveing in the out parts of the Iseland)

among

Margin Notes:

Sheweth

Granted

Sheweth

Tho[s] Southen[s] pet[t] to hire Land

The following petitions were presented.

The most humble petition of William Porteous, surgeon, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and Council. The petitioner had a black girl belonging to the Honourable Company, whom he had brought up from a child and had not had the benefit of any service from her till of late. He had been at great charge and expense in providing her with clothes and victuals, both very dear. The girl was now capable of doing some service in tending his young child, who was at present destitute of any such assistance. He humbly prayed the council to let the petitioner have the girl one year longer, which would be a favour to be acknowledged. The petition closed with the writer's expression of being in duty bound to ever pray, signed William Porteous.

The council granted the petition.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Porteous's petition.

The most humble petition of Thomas Soulhen, sergeant, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and Council. The petitioner was quite destitute and without the least benefit of any pasturage for his cattle, having not one foot of any manner of land that he could claim as his own or any else's. He humbly begged that the council would be pleased of their goodness to grant him a lease of a parcel of the Honourable Company's waste land lying near the High Peak, there being none else that lay common within several miles of the petitioner's habitation. This would be no way prejudicial to any person. He humbly represented that, if the least dry weather should happen, he, living in the out parts of the island [...]

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Sergeant Soulhen's petition to hire land.

Interpretations

The William Porteous petition continued the operative pattern of councillors and Company servants holding Company slaves in private service on a term basis, recently observed in the orders of 26 July 1715 by which Captain Haswell had been granted Daniel and Mary for three years and Mr Byfield had been granted Tom for the same term. The Porteous arrangement was older, with the surgeon having brought up the girl from a child and now seeking only a one-year extension of an existing arrangement. The connection to the broader documentary review ordered on 26 July 1715, in which Mr Tovey had been directed to enquire and bring in an account of what black boys or girls of the Honourable Company had been put out and to whom, identified the Porteous petition as one of the cases that the bench's enquiry would have brought to attention. The petition's emphasis on the petitioner's expense in providing clothes and victuals supplied the operative ground on which the bench had granted further time, with the surgeon's claim of recovered value in the girl's recent service balancing against the years of unrecouped maintenance.

The petitioner's standing as garrison surgeon supplied the operative context for the bench's response. William Porteous had received the substantive salary settlement of 3 November 1713, raised to forty pounds per year with house rent included, after almost six years of service without his predecessor's salary and thirty pounds of his own expenditure on lodging. The renewed petition of 25 January 1714/15 had brought the surgeon's allowances onto the bench's books for further consideration. The present petition for the continuation of the slave girl's service to tend the surgeon's young child fitted within the operative pattern of accommodations made to senior establishment servants whose own household required practical support. The bench's prompt grant of the petition, without referral or further inquiry, marked the operative trust placed in the surgeon's representation of his domestic circumstances.

The Thomas Soulhen petition for waste land near the High Peak continued a recurring pattern of pasturage applications observed across the records. Soulhen had on 23 November 1711 been granted an adjoining barren rock, and on 8 April 1712 had been confirmed in his own property and granted a six-months' extension on a ten-acre Company leasehold. The earlier petition of 9 December 1712 for High Peak pasture had been refused. The present petition repeated the application for High Peak land on the operative ground that the petitioner had no pasture for his cattle and that the parcel in question lay common with none else within several miles of his habitation. The pattern of repeated application by the same petitioner for the same land identified the operative persistence required in matters of pasturage grant, with the petitioner's circumstances perhaps having shifted since the earlier refusal in ways that might now support a different decision.

The standing letting conditions laid down by the bench on 24 May 1715 on the refusal of Christopher Hell's petition for the Man Cupps had established the operative test by which any letting of Company land was to be judged. The conditions required that the tenant must be able to manure the land, must hold at least one black for the labour, and must not be too deep in the Honourable Company's debt. The Soulhen petition would need to be measured against these standing conditions. The petitioner's identified holdings across the records, with the church rate position of three in January 1714/15 marking a modest establishment, suggested a household with limited resources for substantial new land development. The bench's response would depend on whether the operative use of the land for pasture, rather than for cultivation, might fall outside the manuring requirement that had been framed for arable holdings.

Speculations

The William Porteous petition's framing in terms of his young child's needs, with the slave girl tending the child as the operative reason for the requested extension, suggested that the bench's grant rested on the welfare of the child rather than on the operative merits of the petitioner's claim to further service from the slave. The Tovey enquiry ordered on 26 July 1715 would in due course identify the operative position of Company slaves put out to private holders, and the bench's standing principle had been that slaves whose contracted time had expired should be put to the Company's works. The Porteous grant for one further year created a defined extension within which the operative position could be reviewed at the end of the term, in keeping with the bench's general practice of fixed-term arrangements for slaves in private service. The pattern indicated the bench's willingness to balance the institutional preference for recall against the practical hardship that would follow from immediate withdrawal of the slave from a household that depended on her service.

The Thomas Soulhen petition's emphasis on the absence of any common land within several miles of his habitation, with the operative consequence that his cattle had no pasture, framed the matter as one of immediate practical necessity rather than of speculative acquisition. The petitioner's reference to the prospect of dry weather, with the further operative consequence of cattle losses for a household living in the out parts of the island, sought to anchor the petition in the standing concerns of the bench about herd preservation under the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715. The framing represented an operative effort to align the petitioner's individual application with the bench's broader institutional priorities, in the calculation that grants supporting the herd-building programme might be considered more favourably than grants for cultivation. The pattern was consistent with the operative method observed in other petitions across the present sittings, where applicants had framed their requests in terms that matched the bench's known standing concerns.

562

553

among Rocks and useless Land) his Cattle which is the Only Dependance to support so Large a Familie as he hath will be Inevitably Staring & your said Petition[r]: & Familie for Ever Ruind or Else must of necesity be Obliged to putt his Cattle into his Plantation & will then destroy not only the Provisions but young Wood Planted according to the former Law in that Case

Wherefore begs heartily for a favourable and Kind Answer & Grant of said Land

And as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray &c (Sign[d]) Tho[s]: Southen

A Petition of this Nature haveing been preferrd to us on y[e]: 24: of May 1715. by Richard Gurling it is thought Proper to make the same Order therein at this time as we made then (Viz[t])

Let this Land be Surveyed & Enquiry be made wether y[e] Letting of this Land may be any prejudice to the Hon[ble] Comp[a] also that enquirey be made how much Land he Possesses.

I Pyke

Geo: Haswell

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

Ord[r] thereon.

The Thomas Soulhen petition continued. He lived in the out parts of the island, among rocks and useless land. His cattle, which were the only dependence to support so large a family as he had, would be inevitably starved to the petitioner's family for ever ruined. Or else he must of necessity be obliged to put his cattle into his plantation, and would then destroy not only the provisions but also the young wood planted according to the former law in that case.

He therefore begged heartily for a favourable and kind answer and grant of the said land. The petition closed with the writer's expression of being in duty bound to ever pray, signed Thomas Soulhen.

A petition of this nature having been preferred on the 24 of May 1715 by Richard Gurling, it was thought proper to make the same order therein at this time as had been made then.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the order on Soulhen's petition.

The council ordered that the land be surveyed, and enquiry made whether the letting of the land might be any prejudice to the Honourable Company. Enquiry was also to be made how much land he possessed.

The consultation was signed by Isaac Pyke, George Haswell, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The bench's order on Soulhen's petition followed the operative procedure established on 24 May 1715 for the Richard Gurling High Peak pasture petition. The Gurling petition had on that occasion been for a parcel of Company waste land underneath the Company's plantation at High Peak for pasturage to preserve his neat cattle, and the bench had ordered the matter referred for survey, with enquiry whether the letting would be any prejudice to the Company and how much land Gurling already possessed. The same operative procedure was now applied to Soulhen's similar petition for High Peak waste land. The pattern marked the bench's consistent application of standard institutional procedures across comparable matters, with the documentary record of the earlier decision serving as the precedent for the present disposition.

The combination of survey and enquiry as the operative form of preliminary investigation supplied the bench with the necessary documentary basis for any subsequent grant decision. The survey would establish the physical extent and character of the parcel sought, while the enquiry whether the letting might be prejudicial to the Company addressed the operative question of whether the land was needed for other Company purposes. The further enquiry into the petitioner's existing holdings completed the assessment under the standing letting conditions laid down on 24 May 1715, which required that the petitioner should not be too deep in the Company's debt and supplied the practical test against which any prospective grant would be measured.

The operative consequence of the bench's procedure was to place the burden of the practical investigation on the surveyors and the enquiring officers, with the council retaining the final decision but on the strength of documented findings rather than on direct evidence at the consultation. The bench's choice of officers for the survey and enquiry had not been recorded in the present consultation, but the pattern of recent practice indicated the deployment of junior councillors for such work. The Francis waste land petition of 31 May 1715 had been referred to Bazett and Byfield to view the place and observe if granting might be any prejudice to the Honourable Masters. The Vesey-Harding fencing dispute of 12 July 1715 had been entrusted to the bench's broader oversight of fencing standards across the island. The present matter would be handled through similar operative arrangements once the survey officers were appointed.

The petitioner's particular framing of his situation, with the alternative cast as either his cattle starving or his being forced to enclose them within his plantation to the destruction of provisions and young wood planted according to the former law, placed the petition under the operative concerns of both the cow-saving order of 7 June 1715 and the broader programme of plantation establishment. The former law to which the petitioner referred would have been the standing requirement, observed across the records, that planters maintain young wood and provisions plantings as part of the responsible management of their holdings. The petitioner's framing brought the present petition under the operative protection of these standing institutional priorities, with the grant of pasturage land presented as the means by which both the cattle and the plantation could be preserved.

Speculations

The bench's choice to apply the same procedural disposition to the Soulhen petition as had been applied to the Richard Gurling petition of 24 May 1715 suggested an operative pattern in which High Peak pasturage applications would be treated under a standing procedure rather than on the individual merits of each petitioner. The pattern offered the operative advantage of consistency across comparable matters, with the bench's preliminary procedure fixed regardless of the petitioner's particular circumstances or relationship with the council. The mechanism also served to defer the substantive decision to a later sitting, when the survey and enquiry reports would supply the operative basis for a documented response. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader practice across the present sittings of building documentary chains before substantive decisions, observed in the Francis waste land petition of 31 May 1715 and in the more complex examples of the Eagle Galley mutiny inquiry and the Cardonnell cargo dispute.

The reference to the petitioner's young wood planted according to the former law identified the operative standing of plantation forestry within the island's institutional framework. The cultivation of trees within plantations had been a matter of standing concern across the records, with various orders and arrangements designed to ensure the maintenance of timber resources for the island. The Bagley carpenter petition of 8 April 1712 had sought confirmation of land planted with wood and fenced according to law, illustrating the operative form by which plantation forestry was recognised by the bench. The petitioner's invocation of the same standing law as the operative reason why he could not safely enclose his cattle in his plantation suggested the practical tension between cattle husbandry and plantation forestry within a single holding, and the operative case for pasturage on Company waste land as the means of preserving both.

563

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Island St Helena

At a Consultation held on Saturday the 13: of August 1715. At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r] Matthew Bazett Pres[t] Antipas Tovey & Edward Byfeld

Jepthah Fowler complains against Mary his Wife & Sayeth that yesterday afternoon he going home to Eat his Dinner found Andrew Berg along w[th]: his Wife a Drinking of Punch with her, that they Shutt the Door & his Wife then Incowraged the said Berg to beat him and Berg did beat him & broke his head & bruised him so that he is in great pain

D[r] Porteous sayes he dressed Jepthah Fowlers head Last night and it was broke in three Places & bruised halfe over in a dangerous maner.

Andrew Berg denyed this till he swore it & then sayed the other beat him first but Fowler is a weakly man in Comparison with the other & has noe hurt and the other is much bruised

Mary Fowler Says she knows not nether Berg beat her husband or no but Fowler charged his Wife also for Setting by while he was beat & saying all is faire She was Drunk Last night w[th] brought before the Govern[r] & is Scarcely Sober yet Ordered

That Andrew Berg pay Twenty Shillings to Fowler & pay besides for the Cyre and to Ride the Wooden Horse, two Hours,

And that Mary Fowler also Ride one hour before the Cooper & then be Ducktt

The

Margin Notes:

Fowler compl[ts] ag[s]t his Wife & And: Bergs

their punish[m]t.

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Saturday the 13 of August 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Jeptha Fowler complained against Mary, his wife, and said that the afternoon before, going home to eat his dinner, he had found Andrew Berg along with his wife a-drinking of punch with her. They had shut the door, and his wife had then encouraged Berg to beat him. Berg had beaten him, broken his head and bruised him, so that he was in great pain.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Fowler's complaint against his wife and Andrew Berg.

Dr Porteous said he had dressed Jeptha Fowler's head the night before, and it was broken in three places and bruised half over in a dangerous manner.

Andrew Berg denied this till he swore it, and then said the other had beaten him first. But Fowler was a weakly man in comparison with the other, and had no hurt, while the other was much bruised.

Mary Fowler said she did not know whether Berg had beaten her husband or not, but Fowler charged his wife also for sitting by while he was beaten, and saying all is fair. She had been drunk the night before, when she was brought before the governor, and was scarcely sober yet.

The council ordered that Andrew Berg pay twenty shillings to Fowler, and pay besides for the cure. He was also to ride the wooden horse for two hours.

Mary Fowler was also to ride one hour before the cooper, and then to be ducked.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as their punishment.

[...]

Interpretations

The complaint by Jeptha Fowler against his wife and Andrew Berg opened a domestic and disciplinary matter combining the operative grounds of assault and adultery. The pattern of finding a man drinking punch with one's wife behind a shut door, with the wife encouraging the man to beat the husband and the husband then beaten and bruised, marked the operative form by which extramarital relations and physical assault came together in a single incident. The bench's choice to handle the matter directly rather than refer it to formal proceedings reflected its consistent practice across the present sittings of disposing of contentious domestic and disciplinary matters through summary conciliar order.

The medical evidence of Dr William Porteous, the garrison surgeon, supplied the operative documentary basis for the bench's finding of fact on the assault. Porteous had on 3 November 1713 received the salary settlement of forty pounds per year with house rent included, and his standing as the establishment's principal medical officer gave his evidence on the extent of injury particular weight. The reference to Fowler's head being broken in three places and bruised half over in a dangerous manner placed the operative gravity of the assault on the documentary record, supplying the basis on which the substantial penalty against Berg was framed.

Andrew Berg appeared in the records as Andrew Bergh or Andrew Bernwick, the cooper and coxswain whose petition for departure on the Eagle Galley had been refused on 11 June 1715 for want of another cooper, with leave promised as soon as a replacement could be obtained. Berg had been at the island on the Company's establishment for nearly four years, having been left from HMS Oxford on 17 July 1711 sick with the scurvy. The present matter therefore involved a Company servant whose retention at the island had been a matter of operative necessity to the establishment, and whose conduct now brought him before the bench under a serious charge. The Septha Fowler bill of sale recorded earlier, with a house in Southwark Street, James Valley, presented to John Sinsnick by Septha Fowler on 2 December 1714, established the broader Fowler connection in the recovered material, though the present Jeptha Fowler may have been a different individual.

The bench's order combined financial penalty with public corporal discipline. The twenty shillings payable by Berg to Fowler, with the additional payment for the cure performed by Dr Porteous, supplied the compensatory element of the order. The two hours of riding the wooden horse, with Mary Fowler's one hour before the cooper and subsequent ducking, applied the operative forms of public shame and physical discomfort used at the island for moral and disciplinary offences. The wooden horse was a punishment device on which the offender was made to sit astride a sharp wooden ridge, sometimes with weights tied to the legs, producing both pain and public humiliation. Ducking was the operative punishment for women under the formal designation of a scold, in which the offender was bound to a stool and lowered into water.

Speculations

The bench's choice to combine fine, payment for the cure and corporal punishment in a single order, with different forms of punishment for the male and female parties, reflected the operative calibration of penalty to offence under the standing assumptions of the establishment. The fine against Berg of twenty shillings represented the standing rate, and the additional liability for the surgeon's cure placed the operative principle that the assailant bore the practical costs of the injury. The riding of the wooden horse for two hours represented the public discipline for the man, while the ducking for the woman represented the equivalent public discipline for the female offender. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader operative method of imposing physical penalties that reinforced the social ordering of the establishment, with the visibility of the punishment serving the wider purpose of moral example.

The placing of the ducking punishment after the riding before the cooper suggested an operative coupling of Mary Fowler's punishment to Andrew Berg's occupation, with the cooper as the operative figure before whom she would ride in public discipline. The arrangement may have reflected the bench's purpose of marking the adulterous association by which Berg the cooper and Mary Fowler had been brought together, with the public order requiring her to ride before her partner in the offence before undergoing her own physical discipline. The form gave the punishment a particular operative shape tied to the specific facts of the case, rather than imposing a generic discipline on the female offender. The Andrew Bergh petition for departure of 11 June 1715, refused on the ground that no replacement cooper could be obtained, would now have the further operative ground that the cooper's conduct had brought him under the bench's discipline.

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555

The reason of this Punnishment being because beside the Present quarrell he has a long time kept unlawfull Company with that Woman & therefore

Ordered

Also That they neither come into Each others Company for the future on Pain of being Whipt.

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

not to keep Comp[a]

The reason of this punishment was, because besides the present quarrel, Berg had a long time kept unlawful company with that woman.

The council also ordered that they neither come into each other's company for the future, on pain of being whipped.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as not to keep company.

The consultation was signed by Isaac Pyke, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The bench's stated reason for the punishment placed the operative weight of the order on the long-running unlawful company kept between Andrew Berg and Mary Fowler rather than on the single assault that had brought the matter before the bench. The reference to a long time kept unlawful company identified the offence as a settled course of conduct established over time, with the present quarrel marking only the latest and most violent manifestation of an ongoing pattern. The operative effect was to convert what could have been treated as a single assault case into a more substantial matter of moral discipline, with the punishments calibrated to the cumulative offence rather than to the immediate violence alone.

The further order forbidding the two parties to come into each other's company in the future, on pain of being whipped, established the operative continuing constraint on the conduct of both parties. The mechanism converted the present discipline into a standing order with continuing operative force, much as the order of court forbidding Captain Haswell to reflect on the bench of 10 May 1715 had created a continuing prohibition with the threat of further sanction. The pattern reflected the bench's standing operative method of using single proceedings to establish continuing rules of conduct, supported by the threat of escalating penalty on further breach.

The choice of whipping as the operative penalty for any future breach marked a significant escalation from the present punishments of the wooden horse for Berg and the ducking for Mary Fowler. Whipping at the flagstaff was the standard form of corporal discipline used at the island, observed across the records in such cases as the Bevian forty lashes settled at the general sessions of 7 February 1715, the Moll one hundred lashes ordered on 24 November 1714, the Harmon gardener forty lashes executed on 26 April 1715, and the twenty lashes administered to Ablard for the riotous assault on Lucas Mason within the fort settled on 20 November 1714. The bench's reservation of whipping as the operative penalty for future breach indicated the seriousness with which the standing prohibition was to be regarded by the parties.

The absence of Captain Haswell from the consultation, with Bazett, Tovey and Byfield present alongside the governor and the closing signatures showing Pyke, Tovey and Byfield, continued the pattern of partial attendance observed across the present sittings. The deputy governor's absence from the present matter, with the bench composed of the governor and the three junior councillors, placed the disposal of the moral discipline case under a particular configuration. The pattern of Captain Haswell's absence from contentious matters touching domestic and household disputes was observable across the record, with comparable absences noted on the Elizabeth Swallow petition of 23 July 1715 and elsewhere.

Speculations

The bench's specific reference to the long time over which Berg had kept unlawful company with Mary Fowler suggested that the matter had been known to the bench or to its officers before the present complaint, but had not previously been brought forward for formal disposal. The present occasion of the assault on Jeptha Fowler had supplied the operative trigger for the bench to address what had perhaps been a recognised but unproceeded pattern of conduct on the island. The mechanism by which the assault produced disposal of the broader moral offence reflected the bench's operative practice of using particular incidents to settle wider matters of conduct that would not on their own have justified formal proceedings.

The further constraint imposed on Mary Fowler and Andrew Berg, with the threat of whipping for any future contact, would in practice have placed the operative burden of compliance on a man whose office as cooper and coxswain made him a familiar figure across the establishment and a woman whose place at the island would have brought her into regular public contact with him. The Andrew Bergh standing as the Honourable Company's only cooper, established at the consultation of 11 June 1715, made the cooper's continued discharge of his Company duties indispensable to the operative functioning of the establishment. The prohibition would in practice have required the cooper to maintain visible distance from Mary Fowler in all public places, with the burden of any chance encounter falling on the parties to demonstrate that no breach of the standing order had occurred. The pattern indicated the bench's confidence in its operative authority over individual conduct even in matters of personal association, with the threat of whipping serving as the practical lever by which the standing order would be enforced.

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Iseland St Helena

At a Consultacon Held On Tuesday the 16 of August A: D: 1715. At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Pres[t] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r] Matthew Bazett 4 & Edw: Byfeld 5: in Coun[ll]

M[rs]: Mercey Gargen Widdow of Tho[s] Gargen Deceased brought an Inventory being the Account of the said Deceaseds Estate, at the time of his Decease & Tho[s]: Cason Gent[t] & Jn[o] Coles Planter having made the Appraisement According to the best of their Skill & knowledge were Sworn as Usuall & the Widdow also Sworn that the Inventory is a true Acc[t]: of the said Estate According to the best of her knowledge but Says if she hereafter shall Discover more as she hopes she shall, she will bring in an Account thereof to be Added to the Inventory.

The following Petition was Presented viz[t]:

To The Worsh[ip]: Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Govern[r]: &c. Council

The Humble Petition of Tho[s]: Thompson & Jn[o] O Bryan Sold[rs] Humbly

Sheweth That Whereas yo[r]: Petitioners having done all Duty's at Banks this Eight Months & upwards to their great Detriment by

runing

Margin Notes:

Wid[w] Gargen[s] prov[s] [ap]p[r]aysm[t] &c. & Inventory

Sheweth

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 16 of August 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

Mrs Mercy Gargen, widow of Thomas Gargen deceased, brought an inventory being the account of the deceased's estate at the time of his decease. Thomas Cason, gentleman, and Joseph Coles, planter, had made the appraisement according to the best of their skill and knowledge, and were sworn as usual. The widow also swore that the inventory was a true account of the estate according to the best of her knowledge. She said that if she hereafter should discover more, as she hoped she should, she would bring in an account thereof to be added to the inventory.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as the will of Thomas Gargen proved, approved and inventory taken.

The following petition was presented.

The humble petition of Thomas Thompson and John O'Bryan, soldiers, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and Council. The petitioners, having done all duties at Banks for these eight months and upwards, to their great detriment by running [...]

Interpretations

The Mercy Gargen probate proceedings completed the formal estate administration of Thomas Gargen, with the appraisement under oath by Thomas Cason and Joseph Coles establishing the operative basis of the inventory. The procedure followed the standing form by which deceased estates were administered at the island, with two appraisers acting as sworn officers in the valuation and the widow herself swearing to the truth of the account. The reservation by the widow that she would bring in any further discovery to be added to the inventory preserved the operative flexibility of the account against any property that might be located after the present formal close.

The widow's standing in the records connected the present probate to a longer history of the Gargen household. Marcy Alexander, later Gargen, had originally been the wife of Richard Alexander deceased. She had on 8 October 1711 been granted a twenty-one-year lease of her former husband's seized land under paragraph 82 of the Toddington-Thistleworth letter, and the contested Bagley-Alexander land case had continued into November 1714, with her named John Alexander reply on behalf of the children Rijn, Abigail and Mary Alexander against the Bagley-Swallow papers in the Alexander land case. Her subsequent marriage to Thomas Gargen, and his death now bringing the present probate before the bench, marked the operative continuation of a household whose property arrangements had been before the bench in multiple matters.

The choice of Thomas Cason and Joseph Coles as the operative appraisers placed the valuation under two persons whose standing in the bench's records gave their oath particular weight. Joseph Coles was perhaps the same Joseph Coles whose contract with the Company for stone cutting had been recorded at the consultation of 12 July 1715, with the graduated wage scale rising from two shillings to three shillings per day across the three-year term. The selection of Coles as an appraiser at the present probate, alongside Cason as a gentleman, marked the operative use of skilled persons of established standing for valuation work, with the appraisers expected to apply their practical knowledge to the operative task of fixing the worth of the deceased's goods.

The petition of Thomas Thompson and John O'Bryan, soldiers, returned the bench to a familiar pattern of garrison personnel matters. John O'Bryan was the same soldier identified across the records, with Obriant having on 20 November 1714 been found guilty with Ablard and Thompson of riotously assaulting and wounding Lucas Mason within the fort, with twenty lashes administered to Ablard as the lightest sentence. The petitioners being now Thompson and O'Bryan, the present matter brought before the bench the same two soldiers who had been involved in that earlier riot. Captain Philip had on 20 November 1714 begged off Obriant and Thompson from prison after lashes, with the result that they were discharged from the fort and sent to Banks Fort. The reference in the present petition to having done all duties at Banks for eight months and upwards therefore aligned with the operative consequence of the earlier disciplinary disposition.

Speculations

The Gargen probate represented the closure of an estate whose head had been part of the broader network of property dealings on the island. The note that the appraisement was made by Thomas Cason as gentleman, taken with the choice of Joseph Coles as the planter appraiser, suggested an operative pattern in which gentlemanly standing combined with practical experience supplied the basis for an appraisement that the bench would accept without further inquiry. The probate's prompt disposal at a single consultation, with all the operative documentary elements in place at the same sitting, reflected the well-developed procedural form by which deceased estates were administered at the island.

The Thomas Thompson and John O'Bryan petition, opening on the operative ground of eight months and upwards of duty at Banks Fort to their great detriment by running, would on its full content provide an operative basis for the bench to consider the standing of soldiers on outlying posts. The reference to running suggested the practical wear of physical movement to and from the post over an extended period, with the operative consequence that the soldiers had perhaps not been able to attend to other matters that would normally have supplemented their pay or maintained their personal property. The pattern indicated that the soldiers' transfer to Banks Fort, made in 1714 as the operative continuation of the riot disciplinary disposition, had perhaps become a settled arrangement with cumulative effects on the men. The bench would now be in a position to consider whether some adjustment to their duty was appropriate, in keeping with the broader pattern of conciliar attention to garrison welfare observed across the present sittings.

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runing them in Debt through w[t] means they are Denyed necesarys out of the [s]tore

Therefore yo[r]: Petition[r] humbly begs that your Worshp & Councill will take it into your Serious Consideration & release us from this Imprizonment, that hereby we may be in some Capacity to gett a penney to Pay the Hon[ble] Comp[a] and

Banks Aug[st]: 16: 1715. Yo[r] Petition[rs] (as in Duty Bound) shall Ever Pray &c

Tho[s]: Thompson Jn[o]: O Bryan

Order[d]

That they be Releivd by doeing Duty Weekly & some others Sent every other Week to do Duty there but this Liberty to be no longer than their good behaviour

I Pyke

Antipas Tovey

Edward Byfeld

Margin Notes:

Thompson & OBryan relievd

The petition continued. The duty had been running them into debt, through which means they were denied necessaries out of the stores. They humbly desired that the governor and council would take it into serious consideration and release them from this imprisonment, that thereby they might be in some capacity to get a penny to pay the Honourable Company. The petition was dated at Banks 16 August 1715, and signed Thomas Thompson and John O'Bryan, the petitioners as in duty bound to ever pray.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Thompson and O'Bryan relieved.

The council ordered that they be relieved by doing duty weekly, with some others sent every other week to do duty there. The liberty was to last no longer than their good behaviour.

The consultation was signed by Isaac Pyke, Antipas Tovey and Edward Byfield.

Interpretations

The petitioners' framing of their continuous duty at Banks Fort as a form of imprisonment supplied the operative ground on which the bench was being asked to reconsider their disposition. The reference to debt accumulated through the assignment, with consequent denial of necessaries from the stores, identified the operative mechanism by which extended outlying duty had financial consequences beyond the soldier's standing pay. The soldiers' standing allowance had not been sufficient to maintain them at Banks Fort without their being able to supplement it through other means, and the cumulative effect of eight months and more at the outlying post had brought them into debt to the Company's stores. The further consequence of debt was that the soldiers could no longer draw necessaries from the stores against their continuing pay, since the trusting limits under the Pyke trusting rule of 21 December 1714 had set the operative cap on storekeeper credit.

The bench's order for relief by weekly rotation, with some others sent every other week to do duty at Banks Fort, supplied the operative remedy. The mechanism converted the standing assignment of two particular soldiers into a rotating duty drawn from a wider pool of garrison personnel. The arrangement preserved the operative function of the outlying post while distributing its burden more evenly, with the practical effect of allowing Thompson and O'Bryan to return to the central garrison and to recover their position with the stores. The reservation that the liberty was to last no longer than their good behaviour preserved the operative connection between the present relief and the underlying disciplinary disposition that had led to their assignment to Banks Fort in November 1714.

The original assignment of Thompson and O'Bryan to Banks Fort had followed their conviction on 20 November 1714 of riotously assaulting and wounding Lucas Mason within the fort, in company with Ablard. The arrangement had been brokered through Captain Philip's intercession, which had begged off Obriant and Thompson from prison after lashes, with the result that they had been discharged from the fort proper and sent to Banks Fort. The present order, made nine months after the original disposition, marked the operative conclusion of the period of disciplinary segregation. The fact that the bench was willing to relieve the soldiers from the standing assignment, on the condition of good behaviour, indicated that the practical purpose of the segregation had now been achieved, with the men perhaps judged to have served their period of disciplinary exposure.

The pattern of rotation as the operative substitute for permanent outlying assignment reflected the broader pattern of garrison administration observed across the present sittings. The Sergeant Fairfax disposal of 12 April 1715 had similarly distinguished different categories of duty under different operative arrangements, with the Boucher-time perpetual duty refused as bad precedent, three quarters under Pyke at usual pay only, the Mercury alarm allowed, and three quarters' salary allowed according to duty performed. The present order applied similar operative principles to the question of outlying duty at Banks Fort, with the principle of rotation now established as the standing arrangement for that post.

Speculations

The bench's choice to relieve Thompson and O'Bryan from continuous duty at Banks Fort suggested an operative recognition that disciplinary segregation through outlying assignment could become counterproductive when continued for too long. The original purpose of the disposition in November 1714 had been to remove the soldiers from the central garrison while applying a less severe penalty than imprisonment. The cumulative effect after nine months had been to bring the soldiers into debt and to deny them necessaries, with the operative consequence that they could no longer maintain themselves on the standing pay. The bench's order returned the soldiers to the regular garrison rotation while preserving the operative form of the disciplinary disposition through the good behaviour clause, marking a calibrated adjustment rather than a complete reversal.

The introduction of rotation as the operative arrangement for Banks Fort duty represented an institutional refinement of the standing garrison arrangements. The mechanism by which some others would be sent every other week to do duty at Banks Fort distributed the burden of the outlying post across a wider portion of the garrison, with the practical effect that no particular soldier or soldiers would bear the full weight of the assignment indefinitely. The pattern was consistent with the broader operative method observed across the present sittings, in which standing arrangements that bore disproportionately on individual servants were reformed in favour of rotated or distributed responsibility. The Sergeant Fairfax disposal of 12 April 1715 had marked a similar adjustment in the question of perpetual duty, and the present order on Banks Fort applied the same operative principle to the question of outlying garrison duty.

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Island St Helena.

At a Consultation held on Tuesday y[e] 23[d] day of August 1715 At the Union Castle in James Valley.

Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[r]: Geo: Haswell Dep[ty] Pres[t] Matthew Bazett 3[d] Antipas Tovey 4[th] & Edw: Byfeld 5[th] in Cu[oun]cl.

The Following Petition was I St Helena. Presented (viz[t])

To the Worsh[ip] Isaac Pyke Esq[r] Gov[er]n[r] &c & Councill

The most humble Petition of Arthur Bradley Overseer.

Humbly Sheweth That Whereas Your Petit =ion[r] is at very great Charges in building a house to dwell in

Therefore humbly Prays yo[r] Worsh[p] & Council to Grant yo[r] Petition[r] a Lease thereof. And yo[r] Petit[r] as in duty bound shall ever Pray &c

Aug[t]: 23[th] 1715 (Sign[d]) Arthur Bradley

Refer[d] to Our former Order

Order[d] That the Valuation of the Yams in the ground bought of M[r]: Geo: Carne Deceas[d] be refer[d] to Cap[t]: Bazett & M[r] Gabriel Cowill with any other two M[rs] Carne shall Appoint.

I Pyke

Ed: Byfeld Antipas Tovey Geo: Haswell

Margin Notes:

Bradleys pet[n] referd

Carnes Yams to be Valued

Island of St Helena. At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 23 day of August 1715 at the Union Castle in James Valley.

Present: Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor; George Haswell, Deputy Governor; Matthew Bazett, third; Antipas Tovey, fourth; Edward Byfield, fifth in council.

The following petition was presented.

The most humble petition of Arthur Bradley, overseer, was presented to the worshipful Isaac Pyke Esquire, Governor and Council. The petitioner was at very great charges in building a house to dwell in. He therefore humbly prayed that the council would grant him a lease thereof. The petition was dated 23 August 1715, and signed Arthur Bradley, the petitioner as in duty bound to ever pray.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Bradley's petition.

The council referred the petition to their former order.

The council ordered that the valuation of the yams in the ground bought of Mr George Carne deceased be referred to Captain Bazett and Mr Gabriel Powill, with any other two whom Mrs Carne should appoint.

A note in the margin recorded the substance of the matter as Carne's yams to be valued.

The consultation was signed by Edward Byfield, Antipas Tovey, George Haswell and so on.

Interpretations

The Arthur Bradley petition resumed an open matter first considered at the consultation of 26 April 1715. The earlier petition for re-thatching and rafter repair on the Company tenancy of a house and twenty acres at seven pounds the annum had been deferred until more of council were present, the matter being of some consequence. The present petition by Bradley as overseer, with the operative ground that he had been at very great charges in building a house to dwell in, marked a continuation of the same petitioner's effort to secure proper documentary recognition of his investment in the property. The bench's response, referring the matter to a former order, indicated that an earlier disposition had been made of the substantive question and that the bench was now applying that earlier order to the present petition.

The form of the bench's response, with the matter referred to the bench's former order rather than disposed of by new decision, marked the operative practice of consistent procedural treatment. The bench was preserving the operative coherence of its standing position by reference to the earlier decision rather than reopening the substantive question afresh. The pattern was consistent with the broader practice across the present sittings of building documentary chains by which standing positions were reinforced through successive applications, rather than allowing repeated petitions to extract fresh dispositions on each occasion.

The order on the valuation of the yams in the ground bought of Mr George Carne deceased established the operative arrangement for settling a particular question within the broader estate of the late Carne. George Carne had appeared across the records as a substantial planter whose dealings with the bench had involved multiple matters. The Carne real property security ordered on 8 October 1711, the Carne bond of 9 May 1711 securing Carne's debt for the Keeling orphans' money at three hundred and twenty one pounds three shillings and four pence, the Carne schedule of 7 December 1714 with twenty nine slaves at two hundred and ninety pounds, and the Powell judgment of 9 November 1714 ordering Powell to pay George Carne forty pounds with interest for the use of the heirs of Governor Keeling, all marked Carne's standing in the bench's books. The Carne death noted in the present consultation, with the widow Mrs Carne mentioned as the operative party in the present matter, fixed the operative end of Carne's own dealings and the transition to estate administration.

The composition of the valuation panel, with Captain Bazett and Mr Gabriel Powill, together with two others whom Mrs Carne should appoint, marked the operative balance between the bench's own representatives and the family's choice of valuers. The mechanism by which the executive nominated two valuers and the family nominated two more produced a balanced panel of four, with the operative function of fixing the value of yams already in the ground belonging to the Company through purchase. The arrangement followed the broader pattern of conciliar oversight observed in the Mercy Gargen probate of 16 August 1715, where two appraisers had been sworn under oath alongside the widow's own deposition. The present matter, involving an asset already transferred to the Company but still requiring valuation for the operative settlement of the deceased's estate, called for a more substantial panel given the size of the holding and the standing of the parties.

Speculations

The bench's choice to refer the Arthur Bradley petition to a former order, rather than to dispose of it by new decision, suggested an operative pattern in which the bench had reached a settled position on the broader question of overseer house leases that it was now applying to particular cases as they arose. The former order to which the bench referred had not been recovered in the present material, but its operative existence indicated that the bench had developed a standing framework for dealing with such matters. The pattern was consistent with the broader operative method of the bench across the present sittings, in which standing positions were established through the disposal of particular cases and then applied to subsequent applications under the same general framework.

The composition of the yam valuation panel, with the deputy governor Captain Haswell conspicuously absent from the list of valuers despite his presence at the consultation, suggested an operative selection of the panel from councillors and figures with particular standing relevant to the matter at hand. Captain Bazett's standing as storekeeper, with the operative function of receiving goods into the Company's account, made him the natural figure to value yams that the Company had bought from the late Carne. Mr Gabriel Powill's standing in the broader Carne family circle, with his earlier appearance at the consultation of 2 August 1715 as the agent for multiple metropolitan claims against the Carne and other estates, gave him particular operative knowledge of the family's affairs. The mechanism by which Mrs Carne would appoint two further valuers preserved the family's operative interest in the valuation, with the panel as a whole representing both the Company's institutional interest and the family's preserved standing in the operative administration of the estate.

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The form of a writt for Debt.

St Hellena ss

I the underwritten Isaac Pyke Esq[r]: being Govern[r] of this Island and Jurisdicton therein To all and Every of my Civill Officers Marshall or Baliffes Health.

Be it known that by vertue of this Writt you do Immediatly Arrest Seize and take into your Custody the body of Pebrey Stokes of this Island Taylor and have him to Appear before my Self & the Gentlem[en]: of my Council at the next Court of Judicature to be holdon for this Iseland to Answer to a Plea of Debt at y[e] Suit of the Hono: East India Comp[a]: of England, for the Sum of fifty Pounds, hereof you are Not to faile And for s[o] Doeing this shall be your Sufficient Authority Dated under my hand & Seale 14[th] day of Decem[r] Ano[o] 1714. &c

J Pyke.

The form of a writ for debt.

St Helena. The undersigned, Isaac Pyke Esquire, being governor of the island and jurisdiction therein, to all and every of his civil officers, marshal or bailiff, greeting.

Be it known that, by virtue of the writ, they were immediately to arrest, seize and take into their custody the body of Godfrey Shoales of the island, tailor, and have him appear before the governor and the gentlemen of the council at the next court of judicature to be holden for the island, to answer to a plea of debt at the suit of the Honourable East India Company of England for the sum of fifty pounds. They were not to fail of this, and for the doing of this their writ should be their sufficient authority. The writ was dated under his hand and seal the 14 day of December anno 1714, signed Isaac Pyke.

Interpretations

The form of writ for debt entered on the council books supplied the operative documentary template by which civil arrests for debt at the island were carried into effect. The form combined the operative elements of the metropolitan writ system, with the governor as the issuing authority in place of the English court, the marshal or bailiff as the executing officer, and the named defendant identified by occupation and place of residence. The mechanism converted the governor's individual judicial authority into a standing procedural instrument that could be used across multiple cases under the same operative form.

The particular case recorded, with Godfrey Shoales of the island, tailor, named as the defendant on a plea of debt at the suit of the Honourable East India Company for the sum of fifty pounds, identified the operative target as a tradesman with a substantial Company debt. Godfrey Shoales had appeared in the records in connection with debt to the Company. On 14 December 1714 the governor had taken security of him for payment of his debt to the Company with interest at eight per cent, with Samuel Algate and John Pyfer as sureties. The present writ, dated 14 December 1714, was the operative companion to that bond arrangement. The same date for both instruments indicated that the security and the writ had been prepared together as parts of a single coordinated effort to bring Shoales's debt to formal recovery.

The dating of the writ formula at the consultation of 23 August 1715, although the writ itself bore the date of 14 December 1714, marked the operative entry on the consultation book of an instrument that had previously been used but not formally inscribed. The pattern was consistent with the bench's broader practice of preserving standing forms for future reference, with the formal entry on the consultation book serving both to record the past use and to make the form available for future application. The arrangement supplied the operative basis on which subsequent writs for debt could be issued in the same form, with the council books standing as the documentary record of the procedural instruments developed at the island.

The standing interest rate of eight per cent per annum applied to the Shoales debt aligned with the operative pattern observed across the records. The Porteous advance of 27 November 1711 had been at eight per cent, the Bell purchase of 24 July 1712 had been at eight per cent, the Welch sixty pound credit of 3 November 1713 had been at eight per cent, the Jessey fifty pound credit of 2 February 1714 had been at eight per cent, the Shoales debt with Algate and Pyfer as sureties had been at eight per cent on 14 December 1714, and the Swallow bond of 12 April 1715 had been at the same rate. The phrase the usual interest of eight per cent had confirmed the rate as the settled island standard, and the present writ for debt operated within the same standing financial framework.

Speculations

The bench's choice to enter the writ for debt formula on the consultation book at this particular sitting, in the context of broader administrative reforms across the present sittings, suggested an operative effort to consolidate the procedural instruments of the island's civil administration. The call for proposals to prevent the drawing of bills on the Honourable Masters opened at the consultation of 19 July 1715, the standing letting conditions of 24 May 1715, the marshal's fee schedule of 3 May 1715, the order forbidding reflection on the bench of 10 May 1715, the damages order on vexatious prosecution of 10 May 1715, and the present entry of the writ for debt formula together represented the operative consolidation of the procedural framework under Pyke's administration. The pattern indicated the bench's developing commitment to documentary procedural rigour, with standing forms entered on the council books for future reference rather than left to depend on the personal memory of the executive.

The particular use of the Shoales case as the example for the writ formula, rather than a generic specimen, supplied the operative connection between the procedural form and the substantive matter. The choice of a fifty pound sum, a named defendant and a specific dated entry indicated that the bench was entering an actual writ that had been issued, with the operative effect of preserving both the form and the documentation of its use in a particular case. The pattern would supply the operative basis for any subsequent inquiry into the disposition of the Shoales debt, with the writ entry on the consultation book standing alongside the bond of 14 December 1714 and the involvement of Samuel Algate and John Pyfer as sureties to constitute the full documentary record of the recovery effort.

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EAP 1364 St Helena

Document Name and Date: St. HELENA RECORDS 1712-15

Dimensions (height x width x depth) (cm): 37.5cm X 27cm X 7cm

No. written pages: 558 No. blank pages:

Spine and cover: GOOD CONDITION

Inside pages: GOOD CONDITION FOXING PRESENT THROUGHOUT VOLUME

Additional comments:

Time taken to photograph (hours): 6 hours