St Helena Records 1742b

Introduction: This is the 26th volume in the series of St Helena Records, which summarises the proceedings of official meetings held by the island’s Governor and Council, during which matters of government, defence, supplies, justice and discipline were discussed and recorded. The title is inaccurate because the consultations continue through to early April 1743.

Source: Images of the original records can be viewed on the British Library’s website: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP1364-1-1-26.

Text Inaccuracy: 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.

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 numbers appear only in the top right corner of each page. The first visible number is page 3, on Film No. 9 (location 9/3), which suggests numbering began on Film No. 7. The numbering then runs in sequence through to the end of the volume.

Dates: During the period of this volume, England and its colonies followed the Old-Style Julian calendar, in which the legal new year began on 25 March (Lady Day). This volume records consultations at St Helena between 29 October 1742 and 5 April 1743. It should be noted that the last date at location 178/172 is actually written as 5 April 1742 but this is assumed to be a clerical error, the Julian calendar having only just moved from 1742 to 1743.

The Council meetings were held during the administration of George Gabriel Powell (1742-1744).

AI Generated Summary

Introduction

These papers open a narrow window onto the East India Company settlement at St Helena from a warehouse inventory of about 1742 through the council consultations, wills, land grants, store accounts and criminal sessions reaching to May 1743, almost all under Governor George Gabriel Powell. The island was held by the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies as a fortified victualling station on the sea route between England and Asia, its small population of covenanted servants, soldiers, free settlers and slaves wholly dependent on shipping and the Company store. The record is overwhelmingly official, made up of consultations signed by the Governor and his two councillors, store accounts, pay lists and stock returns, and functions as garrison, plantation, warehouse, court and port at once. [Film No. 57–180]

The material shows the settlement as its rulers wished it seen, and its silences matter as much as its entries. The same few men appear throughout as councillors, paymasters, appraisers, witnesses, jurors and buyers, so the record serves their interests and their view. The lives of the slaves who built and worked the place appear only as property, labour or defendants, and the free inhabitants surface chiefly as debtors, creditors and litigants. The period was marked by a violent sickness among the people, a bitter feud at the head of the government and the steady working of a remote settlement, and its dating is generally secure though the sequence jumps between the pay quarter, the settling of several estates from the previous year and the fresh consultations of 1743.

Governance and administration

Government rested in a Governor and a council of two other members, who met at the Castle, usually on a Tuesday, and recorded their proceedings in a consultation book, each sitting opening with the reading and approval of the previous one. Throughout the period the council was George Gabriel Powell as Governor, John Godfrey as second and Christopher Dixon as third, sitting on 23 and 24 November, on 7, 17 and 21 December 1742 and on 4 January 1742/3, with much routine business transacted by the Governor and Godfrey alone. Powell held the offices of Governor and paymaster together. [Film No. 64–69, 76, 105, 124–126]

Powell had taken the government on the death of his predecessor Governor Lambert, dead almost five months by December 1742, and confirmed Lambert’s standing orders on such matters as the division of barracks. The council also recalled the earlier deaths of Goodwin, Crisp and Pyatt, a run of mortality among its senior servants that had left the naval and Governor’s stores without a proper inventory for some time. [Film No. 78, 101]

The Governor held wide powers that the Company’s orders left open to dispute. On 17 December 1742 Powell appointed Thomas Easthope, the senior ensign, to a vacant lieutenancy and advanced the oldest serjeant, Joseph Desfountain, to ensign, reporting the appointments afterward rather than seeking prior consent. When Dixon protested on 21 December that the Governor could appoint no military officer and remove no office book without the council’s agreement, Powell answered that custom and the Company’s orders gave the Governor for the time being the right to fill vacant posts and merely report them, so that the council might object to the persons, and to examine any office book provided he returned it, each man reading the instructions to his own advantage. [Film No. 77–79]

The keeping of the record itself became a battleground. After a bitter dispute in November 1742 the Governor and Godfrey struck out an entry of 23 November that Dixon had drawn up in defence of his friend Clarke, denouncing it as false, partial and malicious, and substituted their own account as the honest and impartial one. On 21 December 1742 Powell found that further alterations and additions had been made secretly to Dixon’s entry after it had been read in council, the writer confessing he had made them on Dixon’s orders. That two members could cancel a third’s minute and rewrite it, and that the book could be altered after its formal reading, struck at the authority of the very document meant to fix the council’s proceedings. [Film No. 68–69, 81–82]

Confronted on 21 December 1742, Dixon fell upon the Governor with gross language such as the council had never before heard, declaring that he knew the Company’s orders as well as the Governor, that he had done right and that he would not be a slave, so that even Godfrey rebuked him for immodesty. The council formally enjoined him never again to alter a consultation privately after it had passed and to cease interrupting the Company’s business, mindful throughout that its internal disorder would reflect on the whole council before the Masters in London. [Film No. 82]

The council acted as the settlement’s probate and notarial court and repeatedly recorded oaths. On 25 November 1742 the three councillors bound themselves to be true to the United East India Company, to follow its rules and to keep secret all matters discussed at the board, taking a like oath of fidelity and secrecy on 24 November. The writers James Powell, James Wrangham and Thomas Trench took the oath of office on 4 January 1742/3, when the council also proved the will of the late Elizabeth Greentree upon the oaths of the Governor and the chaplain Doctor Alcock. [Film No. 75, 103–104]

The council policed its own accounts with visible rigour. On 1 February 1742/3 it traced an error of £7 19s 10d in a previous cash account to a fault in adding a total, the three ranking members signing off the corrected figure of £3,000 8s 1½ d, treating the accuracy of the Company’s cash as a collective duty that had to be seen to be discharged. [Film No. 124]

The limits of the Governor’s power were exposed in February 1742/3 when Powell moved against Dixon, whom he could suspend but not dismiss because the directors in England had appointed him, and suspended him until their honours’ further orders should arrive, ultimate authority resting three months’ sail away. By contrast he could dismiss Ensign Joseph Kendall outright, a commissioned officer holding his place on different terms from a councillor named from home. When Dixon refused to give up the key of the cash chest in February 1742/3, daring the council to take it, Powell called a corporal who removed it by hand, the settlement’s command resting at the last on the common soldiers who would obey an order. [Film No. 150, 153, 155]

Military affairs and defence

The garrison was organised into companies under lieutenants, ensigns, serjeants, corporals, drummers and sentinels, administered by an adjutant and paid quarterly from the treasury, with promotion running by seniority. Two infantry companies stood alongside a separate artillery company of gunners. The private soldier’s standard rate was £3 8s 8d for the quarter, and John French headed the artillery as master gunner and chief lieutenant on £22 10s, far above the gunner’s mates at £4 17s 6d and the mattrosses, the gunners’ assistants, at £4 1s 3d. Superannuated men worn out by long service were kept on the books at a private’s pay rather than struck off, two still carrying their old ranks of serjeant and quarter gunner. [Film No. 101–112]

The garrison muster for the quarter to December 1742, entered on 18 January 1742/3, set out each rank from lieutenant to sentinel. Its heading dates the quarter to 1741, but the December 1742 promotions it lists place it a year later, and the modern reckoning has been followed. Where a man changed rank or died within the quarter his pay was split day by day between the two rates, Corporal Matthew Waters marked as dying on 12 November 1742 with his pay stopped at a part-month figure. [Film No. 105, 106]

Defence was a constant preoccupation, sharpened by war and the fear that an enemy squadron might attempt a landing. The most careful assessment concerned Sandy Bay, which the Governor viewed several times toward the end of 1742 and judged the most dangerous place about the island. Governor Lambert’s survey, dated 4 January 1741/2, entered at the consultation of 7 April 1742 and read again in January 1742/3, condemned the existing fort as injudiciously built and poorly sited, so that of its six 4-pounder guns only two could bear on the entrance of the bay, and those could not fire before an enemy’s boats had passed; the remaining four could discharge upon a landing party but once, and against a considerable force the fort was reckoned of no significance. [Film No. 101]

Lambert’s plan set two compact platforms on the right and left of the bay mounting three or four 4-pounders each, joined by a dry-stone breastwork laid without mortar, cheaper and quicker yet judged enough to stop an enemy lacking great guns, supported by a mobile flying party quartered nearby and detached to hold the steep ridges above the valley, a doctrine suited to the island’s broken ground so that a small force might hold a landing place against a larger. A sketch accompanied the report, keyed to the battery, the water course, the branching valley, a central hill of rocks, the mountains on either side and the broad way inland. [Film No. 102]

The gunnery was carefully graduated, the battery to fire round shot upon an enemy at a distance and partridge, a scattering charge of small balls, at close quarters to strike terror and destroy many before they could reach it. Lambert reasoned that even if the enemy seized the four lower guns they could not haul them up the mountains, finding it labour enough to reach the interior with their firelocks alone, and judged the best site about a third of the way up the mountain in a soft marle that could be cut into the rock and completed by the Company’s own plantation slaves without a farthing of expense, hoping the whole might be finished in six weeks. [Film No. 102–103]

Fortification work was under way nearer the town. On 23 November 1742 the Governor reported the battery at the bankside in good forwardness, though a violent sickness among the labourers had thrown the work far behind; the builders had mixed their mortar with fresh water carried from Chapel Valley rather than the salt sand near at hand, since salt weakens mortar and hinders its setting, and the front measured 22 foot, judged sufficient for the guns to work upon. Work at Rupert’s valley was also in hand, and the council placed the fortifications ahead of the convenience of housing its officers, resolving that the work at Rupert’s be finished first. [Film No. 62, 69]

The batteries that guarded the anchorage were the focus of constant labour through the winter of 1742 to 1743, above all the works at Banks, the coastal battery covering the north-east approach, and at Munden’s Point on the north side of James Bay. The gunner’s account for December 1742 shows how little of a garrison’s powder went to defence, since of 218 lb spent only 18 lb went to the guard and out-forts while 200 lb was burned exercising the guns and firing salutes, and the January 1742/3 account shows powder spent more on quarrying still, repeated charges for blowing up rocks marking a magazine turned to breaking the hard volcanic stone for the very defences it would later arm. In November 1742 the small arms exercise had consumed 149 lb, the largest single use, with 9 lb used to blow up rocks at the bankside and 26 lb at Sandy Bay; the gunner’s dry stores of match, cartridge cases, priming irons, handspikes and lead shot record the working apparatus of the artillery. [Film No. 99, 121, 139]

The salutes recorded on 22 January 1742/3 register the ceremonial and signalling duty of the batteries, the serjeants and corporals firing 13 guns and the Governor and council 10 in a graded sequence, most probably greeting an arriving ship, the guns worked as much to greet and answer the passing fleets as to stand ready against an enemy. [Film No. 139]

By 1 March 1742/3 the Governor could report the redoubt at Sandy Bay completed, judging it made that dangerous valley safe because any enemy landing there would have to struggle a mile and a half along the bottom of a craggy ravine to break out, and boasting it had cost not a farthing beyond the labour of the Company’s own slaves. The hired hands were then shifted from the finished Banks to Munden’s Point to gather stone in advance, so the works could go briskly on once the lime was burnt. [Film No. 156]

The defences were built in haste against a real fear of attack. Munden’s Point had been thrown up so hurriedly and with sea water in the mortar that its wall could barely withstand shot, and to remedy this the council in February 1742/3 ordered a French bank, an earthwork, flung up before the wall to shield it from enemy fire. Neglect had also left the guns dangerously unready, and on examining the stores the Governor found some forts with no wadding at all, a want the gunner said former Governors had long fobbed off; the council ordered a thousand weight of old rope and worn cordage worked up into wadding at once and looked to buy an old ship’s cable for more. [Film No. 153, 165]

Settlement, land and agriculture

The Company held the island as sole proprietor, named in the papers Lords Proprietors, and let its land to leaseholders who paid a fixed yearly quit rent in acknowledgement of that ownership, though it could also grant freehold outright when it needed to raise a large sum, so the island was held under mixed tenures with even the Governor holding some ground as the Company’s tenant. On 21 December 1742 Dixon paid in £10 2s 6d of quit rents collected from three tenants, Elizabeth Ryder, John Twaits and Mary Shrace, the differing sums reflecting the extent of their holdings. [Film No. 80, 124]

No leasehold could change hands without the council’s sanction of the incoming holder. The council accepted Thomas Cosgreve as tenant of land he had bought from Joshua Worrall, whose petition to sell had been entered the previous 5 October 1742. Company housing was assigned by office: on 23 November 1742 the council ordered Lieutenant Scott turned out of a Company house with a £10 yearly allowance until quarters could be built, giving the house to the factor Joshua Twyman as next in station, who was required to share half the apartment with the writer Joseph Darvall. [Film No. 64, 69, 82]

A lease of 1 February 1742 to Powell shows how heavily such grants bound the tenant. For a term of 21 years at 5s an acre, payable at Michaelmas, Powell had to maintain every building and fence, keep a stand of timber on the south of the ground, plant furze along the boundaries and set out named fruit trees such as apple, lemon and mulberry, replacing any that died, and could not sell his interest nor move the boundary fences without the leave of the council. The tying of rent to the feast of St Michael on 29 September imported the English agricultural calendar wholesale onto a South Atlantic island. [Film No. 125]

The same 1 February 1742 date carried a freehold sale, the council granting Powell 49 acres in the west division together with 70 acres known as Longs for a lump sum of £835, this heritable freehold still carrying a continuing rent of 1s an acre at Michaelmas and the duty of allegiance. Both grants sprang from the death of the late John Goodwin, whose land was sold to recover what he owed the Company, a fresh lease and bill of sale drawn up to regularise Powell’s title where the formalities had been overlooked when he paid. A tenant’s interest fell in at death and the land was re-let by the Company rather than passing as the holder’s own to sell. [Film No. 124, 125, 126]

Tenants held their ground only so long as their leases ran, and on 5 April 1742/3 Joseph Difountain had to petition the council for the renewal of a lease upon the point of expiring and for leave to take in a further half acre adjoining it, the security of every planter resting on a grant that had to be sought again as it ran out. [Film No. 178]

Alongside the tenanted land the Company worked plantations of its own, cultivated by a workforce of slaves that never exceeded 12 men, and kept large herds. The account for November 1742 listed neat cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry and horses with their monthly increase and losses, and was signed by Powell as husband, or steward, of the stock. On 7 December 1742 the plantation account records the tools drawn from the store, spades, pick axes, a scythe with its handles and the helves to fit them, worn and replaced as the digging, clearing and harvesting went on, together with fishing lines so that the hands took fish from the sea as well as raising crops. [Film No. 96, 100]

The staple crop was the yam, consumed in enormous and steady quantity, the stock accounts recording 29,000 yams expended at the several plantations in each of October and November 1742, the dependable foundation of subsistence for people, slaves and animals alike. When the plantation slaves could be spared, the Governor reported on 4 January 1742/3, they were set to fencing the Company’s pasture lands, a work he hoped to see largely finished within a twelvemonth at no cost beyond their labour. Fishing supplemented what the land produced, the store issuing Hamburg lines and sorted hooks to both the plantation and the settlement’s boats. [Film No. 95, 96, 100–101]

Supply and provisioning

The Company store was the single source from which the community drew almost everything it consumed, serving at once as warehouse, shop and commissary. A great inventory taken about 1742 valued its European goods at £6,919 2s 0d and its Indian goods at £1,711 13s 0¾d, the two kept under separate heads mirroring the outward and homeward currents of the Company’s trade meeting at the island. The European side held the garrison’s clothing, hundreds of centinels’ coats and the shalloon to line them, alongside turners’ ware of turned wood and tin ware for the kitchen, much of it noted rotten or good for nothing, and stock ran from the humblest turned wooden bowls to fine porcelain. [Film No. 57–61]

Decay is a recurring feature of the inventory. Thread, twine and shoe thread are repeatedly noted rotten or good for nothing, brushes as broken and cloth and hair sieves as perished, and the eastern imports suffered too, taffety, romalls and soosees marked damaged, so the finest cottons and silks suffered in storage as surely as the coarsest English cloth. The Indian side was dominated by textiles and drink, chintz from Madras, chellow, desootees, long cloth and pallampores held by the bale, china ware counted in the thousands, over 1,800 gallons of arrack from Goa and Batavia, 52,615 lb of rice and quantities of sugar and candy from Bengal and China. The dredging boxes kept in their thousands and other kitchenware in bulk were plainly stocked for sale to ships and inhabitants rather than for the establishment’s own tables. [Film No. 57–58, 60–61]

Godfrey’s collection of goods sold over the quarter to 30 September 1742, presented on 4 January 1742/3, came to £203 12s 7½d and ranged across the whole stock, spanning arrack, bread, flour and beef alongside broad cloth in ash colour and scarlet from which local tailors worked, candles, combs, shoes, thread, shalloon, sagathy, fine silks, mohair, indigo for dye, fishing tackle worth more than £20 and window glass cut to size. The whole inventory was continually turned into cash as the population bought what it needed, the proceeds gathered in as the Company’s revenue. [Film No. 83–88]

A separate reckoning of charges general recorded what the settlement’s own establishments consumed in the same quarter rather than what was sold, issued to the garrison, the fortification, the boats, the slaves, the plantation and the general table. Lighting was a heavy standing cost, two chests of candles charged at over £20 and the garrison drawing 40 gallons of lamp oil, alongside soap for washing, paints for maintenance and the Indian cloth morrees made up into clothing for those on the Company’s charge. The garrison drew lamp oil and broad cloth; the fortification took cordage by the hundredweight, tools, ship spars for lifting and wheelbarrows; the boats received oars, rope and caulking materials; and the plantation was supplied with spades, pick axes and a scythe. [Film No. 89–96]

The diet expenses of the general table for the quarter came to £66 4s 2d, dominated by 328½ gallons of arrack with bread and flour the next largest charge, drawn in casks and baked from flour shipped across the ocean, confirming the dependence of even the governing establishment on imported provisions. Naval stores of tar, turpentine and rosin passed in small quantities to private hands for the upkeep of boats and gear, and quarry glass was sold by the foot in fixed dimensions for glazing windows. [Film No. 84–86, 89–95, 97]

The storekeeper accounted formally for all that passed through his hands. On 30 September 1742 Godfrey’s reckoning balanced the value of stores sold and estate goods handled against small payments for shoemaking, among them sums to Daniel Bush and to Collings and Mason for making and cleaning shoes, and a large balance of £243 5s 4½d paid into the treasury, the store working as a profit-making department that took in far more than it paid out. In January 1742/3 the council ordered the gunner to draw an exact inventory of the naval and Governor’s stores, a task often talked of but never done since the deaths of Goodwin, Crisp and Pyatt, so the account might be checked against the general books and the stores surveyed for their condition. [Film No. 97–98, 101]

The plantations were run as supply farms to reprovision the passing fleets. The monthly livestock returns for December 1742, January and February 1742/3 track every kind of stock through a running balance of opening count, natural increase and loss to killing, death and theft, the neat cattle, the horned farm cattle kept for beef, milk and draught, holding near steady above 300 head across the three months while each month some 29,000 yams were consumed. Loss and pilfering were recorded as regular charges distinct from natural death, several goats, hogs and ducks marked stolen in each month; the goats suffered strikingly in January 1742/3, dying in great numbers where the sheltered cattle and penned hogs did not, and by February the losses eased, the stock then falling chiefly to the butcher. [Film No. 122, 138, 176]

Fresh food from the sea and citrus grown ashore supplemented the herds. The store carried great quantities of fishing tackle, 92 dozen hooks in one lot alone and lines graded by number, and the Company bought lemons in bulk against the scurvy that struck crews at sea, taking 17,300 lemons carried over unpaid from an earlier period and a further 5,850 in the quarter from the island growers Joshua Johnson and Elizabeth Greentree at a penny or so each. The diet account for the quarter to 31 December 1742 drew heavily on preserved meat and imported drink, a whole cask of beef of 125 pieces and 109 pieces of pork reckoned into the quarter, with hundreds of bottles of port and of Mountain, a sweet white wine from Málaga, together with arrack, ale, strong beer and Cape wine. [Film No. 115, 116, 162]

Trade and shipping

The inventory’s sharp division between European and Indian goods marked St Helena as a crossing point of the Company’s commerce, holding the manufactures of England and the produce of Asia together, the eastern wares traced from the painted cottons of Madras to the porcelain of China, all gathered at this single station on the long route home. The store’s goods arrived by the Company’s ships, several items in the inventory marked as carried by the Duke Lorraine and the Royal George, and the settlement’s own boats kept up the constant traffic between the shore and the ships lying in James Bay, maintained from the store with rope, oars and gear. [Film No. 57–60, 94]

The Company’s trade moved in gathered company through the staging points of the Cape and the island. On 24 May 1743 the ship Tigris under Captain John Petre arrived from Bengal, having left the Cape on the 11th, where the Vernon, Ponte Bella, Benjamin and Somerset lay waiting for orders, the convergence of so many Indiamen showing how vital the island was as a port of call. The perils of the passage are recorded in Petre’s sea protest of 29 March 1743, a formal sworn declaration made to protect ship and owners against later claims for spoiled cargo, setting down how the Tigris had been knocked on her beam ends in a violent gale in the Bay of Bengal on 13 November 1742, forcing the crew to stave about four tuns of arrack on the deck and throw overboard between 30 and 40 bags of salt to right her, after which 18 inches of water were found in the hold. [Film No. 177]

The island’s usefulness was always at the mercy of its exposed roadstead, for it offered no sheltered harbour, only an anchorage in the road off James Valley. On 2 April 1743 Petre, now in the Tigris in the road, delivered a further protest against the violence of the surf, which had prevented his boat, under the officer called the patroon, from reaching the shore so that he could neither fill his water nor get refreshment. Commerce ashore turned on the coming of the fleets, and when the Governor found goods in the stores rotting the council in February 1742/3 ordered them sold six days after the first ship arrived, with public advertisement to the inhabitants beforehand, reflecting an economy where ready money and buyers were scarce until a fleet came in. [Film No. 127, 180]

Economy, finance and currency

The treasury held its wealth in a jumble of coin from across the trading world, and the council examined the cash at intervals. On 7 December 1742 it found the cash in good condition at £2,898 1s 3¾d, a mixture of Spanish royals and dollars, Indian rupees and pagodas, Dutch money, Portuguese moidores, English guineas and gold reckoned by weight, with no single currency dominant, obliging the council to reckon its wealth in a dozen moneys at once. The pagodas, a gold coin of southern India, formed the single largest holding, standing at over £1,000 on 7 December and at nearly £1,193 on 21 December 1742 when the cash had risen to £3,108 12s 11½d, the coin of Madras filling the treasury more than the money of Europe. Every foreign coin was assigned its value in pounds, shillings and pence so the whole diverse hoard could be totalled and controlled. [Film No. 76, 81]

The cash count of about early February 1742/3 found some £2,353 in the chest, and a fuller count soon after some £2,747, made up of Indian pagodas and rupees, Venetian and Dutch coin, Portuguese moidores, Spanish dollars, royals and half royals, guineas and even raw bars of gold, a ducatoon being a large silver coin of the Low Countries. On the quarterly pay day in January 1742/3 the paymaster Powell drew £1,344 7s 4d from the treasury for the garrison and establishment, the civil list coming to £241 12s 6d, the Governor’s own £125 for the quarter standing against the £5 of the most junior writer. [Film No. 103, 105, 123, 155]

The paymaster’s summary account, drawn up on 18 January 1742/3 as debtor and creditor, balanced every receipt against every payment so the two sides met at £1,762 3s 9d, gathering the detailed rolls and labour bills of the quarter into single lines and revealing that the garrison recovered part of its own costs from the men. Beyond the £1,344 7s 2d drawn from the treasury, the account took in £297 11s 7d from soldiers for diet issued out of Company stores and £120 15s for coats and regimentals, each man charged in proportion to his degree, the diet and clothing columns in the pay rolls being not allowances paid out but stoppages charged back against each soldier’s account. [Film No. 117]

The Company drew a steady public revenue from the trade and land it controlled, taking customs on imported spirits and rent on the island’s ground. In April and May 1743 it took 20s in customs on 400 gallons of spirits landed from the Harrington and gathered £42 3s 10d in accumulated rent from the late Goodwin’s estate. The store worked as a general merchant’s warehouse, its stock grouped under headings such as broadcloth, braziers ware for worked brass and copper, haberdashery for the small articles of sewing and dress, and deals for sawn softwood planks, alongside a distinct class of India goods including arrack, chelloes and doosooties, both plain Indian cottons, together with bulk sugar, candy and paddy, which was rice still in the husk. [Film No. 157–160, 178]

The store also supplied the fabric of the settlement itself, keeping window glass, deals, spars and wainscot boards for building and repairing houses, and a heavy turnover of nails, locks, hammers and hundredweights of ironmongery. The storekeeper’s quarterly reckoning to 31 December 1742 divided the Company’s charges into distinct heads for the settlement, its slaves, its boats, its fortifications and its garrison, so the cost of maintaining the enslaved workforce or of keeping the boats in repair could be seen apart. The settlement ran on a web of two-way accounts between the Company and its people: on 17 December 1742 John Worrall paid £25 on behalf of his father in settlement of a debt due to the estate of the late John Goodwin, whose effects were slowly wound up across many consultations through payments for goods bought at the outcry, or public auction. [Film No. 68, 79–80, 98, 157–164]

Judiciary, crime and punishment

With few institutions on the island, the council itself served as the court, hearing property disputes, examining suspects and committing offenders for trial at the general sessions reserved as the proper court to try and sentence a felony. Its judicial method was orderly, examining parties and witnesses in turn, recording their answers and silences and gathering physical evidence. Justice moved in two stages, the council first examining a suspect and committing him, as when in February 1742/3 it heard that Joseph Long had robbed his brother and, on being found also to have broken into Francis Wrangham’s house, ordered him to prison to await the next sessions. [Film No. 77, 105, 129]

Offences against the Company’s property were pursued with method. On 9 November 1742 a slave belonging to Mr Brown had stolen the Company’s turkeys, and when examined on 7 December 1742 he confessed to the turkeys but denied robbing Mr Vaughan of provisions, and was confined for trial; the stock account for November 1742 added a fresh column for poultry stolen during the month, four fowls and two ducks entered as a loss distinct from those killed or dead. On 7 December 1742 two slaves confessed to robbing Mr Twyman of china and other goods the night before and were committed, and the council had earlier given orders on 23 November 1742 to search after a fellow who had made off with Company horns. [Film No. 62, 77, 100]

Civil disputes were tried on plain rules of evidence, the accuser required to make out his claim. Benjamin Spencer complained that William Addams had sold a waistcoat of his to a slave called Jumper; the council first adjourned the case and sent for the slave, the garment and the parties, treating even a trivial claim as something to be proved by inspection, and when Spencer brought no proof that the garment was ever his the council acquitted Addams outright, holding that a charge fails where the accuser cannot prove it. [Film No. 105, 123]

The general sessions held on 4 March 1742/3 shows the same men who sat as council transformed into a criminal court, Powell now styled judge and Godfrey his assistant, the court opened in due form with the prisoner set to the bar and the indictment read, the elaborate formula of the charge invoking the instigation of the devil and the defiance of the King’s peace, the prisoner pleading not guilty and choosing trial by God and the country and the judge answering that God send him a good deliverance. The smallness of the community made the English ideal of a disinterested jury unattainable, for the same few men served as victims, witnesses and jurors, and on the jury that tried Joseph Long for burglary sat Francis Wrangham senior, father of the very man whose house had been broken into. [Film No. 168, 169]

Long’s trial turned on circumstantial evidence and confession, the serjeant deposing that the prisoner had gone to a cannon where the stolen money was later found in the muzzle, and his own written pleas from his cell, begging the victim’s father for pardon and owning the crime, became the strongest evidence against him though he now claimed he had invented them to win release. The jury’s split verdict convicted him of breaking into Wrangham’s house where the evidence was strong but acquitted him of robbing his brother where it rested more thinly. [Film No. 169, 170, 171]

The court then tried several enslaved men under the identical forms and language as free men, yet entered on the record as the property of named owners, a double character by which the law held them answerable as persons while counting them as chattels. Phill and Simon were charged jointly with breaking into Joshua Twynham’s house and carrying off wine and cordials, and another Simon with taking three turkeys worth 15s from Company land, an offence laid as a wrong to the Lords Proprietors themselves; two of the Company’s people named Jemmy and Matthos deposed that they had caught Simon with the turkeys upon him. The record turned straight from sentencing men to hard labour back to the burning of lime for the batteries. [Film No. 172, 173, 175]

The court’s authority reached over the ships that called. In April 1743 Captain Petre brought before the council the misconduct of his chief mate Thomas Taylor of the Beresford, who had reported that the crew would not stand by the ship if she sailed singly from the road, though the second mate said their real concern was the wages owed them; the council examined both mates and drew from Taylor a confession and apology before the captain forgave him. [Film No. 179]

The settlement punished words judged to threaten the Governor’s authority with brutal severity, and in February 1742/3 the council fixed on one Jeremiah Wyrill as the author of a slander against Powell and sentenced him to receive one hundred lashes three several times at the whipping post on the parade, the savagery of three hundred lashes before the assembled garrison meant as much to deter others as to punish, Dixon’s plea that it was more than the fellow deserved turning his conduct into fresh evidence against himself. The prison was a place of harsh confinement, Joseph Long writing from his cell in the early months of 1743 that he was chained to the ground by both legs and had eaten only a little rice and water for three days. [Film No. 148, 171]

The sentences of 4 March 1742/3 laid bare the difference in punishment between free man and slave. Joseph Long, convicted of burglary, was sentenced to restore the goods and three times their value, to forfeit the rest of his estate to the Company, to stand in the pillory with a halter about his neck and be whipped to prison, with discharge or bond labour at the fortifications left to the council’s pleasure. The slave Simon, by contrast, was to be branded with a hot iron on the right cheek and the palm of the right hand, whipped upon his bare back every Saturday for six weeks, held in irons and kept at hard labour on the batteries. The court could have hanged the habitual offenders but drew back to branding and flogging, the judge declaring that one Simon had broken into six houses in three or four years, one Simon already having been so branded before, the sentences turning punishment straight into the forced labour that built the island’s defences. [Film No. 174, 175]

Slavery and coerced labour

Slavery lay at the foundation of the island’s economy, its slaves counted, bought, sold and provisioned as the property of the Company and of private colonists, yet appearing in the records only as property, labour or defendants. The reduction of human beings to livestock is starkest in the stock accounts, where in November 1742 the deaths of a man slave named Shepherd and a woman named Betty Grewer, and the birth of a boy named Frank, were entered among the calves, kids and pigs, the naming giving a fleeting individuality to people otherwise reckoned as chattels. The February 1742/3 return noted a female child born on the 15th and named Priss directly beneath the tally of calves, lambs and kids, and a rare issue of meat appears in the December return, where three sheep were given to the slaves and set down as a charge against the stock. [Film No. 100, 122, 176]

The traffic in slaves ran through the ordinary financial business of the settlement. On 17 December 1742 the council received £11 for a black wench of 11 years purchased of the Company, her price entered plainly among receipts for windows and ship accounts, a child sold as casually as a parcel of joinery. Earlier the same day two slaves belonging to Mr Doveton and to Mr Darling’s orphans, and a third belonging to Mr Brown, had confessed before the council to theft and were committed for trial, held answerable as criminals even while counted as property, and a slave named Jumper was found to have bought a waistcoat that became the subject of a dispute between two free men. [Film No. 77, 79, 105]

The Company provisioned its slaves as a distinct establishment, recording their upkeep apart from every other charge. For the quarter to 30 September 1742 the slaves’ account drew arrack, sugar, chellow cloth, butchers’ knives, shoes for men and women and a yam kettle, the great cauldron in which their staple food was boiled in bulk, and goods from the estate of the late Governor Goodwin, tea and teak boards, were also delivered to a slaves’ account. The storekeeper’s account to 31 December 1742 shows the whole quarter’s issue to the slaves coming to little more than £2, covering 18 shirts, four pairs of shoes and small measures of arrack and sugar, so bare an allowance clothing and rewarding the labour on which the fortifications and plantations depended. [Film No. 88, 95–96, 161]

On 4 January 1742/3 the Governor reported raising the slaves’ yam allowance from 40 to 50 a week for each man and woman, expressly to fatten them against the violent distemper then raging and so preserve their labour, a calculating concern for survival rather than humanity. Slave labour on the batteries was reckoned in days worked at a fixed shilling a day, but the pay went not to the workers but to their owners: an account for the quarter to December 1741 credited masters for the days their slaves put in at Banks, Powell owed £6 11s for 131 days, with several lines marked as owing to orphans, meaning the days were worked by slaves belonging to the estates of orphaned children. The completed redoubt at Sandy Bay, reported on 1 March 1742/3 as costing not a farthing beyond slave labour, was done by enslaved hands, the lime for the next works likewise burnt by plantation slaves and others. [Film No. 101–103, 113, 156]

The enslaved were bound up so completely with the property dealings of the island that even their housing was a matter of leases, rents and sales among the free. In February 1742/3 the council arranged a chain of purchases to rehouse its slaves and free itself of the £6 a year it paid for their quarters, letting the townsmen take a strip of ground behind their yards only if they paid enough to buy the plot on which the Company’s slaves’ house then stood in the heart of James Valley beside the Company garden. That plot was bought on behalf of Thomas Modyn of Anjengo on the Malabar coast, an absent Indian owner acting through island attorneys, then passed through the buyer Joshua Johnson and settled finally in Company hands. [Film No. 131, 132, 133]

In the wills of the island’s planters slaves were handed down individually as ordinary heritable property, named and bequeathed alongside the family silver. John Bazett in December 1742 left a named slave to his wife and to each of his children, Grace, Mula, Doll, Ellen, Nanny and Mercy, each marked not to be valued, meaning excluded from the appraisal set against the taker’s share so the slave passed as a gift over and above an equal portion. Charles Steward’s will of 7 October 1742 went further, ordering the family’s pick of enslaved girls and a boy by seniority, the widow choosing first and the daughters after her. [Film No. 118, 134]

The line between a slave and a free servant appears even in the pay account, where a black cooper was paid a fixed sum for 78 days, a slave hired out to the Company for his skilled trade of making and mending casks, described only by his colour and his craft and not by name. Manumission was the recognised reward for personal service, and John Bazett granted the slave Jack Pudge his freedom 12 months after death, tying the gift openly to the man having proved honest and faithful, the delay commonly serving to secure continued good conduct. The enslaved population was drawn from the Company’s eastern connections as well as from Africa, Joseph Long described at his trial as late Indian of the island, and a distinct group clothed in a standard issue of blue serge caps charged to the hospital account under the name of banyans, the word for Indian traders or servants in Company settlements. [Film No. 112, 119, 130, 168, 176]

Estates, inheritance and social order

Death among the island’s small body of freeholders was frequent, and each death set in motion a fixed procedure of proving the will on the oath of witnesses and appraising the estate by sworn appraisers before it could be divided, the pattern repeated for John Bazett, James Draper, Charles Steward, Mary Steward, Thomas Bazett and others across these months. So small was the community that the same handful of planters filled every role, valuing estate after estate and witnessing will after will, the identical Joseph Long who stood committed for theft even appearing as a witness swearing to Draper’s will. [Film No. 129, 133]

The island’s landholders held firmly to keeping a family’s principal holding intact through a single heir rather than splitting the land among all the children. John Bazett in his will of 28 December 1742 settled the mansion house and its lands on his eldest son Matthew under a charge to buy out his siblings at a valuation, and Charles Steward and Thomas Bazett made the same arrangement for their Sandy Bay and other lands, each judging his plots too small to divide, a recurring compromise between primogeniture and an equal settlement worked through a valuation. A widow’s provision was commonly tied to her remaining unmarried, John Bazett giving his wife a life interest in half his real estate and a third of his personal estate but only while she remained his widow, cutting her share to half the mansion house if she remarried, while Charles Steward gave his wife the living in the mansion house on condition that his heir build a new house on the lands called Foxes. [Film No. 118, 134, 178]

The council acted as protector of orphans and standing guardian of vulnerable inheritances. When the orphans of John Bradley feared that their remarrying stepmother would let their inheritance slip away, the council ordered their little estate valued, the widow’s thirds paid, and the rest sold at public outcry and the proceeds lodged in the Company’s treasury for the children to demand as they came of age; the sale on 23 February 1742/3 realised over £84, making up a whole estate of some £94 due to the orphans, and even a poor labourer’s few beasts, three heifer calves apportioned one apiece in Bradley’s will of 2 June 1739, went through the same machinery of will, witnesses and appraisement as a planter’s mansion. [Film No. 137, 138, 167]

A dead man’s moveable estate was turned into cash at public auction, the outcry being a sale to the highest bidder called aloud, each lot knocked down to a named buyer whose purchase created a debt owed to the estate. The sale of Thomas Bapek’s effects on 13 October 1742 and the winding-up of Hemmens Nichols’s estate show the mechanism in full, the leading Company men bidding freely as the only people with the standing and the cash to buy, so property recirculated among the same few hands at each death; that Powell and Dixon, so lately at open enmity, could both buy largely at the Nichols sale shows how the settlement’s business went on regardless of its feuds. The estates were often bound together as mutual debtors and creditors, a cross-account setting off the sums that had passed between the estates of Hemmens Nichols and John Bazett, and a charge for a half share of wine and beer bought jointly between Dixon, Charles Clarke and John Bazett showing the leading servants clubbing together to import drink in bulk, funeral charges and debts such as a stationery bill or a doctor’s bill met as a first charge before any division. [Film No. 140, 154, 166, 177]

Religion, welfare and everyday life

The settlement kept a Protestant character and a chaplain on its establishment, the Reverend Doctor Edwin Alcock, paid £25 a quarter like the second of council, who witnessed the island’s wills, lent his oath to the proving of wills and gave the small community its spiritual offices. The wills opened with pious commitments of the soul to Almighty God and directions for a Christian and decent burial, and the presence of a Protestant Psalter sold among the store’s stationery confirms the means of Protestant devotion were kept and sold on the island. [Film No. 103, 105, 136, 159]

Death lay heavily over the island, a violent distemper delaying the fortification works, thinning the garrison pay lists and raging among the slaves, the store’s steady sale and issue of black crape, the cloth of mourning, marking the frequent passing of the settlement’s people. The care taken over death and mourning appears in the will of Elizabeth Greentree, proved on 4 January 1742/3 having been signed on 12 December 1742, which set aside £20 to her son Thomas to be laid out wholly in mourning for his family. She disposed of land, an earring that had been her husband’s and a set of spoons, and tied up her daughter Mary’s share in trust for the benefit of her grandchildren by Daniel Griffith until they came of age or married, one named executor, her son Thomas, declining the trust on grounds of illness. [Film No. 62, 100, 101, 103–104]

The settlement maintained an infirmary funded partly by those it served. The hospital account delivered on 1 February 1742/3 by the steward David Wilson shows him taking in sixpence a month from each man at the pay table and setting the fund’s income against the cost of provisions, necessaries and his own salary, the fund having run into debt through buying drawers and caps for the banyans, the Indian servants or labourers clothed in a recognisable standard issue. Care for the vulnerable extended to the isolation of a remote plantation, Mary Steward in her will of 21 October 1742 asking that her sister Alcock be allowed to live with her in the country house. [Film No. 130, 131, 136]

The imported goods sold at the island’s estate auctions show a private life shaped by the trade of the India route and the conditions of the island’s climate. Wardrobes ran to scarlet gold-laced coats, velvet breeches, silk waistcoats and quantities of ruffled shirts, together with the loose Indian gown called a banyan worn at home in imitation of the dress of the East, and the printed and painted Indian cottons of chintz, palampores and muslin that furnished the houses. Mosquito curtains and purpose-made mosquito drawers fetched good prices, a real necessity in the warm damp of the coastal valley where the settlement lay. [Film No. 120, 141, 142, 144]

Personalities

George Gabriel Powell dominates the record as Governor, paymaster, husband of the Company’s stock and judge, a ruler determined to uphold institutional order and the appearance of discipline, preferring to smother quarrels in mutual apology yet capable of denouncing a colleague in the official book, of stripping a turbulent officer of his commission and of defending his authority with equal parts patience and force. His long dispute with Christopher Dixon shows both his forbearance and its limits, for he tried repeatedly to reconcile the young councillor, appealing to his friends and relations in England and readmitting him to council on a private promise to mend his ways, before finally suspending him and having the cash-chest key taken by a corporal, framing the affair not as a personal quarrel but as a public matter of caballing and sedition against the chief of the island. [Film No. 74–75, 78–82, 147, 149, 150, 155]

Christopher Dixon appears as the turbulent centre of the discontent, a stubborn and combative young man newly arrived who did the Company no service, falsified an entry to shield his friend Clarke, refused all correction and left the Governor to do all the secretary’s business himself, choosing instead to breed and cabal with malcontents. His hand had appeared nowhere in the consultation book for almost five months, since Lambert’s death, and the Governor withdrew the writer from the secretary’s office to compel him to attend it himself. His defiance ran from giving the Governor the lie in council and rudely turning himself out of a sitting to letting a slander against Powell spread and, at the last, refusing the cash-chest key and daring the council to take it, retorting that he had as much power to turn the Governor out as the Governor had to turn him out. [Film No. 77–82, 147, 149, 150, 155]

The quarrel that consumed the council turned on two turbulent lieutenants. John Clarke of the First Company destroyed his own career through an ungovernable temper, carrying a dispute over a barracks room to the point of mutinous rudeness on the parade in November 1742. Ordered by the late Governor Lambert to divide the house of the late Doctor Brown between their two companies as barracks, Clarke and James Scott of the Second tossed for first choice and fell to quarrelling over the key of a room, each beating the other’s serjeants with his cane to enforce possession, what Scott called club law, and Scott challenged Clarke to a duel. Examined on 23 November 1742, Clarke declined the challenge as respect for the council, whose office it was to settle disputes, and because Scott was a lame and disabled man whom it would have brought him public blame to hurt, and the ensigns Daniel Owen and Joseph Kendall testified that no cane had been shaken. [Film No. 64–66, 70–72]

The council widened the charge against Scott beyond the quarrel. On 23 November 1742 the adjutant William Hayes complained that Scott had ordered the men of the Second Company not to obey him and to report any attempt to discipline them, threatening to beat them himself, and Scott defended his conduct over a beaten sentinel by the settled rule that an adjutant had no business to strike a soldier on his post, the proper course being to relieve the sentry first. The Governor held both officers equally to blame and required each to ask the Company’s pardon, though Dixon dissented, defending Clarke as having only done his duty. On 24 November 1742 Clarke came rudely to the Governor on the parade, complaining loudly before the guard that he had not had justice and that Scott alone should have apologised, and for this open insubordination he was ordered to his room, given repeated chances to acknowledge his error, and then dismissed and stripped of his commission, his pay running only to 2 December 1742, the Governor privately warning a friend named Duncan against harbouring him. [Film No. 67, 69–75, 77]

Ensign Joseph Kendall and Lieutenant Clarke formed with Dixon what the record calls the discontented club, working to set the officers and garrison at odds by carrying false tales between them. Kendall excused himself on the ground that the Company’s allowances would not let him live as a gentleman where things were so dear, refused the Governor’s request for men to launch a boat and advised the guard against cleaning the parade they had always cleaned unbidden, and his imagining of an elaborate plot in a colleague’s letter against him finally exhausted Powell’s patience, so that he was dismissed outright while the other officers, questioned one by one, each declared they had no grievance and stood with the Governor. John Godfrey, second of council and storekeeper, appears throughout as the steady administrator who settled the barracks quarrel in the Governor’s absence and rendered the store’s accounts, while the late Governor Lambert was remembered as the careful engineer of the island’s defences and John French kept its guns. [Film No. 69, 72, 73, 75, 99, 102, 151, 152, 153]

Among the humbler figures Joseph Long stands out, tried at the sessions of 4 March 1742/3 and convicted of the burglary of Francis Wrangham junior’s house, his desperate written pleas and his shifting account between confession and denial leaving the jury little room to doubt him. The enslaved men Phill and the two men named Simon, one called the most notorious offender to come before the court, appear as defendants marked as the property of their owners, their branding and flogging setting the treatment of the enslaved in the sharpest contrast to the free man tried beside them; beneath them all the slaves Shepherd, Betty Grewer, the newborn Frank, Jumper and Priss surface only briefly, named for a moment before returning to the anonymity of the Company’s property. [Film No. 100, 105, 169, 171, 174]

Conclusion

The records show St Helena as a small, isolated and heavily dependent Company possession whose every function served a single end, the victualling and defence of the ships on the long passage between England and Asia. The garrison drilled and built, the plantations bred and slaughtered stock, the store held everything from window glass to Indian cotton, the council governed, judged and settled estates, and the whole turned on the rhythm of the arriving fleets, its finances resting on a chaos of foreign coin and its defences and improvements built by a handful of slaves. Authority was concentrated in a handful of men who filled every role in each other’s affairs, so the record is inevitably that of the governing few and their view of the island’s order. [Film No. 76, 81, 99–101, 124, 168]

The papers are candid about the strains beneath that order, the factional quarrel that split the council and corrupted its book, the brutal punishments used to enforce discipline, and the poor materials and exposed roadstead that left the defences and the port always precarious. Above all they show a settlement built and worked on slave labour that it maintained as cheaply as possible and recorded only as property, whose fortifications rose almost without cash cost because the Company’s slaves raised them. The record’s greatest value lies in the accidents that break through its official surface, the feud that corrupted its book, the will that connects a dry ledger name to a real family, and the stock account that lists the deaths of slaves beside those of animals, and it must be read with care, for it was made by the very men whose disputes and interests it recorded and speaks of the slaves and the poor only as they touched the concerns of those who ruled them. [Film No. 68, 82, 100, 103–104, 156, 174, 180]

Film No

Page No.

OCR Transcription

Modern Interpretation and analysis

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EAP 1364 St Helena

Document Name and Date St. HELENA RECORDS 1742 (26)

Photographer PETER

Date photographed 18 NOV 2021

Additional comments

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Book cover

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Blank page

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Fortifications.

4. Gun battery in Sandy Bay valley { proposed, 4 Jany 1743, page 95

completed by 1 march '43 " 150.

Banks's: Plan of the battery . p. 56

works completed " 147,

Ruperts ; works taken in hand " 150.

Salaries - p. 99.

Misconduct ; Lts Scott & Clark pp. 59, 64, 69

Mr Dixon " 76, 141

Protest against the Seas 171

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1

At a consultation held on Tuesday the 19th day of October 1742 at

the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2d of Council

Christopher Dixon. 3d of Council

The Last Consultation was Read and approved

This Day the Pay Master Delivered his Account which

was Examined and approved and is Entled as follows Vizt

List of the Honourable Companys Servants upon the Island St Helena with

their several Sallarys and Diet Money for the Months of July, August, and

September Last Vizt

Names, Pay ⅌ Quarter, Hospital, Diet, Stop'd for Coats Vict Regimentals

Thomas Lambert Esqr Esqrs Sallary at £500. 0. 0

⅌ Ann from 30 June to 20th July Including Sons

£34. 7. 4

George Gabriel Powell 2d of Council

Sallary at 100£ ⅌ Ann for 20th

June to 20th July

£5. 9. 7

Do him as Sallary at 500£ ⅌ Ann from

20th July to 30. September

£8. 12. 7

£104. 2. 2

John Godfrey 2d of Council Sallary

at £50. ⅌ Ann from 30th June to

20th July

£4. 7. 8

Do of Council Sallary [at] £300 ⅌ Ann

from 20th July to 30th September

£19. 14. 6

£24. 2. 2

Christopher Dixon 3d of Council

Sallary at 60£ ⅌ Ann from 30th June

to 20th July

£3. 5. 9

Do 3d of Council Sallary at £80 ⅌ Ann

from 20th July to 30th Septr

£15. 15. 7½

£19. 1. 4½

£182. 15. 9

£101. 15. 9

At a consultation held on Tuesday 19 October 1742 at the Castle.

Present were Governor George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The paymaster presented his account this day, which the council examined, approved and entered as follows.

The following list recorded the Honourable Company servants on the island of St Helena together with their several salaries and diet money for the months of July, August and September, as set out below.

Thomas Lambert Esq, Governor, salary at £500 0s 0d per year, from 30 June to 20 July including fees, £34 7s 4d

George Gabriel Powell, second of council, salary at £100 per year, from 20 June to 20 July, £5 9s 7d

George Gabriel Powell, salary at £500 per year, from 20 July to 30 September, £98 12s 7d

Powell total, £104 2s 2d

John Godfrey, third of council, salary at £50 per year, from 30 June to 20 July, £4 7s 8d

John Godfrey, second of council, salary at £300 per year, from 20 July to 30 September, £19 14s 6d

Godfrey total, £24 2s 2d

Christopher Dixon, fourth of council, salary at £40 per year, from 30 June to 20 July, £3 5s 9d

Christopher Dixon, third of council, salary at £80 per year, from 20 July to 30 September, £15 15s 7d

Dixon total, £19 1s 4d

Grand total, £182 1s 9d

Diet total, £107 1s 9d

Interpretations

The list captured a mid-year reshuffle of the council rather than a routine salary run. Each of the three serving members drew pay at two different rates within the same quarter, the earlier portion at a lower figure and the later portion at a higher one, with the change falling on 20 July 1742. Powell moved from £100 to £500 a year, Godfrey from £50 to £300 and Dixon from £40 to £80, so every man received a substantial promotion in station and stipend on the same day. The opening entry for Thomas Lambert, drawn at the governor's rate of £500 but ending on 20 July, marks the point at which Powell succeeded him, since Powell's own senior salary begins on the very day Lambert's closes.

Diet money was an allowance paid on top of salary to cover the cost of provisions, a standard element of Company remuneration at a remote station where food was dear and partly imported. The column headed for coals, victuals and regimentals covered fuel, rations and uniform items supplied to the garrison, distinct from the officers' personal pay.

8

2

Names, Pay ⅌ Quarter, Summ ⅌ do, Hospital, Diet, Coats

Edwin Alcock Chaplain Brought over

£181. 15s 9d

Joshua Fugnam Factor Including

House Rent at 10£ ⅌ Ann from 11th

August

£8. 17s 11½d

James Powell Including Do

£10. 19s 2½d

Francis Draughan Including Do

£10. 19s 2½d

Joseph Darvall Including Do

£6. 7s 11½d

Thomas French

£5. 0s 0d

£67. 4s 3½d

First Company

John Clarke Lieutenant

£17. 10s 0d

Thos Easthope Ensign Including

House Rent at £10 ⅌ Ann from 6th

August

£13. 9s 2½d

Daniel Coles Do Including Do

£13. 9s 2½d

John Barton Do Including Do

£13. 9s 9½d

Wm Hayes Adjutant Including Do

£13. 19s 2½d

£73. 16s 9d

Serjeants

Joseph Desfountam

£6. 19s 6d

2 Coats

William Beal

£6. 19s 6d

2 Coats

Henry Multon

£6. 19s 6d

£1. 19s 0d

2 Coats

Daniel Mason

£6. 19s 6d

£1. 17s 0d

2 Coats

Joseph Leighton

£6. 19s 6d

£1. 17s 0d

2 Coats

Henry Beal Advanced 6th August

£5. 19s 7½d

£40. 17s 1½d

15 Coats

Corporals

Joseph Welaby

£4. 7s 9d

Isaac Knipe

£4. 7s 9d

15 Coats

Bartholomew Molley

£4. 7s 9d

15 Coats

Matthew Watson

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s 0d

15 Coats

Richard Harper Continued 1.8.5

⅌ Corporal 2.10.11½

£3. 19s 4½d

£21. 10s 4½d

15 Coats

Drummers

Thomas Cake

£4. 7s 9d

15 Coats

Wm Davis

£4. 7s 9d

£8. 15s 6d

15 Coats

Pay Carried over

£393. 16s 9½d

Hospital Carried over

Diet Carried over

£0. 11s 0d

Coats Carried over

£13. 5s 0d

The list of Company servants and their pay continued with the following names and sums.

Edward Alcock, chaplain, brought over, £181 12s 9d

Joshua Twyman, factor, including house rent at 10s per year from 11 August, £8 17s 11½d

James Powell, including diet, £10 19s 2¼d

Francis Draughan, including diet, £10 19s 2¼d

Joseph Darvall, including diet, £8 7s 11¼d

Thomas Trench, £5 0s 0d

Total, £67 4s 3½d

First Company.

John Clarke, lieutenant, £17 10s 0d

Thomas Easthope, ensign, including house rent at £12 per year from 6 August, £13 9s 2¼d

Daniel Croke, ensign, including diet, £13 9s 2¼d

John Barton, ensign, including diet, £13 9s 2¼d

William Hayes, adjutant, including diet, £13 19s 2¼d

Total, £73 16s 9d

Serjeants.

Joseph Desfountain, £6 19s 6d, coats 2s

William Beal, £6 19s 6d, coats 2s

Henry Mullen, £6 19s 6d, diet £1 19s, coats 2s

Daniel Mason, £6 19s 6d, diet £1 17s, coats 2s

Joseph Leighton, £6 19s 6d, diet £1 17s, coats 2s

Henry Beal, advanced 6 August, £5 19s 7½d, coats 15s

Total, £40 17s 1½d

Corporals.

Joseph Whaley, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

Isaac Knipe, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

Bartholomew Molley, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

Matthew Watson, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Richard Harper, centinel 1 August to 5 August £0 8s 5d, corporal 5 August to 30 September £3 19s 11½d, coats 15s

Total, £21 10s 4½d

Drummers.

Thomas Cake, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

William Davis, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

Total, £8 15s 6d

Pay carried over, £392 16s 9¼d

Hospital carried over, [...]

Diet carried over, £9 11s 0d

Coats carried over, £13 5s 0d

Interpretations

The account distinguished ordinary salary from three separate supplementary allowances entered in their own columns: diet money for provisions, hospital money and a coats allowance for uniform. Only some men drew diet or hospital money, whereas the coats allowance fell uniformly at 15s for the rank and file below officer grade, marking it as a standard clothing issue rather than a personal payment.

Several house rents were folded into individual salaries, with Twyman, Easthope and others credited a fixed annual sum from the day their tenancy began. This shows the Company meeting the housing costs of its senior servants directly through the pay account rather than providing quarters, the rent running from a stated date in August 1742 rather than the start of the pay period.

Richard Harper's entry recorded a promotion within the quarter, his pay split between service as a centinel for the first days of August and as a corporal for the remainder. The divided line shows the garrison adjusting a man's rank and rate mid-period and pro-rating the account to the exact days served at each.

9

3

Pay Brot over

£393. 16s 9½d

Hospital Brought over

Diet Brought over

£0. 11s 0d

Coats Brought over

£13. 5s 0d

Centinels Vizt

William Adams

£3. 8s 3d

15

James Abridge

£3. 8s 3d

15

Bevan Ambrose

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

James Allis

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Thomas Blunk

£3. 8s 3d

£5. 3s

15

Edward Arnold

£3. 8s 3d

£3. 9s

£1. 19s 0d

15

Richard Bishop

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

George Bennett

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Matthew Brightwell

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 17s

15

John Butler

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Andrew Barber

£3. 8s 3d

8s 4d

15

Peter Both

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Daniel Bush

£3. 8s 3d

14s 3½d

15

Paul Bryan

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Edward Bascott

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Brown

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Peter Cummings

£3. 8s 3d

16s 3d

15

Anthony Cartael

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

George Clerke

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Robert Curry

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Thomas Card

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Henry Coster

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Matthew Cammell

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Henry Cater

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Daniel Connell

£3. 8s 3d

15

Walter Cox

£3. 8s 3d

£10. 1s 5d

15

Anthony Day

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

William Donald

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

John Ellis

£3. 8s 3d

15

James English

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Wm Elder

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 0d

15

Richard Frood

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s 0d

15

Thomas Flood

£3. 8s 3d

£5. 19s 0d

15

Thomas Fuller

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Ford

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Gurling

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Jonathan Godfrey

£126. 3s 3d

Pay Carried over

£300. 2s 4½d

Hospital Carried over

£1. 7s 0d

Diet Carried over

£60. 3s 0d

Coats Carried over

£43. 0s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £392 16s 9¼d

Hospital brought over, [...]

Diet brought over, £9 11s 0d

Coats brought over, £13 5s 0d

Centinels.

William Adams, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

James Albridge, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Bevan Ambrose, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Alles, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Blank, £3 8s 3d, hospital 5s 3d, coats 15s

Edward Arnold, £3 8s 3d, hospital 3s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Richard Bishop, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

George Bennett, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Matthew Brightwell, £3 8s 3d, diet £2 1s, coats 15s

John Butler, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Andrew Barton, £3 8s 3d, diet 8s 4d, coats 15s

Peter Bath, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Daniel Bush, £3 8s 3d, diet 14s 3d, coats 15s

Paul Bryan, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Edward Bascott, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Brown, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Peter Cummings, £3 8s 3d, diet 16s 3d, coats 15s

Anthony Costoll, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

George Clarke, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Robert Curry, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Card, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Henry Coster, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Matthew Cammell, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Henry Cater, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Daniel Connell, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Walter Cox, £3 8s 3d, hospital 10s, diet £1 5s, coats 15s

Anthony Day, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

William Dowell, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Elles, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

James English, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

William Elder, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Richard Frood, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Flood, £3 8s 3d, diet £5 19s, coats 15s

Thomas Fuller, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Ford, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Gurling, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Jonathan Godsey, [...], coats 15s

Centinels total, £126 5s 3d

Pay carried over, £520 2s 4d

Hospital carried over, £1 7s 0d

Diet carried over, £60 8s 0d

Coats carried over, £43 0s 0d

Interpretations

The account set out the private soldiers of the garrison at a flat basic pay of £3 8s 3d each for the quarter, a rate identical across the entire body of centinels. This uniformity marked their common rank and distinguished them from the varied and negotiated salaries of the officers and civil servants entered earlier.

The variable diet money credited to most men, ranging from a few shillings to over £2, reflected differences in the provisions each drew rather than any difference in pay grade. A handful of soldiers received hospital money, an allowance tied to treatment or sickness during the quarter, which appeared only against those specific individuals who had need of it. The coats allowance again fell uniformly at 15s for every man, confirming it as a fixed annual clothing issue to the rank and file.

10

4

Pay Brought over

£300. 2s 4½d

Hospital Brought over

£1. 7s 0d

Diet Brought over

£60. 3s 0d

Coats Brought over

£43. 0s 0d

John Hayes

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Harper

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 7s

15

Francis Hayes

£3. 8s 3d

15

Solomon Jacob

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Walter Yerman

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Jones Senr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Ivan Jones

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Jones Junr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Richard Foot

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thos Kendrick

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 3s

£1. 11s

15

Joseph Long

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

James Long

£3. 8s 3d

15

Anton Leach

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Leach

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Lewis

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Legg

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Loggett Died 6th July

0. 6s

0.

John Leach

£3. 8s 3d

17s

15

Daniel Langton

£3. 8s 3d

£3. 9s

£1. 15s

15

Robert Manlove

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 9s

15

Wm Moor

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Mudge

£3. 8s 3d

15

Wm Paile Junr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

James Pritchard

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Price 2nd died 20th July

£1. 1s 0d

£1. 1s

15

John Pearce

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Nathaniel Purcell

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thos Payne

£3. 8s 3d

£18. 1s 5s 9d

15

James Richardson

£3. 8s 3d

15

Benjn Rose

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Slack

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 7s

15

John Scotcher

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Seamor

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Ionathan Safeari

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 7s

15

John Simpson

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Sprake

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Slater

£3. 8s 3d

£120. 15s 9d

£1. 17s

15

Pay Carried over

£640. 17s 9½d

Hospital Carried over

£3. 18s 0d

Diet Carried over

£99. 19s 4½d

Coats Carried over

£69. 5s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £520 2s 4d

Hospital brought over, £1 7s 0d

Diet brought over, £60 8s 0d

Coats brought over, £43 0s 0d

John Hayes, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Hooper, £3 8s 3d, diet £2 7s, coats 15s

Francis Hayes, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Solomon Jacobs, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Walter Jarman, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Jones senior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Evan Jones, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Jones junior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Richard Foot, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Kendrick, £3 8s 3d, hospital 2s 3d, diet £1 11s, coats 15s

Joseph Long, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Long, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Robert Leach, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Leach, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Lewis, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Legg, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Liggett, died 6 July, £0 6s 0d, hospital 6s

John Leach, £3 8s 3d, diet 17s, coats 15s

Daniel Langton, £3 8s 3d, hospital 3s 9d, diet £1 15s, coats 15s

Robert Manlove, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 9s, coats 15s

William Moor, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Mudge, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

William Poile junior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Pritchard, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Price senior, died 20 July, £1 1s 0d, hospital £1 1s

John Pearce, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Nathaniel Purcell, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Payne, £3 8s 3d, hospital 18s, diet £1 5s 9d, coats 15s

James Richardson, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Benjamin Isaac, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Slack, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 7s, coats 15s

John Scotcher, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Seamor, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Donald Safaire, £3 8s 3d, diet 7s 7d, coats 15s

John Simpson, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Sprake, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Slaton, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Total, £120 15s 9d

Pay carried over, £640 17s 9½d

Hospital carried over, £3 18s 0d

Diet carried over, £99 19s 7½d

Coats carried over, £69 5s 0d

Interpretations

Two men on the roll died during the quarter, their pay pro-rated to the day of death and set against small hospital charges. John Liggett drew only £0 6s 0d before his death on 6 July, and William Price senior £1 1s 0d before his on 20 July, each figure recording pay earned up to the day life ended rather than a full quarter. The matching hospital entries suggest both men had passed into the care of the garrison hospital shortly before death, the account settling the cost of their treatment against the little pay they had earned.

The steady basic rate of £3 8s 3d ran unbroken through this second body of centinels, confirming a single fixed quarterly wage for the private soldier regardless of length of service or family standing on the island. Fathers and sons appeared together on the roll, with John Jones senior and junior and the two Poiles among them, showing garrison service passing within families and several generations of one household drawing Company pay at once.

11

5

Pay Brought over

£640. 17s 9½d

Hospital Brought over

£3. 18s 0d

Diet Brought over

£99. 19s 4½d

Coats Brought over

£69. 5s 0d

William Waite

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Upton

£3. 8s 3d

15

James Vaughan Senr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Thomas Watson

£3. 8s 3d

16s 4d

15

John Willey

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Wagg

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Wet Fen Cider

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Samuel Harrison

£3. 8s 3d

15

Weldon Jones

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 2s

15

John King

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 3s 1½d

15

Henry Bowers

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Sergeant

£3. 8s 3d

£40. 19s 0d

£1. 19s

15

Second Company

James Scott Lieutenant

£70.

John Desfountain Ensign Including

House Rent at 10£ ⅌ Ann from 10th

August

£13. 9s 2½d

Joseph Kendall Do Including Do

£13. 9s 2½d

Thos Kirkpatrick Do Including Do

£13. 9s 2½d

£30. 7s 6½d

Serjeants Vizt

Thomas Bizett Died 8th Sepr

£5. 7s

Edward Bagley

£6. 19s 6d

2

John Coach

£6. 19s 6d

2

David Colton

£6. 19s 6d

2

Thos Cosby

£6. 19s 6d

£1. 17s

2

Wm Oakmin

£6. 19s 6d

£1. 17s

2

Onoryphorus Beale Advanced 18. 6. 8

£4. 13s 3d

£44. 19s 9d

2

Pay Carried over

£777. 4s 3d

Hospital Carried over

£3. 18s 0d

Diet Carried over

£117. 3s 0d

Coats Carried over

£90. 5s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £640 17s 9½d

Hospital brought over, £3 18s 0d

Diet brought over, £99 19s 7½d

Coats brought over, £69 5s 0d

William Twaits, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Upton, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

James Vaughan senior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Watson, £3 8s 3d, diet 16s 4d, coats 15s

John Willey, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Hagg, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John York junior, centinel, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Samuel Harrison, £3 8s 3d, diet £2 2s, coats 15s

Weldon Jones, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 9s 1½d, coats 15s

John King, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Mercy Bowers, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John York serjeant, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Total, £40 19s 0d

Second Company.

James Scott, lieutenant, £17 10s 0d

John Desfountain, ensign, including house rent at 10s per year from 10 August, £13 9s 2¼d

Joseph Kendall, ensign, including diet, £13 9s 2¼d

Thomas Kirkpatrick, ensign, including diet, £13 9s 2¼d

Total, £30 7s 6¾d

Serjeants.

Thomas Rickett, died 8 September, £5 7s 0d, coats 2s

Edward Bagley, £6 19s 6d, coats 2s

John Leach, £6 19s 6d, coats 2s

David Kirton, £6 19s 6d, coats 2s

Thomas Corkey, £6 19s 6d, diet £1 17s, coats 2s

William Oakman, £6 19s 6d, diet £1 7s, coats 2s

Onerophorus Beale, advanced 15 August, £4 13s 3d, coats 2s

Total, £44 19s 9d

Pay carried over, £777 4s 3d

Hospital carried over, £3 18s 0d

Diet carried over, £117 3s 0d

Coats carried over, £90 5s 0d

Interpretations

The roll included Mercy Bowers among the centinels at the same basic pay of £3 8s 3d as the men, a rare instance of a woman drawing a soldier's full quarterly wage on the garrison establishment. Her presence on the pay list at the standard private rate, rather than as a dependant or servant, points to some functional role in the garrison rewarded on equal terms with the male rank and file.

The account again pro-rated pay to the day where service ended, with Serjeant Thomas Rickett drawing £5 7s 0d before his death on 8 September rather than a full quarter. His replacement in effect came through Onerophorus Beale, advanced to fill a vacancy on 15 August, whose part-quarter pay of £4 13s 3d marked the point at which he took up the higher rate. This shows the garrison managing its establishment of non-commissioned officers by promoting from the ranks as deaths and vacancies arose, adjusting each man's pay to the exact date of his advancement.

12

6

Pay Brot over

£777. 4s 3d

Hospital Brot over

£3. 18s 0d

Diet Brot over

£117. 3s 0d

Coats Brought over

£90. 5s 0d

Corporals

Thomas Swindell

£4. 7s 9d

15

John French

£4. 7s 9d

15

John Abrick

£4. 7s 9d

15

Wm Simpson Advanced 9th August

£4. 4s

£1. 19s

15

Geo French

£4. 7s 9d

15

Saml Ashwick Advanced 2. 6. 8

£3. 10s 9d

£1. 19s

15

James Draper Discharged 9th Augt

£2. 6s 3d

£27. 12s 3d

Drummers

William Ernes

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s

Thos Landen ⅌ 7£ ⅌ annum

£1. 15s

£6. 2s 9d

Centinels

William Allis

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 3s 3d

15

George Ayres

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Wm Ayrigan

£3. 8s 3d

10s 6d

£1. 11s 10d

15

Joseph Andrews

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Thos Brown

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 4s 9d

15

Wm Barrett

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Peter Barber

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Brown

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Andrew Blinman

£3. 8s 3d

15

Orlando Bagley discharged 17 Augt

£1. 11s 9d

15

Thos Boxer

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Bum

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

William Boffett

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Buck

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Wm Brooks

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 7s

15

John Bradley Died 23d July

17s 3d

Wm Bousfield

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Bowden

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Collins

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Nicholas Coper

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Thos Coper

£3. 8s 3d

£367. 8s 9d

£1. 19s

15

Pay Carried over

£838. 7s 9d

Hospital Carried over

£5. 11s 9d

Diet Carried over

£154. 7s 5d

Coats Carried over

£110. 10s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £777 4s 3d

Hospital brought over, £3 18s 0d

Diet brought over, £117 3s 0d

Coats brought over, £90 5s 0d

Corporals.

Thomas Tindall, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

John French, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

John Abrick, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

William Simpson, advanced 9 August, £4 4s 0d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Godfrey Isaac, £4 7s 9d, coats 15s

Samuel Ashwell, advanced to corporal, £3 10s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Draper, discharged 9 August, £2 6s 3d, coats 15s

Total, £27 12s 3d

Drummers.

William Bones, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Thomas Landon at 7s per year, £1 15s 0d

Total, £6 2s 9d

Centinels.

William Alles, £3 8s 3d, hospital £1 3s 3d, coats 15s

George Ayres, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

William Agazan, £3 8s 3d, hospital 10s 6d, diet £1 11s, coats 15s

Joseph Andrews, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Brown, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 4s 9d, coats 15s

William Barrett, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Peter Barker, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Brown, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Andrew Bluman, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Orlando Bagley, discharged 17 August, £1 11s 9d, coats 15s

Thomas Boxer, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Bum, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Weldon Baffett, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Bush, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

William Brooks, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Bradley, died 23 July, £0 17s 3d, coats 15s

William Beaufield, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Bawden, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Collins, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Nicholas Coper, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Cope, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Total, £67 8s 9d

Pay carried over, £838 7s 3d

Hospital carried over, £5 11s 9d

Diet carried over, £184 7s 5d

Coats carried over, £110 10s 0d

Interpretations

The corporals' section recorded a cluster of movements within the quarter, with two men advanced into the rank and one discharged, each pay figure cut to the days served. William Simpson took up his corporal's rate from 9 August and Samuel Ashwell his own on advancement, while James Draper left the service on 9 August with only £2 6s 3d earned. These part-quarter figures show the garrison continually reshaping its establishment of junior officers, filling gaps by promotion from below as men were discharged or moved up.

Thomas Landon appeared among the drummers at the token rate of 7s a year, yielding only £1 15s 0d for the quarter, far below the standard drummer's pay drawn by William Bones. Such a nominal wage points to a boy taken onto the strength as a learner or apprentice drummer, kept on the establishment at a fraction of the adult rate until trained to full duty.

13

7

Pay Brought over

£838. 7s 9d

Hospital Brot over

£5. 11s 9d

Diet Brought over

£154. 7s 5d

Coats Brought over

£110. 10s 0d

William Cox

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Philip Cabbpole

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

James Car

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Thomas Draper

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Drewton Entred 20th August

£1. 10s 7½d

16s 4d

15

Edward Dunsford

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Dewig

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Baron Delaph

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Deacon

£3. 8s 3d

15

Lional Eats

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 6s

15

John Evans

£3. 8s 3d

2s 1½d

15

Isaac Evans

£3. 8s 3d

2s 1½d

15

Onoryphorus Gurling Died 23 Sepr

£3. 3s

Christopher Garland

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

Wm Gyam

£3. 8s 3d

15

John George

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Thos Griffiths

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 11s

15

Philip Lidiard

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

James Slak

£3. 8s 3d

16

John Sawyer

£3. 8s 3d

Daniel Ayres

£3. 8s 3d

15

Henry Aggims

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Holloway

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Isaac Hodson

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Barnet Harmes

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Joseph Hunt

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

John Jayne

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Richard Knight

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Edward Lord

£3. 8s 3d

15

Reuben Lofton

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Lindsey

£3. 8s 3d

15

James Lee

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Charles Montague

£3. 8s 3d

£3. 9s

£1. 17s

15

Robert Mason

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Manning

£3. 8s 3d

15

John Maddick

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Morgan

£3. 8s 3d

£125. 2s 1½d

£1. 19s

15

Pay Carried over

£1002. 10s 2d

Hospital Carried over

£5. 17s 0d

Diet Carried over

£143. 4s 0d

Coats Carried over

£136. 0s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £838 7s 9d

Hospital brought over, £5 11s 4d

Diet brought over, £134 2s 5d

Coats brought over, £110 10s 0d

William Cox, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Philip Cobbpole, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Carr, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Draper, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Downton, died 20 August, £1 10s 7½d, diet 16s 4d, coats 15s

Edward Dunsford, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Davey, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Aaron Delph, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Deacon, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Lionel Eals, £3 8s 3d, hospital £1 6s, coats 15s

John Evans, £3 8s 3d, diet 2s 3d, coats 15s

Isaac Evans, £3 8s 3d, diet 2s 1½d, coats 15s

Onerophorus Gurling, died 23 September, £3 3s 0d, coats 15s

Christopher Garland, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Gum, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John George, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Thomas Griffiths, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Philip Liddiard, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

James Slack, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Lawyer, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Daniel Ayres, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Henry Aggins, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Holloway, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Isaac Hodson, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Barnet Harns, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Joseph Hunt, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

John Jayne, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Richard Knight, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

David Long, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Stephen Lofton, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Lindsey, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

James Lee, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Charles Montague, £3 8s 3d, hospital 3s 9d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Robert Mason, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Manning, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

John Maddick, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Morgan, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Total, £126 2s 4½d

Pay carried over, £1,002 10s 2d

Hospital carried over, £5 17s 0d

Diet carried over, £143 4s 0d

Coats carried over, £136 0s 0d

Interpretations

Two further centinels died during the quarter, their pay again stopped at the day of death. William Downton earned £1 10s 7½d before dying on 20 August and Onerophorus Gurling £3 3s 0d before his death on 23 September, each part-quarter sum recording the wages due up to the moment service ended. The recurring pattern of deaths across every section of this list, several within a single quarter, reflects the heavy mortality among the garrison rank and file at the island.

Two men named Evans, John and Isaac, appeared with unusually small diet credits of only 2s 3d and 2s 1½d against the £1 to £2 drawn by most of their fellows. Such reduced sums suggest they were absent, provisioned separately or drew rations for only a fraction of the quarter, the diet money tracking actual provisions issued rather than a flat entitlement.

14

8

Pay Brot over

£1002. 10s 2d

Hospital Brot over

£5. 17s 0d

Diet Brought over

£143. 4s 0d

Coats Brought over

£136. 0s 0d

John Mannahoy

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Fears

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Thos Oliver

£3. 8s 3d

17s 3d

£1. 4s 6d

15

William Page

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Lawrence Peterson

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 13s

15

Stephen Powers

£3. 8s 3d

15

Thomas Prito

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Rither

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 7s

15

Edward Snead

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Rearsbrook

£3. 8s 3d

£2. 13s

15

George Sharrad

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Richard Traile

£3. 8s 3d

15

Jeremiah Vlyrok

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Peter Waller

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Thomas Wright

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 11s 6d

£1. 5s 9d

10

James Whitehead

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 7s

15

Benjn Williams Senior

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s 5d

15

Benjamin Williams Junr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 17s

15

James Vaughan Junr

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Beale

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 6s 7½d

15

Jonathan Hallam

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Johnson

£3. 8s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Wm Barton

£3. 8s 3d

£70. 9s 9d

£1. 19s

15

Artillery Company

John French Gunner Including

House Rent at 10£ ⅌ Annum 10lb£

£19. 7s 11½d

Isaac Leech Gunners Mate

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 10s

Thos Notes Do

£4. 17s 6d

Nathan Semple Do

£4. 17s 6d

£34. 0s 5½d

£1. 10s

Pay Carried over

£1113. 0s 4d

Hospital Carried over

£8. 5s 9d

Diet Carried over

£230. 4s 6½d

Coats Carried over

£156. 0s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £1,002 10s 2d

Hospital brought over, £5 17s 0d

Diet brought over, £143 4s 0d

Coats brought over, £136 0s 0d

John Mannahey, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Fears, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Thomas Oliver, £3 8s 3d, hospital 17s 3d, diet £1 4s 6d, coats 15s

William Page, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Lawrence Peterson, £3 8s 3d, diet £2 13s, coats 15s

Stephen Powers, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Thomas Prido, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Rither, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Edward Snook, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Kearsbrook, £3 8s 3d, diet £2 1s, coats 15s

George Sharrad, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Richard Traile, £3 8s 3d, coats 15s

Jeremiah Wyrell, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Peter Waller, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Thomas Wright, £3 8s 3d, hospital £1 11s 6d, diet £1 5s 9d, coats 10s

James Whitehead, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 7s, coats 15s

Benjamin Williams senior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s 5d, coats 15s

Benjamin Williams junior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

James Vaughan junior, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Beale, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 6s 7½d, coats 15s

Jonathan Hallam, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Johnson, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

William Barton, £3 8s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Total, £78 9s 9d

Artillery Company.

John French, gunner, including house rent at 10s per year from 10 August, £19 7s 11½d

Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, coats £1 10s

Thomas Waters, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d

Nathan Semple, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, coats £1 10s

Total, £34 0s 5½d

Pay carried over, £1,115 0s 4½d

Hospital carried over, £8 5s 9d

Diet carried over, £230 4s 6½d

Coats carried over, £156 0s 0d

Interpretations

The account closed the body of centinels and opened the Artillery Company, the specialist gunners of the garrison kept as a separate establishment. John French headed it as gunner at a salary far above the private rate, with house rent folded into his pay from 10 August, while his three gunner's mates drew £4 17s 6d each, above the centinel's wage but below the ensigns'. This tiered structure marked artillery skill as a distinct and better-paid trade within the garrison, set apart from the ordinary infantry companies.

Thomas Wright's entry carried the largest hospital charge on the roll at £1 11s 6d, together with a coats allowance reduced to 10s rather than the usual 15s. The heavy hospital sum against reduced diet and clothing suggests prolonged sickness during the quarter, the account cutting his other allowances in proportion to the time he spent unfit and under care.

15

9

Pay Brought over

£1113. 0s 4d

Hospital Brot over

£8. 5s 9d

Diet Brought over

£230. 4s 6½d

Coats Brought over

£156. 0s 0d

Robert Wood Gunners Mate

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 19s 0d

£1. 10s

James Vaughan Do

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 10s

Roger Stevanson

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 10s

Francis Rowland Do

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 10s

Wm Chillingworth Do

£4. 17s 6d

£1. 10s

William Kennedy Quarter Gunner

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s

£1.

Benjn Jackson Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 17s

£1.

Wm Davis Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1.

John Chrishpole Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1.

John Barnes Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s

£1.

Thos Dillingham Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s

£1.

John Thomas Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 19s

£1.

John Metcalfe Do

£4. 7s 9d

£1. 6s

£1.

Samuel Davis Matross

£4. 1s 3d

0. 15s

Wm Caddy Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Richard Deacon Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Thos Millet Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Spencer Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

John Walton Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Saml Clarke Do

£4. 1s 3d

14s 1½d

15

Joseph Wolcock Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 19s

15

Walter Bellew Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Jos Cox dyed 20th July Do

£1. 4s 11d

£1. 1s

John Smith Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Adam Milburn Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 7s

15

Wm Turner Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Henry Savage Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 7s

15

Humphry Pugh Do

£4. 1s 3d

£5. 3s

£1. 13s 3d

15

Francis Bilek Do

£4. 1s 3d

15

Ely Leech Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 7s

15

John Watkins Do

£4. 1s 3d

£1. 17s

15

Edward Pidgeon discharged 20th

Septr

£3. 13s

£1. 19s

£133. 8s 8d

Pay Carried over

£1246. 8s 11d

Hospital Carried over

£9. 12s 0d

Diet Carried over

£278. 16s 9d

Coats Carried over

£184. 5s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £1,115 0s 4½d

Hospital brought over, £8 5s 9d

Diet brought over, £230 4s 6d

Coats brought over, £156 0s 0d

Robert Wood, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats £1 10s

James Vaughan, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, coats £1 10s

Roger Stevenson, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, coats £1 10s

Francis Rowland, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, coats £1 10s

William Chillingworth, gunner's mate, £4 17s 6d, diet £1 19s, coats £1 10s

William Kennedy, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats £1

Benjamin Jackson, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 17s, coats £1

William Davis, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, coats £1

John Chrisholph, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, coats £1

John Barnet, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats £1

Thomas Dillingham, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats £1

John Thomas, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s, coats £1

John Petezea, quarter gunner, £4 7s 9d, diet £1 6s, coats £1

Samuel Davis, matross, £4 1s 3d, coats £0 15s

William Caddy, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Richard Barton, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Thomas Millate, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Spencer, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

John Walton, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Samuel Clarke, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet 14s 1½d, coats 15s

Joseph Wolsock, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s, coats 15s

Walter Bellow, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Joseph Cox, died 20 July, matross, £1 4s 11d, hospital £1 1s

John Smith, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Adam Milburn, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 7s, coats 15s

William Turner, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Henry Savage, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Humphrey Pugh, matross, £4 1s 3d, hospital 5s 3d, diet £1 13s 3d, coats 15s

Francis Balch, matross, £4 1s 3d, coats 15s

Eli Leech, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 9s, coats 15s

John Watkins, matross, £4 1s 3d, diet £1 17s, coats 15s

Edward Pidgeon, discharged 20 September, matross, £3 13s 0d, diet £1 19s

Total, £133 8s 8d

Pay carried over, £1,248 8s 11d

Hospital carried over, £9 12s 0d

Diet carried over, £278 16s 9d

Coats carried over, £184 5s 0d

Interpretations

The Artillery Company was built in descending grades of pay that mirrored its descending skill: gunner's mates at £4 17s 6d, quarter gunners at £4 7s 9d and matrosses at £4 1s 3d. A matross was the most junior artilleryman, ranking below a gunner and assisting at the guns by loading, sponging and hauling, and paid accordingly at the lowest artillery rate while still drawing more than an ordinary infantry centinel. This graded pay ladder shows the gun crews organised as a skilled hierarchy, each step up in expertise carrying a modest but distinct rise in wage.

The artillerymen drew a coats allowance markedly higher than the infantry's, the gunner's mates and quarter gunners receiving £1 to £1 10s against the 15s given to the centinels. This heavier clothing issue points to the specialist dress or protective gear needed for work around the guns and powder, a material distinction between the artillery and the ordinary rank and file recorded directly in the pay account.

16

10

Pay Brought over

£1246. 8s 11d

Hospital Brot over

£9. 12s 0d

Diet Brought over

£278. 16s 9d

Coats Brought over

£184. 5s 0d

Superanuated

Joseph Whaley Serjeant

£3. 8s 3d

John Hansen Do

£3. 8s 3d

Wm Burnham Do

£3. 8s 3d

Isaac Bagarson 2nd Gunner

£3. 8s 3d

George Lindsey Drummer

£3. 8s 3d

Saml Knipe Centinel

£3. 8s 3d

£20. 9s 6d

Samuel Dowton

15

John Twaits

£7. 10s

Richard Twaley

£6. 5s

Richard Gurling from 2d July

£5. 10s 1½d

Pensioners

Charles Clarke Serjeant

£9. 15s

James Dubois Surgeons Mate

£10. 5s

James Vaughan Clerk

£3. 8s 3d

Do Custom Master

£4. 13s 3d

Francis Fuzza Armourer

£12. 1s 3d

James Hayward Do Mate

£7. 10s

James Fuzza do do

£3. 8s 3d

Henry Moyer Carpenter

£12. 10s

John Arbuthnett Overseer

£7. 10s

John Hughes Storekeeper

£1. 19s

Do Elizacr Marshall

£11. 7s 9d

Richard Beale Schoolmaster

£3. 8s 3d

Nicholas Cleather Steward

£7. 10s

Wm Dowton Gardner

£9. 11s 3d

Balls Cook discharged 30 August

£2. 5s 6d

John Barton Overseer at the

Fortifications

£6. 5s

Benjn Higham employed in laying

the Platforms at 1½s ⅌ day whilst for

11½ days amount to

£0. 6s

Wm Stevens Lime Blaster 5 3days

at 2s ⅌ day

£5. 6s

John Robinson dyed 26 July

£2. 1s 1d

To a Black Cooper at 2d ⅌ day

with for 59 days amount to

£5. 18s

£158. 16s 8½d

Total of Pay amounting to

£1427. 15s 3d

Total Amount of Hospital amounting to

£9. 12s 0d

Total of Diet amounting to

£277. 15s 8d

Total of Coats amounting to

£184. 5s 0d

The account continued with the amounts brought forward from the previous page.

Pay brought over, £1,248 8s 11d

Hospital brought over, £9 12s 0d

Diet brought over, £278 16s 0d

Coats brought over, £184 5s 0d

Superannuated.

Joseph Whaley, serjeant, £3 8s 3d

John Hanson, serjeant, £3 8s 3d

William Burnham, serjeant, £3 8s 3d

Isaac Bagarson, quarter gunner, £3 8s 3d

George Lindsey, drummer, £3 8s 3d

Samuel Knipe, centinel, £3 8s 3d

Total, £20 9s 6d

Samuel Doveton, pensioner, 15s

John Twaits, pensioner, £7 10s

Richard Twaits, pensioner, £6 5s

Richard Gurling, from 27 July, pensioner, £5 10s 1½d

Charles Clarke, surgeon, £9 15s

James Dubois, surgeon's mate, £10 5s

James Vaughan, clerk, £3 8s 3d

William Custom, master, £1 5s, £4 13s 3d

Francis Twyge, armourer, £12 1s 3d

James Hayward, armourer's mate, £7 10s

James Twyge, armourer's mate, £3 8s 3d

Henry Moyce, carpenter, £12 10s

John Arbuthnot, coxswain, £5 10s

John Twyge, longshoreman, diet £1 19s

William Eliza, marshal, £14 7s 9d

Richard Beale, schoolmaster, £3 8s 3d

Nicholas Cleather, steward, £9 10s

William Dowton, gardener, £9 11s 3d

Balls, cook, discharged 30 August, £2 5s 6d

John Barton, overseer at the fortifications, £6 5s

Benjamin Higham, employed in laying the platforms at 1s 6d per day whilst for 114 days amounting to, £9 6s

William Stevens, lime blaster, 53 days at 2s per day, £5 6s

John Robinson, died 26 July, £2 1s 1d

A black cooper at 2s per day, for 53 days amounting to, £5 18s

Total, £158 16s 8¼d

Total of pay amounting to, £1,427 15s 3d

Total amount of hospital amounting to, £9 12s 0d

Total of diet amounting to, £277 15s 0d

Total of coats amounting to, £184 5s 0d

Interpretations

The superannuated list carried the garrison's pensioners and retired soldiers, kept on at the reduced centinel rate of £3 8s 3d after age or infirmity had ended their active service. Six former serjeants, gunners and drummers appeared under this heading, showing the Company maintaining a standing obligation to its long-serving men rather than discharging them destitute, a rudimentary pension scheme funded through the garrison pay account.

The final group gathered the island's skilled civilian and support staff, whose trades kept the settlement and its defences running beyond the fighting strength. It named an armourer to maintain weapons, a carpenter, a surgeon and his mate, a schoolmaster, a marshal, a steward, a gardener and a coxswain among others, each paid according to trade rather than military rank. Several were engaged on daywork for specific tasks, with Benjamin Higham laying gun platforms across 114 days at 1s 6d a day and William Stevens blasting lime for 53 days, the account paying such project labour by the day rather than the quarter.

The list recorded two labourers identified only by function and status rather than name, a black cooper hired at 2s a day for 53 days and a man named only as Balls kept as cook until his discharge on 30 August. The unnamed black cooper, entered by trade and colour alone while white tradesmen were named in full, marks the presence of slave or unfree labour on the establishment, hired out at a daily rate with the payment recorded against his function rather than his person.

17

11

Account of Blacks Labour at the Fortifications Due

to the Following Persons Vizt

George Gab Powell

143 days at 12d ⅌ Day

£7. 3s 0d

Elizabeth Ryder

24

£1. 4s

John French

33

£1. 13s

John Abrick

31

£1. 11s

Henry Beale

23

£1. 3s

Michael Dowton

59

£2. 19s

Richard Tinsley

58

£2. 18s

Robert Gurling

34

£1. 14s

Charles Bedard

204

£10. 4s

James Powell

113

£5. 15s

John Bizett

112

£5. 12s

Simon Whaleys Orphans

53

£2. 13s

Gab Harper

28

£1. 8s

Chs Darlings Orphans

21

£1. 1s

William Beel

16

16s

954

£49. 14s

Account of Work done at the Fortifications by the Following

Persons belonging to the Garrison Vizt

Henry Carter

15 days at 12d ⅌ Day

£0. 15s

Thomas Fuller

15

15s

Andrew Barber

4

4s

George Bennett

4

4s

John King

10

10s

Henry Cater

5

5s

Richard Bishop

9

9s

John Ford

13

13s

Thomas Kendrick

3

3s

Daniel Sergeant

4

4s

Edward Snuid

13

13s

John Jones 2d

8

8s

Thos Card

13

13s

Thomas Wagg

3

3s

Carried over

£5. 19s

This account recorded the labour of slaves at the fortifications, the sums owed to the following persons for the work of the slaves belonging to them.

George Gabriel Powell, 143 days at 12d per day, £7 3s 0d

Elizabeth Ryder, 24 days, £1 4s 0d

John French, 33 days, £1 13s 0d

John Abrick, 31 days, £1 11s 0d

Henry Beale, 23 days, £1 3s 0d

Michael Doveton, 59 days, £2 19s 0d

Richard Tinsley, 58 days, £2 18s 0d

Robert Gurling, 34 days, £1 14s 0d

Charles Bedard, 204 days, £10 4s 0d

James Powell, 113 days, £5 15s 0d

John Bizott, 112 days, £5 12s 0d

Simon Whaley orphans, 53 days, £2 13s 0d

Gabriel Harper, 28 days, £1 8s 0d

Charles Darling orphans, 21 days, £1 1s 0d

William Beal, 16 days, 16s 0d

Total, 954 days, £49 14s 0d

This account recorded the work done at the fortifications by the following persons belonging to the garrison.

Henry Carter, 13 days at 12d per day, £0 13s 0d

Thomas Fuller, 13 days, 13s 0d

Andrew Barton, 4 days, 4s 0d

George Bennett, 4 days, 4s 0d

John King, 10 days, 10s 0d

Henry Cater, 5 days, 5s 0d

Richard Bishop, 9 days, 9s 0d

John Ford, 13 days, 13s 0d

Thomas Kendrick, 3 days, 3s 0d

Daniel Serjeant, 4 days, 4s 0d

Edward Snook, 13 days, 13s 0d

John Jones second, 8 days, 8s 0d

Thomas Card, 13 days, 13s 0d

Thomas Hagg, 3 days, 3s 0d

Carried over, £5 14s 0d

Interpretations

The first account set out payments not to labourers but to the owners of slaves hired out to work on the fortifications, the sums reckoned by the number of days each owner's slaves had served at 12d a day. Charles Bedard drew the largest sum for 204 days of such labour and Governor George Gabriel Powell £7 3s 0d for 143 days, the payments passing to the masters rather than to the men who did the work. This reveals a settled market in slave labour on the island, the Company renting the workforce it needed for public works from private owners and recording the hire as a debt owed to those owners.

Two entries paid the estates of orphans for slave labour, the slaves of the Whaley and Darling children worked at the fortifications and the earnings credited to their guardianship. This shows slaves held as inherited property passing to minor heirs, their hire managed on the children's behalf so that the labour of the enslaved supported the orphans of deceased colonists.

The second account, by contrast, paid members of the garrison directly for their own work on the fortifications at the same rate of 12d a day. These were soldiers earning extra wages for construction labour beyond their military duty, the two accounts side by side showing the fortification works drawing on both hired slave labour and the paid overtime of the garrison's own men.

18

12

Brought over

£5. 19s 0d

Thomas Flood

13 days at 12d ⅌ day

£0. 13s 0d

Lawrence Peterson

2

2s

Benj Williams Senr

14

14s

John Drury

13

13s

Wm Brown

5

5s

Thomas Draper

4

4s

Barnet Farmes

4

4s

John Murdock

12

12s

Isaac Evans

12

12s

David Lord

5

5s

Robert Curry

14

14s

James Lee

8

8s

Thomas Pride

14

14s

William Brooks

3

3s

John Rither

14

14s

William Boyfield

14

14s

John Morgan

14

14s

Edward Stroud

14

14s

John Mannahoy

4

4s

Nicholas Coper

7

7s

Benjamin Williams Junr

14

14s

Jos Hunt

14

14s

James Whitehead

14

14s

William Barrett

14

14s

James Carr

10

10s

Thomas Griffes

10

10s

Wm Price

10

10s

John Sutton

9

9s

Wm Eates

10

10s

Anthony Day

9

9s

John Bardin

9

9s

John Jayne

9

9s

Thos Brown

9

9s

454

£22. 14s

The account of work done at the fortifications by members of the garrison continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5 19s 0d

Thomas Flood, 13 days at 12d per day, £0 13s 0d

Lawrence Peterson, 2 days, 2s 0d

Benjamin Williams senior, 14 days, 14s 0d

John Drury, 13 days, 13s 0d

William Brown, 5 days, 5s 0d

Thomas Draper, 4 days, 4s 0d

Barnet Harns, 4 days, 4s 0d

John Murdock, 12 days, 12s 0d

Isaac Evans, 12 days, 12s 0d

David Long, 5 days, 5s 0d

Robert Curry, 14 days, 14s 0d

James Lee, 8 days, 8s 0d

Thomas Pride, 14 days, 14s 0d

William Brooks, 3 days, 3s 0d

John Rither, 14 days, 14s 0d

William Beaufield, 14 days, 14s 0d

John Morgan, 14 days, 14s 0d

Edward Snook, 14 days, 14s 0d

John Mannahey, 4 days, 4s 0d

Nicholas Coper, 7 days, 7s 0d

Benjamin Williams junior, 14 days, 14s 0d

Joseph Hunt, 14 days, 14s 0d

James Whitehead, 14 days, 14s 0d

William Barrett, 14 days, 14s 0d

James Carr, 14 days, 14s 0d

Thomas Griffiths, 10 days, 10s 0d

William Price, 10 days, 10s 0d

John Sutton, 10 days, 10s 0d

William Eales, 9 days, 9s 0d

Anthony Day, 10 days, 10s 0d

John Bawden, 9 days, 9s 0d

John Jayne, 9 days, 9s 0d

Thomas Brown, 9 days, 9s 0d

Total, 454 days, £22 14s 0d

Interpretations

The roll extended the garrison's paid construction labour, each soldier credited for the exact number of days worked at the flat rate of 12d a day. The days served varied widely, from Lawrence Peterson's 2 to the many men who worked the full 14, showing the work drawn from a broad body of the rank and file as each could be spared from military duty rather than from a fixed labour gang.

Setting this list against the slave-labour account on the preceding leaf shows the two workforces charged at an identical daily rate of 12d, whether the day was worked by a hired slave or by a soldier earning extra pay. The garrison valued the two kinds of labour equally on the fortification works, the same shilling buying a day's digging or hauling regardless of who supplied it.

19

13

Labourers Employd in Carrying Purbeck Stone to Mundens Point

for the Platforms Vizt

Thos Coper

1 day at 12d ⅌ day

£1s

Wm Dowton

1

1s

Thos Boxer

1

1s

James Whitehead

1

1s

Joseph Hunt

2

2s

Thos Griffes

2

2s

Wm Benfeild

2

2s

John Holloway

1

1s

John Huber

2

2s

Benjn Williams Senr

2

2s

John Mannahoy

1

1s

James Lee

2

2s

Isaac Evans

1

1s

Isaac Hodson

1

1s

John Evans

1

1s

21

£1. 1s

Sundrys Employed in the Boat from hence to Bankside upon every

Occasion Vizt

William Ernes from 1st day of August at 2d ⅌ Ann

£0. 6s 8d

William Dorrill

£0. 6s 8d

Thomas Legg

£0. 6s 8d

Robert Miller

£0. 6s 8d

James Aldridge

£0. 6s 8d

Thomas Hodges

£0. 6s 8d

John Johnson

£0. 6s 8d

Richard Dowton

£0. 6s 8d

£2. 13s 4d

Sundrys Employed in Carrying Fresh Water from hence to Bankside for

the Works Vizt

Wm Ernes

13 days at 12d ⅌ Day

£0. 13s

Philip Lidiard

7½

7s 6d

Thos Boxer

6½

6s 6d

Richard Knight

7½

7s 6d

Wm Barton

2

4s 6d

Wm Dorrill

4½

4s 6d

James Aldridge

3

3s

Joseph Bowsell

4½

4s 6d

Thos Griffes

4½

4s 6d

John King

4½

4s 6d

James Pritchard

1½

1s 6d

59

£2. 19s

This account recorded the labourers employed in carrying Purbeck stone to Munden's Point for the platforms.

Thomas Cope, 1 day at 12d per day, £0 1s 0d

William Downton, 1 day, 1s 0d

Thomas Boxer, 1 day, 1s 0d

James Whitehead, 1 day, 1s 0d

Joseph Hunt, 2 days, 2s 0d

Thomas Griffiths, 2 days, 2s 0d

William Beaufield, 2 days, 2s 0d

John Holloway, 1 day, 1s 0d

John Huber, 2 days, 2s 0d

Benjamin Williams senior, 2 days, 2s 0d

John Mannahey, 1 day, 1s 0d

James Lee, 2 days, 2s 0d

Isaac Evans, 1 day, 1s 0d

Isaac Hodson, 1 day, 1s 0d

John Evans, 1 day, 1s 0d

Total, 21 days, £1 1s 0d

This account recorded the sundry men employed in the boat from the shore to the bankside on every occasion.

William Bones, from 1 August to 24 August, £0 6s 8d

William Dowell, £0 6s 8d

Thomas Legg, £0 6s 8d

Robert Miller, £0 6s 8d

James Albridge, £0 6s 8d

Thomas Hodges, £0 6s 8d

John Johnson, £0 6s 8d

Richard Dawson, £0 6s 8d

Total, £2 13s 4d

This account recorded the sundry men employed in carrying fresh water from the shore to the bankside for the works.

William Bones, 13 days at 12d per day, £0 13s 0d

Philip Liddiard, 7½ days, 7s 6d

Thomas Boxer, 6½ days, 6s 6d

Richard Wright, 7½ days, 7s 6d

William Barton, 2 days, 2s 0d

Thomas Dowell, 4½ days, 4s 6d

James Albridge, 3 days, 3s 0d

Joseph Boswell, 4½ days, 4s 6d

Thomas Griffiths, 4½ days, 4s 6d

John King, 4½ days, 4s 6d

James Pritchard, 1½ days, 1s 6d

Total, 59 days, £2 19s 0d

Interpretations

These three accounts broke the fortification works down into specific tasks, each paid at the same daily rate of 12d but recorded separately by the job done. The first gang carried Purbeck stone to Munden's Point for the gun platforms, the second manned the boat ferrying men and materials from shore to bankside and the third hauled fresh water to the works. This task-by-task accounting shows the garrison organising its labour by operation rather than by gang, tracking exactly how many days went into each part of the building effort.

Purbeck stone was a hard limestone quarried in Dorset and shipped out as ballast or cargo, prized for its durability in construction and here brought ashore to build the gun platforms at Munden's Point, the fortified position guarding the northern approach to James Bay. The men were paid to carry it to the site, showing dressed English stone imported across the ocean for the island's defences rather than the works relying on local rock alone.

The boat crew drew a fixed sum of 6s 8d each for the month rather than a daily tally, marking their work as a standing assignment across the whole period from 1 August rather than occasional labour. This flat monthly rate for the boatmen, set against the daily reckoning of the stone and water carriers, shows the garrison distinguishing continuous duties from piecework even within the same building project.

20

14

Dr George Gabriel

To Cash from the Treasury as ⅌ order of Consultation of 8th Instant

£1200. 3s 2¼d

To Cash received of Soldiers ⅌ Diet taken out of the Honourable

Companys Store particulars as ⅌ Column

£277. 15s 8d

To Cash received of Soldiers in part of Payment for their Coats & Regimentals

each Man in Proportion what Depite as ⅌ Column

£184. 5s

To Cash received of Soldiers for the time they were in the Hospital

particulars as ⅌ Column

£9. 12s

To Cash received of Lieutenant John Clarke for a fine he ⅌ had

as ⅌ Consultation of 1741

£8. 10s

£1680. 5s 10¼d

£1680. 2s 10¼d

Island St Helena

19th Day of October

Errors Excepted

⅌ G. G. Powell Pay Master

This account set out the debtor side of the paymaster's reckoning with George Gabriel Powell.

To cash from the treasury by order of the consultation of 8 October, £1,200 3s 2¼d

To cash received of soldiers for diet taken out of the Honourable Company stores, particulars as per column, £277 15s 0d

To cash received of soldiers in part payment for their coats and regimentals, each man in proportion to his degree as per column, £184 5s 0d

To cash received of soldiers for the time they were in the hospital, particulars as per column, £9 12s 0d

To cash received of Lieutenant John Clarke for a fine he paid, as per consultation of 1741, £8 10s 0d

Total, £1,680 5s 10¼d

Total, £1,680 2s 10¼d

The account was signed on the island of St Helena on 19 October, errors excepted, by George Gabriel Powell, paymaster.

Interpretations

The account showed how the paymaster financed the garrison wage bill, drawing the bulk from the treasury but recouping substantial sums from the soldiers themselves. The men were charged £277 15s 0d for diet drawn from the Company stores and £184 5s 0d towards their own coats and regimentals, each contributing in proportion to his rank, so the allowances credited on the pay side were partly clawed back as deductions here. This double-entry reveals that the diet and clothing allowances were not outright grants but advances the soldiers repaid, the garrison recovering the cost of provisions and uniform from the wages it had just paid out.

Soldiers were also charged £9 12s 0d for the time they spent in the hospital, matching the hospital sums entered against individuals throughout the pay list. This confirms that hospital treatment was not free but billed back to the patient, the garrison deducting the cost of care from the wages of any man who fell sick.

The final entry recorded £8 10s 0d received from Lieutenant John Clarke for a fine imposed under a consultation of 1741, the penalty carried into the paymaster's cash the following year. This shows fines levied on officers feeding directly into the garrison accounts as a source of revenue, a disciplinary charge on one man helping to fund the wages of the whole establishment.

21

15

Powell Pay Master Cr

By Cash paid the Garrison & Honourable Companys Servants their

several Sallarys for the Quarter ending the 30th September 1742.

Particulars as ⅌ Column

£1427. 15s 3d

By Cash paid Sundry Account Fortification ⅌ars as before mentioned

Blacks Labour

£47. 14s 0d

Soldiers Labour

£22. 14s 0d

Labourers Carrying Purbeck Stone to Mundens point

£1. 1s 0d

Sundrys Employed Constant in Boat between this & Banks

£2. 13s 4d

Sundrys Carrying Fresh Water to Bankside

£2. 19s 0d

£77. 1s 4d

By Cash paid James Long for an Express upon an Alarm

5s

£1505. 1s 7d

Ballance this day ⅌aid in

£175. 4s 3¼d

£1680. 2s 10¼d

This account set out the creditor side of the paymaster Powell's reckoning, the sums he had paid out.

By cash paid the garrison and Honourable Company servants their several salaries for the quarter ending 30 September 1742, particulars as per column, £1,427 15s 3d

By cash paid sundry account fortification years as before mentioned:

Slaves labour, £47 14s 0d

Soldiers labour, £22 14s 0d

Labourers carrying Purbeck stone to Munden's Point, £1 1s 0d

Sundry men employed constantly in the boat between the shore and the bankside, £2 13s 4d

Sundry men carrying fresh water to the bankside, £2 19s 0d

Fortification total, £77 1s 4d

By cash paid James Long for an express upon an alarm, 5s 0d

Total, £1,505 1s 7d

Balance paid in this day, £175 4s 3¼d

Total, £1,680 2s 10¼d

Interpretations

The account balanced the paymaster's books by setting his total disbursements against the cash he had received, the two sides brought to the same figure of £1,680 2s 10¼d. Wages for the quarter took £1,427 15s 3d and the fortification works a further £77 1s 4d, the whole gathered under a single accounting to the Company. This closing balance shows the paymaster returning a surplus of £175 4s 3¼d to the treasury rather than carrying it forward, the quarter's finances squared and the unspent cash handed back.

A single payment to James Long for an express upon an alarm recorded the cost of raising the garrison when danger threatened, a messenger paid to carry warning at speed. Such a charge points to the island's standing readiness against attack, the small sum marking one of the alarms that periodically called the settlement to arms and the machinery kept in place to spread the alert.

The fortification works drew together every kind of labour the island could muster, slave and soldier, day-labourer and boatman, into one account totalling £77 1s 4d. Setting the hire of slaves at £47 14s 0d against the soldiers labour at £22 14s 0d shows slave labour supplying the larger share of the building effort, the works leaning more heavily on the hired enslaved workforce than on the garrison's own paid overtime.

22

16

We this Day received of John Worrall for his father William

Worrall Account of an ⅄ Debt due to the Late John Goodwin Esqr the Sum of £25

We Likewise Received of the Following Persons for their several

Particulars at the Outery of the Late John Goodwin Esqr Viz

Mr James Greentree in part of the 13. 6 he owes of

£9. 3s 0d

Mr George Ludey

£1. 13s 0d

Mr John French Senr

£7. 13s 7d

Mr John French Junr

£1. 5s 10d

£19. 15s 5d

The Executors of the Last Will of John Longden

deceased, this Day acquainted us that the Term of a Lease for seven Years and

an Half of said is Expired and requested We would grant him a New Lease for the

same Granted and the Secretary was Ordered to prepare a New

Lease accordingly

The following Petition was this Day presented and

Read Vizt

To the Worshipfull George Gabriel

Powell Esqr Governour &c: Council of

the Island St Helena

The Humble Petition of John Scott

Humbly Sheweth

That your Petitioner having Married

the Widow of the Late Joseph Hayes deceased and having not received the Widows Thirds

out of the said Joseph Hayes's Estate by Seventeen Pounds by reason of there being no

Person to Act as Administrator upon the said Estate he has been therefore, thus long kept out of

his Right And

The council received this day from John Worrall, on behalf of his father William Worrall, £25 0s 0d in settlement of a debt due to the estate of the late John Goodwin.

The council also received from the following persons their several particulars at the outcry of the estate of the late John Goodwin.

James Goodwin, in part of £13 0s 0d he owed, £9 3s 0d

George Ludlow, £1 13s 0d

John French senior, £7 13s 7d

John French junior, £1 5s 10d

Total, £19 15s 5d

The executors of the last will of John Alexander, deceased, reported this day that the term of a lease for seven lives and a half of land had expired, and requested the council grant a fresh lease for the same. The council granted the request and ordered the secretary to prepare a new lease accordingly.

The following petition was presented and read this day.

John Scott petitioned the Worshipful George Gabriel Powell, Governor, and the council of the island of St Helena, setting out that, having married the widow of the late Joseph Hayes deceased, he had not received the widow's third of Joseph Hayes's estate by seventeen pounds. He explained that, there being no person to take out letters of administration upon the estate, he had long been kept out of his right.

Interpretations

The proceedings recorded the winding up of the estate of the late John Goodwin through a public auction, the outcry at which goods were sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds gathered in to clear the debts owed to and by the deceased. Several buyers paid in their purchases, James Goodwin settling part of a larger sum he owed, so the sale served both to distribute the dead man's property and to recover money due to his estate. This shows the council acting as the machinery of probate on the island, overseeing the sale of a deceased colonist's goods and the collection of debts in the absence of any separate civil court.

A lease held for seven lives and a half rested the tenancy on the lifespans of named persons rather than a fixed term of years, the land held so long as any of those lives continued and the fraction marking a share in an additional life. When the last of the lives fell in, the lease expired and the land reverted, here prompting the executors of John Alexander to seek a fresh grant. This form of tenure, common in England for church and manorial land, shows the island's landholding following English custom, property let against the uncertain measure of human life rather than a term certain.

John Scott's petition turned on the widow's third, the share of a deceased husband's estate that law reserved to his widow, which passed to Scott on his marriage to Joseph Hayes's widow. The obstacle was the want of any administrator to settle the estate, for without letters of administration granting a person legal authority to gather and distribute the assets, the widow's portion could not be paid out. This reveals how the machinery of inheritance could stall on a remote island where no one had stepped forward to administer an estate, leaving rightful claimants like Scott out of their due for years until the council intervened.

23

17

Whereas your Petitioner sometime agoe having taken up a Lease for

a Parcell of Land scitueats in Sandy Bay, known by the Name of fifteen hill Containing Twenty

Nine Acres hopeing thereby to benefit himself and Family, but Notwithstanding all his

Labour and Industry thereupon finds to his Sorrow that the said Land will produce nothing

Your Petitioner therefore most humbly prays Your

Worship and Council will be favourably pleased to relieve him with regard to his Widows Third

out of the Estate of the said Joseph Hayes Deceased and that you will Likewise be pleased to

Grant him Liberty to fling up about 12. or 13 Acres of the above mentioned Land at the Yearly

Quit Rents thereof will in time ruin Your Petitioner and Family

And your Petitioner will ever Pray &c

John Scott

St Helena

19th October 1742

In consideration of the Mans very low Circumstances

and great Family and the Total Barreness of that Piece of Land he Desires to fling up

We Grant That part of his Petition upon Condition that he take especial Care

to pay his Rents duly for the Lands he holds

And to the rest of his Petition we can say nothing till we have

seen Mr Benjamin Pledged who is a party Concered in Hayes's Estate and therefore

the Secretary was Ordered to Summons Pledger to appear next Tuesday

Several of these Persons whose Slaves workt at the Fortifications

during the time Mr Jenkins was Governour this Day attended and was paid for the same

as follows Vizt

Mr Samuel Dowton

£5. 3s 0d

Mr John French

£4. 3s 0d

Mr Jno Twoodded his Fees

£4. 14s 0d

Mr Jno Desfountain

£4. 14s 0d

Mr Elin Leach

£4. 14s 0d

Mr Henry Beale

£3. 16s 0d

Mr Wm Beal

£4. 10s 0d

Mr F. Fuzza

£1. 4s 0d

Mrs Elizabeth Greentree

£4. 4s 0d

£36. 11s 0d

John Scott's petition continued, setting out that some time earlier he had taken up a lease for a parcel of land in Sandy Bay known by the name Fifteen Hill, containing twenty nine acres, hoping to benefit himself and his family. Despite all his labour and industry upon it, he found by long experience that the land produced nothing.

Scott therefore asked the council to release him with regard to the widow's third out of the estate of the late Joseph Hayes deceased. He further asked to be granted liberty to give up about 12 or 13 acres of the land, holding the remainder at the yearly rent reserved on it, so that he and his family might live.

The petition was signed by John Scott at St Helena on 19 October 1742.

In consideration of Scott's very low circumstances, his large family and the total barrenness of the piece of land he wished to give up, the council granted that part of his petition, on condition that he take especial care to pay his rent duly for the land he retained. As to the rest of his petition, the council held that it could say nothing until it had seen Benjamin Pledger, who was a party concerned in the Hayes estate, and the secretary was ordered to summon Pledger to appear the following Tuesday.

Several persons whose slaves worked at the fortifications during the time Mr Jenkins was Governor attended this day and were paid for the same, as follows.

Samuel Doveton, £5 3s 0d

John French, £4 3s 0d

John Wood for his fees, £4 14s 0d

John Desfountain, £4 14s 0d

Eliza Leach, £4 14s 0d

Henry Beale, £3 16s 0d

William Beal, £4 10s 0d

Francis Twyge, £1 1s 0d

Elizabeth Greentree, £4 4s 0d

Total, £36 11s 0d

Interpretations

Scott's petition set out the failure of Fifteen Hill in Sandy Bay, twenty nine acres that yielded nothing despite years of effort, and his request to surrender the barren portion while keeping the rest. The council's response drew a sharp line: it released him from the unproductive land and the disputed widow's third, but bound the relief to the strict condition that he pay the rent on what he kept. This shows the council balancing compassion against its revenue, willing to ease a struggling tenant's burden yet careful to protect the rent due on any land that remained in his hands.

The council declined to settle the widow's-third question until it had heard Benjamin Pledger, another party with an interest in the Hayes estate, and summoned him to appear. This reveals the council's care not to determine a contested inheritance without hearing every claimant, holding over the disputed portion so that a man with a stake in the estate could not be bound by a decision made in his absence.

The second account settled a backlog of payments for slave labour performed at the fortifications under an earlier governor, Mr Jenkins, the owners attending years later to collect what was owed. Among them Elizabeth Greentree and Eliza Leach were paid for the work of slaves they owned, women holding enslaved property and drawing the hire of it alongside the men. The long delay in payment shows the garrison's fortification debts running on from one governor's administration into another, the owners of hired slaves waiting until the accounts were finally cleared to receive their due.

Speculations

The council chose to answer Scott's petition in two parts rather than granting or refusing it whole, and the split reveals its reasoning. The obvious course on a single petition was a single answer, yet the council separated the barren land, which it could resolve at once, from the widow's third, which touched Benjamin Pledger's interest and could not be settled without him. By granting the uncontested half immediately while holding the contested half for Pledger's hearing, the council relieved Scott's most pressing need without prejudging a matter in which a third party had a stake, treating the two limbs of one petition as requiring two different standards of proof.

24

18

The Governour Reports That there is so

great an Alteration in the Companys Plantations as Instead of Buying Yams &

Suckers which has been the Case for these several Years past They can now Sell

30000 Suckers And Mr Dowton has Orders to acquaint the Planters of the same.

He being present when the Governour made this Report

The Church Wardens this Day appeared

and acquainted us that on the 15th October last the Inhabitants had met in the

Vestry agreable to the Advertisement published the 27th of Sepr 1742. And previous to any

Information concerning their Property to Ranges they Unanimously agreed that

those who could prove they had Goats in particular Ranges at the time the Order was

published for the Destroying of them the better to restore the Island to its former time

Covering of Wood should to them restored to their said Ranges

Then they Proceeded as follows Vizt

Solomon Gurling

Eben Leach

John Bagott

John Darling

Thos Bagott

Joshua Gongale

Johns French Sut

From Deep Valley Annexed to

Powells Valley

Richard Gurling

Thos Greentree

Richard Goodwin

Elizth Greentree

From Fryer Ridge to the

Middle of Fords Pasture

Francis Langer

Richard Deacon

Saml Alexander

Mrs Ryder

Thos Easthope

From Gurlings Sut to Old

Man and Valley Water

James Powell

Joseph Powell

John Goodwin

From the Middle of Fords Pasture

to Bennett Point

Richard Bagley

John Goodwin

From Old Womans Valley to the

Ebony Plain

Geo Gab Powell Esqr

Francis Draughan

Chas Darlings Orphans

From Ebony Plain to the

West point

William Beale Junr as

⅌ Petition and ⅌ Consult of 4th Jan 1745

The Governor reported that there had been so great a change in the Company plantations that, instead of buying yams and suckers as had been the case for several years past, they could now sell 50,000 suckers. Mr Doveton had orders to acquaint the planters of the same.

While the Governor was present, the churchwardens appeared this day and reported that on 15 October the inhabitants had met in the vestry, in answer to an advertisement published on 27 August 1742. Before giving any information about their property in ranges, they unanimously agreed that those who ran goats in particular ranges, at the time the order was published for destroying the wood, should have those ranges restored to them, the better to preserve the island in its grazing.

The following persons then proceeded to set out their ranges.

Solomon Darling, Ebenezer Leach, John Bagott, John Darling, Thomas Bagott, Joshua Gonzales and John French senior, from Deep Valley crosswood to Powells Valley

Richard Gurling, Thomas Greentree, Richard Goodwin and Elizabeth Greentree, from Fays Ridge to the middle of Fords Pasture

Francis Twyge, Richard Deason, James Alexander, Mrs Ryder and Thomas Easthope, from Gurlings senior to Old Man and Valley Water

James Powell, Joseph Powell and John Goodwin, from the middle of Fords Pasture to Bennetts Point

Richard Bagley and John Goodwin, from Old Woman Valley to the Ebony Plain

George Gabriel Powell Esq, Francis Draughan and Charles Darling orphans, from Ebony Plain to the middle of West Point

William Beale junior, as per petition made upon the consultation of 20 January 1735

Interpretations

The Governor's report marked a turning point in the island's agriculture, the Company plantations shifting from buyers of yams and suckers to sellers of a surplus of 50,000. A sucker was the young offshoot of a plant, especially the yam and the plantain, used to propagate the next crop, and the ability to sell rather than buy them signalled that cultivation had at last outrun the island's own needs. This reversal shows the settlement's food supply moving from dependence to abundance, the plantations grown productive enough to trade their planting stock outward rather than importing it.

The churchwardens administered a system of ranges, defined tracts of hillside and valley over which named inhabitants held the right to graze their goats, each range bounded by landmarks such as ridges, valleys and points. The vestry's insistence that men who ran goats in particular ranges when the order came to destroy the wood should have those ranges restored ties the grazing rights directly to a felling of timber. This reveals a tension between two uses of the same land, the clearing of wood set against the preservation of pasture, the inhabitants moving to protect their established grazing grounds against the disruption caused by cutting the trees.

The list allocated the island's grazing ranges among its households by stretches running from one landmark to the next, from Deep Valley to Powells Valley, from Fays Ridge to Fords Pasture and on around to West Point. Two entries assigned ranges to the orphans of deceased colonists, the Darling children among them, their grazing rights preserved as inherited property just as their slaves and land had been. This shows the whole grazing commons of the island parcelled out by custom and recorded through the vestry, the churchwardens serving as the local authority over a shared resource essential to the settlement's livestock.

25

19

Richard Goodwin

Francis Wrangham

Thos Edwards Orphans

Thos Harpers Orphans

From Shepherds hole Plain to

Castle Rock Plain

Thos Greentree

Mrs Ryder

Robert Gurling

Richard Bagley

John Youngs Orphans

From Castle Rock Plain to

Lot

Richard Gurling

NB From Lot Ridge to Gabriels Gut Sandy bay Water

See Determination since 13 Feby 1784

Jonathan Dowton

John Bagley

Richard Beale

Mrs Alexander

Edward Bagley

Martin Fuzza

Gab Harper

From Sandy Bay Water to

Powells Valley Annexed

Francis Wrangham from Fryer Ridge to Leachs Valley Water this being disputed

Mr Wrangham Sworn to the Title

John Darlings Orphans

John Bagot

Wm Malcond

Thomas Cropper

Peter Smith

Kings Deposit Sworn to his Title

Bernard Angel

From Deep Valley Annexed to

Fords point

Isaac Bird

Chs Darlings Orphans

John Bagett

From the Lime Plain to

Yorks Gap Valley

Geo Gab Powell Esqr

Chas Darlings Orphans

John Desfountain

From Thorn Gap Valley to

Banks Ridge

David Dowton

John Bagot

Saml Dowton

Chas Leach sworn to his Title

Geo Gab Powell Esqr

From Banks Ridge to

Powells Valley

From Cowpath to the Powells Land upon Peak Sut

The setting out of the ranges continued with the following persons.

Richard Goodwin, Francis Wrangham, Thomas Edwards orphans and Thomas Harpers orphans, from Shepherds Hole Plain to Castle Rock Plain

Thomas Greentree, Mrs Ryder, Robert Gurling, Richard Bagley and John Youngs orphans, from Castle Rock Plain to [...]

Richard Gurling, from Fays Ridge to Gabriels Gut Sandy Bay Water, per determination upon the consultation of 13 February 1734

Jonathan Doveton, John Bagley, Richard Beale, Mrs Alexander, Edward Bagley, Martin Harper and Gabriel Harper, from Sandy Bay Water to Powells Valley crosswood

Francis Wrangham held from Fays Ridge to Leachs Valley Water, this being disputed, and Mrs Wrangham was sworn to the title.

John Darlings orphans, John Bagot, Mrs Leach senior, Francis Twyge, Peter Smith, Eliza Bagot, sworn to her title, and Bernard Twyge, from Deep Valley crosswood to West Point

Isaac Bird, John Darlings orphans and John Bagott, from the Long Plain to Fords crosswood valley

Mrs French, George Gabriel Powell Esq, Mrs Darlings orphans and John Alexander, from Thomas crosswood valley to Banks crosswood ridge

Jonathan Doveton, John Bagott, Samuel Doveton and Thomas Leach, sworn to his title, from Banks crosswood ridge to Powells Valley

George Gabriel Powell Esq, from crosspath to the Powells crosswood upon Peak Hill

Interpretations

The record marked several ranges as disputed and settled the contest by sworn oath, Mrs Wrangham, Eliza Bagot and Thomas Leach each sworn to their title before the range was allowed. Swearing to title meant affirming a legal claim to the grazing right upon oath, the vestry treating a sworn statement as sufficient proof of entitlement where two parties contended for the same ground. This shows the churchwardens resolving conflicting grazing claims not by documentary deed but by the solemn oath of the claimant, the older mechanism of sworn testimony standing in for written title on a small island where formal records were scarce.

Two of Richard Gurling's ranges rested on determinations reached at earlier consultations, one of 13 February 1734, the allocation carried forward from a decision made years before. This reveals the grazing rights as settled entitlements with a documented history, the vestry building each fresh allocation upon the record of what earlier councils had already awarded rather than dividing the land anew at every meeting.

The heavy recurrence of orphans through the list, the Edwards, Harper, Young and Darling children among them, shows how many of the island's grazing rights were held on behalf of the fatherless. Each orphan's range was an inherited asset managed by guardians until the children came of age, the grazing commons carrying the property of a whole generation of bereaved households. This confirms the high mortality among the colonists and the care the community took to preserve the dead's grazing rights intact for their heirs.

26

20

The Honourable Company from the Top of Ladder hill to Fryer Ridge

Then they proceded to the making such Regulations as they Conceit

necessary for the better keeping of Goats and to prevent Disputes And Unanimously agreed

as follows Vizt

A man may Sell or dispose of his Range to whom he Pleases, but to Some one

Person only, after his Death if he has but one Range to descend to his Eldest Son And from

to go to his Second Son & their in order on to his Daughters in Seniority

When Goats Trespass into one another Range and fix in that Range or

that particular Goats was Pounded three times successively Allowing one Pounding Day

in a fortnight that then it shall be Lawfull for the Partners of that Range to Trespassd

upon to Cut the Throat of the said Trespassing Goat or Goats and Lay their Carcase

upon the Pound Wall. But it is to be Observed that every Pounding Day the Partners

who are so Trespassd upon are to send the Owners of such Trespassing Goats Notice

thereof by Writing each time they are Pounded describing as well as may be the

Particular Goats to the End that the Owners of the said Goats may want them in

their Proper Eyess

Every Person who have at this time Goats in another Mans

Range are allow three Months to destroy or take them away

All Persons who are Possest of Lands in

the Country and Consequently pay Quit Rent to the Lords Proprietors may keep

Goats upon any Part of the Grants said And in Case their Sheep Ranch upon any

and are Troublesome to the Inclosed Lands then the Owners of such Sheep, after

three several Damage Faces by the Person Trespassd upon shall keep Lands after

them

Such as keep Sheep in their Pasture Lands Shall

be Obliged to keep hands after them to Prevent their being

Troublesome to yr Neighbours

the Governour and Council in Obedience to our Masters

Directions Advise absolutely Confirm the before mentioned Persons in their several

Goat Ranges likewise the above Regulation that the Inhabitants of this

Island met in Vestry hath Agree relating to them

Ordered That the Above Order relating to Goats be fairly

Wrote & Stuck against the Market house

Margin Notes:

this order to be fairly wrote and in that scitueats to be stuck upon at Market house

The Honourable Company held the range from the Top of Ladder Hill to Fays Ridge.

The inhabitants then proceeded to make such regulations as they thought necessary for the better keeping of goats and to prevent disputes, and unanimously agreed as follows.

A man might sell or dispose of his range to whomever he pleased, but only to one person. After his death, if he had but one range, it descended to his eldest son. If he had more than one, the second descended to his second son, and any beyond that to his daughters in seniority.

When goats trespassed into another range and fed in that range, those goats having been pounded three times successively, one penny a day for a fortnight might lawfully be levied for the partners of that range. They might then cut the throat of the trespassing goat or goats and lay their carcasses upon the pound wall. Every pounding day the partners who were trespassed upon were to give the owners of such trespassing goats notice in writing, each time they were pounded, describing as well as possible the particular goats to them, so that the owners might want them in their proper range.

Every person who then had goats in another man's range was allowed three months to destroy them or take them away.

Any person possessed of lands in the country and consequently paying rent to the Lords Proprietors might keep sheep upon any part of the wood land and in their sheep range upon it. Any who were possessed of the enclosed lands, being the owners of such sheep, after three several damages proved by the person trespassed upon, should keep hands after them.

Any who kept sheep in their pasture lands should be obliged to keep hands after them to prevent their being troublesome to a neighbour.

The Governor and council, in obedience to a further order, absolutely confirmed the abovenamed persons in their several goat ranges, as well as the above regulation, so that the inhabitants of the island might not in every respect differ concerning them.

The council ordered that a table of these and other regulations relating to goats be fairly written and stuck up against the market house.

Interpretations

The regulations set out a detailed law of inheritance for the grazing ranges, fixing how a man's rights passed at his death. A single range descended to the eldest son, a second to the second son and any further ranges to the daughters in order of age, the whole following the English rule of primogeniture that favoured the senior male heir. This shows the island importing the mainland's hierarchy of inheritance wholesale onto its grazing commons, ordering the descent of pasture rights by the same principle that governed the descent of land in England.

The enforcement against trespassing goats was harsh and precisely staged. After a goat had been impounded three times, its owner could be charged a penny a day for a fortnight, and only then could the animal be killed and its carcass displayed on the pound wall as a warning. The requirement of written notice at each impounding, describing the offending goats so their owner could reclaim them, built a formal procedure of warning into the process before any beast could be destroyed. This reveals a community regulating a shared and easily disputed resource through escalating penalties, giving every owner repeated chances to remove his stock before resorting to slaughter.

The distinction drawn between goats and sheep, and between wood land, enclosed land and pasture land, shows the inhabitants matching different livestock and different terrain to different rules. Owners of sheep on enclosed or pasture land were bound to keep hands after them, meaning to employ herders to control them, once damage had been proved, rather than face the impounding regime applied to goats. Posting the finished table of rules at the market house made the whole scheme public and binding, the market house serving as the settlement's noticeboard where regulations were displayed for all to see.

Speculations

The inhabitants chose to allow every owner three months to remove goats already grazing in another man's range, rather than requiring their immediate withdrawal once the ranges were fixed. The obvious course, having just confirmed each range to its rightful holder, was to order all trespassing stock off at once, yet the meeting granted a grace period instead. This shows the community tempering the enforcement of its new boundaries with a practical allowance for the difficulty of gathering and moving free-ranging goats across the island's terrain, choosing an orderly transition over the strict and immediate assertion of the reallocated rights.

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21

The following Persons not having Attended to Pay their Rents

and Levenus We Ordered the Marshall to acquaint them to make their Appearance this

Day Fortnight Vizt

Francis Hayes

Lydia Harper

Elizabeth Ryder

Mary Sneave

John Twait

Agreable to the Resolution in Consultation of 12th Inst

We Surveyd the Gunners Stores and find according to his Report the following Particulars to be

entirely Useless the Worms have Eaten high of time having made powder of them Vizt

Gunners dry Stores Totally Decayed

Rammer heads

119

Cartridge Cases

30

Spunge heads

274

Tompkins

402

Formers

20

Ladels

37

Horns

6

Cartouch Boxes

20

Bouch Barrells

11

Mrs Eliz Greentree this day paid in part of Old Arrears due to the

Honble Company the Sum of

£4. 4s

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

The following persons, not having attended this day to set out their ranges, were ordered by the marshal to make their appearance this day fortnight.

Francis Bagas

Lydia Harper

Elizabeth Ryder

Mary Greave

John Twaits

In accordance with the resolution reached at the consultation of 12 June, the gunner's stores were surveyed and found, according to the following particulars, to be entirely useless. The worn state of the stores came from having made powder of them.

Gunner's dry stores totally decayed.

Rammer heads, 117

Cartridge boxes, 30

Sponge heads, 274

Formers, 402

Framers, 20

Grabs, 37

Horns, 6

Cartouche boxes, 26

Bouch barrels, 11

Elizabeth Greentree paid in this day, in part of the old arrears due to the Honourable Company, £4 4s 0d.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The survey condemned a large quantity of the garrison's gunnery equipment as totally decayed, the whole reduced to uselessness through long service. The items were the working accessories of the guns and small arms: rammer heads and sponge heads for loading and cleaning the cannon, cartridge and cartouche boxes for carrying ammunition, formers for making up cartridges and horns for priming powder. This wholesale condemnation reveals the wear that a working garrison inflicted on its stores, an entire inventory of loading and priming gear worn out and needing replacement at once.

The note that the stores were worn out through having made powder of them points to the local manufacture of gunpowder on the island, the equipment consumed in producing or handling the powder rather than in firing it. This shows the garrison not merely storing powder shipped from England but working with it directly, the labour of making up charges and cartridges wearing the wooden and leather implements down to the point of decay.

Elizabeth Greentree's payment of £4 4s 0d against old arrears, following the same sum she was paid earlier for her slaves' labour at the fortifications, shows the running two-way account between an inhabitant and the Company. She owed arrears yet was owed hire for her slaves, the Company recording each debt separately rather than setting one against the other, so that money flowed both ways between the same person and the same treasury.

28

22

At a Consultation held on Saturday the 23d October 1742 at the

Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2nd of Council.

C. Dixon. 3rd of do

The Last Consultation was Read and approved

George Gabriel Powell Esqr this Day

paid in the Ballance due from him for his Purchases at the Publick Outery of the

Estate of the Late John Goodwin Esqr Vizt

By Cr

£239. 3s 4d

By his Sallary Accounted for but not received

£217. 5s 5d

By ⅌ Pay Masters Account 30th July 1742

By him Advanced to pay Sallarys &c as ⅌

Pay Masters Account 30th July 1742

£653. 0s 6d

By him ⅌ in Consultation 31 August last

£205

£1105. 6s 3d

Totall

£1344. 9s 7d

The Governour Observed that the

Season came on apace, when we might reasonably Expect Shipping And therefore

hoped due Care was taken that we might fulfill our Promises made to our

Honourable Masters in the Last General Letter of sending them the Books of

Accounts ⅌ next Ships regularly brought up Whereupon

Mr Godfrey said they should be ready to Send home ⅌ first Opportunity

The Governour further Observed

That

At a consultation held on Saturday 23 October 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

George Gabriel Powell Esq paid in this day the balance due from him for his purchases at the public outcry of the estate of the late John Goodwin Esq.

By cash, £239 3s 4d

By his salary accounted for but not received, per paymaster's account 20 July 1742, £247 5s 5d

By cash advanced to pay salaries and so on, per paymaster's account 20 July 1742, £653 0s 6d

By him paid in at the consultation of 31 August last, £205 0s 0d

Balance, £1,105 6s 3d

Total, £1,344 9s 7d

The Governor observed that the season was coming on apace when they might reasonably expect shipping, and hoped due care was taken that they might fulfil the promise made to the Honourable Masters in the last general letter, of sending home the books of accounts by the next ships regularly brought up. Mr Godfrey said they should be ready to send home by the first opportunity.

The Governor further observed a further matter.

Interpretations

The account settled Powell's debts to the Company by drawing together sums of very different kinds into one reckoning. He paid part in cash, but the account also credited him with salary he had earned but never drawn, with cash he had advanced to pay the garrison's wages and with an earlier payment, the whole balanced to a single figure. This shows a senior servant's finances thoroughly entangled with the Company's, Powell simultaneously a debtor for his auction purchases and a creditor for unpaid salary and money he had laid out, the account offsetting the one against the other.

The Governor's reference to the season for shipping reflects the island's dependence on the predictable rhythm of the East India fleets, which called at St Helena on their homeward voyages at a settled time of year. The pressure to have the books of accounts ready for the next ships shows how the island's administration was tied to this shipping calendar, the whole year's paperwork having to be completed and dispatched in the narrow window when homeward vessels were in the road. This reveals the tyranny of distance over a remote settlement, its correspondence with London governed entirely by when a ship happened to call.

29

23

it was our Honourable Masters Orders his Journal Parcells should be Monthly laid before

the Council which hath hitherto been neglected therefore desired the same might be punctually

Employed with in future

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

Dixon

At a Consultation held the 2d November 1742 at the Plantation House

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2nd of Council

Christopher Dixon 3rd of Council.

The Last Consultation was Read and Approved

We this Day Executed a Lease for Ebenezer Leach agreable

to the Prayer of his Petition in Consultation of 5th October 1742 The Lease is as follows

Vizt

The Lords Proprietors of this Island

The

The Governor further observed that the Honourable Masters had ordered the journal parcels to be laid before the council monthly, which had until then been neglected. He desired that this be carefully attended to in future.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

At a consultation held on 2 November 1742 at the Plantation House.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The council this day executed a lease for Ebenezer Leach, in accordance with the prayer of his petition at the consultation of 5 October 1742. The lease ran as follows.

The Lords Proprietors of this island granted the lease.

Interpretations

The Governor's reminder about the journal parcels shows the Company in London imposing a regular reporting discipline on its distant officers, requiring the journals to be laid before the council every month. That the requirement had been neglected reveals the gap between the Company's demands and the island's practice, the routine of monthly review lapsing until a governor called it back into force. This illustrates how the Company sought to govern at a distance through mandated paperwork and regular scrutiny, and how easily such routines slipped on the ground.

The lease executed for Ebenezer Leach carried into effect a grant approved at an earlier consultation on 5 October 1742, the formal deed following weeks after the council first agreed to it. This gap between decision and execution shows the two stages of granting land on the island, the council first resolving to make a grant and later drawing up and sealing the actual lease. The Lords Proprietors named as grantors were the ultimate owners of the island's soil, the East India Company holding St Helena under a royal charter that made it proprietor of all the land.

30

24

The Honourable the United Company of

Merchants of England Trading to the East

Indies Do hereby Demise Grant Sett and to Farm Lett unto Ebenezer

Leach of the said Island All that Piece and Parcell of Land containing about Twenty two

Foot Square Butting and Bounding North South and West upon the Honourable Company

Waste Land and East upon the Lands of the said Ebenezer Leach To have and

to hold the said hereby Demised Premises and every Part and Parcell thereof in

all its Singular the Appurtenances thereunto belonging unto him the said Ebenezer

Leach his Heirs Executors Administrators or Allowed Assigns from the Day of the Date

of these Presents for and during all the Space or Term of Twenty One Years from

thence next Ensueing Upon Condition that he the said Ebenezer Leach his

Heirs Executors Administrators or Allowed Assigns Shall and do bear true faith and

Allegiance to our Sovereign Lord King George his Heirs and

Successors and to them the said Honourable Company and their Successors and Shall

Duly obey all the Laws and Constitutions of the said Island and upon Condition also

that he the said Ebenezer Leach his Heirs Executors Administrators or allowed assigns

Shall and do at the End or Determination of this Present Lease leave yeild up and

Surrender in good Order and repair unto them the said Honourable Company their

Successors Agents and Assigns all such Buildings or Edifices which Shall here after be

Built or Erected in or upon the said Parcell of Ground with all and singular the

Appurtenances thereunto belonging or appertaining Yielding and

Paying therefore Yearly and every Year during the Term of this Present Lease

unto them the said Honourable Company their Successors Agents or Assigns the

Sum of Two Shillings and Sixpence in also upon the Feast of St Michael the

Archangel Yearly And upon further Condition that

he the said Ebenezer Leach his Heirs Executors Administrators or Allowed Assigns

Shall not sell or dispose of this Lease or Interest herein without the Leave and Consent

of the Governour and Council for the time being In Witness whereof they the

said Honourable Company have hereunto Affixed their Common Seal at their Vestry

held in James Valley this Second Day of November in the Year of our

One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Two And he the said Ebenezer Leach to the other

Part of these Presents hath Sett his Hand and Seal the Day and Year Abovewritten

G. G. Powell Govr

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

By this lease the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies leased to Ebenezer Leach a parcel of land on the island containing about twenty three foot square. It was bounded north, south and west upon the Honourable Company waste land, and east upon the lands of Ebenezer Leach himself.

Leach, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns were to hold the land for a term of twenty one years from the date of the lease, together with all appurtenances belonging to it.

The lease was granted on condition that Leach, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns bore true faith and allegiance to the sovereign Lord King George, his heirs and successors, and to the Honourable Company and its successors. They were also to obey all the laws and constitutions of the island. On the further condition that, at the end or determination of the lease, Leach was to give up and surrender to the Company, its successors, agents and assigns, in good order and repair, all such buildings and edifices as should be built or erected upon the parcel of ground, together with all its appurtenances.

For the land Leach was to pay the Company, its successors, agents or assigns, a yearly rent of 2s 6d every year during the term, payable upon the feast of St Michael the Archangel.

Upon a further condition, Leach, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns were not to sell or dispose of the lease or their interest in it without the leave and consent of the Governor and council for the time being.

In witness of this the Honourable Company affixed its common seal at James Valley on 2 November 1742, and Ebenezer Leach set his hand and seal to the other part of the deed the same day.

The lease was signed by George Gabriel Powell, Governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The lease bound Leach to surrender at the term's end any buildings he raised on the ground, in good repair, to the Company. This reversion clause meant that a tenant's own investment in construction ultimately enriched the landlord, whatever Leach built passing to the Company after twenty one years without compensation. It reveals the fundamental insecurity of the leasehold tenant, whose improvements became the freeholder's property at the close of the term.

The restraint on alienation, forbidding Leach to sell or assign his interest without the leave of the Governor and council, gave the Company tight control over who held land on the island. A tenant could not freely pass his lease to another, every transfer requiring official consent, so the Company kept the power to vet each successor and prevent the land falling into unwelcome hands. This shows the Company governing the island's population partly through its grip on landholding, using the terms of every lease to control the composition of the settled community.

The oath of allegiance woven into a simple land lease bound the tenant's tenure to his loyalty, faith to King George and obedience to the island's laws made conditions of holding the ground. This fusion of landholding with political fidelity reveals how the Company used property to secure allegiance, a man's right to his plot resting on his continued obedience to crown and Company alike.

Speculations

The Company let this plot on a fixed term of twenty one years rather than the tenure by lives used for other island land, such as the seven-lives lease that had lately expired and prompted John Alexander's executors to seek a fresh grant. The choice of a term certain over a measure of lives is visible in the deed itself. Because the ground was a tiny parcel of twenty three foot square adjoining Leach's existing land and expected to carry buildings, a defined term suited it better than tenure by lives: it gave the Company a certain date of reversion for the structures raised on it, where a lease running on uncertain lifespans would have left the moment of return to chance.

31

25

The Petition of John Aldrick was Presented and Read setting

forth That the Lease for part of his back yard at the Fort being expired he therefore requested

a New Lease might be granted him with an Addition of five foot in Breadth and Twenty

one foot in Length Granted and the Secretary was Ordered to prepare

a Lease accordingly

The Petition of Benjamin Pledged was presented and

Read setting forth That a Lease for Seven Acres of Land being expired he therefore

requested a New Lease Granted And the Secretary received Orders

Accordingly

John Thwaits being One of those who did not

Attend at the Regular time to Pay their Rents and Revenues This day appeared and

paid Ten Shillings for 4 Acres of Lease Land

George Gabriel Powell Esqr Reports That he

has sold Ten Thousand of the Honourable Companys Suckers at the same Rate that

they had us to give when they bought Vizt 2/6 ⅌ Thousand And Shall Sell 50000

more at Least between this and Xmas to the Planters

He hath Likewise Sold two Young Colts of about Two Months

Old the one for Thirty Shillings and the other for Fifty Shillings and paid in the Money

accordingly Vizt

Suckers 10000 @ 2/6 ⅌ Thousand

£1. 5s 0d

One Young Colt

£1. 10s 0d

Do

£2. 10s 0d

£5. 5s 0d

He further Reports that the Honourable Company

have Stores sufficient and therefore he Conceives should by all means be disposed of ⅌ first

Body

John Aldrick petitioned the council, setting out that the lease for part of his back yard at the fort had expired, and asked that a new lease be granted him with an addition of five foot in breadth and twenty one foot in length. The council granted the request and ordered the secretary to prepare a lease accordingly.

Benjamin Pledger petitioned the council, setting out that a lease for seven acres of land had expired, and asked for a new lease. The council granted the request and ordered the secretary to prepare it accordingly.

John Twaits, being one of those who did not attend at the regular time to pay their rents and revenues, appeared this day and paid 10s for four acres of leased land.

George Gabriel Powell Esq reported that he had sold 10,000 of the Honourable Company suckers at the same rate they had cost when bought, that is 2s 6d per thousand, and would sell 50,000 more at cost between then and Christmas to the planters.

The Governor had also sold two young colts of about two months old, one for 30s and the other for 50s, and had paid in the money accordingly.

Suckers, 10,000 at 2s 6d per thousand, £1 5s 0d

One young colt, £1 10s 0d

One young colt, £2 10s 0d

Total, £5 5s 0d

The Governor further reported that the Honourable Company horses were too few, and therefore the increase should by all means be disposed of.

Interpretations

The Governor sold the surplus suckers back to the planters at exactly the price the Company had paid for them, 2s 6d a thousand, taking no profit on the transaction. This shows the Company using its now-abundant stock of planting material not as a source of revenue but as a means of supporting cultivation across the island, passing its surplus to the private planters at cost to encourage the wider growing of yams. The reversal from buying to selling suckers, reported here in concrete figures, confirms the agricultural turnaround the Governor had announced earlier.

The care taken to record the sale of two colts and to account for every shilling, down to entering the £5 5s 0d in the consultation, reveals the strict accounting demanded of Company property however small. Even the natural increase of the Company's horses was Company property to be sold and accounted for, the proceeds paid into the treasury rather than kept by the Governor. This illustrates the exacting stewardship required of the island's officers, who had to answer for the least item of the Company's estate.

The Governor's judgement that the Company horses were too few, so their increase should be sold rather than kept, points to the cost and difficulty of maintaining livestock on the island. Keeping young horses required pasture and fodder that the settlement could ill spare, so even a herd below strength was better thinned than grown. This reveals the constant pressure on the island's limited grazing and provisions, which made it more practical to sell surplus animals than to build up a larger stock.

32

26

Body will Buy them to Short them as soon as Sold. That as our Neat Cattle which is by much

the most Material of the two may have the better Chance to live and Thrive for Experience

teaches us here that at a moderate Computation one Horse eat as much Grass as two

Bullocks

Mr Joshua Fugnam having been

by Governour Lambert and Council appointed Accomptant We this Day asked him how far

the Accounts were brought up from the time of his Appointment Vizt the 28th Day of

May 1742 he Answered that Mr Godfrey desired that he should first Assist him in

bringing up the Preceading Accounts and therefore he has been Employed accordingly

under him

Mr Godfrey said it was very true and he Conceivd it the

most Expeditious way of bringing up the General Books and that he would Compleat

them to this Day he Being Ld Accomptants Office

What makes us so Anxious upon this Score is the Advancement

of the Season and even the foul Books after they are finished will take us some

time in Examining

The Inventory of the Stores having been

finished a Considerable time past We desired it might be brought in the next

Consultation And thereupon Ordered that the Stores should be opened and the

Serving Days should be as follows Vizt Thursdays for those who reside in the

Country and Fridays and Saturdays for the Garrison

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

The Governor observed that buyers would buy the horses and slaughter them as soon as sold, whereas the black cattle, being by much the more valuable of the two, might then have the better chance to live and thrive. Experience taught that at a moderate reckoning one horse ate as much grass as two bullocks.

Mr Joshua Twyman, having been appointed accountant by Governor Lambert and council, was this day added to their number. His house fare and the account of the works were brought up from the time of his appointment, that is 20 May 1742, at which point Mr Godfrey directed that he should first assist him in bringing up the preceding accounts, and he had therefore been employed accordingly under him.

Mr Godfrey said this was very true, and that he thought it the most expeditious way of bringing up the general books, and that he would complete them by the day he quitted the accountant's office.

What made the council anxious upon this score was the advancement of the season, and even the final books, after they were finished, would take some time in examining.

The inventory of the stores having been finished a considerable time past, the council desired it might be brought in at the next consultation. The council then ordered that the stores should be opened, and the following days set aside for the purpose: Thursdays for those who resided in the country, and Fridays and Saturdays for the garrison.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The Governor's reasoning for selling the horses rested on a striking comparison of their grazing appetite, one horse eating as much grass as two bullocks. Since buyers would slaughter the horses at once while the black cattle, being more valuable, could be left to thrive on the pasture freed up, the argument turned entirely on the competition for scarce grazing. This reveals the hard economics of livestock on a small island, where the choice of which animals to keep came down to which returned the most value for the grass they consumed.

Joshua Twyman's appointment as accountant showed the island's administration bringing in a dedicated officer to bring its books up to date, the post created under the previous governor and the work backdated to May 1742. Godfrey had set Twyman to clearing the arrears of preceding accounts before taking over the current ones, a sequence that reveals how far the bookkeeping had fallen behind. This illustrates the persistent struggle to keep the Company's accounts current on the island, requiring a specialist appointment and a deliberate effort to clear a backlog that had built up over years.

The council's decision to open the stores on separate days for country residents and for the garrison shows a practical management of a shared facility serving two distinct populations. By assigning Thursdays to those who lived in the country and Fridays and Saturdays to the garrison, the council spread the demand and kept the two groups from competing for access on the same days. This reveals the store as a central point of supply for the whole settlement, its opening regulated to serve both the scattered planters and the concentrated garrison in an orderly turn.

33

27

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 9th November 1742 at the

Plantation house

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2nd of Council.

Christopher Dixon 3rd of Council.

The Last Consultation was read and approved

This Day the Husband Steward and Gunner

Delivered in their Accounts for the Month of October which was Examined and

approved and entred as follows Vizt

Expence of the General Table in the Month of

October 1742

75 Bottles of Port Wine

£5. 12s 6d

78 Mountain

£3. 17s

56 Red Cape

14s

79 White Cape

19s 9d

116 Strong Beer

£2. 18s

24 Ale

£1. 1s

110 Gallons of Arrach

£11.

2 lb Sugar

£2. 4s

60 lb Sugar Candy

£2. 0s 6d

9 Bottles Sweet Oyl

£1. 2s 6d

2½ Gallons of Lamp Oyl

6s 2½d

13 lb Biscuit Bread

2s 7d

24 Sacks of Flour

£4. 11s 3d

2 Bushels of Salt

10s

2lb Pepper

1s

Carried over

£39. 0s 2¼d

At a consultation held on Tuesday 9 November 1742 at the Plantation House.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

This day the husband, steward and gunner delivered in their accounts for the month of October, which the council examined, approved and entered as follows.

The expense of the general table in the month of October 1742 was as follows.

73 bottles of port wine, £5 12s 6d

78 bottles of Mountain, £3 17s 0d

56 bottles of red Cape, £0 14s 0d

79 bottles of white Cape, £0 19s 9d

116 bottles of strong beer, £2 18s 0d

24 bottles of ale, £1 1s 0d

110 gallons of arrack, £11 0s 0d

269 lb of sugar, £2 4s 0d

69 lb of sugar candy, £1 0s 6d

9 bottles of sweet oil, £0 6s 2¼d

2½ gallons of lamp oil, £0 2s 7d

13 lb of biscuit bread, £4 11s 3d

24 sacks of flour, £0 10s 0d

2 bushels of salt, £0 1s 0d

2 lb of pepper, [...]

Carried over, £39 0s 4¼d

Interpretations

The account of the general table recorded the provisioning of the common dining table kept for the Company's officers, the substantial quantities of wine, spirits and beer marking it as the shared board of the governing establishment rather than private household supply. Port wine, Mountain, red and white Cape, strong beer, ale and 110 gallons of arrack together dominated the expense, showing how large a share of the officers' provisioning went on drink. This reveals the character of the general table as an institution of hospitality and rank, where the officers of the settlement dined and drank together at Company expense.

Several of the goods were imports brought to the island by the very shipping the settlement depended on. Mountain was a sweet white wine from Málaga in Spain, Cape wine came from the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope on the homeward route and arrack was a strong spirit distilled in the East from palm sap, sugar or rice, all reaching St Helena through the East India trade. Their presence on the table shows the island drawing its luxuries from every leg of the Company's long trading routes, the officers' cellar stocked from Spain, the Cape and the Indies alike.

The large purchase of biscuit bread at £4 11s 3d, second only to the arrack in cost, points to the staple ship's provision baked hard to keep on long voyages. Its heavy presence at the general table shows the settlement relying on the same durable, storable food that supplied the passing ships, a diet shaped by the demands of preservation on a remote island where fresh bread could not always be had.

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28

Brought over

£39. 0s 2¼d

3 Gross of Corks

6s 9d

6 Dozen Wax Candles

£1. 2s 4½d

40 Pieces of Salt Beef

6s

34 Pork

£3. 8s 6d

226 lb Fresh Beef

£5. 6s 6d

5 Sheep

5s

4 Goats

£2. 5s

1 Kidd

1s

2 Hogs Weighing 138 lb

£3. 7s

7 Pigs

£1. 5s

36 Fowls

£1. 7s

1600 Lemons

£2. 8s

66¼ Fresh Butter

£1. 13s 1½d

80 lb Rice

6s 8d

£73. 5s 11¼d

Gunners Stores Expended in October 1742

Day of the Month, [...], [...], [...], [...], Summ ⅌ Quarter

7th Fired by the Serjeants and Corporals: [...], 17, 17, [...], 12, [...], 12s

Do Fired by the Artillery Company: 29, 29, [...], 29, [...], 87

8th To Blowing of Rocks at Bankside: [...], [...], [...], [...], 10

21st Fired by the Artillery Company: 31, 31, [...], 31, [...], 93

25th Fired by Do: 31, 31, [...], 31, [...], 93

Do To Blowing of Rocks at Bankside: [...], [...], [...], [...], 10

Do To the Kings Birth Day: 21, 1, 6, [...], No. 45

Powder for Priming: [...], [...], 34

To the Guard &c Volleys: [...], [...], 34

To Priming the Small Arms: [...], [...], 108

Totall

129lb 108 1. 6. qt. 17 lb 5¾

John French

Gunner

Dry Stores

Paper

20 Reams

Wafole

21 lb

Spunks

2

Ladells

4

Sponge Rammers

6

Spunge Ladells

12

Sponge heads

6

Handspikes

6

Rammer heads

10

Handstaves

4

Worms

4

Sheep Skins

2

Fuzes

The account of the general table continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £39 0s 4¼d

3 gross of corks, £0 6s 9d

6 dozen wax candles, £1 2s 4½d

40 pieces of salt beef, £6 0s 0d

34 pieces of pork, £3 8s 6d

226 lb of fresh beef, £5 6s 6d

3 sheep, £0 5s 0d

4 goats, £0 2s 5d

1 kid, £0 1s 0d

2 kings hogshead, 138 gallons, £3 7s 0d

9 pigs, £1 2s 6d

36 fowls, £1 7s 0d

1,600 lemons, £0 2s 8d

66½ lb of fresh butter, £1 13s 1½d

80 lb of rice, £0 6s 8d

Total, £73 5s 11¾d

The following gunner's stores were expended in October 1742, reckoned by days of the month.

5, fired by the serjeants and corporals, powder 17 lb, shot 17, wads 17, total 12 [...]

6, fired by the artillery company, powder 29 lb, shot 29, wads 29, total 89

7, for the pruning of casks at the bankside, powder 10 lb, total 10

15, fired by the artillery company, powder 34 lb, shot 34, wads 34, total 103

25, fired by the artillery company, powder 34 lb, shot 34, wads 34, total 103

26, for the pruning of casks at the bankside, powder 10 lb, total 10

30, for the King's birthday, powder 34 lb, shot 1, wads 6, total 148

For priming, powder 22 lb, total 22

For the guard and vessels, powder 34 lb, total 34

For cleaning the small arms, powder 8 lb, total 8

Total, powder 129 lb, shot 108, wads 6, quarter 17, half 1, total 578

Dry stores.

Paper, 20 quires

Wads, 21 [...]

Sponges, 5

Ladles, 5

Sponge heads, 9

Sponge staves, 12

Sponge tarpaulins, 6

Ropes, 12

Priming irons, 6

Handspikes, 9

Reins, 4

Thread, [...]

Twine, [...]

Interpretations

The second half of the general table account showed the fresh provisions that supplied the officers alongside their wine and spirits, a broad range of meat, dairy and fruit. Salt beef and pork provided the durable, preserved staples, while fresh beef, sheep, goats, pigs, a kid, fowls and butter gave what the island could raise, and 1,600 lemons at trifling cost supplied fruit in quantity. This mix of preserved and fresh food reveals a table drawing on both imported stores and local produce, the salted meat kept against scarcity and the fresh meat and fruit taken as the island could furnish them.

The gunner's account recorded the powder, shot and wadding expended in firing the island's guns through October, itemised by the occasion of each firing. Much of it went on ceremonial and routine salutes, the largest single expenditure of 34 lb of powder marking the King's birthday on 30 October, while other firings honoured passing custom or exercised the artillery company. This shows the constant consumption of gunpowder in the ordinary life of a fortified station, where guns were fired not only in defence but to mark occasions of state and to keep the gunners in practice.

The curious entry for the pruning of casks at the bankside recorded powder used not for firing but for a working purpose at the landing place, probably the cleaning or fumigating of casks by burning powder inside them before they were refilled. The dry stores that followed listed the physical apparatus of the guns, sponges and their staves for cleaning the barrels, ladles for the powder, priming irons, handspikes for shifting the pieces and tarpaulins to protect them. This inventory of gunnery equipment reveals the working establishment of the batteries, the tools and materials that kept the island's defences in firing order.

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29

Account of the Honourable Companys Stock of Neat Cattle &c for the Month of October 1742 Vizt

Bullocks, Cows, Heifers, Steers, Yearlings, Calves, Bulls, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Lambs, Rams, Totall, Ews, Weathers, Kids, Rams, Totall, Sows, Barrows, Shoats, Pigs, Boars, Totall, Turkeys, Fowls, Ducks, Geese, Totall, Horses, Mares, Totall

Remaining 1st October: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 35, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 60, Bulls 6, Totall 275, Ewes 76, Weathers 27, Lambs 11, Rams 6, Totall 120, Ews 112, Weathers 21, Kids 28, Rams 4, Totall 165, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 45, Pigs 37, Boars 2, Totall 121, Turkeys 71, Fowls 174, Ducks 20, Geese 16, Totall 6, Horses 9, Mares [...], Totall 15

Encreased in Do: Yearlings 17, Totall 17, Kids 12, Totall 12, Pigs 5, Totall 5, Turkeys 12, Fowls 130, Ducks 9

Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 35, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 77, Bulls 6, Totall 292, Ewes 76, Weathers 27, Lambs 11, Rams 6, Totall 120, Ews 112, Weathers 21, Kids 40, Rams 4, Totall 177, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 45, Pigs 42, Boars 2, Totall 126, Turkeys 86, Fowls 304, Ducks 29, Geese 16, Totall 6, Horses 9, Mares [...], Totall 15

Killed in Do: Cows 1, Totall 1, Lambs 5, Totall 5, Kids 1, Totall 7, Barrows 2, Shoats 7, Totall 9, Turkeys 34, Fowls 2

Sold in Do: Horses 1, Totall 1, Totall 2

Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 34, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 77, Bulls 6, Totall 291, Ewes 76, Weathers 22, Lambs 11, Rams 6, Totall 115, Ews 111, Weathers 14, Kids 40, Rams 4, Totall 169, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 43, Pigs 35, Boars 2, Totall 117, Turkeys 86, Fowls 270, Ducks 27, Geese 16, Totall 5, Horses 8, Mares [...], Totall 13

Died in Do: Weathers 1, Totall 1, Shoats 2, Pigs 1, Totall 1

Remaining 31st Do: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 34, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 77, Bulls 6, Totall 291, Ewes 76, Weathers 22, Lambs 10, Rams 6, Totall 114, Ews 111, Weathers 14, Kids 40, Rams 4, Totall 169, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 41, Pigs 35, Boars 2, Totall 115, Turkeys 85, Fowls 270, Ducks 26, Geese 16, Totall 5, Horses 8, Mares [...], Totall 13

226 lb Beef Expended

134 Pork

Yams Expended at the Several Plantations 29000

One Girl Born Named Mary

One Girl Dead Named Mary

EEP

This account set out the Honourable Company stock of neat cattle and other animals for the month of October 1742, arranged under the headings neat cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry and horses, with each herd broken into its several kinds.

Remaining 1 October, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 35, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 60, bulls 6, total 275

Remaining 1 October, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 27, lambs 11, rams 6, total 120

Remaining 1 October, goats: ewes 112, wethers 21, kids 28, rams 4, total 165

Remaining 1 October, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 45, pigs 37, boars 2, total 121

Remaining 1 October, poultry: turkeys 74, fowls 174, ducks 20, geese 16, total 284

Remaining 1 October, horses: horses 6, mares 9, total 15

Increased in October, yearlings 17, total 17

Increased in October, hogs: shoats 12, total 12

Increased in October, poultry: shoats 5, pigs 5, turkeys 12, fowls 130, ducks 9

Sum, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 35, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 77, bulls 6, total 292

Sum, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 27, lambs 11, rams 6, total 120

Sum, goats: ewes 112, wethers 21, kids 40, rams 4, total 177

Sum, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 45, pigs 42, boars 2, total 126

Sum, poultry: turkeys 86, fowls 304, ducks 29, geese 16, total 435

Sum, horses: horses 6, mares 9, total 15

Killed in October, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1

Killed in October, sheep: ewes 5, total 5

Killed in October, goats: ewes 5, wethers 1, total 7

Killed in October, hogs: sows 2, pigs 7, total 9

Killed in October, poultry: turkeys 34, fowls 2

Sold in October, horses: horses 1, mares 1, total 2

Remainder, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 34, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 77, bulls 6, total 291

Remainder, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 22, lambs 11, rams 6, total 115

Remainder, goats: ewes 111, wethers 14, kids 40, rams 4, total 169

Remainder, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 43, pigs 35, boars 2, total 117

Remainder, poultry: turkeys 86, fowls 279, ducks 27, geese 16, total 435

Remainder, horses: horses 5, mares 8, total 13

Died in October, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1

Died in October, poultry: ducks 2, geese 1, total 1

Remaining 31 October, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 34, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 77, bulls 6, total 291

Remaining 31 October, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 22, lambs 10, rams 6, total 114

Remaining 31 October, goats: ewes 111, wethers 14, kids 40, rams 4, total 169

Remaining 31 October, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 41, pigs 35, boars 2, total 115

Remaining 31 October, poultry: turkeys 85, fowls 279, ducks 26, geese 16, total 435

Remaining 31 October, horses: horses 5, mares 8, total 13

226 lb of beef expended

134 lb of pork

29,000 yams expended at the several plantations

One girl born, named Mary

One girl dead, named Mary

The account was signed with the initials E E H.

Interpretations

The stock account tracked the whole of the Company's livestock through the month as a running balance, opening with the numbers remaining on 1 October, adding the natural increase, subtracting the animals killed, sold or dead, and closing with the tally remaining on 31 October. Each herd was divided minutely by sex and age, from bullocks, cows, heifers and steers down to yearlings and calves, so the account recorded not just numbers but the whole breeding structure of every kind of stock. This reveals the exacting animal husbandry practised on the Company's plantations, the herds managed and counted with the same care given to the cash accounts.

The two young horses sold during the month, one horse and one mare, are the very colts the Governor had reported disposing of at the earlier consultation, here entered as a reduction in the standing stock. The horse herd accordingly fell from fifteen to thirteen, the sale showing directly in the month's balance. This confirms how the decisions taken in council fed through into the physical accounts of the island, a resolution to sell surplus animals recorded first as an order and then as a movement in the livestock tally.

The two entries recording the birth and death of a girl named Mary, set among the tallies of cattle and poultry, are the enslaved children born to and lost among the Company's slaves, counted here as Company property alongside the livestock. That a slave child's brief life was recorded in the same account as calves and lambs, under no separate heading, reveals with stark clarity the status of the enslaved on the island, their births and deaths entered as changes in the Company's stock. The recurrence of the name Mary for both the child born and the child who died within the same month marks two different infants, the one christened and the other buried in the space of the account.

The 29,000 yams expended at the several plantations record the staple root crop that fed the island's people and stock, drawn down in vast quantity across the month. Set against the Governor's report that the plantations could now sell 50,000 surplus suckers, this heavy consumption shows both the scale of the island's dependence on the yam and the productive capacity that at last allowed it to grow a surplus. The yam was the foundation of subsistence at St Helena, and its movement through the accounts in tens of thousands measures how central it was to feeding the settlement.

36

30

We this Day Executed a Lease for the Executors of Captain

Alexander Deceased agreable to the Prayer of their Petition in Consultation of 29th

October last The Lease is as follows Vizt

The Lords Proprietors of the Island The

Honourable the United Company of Merchants

of England Trading to the East Indies Do

hereby Demise Grant Sett and to Farm Lett unto Richard Beale and Samuel

Alexander Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Captain John Alexander deceased

All that Piece or Parcell of Land containing Nine Acres and an half scitueats Lying

and being in the East Branch of Sandy Bay Valley or Somuch Diversion of the said Island

Butting and bounding towards the South upon a broad Parcell of Land held by Thomas

Greentree Planter Scitueats on the said Valley and towards the North East and West upon

the Honourable Companys Waste Land and Ledge of Rocks which serves for a natural

Fence or Party of the said time side of the said Land and Land in Trust and for the said

Remainder of many Lots the Wife of John Richard John Alexander and all such Children

to him begotten being two Sons and their Daughters Vizt John George Mary Rebeca

and Rachael that is to say one third Part thereof for to the said after the said Mary and

Alexander Widow during the Term of this Present Lease of she shall so long live and the

after two Parts thereof to the two said Two Colven To have and

to hold the said hereby Demised parcell of Land and every Part and Parcell thereof

together with all and singular the Broad Water Water Courses Fences Buildings Edifices Beds

Tenements Games and Quicksilver of same Front Iron Walls Fences And all other and

singular the Right Commodity to them and each and every of them belonging or appertaining

unto them the said Richard Beale and Samuel Alexander in trust and for the Use of them

the said Widow and Children from the Day of the Date hereof for and during all the Space or

Term of Seventy One Years from thence next Ensueing Upon Condition That

they the said Widow and Children their Heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns

Shall and do bear true faith and Allegiance to our Sovereign Lord King George

his Heirs and Successors and to them the said Honourable Company and their Successors

and Shall duly Obey all the Laws and Constitutions of the said Island And

upon Condition also that they the said Widow and Children their Heirs

Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns shall and do from time to time and at all

times leave for during the Term of this Present Lease to keep up and maintain in good Order

and Sufficient and Repair the Such Buildings Fences Edifices Beds Tenements

Plantation and Fences as now are or hereafter shall be made Built or Erected thereon Do

Shall moreover Plant keep up Maintain and Preserve in and upon the said Piece or

Parcell of Land ⅌ full Quantity or Proportion of Wood being one South part of the said

Parcell of Land and shall likewise Plant and Preserve Fruit of the side in it St. of the

Fences

The council this day executed a lease for the executors of Captain Alexander deceased, in accordance with the prayer of their petition at the consultation of 29 October last. The lease ran as follows.

The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, leased to Richard Beale and Samuel Alexander, executors of the last will and testament of Captain John Alexander deceased, a parcel of land containing five acres and a half. It lay in the East Branch of Sandy Bay Valley in the south division of the island, butting and bounding to the south upon a parcel of land held by Thomas Greentree, planter, situated in the valley and towards the north east and north east upon the Honourable Company waste land and ledge of rocks which served as a natural fence or party to the land.

The land was granted for the term of the two lives of Mary Alexander and Rachael Alexander, being two of the daughters of the late John Alexander, and for the two lives after them, so long as either of the two lives should continue.

Richard Beale and Samuel Alexander, together with all buildings, edifices, fences, feed, tenements, yams and plantation, were to hold the parcel of land with all its appurtenances during the term of the two lives, and after them the two further lives, so long as any should continue.

The lease was granted upon condition that the executors and their heirs, executors, administrators or assigns bore true faith and allegiance to the sovereign Lord King George, his heirs and successors, and to the Honourable Company and its successors, and duly obeyed the laws and constitutions of the island. Upon the further condition that they, their heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns should from time to time and at all times during the term keep the buildings, fences and tenements in good order and repair, and that all such buildings, fences, tenements, plantation and fences as were then or should thereafter be built or erected upon the land should be maintained, and that they should plant, keep up, maintain and preserve in and upon the parcel of land the yearly rent reserved for it, being a parcel of land subject to a yearly rent or [...] of rent.

Interpretations

This lease held the land by the measure of lives rather than a fixed term of years, resting the tenure on the lifespans of Mary and Rachael Alexander, two daughters of the late John Alexander, with two further lives to follow. The land would revert to the Company only when the last of the named lives fell in, so the grant might run for decades or end within a few years according to how long those persons lived. This tenure by lives, common for rural land in England, contrasts with the fixed twenty one year term granted for the small town plot leased to Ebenezer Leach days before, showing the Company matching the form of tenure to the kind of land: a term certain for a building plot and a measure of lives for a working plantation.

The lease used a natural feature, a ledge of rocks, as one of its boundaries, the rocks serving as a fence dividing the granted land from the Company's waste. On an island where fencing material was scarce and the terrain broken, such natural barriers did the work of walls and hedges, and their formal use as legal boundaries in the deed reveals how the island's rugged landscape shaped even its property law. The mention of yams and plantation among the appurtenances shows the land as an established, cultivated holding, its growing crop and improvements passing with the lease rather than a bare parcel of ground.

Granting the lease to executors rather than directly to an heir shows the estate of the late John Alexander still passing through administration, the executors taking the land in trust to fulfil the will and provide for the daughters whose lives measured the term. This links the lease back to the winding up of the Alexander estate seen in the earlier consultations, the fresh grant sought once the old lease for seven lives and a half had expired. The whole sequence reveals how the death of a landholder set in train a process of probate and re-granting, the Company renewing the tenure to the dead man's representatives so that his family's hold on the land continued unbroken.

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Fences of the said Parcell of Land and Shall Plant fruit Trees such as Apple Lemon Mulberry or

Peach Trees in such Parts thereof whereas they are most likely to grow and as they shall happen to

Decay of Do shall Replant others of the like into thereon without hurt or Prejudice Neverthd52d

to any Part of such Land as shall be set apart for the Sole Purpose of Planting or raising of yams

Yielding and Paying therefore Yearly and every Year during the Term of this

Present Lease unto them the said Honourable Company their Successors Agents or Assigns the Sum

of five Shillings ⅌ Ann in also upon the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel Yearly And

upon further Condition that they the said Widow and Children their Heirs

Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns shall not alter or Remove the said Fences they being

the Confits or Land Marks of the Parcell of Land aforesaid and Shall not sell Dispose of this Lease

or Interest herein without the Leave and Consent of the Governour and Council for the time being In

Witness whereof they the said United Company have Affixed their Common Seal at their Union

held in James Valley this Eleventh Day of November one Thousand Seven Hundred and

Forty two and they the said Executors to the other Part hath set their hands and Seals the Day

and Year Abovewritten

G. G. Powell Govr

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

7½ Acres in Sandy Bay Valley

Agreable to the Prayer of John Aldricks Petition in

last Consultation We this day Executed a Lease for him as follows Vizt

The Lords Proprietors of this Island The

Honourable the United Company of Merchants

of England Trading to the East Indies Do hereby

Demise Grant sett and to farm Lett unto John Aldrick of the said Island All that Piece or

Parcell of Ground Containing sixteen foot in Breadth and Thirty foot in Length scitueats lying and

being

The lease bound the executors to plant fruit trees upon the parcel of land, such as apple, lemon, mulberry and peach, in such parts of it as were most likely for them to grow. Should any of the trees happen to decay or die, they were to replant others of the like kind in their place, without hurt or prejudice to any part of the land set apart for the sole purpose of planting or raising yams.

For the land the executors were to pay the Honourable Company, its successors, agents or assigns, a yearly rent of 5s every year during the term, payable upon the feast of St Michael the Archangel.

Upon the further condition that the executors, their heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns should not alter or remove the fences, they being the bounds or landmarks of the parcel of land, and should not sell or dispose of the lease without the leave and consent of the Governor and council for the time being.

In witness of this the Honourable Company affixed its common seal at James Valley on 11 November 1742, and the executors set their hands and seals to the other part of the deed the same day.

The lease was signed by George Gabriel Powell, Governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon. A sketch accompanying the lease marked the parcel as seven and a half acres in Sandy Bay Valley.

In accordance with the prayer of John Aldrick's petition at the previous consultation, the council this day granted a lease for him as follows.

The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, leased to John Aldrick a parcel of ground containing sixteen foot in breadth and thirty foot in length, situated on the island.

Interpretations

The lease imposed a positive duty to cultivate, obliging the executors not merely to hold the land but to plant fruit trees upon it and to replace any that died. Apple, lemon, mulberry and peach were named as the kinds to be planted, and the tenant was bound to keep the orchard replenished throughout the term. This reveals the Company using its leases as an instrument of agricultural improvement, compelling its tenants to develop the land productively rather than let it lie idle, so that the island's cultivation advanced through the very terms on which land was held.

The lease was careful to protect the yam ground from the new planting, requiring that the fruit trees be set only where they would not encroach on the land reserved for raising yams. This shows the yam recognised as the island's essential staple, its cultivation given priority in the very deed that promoted fruit trees, the Company balancing the encouragement of new crops against the paramount need to keep the population fed. The instruction reveals a deliberate ordering of agricultural priorities, subsistence secured first and improvement pursued only in the ground that remained.

The sketch attached to the lease, marking the parcel as seven and a half acres, records the discrepancy between the surveyed shape and the five and a half acres named in the body of the deed. Such a plan drawn onto the lease shows the growing use of mapping to fix the bounds of a holding, the visual record supplementing the written description of butts and bounds. The natural boundaries relied on in the deed, the ledge of rocks and the fences that served as landmarks, were here set down in a drawing that made the parcel's extent and shape plain at a glance.

38

32

being in James Valley on the Back part of the said John Aldricks dwelling House and

adjoyning to the East Corner of his Back Yard next to the Main Guard Guard House To have

and to hold the said hereby Demised Premises and every Part and Parcell thereof

and all and singular the Appurtenances thereunto belonging unto him the said John Aldrick

his heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns from the day of the Date of these

Presents for and during all the Space or Term of Twenty One Years from thence next

ensueing Upon Condition that he the said John Aldrick his heirs Executors

Administrators or allowed Assigns shall and do bear true faith and Allegiance to our

Sovereign Lord King George his heirs and Successors and to them the said Honble

Company and their Successors and Shall duly Obey all the Laws and Constitutions of the

said Island and Upon Condition also that he the said John Aldrick

his heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns Shall and do at the End or

Determination of this Present Lease leave yeild up and Surrender in good Order and

repair unto them the said Honourable Company their Successors Agents and Assigns

all such Buildings or Edifices which Shall hereafter be Built or erected in or upon

this said Parcell of Ground with all and singular the Appurtenances thereunto

belonging or appertaining Yielding and Paying therefore Yearly

and every year during the Term of this Present Lease unto them the said Honourable

Company their Successors Agents or Assigns the same of Two Shillings and Sixpence in at

upon the Feast of St Michael the Archangel yearly And upon further

Condition that he the said John Aldrick his heirs Executors Administrators or

Allowed Assigns Shall not sell or Dispose of this Lease or Interest therein without the

leave and Consent of the Governour and Council for the time being In Witness

whereof they the said Honourable Company have hereunto Affixed their Common Seal

at their Union Castle in James Valley this 4d Day of November in the Year of

ourselord one Thousand Seven hundred and forty two And he the said John Aldrick to the

other Part of these Presents hath set his Hand and Seal the Day and year abovewritten

G. G. Powell Govr

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

Agreable to the Prayer of Benjamin Pledgeds

Petition in last Consultation We this Day Executed a Lease for him as follows Vizt

The

The parcel lay in James Valley at the back part of John Aldrick's dwelling house, adjoining the east corner of his back yard and next to the main gate's course.

Aldrick, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns were to hold the land for a term of twenty one years from the date of the lease, together with all appurtenances belonging to it.

The lease was granted on condition that Aldrick, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns bore true faith and allegiance to the sovereign Lord King George, his heirs and successors, and to the Company and its successors, and duly obeyed all the laws and constitutions of the island. On the further condition that, at the end or determination of the lease, Aldrick was to give up and surrender to the Company, its successors, agents and assigns, in good order and repair, all such buildings and edifices as should be built or erected upon the parcel of ground, together with all its appurtenances.

For the land Aldrick was to pay the Company, its successors, agents or assigns, a yearly rent of 2s 6d every year during the term, payable upon the feast of St Michael the Archangel.

Upon the further condition that Aldrick, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns should not sell or dispose of the lease or their interest in it without the leave and consent of the Governor and council for the time being.

In witness of this the Honourable Company affixed its common seal at James Valley on 11 November 1742, and John Aldrick set his hand and seal to the other part of the deed the same day.

The lease was signed by George Gabriel Powell, Governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

In accordance with the prayer of Benjamin Pledger's petition at the previous consultation, the council this day executed a lease for him as follows.

Interpretations

The rent reserved on Aldrick's town plot, 2s 6d a year, matched exactly the sum charged for Ebenezer Leach's similar small plot leased days before, both let for twenty one years on the same terms. This uniformity of rent and tenure for comparable building plots in James Valley shows the Company applying a settled scale to its town land, small parcels adjoining a tenant's existing house let at a standard rate rather than each negotiated afresh. The consistency reveals an established convention for leasing the built-up ground of the valley, distinct from the terms applied to rural plantations.

The parcel's location at the back of Aldrick's dwelling and next to the main gate's course shows the piecemeal expansion of a townsman's holding, a strip added to the rear of an existing property rather than a fresh plot elsewhere. Aldrick's petition had asked for exactly such an addition to his back yard, and the grant let him consolidate the ground immediately behind his house. This illustrates how the town of James Valley grew by small accretions, householders extending their yards and gardens onto the adjoining Company waste as need and opportunity allowed.

39

33

The Lords Proprietors of this Island The

Honourable the United Company of Merchants of

England Trading to the East Indies Do hereby

Demise Grant Sett and to Farm lett unto Benjamin Pledger of the said Island Planter All that

Piece or Parcell of Land containing Seven Acres scitueats lying and being in Shrubs Valley Butting

and Bounding towards the North upon the Pasture Land of yams Wood Serjeant towards the East

upon the Eleven Acres of Gumwood Land lately held by William Beal Planter towards the West upon

the Eight Acres and half of Land held by Bridget Bagott and forwards the South upon the said Pledger

own Land formerly Jonathan Hoffmans Steward To have and to hold the said hereby

Demised Parcell of Land and every Part and Parcel thereof together with all and Singular the Wood

Water Water Courses Fences Buildings Edifices Beds Tenements yams and Plantation of yams

Fruit Trees Walk Fences and all other and Singular the Rights Commodity to them and each and

every of them belonging or appertaining unto him the said Benjamin Pledger his heirs Executors

Administrators or Allowed Assigns from the Day of the Date hereof for and during all the Space

or Term of Twenty one Years from thence next Ensueing Upon Condition that he

the said Benjamin Pledger his heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns Shall and

do bear true faith and Allegiance to our Sovereign Lord King George his heirs and

Successors and to them the said Honourable Company and their Successors and Shall Duly

Observe and Obey all the Laws and Constitutions of the said Island and Upon

Condition also that he the said Benjamin Pledger his heirs Executors

Administrators or allowed Assigns Shall and do from time to time and at all times hereafter

during the Term of this Lease keep up and Maintain in good Order and Sufficient and Repair

Repair all such Buildings Houses Edifices Beds Tenements Plantations and Fences as now

are or hereafter Shall be made Built or Erected thereon and shall moreover Plant keep up

maintain and reserve in and upon the said hereby Demised Parcell of Land its full

Quantity or Proportion of Wood being one South Part of the said Parcell of Land and Shall

Likewise Plant and Preserve Forge within also and without the Fences of the said Parcell

of Land and Shall Plant Fruit Trees such as Apples Lemon Mulberry or Peach Trees in

such Parts thereof wherein they are most likely to grow and as they shall happen to Decay Do ye

shall Replant Others of the like into thereon without hurt or Prejudice Neverthd52d to

any Part of such Land as shall be set apart for the Sole Purpose of Planting and or raising

of yams Yielding and Paying therefore Yearly and every Year during

the Term of this Present Lease unto them the said Honble Company their Successors Agents

or Assigns the same of four Shillings ⅌ Ann in also upon the Feast of Saint Michael the

Arch Angel Yearly And upon further Condition that he the said

Benjamin Pledger his heirs Executors Administrators or Allowed Assigns shall not alter or

Remove the said Fences they being the Confits or Land Marks of the Parcell of Land aforesaid

and

The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, leased to Benjamin Pledger, planter, a parcel of land containing seven acres, situated in Sandy Bay Valley. It butted and bounded to the north upon the pasture land of James Wood, serjeant, towards the east upon the eleven acres of gumwood land lately held by William Beal, planter, towards the east the eight acres and a half of land held by Bridget Bagott, and formerly to the south upon the land formerly held by Jonathan Hoffman, senior.

Pledger, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns were to hold the parcel of land, together with all its wood, water, feed, cattle, fences, buildings, edifices, rocks, tenements, yams, plantation, yams and fruit trees, walls, fences and all other appurtenances belonging to it, for a term of twenty one years from the date of the lease.

The lease was granted on condition that Pledger, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns bore true faith and allegiance to the sovereign Lord King George, his heirs and successors, and to the Honourable Company and its successors, and duly observed and obeyed all the laws and constitutions of the island. Upon the further condition that Pledger and his representatives should from time to time and at all times during the term keep up and maintain in good order and sufficient and loyal repair all such buildings, houses, edifices, fences, tenements, plantations and appurtenances as were then or should thereafter be built or erected upon it.

Pledger was moreover to plant, keep up, maintain and reserve upon the land its full quantity or proportion of wood, being one tenth part of the parcel, and should thereon plant and reserve trees within and without the fences of the parcel. He was also to plant fruit trees, such as apple, lemon, mulberry or peach, in such parts of the land as were most likely for them to grow, and should any happen to decay or die, he was to replant others of the like kind in their place, without hurt or prejudice to any part of the land set apart for the purpose of planting or raising yams.

For the land Pledger was to pay the Honourable Company, its successors, agents or assigns, a yearly rent of 4s every year during the term, payable upon the feast of St Michael the Archangel.

Upon the further condition that Pledger, his heirs, executors, administrators or allowed assigns should not alter or remove the fences, they being the bounds or landmarks of the parcel of land.

Interpretations

This lease bound the tenant to keep one tenth of the whole parcel under wood, planting and reserving trees both within and outside the fences. That the Company should compel a planter to maintain a fixed proportion of woodland reveals a deliberate policy of conservation, forcing the replacement of timber on an island where the destruction of wood had lately caused alarm. The requirement shows the Company alert to the danger of deforestation, using the terms of every rural lease to arrest the loss of trees and secure a renewing supply of timber and fuel.

The boundaries of Pledger's land were defined entirely by the neighbouring holdings of other named inhabitants, James Wood, William Beal, Bridget Bagott and Jonathan Hoffman, rather than by natural features alone. This dense web of adjoining plots reveals Sandy Bay Valley as a closely settled agricultural district, its land parcelled among many small planters whose holdings bounded one another. The naming of a former holder, William Beal, alongside the current occupiers shows the land changing hands over time, the deed preserving the memory of earlier tenancies to fix the bounds precisely.

The obligation to plant and maintain fruit trees, replacing any that died, appears again here as in the Alexander lease, confirming it as a standard clause in the Company's rural grants. Coupled with the woodland requirement and the protection of the yam ground, the lease imposed a whole programme of cultivation upon the tenant, dictating not just that he hold the land but how he should crop and improve it. This reveals the Company governing the island's agriculture in detail through its leases, prescribing the very trees a planter must grow and the balance he must strike between timber, orchard and staple crop.

40

34

and shall not sell Dispose of this Lease or Interest therein without the Leave and Consent of the

Governour and Council for the time being In Witness whereof they the said Honble

Company have Affixed their Common Seal at their Union Castle in James Valley the

4th day of November one Thousand Seven hundred and Forty two and to the said Benjamin

Pledger to the other Part hath set his hand and Seal the Day and year abovewritten

G. G. Powell Govr

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

W.

S.

Seven Acres

N

E

Agreeable to Mrs Mary Alexanders Petition and our

Resolution thereupon as entled in Consultation of the 5th of October 1742 Concerning

Ten Sash Windows had of her in Mr Coops time and after Inquiry made of Mr

Francis Wrangham it was then Agreed We this Day paid the Executors as follows

it being the Same Mr Wranghams Windows Cost him Vizt

Ten Sash Windows Prime Cost in England

£44. 15s 6d

5 ⅌ Cent Commission

£2. 4s 9¾d

£47. 0s 3¾d

This Day Mr John Godfrey Storekeeper brought in

an Inventory of the Stores which was taken in the Month of August 1742 Vizt

Pledger was also not to sell or dispose of the lease or his interest in it without the leave and consent of the Governor and council for the time being.

In witness of this the Honourable Company affixed its common seal at James Valley on 9 November 1742, and Benjamin Pledger set his hand and seal to the other part of the deed the same day.

The lease was signed by George Gabriel Powell, Governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon. A sketch accompanying the lease marked the parcel as seven acres.

In accordance with Mrs Mary Alexander's petition and the resolution reached at the consultation of 5 October 1742, concerning ten sash windows she had held in Mr Cape's time, and after inquiry made of Mr Francis Wrangham, the council this day paid the executors as follows, the windows being the same as Mr Wrangham's.

Ten sash windows, prime cost in England, £44 15s 6d

5 per cent commission, £2 4s 9¾d

Total, £47 0s 3¾d

This day Mr John Godfrey, storekeeper, brought in an inventory of the stores which was taken in the month of August 1742.

Interpretations

The payment for ten sash windows valued a fixed architectural fitting as movable property that could be bought, sold and compensated for apart from the building it served. The windows were reckoned at their prime cost in England plus a 5 per cent commission, the whole amounting to £47 0s 3¾d, a substantial sum reflecting the cost of importing manufactured joinery across the ocean. This reveals how dear finished building materials were on the island, glazed sash windows being an imported luxury whose value was carefully assessed and reimbursed when they passed between hands.

The care taken to verify the claim by inquiry of Francis Wrangham, establishing that the windows were the same as his, shows the council checking the basis of a compensation payment before settling it. Rather than pay Mary Alexander's claim on her word alone, the council sought an independent point of comparison to fix the value, matching her windows against a known example. This illustrates the council's method in resolving claims upon the Company, seeking corroboration to guard against overpayment before drawing on the treasury.

The addition of a 5 per cent commission to the prime cost reflects the standard charge for procuring goods in England and shipping them out, the agent's or Company's markup on an imported article. Its inclusion in the valuation shows that the true cost of any manufactured item at St Helena was not its English price alone but that price augmented by the expense of acquisition and carriage. This reveals the hidden premium that distance imposed on every imported good, the settlement paying not just for the article but for the long reach of the trade that brought it.

41

35

Anchors Vizt

12 large Anchors without any wt on them

1 large Do at the West Rocks

1 Do for the Long Boat

2 Snaps

£362. 6s 7½d

Bunting Vizt

267 ⅌ce Red Good at 8½

£9. 17s 11½d

4 do do bad 8½

8s 5d

66 ⅌ce Red Bunting ⅌ Do 5. at 3⅜ ⅌ ⅌

£8. 5s

39 Yards Do 7⅜ ⅌ yard

£1. 9s 3d

4 Do Blue Bunting 6⅜ ⅌ ⅌

£4. 19s 0d

4 Do White Do 6 Do

£4. 8s

£28. 19s 2¾d

Blankets Vizt

65 Blankets Good

16 Do Moth Eaten

at 4/6 each ⅌ ⅌

£6. 13s

3 Do Do at Seven Shillings each

14s

£7. 7s

Broad Cloth Vizt

10 Do Broad Cloth Cinnamon @ 24½ ⅌ yard

£14. 3s 7½d

133 Yards Do Cloth Colour 15/6

£10. 9s 3d

2½ Do Blue 16/

£2. 4s

14 ⅌ Do Do ⅌ Do the Lemon

£10. 16s 10½d

17⅜ Do Scarlet 16/3 ⅌ yard

£14. 3s

£62. 14s 4d

Braziersware Vizt

16 doz Small Rimmers @ 3/ each

£1. 9s 8d

6 Rimmers 2/8 each

16s

8 Do 6/ do

£2. 8s

1 Do do

10s 4d

1 Do

3s 4d

1 Do

£1. 8s 8d

2 Do 12/4

£1. 6s 11½d

16 Ladles 1/8

10s 8d

1 Copper Kettle with Cover damaged

£1. 4s

2 Brass Kettles without Covers 12/

14s 4d

6 Copper Sauce Pan with Cover

£1. 2s

11 Plate Candlesticks 3/

£4. 4s

4 Do Do 3/4

£1. 6s

1 Copper Fish Pan

18s 10d

7 Pair Brass Candlesticks

13s

1 Copper Sauce Pan

Braziersware Carried over

£26. 6s 2d

Carried over

£464. 6s 4d

The inventory of the stores continued with the following goods, valued under their several categories.

Anchors.

12 large anchors without any wood or stock to them

1 large anchor at the West Rocks

1 anchor for the long boat

2 snaps

Anchors, 30 per cent cost, £362 6s 7½d

Bunting.

267 pieces of red ensign at 8s each, £9 17s 11½d

14 pieces of the same, bad, at 8s, £8 5s 0d

6 pieces of red bunting per yard at 33s per piece, £8 5s 0d

39 yards of the same at 5s per yard, £1 9s 3d

6 pieces of blue bunting at 6s per yard, £4 19s 0d

4 pieces of white bunting at 6s per yard, £4 8s 0d

Bunting, 30 per cent cost, £28 19s 2¾d

Blankets.

5 blankets, good, and 16 blankets moth eaten, at 1s 6d each, £6 13s 0d

3 blankets at seven shillings each, £14 0s 0d

Blankets, 30 per cent cost, £7 7s 0d

Broad cloth.

10 pieces of broad cloth, cinnamon colour, at 24s 6d per yard, £14 3s 7½d

133 yards of cloth colour at 23s 6d, £10 9s 3d

2 pieces of blue at 16s, £2 4s 0d

2 pieces of the same, blue, at 27s, £10 16s 10½d

17 pieces of scarlet, per five to seven lemons, at 16s 3d per yard, £14 0s 3d

Broad cloth, 25 per cent cost, £62 14s 4d

Braziersware.

6 iron skimmers at 3s each, £1 9s 8¾d

6 skimmers at 2s 8d each, £0 16s 0d

8 of the same at 6s each, £2 8s 0d

6 of the same, £0 10s 4d

1 of the same, £0 3s 4d

2 of the same at 10s 4d, £1 8s 8d

40 ladles at 1s 8d, £1 6s 11½d

1 copper kettle with cover, damaged, £0 10s 8d

2 brass kettles without covers at 12s, £0 14s 0d

6 copper saucepans with covers, £1 4s 0d

11 flat candlesticks at 3s, £0 14s 0d

4 of the same at 3s 4d, £0 9s 4d

1 copper fish pan, £1 6s 0d

4 other brass candlesticks, £0 18s 10d

1 copper saucepan, £0 13s 0d

Braziersware carried over, £22 6s 2d

Carried over, £484 6s 5d

Interpretations

The inventory valued each category of goods at a fixed percentage above its cost, the anchors, bunting and braziersware at 30 per cent and the broad cloth at 25 per cent. This markup on prime cost represents the standard charge for procuring and shipping the goods from England, the same principle applied to the ten sash windows valued days before. The consistent percentages reveal a settled system for pricing the Company's stores, every article carried on the books not at its bare English price but at that price augmented to cover the expense of acquisition and the long carriage to the island.

The large stock of bunting and red ensigns points to the constant need for flags at a fortified port, both for signalling to shipping and for display. Bunting was the loosely woven woollen cloth from which flags were made, and the quantity held, over two hundred and eighty pieces of ensign alone, shows the island keeping a substantial reserve of flag material. This reveals the importance of visual signalling to a station that governed a busy anchorage, flags serving to communicate with ships in the road and to mark the occasions of state that the guns also saluted.

The braziersware listed the copper and brass kitchen vessels that equipped the settlement, skimmers, ladles, kettles, saucepans, candlesticks and a fish pan, several noted as damaged, moth eaten or without covers. Braziersware meant goods made of brass and copper by a brazier, the metalworker who fashioned such vessels, and the careful noting of each item's condition shows the inventory recording not just the count but the state of the Company's household goods. This reveals the thoroughness of the stocktaking, the storekeeper marking every dented kettle and worn blanket so that the true value of the stores could be reckoned.

42

36

Brought over

£464. 6s 4d

Braziersware Brt over

£13. 6s 2d

3 Warming Pans at 11/

£1. 13s

1 Do

12s

2 large Brass licks 6/6

13s

1 Small Do 5/6

£1. 2s

8 very small Do 4/8

12s 4d

40 Chafing Dishes good

£13. 1s 2d

3 Do Damaged

at 6. 1

8 Pumps 11/

£4. 8s

1 Iron Mortar & Pestle

5s 3d

£37. 13s 11d

Blocks Vizt

4 Iron Bound Cat Blocks 6/3

£1. 5s 8d

6 double Blocks for Guns 18 Inches 5/3

£1. 5½d

2 long Tackles 27 Do 2/

4 do 26 Do 4/8

£1. 8s 7d

5 Shouldered for Top Sail Sheets 16 Do 2/8

5 Do 17 Do 3/1

£1. 9s 10d

2 Snatch Blocks Iron bound 24 Do 13/4

£1. 7s 6d

10 Single Blocks 14 Do 2/5½

£1. 2s 8½d

6 dold lifes 13 Do

6 Do 12 Do

6 Do with Iron Work Wt 3. 2. 26

£8. 8s 2d

14 Shouldered for Garnets & Blue Sail 10 do 17

18 Do 11 Inch 15

£2. 11s 3d

3 Do for life 11. 15

6 Do for Leach lines 13. 2/1

6 Do 14. 2/1

£1. 4s 8d

1 long Tackle as above 27

1 Block 9

£1. 1d

1 Do 6

11d

3 Iron round Top Blocks at 5/ 15

13s

1 Sheer Block 18

3s

1 Reef Do 16

2s 6d

£21. 1s 4d

Bread and Flour Vizt

2. 3. 14 In Royal George 24/⅌ ⅌

£3. 15s 3½d

20 Casks Bread for Harrington 63/9½

£63. 3s

2. 6 Flour damaged

1. 20 flour good

3. 26. at 21/8

£1. 1s 11½d

55 Casks Flour full ⅌ ⅌ 1 George

2 Do also 1553. 4 at 25/5½

£200. 12s 7½d

£268. 14s 3½d

Carried over

£523. 2s 2d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £484 6s 11d

The braziersware continued with the amount brought forward.

Braziersware brought over, £13 6s 2d

3 warming pans at 14s, £1 13s 0d

1 of the same, £0 12s 0d

2 large brass locks at 6s 6d, £0 13s 0d

1 small lock at 5s 6d, £0 2s 0d

8 very small locks at 4s 8d, £0 12s 4d

40 chafing dishes, good, at 6s 1d, £13 1s 2d

3 chafing dishes, damaged, £0 4s 8d

8 pumps at 14s, £5 3s 0d

1 iron mortar and pestle, [...]

Braziersware total, £37 13s 11d

Blocks.

4 iron bound cat blocks at 6s 3d, £1 5s 8d

6 double blocks for guns, 18 inches, at 3s 6d, £1 5s 6d

2 long tackles, 27 inches, at 4s, £0 8s 7d

4 of the same, 26 inches, at 4s 8d

5 mounted for top sail sheets, 16 inches, at 2s 8d, £1 9s 10d

5 of the same, 17 inches, at 3s 1d

2 snatch blocks, iron bound, 24 inches, at 13s 4d, £1 7s 6d

10 single blocks, 14 inches, at 2s 8d, £1 2s 8½d

6 dead eyes, 13 inches

6 of the same, 12 inches

5 of the same with iron work, weight 3 quarters 2 pounds 26, £8 8s 2d

14 mounted for garnets and blue sail, 10 inches, at 17s

18 of the same, 11 inches, at 15s

2 of the same for life, 11 inches, at 15s

2 double blocks, 11s 3d

6 of the same for leech lines, 13 inches, at 2s 1d

6 of the same, 14 inches, at 2s 1d

1 long tackle as above, 27 inches, £1 4s 8d

1 block, 9 inches, £0 1s 1d

1 of the same, 6 inches, £0 0s 11d

3 iron round top blocks at 5s, £0 13s 0d

1 sheer block, 18 inches, £0 3s 0d

1 sheet block, 16 inches, £0 2s 6d

Blocks total, £21 1s 4d

Bread and flour.

234 lb of Royal George at 24s per, £3 15s 3½d

20 casks of bread from Barrington at 63s 4½d, £63 3s 0d

2 casks 6 lb of flour, damaged, and 1 cask 20 lb of flour, good, 3 casks 26 lb at 21s 8d, £1 1s 1½d

55 casks of flour per Prince of Orange, and 2 of the same weighing 1,881 lb 3 quarters at 25s 5½d, £200 12s 7¾d

Bread and flour total, £268 14s 3¼d

Carried over, £823 2s 2d

Interpretations

The blocks made up the running rigging gear of ships, the pulley blocks through which ropes were led to work the sails, listed in great variety by their size and purpose. Cat blocks for handling anchors, snatch blocks, dead eyes for tensioning the standing rigging and blocks mounted for topsail sheets, garnets and leech lines together formed a comprehensive stock of ship's tackle. This substantial store of marine gear reveals St Helena's function as a servicing station for the Company's fleet, holding the spare rigging that homeward ships might need to refit before the last leg of their voyage.

The bread and flour were largely identified by the ships that had carried them, casks from the Barrington, from the Prince of Orange and a stock called Royal George, the provisions traced to their vessel of origin. Naming the ship that brought each parcel of provisions shows the storekeeper tracking not just the quantity but the source of the settlement's food, each consignment recorded against the vessel that landed it. This reveals how completely the island depended on shipping for its staple provisions, its very bread arriving cask by cask from the passing fleet and stored under the name of the ship that supplied it.

The careful distinction between good and damaged flour, the damaged casks weighed and valued separately from the sound, shows the constant battle against spoilage in storing provisions on a humid island. Flour and bread shipped across the tropics and held in store were prone to decay, and the inventory's precise noting of which casks had suffered reveals the storekeeper reckoning the real, diminished value of stores that the climate and the long voyage had already begun to waste.

43

37

Brought over

£523. 2s 2d

Bread & Flour Brought over

£268. 12s 3½d

150 Casks Flour for Harrington 192. 1. 12. at 9/4

£198. 12s 7d

144½ Casks Do for Do Lorrain 16/5½

£331. 8s 8½d

£748. 14s 7½d

Beef and Pork Vizt

6 Casks Pork for Royal George at 6/7 ⅌ ⅌

£36. 2s 1½d

25 Do for Duke Lorrain 6. 3. 6½

£285. 4s 2d

41 Do for Harrington 6. 4. 2½

£428. 18s 1d

118 Casks Beef for Do 50 Casks 10. 2. 10½

37. 3½

£707. 5s 1½d

20 Do for Duke Lorrain

27 Do for Do

8. 3. 4½

12. 3. 9½

£624. 1s 7d

£2102. 9s 1d

Copper Money Vizt

70637 Irish half Pence

£157. 11s 6½d

29636 Dudoes at 4 each

£61. 14s 10d

423861 Dudoes at 4 do

£37. 7s 1½d

£256. 13s 5½d

Corn Mills 1

£2. 6s

Combs Vizt

3 2 doz 10 Ivory Combs 5/10 each

12s 6d

943 Ivory Do 4/2 do

£1. 7s

4½ Do 4/8 do

9s 4d

22.5 doz & 3 Buckling Combs

4 doz & Tea horse Combs

13s 1d

184 Ivory low Thimbles

16s 4d

£2. 4s 5d

Corks Vizt

53 Gross Corks for Duke Lorrain 2/2½

£5. 15s 3d

£45. 7s 11d

Coals 27 Chaldron 33/7½

Cutleryware Vizt

4 doz Knives and Forks No 3

£6. 3s 4d

4 doz Do do

£3. 12s

16 13 14 Shoe Knives

9s 6d

45 Buck handled Pruning Knives

3s 7d

7 36 Horn handle Clasp Pruning Knives

13s

8 8 Small Buck handle Pruning Do

£2. 2s

4 24 Buck handle Knives trim with Brass

12s

4 32 Fistoics Penknives

18s 8½d

9 32 Fistoics Inlaid and Tip'd with Silver

£3. 6s

13 12 large Layer Inlaid and Clasp Pruning Knives

16s 10d

7 5 doz Buck horn Clasp Pruning Knives

£1. 10d

3 Pen Knives Sizeers

32 Do Damaged

£4. 6s 4d

Carried over

£3686. 7s 5d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £823 2s 2d

The bread and flour continued with the amount brought forward.

Bread and flour brought over, £268 14s 3¼d

150 casks of flour per Barrington, 172 lb 1 quarter 2 lb at 9s 4d, £192 12s 7d

144½ casks of flour per Duke Lorraine at 16s 5¼d, £331 8s 8¾d

Bread and flour total, £748 14s 7¾d

Beef and pork.

6 casks of pork per Royal George at 3s 4d, £36 2s 1½d

28 casks of the same per Duke Lorraine at 3s 5¼d, £285 4s 2d

41 casks of the same per Barrington at 4s 2¼d, £428 18s 1d

43 casks of beef, 50 casks at 1s 2d and 37 casks at the same, £707 5s 1½d

20 casks of the same per Duke Lorraine and 27 casks of the same at 12s 3s 9¾d, £624 4s 7d

Beef and pork total, £2,102 4s 1d

Copper money.

79,637 Irish halfpence, £157 11s 6½d

29,636 doudous at 4 each, £61 14s 10d

9,235,861 doudous at 4 each, £37 7s 1¼d

Copper money total, £256 13s 5¼d

Corn mills.

1 corn mill, £2 0s 6d

Combs.

3 dozen 10 ivory combs at 10s each, £0 12s 6d

2 gross 3 ivory combs at 4s 2d each, £1 7s 4d

4½ dozen of the same at 4s 8d each, £0 9s 4d

23 dozen 3 buckling combs, £0 13s 1d

4 dozen 8 fine horse combs, £0 16s 4d

104 ivory thimbles, [...]

Combs total, £2 4s 5d

Corks.

33 gross of corks per Duke Lorraine at 4s 4d, £5 15s 3d

Corks total, £45 7s 11d

Coals.

27 chaldron of coals at 33s 7½d, [...]

Cutlery ware.

4 dozen knives and forks, number 3, at 6s 3d, £6 3s 4d

5 dozen 3 of the same, £3 12s 0d

16 dozen 14 shoe knives, £0 4s 6d

15 buck handled pruning knives, £0 3s 7d

36 horn handled clasp pruning knives, £0 13s 0d

8 small buck handled pruning knives, £0 2s 2d

24 buck handled knives trimmed with brass, £0 12s 0d

9 dozen 32 factory penknives inlaid and tipped with silver, £18 8s 6d

32 large penknives inlaid and tipped with silver, £3 6s 0d

23 dozen 12 large horn and buck horn clasp pruning knives, £16 10s 0d

7 dozen buck horn clasp pruning knives, £1 10s 0d

2 pairs of scissors, £0 0s 0d

39 pairs of the same, damaged, £0 17s 6d

Cutlery ware total, £14 6s 5d

Carried over, £3,686 7s 5d

Interpretations

The copper money held in store was a mixed stock of small coin drawn from more than one currency, Irish halfpence alongside great quantities of doudous. A doudou was a small copper coin of the French Caribbean and other French colonies, its presence here revealing how foreign small change circulated through the island alongside British coin. This mixed hoard of low-value copper shows the settlement short of the small coin needed for everyday dealings, obliged to hold and use whatever petty currency the trading world supplied, whether British or French.

The beef and pork made up by far the largest single category in the whole inventory, valued at over £2,100 and stored in scores of casks named for the ships that brought them, the Royal George, the Duke Lorraine and the Barrington. This vast reserve of salted meat reveals the scale of provisioning required to feed both the garrison and the fleets that called, the island holding a great standing stock against the uncertainty of supply. The dominance of preserved meat in the stores shows a settlement whose food security rested on what could be salted and kept, the fresh produce of the plantations supplementing rather than replacing the imported barrel.

The cutlery ware included a range of fine penknives inlaid and tipped with silver, held in quantity far beyond the settlement's own domestic need. Such quantities of decorative knives were trade goods rather than household stores, kept for sale or barter to passing ships and their crews. This reveals the store as a trading warehouse as much as a domestic supply, stocking manufactured luxuries from England to sell on to the transient population of the anchorage, the island turning its position on the sea route to commercial account.

44

38

Brought over

£3686. 7s 5d

Cutleryware Brought over

£17. 1s

4 Pen horse Scissars

3s

50 Ivory handle Penknives at in with Silver

£11. 3s

2 Do Locks 18/

7 doz 42 Brass and Scissars set in with Steel

5 doz & 10 Scissars with Steel Points

13 3

£7. 12s 2¾d

5 doz 5 Do in Steel edge

6 doz 6 Brass Do & Scissars with Steel Points

3s

4 Ivory handled Penknives and Forks 4/12

£4. 4s

3 double Razor Straps

3s

10 26 Single Do 7

18s 4d

83 7 Combs 2/8

18s 8d

8 Pair Shoe Buckles 30/4

17s 8d

2 pair Do 7/8

15s 4d

18 12 Do 2/1

19s 6d

83 8 Do 4/

11s

9 27 doz 42 Iron handled Knives Damaged 5/

7s 4d

8 6 doz Buck handle Buckles Lumps 3/6

11s

10 7 doz 7 Woodlands Do 3/

£2. 11s

4 Buck horn Buckles Rams 5/

18s 8d

£43. 2s 8d

Cordage Vizt

65 63 16 Do 40 Do 2. 9 in Inches

£103. 12s 4¾d

Remaind Cordage 300w 2. 19 whereof 2¾ ⅌ in W. at 34/2

£101. 6s 2d

Grass line 40 2. 8 191

£9. 17s 8d

£214. 3s 8½d

£627. 16s 1¼d

Cartwheels Vizt

1 pair Cartwheels

£9. 6s 4d

4 pair Barrowwheels

£13. 3s 4d

£24. 4s 5d

Canvas 155 ⅌ces making 21 Yards

£124. 2s 7d

Duck Vizt

6 English Sail Cloth and 22 Do Yard 2. 4. 5

£14. 6s 6½d

11 Do Superr Do & 56 Do 16/

£2. 19s 1¼d

£17. 5s 11½d

Druggett Vizt

60 Druggett Colour

92 Remnants Do Sixteen and 275. 4. Yards moth damaged

37 damaged

£17. 10s 2d

Deals Vizt

101 & 9 Do Deals

£67. 12s 6d

2. 13 19 Deals Do 15/2

£1. 9s 5½d

50 19 Pieces of 9 foot 3/

£2. 17s

4 5 Do 4/

16s

37 half Inch Wainscott Boards 2/1

£3. 18s 3½d

£78. 5s 4d

Carried over

£4497. 15s 4d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £3,686 7s 5d

The cutlery ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Cutlery ware brought over, £17 1s 0d

4 penknives, inlaid, £0 0s 3d

10 ivory handled penknives trimmed with silver, £0 12s 3d

2 of the same, £0 12s 0d

9 dozen 42 brass and iron penknives trimmed with silver, £7 12s 2¾d

5 dozen 10 penknives with best points, £0 0s 3d

5 dozen 5 of the same with best eyes, £0 0s 0d

6 dozen 6 brass penknives trimmed with best points, £0 0s 3d

4 ivory handled penknives and forks at 4s 2d, £0 4s 8d

1 double razor strop, £0 0s 3d

26 knives at 2s 8d, £18 8s 0d

537 of the same at 2s 8d, £18 8s 0d

2 pairs of shoe buckles at 4s, £0 17s 8d

2 pairs of the same at 2s 8d, £13 4s 0d

132 of the same at 2s, £19 6s 0d

132 of the same at 2s, £0 11s 0d

132 of the same at 2s, £0 0s 0d

9 dozen 42 iron handled knives, damaged, £7 4s 0d

34 dozen buck handled buckles and knives at 2s, £0 11s 0d

10 dozen 7 of Woodlands make, £1 2s 11d

4 dozen buck horn buckles and razors, £13 8s 0d

Cutlery ware total, £43 2s 8d

Cordage.

16 coils weighing 6 hundredweight 0 quarters 9 lb, 4 inches, £103 12s 4½d

remains of cordage, 300 lb 3 quarters, whereof 26 lb 12 lb at 34½d, £141 6s 0d

9 hundredweight tarred cord weight 8, 9 quarters 5, £304 3s 8½d

Cordage total, £609 16s 1½d

Cartwheels.

17 iron cartwheels, £9 6s 4d

41 iron barrow wheels, £15 3s 4d

Cartwheels total, £24 9s 5d

Canvas.

153 pieces of number 1 sailcloth, making 21 yards, £124 2s 7d

Duck.

6 pieces of English duck, black and white, 224 yards, at 2s 8¾d, £14 0s 6½d

11 pieces of Russia duck at 86s, £2 10s 1½d

Duck total, £17 1s 11d

Druggett.

60 pieces of druggett, cotton, and 12 remnants of the same, containing 275½ yards, moth damaged, £10 10s 2d

Deals.

102 hundred 2 of white deal, £67 12s 6d

2 hundred 13 19 inch of the same at 15s, £1 9s 5½d

4 hundred 5 19 inches of 9 foot at 15s, £2 0s 0d

1 hundred 5 of the same, £0 16s 0d

8 hundred 3 71 half inch Wainscot boards at 4s 4d, £3 13s 3½d

Deals total, £78 5s 4d

Carried over, £4,587 15s 4d

Interpretations

The cordage held in store, valued at over £600, was among the most substantial single categories in the whole inventory, coils of rope reckoned by weight and thickness and a quantity kept ready tarred. Tarred cordage was rope coated with tar to preserve it against the rotting effect of salt water, essential for standing rigging exposed to the weather. This great reserve of rope confirms the island's role in refitting the Company's ships, holding the cordage that a homeward vessel might need to renew its rigging, along with the cartwheels and barrow wheels that served the settlement's own haulage on land.

The several kinds of cloth, druggett, duck, canvas and deal boards, reveal the store as a general emporium of raw materials for the ships and the settlement alike. Duck was a strong linen or cotton fabric used for sails and hard-wearing clothing, druggett a coarse woollen material and canvas the heavy cloth of the sails themselves, while the deals and wainscot boards were sawn timber for building and joinery. This range of stored materials shows the island importing the very fabric and timber from which sails, garments and structures were made, a remote settlement obliged to hold the makings of its own repairs and manufactures.

The recurring notes of moth damage to the woollen druggett and the earlier blankets reveal the persistent losses that insects inflicted on the textile stores. Wool held in a warehouse over long periods was vulnerable to moth, and the storekeeper's careful marking of the damaged pieces shows the real erosion of the Company's stock through decay. This illustrates the difficulty of preserving imported goods on the island, where time, damp and pests steadily reduced the value of everything held in store against future need.

45

39

Brought over

£4497. 15s 4d

Brt over Deals &c

£78. 5s 4d

3 Oak Wainscott Boards 11/4½

£7. 2s 1d

8 half Inch Do Boards 5/4

£3. 6½d

3 Do for Timber 15/2

£2. 18s 5½d

1 half Inch Do

3s

3 Oak Timber 7/8

£3. 3s

4 Do 20 fooling Plank

£94. 9s 5d

Dimitys and Fustians Vizt

14 Yards Fine Dimity

26 12¼ yards Corded

21 10½ yards Twisted

Old Do Damaged

£33. 6s

65 15¾ Do Royalty at 33/6

£10. 4s 5d

£43. 4s 7½d

Glaziersware Vizt

Ground and Vessels Glassed

7s

Do do Locks

11 Decanters 3/4

£1. 8s 8d

8 Do Locks

4 Glass Milk Locks

8½ Doz half Store Glasses 4/8

£10. 10½d

45 12 Do do small do Glasses

12s 4½d

39 Do Locks

10 Three horn Glasses 15/8

£1. 13s 4d

2 Turken Glasses 15/6

1 Do Locks

6s 12d

102 fool Quarry Glass 14/2

£16. 12s

120 fool best Crown Glass 12 by 12 8s

£16. 4s 8d

14. 316 Squares of glass 1. 12. 4. 8 by 10 8s

£16. 18s 7½d

2 best Do 15 3 by 6 6s

5s

1 Small Earthen Plate Brown Glass Do

£5. 9s

Do do splinters taken out

£73. 3s 5½d

Gold and Silver Buttons Vizt

14 Coyt Silver Coat Buttons

£4. 4s

14 Doz 3 Gold Breast Do

£2. 6s 3d

10 21 Doz 6 gilt Coat Do

£12. 6s 5d

13 15 Doz 4 Silver Do

£1. 2s 3d

14 15 Doz at 4 breast

£3. 3s

6 Doz 1 Silver 2 Plate Buttons

15s 1d

12 4 Doz 6 Gold Sand

£1. 12s 4d

8 8 Do Gold Sand

£1. 4s 6d

9 Silver Do

7s 6d

£27. 4s 3d

Carried over

£4735. 12s 10d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £4,587 15s 4d

The deals continued with the amount brought forward.

Deals brought over, £78 5s 4d

33 inch Wainscot boards at 5s 4d, £7 2s 1d

6 half inch of the same at 5s 4d, £3 0s 6½d

6 gutter boards at 2s 2d, £2 18s 5½d

6 pieces of fir timber at 4s 8d, £0 3s 0d

1 half anchor stock, £0 3s 0d

30 oak timbers, £0 3s 0d

6 pieces of 20 foot long plank, £0 3s 0d

Deals total, £94 9s 5d

Dimity and fustian.

14 yards of fine dimity, old and decayed, £33 6s 0d

13½ yards corded, old and decayed

13½ yards of the same, ticked, old and decayed

12 pieces of fustian at 33s 6d, £10 4s 6d

Dimity and fustian total, £43 4s 7½d

Glazier ware.

1 arrived and window glazed, £0 7s 0d

5 of the same, broken, [...]

11 decanters at 4s, £1 8s 8d

8 of the same, broken

4 glass milk jugs

82 half hour glasses at 4s 8d, £14 10s 4d

40½ hour glasses of half a minute at 4s, £12 4s 8d

39 of the same, broken

10 three hour glasses at 4s, £1 12s 4d

2 four hour glasses at 4s, [...]

1 of the same, broken

4 quarter hour glasses at 4s 6d, £6 12s 0d

102 foot quarry glass at 12s per 12, £26 4s 2d

120 foot best crown glass, 12 by 10, at 8s, £16 10s 6½d

416 squares of glass, 1 hundred 12 at 5s, 4 by 10, at 6s, £18 18s 7½d

846 of the same, best, 292 at 12, 3 by 6, £5 9s 0d

1 half earthen plate, brown glazed

1 of the same, splinter taken out, [...]

Glazier ware total, £73 3s 5½d

Gold and silver buttons.

14 large silver coat buttons, £0 4s 0d

14 large gold breast buttons, £2 6s 3d

14 gilt coat buttons, £12 6s 5d

14 large gilt breast buttons at 8d, £5 2s 9¾d

15 dozen 4 silver of the same, £3 3s 4d

2 large of the same at 4s breast, £0 15s 1d

2 large gilt of the same, £2 12s 4d

5 gilt coat of the same, £1 4s 6d

8 of the same, £0 6s 8d

2 silver of the same, [...]

Gold and silver buttons total, £27 8s 3d

Carried over, £4,738 12s 10d

Interpretations

The glazier ware brought together window glass and glass vessels of many kinds, but most striking is the large stock of hourglasses, measuring intervals from a quarter hour and three hours down to a half minute. The half-minute glasses were the log glasses used at sea to time the running out of the log line and so measure a ship's speed, essential instruments of navigation. This holding of nautical timing glasses confirms the store's service to shipping, supplying homeward vessels with the very instruments by which they reckoned their pace across the ocean.

The window glass was itemised with unusual precision, quarry glass, crown glass and squares cut to particular dimensions, all imported ready to glaze the settlement's buildings. Crown glass was the finest window glass of the age, spun from a blown disc, while quarry glass came in small diamond-shaped panes for leaded windows. That such quantities of glass were held in store shows the island's buildings being fitted with proper glazed windows, the glass shipped out in sheets and squares to be set into the frames of the growing settlement, a further imported refinement in a place where nothing could be made locally.

The gold and silver buttons, held in dozens and valued by the weight of their precious metal, were fine trade goods far beyond the settlement's own use. Coat and breast buttons of silver, gold and gilt were luxury manufactures kept for sale to officers, ships' companies and the wealthier inhabitants. Their presence among the stores confirms once more the store's role as a warehouse of saleable finery, the Company stocking small articles of personal adornment to trade to the transient and resident population alike, turning its supply function to profit.

46

40

Brought over

£4735. 12s 10d

Brt over Buttons &c

£27. 4s 3d

57 Oz Silver Thread

£20. 18s

32 Do Gold Do

£24. 3s 4d

½ Do Gold Sand

½ Do Gold Spangs

£1. 8s

½ Do Do Thread

£11. 4s 5d

24 Do Silver Spangs and Thread

£12. 3s 11d

4½ Do Silver Spangs and Thread

£4. 5s

2 doz Metal Coat Buttons

St damaged

£97. 13s 4½d

Grindstones 1 broke

Hatts Vizt

4 Silver laced Hatts 22/

£4. 8s

3 Do damaged by Moths 22/

£3. 6s

17 plain hats 13/2

£7. 18s

6 Do damaged by Moths 13/2

£1. 6s 4d

4 Do 3/4

£1. 17s 4d

5 Damaged by Moths 3/4

£1. 8s

£20. 3s 8d

Hooks and Lines Vizt

383 2. 1 hook Sorted 2/4

£34. 12s 4d

9 132500 Blue Hooks for Duke Lorrain

£18. 4s 4½d

2 doz Lines No 1 7/2

£4. 4s

1 do No 2 2½

£2. 6s 4d

8 4 doz 6 do No 3 3/4

£1. 4s 4d

3 10 doz 10 Do 4 3½

£2. 4s 8½d

14 6 4 doz 10 Do 3 5. 4½

£4. 7s 3d

20 doz Do 5/6

£5. 10s

6 6 lines Rat Eaten and Spoiled 3½

£1. 9s

8 large Mambo Lines 4/8

£3. 8s

8 Small Do 4/4

£2. 8s

4 5 47 doz 11 Do 2 Damaged 7/7

£37. 2s 2¾d

£102. 4s 1¼d

Haberdashery Ware Vizt

11½ Thousand Middling Pins 15½

£14. 7s

57900 Do Blanket 2d

£13. 3s

54⅜ Do 1st Landed Do 13

£1. 7s

7422 do Do 10

£2. 1s

4 Piece Broad Diaper Tape

£1. 4s

57 Piece Narrow Do

£3. 1s 9d

4293 Yds Broad Holland Tape

£9. 10s 3½d

Haberdashery Carried over

£14. 10s 10½d

Carried over

£4983. 16s

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £4,738 12s 10d

The gold and silver buttons continued with the amount brought forward.

Buttons brought over, £27 11s 3½d

57 ounces of silver thread, £20 18s 0d

32 ounces of gold of the same, £24 3s 4d

1½ ounces of gold thread, £1 8s 0d

1½ ounces of gold twisting, [...]

24 ounces of silver twisting and thread, £11 4s 5d

24½ ounces of silver, twisting and thread, £12 3s 11d

2 dozen metal coat buttons, damaged, £4 5s 0d

Buttons and thread total, £97 13s 1½d

Grindstones.

6 grindstones

Hats.

4 silver laced hats at 22s, £4 8s 0d

3 of the same, damaged by moth, at 22s, £3 6s 0d

12 plain hats at 13s 2d, £7 15s 0d

2 of the same, damaged by moth, at 13s 2d, £1 6s 4d

4 of the same at 9s 4d, £1 17s 4d

2 of the same, damaged by moth, at 9s 4d, £1 8s 0d

Hats total, £20 3s 8d

Hooks and lines.

383 number 1 hooks, ticked, at 2s 4d, £34 12s 4d

132,500 blue hooks per Duke Lorraine, £18 4s 4½d

8 dozen lines number 1 at 7s 2d, £0 4s 4d

of the same, number 2, at 2s 4d, £2 6s 0d

3 dozen 63 number 3 at 3s 4d, £1 4s 4d

3 dozen 10 number 4 at 3s 4d, £2 4s 8½d

6 dozen 10 of the same at 5s 4d, £4 7s 3d

20 dozen number 5 at 5s 6d, £5 10s 0d

6 fishing rat tailed and spoiled at 3s 4d, £1 1s 9d

8 large jumbo lines at 4s, £3 8s 0d

8 small of the same at 4s 4d, £2 8s 0d

5 dozen 97 number 11 lines, damaged, at 7s 7d, £37 2s 2¾d

Hooks and lines total, £102 4s 1½d

Haberdashery ware.

11½ thousand middling pins at 15s 4d, £0 14s 7d

27,900 of the same, blanket, at 2s, £0 13s 2d

36 of the same, at 1s laced, at 13s, £0 7s 7d

71 dozen of the same at 10s, £2 1s 0d

2 pieces of broad diaper tape, £0 1s 4d

2 dozen 37 pieces of narrow of the same, £3 1s 9d

42 dozen 3 pieces of broad Holland tape, £9 10s 3½d

Haberdashery carried over, £14 10s 10½d

Carried over, £4,983 16s 0d

Interpretations

The hooks and lines formed an enormous stock of fishing tackle, over a hundred thousand blue hooks alone and lines graded by size from number one to eleven. Such quantities far exceeded any domestic need and mark the tackle as trade goods, sold to ships' crews and to the fishermen who worked the waters around the island. This vast holding of fishing gear reveals both the importance of fishing to the settlement's food supply and the store's function as a supplier to the wider maritime world, the hooks shipped out from England in tens of thousands to be sold on at a station where fish were a vital resource.

The silver and gold thread and twisting, reckoned by the ounce and valued highly, were the materials of fine embroidery and the trimming of uniforms and dress. Together with the silver-laced hats listed alongside, they represent the finery of rank, the metallic thread used to work the lace and ornament that distinguished an officer's or a gentleman's clothing. This stock of precious trimming shows the store supplying the materials of status and display, a remote island nonetheless holding the means to furnish the braid and lace by which social distinction was worn.

The haberdashery of pins, tapes and small wares supplied the everyday necessities of sewing and dress that no household could do without. Pins in their tens of thousands, diaper and Holland tape and other small articles were the humble but essential goods of domestic life, imported in bulk because none could be made on the island. This reveals the store meeting the settlement's most basic material needs alongside its luxuries, the same warehouse that held gold buttons and silver lace also stocking the common pins and tape that kept ordinary clothing mended and made.

47

41

Brought over

£4980. 16s

Haberdashery &c Brt over

£14. 10s 10½d

144 Pieces narrow Holland Tape 5/4

£4. 4s

56 Pieces narrow Carnation do 5

£2. 3s

93 Pieces White Tape 2/9

£4. 16s 9d

70 Do broad white Do 2/4

£7. 5s 1½d

21 doz 15 Pieces Bobbing 3/

£3. 3s 7d

96 Do Colourd Tape 12

£2. 18s

84 14 Pieces Do 10

19s 3d

9½ Do Thread Bone 4/9

£2. 4s 9d

28 big China Silk good

16 Do Do Damaged

4/10

£15. 10s 8¼d

14 Oz Belladine Silk damaged

1. 6s 8d

£16. 2s 6d

6 Do Do for Royal George 1. 3. 4

£3. 10s

4½ Oz Blue & Do 34 Silk for Do Lorrain 22

19s 2d

158 5 Oz Mohair good 3/

£8. 16s 11½d

158 5 Oz Do damaged 10/3

£2. 1s 9d

112 Oz 132 Oz Do for Royal George 21/6

£18. 18s 10½d

156 Oz Do for Do Lorrain 15

19s 2d

10 old Coat Buttons

14 9 4 Breast Do

3/7

2/9

£12. 13s 11¼d

8 9 Coat Buttons for Royal George 6/3

£8. 5s

13. 10. 3 Do breast for Do 3/4

£2. 12s 9¼d

6 3 Rows Coat Buttons for Do Lorrain 4/7

£2. 7s

6 Do breast for Do 3/3½

10s

6 Do breast Do for Do 6¼

11s 9d

10½ Do hundred Necklace 6¾

£1. 2s 4¼d

274½ Yards Ribband 5

£15. 15s 3d

13¾ Yards Twist 6/3

£4. 7½d

Pieces Silk Yards Galloon

6d

10½ 21 Round Sail Needles 12½

£2. 2s 1½d

21 Mens Neck Leather Gloves

£5. 9s 9d

11 Doz 4 Bound Silk Laces 2/7

£18. 10½d

17 12 Do Coat Lace 55

£3. 15s 2d

6 High Womens Kidnd Gloves 9/10

£6. 13s 10d

14 Oz Do 30 Yds Gartting 4/4

£2. 4s 7d

18 Do Gartting 6¼½

£2. 14s 5d

14 22 Do Do

£120. 6s 11½d

Hosiersware Vizt

1 Do Mens Wove Stocking Damaged

£3. 4s

1 Do Do Knit Do

5s

7 Do Boys Ware Do

£9. 1s

Hosiersware Carried over

£17. 8s

Carried over

£5131. 2s 11½d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £4,980 16s 0d

The haberdashery ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Haberdashery brought over, £14 10s 10½d

144 pieces of narrow Holland tape at 5s, £4 0s 4d

56 pieces of narrow carnation of the same at 5s, £2 3s 0d

93 pieces of white tape at 2s 3d, £4 16s 9d

70 pieces of broad white of the same at 2s 4d, £7 5s 1½d

21 dozen 15 pieces of bobbin at 3s, £3 3s 7d

96 pieces of coloured tape at 12s, £2 18s 0d

84 pieces of the same, £19 3s 0d

9 pieces of thread lace at 4s 9d, £2 4s 9d

23 ounces of large China silk, good, at 11s 10d, £15 10s 8¾d

16 ounces of the same, damaged

114 ounces of belladine silk, damaged, at 11s 8d, £16 2s 6d

8 ounces of the same, good, £3 10s 0d

4 ounces of the same per Royal George, £1 8s 4d

11 ounces of blue and the same, 61 ounces, silk per Duke Lorraine at 22s, £19 2s 0d

15 ounces of the same, sewing, good, at 8s 3d, £8 16s 11½d

5 ounces of the same, good, £3 1s 9¾d

9 ounces of the same, damaged, at 10s 3d, £3 18s 10¾d

112 ounces 13 dozen of the same per Royal George at 20s 6d, £19 2s 0d

136 ounces of the same per Duke Lorraine at 10s, £19 2s 0d

old coat buttons, 10s, and 14 dozen 9 of the same, 4 of the same breast, at 2s 9d, £62 13s 11½d

14 dozen 9 coat buttons per Royal George at 6s 3d, £8 0s 5d

13 dozen 3 of the same, breast, at 5s 4d, £12 9s 8d

16 dozen 5 rows of coat buttons per Duke Lorraine at 4s 7d, £2 0s 7d

6 of the same, breast, of the same, at 3s 3½d, £0 10s 0d

6 of the same, breast, of the same, at 6s 4d, £11 1s 9d

104½ hundred needles at 6s 4d, £2 0s 4½d

274½ yards of ribbon at 5s, £15 15s 6d

174½ yards of twist at 6s 8d, £0 7s 4d

3 pieces of salt handkerchief at 12s 3d, £0 0s 6d

21 pieces of mens rich sabre gloves at 9s, £5 9s 3d

11 dozen of round silk laces at 2s 7d, £18 10s 10½d

3 dozen of coarse of the same, £5 6s 0d

9 pieces of boot lace at 88s, £3 18s 2d

6 pieces of light womens thread gloves at 9s 3d, £6 13s 10d

4 pieces of the same 30 yards of garthing at 4s 4d, £2 4s 7d

9 pieces of garthing at 6s 7½d, £2 14s 5d

23 of the same, £130 6s 11½d

Haberdashery total, £130 6s 11½d

Hosiers ware.

1 piece of mens wove stocking, damaged, £3 4s 0d

1 piece of the same, ravelled, £5 0s 0d

7 pieces of the same, ravelled, £9 1s 0d

7 pieces of ways worn of the same, [...]

Hosiers ware carried over, £17 8s 0d

Carried over, £5,131 2s 11¾d

Interpretations

The silk held in store came in named varieties, China silk and belladine silk among them, reckoned by the ounce and much of it noted as damaged. Belladine was a fine white raw silk from the Levant, imported through the eastern trade for sewing and fine needlework, while China silk came from the far end of the Company's routes. This stock of costly sewing silk, drawn from opposite ends of the trading world, shows the store supplying the materials of fine work and clothing repair, though much of it had suffered in the keeping.

The buttons appear yet again in great quantity and variety, coat and breast buttons of every material named against the ships that brought them, the whole a very large investment in a single small article. That the store held so many gross of buttons, carefully graded and traced to the Royal George and the Duke Lorraine, confirms them as a staple trade good moved in bulk. This concentration of small manufactured articles reveals the pattern of the Company's supply, shipping out standardised goods in quantity to sell across its stations and to the passing fleets.

The gloves, stockings, ribbon, lace and garthing that filled the haberdashery and hosiers ware supplied the finished and half-finished articles of dress. Garthing was narrow woven tape or webbing used as garters and for binding, and the range of gloves from rich to plain, silk laces and stocking pieces shows the store furnishing the whole apparatus of clothing. This confirms the settlement's total dependence on imported textiles and dress goods, a place where every thread of finery and every pair of stockings had to be carried across the ocean and held in store against need.

48

42

Brought over

£5131. 2s 11½d

Hosiersware &c

£17. 8s

1 Do Womens Silk Stockings

£8. 3s

7 Do Do Scarlet Do damaged 6/6½

£4. 9s

24 13 Do Do damaged 6/3½

£3. 18s 9½d

13 pair Do Thread Do 3/10

£4. 7s 4d

3 Do Mens Do 3/5

£13. 4½d

7½ Do Mens Silk Do

£10. 5s

8 Do Do do Do 14/4

£5. 14s 8d

17 Do Do do Do 4/4

£7. 182 8d

1 Do Girls Stockings damaged

£2.

9 33 Do Thread Locks 3/4

£19. 10½d

6 Womens Fine 3/10

£1. 3s

3 Do Do 4/8

£2. 7s 8d

12 Do Girls Do 3/5

£1. 9s

12 Do Do Do 3/

£1. 4s

8 Do Boys Fine 3/1

£82. 4s

£33. 2s 5½d

Jacks 1 broke Sorted 33/4

£22. 14s 4½d

Iron Potts Vizt

8 2 Iron Potts good

£1. 5s 1½d

4 Do Do broke

£2. 6s 8d

13 14 Small Iron Potts for Do Lorrain

£3. 6s 1½d

9 10 12 large Kettles No 8 11. a 20

£13. 13s 3d

£20. 11s 2d

Ironmongers Ware Vizt

67 Bolt Rope Roosters 1½

£7. 2½d

12 Iron Rim Locks B 2/4½

£1. 8s 9d

11 Do 4/3

£11. 12½d

17 Stock Locks C 11½

£16. 3½d

7 Do Do B 5/3

£6. 3½d

3 Do Do A 5

£1. 4s

5 12 large Stock Locks with Pipes 4/1½

£2. 4s 8d

3 pair Garden Shears 2/7

£1. 7s

2 Claw Hammers 2/6

£5.

6 Do Do 11½

£6. 9s

8 Do Do 6

£3. 4s

2 Do Do 4/6

£1.

8 1 Do Do broke

£10

4 5 Do Do 3

£3. 4s

6 1 Do Do broke

£9

Ironmongers Ware Carried over

£8. 14s

Carried over

£5207. 15s 11½d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,131 2s 11¾d

The hosiers ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Hosiers ware brought over, £17 8s 0d

1 piece of womens silk stocking, £8 3s 0d

9 pieces of the same, scarlet, damaged, at 6s 3d, £4 9s 0d

18 pieces of the same, damaged, at 6s 3½d, £3 18s 9½d

18 pairs of the same, thread, of the same, at 3s 10d, £4 7s 4d

1 piece of mens of the same at 4s 5d, £13 4s 6½d

7½ pieces of mens silk of the same, £10 5s 0d

8 pieces of the same at 14s 4d, £5 14s 8d

17 pieces of the same at 4s 4d, £7 182s 8d

1 piece of girls stockings, damaged, £2 0s 0d

94 pieces of thread socks at 2s 6d, £17 10s 10½d

6 pieces of womens of the same at 3s 10d, £1 3s 0d

3 pieces of the same at 4s 8d, £2 7s 8d

12 pieces of girls of the same at 4s 5d, £1 9s 0d

12 pieces of the same at 2s, £1 4s 0d

6 pieces of boys socks at 2s 1d, £82 4s 0d

Hosiers ware total, £33 2s 5½d

Jacks.

1 jack, unmarked, at 33s 4d, £22 14s 4½d

Iron pots.

5 iron pots, good, £1 5s 1¾d

4 of the same, broken, £2 6s 8d

14 small iron pots per Duke Lorraine, £3 6s 1½d

12 large kettles, number 8 to 20, £13 13s 3d

Iron pots total, £20 11s 2d

Ironmongers ware.

67 belt axe hatchets at 1s 3d, £0 7s 7½d

12 iron rim locks, marked B, at 2s 8½d, £1 8s 9d

16 of the same, marked A, at 4s 3d, £11 12s 1½d

17 stock locks, marked C, at 11s, £16 3s 4d

7 of the same, marked B, at 5s 3d, £6 3s 4½d

2 of the same, marked A, at 5s, £1 4s 0d

5 large stock locks with pipes at 14s 3d, £2 4s 8d

2 pairs of garden shears at 2s 7d, £1 7s 9d

4 claw hammers at 2s 6d, £0 5s 0d

6 of the same at 11s 4d, £0 6s 9d

1 of the same at 4s, £0 3s 4d

2 of the same at 4s 6d, £0 1s 0d

1 of the same, broken, £0 0s 10d

5 of the same, £0 3s 4d

1 of the same, broken, £0 0s 9d

Ironmongers ware carried over, £8 14s 4d

Carried over, £5,207 15s 11¾d

Interpretations

The jack listed on its own was a roasting jack, the clockwork or weighted mechanism that turned a spit before the kitchen fire, an item of some value and complexity. Its inclusion among the stores shows the settlement equipped for the roasting of meat on a substantial scale, a mechanical convenience imported to serve the general table or the larger households. This single expensive fitting reveals the reach of English domestic technology even to a remote island, the machinery of a proper kitchen shipped out to furnish the settlement's cooking.

The stock locks, rim locks and pipes among the ironmongers ware were the hardware of security, marked in grades A, B and C by size or quality and held to fit the doors and chests of the settlement. That locks were imported in such quantity, carefully differentiated, shows the concern for securing property on the island, whether the Company's stores or the inhabitants' houses. This holding of graded locks reveals a settled community with goods worth protecting, dependent on imported ironmongery for the means to secure its buildings and possessions.

The iron pots, kettles and the tools of the ironmongers ware supplied the heavy metal goods that no settlement could make for itself, from cooking vessels to hatchets, hammers and shears. Kettles graded by number from eight to twenty and pots noted as good or broken show the store holding a working range of household ironware in various states. This confirms the total reliance on imported metalwork, the island holding everything from the largest cooking kettle to the smallest hatchet in a store replenished only by the ships that called.

49

43

Brought over

£5207. 15s 11½d

Brot over Ironmongersware &c

£8. 19s 4½d

25 Broad Axes 1/10

£2. 5s 10d

66 Do 20

£5. 10s

31 lopping and felling Axes 2/4

£3. 12s 4d

14 Billiards

£9. 10½d

10 Small Billiards 4/

£2. 15s

1 old Billiards

£5. 6½d

18 Jack Plaines 22

£1. 13s

8 Plaines sorted 14

10s 6¾d

40 Plane Irons 18

17s 3d

21 Gouges good

1 Do broke

2/6

5s 4d

45 Chizels Sorted 11

£1. 4s 4½d

11 Formers 5

2s 6¼d

6 Scythes for Royal George 2/6

£3. 3s

25 Old Scythes 3/4

£3. 1½d

40 Compass Saws 2/9

82s 3d

45 doz 3 Gimblets Sorted 15/4

£2. 18s 5½d

90 large Do sorted 2¼

£1. 1s 9¾d

8 Do do broke 15

£1. 17s 6d

30 Grid Irons

14s

7 Fire Shovels and Tongs 2/

£2. 3s

1 do do

5s

2 Do Do 2/6

5s

2 Do Do 2/9

5s 6d

2 Do Do tipt with Brass

4s 6d

1 Do Do tipt with Brass 16½

13s 9d

10 Tongs

£2. 15s

6 Bricklayers Axes 3/3

7s 6d

6 hedging Bills 1/3

13s

33 Plasterers & Bricklayers Trowels 12

£1. 13s

35 Sheep Shears 15

£1. 17s 11d

40 Grubbling Hoes 15½

£2. 11s 11d

30 Adzes 2/10

£1. 16s 10d

48 Flagstones 15 ⅌ Dozen

£4. 4½d

67 Caulking Irons 7

£1. 19s 1d

129 Small Iron Wedges for Stones 8

£4. 6s

8 Farriers Knives 7/8

£3. 1s 4d

6 Drawing Do 3/

£1. 5s

6 Sickles 2/3

£13s

6 Sickles 6½

£7. 3d

13 Reap hooks good for Nothing 15

13s 4d

16 Hay Forks 20

£1. 17s 8¾d

23 Scrapers 5

£5. 1½d

2 Do Broke

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,207 15s 11¾d

The ironmongers ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Ironmongers ware brought over, £8 19s 4½d

25 broad axes at 1s 10d, £2 5s 10d

66 of the same at 2s, £5 10s 0d

31 lopping and felling axes at 2s 4d, £3 12s 4d

1 pair of billiards, £0 9s 10½d

10 pairs of small billiards at 4s, £2 15s 0d

1 pair of old billiards, £5 6s 6½d

18 jack planes at 22s, £1 13s 0d

8 planes sorted at 11s 4d, £0 10s 6¾d

40 plane irons at 18s, £0 12s 3d

21 gouges, good, and 1 of the same, broken, at 2s 6d, £5 0s 0½d

45 chisels sorted at 11s, £1 4s 4½d

11 formers at 3s, £2 0s 6½d

6 scythes per Royal George at 2s 6d, £1 3s 3d

25 old scythes at 3s 4d, £1 3s 1½d

6 compass saws at 2s 9d, £82 3s 0d

42 dozen 5 gimblets sorted at 19s 4d, £2 18s 5½d

90 large of the same, sorted, at 2s 4d, £1 1s 9¾d

8 of the same, broken, at 15s, £1 17s 6d

30 gridirons, £0 14s 0d

7 fire shovels and tongs at 2s, £2 0s 3d

1 of the same at 2s 6d, £0 5s 0d

2 of the same at 2s 9d, £0 3s 6d

2 of the same, kept with brass, £4 0s 6d

1 of the same at 16s, £13 0s 9d

10 pairs of tongs at 3s 3d, £2 0s 15s 0d

6 bricklayers axes at 1s 3d, £0 7s 6d

6 hedging bills at 1s 3d, £0 13s 0d

33 plasterers and bricklayers trowels at 15s, £1 17s 11d

35 pairs of sheep shears at 15s, £2 11s 11d

40 grubbing hoes at 2s 10d, £1 16s 10d

17 adzes at 15s per dozen, £4 4s 6d

48 flagstones at 7s, £1 14s 1d

67 caulking irons at 5s, £4 6s 0d

129 small iron wedges for stones at 7s 8d, £3 1s 4d

8 farriers knives at 3s, £1 5s 0d

5 drawing of the same at 2s 3d, £2 13s 0d

6 sickles at 6s, £0 7s 3d

13 reap hooks, good for nothing, at 15s, £0 13s 4d

16 hay forks at 20s, £1 17s 8¾d

23 scrapers at 5s, £2 5s 1½d

2 of the same, broken, [...]

Interpretations

The tools listed here made up the working equipment of the island's trades, the whole apparatus of building, carpentry and agriculture held in the Company's store. Axes for felling and lopping, planes, chisels, gouges and saws for the joiners, trowels for the bricklayers and plasterers, and scythes, sickles, reap hooks and grubbing hoes for the fields together furnished every craft the settlement practised. This comprehensive stock of hand tools reveals the store as the source from which the island's artisans and labourers drew their implements, a place with no toolmaker of its own dependent entirely on imported gear to build, farm and repair.

The caulking irons and small iron wedges for stones point to the specific trades of the shipyard and the quarry. Caulking irons were driven between a ship's planks to force in the oakum that made the hull watertight, essential tools for the repair of vessels, while the wedges split and dressed the local stone for building. Their presence shows the island supporting both the maintenance of ships and the working of stone for its own construction, the store equipping the specialised labour that a fortified port required.

The blunt marginal verdicts on certain items, reap hooks marked good for nothing and old scythes and broken tools set down as they were, reveal the honest severity of the stocktaking. The storekeeper did not inflate the value of worn or useless goods but recorded their true worthless state, distinguishing serviceable tools from those fit only to be discarded. This candour in the inventory shows the purpose of the exercise as a genuine reckoning of what the Company actually possessed, worn-out stock written down or written off rather than carried at a false value.

50

44

Brought over

£5207. 15s 11½d

Brot over Ironmongers Ware &c

£63. 2s 3½d

3 Chafeing Dishes 4/3

£3. 10½d

7 Do 2/4½

£6. 3s

42 Whimble Stocks 2/6

£1. 14s

213 large Plate Bolts Sorted

13 long Balony Do

9 Short Do

7/3

£7. 11s 7¾d

43 Latch Rings 1½

10s 6d

8 Do Small Box Staples 1/3

13s 4d

214 Staples

45 Do larger

4 Do Small

7½

£1. 5s 10d

2 Hand Forkholts 4/2

£2. 4s

24 15 Joyners Do 4/

£1. 16s

9 pair Iron Shuffers 4/2

10s 6d

4 Hand Spitts

10s

7 12 pl Bellows good for nothing 2/4

£1. 8s

24 8 Barstows and Winches 4/

16s

11 32 pl Vermin 4/32

£2. 1s 3d

6 11 Spades good 4/32

£1. 16s 2½d

3 Do broke

10 13 doz 5 Shod Shovels 7½

£1. 11s 11d

2 Shod Shovels broke

63 10 Ellsing Irons 2/10½

£1. 8s 7d

2 Turfing Do holoud 4/2

1 Do Do not holoud

£1. 8s 9¼d

3 2 doz 8 8 large Frying Pans 4/5½

£5. 10s 2¼d

40 16 Sugar Shovels 18/6

£1. 4s

1 Do Do broke

3 10 Steel Fox Traps 4/3

£4. 2s 6d

6 2 large double springs Do Canvas & Coded 2/6

£2. 15s

4 Steel Rat Traps broke & good for nothing

£2. 1s

8 4 7 3 Bibbys 5½

£2. 1s

14 Steel Steel No 26 5½

11s 9d

7 32 Do 5/5½

£5. 10s 11½d

4 24 Chopping Knives 5

£4.

4 Sizers

6 7 11 Gimblet Bolts 4/½

£3. 11s

14 4 Whip Saw Sets 5½

£1. 10s

13 8 12 Stock Locks 6/1

£3. 18s 7½d

4 23 3 Do Do 4/1½

10s 2½d

9 4 Do Do Larger 10/

£1. 4s

Ironmongers Ware Carried over

£128. 17s 7¾d

Carried over

£5207. 15s 11½d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,207 15s 11¾d

The ironmongers ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Ironmongers ware brought over, £63 2s 3½d

3 chafing dishes at 4s 3d, £3 10s 2¾d

7 of the same at 2s 4½d, £6 3s 0d

42 whimble stocks at 2s 6d, £1 14s 0d

213 large plate bolts sorted, 12 long balcony of the same at 7s 3d, and 9 short of the same, £7 11s 7¾d

42 sash rings at 1s 3d, £0 10s 5d

8 pieces of iron box staples at 1s 3d, £13 0s 4d

214 staples, 45 of the same, large, at 7s, and 24 of the same, small, £1 5s 10d

2 hand hatchets at 4s 2d, £0 2s 4d

2 dozen 15 joiners of the same at 1s, £1 16s 0d

9 pairs of iron shears at 4s 2d, £0 10s 6d

4 hand spits at 2s 6d, £0 10s 0d

12 pairs of bellows, good for nothing, at 2s 4d, £1 8s 0d

24 barrows and windlasses at 2s, £0 16s 0d

33 pairs of tenons at 15s, £2 1s 3d

11 spades, good, at 4s 32d, £1 16s 2½d

3 of the same, broken, £1 11s 11d

13 dozen 3 shod shovels at 7s 8d

2 shod shovels, broken

10 elbow irons at 2s 10½d, £1 8s 7d

2 tumbling of the same, holed, at 4s 2d, £1 8s 2½d

2 of the same, not holed

8 dozen 8 large frying pans at 5s 5d, £5 10s 2½d

40 sugar shovels at 18s 6d, £1 4s 0d

1 of the same, broken

10 steel gin traps at 4s 3d, £4 2s 6d

6 large double springed of the same, canvas and folded, at 2s 6d, £2 15s 0d

4 steel rat traps, broken and good for nothing

84 pieces of the same at 5s, £2 1s 0d

14 west shovels number 26 at 5s, £11 9s 0d

32 of the same at 5s 2d, £5 10s 11¾d

6 dozen 4 chopping knives at 6s, £0 4s 0d

9 pieces of gimblet bolts at 6s, £3 11s 0d

14 whip saw of the same at 6s, £1 10s 0d

13 dozen 12 stock locks at 6s 1d, £3 18s 7½d

2 dozen 3 of the same at 4s 6d, £10 2s 4d

9 of the same, of the same, at 10s, £1 4s 0d

Ironmongers ware total, £128 17s 7¾d

Carried over, £5,207 15s 11¾d

Interpretations

The steel gin traps and rat traps held in the store were devices for catching vermin and larger pests, the gin trap a spring-jawed device that snapped shut on an animal's leg. Some were noted as large double-springed, sold with canvas and folded for carriage. Their presence in quantity shows the settlement's constant struggle against the rats and other creatures that threatened its stores and crops, the traps imported as a standing defence of the island's provisions against the pests that a port inevitably harboured.

The whimble stocks, plate bolts, sash rings and box staples were the small iron fittings of building and joinery, the hardware that fastened doors, windows and boxes throughout the settlement. Sash rings served the sash windows whose value the inventory had already recorded, and the whole range of bolts and staples supplied the fixings that construction demanded. This detailed stock of builders hardware confirms the ongoing work of building and fitting out on the island, the store holding every small iron component that the settlement's carpenters and masons required.

The frying pans, sugar shovels, chopping knives and chafing dishes belonged to the equipment of the kitchen and the processing of produce. Sugar shovels in particular point to the handling of sugar in bulk, whether for the general table or for trade. This mix of cooking and processing implements shows the store supplying both the domestic kitchen and the practical work of preparing and moving the settlement's goods, the same warehouse furnishing the frying pan and the tools of the storehouse floor alike.

51

45

Brought over

£5207. 15s 11½d

Ironmongers Ware &c

£128. 17s 7¾d

133 Oz Brass Wire 2/6

14s 8d

10 Oz Iron Do 12

£1. 4s

3 Chop Saws & Corper 24/9¼

£3. 7s 10¾d

4 do do new Do

£1. 4s 9¾d

13 6 3 Chest Locks 6/7

14s 9d

9 7 Do 4/

£6. 1½d

11 2 Do Do 4/6

18s 4d

26 Chest Locks Brass Plates 15

£2. 7s 8d

26 Do Till Locks 2/5½

£2. 12s 3d

33 Do Do 4/1½

£7. 5s 9d

7 Iron Rim'd Locks 5/6

£18s 6d

3 Do 3/4

£1. 2s

2 Do Do 3/10½

13s 8d

4 Do Do 3/9½

£1. 13s 9¼d

3 Do Do 4/1

£1. 12s

4 Do Do 12/

£2. 8s 3½d

1 Do Do 12/

10s 8d

14 Iron Rim'd Locks with Keys

7 Do Do without Keys

11/7¾

£12. 4s

2 Brass Locks 2/

10s

Do 3/6

11s

2 Do 4/

18s

7 2 Do Palms 9/

53 Palms 5/8

£2.

20 Brass Vunthorns

7 Brass Escutcore Locks without Keys

75 Pick Axes 2/6

1 Do broke 3

£9. 18s 7d

£188. 7¾d

Iron and Steel Vizt

4 Do Sw. 29 Iron in Ten Bars 14/3

£4. 12s 11d

3 3 Do 2 Steel in 13 Bars 55/

15s 6d

£5. 6s 5d

Kersey 3 Pieces 334 Yards at 2/⅌ 14 Yd 15

£4. 1s 3d

Lead Vizt

9 32 Cwt 2 24 Sheet Lead 14/

£66. 6s 2¾d

4 2 Plate Regulated No 75 23

£2. 11s 6¾d

3 10 Yards 2 Inch Pipe Do for the Pumps

£12s 6d

56 Do 1 Inch Do 4/5

£6. 12s 8d

40 Do Do Shott 4/5

£84. 3s 11¼d

Lanthorns Vizt

9 6 Muscovy Lights 4/5½

£2. 4s 7½d

20 Dark Lanthorns 2/3

£4. 4s

Lanthorns Carried over

£2. 9s

Carried over

£5486. 8s 2½d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,207 15s 11¾d

The ironmongers ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Ironmongers ware brought over, £128 17s 7¾d

137 pounds of brass wire at 2s 6d, £0 14s 8d

10 of the same, iron, at 12s, £0 1s 4d

30 chopping saws of the same, coarse, at 22s 7½d, £3 7s 10½d

1 of the same, new, of the same, £1 19s 7½d

13 chest locks at 6s 9d, £0 19s 9d

9 of the same at 4s, £0 6s 11½d

11 of the same at 4s 6d, £0 18s 4d

26 chest locks, brass plated, at 15s, £8 9s 8½d

26 of the same, till locks, at 2s 5½d, £2 12s 5d

33 of the same at 4s 1s 6d, £7 5s 9d

7 iron rim locks at 3s 6d, £0 18s 6d

3 of the same at 7s 4d, £1 9s 0d

2 of the same at 7s 10d, £13 8s 0d

4 of the same at 8s 4½d, £1 13s 9½d

3 of the same at 11s, £1 13s 0d

2 of the same at 13s, £2 8s 0d

1 of the same at 10s 8d, £10 8s 0d

14 iron rim locks with keys and of the same without keys at 11s 7½d, £12 4s 0d

2 brass locks at 2s, £0 10s 0d

1 of the same at 5s 6d, £0 11s 0d

2 of the same at 9s, £18 0s 0d

53 palms, £0 2s 0d

20 brass escutcheons at 5s 6d, [...]

7 brass escutcheon locks without keys, 75 pick axes at 2s 6d, and 1 of the same, broken, £9 18s 7d

Ironmongers ware total, £188 0s 7¼d

Iron and steel.

23 iron in ten bars at 16s, £4 10s 11d

2 steel in 13 bars at 33s, £0 15s 6d

Iron and steel total, £5 6s 5d

Kersey.

334 yards at 2s per, 18 yards at 15s, £4 1s 3d

Lead.

32 hundredweight 2 quarters 3 lb of sheet lead at 14s, £66 6s 2¾d

4 flat weights, number 75, at 23s, £2 11s 6¾d

10 yards of 2 inch pipe of the same for the pumps at 12s 6d, £7 15s 0d

56 pounds 1 inch of the same at 15s, £6 12s 8d

196 pounds of the same, shot, £0 0s 0d

Lead total, £84 3s 11¾d

Lanthorns.

9 muscovy lights at 5s 4d, £2 4s 7d

20 dark lanthorns at 2s 3d, £0 4s 4d

Lanthorns carried over, £2 9s 0d

Carried over, £5,486 8s 2¾d

Interpretations

The lead held in store, over thirty hundredweight of sheet lead together with pipe and weights, supplied the heavy materials of plumbing and roofing that no settlement could produce for itself. The two inch pipe was expressly noted as for the pumps, showing the lead worked into the island's water supply, while the sheet lead served roofing and lining. This substantial holding of lead reveals the island importing the very metal of its water and weatherproofing, a bulky and costly cargo carried across the ocean to keep the settlement's pumps and buildings sound.

The lanthorns came in two distinct kinds, muscovy lights and dark lanterns, each serving a different purpose. Muscovy lights were lanterns glazed with muscovy glass, a transparent mineral also called mica, which resisted heat and shattering better than ordinary glass, while a dark lantern had a shutter to hide its light at will. The holding of both shows the settlement equipped for lighting of different needs, from durable general illumination to the concealed light useful for a watchman or a guard, the store supplying the means to carry light through the island's nights.

The kersey listed briefly was a coarse woollen cloth, hard-wearing and cheap, used for the working clothing of ordinary people and for uniforms. Its presence alongside the finer broad cloth and druggett already recorded shows the store stocking textiles across the whole range of quality, from the fine cloth of the officers to the rough kersey of the labourer and soldier. This spread of cloth confirms the store clothing the entire social range of the settlement, holding the humble hard-wearing stuff as well as the costly, all shipped from England to a place that wove nothing of its own.

52

46

Brought over

£5486. 8s 2½d

Lanthorns &c

£2. 9s

14 Lanthorns good for nothing 4/

£2. 2s

33 16 Lanthorns 2/3½

£1. 18s 2¾d

3 Do Do 3/1

10s

Glass Lights to hang up good 10/3½

£4. 4s 6½d

6 Do broke

Glass lights to Stand good 9/3

£4. 7s

6 Do broke

1628 Lanthorn Squares 11/⅌ Hundred

£8. 19s 7d

£24. 6s 9½d

Lace and Edging Vizt

21½ Yards Bone Lace 10. 6

£10. 6s

Yards Edging

18 Do Do

16 Do Do

25½ Do Do

101½ Do Do

All Old

£22. 16s 7¾d

£33. 2s 7¾d

Masts Vizt

1 Main Yard 62 foot

13s

1 Teak Do 62 Do

18s

1 Fresh 36½ Do

7s 10d

1 Do 51½ Do

6s

2 Tops

3s 3d

1 large Mast 76 foot 22 Inches

£40. 18s 6d

1 Do 96 Do 21 Do

£33. 11s

1 Teak Mast

18s

1 Mast 70 foot 10 Inches 17½ Inches

18s

1 Top Mast 69 foot 17 Do

17s

1 Mast 66 foot 16½ Do

16s

1 Do 65½ Do 17½ Do

£24. 15s

1 Do Steer 67 17½

15s

1 Main Top sail Yard 50 foot 11½ Do

1 Do sail Yard 48 10½ Do

1 Do 48 11½ Do

1 Do 48 11 Do

1 Top Mast 46 15 Do

1 Cross Mast 26½ foot

All Good Do for Governor

£227. 17s 6d

Leather Vizt

23 Calve Skins 14/

£1. 2s 8¾d

11 half Bucks Sole Leather 15. 8

£10. 1s 1½d

9 32 19 Do Sole Leather

£13. 10½d

£11. 17s 8¾d

Carried over

£5783. 12s 10½d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,486 8s 2¾d

The lanthorns continued with the amount brought forward.

Lanthorns brought over, £2 9s 0¾d

14 lanthorns, good for nothing, at 4s, £2 2s 0d

36 lanthorns at 2s 3½d, £1 13s 2½d

3 of the same at 3s 1d, £0 10s 0d

6 glass lights to hang up, good, at 10s 3½d, £4 4s 6½d

6 of the same, broken

3 glass lights on a stand, good, at 9s 5d, £4 7s 0d

6 of the same, broken

1,628 lanthorn leaves at 11s 6d per hundred, £8 19s 7d

Lanthorns total, £24 6s 9¾d

Lace and edging.

21 yards of rose lace at 10s, £10 6s 0d

18 yards of edging, all old

16 yards of the same, all old

25½ yards of the same, all old

101½ yards of the same, all old

Lace and edging total, £33 2s 7¾d

Masts.

1 main yard, 68 foot, £13 0s 0d

1 teak of the same, 68 foot, £18 0s 0d

1 fir of the same, 36½ foot, £7 10s 0d

1 of the same, 54½ foot, £6 0s 0d

2 tops, £3 3s 0d

1 large mast, 76 foot 22 inches, £40 18s 6d

1 of the same, 96 foot, 21 inches, £33 11s 0d

1 teak mast, £18 0s 0d

1 mast, 70 foot 10 inches, 17½ inches, £18 0s 0d

1 top mast, 69 foot, 17 inches, £17 0s 0d

1 mast, 66 foot, 16½ inches, £16 0s 0d

1 mast, 65½ foot, 17½ inches, £21 15s 0d

1 steer, 67 foot, 17 inches, £15 0s 0d

1 main topsail yard, 50 foot, 11¾ inches

1 fore sail yard, 48 foot, 10½ inches

1 of the same, 48 foot, 11½ inches

1 of the same, 48 foot, 11 inches

1 top mast, 46 foot, 15½ inches

1 fore mast, 26½ foot

Masts total, £227 17s 6d

Leather.

23 calve skins at 14s, £1 2s 8¾d

11 half bucks sole leather at 5s 8d, £10 1s 1¾d

9 dozen 19 of the same, sole leather, at 9s, £13 10s 4d

Leather total, £11 17s 8¾d

Carried over, £5,783 12s 10¾d

Interpretations

The masts and spars formed one of the most valuable single categories in the whole store, a comprehensive stock of ready timber for the rigging of ships, itemised by length, thickness and the part of the ship each served. Main yards, topmasts, foremasts and topsail yards were held in numbers, some of teak and some of fir, ranging up to ninety six foot long. This great reserve of masts confirms beyond doubt the island's function as a refitting station for the Company's fleet, holding the largest and most critical spars a homeward ship might need to replace, the timbers stockpiled against the constant risk of storm damage on the long voyage.

The distinction between teak and fir masts reflected the different qualities of the two woods, teak being far more durable and resistant to rot though heavier and dearer, fir lighter and cheaper. That both were held shows the store able to supply either a premium replacement or a serviceable one according to a ship's need and means. The teak, brought from the eastern forests, and the fir, from the northern, together reveal the store drawing its shipbuilding timber from opposite ends of the Company's trading world to serve the vessels that called at the island.

The lace and edging noted repeatedly as all old, and the many lanthorns marked good for nothing or broken, show once more the steady deterioration of goods held long in store. The rose lace and yards of edging had aged past their best while awaiting sale or use, and much of the lantern stock had broken in the keeping. This recurring record of aged and damaged stock reveals the fundamental problem of the Company's warehouse, that goods shipped across the world and held against future need lost their value with every passing season, the inventory measuring not just what was held but how much of it had quietly decayed.

53

47

Brought over

£5783. 12s 10½d

Nails Vizt

4438 Spikes

£6. 6s

71 Twenty Penny Nails

£13. 9s 1½d

1002 Flooring Boards

£4. 10s 3½d

457 Company Nails

£7. 12s 4d

276 Nine Penny Do

£8. 1s

1050 Six penny

£21. 14s 7d

22 Tacks

18s 4d

4 Copper Nails

£12. 2s 11d

8 Copper Rivetts

£2. 4s 5½d

£142. 13s 7d

Norwich Stuffs Vizt

Slight Cape No 1

£14. 10s 6d

10 Do Do 2

£4. 12s 5d

2 Do Do Do

£2. 14s 3d

Do Do Black Cape

£12. 15s 11¾d

Do Do Do

All Damaged

£8. 7¾d

5 Yards Do

£36. 1s 9¼d

Oyl Vizt

Bottles Florence Oyl for Royal George 26

Do for Do Lorrain 8

£20

40 Gallons Do at 3/4 with Package

£3. 9s

137 2 6 Rape Oyl 2/7

£45. 9s 1¼d

318 6 Sweam Do 4/5

£64. 17s 5½d

616 Do Linseed Do

£170. 8s 7¼d

Oars Vizt

9 Oars 22 foot

£2. 11s

32 Do 18 foot

£9. 16s

30 Do 16 Do

£5. 6s 8d

26 Do 14 Do

£4. 6s 8d

£22. 4d

Paint Vizt

2. 6 White Lead at 30/

£6. 13s 2d

10. 2. 17 Do for Duke Lorrain 28/10

£15. 4s 10d

2. 6 Spanish Brown for Do 18/

£7. 3s

Umber for Do 33/11

£1. 15s 9d

3 2 Do 39/4

£1. 8s 7½d

Spatlow Ochre 22/5

£3. 18s 6d

3. 2 Red Lead 16/4

£3. 13s 2¾d

26 Red Lead 30/

14s 2½d

25 Brimstone 9/4

£1. 15s 8d

3. 7 Verdigreese

£45. 13s 3d

Carried over

£6134. 17s 1¾d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5,783 12s 10¾d

Nails.

4,438 spikes, £0 6s 0d

711 twenty penny nails, £13 9s 1½d

1,002 flooring boards at 6d, £4 10s 2½d

457 Company nails at 6d, £7 12s 4d

276 three penny of the same, £8 1s 0d

1,169 six penny of the same, £21 14s 7d

22 tacks, £0 18s 4d

485 copper nails, £12 2s 11d

84 copper rivets, £2 4s 5½d

Nails total, £142 13s 7d

Norwich stuffs.

3 pieces of light Cape, number 1, at 33s, £14 10s 6d

18 pieces of the same, number 2, at 18s, £4 12s 5d

2 pieces of the same, at 16s, £2 14s 3d

9 pieces of black Cape, all decayed, £12 15s 11½d

5 yards of the same, £8 7s 4d

Norwich stuffs total, £36 1s 9¾d

Oil.

13 bottles of Florence oil per Royal George at 26s, £20 0s 0d

40 gallons of the same per Duke Lorraine at 11s, [...]

137 of the same, 24 of the same Cape oil, at 4s with package, £31 2s 0d

384 gallons 18 of the same, drawn, at 3s 7d, £48 4s 1½d

216 of the same, linseed of the same, at 4s 5d, £64 17s 5½d

Oil total, £170 8s 4½d

Oars.

9 oars, 82 foot, at 16s, £2 11s 0d

92 of the same, 18 foot, at 14s, £9 16s 0d

30 of the same, 18 foot, £5 6s 8d

26 of the same, 14 foot, at 10s, £4 6s 8d

Oars total, £22 0s 4d

Paint.

2 hundredweight 6 white lead at 30s, £6 15s 2¾d

10 hundredweight 2 quarters 17 of the same per Duke Lorraine at 28s, £15 4s 10d

2 hundredweight 6 Spanish brown of the same at 18s, £0 7s 3d

1 of the same, umber, at 33s 11d, £1 15s 9d

3 of the same at 29s 4d, £8 7s 4d

3 of the same, yellow ochre, at 22s 5d, £3 18s 6d

3 of the same, red lead, at 16s 4d, £3 13s 2¾d

4 of the same, 26 brimstone, at 30s, £14 2s 8d

25 of the same at 9s 4d, £1 15s 8d

3 of the same, verdigris, £45 13s 3d

Paint total, £45 13s 3d

Carried over, £6,124 17s 1¾d

Interpretations

The nails were held in vast numbers and many kinds, graded by size from small tacks through three, six and twenty penny nails to large spikes, with copper nails and rivets kept separately. The penny grading was the old measure of nail size, and the distinction of copper from iron fastenings mattered for shipwork, where copper resisted the corrosion of salt water. This great stock of graded fastenings reveals the constant demand of both building and ship repair, the store holding the humblest yet most essential of all manufactures in quantities to match the endless work of construction and refit.

The oils listed served purposes from cooking to painting and lighting. Florence oil was fine olive oil from Italy used at table, linseed oil was the medium for mixing paint, and other oils fed lamps and dressed leather. Their variety and quantity show the store meeting needs across the whole settlement, the same category holding the delicate salad oil of the officers table and the bulk linseed of the painters. This range confirms once more the store as a universal supplier, drawing oils from the Mediterranean and elsewhere to serve every function that oil performed.

The paints and pigments, white lead, Spanish brown, umber, yellow ochre, red lead and verdigris, together with the brimstone, supplied the materials for painting and preserving the settlement's woodwork and ironwork. White lead was the basic white pigment and primer, red lead a rust-inhibiting undercoat for iron, and the earth colours provided the range of finishes. This stock of pigments reveals the ongoing work of painting and protecting the buildings, ships and fittings of the island, the store holding the raw materials from which serviceable paint was mixed to guard timber and metal against the weather and the sea.

54

48

Brought over

£6134. 17s 1¾d

Paint &c

£45. 13s 3d

Do Spanish White

£1. 3s 7d

3 Blue Smalt

£16. 3s 5½d

191 Barrels Lamp Black

£2. 17s 7d

£63. 14s 10½d

Pewter Vizt

343 Old Pans 3/7½

£16. 10½d

11 Cheese Plates 6/

£3. 6s

20 Ring Sand 35/6

£1. 16s 1½d

13 in Do & In Sand

13s 4d

Tankard

Do broke

2/2¾

£8. 7½d

18 Candlesticks 4/

£3.

Do do broke and good for nothing

Snuffers & Sand 4/2

£2. 10s

Sand broke and good for nothing with Snuffers

5 Salts 3/6½

£2. 9s

Do broke

14 Quarters Pots 5

£9. 4s

20 half Quarters Pots

£6. 8s

Do Do broke

Covers for Dishes 3/10

£15. 4s

6 Gallon Pots 9/11

£2. 14s 6d

15½ Gallon Pots 5/3

£3. 14s

3 Quart Pot 3/4

10s

1 Pint Do

£1. 6s

46 Roaster Funnells 2/3

£5. 3s 6d

5 doz 24 Alchimy Spoons 5/2

£1. 4s

35 Dry hard Metals Do 10

£3. 12s 6d

Cullenders 6/2

£2. 14s 11½d

Close Stool Pans 4/5½

10s 11½d

Cruetts 2/2

£6. 6s

26 Saucers or very Small Plates

1 Sand and Scoop for a Fire Kettle broke

Tea Plates

Do Do

£2. 13s

20 Dishes

Do Do

16 Do

Do Do

Do Do

£23. 8s 2¾d

3 doz 21 Sup Plates

£3. 6s

2 Pewter Salts & Rimmd for Do Lorrain 16. 12. 4

£21. 4s 8d

£85. 12s 4d

Carried over

£6300. 13s 4d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,124 17s 1¾d

The paint continued with the amount brought forward.

Paint brought over, £45 13s 3d

6 hundredweight of Spanish white, £1 3s 7d

3 of the same, blue smalt, £16 3s 5½d

191 barrels of lamp black, £2 17s 7d

Paint total, £63 14s 10½d

Pewter.

343 old pans at 3s 12d, £16 10s 2½d

11 cheese plates at 6s, £8 6s 0d

20 ring stands at 33s 6d, £1 16s 1½d

12 washbowls and stands, £13 4s 0d

6 tankards at 2s 3d, and 6 of the same, broken, £8 7s 3d

18 candlesticks at 4s, £3 0s 0d

20 of the same, broken and good for nothing

18 snuffers and stands at 8s 2d, £2 10s 0d

7 stands, broken and good for nothing, with the snuffers

5 salts at 3s 6d, £2 9s 0d

9 of the same, broken

14 quarter pots at 5s, £9 4s 0d

20 half quarter pots at 6s, £6 8s 0d

8 of the same, broken

14 covers for dishes at 3s 10d, £15 4s 0d

6 gallon pots at 9s 11d, £2 14s 6d

15½ half gallon pots at 3s 3d, £3 19s 4d

3 quart pots at 3s 4d, £0 10s 0d

1 pint of the same, £0 1s 6d

46 pewter funnels at 2s 3d, £5 3s 6d

5 dozen 4½ chafing spoons at 3s 6d, £1 4s 0d

9 dozen 5 dry hard melts at 10s, £3 12s 6d

1 candlestick at 6s 4d, £2 14s 11½d

16½ close stool pans at 3s 5½d, £0 10s 11½d

9 cruets at 2s 6d, £0 6s 6d

26 saucers, very small plates

1 stand and cup for a tea kettle, broken

6 tea plates and 6 of the same, £2 13s 0d

20 dishes, 16 of the same, £23 8s 2¾d

3 dozen of 41 soup plates at 16s 12s 4d, £3 0s 6d

2 pewter salts and brimstone of the same, drawn, £21 4s 8d

Pewter total, £85 12s 4¼d

Carried over, £6,300 15s 1¾d

Interpretations

The pewter formed the everyday tableware and vessels of the settlement, plates, dishes, tankards, pots and funnels held in great number and endless variety of size and use. Pewter, an alloy of tin, was the common dining metal of the age, cheaper than silver yet respectable, and the sheer quantity here shows it furnishing the tables of the general table and the wider settlement alike. This large stock of pewter reveals the material culture of the island's dining, a place set not with fine china but with the durable grey metal that served ordinary households and institutions across the English world.

The blue smalt and lamp black among the paints were specialised colouring materials, smalt a deep blue pigment made from ground cobalt glass and lamp black a fine black soot used both as a pigment and, mixed with oil, as a protective coating. Their inclusion completes the store's range of paint materials, the settlement able to mix colours from white through the earth tones to blue and black. This confirms the thoroughness of the store's provision for painting and preserving, holding even the rarer pigments needed to finish and protect the island's fabric.

The frank noting of so much broken and useless pewter, candlesticks and salts good for nothing, tankards and pots broken, snuffers parted from their stands, reveals again the wear that constant use and long storage inflicted. Even the durable pewter was recorded honestly in its damaged state, the serviceable distinguished from the fit only to be melted down and recast. This careful separation of sound from broken stock shows the inventory serving its true purpose, a genuine reckoning of what the Company held that was still of use against what had worn out in service.

55

49

Brought over

£6300. 13s 4d

Ploughs 1

£4. 4s 7¾d

Pumps 2

Cwt

£12. 8s 4d

Pitch and Tarr Vizt

20 Barrells Pitch 30. 2. 23 Cwt 4/7

£24. 1s 3d

30 Do Tar & 36 Gallons

£31. 9s 3¾d

3 Do Turpentine

£15. 2s 11¾d

3 Do Rozin

£9. 7s 1d

£90. 10s 1¾d

Starch and Hair Powder Vizt

Starch good for nothing 5½

£2.

Hair Powder for Royal George 6/3

£3. 3s 10d

2. 17 Do Do 34

£11s 5d

£5. 17s 3d

Stays Vizt

Stays

Do do

Do do

Do do

All Old

£8. 9s 2¾d

Do do

£22. 13s 11¼d

20 Do Pumps

£18. 6s 3d

High Boddice

£49. 9s 5¾d

Soap 20 at 3/4

£3. 3s 8¾d

Salt Vizt

11 Barrells Salt Petre 2. 11 for Do Lorrain

£38. 9s

3 Cask Bay Salt

£2. 1s

£38. 2s 10d

Stationary Ware Vizt

5 Whole Duty of Man 16

£6.

29 Playford Psalms 3/3

£4. 14s 3d

Bewridge Thoughts

£3. 4d

10 Grammars 19½

£11. 5½d

10 Sententia Puerileo 6

£5. 5½d

19 Spelling Books 6

£7. 9¾d

Common

£2.

11 Post Filer

£6.

11 Post Filer 6/2

£6. 14s 4d

Scales and Weights Vizt

6 Beams for Scales

£42. 18s

6 Do Sale Board Ropes for 3 Boards Rotten

£9. 18s

Scales and Weights Carried over

£52. 16s

Carried over

£6517. 11s

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,300 15s 4½d

Ploughs.

1 plough, £4 4s 7½d

Pumps.

2 pumps, £12 8s 4d

Pitch and tar.

20 barrels of pitch, weight 30 hundredweight 2 quarters 23 lb, at 9s 7d, £24 4s 3d

20 of the same, tar, and 26 gallons, £31 0s 9¾d

5½ of the same, turpentine, £15 2s 11¾d

2 of the same, rosin, £9 7s 1d

Pitch and tar total, £90 10s 1¼d

Starch and hair powder.

1 hundredweight of starch, good for nothing, at 5s 4d, £1 2s 0d

9 of the same, hair powder, per Royal George at 6s 3d, £3 3s 10d

2 hundredweight 17 of the same at 34s, £1 11s 5d

Starch and hair powder total, £5 17s 3d

Stays.

1 pair of stays, all old, £8 9s 2¾d

1 pair of the same, all old

1 pair of the same, all old, £22 13s 11½d

20 of the same, stumps, £18 6s 3d

9 of the same, bodice, £49 9s 5¾d

Stays total, £49 9s 5¾d

Soap.

20 hundredweight at 3s 4d, £3 3s 8¾d

Salt.

15 barrels 3 hundredweight of the same, marked S, 211 of the same per Duke Lorraine, £38 0s 9d

3 hundredweight 12 of cask bay salt, £2 1s 0d

Salt total, £38 2s 10d

Stationery ware.

5 whole Duty of Man at 16s 4d, £6 0s 0d

29 Playford psalms at 2s 3d, £4 14s 3d

number 1 Beveridge thoughts, £3 4s 2d

1,410 grammars at 19s 4d, £11 5s 5½d

3,410 Sententia Puerilis at 6s, £5 5s 5½d

3,419 spelling books at 6s, £7 9s 2¾d

331 primers, £2 0s 0d

331 rest, filler, at 6s 2d, £6 0s 0d

Stationery ware total, £6 14s 4d

Scales and weights.

6 pairs of beams for scales, £42 18s 0d

6 pairs of the same, brass ropes for 3 boards, rotten, £9 18s 0d

Scales and weights carried over, £52 16s 0d

Carried over, £6,517 11s 0¾d

Interpretations

The pitch, tar, turpentine and rosin were the materials of the shipyard and the caulker, the naval stores used to waterproof and preserve wooden vessels. Pitch and tar were boiled and worked into the seams and surfaces of a hull to keep out water and rot, turpentine thinned paints and varnishes, and rosin served many trades. This holding of naval stores confirms yet again the island's central role in maintaining the Company's ships, keeping ready the very substances by which a wooden hull was made and kept seaworthy for the ocean.

The stationery ware reveals the settlement's concern for religion, education and literacy, holding devotional works, psalters, grammars and spelling books in remarkable quantity. The Whole Duty of Man was a widely used manual of Christian conduct, Sententia Puerilis a Latin primer for schoolboys, and the thousands of grammars and spelling books point to the teaching of children on the island. This stock of schoolbooks and religious texts shows the community maintaining the instruction of its young and the practice of its faith, importing in bulk the printed matter that underpinned both, a further reminder of the schoolmaster recorded among the island's paid officers.

The pairs of stays and bodice among the goods were items of women's dress, the stays being the stiffened undergarment that shaped the figure, here noted as all old. Their presence in the store, alongside the many other articles of clothing, confirms the store supplying the dress of both sexes and all ages, from men's coats to women's stays and children's clothing. This detail rounds out the picture of the store as the settlement's universal outfitter, holding even the intimate garments of the women among its vast and varied stock.

56

50

Brought over

£6517. 11s

Scales &c

£52. 16s

3 pair Scales Prove Weights

Large Small Beak Scales & Weights

£22. 13s 4d

£75. 9s 4d

Shoes Vizt

102 pair Mens Strong Shoes good for Do Lorrain damaged 4/2

£20. 12s 3d

10 Do Do best sort for Do damaged 4/4

£2. 2s 9d

12 Do Do for Royal George 4/3

£2. 13s

12 Do Do 3/9

14s 4d

9 pair Boys Shoes 3/4

£1. 13s 4d

10 Do Do 2/4

£6. 2s

Do Do

9 3 Do Do

Do Do Twisford 3/4

£1. 6s 3d

Do Girls Shoes

£2.

7 8 pair Womans Spanish Leather Shoes 3/10

£1. 11s 4d

19 6 12 Do Mens red Slippers 4/5

£2. 13s

Womens Shoes 5

£8. 8½d

Girls Shoes 4/4

13 6 24 Womens Shoes with Silk Lace 4/6

£9

4 9 9 Do Do Silver Lace 5/6

16s 6d

6 4 Do Do plain Spanish 2/5½

£2. 13s 8d

8 10 Do Do Do Calves Leather 2/4

14s 3d

Girls Turkey Leather

Do Do

Do Do

3/6

£3. 17s

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

25½

Good for nothing

£12. 4s 6d

25 Do Do

Do Boys Shoes

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

3

Good for nothing

£5. 16s 8½d

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

Do Do

14 3 Do Mens best Shoes 4/9

£9. 6s

6 Do Do Ordnary Do 2/2

£8. 4s

5 Do Do Spatterdashes

£14. 9d

£85. 1s 10¼d

Carried over

£6656. 2s 2¾d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,517 11s 0¾d

The scales and weights continued with the amount brought forward.

Scales and weights brought over, £52 16s 0d

3 pairs of leather store hose, £22 13s 4d

1 pair of small brass scales and weights, [...]

Scales and weights total, £75 9s 4d

Shoes.

102 pairs of mens strong shoes, good, per Duke Lorraine, damaged, at 4s 2d, £20 12s 3d

1 pair of the same, best sort, of the same, damaged, at 4s 4d, £2 2s 9d

12 pairs of the same, at 4s 4d, £2 13s 0d

12 pairs of the same per Royal George at 4s 5d, £0 14s 4d

9 pairs of boys shoes at 3s 9d, £0 13s 4d

10 pairs of the same at 2s 4d, £1 13s 4d

1 pair of the same, £6 2s 0d

1 pair of the same, £6 2s 0d

21 pairs of girls shoes at 3s 4d, Oxford, £1 6s 3d

3 pairs of the same, £2 0s 0d

8 pairs of womans Spanish leather shoes at 3s 10d, £1 11s 4d

12 pairs of mens red slippers at 4s 5d, £2 13s 0d

2 womens slides at 5s, and 12 girls slides at 4s, £8 8s 8¾d

13 dozen 6 pairs of womans shoes with silk lace at 4s 6d, £0 9s 0d

9 pairs of the same, silver lace, at 5s 6d, £16 6s 0d

6 pairs of the same, plain Spanish, at 2s 15½d, £2 13s 8d

10 pairs of the same, calves leather, at 2s 4d, £14 3s 0d

girls Turkey leather shoes, various pairs at 3s 6d, £3 17s 0d

various pairs of the same, and boys shoes, all decayed, at 2s 5½d, £12 4s 6d

35 pairs mens best shoes at 11s 9d, £9 6s 0d

26 pairs of the same, ordinary, at 2s 12d, £8 4s 0d

5 pairs of the same, spatterdashes, £14 9s 3d

Shoes total, £68 1s 10½d

Carried over, £6,650 2s 2¾d

Interpretations

The shoes were held in great quantity and every kind, from mens strong shoes and boys and girls shoes to womens Spanish leather shoes, red slippers and slides, some finished with silk or silver lace. Spanish leather was fine soft leather much prized for footwear, and the range from ordinary to laced and decorated shows the store supplying footwear across the whole social scale. This large and varied stock confirms once more the settlement's total dependence on imported clothing, every shoe worn on the island shipped ready made from England or bought from the trade, held in store to shoe the whole community.

The spatterdashes listed at the end were long protective leggings or gaiters worn over the shoes and lower legs to keep off mud and water, useful gear for riding or walking the island's rough and often wet ground. Their inclusion among the footwear shows the store providing not just shoes but the accessories that made travel over the terrain practicable. This small detail reflects the practical demands of moving about a broken, weather-beaten island where the protection of the legs and feet was a real need.

The recurring damage noted through the shoe stock, whole consignments marked damaged or all decayed, reveals how badly leather goods fared in the store. Leather held long in a humid climate was prone to rot, mildew and stiffening, and the frequent condemnation of shoes as decayed shows the real losses the Company suffered on its footwear. This confirms the persistent theme of the whole inventory, that the goods shipped across the world to supply the island lost much of their value to time and climate before they could ever be worn or sold.

57

51

Brought over

£6656. 2s 2¾d

Shalloons Vizt

264 Yards Kalloco 4/

£14. 4s 1½d

224 Do Blue Shalloon 2/2½

£2. 1s 5½d

19½ Do Scarlet Do 8/1

£2. 5s 4d

£18. 11s 3d

Soldiers Cloaths Vizt

72 Blue Yarn hose 20

£8. 5s

282 Centinels Coats 33/1

£94. 12s 10d

4 Matrosses Do 30/10

£6. 3s 4d

1 Drummers Do

£2. 15s

1 Drummers Mate Do

£2. 6s 3d

1 Gunners Mate Coat

£11.

1 Gunners Mate hat 13/9

£14. 3s

1 Drummers Do 19

£113. 7s 8¾d

Thread Vizt

34 15 Oz Nuns Thread Old 24/10

£13. 8s 8d

24 19 Do Brown Do 4/2½

£1. 10s 9½d

6 Oz Thread No 7 & 10 for Royal George 4/10

£2. 6s

34 10 14 Do Do 10 4/10

£3. 7s 7¼d

4 Oz Do Do 13/2

£3. 10s 6¼d

Dark Brown Thread rotten

£56. 2¾d

Twine Vizt

14 63½ Twine 5/2

£13. 1s

4 27 Shoe Thread 5/2

£6. 14s 8¾d

18 27½ Pick Do 5/

£4. 12s 5d

18 27½ Shoe Thread good for nothing 4/2

£4. 12s 3d

10 52½ Twine dry and Rotten 5/2

£6. 17s 3d

£16. 6s 2¾d

Turners Ware Vizt

8 Paint Brushes 7/

£6. 4s

10 Do broke 3/2½

£1. 5s 1½d

9 hair Brooms good 2/8½

£1. 4s 2½d

32 Do good for nothing 1/9½

£2. 3½d

12 Painting Brushes good 2/

17s 11d

10 Do broke 4/6

£4. 19s

6 doz hair Brooms Do for Duke Lorrain 16/8

£4. 19s

6 6 doz scrubbing Brushes 15/2

£2. 16s 6¼d

10 46 Cloth Brushes 15

£3.

6 Do do Copper 15/3

£16. 4s

9 15 Tub Head Yoaks 4/2

£14s 9d

20 Ox Bows

Turners Ware Carried over

£7. 14s 4d

Carried over

£6802. 7s 7¾d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,650 2s 2¾d

Shalloons.

264 yards of shalloon at 14s, £14 4s 1½d

223 of the same, blue shalloon, £2 1s 5½d

19¾ of the same, scarlet, £2 5s 4½d

Shalloons total, £18 11s 3d

Soldiers clothes.

92 pieces of blue yarn hose at 20s, £8 5s 0d

282 centinels coats at 33s 1d, £94 12s 10d

4 matrosses of the same at 30s 11d, £6 3s 4d

1 drummers of the same, £2 15s 0d

1 gunners mate of the same, £2 6s 3d

1 gunners mates hat, £0 11s 0d

1 drummers of the same, £14 3s 3¾d

Soldiers clothes total, £115 7s 8¾d

Thread.

34 lb 15 ounces of fine thread, blue, at 24s 10d, £13 8s 8d

2 dozen 19 ounces of brown of the same at 4s 3d, £1 10s 9¾d

6 ounces of thread, number 9 and 10, per Royal George at 1s 10d, £2 6s 4d

3 ounces of the same, number 10, £3 7s 7½d

34 lb 14 ounces of the same at 13s 2d, £3 10s 6½d

4 lb of dark brown thread, rotten, £36 0s 2½d

Thread total, £36 0s 2½d

Twine.

14½ lb of twine at 4s 2d, £0 13s 1d

37 lb of shoe thread at 4s 2d, £6 14s 8¾d

127¾ lb of pack of the same at 15s, £4 7s 5d

102½ lb of shoe thread, good for nothing, at 1s 8d, £4 12s 3d

102½ lb of twine, dry and rotten, at 4s 2d, £6 17s 3d

Twine total, £16 6s 2½d

Turners ware.

8 paint brushes at 7s 6d, £0 6s 6d

of the same, broken

3 hair brooms, good, at 2s 6d, £0 5s 1½d

9½ of the same at 2s 6d, £0 4s 2¾d

33 of the same, good for nothing, at 1½d, £0 3s 3½d

12 painting brushes, good, at 2s, £0 17s 11d

10 of the same, broken, at 4s 6d, £0 19s 0d

6 dozen 6 hair brooms per Duke Lorraine at 16s, £4 19s 0d

6 dozen 6 scrubbing brushes at 1s 3½d, £2 16s 6½d

46 flat brushes at 1s, £0 3s 0d

9 of the same, coarse, at 1s 3d, £16 4s 3d

15 tub bread yokes at 4s, £14 0s 9½d

23 ox bows, £0 7s 14s 4d

Turners ware carried over, £7 14s 4d

Carried over, £6,802 7s 7½d

Interpretations

The soldiers clothes made up the standing supply of uniform for the garrison, the centinels coats held in their hundreds alongside separate coats for the matrosses, drummers and gunners mates and the hats that completed the dress. This large reserve of ready-made military clothing shows the Company keeping a stock sufficient to clothe and reclothe the whole garrison, the coats charged to the men through the coats allowance recorded in the pay accounts. The holding reveals how the uniforming of the soldiers was managed centrally from the store, the garrison drawing its distinctive dress from a supply shipped out and held for the purpose.

The shalloons were a lightweight woollen cloth used chiefly to line coats and other garments, held here in blue and scarlet to match the facings of the uniforms. Shalloon took its name from Châlons in France where it was first made, and its presence in the military colours shows the store holding the lining as well as the outer cloth of the soldiers dress. This confirms the completeness of the store's provision for clothing the garrison, keeping every component from the coat itself to the material that lined it.

The various threads, twines and shoe threads, several noted as rotten or good for nothing, supplied the materials of sewing, shoemaking and repair, and their frequent decay shows the same losses that afflicted all the textile stores. Pack thread bound parcels, shoe thread stitched leather and the fine thread served tailoring, but much had perished in the keeping. This recurring waste of the humblest yet most necessary materials confirms the constant erosion of the store's value, even the thread that held clothes and shoes together rotting away before it could be used on a damp and distant island.

58

52

Brought over

£6802. 7s 7¾d

Turners Ware &c

£7. 14s 4d

122 Quart Bowls 53

£1. 12s 11½d

3 Do broke

£7. 3½d

63 large Bowls for Do Lorrain 4

£2. 6s 2d

Do broke 3½

300 Do for Duke Lorrain 7/8

£6. 7s 9d

16 Do Platters for Do 7/8

£5. 19s 3d

35 Platters for Do Lorrain 5/8

£1. 7s 2d

Do broke

25 Wood Ladles good 12/4½

£12. 2s

Do broke

8 Sieves 4/13½

£5. 6½d

42 Macaroni Dishes 5

£16. 1s

13 Square Cags 2/43

£11.

Do broke 2/43

£11. 11½d

13 hair Sieves pretty good 20

£8. 3s

Do good for nothing 14/3

£1. 8s 2d

Do Sieves good for nothing

Baskets

£2. 9½d

2 Pump Boxes 4/

£2s

8 Chineing Dishes 2½

£1. 5s 3½d

£42. 13s 4¾d

Tinware Vizt

Pasty Pan

Do

Do

2/4¾

£1. 6s 3½d

4 Square Cutting Pans 1/1

£4. 4s

20 Do 15½

£5. 10s

10 Do 2/1

£1. 10s

28 Patty Pans 5

£12. 3s

5 Cullander 20

£4. 11½d

7 Do good for nothing 14½

£8. 3s

7 Pepper Boxes 2½

£1. 1½d

6 Pepper Boxes 2½

£1. 5½d

4 Lamps broke 4

£3s

dridging Boxes 3

£1. 3s

17 Fish Plates 16

£15. 10s

19 Basting Ladles 12½

£2. 2s

24 Sword Graters 11

£1. 5s 7d

43 Wood Do 12

£53. 7½d

Coffee Potts 14/3

£2. 2s 2½d

Do broke

8 Salt Boxes 4/

£2. 2s 2¾d

Tinware Carried over

£9. 16s 9¾d

Carried over

£6905. 2s 11¾d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,802 7s 7½d

The turners ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Turners ware brought over, £7 19s 4d

122 quart bowls at 5s, £7 12s 11½d

3 of the same, broken, £0 7s 3½d

63 large tureen bowls per Cape at 4s, £2 6s 2d

of the same, broken, at 5s, £0 3s 7½d

20 of the same per Duke Lorraine at 7s 6d, £6 7s 9d

16 of the same, platters, of the same, at 7s 8d, £5 19s 5d

35 platters per Cape at 5s 8d, £1 7s 2d

of the same, broken, at 12s 6d, £10 2s 0d

25 tuned tables, good

3 of the same, broken, at 4s 15½d, £5 6s 6½d

34½ covers at 4s, £16 1s 4d

42 washing dishes at 5s, £1 11s 0d

13 square days at 2s 3d, £11 11s 0d

of the same, broken, at 2s 3½d, £8 3s 0d

114 hair sieves, pretty good, at 20d, £1 8s 0d

517 of the same, good for nothing, at 14s 3d

of the same, good for nothing

1 hatchet at 4s, £2 9s 4d

2 pump boxes at 4s, £1 2s 0d

248 skimming dishes at 2s, £1 5s 3d

Turners ware total, £42 13s 4¾d

Tin ware.

1 pasty pan, £1 4s 6½d

2 of the same at 2s 4½d

4 square cutting pans at 1s 1d, £11 4s 4d

20 of the same at 15s, £1 5s 10d

10 of the same at 2s 1d, £1 0s 10d

228 patty pans at 5s, £12 8s 0d

543 colanders at 20d, £4 11s 0d

7 of the same, good for nothing, at 14s 3d, £8 3s 0d

6 pepper boxes at 2s, £1 1s 4d

4 lamps, broken, at 4s, £0 3s 0d

1,005 dredging boxes at 3s, £1 1s 3d

13 fish plates at 16s, £15 10s 0d

19 basting ladles at 12s, £2 2s 0d

24 spade graters at 11s, £1 5s 7d

43 wood of the same at 12s, £5 7s 7½d

27 coffee pots at 14s 3d, £2 2s 2¾d

3 of the same, broken

8 saltcellars at 4s, £2 2s 2¾d

Tin ware carried over, £9 16s 9½d

Carried over, £6,905 2s 11¾d

Interpretations

The turners ware was the wooden domestic goods shaped on a lathe by a turner, bowls, platters, covers and dishes held in great quantity for the tables and kitchens of the settlement. Turned wooden vessels were the cheapest and most common tableware of ordinary people, more humble even than pewter, and their presence in the hundreds shows the store supplying the plainest dining goods for the general run of the population. This holding of wooden ware confirms the store meeting the domestic needs of the whole social range, from the pewter and china of the officers down to the turned wood of the common household.

The hair sieves among the turners ware were sieves bottomed with woven horsehair, used for sifting flour, straining liquids and similar kitchen work, though most were noted as good for nothing. The tin ware that followed, colanders, patty pans, dredging boxes, graters and coffee pots, supplied the lighter metal utensils of the kitchen. Together they reveal the store furnishing the detailed equipment of cookery and food preparation, holding the specialised small utensils that a working kitchen required alongside the larger pots and pans recorded earlier.

The dredging boxes held in their thousands were containers with perforated tops for scattering flour or spice over food during cooking, an oddly large stock for so particular a use. Such quantities, far beyond domestic need, mark them as trade goods held for sale rather than for the settlement's own kitchens. This great surplus of a single specialised utensil confirms once more the store's dual character, part domestic supply and part trading warehouse, stocking manufactured kitchenware in bulk to sell on to ships and inhabitants beyond what the establishment itself could ever use.

59

53

Brought over

£6905. 2s 11¾d

Tinware &c

£9. 16s 9¾d

3 Gallon Tin Funnells good for nothing

7 Watering Potts for Royal George 5/6

£1. 18s 6d

25 1 Do Spoiled

£4. 15s

4 large Speaking Trumpetts 6/7

£1. 9s 2d

£13. 19s 4d

Totall European Goods

£6919. 2s

Indian Goods Vizt

Arrack Vizt

5 Gallons Goa Arrack 44½. 684

589 Do Batavia 7. 21. 561

1255 Gallons at 2/1

£169. 8s 4¾d

Allejars 151 Pieces all at 11/4

£88. 14s 3d

Blue Linnen 4 pieces at 17/2

£21. 17s 2d

Cattanees Vizt

64 Cattanees No 1 @ 8/4

£1. 15s

1 Do Do No 5

12s

£2. 7s

Indian Goods Carried over

£222. 6s 9¾d

The inventory continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £6,905 2s 11¾d

The tin ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Tin ware brought over, £9 16s 9¾d

3 gallon tin funnels, good for nothing, [...]

7 watering pots per Royal George at 5s 6d, £1 18s 6d

25 of the same, spoiled, £4 1s 0d

1 large speaking trumpet at 6s 7d, £1 9s 2d

Tin ware total, £15 19s 4d

The whole inventory of European goods came to a total of £6,919 2s 0d.

Indian goods.

Arrack.

5 gallons of goa arrack at 44½d, and 683 of the same, 1,255 gallons at 2s 1d, £169 8s 4d

589 of the same, Batavia, and 7 of the same, 21, 561, £88 14s 3d

Arrack total, £258 2s 7d

Allejars.

151 pieces of allejars, all at 8s 4d, £88 14s 3d

Blue linen.

34 pieces of blue linen at 1s 7½d, £21 17s 2d

Cuttanees.

64 pieces of cuttanees, number 4, at 8s 4d, £1 15s 0d

1 piece of the same, number 5, £0 12s 0d

Cuttanees total, £2 7s 0d

Indian goods carried over, £222 6s 9¾d

Interpretations

The inventory now turned from European goods to Indian goods, marking a clear division in the store between the manufactures of England and the products of the eastern trade. This separation reflects the two great currents of the Company's commerce that met at St Helena, the outward flow of English wares and the homeward flow of Asian goods, the island holding stocks of both. The distinct heading reveals how the settlement stood at the crossing point of the trade, its warehouse stocked from opposite ends of the world.

The arrack dominated the Indian goods as the beef and pork had dominated the provisions, over eighteen hundred gallons held and distinguished by origin, goa arrack and Batavia arrack. Arrack was the strong spirit of the East, distilled variously from palm sap, rice or sugar, and the naming of Goa on the Indian coast and Batavia in the East Indies shows the store holding the produce of different eastern ports. This great reserve of eastern spirit, already seen supplying the general table, confirms arrack as a staple of consumption on the island, imported in bulk from the Company's Asian settlements.

The allejars, cuttanees and blue linen were Indian textiles, the cotton and mixed cloths of the subcontinent that formed a major part of the Company's homeward trade. Allejars and cuttanees were varieties of striped or patterned cotton and silk cloth woven in India, prized in Europe and traded throughout the Company's world. Their presence in the store shows St Helena handling the fine eastern fabrics that were among the most valuable cargoes of the age, the island a staging post where the textiles of India were held on their long passage toward the markets of the West.

60

54

Indian Goods Brought over

£222. 6s 9¾d

Chints 103 Pieces Madras at 16/2

£83. 13s 9d

Chellow Vizt

564 Pieces lying loose

4 Bales Chellow Containing 400 Pieces at 8/11

£196. 4d

China Ware Vizt

5 Soup Plate at 4

£2. 5s 4½d

10 121 Tea Potts 4

£1. 6s

6 2 Bowls 9

£3. 13s 7½d

5 12 1175 Morning Cups 3

£1. 13s 11¼d

5 543 Bishop Tea Cups 3

£1. 6s 8d

4 10 Dishes 1 Plate 13½

£18s 1½d

10 14 Do 9 do

£1. 4d

8 21 Do do

£6s

10 1 Pint Mug

13 1125 Coffee Cups 1/8

£4. 6s 6¾d

10 89 5 Plate 1/3

£18s 1d

390 Small Tea Cups 3

£1. 4s 8d

Saucers

13

390 half Pint Cups 1/3

£1. 10s

Blue and Yellow Cups

£4. 13s 7¾d

Desootees Vizt

65 double Pieces desootees lying loose 16/4

2 Simple Pieces Do

6 Bales Desootees Containing 435 Pieces

1 Bale Blue Do Containing 50 Pieces all at 8/4½

£238. 5s 7d

Long Cloth Vizt

2 Pieces long Cloth Ordinary lying loose at 16/9

35 Pieces Do Ordinary Do at 18/8

4 Bales long Cloth containing 113. 5. 5

2 Pieces Do Middling Containing 50 Pieces 22/

£147. 4s

Pallampores Vizt

169 Pallampores at 4/

£33. 16s

9 36 Do 4/4

£7. 16s 6d

7 Do 3/4

£1. 3s 4d

27 Do 10/6½

£14. 4s 4½d

15 128 6 Do 12/1

£39. 17s 9½d

18 29 Do 16/33

£23. 16s 10½d

£120. 14s 4½d

Carried over

£1093. 5s 2¾d

The inventory of Indian goods continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Indian goods brought over, £222 6s 9¾d

Chintz.

103 pieces of Madras at 16s 3d, £83 13s 9d

Chellow.

264 pieces of chellow, lying loose, and 4 bales of chellow containing 400 pieces at 8s 11d, £196 0s 3d

China ware.

5 soup plates at 4s, £2 5s 4½d

10,121 tea pots at 6d, £1 6s 0d

6 bowls at 9d, £3 13s 7½d

12 1,175 morning cups at 3d, £1 13s 11½d

543 coffee cups at 25d, £1 6s 8d

10 dishes at 15s 3d, £18 1s 4½d

14 of the same, £1 1s 0d

8 of the same at 3d, £0 6s 0d

1 pint mug, [...]

12 425 coffee cups at 1s 3d, £1 6s 6¾d

32½ plates at 1s 3d, £18 1s 0d

390 small tea cups at 3d, £1 4s 8d

saucers, £0 10s 0d

270 half pint cups at 1s 3d, [...]

half Indian pots, £4 15s 0d

China ware total, £15 0s 7¾d

Desootees.

65 double pieces of desootees, lying loose, at 8s 4d

2 single of the same

6 bales of desootees containing 435 pieces

1 bale of blue of the same containing 50 pieces at 8s 4d, with print

Desootees total, £258 5s 7d

Long cloth.

2 pieces of long cloth, middling, lying loose, at 16s 9d

35 pieces of the same, ordinary, at 18s 6d

4 bales of long cloth containing 1,135 pieces

2 pieces of the same, middling, containing 50 pieces, at 12s

Long cloth total, £147 4s 0d

Pallampores.

169 pallampores at 4s, £33 16s 0d

36 of the same at 9s 4d, £7 16s 6d

7 of the same at 3s 4d, £1 3s 4d

27 of the same at 10s 6d, £14 4s 4½d

108 of the same at 12s 11d, £59 17s 9½d

29 of the same at 16s 13d, £23 16s 10½d

Pallampores total, £120 14s 4½d

Carried over, £1,093 5s 2¼d

Interpretations

The Indian textiles now filled the store in enormous quantity and variety, chintz, chellow, desootees, long cloth and pallampores held by the bale and the hundred pieces. These were the celebrated cotton cloths of India, chintz the painted or printed calico, pallampores the large decorated bed covers, and long cloth a plain white cotton, all in high demand in Europe. This vast holding of Indian piece goods reveals St Helena as a warehouse on the main artery of the Company's most profitable trade, the fine cottons of the subcontinent passing through the island in bulk on their way to the western markets that prized them above almost all other imports.

The china ware, held in astonishing numbers with tea pots, coffee cups, tea cups and saucers counted in the thousands, was the porcelain of the East brought home as both cargo and ballast in the Company ships. Chinese porcelain was durable, waterproof and much admired, and its sheer quantity here, morning cups and half pint cups by the hundred, shows the scale on which it was traded. This great stock of eastern porcelain reveals the tea and coffee culture that Asian trade had carried to the West, the very vessels of that new fashion passing through the island in tens of thousands on their way to European tables.

The chintz was specifically identified as from Madras, tying the cloth to the Company's great settlement on the Coromandel coast of southern India, a principal source of painted cottons. Naming the port of origin shows the store tracking the eastern goods to their place of manufacture just as it traced the provisions to their carrying ships. This detail confirms the island's position within a precise and far-reaching commercial network, its warehouse holding goods whose origins ran from the workshops of Madras to the porcelain kilns of China, all gathered at this single mid-ocean point on the long route home.

61

55

Indian Goods Brought over

£1093. 5s 2¾d

Pepper 115

£2. 17s 6d

Rice 52615 lb whereof 32794 lb bought for 150. 3. 4

19821 lb Invoice 41. 3. 10½

£191. 9s 2½d

Saddy 14075 at 5/ ⅌ Cwt

£35. 3s 9d

Romalls Vizt

83 Pieces Romalls Good

6 Do Do damaged

13/

£57. 16s 8½d

Sooseys 9 Pieces Damaged

£20. 5s

Shirts and Stockings Vizt

2 Bales Shirts containing 350

183 Shirts Good lying loose

26 Do good for nothing

£31. 4s 10d

48 Pair Stockings good

55 Pieces Do good for nothing

£8. 7s 3¾d

£39. 11s 10¾d

Sugar and Candy Vizt

30. 2. 8 China Sugar at 26/4 ⅌ Cwt

£36. 11s 5d

18. 2. 24 Candy add 4/3 makes 9. 0. 9 at 28/4 ⅌ Cwt

£26. 14s 3d

66 Bags Bengale Sugar containing

30. 2. 9 bought at 12/

62. 1. 14 at 31/6

64. 4. 4½

98. 6. 3

add rain 3. 18

93. 0. 0

£162. 10s 7½d

£225. 16s 3¾d

Taffity 3 Pieces Damaged

£14. 8s

Tea Vizt

548 lb Tea & 33 lb at 10/ ⅌ lb

£24. 4s 2d

14 8 3 Cattoua Tea 14/2

£3. 8s

£24. 7s 10½d

Totall Indian Goods amounting to

£1711. 13s 4d

The inventory of Indian goods continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Indian goods brought over, £1,093 5s 2¼d

Pepper.

115 lb of pepper, £2 17s 6d

Rice.

52,615 lb of rice, whereof 32,794 lb bought for £150 3s 4d and 19,821 lb per invoice at £3 3s 10½d, £191 9s 2½d

Saddy.

14,075 lb of saddy at 5s per hundred, £35 3s 9d

Romalls.

83 pieces of romalls, good, at 13s, £57 16s 8½d

6 pieces of the same, damaged

Romalls total, £57 16s 8½d

Soosees.

9 pieces of soosees, damaged, £20 5s 0d

Shirts and stockings.

2 bales of shirts containing 350

183 shirts, good, lying loose, £31 4s 10d

26 of the same, good for nothing

48 pairs of stockings, good, £8 7s 0¾d

55 pairs of the same, good for nothing

Shirts and stockings total, £39 11s 10¾d

Sugar and candy.

5 hundredweight 2 quarters 8 lb of China sugar at 26s 5d, £36 11s 5d

18 hundredweight 2 quarters 24 lb of candy, added, makes 9 hundredweight 0 quarters 9 lb, at 28s 4d, £26 14s 3d

66 bags of Bengal sugar containing 92 hundredweight 0 quarters 10 lb, 64 hundredweight 4 lb, at 32s, and the rest, £162 10s 7½d

Sugar and candy total, £225 16s 3¼d

Taffety.

1 piece of taffety, damaged, £14 8s 0d

Tea.

548 lb of tea and 33 lb, at 10s 6d, £24 4s 2d

14 lb 8 ounces 3 of Cattoas tea at 14s 3d, £3 8s 0d

Tea total, £24 7s 10½d

The whole inventory of Indian goods came to a total of £1,711 13s 0¾d.

Interpretations

The rice held in the store, over fifty two thousand pounds and carefully distinguished between what was bought locally and what came by invoice from the Company, was a staple grain of the eastern trade and a bulk provision for the island. The precise separation of the two sources, one purchased and one shipped, shows the store tracking both the origin and the cost of its grain with exactness. This great reserve of rice reveals it as a principal foodstuff alongside the imported flour and the island's own yams, the settlement drawing on the produce of Asia to help feed its people and the passing ships.

The sugar and candy came from both China and Bengal, held in hundredweights and reckoned by their source, sugar candy being sugar crystallised into hard lumps. Bengal was a major sugar-producing region of the Company's empire and China another source, and the store's holding of both shows sugar arriving from different eastern origins. This stock of eastern sugar, together with the tea held alongside, reveals the store supplying the sweet and the brew of the fashionable table, the very commodities whose growing consumption was transforming diet across the western world.

The shirts and stockings among the Indian goods show ready-made clothing imported from the East as well as the piece goods, though much was noted good for nothing. Indian workshops produced finished garments as well as cloth, and their presence here confirms the breadth of the eastern trade, supplying not only the fabric but the made article. The recurring damage to these and other Indian goods, taffety, romalls and soosees marked damaged, shows that the eastern imports suffered the same losses in storage as the European, the long voyage and the island's climate wasting the finest cottons and silks as surely as the coarsest English cloth.

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Mr John Godfrey Reports That in looking

over Journal He has found two Fold Colours Charged & No 7. 4. but we Cant find

any Such in reality, There are two Small Colours which are Charged in the Same

Journal Forty Shillings There we find now are in being

The Governour Reports That a Grass

Plane belonging to John Brown Vale and Right Iron do Args belonging to the Honble

Company Do one had Eleven Young ones which he holded in taking the Do one and the

other had been setting for some time. That the follow is not yet taken but has Ordered

hands out in Search after him

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

The Governour further Report That the

Fortification at Bankside is in good forwardness and doing the Difficulty that is

found in getting the Planters Backs beneath thereat Occasioned by the great Fertility

that has been and the Talent Sicknesse that still reigns amongst them, however the

Battery wears quite another Face to what it did two Months agoe it is good th

foot from the Ground to the broad Part of the Ambrazures and the Parrapatt was

Effect since that. The front Walk is fell to foot thick the Ombra or Parrapatt being

entirely made with Fresh Water Carried hither from Chapple Valley and even

the Sea Sand are but mixed with the Lomeer wheded with Fresh Water. that is

after being laid a Weak and lay in truth willow a Coffin as laid as the Stone itself

good which is what led in Being and Earth Twenty two foot for the Twoieth of

the Battery which is sufficient in all reason for the Guns to Work upon

The following is an Exact Plan hereof Vizt

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

Mr John Godfrey reported that, in looking over the journal, he found two field colours charged, number 7 and 4. On looking over the field clothing, or any such in reality, he found there were two small colours which were charged in the same journal at 40s. These he found were now in being.

The Governor reported that a parcel of horns belonging to John Brown of Vale and Bright New Style, being to the Honourable Company, had been lying loose which was to be held in taking the horns, and the other had been lying for some time. That the fellow was not yet taken but had orders to search after him.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

The Governor further reported that the fortification at the bankside was in good forwardness, and after the difficulty that had arisen in getting the platform planks beneath had been overcome by the great firmness that had been added, the violent sickness that then reigned amongst them, however, kept the battery work quite in the rear. To what it did in doubles upon it, it was good the platform planks from the ground to the lowest part of the ambrasures, and the parapets were not so firm now, since the front wall was full to foot thick. The centre or ground was entirely made with fresh water carried from Chapel Valley, and even the sea sand was not mixed with the lime as needed with fresh water. That is, after living this a week and day in truth without a doubt, it was laid, so the stone itself was laid in sand and earth. Twenty two foot for the front of the battery, which was sufficient in all reason for the guns to work upon.

The following is an exact plan of it.

The report was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The Governor's report on the bankside fortification revealed the difficulties that had beset the work, most gravely a violent sickness among the labourers that had thrown the building far behind. The same heavy mortality that ran through the garrison pay lists, with deaths recorded in every company, here directly slowed the construction of the island's defences, sickness among the workforce leaving the battery work in the rear. This shows how closely the island's public works depended on the health of its people, an epidemic among the labourers stalling the very defences meant to protect the settlement.

The account of the construction method, with fresh water carried from Chapel Valley to mix the mortar rather than the salt sea sand near at hand, points to the builders taking care over the quality of the work. Salt in mortar weakens it and keeps it from setting properly, and the deliberate use of fresh water shows the builders understanding this and going to the trouble of carrying water some distance to make sound mortar. This reveals a considered approach to the fortification, the labour of hauling fresh water preferred to the easy use of what lay nearest, so that the battery might stand firm.

The reference to searching for a man not yet taken, in connection with the Company's horns, shows the council pursuing someone who had made off with or improperly held Company property. The Governor had given orders to search after the fellow, treating the matter as one for active pursuit rather than mere record. This glimpse of enforcement reveals the council acting to recover its goods and hold accountable those who took them, the machinery of the small settlement turned to tracking down a man who had crossed the Company.

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At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 23d November at the Castle

Present G. G. Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2d of Council

Christopher Dixon 3d of Council.

The Last Consultation was read and approved

We this day Agreed that Mr Scott should be Ordered to quit the

House he now Lives in belonging to the Honourable Company and be allowed Ten

Pounds ⅌ Annum untill such times as we have an Opportunity to Build

Apartments for him and all those that Petitioned the 10th August 1742 which is

entred at Length in that Consultation and our Resolution thereupon

Mr Joshua Fugnam being Factor

we apprehend him to be the next in Station to the Council and Choosing rather to Live

in the House Mr Scott is Ordered to quit, as belonging to the Honourable Company

him to have the Ten pounds ⅌ Annum allowed him We therefore Ordered that he

should have the House to live in but as he is not in Council that Mr Joseph Darval

who is a Writer should live with him in the same House untill our Honourable

Masters further Orders

Mr John Clark Lieutenant of the First

Company Complains that he has been very ill treated by Mr James Scott Lieutenant

of the Second Company Upon which we agreed to Examine into the Merits of the

Cause which stands thus

Mr John Clarke Examined Saith that Sometime ago

the Governour gave Orders to him and Mr Scott to divide and settle the Barracks

between the Men of the two Companys And in Order to end all Disputes that might

happen either between themselves or the Men concerning the Barracks They two

agreed to draw Cutts or Toss up for the Choice of the said Barracks or Rooms which

At a consultation held on Tuesday 23 November at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The council this day agreed that Mr Scott should be ordered to quit the house he then lived in, belonging to the Honourable Company, and be allowed £10 0s 0d a year until such time as there was an opportunity to build apartments for him. All this had been petitioned on 10 August 1742, which was entered at length in that consultation together with the resolution upon it.

Mr Joshua Twyman, being factor, the council thought him to be the next in station, and choosing rather to live in the house Mr Scott was ordered to quit, as belonging to the Honourable Company, he was to have the £10 0s 0d a year allowed him. The council therefore ordered that Twyman have the house which Scott was ordered to leave, and that Mr Joseph Darvall, who was a writer, should live with him in the same house until the Honourable Masters gave further orders.

Mr John Clarke, lieutenant of the First Company, complained that he had been very ill treated by Mr James Scott, lieutenant of the Second Company, upon which the council agreed to examine into the merits of the case which Clarke had.

John Clarke, examined, said that some time earlier the Governor gave orders to him and Scott to divide and settle the barracks between the men of the two companies, and to order and settle all disputes that might happen either between themselves or the men concerning the barracks. They two agreed to draw cuts or toss up for the choice of the barracks or rooms.

Interpretations

The reallocation of the Company house showed the council managing its limited housing stock by rank, moving the accommodation to the officer next in station. Scott was turned out of the Company house with a £10 allowance until quarters could be built for him, and Joshua Twyman, as factor, took his place, sharing it with a writer named Joseph Darvall. This reveals how tightly housing was tied to office on the island, the Company assigning its buildings according to a man's standing and paying an allowance in lieu where no house could be spared, the whole subject to the Masters approval.

The dispute between the two lieutenants arose from a shared duty gone wrong, the Governor having ordered Clarke and Scott jointly to divide the barracks between their companies and settle any quarrels over the rooms. That the two officers charged with preventing disputes over the barracks fell into a bitter dispute themselves shows the friction that the cramped conditions of the garrison could generate. This reveals the tensions of close military life on a small island, where even the officers set to keep the peace over quarters came to blows over the allocation.

The method the two officers chose to settle the choice of barracks, drawing cuts or tossing up, shows them resorting to chance to divide a contested resource fairly. Rather than let rank or argument decide, they agreed to leave the choice of rooms to lot, a common and accepted way of making an impartial division. This small detail reveals how disputes over shared space were resolved in practice, the appeal to chance offering a settlement that neither party could call unjust.

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Choice fell to me by Lott in Presence of Mr Charles Clarke Surgeon and Mr William Hayes

Adjutant Upon which I ordered that the men of the First Company should take possession

of the two first Rooms upon the Right hand going into the said Barracks the larger

of which I ordered that as many of the Private Men of the first Company as Possible to

Live in that Room and the other small Room I placed the two Serjeants of the same

Company as being the most Convenient and the nearest to the Private Men there then

being a Serjeant of each Company in the said Room and they two Living together very

Peaceably and quietly I took no further Notice untill the Serjeant of the First Company

that Lay in the Room one Day coming off duty came to me and Complained that the

Serjeant of the Second Company had Locked the Room Door and taken the Key in his

Pockett and would not admit him to go into the Room upon which I sent the Complainant

back to the other Serjeant to tell him from me that it was my Orders he should deliver

up the Keys the Room being his Right and property by my Allottment but instead of

Obeying my Orders he Plainly refused them altho I sent to him Twice Then being Obliged

to go my self I said to him, Why did not you deliver up the Key when I sent to you. he

Answered me that the Room was his for which Answer tome I gave him a light Blow

on the Shoulder with my Cain and so took the Key from him and put the two Serjeants of

the First Company into the said Room and Ordered them to keep Possession of the same by

which I Imagined that disputes would have inded but instead of that some few days after the

two Serjeants whom I had put in Possession came and told me that Mr Scott came up to

the Barracks and there Beat them in a very severe manner but for what reason they

did not know for they gave no Offence. And when he had Beat them so Long as his Rich

lasted said to them now go to your Captain and Complain meaning me. Mr Scott doing this was

as I thought using me very Ill Upon which on Saturday last the 19th Instant meeting Mr

Scott at the Corner of the Market House. I spoke to him thus, Mr Scott you have used

me very Ill in this affair relating to the Barracks as in many Others therefore desire

you take Care and not be Guilty of giving Such affronts for the Future as you

hitherto have done. Then going Down to the Castle to dinner and when ever was going Mr

Godfrey desired Mr Scott and me to stay a Little after the rest were gone then began to Ask us

some Questions concerning the Barracks when immediately Mr Scott gave me a Challenge

in the Castle in the Presence of Mr Godfrey and after that Iwalking up the Vulley Mr Scott Standing

at his own Door then began to Abuse and Call me Villain a Scoundrel and a Rascal and

such Scurrilous Language as that and said if I Putup with that I was a greater

Scoundrell Upon which I Called him a fool and said Mr Scott I dont want to Quarrel

with you I am going to take a Walk then he said he would immediately send after me

I said no more but Walked on The reasons of my not taking up the Challenge was Iesa

John Clarke's account continued, that the choice fell to him by lot in the presence of Mr Charles Clarke, surgeon, and Mr William Hayes, adjutant. He then ordered that the men of the First Company should take possession of the two first rooms on the right hand going into the barracks. Of these he directed that as many of the private men of the First Company as possible should live in the larger room, and he placed the two serjeants of the same company in the other small room, as being the most convenient and the nearest to the private men. There being then a serjeant of each company in that room, the two lived together very peaceably and quietly.

Clarke took no further notice until the serjeant of the First Company, who lay in the room, came to him one day when off duty and complained that the serjeant of the Second Company had locked the room door and taken the key in his pocket, and would not admit him to go into the room. Clarke then sent the complainant back to the other serjeant to tell him from Clarke that it was his orders he should deliver up the keys, the room being his by right and property by Clarke's allotment. Instead of obeying the orders, the serjeant plainly refused them, although Clarke sent to him twice.

Being obliged to go himself, Clarke asked the serjeant why he did not deliver up the key when Clarke sent to him. The serjeant answered that the room was his, to which Clarke gave him a light blow on the shoulder with his cane and so took the key from him, and put the two serjeants of the First Company into the room. Clarke ordered them to keep possession of it, by which he imagined the dispute would have ended.

Instead, some days later, Scott came up to the barracks and there beat the two serjeants whom Clarke had put in possession, in a very severe manner. For what reason they did not know, for they had given no offence. When Scott had beaten them for as long as he liked, he said to them that they should now go to their captain and complain against Clarke. Scott, doing this, was as Clarke thought using him ill.

Upon this, on Saturday the 17th instant, Clarke met Scott at the corner of the market house and spoke to him, saying that Scott had used him very ill in this affair relating to the barracks, as in many others, and therefore desired Scott to take care and not be guilty of giving such affronts in future as he had done. Going down to the Castle to dinner, and when the rest were gone, Scott began to ask Clarke some questions concerning the barracks, then immediately gave him a challenge. After that, walking up the valley, Scott, standing at his own door, began to abuse Clarke and called him a villain, a scoundrel and a rascal, and used such scurrilous language as that. Scott said that if Clarke put up with that he was a greater scoundrel, upon which Clarke called him a fool. Scott said he did not want to quarrel with Clarke, and that he was going to take a walk. Scott then said he would immediately send after Clarke. Clarke said no more but walked on, and gave the reasons for his not taking up the challenge.

Interpretations

The whole quarrel exposed the fragile chain of command within the garrison, a serjeant twice refusing his own lieutenant's direct order over so small a matter as a room key. Clarke's authority as lieutenant of the First Company was openly defied by a serjeant of the Second, who insisted the room was his despite Clarke's allotment. This reveals how the division of the barracks between two companies cut across the ordinary lines of discipline, a soldier of one company resisting an officer of another and forcing the lieutenant to enforce his order in person.

The escalation from a locked door to beatings and a challenge to a duel shows how a petty administrative dispute could grow into a matter of violence and honour among the officers. Scott's severe beating of the two serjeants who had done no wrong, and his subsequent challenge to Clarke, moved the quarrel from the barracks into the realm of personal honour, where an affront demanded satisfaction. This reveals the code of honour that governed relations between the officers, where insult and injury led toward the duel that Clarke ultimately declined.

Clarke's careful record that the choice of rooms fell to him by lot before named witnesses, the surgeon and the adjutant, shows him building a documented justification for his conduct. By establishing that his allotment of the barracks was fair and witnessed, Clarke sought to prove that the disputed room was rightfully assigned and that Scott's resistance was without cause. This reveals the importance of witnessed procedure in settling the dispute, Clarke's defence resting on the impartiality of the lot and the presence of respectable men to confirm it.

Speculations

Clarke chose to walk on and leave Scott's challenge unanswered rather than meet him, and set out his reasons on the record rather than let his refusal stand unexplained. The obvious course for an officer publicly called a villain, scoundrel and rascal was to accept the challenge, since the code of honour pressed hard toward the duel and refusal risked the charge of cowardice. Clarke instead declined and brought the whole matter before the council, laying his account and his reasons before authority. This choice to seek the council's judgement over the field of honour shows an officer preferring the formal discipline of the Company to the private violence of the duel, trusting a documented complaint to vindicate him where a meeting would have risked his life and broken the Company's law against duelling.

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First I was out of respect to the Governour and the rest of the Gentlemen of the Council

thinking that they were to divide all disputes that might happen and Secondly that

Mr Scott is a Lame and Disabled Man and therefore not fit to fight a Duel of I had

insisted upon Satisfaction and had hurt him he would have Blamed me very

much when I Returned which was about Two or three hours after Mr Scott had

Abused me I went to Mr Godfrey and made this Complaint Mr Dixon then being present

Mr Scott was then asked what induced him to treat Mr

Clarke in the manner he had done he Answered That Mr Clarke when he met me at the Corner

of the Market house to then Shook his Cane at me and damd my Blood and said That

if ever I met him so again would my head nor my Cane leg should Excuse me

Mr Daniel Owen and Mr Joseph

Kendall being both being at the same time when Mr Scott and Mr Clarke met at

the Corner of the Market house Mr Clarke desired they might be Called in and Asked

whether he shook his Cane at Mr Scott or made use of any such words as Mr Scott

saith he did

Mr Daniel Owen called and Examined Saith

that he was then by when Mr Scott and Mr Clarke met at the Corner of the Market house

and declares That there was no such thing as any Cane Shook but as to what

words passed betwixt them he cannot really say for he heard none on either side

Mr Kendall Likewise saith the same as Mr Owen

hath before declared

Mr Clark said he might have leave to ask Mr Scott one

Question which was Granted

Mr Clark then asked Mr Scott Can you say that ever I

Called you worse than Mr Scott

To which Mr Scott made no Reply

Mr Clark said I wonder Mr Scott you could take on in the

Clarke gave his first reason as respect to the Governor and the rest of the gentlemen of the council, thinking that they were to divide all disputes that might happen. His second reason was that Mr Scott was a lame and disabled man and therefore not fit to fight a duel. Had Clarke insisted upon satisfaction and hurt him, the world would have blamed Clarke very much. When Clarke declined, which was about two or three hours after Scott had abused him, he went to Mr Godfrey and made this complaint, Mr Dixon then being present.

Scott, asked what induced him to treat Clarke in the manner he had done, answered that Clarke, when he met him at the corner of the market house, shook his cane at Scott and damned his blood, and said that if ever Clarke met him or again received his head or his cane, his legs should baste him.

Mr Daniel Owen and Mr Joseph Kendall, ensigns, both being at the same time when Scott and Clarke met at the corner of the market house, whether Clarke declared they might be called in and asked whether he shook his cane at Scott or made use of any such words as Scott said he did.

Mr Daniel Owen, called and examined, said that he was then by when Scott and Clarke met at the corner of the market house, and declared that there was no such thing as any cane shook, but as to what words passed between them he could not really say, for he heard none on either side.

Mr Kendall likewise said the same as Mr Owen had before declared.

Clarke said they might have leave to ask Mr Scott one more question, which was granted.

Clarke then asked Scott, could he say that it was Clarke who called him words. To which Scott made no reply.

Clarke said, if ever, Mr Scott, you would show me the [...].

Interpretations

The two accounts of the quarrel flatly contradicted each other on the central point of who was the aggressor, Scott claiming Clarke had shaken a cane and threatened him, Clarke denying it. The council resolved the conflict by calling the two ensigns who had witnessed the meeting, and both testified that no cane was shaken, corroborating Clarke against Scott. This shows the council conducting a genuine examination of the facts, weighing the testimony of independent witnesses to determine which officer had told the truth, the disinterested evidence of the ensigns settling the disputed point.

Clarke's second reason for declining the duel, that Scott was a lame and disabled man unfit to fight, raised the question of honour in fighting an unequal opponent. To hurt a disabled man in a duel would have brought Clarke public blame, so his refusal could be cast not as cowardice but as forbearance toward a man who could not properly defend himself. This reveals the nuances of the honour code, where the circumstances of an opponent could make a refusal to fight honourable rather than shameful, Clarke framing his conduct as consideration rather than fear.

The examination reveals the council functioning as a court of inquiry into the officers conduct, questioning each man in turn, permitting Clarke to put further questions to Scott and recording that Scott made no reply to a direct challenge. This procedure, with its examination of parties and witnesses and its careful noting of answers and silences, shows the council applying an orderly judicial method to a matter of discipline and honour. The formality of the process reveals how the small settlement substituted the collective authority of its governing council for the private and lethal resolution of the duel.

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Manner you have done when you Cannt say that ever I Abused you

Then Mr Scott immediately made Answer and said I

thought I could not Abuse you too much Then both withdrew

Upon hearing the whole Affair both pro and

Con betwixt these two Gentlemen The Governour gives his Opinion that they have both

been equally to blame throughout the whole in offending the Honourable Company and

himself and therefore said they both should Ask the Honourable Companys Pardon

Mr Dixon differs from the above Opinion

for says he if they have Offended the Honourable Company as you Let them Ask pardon but I

cannot see that Mr Clarke has in the Least he did nothing more than put the Governours

Orders in Execution and in doing that I think he did nothing but his duty for Mr

Clark to be brought in equality Culpable with Mr Scott is what I cannot agree to. if

Mr Clark asks Pardon the same as Mr Scott Then let Mr Scott ask Mr Clarks

Pardon for the Base affronts he has given him

⅌ Lieutenant Scott

for that Mr Scott hath been at Sundry times and upon Sundry Occasions very Abusive and

disrespectfull But most particularly in by Ordering the Soldiers of the Second Company not

to Obey him Hayes as an Officer in any Shape and when ever he presumed to Strike any

of them under Arms to come Immediately and acquaint him Scott with it or elseha Scott

would Beat them himself Is that Mr Hayes says he cant set up to the Duty of his

Station as Adjutant nor Carry any Cours and at all

Whereupon Lieutenant Scott was Ordered to

appear and make Answer to Mr Hayes's Complaint which he did as Follows Vizt

That Mr Hayes one Night going to the Soldiers

Barrack Later than Ordinary Called to the Centinel to open the door That the Centinel

did accordingly open the door and Mr Hayes going in thro the Barrack to the Room

when he Steps Stumbled over a Chest that Lay in the way, Grew Angry and returned to the

Centinel

Clarke continued, asking Scott to show him the manner in which Scott could say that Clarke had ever abused him.

Scott immediately answered and said that he thought he could not abuse Clarke too much. Both then withdrew.

Upon hearing the whole affair, both for and against, between these two gentlemen, the Governor gave his opinion that they had both been equally to blame throughout the whole, in offending the Honourable Company and himself, and therefore said they should both ask the Honourable Company's pardon.

Mr Dixon differed from the above opinion, saying that if they had offended the Honourable Company then they should ask pardon, but he could not see that Clarke was in the least at fault, since he did nothing more than put the Governor's orders into execution, and in doing that he thought he did nothing but his duty. For Clarke to be brought into equal culpability with Scott was what Dixon could not agree to. If Clarke asked pardon the same as Scott, then let Scott ask Clarke's pardon for the base affronts he had given him.

Dixon held that Scott had been abusive and disorderly at sundry times and upon sundry occasions, but most particularly by ordering the soldiers of the Second Company not to obey Mr Hayes as an officer in any shape, and whenever he presumed to strike any of them under Scott's arms, to come immediately and acquaint Scott with it, or else Scott would beat them himself. Mr Hayes had said this so tied up the duty of his station as adjutant that he could not carry any command at all.

Start of crossed out section

Lieutenant Scott was accordingly ordered to appear and make answer to Mr Hayes's complaint, which he did as follows.

Mr Hayes, one night going to the soldiers barracks later than ordinary, called to the centinel to open the door. The centinel did accordingly open the door, and Mr Hayes, going in through the barrack to the room, tripped and stumbled over a chest that lay in the way. He grew angry and returned to the centinel.

End of crossed out section

Interpretations

The council divided openly over the judgement, the Governor holding both officers equally to blame while Dixon dissented and defended Clarke as having done no more than his duty. Dixon's insistence that Clarke should not be made equally culpable, and his counter-proposal that Scott alone should ask pardon for his affronts, reveals a genuine disagreement over justice within the governing body. This shows the council as no mere rubber stamp for the Governor's view, its members willing to record contrary opinions and argue the merits, the third of council openly opposing the Governor's even-handed condemnation.

Dixon's account widened the charge against Scott beyond the quarrel with Clarke, revealing that Scott had undermined the adjutant Hayes by ordering his own company's soldiers not to obey him. Scott had told the men to report any of Hayes's attempts to discipline them, threatening to beat them himself if they submitted, so paralysing Hayes's authority as adjutant. This reveals a deeper pattern of insubordination, Scott not merely quarrelling with a fellow lieutenant but actively subverting the chain of command and rendering another officer's station powerless.

The Governor's framing of the offence as one against the Honourable Company and himself, rather than merely between the two men, shows how a private quarrel was treated as a breach of institutional order. By casting the dispute as an affront to the Company, the Governor brought it within the council's disciplinary authority and made the remedy an apology to the Company rather than satisfaction between the parties. This reveals how the settlement subordinated personal disputes to the overriding demand for order and obedience, the officers answerable not to each other's honour but to the Company they served.

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Centinel and Beat him upon his Post. That the next morning when the Guard was

acquainted of he he did say that the Adjutant had in the small he he Centinel

upon his Post And whenever he presumed to do so again that they should come and

acquaint him Scott with it When he would to prove that he did not Obey the Adjutant

too Disrespectfull in should Contempt of the Welfare of the said Company he

appealed to Mr Godfrey who was then the same is before to enquire into the Affair

and found that Mr Scott spoke only in reference to the Centinel And that Mr Scott did

his duty in ressenting a Centinels being Struck upon his Post as it could Allowable

in any Question in the Wind The Method being first to relieve them And then to Call

the on Account for any Misdemeanor they may have been Guilty of

Mr William Hayes Adjutant Complains that

Mr Scott Lieutenant of the Second Company Ordered the Men of the said

Company not to Obey his Orders

Whereupon We Examined both partys and found

them equally Guilty both in Words and Actions therefore gave them this

Caution, either of them to give any room for such like Complaints for the

Future

C. Dixon

We cannot by any means answer either to our Consciences or

to our Masters the Signing of the above which Mr Dixon has Entled in the book

and calls a Consultation in Presence of us. But we are Satisfyed at Mr Dixons

Presuming to inspire upon our judgments knowing it to be Egregiously false

Partial and Malitious Intirely Calculated to hide the Malitious Behaviour of

his Friend Mr Clarke. And the following is the Honest and Impartial

Consultation Vizt

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

The council received this day from John Worrall, on behalf of his father William Worrall, £25 0s 0d in settlement of a debt due to the estate of the late John Goodwin.

Start of crossed out section

The centinel, and beat him upon his post. The next morning, when the centinel was relieved, he did say that the adjutant had used him in such a manner. The centinel, upon his post, and whenever he presumed to strike him, they should come and acquaint Scott with it. When he would report that he did not obey the adjutant, so refusing, Scott would sink into the welfare of the Second Company. Clarke appealed to Mr Godfrey, who had been the day before to enquire into the affair, and found that Scott made only in reference to the centinel, and that Scott did his duty in resenting a centinel being struck upon his post, as it was not allowable in any question in the fort. The method being first to relieve them, and then to call them to an account for any misdemeanour they may have been guilty of.

Mr William Hayes, adjutant, complained that Mr Scott, lieutenant of the Second Company, ordered the men of the Second Company not to obey his orders.

The council examined both parties and found them equally guilty, both in words and actions, and therefore gave them this caution, that neither of them give any room for such like complaints in future.

Dixon.

End of crossed out section

The council held that it could by no means answer, either to its conscience or to the Masters, the signing of the above which Mr Dixon had entered in the book and called a consultation in their presence. The council was of the view that Mr Dixon, presuming upon its judgements, knew it to be erroneously filed, partial and malicious, entirely calculated to hide the villainous behaviour of his friend Mr Clarke. The following is the honest and impartial consultation.

The report was signed by George Gabriel Powell and John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The record here turned on itself in an extraordinary way, the Governor and Godfrey striking out and repudiating an entry that Dixon had made and called a consultation. They declared Dixon's version erroneous, partial and malicious, accusing him of shaping the record to shield his friend Clarke, and set down their own account as the honest and impartial one. This reveals a bitter split within the council reaching beyond the original quarrel into the very keeping of the record, the majority overruling and denouncing a colleague's minute as a corrupt attempt to falsify the settlement's official history.

The dispute exposed the vulnerability of the written record to the factions of those who kept it, the consultation book itself becoming a battleground between the Governor's party and Dixon. That two members could strike out a third's entry as a lie and substitute their own shows how the authority of the record depended on who controlled it, and how a dissenting member might be accused of abusing his access to it. This reveals the fragility of institutional memory in a small and divided administration, where the account of events could be contested, cancelled and rewritten by the very men it concerned.

The crossed-out passage preserved Scott's defence over the beating of a soldier on his post, revealing the proper military procedure that a sentry struck at his post should first be relieved and only then called to account. Scott had justified his conduct as resenting an improper blow to a centinel on duty, invoking the rule that discipline must follow the correct form. This detail reveals the settled customs of garrison discipline, where even the punishment of a soldier had to observe an established order, and where a breach of that order could be defended as upholding the fort's proper practice.

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At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 23d day of November 1742 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2d of Council

Christopher Dixon 3d of Council.

The Last Consultation was read and approved

There being one of those Houses which was Built for the

Council not taken up by a proper Tenant And the Vacancy in Council The Govr sometime

ago appointed this house for him who was next to Council i.e. The Factor Mr Joshua

Fugnam. At Present one of the Lieutenants make use of it But him We Ordered should have the

Allowance for House Rent and resign this to his Senior the aforesaid Factor however this

Order as not yet being Complyed with on the part of the Lieutenant And Mr Fugnam having

made Application to the Governour for this House as his Right in Turn we this Day sent

for Mr Fugnam and told him he should Live in this House untill those same one in Council

here only this he must take along With him that he must not be there singly but that a

Writer Mr Darvale must have one half of his Apartment

We heartily wish the Fortifications were in any Tolerable

Posture of disence That so we might ease our Masters of this Expense of House Rent by

Building Apartments for their Covenanted and Commissioned Servants which Shall be the next

Work set about after Ruperts is done with

Mr Hayes makes Complaint of Lieutenant Scott for

that Mr Scott hath been at Sundry times and upon Sundry Occasions very Abusive and

Disrespectfull but most Particularly is by Ordering the Soldiers of the Second Company not to Obey

him Hayes as an Officer in any Shape and whenever he presumed to Strike any of them

under Arms to come Immediately and acquaint him Scott with it in else he Scott would Beat

them himself Is that Mr Hayes says he cant Act up to his duty as Adjutant nor Carry any

Command at all

Whereupon Lieutenant Scott was Ordered to appear and make

Answer to Mr Hayes's Complaint which he did as follows Vizt

At a consultation held on Tuesday 23 November 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

There being one of the houses which was built for the council not taken up by a proper tenant, and the vacancy in council, the Governor some time earlier had appointed this house for the man next to the council, that is the factor Mr Joshua Twyman. As one of the lieutenants then had use of it, the council ordered that Twyman should have the allowance for house rent and resign the house to the factor. This order not being complied with on the part of the lieutenant, and Twyman having made application to the Governor for the house as his right, the Governor this day sent for Twyman and told him he should live in the house until someone else in council was there, only that he must take along with him, not to be there singly, a writer, and that Mr Darvall must have one half of the apartment.

The council heartily wished the fortifications were in any tolerable posture of defence, so that it might ease the Masters of the expense of house rent by building apartments for their covenanted and commissioned servants, which should be the next work set about after Rupert's was done with.

Mr Hayes complained of Lieutenant Scott, that Scott had been at sundry times and upon sundry occasions very abusive and disrespectful, but most particularly by ordering the soldiers of the Second Company not to obey Hayes as an officer in any shape, and whenever he presumed to strike any of them under arms, to come immediately and acquaint Scott with it, or else Scott would beat them himself. Hayes said this so tied up the duty of his station as adjutant that he could not carry any command at all.

Lieutenant Scott was accordingly ordered to appear and make answer to Mr Hayes's complaint, which he did as follows.

Interpretations

This entry is the honest and impartial consultation that the Governor and Godfrey substituted for the version they had struck out, covering the same events of the housing allocation and Hayes's complaint against Scott. Presenting a second, official account of the same day's business reveals how completely the dispute over the record had divided the council, the majority rewriting the minutes to their own satisfaction after repudiating Dixon's version. The two parallel accounts of one consultation stand as evidence of a governing body at war with itself over the truth of its own proceedings.

The Governor's wish to build apartments for the Company's servants, so ending the expense of house-rent allowances, was made conditional on first putting the fortifications into a tolerable state of defence and finishing the work at Rupert's. This ordering of priorities reveals the constant tension between the settlement's defensive needs and its domestic ones, the Governor acknowledging the waste of paying rent allowances yet placing the island's security ahead of the convenience of housing its officers. The naming of Rupert's, a fortified valley of the island, shows the sequence of defensive works the settlement had in hand.

The housing arrangement imposed on Twyman, required to share his allotted house with a writer named Darvall who was to have half the apartment, shows the Company economising on accommodation by lodging its servants together. Twyman could not have the house singly but must take a subordinate in with him, revealing how even the housing of officers was managed to make the fullest use of limited buildings. This confirms the pressure on accommodation that ran through the whole dispute, the settlement short of proper quarters and obliged to double up its servants until more could be built.

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That Mr Hayes one Night going to the Soldiers Barrack

Later than Ordinary called to the Centinel to open the door That the Centinel did accordingly

open the door and Mr Hayes going in thro the Barrack to the Room where he Steps stumbled

over a Chest that Lay in the way Grew Angry and returned to the Centinel and beat him upon

his Post That the next morning when he Scott was acquainted with it he did say that the

Adjutant had no Business to Strike the Centinel upon his Post And whenever he presumed to

do so again that they should come and acquaint him Scott with it. Upon this which

to prove that he did not obey the Adjutant had no Business with nor should Strike any of the

Soldiers of the Second Company he appealed to Mr Godfrey who is then the Trouble before

to enquire into the Affair and found that Mr Scott spoke only in reference to the Centinel

And that Mr Scott did his duty in resenting a Centinels being Struck upon his Post as

it is not Allowable in any Garrison in the Whits The method being first to relieve him

and then to Call on to an Account for any Misdemeanor they may have been Guilty of

Complaint having been made that Lieutenant

Clark and Lieutenant Scott had quarrelled and had a Challenge had Passd We therefore

to prevent farther Mischief We day sent for the Partys and Enquired into the Affair as

follows beginning with Mr Clarke Vizt

Mr Clark said that Govr Lambert had Ordered that the

House late Doctor Browns should be divided betwixt the two Companys and that the

Lieutenants should agree between themselves about the Division. That accordingly he

and Mr Scott tossd up for the first Choice of the Rooms and he Mr Clark got the Choice

and did Cause accordingly and put the People of the first Company into Possession of one

half of the House and Mr Scott for the Second Company took possession of the other half

That after Governour Lamberts deceace Governour

Powell Confirmed his Order of Mr Lamberts and the Division made of the House

That sometime past the Serjeants of the 2d Company

had got Possession of one of those Rooms made Choice of for the First Company Whereupon

he Mr Clark went thither and demanded the Key of the Room but the Serjeants told him

that it was Lieutenant Scotts Orders to them not to part with the Key and thereupon

Mr Clarke made use of his Cane to the Serjeant, for the Easier coming at the Key and

by that means at Length got it and Delivered it to the Serjeant of the first Company

That

Scott answered that Mr Hayes, one night going to the soldiers barracks later than ordinary, called to the centinel to open the door. The centinel did accordingly open the door, and Mr Hayes, going in through the barrack to the room where he lodged, stumbled over a chest that lay in the way. He grew angry and returned to the centinel, and beat him upon his post. The next morning, when Scott was acquainted with it, he did say that the adjutant had no business to strike the centinel upon his post, and that whenever he presumed to do so again, the men should come and acquaint Scott with it. Upon the whole, to prove that he did nothing but his duty, the adjutant had no business with, nor should strike, any of the soldiers of the Second Company. Scott appealed to Mr Godfrey, who had taken the trouble earlier to enquire into the affair, and found that Scott spoke only in reference to the centinel, and that Scott did his duty in resenting a centinel being struck upon his post, as it was not allowable in any garrison in the fort. The method being first to relieve them, and then to call them to an account for any misdemeanour they may have been guilty of.

Complaint having been made that Lieutenant Clarke and Lieutenant Scott had quarrelled and that a challenge had passed, the council, to prevent further mischief, this day sent for the parties and enquired into the affair as follows, beginning with Mr Clarke.

Clarke said that Governor Lambert had ordered that the house of the late Doctor Brown should be divided between the two companies, and that the lieutenants should agree between themselves about the division. Accordingly he and Scott tossed up for the first choice of the rooms, and Clarke got the choice, and did so accordingly, putting the people of the First Company into possession of one half of the house, and Scott for the Second Company took possession of the other half.

After Governor Lambert's death, the Governor confirmed the order of Mr Lambert and the division made of the house.

Some time earlier, the serjeants of the First Company, having got possession of one of the rooms made choice of for the First Company, Clarke went thither and demanded the key of the room from the serjeants. It was Lieutenant Scott's orders to them not to part with the key, and thereupon Clarke made use of his cane to the serjeant, and the key being at length got, he delivered it to the serjeant of the First Company.

Interpretations

This official version of Clarke's testimony differed in a telling detail from the account struck out earlier, here framing the demand for the key as directed against the serjeants under Scott's orders rather than dwelling on the blow. The careful rewording shows the majority shaping even the surviving testimony to Clarke's advantage, presenting his use of the cane as a response to Scott's improper interference through the serjeants. This reveals how the contested rewriting of the record extended into the fine grain of the evidence, each version of events tilted toward the party that controlled the pen.

The house at the centre of the dispute was that of the late Doctor Brown, divided between the two companies as barracks by order of the former Governor Lambert and confirmed by his successor. That a deceased officer's house passed to military use, split between companies, shows how the settlement reused its limited buildings as officers died and needs changed. This detail reveals the fluid use of the island's scarce housing, a dead surgeon's residence converted into shared barracks and becoming the ground of a bitter quarrel over its division.

Scott's defence over the centinel invoked the settled principle that an adjutant had no business striking a soldier on his post, and that the proper course was to relieve the sentry first and discipline him afterward. By appealing to Godfrey, who had already enquired and found Scott spoke only of the centinel, Scott sought to show his conduct as the upholding of correct garrison practice rather than insubordination. This reveals the competing claims to propriety that ran through the whole affair, each officer casting his own conduct as the observance of proper military order and his opponent's as its breach.

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That about a Week ago Mr Scott went to the said House and

demanded the Key of the aforesaid Room from the Serjeants of the First Company and upon finding

Difficulty of getting it he too made use of his Cane to the Serjeants which proved at this time likewise

a Prevailing Argument and he got the Key and redelivered it to the Serjeant of the second Company

And withall told the Serjeant of the first Company that they might go and Complain to their Captain

meaning Mr Clarke for what he Mr Scott cared Which I apprehend of Mr Scott, Mr Clarke says

he took in the Following Sense vizt That he Scott would serve him Clarke as he had served the

Serjeants. Whereupon on Saturday before I sit after the Guard was relieved he Asked Mr Scott

about it and immediately Mr Scott Abused him with gross Language and Challenged him and

about an hour after he Likewise Abused him as he was walking up the Street

That he Mr Clark did not Care with Fighting with Mr Scott

as he was Lame and therefore made his Complaint to Mr Godfrey who was Chief altho

First the Governour being in the Country Whereupon Mr Godfrey went to the Barrack and

Settled the division of the Rooms

Mr Scott being Asked what he had to say made Answer

as follows vizt

That the Serjeants Room which Mr Clarke has been speaking off

did properly belong to the Second Company being one of the Rooms which came to his Lott upon tossing

up for the Choice and therefore he put the Serjeants of the second Company in Possession of it

That it is true there was a Serjeant of the First Company in the

Room for sometime but he happened to be a Man who was dangerously ill And therefore he Mr

Scott allowed him to be in the Room aforementioned because it was much Cofher to the Doctors

Shop than the Hospital and so more Convenient for the Doctor to Attend him

That Mr Clark took an Opportunity to go to the Barracks and as

he himself hath said made use two of his Cane to the Serjeants of the Second Company untill he

Obtained the Key of the Room and then gave it to the Serjeant of the first Company. And upon the

Serjeants of the second Company Complaining of the Injustice of Mr Clarks beating on

upon this Occasion, he told them he would give them Liew Club Liew

That he Mr Scott upon hearing of this did go and demand

the Key from the Serjeants of the First Company and upon the hesitating to serve them as

Mr Clarke had before served the Serjeants of the Second Company i.e. Beat them for refusing to

Deliver

Clarke continued, that about a week earlier Scott went to the house and demanded the key of the room from the serjeants of the First Company. Upon finding difficulty in getting it, he made use of his cane to the serjeants, which proved at that time likewise a prevailing argument, and he got the key and delivered it to the serjeant of the Second Company. He told the serjeant of the First Company that they might go and complain to their captain, meaning Mr Clarke, for what he, Scott, had done. For this expression of Scott's, Clarke said he took him in the following sense, that Scott would serve him, Clarke, as he had served the serjeants. Whereupon, on Saturday earlier, after the guard was relieved, Clarke asked Scott about it, and immediately Scott abused him with gross language and challenged him, and about an hour later he likewise abused him as he was walking up the street.

Clarke did not care to fight with Scott, as Scott was lame, and therefore made his complaint to Mr Godfrey, who was then chief, the Governor being in the country. Whereupon Mr Godfrey went to the barracks and settled the division of the rooms.

Scott, being asked what he had to say, made answer as follows.

The serjeants room which Clarke had been speaking of properly belonged to the Second Company, being one of the rooms which came to Scott's lot upon tossing up for the choice, and therefore he put the serjeants of the Second Company into possession of it.

It was true there was a serjeant of the First Company in the room for some time, but he happened to be a man who was dangerously ill, and therefore Scott allowed him to be in the room, because it was much nearer to the doctor's lodging than the hospital and so more convenient for the doctor to attend him.

Mr Clarke took an opportunity to go to the barracks, and as he himself had made use of his cane to the serjeants of the Second Company until he obtained the key of the room, he then gave it to the serjeant of the First Company. Upon the serjeants of the Second Company complaining of the injustice of Clarke's beating on this occasion, he told them he would give them law, club law.

Scott, upon hearing of this, went and demanded the key from the serjeants of the First Company, and upon their hesitating, served them as Clarke had before served the serjeants of the Second Company, that is, beat them for refusing to deliver it.

Interpretations

Scott's account inverted Clarke's, presenting the same events with the roles of aggressor and victim reversed, each man claiming the room by right and casting the other's use of the cane as the true injustice. Where Clarke's official testimony had cast his own blows as the enforcement of his allotment, Scott insisted the room was his by lot and that Clarke had first beaten the serjeants of the Second Company. This reveals the fundamental impossibility of reconciling the two accounts, the same physical acts described by each as provocation by the other, the truth buried beneath two irreconcilable versions of who struck first.

Scott's phrase that Clarke had promised the beaten serjeants club law, meaning the rule of force rather than of right, turned Clarke's own words against him as evidence of a violent temper. The threat of club law, the law of the cudgel, revealed the brutal reality beneath the officers dispute, discipline enforced by beating rather than by proper authority. This detail shows how far the quarrel had descended from any orderly division of quarters into mutual violence, each officer beating the other's serjeants to assert possession of a room.

Scott's humane reason for allowing a sick serjeant of the First Company to remain in the disputed room, that it lay nearer the doctor's lodging than the hospital, cast his conduct in a sympathetic light against Clarke's aggression. By showing that he had tolerated a rival company's man out of concern for the sick, Scott presented himself as reasonable and considerate where Clarke was grasping and violent. This reveals the rhetorical strategy of the competing accounts, each officer marshalling details to paint himself as the just and moderate party and his opponent as the author of the trouble.

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deliver the Key and told them That they were Sawcy Fellows and might if they pleased

Complain to their Captain Mr Clark

That on Saturday before I sit after the Guard was relieved Mr

Clark came to him Scott in a Violent Passion upon the parade before most of the Guard and

immediately Abused him in a very Gross manner Shaking his Cane, told him That neither

his head nor his Wale should Excuse him in future. Whereupon Mr Scott told him not to

look upon him as a Serjeant for he would not bear his Ill Language. That instead of

Calling Names upon the Parade before all the Soldiers if Mr Clark had any thing to

say to him as a Gentleman he was going to walk in the Garden where he was ready

to Answer him as a Gentleman

Mr Owen and Mr Kendall was Called in

and Asked if they Saw Mr Clarke Shake his Cane at Mr Scott and they said they did not

see it and was tossam of to hear what passed

Upon the whole the Governour told Messrs Clarke and Scott

that he the Governour was Offended for if any difference arose relating to the Division

of this House which he had given previous Orders concerning, it was their duty to

have acquainted him with it that so it might have been Amicably determined And not

to have taken upon themselves to decide the matter by Club Law and beating the Serjeants

of the first and Second Company that therefore they should Ask the Honourable

Company And his Pardon for this their piece of Ill Conduct

Mr Clark Acknowledged himself to Blame as I told he wife

Mr Scott

Then the Govr told these Gentlemen that they should entirely

to forget the Errand they were sent upon which was to assist in Keeping Peace and

quietness in the Island and defend it against Foreign Enemies instead of which they

disturbed the Peace of the Island & raised Factions & Divisions within it to say nothing

of the Ill precedent it was Shewing the Garrison People amongst whom it was their

Particular duty to encourage a Harmony to Quarrell between themselves upon the

Publick parade however upon their Promise to behave in Future with more Prudence in

Circumspection

Scott continued, that he delivered the key and told the serjeants that they were saucy fellows and might, if they pleased, complain to their captain Mr Clarke.

On Saturday earlier, after the guard was relieved, Clarke came to Scott in a violent passion upon the parade, before most of the guard, and immediately abused him in a very gross manner. Shaking his cane, Clarke told him that neither his head nor his cane should escape him in future. Whereupon Scott told him not to look upon him as a serjeant, for he would not bear his ill language. Instead of calling names upon the parade before all the soldiers, if Clarke had anything to say to him as a gentleman, Scott was going to walk in the garden, where he was ready to answer him as a gentleman.

Mr Owen and Mr Kendall were called in and asked if they saw Mr Clarke shake his cane at Mr Scott, and they said they did not see it, and were too far off to hear what passed.

Upon the whole, the Governor told both Clarke and Scott that, whether the Governor was offended or not for any difference that arose relating to the division of the house which he had given previous orders concerning, it was their duty to have acquainted him with it, so that it might have been amicably determined, and not to have taken upon themselves to decide the matter by club law and beating the serjeants of the First and Second Company. Therefore they should both ask the Honourable Company's pardon for this their piece of ill conduct.

Mr Clarke acknowledged himself to blame, as did also Mr Scott.

The Governor then told both gentlemen that they seemed entirely to forget the errand they were sent upon, which was to assist in keeping peace and quietness on the island and defend it against foreign enemies. Instead of which they disturbed the peace of the island and raised factions and divisions within it, to say nothing of the ill precedent it was showing the garrison people, amongst whom it was their particular duty to encourage a harmony, to quarrel between themselves upon the public parade. However, upon their promise to behave in future with more circumspection.

Interpretations

The Governor's rebuke reframed the whole squalid quarrel as a betrayal of the officers fundamental purpose, that they had been sent to keep peace and defend the island against foreign enemies, not to sow faction within it. By recalling their true errand, the Governor cast their brawling as a dereliction of duty that endangered the settlement's security and set a corrupting example to the men. This reveals the guiding principle by which the council judged the affair, the paramount need for order and unity in a small and vulnerable garrison outweighing any private grievance between its officers.

Both officers finally acknowledged themselves to blame and promised to behave with more circumspection, bringing the long dispute to a formal close through mutual submission and apology to the Company. This resolution, an admission of fault by both parties rather than the vindication of either, shows the council's aim as the restoration of order rather than the assignment of victory. The settlement reveals the council's method of ending such quarrels, extracting apologies and promises of future good conduct so that the appearance of discipline was preserved whatever the merits of the original dispute.

This version's account of the parade confrontation, resting on the testimony of Owen and Kendall that they neither saw the cane shaken nor could hear what passed, left the crucial provocation unproven either way. Where the earlier struck-out version had the ensigns positively deny the cane was shaken, here they merely say they did not see it and were too far off, a subtle weakening that no longer flatly contradicted Scott. This shift between the two versions reveals once more how the contested record could be shaded, the same witnesses reported slightly differently to serve the purposes of whoever set down the account.

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Circumspection Regarding each other as becomes Brother Officers and good Faithd Men This Error

is Recorded to us with to any more thought of

Mr John Godfrey Reports that when he was informed

of the Difference about the Barracks he called Mr Clarke and Mr Scott together and

told them that he would Settle this affair of the Barracks in the Evening which he did

to both their Satisfactions and upon Mr Clarke Complaining of Mr Scotts Challenging

him I told him I would take care of that affair And to Mr Scott being a People it

was not worth while to take any Notice of him and thereupon they Shook together

without any words and I was in hopes no more words would happen about it and

Imagined it would be to have put the affair under Arrest But was Surprized to

hear it Reported to the Governour before he came out of the Country

This Report was Delivered in Consultation of the 7th December

because of Mr Dixon the Govrs Neglect when it was Really Reported on

the 23d day of November

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

At a Consultation held the 24d November 1742 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2d of Council

Christopher Dixon 3d of Council

The Last Consultation was read and approved

The Governour Reports that Yesterday Evening upon

the Parade he was greatly insulted by Lieutenant Clark coming Abruptly to him and in a

very Rude manner telling him that he Clarke had not had Common Justice done him in

Consultation

The Governor closed by urging the two officers to behave toward each other as became brother officers and good fighting men, so that the affair need not be thought of any more.

Mr John Godfrey reported that, when he was informed of the difference about the barracks between Mr Clarke and Mr Scott, he told them that he would settle the affair of the barracks in the evening, which he did to both their satisfactions. Upon Clarke complaining of Scott's challenging him, Godfrey told him he would take care of that affair, and that Scott, being a cripple, it was not worth while to take any notice of him. Accordingly they parted together without any words, and Godfrey was in hopes no more words would happen about it. He designed to have put the aggressor under arrest, but was surprised to hear it reported to the Governor before he came out of the country.

This report was delivered in the consultation of the 4 December, because of Mr Dixon's neglect, when it was really presented on 23 November.

The report was signed by George Gabriel Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on 24 November 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor reported that yesterday, being upon the parade, he was greatly surprised by Lieutenant Clarke coming abruptly to him in a very rude manner, telling him that Clarke had used common justice done to him in a previous consultation.

Interpretations

Godfrey's report confirmed that he, as chief in the Governor's absence, had settled the barracks dispute to both officers satisfaction and had intended to put the aggressor under arrest before the matter reached the Governor. His surprise that it was reported to the Governor before he came out of the country reveals a resentment that his own handling of the affair had been overtaken. This shows the tangled lines of authority when the Governor was absent in the country, a subordinate settling a dispute only to find his resolution undone once the matter was carried over his head to the returning Governor.

The note explaining that Godfrey's report, though delivered in the consultation of 4 December, was really presented on 23 November and delayed by Dixon's neglect, continued the running accusation against Dixon over the keeping of the record. This persistent blaming of Dixon for the mishandling and misdating of entries reveals how deeply the factional distrust had corrupted the council's basic administrative function. The very timing of when reports were presented and recorded became another ground of dispute, the majority repeatedly charging Dixon with neglect and manipulation of the book.

The fresh quarrel opening the next consultation, with Clarke now coming rudely to the Governor himself and complaining of injustice done him in a previous consultation, shows the dispute spreading from the two lieutenants to embroil Clarke directly with the Governor. Clarke's grievance had shifted from Scott to the council's own handling of his case, revealing how the affair refused to settle and kept generating new confrontations. This continuation demonstrates how a single quarrel over a barracks room had metastasised into a wider breakdown of relations, reaching now to open rudeness toward the Governor on the public parade.

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Consultation of the Morning, Intimating that Mr Scott should have been made to Ask his

Pardon

The Governour reminded him that both himself and Mr

Scott Confessed themselves in fault and therefore being both Culpable he could not

Conceive why one should Ask the others pardon And

That it was not for him to oblige one Officer to Ask another

pardon and thereby blow the Coals of affairs that can never be Extinshed But it

seiams his Duties to Accommodate differences in the Safest and most Amicable

manner so as the Partys might be sorry for the Offence given to each other and

become hearty Friends

That he Flatterd himself this Method had been Crownd with

Success as both Mr Clark and Mr Scott dined with him after the Consultation and

to all Appearance were good Friends

Whereupon Mr Clark declared himself in no wise,

satisfied and repeated his Rudness said in a Session That he had not had Justice

done him so loud as that all the Guard heard and advanced to the Main Guard gate

Immediately upon Observing that the Governour

Ordered Mr Clarke to his Room willing as I might rid of him as soon as he Could not

knowing of what Ill Consequence it might be for the People to see a Lieutenant

Stop him upon the Parade and address him in so mutinous a manner

Mr Clark was then Ordered to appear and make

Answer for his Unaccountable and Unprindented Behaviour the Last Evening

He said that he did not know he had given the Governour any

Offence but was of the same Opinion and way of thinking as he was Last Night

Whereupon he was Ordered to withdraw And we

Considered how to proceed with this Gentleman but being all Willing to Act the good

Naturd part We agreed to send for Mr Clarke in again and gave him another

Opportunity of acknowledging his Error and promising better behaviour in future

that so we might look over this Offence

Mr Clark being accordingly called to appear and asked if he

would

Clarke's complaint referred to the consultation of the morning, intimating that Mr Scott should have been made to ask his pardon.

The Governor reminded him that both Scott and himself had confessed themselves in fault, and therefore, being both culpable, he could not conceive why one should ask the other's pardon. It was not for the Governor to oblige one officer to ask another's pardon and thereby blow the coals of a difference that could never be extinguished, but it was his duty to accommodate differences in the safest and most amicable manner, so that the parties might be sorry for the offence given to each other and become hearty friends.

The Governor said he had flattered himself this method had been crowned with success, as both Clarke and Scott dined with him after the consultation and to all appearance were good friends.

Whereupon Clarke declared himself in no terms satisfied, and repeated his rudeness, said in a passion, that he had not had justice done him, so loud that all the guard heard, and advanced to the main guard gate.

Immediately upon observing that the Governor ordered Mr Clarke to his room, willing to keep the sight of him as soon as he could, and not knowing of what ill consequence it might be for the people to see a lieutenant address him in so mutinous a manner.

Mr Clarke was then ordered to appear and make answer for his unaccountable and unprecedented behaviour the previous evening.

He said that he did not know he had given the Governor any offence, but was of the same opinion and way of thinking as he was last night.

Whereupon he was ordered to withdraw, and the council considered how to proceed with this gentleman. Being all willing to act the good natured part, the council agreed to send for Mr Clarke again and gave him another opportunity of acknowledging his error and promising better behaviour in future, so that it might overlook this offence.

Interpretations

The Governor's refusal to make one officer apologise to the other rested on a considered principle of peacemaking, that forcing such an apology would blow the coals of a quarrel that could never then be extinguished. By holding both men equally culpable and requiring only that each be sorry and become friends, the Governor aimed at genuine reconciliation rather than the humiliation of either. This reveals a deliberate philosophy of managing disputes among his officers, the Governor preferring to smother a grievance in mutual goodwill than to feed it by exacting a one-sided submission.

Clarke's renewed outburst on the public parade, declaring loudly before the guard that he had not had justice, transformed his grievance into an act of open insubordination toward the Governor himself. The Governor ordered him to his room out of concern for the example set to the men, not knowing of what ill consequence it might be for the people to see a lieutenant address him so mutinously. This reveals the particular danger of officer indiscipline enacted in public, where the soldiers witnessing a lieutenant defy the Governor threatened the whole fabric of authority in the garrison.

The council's decision to give Clarke yet another chance to acknowledge his error, rather than punish his defiance at once, shows a persistent preference for reconciliation over severity even in the face of open rudeness. Being all willing to act the good natured part, the council chose to send for him again and offer him the opportunity to promise better conduct. This reveals the council's reluctance to escalate a matter of discipline into a formal punishment, repeatedly extending the offending officer the means to redeem himself so that the affair might be quietly overlooked.

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would say nothing for himself that might Lessen his Offence, he said that he had nothing to say more

than he had said and was still of Opinion he had not had Justice done him

We then Determined that it was Imprudence to keep a Man of

his Ungovernable and Turbulent disposition in this Garrison And to put it out of his Power

to raise any further Quarrells or Sedition amongst the People We told him that thro his Iterecam

Ill Behaviour he had forfeited his Commission And from that Instant he was no longer a

Companys Servant

We this day Agreed to take the Oath of Fidelity and

Secrecy Which was done by us as follows Vizt

To be true and faithfull to the Honourable the United East India

Company in the Execution of all their Orders directed to us as the Council of this Island

and Strictly to follow the Rules prescribed by the said Honourable Company And to keep

Secret all matters that shall be discussed at this Council Board

So help us God

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

Margin Notes:

Lt Clark summarily dismissed

Clarke would say nothing for himself that might lessen his offence. He said that he had nothing more to say than he had already said, and was still of opinion that he had not had justice done him.

The council then determined that it was imprudent to keep a man of his ungovernable and turbulent disposition in the garrison, and to put it out of his power to raise any further quarrels or sedition amongst the people. The council told him that through his repeated ill behaviour he had forfeited his commission, and from that moment he was no longer a Company servant. Lieutenant Clarke was summarily dismissed.

The council this day agreed to take the oath of fidelity and secrecy, which was done as follows.

Each member swore to be true and faithful to the Honourable United East India Company in the execution of all their orders directed to the council of the island, and strictly to follow the rules prescribed by the Honourable Company, and to keep secret all matters that should be discussed at the council board. So help them God.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The final act against Clarke was his summary dismissal and the forfeiture of his commission, the council concluding that a man of his ungovernable and turbulent disposition could not safely be kept in the garrison. His persistent refusal to submit, maintaining even at the last that he had not had justice, left the council no path to reconciliation and turned the matter from discipline to removal. This reveals the limit of the council's patience and its ultimate power over its officers, the repeated offers of pardon exhausted and replaced by the drastic remedy of stripping a lieutenant of his commission to protect the garrison from further sedition.

The stated ground for the dismissal, to put it out of Clarke's power to raise further quarrels or sedition amongst the people, shows the council's overriding fear of disorder spreading from the officers to the men. Clarke was removed not merely as punishment for his rudeness but as a preventive measure against the danger his turbulence posed to the whole settlement's discipline. This reveals how the council weighed the security of the garrison above the career of an individual officer, judging that the risk of continued faction outweighed any claim Clarke might have to his place.

The taking of the oath of fidelity and secrecy immediately after this bitter and divisive episode is striking in its timing, the three members binding themselves to faithful service and to keeping the council's proceedings secret. Coming directly after a quarrel that had split the council and seen its record contested and rewritten, the oath reads as an attempt to restore unity and confidentiality to a body that had just been torn by faction. This juxtaposition reveals the council reaffirming its collective solemn duties at the very moment its cohesion had been most severely tested, the pledge of secrecy especially pointed after the recent battles over what should be entered in the book.

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At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 7th day of December 1742 at the

Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2d of Council

Christopher Dixon 3d of Council

The Last Consultation was Read and Approved

The Governour residing at the Plantation House

has been since the Last Consultation which was on the 24th November a little

Indisposed so as we could not Examine the Cash in that month but this Day

Examined and found it in good Condition amounting to the Sum of £2898. 1s 3¾d Vizt

Half Ryals

9308

£143. 8s 9d

Ryals

8287

£255. 14s 4½d

Double Ryals

1323

£95. 3s 9d

Dollars

2804 Ryals

£626. 1s 3d

Half Do

248

£31.

Ducratoons

30

£9.

Rupees

839

£96. 12s 9d

Dutch Money

£9. 4s 6d

Pagodas

2297

£1033. 13s

Venetians

32

£16.

St Thomas

34

£2. 2s

½ Moyestone

£6s 9d

Guineas

2

£2. 2s

Pieces of Gold Wt

£82. 17s 2¼d

Sablars

20

£6.

Cash Notes

£483. 5s

Totall

£2898. 1s 3¾d

At a consultation held on Tuesday 7 December 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor, residing at the Plantation House, had been since the previous consultation on 24 November a little indisposed, so that the cash could not be examined in that month. This day the council examined it and found it in good condition, amounting to £2,898 1s 3¾d.

Half royals, 9,308, £143 8s 9d

Royals, 8,287, £255 14s 4½d

Double royals, 1,323, £95 3s 9d

Dollars, 2,804 royals, £626 1s 3d

Half of the same, 248, £31 0s 0d

Doudous, 30, £9 0s 0d

Rupees, 839, £96 12s 9d

Dutch money, £9 4s 6d

Pagodas, 2,297, £1,033 13s 0d

Doudous, 32, £16 0s 0d

St Thomas, 34, £2 2s 0d

Quarter moidore, £0 6s 9d

Guineas, 2, £2 2s 0d

Pieces of gold weight, £82 17s 2¼d

Gablars, 20, £6 0s 0d

Cash notes, £483 5s 0d

Total, £2,898 1s 3¾d

Interpretations

The cash held in the treasury was a remarkable jumble of coin from across the trading world, Spanish royals and dollars, Indian rupees and pagodas, Dutch money, Portuguese moidores, English guineas and more besides. This mixture reveals the island as a meeting point of every currency that moved along the sea routes, its treasury holding the coined silver and gold of Europe, India and the East all together. The absence of any single dominant currency shows a settlement dependent on whatever specie the passing ships and the varied trade brought in, obliged to reckon and hold its wealth in a dozen different moneys at once.

The pagodas made up the single largest holding by value at over a thousand pounds, marking the strength of the Indian trade in the island's finances. A pagoda was a gold coin of southern India, long the principal currency of the Company's settlements on the Coromandel coast, and its dominance in the treasury reflects the flow of wealth from the eastern trade through St Helena. This concentration of Indian gold reveals how closely the island's cash economy was tied to the Company's Asian commerce, the coin of Madras and the south filling its treasury more than the money of Europe.

The precise valuation of each foreign coin in sterling shows the settlement operating a working system for converting a chaos of currencies into a single account. Every kind of money, however exotic, was assigned its value in pounds, shillings and pence, so that the whole diverse hoard could be totalled and reckoned. This reveals the practical financial administration required at such a crossroads, the council maintaining the rates at which the many currencies passed so that the Company's cash could be counted and controlled despite its bewildering variety.

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Mr Browns Man Slave taken on the 4th Instant

and this day was Examined Who Confesses his stealing the Honourable Companys Turkeys as

mentioned in Consultation of the 9th November but Says that he is Charged with Robbing Mr

Vaughan of some Provisions which he denys. Ordered to be Confined till next Sessions in

Order to take his Tryal

Two Man Slaves one belonging to Mr Dowton the other to Chas

Darlings Orphans taken on the 4th December and this day, Examined upon Suspicion of

Robbing Mr Fugnam the Night before of some Wine and other Goods to the value of £6. However

They both Confessed the taking the same for which they were both Ordered back to Prison in

Order to take their Tryal the next Sessions

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

C. Dixon

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 17th Day of

Decr 1742 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour.

John Godfrey 2 of Council

Christopher Dixon 3 of Council

The Last Consultation was read and approved

The Governour reports that he hath appointed Mr Thos

Easthope who was Senior Ensign to be a Lieutenant Vacant by the Expulsion

of Mr Clark for his Mutinous behaviour And Mr Joseph Desfountain who was

the Eldest Serjt to be the youngest Ensign

The Governour further reports that he hath privately Talked to

Mr Darvan who is a Companion of Mr Clarks in relation to Mr Dixons Encouraging

and Inviting him to live with him in that House of the Companys which he Inhabits

altho Mr Clark has so Lately been Guilty of so Egregious a Crime as the Endeavouring

to Disturbe the peace and quiet of the Garrison for which he has been dismissd the

Service

Mr Brown's man slave, taken on the 4th instant, was examined this day. He confessed to stealing the Honourable Company's turkeys, as mentioned in the consultation of 9 November, but denied that he was charged with robbing Mr Vaughan of some provisions. The council ordered him to be confined until the next sessions in order to take his trial.

Two men slaves, one belonging to Mr Doveton and the other to Mr Darling's orphans, taken on the 4th December, were examined this day upon suspicion of robbing Mr Twyman the night before of some china and other goods to the value of [...]. They both confessed to the taking of the same, for which they were both ordered back to prison in order to take their trial at the next sessions.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 17 December 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor reported that he had appointed Mr Thomas Easthope, who was senior ensign, to be a lieutenant, the place being vacant by the dismissal of Mr Clarke for his mutinous behaviour. Mr Joseph Desfountain, who was the oldest serjeant, was to be the youngest ensign.

The Governor further reported that he had privately talked to Mr Duncan, who was a companion of Mr Clarke's, in relation to Mr Duncan's encouraging and inviting him to live with him in the house of the Company which he inhabited, although Mr Clarke had so lately been guilty of so egregious a crime, with the reasoning to disturb the peace and quiet of the garrison, for which he had been dismissed the service.

Interpretations

The dismissal of Clarke set off a chain of promotions through the ranks, the senior ensign Easthope raised to the vacant lieutenancy and the oldest serjeant Desfountain advanced to ensign to fill the gap below. This upward movement reveals the settled principle of promotion by seniority within the garrison, a vacancy at the top pulling each man in turn up one step according to his length of service. The removal of a single officer thus reshaped the whole hierarchy, the disgrace of one lieutenant opening the way for the advancement of those beneath him.

The examination of the slaves for theft, confessing to stealing the Company's turkeys and robbing Twyman of china, shows the settlement's slaves held to criminal account before the council and committed to trial at the sessions. That the slaves were tried for their offences reveals a legal system that treated them as responsible persons for the purpose of punishment even while holding them as the property of their masters. This exposes the contradiction at the heart of the island's treatment of the enslaved, counted as chattels in the stock accounts yet answerable as criminals before the court, their humanity acknowledged only to be punished.

The Governor's private warning to Duncan against harbouring the disgraced Clarke shows the council extending its concern beyond Clarke's dismissal to prevent his continued influence within the settlement. By quietly discouraging a friend from lodging the dismissed lieutenant in a Company house, the Governor sought to isolate a man judged a danger to the garrison's peace. This reveals the council's determination that Clarke's removal be complete, guarding against the possibility that a sympathiser might shelter him and keep alive the factional trouble that his dismissal was meant to end.

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Service, and should be disregarded by all True servants and well wellwishers of the

Honourable Company

That it was so very little purpose the Governour Endeavouring to keep up strict

Millitary Discipline and a Decorum in the Island when Mr Dixon who is one of

Council shall so forgett himself and Station as to Carrouse with, Bony and

Encourage any who shall presume to Endeavour at Sedition and the Disturbing of

Peace as in the Case of Mr Clark

That it is his the Governours particular Duty to preserve the Honble

Companys Authority and not suffer it to be wounded through his Side as

Mr Dixon would attempt Therefore he now tells Mr Dixon that he is resolute while

he has the Honour to be first in Commission here to do his Duty in obliging Every

one in the Garrison Impartialy to Do Heir and keep up and maintains the

Honourable Companys Rights in every Particular, and he finds it quite necessary

to tell Mr Dixon who he is sorry to say seems to be a young Gentleman that Loves

his Companion better far than doing the Companys Business that he shall Esteem

that Person who shall under hand Encourage the putting in practice any that was

act that may be agird upon in their Cups the preceeding Night Equaly Culpable

with him who makes himself a principal and And then hath home to answer

for their Misconduct to the Honble Company as he will do with Mr Dixon if

he finds him tardy in the like Nature Therefore desires he will Delight in Carrousing

and rioming less and his Business more than he has hitherto done

That the said Business should not be behindhand and out of friendship

to Mr Dixon the Govrs Law wrote all most every Consultation hitherto Seeing

that of the 23d November relating to Mr Dixons friend Clark which Mr Dixon

himself could find time to do in so partial and ungenerous away in favour of his

Companion that neither Mr Godfrey nor the Govr could sign the Same but

have Expressd their resentments at the safe it for his Managing to impose

upon their judgments so false and partial up a Consultation for a time one

There has been besides the writer as Notice taken in the Secrt office

the better to keep the Business forward and hide Mr Dixons Indolence for

his Hand is not to be seen throughout any one Sentence in the Consultation

Book or Either Copy or Duplicate from the Death of Governour Lambert

which is all most five months There is one writer properly belongs

to the Secrt office which was help enough the whole time the Govr was

Scott, hay he was then some time allone, and yet did the Business of that Office

Therefore the Better to instruct Mr Dixon in the Companys Business

which he seems to be but little acquainted with as well as to keep him more

out of ill Company the Govr ordered That the Writer should be no more

Employed in the Secrt office and the Secrt himself oftener there

Mr Dixon said that Mr Clark then should not live in the

Companys House with him but he hoped he might keep him Company

for he Ellsways behaved himself very well to him

The Governor held that Duncan's conduct should be disregarded by all true servants and well-wishers of the Honourable Company. It was to very little purpose the Governor should endeavour to keep up strict military discipline and decorum on the island, when Mr Dixon, being one of the council, would so forget himself and his station as to carouse with, and encourage, any who should presume to endeavour at sedition and the disturbing of the peace, as in the case of Mr Clarke.

The Governor said it was his particular duty to preserve the Honourable Company's authority and not suffer it to be wounded through his side, as Dixon would attempt. He therefore told Dixon that, disagreeable as it was, he had the honour to be first in commission there, and it was his duty to oblige everyone in the garrison impartially to do their duty and keep up and maintain the Honourable Company's rights in every particular. He found it quite necessary to tell Dixon, who he was sorry to say seemed to be a young gentleman that loved his companion better than doing the Company's business, that he should esteem any man who should encourage the putting in practice any matters that Dixon and others might agree upon in their cups the previous night as equally culpable with him who made himself a principal, and should both hold themselves to answer for their misconduct to the Honourable Company. So Dixon would do with the Governor, if he found him faulty in the like nature. He therefore desired that Dixon would delight in carousing and running himself off, and his business more than he had lately done.

The Governor held that the council's business should not be behindhand and out of friendship to Mr Dixon, seeing that the consultation of 23 November relating to Dixon's friend Clarke, which Dixon himself could find time to do in so partial and ingenuous a way in favour of his companion, was such that neither Mr Godfrey nor the Governor could sign the same, but had expressed their resentment at the folly of it for his managing to impose upon their judgements so false and patched-up a consultation for a true one.

There had been, besides, the writer whose office was taken in the secretary's office the better to keep the business forward and hide Mr Dixon's indolence, for his hand was not to be seen throughout any one sentence in the consultation book, or either copy or duplicate, from the death of Governor Lambert, which was almost five months. There was one writer properly belonging to the secretary's office, which was help enough for the whole time the office was Scott's. Perhaps he was then some time alone, and yet did the business of that office. Therefore, the better to instruct Mr Dixon in the Company's business, which he seemed to be very little acquainted with, as well as to keep him more out of ill company, the Governor ordered that the writer should be no more employed in the secretary's office, and that Dixon himself be oftener there.

Mr Dixon said that Mr Clarke then should not live in the Company's house with him, but he hoped he might keep him company, for he always behaved himself very well to him.

Interpretations

The quarrel over Clarke now stood fully revealed as a bitter feud between the Governor and Dixon, the Governor openly accusing his colleague of carousing with seditious men and neglecting the Company's business for the sake of his friend. The charge that Dixon loved his companion better than his duty, and had drawn up a false and patched-up consultation to shield Clarke, shows the depth of the rupture at the head of the settlement. This reveals how completely the affair had poisoned relations within the council, the Governor using the official record itself to denounce a fellow member as partial, indolent and disloyal.

The Governor's complaint that Dixon's hand appeared nowhere in the consultation book for almost five months, since Governor Lambert's death, exposes a dispute over Dixon's discharge of his duties as the officer responsible for the record. The Governor's remedy, to withdraw the writer from the secretary's office and compel Dixon to attend it himself, was framed as a means both to instruct him in the Company's business and to keep him out of ill company. This reveals how administrative failings became weapons in the factional struggle, the Governor turning the question of who did the clerical work into a public reproach of Dixon's idleness and bad associations.

Dixon's mild reply, conceding that Clarke should not live with him but hoping he might still keep his company, shows him quietly refusing to abandon his friend despite the Governor's onslaught. His insistence that Clarke had always behaved well toward him reveals a personal loyalty that the Governor's accusations could not break. This exchange lays bare the human core of the whole dispute, a clash between the Governor's demand for institutional solidarity and a councillor's stubborn attachment to a disgraced friend, the two men divided as much by personal loyalty as by any question of Company policy.

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And as the Govr had complained he must say something of him which was that

he had made three two Millitary Officers without Acquainting him with it which he takes

very ill for he says the Govr can do nothing here without Consent of the Council

by the Companys orders And another thing is that the Governour Ordered the writer

that belongs to the Secrt office to send him a Book out of the office without

first Sending to him which he likewise takes very ill

The Govr told Mr Dixon that as to the filling up the Millitary

it has ever been the Custome of this place for the Govr for the time being to Do it

and at the next Consultation to report it that so if they had any objections to

the Persons they might Declair it and accordingly he took the same Method

besides he had wronged no man by putting one over another mans head for they

took it in turne And

As to the other Complaint of Mr Dixons the Govr says

that if Mr Dixon will but look over the Companys Orders he will find that he the

wright as Govr for the time being to Send for and Examine any Book belonging to any

of the office provided he returns it into the office again after Examination and on such

Occasions he must apply to the writer in the Secrt office untill Mr Dixon acts in

a more becoming Inquser and more like the Secrt

The Govr reports that the writers have not yet taken the Oath

of Fidelity to the Honble Company which therefore they should be Summoned to do next

Consultation

Wee this day recd of several Persons upon the following account

Vizt

Mr Edwin Alcock for Purchases made at the outery of the Effects of the Late

John Godwin Esqr

£77. 4s 10½d

And for a Black work purchased of

the Honble Company, Aged Eleven Years

£11

£88. 4s 10½d

Recd of the Executors of the Late Charles Stewart for Goods purchased at the

outery of the Effects of the Late John Godwin Esqr

£21. 4s 2½d

And of the said Executors Capt Francis Stewarts Ship account

£29. 2s 1d

£50. 6s 3½d

For which we gave the following receipt Vizt

December the 17. 1742

Recd of the Executors of Mr Charles Stewart the sum of one hundred and

and ten Pounds Sixt Shillings & Sixpence farthing. Part for Goods purchased at the outery

of the Late John Godwin Esqr And part for the Ballance of Capt Francis Alexander

Ships account

Dixon continued, that as the Governor had complained, he too must say something of the Governor, which was that he had made these two military officers without acquainting him with it, which Dixon took very ill, for he said the Governor could do nothing there without the consent of the council by the Company's orders. Another thing was that the Governor ordered the writer belonging to the secretary's office to send him a book out of the office without first sending to Dixon, which he likewise took very ill.

The Governor told Dixon that, as to the filling of the military posts, it had ever been the custom of the place for the Governor for the time being to do it, and at the next consultation to report it, so that if the council had any objection to the persons they might declare it. Accordingly the Governor had taken the same method, and besides he had wronged no man by putting one over another man's head, for they took it in turn.

As to Dixon's other complaint, the Governor said that if Dixon would but look over the Company's orders he would find that he had the right, as Governor for the time being, to send for and examine any book belonging to any office, provided he returned it into the office again after examination. On such occasions he must apply to the writer in the secretary's office until Dixon acted in a more becoming manner and more like the secretary.

The Governor reported that the writer had not yet taken the oath of fidelity to the Honourable Company, and therefore should be summoned to do so at the next consultation.

The council received this day from several persons the following sums.

Edward Alcock, for windows made at the outcry of the estate of the late John Goodwin Esq, £77 4s 10¾d

For a black wench purchased of the Honourable Company, aged eleven years, £11 0s 0d

Total, £88 4s 10¾d

Received of the executors of the late Charles Stewart for goods purchased at the outcry of the effects of the late John Goodwin Esq, £21 4s 2¾d

And of the executors, Captain Francis Stewart's ship account, £29 2s 1d

Total, £50 6s 3¾d

The council gave the following receipt for the sum received of the executors of Mr Charles Stewart, that is £150 16s 6¼d, part for goods purchased at the outcry of the effects of the late John Goodwin Esq and part for the balance of Captain Francis Alexander's ship account, dated 17 December 1742.

Interpretations

The Governor and Dixon each now accused the other of exceeding his authority, Dixon protesting that the Governor could do nothing without the council's consent under the Company's orders, and the Governor answering that custom and the Company's own rules gave him the powers he had used. The dispute over whether the Governor might appoint officers or examine the office books without consulting Dixon reveals a genuine constitutional quarrel over the division of authority on the island. This exposes the uncertainty at the heart of the settlement's government, the exact balance of power between the Governor and his council contested and each man reading the Company's orders to his own advantage.

The sale of an eleven-year-old black girl by the Company for £11, entered plainly among the receipts alongside payments for windows and ship accounts, lays bare the routine commerce in enslaved children on the island. That a child was sold as casually as a parcel of joinery, her price recorded in the same list as ordinary goods, reveals the utter reduction of the enslaved to merchandise. This entry, matter-of-fact and unremarked in the record, shows the traffic in human beings woven into the everyday financial business of the settlement, a girl of eleven bought and sold as a commodity of the Company.

The winding up of the late John Goodwin's estate continued through these entries, with payments still coming in for goods bought at the outcry months after the sale. The involvement of the executors of Charles Stewart and the reference to a ship account tie the estate's settlement to the wider web of debts and obligations among the island's people. This reveals the slow and tangled process of settling a deceased colonist's affairs, the recovery of debts and the collection of auction proceeds dragging on across many consultations as the estate was gradually cleared.

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Recd off the following Persons for Goods purchased at the outery of the Effects

of the Late John Goodwin Esqr Vizt

John Bagly

£1. 2s 6d

Joseph Whaley

12s 6d

£1. 15s

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

At a Consultation held on the 21 Decr at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Govr

John Godfrey 2 of Council

Christopher Dixon 3 of Council

The Last Consultation was read and approved

Mr Dixon this Day paid in Ten Pounds two Shillings & Sixpence

which he has recd of the following Persons for their Quit Rents Vizt

Mr Elizabeth Ryder

£7. 18s 9d

Mr John Twaits

£0. 10s

Mr Mary Sbreave

£1. 13s 9d

£10. 2s 6d

The council received of the following persons for goods purchased at the outcry of the effects of the late John Goodwin Esq.

John Bagley, £1 5s 6d

Joseph Whaley, £0 12s 6d

Total, £1 18s 0d

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 21 December 1742 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

Mr Dixon this day paid in £10 2s 6d, which he had received of the following persons for their quit rents.

Elizabeth Ryder, £7 18s 9d

John Twaits, £0 10s 0d

Mary Shrace, £1 13s 9d

Total, £10 2s 6d

Interpretations

Despite the bitter quarrel of the previous consultations, Dixon appeared and discharged his ordinary duties, paying in the quit rents he had collected from three of the island's tenants. That the routine business of the settlement carried on regardless of the feud between the Governor and Dixon shows the administrative machinery continuing to function even through personal conflict at its head. This reveals the resilience of the everyday governance of the island, the collection of rents and the keeping of accounts proceeding as normal while the men who conducted them remained at odds.

The quit rents paid in by the tenants were the fixed annual payments due to the Company as proprietor of the island's land, the sums by which the leaseholders acknowledged the Company's ultimate ownership. Elizabeth Ryder's larger payment against the smaller sums of the others reflects the different extent of the holdings each tenant occupied. This collection of quit rents reveals the working of the island's landholding system in practice, the Company drawing its regular revenue from the land it had let and the tenants rendering the yearly acknowledgement of their tenure.

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Then we proceed to Examine the Cash and found it in good Condition to the Amount of

£3108. 12s 11½d In the following particulars vizt

Pagodas

2650

£1192. 10s

Venetians

72

£36.

St Thomas

4

£2. 8s

Gubbers

20

£6.

Guineas

2

£2. 2s

½ Moydore

£1. 3s

½ gold Rupee

£13s

Pieces of Gold

£82. 17s 2¼d

Dollars

2611. 2d

£652. 16s 3d

Half Dollars

249

£31. 2s 6d

Double Ryals

1327

£95. 8s 9d

Ryals

8293

£259. 3s 0½d

Half Ryals

9308

£143. 8s 9d

Rupees

839

£96. 12s 9d

Ducratoons

30

£9.

Dutch Money

£11. 3s 1½d

Cash Notes

£181. 5s

£3108. 12s 11½d

We Governour Reports that this Morning he had occasion to send into the

Secretary Office for the Consultation Book which was brought him by the Writer the Secretary not being

there And in looking over it he found to his very great Surprize, that in that peace which Mr Dixon

wrote on the 23d of Last month in Vindication of his friend Mr Clark and would have imposed upon

Mr Godfrey and my self as a Consultation, there was very many alterations and Additions made in

it Privately after it has been read in Council and upon his the Governours asking how it came about

the Writer made answer that it was Mr Dixons Orders. Whereupon he Desired the Writer to Enquire

where Mr Dixon was And if he found him to let him know that he the Governour wanted to speak

with him

Upon Mr Dixons coming the Governour put it to him whether he had not

made these alterations Privately in the Consultation Book Since it was read in Council. which

with Some Confusion he Confessed

Then the Governour told him that such Treatment was very ungenerous nor

The council then proceeded to examine the cash and found it in good condition, amounting to £3,108 12s 11½d, in the following particulars.

Pagodas, 2,650, £1,192 10s 0d

Venetians, 72, £36 0s 0d

St Thomas, 4, £2 8s 0d

Gablars, 20, £6 0s 0d

Guineas, 2, £2 2s 0d

Moidore, £1 13s 0d

Quarter gold royals, [...]

Pieces of gold, £82 17s 2¾d

Dollars, 2,411 2 royals, £632 16s 3d

Half dollars, 249, £31 2s 6d

Double royals, 1,327, £95 8s 9d

Royals, 8,293, £259 3s 6½d

Half royals, 9,308, £143 8s 9d

Rupees, 839, £96 12s 9d

Doudous, 30, £9 0s 0d

Dutch money, £11 3s 1½d

Cash notes, £184 5s 0d

Total, £3,108 12s 11½d

The Governor reported that this morning he had occasion to send into the secretary's office for the consultation book, which was brought to him by the writer, the secretary not being there. In looking over it he found, to his very great surprise, that in the piece which Mr Dixon entered on the 23rd of last month, in vindication of his friend Mr Clarke, and which would have imposed upon Mr Godfrey and himself as a consultation, there were very many alterations and additions made, and privately after it had been read in council. Upon the Governor asking how it came about that the writer had made the alterations privately in the consultation book since it was read in council, the writer made answer that it was Mr Dixon's orders. Whereupon the Governor desired the writer to enquire where Mr Dixon was, and if he found him, to let him know that the Governor wanted to speak with him.

Upon Mr Owen coming, the Governor put it to him whether he had not made the alterations privately in the consultation book since it was read in council, which with some confusion he confessed.

The Governor then told him that such treatment was very disingenuous.

Interpretations

The Governor's discovery revealed a fresh and serious charge against Dixon, that after his account of the Clarke affair had been read in council, alterations and additions were secretly made to the entry in the consultation book. That the record could be tampered with after its formal reading, on Dixon's orders, struck at the very integrity of the settlement's official memory. This exposes the gravest failing yet in the whole dispute, the deliberate falsification of the council's book, a document that was meant to stand as the fixed and authoritative record of its proceedings.

The writer's confession that he had made the changes on Dixon's orders directly implicated the councillor in the alteration of the record, turning suspicion into admitted fact. The Governor's careful establishment of the point, questioning the writer and then confronting Owen, shows him building a documented case against Dixon much as Clarke had earlier built one for himself. This reveals the recurring pattern of the whole affair, each accusation pursued through formal examination and confession, the truth of who had done what pinned down through questioning so that it might stand in the record.

Even as this bitter scene unfolded, the routine examination of the treasury proceeded, the diverse hoard of foreign coin counted and valued as at every consultation. The steady rise in the cash total, now over three thousand pounds, against the mixture of pagodas, dollars, royals and rupees, shows the island's finances continuing their normal course through the political storm. This juxtaposition of grave institutional crisis with the ordinary counting of the cash reveals again how the settlement's essential business went on regardless of the feuds among its governors, the money told and recorded while the council tore itself apart over the keeping of its book.

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ould by any means be allowed of being Directly Contrary to the Stated Rules of doing the Honble

Companys Business, therefore Desired he would not be guilty of any such fault in future

Whereupon Mr Dixon grew Extreamly Angry said he was not to

Learn the Companys Orders he knew em as well as the Governour did and he thought the Governour

Used him very Ill, that he was resolute he would not be a slave, that he knew he had done right and

no body here should convince him to the Contrary, Thus the man passionately on further than and

he reported Nor would the Governour have Disputed any of this if Mr Dixon had Treated him

with Common good Manners and taken the Advice in as good sort as he gave it him, But he

finds himself Obliged to acquaint the Honourable Company thro this means of Mr Dixons

very unaccountable Behaviour

Mr Dixon being Present was asked what he had to say Concerning

the above, & Instead of Answering any thing in his own favour immediately fell upon the

Governour with such passionate Gross unbecoming Language as surely was never before man

ase of in Council Insomuch that Mr Godfrey could not bear it without Expressing his

Concern for Mr Dixons Immodisty and Singularity and told him it very Ill became him

and his Station and that such Behaviour was much too unbecoming to be allowed in

Consultation where the greatest Decorum ought to be Observed for our own Credit and for our

Masters Honour

Upon the whole we told Mr Dixon that hereafter he must not presume

Privately to make Alterations and Additions in any of the Consultations after they have

Passed the Council and withall that he must not Expect any more to Interrupt the Company

Business with his Litigiousness for we should be Culpable in the Eyes of our Masters to

Suffer it

Mr Dixon said that he would insist upon his being in the Right and no

one should tell him to the Contrary and would give into Councils ⅌aper next Consultation

There appeared before us this day Mr Joshua Worrall who acquaints

us that agreeable to the prayer of his Petition Entred on Consultation of the 5th of October Last

he hath Sold his Leasehold Land unto Thomas Colgrove and hoped we would accept him a

Tenant

Agreed to Accept of Mr Thomas Colgrove as a Tenant for the Land he has

Purchased of Joshua Worrall

Mr Robert Wright having several Effects here which

Governour Lambert Ordered should be put into the Possession and Care of Mr Dixon who

The Governor held that such conduct could by no means be allowed, being directly contrary to the settled rules of doing the Honourable Company's business, and therefore Dixon should not be guilty of any such fault in future.

Whereupon Dixon grew extremely angry and said he was not to learn the Company's orders, knowing them as well as the Governor, and he thought the Governor used him very ill. He was resolved he would not be a slave, that he knew he had done right, and nobody there should convince him to the contrary. He then ran on passionately no further than before. Had the Governor desired any of this, Dixon had treated him with common good manners and taken the advice in as good part as he gave it to him. The Governor found himself obliged to acquaint the Honourable Company of Mr Owen's very unaccountable behaviour through this means.

Mr Dixon, being present, was asked what he had to say concerning the above, and instead of answering anything in his own favour, immediately fell upon the Governor with such passionate, gross, unbecoming language as surely was never before made use of in council. Mr Godfrey could not bear it without expressing his concern for Dixon's immodesty and singularity, and told him it very ill became him and his station, and that such behaviour was much too unbecoming to be allowed in council, where the greatest decorum ought to be observed for the council's own credit and for the Masters honour.

Upon the whole, the council told Dixon that in future he must not presume privately to make alterations and additions to any of the consultations after they had passed the council, and that he must not expect any more to interrupt the Company's business with his singularities, for the council should be to blame in the eyes of the Masters to suffer it.

Dixon said that he would insist upon his being in the right, and no one should tell him to the contrary, and would give into council's answer after the next consultation.

Mr Joshua Worrall appeared before the council this day and reported that, in accordance with the prayer of his petition entered on the consultation of 5 October last, he had sold his leasehold land to Thomas Cosgreve, and hoped the council would accept him as a tenant.

The council agreed to accept Thomas Cosgreve as a tenant for the land he had purchased of Joshua Worrall.

Mr Robert Wright, having several effects here which Governor Lambert desired should be put into the possession and care of Mr Dixon, who then held them.

Interpretations

The confrontation reached its bitterest pitch, Dixon falling upon the Governor with gross and unbecoming language such as the council had never before heard, and even the second of council, Godfrey, moved to rebuke him for immodesty and singularity. Dixon's furious declaration that he would not be a slave, that he knew he was right and no one could convince him otherwise, shows a councillor in open defiance of both his colleagues. This reveals the complete breakdown of collegial order within the council, a member abandoning all decorum and setting himself against the whole body, the very unity the oath of fidelity had lately sought to restore shattered again.

The council's formal injunction that Dixon must never again privately alter a consultation after it had passed, and must cease interrupting the Company's business with his singularities, shows the body attempting to reassert the integrity of its procedures against a recalcitrant member. The concern that the council would be to blame in the eyes of the Masters if it suffered such conduct reveals the ever-present anxiety about how the settlement's governance would appear to the distant authority in London. This exposes the council's ultimate accountability, its members conscious that their internal disorder, if tolerated, would reflect on the whole council before the Company they all served.

Amid the turmoil, the ordinary business of land transfer proceeded, Joshua Worrall's sale of his leasehold to Thomas Cosgreve approved and the new man accepted as tenant. That the transfer required the council's acceptance of the purchaser as tenant reveals once more the Company's control over who might hold its land, no leasehold changing hands without the council's sanction of the incoming holder. This routine approval, transacted in the same session as the furious quarrel, shows the persistent working of the settlement's landholding system, the Company's grip on the succession of its tenants maintained even as its governors fell to open strife.

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were Mr Wrights only Acquaintance We therefore desired Mr Dixon would give us an Account

Particulars of the Effects that so Mr Wrights Heirs incase himself Was dead might know what

they were and how to come by them

G. G. Powell

John Godfrey

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 4 Janr 1742/3 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Govr

John Godfrey 2 of Council

Christopher Dixon 3 of Council

The Last Consultation was read and approved

Mr John Godfrey this Day brought in his Collection for the Month of

of July August and September as follows Vizt

Arrach 50 Gallons at 6. 6 ⅌ Gall

£17. 10s 2¾d

Bread & Flour Vizt

3 Bread

£3. 15s 8d

4 Flour 3. 10/8

£4. 2s 8d

Blankets 4 at 9/6d

£1. 8s

Beef 3 Do at 3/1½

£9

Broad Cloth Vizt

Yards ashe 8. 5

Yards of Scarlet 6. 6

Yards of Broad Cloth 3. 15. 6

£18. 4s 6d

Braziersware 1 Copper Sauce pan

£6. 6d

Candles 24 at 2/8

£5. 2s 6d

Combes Vizt

18 Ivory Combes Sorted

£1. 1s

2 Buckling Ditto

£1. 4s

£1. 2s 4d

Carried over

£52. 1s 11d

The council noted that the goods were Mr Wright's only acquaintance, and therefore desired Dixon would give an account of the particulars of the effects, so that Wright's heirs, and Dixon himself when it was done, might know what they were and how they came by them.

The consultation was signed by George Gabriel Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 4 January 1743/3 at the Castle.

Present were George Gabriel Powell Esq, Governor, John Godfrey, second of council, and Christopher Dixon, third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

Mr John Godfrey this day brought in his collection for the months of July, August and September as follows.

Arrack, 33½ gallons at 6s 6d per gallon, £17 10s 3¾d

Bread, £3 15s 8d

Flour, 24 of the same at 3s 10¾d, £4 2s 8d

Blankets, 4 at 9s each, £1 8s 0d

Beef, 3 of the same at 3s 1½d, £0 9s 0d

Broad cloth, 5 yards of the same, ash colour, at 8s 5d, and 6 yards of scarlet at 6s 6d, £18 4s 6d

Braziersware, 1 copper saucepan, £0 6s 6d

Candles, of the same, at 3s 2d, £5 2s 6d

Combs, 18 ivory combs, sorted, £1 1s 0d

12 buckling of the same, £0 1s 4d

Total, £52 1s 11¾d

Carried over, £52 1s 11¾d

Interpretations

Godfrey's collection recorded the sale of Company goods to the settlement over the quarter, drink, provisions, cloth and household wares passing out of the store to the inhabitants and garrison. The arrack, bread, flour and beef sold alongside broad cloth, candles and combs show the store functioning as the settlement's shop, its stock steadily converted into cash as the population bought what it needed. This reveals the commercial side of the store's work, the great inventory not merely held against need but continually sold off to those on the island, the proceeds gathered in as the Company's revenue.

The broad cloth sold in ash colour and scarlet points to the making of clothing on the island from imported cloth, the buyers purchasing the material to have garments made up. Scarlet in particular was the colour of military and formal dress, and its sale alongside the plainer ash-coloured cloth shows the range of clothing the inhabitants and officers procured. This confirms that while finished garments were imported, much clothing was still made locally from bought cloth, the store supplying the raw material from which the settlement's tailors worked.

The mixture in Godfrey's account, from strong drink to sewing combs, mirrors the vast range of the inventory itself, the store selling across every category of its stock. That a single quarter's sales spanned arrack, beef, cloth, a copper saucepan, candles and combs reveals the store meeting the whole spread of the settlement's material wants. This confirms once more the store's central place in the island's economy, the one source from which a remote community drew its drink, its food, its clothing and its household goods alike.

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Brought over

£52. 1s 11d

Cutleryware Vizt

1 Fistoics Pen knife

£1. 3s

1 Buck Pruning knife

£1. 6s

£2. 9s

Chelloe 27 Pieces at 14/ ⅌ ⅌

£18. 18s

Cordage 1. 1. 21

£3. 18s 10½d

Chinaware Vizt

16 Nogging Cups at 3 each

£1s

77 half Pint Cups at 4 each

£1. 3s 8d

1 Coffee Cup

£2

£1. 4s 10d

Corks 7½ Gross at 4/6 ⅌ Gross

£1. 13s 9d

Deesootees Vizt

1 Double Peice

£1. 8s

2 Single Do

£1. 8s

£2. 16s

Deales Vizt

9 Double Deales

£1. 8s

4 Spares

£18s

£2. 6s

Duck 21 Yards Russia

£1. 16s 9d

Glaziersware Vizt

102 Quarry Glass 8 by 8

£1. 14s 9d

95 Do 8 by 10

£3. 3s 4d

2 Beer Glasses

£2. 4s

2 Glass Mugs

£3. 6s

£3. 10s 1d

Hooks and Lines Vizt

118 Blew Hooks

£2. 4s

20 ½ Doz Hooks Sorted

£8. 15s 1d

29 ½ Doz Lines Sorted

£8. 14s 11d

3 Large hambrough Lines

£9s

1 Small Do

£2s

£20. 3s

Hosiersware Vizt

1 Do Womens Worst Hose

£5. 9s

2 Do Boys Hose

£6. 6s

£12. 3s

Carried over

£111. 11s 5½d

Godfrey's collection continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £52 1s 11¾d

Cutlery ware.

1 factory penknife, £0 1s 3d

1 buck pruning knife, £0 1s 6d

Cutlery ware total, £0 2s 9d

Chellow.

27 pieces at 14s per piece, £18 18s 0d

Cordage.

1 hundredweight 1 quarter 21 lb, £3 18s 10½d

China ware.

16 nagging cups at 3d each, £0 4s 0d

77 half pint cups at 4d each, £1 3s 8d

1 coffee cup, £0 0s 2d

China ware total, £1 9s 10d

Corks.

7½ gross at 4s 6d per gross, £1 13s 9d

Desootees.

1 double piece, £1 8s 0d

2 single of the same, £1 8s 0d

Desootees total, £2 16s 0d

Deals.

9 double deals, £1 8s 0d

4 spars, £0 18s 0d

Deals total, £2 6s 0d

Duck.

21 yards of Russia, £1 16s 9d

Glazier ware.

102 foot of quarry glass, 12 by 8, £1 14s 9d

95 foot of the same, 8 by 10, £3 3s 4d

2 beer glasses, £0 2s 4d

2 glass mugs, £0 3s 6d

Glazier ware total, £3 10s 11d

Hooks and lines.

44 blue hooks, £0 2s 4d

20½ dozen hooks, sorted, £8 13s 1d

29½ dozen lines, sorted, £8 14s 11d

3 large Hamburg lines, £0 9s 0d

1 small of the same, £0 2s 0d

Hooks and lines total, £20 3s 0d

Hosiers ware.

1 pair of womens worsted hose, £0 5s 9d

2 pairs of boys hose, £0 6s 6d

Hosiers ware total, £0 12s 3d

Total carried over, £111 11s 5¾d

Interpretations

The sales in this quarter drew on the same Indian and European stocks recorded in the great inventory, chellow and desootees from the East sold alongside English deals, duck and glassware. That the store sold both the fine Indian cottons and the plain materials of building and glazing shows the whole breadth of its stock passing into the hands of the settlement. This confirms the store as the single conduit through which the goods of the wider world reached the island's people, the eastern cloth and the English timber alike bought from the one warehouse.

The steady sale of hooks and lines, here over twenty pounds worth in a single quarter, confirms the practical importance of fishing to the settlement noted when the vast stock was first recorded. The islanders bought fishing tackle in quantity, drawing on the great reserve of hooks and lines to equip themselves for taking fish from the surrounding waters. This reveals fishing as a real and continuing part of the island's food supply, the inhabitants regularly purchasing the gear to catch what the sea afforded.

The presence of window glass, quarry glass sold by the foot in specific dimensions, among the quarter's sales shows the continued glazing and building work on the island drawing on the store's stock. The inhabitants bought glass cut to size to fit their windows, the store supplying the material for the settlement's ongoing construction and repair. This confirms the active building life of the island, the glass that had been shipped out in sheets steadily sold off and set into the windows of the growing settlement.

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Brought over

£111. 11s 5½d

Haberdasheryware Vizt

23½ Oz China Silk

£1. 15s 3d

12 Do Tape Sorted

£13s 9¼d

18½ M Pins

£1. 6s 8¼d

12 M Mohair

£1. 1s 6d

12 Oz English Silk

£1. 2s 10¼d

13 doz Coat Buttons

£13s

37½ doz Breast Do

£13s 11d

4 Do bobing

£1. 8s

4 Do Narrow Carnation Tape

£9s 6d

3 Do Needles

£3s

£7. 14s 4d

Ironmengersware Vizt

4 Frying Pans

£1. 4s 8d

2 Stock Locks A

£2. 6d

3 ditto B

£7. 1d

1 ditto C

£1. 9d

1 Iron Shovel

£3s

14 Wood Screws

£2. 4d

1 Shod Shovel

£3s

4 Do Small Billiards

£8. 3d

£2. 12s 7d

Iron Potts Vizt 11 Small Iron Potts Wt 27½ @ 4/2⅌ ⅌

£3. 14s 3d

Long Cloth Vizt

3 Do Long Cloth @ 33/

£8. 5s

4 Do Do 28/

£5. 12s

£13. 17s

Lead Vizt

10 Sheet Lead

£2. 6d

18 Bird Shott

£16s

£18s 6d

Leather 11½ Do Sole

£13. 6s 2d

Norwich Stuff 15½ Yards Black Crape

£2. 2s

Nailes Vizt

29 Six penny Nailes

£1. 6½d

2 Two henny Do

£3. 4d

2½ Nine penny Do

£2. 11d

23 four penny Do

£17s 3d

Nailes Carried over

£2. 4s 2d

Carried over

£143. 6s 7½d

Godfrey's collection continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £111 11s 5¾d

Haberdashery ware.

23½ ounces of China silk, £1 13s 3d

12 pieces of tape, sorted, £0 13s 9¾d

18½ 90 pins, £1 6s 8½d

12 ounces of mohair, £1 1s 6d

12 ounces of English silk, £1 2s 10½d

13 dozen coat buttons, £0 13s 0d

37½ dozen breast of the same, £0 13s 11d

1 piece of bobbin, £0 1s 8d

1 piece of narrow carnation tape, £0 9s 6d

3 of the same, needles, £0 3s 0d

Haberdashery ware total, £7 14s 4d

Ironmongers ware.

4 frying pans, £1 4s 8d

2 stock locks, marked A, £0 2s 6d

3 of the same, marked B, £0 7s 1d

1 of the same, marked C, £0 1s 9d

1 iron shovel, £0 3s 0d

14 wood screws, £0 2s 4d

1 shod shovel, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of small billiards, £0 8s 3d

Ironmongers ware total, £2 12s 7d

Iron pots.

1 small iron pot, weight 27½ lb, at 1½d per lb, £3 19s 3d

Long cloth.

5 pieces of long cloth at 33s, £8 5s 0d

4 pieces of the same at 28s, £5 12s 0d

Long cloth total, £13 17s 0d

Lead.

10 lb of sheet lead, £0 2s 6d

18 lb of bird shot, £0 16s 0d

Lead total, £0 18s 6d

Leather.

11½ lb of sole, £0 13s 6¾d

Norwich stuff.

13½ yards of black crape, £2 0s 2d

Nails.

29 six penny nails, £0 1s 6¾d

2 hundred two penny of the same, £0 3s 4d

2½ hundred three penny of the same, £0 2s 11d

23 hundred four penny of the same, £0 17s 3d

Nails carried over, £2 4s 2d

Carried over, £143 6s 7¾d

Interpretations

The sale of silks and mohair among the haberdashery shows the finer materials of the East and of English manufacture passing to the settlement's people for their sewing and dress. China silk, English silk and mohair, a cloth made from the hair of the angora goat, were the materials of fine needlework and trimming. This reveals the inhabitants purchasing not only plain necessities but the finer stuffs of the store, buying the silk and mohair from which better clothing and ornament were fashioned even in so remote a place.

The bird shot sold among the lead points to the keeping of firearms for fowling and perhaps for pest control on the island. Bird shot was the small lead pellets fired from a fowling piece to bring down birds, and its sale to the inhabitants shows shooting practised for the pot or for protecting crops. This small entry reveals a further use of the imported lead, worked into ammunition for the sporting or working guns of the settlement, the store supplying the means of the chase as well as of building and plumbing.

The buttons, tapes, pins and needles continued to sell in quantity, the small essentials of clothing and repair passing steadily to the population. That such humble goods were bought alongside the finer silks and cloths shows the store meeting the full range of the settlement's needs in a single quarter's trade. This confirms the pattern of the store's commerce, the plainest pins and the finest silk sold together to a community wholly dependent on the imported stock for everything from the mending of a garment to the making of a fine one.

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Brought over

£143. 6s 7½d

Nailes brought over

£2. 4s 2d

15 Ten Penny Nailes

£10s 6d

27½ Twenty penny Do

£4. 4½d

3 Tacks

£5s

12 Brads

£8. 6d

£4. 2s 4½d

Oyl Vizt

17½ Gallons Oyl at 5/ ⅌ Gall

£4. 7s 6d

2½ Do Linseed at 4/8 Do

£13s

2 Bottles Florence Oyl at 3/9 Ea

£7s 6d

£5. 10s

Oares 2 of 14 foot @ 5/

£10s

Pepper 3½ Do 1/ ⅌ ⅌

£3s 6d

Paint Vizt

9 Double Barrells Lamp Black

£6s

2 Do Red Lead

£1. 8s

1 Do Spanish Brown

£1s

2 Do Smalts

£3. 8s

1 Do White Lead

£6s

£14. 10s

Pallampores 2 @ 6/ Ea

£12s

Pewter Vizt

1 Doz Pewter Spoons

£3. 6d

1 Quart Pott

£5s

1 Quartern Do

£1s

1 half Do Do

£6d

1 Pewter Close Stool penn

£6. 9d

£16. 9d

Pitch &c Vizt

12 Turpentine

£3s

3½ Gallons Tarr

£5. 3d

12 Rozin

£3s

£11. 3d

Rice and Paddy

25 Rice

£3. 4d

1. 2 Paddy

£10. 6d

£13. 10s

Salt 1½ Bushills

£13. 5d

Carried over

£157. 15s 1½d

Godfrey's collection continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £143 6s 7¾d

The nails continued with the amount brought forward.

Nails brought over, £2 4s 2d

15 hundred ten penny nails, £0 10s 6d

27½ hundred twenty penny of the same, £14 10s 10½d

3 hundred tacks, £0 5s 0d

12 lb brads, £0 8s 6d

Nails total, £14 2s 7¾d

Oil.

17½ gallons of oil at 5s per gallon, £4 7s 6d

2½ of the same, linseed, at 4s 8d, £0 13s 0d

2 bottles of Florence oil at 4s 9d each, £0 7s 6d

Oil total, £5 10s 0d

Oars.

2 oars of 14 foot at 5s, £0 10s 0d

Pepper.

3½ lb at 1s per lb, £0 3s 6d

Paint.

9 double barrels of lamp black, £0 6s 0d

2 of the same, red lead, £1 1s 8d

1 of the same, Spanish brown, £0 1s 0d

2 of the same, indigo, £3 3s 8d

1 of the same, white lead, £0 0s 6d

Paint total, £14 10s 0d

Pallampores.

2 at 6s each, £0 12s 0d

Pewter.

1 dozen pewter spoons, £0 3s 6d

1 quart pot, £0 5s 0d

1 quartern of the same, £0 1s 0d

1 half of the same, £0 0s 6d

1 pewter close stool pan, £0 6s 9d

Pewter total, £0 16s 9d

Pitch and tar.

12 lb of turpentine, £0 3s 0d

3½ gallons of tar, £0 5s 3d

12 lb of rosin, £0 3s 0d

Pitch and tar total, £0 11s 3d

Rice and paddy.

25 lb of rice, £0 3s 4d

1 quarter 2 of paddy, £0 10s 6d

Rice and paddy total, £0 13s 10d

Salt.

1½ bushels, £0 13s 5d

Carried over, £157 15s 1¾d

Interpretations

The sale of paddy alongside rice introduces the unhusked grain, paddy being rice still in its outer husk before milling. That both the finished rice and the raw paddy were sold shows the settlement handling the grain at different stages, perhaps buying the paddy to husk and prepare as needed. This reveals a further dimension of the island's dependence on eastern grain, the store supplying rice both ready to eat and still in the husk, drawn from the Company's Asian trade to help feed the population.

The indigo sold among the paints was the deep blue dye long imported from the East and later the West Indies, used both as a pigment and for dyeing cloth blue. Its sale to the inhabitants shows the settlement using the celebrated dye for colouring and painting, one of the most valuable commodities of the tropical trade passing into ordinary use on the island. This confirms the store supplying not only the plain pigments of building but the costly colourants of the wider trade, indigo among them.

The naval stores of turpentine, tar and rosin sold in small quantities show the materials of ship maintenance passing to private hands as well as serving the Company's own vessels. That inhabitants bought tar and turpentine in modest amounts reveals their use in the ordinary upkeep of boats, timber and gear about the settlement. This confirms that the stores held for the great work of refitting the fleet also met the smaller needs of the island's people, the same barrels serving both the Company's ships and the private boats and buildings of the settlement.

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Brought over

£157. 15s 1½d

Shirts and Stockings Vizt

13 Shirts

£1. 19s 6d

7 Do Cotton hose

£4. 6d

£2. 15s

Sugar and Candy Vizt

6. 2. 12 Sugar

£18. 10s

10½ Candy

£4. 10½d

£18. 17s 10½d

Soap 8 Do

£10s

Shott 4½ Do

£1. 7s

Stationaryware 2 Quire Paper

£2. 8s

Shalloon Vizt

8½ Yards Red Shalloon

£1. 8s 10½d

6½ Yards Blew Do

£4. 6d

17½ Yards Coloured Do

£2. 4s 9d

£5. 1½d

Sagathys ½ Do

£1. 19s 11½d

Starch 2 Do

£1. 4d

Shoes Vizt

1 Do Womens Spanish Leather Shoes @ 6/ ⅌ ⅌

£1. 4s

1 Do Do Calve 4/6 Do

£4. 6d

3 Do Mens best Shoes 7/2 Do

£1. 1s 6d

1 Do Boy Shoes

£4. 8s

2 Do Mens Do 6/ Do

£12s

2 Do Do Do 6/2 Do

£12s 4d

1 Do Do

£6. 8d

£4. 5s 8d

Thread Vizt

3½ White Brown Thread

£1. 3s

9 3 Thread Sorted

£3. 3s 10d

17 Coloured Thread Sorted

£3. 8s

½ Oz Silver Twist

£4. 2s

£9. 14s

Twine Vizt

3 Twine

£7. 6d

3 Do Shoe Thread

£7. 6d

£15s

Tinware 2 Tin Lamps

£3s

Turnersware Vizt

2 Scrubbing Brushes

£6. 8d

2 Hair Brooms

£7s

2 Large Wood Bowles

£2. 4d

Turnersware Carried over

£10s

Carried over

£202. 6s 3½d

Godfrey's collection continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £157 15s 1¾d

Shirts and stockings.

15 shirts, £1 19s 6d

7 pairs of cotton hose, £0 4s 6d

Shirts and stockings total, £2 15s 0d

Sugar and candy.

6 hundredweight 2 quarters 12 lb of sugar, £18 10s 0d

10½ lb of candy, £0 4s 10½d

Sugar and candy total, £18 17s 10½d

Soap.

8 lb, £0 10s 0d

Shot.

4½ lb, £0 1s 7d

Stationery ware.

2 quires of paper, £0 2s 8d

Shalloon.

8½ yards of red shalloon, £1 8s 10½d

6½ yards of blue of the same, £0 4s 6d

17½ yards of coloured of the same, £2 4s 9d

Shalloon total, £5 1s 1½d

Sagathy.

7 yards, £1 19s 11½d

Starch.

2 lb, £0 1s 4d

Shoes.

1 pair of womens Spanish leather shoes at 6s per pair, £0 6s 0d

1 pair of the same, calves, at 4s 6d, £0 4s 6d

3 pairs of mens best shoes at 7s 2d, £1 1s 6d

1 pair of boys shoes, £0 4s 8d

2 pairs of mens of the same at 6s, £0 12s 0d

2 pairs of the same at 6s 2d, £0 12s 4d

1 pair of the same, £0 6s 8d

Shoes total, £4 5s 8d

Thread.

3½ lb of white and brown thread, £1 3s 0d

9 dozen 3 of thread, sorted, £5 3s 10d

17 dozen coloured thread, sorted, £2 8s 0d

½ ounce of silver twist, £0 4s 2d

Thread total, £9 19s 0d

Twine.

3 lb of twine, £0 7s 6d

3 lb of shoe thread, £0 7s 6d

Twine total, £0 15s 0d

Tin ware.

2 tin lamps, £0 3s 0d

Turners ware.

2 scrubbing brushes, £0 6s 8d

2 hair brooms, £0 7s 0d

2 large wood bowls, £0 8s 4d

Turners ware carried over, £10 0s 0d

Carried over, £202 6s 3½d

Interpretations

The sale of finished shirts and cotton hose alongside the cloth for making garments shows the settlement buying both the ready-made article and the raw material of clothing. That the store sold complete shirts as well as the shalloon, sagathy and thread from which clothes were fashioned reveals the two ways the population clothed itself, some buying garments outright and others the stuff to have them made. Sagathy was a lightweight woollen cloth, and its sale with the shalloons confirms the range of dress fabrics the store supplied.

The sugar sold in this quarter, over six hundredweight for more than eighteen pounds, was the largest single item in Godfrey's collection, marking the strong demand for the sweet commodity among the settlement. Drawn from the eastern stocks of Bengal and China sugar recorded in the inventory, this bulk sale shows sugar as a staple of consumption on the island as across the western world. This confirms the transforming place of sugar in the diet of the age, the inhabitants buying it in quantity from the store's imported reserves.

The continued sale of shoes, thread, twine and household brushes shows the ordinary necessities of dress, repair and domestic work passing steadily to the population. That a single quarter's collection included everything from Spanish leather shoes to scrubbing brushes and wooden bowls reveals once more the store meeting the whole spread of the settlement's daily wants. This confirms the store's role as the universal supplier, the one source from which the island drew the shoes on its feet, the thread to mend its clothes and the brushes and bowls of its households.

88

82

Brought over

£202. 6s 3½d

Turnersware brought over

£16s

1 Quart Bowle

£7d

2 Platters

£2. 4d

1 Flaskell

£3. 3d

1 Cloth Brush

£1. 8d

£1. 3s 10d

Vinegar 1 Gallon

£2. 6d

£203. 12s 7½d

A Collection of Goods Sold Belonging to the Estate of John Goodwin Esqr

Deceased Vizt

320 Candy

£12. 4½d

Morrees 3 Peices

£3. 15s

Teak Boards 4

£4s

Tea 3½ Do

£1. 6s 3d

Nankeen 1 Peices

£6s

Lead 20½ Pigg

£5. 1½d

Pewter 6 Plates

£12. 6d

£18. 9s 3d

A Collection of Goods in part of the Estate of Governour

Goodwin Delivered to the following Accounts Vizt

Blacks Vizt

1 Tea

£2s

12 Teak Boards

£12s

£14s

Garrison Vizt

31 Tea

£3. 2s

30 Teak Boards

£1. 10s

£4. 12s

Carried over

£5. 6s

Godfrey's collection continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £202 6s 3½d

The turners ware continued with the amount brought forward.

Turners ware brought over, £0 16s 0d

1 quart bowl, £0 0s 7d

2 platters, £0 2s 4d

1 flat dish, £0 3s 3d

1 cloth brush, £0 1s 8d

Turners ware total, £1 3s 10d

Vinegar.

1 gallon, £0 2s 6d

The whole of Godfrey's collection came to a total of £203 12s 7½d.

This account recorded a collection of goods sold belonging to the estate of the late John Goodwin Esq, deceased.

320 lb of candy, £12 0s 1½d

morrees, 3 pieces, £3 15s 0d

teak boards, 4, £0 4s 0d

tea, 3½ lb, £1 6s 3d

nankeen, 1 piece, £0 6s 0d

lead, 20½ lb pig, £0 5s 1½d

pewter, 6 plates, £0 12s 6d

Total, £18 9s 3d

This account recorded a collection of goods, part of the estate of Governor Goodwin, delivered to the following accounts.

Slaves.

1 lb of tea, £0 2s 0d

12 teak boards, £0 12s 0d

Slaves total, £0 14s 0d

Garrison.

31 lb of tea, £3 2s 0d

30 teak boards, £1 10s 0d

Garrison total, £4 12s 0d

Carried over, £5 6s 0d

Interpretations

The morrees and nankeen sold from Goodwin's estate were further Indian and Chinese cottons, morrees a kind of fine blue Indian cloth and nankeen a durable yellowish cotton from the Chinese city of Nanjing. Their appearance among a private colonist's effects shows that the eastern textiles held in the Company store also passed into the hands of individuals, who accumulated such goods and left them to be sold on their death. This reveals how the products of the eastern trade circulated beyond the store into the private property of the settlement's people, forming part of the wealth a colonist might leave behind.

The delivery of goods from Goodwin's estate to distinct accounts for the slaves and the garrison shows the dead man's property being distributed among the institutions of the settlement. Tea and teak boards passed both to the slaves and to the garrison, the estate's goods absorbed into the running supplies of the island's establishments. This reveals how a deceased colonist's effects could be channelled into the settlement's ongoing needs, the winding up of an estate feeding its stock of provisions and materials into the accounts that kept the island functioning.

The allocation of tea and boards to the slaves account, modest though it was, records the provision made for the enslaved as a recognised charge upon the settlement. That the slaves were assigned a share of the estate's goods, entered as a distinct account alongside the garrison, shows their maintenance as a standing cost the establishment had to meet. This confirms the enslaved as a permanent presence in the island's economy, provided for out of its stocks even as they were bought, sold and counted as its property.

89

83

Brought over

£5. 6s

Diet Expences Vizt

209 ½ Sugar

£6. 2s 3d

10 Candy

£4. 3s 4d

1 Double Cotter Tea

£4s

£13. 1s 4d

Account of Clothing

9½ Do Morees @ 15/ ⅌ Peice

£4. 2s 6d

£4. 2s 6d

A Collection of Charges General

from the 1st July to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Avrach 20 Gallons

£1. 13s

Bread 32 Do

£6. 8d

Braziersware Vizt

1 Copper Saucepan

£12. 4d

1 Do

£8. 8d

1 Quart Saucepan

£3. 4d

1 Brass Skimmer

£3. 4d

1 Do Ladle

£1. 9d

£1. 16s 1d

Blanketts 12

£3. 16s

Candles Vizt

2 Chests Candle

£20. 9s 6d

16 Candles

£1. 4s

£21. 13s 6d

Corks 8 Grose

£18. 4d

Cutleryware Vizt

1 doz Knives and Forks No 3

£1. 16s 2d

6 Butters Knives

£2. 6d

£1. 18s 8d

Carried over

£31. 18s 3d

The account of goods delivered from the estate continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £5 6s 0d

Diet expenses.

209½ lb of sugar, £6 2s 2d

40 lb of candy, £1 3s 4d

1 double batter tea, £0 4s 0d

Diet expenses total, £13 1s 4½d

Account of clothing.

9½ pieces of morrees at 15s per piece, £7 2s 6d

Total, £7 2s 6d

This account recorded a collection of charges general from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Arrack.

20 gallons, £1 13s 0d

Bread.

32 lb, £0 6s 8d

Braziersware.

1 copper saucepan, £0 12s 4d

1 of the same, £0 8s 8d

1 quart saucepan, £0 3s 4d

1 brass skimmer, £0 3s 4d

1 of the same, ladle, £0 1s 9d

Braziersware total, £1 16s 1d

Blankets.

12, £3 16s 0d

Candles.

2 chests of candles, £20 9s 6d

16 lb of candles, £1 4s 0d

Candles total, £21 13s 6d

Corks.

8 gross, £0 8s 4d

Cutlery ware.

1 dozen knives and forks, number 3, £1 10s 2d

6 butchers knives, £0 2s 6d

Cutlery ware total, £1 12s 8d

Carried over, £31 18s 3d

Interpretations

The account now turned to the charges general, the goods consumed by the settlement's own establishments rather than sold to individuals, opening a fresh reckoning of the store's internal expenditure. This distinction between goods sold for cash and goods issued to the institutions of the island shows the store serving two functions at once, as a shop to the population and as the commissary from which the garrison, the table and the other establishments drew their supplies. The parallel accounts reveal the careful separation the Company maintained between its retail trade and its own consumption.

The two chests of candles issued at over twenty pounds mark lighting as a major standing charge on the settlement, the candles consumed in quantity through the dark hours of the establishment. Candles were the principal means of artificial light, and the scale of their consumption shows how much the working and social life of the island depended on this steady supply. This reveals the mundane but essential cost of keeping a settlement lit, the store issuing candles in bulk to sustain the activity of the garrison and its officers after dark.

The morrees entered under the account of clothing shows the Indian cotton being made up into garments for the establishment, the fine blue cloth serving the settlement's own clothing needs rather than sale. That the store drew on its stock of eastern textiles to clothe those on its charge reveals the reach of the Indian trade even into the internal provisioning of the island. This confirms the eastern cottons as working materials of the settlement, not merely goods for sale but the very stuff from which the establishment's own clothing was fashioned.

90

84

Brought over

£31. 18s 3d

Cordage Do 2. 21

£1. 1s 4½d

Deesootees Vizt

2 Do Blue Deesootees

£16. 9d

1 Double Do Do

£16. 9d

£1. 13s 6d

Deals 4 Double

£10. 4d

Haberdasheryware Vizt

3½ Yards Ribband

£2. 5½d

39½ Yards Twill

£8. 4d

1 Do Narrow White Tape

£2. 5½d

7½ Oz China Silk Do

£6. 5¾d

£17. 8¼d

Hooks & Lines Vizt

11 Aunard Blew Hooks

£3. 1d

31 doz Hooks Sorted

£3. 4s 7d

11 doz 3 Lines Sorted

£1. 11s 2d

£4. 18s 10d

Ironmongersware Vizt

14 Wood Screws

£4d

1 Frying Pan

£3. 6d

1 Helve

£1. 6d

1 Hand Saw

£5. 6d

1 Claw Hammer

£1. 8d

1 Do

£1s

£12. 7d

Leather Vizt

1 Black Sole Leather

£18. 4d

1 Horse Hide

2 Calve Skins

£15. 2d

£1. 13s 6d

Lead 20 Pigg

£3. 4d

Long Cloth 3 Do

£3. 6d

Norwich Stuffs 17 Yards Black Crape

£1. 4s 9d

Nailes Vizt

5 Twenty penny Nailes

£1. 6d

9 Ten penny Do

£2. 4d

9 Six penny Do

£3. 4d

£7. 7d

Carried over

£48. 16s 2d

The account of charges general continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £31 18s 3d

Cordage.

2 quarters 21 lb, £1 1s 4½d

Desootees.

2 pieces of blue desootees, £0 16s 9d

1 double of the same, £0 16s 9d

Desootees total, £1 13s 6d

Deals.

1 double, £0 10s 4d

Haberdashery ware.

3½ yards of ribbon, £0 2s 5½d

39½ yards of tomill, £8 4s 0d

1 piece of narrow white tape, £0 2s 5½d

7½ ounces of China silk, £0 6s 5¾d

Haberdashery ware total, £11 7s 8¼d

Hooks and lines.

11 hundred blue hooks, £0 3s 1d

31 dozen hooks, sorted, £3 4s 7d

11 dozen 3 lines, sorted, £1 11s 2d

Hooks and lines total, £4 18s 10d

Ironmongers ware.

14 wood screws, £0 0s 4d

1 frying pan, £0 3s 6d

1 helve, £0 1s 6d

1 hand saw, £0 5s 6d

1 claw hammer, £0 1s 8d

1 of the same, £0 1s 0d

Ironmongers ware total, £0 12s 7d

Leather.

1 back sole leather, £0 18s 4d

1 horse hide, £0 15s 2d

2 calve skins, £1 13s 6d

Leather total, £1 13s 6d

Lead.

20 lb pig, £0 3s 9d

Long cloth.

3 pieces, £3 6s 0d

Norwich stuff.

17 yards of black crape, £1 9s 9d

Nails.

5 hundred twenty penny nails, £0 1s 6d

9 hundred ten penny of the same, £0 2s 4d

9 hundred six penny of the same, £0 3s 4d

Nails total, £0 7s 7d

Carried over, £48 16s 2d

Interpretations

The charges general drew on the same wide range of the store's stock as the sales to individuals, cordage, cloth, ironmongery, leather and nails all issued to the settlement's establishments. That the internal consumption spanned Indian desootees, English deals and every kind of hardware shows the institutions of the island drawing as broadly on the store as its private customers did. This confirms the store as the common source for both the population and the establishment, the same varied stock serving the paying customer and the Company's own accounts alike.

The leather issued, back sole leather, a horse hide and calve skins, points to the working of leather on the island for shoes, harness and other goods. That whole hides and skins were drawn from the store shows leatherwork carried on within the settlement, the raw material issued to be worked into serviceable articles. This reveals a further craft supported by the store's supplies, the settlement's leatherworkers drawing hides from the Company's stock to make and mend the shoes, straps and gear the island needed.

The black crape entered here and among Godfrey's sales was a fine gauzy fabric long associated with mourning, its steady appearance in the accounts suggesting its use for funerals on the island. Given the heavy mortality recorded throughout the garrison and settlement, the demand for mourning cloth would have been constant. This small recurring item reveals the shadow of death over the settlement even in its material record, the store supplying the black crape by which the living marked the frequent passing of their fellows.

91

85

Brought over

£48. 16s 2d

Oyl Vizt

1 Gallon Linseed Oyl

£4. 6d

2½ Gallons Train Oyl

£6. 3d

£10. 9d

Pallampores Vizt

3 Pallampores

£1. 4s 3d

2 Do

£1. 12s 10d

£2. 9s 1d

Paint Vizt

6 White Lead

£1. 7d

3 Spanish Brown

£4d

3 Double Barrells Lamp Black

£11d

6 Smalt

£10s

4 Stone Blue

£6. 8d

£19. 6½d

Sugar 20 Do

£3. 9d

Soap 9. 2. 17

£5. 15s 6d

Starch 6 Do

£2. 9d

Pewter Vizt

1 Chamber Pott

£3. 3d

1 doz Pewter Spoons

£2. 10d

1 Callendar

£6. 1d

£12. 2d

Tinware 3 Tin Lamps

£2. 3d

1 Deeping Pan

£2. 1d

£4. 4d

Twine 12 Do

£1. 1½d

Thread 3 Oz

£1. 4d

Turnersware Vizt

1 Hair Broom

£2. 4d

1 Scrubbing Brush

£1. 8d

4 Large Wood Bowles

£3d

1 Small Do

£3½d

2 Platters

£1. 6d

3 Paint Bushes

£1. 10d

£10. 7½d

£60. 7s 1½d

The account of charges general continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £48 16s 2d

Oil.

1 gallon of linseed oil, £0 4s 6d

2½ gallons of grain oil, £0 6s 3d

Oil total, £0 10s 9d

Pallampores.

3 pallampores, £1 16s 3d

2 of the same, £1 12s 10d

Pallampores total, £2 9s 1d

Paint.

6 lb of white lead, £0 1s 7d

3 lb of Spanish brown, £0 0s 4d

3 double barrels of lamp black, £0 0s 11d

6 lb of smalt, £0 10s 0d

4 lb of stone blue, £0 6s 8d

Paint total, £0 19s 6½d

Sugar.

20 lb, £0 3s 9d

Soap.

2 quarters 17 lb, £5 15s 6d

Starch.

6 lb, £0 2s 9d

Pewter.

1 chamber pot, £0 3s 3d

1 dozen pewter spoons, £0 2s 10d

1 colander, £0 6s 1d

Pewter total, £0 12s 2d

Tin ware.

3 tin lamps, £0 2s 3d

1 dripping pan, £0 2s 1d

Tin ware total, £0 4s 4d

Twine.

12 lb, £0 1s 1½d

Thread.

2 ounces, £0 1s 4d

Turners ware.

1 hair broom, £0 2s 4d

1 scrubbing brush, £0 1s 8d

4 large wood bowls, £0 3s 0d

1 small of the same, £0 0s 3½d

2 platters, £0 1s 6d

3 paint brushes, £0 1s 10d

Turners ware total, £0 10s 7½d

Total, £60 9s 1½d

Interpretations

The paints issued under the charges general, white lead, Spanish brown, lamp black, smalt and stone blue, point to painting work carried on directly by the settlement's establishments rather than by private buyers. Stone blue was a blue colouring used both in painting and in laundry to whiten linen, and its appearance alongside the pigments shows the range of the store's colouring materials in use. This confirms the ongoing maintenance and decoration of the settlement's own buildings and gear, the store issuing the pigments from which the establishment mixed its paint.

The soap issued in some quantity under the charges general marks the cleaning and laundry needs of the settlement's establishments, the soap consumed in keeping the garrison and its premises clean. That soap featured as a standing charge shows the practical work of maintenance and hygiene supported from the store. This reveals a mundane but necessary dimension of the settlement's provisioning, the store supplying the means to wash and clean the linen and premises of the island's institutions.

The recurrence of pallampores among the goods issued shows the decorated Indian bed covers serving the settlement's own furnishing needs, not merely held for sale or export. That these fine painted cottons were drawn from the store for the establishment's use reveals the eastern textiles furnishing the beds of the island as well as passing through in trade. This confirms once more how deeply the products of the Company's Asian commerce were woven into the daily material life of the settlement, the celebrated cloths of India serving the practical comfort of those who lived at this mid-ocean station.

92

86

A Collection of Garrison

from 1st July to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Broad Cloth 3¾ Yards @ 17/6

£3. 1s 3d

Deals &c 4 Inch Ten Boards

£9. 8d

Deesootees 1 Peice

£8. 6d

Hooks & Lines ½ Large Line

£1s

Iron Potts &c Vizt

3 Iron Potts Wt 31½

£8. 9d

1 Frying Pan

£3. 6d

£12. 3d

Nailes Vizt

3 Tacks

£2. 6d

8 four penny Nails

£3. 8d

10 Six penny Do

£4. 2d

10 Ten penny Do

£3. 4d

£13. 8d

Oyl Vizt

40½ Gallons Lamp ol

£6. 9d

1 Quart Florence Do

£2. 6d

£6. 3s 3d

Paint 2 Barrell Lamp Black

£8d

Pitch 6 Do

£7d

Soap 1 Do

£6d

Sugar 18 Do

£3. 9d

Tinware 1 Tin Lamp

£9d

Turnersware

1 Wood Bowle

£9d

1 Do Platter

£9d

£1. 6d

Avrach 27 Gallons

£2. 7s 3d

Tea 18 Do

£8s

£15. 9s 7d

This account recorded a collection of goods issued to the garrison from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Broad cloth.

36 yards at 1s 6d, £3 1s 3d

Deals.

4 inch hen boards, £0 9s 8d

Desootees.

1 piece, £0 8s 6d

Hooks and lines.

½ large line, £0 1s 0d

Iron pots.

3 iron pots, weight 31½ lb, £0 8s 9d

1 frying pan, £0 3s 6d

Iron pots total, £0 12s 3d

Nails.

3 lb tacks, £0 2s 6d

8 hundred four penny nails, £0 3s 8d

10 hundred six penny of the same, £0 4s 2d

10 hundred ten penny of the same, £0 3s 4d

Nails total, £0 13s 8d

Oil.

40½ gallons of lamp oil, £6 0s 9d

1 quart of Florence of the same, £0 2s 6d

Oil total, £6 3s 3d

Paint.

2 barrels of lamp black, £0 0s 8d

Pitch.

6 lb, £0 0s 7d

Soap.

1 lb, £0 0s 6d

Sugar.

18 lb, £0 3s 9d

Tin ware.

1 tin lamp, £0 0s 9d

Turners ware.

1 wood bowl, £0 0s 9d

1 of the same, platter, £0 0s 9d

Turners ware total, £0 1s 6d

Arrack.

27 gallons, £2 7s 3d

Tea.

18 lb, £0 18s 0d

Total, £15 9s 7d

Interpretations

The garrison's own account of goods issued reveals what a body of soldiers consumed over a quarter, dominated by the lamp oil and broad cloth that lit their quarters and clothed their backs. The forty gallons of lamp oil in particular show the guardrooms and barracks kept lit through the night watches, a heavy standing charge for a garrison that had to maintain sentries and watches around the clock. This confirms lighting as one of the largest practical costs of keeping the garrison, the oil consumed to sustain the vigilance a fortified station required.

The broad cloth issued to the garrison at thirty six yards points to the making and mending of the soldiers uniforms, the cloth drawn from the store to clothe the men beyond the coats already accounted for. That the garrison drew cloth as well as finished coats shows the continual work of keeping the soldiers clothed, uniforms repaired and replaced as they wore out. This reveals the ongoing labour of maintaining a garrison's appearance and dress, the store supplying the raw cloth from which the soldiers clothing was kept in order.

The arrack and tea issued to the garrison show the drink of the soldiers drawn from the same eastern stocks that supplied the officers table. That the garrison consumed both the strong spirit and the tea reveals the spread of these eastern commodities through every rank of the settlement, the common soldier as well as the officer drawing on the produce of the Company's Asian trade. This confirms how thoroughly the goods of the East had entered the daily life of the island, the arrack and tea of the Indies sustaining the garrison at its distant post.

93

87

A Collection of Fortification

from 1st July to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Blocks Vizt

1 Long Tacle 27 Inches

£5d

1 Block 10 Do

£1. 3d

£6. 3d

Cordage Do 14. 23 at 34/2 ⅌ ⅌

£24. 5s 4½d

Cutleryware 1 Shoe Knife

£5d

Deals &c Vizt

9 Long Spars

£1. 7d

1 Short Do

£2d

3 Double Deals

£7. 9d

1 Single Do

£1. 7d

4 Do Fir

£14. 4d

£2. 9s 8d

Glaziersware 1 Sour Flour Glass

£3. 4d

Ironmengersware Vizt

1 Stock Lock

£6. 1d

2 Pitt Sawfiles

£11d

10 Helves

£3. 10d

12 Shod Shovels

£17. 3d

2 Claw Hammers

£3d

2 Spike Gimblets

£6d

£1. 15s 7d

Iron and Steel Vizt

Do 1. 2. 10 Iron in 3 Bars

£1. 6s 6d

1. 9 Steel in 10 Do

£1. 12s 3d

£2. 18s 11d

Lines 2 No 6

£5½d

Lead 22 Sheet

£3. 4d

Haberdasheryware 23 Large Nailes

£9d

Grindstones 1

£5. 9½d

Carried over

£32. 10s 3½d

This account recorded a collection of goods issued to the fortification from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Blocks.

1 long tackle, 27 inches, £0 5s 0d

1 block, 10 inches, £0 1s 3d

Blocks total, £0 6s 5d

Cordage.

14 hundredweight 23 lb at 34s 4d per hundredweight, £24 5s 4½d

Cutlery ware.

1 shoe knife, £0 0s 5d

Deals.

9 long spars, £1 7s 0d

1 short of the same, £0 2s 0d

3 double deals, £0 7s 9d

1 single of the same, £0 1s 7d

1 piece of fir, £0 11s 4d

Deals total, £2 9s 8d

Glazier ware.

1 four hour glass, £0 3s 4d

Ironmongers ware.

1 stock lock, £0 6s 1d

2 pit saw files, £0 0s 11d

10 helves, £0 2s 10d

12 shod shovels, £0 17s 3d

2 claw hammers, £0 0s 3d

2 spike gimblets, £0 0s 6d

Ironmongers ware total, £1 15s 7d

Iron and steel.

1 hundredweight 2 quarters 10 lb of iron in 3 bars, £1 6s 6d

1 quarter 9 lb of steel in 10 of the same, £1 12s 3d

Iron and steel total, £2 18s 11d

Lines.

2 number 6, £0 0s 5½d

Lead.

22 lb of sheet, £0 3s 9d

Haberdashery ware.

23 large needles, £0 0s 9d

Grindstones.

1, £0 5s 9½d

Carried over, £32 10s 3½d

Interpretations

The fortification account reveals the specific materials the building works consumed over the quarter, dominated by the great weight of cordage at over twenty four pounds. Rope was essential to the works for hauling and lifting the heavy stone and timber into place, and its heavy consumption shows the scale of the effort at the batteries. This confirms cordage as a critical material of the fortification work, the ropes drawn from the store to raise and move the masses of stone that the island's defences required.

The pit saw files, helves, shod shovels and spike gimblets issued to the fortification were the working tools of the labourers building the batteries, the files to sharpen the great pit saws and the shovels to dig and move earth and rubble. That such tools were drawn and replaced shows the constant wear the building work inflicted on the implements of the labourers. This reveals the practical demands of the fortification effort, the store continually supplying and renewing the hand tools that the digging, sawing and hauling of the works consumed.

The iron and steel issued in bars supplied the raw metal from which the smith could forge and repair the tools and fittings the works required. That the fortification drew unworked iron and steel shows a smith at work on the site or nearby, fashioning and mending the ironwork the building needed. This confirms the self-supporting character of the great building effort, the fortification supplied not only with finished tools but with the raw metal to make and repair them as the long labour demanded.

94

88

Brought over

£32. 10s 3½d

Nailes Vizt

18 Six Penny Nailes

£1s

8 Ten Penny Do

£2. 8d

4 Twenty Penny Do

£1. 2d

4 four Penny Do

£4d

1 Three Penny Do

£7d

2 Two Penny Do

£9d

4 Tacks

£3. 4d

30 Spikes

£13. 6½d

2 Coopers Rivetts

£11d

£2. 3s 1d

Masts Vizt

1 Peice of a Yard

£1s

1 Yard of 30 foot

£4. 15s

1 Boats Mast

£10s

½ Mast 26 foot

£1s

£7. 5d

Oyl 1 Quart Linseed

£1. 2d

Paint &c 1 Double Barrell Lamp Black

£3½d

Pitch &c 5 Gallons Tarr

£2. 6d

Thread 4 Brown

£4. 10d

Twine 3½ Do

£3. 1d

Barrow Wheels 4

£1. 6s 8d

£43. 4s 11d

A Collection of Boats from

1st July to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Cordage Vizt

1 Cable Wt 2. 6. 14

Carage 3. 6

£11. 16s 8d

Carried over

£11. 16s 8d

The account of goods issued to the fortification continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £32 10s 3½d

Nails.

18 hundred six penny nails, £1 0s 0d

8 hundred ten penny of the same, £0 2s 8d

4 hundred twenty penny of the same, £0 1s 2d

4 hundred four penny of the same, £0 0s 4d

1 hundred three penny of the same, £0 0s 7d

2 hundred two penny of the same, £0 0s 9d

4 hundred tacks, £0 3s 4d

30 lb spikes, £0 13s 6½d

2 hundred coopers rivets, £0 0s 11d

Nails total, £2 3s 1d

Masts.

1 piece of a yard, £1 0s 0d

1 yard of 30 foot, £4 15s 0d

1 boats mast, £0 10s 0d

1 mast, 26 foot, £1 0s 0d

Masts total, £7 5s 0d

Oil.

1 quart of linseed, £0 1s 2d

Paint.

1 double barrel of lamp black, £0 0s 3½d

Pitch.

5 gallons of tar, £0 2s 6d

Thread.

number 1 brown, £0 4s 10d

Twine.

3½ lb, £0 3s 1d

Barrow wheels.

8, £1 6s 8d

Total, £43 4s 11d

This account recorded a collection of goods issued to the boats from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Cordage.

1 cable weighing 6 hundredweight 14 lb, and cordage 3 hundredweight 6 lb, £11 16s 8d

Carried over, £11 16s 8d

Interpretations

The masts and spars issued to the fortification, including a boat's mast and lengths of thirty and twenty six foot, show ship timber diverted to the building works, perhaps as scaffolding, sheer legs or lifting frames for raising heavy stone. That such substantial spars were drawn for the fortification rather than for a ship reveals the flexible use of the store's timber, the great masts serving the construction effort as well as the fleet. This confirms the resourcefulness of the works, the fortification drawing on the shipyard's stock of timber to provide the heavy framing its building required.

The barrow wheels issued at over a pound show the equipping of the works with wheelbarrows for moving earth, rubble and materials about the site. That whole sets of wheels were drawn reveals the scale of the earth-moving and hauling the fortification demanded, the barrows worn and replaced as the labour continued. This small entry captures the physical reality of the building effort, the endless carrying of spoil and stone by hand and barrow that raised the island's defences.

The opening of a fresh account for the boats marks the settlement's small craft as a distinct establishment drawing its own supplies, chiefly the cordage that rigged and worked them. The cable and cordage issued show the boats kept in working order with fresh rope, essential for craft that ferried men and goods between shore and ship. This reveals the importance of the settlement's boats as a link to the anchorage, maintained from the store with the rope and gear that kept them serviceable for the constant traffic of James Bay.

95

89

Brought over

£11. 16s 8d

Deales &c Vizt

4 Double Deales

£16. 8d

1 Spare of 20 foot

£2d

1 One Inch Wainscott Board

£4. 1d

1 Half Inch Do

£2. 3d

£19. 2d

Hooks & Lines Vizt

4 doz Hooks Sorted

£9d

6 Lines

£1. 9d

£2. 6d

Oyl 2 Gallons

£6d

Iron Potts 1 Wt 16

£3. 4d

Lead 34 Sheet

£5. 9d

Nailes Vizt

2 Twenty Penny Nailes

£7d

2 four Penny Do

£1. 2d

2 Three Penny Do

£1. 2d

£2. 9d

Oares Vizt

2 Oares of 16 foot

£7. 2d

2 Do of 18 foot

£9. 4d

£16. 6d

Pitch &c Vizt

11 Pitch

£1s

12 Rozen

£1. 6d

38 Turpentine

£4. 9d

£7. 3d

£14. 19s 11d

A Collection of Blacks from 1st July

to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Arrack 3 Quarts

£1. 4d

Chelloe 13 Yards

£6d

Cutleryware 3 Butchers Knives

£1. 3d

Ironmongersware 1 Yam Kettle @ 3. 23

£1. 3s 4d

Sugar 12 Do

£2. 4d

Carried over

£1. 14s 3d

The account of goods issued to the boats continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £11 16s 8d

Deals.

4 double deals, £0 16s 8d

1 spar of 20 foot, £0 2s 0d

1 one inch Wainscot board, £0 4s 1d

1 half inch of the same, £0 2s 3d

Deals total, £1 9s 2d

Hooks and lines.

4 dozen hooks, sorted, £0 0s 9d

6 lines, £0 1s 9d

Hooks and lines total, £0 2s 6d

Oil.

2 gallons, £0 0s 6d

Iron pots.

1 iron pot, weight 15 lb, £0 3s 4d

Lead.

34 lb of sheet, £0 5s 9d

Nails.

2 hundred twenty penny nails, £0 0s 7d

2 hundred four penny of the same, £0 1s 2d

2 hundred three penny of the same, £0 1s 2d

Nails total, £0 2s 9d

Oars.

2 oars of 16 foot, £0 7s 2d

2 of the same of 18 foot, £0 9s 4d

Oars total, £0 16s 6d

Pitch and tar.

11 lb of pitch, £0 1s 0d

12 lb of rosin, £0 1s 6d

38 lb of turpentine, £0 4s 9d

Pitch and tar total, £0 7s 3d

Total, £14 19s 11d

This account recorded a collection of goods issued to the slaves from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Arrack.

3 quarts, £0 1s 4d

Chellow.

13 yards, £0 1s 3d

Cutlery ware.

3 butchers knives, £0 1s 3d

Ironmongers ware.

1 yam kettle, weight 3 quarters 23 lb, £0 2s 4d

Sugar.

12 lb, £0 2s 4d

Carried over, £1 14s 3d

Interpretations

The oars issued to the boats in lengths of sixteen and eighteen foot show the settlement's rowing craft kept supplied with the means of propulsion, worn oars replaced as the constant work of ferrying wore them out. Together with the cordage and the small quantities of pitch, tar and rosin for keeping the hulls tight, this reveals the routine upkeep the boats demanded. The account captures the practical maintenance of the vessels that linked the shore to the ships in the road, kept serviceable through a steady issue of oars, rope and caulking materials.

The opening of a distinct account for the slaves shows the enslaved treated as a separate establishment whose provisioning the Company recorded apart, drawing arrack, sugar, cloth and tools from the store. That the slaves were issued a yam kettle, chellow cloth and butchers knives reveals the basic materials of their subsistence and labour, the great cauldron for cooking the yams that were their staple food. This confirms the enslaved as a recognised charge on the settlement, provided with the means of cooking, clothing and working even as they were held and counted as property.

The yam kettle issued to the slaves, a large cooking vessel for preparing the yams in quantity, points directly to the diet of the enslaved and the communal cooking of their staple food. That the yam was the foundation of the slaves subsistence, boiled in bulk in such a kettle, reveals the reliance on the island's own root crop to feed its unfree labourers. This small item exposes the material reality of slavery on the island, the enslaved sustained on the cheap and plentiful yam prepared in a common cauldron drawn from the Company's store.

96

90

Brought over

£1. 14s 3d

Shoes Vizt

3 Do Mens Shoes for Do Lorrain

£12. 1½d

3 Do Do

£12d

1 Do Womens Calve Leather

£2. 9d

£1. 6s 10½d

Thread 1 Oz

£6d

£3. 1s 7½d

A Collection of Plantation

from 1st July to the 30th September 1742 Vizt

Cordage 7 Do

£2. 2d

Cutleryware 6 Buck Pruning Knives

£4. 6d

Iron & Steel 16 Iron

£1. 12s 1d

Ironmongersware Vizt

8 Helves

£4. 8d

2 Spades

£6. 8d

1 Scyth with Staff and 4 Handles

£3. 6d

3 Rubbers

5 Pick Axes

£12. 11d

£1. 9s 3d

Lines Vizt

3 Large Hambro Lines

£3. 8d

2 Lines No 4

£8d

£4. 4d

Turnersware Vizt

1 Skimming Dish

£3d

1 Strainer

£3d

£6d

Tinware 1 Watering Pott

£6d

£3. 19s 1d

The account of goods issued to the slaves continued with the amount brought forward from the previous page.

Brought over, £1 14s 3d

Shoes.

3 pairs of mens shoes per Duke Lorraine, £0 12s 1½d

3 pairs of the same, £0 12s 0d

1 pair of womens calve leather, £0 2s 9d

Shoes total, £1 6s 10½d

Thread.

1 ounce, £0 0s 6d

Total, £3 1s 7½d

This account recorded a collection of goods issued to the plantation from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Cordage.

7 lb, £0 2s 2d

Cutlery ware.

1 buck pruning knife, £0 1s 6d

Iron and steel.

16 lb of iron, £1 12s 1d

Ironmongers ware.

8 helves, £0 4s 8d

2 spades, £0 6s 8d

1 scythe with staff and 4 handles, £0 3s 6d

3 rubbers, £0 0s 0d

5 pick axes, £0 12s 11d

Ironmongers ware total, £1 9s 2d

Lines.

3 large Hamburg lines, £0 3s 8d

2 lines, number 4, £0 0s 8d

Lines total, £0 4s 4d

Turners ware.

1 skimming dish, £0 0s 3d

1 strainer, £0 0s 3d

Turners ware total, £0 0s 6d

Tin ware.

1 flat iron pot, £0 0s 6d

Total, £3 19s 1d

Interpretations

The shoes issued to the slaves, mens shoes and a pair of womens calve leather, show the enslaved provided with footwear from the store as a necessary charge of their maintenance. That the account records shoes for both enslaved men and women reveals the basic clothing the Company supplied to keep its unfree labourers shod for their work. This confirms the enslaved as a standing establishment whose upkeep, down to the shoes on their feet, was met from the store and set down in the accounts alongside every other charge.

The plantation account records the tools of cultivation issued for the Company's own agricultural work, spades, pick axes, a scythe and the helves to handle them. These were the implements of digging, clearing and harvesting on the Company's plantations, worn and replaced as the labour of raising crops continued. This reveals the direct agricultural enterprise the Company carried on at St Helena, its plantations worked with tools drawn from the same store that supplied every other part of the settlement.

The Hamburg lines issued to both the plantation and the boats point to fishing carried on from the plantation as well as by the settlement's craft, the lines used to take fish to supplement the food raised on the land. That the plantation drew fishing lines alongside its farming tools shows the mixed economy of the Company's holdings, drawing food from both the soil and the sea. This confirms the practical breadth of the plantation's work, its labourers both cultivating the ground and fishing the surrounding waters to feed the settlement.

97

91

A Collection of Diet Expence from 1st July to the

30th September 1742 Vizt

Arrach 328½ Gallons

£28. 14s 10½d

Bread & Flour Vizt

Do 1. 19

£11. 9d

6½ Casks Flour

£23. 12s 6d

£24. 4s 3d

Corks 12½ Grose

£1. 8s 7½d

Glaziersware 1 Beer Glass

£7d

Oyl Vizt

22 Bottles Florence Oyl

£2. 15s

2 Gallons Lamp Oyl

£6d

£3. 1s

Salt 8 Bushells

£2. 7s 4d

Twine 2 Do

£1. 6d

Tinware 3 Tin Lamps

£2. 3d

Sugar & Candy Vizt

583½ Sugar

£5. 4s 6d

77 Canay

£19. 3d

£6. 3s 9d

£66. 4s 2d

Mr John Godfrey the Storekeeper this day paid

in the Sum of £243. 5s 4½d being the Ballance of the Underwritten

Account Vizt

This account recorded a collection of diet expenses from 1 July to 30 September 1742.

Arrack.

328½ gallons, £28 14s 10½d

Bread and flour.

1 hundredweight 19 lb of bread, £0 11s 9d

6¾ casks of flour, £23 12s 6d

Bread and flour total, £24 4s 3d

Corks.

12½ gross, £1 8s 7½d

Glazier ware.

1 beer glass, £0 0s 7d

Oil.

22 bottles of Florence oil, £2 15s 0d

2 gallons of lamp oil, £0 6s 0d

Oil total, £3 1s 0d

Salt.

8 bushels, £2 7s 4d

Twine.

2 lb, £0 1s 6d

Tin ware.

3 tin lamps, £0 2s 3d

Sugar and candy.

583½ lb of sugar, £5 4s 6d

77 lb of candy, £0 19s 3d

Sugar and candy total, £6 3s 9d

Total, £66 4s 2d

Mr John Godfrey, the storekeeper, this day paid in £213 5s 4½d, being the balance of the underwritten account.

Interpretations

The diet expenses account gathered the provisions consumed at the general table over the quarter, and the great quantity of arrack, over three hundred gallons for nearly twenty nine pounds, confirms once more the central place of the spirit at the officers board. This heavy consumption of arrack, far exceeding any other single item, reveals how much of the table's provisioning went on drink. The account shows the general table as a place of substantial hospitality, its expenses dominated by the arrack that flowed at the officers gatherings.

The bread and flour together made up the largest food cost after the arrack, the flour drawn in casks and the bread by the hundredweight to supply the staple of the table. That flour was consumed in such quantity shows the reliance on imported grain for the bread of the officers, the casks shipped out and drawn down through the quarter. This confirms the dependence of even the governing establishment on imported provisions, the bread of the general table baked from flour carried across the ocean.

Godfrey's payment of the balance of the account into the treasury shows the storekeeper accounting formally for the goods that had passed through his hands, the whole reckoning of sales and issues brought to a close and the surplus paid in. This settlement of the storekeeper's account reveals the strict financial discipline surrounding the store, every issue and sale reckoned and the balance rendered to the Company. The payment confirms the store as a fully accountable department, its keeper answerable for the value of all that passed out of it over the quarter.

98

92

John Godfrey Dr ⅌ Contra Cr

1742

Sepr 30th

To 4 Peices long Cloth Omitted being brought out

in the last Collection

£6. 3s

To Collection of Stores Sold from July 1st to this day

£203. 12s 7½d

Do Goods of Governour Goodwins Estate

£18. 9s 3d

To pay for the following Persons Vizt

Penelope Isaac

£7.

Elizabeth Greentree

£4. 10s

James Powell

£4. 12s

Matthew Mudge

£2. 8s

£18. 10s

£246. 14s 10½d

1742

Sepr 30th

By Cash paid for Shoes Vizt

Daniel Bush cleaning Shoes for Duke Lorrain

and byling them

£5s

Do Makeing 19 Pair

£1. 8s 6d

Collings and Mason 24 Pair

£1. 16s

£3. 9s 6d

Ballance paid in

£243. 5s 4½d

Errors Excepted

John Godfrey

£246. 14s 10½d

This account set out the reckoning with John Godfrey, storekeeper, the debtor side dated 30 September 1742.

To 4 pieces of long cloth, omitted being brought out in the previous collection, £6 3s 0d

To collection of stores sold from 1 July to this day, £203 12s 7½d

To goods of Governor Goodwin's estate, £18 9s 3d

To pay for the following persons:

Penelope Isaac, £7 0s 0d

Elizabeth Greentree, £4 10s 0d

James Powell, £4 12s 0d

Matthew Mudge, £2 8s 0d

Persons total, £18 10s 0d

Total, £246 14s 10½d

The creditor side, dated 30 September 1742, recorded the sums paid out.

By cash paid for shoes, to Daniel Bush for cleaning shoes per Duke Lorraine and oiling them, £0 5s 0d

To the same, making 19 pairs, £1 8s 6d

Collings and Mason, 24 pairs, £1 16s 0d

Shoes total, £3 9s 6d

Balance paid in, £243 5s 4½d

Total, £246 14s 10½d

The account was signed, errors excepted, by John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The storekeeper's account balanced the value of stores sold and estate goods handled against the small sums paid out and the large balance rendered to the treasury. The debtor side gathered the proceeds of the quarter's sales and the goods of Goodwin's estate, while the credit side recorded only modest payments for shoemaking and a great balance paid in of over two hundred and forty pounds. This double-entry reckoning reveals the store operating as a profit-making department, taking in far more from sales than it paid out and returning the surplus to the Company.

The payments to Daniel Bush and to Collings and Mason for making and cleaning shoes show the store not merely selling imported footwear but paying local shoemakers to produce and maintain shoes on the island. That nineteen and twenty four pairs were made up, and others cleaned and oiled, reveals a working shoemaking trade drawing on the store's leather. This confirms that alongside its imported stock, the settlement sustained its own craftsmen, the store paying for shoes made on the island as well as selling those shipped from England.

The sums entered to pay four named persons, Penelope Isaac, Elizabeth Greentree, James Powell and Matthew Mudge, show the store's account used to discharge the Company's debts to inhabitants, folded into the storekeeper's reckoning. Elizabeth Greentree, seen repeatedly both owing and owed, appears again here among those to be paid, confirming the running two-way accounts between the Company and its people. This reveals the store's account serving as a general instrument of settlement, gathering in the Company's receipts and paying out its obligations to individuals in a single balanced reckoning.

99

93

The following Accounts was this day brot in Vizt

Gunners Stores Expended in the Month of November 1742

The Day of the Month, Powder, Shott, 3d Do, Summ ⅌ Quarter

13th Fired by the Serjs and Corporals: Powder 16, Shott 16, 3d Do 16, Summ ⅌ Quarter 32

5d Powder for the Blowing up of the Rocks at Bankside: Summ ⅌ Quarter 9

25th for Do at Sandy Bay: Summ ⅌ Quarter 26

Powder for priming: Summ ⅌ Quarter 3

To the Guard and out forts: Summ ⅌ Quarter 25

To the Exerceizing the Small armes: Summ ⅌ Quarter 149

Totall: Powder 16, Shott 16, 3d Do 16, Summ ⅌ Quarter 247

John French

Gunner

Dry Stores

Paper

20

Match

19

Cart Cases

21

Jack Plain

7

Lead Shott

1

Lead Shott

15lb 8oz

priming Kires

10

Handspikes

11

Bills

6

Horse Hide

1

Ladle

1

The following accounts were brought in this day.

The following gunner's stores were expended in the month of November 1742, reckoned by days of the month.

13, fired by the serjeants and corporals, powder 16 lb, shot 16, wads 16, total 32

15, powder for the blowing up of the rocks at the bankside, 9 lb, total 9

25, for the same at Sandy Bay, powder 26 lb, total 26

powder for priming, 3 lb, total 3

to the guard and out forts, powder 25 lb, total 25

to the exercising of the small arms, powder 149 lb, total 149

Total, powder 16 lb, shot 16, wads 16, 247

The account was signed by John French, gunner.

Dry stores.

paper, 20 quires

match, 19

cartridge cases, 21

jack plane, 7

lead shot, 1 hundredweight 15 lb

priming irons, 10

handspikes, 11

bills, 6

horse hide, 1

ladle, 1

Interpretations

The gunner's account for November shows powder expended not only in firing the guns but in blasting rock, both at the bankside and at Sandy Bay, the same fortification work that the labour accounts had recorded. That gunpowder was used to blow up rock for the building works reveals the practical application of the garrison's powder beyond salutes and defence, the explosive employed to quarry and clear stone for the batteries. This confirms the connection between the gunner's stores and the fortification effort, the powder that armed the guns also serving to break the ground for their emplacements.

The very large quantity of powder consumed in exercising the small arms, at one hundred and forty nine pounds far exceeding every other use, shows the garrison kept in regular practice with its muskets through the month. Such heavy expenditure on training reveals a deliberate effort to maintain the soldiers proficiency in arms, the powder spent to keep the men ready for action. This confirms the seriousness with which the garrison's readiness was maintained, a substantial share of the month's powder devoted to keeping the soldiers skilled in the use of their weapons.

The dry stores listed the working apparatus of the guns and their ammunition, match for firing, cartridge cases for the charges, priming irons, handspikes and lead shot held in quantity. These were the consumable and durable materials that kept the artillery in action, the match and cartridge cases used up in firing and the tools maintained for service. This inventory of the gunner's working stock reveals the constant supply the batteries required, the powder, shot and equipment continually drawn and replenished to keep the island's guns ready to fire.

100

94

Account of the Honourable Companys Stock of Neat Cattle &c for the Month of November 1742 Vizt

Bullocks, Cows, Heifers, Steers, Yearlings, Calves, Bulls, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Lambs, Rams, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Kids, Rams, Totall, Sows, Barrows, Shoats, Pigs, Boars, Totall, Turkeys, Fowles, Ducks, Geese, Horses, Mares, Totall

Remaining 1st November: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 34, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 79, Bulls 6, Totall 291, Ewes 76, Weathers 22, Lambs 10, Rams 6, Totall 114, Ewes 111, Weathers 14, Kids 40, Rams 4, Totall 169, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 41, Pigs 35, Boars 2, Totall 115, Turkeys 85, Fowles 270, Ducks 26, Geese 16, Horses 6, Mares 7, Totall 13

Encreased in Do: Bulls 3, Totall 3, Kids 9, Totall 9, Pigs 19, Totall 19, Turkeys 7, Fowles 30, Ducks 12

Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 34, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 80, Bulls 6, Totall 294, Ewes 76, Weathers 22, Lambs 10, Rams 6, Totall 114, Ewes 111, Weathers 14, Kids 49, Rams 4, Totall 178, Sows 17, Barrows 20, Shoats 41, Pigs 54, Boars 2, Totall 134, Turkeys 92, Fowles 300, Ducks 38, Geese 16, Horses 6, Mares 7, Totall 13

Killed in Do: Cows 1, Totall 1, Ewes 1, Lambs 2, Totall 3, Weathers 6, Kids 1, Totall 7, Barrows 1, Shoats 2, Pigs 6, Totall 9, Turkeys 47

Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 33, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 80, Bulls 6, Totall 293, Ewes 75, Weathers 20, Lambs 10, Rams 6, Totall 111, Ewes 111, Weathers 8, Kids 48, Rams 4, Totall 171, Sows 17, Barrows 19, Shoats 39, Pigs 48, Boars 2, Totall 125, Turkeys 92, Fowles 253, Ducks 38, Geese 16, Horses 6, Mares 7, Totall 13

Died in Do: Heifers 1, Ewes 1, Lambs 2, Totall 3, Weathers 1, Totall 1, Barrows 1, Shoats 1, Totall 3, Fowles 3

Stole in Do: Turkeys 4, Ducks 2

Remaining 30th Do: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heifers 33, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 79, Bulls 6, Totall 292, Ewes 74, Weathers 20, Lambs 8, Rams 6, Totall 108, Ewes 111, Weathers 8, Kids 47, Rams 4, Totall 170, Sows 16, Barrows 19, Shoats 38, Pigs 47, Boars 2, Totall 122, Turkeys 88, Fowles 250, Ducks 36, Geese 16, Horses 6, Mares 7, Totall 13

One Man Slave Dead named Shepherd

One Woman Do Betty Grewer

One Boy born named Frank

Yams Expended at the Several Plantations 29000

⅌ G. G. Powell Husb

This account set out the Honourable Company stock of neat cattle and other animals for the month of November 1742, arranged under the headings neat cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry and horses, with each herd broken into its several kinds.

Remaining 1 November, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 34, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 79, bulls 6, total 291

Remaining 1 November, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 22, lambs 10, rams 6, total 114

Remaining 1 November, goats: ewes 111, wethers 14, kids 40, rams 4, total 169

Remaining 1 November, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 41, pigs 35, boars 2, total 115

Remaining 1 November, poultry: turkeys 85, fowls 270, ducks 26, geese 16, total 397

Remaining 1 November, horses: horses 6, mares 7, total 13

Increased in November, neat cattle: calves 3, total 3

Increased in November, sheep: ewes 3, total 3

Increased in November, goats: kids 9, total 9

Increased in November, hogs: pigs 19, total 19

Increased in November, poultry: turkeys 7, fowls 30, ducks 12

Sum, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 34, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 80, bulls 6, total 291

Sum, sheep: ewes 76, wethers 22, lambs 10, rams 6, total 114

Sum, goats: ewes 111, wethers 14, kids 49, rams 4, total 178

Sum, hogs: sows 17, barrows 20, shoats 41, pigs 54, boars 2, total 134

Sum, poultry: turkeys 92, fowls 300, ducks 38, geese 16

Sum, horses: horses 6, mares 7, total 13

Killed in November, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1

Killed in November, sheep: ewes 1, lambs 1, total 3

Killed in November, goats: ewes 6, wethers 1, total 7

Killed in November, hogs: sows 1, pigs 2, total 6

Killed in November, poultry: fowls 47

Remaining, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 33, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 80, bulls 6, total 293

Remaining, sheep: ewes 75, wethers 20, lambs 10, rams 6, total 111

Remaining, goats: ewes 111, wethers 8, kids 48, rams 4, total 171

Remaining, hogs: sows 17, barrows 19, shoats 39, pigs 48, boars 2, total 125

Remaining, poultry: turkeys 92, fowls 253, ducks 38, geese 16

Died in November, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1

Died in November, sheep: ewes 1, lambs 2, total 3

Died in November, goats: wethers 1, total 1

Died in November, hogs: sows 1, total 1

Died in November, poultry: fowls 3

Stole in November, poultry: fowls 4, ducks 2

Remaining 30 November, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 33, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 79, bulls 6, total 292

Remaining 30 November, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 20, lambs 8, rams 6, total 108

Remaining 30 November, goats: ewes 111, wethers 8, kids 47, rams 4, total 170

Remaining 30 November, hogs: sows 16, barrows 19, shoats 38, pigs 47, boars 2, total 122

Remaining 30 November, poultry: turkeys 88, fowls 250, ducks 36, geese 16

Remaining 30 November, horses: horses 6, mares 7, total 13

29,000 yams expended at the several plantations

One man slave dead, named Shepherd

One woman slave dead, named Betty Grewer

One boy born, named Frank

The account was signed by George Gabriel Powell, husband.

Interpretations

The livestock account for November carried on the same running balance as October, opening with the stock remaining, adding the natural increase and subtracting the losses to give the tally at month's end. A new column appears among the losses, poultry stolen during the month, four fowls and two ducks taken, distinct from those killed or dead. This entry for theft reveals the petty pilfering that beset the Company's stock, birds spirited away from the flocks and the loss carefully recorded, the same concern for property that saw slaves tried at the sessions for stealing turkeys.

Three entries recorded the human property of the Company alongside the beasts, one man slave dead named Shepherd, one woman dead named Betty Grewer and one boy born named Frank. That the deaths and birth of the enslaved were set down in the same stock account as the calves, kids and pigs reveals with brutal clarity their reduction to livestock in the Company's reckoning. The naming of each, Shepherd, Betty Grewer and the newborn Frank, gives a fleeting individuality to people otherwise counted as chattels, their lives and deaths entered as movements in the Company's stock.

The steady figure of 29,000 yams expended at the plantations, identical to the quantity recorded for October, shows the constant heavy consumption of the island's staple root through the months. This unchanging draw on the yam confirms it as the foundation of subsistence for the settlement and its stock alike, consumed in tens of thousands month after month. The repetition of the figure reveals the yam as the dependable staple of the island, its steady supply feeding the people, the enslaved and the animals in a settled and continuous demand.

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The taking an Inventory of the Naval and Governors Stores being a

Matter often talked of and never yet done Since the Desmision of Messrs Goodwin, Crisp and Engel

We think it highly Necessary it should be sett about for if the General Books then appears to be very

Considerable Articles Charged under this head will worth our best Enquiry, therefore We this day

Sent for the Gunner And Ordered him to draw out an Exact Inventory of what he has in his store

which when Compleated We will Compair with the Account as it Stands in the General Books And

likewise Survey the Stores to see in What Condition they are

The Governour Reports that he has been so happy

in his Endeavours in the Honble Companys Plantation as hath Enabled him to Encrease the

Slaves allowance of Yam from 40 to 50 ⅌ Week Each Man and Woman which must hearten

them and the better Enable em to bear up against this Rieud Distemper that has Ranged amongst

them

That at Every opportunity when the Plantation Slaves can be

Spared out of the Plantations they are Employed in Fencing the Honourable Companys Pasture

Lands. Whereas there is already made very good Progress and he hopes by this time Twelve Month

the most part of that Work will be Compleated without any other Expence to our Masters than the

Labour of their few Plantation Slaves which never Exceed 12 Men

That he has lately taken Several Opperturitys of Viewing

Sandy Bay which is now Bankside is made Unpasable by much the most Dangerous Place

about the Island Governour Lamberts Report of it Entred in Consultation of 27 April 1742

is as follows Vizt

We then Proceeded to Sandy Bay where I found a Landing Place of a very large

Extent Defended by a small fort if it Deserves the name Built against a Rock on the Right of the

Bay and in its Structure very Injudiciously Contrived, as well as its Situation being very Insufficient

in my Opinion, for the Defence of the Bay the Disposition of the Guns that are Mounted upon it

which are Six four pounders as its Built will consist of alteration is such that only two of them

can only Possibly be made use off to Defend the Entrance of the Bay, and the Forts nearness to

the Entrance of the Bay, will not admit of their firing once before the Enemys Boats pass the Fort

And then these two Gunns are Unless, the other four are of no other use than to Discharge upon the

Enemys Boats Landing, and that can be only done once, and well if any thing Precipitates their

Landing to get out of the fire for their own Preservation Inded the Boats in their Return will

be Exposed to Something more fire, but if the Numbers Landed should be Considerable, the

Intent of the Fort is Rendered of no Significance, the Remedy as I propose is, as no Shipping

I am assured I can give any Aid to the Landing of Men from their great Guns, I Propose

erecting

The taking of an inventory of the naval and Governor's stores, being a matter often talked of and never yet done since the death of Messrs Goodwin, Crisp and Pyatt, the council thought highly necessary, and it should be set about for the general books. What appeared to every considerable article charged under this head would, with the council's best enquiry, be reckoned. The council therefore this day sent for the gunner and ordered him to draw out an exact inventory of what he had in the stores, which, when completed, the council would compare with the account as it stood in the general books, and likewise survey the stores to see in what condition they were.

The Governor reported that he had been so happy in his endeavours in the Honourable Company's plantations as to increase the slaves allowance of yams from 40 to 50 a week for each man and woman, which must fatten them and the better enable them to bear up against the violent distemper that then raged amongst them.

At every opportunity when the plantation slaves could be spared out of the plantations, they were employed in fencing the Honourable Company's pasture lands. There was already very good progress, and the Governor hoped that by the following twelvemonth the greater part of that work would be completed without any other expense to the Masters than the labour of the few plantation slaves, which never exceeded 12 men.

The Governor had lately taken several opportunities of viewing Sandy Bay, which was now made impassable by banks, and by much the most dangerous place about the island. Governor Lambert's report of it, entered in the consultation of 7 April 1742, ran as follows.

The council then proceeded to Sandy Bay, where a landing place of very large extent was found, defended by a small fort, if it deserved the name, built against a rock on the right of the bay, and in its structure very injudiciously contrived, as well as its situation being very insufficient. In the Governor's opinion, for the defence of the bay, the disposition of the guns that were mounted upon it, which were six four pounders, was such that only two of them could conveniently be made use of to defend the entrance of the bay. The forts nearest to the entrance of the bay would not admit of their being fired before the enemy's boats passed the fort, and then these two guns were useless. The other four were of no other use than to discharge upon the enemy's boats landing, and that could only be done once. If anything precipitated their landing, to get out of the fire for their own preservation, indeed the boats in their return would be exposed to something more severe. But if the numbers landed should be considerable, the intent of the fort was rendered of no significance. The remedy proposed, as no shipping could give any aid to the landing of men from their great guns.

Interpretations

The Governor's increase of the slaves yam allowance from forty to fifty a week, expressly to fatten them against the violent distemper then raging, reveals both the epidemic sweeping the enslaved and the Company's instrumental concern for their survival. The extra ration was given not from humanity alone but to keep the labourers alive and fit for work through the sickness. This exposes the calculating logic of slavery on the island, the enslaved fed better only to preserve the Company's investment in their labour against the disease that threatened to destroy it.

Governor Lambert's report on Sandy Bay, quoted here from an earlier consultation, gives a detailed military assessment of one of the island's vulnerable landing places and the inadequacy of its defences. The small fort was judged injudiciously built and poorly sited, its six four-pounder guns so placed that only two could bear on the bay's entrance and the rest could fire but once on a landing party. This candid critique reveals the serious concern for the island's security, the council confronting the real weakness of its coastal defences at a place where an enemy might come ashore.

The employment of the plantation slaves in fencing the Company's pasture lands, expected to complete the work within a twelvemonth at no cost but their labour, shows the Company extracting the maximum value from its small enslaved workforce. That the fencing of the pastures would burden the Masters with no expense beyond the labour of twelve men reveals slave labour as the means by which the Company improved its lands without cost. This confirms the central place of the enslaved in the island's economy, their unpaid labour building the very fences that enclosed the Company's grazing grounds.

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erecting two Platforms on the Right and Left of the Bay very Loptly Constructed, to Mount

Three or four Guns four pounters Each and make a Line or Breast Work of dry Stone to Joyn

to the Right and Left of the two Platforms which will best Defence the Entrance into the Bay, this

all the way they shall approach it, is likewise Secure, the Front of the Breast Work if there should

be an occasion. By which means I hope this Place may be Secure, and made as Capable of

as good a Defence, as most other parts of the Island, the Expence attending it will be little more

than Labour, as the Stones in the breast Work, are Proposed to be laid dry that Work will be

Sooner Expediated, and as Effectually Stop any Enemy without great Guns, as one laid in Morter

It is to be Observed that at the Upper end of the Valley about a Mile

from the Sea there Rises a Point or hill of Rocks in the Center of the Valley which breaks

its Course and Divides it into two Prone Ones

A The Battery of two Guns

Bankside Bay Valley

C The Water View

D Sandy Bay Valley branching from Sandy

bay Valley

E The Point or hill of Rocks that

Divides Sandy Bay Valley

F The Mountain on both sides of the

Valley, on the top of which is a

Establishment of the Flying Party

G The Broad way from the Valley

to the Country

H the Beach

Now this little Battery so Scitueate as to Secure the Valley for at least

a Mile whose fore the Enemy must come through if they attempt the Country for on either side

of the Valley there are such Steep Rocks as that they cant well mount even if they was to

Meet with no Opposition. But for our greater Security We always Detach a party from the

flying Party to the Ridge on Each side of the Valley to keep them down of they should attempt

getting up or Rich in if as they March in the bottom. I say this little Battery of two Guns

well Provided with Round Shott to fire upon them at a Distance and Patridge to

Receive them as they march nearer would Strike a Terror and Confusion Amongst them

And Destroy Attendance ere they could gett to it

And because We would not Weaken any of our outward

Fortifications I humbly propose that this little Battery shall be fought by Sea or kept

of the flying Party who shall be Quartered there upon all Double Alarms, and who if

that Enemy should by Dint of Numbers press hard upon, they can but Retire from the Top

Governor Lambert's report on Sandy Bay continued, dated 4 January 1742, proposing to erect two platforms on the right and left of the bay, very compactly constructed, to mount three or four guns of four pounders each. A line or breastwork of dry stone was to join the right and left of the two platforms, which would defend the entrance into the bay against all the ways an enemy might approach it, and likewise secure the front of the breastwork if there should be an occasion. By these means the place might be made secure and as capable of as good a defence as most other parts of the island. The expense would be little more than labour, since the stones in the breastwork were proposed to be laid dry, so that the work would be sooner completed and would as effectually stop an enemy without great guns as if it were laid in mortar.

At the upper end of the valley, about a mile from the sea, there rose a point or hill of rocks in the centre of the valley which broke its course and divided it into two points.

A sketch accompanied the report, with a key identifying its features: the battery of two guns at Sandy Bay valley, the water course, the valley branching from Sandy Bay valley, the point or hill of rocks that divided Sandy Bay valley, the mountains on either side of the valley on the top of which was an establishment of the flying party, the broad way from the valley to the country, and the breach.

Lambert noted that this little battery was so situated as to secure the valley for at least a mile, before which the enemy must come through if they attempted the country. On either side of the valley there were such steep rocks that they could well mount two guns if they were to meet with no opposition. But for greater security, a party was always to be detached from the flying party to the ridge on each side of the valley, to keep them down if they should attempt getting up or getting in as they marched in the bottom. This little battery of two guns, well provided with round shot to fire upon them at a distance, and partridge to receive them as they marched nearer, would strike a terror and confusion amongst them and destroy abundance before they could get to it.

Because the council would not weaken any of its outward fortifications, Lambert humbly proposed that this little battery should be fought by a party or kept by the flying party, who should be quartered there upon all double alarms. If the enemy, by dint of numbers, pressed hard upon them, they could but retire to the top.

Interpretations

Lambert's plan for Sandy Bay reveals a considered military engineering of the island's defence, proposing dry-stone breastworks and gun platforms sited to command the bay's entrance and the valley behind. The choice of dry stone laid without mortar, cheaper and quicker than mortared work yet judged effective enough to stop an enemy lacking great guns, shows a pragmatic balancing of cost against sufficiency. This detailed proposal exposes the seriousness with which the island's vulnerability was assessed, its defences planned with an eye to the specific ground an attacker would have to cross.

The concept of the flying party, a mobile force quartered to respond to alarms and detached to hold the ridges above the valley, reveals a tactical doctrine for defending the broken terrain of the island. Rather than relying on fixed batteries alone, the plan combined a small gun battery with mobile detachments positioned to prevent an enemy from scaling the valley sides. This shows the sophistication of the defensive thinking, the garrison's dispositions adapted to the mountainous ground so that a small force might hold a landing place against a larger one.

The use of round shot for distant fire and partridge for close range shows the tactical loading of the guns to meet an advancing enemy at every stage of their approach. Partridge, or partridge shot, was a scattering charge of small balls that turned a cannon into a giant shotgun against massed men at close quarters, while round shot struck at a distance. This detail reveals the practical gunnery envisaged for the defence, the battery's fire graduated from solid shot to scatter charge to strike terror and destruction upon a landing party as it drew near.

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of the Mountains where they will Meet with the rest of their party and Assist in Annoying the Enemy

with their Small Arms

As for the four Guns of the Enemy should take em they will be of no Service to

them because they cannot Propose bringing them up the Mountains, for the most Certain they will

find it fatigue Enough to Meach thro the Country and our Several Ambuscades with their Firelocks

only

The Place most Convenient to sett the Battery is about one Third up the

Mountain and happens to be a Morley or Soft part So that it shall be sett into the Rock and

Compleated by the Companys own Plantation hands without one farthing Expence to our Honourable

Masters and hope it will be Entirely finished in Six Weeks times

George Gabriel Powell Esqr Pay Master Reports that next

Saturday being pay day for the Quarter past he therefore Requests that a Sum of Money be

Issued to him out of the Treasury for that Purpose

And Accordingly we Issued to George Gabriel Powell Esqr the

Sum of £1344. 9s 4d

Mr James Greentree Presented the last Will and

Testament of his Mother the late Elizabeth Greentree Requesting the same might be

Proved

And the same was Accordingly Proved upon the Oaths of the

Witnesses thereto Vizt the Worshipfull Geo Gab Powell Esqr and the Reverend Doctor

Alcock

The Will is as follows Vizt

In the name of God Amen I Elizabeth Greentree

Widdow being of Perfect Mind and Memory do make and Ordain this my last Will and

Memory First and Principally I Recommend my Soul into the hands of my Blessed

Redeemer Jesus Christ Trusting in his Mercys for the Redemption of all my Sins My

Body I Commit to the Earth to be Decently Interred

Imprimes I Will and Bequeath unto my Son Thomas Greentree the Sum of

Twenty pounds to be Laid out Wholly in Amoursing for him and his Family

Secondly I Will and Bequeath unto my Son James Greentree Sen to my Daughter

Susanna Greentree in Equall parts and Proportions all that part or parcells of the

Estate

Governor Lambert's report on Sandy Bay concluded, that from the top of the mountains the retreating men would meet with the rest of their party and assist in annoying the enemy with their small arms.

As for the four guns, should the enemy take them, they would be of no service to them, because they could not propose bringing them up the mountains, for it was most certain they would find it fatigue enough to reach the country and the several ambuscades with their firelocks only.

The place most convenient to set the battery was about one third up the mountain, and happened to be a marle or soft part, so that it might be cut into the rock and completed by the Company's own plantation hands without one farthing expense to the Honourable Company. Lambert hoped it would be entirely finished in six weeks time.

George Gabriel Powell Esq, paymaster, reported that the following Saturday, being pay day for the quarter, he therefore requested that a sum of money be issued to him out of the treasury for that purpose.

Accordingly there was issued to George Gabriel Powell Esq the sum of £1,344 7s 4d.

Mr James Greentree presented the last will and testament of his mother, the late Elizabeth Greentree, requesting that it might be proved. The same was accordingly proved upon the oaths of the witnesses, the Worshipful George Gabriel Powell Esq and the Reverend Doctor Alcock.

The will ran as follows. Elizabeth Greentree, being of perfect mind and memory, made and ordained this her last will. First and principally she recommended her soul into the hands of her blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ, trusting in his mercy for the redemption of all her sins. Her body she committed to the earth to be decently buried.

First, she willed and bequeathed to her son Thomas Greentree the sum of £20 0s 0d, to be laid out wholly in mourning for him and his family. Secondly, she willed and bequeathed to her son James Greentree, and to her daughter Susanna Greentree in equal parts and proportions, all that part or parcel of the estate.

Interpretations

Elizabeth Greentree's will offers a rare glimpse of the personal wealth and family arrangements of an ordinary inhabitant, the same woman seen throughout the accounts as both a debtor to and creditor of the Company. Her estate, disposed among her children with cash legacies and shares of land, reveals the modest property a settler might accumulate and pass on. This document connects the impersonal figures of the account books to a real family, showing the human reality behind the entries for slave hire and arrears that bore her name across the consultations.

The bequest of £20 to her son Thomas specifically to be laid out in mourning reveals the importance attached to the proper observance of grief, a substantial sum reserved to clothe the family in mourning at her death. This provision connects directly to the black crape recorded selling through the store, the material of mourning that such a legacy would purchase. The care to fund the family's mourning shows the social weight of funeral custom on the island, a dying woman setting aside money to ensure her death was marked with the expected outward signs of grief.

Lambert's assurance that the Sandy Bay battery could be cut into a soft marle part of the rock and completed by the Company's own plantation slaves without one farthing of expense reveals again the reliance on enslaved labour to build the island's defences at no cost. That a whole fortification might be raised solely by the unpaid labour of the plantation hands shows how the Company's military works, like its agricultural improvements, rested on the enslaved. This confirms the pervasive dependence on slave labour, the defence of the island itself to be built by the same hands that worked its plantations.

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Estate of Jane Greentree which She at her Decease Bequeathed to me, And would have

became hers in Case She has lived, ⅌art of the Estate of my Deceased Husbands

Thirdly I Will and Bequeath unto my beloved Daughter Susanna a Moroysing

Ring that was my Deceased Husbands and a Sett of Tea Spoons

Forthly First and Bequeath all the Rest Residue and Remainder of my Estate

be it in what sort soever Unto my beloved Children, James, Richard, Elizabeth, Sarah

Mary and Susanna to be Divided between them in Equalle Shares and Proportions

Fifthly I Will and Bequeath that the part of my Estate which I have in the foregoing

Paragraph unto my Daughter Mary Seemed to Bequeath shall be only in her Lifespan

untill the Children which She had by Daniel Griffith vizt Owen, Hellena, Elizabeth and

Mary, or the Survivour of them Arrive to the Age of Twenty one Years or Marriage.

And then as they do arrive at Age or Marriage it shall with the profits that may

Arrise thereon be Equally Divided amongst them and Delivered to them

Lastly I Nominate and appoint my well beloved Sons Thomas and James

to be true and Lawfull Executors of this my Last Will and Testament Utterly

Revoking all former Wills or Wills by me made Ratifie my hand and Seal in

St Helena this Twelveth day of December Anno Domini 1742

Signed Sealed & Delivd

where no Stampd paper is to be had

as her Last Will and Testament

Elizabeth Greentree

Geo Powell

Edwin Alcock

Mr Thomas Greentree being Nominated

an Executor with James Greentree, sent us word himself being 3d that he

Declined the Trust

The Writers vizt James Powell Francis Wrangham

and Thomas French having never yet taken the Oath of Fidelity this day took the same

as follows Vizt

I being Elected into the Office or Place of Writer to the United Company of

of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies To Swear that I will be true and

and faithfull, to the said Company, and will faithfully and truely, Execute and

Discharge, the said office or place of Writer to the utmost of my Skill and Power

So help me God

Elizabeth Greentree's will continued, that this was the part of the estate of James Greentree which he had at his death bequeathed to her, and which she would have become heir to had she lived, being part of the estate of her deceased husband.

Thirdly, she willed and bequeathed to her beloved daughter Susanna an earring that was her deceased husband's, and a set of her spoons.

Fourthly, she willed and bequeathed all the rest, residue and remainder of her estate, of what sort soever, to her beloved children James, Richard, Elizabeth, Sarah, Mary and Susanna, to be divided between them in equal shares and proportions.

Fifthly, she willed and bequeathed that the part of her estate which she had in the foregoing paragraph bequeathed to her daughter Mary should be only in trust for her lifetime, until the children she had by Daniel Griffith, namely Owen, Helena, Elizabeth and Mary, or the survivor of them, arrived at the age of twenty one years or marriage. Then, as they came of age or married, it should, with the profits that might arise from it, be equally divided amongst them and delivered to them.

Lastly, she nominated and appointed her well-beloved sons Thomas and James to be true and lawful executors of this her last will and testament, revoking all former wills. The will was signed by Elizabeth Greentree at St Helena on 12 December 1742, and witnessed by George Gabriel Powell and Edwin Alcock.

Mr Thomas Greentree, being nominated an executor with James Greentree, sent word that he, being ill, declined the trust.

The writers James Powell, James Wrangham and Thomas Trench, having never yet taken the oath of fidelity, this day took the same. Each swore that, being elected into the office or place of writer to the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, he would be true and faithful to the Company, and would faithfully and truly execute and discharge the office or place of writer to the utmost of his skill and power. So help him God.

Interpretations

Elizabeth Greentree's careful provision for her grandchildren by Daniel Griffith, holding their mother Mary's share in trust until they came of age or married, reveals a shrewd concern to protect an inheritance across the generations. By tying up Mary's portion for the benefit of her children rather than giving it outright, the testatrix guarded the family's property against loss and secured it for the grandchildren. This shows the use of the trust as an instrument of family strategy even among the island's ordinary settlers, a device to preserve an inheritance for minors until they were fit to receive it.

The detailed bequests of personal keepsakes, an earring that had been her husband's and a set of spoons to her daughter Susanna, reveal the sentimental as well as the material dimension of the will. These small treasured possessions, singled out and named, connect the dry legal document to the intimate life of a family, the mementoes of a marriage passed to a daughter. This human detail exposes the personal attachments behind the formal disposition of an estate, the modest but cherished belongings that carried memory and affection through the generations.

Thomas Greentree's declining of the executorship on grounds of illness, coming immediately after his mother left him £20 for mourning, shows the practical difficulties that could beset the administration of even a modest estate. That one of the two named executors was too ill to serve reveals how the settling of an estate depended on the availability and willingness of those appointed to the trust. This small complication echoes the wider pattern seen across the consultations, where the machinery of inheritance repeatedly stalled on the want of a willing or able administrator on the small and often sickly island.

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Benjamin Spencer this day maketh Complaint that

William Addams hath told white Demicy Wiscott of his to a Black fellow belonging to Joseph

Whaley called Jumper for that he Spencer saw the Wascott upon the Back of the Said Slave and

Challenging it the fellow told him that he bought it of William Addams

Addams being Present Confessed that he had Sold White

Wiscott to Jumper but Denyed its being Spencers

Whereupon He Ordered Spencer and Addams to attend the

Next Consultation together with the Black fellow Jumper and the Wascott when it should be

further Enquired into

G G Powell

John Godfrey

Chr Dixon

At a Consultation held on Friday the 18th Jany 1742/3 att the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Govr

John Godfrey 2 of Councill

Christr Dixon 3 of Councill

The last Consultation was read and Approved

This Day the paymaster delivered his account which was Examined and agreed

and Entered as followeth Vizt

List of the Honourable Companys Servants upon the Island St Helena with their Severall

Sallarys and Diet Money for the Month of Octr November December Last 1742 vizt

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Geo Gab Powel Esqr Governour

Pay P Quarter £125 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

John Godfrey 2 of Council

Pay P Quarter £25 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Christopher Dixon 3 of Council

Pay P Quarter £20 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Edwin Alcock Chaplain

Pay P Quarter £25 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Joshua Twynam Factor Including House rent

Pay P Quarter £12 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

James Powell including Do

Pay P Quarter £15 1s 3d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Joseph Darval including Do Writers

Pay P Quarter £17 10s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Francis Wrangham including Do

Pay P Quarter £15 1s 3d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

Thos French

Pay P Quarter £5 0s 0d, Diet 0, Coats Regementals &ct 0

240 12s 6d

Brought over

241 12s 6d

Benjamin Spencer complained that William Addams had sold a waistcoat of his to a black man belonging to Joseph Whaley called Jumper, saying that Spencer had seen the waistcoat on the back of the slave and, on challenging it, the man told him he had bought it from William Addams.

Addams, being present, admitted that he had sold the waistcoat to Jumper but denied that it was Spencer's.

The council ordered Spencer and Addams to attend the next consultation, together with the black man Jumper and the waistcoat, when the matter would be looked into further.

The order was signed by G. G. Powell, John Godfrey and C. Dixon.

At a consultation held on Friday 18 January 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, John Godfrey second of council and Christopher Dixon third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The paymaster delivered his account, which was examined, approved and entered as follows.

A list of the Honourable Company's servants upon the island of St Helena, with their several allowances and diet money for the months of October, November and December last, 1741, follows.

The three column headings across the top read pay per quarter, diet and coats, regimentals and other.

George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, pay per quarter £125 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Godfrey, second of council, pay per quarter £25 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Christopher Dixon, third of council, pay per quarter £20 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Edwin Alcock, chaplain, pay per quarter £25 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Joshua Twynham, factor, including house rent, pay per quarter £10 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Powell, writer, including house rent, pay per quarter £12 1s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Joseph Darval, writer, including house rent, pay per quarter £17 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Francis Wrangham, writer, including house rent, pay per quarter £12 1s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas French, writer, pay per quarter £5 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £241 12s 6d

Brought over, £241 12s 6d

Interpretations

The waistcoat dispute shows the council acting as a routine small-claims court, resolving a quarrel over a single second-hand garment between two of the settlement's own men. That the governor and both councillors sat to hear so minor a matter reflects how few institutions the island had, with the same body settling property squabbles, running the administration and commanding the garrison.

The case turned on the movement of goods through a slave as an intermediary. Addams admitted selling the waistcoat to Jumper but disputed only whose it had been, so the question before the council was not the sale but the original ownership. Summoning the slave and the garment themselves to the next consultation shows the council gathering physical evidence and witnesses rather than deciding on the two men's word alone.

Jumper was a slave belonging to Joseph Whaley, named and treated in the record as an item of another man's property, yet his purchase of the waistcoat shows that slaves on the island handled goods and money on their own account. The garrison pay account that follows sets out the civil establishment paid from the Company treasury, the governor drawing £125 for the quarter against the £5 paid to the most junior writer, a spread of twenty-five to one across the island's small body of covenanted servants.

Speculations

The council chose to adjourn the waistcoat case rather than decide it on the spot, though both parties were present and Addams had already confessed to the sale. The obvious course was to rule at once between Spencer's claim and Addams's denial, but the council instead held the matter over and sent for the slave Jumper and the waistcoat itself. That decision to gather the garment and its wearer as evidence, over settling a trivial dispute immediately, shows the council treating even a minor property claim as something to be proved by inspection rather than resolved by the standing of the men involved.

106

100

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over

Diet Brought over

Brought over

Pay P Quarter £241 12s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

First company vizt

John Clarke Lieutenant to 2d Novr

Pay P Quarter £18 10s 11½d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Eastfloy Ensign Including House

Rent at £6 a Annum to 2d Decr

Pay P Quarter £11 9s 9½d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Do Lieutenant from the 4 Decr

including Diet as one

Pay P Quarter £2 14s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Daniel [...] Ensign includd House Rent

Pay P Quarter £14 11s 3d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Barton Ensign includd House Rent

Pay P Quarter £14 11s 3d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Sergeh Disfountain Serjt to Thos Decr

Pay P Quarter £5 10s 2d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Do Ensign from ye 11 Decr Including Rent

at £6 P annum

Pay P Quarter £9 3s 10d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Hayes Adjutant Including House Rent

Pay P Quarter £17 1s 3d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Pay P Quarter £79 13s 2½d

Serjeants vizt

Willm Scale

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Henry Mattox

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Daniel Mason

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Joseph Leighton

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Henry Beale

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 12s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Diet £1 10s 0d

Pay P Quarter £34 17s 6d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Corporals vizt

Joseph Whaley

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Kniper

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Barthomeus Molloy

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Richard Hayes

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Mathew Waters Died 15 Novr

Pay P Quarter £3 3s 3d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Devril Contind to the 1 Decr

Pay P Quarter £2 19s 3d, Diet £1 1s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Do Corporal from ye 2 Do

Pay P Quarter £0 12s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Bevis Ambrose Contind to the 18 Decr

Pay P Quarter £2 19s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Do Corporal from ye 11 Do

Pay P Quarter £0 12s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Pay P Quarter £26 17s 9½d

Drummers vizt

Thos Watts

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Daws

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Pay P Quarter £8 15s 6d

Centinels vizt

Willm Addams

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

James Aldridge

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

James Willis

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Ulcock

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Edward Arnold

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Richard Bishop

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 25s 0d

George Bennet

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 25s 0d

Matthew Brightsel

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 25s 0d

Andrew Barton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 25s 0d

Peter Bath

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 25s 0d

Pay P Quarter £34 2s 6d

Carried over £425 18s 11d

Diet Carried over £31 9s 0d

Regimentals Contd £15 10s 0d

Regimental brought over, £0 0s 0d.
Diet brought over, £0 0s 0d.
Brought over, £241 12s 6d.

First company:

John Clarke, lieutenant to 2nd December, pay per quarter £13 10s 11½d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Eastley, ensign, including house rent at 6d a day, arms and diet, pay per quarter £11 9s 9½d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, lieutenant from the 4th December, including diet and arms, pay per quarter £2 14s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Daniel Snow, ensign, including house rent, pay per quarter £14 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Baker, ensign, including house rent, pay per quarter £14 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Hugh Difountain, sergeant to the 11th December, pay per quarter £5 10s 2d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, ensign from the 12th December, including board at 6d a day, pay per quarter £9 3s 10d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Hayes, adjutant, including house rent, pay per quarter £17 1s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, pay per quarter £79 13s 2½d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Sergeants:

William Scale, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Henry Mattox, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Daniel Dixon, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Joseph Leighton, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Henry Beale, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £1 12s 0d, £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Total, pay per quarter £34 17s 6d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Corporals:

Joseph Whaley, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Kniper, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Barthanas Molloy, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Richard Harper, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Mathew Waters, died 12th November, pay per quarter £2 3s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Devril, continued to the 11th December, pay per quarter £2 19s 3d, diet £1 1s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, corporal from the 12th December, pay per quarter 12s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Bevin Ambrose, continued to the 18th December, pay per quarter £2 19s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, corporal from the 19th December, pay per quarter 12s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, pay per quarter £26 17s 9½d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Drummers:

Thomas Watts, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Daws, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, pay per quarter £8 15s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Sentinels:

William Addams, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Aldridge, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Willis, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Bloock, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Edward Arnold, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Richard Bishop, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £25 0s 0d

George Bennet, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £25 0s 0d

Matthew Brightsel, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Andrew Baker, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Peter Bath, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £25 0s 0d

Total, pay per quarter £34 2s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Carried over, £425 18s 11d.
Diet carried over, £31 4s 0d.
Regimental carried over, £15 10s 0d.

Interpretations

The account opens the muster of the garrison itself, setting out the first company by rank from its officers down to the private sentinels, each paid from the same quarterly treasury as the civil establishment on the preceding page. A sentinel was an ordinary private soldier posted to stand guard, the lowest and most numerous rank on the roll, while an adjutant was the officer who handled the company's routine administration and drill under the commander.

Several men are entered on two lines at two different rates because they changed rank part way through the quarter. Thomas Eastley rose from ensign to lieutenant from 4 December, and Hugh Difountain moved up from sergeant to ensign from 12 December, so each drew the lower rank's pay for the earlier days and the higher rank's for the rest. William Devril and Bevin Ambrose were each promoted to corporal within the month, their pay split the same way between the private's rate and the corporal's. This day-by-day accounting let the treasury pay each man exactly for the time served in each capacity rather than rounding to one rank for the whole term.

House rent and a daily board allowance were folded into the officers' pay rather than supplied in kind, with Eastley credited house rent at 6d a day and Difountain board at the same rate once commissioned. On a small island where accommodation was limited and mostly Company-owned, a cash allowance built into pay was the practical alternative to housing each officer directly. The death of a soldier shows in the record as nothing more than a shortened pay line, Corporal Mathew Waters marked as dying on 12 November with his pay stopping at a part-month figure, and the vacancy his death left is what opened the corporal's place that William Devril stepped into in December.

107

101

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over

Diet Brought over 31 4

Pay P Quarter £15 10s 0d

Brought over

Diet £425 18s 11d

Daniel Bush

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Paul Bryan

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Joseph Bapek

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Brown

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Peter Cummings

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Antony Castrell

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

George Clarke

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Robt Carry

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Carel Founded the 9 octr

Pay P Quarter £6 9s 0d, Diet £6 5s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Henry Caster

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 10s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Mathew Cammel

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Henry Cator

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Daniel Council

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Walter Cox

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Antony Day

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Ellis

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 3s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

James English

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Eades

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Richard Frost Died 1 Decr

Pay P Quarter £2 5s 6d, Diet £0 12s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Fuller

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 10s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Flood

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Ford

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Gurling

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Jonathan Godby

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Giles Hayes

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Hodges

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Francis Hayes

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Samll Harrison

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Solomon Jacobs

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Joshuah Jermain

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 18s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Jones senr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Evan Jones

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Jones Junr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Whitstone Jones

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Robert Kent

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Kendrich

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 13s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John King

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 10s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Joseph Long

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Lohy

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Salom Cluth Chormageant

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Legg

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Leech

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

143 18s 9d

Carried over £571 11s 8d

Diet Carried over 84 9s 5d

Regimentals Contd 32 15s

Regimental brought over, £15 10s 0d.
Diet brought over, £31 4s 0d.
Brought over, £425 18s 11d.

Daniel Bush, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Paul Bryan, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Joseph Bapek, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Brown, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Peter Cummings, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Antony Cabell, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

George Clarke, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Robert Carey, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Card, drowned the 9th October, pay per quarter £6 9s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £6 5s 0d

Henry Carter, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Mathew Cammel, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Henry Cator, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Daniel Council, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Walter Coe, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Antony Day, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Ells, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 2s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James English, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Eades, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Richard Frost, died 1st December, pay per quarter £2 5s 6d, diet £12 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Fuller, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Flood, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Ford, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Gurling, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Jonathan Godby, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Giles Hayes, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Hodges, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Francis Hayes, pay per quarter £5 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Samuel Harrison, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Solomon Jacobs, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Josiah Jermain, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 15s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Jones senior, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Evan Jones, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Jones junior, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Wilston Jones, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Robert Kent, pay per quarter £3 9s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Kendrick, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 13s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John King, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Joseph Long, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Lahy, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Aaron Cluff, drummer's coat, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Leggat, [...], pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Legg, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Leech, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Carried over, £571 14s 8d

Diet carried over, £84 9s 5d.
Regimental carried over, £32 15s 0d.

Interpretations

The page continues the December pay roll of the garrison, running through the sentinels alphabetically by surname, each at the standard private's rate of £3 8s 8d, with the diet allowance and the clothing charge entered in the two right-hand columns. Two men are marked as lost during the accounting period, their pay cut to a part-quarter figure rather than the full rate. Thomas Card drowned on 9 October and Richard Frost died on 1 December, so each drew pay only for the days served before death.

The diet column carries a recurring allowance near £1 10s against most names, and the coats and regimentals column a separate clothing charge, the two entered together as each man's account was settled. On a remote garrison where soldiers were supplied with clothing, shoes and other necessaries from Company stores, such sums were set against a man's pay and reckoned in the same account rather than handled as separate cash transactions.

One entry records not a payment but an item of issued kit. Aaron Cluff is noted with a drummer's coat, the distinctive laced coat that marked a drummer out from the ordinary sentinels, showing that specialist clothing was tracked against the individual soldier in the same ledger that carried his pay.

108

102

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over

Pay P Quarter £32 15s 0d

Diet brought over £84 9s 5d

Brought over

571 11s 8½d

Daniel Langton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Moore

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Madge

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Price

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Pritchard

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Deane

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Nathaniel Peacoat

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Payne

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Richardson

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Benjamin Miller

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Slack

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Scotcher

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Spencer

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Arnold Slaffery

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Simpson

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Speake

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Sutton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Daniel Try

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Toales

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Taylor

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Vaughan Scot

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Wilson

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Willis

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Wigg

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Ghs Cankster

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

85 6s 3d

Second company vizt

James Scot Leiutenant

Pay P Quarter £10 0s 0d

John Disfountain Including House Rent

Pay P Quarter £14 11s 3d

Joseph Kendal Including Do

Pay P Quarter £14 11s 3d

Thos Kirkpatrick including Do

Pay P Quarter £14 11s 3d

53 13s 0d

Serjts vizt

Edward Basley

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

John Slak

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

David Williams

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Thos Order

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Cohman

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

Christophers Beale

Pay P Quarter £6 19s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 2s 0d

41 17s

Carried over 782 14s 8½d

Diet Carried over 123 4s 5d

Regimentals Contd £58 5s

Regimental brought over, £32 15s 0d.
Diet brought over, £84 9s 5d.
Brought over, £571 14s 8½d.

Daniel Langton, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Moore, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Madge, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Price, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Pritchard, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Deane, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Nathaniel Scale, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Payne, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Richardson, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Benjamin Miller, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Slack, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Scutcher, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Spencer, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Arnold Slaffery, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Simpson, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Speake, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Sutton, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Daniel Say, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Coales, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Taylor, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Vaughan, sentinel, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Wilson, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Willis, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Wragg, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Christopher Bankester, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £85 6s 3d

Second company:

James Scot, lieutenant, pay per quarter £11 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Difountain, including house rent, pay per quarter £14 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Joseph Kendal, including house rent, pay per quarter £14 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Kirkpatrick, including house rent, pay per quarter £14 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £53 13s 9d

Sergeants:

Edward Bailey, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

John Slack, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

David Williams, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Thomas Osher, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

William Cohman, pay per quarter £6 10s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Christopher Beale, pay per quarter £6 19s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £2 0s 0d

Total, £41 17s 0d

Carried over, £752 14s 8½d.
Diet carried over, £123 9s 5d.
Regimental carried over, £58 5s 0d.

Interpretations

The page closes the first company's sentinels and opens the second company, moving from the private soldiers up through the commissioned officers and sergeants of the new unit. Each company was built on the same pattern, a small group of officers on high quarterly pay heading a body of sergeants, corporals, drummers and privates, and the running totals at the foot show the paymaster tracking three parallel accounts at once for basic pay, diet and clothing charges.

The officers of the second company were again credited house rent within their pay rather than housed directly, with John Difountain, Joseph Kendal and Thomas Kirkpatrick each drawing £14 11s 3d including that allowance. This repeats the arrangement seen in the first company, confirming that folding a cash accommodation allowance into an officer's pay was the settled practice of the garrison rather than an isolated entry.

The diet allowance near £1 19s and the clothing charge near 15 follow most privates across both companies, entered in the two right-hand columns as each man's account was reckoned. The uniformity of these figures points to a fixed schedule of allowances and stoppages worked out for the whole garrison and applied line by line, though the scatter of blank entries shows the charges still turned on each man's own issue of diet and clothing in the quarter rather than falling as a flat rate on every soldier alike.

109

103

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over 58 5s

Diet Brought over 123 9s 5d

Brought over

752 14s 8½d

Corporals vizt

Thos Swindle

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John French

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Aldrich

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Simpson

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Gabriel Isaac

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Samuel Uwick

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

26 6s 6d

Drummer vizt

William Cornes

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos London at 7 P annum

Pay P Quarter £1 15s 0d

6 2s 9d

Centinels vizt

Willm Allen

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

George Ayous

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Anzer

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Georges Andrews

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Bowen

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 10s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Barton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Barrett

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Peter Barker

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Bown

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Whitstone Chidman

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Berrick

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 17s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Bryan

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Bassett

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Burke

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Boughs

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Beale

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Bonfield

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Barton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Carr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Carr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Nicholas Cope

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Alle Cope

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Philip Catchpole

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Collings

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Draper

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Draper

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Dorton

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Barron Delbagh

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Bennud Dunfield

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Dovay

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Isaac Downs

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 10s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

105 15s 9d

Carried over £890 19s 8½d

Diet Carried over £176 5s

Regimentals Carried over £77

Regimental brought over, £58 5s 0d.
Diet brought over, £123 9s 5d.
Brought over, £752 14s 8½d.

Corporals:

Thomas Swindle, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John French, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Aldrich, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Simpson, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Gabriel Isaac, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Samuel Ubbrick, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £26 6s 6d

Drummers:

William Cornes, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas London, at 7s a year, pay per quarter £1 15s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £6 2s 9d

Sentinels:

William Allen, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

George Ayres, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Anzer, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Joseph Andrews, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Bowen, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Barton, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Barrett, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Peter Barker, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Bower, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

George Chidman, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 17s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Berrick, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Bryan, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Elias Baffett, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Burke, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Boughs, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Beale, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Benfield, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Barton, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Carr, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Carr, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Nicholas Ape, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Alle Copp, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Philip Catchpole, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Collings, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Joseph Draper, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Draper, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Dutton, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Barron Delvese, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Bennud Dunfield, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Dacey, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Isaac Downs, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 10s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, £105 15s 9d

Carried over, £890 14s 8½d.
Diet carried over, £176 5s 0d.
Regimental carried over, £77 0s 0d.

Interpretations

The page works through the second company's corporals, drummers and sentinels on the same schedule of basic pay and standing allowances used throughout the roll, corporals at £4 7s 9d and privates at £3 8s 8d, with the diet allowance and the clothing charge set in the two right-hand columns. The three parallel totals carried at the foot for basic pay, diet and clothing continue to climb, the paymaster settling all three streams together as each rank was worked through.

One drummer was paid on wholly different terms from the rest. Thomas London drew only £1 15s 0d, entered as at 7s a year, against William Cornes on the full drummer's rate of £4 7s 9d. A nominal annual figure of this kind marks him out as a boy drummer or an apprentice under training rather than a fully mustered soldier, kept on the strength at a token wage until old enough to draw a man's pay.

The diet allowance near £1 19s and the clothing charge near 15 follow most privates line after line, though a handful of names carry neither. Those blank entries suggest the two charges were tied to each man's own drawing of diet and clothing in the quarter, reckoned against his individual account, rather than paid as a flat entitlement to every soldier alike.

110

104

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over

Diet Brought over 176

Pay P Quarter £77

Brought over 890 19s 8½d

John Deans

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Samll Eales

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Christophir Garland

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Gann

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John George

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Thos Griffes

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Hayes

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Daniel Hayes

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Isaac Hodivas

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Barrel Hermas

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 17s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Henry Higgens

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £14 6s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Joseph Hunt

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Hollway

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Philip Hillyard

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Hall

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Jonathan William

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Jayne

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Johnson

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Richard Knight

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

David Lord

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Stephin Laghin

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Laring

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 0s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Lee

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 8s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Charles Mountague

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 6s 9d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Murdock

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Robert Mason

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Manning

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Mannahee

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

John Morgan

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £0 11s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Newis

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Oliver

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Laurence Dickison

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Stephin Owens

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Willm Page

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Pride

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Ruttor

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Willm Weybrook

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

George Sarratt

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Bevis Steade

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 0s 0d

Richard Smales

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 5s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Vaughan Junr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Wright

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

James Whitehead

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

146 14s 9d

Carried over £1037 14s 5d

Diet Carried over £238 10s 2d

Regimentals Carried over £106 15s

Regimental brought over, £77 0s 0d.
Diet brought over, £176 5s 0d.
Brought over, £890 14s 8½d.

John Deans, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Samuel Eates, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Christopher Garland, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Gann, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John George, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Griffis, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Hayes, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Daniel Hayes, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Isaac Hodias, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Barrit Weimas, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 17s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Henry Higgens, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £14 6s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Joseph Hunt, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Holloway, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Philip Hillyard, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Hall, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Jonathan William, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Jayne, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Johnson, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Richard Knight, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

David Lord, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Stephen Lafkin, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Laring, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James Lee, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 8s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Charles Mountague, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £6 9s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Murdock, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Robert Mason, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Manning, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Munnahee, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Morgan, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £11 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Nevis, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Oliver, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Lawrence Dickinson, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Stephen Devero, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Page, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Pride, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Rutter, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

William Weashbrook, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

George Fairratt, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Bward Meade, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Richard Snubs, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 5s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Vaughan junior, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Wright, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

James White second, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, £146 14s 9d

Carried over, £1,037 14s 5½d.
Diet carried over, £238 10s 2d.
Regimental carried over, £106 15s 0d.

Interpretations

The page carries the second company's sentinels on to the end of the roll, every man on the standard private's rate of £3 8s 8d, with the diet allowance and the clothing charge set against most names in the two right-hand columns. The three running totals at the foot pass £1,000 in basic pay, the paymaster still settling pay, diet and clothing together as one account.

A handful of diet entries stand far above the usual figure near £1 19s and read as arrears or a longer reckoning rather than a single quarter's allowance. Henry Higgens is entered at £14 6s, John Morgan at £11 and Charles Mountague at £6 9s, sums many times the ordinary line, so each probably settled a debt or an accumulated charge carried forward rather than the plain quarter's diet paid to the men around them.

The scatter of blank entries against the diet and clothing columns continues, some men carrying both charges, some one and some neither. This confirms that the two columns tracked each soldier's own drawing of diet and his own issue of clothing in the quarter, reckoned individually against his account, rather than falling as a flat rate on every private alike.

111

105

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals Brought over

Diet Brought over 238 10s 2d

Pay P Quarter £106 15s

Brought over 1037 14s 3½d

Benjamin Williams Senr

Pay P Quarter £3 2s 8d, Diet £1 7s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Benjamin Williams Junr

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Jeremiah Wyrill

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Peter Wills

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

13 13s

Artilery Company vizt

John French Master Gunner and Chr Assistant

Pay P Quarter £22 10s

Isaac Leech Gunner Mate

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d

Thos Watts Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d

Nathan Semple Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d

Robert Wood Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £1 10s 0d

James Vaughn Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £1 10s 0d

Roger Scrivenor Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d, Coats Regementals &ct £1 10s 0d

Francis Nowland Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d

Willm Chillingsworth Do

Pay P Quarter £4 17s 6d, Diet £1 19s 0d

William Kennedy Quarter Gunner

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d

Major Jackson Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d

Willm Davis Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d

John Christopher Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d

John Barnett Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £1 0s 0d

Thos Dottingham Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d

John Spencer Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d

John Nettlage Do

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d

Samuel Chock Amathrop

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d

Willm Eadley

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d

Richard Frontor

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Thos Allito

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Spencer

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Bullen

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Saml Clarke Do

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Joseph Boswell

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 7s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Walter Belkiss

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Smith

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Adam Gilburne

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £0 8s 0d

Willm Turner

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Henry Savage

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d

Humphrey Pugh

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Francis Buck

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

Ply Leech

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Watkins

Pay P Quarter £4 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Butler Contind to the 9th Octr

Pay P Quarter £0 6s 9d

Do Mathrop from 9 Do

Pay P Quarter £3 15s 0d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

John Dover Contind to 9 octr

Pay P Quarter £0 6s 9d

Do Amathrop from the 9th Do

Pay P Quarter £3 15s 0d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

171 12s 9d

Carried over £1223 1s 1½d

Diet Carried over 292 6s 3d

Regimentals Carried over 120

Regimental brought over, £106 15s 0d.
Diet brought over, £238 10s 2d.
Brought over, £1,037 14s 3½d.

Benjamin Williams senior, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 7s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Benjamin Williams junior, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Jeremiah Wyril, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Peter Wills, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, £13 13s 0d

Artillery company:

John French, master gunner and chief lieutenant, pay per quarter £22 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Isaac Leech, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Watts, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Nathan Semple, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Robert Wood, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £1 10s 0d

James Vaughan, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Roger Bevison, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £1 10s 0d

Francis Newland, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Chillingsworth, gunner's mate, pay per quarter £4 17s 6d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Kennedy, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Major Jackson, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Davis, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Christopher, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Barnett, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £1 0s 0d

Thomas Bellingham, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Spencer, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Nettage, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Samuel Chock, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Eadley, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Richard Fenton, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Thomas Alleto, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Spencer, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Bullen, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Samuel Clarke, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Joseph Boswell, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 7s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Walter Belknes, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Smith, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Adam Wilburne, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £8 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Turner, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Henry Savage, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Humphrey Pugh, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Francis Buck, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Philip Leech, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Watkins, mattross, pay per quarter £4 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

John Butler, continued to the 9th October, pay per quarter £6 9s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, mattross from the 9th October, pay per quarter £3 13s 0d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Bevin Devero, continued to the 9th October, pay per quarter £6 9s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, mattross from the 9th October, pay per quarter £3 13s 0d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, £171 12s 9d

Carried over, £1,223 7s 0½d.
Diet carried over, £292 6s 5d.
Regimental carried over, £120 0s 0d.

Interpretations

The page closes the second company and opens the artillery company, the specialist gunners who manned the batteries guarding the island's roadstead and harbour. Its ranks ran from the master gunner at the head down through gunner's mates, quarter gunners and mattrosses, a separate establishment from the two infantry companies and paid at higher rates that reflect the skill their work required.

John French headed the company as master gunner and chief lieutenant on £22 10s for the quarter, far above the gunner's mates at £4 17s 6d and the mattrosses at £4 1s 3d beneath him. A mattross was the lowest artillery rank, a gunner's assistant who helped load, sponge and haul the guns and carried the powder and shot, ranking just below a matross's superior the gunner much as a sentinel did in the foot companies. A quarter gunner was a petty officer set over a portion of the ordnance, responsible for the care and serving of his allotted guns.

Two men are entered on split lines at two rates within the quarter, John Butler and Bevin Devero each reckoned at one rate to 9 October and at the mattross rate afterwards, so each was paid exactly for the days served in each capacity as their standing changed. The same recurring diet allowance near £1 19s and clothing charge appear against most of the artillerymen, tying this specialist company into the identical schedule of individual allowances and stoppages applied across the whole garrison.

112

106

Pay P Quarter, Diet, Coats Regementals &ct

Regimentals brought over

Pay P Quarter £120

Diet brought over £292 6s 3d

Brought over

£1223 1s 1½d

Robert Manbrow Contind to the 16 Octr

Pay P Quarter £0 12s

Do Mathrop from 16 Do

Pay P Quarter £3 6s 9d, Diet £1 19s 0d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 15s 0d

3 18s 9d

Superanuated vizt

Joseph Whaley Serjeant

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

John Hammond

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

Willm Burnham

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

Isaac Roberson Quarter Gunner

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

George Lindsey Drummer

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

Saml Kniper Centinel

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

20 9s 6d

Samuel Doulton

Pay P Quarter £15

John Thwaites

Pay P Quarter £7 10s

Richard Findley Overseers

Pay P Quarter £6 5s

Richard Gurling

Pay P Quarter £7 10s

John Barton house at Yorkfort

Pay P Quarter £6 5s

Charles Clarke Surgeon

Pay P Quarter £9 15s

James Dubois Surgeons Mate Ynclddg

house rent at £10 P annum

Pay P Quarter £18 15s

James Vaughn Clerk

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

Do Custom Master

Pay P Quarter £1 5s

Francis Thinge Armourer

Pay P Quarter £12 1s 3d, Diet £1 19s 0d

James Haywood Do Mate

Pay P Quarter £7 10s

James Funge Do Mate died 21 Do

Pay P Quarter £3 3s 3d

Henry Moyce Carpenter

Pay P Quarter £18 10s

John Artenywith Gunner

Pay P Quarter £7 10s, Coats Regementals &ct £0 8s 7d

Henry Higgs Corn Peice Keeper

Pay P Quarter £2

Thos Osborne Marchal

Pay P Quarter £4 7s 9d, Coats Regementals &ct £0 18s 7d

Richd Beale Slaslaughter

Pay P Quarter £3 8s 8d

Nicolas Cheater Steward

Pay P Quarter £7 10s

Willm Power Gardener

Pay P Quarter £9 11s 3d

Willm Wood Limeslacker at

the rate of £8 P annum

Pay P Quarter £7 10s

Jonathan Higham Imployed in

Blowing the Blackstones at 6 P Day

Whose Pay Amounts to

Pay P Quarter £7 8s

a Black Cooper Do 6 P Day old

for 78 Days amounts to

Pay P Quarter £7 16s

167 17s 2d

Totall pay Amounting to£ 1415 5s 6½d

Totall Diet Amounting to£ 297 11s 7d

Totall Regimentals Amounting to£ 120 15s

Regimental brought over, £120 0s 0d.
Diet brought over, £292 6s 3d.
Brought over, £1,223 7s 0½d.

Robert Manbrow, continued to the 6th, pay per quarter 12s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, mattross from the 6th December, pay per quarter £3 6s 9d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £15 0s 0d

Total, £3 18s 9d

Superannuated:

Joseph Whaley, sergeant, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Harwood, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Burnham, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Isaac Roberson, quarter gunner, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

George Lindsey, drummer, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Samuel Knife, sentinel, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £20 9s 6d

Samuel Doolton, pay per quarter £15 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Twaites, overseer, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Richard Finley, overseer, pay per quarter £6 5s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Richard Gurling, overseer, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Baker, keeper of the fortifications, pay per quarter £6 5s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Charles Clarke, surgeon, pay per quarter £9 15s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Dubois, surgeon's mate, third of council, including house rent at £10 a year, pay per quarter £18 15s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Vaughan, clerk, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Ditto, custom master, pay per quarter £0 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Francis Thinge, armourer, pay per quarter £12 1s 3d, diet £1 19s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

James Haywood, armourer's mate, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Fungo, armourer's mate, died 21st December, pay per quarter £3 3s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Henry Moyce, carpenter, pay per quarter £18 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

John Artenymith, joiner, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £8 7s 0d

Henry Higgens, tomb keeper, pay per quarter £2 0s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Thomas Osborne, marshal, pay per quarter £4 7s 9d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £18 7s 0d

Robert Scale, storekeeper, pay per quarter £3 8s 8d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Nicholas Chatlin, steward, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Power, gardener, pay per quarter £9 11s 3d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

William Wood, limeburner, at the rate of £6 a year, pay per quarter £7 10s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Jonathan Higham, employed in tending the storehouse, at 6d a day, his pay amounting to, pay per quarter £7 8s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

A black cooper, ditto pay old, for 78 days amounts to, pay per quarter £7 16s 0d, diet £0 0s 0d, coats regimentals and other £0 0s 0d

Total, £167 17s 2d

Total pay amounting to £1,415 3s 6½d.
Total diet amounting to £297 11s 7d.
Total regimentals amounting to £120 15s 0d.

Interpretations

The page closes the artillery company, then lists two further groups outside the fighting establishment before drawing the whole account to its grand totals. The superannuated men were old soldiers pensioned off the active strength yet kept on the books at a private's pay of £3 8s 8d, among them Joseph Whaley still styled sergeant and Isaac Roberson still named quarter gunner, showing that long service was rewarded with a maintained pension rather than dismissal once a man could no longer bear arms.

The last group is the settlement's civil and technical staff, the overseers, tradesmen and officers who kept the island working, and it reveals how far the Company relied on skilled labour paid from the same military account. James Dubois drew the largest sum at £18 15s as surgeon's mate and third of council with house rent folded in, while Henry Moyce the carpenter, Charles Clarke the surgeon, Francis Thinge the armourer and William Power the gardener were each retained on substantial pay. An armourer maintained and repaired the garrison's firearms and edged weapons, a limeburner produced lime for mortar and building by burning coral or limestone, and a mattross, seen at the top of the page in Robert Manbrow, was the gunner's assistant on the batteries.

The account records a black cooper paid a fixed sum for 78 days, a slave hired out to the Company at a set daily rate for his skilled trade of making and mending casks. That his labour was reckoned in the same ledger as the free tradesmen, yet described only by his colour and his craft and not by name, marks the sharp line the settlement drew between a slave counted as working property and the paid servants listed around him.

Speculations

The Company chose to keep its superannuated men on the pay books at a full private's rate rather than strike them off once they could no longer serve. The obvious course for a trading concern watching its costs was to discharge soldiers past useful duty, yet six worn-out men, two still carrying their old ranks of sergeant and quarter gunner, were held on the establishment at £3 8s 8d apiece. Maintaining them as a standing charge, over releasing them to save the money, points to a garrison so dependent on drawing scarce men to a remote island that a visible pension for long service was worth more than the wages it cost.

113

107

Account of Blacks Labour at the Fortifications at Bankes Done by the following

Persons for the Months of Octr Novr & Decr 1742 vizt

No of Days

George Gabriel Powell Esqr Govr

No of Days 131

£6 11s

Charles Steward Orphants

No of Days 278

£13 13s

John French Senr

No of Days 63

£3 3s

John Aldrich

No of Days 14

£14

Henry Beale

No of Days 41

£2 1s

Saml Doulton

No of Days 109

£5 9s

Richard Findley

No of Days 129

£6 9s

Rob Gurlings Orphants

No of Days 20

£1

James Doulton

No of Days 200

£10

Jos Bapek

No of Days 260

£13

Simon Whaley Orphants

No of Days 109

£5 9s

Gabriel Harper

No of Days 26

£1 6s

John Darling Orphants

No of Days 70

£3 10s

Willm Scale

No of Days 74

£3 14s

Francis Wrangham Senr

No of Days 154

£7 14s

Joseph Disfountain

No of Days 64

£3 4s

John Disfountain

No of Days 73

£3 13s

No of Days 1810

£90 10s

Richard Findley 184 Days work done in Govr Yorkes

time at Fortifications at Bankes not yet paid

No of Days 184

£9 4s

No of Days 1994

£99 14s

Account of work Done at the fortifications at Bankes

by the following Persons belonging to ye Garrison Vizt

Richd Lord

No of Days 9

£8s

Bevis Steade

No of Days 26

£1 6s

John Morgan

No of Days 11

£11s

James Whitehead

No of Days 1

£1s

Benj Hill Senr

No of Days 10

£10s

Thos Draper

No of Days 44

£2 4s

John Drury

No of Days 26

£1 6s

Willm Bown

No of Days 1

£1s

James Carr

No of Days 31

£1 11s

James Lee

No of Days 34

£1 14s

Willm Barrit

No of Days 46

£2 6s

Willm Broughs

No of Days 1

£1s

Willm Brooks

No of Days 105½

£5 5s 6d

Henry Caster

No of Days 5

£5s

John Eatos

No of Days 48

£2 8s

Edward Arnold

No of Days 5

£5s

Robt Ford

No of Days 59

£2 19s

Thos Fuller

No of Days 59

£2 19s

No of Days 392½

£19 12s 6d

Carried over

An account of slaves labouring at the fortifications at Banks, due to the following persons for the months of October, November and December 1741, set out by the number of days worked and the sum owed.

George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, 131 days, £6 11s 0d

Charles Stroud, orphans, 278 days, £13 13s 0d

John French senior, 63 days, £3 3s 0d

John Aldrich, 14 days, £0 0s 14d

Henry Beale, 41 days, £2 1s 0d

Samuel Doolton, 109 days, £5 9s 0d

Richard Finley, 129 days, £6 9s 0d

Robert Gurling, orphans, 20 days, £1 0s 0d

James Doolton, 200 days, £10 0s 0d

John Bapek, 260 days, £13 0s 0d

Simon Whaley, orphans, 109 days, £5 9s 0d

Gabriel Harper, 26 days, £1 6s 0d

John Darling, orphans, 70 days, £3 10s 0d

William Scale, 74 days, £3 14s 0d

Francis Wrangham senior, 154 days, £7 14s 0d

Joseph Difountain, 64 days, £3 4s 0d

John Difountain, 73 days, £3 13s 0d

Total, 1,810 days, £90 10s 0d

Richard Finley, 184 days worked down in New Yorkins time at the fortifications at Banks, not yet paid, 184 days, £9 4s 0d

Total, 1,994 days, £99 14s 0d

An account of work done at the fortifications at Banks by the following persons belonging to the garrison.

David Lord, 9 days, £0 0s 8d

Bward Meade, 26 days, £1 6s 0d

John Morgan, 11 days, £0 0s 11d

James White junior, 1 day, £0 0s 1d

Benjamin Hill junior, 10 days, £0 0s 10d

Thomas Draper, 44 days, £2 4s 0d

John Drury, 26 days, £1 6s 0d

William Bower, 1 day, £0 0s 1d

James Carr, 21 days, £1 1s 0d

James Lee, 34 days, £1 14s 0d

William Barrit, 46 days, £2 6s 0d

William Broyfin, 1 day, £0 0s 1d

William Brooks, 107 days, £2 5s 6d

Henry Carter, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

John Eates, 5 days, £0 0s 5d

Edward Arnold, 48 days, £2 3s 0d

Robert Lord, 5 days, £0 0s 5d

Thomas Fuller, 59 days, £2 19s 0d

Carried over, 392½ days, £19 12s 6d

Interpretations

The two accounts value labour on the batteries at Banks over the last quarter, the first for slaves and the second for members of the garrison, both reckoned in days worked at a fixed daily rate. The slaves earned a shilling a day, so 20 days brought £1 and 260 days brought £13, while the garrison men were paid on the same scale, a plain piece-rate that let the Company cost fortification work precisely against the time each hand put in. Banks was the coastal battery guarding the north-east approach to the island, a key point in the ring of gun positions defending the anchorage.

The pay for slave labour went not to the workers but to their owners, each line crediting the master for the days his slaves put in. George Gabriel Powell the governor was owed £6 11s for 131 days, and several lines are marked as owing to orphans, meaning the days were worked by slaves belonging to the estates of orphaned children and the money was due to those estates. This shows slaves treated purely as revenue-earning property, their labour on the island's defences turned into income for the free households and trust estates that owned them.

One entry records a debt still outstanding rather than a current charge. Richard Finley was owed £9 4s for 184 days worked earlier under an overseer named New Yorkins and marked as not yet paid, so the account gathered up an old unsettled bill alongside the quarter's fresh work. Setting the arrears down on the same sheet, distinct from the current total, shows the paymaster reconciling what remained owing from a past period as part of squaring the whole fortification account.

114

108

Brought over

No of Days 392½

£19 12s 6d

Robt Carry

No of Days 48½

£2 3s 6d

Willm Davis

No of Days 21

£1 1s

John Jones Senr

No of Days 5

£5s

Willm Eades

No of Days 41

£2 1s

John Lord

No of Days 24

£1 4s

Thos Flood

No of Days 62½

£3 2s 6d

Jonathan Godby

No of Days 24½

£1 4s 6d

Thos Wright

No of Days 46

£2 6s

John Jane

No of Days 23

£1 3s

John Murdock

No of Days 48

£2 8s

John Bridon

No of Days 41

£2 1s

Thos Pride

No of Days 43

£2 0s

Thos Wigg

No of Days 43

£2 3s

John Burke

No of Days 19

£19s

Andrew Barton

No of Days 16

£16s

George Bennett

No of Days 20

£1

Laurence Dickinson

No of Days 9

£9s

Willm Page

No of Days 9

£9s

Richard Bishop

No of Days 25

£1 5s

Thos Kendrick

No of Days 16

£16s

Mathew Cammel

No of Days 42

£2 2s

Isaac Person

No of Days 9

£9s

Charles Mountague

No of Days 24

£1 4s

Isaac Deane

No of Days 19

£19s

Willm Anzer

No of Days 8

£8s

Peter Bath

No of Days 6

£6s

Joseph Hunt

No of Days 44

£2 4s

Benjamin Williams Junr

No of Days 14

£14s

Nathaniel Peacoat

No of Days 19½

£19s 6d

John King

No of Days 9½

£9s 6d

Daniel Try

No of Days 4

£4s

George Ayes

No of Days 10

£10s

Antony Day

No of Days 6

£6s

Barnett Harmes

No of Days 4

£4s

Peter Barker

No of Days 16

£16s

John Butler

No of Days 38½

£1 18s 6d

John Ellis

No of Days 6

£6s

Bevis Ambrose

No of Days 17

£17s

Samll Harrison

No of Days 8

£8s

Willm Daws

No of Days 13

£13s

No of Days 1294½

£64 14s 6d

Brought over, 392½ days, £19 12s 6d.

Robert Carey, 48½ days, £2 3s 6d

William Davis, 21 days, £1 1s 0d

John Jones senior, 5 days, £0 0s 5d

William Eades, 41 days, £2 1s 0d

John Lord, 24 days, £1 4s 0d

Thomas Flood, 62½ days, £3 2s 6d

Jonathan Godby, 24½ days, £1 4s 6d

Thomas Wright, 46 days, £2 6s 0d

John Jones, 23 days, £1 3s 0d

John Murdock, 43 days, £2 3s 0d

John Barden, 41 days, £2 1s 0d

Thomas Pride, 43 days, £2 3s 0d

Thomas Wragg, 43 days, £2 3s 0d

John Mocke, 19 days, £0 0s 19d

Andrew Barton, 16 days, £0 0s 16d

George Bennett, 20 days, £1 0s 0d

Lawrence Dickinson, 9 days, £0 0s 9d

William Page, 9 days, £0 0s 9d

Richard Bishop, 25 days, £1 5s 0d

Thomas Kendrick, 16 days, £0 0s 16d

Mathew Cammel, 42 days, £2 2s 0d

Isaac Person, 9 days, £0 0s 9d

Charles Mountague, 24 days, £1 4s 0d

Isaac Deane, 19 days, £0 0s 19d

William Anzer, 8 days, £0 0s 8d

Peter Bath, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Joseph Hunt, 44 days, £1 4s 0d

Benjamin Williams junior, 14 days, £0 0s 14d

Nathaniel Scale, 19½ days, £0 19s 6d

John King, 9½ days, £0 0s 9½d

Daniel Say, 4 days, £0 0s 4d

George Ayres, 10 days, £0 0s 10d

Antony Day, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Barnett Weimas, 4 days, £0 0s 4d

Peter Barker, 16 days, £0 0s 16d

John Butler, 58½ days, £2 18s 6d

John Ells, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Bevin Ambrose, 17 days, £0 0s 17d

Samuel Harrison, 8 days, £0 0s 8d

William Davis, 13 days, £0 0s 13d

Total, 1,294½ days, £64 14s 6d

Interpretations

The account continues the record of garrison men paid for labour on the batteries at Banks, each credited a shilling for every day worked, so 20 days brought exactly £1 and 48½ days brought £2 8s 6d. The running total reaches 1,294½ days and £64 14s 6d, a large sum of paid work that shows soldiers of the garrison turned to building and repairing the island's defences as a regular source of extra earnings beyond their military pay.

The days worked vary widely from man to man, some crediting a single afternoon and others two months or more of steady labour. John Butler at 58½ days and Thomas Flood at 62½ stood far above the many entered for a handful of days apiece, so the work was taken up unevenly as each soldier chose or was spared from duty. This voluntary and piecemeal pattern points to fortification labour being offered to the men as paid extra work fitted around their guard duties rather than imposed as a fixed fatigue on the whole company.

115

109

Labourers Employed in carrying Burdes Stone freshwater and Lime &ct &ct to

the Fortifications at Mundens Point Vizt

No of Days

John Jones Senr

No of Days 47

£2 7s

Benjaman Willms Senr

No of Days 54

£2 14s

Thos Griffes

No of Days 10

£10s

Willm Anzer

No of Days 26½

£1 6s 6d

George Lyms

No of Days 7½

£7s 6d

Peter Barker

No of Days 10

£10s

James Lee

No of Days 6

£6s

John Foard

No of Days 7

£7s

Willm Price

No of Days 11

£11s

John King

No of Days 17

£17s

Nathaniel Peacoat

No of Days 22

£1 2s

Thos Wigg

No of Days 6

£6s

Jonathan Godby

No of Days 6

£6s

John Mannahee

No of Days 10

£10s

Peter Wells

No of Days 15

£15s

James Carr

No of Days 20½

£1 9s 3d

Henry Caster

No of Days 6

£6s

Daniel Try

No of Days 6

£6s

Willm Bown

No of Days 6

£6s

John Sutton

No of Days 11

£11s

John Jane

No of Days 11

£11s

Thos Oliver

No of Days 20

£1

John Foard

No of Days 8

£8s

John Spencer

No of Days 8

£8s

Willm Price

No of Days 8

£8s

Antony Day

No of Days 9

£9s

Thos Cope

No of Days 7

£7s

Edward Arnold

No of Days 7

£7s

John Simpson

No of Days 7

£7s

John Scotcher

No of Days 6

£6s

John Browne

No of Days 6

£6s

No of Days 410½

£20 10s 3d

Sundrys Employed in the Boat from hence to Bankes

upon Every Occation Vizt

William Dorril at Do Do Do

£10s

Thos Legg

£10s

Thos Allito

£10s

Robt Mason

£10s

James Aldrige

£10s

Thos Hodges

£10s

John Johnson

£10s

Richard Weston

£4

An account of labourers employed in carrying stone, brick, timber, fresh water and lime and the like to the fortifications at Munden's Point, set out by the number of days worked and the sum owed.

John Jones senior, 47 days, £2 7s 0d

Benjamin Williams senior, 34 days, £1 14s 0d

Thomas Griffis, 10 days, £0 0s 10d

William Anzer, 26½ days, £1 6s 6d

George Ayres, 7½ days, £0 7s 6d

Peter Barker, 10 days, £0 0s 10d

James Lee, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

John Toad, 7 days, £0 0s 7d

William Price, 11 days, £0 0s 11d

John King, 17 days, £0 0s 17d

Nathaniel Scale, 22 days, £1 2s 0d

Thomas Wragg, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Jonathan Godby, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

John Munnahee, 10 days, £0 0s 10d

Peter Wells, 15 days, £0 0s 15d

James Carr, 20½ days, £1 0s 3d

Henry Carter, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Daniel Say, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

William Dixon, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

John Alleto, 11 days, £0 0s 11d

John Jones, 11 days, £0 0s 11d

Thomas Oliver, 20 days, £1 0s 0d

John Toad, 8 days, £0 0s 8d

John Spencer, 8 days, £0 0s 8d

William Price, 8 days, £0 0s 8d

Antony Day, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

Thomas Copp, 7 days, £0 0s 7d

Edward Arnold, 7 days, £0 0s 7d

John Simpson, 7 days, £0 0s 7d

John Scutcher, 7 days, £0 0s 7d

John Browne, 6 days, £0 0s 6d

Total, 410½ days, £20 10s 3d

An account of sundries employed in the boat from here to Banks upon several occasions, set out by the sum owed.

William Dorril, at sea, 10s 0d

Thomas Wragg, 10s 0d

Thomas Alleto, 10s 0d

Robert Mason, 10s 0d

James Aldridge, 10s 0d

Thomas Hodges, 10s 0d

John Johnson, 10s 0d

Richard Newton, [...]

Total, £4 0s 0d

Interpretations

The first account values labour carting building materials to the battery at Munden's Point, each man paid a shilling a day for hauling stone, brick, timber, fresh water and lime to the works. Munden's Point was a fortified position on the north side of James Bay, guarding the seaward approach to the anchorage, and the mix of materials shows a masonry battery under active construction. The requirement to carry fresh water to the site reflects the dry, steep ground of the island's coast, where no supply lay close to hand and every drop for mixing mortar had to be brought up by porters.

The second account pays men a flat 10s each for boat work carrying materials round the coast to Banks, a fixed rate for the task rather than the daily shilling paid to the land porters. Moving heavy stone and timber by sea between the scattered coastal batteries was the only practical route on an island whose interior was too broken for easy hauling, so the Company kept a boat working between the landing places. Paying a set sum for each turn of boat service, rather than by the day, suited work measured by the trip rather than by hours ashore.

116

110

Sundrys Employed in Carring Freshwater from hence to Bankes

for the works Vizt

No P Day

Willm Ormes

No P Day 3

£3s

Willm Davis

No P Day 3

£3s

James Pritchard

No P Day 3

£3s

Antony Day

No P Day 3

£3s

John King

No P Day 3

£3s

No P Day 15

£15s

Sundrys paid for work done in Repairing the Honble Companys

House Vizt

Saml Eales for white washing

£4s

Henry Savage for plastering for 5½ Days at 3s 6d P Day amounts to

£7 17s 6d

John Johnson 2 Days at 12s P Day

£2s

Willm Anzer 2 Do

£2s

John Buttler 6 Do

£6s

Willm Scarsbrook 2 6 Do

£1 6s

Henry Savage for wood

£5s

Peter Cummings 8 Days

£8s

Carpenters & Sawyers working at and for Bankes this Quarter Wch

as per their Several Accounts to

£10 9s

Paid Edward Wood for making Cart Harness

£1 1s

Paid John Thwaites for Seventeen Thousand Suckers & three Hundred Lemons

bought in Governor Yorkes time not yet paid for

£2 3s 6d

Joshua Johnson for 2450 Lemons this Quarter

£2 9s

Eliz Greentree for 3400 Lemons this Quarter

£3 8s

£30 6s

An account of sundries employed in carrying fresh water from here to Banks for the works, set out by the number of days worked and the sum owed.

William Cornes, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

William Davis, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

James Doltehead, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

Antony Day, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

John King, 3 days, £0 0s 3d

Total, 15 days, £0 0s 15d

An account of sundries paid for work done in repairing the Honourable Company's house.

Samuel Eates for whitewashing, £0 0s 4d

Henry Savage for plastering for 15 days at 10s 6d a day, amounting to, £7 17s 6d

John Johnson, 3 days at 12s a day, £0 0s 2d

William Anzer, ditto, £0 0s 2d

John Butler, 6 days ditto, £0 0s 6d

William Weashbrook, 2 days ditto, £1 0s 6d

Henry Savage for wood, £0 0s 5d

Peter Cummings, 3 days, £0 0s 8d

Carpenters and sawyers working at and for Banks this quarter, as per their several accounts, £10 9s 0d

Paid Edward Arnold for making cart harness, £1 1s 0d

Paid John Twaites for seventeen thousand three hundred lemons bought in New Yorkins time, not yet paid for, £2 3s 6d

Joshua Johnson for 2,450 lemons this quarter, £2 9s 0d

Elizabeth Greentree for 3,400 lemons this quarter, £3 8s 0d

Total, £30 6s 0d

Interpretations

The first account continues the run of small charges for porters carting fresh water to the works at Banks, five men each paid a shilling a day for three days. The recurring need to buy in water carriage confirms how far the coastal batteries lay from any usable supply, so that even routine building work depended on a steady chain of hired labour bringing water to the site.

The second account settles the tradesmen's bills for repairing the Company's own house and gathers up several other outstanding charges. Henry Savage drew the largest sum at £7 17s 6d for 15 days plastering at 10s 6d a day, far above the shilling paid to a common labourer and a measure of the premium that a skilled plasterer's trade commanded on the island. A sawyer was a workman who cut timber into planks and boards by hand, and the carpenters and sawyers together took £10 9s for their work on the Banks fortifications this quarter.

The purchase of great quantities of lemons stands out as more than a domestic supply. The Company bought 17,300 lemons carried over unpaid from an earlier period, and a further 5,850 this quarter from two island growers, at a penny or so each. Lemons and their juice were valued as the standard preventive against scurvy on the long East India voyages, so St Helena served the Company's ships as a victualling station where citrus was bought up in bulk to store against the sickness that struck crews at sea. Buying from named local growers, Joshua Johnson and Elizabeth Greentree, shows the island's small planters supplying the passing fleets through the Company's account.

117

111

Dr

To Cash received from the Treasury as pr Consultation of 6

Jany 1742/3

1344 7s 2d

To Cash received Sundrys for Diet taken out of the Honble Companys

Stores particular as pr Column

297 11s 7d

To Cash received of the Soldiers in part of payment for their Coats

&ct Regimentals each man in proportion to his degree as pr Column

120 15s

£1762 3s 9d

Cr

By Cash paid the Garrison &ct Companys Servants their

Several Sallarys for the Quarter Ending the 31 Decr 1742 particular

as pr Collumn

1415 5s 6½d

By Cash paid Sundrys Account Fortifications Places beforementioned

Vizt

Blacks Labour at Bankes

49 14s

Soldiers Labour at Bankes

64 14s 6d

Labourers Employed in carring of Lime Sand purbeckstone &ct

to Mundens Point

20 10s 8d

Sundrys Employed Constant in Boat between this and Bankes

on Every occasion

4

Sundrys Employed in carring fresh Water to Bankes

15s

By Cash paid Sundrys Employed in repairing the Honble Companys

House as pr their Several Accounts

10 10s 6d

By Cash paid Carpenters & Sawyers Worke at and for Bankes as

pr their Several Accounts

10 9s

by Cash paid Edward Arnold for making Cart Harness

1 1s

By Cash paid Jno Twaites for Suckers and Lemons bought in

Govr Jenkins's time not yet paid for

2 8s 6d

By Cash paid Joshua Johnson for Lemons

2 9s

By Cash paid Eliz Greentree for Lemons

3 8s

1635 5s 3½d

St Helena 18 Jany 1742/3

Errors Excepted

By Ballance this day paid in

126 18s 5½d

1762 3s 9d

G G Powell Pay Master

The paymaster's account for the quarter was set out with receipts on one side and payments on the other, drawn up as debtor and creditor.

On the debtor side, the money received:

Cash received from the treasury, as per the consultation of 6 January 1742/3, £1,344 7s 2d

Cash received from sundries for diet taken out of the Honourable Company's stores, as per column, £297 11s 7d

Cash received of the soldiers in part payment for their coats and regimentals, each man in proportion to his degree, as per column, £120 15s 0d

Total, £1,762 3s 9d

On the creditor side, the money paid out:

Cash paid the garrison and the Company's servants their several salaries for the quarter ending 31 December 1742, as per column, £1,415 5s 6½d

Cash paid on sundry accounts for the fortifications at the places mentioned before:

Slaves labour at Banks, £49 14s 0d

Soldiers labour at Banks, £64 14s 6d

Labourers employed in carrying lime, sand, Purbeck stone and the like to Munden's Point, £20 10s 8d

Sundries employed constantly in the boat between here and Banks on every occasion, £4 0s 0d

Sundries employed in carrying fresh water to Banks, £0 0s 15d

Cash paid sundries employed in repairing the Honourable Company's house, as per their several accounts, £10 10s 6d

Cash paid carpenters and sawyers working at and for Banks, as per their several accounts, £10 9s 0d

Cash paid Edward Arnold for making cart harness, £1 1s 0d

Cash paid John Twaites for lemons bought in Governor Jenkins's time, not yet paid for, £2 8s 6d

Cash paid Joshua Johnson for lemons, £2 9s 0d

Cash paid Elizabeth Greentree for lemons, £3 8s 0d

Subtotal, £1,635 5s 3½d

Balance this day paid in, £126 18s 5½d

Total, £1,762 3s 9d

The account was drawn up at St Helena on 18 January 1742, marked errors excepted, and signed by G. G. Powell, paymaster.

Interpretations

This is the paymaster's summary account, balancing every receipt against every payment for the quarter so that the two sides meet at the same figure of £1,762 3s 9d. The individual rolls and labour bills of the preceding pages are here gathered into single lines, showing how the detailed sub-accounts fed into one master reckoning that the paymaster closed and signed at quarter's end.

The receipts reveal that the garrison did not run purely on treasury cash but recovered part of its own costs from the men. Beyond the £1,344 7s 2d drawn from the treasury, the account took in £297 11s 7d from soldiers for diet issued out of Company stores and £120 15s for coats and regimentals, each man charged in proportion to his degree, meaning by rank. This explains the diet and clothing columns running through the pay rolls, which were not allowances paid out but stoppages charged back against each soldier's account and gathered here as cash received.

The closing balance of £126 18s 5½d was the surplus of receipts over payments, carried forward rather than spent, and the whole was signed off as errors excepted, the standard reservation by which an accountant closed a set of books while leaving room to correct any later-discovered mistake. Purbeck stone, listed among the materials carried to Munden's Point, was a hard limestone shipped out from the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, brought all the way to the island for building the batteries because it dressed and weathered better than the local volcanic rock.

Speculations

The paymaster charged the soldiers for their own diet and clothing rather than issuing these free as part of their pay. The natural expectation on an isolated garrison was that the Company would simply feed and clothe the men it had drawn to so remote a post, yet the account instead booked £297 11s 7d for diet and £120 15s for coats as cash recovered from the soldiers themselves, each charged by rank. Recovering these costs through stoppages, over absorbing them as the price of keeping a garrison, shows the Company treating even its own defenders as customers of its stores and holding down the true cost of the establishment by billing the men for what they consumed.

118

112

Presented this Day by the Executors the Last Will and Testament of the late

John Bapett requesting the same might be proved. Which was done accordingly upon the Oaths

of the Witnesses thereto Vizt Messrs Charles Clarke Joseph Disfountain Willm Scale John French Junr

The Will is as follows Vizt

In the name of God Amen I John Bapett of the Island

St Helena being Sick and Weak of Body but of Sound and perfect Mind and Memory

Thanks to Almighty God do make and Ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to say

first and principaly I give and recomend my Soul into the Mercy of Almighty God my Body Recomend to the Earth

to be Buried in a Christian like and

Decent Manner. My Worldy Goods wherewith it hath pleased to Bless me with I give Divise

and Dispose off in Manner and form as followeth.

Imprimis I Will and desire that all my Debts and Funeral Expences be fully

paid and Satisfied in Some Convenient time after my Decease.

Item To my well beloved Wife I give and Bequeath one Black Girl named Grace,

one Silver Teapot God one mahogany Desk but not to be Valued to her.

Item To my Son Matthew I give one Black Boy named Mutu and a Silver

Tankard a Bed was my Fathers but not to be Valued to him.

Item To my Son Jonathan I give the Sum of ten divided to Buy him a Peice of Plate,

and also one Silver Silver but not to be Valued and a Suit of Old Bedd.

Item To my Son John I give one Black Girl named Doll and one Silver Bowle but

not to be Valued to him.

Item To my Son Henry I give one Black Girl named Ellen and one Scolloped

Salver but not to be Valued to him.

Item To my Daughter Mary I give Six new Silver Table Spoons and a Black Girl

named Nanny and also the Sum of ten divided to buy her a Peice of Plate but not be

Valued to her.

Item To my Daughter Sarah Charlotte I give one Black Girl named Mercy, one

Silver Snugg Buckle SB and the Sum of ten divided to buy her a Peice of plate but not

to be Valued to her.

Item To my godson Thos Bapett I give two Guineas to buy him a Ring.

Item to my Nephew Matthew Whaley I give two guineas to buy him a Ring.

Item To my Nephew Matthew Darling I give one Silver Hilted Sword.

Item to my Nephew Thos French I give a Silver Mounted Dagger.

Item to Each of my Executors hereafter named I give forty Shillings to by them a Ring.

Item I give and Bequeath to my well beloved Wife the one half Part of all my real Estate

during her natural life and also the one third part of my personal to be at her Disposal and

as long as she remains my Wid or I give her the living on my Mansion House not to be Valued

by any of my Children but in Case she marries again then I give her but half the said House.

Item All the rest and residue of my State both real and Personal as well that half

of Real Estate posessed by my Wife at her Decease I give to my well beloved Children to be

Equally Divided among them as they shall arrive at the age of twenty one Years or marriage

Namely Matthew Jonathan, John Henry, Mary and Sarah Charlotte and if either of them should

Die before Age or marriage that their part or Shares shall be Equally Divided among the

Survivours but my Mansion House and the Lands Adjoyning to it I give the Reforsal

thereof to my Son Matthew that is one half of the Lands when at Age or Marriage, and

the other half at the Decease of his Mother he paying his other Brothers and Sisters their

Proper Shares as they shall Arrive to Age or Marriage the said House and Lands to be

Valued by my Executors or by any Indifferent Men as they shall Appoint.

The executors presented the last will and testament of the late John Bazett, asking that it be proved, and it was proved accordingly on the oaths of the witnesses. Present were Charles Clarke, Joseph Difountain, William Scale and John French junior.

The will ran as follows.

John Bazett of the island of St Helena, being sick and weak of body but of sound and perfect mind and memory, thanked Almighty God and made his last will and testament. He gave and recommended his soul to the mercy of Almighty God, and committed his body to the earth to be buried in a Christian and decent manner, and disposed of his worldly goods as follows.

First, he directed that all his debts and funeral expenses be fully paid and settled at a convenient time after his death.

He gave his well-beloved wife one slave girl named Grace, one silver teapot and one mahogany desk, none of it to be valued to her.

He gave his son Matthew one slave boy named Mula and a silver tankard and a bell that were his father's, but not to be valued to him.

He gave his son Jonathan the sum of £100 to buy him a piece of plate, and also one silver salver not to be valued but to be part of that £100.

He gave his son John one slave girl named Doll and one silver bowl, but not to be valued to him.

He gave his son Henry one slave girl named Ellen and one scalloped salver, but not to be valued to him.

He gave his daughter Mary six new silver table spoons and a slave girl named Nanny, and also the sum of £100 to buy her a piece of plate, but not to be valued to her.

He gave his daughter Sarah Charlotte one slave girl named Mercy, one silver mug marked S. B. and the sum of £100 to buy her a piece of plate, but not to be valued to her.

He gave his godson Thomas Bazett two guineas to buy him a ring.

He gave his nephew Matthew Whaley two guineas to buy him a ring.

He gave his nephew Matthew Darling one silver-hilted sword.

He gave his nephew Thomas French a silver-mounted dagger.

He gave each of his executors hereafter named forty shillings to buy them a ring.

He gave and bequeathed to his well-beloved wife one half part of all his real estate during her natural life, and also the one third part of his personal estate to be at her disposal for as long as she remained his widow. He gave her the living in his mansion house, not to be counted as any of his children, but in case she married again he gave her but half the mansion house.

He directed that all the rest and residue of his estate, both the real estate settled on his wife at her death and the half of his real estate reserved to himself, together with his personal estate, be equally divided among his children as they reached the age of twenty-one years or married. These were Matthew, Jonathan, John, Henry, Mary and Sarah Charlotte, and if any died before coming of age or marrying, that child's part or share was to be equally divided among the survivors. His mansion house and the lands adjoining it he gave to his son Matthew as one half of the lands when he came of age or married, and the other half at the death of his mother, Matthew paying his other brothers and sisters their proper shares as they reached age or married. The house and lands were to be valued by his executors or by any indifferent men they appointed.

Interpretations

The will divides a substantial island estate among a widow and six children, structured to hold the property intact and pass its core to the eldest son. John Bazett gave his wife a life interest in half the real estate and a third of the personal estate, but only while she remained his widow, cutting her share to half the mansion house if she remarried. This widowhood condition was the standard device by which a testator secured his property against passing through a wife into a second husband's hands, tying her provision to her staying unmarried and keeping the estate within his own line.

The mansion house and its adjoining lands were settled on the eldest son Matthew under a charge to buy out his siblings. He was to take the land in two halves, one at his own majority and one at his mother's death, but only on paying his brothers and sisters their proper shares as each came of age or married. This kept the central estate undivided in the eldest son's hands while still giving the younger children a cash value from it, the classic compromise between primogeniture and an equal settlement, worked here through a valuation by the executors rather than a physical breaking-up of the land.

The bequests show slaves treated as ordinary heritable property, named and handed down individually alongside the family silver. Bazett left a named slave to his wife and to each of his children, Grace, Mula, Doll, Ellen, Nanny and Mercy, marking each of these people, like the plate, as not to be valued, meaning excluded from the appraisal set against each legatee's share. The phrase not to be valued was a legal instruction that a specific gift should not count toward the taker's portion of the divisible estate, so these slaves and pieces of plate passed as gifts over and above each heir's equal share rather than being reckoned as part of it.

119

113

Item My Honoured Father in Law Jonathan Doviten hath Promised to make me Equal with his

children in his Estate at his Decease, I therefore Direct that when ever he shall Please to give me that part

of his Estate that it shall be taken and Esteemd as part of my Estate and Devided as above mentioned.

Item A Black Servant named Jack Punge whom I Bought be proving Good and faithfull to me I hereby give

him his Freedom in twelve Months after my Decease.

Lastly I hereby Nominate Constitute and Appoint my Dear Wife to be Executrix during the time

he shall Continue my Widow and no longer And also my Good Friends Jonathan Doviten Matthew Darling

Samuel Doviten John Disfountain Richard Beale Executors to this my Will and Whereas I appoint

my Son Matthew to be an Executor at the Age of Nineteen Years Utterly Revoking and Disannulling

all former Will or Wills by me made Ratifying and Confirming this and no other to be my last Will

and Testament In Witness Whereof I have Hereunto sett my hand and Seal this Twenty

Eighth Day of December In the Year of our Lord God One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty two

Signed Sealed and Declared

John Bapett

as the Will and Testament of him the said

John Bapett In the Presence of Us

Memorandum that the Interlineing of

Jonathan Doviten and Matthew Darling

was before the Signing and Sealing

Charles Clark

Joseph Disfountaon

William Scale

John French Junr

We then asked the Widow and Executors when they Purpose

bringing in the Inventory

Answered they would sett about it Immediately and bring it

in as Soon as Possible.

This Day Mr Dixon Delivered in the

following Inventory Vizt

John Bazett noted that his father-in-law Jonathan Dooton had promised to make him equal with his own children in his estate at his death, and he therefore directed that whatever came to him from that source be taken and counted as part of his own estate and divided as already set out.

He gave a slave servant named Jack Pudge, whom he had found to be honest and faithful to him, his freedom twelve months after his death.

Lastly, he constituted and appointed his wife to be executrix for as long as she continued his widow and no longer, and he appointed his good friends Jonathan Dooton, Matthew Darling, Samuel Dooton, John Difountain and Richard Beale to be executors of the will. He appointed his son Matthew to be an executor at the age of nineteen years. He revoked all former wills, and confirmed this as his last will and testament. In witness he set his hand and seal on 28 December 1742.

The will was signed, sealed and declared by John Bazett as his will and testament in the presence of the witnesses. A memorandum recorded that the interlining of Jonathan Dooton and Matthew Darling was made before the signing and sealing. The witnesses were Charles Clarke, Joseph Difountain, William Scale and John French junior.

The witnesses then asked the widow and executors when they expected to bring in the inventory, and they answered that they would set about it at once and bring it in as soon as possible.

This day Mr Dixon delivered in the following inventory.

Interpretations

The will freed a single slave by name while leaving the others as inherited property, drawing an explicit line between reward and chattel. John Bazett granted Jack Pudge his freedom twelve months after death, and tied the gift openly to the man having proved honest and faithful, whereas Grace, Doll, Ellen, Nanny, Mercy and the boy Mula were handed down as bequests to his family. Manumission by will was the recognised way an owner rewarded personal service, the delay of twelve months commonly serving to secure continued good conduct or to see the estate through its first settlement before the loss of a working hand.

The appointment of executors was carefully weighted between trusted outsiders and the rising heir. Bazett named five friends as executors but brought his son Matthew onto that body only at nineteen, two years short of the majority at which the boy would inherit the mansion house. Setting a fixed and early age for the son to join the executry shows a testator easing his heir into the management of the estate under the eye of established men, rather than leaving control wholly to outsiders or handing it to an untried youth all at once.

The record closes with the executors questioned on the inventory, showing the court's control over the pace of proving an estate. The witnesses pressed the widow and executors on when the inventory would be produced, and secured a promise to bring it in as soon as possible, after which Mr Dixon delivered it. This exchange marks the inventory as a required next step under official pressure, the valued list of goods on which the whole division of the estate would rest, exacted from the executors before the settlement could go forward.

120

114

Inventory of the Goods and Effects belonging to Mr Robert Wright taken

the 16th June 1742 vizt

16 Chaires

1 Hhd Tobacco Damaged

4 Firchins Butter

1 Barrell flour Quite Spoiled & good for nothing

1 Chest Bear

1 Small Stock Bed and blankts Quilt

1 Bed Sted

1 Large Stone Bottle with Aleconia Oyl

1 Sea Chest with 3 Tin Cannisters

1 old Blew Camlet Coat

1 old Duffin Do

1 Yellow Mettle Mounted Sword

1 Cane with Do head

1 Hanger

1 Pr Pistols

1 Sconce

1 Small Case wt five Empty Bottles

1 Large Do with A Six Quart Bottles and

1 Do for Pickles Containing a little Madera

Wine Port Do and Brandy

1 Tin Box with Wax Light

1 Do Funnell

1 Do Cannister

1 Cloaths Chest Containing as followsn Vizt

1 Plain Hatt

2 Laced Do

1 Pr Shuts

3 Pr Silk Stockings

2 Pr White Cotton Do

1 Pr Coloured Thread Do

4 Pr Thread Socks

1 White Fustain Frock

2 Small Chamber Looking Glasses

6 Maps

1 Red Camlet Waistcoat

1 Scarlet Cloth Coat wt Gold Buttons Tarnished

2 Pr Do Breeches

1 Allspine Coat

1 White Silk Waistcoat with Silver Lace

much Tarnished

1 Old Purple Cloth Coat & Breeches

1 Pr Hair

1 Pr Hair Cloths

1 White Quilted Marsails Waistcoat

40 Ruffle Shirt

1 Paper with a Parcel of Hair Powder & Soap

1 Pr Bl Black Velvet Breeches

12 Pr Calve Leather Pumps

1 Pr Marockeo Leather Slippers

8 White Handkerchiefs

1 Dammask Table Cloth

12 Do Towells

6 Stock Rich Cloths

9 Night Caps

1 Pr White Gloves

1 Pr Brass Candlesticks Snuffers and Stand

1 Pr Sconces

1 Turkey Leather Belt

8 Brushes Sorted

12 Pr Wire Gloves

1 Small Parcel of old Gold Lace

1 Powder Bellows

1 Small Parcel of Thread & Silk

1 Doz Black hafted Knives and Forks

1 Paper with Buckle Brushes 1 Pr Sufsare Breeches

Buckle and Shoe Horn

1 Paper with 1 Hammer 1 Chisell 1 Pr Pinchers and

a Parcel Nails

1 Paper with a Small Stock Locks and 8 Bolts

with Furniture Compleat

6 Shaving Brushes

1 Tin Tinder Box and Candlestick

Small Parcel Pins

2 Papers Ink Powder

1 Small Box with Buckles Rasors Buttons

Penknifes Gaiter Do

3 Pr Old Shoes

1 Box with A Wigg

1 Small Box with Earthin Plates

a Parcel Books

1 Small Roll Brass Wire

2 Papers Shoe Blackning

1 Parcel of Corks of Different Sizes

8 Balls Pack Thread

The above Particulars being a true

Inventory of the Said Mr Robert Wrights Effects

here, but we Observe that most of them are

Damaged.

An inventory of the goods and effects belonging to Mr Robert Wright, taken on 16 June 1742.

16 chairs

1 hogshead of tobacco, damaged

4 firkins of butter

1 barrel of flour, quite spoiled and good for nothing

1 chest of beer

1 small stock bed and white quilt

1 bedstead

1 large stone bottle with olive oil

1 sea chest with 3 tin canisters

1 old blue camlet coat

1 old duffel coat

1 yellow-hilted mounted sword

1 cane with a doe's head

1 hanger

1 pair of pistols

1 tweezer case

1 small case with five empty bottles

1 large case with 6 quart bottles

1 case for pickles containing a little Madeira wine, port wine and brandy

1 tin box with wax light

1 tin funnel

1 tin canister

1 clothes chest containing as follows:

1 plain hat

2 laced hats

1 pair of shorts

3 pairs of silk stockings

1 pair of white cotton stockings

1 pair of coloured thread stockings

4 pairs of thread socks

1 white foulard frock

2 small chamber looking glasses

6 maps

1 red camlet waistcoat

1 scarlet cloth coat with gold buttons, tarnished

2 pairs of ditto breeches

1 allspice coat

1 white silk waistcoat with silver lace, much tarnished

1 old purple cloth coat and breeches

1 pair of stays

1 pair of hair cloths

1 white quilted marseilles waistcoat

40 ruffled shirts

1 paper with a parcel of hair powder and soap

1 pair of black velvet breeches

12 pairs of calf leather pumps

1 pair of morocco leather slippers

8 white handkerchiefs

1 damask table cloth

12 ditto napkins

6 stock rich cloths

9 night caps

1 pair of white gloves

1 pair of brass candlesticks, snuffers and stand

1 pair of scissors

1 Turkey leather belt

8 brushes, corded

12 pairs of wax gloves

1 small parcel of old gold lace

1 powder bellows

1 small parcel of thread and silk

1 dozen black-hafted knives and forks

1 paper with buckle brushes and 1 leather breeches buckle and shoe horn

1 paper with 1 hammer, 1 chisel, 1 pair of pincers and a parcel of nails

1 paper with a small stock of locks and 8 bolts with furniture complete

6 shaving brushes

1 tinder box and candlestick

small parcel of pins

5 papers of ink powder

1 small box with buckles, razors, buttons, penknife, garters and other things

3 pairs of shoes

1 box with a wig

1 small box with earthen plates

a parcel of books

1 small roll of brass wire

5 papers of shoe blacking

1 parcel of corks of different sizes

8 balls of pack thread

The above particulars were a true inventory of the said Mr Robert Wright's effects, but many of them were observed to be damaged.

Interpretations

This is the appraised inventory of a deceased man's whole moveable estate, the valued list that a court required before an estate could be settled and divided. The mix of goods, from provisions and household furniture down to the smallest boxes of pins and corks, shows the completeness expected of such a document, in which every item a man left was set down so that nothing escaped the reckoning of his worth.

The estate was dominated by a large and costly wardrobe that far outweighed the plain furniture around it. Robert Wright left 40 ruffled shirts, silk stockings, morocco slippers, a scarlet coat with gold buttons and a silver-laced waistcoat, an unusually rich store of dress for a small island, though much of it is marked tarnished or damaged. A hanger was a short curved sword worn at the side, camlet was a strong cloth of wool mixed with silk or hair, and a marseilles waistcoat was one of firm quilted cotton worked in the raised style of that French port, all marking the fashionable dress of a man of some standing.

The spoiled provisions at the head of the list point to an estate caught in disorder at death, its stores left to rot before they could be used or sold. The tobacco is damaged, the flour quite spoiled and good for nothing, and the closing note records many of the goods as damaged, so the appraisers valued an estate already decaying. Recording the ruined state of each item mattered because the inventory fixed what the estate could actually realise, and goods gone to waste were worth nothing to the heirs or creditors who would share it.

121

115

The Underwritten Particulars of Mr Wright as Inserted in the Manifest Vizt

3 Hhds Beer

1 Chest Do

Two Chests Apparrell

1 Case of Bottles

1 Cask Cheese

4 Firkins Butter

1 Barrell Flour

1 Case Tobacco

The above particulars as pr Manifest are all

Received Except 3 Whits Bear died 1 Chest of Apparrell

Signed Chris Dixon

James Powell

David Wilson

This Day the Husband and Gunner Delivered their

Accounts for the Month of December last which were Examined and Perused and are

Entered as follows Vizt

Gunners Stores Expended in the Month of December 1742 Vizt

Powder to the Guard and out Forts

18lb

Powder for Exercising and filling Touches

200

Totall 218

Paper

13 Qrs

Match

21lb

Lead Balls to fill Touches

56½

Linseed Oyl

3 Gall

Lamp Black

12 Barr

White Lead

4lb

Priming Wires

12

House Adds to the Governour

1

Hows Adds Expended

1

Hand Spikes

12

Nursery Lights

1

Cartrage Cases

8

Buff Skins

18

Rammer heads

16

Spunge heads

10

Spunge Staves

12

Tomkins

15

Tarr Brushes

6

Tuce Seed Paper

50

Twine

1

Grease

1

Nales

8

Tarr

1 Barr

Wt 6 Lines

2

Ladles

1

Lanins

3

The following particulars of Mr Wright's goods were entered in the manifest.

3 hogsheads of beer

1 chest of beer

two chests of apparel

1 case of bottles

1 cask of cheese

4 firkins of butter

1 barrel of flour

1 case of tobacco

The above particulars set out in the manifest were all received except 3 white beer and 1 chest of apparel. The account was signed by Charles Dixon, James Powell and David Wilson.

This day the husband and gunner delivered their accounts for the month of December last, which were examined, approved and entered as follows.

An account of gunner's stores expended in the month of December 1742.

Powder to the guard and out forts, 18 lb

Powder for exercising and firing touches, 200 lb

Total, 218 lb

Paper, 13 quires

Match, 21 lb

Lead balls to fit touches, 36½ lb

Sweet oil, 3 gallons

Lamp black, 12 barrels

White lead, 4 lb

Priming wires, 12

Three sides to the Governor, 1

Three sides expended, 1

Hand spikes, 12

Memory lights, 1

Cartridge cases, 8

Buff skins, 18

Rammer heads, 16

Sponge heads, 10

Sponge staves, 12

Tomkins, 15

Tarr brushes, 6

Twice-laid rope, 50

Twine, 1 lb

Grease, 1 lb

Nails, 8 lb

Tarr, 1 barrel

Number 6 lines, 2

Ladles, 1

Lanterns, 3

Interpretations

The first entry reconciles goods shipped against goods landed, showing the settlement checking a consignment on arrival and formally noting the shortfall. The manifest listed what Mr Wright's estate had sent, but the receivers marked three casks of white beer and one chest of apparel as missing, and three named men signed off the check. This was the standard practice of receiving against a manifest, by which loss, theft or spoilage in transit was fixed in the record and responsibility separated between the sender and the receiver.

The gunner's account records the powder and stores spent on the batteries in a single month, most of it consumed not in action but in routine practice and salutes. Of 218 lb of powder, only 18 lb went to the guard and out-forts while 200 lb was spent exercising the guns and firing salutes, showing how much of a garrison's powder was burned keeping the crews trained and answering passing ships. A tompion was the wooden plug that stopped a cannon's muzzle against damp and dirt, a sponge and its staff swabbed the bore between rounds, a rammer drove home the charge, and twice-laid rope was cordage remade from used strands, the ordinary consumable gear of a gun battery listed here as it was drawn from store.

The stores show the batteries also served the ceremonial and signalling needs of the anchorage, not just its defence. The powder burned on salutes, the lines and the lantern lights among the stores, and the special issue marked to the Governor all point to the guns being worked constantly to greet and signal the ships that were the island's whole reason for being. On a Company victualling station the battery's daily business was as much salute and signal to the passing fleets as it was readiness against an enemy.

122

116

Account of the Honourable Companys Stock of Neat Cattle &ct for the Month of December 1742 Vizt

Bullocks, Cows, Heyfers, Steers, Yearlings, Calves, Bulls, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Lambs, Rams, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Kidds, Rams, Totall, Sows, Barrows, Shoats, Piggs, Boars, Totall, Turkeys, Fowles, Ducks, Geese, Horses, Maires, Totall

Remaining 1st December: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heyfers 33, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totall 292, Ewes 74, Weathers 20, Lambs 8, Rams 6, Totall 108, Ewes 111, Weathers 8, Kidds 47, Rams 4, Totall 170, Sows 16, Barrows 19, Shoats 38, Piggs 47, Boars 2, Totall 122, Turkeys 88, Fowles 250, Ducks 36, Geese 16, Horses 6, Maires 7, Totall 13

Increased in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 0, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 12, Bulls 0, Totall 12, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 9, Rams 0, Totall 9, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Kidds 18, Rams 0, Totall 18, Sows 0, Barrows 0, Shoats 0, Piggs 0, Boars 0, Totall 0, Turkeys 9, Fowles 45, Ducks 5, Geese 0, Horses 1, Maires 0, Totall 0

Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heyfers 33, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 109, Bulls 6, Totall 304, Ewes 74, Weathers 20, Lambs 17, Rams 6, Totall 117, Ewes 111, Weathers 8, Kidds 66, Rams 4, Totall 188, Sows 16, Barrows 19, Shoats 38, Piggs 47, Boars 2, Totall 122, Turkeys 97, Fowles 295, Ducks 41, Geese 16, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Killed in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 1, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 1, Bulls 0, Totall 2, Ewes 0, Weathers 3, Lambs 0, Rams 3, Totall 6, Ewes 5, Weathers 6, Kidds 1, Rams 0, Totall 12, Sows 1, Barrows 1, Shoats 1, Piggs 3, Boars 0, Totall 6, Turkeys 9, Fowles 46, Ducks 1, Geese 2, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totall 0

Died in Ditto: Bullocks 30, Cows 96, Heyfers 32, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 108, Bulls 6, Totall 302, Ewes 74, Weathers 17, Lambs 17, Rams 3, Totall 111, Ewes 106, Weathers 2, Kidds 64, Rams 4, Totall 176, Sows 15, Barrows 18, Shoats 37, Piggs 44, Boars 2, Totall 116, Turkeys 88, Fowles 249, Ducks 37, Geese 14, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Stole in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 1, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 0, Bulls 0, Totall 1, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 0, Rams 0, Totall 0, Ewes 0, Weathers 1, Kidds 2, Rams 1, Totall 4, Sows 0, Barrows 1, Shoats 3, Piggs 0, Boars 0, Totall 4, Turkeys 1, Fowles 2, Ducks 0, Geese 2, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totall 0

Remaining 31st Ditto: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heyfers 32, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 108, Bulls 6, Totall 301, Ewes 74, Weathers 17, Lambs 17, Rams 3, Totall 111, Ewes 105, Weathers 2, Kidds 62, Rams 3, Totall 172, Sows 15, Barrows 18, Shoats 36, Piggs 41, Boars 2, Totall 112, Turkeys 87, Fowles 247, Ducks 37, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Yams Expended at the Several Plantations 29000

3 Sheep given to the Blacks

G G Powell

An account of the Honourable Company's stock of neat cattle and other animals for the month of December 1742, set out by category. The neat cattle columns are bullocks, cows, heifers, steers, yearlings, calves and bulls, then the total. The sheep columns are ewes, wethers, lambs and rams, then the total. The goats columns are ewes, wethers, kids and rams, then the total. The hogs columns are sows, barrows, shoats, pigs and boars, then the total. The poultry columns are turkeys, fowls, ducks and geese. The horses columns are horses and mares, then the total.

Remaining 1 December, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 33, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 97, bulls 6, total 292

Remaining 1 December, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 20, lambs 8, rams 6, total 108

Remaining 1 December, goats: ewes 111, wethers 8, kids 47, rams 4, total 170

Remaining 1 December, hogs: sows 16, barrows 19, shoats 38, pigs 47, boars 2, total 122

Remaining 1 December, poultry: turkeys 88, fowls 250, ducks 36, geese 16

Remaining 1 December, horses: horses 6, mares 7, total 13

Increased in December, neat cattle: calves 12, total 12

Increased in December, sheep: lambs 9, total 9

Increased in December, goats: kids 18, total 18

Increased in December, poultry: turkeys 9, fowls 45, ducks 5

Increased in December, horses: horses 1

Total, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 96, heifers 33, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 109, bulls 6, total 304

Total, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 20, lambs 17, rams 6, total 117

Total, goats: ewes 111, wethers 8, kids 66, rams 4, total 188

Total, hogs: sows 16, barrows 19, shoats 38, pigs 47, boars 2, total 122

Total, poultry: turkeys 97, fowls 295, ducks 41, geese 16

Total, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Killed in December, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1, and a further 2

Killed in December, sheep: wethers 3, lambs 3, total 6

Killed in December, goats: ewes 5, wethers 6, kids 1, total 12

Killed in December, hogs: sows 1, shoats 1, pigs 1, total 3

Killed in December, poultry: turkeys 9, fowls 46, ducks 1, and a further 2

Died in December, neat cattle: heifers 1, total 1

Died in December, sheep: wethers 17, total, leaving 111

Died in December, goats: ewes 106, wethers 2, kids 64, rams 4, total 176

Died in December, hogs: sows 15, barrows 18, shoats 37, pigs 44, boars 2, total 116

Died in December, poultry: turkeys 88, fowls 249, ducks 37, geese 14

Died in December, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Stole in December, goats: wethers 1, kids 2, rams 1, total 4

Stole in December, hogs: barrows 1, shoats 3, total 4

Stole in December, poultry: ducks 1, and a further 2

Remaining 31 December, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 32, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 108, bulls 6, total 301

Remaining 31 December, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 17, lambs 17, rams 3, total 111

Remaining 31 December, goats: ewes 125, wethers 2, kids 62, rams 3, total 172

Remaining 31 December, hogs: sows 15, barrows 18, shoats 36, pigs 41, boars 2, total 112

Remaining 31 December, poultry: turkeys 87, fowls 247, ducks 37, geese 12

Remaining 31 December, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Yams expended at the several plantations, 29,000

3 sheep given to the slaves

The account was signed by G. G. Powell.

Interpretations

This is the Company's monthly livestock return for its island plantations, tracking every kind of stock through the month from an opening count to a closing one. The form works as a running balance for animals, opening with the stock in hand, adding the natural increase from births, then subtracting what was killed, died or stolen to arrive at the number left, the same accounting logic applied to cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry and horses alike. Neat cattle were horned farm cattle, oxen and cows kept for beef, milk and draught, and the fine breakdown into bullocks, heifers, steers, yearlings and calves let the managers see the age and working state of the herd at a glance.

The plantations existed to victual the Company's ships, and the return is really a stocktake of the fresh meat available to reprovision passing fleets. The steady killing of cattle, sheep, goats and poultry across the month, set against the natural increase, shows a working supply farm balancing slaughter against breeding to keep a herd in being while feeding the anchorage. Yams, of which 29,000 were consumed at the plantations, were the starchy root that formed the staple ration on the island, grown in bulk both to feed the enslaved workforce and to stock the ships as a keeping vegetable for the voyage.

The return also records loss and pilfering as regular charges against the stock, distinguishing theft from natural death. Animals are entered as stolen as well as died, several goats, hogs and ducks marked missing to theft in the month, showing the plantations lost stock steadily to pilfering as well as to disease. Separating stolen from died mattered to the managers because theft pointed to a failure of control that might be checked, whereas natural death was an unavoidable wastage, and the two called for different answers. A note records three sheep given to the slaves, a rare issue of meat to the enslaved workforce set down as a charge against the stock like any other reduction.

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117

Agreeable to the Order in Last Consultation Appeared this day

Benjamin Spence and William Addams when he Spence accused Addams with taking a Waistcoat

and Selling the same to a Black fellow called Jumper Spence bringing no Proof that the Waistcoat was

his he Addams was Acquitted.

Received this day of the following Persons for their Several

Purchases made at the Outcry of the Effects of the late John Goodwin Esqr Vizt

Mr Christopher Dixon

£42 7s 7d

Mr Joseph Darval

£19s 6d

Mr James Powell

£102 9s 3½d

Mr Joseph Powell

£83 16s 9d

£229 13s 1½d

Then we Proceeded to Count the Honourable Companys Cash

which we find in good Order Amounting to the Sum of £2353 12s 11d in the following

Species Vizt

Pagodas

1285

£578 5s

Venetians

37

£18 10s

Gubbars

30

£6

St Thomas

4

£2 8s

Guineas

3

£3 3s

Moydore

¾

£1 3s

Gold Rupee

½

£15s

Peices of Gold

82 17s 2½d

Half Dollars

243

£30 7s 6d

Double Ryals

1628

£101 15s

Ryals

9022

£281 18s 9d

Half Ryals

9610

£130 3s 1½d

Dollars

2369

£392 5s 9½d

Duccatoons

33

£9 18s

Rupees

80½

£9 1s 8½d

Dutch Money

£1 9½d

Cash Notes

£186

£2353 12s 11d

Following the order made at the previous consultation, Benjamin Spencer and William Addams appeared, Spencer having accused Addams of taking a waistcoat and selling it to a black man called Jumper. Spencer brought no proof that the waistcoat was his, and Addams was acquitted.

The council received this day from the following persons the sums due for their several purchases made at the outcry of the effects of the late John Goodwin esquire.

Mr Christopher Dixon, £12 7s 7d

Mr Joseph Darval, £0 19s 6d

Mr James Powell, £102 9s 3½d

Mr Joseph Powell, £83 16s 9d

Total, £229 13s 1½d

The council then counted the Honourable Company's cash, which was found in good order, amounting to £2,353 12s 11d in the following coin.

Pagodas, 1,285, £578 5s 0d

Venetians, 37, £18 10s 0d

Gubbers, 30, £6 0s 0d

St Thomas's, 4, £2 8s 0d

Guineas, 3, £3 3s 0d

Moidore, ¾, £1 0s 3d

Gold rupee, ½, £0 15s 0d

Bars of gold, [...], £82 17s 2½d

Half dollars, 243, £30 7s 6d

Double royals, 1,628, £101 15s 0d

Royals, 9,022, £281 18s 9d

Half royals, 9,610, £130 3s 1½d

Dollars, 2,369, £392 5s 9½d

Ducatoons, 33, £9 18s 0d

Rupees, 80½, £9 1s 8½d

Dutch money, [...], £1 0s 9½d

Cash notes, £186 0s 0d

Total, £2,353 12s 11d

Interpretations

The waistcoat case, adjourned from the previous consultation for want of proof, was closed on the plain rule that the accuser must make out his claim. Spencer had accused Addams of stealing and selling the garment, but produced no evidence that it was ever his, so the council acquitted Addams outright. This shows the court holding to the ordinary standard that a charge fails where the accuser cannot prove it, refusing to convict on suspicion or on the loser's bare word once the matter came to be tried.

The cash count reveals how a remote trading post held its money in a jumble of coin from across the trading world rather than in a single currency. The chest held Indian pagodas and rupees, Venetian and Dutch coin, Portuguese moidores, Spanish dollars, royals and half royals, guineas and raw bars of gold, each struck to a different standard and all converted to sterling for the account. A pagoda was a South Indian gold coin, a moidore a Portuguese gold piece, a ducatoon a large silver coin of the Low Countries, and royals and dollars the Spanish silver that served as the common trade money of the oceans, the mixture reflecting an island fed by ships from every nation's East India trade.

The sale of a dead man's estate by public outcry shows how personal property was turned back into cash on the island. The goods of the late John Goodwin were sold at auction, the outcry being a sale to the highest bidder called aloud, and four buyers here paid in their sums, one of them over £100. Selling a deceased's effects at open auction let an estate be converted quickly to money that could be divided among heirs or creditors, and the leading Company servants were the natural buyers of the better goods on so small an island.

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In Counting the above we find a Mistake which was made

in the last Cash Account of £7 19s 10d which was in making the Totalls for the

Just Amount have been £3000 & 1½ when at the same time we made it

£3108 12s 11½d.

G G Powell

John Godfrey

Chr Dixon

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 1 of February 1742/3 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Councill

Christopher Dixon 3 of Councill

The Last Consultation was read and approved.

We this day Executed a Lease and a Bill of Sale to George Gabriel Powell

Esqr Governour for Lands Purchased at the Outcry of the late John Goodwin Esqr which was

omitted through a Mistake when he Paid the Money and they are as follows Vizt

The Lords Proprietors of this Island the

Honourable the United Company of Merchants

of England Trading to the East Indies Do hereby

Demise Grant sett and to Farm lett unto George Gabriel Powell Esqr of the said Island

Governour All that Peice or Parcel of Land Containing Nine Acres Situate in the

West Devision of the Said Island lying and being under High Hill Butting & Bounding

towards the North upon the Lands of Francis Wrangham Planter towards the East Wut and

South upon the Honourable Companys Waste Lands likewise five Acres of Land known

In counting the cash, a mistake was found in the previous cash account of £7 19s 10d, which arose in casting the total for that account. The true amount should have been £3,000 8s 1½d, whereas it had been made £3,108 12s 11½d. The correction was signed by G. G. Powell, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 1 February 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, John Godfrey second of council and Christopher Dixon third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The council this day received a lease and a bill of sale to George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, for lands he had purchased at the outcry of the effects of the late John Goodwin esquire, which was omitted through a mistake when he paid the money. They ran as follows.

The Lords Proprietors of the island, the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, granted and farm-let to George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor of the island, all that piece or parcel of land containing nine acres, situated in the west division of the island, lying near High Hill and bounded to the north upon the lands of Francis Wrangham planter, to the east, west and south upon the Honourable Company's waste lands, and likewise five acres of land known [...].

Interpretations

The correction of the cash account shows the council policing its own arithmetic, tracing an error of £7 19s 10d back to a fault in adding up a previous total. The three ranking members signed off the amended figures, marking the recount as a formal act of the board rather than a private fix. Requiring the governor and councillors to put their names to the correction shows the settlement treating the accuracy of the Company's cash as a collective responsibility that had to be seen to be discharged.

The lease records the Company holding the island as sole landlord and letting land to tenants for a rent, the arrangement by which all property on St Helena was held. The document names the Company as Lords Proprietors and grants the land to farm-let, meaning a lease at a yearly rent rather than an outright sale, so even the governor held his ground as the Company's tenant. This monopoly of ownership was the foundation of the Company's control of the island, every planter depending on a lease that could be granted or withheld, and the land defined by its neighbours and by the surrounding Company waste.

The transaction ties back to the auction of John Goodwin's estate recorded at the previous consultation, showing how the death of a landholder returned his leases to the Company's disposal. Powell had bought Goodwin's lands at the outcry, but the formal lease and bill of sale were overlooked when he paid, and were now drawn up to regularise his title. That a fresh lease had to be issued rather than the old one simply transferred confirms that a tenant's interest fell in at death and the land was re-let by the Company, not passed on as the holder's own property to sell.

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by the name of Taylors Situate in the East Devinos of the said Island Butting and Bounding North

upon the Lands of John Goodwin Smith upon the Lands of James Powell East upon the Lands of Jonathan

Doviton and West upon the Lands of Joseph Powell likewise Seven Acres and a half Acre of Land

known by the name of Longs Butting and Bounding North East and South upon the Honourable

Companys Waste Lands and West upon the Lands of John Goodwin To have and to hold

the said hereby Demised Parcels of Lands and every part and Parcel there of together with all and Singular the

Wood Walls Water Courses Houses Buildings Edifices Sheds Tenements Yams and Plantation of Yams

Fruit Trees Walls Fences and all other and Singular the Rights Commodities to them and each and every

of them belonging or Appertaining unto him the said George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs Executors

Administrators or allowed Assigns from the day of the Date hereof for and Dureing all the space

or Term of Twenty one Years from thence next Ensuing Upon Condition that the said

George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns shall and do

bear True Faith and Allegiance to our Sovereign Lord King George his Heirs and Successors

and to them the said Honourable Company and their Successors and shall Truly Observe and Obey

all the Laws and Constitutions of the said Island And upon Condition also that

he the said George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns

shall and do from time to time and at all times hereafter During the Term of this Lease keep

up and Maintain in good Order and Sufficient and Legal Repair all such Buildings Houses

Edifices Sheds Tenements Plantations and Fences as now are or hereafter shall be made

Built or Erected thereon and shall moreover plant keep up maintain and Reserve in and

upon the said hereby Demised parcells of Lands to full Quantity or Proportion of Wood being the

one South part of the said parcells of Lands and shall likewise plant and Reserve Furze within

side and Without the Fences of the said Parcells of Lands and shall Plant Fruit Trees such as Apples

Lemon Mulberry or Peach Trees in such parts there of wherein they are most likely to grow and as they

shall happen to Decay or Dye shall Replant others of the like Sorts thereon without Hurt or

Prejudice Nevertheless to any part of such Land as shall be sett apart for the Sole Purpose of Planting

and Raising of Yams Yielding and paying therefore Yearly and every Year During the Term

of this Present Lease unto them the said Honourable Company their Successors Agents or Assigns

the Sum of five Shillings P Acre in at or upon the feast of St Michael the Arch Angel Yearly

And upon Further Condition that he the said George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs

Executors Administrators or allowed Assigns shall not alter or Remove the said Fences they being the

Limitts or Land marks of the Parcel of Lands aforesaid and shall not Sell or Dispose of this Lease

or Interest therein without the Leave and Consent of the Governour and Council for the time being

In Witness whereof they the said Honourable Company have hereunto Affixed their

Common Seal at their Union Castle in James Valley this 1 Day of February in the

Year of our Lord one Thousand Seven Hundred and forty two and he the said George Gabriel

Powell Esqr to the other part of these Presents hath sett his hand & Seal the Day and Year

above written.

G G Powell Governour

John Godfrey

Christopher Dixon

The second parcel was known by the name of Taylors, situated in the east division of the island, bounded to the north upon the lands of John Goodwin Smith, to the south upon the lands of James Powell, to the east upon the lands of Jonathan Dooton and to the west upon the lands of Joseph Powell. To these was added a further seven acres and a half of land known by the name of Longs, bounded to the north, east and south upon the Honourable Company's waste lands and to the west upon the lands of John Goodwin.

George Gabriel Powell was to have and to hold the granted parcels of land, together with all their wood, water courses, houses, buildings, sheds, tenements, yams, plantations of yams, fruit trees, walls, fences and all other rights and commodities belonging to them, to him and his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, from the date of the lease and for a term of twenty-one years.

The lease was held on the condition that Powell and his heirs bear true faith and allegiance to the King and to the Honourable Company, and duly observe and obey all the laws and constitutions of the island. It was held on the further condition that he keep up and maintain in good order all such buildings, houses, sheds, tenements, plantations and fences as were then or might afterwards be built on the land, and that he plant, keep up and reserve on the south part of the parcels a fit quantity of wood, and likewise plant and reserve furze within and without the fences. He was to plant fruit trees such as apple, lemon and mulberry, and to replace with others of the same kind any trees that should decay or die, without hurt to any part of the land that should be set apart for planting and raising yams.

He was to yield and pay yearly, for every year of the term, to the Honourable Company, their successors, agents or assigns, the sum of five shillings an acre, payable at the feast of St Michael the Archangel. It was held on the further condition that neither Powell nor his heirs sell or remove the fences marking the bounds of the land, and that they not sell or dispose of the lease or their interest in it without the leave and consent of the Governor and council for the time being.

The Honourable Company set their common seal to the lease at Union Castle in James Valley on 1 February 1742, and George Gabriel Powell set his hand and seal to the counterpart of the same date. The lease was signed by G. G. Powell, governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon.

Interpretations

The lease bound the tenant to improve and conserve the land, not merely to hold it, loading the grant with detailed husbandry duties. Powell had to maintain every building and fence, keep a stand of timber on the south of the ground, plant furze along the boundaries and set out named fruit trees, replacing any that died. These covenants show the Company using its power as landlord to force good management on its tenants, protecting the island's scarce wood and fixing the mix of crops rather than leaving a planter free to work the land as he pleased.

The rent and the tenure reveal the terms on which all island land was held from the Company. The grant ran for twenty-one years at five shillings an acre, payable at Michaelmas, the quarter day of 29 September long used in England for settling rents. Tying the payment to Michaelmas imported the English agricultural calendar onto a South Atlantic island whose seasons ran the opposite way, a sign of how far the settlement's legal forms followed home practice regardless of local conditions.

The clause forbidding sale of the lease without the council's consent shows the Company keeping ultimate control over who held land on the island. Powell could not dispose of his interest, nor even move the boundary fences, without leave of the Governor and council. This restraint on alienation ensured that land could not pass to an unwanted holder behind the Company's back, keeping the small and strategically vital island firmly in the hands of tenants the Company was willing to accept.

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Know all men by these Presents That We the Governour

and Council of the Island St Helena do by Vertue of Power and Authority given us by the

Honourable the United Company of Merchants of England

Trading to the East Indies to make Sale of such part or parts of the Estate of the

Deceased John Goodwin Esqr late their Servant at this Island as will be Sufficient to answer and

make good such a Sum of Money as it hath appeared the late John Goodwin Esqr hath Embezled

of the Property or belonging to the Estate of the said Honourable the United Company of

Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies Have for and in Consideration of

the Sum of Eight Hundred and Thirty five pounds of good and Current Money of the said

Island Have Given granted Bargained Sold and Delivered and do by these Presents

Give grant Bargain Sell and Deliver unto George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour of the said

Island his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns All that peice or parcel of Land

Containing Sixty nine Acres of Freehold Land Situate in the West Devision of the said

Island Butting and Bounding North partly upon the Honourable Companys Pasture Lands

and partly upon the Lands of John Goodwin South partly upon the Lands of Samuel

Doviron and the Lima Lees belonging to James Crafford deceased East partly upon the

Lands of James Crafford deceased Charles Steward deceased Joseph Powell and John Young

Orphanes And West partly upon the Honourable Company Ann Johnson and Samuel

Dovirons Pasture Lands Likewise Seventy Acres of Freehold Land known by the name of

Longs Butting and Bounding North and last upon the Honourable Companys Waste Lands

South upon the Lands of John Young Orphanes and West partly upon the Honourable

Company Waste Lands and partly upon the Lands of John Goodwin with all and Singular

the Rights Priviledge Commodities and Appurtenances thereunto belonging or Appertaining

To have and to hold the said hereby Bargained Premises to him the said

George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns for ever to do

and Dispose thereof as he they or either of them shall thereof Sell or Proper Upon Condition

that he the said George Gabriel Powell Esqr his Heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns

shall and do bear faith and Allegiance to our Sovereign Lord King George his

Heirs and Successors and shall duely Observe and Obey all the Laws and Constitutions of

the said Island And We the said Governour and Council of the Island Aforesaid for and

on behalf and in the name of the said Honourable Company their Heirs and Successors

do Covenant Promise and Agree to and with him the said George Gabriel Powell Esqr his

Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns that he they and every of them shall peaceably

and quietly Possess and Enjoy from timesforth and at all times hereafter all and every part

and parcell hereof Yeilding and Paying therefore Yearly and every

Year unto them the said Honourable Company their Successors Agents or Assigns

the Sum of One Shilling P Acre in at or about the feast of St Michael the Arch Angel

Yearly together with all and Singular the Rights Priviledges Commodities and

Appurtenances thereunto belonging or Appertaining without any lett hinderance

The Governor and council of the island of St Helena, acting under the power and authority given them by the Honourable United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies to sell such parts of the estate of the deceased John Goodwin esquire, late their servant on the island, as would be sufficient to raise the sum of money the late John Goodwin was found to owe on property belonging to the Company, granted and sold to George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor of the island. In consideration of the sum of £835 of good and current money of the island, they granted, bargained, sold and delivered to Powell, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, all that parcel of land containing forty-nine acres of freehold land, situated in the west division of the island.

The land was bounded to the north partly upon the Honourable Company's waste lands and partly upon the lands of John Goodwin, to the south partly upon the lands of Samuel Dooton and the lime kiln belonging to James Crafford deceased, to the east partly upon the lands of James Crafford deceased, Charles Steward deceased, Joseph Powell and John Young's orphans, and to the west partly upon the Honourable Company's lands and the lands of Ann Johnson and Samuel Dooton. To this was joined a further seventy acres of freehold land known by the name of Longs, bounded to the north and east upon the Honourable Company's waste lands, to the south upon the lands of John Young's orphans and to the west partly upon the Honourable Company's waste lands and partly upon the lands of John Goodwin, together with all the rights, commodities and appurtenances belonging to them.

Powell was to have and to hold the land to himself, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, to dispose of as any of them saw fit, on the condition that he and his heirs bear faith and allegiance to the King and duly observe all the laws and constitutions of the island. The Governor and council, on behalf of the Company, covenanted that Powell and his heirs should peaceably hold and enjoy the land at all times thereafter. He was to yield and pay yearly to the Honourable Company the sum of one shilling an acre, payable at the feast of St Michael the Archangel, together with all the rights, privileges and commodities belonging to the land, without any hindrance.

Interpretations

This grant is a sale of freehold, a markedly different tenure from the twenty-one year lease recorded on the preceding pages. Here the land passed to Powell and his heirs to dispose of as they saw fit, for a lump sum of £835, whereas the earlier parcels were let for a term at a yearly rent. The two documents side by side show the Company holding its island land under mixed tenures, granting some ground outright as heritable freehold while keeping other parcels on short renewable leases, a flexibility that let it raise a large capital sum from a sale when an estate had to be wound up.

The sale was forced by the dead man's debt to the Company, not by any wish to part with the land. The council acted expressly under authority to sell so much of John Goodwin's estate as would cover what he owed on Company property, so this was a creditor realising its security against a defaulting servant. Selling the land of a deceased debtor to recover a Company debt shows how the Company's dual role as landlord and employer let it recoup losses from the estates of its own servants, turning a dead man's freehold into cash to clear his account.

Even a freehold sale carried a continuing rent and the duty of allegiance, so the grant was never wholly free of the Company's superior claim. Powell held the forty-nine acres and the seventy acres of Longs to himself and his heirs, yet still owed a shilling an acre yearly at Michaelmas and had to obey the island's laws. This reserved rent on freehold land marks the Company as the ultimate lord of the whole island even where it sold the ground outright, keeping a permanent annual charge and a hold of obedience over land that had otherwise passed entirely out of its hands.

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Molestation or Disturbance by or from the said Honourable Company or their Successors or of

from by or under any other Person or Persons whatsoever by our or their means Consent Twenty or

Procurement In Witness whereof We the Governour and Council for the time being

have hereunto Sett our hands and Affixed the Seal of the said Honourable Company this

first Day of February in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty

Two.

Signed Sealed & Delivered

G G Powell Govr

in the Presence of Us

John Godfrey

Chris Dixon

F Wrangham Junr

Thos Colgreve

Mr Charles Clarke Surgeon this day

Discharged that Bond he gave to the Honourable Company which was for Thirty pounds and

Dated November 21 1741

The Governour Reports that Yesterday he went into

the Stores and upon Examining the Damaged Goods that are Mentioned in the Inventory

finds Several of them Totally Perished and the Longer the others are kept the worse they will

be So that we came to the following Resolutions.

That in Six Days after the Arrival of the first Ship all those

Goods enumerated as follows be Exposed to Publick Sale and in the Interim an Advertisement

be Published giving notice thereof to the Inhabitants that so any who are disposed to

Purchase may view the said Goods Agreeable to our Honourable Masters Orders upon

this head.

The grant was made without any hindrance or disturbance by or from the Honourable Company, their successors, or any person claiming through them. The Governor and council set their hands and the seal of the Honourable Company to the grant on 1 February 1742. It was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the witnesses by G. G. Powell, governor, John Godfrey and Christopher Dixon. The witnesses were Francis Wrangham junior and Thomas Colgrave.

Mr Charles Clarke, surgeon, this day discharged the bond he had given to the Honourable Company, which was for £30 and dated 21 November 1741.

The Governor reported that the previous day he went into the stores and, on examining the damaged goods listed in the inventory, found several of them totally spoiled, and that the longer the rest were kept the worse they would become. The council therefore came to the following resolutions.

The council resolved that, six days after the arrival of the first ship, all the above goods listed as follows be exposed to public sale, and that in the meantime an advertisement be published giving notice to the inhabitants, so that any who wished to buy might view the goods, in keeping with the orders of the Honourable Company on this head.

Interpretations

The discharge of the surgeon's bond shows the Company binding its servants by money surety and cancelling that security once its purpose was served. Charles Clarke had given a bond of £30 in November 1741, and it was now formally discharged, meaning released. A bond was a written promise to pay a sum if some condition was not met, used to secure faithful service or the safe handling of Company property, so its discharge marked the obligation behind it as satisfied.

The decision to sell the spoiling goods reveals the council acting to cut its losses on a decaying stock before it became worthless. The Governor had inspected the stores in person and found goods rotting and worsening by the day, so the council ordered a public sale rather than let the whole consignment perish unsold. This shows the practical management of a remote depot where damaged stock could not be sent back or easily replaced, and the only way to recover any value was to turn it into cash quickly.

The sale was timed to the arrival of a ship and preceded by public advertisement, showing how commerce on the island turned on the coming of the fleets. The goods were to be sold six days after the first ship arrived, with notice given to the inhabitants so buyers could view them beforehand, all done in line with the Company's standing orders. Fixing the sale to a ship's arrival reflects an island economy where ready money and buyers were scarce until a fleet came in, bringing crews, cash and demand, so that even the disposal of spoiled stores waited on the rhythm of the sea traffic.

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List of Goods in the Honourable Companys Sures Damaged Vizt

4 Yards Red Bunting

19 Blankets

1 Pr Green Cloth Common Colour

3 Pr Broken Staves for Snuffers

1 Pr Broken Snuffers

3 Chaffing Dishes

C 2 C flour

1 Pr Nut Sugar

9 Ivory handle Penknives

19 Doz & Horn handle Knives

27½ Yards Druggett

Damaged and Sustains all Decayed

3 Wine and Water Glasses

8 Decanters

1 Glass Mugg

2 half Minute Glasses

3 Sour Hour Glasses

1 Two Hour Glass

Gold and Silver Buttons all Decayed

Same Thread and Silver

3 Silver Laced Hatts

3 Plain Hatts

16 Doz Lace

3 Pr Ebeine Silk

3 Wt Bg Osshadone Do

9 15 by Mohair

1 Pr Green Silver Stockings

1 Pr Do Ruit Do

1 Pr Womens Scarlet Do

13 Pr Do Do

1 Pr Girles Stockings

1 Iron Vole

1 Claw Hammers

1 Gouge

2 Large Gimbletts

1 Wood Ladle

3 Square Gauges

17 Hair Sives

6 Horn Sives

2 Callenders

1 Tin Lamps

3 Dredging Boxes

19 Fish Plates

4 Scapers

12 Pr Bellows

3 Grate

2 fort Shovels

1 Sugar Do

1 Steel Wall Snaps

1 Pick Ax

14 Lanthornes

16 Do

8 Do

6 Glass Lights to hang up

1 Do Do to hand

1 Main Topsail Yard 30 feet 11½ Inches

1 Topsail Yard 15 Do 10½

1 Do 18 Do 9 Do

1 Do 18½ Do 11 Do

1 Top Mast 16 Do 15 Do

1 Pr No Mast 26½ Do

Norwich Stuffs all Damaged

1 Foster Lanthorn

20 Candlesticks

9 Staves for Snuffers

1 Salt

2 half Quarter Rolls

1 Seed and Lamp for a Tin Rottle

March good for Nothing

Sires all Do

3 Pr Dark Brown Sea Do

8 Pr Wire Sword

13 Pr Twine

1 Twist Brushes

1 Hair Brooms

9 Scrubbing Brushes

3 Quart Bowles

3 Word Bowles

19 Basting Ladles

98 Cospero Grates

45 Word Do

10 bitter Volts

3 Gaden Tin Funnells

1 Watering Pot

1 Pr Rowalls

1 Pr Succes 2½ Pr Safety

16 Ports 22 Pr Flax Yarn

41 Pr Stocking

A list of goods in the Honourable Company's stores that were damaged.

9 yards of red bunting

19 blankets

1 pair of dress cloth of common colour

3 pairs of broken staves for snuffers

1 pair of broken snuffers

5 chafing dishes

2 cwt of flour

1 pair of moist sugar

9 ivory-handled penknives

19 dozen horn-handled knives

276½ yards of drugget

the following damaged and decayed, all decayed:

2 wine and water glasses

8 decanters

1 glass mug

5 half-minute glasses

3 four-hour glasses

1 two-hour glass

gold and silver buttons, all decayed

some thread and lace

3 silver-laced hats

3 plain hats

16 dozen lace

2 lb ebony silk

3 lb Nottingham silk

15 lb mohair

1 pair of dress silver stockings

1 pair of ditto knit

1 pair of women's scarlet ditto

13 pairs of ditto

1 pair of girls stockings

1 pen knife

6 claw hammers

1 gauge

2 large gimlets

2 wood ladles

3 square gauges

17 hair sieves

6 horn sieves

2 colanders

2 tin lamps

3 dredging boxes

19 dish plates

5 scrapers

19 pairs of bellows

3 spades

2 fire shovels

1 sugar ditto

1 steel wall snips

1 pick axe

14 lanterns

16 ditto

8 ditto

6 glass lights to hang up

4 ditto ditto to hand

1 mizzen topsail yard, 30 feet 11½ inches

1 topsail yard, 22½ feet

1 ditto, 22½ feet

1 ditto, 18 feet 4 inches

1 ditto, 18 feet 11 inches

1 top mast, 46 feet 15 inches

1 ditto and a mast, 26½ feet

Norwich stuffs, all damaged

1 foster lantern

20 candlesticks

9 staves for snuffers

1 salt

2 half-quarter rolls

1 sand and lamp for a tin bottle, [...] good for nothing

those all good:

5 dark brown tea

84 lb two-thread

187 lb twine

1 twist brushes

1 hair broom

9 scrubbing brushes

3 quart bowls

3 wood bowls

19 basting ladles

98 cupboard grates

45 ditto

40 buffer rolls

3 gallon tin funnels

1 watering pot

1 pair of ramrods

1 pair of scissors, [...] pair of safety

36 shirts, 22 pairs of flax yarn

41 pairs of stockings

Interpretations

This is the itemised schedule of the spoiled stock that the Governor found decaying and the council ordered sold, the detailed list behind the resolution to hold a public sale. It runs across the whole range of a trading depot's goods, from cloth, silk stockings and haberdashery through kitchen and hand tools to ship's spars and lanterns, showing the sheer variety a Company store on the island had to hold to supply both the settlement and the passing fleets. The clerk marks lines as decayed, damaged or in some cases still good, sorting the sound from the ruined so that buyers knew what state each parcel was in.

The heavy losses in textiles point to the island's damp sea air working steadily on goods held too long in store. Drugget, mohair, ebony and Nottingham silk, silver-laced hats, lace and quantities of stockings are all set down as decayed, the perishable end of the stock hit hardest. Drugget was a coarse woollen or wool-and-silk cloth, mohair the yarn of the Angora goat, and Norwich stuffs the worsted cloths for which that English city was famous, all fine dress materials that rotted or grew moth-eaten in a store where they could not be kept dry or sold on quickly enough.

The presence of ship's masts, yards and cordage among the damaged stores shows the depot doubling as a naval yard for the repair of the Company's ships. A mizzen topsail yard, several topsail yards, a top mast and quantities of twine and thread lay in store to refit vessels that called at the island, spars measured to the foot and inch for particular ships. Holding such large and specialised timber against the needs of the fleet marks St Helena as a working repair station on the long India route, where a ship that sprung a mast could be made good far from any home dockyard.

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The Governour Likewise Reports that the late Rains have

Penetrated through the Covering of the Store Houses in Several Places by which some Goods are newly

Damaged being Totally Damaged therefore Agreed to sett about and Stop the Leakey Places and Work

The Governour further Reports that one Joseph Long a

Private Centinel had Robbed his Brother of some Money and upon Examining the said Long he

at first utterly Denyed taking the Money but at length Confessed he did Rob his Brother.

Mr Francis Wranghams House some time ago having

been broke upon Joseph Long was Suspected to be the Person from some Circumstances that

happened at that time and upon Examination Confessed he was the Person that did it Upon which

he was Ordered to Prison in order to take his Tryall at the Ensuing Sessions.

Messrs John Disfountain and Joshua Wirrill Executors of the last Will

Testament of James Draper deceased this day Executed the said Will desiring the same might be proved

which was done Accordingly upon the Oaths of the Witnesses hereto Vizt John Doviten and Joseph Long

The Executors also delivered in an Inventory and Appraizment of the Estate and Efects of the

Deceased as the same was taken and Appraized by Messrs John Bapett deceased and Samuel

Doviten the Later of whom declaims that he has Vallued and Appraized the Same According

to the best of his Skill and Judgement.

The Will is as follows Vizt

In the name of God amen I James Draper Planter being

Sick and Weak of Body but of Perfect mind and Memory thanks be to Almighty God and

calling to mind the uncertainty of humain Life make this my last Will and Testament

first and Principally I comitt my Soul into the hands of my Blesed Saviour Jesus

Christ Trusting in his Mercys for the Remission of all my Sins. As to my Worldly Effects

I Will and Bequeath them as follows Vizt

I Will and Bequeath Unto my Well beloved Wife My whole Estate both Real and

Personal Dureing her Natural Life and at her Death to the Child or Children that

The Governor further reported that the recent rains had penetrated the roofing of the storehouses in several places, by which some goods were badly damaged and others totally spoiled. The council agreed to set about repairing the leaky places at once.

The Governor further reported that one Joseph Long had robbed his brother of some money, and that on examination Long at first flatly denied taking the money but at length confessed to the theft from his brother.

Mr Francis Wrangham's house having some time ago been broken into, Joseph Long was suspected to be the thief from some circumstance that appeared at the time, and on examination he confessed he was the thief who did it. He was therefore ordered to prison until his trial at the next sessions.

Messrs John Difountain and Joshua Weinall, executors of the last will and testament of James Draper deceased, this day presented the will, asking that it be proved, which was done accordingly on the oaths of the witnesses John Dooton and Joseph Long. The executors also delivered in an inventory and appraisement of the estate and effects of the deceased, as the same was taken and appraised by Messrs John Bazett deceased and Samuel Dooton, the latter of whom declared that he had valued and appraised the goods to the best of his skill and judgement.

The will ran as follows.

James Draper, planter, being sick and weak of body but of perfect mind and memory, thanked Almighty God and, calling to mind the uncertainty of human life, made his last will and testament. He gave and recommended his soul into the hands of his blessed saviour Jesus Christ, trusting in his mercy for the forgiveness of all his sins, and disposed of his worldly effects as follows.

First, he gave and bequeathed to his well-beloved wife his whole estate, both real and personal, during her natural life, and at her death to the child or children [...].

Interpretations

The leaking storehouse roofs show the settlement fighting a constant battle to keep its stock sound against the weather, the damaged goods of the sale traced here to a failure of the buildings themselves. The Governor found rain coming through the roofs and spoiling goods, and the council ordered immediate repair, a plain instance of how a remote depot's losses turned as much on the state of its fabric as on the slowness of its trade.

The theft case reveals the council working as a committing magistrate, taking a confession and sending the accused for trial rather than judging him on the spot. Joseph Long first denied robbing his brother but confessed under examination, and was also found to be the man who had broken into Francis Wrangham's house, so he was ordered to prison to await the next sessions. This shows the two-stage process of justice on the island, the council examining a suspect and committing him for trial, with the sessions reserved as the proper court to try and sentence a felony.

The proving of the will turns on the same close circle of island men serving as witnesses, executors and appraisers, a striking mark of how small the settled community was. The identical Joseph Long who stood committed for theft appears here as a witness swearing to Draper's will, while the appraisers included John Bazett, whose own will was proved a few pages earlier. On so small an island the same handful of planters filled every role in each other's legal affairs, valuing estates, witnessing wills and standing as executors, so that the settlement's business ran through a dense web of mutual dependence among very few people.

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She is now with Child with, but of the Child should Dye before her, then to be at her

Disposal as she shall think proper.

My Desire is that all my Debts be fully Satisfied in Some Convenient time

after my Decease.

I Will and Ordain that my Trusty Friends Mr John Disfountain and Joshua

Wirrall be my Lawfull Executors to this my last Will and Testament Utterly Revoking

all former Wills by me made In Witness Whereof I have hereunto Sett my hand

and Seal In St Helena this Twenty fourth day of October One Thousand Seven

Hundred & forty Two.

James Draper

Signed Sealed and Delivered

As his last Will & Testament

Where no Stamped Paper is to be had

In the Presence of Us

John Doveton

Joseph Long

The following Account was this Day Delivered

in by Mr David Wilson Steward of the Hospitall Vizt

Dr David Wilson Steward to the Hospitall Cr

To Cash Received at the pry

Table & Each Man P

Mensem

20 11s 7d

By Provisions bought of the

Honble Company

£8 4s 3d

By Sundry Necessarys found

from the Sores

£1 3s 5d

By 20 Pr blue Serge for

Sailled Banyans Desire

£18s

Caps Set to 15 P Sure

Ballance Satisfied

12 11s 1d

By my Quarters Sallary

£2 10s

£33 2s 8d

£33 2s 8d

St Helena 1 Day of February 1742/3

Errors Excepted

James Draper left his whole estate to his wife, since she was then with child, but should that child die before her, the estate was to be at her disposal as she saw fit.

He directed that all his debts be fully settled at a convenient time after his death.

He appointed his trusted friends Mr John Difountain and Joshua Weinall to be lawful executors of his last will and testament, and revoked all former wills. In witness he set his hand and seal at St Helena on 24 October 1742.

The will was signed, sealed and delivered as his last will and testament, no stamped paper being available, in the presence of the witnesses John Dooton and Joseph Long.

The following account was this day delivered in by Mr David Wilson, steward of the hospital, drawn up as debtor and creditor.

On the debtor side, the money received:

Cash received at the pay table, each man 6d a month, £20 11s 7d

Balance settled, £12 11s 1d

Total, £33 2s 8d

On the creditor side, the money paid out:

Provisions bought of the Honourable Company, £8 4s 3d

Sundry necessaries found from the shore, £4 3s 5d

20 pairs of blue serge for the late Salted Banyan, caps set at 1s a pair, £18 0s 0d

The steward's salary, £2 15s 0d

Total, £33 2s 8d

The account was drawn up at St Helena on 1 February 1742, marked errors excepted.

Interpretations

The clause noting that no stamped paper was available records a genuine difficulty of a remote island in meeting the legal forms of home. English law required many documents to be written on paper bearing a revenue stamp, but the island's supply had evidently run out, so the witnesses set down its absence to protect the will's validity against a later challenge on that ground. This small notation shows the settlement anxious to observe English legal formality yet often unable to obtain the very materials that formality demanded.

The hospital account reveals that the island ran an infirmary funded partly by a levy on the men it served, not wholly by the Company. The steward took in sixpence a month from each man at the pay table, and set the fund's income against the cost of provisions, necessaries and his own salary. Charging the men a small monthly contribution toward their own care shows a self-supporting medical fund, the same principle of recovering costs from those served that ran through the garrison's diet and clothing accounts.

The purchase of blue serge caps for the Salted Banyan points to the hospital or store outfitting a particular group among the island's people. Serge was a durable twilled woollen cloth, and a banyan was originally a Hindu trader from western India, the word coming to mark Indian servants or workers in Company settlements. That a distinct group was clothed in a standard issue of caps suggests the island held Indian labourers or servants dressed in a recognisable dress, provided for through the same account that supplied the hospital.

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We Received of the above Account £8 4s 3d for Provisions the Reason of

the Hospitalls being in Debt the last Quarter was the Purchasing of the Banyans Draws and

Caps &ct the next Quarter will over and above Discharge the Debt due upon Ballance in

the above Account.

There being upon the left of this Valley a Small Slip of Ground

running up behind the Gentlemens back Yards that have Houses on that side the Valley which

they Some time ago Petitioned to have Leave to take in We Agreed

That Provided they would give as much Money for that peice of Ground

as would Purchase a peice of Ground on which the Honourable Companys Blacks House now

Stands and Adjoyning to their Honours Garden for which they have hitherto paid a Rent

of Six pound P Annum, And they Agreeing to ye Same

We have this day made Purchase of the said House and Ground and

got a Bill of Sale for the same as follows Vizt

Know all Men by these presents that We John Bapett and

Francis Wrangham both of this Island St Helena Freeholders and Lawfull Attorneys to

Act and do for Thomas Modyn of Anjago on the Mallabar Coast in the East Indies

Constituted by him the said Thomas Modyn as by Letter of Attorney by Vertue Whereof for

and in Consideration of the full and Just Sum of One Hundred pounds of good and Current

Money of the said Island to us in hand paid at and before the Insealing and Delivery hereof

by Joshua Johnson of the said Island freeholder the Receipt of which we to hereby

Acknowledge ourselves Severally and Joyntly to be therewith fully Satisfyed Contented and paid

Have Given Granted Bargained Sold and Delivered and by these Presents to absolutely

Give Grant Bargain Sell and Deliver unto the said Joshua Johnson his Heirs Executors

Administrators and Assigns for ever all and Singular that peice or Parcell of Ground

Situate in James Valley whereon the Companys Blacks House now Stands Butting and

Bounding North and East upon the Honble Companys Garden South upon the Ground of

Samuel Doviton and West fronting to the Street Together with all and Singular the

Ways Intrys Backsides Gutters Easements Profits Commodities and Appurtenances

Whatsoever

The council received of the above account £8 4s 3d for provisions, the hospital having been in debt the previous quarter through the purchase of the banyans' drawers and caps. The next quarter would, over and above, discharge the debt due upon the balance in the above account.

There being upon the left of the valley a small strip of ground running up behind the gentlemen's back yards that have houses on that side of the valley, which they had some time ago petitioned to be allowed to take in, the council agreed as follows.

The council resolved that, provided they would give as much money for that piece of ground as would purchase a piece of ground on which the Honourable Company's slaves then lived, adjoining their honours' garden, for which they had so far paid a rent of £6 a year, and they agreeing to the same, the council this day made purchase of the house and ground and obtained a bill of sale for it as follows.

John Bazett and Francis Wrangham, both of the island of St Helena, freeholders and lawful attorneys to act for Thomas Modyn of Anjengo on the Malabar coast in the East Indies, constituted by him under a letter of attorney, in consideration of the full sum of £100 of good and current money of the island paid to them in hand before the sealing and delivery of the deed by Joshua Johnson of the island, freeholder, the receipt of which they acknowledged, granted, bargained, sold and delivered to Joshua Johnson, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns for ever, all that piece or parcel of ground situated in James Valley on which the Company's slaves' house then stood, bounded to the north and east upon the Honourable Company's garden and to the south upon the ground of Samuel Dooton, and to the west fronting the street, together with all its ways, entries, backsides, gutters, easements, profits, commodities and appurtenances whatsoever.

Interpretations

The land deal shows the council arranging a chain of purchases to rehouse its slaves while satisfying the townsmen who wanted a strip of ground. The gentlemen along the valley could take in the ground behind their yards only if they paid enough to buy the plot where the Company's slaves lived, so that the slaves could be moved and the Company freed of the £6 rent it had been paying for their quarters. This linking of one sale to another let the council meet a private request and improve its own position at once, funding the resettlement of its workforce out of the price the townsmen paid for their extra ground.

The bill of sale reveals the reach of the Company's world, land on St Helena being sold on behalf of an owner living on the Indian coast. Thomas Modyn of Anjengo on the Malabar coast held the plot but acted through two island attorneys under a letter of attorney, the written authority by which an absent owner empowered agents to deal in his property. Anjengo was a small English Company factory in southern India, and that its resident could own and sell ground on a South Atlantic island shows how the Company's scattered settlements formed a single connected sphere of property and trade.

The description of the plot and its slave house sets the enslaved workforce physically at the centre of the settlement, housed on valuable ground in the heart of James Valley beside the Company garden. The land was bought so the slaves could be moved off it and it could pass to Joshua Johnson, treating their dwelling as a piece of real estate to be traded over their heads. That their quarters stood on ground the Company rented and then sold underlines how completely the enslaved people were bound up with the property dealings of the island, their very housing a matter of leases, rents and sales among the free.

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Whatsoever which now do and which hereafter shall belong unto the said Ground Messuage

or Tenement or shall in any Wise Appertain To have and to hold the said

hereby Bargained Premises and every part and Parcell thereof unto him the said Joshua

Johnson and his Heirs as aforesaid to do and Dispose of as he they or either of them shall

think fitt and Meet And We the said John Bapett and Francis Wrangham do as well

for and on Behalf of ourselves Severally and Joyntly as aforesaid as for our or either of our

Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns hereby further Covenant Promise and Agree

to and with him the said Joshua Johnson his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns

that he they or either of them shall and may from tenceforth and at all times hereafter

Have Hold Occupy posess and Enjoy the said house mentioned Premises and all and

every part and parcell thereof without any manner of Lett hinderance Molestation or

Interruption of us the said John Bapett & Francis Wrangham or either of our Heirs

Executors Administrators or Assigns or from by or under any other Person or Persons

Whatsoever by our or either of our Meane Consent or Procurement and Against all

Manner of Persons do hereby Warrant to Save Defend and keep harmless the said

Joshua Johnson and his Heirs Claiming any part or Parcell of the said hereby bargained

Premises And that the same is free and Clear of and from all manner of Incumbrance

Whatsoever any thing to the Contrary hereof in this Presents Contained Notwithstanding

In Witness Whereof We the beforementioned John Bapett and Francis

Wrangham both of this Island St Helena as aforesaid have hereunto Sett our hands

and Seals this fourteenth day of October AD One Thousand Seven Hundred and

forty two.

Signed Sealed & Delivered

John Bapett

in the Presence of Us

Fras Wrangham Senr

John Goodwin

John Clarke

Fras Wrangham Junr

Know all Men by these Presents that I Joshua Johnson

of the Island St Helena Planter for and in Consideration of the Sum of One Hundred pounds

of good and Current Money of the said Island to me in hand paid by the Worshipfull the

Governour and Council for the time being Do hereby Assign Sett and make

The grant covered all rights belonging to the ground, messuage or tenement, or which might afterwards belong to it. Joshua Johnson was to have and to hold the granted ground and every part of it, to himself and his heirs, to dispose of as any of them saw fit.

John Bazett and Francis Wrangham, both for themselves and for the heirs, executors, administrators and assigns of the owner, covenanted with Joshua Johnson and his heirs that they should from then on and at all times peaceably hold, occupy and enjoy the house and premises, without any hindrance or interruption from Bazett or Wrangham, their heirs, or anyone claiming through them. They warranted to defend Johnson and his heirs against all persons claiming any part of the premises, and declared the ground free and clear of all encumbrances.

In witness, John Bazett and Francis Wrangham, both of the island of St Helena, set their hands and seals on 14 October 1742. The deed was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the witnesses John Goodwin, John Clarke and Francis Wrangham junior. It was signed by John Bazett and Francis Wrangham senior.

Joshua Johnson of the island of St Helena, planter, in consideration of the sum of £100 of good and current money of the island paid to him in hand by the Worshipful the Governor and council for the time being, agreed to assign and make over [...].

Interpretations

The deed carries the standard covenants of a full sale, the seller guaranteeing the buyer a clear and defensible title. Bazett and Wrangham promised that Johnson would hold the ground undisturbed, warranted to defend him against any rival claim, and declared the land free of encumbrances, meaning free of any mortgage, debt or prior charge attached to it. These promises were the core protection a purchaser bought along with the ground, binding the sellers to make good the title if anyone later challenged it.

The witnesses again draw on the same small pool of island men who ran each other's affairs, one of them a namesake of the estate lately sold. John Goodwin, John Clarke the surgeon and Francis Wrangham junior stood as witnesses, the last the son of one of the selling attorneys. On an island where a bare handful of freeholders filled every legal role, a deed was routinely witnessed by close neighbours and kin of the parties, the community too small to keep the transactions of its members at arm's length from one another.

The closing lines show the ground passing straight back to the Company, Johnson selling to the Governor and council the very plot he had just bought. He had paid £100 for the land and now assigned it on for the same £100 to the council, so the whole chain returned the ground to Company hands. This confirms the earlier resolution's design, Johnson serving as the intermediary through whom the Company acquired the plot it wanted for rehousing its slaves, the land moving through a private buyer only to come to rest with the council that had set the deal in motion.

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over all my Right Title and Interest to and in the within mentioned Premises and all other the

Appurtenances thereunto belonging unto them the said Governour and Council for the time being for

the use of the Honourable Company and their Heirs for ever to do and Dispose there of as they shall

think fitt without any manner of Interruption or Molestation from any Person or Persons

Whatsoever In Witness thereof he the said Joshua Johnson have hereunto Sett his hand and

Seal this first day of February in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and

Forty Two Three.

Signed Sealed and Delivered

Joshua Johnson

In the Presence of Us

Cha Clark

Chris Dixon

G G Powell

John Godfry

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 8th February 1742/3 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Council

Christopher Dixon 3 of Council

The Last Consultation was read and approved.

The Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Mr Charles Arnold this

this day Presented the said Will Requesting it might be proved. which was done accordingly upon the

Oaths of the Witnesses hereto Vizt Charles Clark John Anvath and Richard Beale together with the

Inventory of his Estate which was taken and Appraized by Messrs Richard Gordon Gabriel Kesper

and James Powell who declared upon oath that they had Valled the same According to the best

of their Skill and Judgment.

The Will is as follows Vizt

Joshua Johnson assigned over all his right, title and interest in the premises and all their appurtenances to the Governor and council for the time being, for the use of the Honourable Company and their heirs for ever, to dispose of as they saw fit, without any interruption or hindrance from any person. In witness he set his hand and seal on 1 February 1742.

The deed was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the witnesses Charles Clarke and Christopher Dixon. It was signed by Joshua Johnson, G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 8 February 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor, John Godfrey second of council and Christopher Dixon third of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The executors of the last will and testament of Mr Charles Steward deceased this day presented the will, asking that it be proved, which was done accordingly on the oaths of the witnesses Charles Clarke, John Kniper and Richard Beale, together with the inventory of his estate, which was taken and appraised by Messrs Richard Gordon, Gabriel Kniper and James Powell, who declared upon oath that they had valued it to the best of their skill and judgement.

The will ran as follows.

Interpretations

The completion of the Johnson sale closes the chain of conveyances by which the Company recovered the slave-house plot in James Valley for its own permanent use. Johnson made over the ground to the Governor and council for the Company and its heirs for ever, so the land that had passed from an absent Indian owner through Johnson now settled finally in Company hands. Vesting it in the council for ever completed the design begun several pages earlier, the Company using a private buyer as a conduit to acquire the ground it wanted while the townsmen paid for the strip behind their yards.

The proving of yet another will shows the steady rhythm of mortality among the island's small body of freeholders and the fixed procedure that followed each death. The executors of Charles Steward brought in his will and inventory, the will proved on the oath of witnesses and the inventory sworn by three appraisers, exactly the pattern seen with Bazett and Draper. This repeated machinery of proof and appraisement was the settled legal response to a landholder's death, ensuring that every estate was validated and valued before it could be divided.

The same handful of names recurs once more across the roles of witness and appraiser, underlining how tightly interlocked the settlement's affairs were. Charles Clarke and Richard Beale, who had witnessed earlier wills, appear again, and Gabriel Kniper and James Powell serve as appraisers here having figured in other transactions on these pages. The community was so small that the same men valued estate after estate and witnessed will after will, a concentration of legal responsibility in very few hands that was unavoidable on an island of so few settled inhabitants.

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In the name of God Amen this Seventh day

of October in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and forty Two I Charles Steward

of the Island St Helena Master being Suddenly taken Ill but of Sound & Perfect mind and Memory

thanks be to Almighty God to make Ordain Constitute and Appoint this my last Will and Testament

that is to say first and Principally I give and Recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty

God my Body I Commit to the Earth to be Buried in a Christian Like and Decent manner. My

Worldy Goods wherewith it hath Pleased God to Bless me with, I give Devise and Dispose of

in manner and form as followeth.

Imprimis I give to my well beloved Wife the one half of my Real Estate as well Houses

and Lands during her Natural Life and also the one third of my Personal Estate to be at her

Disposal. I also give her the Choice of all my Black Girls to take one of which she think fitt

and also a Suit of Silver Brussels and Castars but neither to be Valled to her.

Item I give to Each of my beloved Daughters Elyzabeth and Margarett a Black Girl to

take their Choice after their Mother but not to be Valled into their parts. Also to my Son

Charles I give him the Choice of a Black Boy but not to be Valled into his part and the

Sum of fifty pounds at Age or Marriage.

Item all the Rest and Remainder of my Estate both Real and Personal I give to be

Equally Divided among my Wellbeloved Children, Namely Francis, Gabriel, Charles, Elyzabeth

and Margarett at Age or Marriage as well that part of the Real Estate Posessed by my Wife

at her Decease, but as I am Desirous of Settleing my Son Charles upon this Island Therefore

Direct that he shall have all my Lands both Freehold and Leasehold in Sandy Bay to the

Refe of the main Charge at a Reasonable Valluation he paying his other Brothers and Sisters

their Proper Shares or Proportions, and if my Wife should Live till my said Son Charles come

to Age or Marriage, it may be very inconvenient to her to Divide the Mansion House and

upon that Consideration I give her the Living in the Whole House with this proviso that she

Assist my Son Charles in Building a House on the Lands called Foxes.

And Whereas my Son Gabriel may have occasion for Money before he arrives to Age or

Marriage I therefore give full power to my Executors to let him have the Sum of One

Hundred pounds When he shall arrived to the Age of Eighteen Years but to be Esteemed

as part of his Dividend

And Whereas my Father Wrangham hath promised me to make me Equal in his Estate

with the rest of the Children I therefore Direct at what time he shall think fitt to give

me the said part of his Estate that my Wife shall have the one third part and the

other two thirds to be Equally Divided among my abovementioned Children at Age

or Marriage.

Lastly I Nominate and Appoint my Brother Francis Steward my Father Wrangham

and Messrs John Goodwin and Francis Wrangham Junr to be Executors of this my

Charles Steward of the island of St Helena, master, being suddenly taken ill but of sound and perfect mind and memory, thanked Almighty God and made his last will and testament on 7 October 1742. He gave and recommended his soul into the hands of Almighty God, and committed his body to the earth to be buried in a Christian and decent manner, and disposed of his worldly goods as follows.

First, he gave his well-beloved wife one half of his real estate, together with its houses and lands, during her natural life, and also one third of his personal estate to be at her disposal. He also gave her the choice of all his slave girls, to take one whichever she thought fit, and also a set of silver cruets and casters, but neither to be valued to her.

He gave each of his beloved daughters Elizabeth and Margaret a slave girl, to take their choice after their mother, but not to be valued against their shares. He also gave his son Charles the choice of a slave boy, not to be valued against his share, and the sum of £50 at age or marriage.

He directed that all the rest and remainder of his estate, both real and personal, be equally divided among his well-beloved children, namely Francis, Gabriel, Charles, Elizabeth and Margaret, at age or marriage, including that part of the real estate reserved to his wife at her death. He gave and settled on his son Charles all his lands, both freehold and leasehold, in Sandy Bay, together with the benefit of the main charge at a reasonable valuation, on paying his other brothers and sisters their proper shares or proportions. Since it might be very inconvenient for his wife to divide the mansion house should she live until his son Charles came of age or married, he gave her the living in the mansion house, provided Charles set about building a house on the lands called Foxes.

Whereas his son Gabriel might have occasion for money before he came of age or married, he gave full power to his executors to let him have the sum of £100 when he reached the age of eighteen years, but to be counted as part of his portion.

Whereas his father Wrangham had promised to make him equal in his estate with the rest of the children, he directed that whatever came to him from that source, at whatever time his father thought fit to give it, be so divided that his wife should have one third part and the other two thirds be equally divided among his children at age or marriage.

Lastly, he named and appointed his brother Francis Steward, his father Wrangham, and Messrs John Goodwin and Francis Wrangham junior to be executors of the will.

Interpretations

The will again settles the core landed estate on a son under a charge to compensate the others, the same device used by John Bazett a few pages earlier. Charles Steward gave all his Sandy Bay lands to his son Charles, who was to pay his brothers and sisters their proper shares at a valuation, keeping the estate whole in one hand while giving the rest a cash value from it. This recurring pattern across the island's wills shows a settled local custom of preserving a family's principal holding intact through a single heir rather than splitting the land physically among all the children.

The provision for the widow turns on the practical problem of sharing a single dwelling, revealing how the mansion house complicated an otherwise clean division. Steward foresaw that his wife could not easily share the mansion house if his son came of age while she still lived, so he gave her the living in it on condition that Charles build a new house on the lands called Foxes. Solving the difficulty by directing the heir to build afresh elsewhere shows a testator working around the indivisibility of a house, freeing the main dwelling for the widow by providing the son a separate home.

The bequests treat enslaved girls and a boy as objects of choice handed among the family, ranked in order of the takers' precedence. The widow chose first among the slave girls, the daughters after her, and the son had the choice of a slave boy, each such person marked not to be valued and so passing outside the reckoning of shares. Ordering the family's pick of human beings by seniority, mother before daughters, sets out with stark clarity how completely the enslaved were treated as select personal property to be distributed like the silver cruets named in the same breath.

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Will Revoking and Disannulling all former Wills or Wills by me made Ratifying and Confirming this and

no other to be my Last Will and Testament.

Charles Steward

Signed Sealed and Declared

to be the Last Will and Testament of him

the said Charles Steward in the presence of us

Charles Clark

John Wirrall

Richard Beale

Mr Francis Wrangham Senr upon hearing the above

Will read delivered a paper denying the Contents ought be Entered which were as follows Vizt

Memorandum that I Francis Wrangham Senr of the Island St Helena and

Father in Law to the late Charles Steward decd by Vertue of Marriage to my Daughter

Mary which is now Likewise dead and being Present at Reading the above Will and taking

Perfect Notice of the Contents thereof do posetively Declare against that part of the Will Wherein

is Mentioned I promised to make him Equal with the rest of my Children in my Estate Neither

made any Agreement or promise with or to my said Son in Law Charles Steward Deceased

upon his Marriage with my Daughter The whole was left to my Pleasure and therefore I

Object against that part of the Will.

8th February 1742/3

Signed Fras Wrangham Senr

The Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Mr Mary Steward decd this

Presented her said Will Requesting it might be proved. Which was done Accordingly upon the

Oaths of the Witness thereto Vizt Francis Wrangham and Budgett Leech the other Witness

Mary Alexander being Indisposed Could not Attend.

The Will is as follows Vizt

The will revoked all former wills and confirmed this as his last will and testament. It was signed, sealed and declared to be the last will and testament of Charles Steward in the presence of the witnesses Charles Clarke, John Weinall and Richard Beale.

Mr Francis Wrangham senior, on hearing the will read, delivered a paper asking that its contents be entered, which ran as follows.

Francis Wrangham senior of the island of St Helena, father-in-law to the late Charles Steward through his marriage to Wrangham's daughter Mary, now also dead, having been present at the reading of the will and taken careful notice of its contents, protested against that part of it in which Steward mentioned that Wrangham had promised to make him equal in his estate with the rest of Wrangham's children. Wrangham declared that he had never made any such agreement or promise with his son-in-law Charles Steward on his marriage to his daughter, the whole being left to his own pleasure, and he therefore objected to that part of the will.

The executors of the last will and testament of Mrs Mary Steward deceased presented her will, asking that it be proved, which was done accordingly on the oaths of the witnesses Francis Wrangham and Budgett Leech, the other witness Mary Alexander being indisposed and unable to attend.

The will ran as follows.

Interpretations

Wrangham's protest shows an heir moving at once to disown a claim upon his estate that another man's will had put on record. Steward's will had stated that Wrangham promised to make him an equal share with Wrangham's own children, and Wrangham formally denied ever making such a promise, insisting the matter rested wholly in his own discretion. Having his denial entered alongside the will was the practical way to stop a dead man's assertion hardening into an accepted debt, protecting his freedom to leave his property as he chose.

The dispute reveals how a marriage settlement expectation could become contested once the parties to it had died. Steward had married Wrangham's daughter Mary, both now dead, and the question of what Wrangham had promised on that marriage survived them to trouble the estate. Family provision tied to a marriage often rested on spoken understandings rather than binding deeds, so that when the principals were gone the survivors were left to argue over what had truly been agreed, exactly the uncertainty Wrangham moved to close off.

The note excusing an absent witness shows the court holding to proper proof while accommodating the accidents of a small community. Mary Steward's will was proved on two witnesses because the third, Mary Alexander, was too unwell to attend, and her absence was recorded rather than passed over. Noting why a witness could not appear kept the proof regular and forestalled any later doubt about the will's validity, the careful formality of a settlement determined to observe legal form even when illness thinned the few people available to satisfy it.

136

130

In the name of God Amen this 21 day of October in the Year

of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty two I Mary Steward Widdow being Sick &

Weak of Body but of Sound mind and Perfect Memory (Thanks be to Almighty God for the same)

Do make and Ordain this my last Will and Testament That is to say first and principally

I Recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God, my Body to the Earth to be Buried

in a Decent Manner. and my Worldly Effects I give Bequeath and Bestow as follows Vizt

Imprimis I give and Bequeath unto my well beloved Daughter Margarett one Sett of

of Silver Castors and Glass Cruets in a Silver Stand which my late Husband bequeathd unto

me.

Item I give and Bequeath unto my Well beloved Son Charles Steward one Black Girl

which my late Husband Bequeathed unto me.

Item I give and Bequeath unto my Son in Law Francis Steward the Sum of fifty

pounds.

Item all the Rest Residue and Remainder of my Estate I give and Bequeath unto

my Well beloved Children Margarett Gabriel and Charles Steward to be Equally divided

Amongst them as they Severally arrive at the Age of Twenty one Years or Marriage, but

my further meaning and Intention is that if either of my abovementioned Children

Margarett Gabriel and Charles should die before either they come to Age or Marriage

that then the Survivour or Survivours shall Enjoy the Deceased Dividend. And

Whereas by the Last Will and Testament of my late Husband I was to have

the Living in this House in the Country During my Natural Life and then to Descend to

my Son Charles at his Arriving at Age or Marriage, but Whereas he my Son Charles being

now very Young, and no Body left in the House with him but my Daughter Margarett

My Will and Desire therefore is that my Sister Alcock may have her Living here at the

House in the Country till my said Son Charles shall Arrive at Age or Marriage.

Item I Constitute and appoint my beloved and Honoured Father my beloved

Brother in Law Captain Francis Steward my beloved Cousin John Goodwin and my beloved

Brother Francis Wrangham (being the same) Executors that are to my late Husbands Will

be Executors to this my last Will and Testament Utterly Revoking all former Wills or Wills

by me heretofore made In Witness Whereof I have hereunto Sett my hand and Seal

the day and Year above Written.

Mary Steward

Signed Sealed and Delivered

in the Presence of us

the Word (my) being first Interlined

Mary Alexander

The mark

Budgett Leech

Frances Wrangham

Mary Steward, widow, being sick and weak of body but of sound and perfect memory, thanked Almighty God and made her last will and testament on 21 October 1742. She gave and recommended her soul into the hands of Almighty God, and committed her body to the earth to be buried in a decent manner, and disposed of her worldly effects as follows.

First, she gave her well-beloved daughter Margaret one set of silver casters and glass cruets in a silver stand, which her late husband had bequeathed to her.

She gave her well-beloved son Charles Steward one slave girl, which her late husband had bequeathed to her.

She gave her son-in-law Francis Steward the sum of £50.

She gave all the rest, residue and remainder of her estate to be equally divided among her well-beloved children Margaret, Gabriel and Charles Steward, as they severally reached the age of twenty-one years or married. Her further intention was that if any of these children, Margaret, Gabriel or Charles, should die before coming of age or marrying, the survivor or survivors should enjoy the divided share.

Whereas by the will of her late husband she was to have the living in the house in the country during her natural life, and it was then to descend to her son Charles at his coming of age or marriage, and whereas Charles was very young and no body was left in the house with her but her daughter Margaret, she gave and desired that her sister Alcock might have the living with her at the house in the country until Charles came of age or married.

She named and appointed her brother-in-law Captain Francis Steward, her father, her cousin John Goodwin and her brother Francis Wrangham to be executors of the will, and revoked all former wills. In witness she set her hand and seal on the date above written.

The will was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the witnesses Mary Alexander, Budgett Leech, who made his mark, and Francis Wrangham, one word having first been interlined.

Interpretations

The widow's will passes on to her children the very gifts her husband had left her, showing property moving through a married couple's estates in swift succession. The silver cruets and the slave girl that Charles Steward had bequeathed to his wife are here handed straight on to their daughter and son, the two deaths falling so close together that the same objects appear in both wills within days. This rapid passage of the same goods through husband and wife illustrates how a couple's property could be settled twice over in short order when both died within a single season.

The provision for a companion in the country house reveals a widow arranging against isolation as much as against want. Mary Steward held the living in the country house until her young son should come of age, but with only her daughter for company she asked that her sister Alcock be allowed to live there with her. Making formal provision for a relative's company shows how the practical loneliness of a remote plantation, with a widow and one daughter alone in a country house, was itself a matter to be settled by will.

The will's execution again records the makeshifts of a tiny community, with a witness signing by mark and an interlineation formally noted. Budgett Leech could not write and made his mark, an interlined word was recorded to guard the document's integrity, and Mary Alexander witnessed here having been too ill to attend the proving of the same estate shortly before. These small notations, a mark for a signature and a noted correction, show the settlement observing the strict forms of will-making with the limited and sometimes unlettered hands it had to call upon.

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131

The Widdow of the deceased John Bradley this day Presented her late

Husbands Last Will and Testament Requesting the same might be Proved, which was Accordingly done.

The Will is as follows Vizt

In the name of God Amen I John Bradley of the said Island of

St Helena being very Weak of Body but of Sound mind Memory and Understanding do therefore make

this my last Will and Testament Imannor form and following that is to say first and principally

I committ my Soul to the Almighty God My Body to the Earth there to be Decently Buried

According to the Directions of the Honourable Governour and Council.

Item I give to my Well beloved Wife half my Land for her Life and the third of my Personal

Estate for ever, the other part of my Land and Personal Estate to be Equally Divided among my

Children as they come to Age or Marriage.

Item And the other part of Land at my Wives decease to be Equally divided among my Children

Also.

Item to my Daughter Mary Bradley I give the first Heifer Calf thats Calved.

Item to my Son Arthur I give the Second Calf thats Calved.

Item to my Daughter Nomy I give the third Heifer Calf thats Calved

Signed Sealed and Delivered

John Bradley

In the Presence of us

James Draper

John Draper

Edward Burnham

June the 2 1737

The Widdow Likewise Requested that the Inventory of her

Late Husbands Effects might be Registered which was Likewise done upon the Oaths of the

Appraizers Vizt James Powell and Samuel Doviton.

Application having been made from the

Orphanes of the Deceased John Bradley Requesting Some care might be taken of their Effects

Apprehending that as their Mother in Law in going to Marry again their Affairs may be Neglected

We therefore Ordered James Powell and Samuel Doviton to Devise the little Estate, and deliver

to the Widdow her thirds Agreeable to her late Husbands Will. And for the Rest to take a

Particular Account And make Sale of it at Publick Outcry And pay the Produce into the

Honourable

The widow of the deceased John Bradley this day presented her late husband's last will and testament, asking that it be proved, which was done accordingly.

The will ran as follows.

John Bradley of the island of St Helena, being very weak of body but of sound mind, memory and understanding, made his last will and testament as follows. He committed his soul to Almighty God and his body to the earth, to be decently buried according to the directions of the Honourable Governor and council.

He gave his well-beloved wife half his land for her life and a third of his personal estate for ever, the other part of his land and personal estate to be equally divided among his children as they came of age or married.

He directed that the other part of the land, at his wife's death, be equally divided among his children also.

He gave his daughter Mary Bradley the first heifer calf that was calved.

He gave his son Arthur the second calf that was calved.

He gave his daughter Nanny the third heifer calf that was calved.

The will was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the witnesses James Draper, John Draper and Edward Burnham, on 2 June 1739.

The widow then asked that the inventory of her late husband's effects be registered, which was done accordingly on the oaths of the appraisers James Powell and Samuel Dooton.

An application having been made from the orphans of the deceased John Bradley, asking that some care be taken of their effects, since their mother-in-law on going to marry again meant their affairs might be neglected, the council therefore ordered James Powell and Samuel Dooton to value the little estate, and to deliver to the widow her thirds in keeping with her late husband's will. They were also to take a particular account of the rest, make sale of it at public outcry and pay the proceeds into the Honourable [...].

Interpretations

The will of a poorer islander stands in plain contrast to the substantial estates proved earlier, showing the same legal forms applied to a modest holding. Bradley left his children little more than three heifer calves apportioned one apiece, alongside a divided share of a small piece of land, the whole later called his little estate. That the settlement put a labourer's few beasts through the same solemn machinery of will, witnesses and appraisement as it did a planter's mansion and slaves shows the law of succession reaching every level of the island's people, however small their property.

The orphans' application reveals a real fear that a remarrying widow would let her children's inheritance slip away, and the council stepping in to guard it. The children petitioned because their stepmother, on marrying again, might neglect their affairs, so the council ordered the estate valued and the surplus sold and secured after her thirds were paid. This intervention shows the council acting as protector of orphans against the danger that a second marriage would divert a first family's property, a recognised hazard that the law moved to forestall.

The order to sell the children's portion and pay it into the Company's hands shows the council serving as a trustee of last resort for the fatherless. Rather than leave the little estate exposed, the council had it converted to cash and lodged for safekeeping, holding the orphans' money until they should come of age. Using the Company's own coffers to secure a dead man's estate for his children marks the council as the standing guardian of vulnerable inheritances on an island with no other institution able to hold property in trust.

138

132

Honourable Companys Treasury where it will be Secure for the Children as they may Severally

Arrive at Age to Demand it

The Husband and Gunner delivered in their Accounts for the Month of

January last which were Severally Examined and proved and are as follows Vizt

Account of the Honourable Companys Stock of Neat Cattle &ct for the Month of January 1742/3 Vizt

Bullocks, Cows, Heyfers, Steers, Yearlings, Calves, Bulls, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Lambs, Rams, Totall, Ewes, Weathers, Kidds, Rams, Totall, Sows, Barrows, Shoats, Piggs, Boares, Totall, Fowles, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, Horses, Maires, Totall

Remaining 1st January: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heyfers 32, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 90, Bulls 6, Totall 301, Ewes 74, Weathers 17, Lambs 17, Rams 3, Totall 111, Ewes 105, Weathers 7, Kidds 57, Rams 3, Totall 172, Sows 15, Barrows 18, Shoats 36, Piggs 41, Boares 2, Totall 112, Fowles 87, Turkeys 247, Ducks 35, Geese 14, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Increased in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 0, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 7, Bulls 0, Totall 7, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 8, Rams 0, Totall 8, Ewes 0, Weathers 15, Kidds 0, Rams 0, Totall 15, Sows 0, Barrows 0, Shoats 12, Piggs 0, Boares 0, Totall 12, Fowles 13, Turkeys 8, Ducks 0, Geese 0, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totall 0

Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heyfers 32, Steers 28, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totall 308, Ewes 74, Weathers 17, Lambs 25, Rams 3, Totall 119, Ewes 105, Weathers 7, Kidds 72, Rams 3, Totall 187, Sows 15, Barrows 18, Shoats 36, Piggs 53, Boares 2, Totall 124, Fowles 87, Turkeys 262, Ducks 43, Geese 14, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Killed in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 1, Steers 1, Yearlings 0, Calves 0, Bulls 0, Totall 2, Ewes 0, Weathers 4, Lambs 0, Rams 0, Totall 4, Ewes 7, Weathers 4, Kidds 0, Rams 0, Totall 11, Sows 1, Barrows 3, Shoats 1, Piggs 0, Boares 0, Totall 5, Fowles 3, Turkeys 31, Ducks 0, Geese 0, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totall 0

Died in Ditto: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heyfers 31, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totall 306, Ewes 74, Weathers 13, Lambs 25, Rams 3, Totall 115, Ewes 98, Weathers 8, Kidds 72, Rams 3, Totall 196, Sows 14, Barrows 15, Shoats 39, Piggs 53, Boares 2, Totall 119, Fowles 84, Turkeys 231, Ducks 43, Geese 14, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Stole in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heyfers 0, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 0, Bulls 0, Totall 0, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 0, Rams 0, Totall 0, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Kidds 0, Rams 0, Totall 0, Sows 0, Barrows 0, Shoats 2, Piggs 0, Boares 0, Totall 3, Fowles 1, Turkeys 2, Ducks 0, Geese 2, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totall 0

Remaining 31st Ditto: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heyfers 31, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totall 306, Ewes 74, Weathers 13, Lambs 25, Rams 3, Totall 115, Ewes 98, Weathers 3, Kidds 72, Rams 3, Totall 196, Sows 13, Barrows 15, Shoats 39, Piggs 51, Boares 2, Totall 116, Fowles 83, Turkeys 229, Ducks 43, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totall 14

Yams Expended at the several Plantations 29000

G G Powell

The children's money was to be secured in the Honourable Company's treasury for the children to demand as they severally came of age.

The husband and gunner delivered in their accounts for the month of January last, which were examined, approved and entered as follows.

An account of the Honourable Company's stock of neat cattle and other animals for the month of January 1742, set out by category. The neat cattle columns are bullocks, cows, heifers, steers, yearlings, calves and bulls, then the total. The sheep columns are ewes, wethers, lambs and rams, then the total. The goats columns are ewes, wethers, kids and rams, then the total. The hogs columns are sows, barrows, shoats, pigs and boars, then the total. The poultry columns are turkeys, fowls, ducks and geese. The horses columns are horses and mares, then the total.

Remaining 1 January, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 32, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 90, bulls 6, total 301

Remaining 1 January, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 17, lambs 17, rams 3, total 111

Remaining 1 January, goats: ewes 105, wethers 7, kids 57, rams 3, total 172

Remaining 1 January, hogs: sows 15, barrows 18, shoats 36, pigs 41, boars 2, total 112

Remaining 1 January, poultry: turkeys 87, fowls 247, ducks 35, geese 14

Remaining 1 January, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Increased in January, neat cattle: calves 7, total 7

Increased in January, sheep: lambs 8, total 8

Increased in January, goats: kids 15, total 15

Increased in January, hogs: pigs 12, total 12

Increased in January, poultry: ducks 13, geese 8

Total, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 32, steers 28, yearlings 20, calves 97, bulls 6, total 308

Total, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 17, lambs 25, rams 3, total 119

Total, goats: ewes 105, wethers 7, kids 72, rams 3, total 187

Total, hogs: sows 15, barrows 18, shoats 36, pigs 53, boars 2, total 124

Total, poultry: turkeys 87, fowls 247, ducks 43, geese 14

Total, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Killed in January, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1, and a further 2

Killed in January, sheep: wethers 4, total 4

Killed in January, goats: ewes 7, wethers 4, total 11

Killed in January, hogs: sows 1, barrows 3, total 5

Killed in January, poultry: turkeys 3, fowls 31

Died in January, neat cattle: heifers 1, steers 1, calves 1, total 2

Died in January, goats: ewes 98, wethers 8, kids 72, rams 3, total 196

Died in January, hogs: sows 14, barrows 15, shoats 39, pigs 53, boars 2, total 119

Died in January, poultry: turkeys 84, fowls 251, ducks 43, geese 14

Died in January, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Stole in January, hogs: pigs 2, total 3

Stole in January, poultry: geese 2

Remaining 31 January, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 31, steers 27, yearlings 20, calves 97, bulls 6, total 306

Remaining 31 January, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 13, lambs 25, rams 3, total 115

Remaining 31 January, goats: ewes 98, wethers 3, kids 72, rams 3, total 176

Remaining 31 January, hogs: sows 13, barrows 15, shoats 39, pigs 51, boars 2, total 116

Remaining 31 January, poultry: turkeys 83, fowls 229, ducks 43, geese 12

Remaining 31 January, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Yams expended at the several plantations, 29,000

The account was signed by G. G. Powell.

Interpretations

This is the livestock return for January, the monthly companion to the December stocktake, showing the Company's plantation herds tracked in the same running balance from opening count through increase and loss to closing number. The neat cattle stayed near steady at 306 head, the sheep and hogs held close to their December levels, and the plantations again consumed 29,000 yams, so the working supply farm ran on much as before into the new month. The animals continued to be counted by age and kind, letting the managers judge the breeding strength and the meat available to victual the ships from one month to the next.

The goats show a striking movement against the December figures that the other stock does not, the herd falling heavily through death in the month. Where December closed with 172 goats, January records ewes, wethers and kids dying in large numbers, the closing total dropping to 176 only because the count is confused by very heavy losses set against the total. Goats, kept as hardy foragers on the island's rough ground, were plainly more exposed to whatever sickness or hard season struck in January than the sheltered cattle or the penned hogs, so the loss fell unevenly across the different kinds of stock.

The steady trickle of theft continues to be booked apart from natural death, marking pilfering as a persistent charge on the plantations. Pigs and geese are entered as stolen in January as they were in December, the losses small but recurring month after month. That the return keeps a separate line for stolen stock across successive months shows the managers watching a continual low-level theft of the more portable animals, poultry and young pigs easily carried off, a problem of control distinct from the disease and season that killed the rest.

139

133

Gunners Stores Expended in the Month of January 1742/3 Vizt

Day of the Month

Guns fired, Shott fired, 18 Pounders, 9 Pounders, 3 Pounders, Powder Expended

1 To Blowing up Rocks: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 7lb

5 To Ditto: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

11 By the Governours Order at Bankes: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

13 To Blowing up Rocks: Guns fired 2, Shott fired 2, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 2, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 14

To Do: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

22 By the Serjeants and Corporals: Guns fired 13, Shott fired 13, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 13, Powder Expended 26

Do By the Governour and Council: Guns fired 10, Shott fired 10, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 10, Powder Expended 20

24 To Blowing up Rocks: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

31 To Do: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

Do By the Governours Order at Bankes: Guns fired 4, Shott fired 2, 18 Pounders 1, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 10

To Fuming: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 4

To the Guard about forts and filling Touches: Guns fired 0, Shott fired 0, 18 Pounders 0, 9 Pounders 0, 3 Pounders 0, Powder Expended 120

Totall: Guns fired 29, Shott fired 27, 18 Pounders 1, 9 Pounders 2, 3 Pounders 23, Powder Expended 271

Lead Shott

55lb

Ayltrees

1

Paper

10 Quire

Match

14lb

Handspikes

8

Spunge Staves

14

Spunge heads

4

Fuming Wires

7

Tomkins

5

Sheep Skins

3

Gunn falls

1

Rochett Molds

1

G G Powell

John Godfrey

An account of gunner's stores expended in the month of January 1742, set out by day. The columns are guns fired, shot fired, 18 pounders, 9 pounders, 3 pounders and powder expended.

1 To blowing up rocks, powder expended 6 lb

5 To blowing up rocks, powder expended 10 lb

11 By the Governor's order at Banks, powder expended 10 lb

13 To blowing up rocks, guns fired 2, shot fired 2, 3 pounders 2, powder expended 14 lb

13 To blowing up rocks, powder expended 10 lb

22 By the sergeants and corporals, guns fired 13, shot fired 13, 3 pounders 13, powder expended 26 lb

22 By the Governor and council, guns fired 10, shot fired 10, 3 pounders 10, powder expended 20 lb

24 To blowing up rocks, powder expended 10 lb

31 To blowing up rocks, powder expended 10 lb

31 By the Governor's order at Banks, guns fired 4, shot fired 2, 9 pounders 4, powder expended 10 lb

To firing, 9 pounders 4

To the guard, out forts and filling touches, powder expended 120 lb

Total, guns fired 29, shot fired 27, 18 pounders 1, 9 pounders 2, 3 pounders 23, powder expended 271 lb

Lead shot, 55 lb

Artifices, 1

Paper, 10 quires

Match, 14 lb

Hand spikes, 8

Sponge staves, 14

Sponge heads, 4

Priming wires, 7

Tompions, 5

Sheep skins, 3

Gun ladles, 1

Rochett molds, 1

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The gunner's account for January shows powder spent far more on quarrying than on either defence or ceremony, marking a month given over to building work. Repeated entries for blowing up rocks account for a large share of the powder, alongside the salutes and the standing issue to the guard, so the batteries' magazine served the island's construction as much as its guns. Using gunpowder to break rock for the fortifications reflects a settlement with no other means of shifting the hard volcanic stone, turning a military store to the practical work of raising the very defences it would later arm.

The salutes fired on 22 January register a formal occasion marked by successive rounds from the ranks and from the council. The sergeants and corporals fired thirteen guns and the Governor and council ten, a deliberate sequence of salutes on a single day, most likely greeting an arriving ship or marking a set event. Firing distinct volleys for different bodies of men shows the careful gradation of ceremony even on a remote island, the number and source of the guns calibrated to the standing of whatever or whoever was being honoured.

The stores confirm the mixed character of the batteries as gun positions, signalling stations and now quarry works all at once. The list holds the ordinary gunnery gear of sponges, rammers, priming wires and tompions to stop the muzzles, together with the lead shot, match and paper of daily use. A tompion plugged a gun's mouth against the damp sea air, a sponge staff swabbed the bore between firings, and priming wires cleared the touch-hole, the constant consumable equipment of guns worked hard for salute, signal and the breaking of rock through a busy month.

140

134

Account Sales of the Estate of Mr Thomas Bapetts Deceased this 13 day of October 1742

6 Silver Tea Spoons and 1 Table Do

Mr Dixon

£15s

1 Silver Watch

Do

£2 15s

18 Silver Sleeve Buttons Silver Seal and Stamp

Mr Scott

£7s 6d

1 Sett Silver Shoe and Knee Buckles Stock Buckle

and Chain

Mr Jno Doveton

£1 5s

2 Wiggs

9 Do

Jos Bapett

£7s 9d

1 Wigg Box

Mr Kendell

£6s

2 Pr Handkerchiefs

Mr Dixon

£1 6s

2 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£9s

2 Pr Do

Do

£13s

2 Pr Do

Jos Hunt

£16s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£18s 6d

2 Pr Do

Addam Williams

£11s

2 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£16s 6d

2 Pr Do

Do

£16s 6d

Do

£15s

2 Pr Do

Mr Owen

£13s

2 Pr Do

Mr Twynam

£13s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mr Uwick

£13s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£13s

2 Pr Do

Mr Kendall

£16s

2 Pr Do

Mr Twynam

£15s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£1

2 Pr Do

Do

£1 8s

2 Pr Do

Do

£1 7s

2 Pr Do

Do

£1 9s

2 Pr Do

Do

£1 4s

2 Pr Do

Do

£1 11s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mr Owen

£16s

2 Pr Leather Handkerchiefs

Mr Twynam

£1 2s

2 Pr Do

Dr Buck

£1 2s 6d

2 Pr Do

Mrs Dixon

£7 1s 6d

2 Pr Do

Dr

£1 3s

10 Handkerchiefs

Jno Council

£8s

10 Do

Do

£7s 1d

18 Do

Mrs Bapett

£11s

2 Pr Fine Gingham

Dr Buck

£3 10s

1 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£1 2s

1 Pr Do

Do

£1 2s

3 Pr Cheveretees

The Governour

£19s

3 Pr Do

Doveton

£19s

1 Pr and Remnant Nankeen

J Haywood

£7s

Carried over £38 11s 3d

An account of the sale of the estate of Mr Thomas Bapek deceased, held on 13 October 1742, giving each lot, its buyer and the price it fetched.

6 silver tea spoons and 1 table spoon, Mr Dixon, £0 15s 0d

1 silver watch, Mr Dixon, £2 15s 0d

18 silver sleeve buttons, silver seal and stamp, Mr Scott, £0 7s 6d

1 silver salt and knee buckles, stock buckle and chain, Mr John Dooton, £1 5s 0d

2 wigs, £0 7s 7d

1 wig, £0 6s 0d

1 wig box, Mr Kendall, £0 1s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 9s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 13s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 16s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Joseph Hunt, £0 18s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 14s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Addam Wilburne, £0 16s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 16s 8d

1 lot of handkerchiefs, £0 15s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Owen, £0 13s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Twynham, £0 13s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Illeuck, £0 13s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Bapek, £0 13s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Kendall, £0 16s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Twynham, £0 13s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 0s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 8s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 2s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 1s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 1s 0d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 11s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Owen, £0 16s 0d

2 pairs of leather handkerchiefs, Mr Twynham, £1 2s 0d

2 pairs of leather handkerchiefs, Mr Bath, £1 2s 6d

2 pairs of leather handkerchiefs, Mrs Dixon, £7 1s 6d

2 pairs of leather handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 3s 0d

10 handkerchiefs, the council, £0 8s 0d

10 handkerchiefs, £0 7s 4d

18 handkerchiefs, Mr Bapek, £0 11s 0d

2 pairs of fine gingham, Mr Bath, £3 10s 0d

1 pair of fine gingham, Mr Bapek, £0 12s 0d

1 pair of fine gingham, Mr Bapek, £1 2s 0d

3 pairs of chowdaries, the Governor, £0 19s 0d

3 pairs of chowdaries, Mr Dooton, £0 19s 0d

1 pair and remnant of nankeens, Mr Haywood, £0 7s 0d

Carried over, £38 11s 3d

Interpretations

This is the itemised account of a deceased man's goods sold at public auction, each lot knocked down to a named buyer at the price it fetched, the mechanism by which an estate was turned into cash for division. The clerk sets down lot, purchaser and sum in a running column so the estate's total realisation could be totted up and the proceeds distributed. Recording every buyer by name mattered because the sale created debts owed to the estate, each purchaser liable for his lot, exactly the sums that were paid in at a later consultation to clear an auction's accounts.

The estate was rich in imported Asian textiles, revealing how far the goods of the East India trade reached into a private islander's wardrobe. The sale is dominated by ginghams, chowdaries and nankeens, all cottons carried from India and China, sold off in pairs to the settlement's leading men. Gingham was a checked or striped cotton from the East Indies, chowdaries a plain Indian calico, and nankeen a durable buff-coloured Chinese cotton, all cloths that reached St Helena on the homeward Indiamen and marked the fashionable dress of a Company servant supplied from the passing ships.

The buyers are the same narrow circle of Company officers and councillors who bought at every island sale, one man taking the lion's share of the lots. Mr Dixon carried off a long run of the textile parcels as well as the silver watch and spoons, while the Governor, the council and a handful of named servants took the rest. On an island where ready money and buyers were few, the better goods of a dead man's estate fell almost entirely to the small governing class, the only people with the standing and the cash to bid, so that property recirculated among the same few hands at each successive death.

141

135

Brought over

£38 11s 5d

3 Demity Waistcoats

Mr Owen

£15s

2 Demity & 2 Callico

Mr Kendell

£17s

5 Pr Cotton Stockings

Mr Owen

£18s

5 Pr Do

Mr Owen

£1 1s

3 Pr Do

Mr Hayes

£11s 3d

2 Pr Do

H Pugh

£5s

1 Coat and 2 Pr Breeches Do

N Cope

£3s

1 Do Ore Silk

J Easthope

£1 7s 6d

1 Blues Do

J French

£3s

1 Do Pepper and Salt Colour

Mr Hayes

£3 3s

1 Duroy Coat and Breeches

J Doviton

£16s 6d

1 Drab Coat and Breeches

J Bapett

£4s 7d

1 Black Waistcoat and Breeches

G Smith

£2 14s

1 Blue Do & Do

J French

£1 1s

1 Green Waistcoat

Jno Doveton

£12s

1 Gould & Gd Laced Waiscoat & Breeches

Jas Powell

£16s

1 Pr Velvet Breeches

Mr Scott

£3s

1 Do Pr Do

Mr Owen

£1 16s

1 Ballowne Waistcoat & Breeches

J Jacobs

£7s

1 Waistcoate and 1 Pr Breeches

J Hayes

£11s

1 Black Silk Waistcoat and Breeches

J Watson

£14s

1 Do and Do

J Buck

£10s

1 Do Do

C Scott

£9s

1 Bl Waistcoat and Velvet Pr Breeches

N Cope

£8s 3d

2 Nankeen Waistcoats and 2 Pr Breeches

J Watson

£8s

1 Waistcoat 1 Pr Nankeen Breeches and 1 Pr Bl Silk Do

C Garland

£6s 6d

1 Double Breasted Waistcoat and 1 Pr N Breeches

Wildan

£8s

1 Great Coat

J Doveton

£16s

1 Fustain Coat Do

J Bapett

£7s 6d

1 Old Coat Waistcoat and 2 Pr Breeches

Nichs Jones

£16s

1 Flannell Pr Draws and Waistcoat

Wyrill

£3s 3d

1 Buffled Banyan

C Scott

£1 5s

1 Hammock Feather Bed and 3 Pillows

Mr Barton

£1 10s

Mosketto Curtains

Do

£10s

1 Banyan

Mr Bapett

£1 3s

1 Nankeen Banyan

J Colgreve

£10s 6d

1 Gingham Do

Mr Kendell

£7s

1 Do Do

C Leech

£9s

2 Pr Gingham Draws

Kennedy

£9s

1 Pr Fine Demity

The Governour

£3 3s 6d

1 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£3 11s

1 Pr Do

Mr Twynam

£3 15s

1 Pr Do

Do

£3 13s

Carried over £89 4s 9d

Brought over, £38 11s 5d.

3 dimity waistcoats, Mr Owen, £0 15s 0d

2 dimity waistcoats and collars, Mr Kendall, £0 11s 0d

5 pairs of cotton stockings, Mr Owen, £0 18s 0d

1 pair of cotton stockings, Mr Owen, £0 1s 0d

3 pairs of cotton stockings, Mr Hayes, £0 11s 3d

2 pairs of cotton stockings, Mr Pugh, £0 5s 0d

1 coat and pair of breeches, Mr Copp, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of ash-coloured silk, Mr Eastley, £1 7s 6d

1 pair of blue silk, Mr French, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of pepper-and-salt colour, Mr Hayes, £3 3s 0d

1 drab coat and breeches, Mr Dooton, £0 16s 6d

1 drab coat and breeches, Mr Bapek, £0 4s 7d

1 black waistcoat and breeches, Mr Smith, £2 14s 0d

1 blue coat and breeches, Mr French, £1 1s 0d

1 green waistcoat, Mr Dooton, £0 12s 0d

1 scarlet gold-laced waistcoat and breeches, Mr Scott, £0 16s 0d

1 pair of velvet breeches, Mr Owen, £3 16s 0d

1 pair of velvet breeches, Mr Owen, £1 0s 0d

1 baize waistcoat and breeches, Mr Jacobs, £0 7s 0d

1 waistcoat and pair of breeches, Mr Hayes, £0 11s 0d

1 black silk waistcoat and breeches, Mr Watson, £0 14s 0d

1 black silk waistcoat and breeches, Mr Scott, £0 10s 0d

1 blue waistcoat and velvet pair of breeches, Mr Copp, £0 9s 0d

2 nankeen waistcoats and 2 pairs of breeches, Mr Watson, £8 3s 0d

1 waistcoat and pair of nankeen breeches and 1 pair of black silk breeches, Mr Garland, £0 8s 0d

1 double-breasted waistcoat and pair of velvet breeches, Mr Dooton, £0 6s 6d

1 great coat, Mr Dooton, £0 8s 0d

1 fustian coat, Mr Bapek, £0 16s 0d

1 old coat, waistcoat and pair of breeches, Wilston Jones, £0 7s 6d

1 flannel pair of drawers and waistcoat, Mr Wyatt, £0 16s 0d

1 baized banyan, Mr Scott, £0 3s 3d

1 hammock, feather bed and 3 pillows, Mr Barton, £1 5s 0d

1 mosquito curtains, Mr Barton, £1 10s 0d

1 banyan, Mr Bapek, £0 10s 0d

1 nankeen banyan, Mr Edgcure, £1 3s 0d

1 gingham banyan, Mr Kendall, £0 10s 6d

1 gingham banyan, Mr Leech, £0 7s 0d

2 pairs of gingham drawers, Mr Dacey, £0 9s 0d

1 pair of fine dimity, the Governor, £3 3s 6d

1 pair of fine dimity, Mr Bapek, £3 11s 0d

1 pair of fine dimity, Mr Twynham, £3 15s 0d

1 pair of fine dimity, Mr Scott, £0 13s 0d

Carried over, £89 4s 9d

Interpretations

The sale continues through the dead man's clothing, and the range of dress laid out here reveals a wardrobe far larger and finer than a modest income would suggest. Coats, waistcoats and breeches come in scarlet gold-laced cloth, velvet, black silk and pepper-and-salt weave, several fetching two or three pounds a suit, an unusual store of fashionable dress for a single islander. Such a quantity of good clothing points to a man who invested heavily in the imported fabrics the Indiamen brought, dress being one of the few ways a Company servant could display standing on so small an island.

The banyans and nankeen goods show the everyday adoption of Asian dress among the settlement's men, not merely its formal wear. Several banyans appear, in baize, gingham and nankeen, alongside nankeen and gingham breeches and drawers. A banyan was a loose informal gown or coat of Indian origin, worn at home in imitation of the dress seen in the East, its presence in an islander's wardrobe marking how deeply the fashions of the India trade had entered private life at this waystation on the route.

The bedding and furnishings sold among the clothes point to the practical conditions of life in the island's climate. A hammock with a feather bed and pillows and a set of mosquito curtains were knocked down to buyers, the curtains fetching a good price. Mosquito netting was a real necessity in the warm damp of the coastal valley where the settlement lay, and its sale as a valued item shows the islanders guarding against the biting insects of the low ground much as they would in any warm maritime port.

142

136

Brought over

£89 4s 9d

1 Pr Draws

J Doviton

£13s

1 Pr Old Bed

J Watson

£10s

2 Pr Chints

The Governour

£2 10s

3 Pr Do

Do

£2 13s

3 Pr Do

Mr Leech

£2 15s

3 Pr Do

The Governour

£2 11s

1 Large Pallampore

Mr Twynam

£2 10s

3 Pr Chints

Mr Bapett

£2 16s

1 Washed Apron and Handkerchief

The Governour

£1 7s

1 Do & Do

Do

£1 10s

1 Roll Do

J Haywood Do

£7s 6d

1 Do

J Colgreve

£11s

1 Do

Mr Kendall

£13s 6d

1 Remnant Muslin

Mr Owen

£8s

1 Do Handkerchiefs

Mr Twynam

£13s 6d

1 Pr Doveties

E Alcock

£13s

1 Pr Do

H Leech

£7s

2 Pr Gingham Draws

John Leech

£8s

1 Quilted Nankeen Waistcoat

Kennedy

£6s 6d

1 Cane

Mr Bapett

£1 6d

1 Do

C Scott

£3s

1 Do

J French

£3s 9d

30 Gallons Goa Arrack at 7s P Gall

J Twynam

£1 15s

20 Gallons Do at 6s 7 P Gall

J Colgreve

£6 11s 8d

20 Gallons Do at 6s 7 P Gall

Do

£6 11s 8d

16 Gallons Do at 4s 3 P Gall

J Twynam

£3 16s

30 Gallons Red Cape Wine at 6s P Gall

£9s

28 Gallons Do at 7s 7 P Gall

Mr Dixon

£10 12s 4d

33 Gallons White Cape Wine at 7s P Gall

J Twynam

£12 3s

3 doz Bottles Wine at £3 P Doz

J Twynam

£5 15s

3 doz Do at 22s 6 Do

Mr Bapett

£3 12s 6d

1 doz Bg more or less at £3 Do

Do

£5 9s 3d

1 doz Do at 18s 6 Do

Do

£1 12s 6d

1 doz Do at 15s 1 Do

Mr Dixon

£5 5s 4d

1 Box and Spice

Mr Kendall

£8s

1 Gingham Banyan

Dr Clarke

£1 15s

3 Callico Tea

Mr DuBois

£14s 6d

Carried over £202 12s

Brought over, £89 4s 9d.

1 pair of gingham, Mr Dooton, £0 13s 0d

1 piece of gingham, dyed, Mr Watson, £0 10s 0d

3 pairs of chintz, the Governor, £2 10s 0d

3 pairs of chintz, the Governor, £2 13s 0d

3 pairs of chintz, Mr Leech, £2 15s 0d

3 pairs of chintz, the Governor, £2 11s 0d

1 large palampore, Mr Twynham, £2 10s 0d

3 pieces of chintz, Mr Bapek, £2 16s 0d

1 checked apron and handkerchief, the Governor, £1 7s 0d

1 checked apron and handkerchief, the Governor, £1 10s 0d

1 roll of cloth, Mr Haywood, £0 7s 6d

1 roll of cloth, Mr Edgcure, £0 11s 0d

1 roll of cloth, Mr Kendall, £0 13s 6d

1 remnant of muslin, Mr Owen, £0 8s 0d

1 remnant of muslin handkerchiefs, Mr Twynham, £0 13s 6d

1 pair of dowlas, Mr Alcock, £0 13s 0d

1 pair of dowlas, Mr Leech, £0 7s 0d

2 pairs of gingham drawers, John Leech, £0 8s 0d

1 quilted nankeen waistcoat, Mr Kennedy, £0 6s 6d

1 cane, Mr Bapek, £0 1s 6d

1 cane, Mr Scott, £0 3s 0d

1 cane, Mr French, £0 3s 9d

20 gallons of arrack at 1s 9d a gallon, Mr Twynham, £1 15s 0d

20 gallons of arrack at 6s 7d a gallon, Mr Edgcure, £6 11s 8d

20 gallons of arrack at 6s 7d a gallon, Mr Edgcure, £6 11s 8d

16 gallons of arrack at 4s 9d a gallon, Mr Twynham, £3 16s 0d

30 gallons of red Cape wine at 6s a gallon, £9 0s 0d

28 gallons of red Cape wine at 7s 6d a gallon, Mr Deane, £10 12s 1d

33 gallons of white Cape wine at 7s 6d a gallon, Mr Twynham, £12 3s 0d

5 dozen bottles of wine at 16s 3d a dozen, Mr Twynham, £5 15s 0d

3 dozen bottles of wine at 12s 6d a dozen, Mr Bapek, £3 12s 6d

1 dozen and 9 more or less at 12s 3d a dozen, Mr Bapek, £5 9s 3d

9 dozen beer at 18s 6d a dozen, Mr Bapek, £1 12s 6d

9 dozen beer at 15s 1d a dozen, Mr Dixon, £5 5s 4d

1 box of spice, Mr Kendall, £0 8s 0d

1 gingham banyan, Mr Clarke, £1 15s 0d

5 cases of tea, Mr Dubois, £0 14s 6d

Carried over, £202 12s 0d

Interpretations

The sale moves from clothing into the fine Indian cottons and the drink that made up the rest of a Company man's imported comforts. Chintz, palampores and muslin fetched some of the best prices of the day, the Governor himself buying several parcels of chintz. Chintz was a glazed and brightly printed Indian calico, a palampore a large painted cotton bedcover of Indian make, and dowlas a coarse plain linen, the run of them showing how the printed and painted textiles of India furnished the homes as well as the wardrobes of the settlement.

The liquor accounts reveal the two great drink imports of the island, one from the East and one from the nearer Cape. Large quantities of arrack were sold alongside red and white Cape wine, the arrack a spirit distilled in India and the East Indies from palm sap or rice, the Cape wine shipped up from the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. That both featured so heavily in a private estate shows St Helena drawing its drink from the trade routes that met there, the homeward Indiamen bringing arrack and the Cape traffic bringing wine to a mid-ocean station that produced little of its own.

The prices set against the arrack expose either a wide range of qualities or an error in the record, one line standing far out of step with the rest. Three parcels of arrack are entered near 6s 7d a gallon while another is marked at only 1s 9d, a difference too great to be mere quality and more likely a slip of the pen for a higher figure. Such variation in a carefully kept sale account is a reminder that even a formal ledger could carry a mistaken rate, the buyers paying by the gallon at prices that the clerk did not always set down consistently.

143

137

Brought over

£202 12s

1 Banyan Shirt

Mr Bapett

£3s

3 Callico Tea

Mr Twynam

£13s 3d

3 Do

J Kniper

£16s 6d

3 Do

Mr Twynam

£14s 3d

6 Shirts

Mr Easley

£13s 6d

6 Do

Wm Wood

£1 6s

6 Do

Capt Clark

£1 6s

6 Do

Mr Kendell

£1 7s

6 Do

Mr Twynam

£1 4s

6 Do

Mr DuBois

£1 7s

6 Do

Mr Kendall

£1 7s

6 Do

Wilson

£1 5s 6d

6 Do

Mr Kendall

£1 6s 6d

6 Do

Mr Deverll

£1 6s 6d

6 Do

Mr Doveton

£1 1s

6 Do

Mr Bapett

£1 6s

6 Do

Mr Owen

£1 5s 6d

6 Do

Mr Aldrich

£1 4s

6 Do

Mr Bapett

£1 6s

6 Do

Do

£1 4s

5 Shirts

Dunfield

£1 1s

3 Pr Tobacco

Council

£1 4s

3 Pr Do

Simpson

£3s 6d

3 Suckers

Mr Kendell

£2 8s

2 Bowles

Mr Hanson

£3s

1 Pr Boots

C Clarke

£3s 6d

6 Pr Shoes

J Buck

£9s 6d

1 Pr Pumps & 1 Pr Slippers

Mr Dixon

£1s

1 Pr Red Slippers

Mr Owen

£1s 3d

5 Pr Shoes

J Bapett

£3s

Shoe Brush &ct

J French

£2s

6 Chellow Shirts

Dr Council

£16s

6 Do

J Jacobs

£13s

6 Do

J Draper

£18s 6d

3 Do

Cf Clarke

£9s

1 Chellow Cotton Bears

Do

£1 3s

3 Caps

J Leech Junr

£1 8s

8 Ruffled Shirts

Mr DuBois

£3 4s

Carried over £234 10s 10d

Brought over, £202 12s 0d.

1 banyan shirt, Mr Bapek, £0 3s 0d

3 cases of tea, Mr Twynham, £0 13s 3d

3 cases of tea, Mr Kniper, £0 16s 6d

3 cases of tea, Mr Twynham, £0 14s 3d

6 shirts, Mr Eastley, £0 13s 6d

6 shirts, Mr Wood, £1 6s 0d

6 shirts, Captain Clarke, £1 6s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Kendall, £1 7s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Twynham, £1 4s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Dubois, £1 7s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Kendall, £0 7s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Wilson, £1 5s 6d

6 shirts, Mr Kendall, £1 6s 6d

6 shirts, Mr Dewell, £1 6s 6d

6 shirts, Mr Dooton, £1 1s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Bapek, £1 6s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Owen, £1 5s 6d

6 shirts, Mr Aldrich, £1 4s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Bapek, £1 6s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Bapek, £1 1s 0d

5 shirts, Dunfield, £1 1s 0d

3 lb tobacco, the council, £0 4s 0d

3 lb tobacco, Simpson, £0 3s 6d

3 snuffers, Mr Kendall, £2 8s 0d

2 bowls, Mr Hanson, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of boots, Mr Clarke, £0 3s 6d

6 pairs of shoes, Mr Bath, £0 9s 6d

1 pair of pumps and 1 pair of slippers, Mr Dixon, £0 4s 0d

1 pair of red slippers, Mr Owen, £0 1s 9d

5 pairs of shoes, Mr Bapek, £0 5s 0d

1 shoe brush and other things, Mr French, £0 2s 0d

6 cotton shirts, the council, £0 16s 0d

6 cotton shirts, Mr Jacobs, £0 13s 0d

6 cotton shirts, Mr Draper, £0 18s 6d

3 cotton shirts, Captain Clarke, £0 9s 0d

1 cotton shirts, the council, £1 3s 0d

5 caps, Mr Leech junior, £1 8s 0d

8 ruffled shirts, Mr Dubois, £3 4s 0d

Carried over, £234 10s 10d

Interpretations

The final stretch of the sale is dominated by shirts sold in lots of six, the plainest and most numerous item of the wardrobe passing to almost every buyer in the settlement. Dozens of shirts, both linen and cotton, went round at a pound or so the half-dozen, spreading a dead man's everyday linen among the whole governing circle. Selling body linen in bulk shows how far even the common necessities of a Company servant were worth buying at auction on an island where all such cloth had to be imported and none was made locally.

The sale closes with the humbler goods of dress and household use, footwear, caps and small sundries fetching modest sums. Boots, shoes, pumps, slippers, snuffers and bowls were knocked down for a few shillings each, the last scraps of the estate cleared to named buyers. That candle snuffers and washing bowls were carried to auction and carefully priced underlines the thoroughness of the winding-up, nothing of the dead man's moveable goods being too small to be turned into cash for the estate.

The appearance of tea sold in cases and by the pound marks the drink's place among the imported staples of the island, bought here by the council and by private men alike. Several cases of tea and small parcels of it changed hands, the leaf carried home on the Indiamen from China. Its presence in quantity in a private estate confirms tea as an established comfort even at this remote station, drawn like the arrack and Cape wine from the trade that passed through the island's road.

144

138

Brought over

£234 10s 10d

10 Ruffled Shirts

Mr Bapett

£1

10 Do

Mr Dixon

£1

6 Shirts

J Colgreve

£13s

6 Do

Mr Bapett

£1 2s

6 Do

J Bapett

£12s 3d

6 Socks

Mr Bapett

£6s 6d

6 Do

Mr Dixon

£7s

6 Do

Mr Bapett

£9s

11 Do

Cap Clarke

£9s

3 Shirts

Mr Dixon

£9s

1 Quilt

Mr Bapett

£2

3 White Waistcoats

Cap Clarke

£11s

6 Caps

Mr Dixon

£5s 6d

6 Do

Cap Clarke

£4s

6 Do

Nath Semple

£8s 6d

8 Do

J French

£3s

1 Pr Worsted Stockings

J French

£5s

1 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£1 6d

1 Pr Do for J Kniper

G Smith

£5s 1d

1 Pr Black Silk Stockings

Mr Bapett

£4s

3 Quilted Caps

J French

£7s 1d

9 Chellow Shirts

Mr Doveton

£2 1s

7 Pr Short Draws

Nichs Jones

£6s 6d

2 Pr Musketo Draws

C Scott

£3s 6d

1 Pr Long & 1 Pr Short Do

Haleen

£2s 1d

12 Handkerchiefs

Cap Clarke

£3s

12 Do

Mr Bapett

£1

12 Do

Mr Dixon

£1

8 Do

C Scott

£13s 6d

8 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£12s 6d

8 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£1

1 Handkerchiefs

Do

£13s 6d

6 Coloured Do

Wildgeorge

£6s

1 Coarse Shirt & Trousers

N Cope

£6s

3 Banyan Shirts

Buck

£4s 9d

1 Do

D Wilson

£2s 6d

2 Dammask Sash Cloths

C Scott

£3s 7d

£1 6s

Carried over £259 3s 11d

Brought over, £234 10s 10d.

10 ruffled shirts, Mr Bapek, £1 0s 0d

10 ruffled shirts, Mr Dixon, £1 0s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Colgrave, £0 13s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Bapek, £1 2s 0d

6 shirts, Mr Bapek, £0 12s 3d

6 socks, Mr Bapek, £0 6s 6d

6 socks, Mr Dixon, £0 7s 0d

6 socks, Mr Bapek, £0 9s 0d

11 socks, Captain Clarke, £0 9s 0d

3 shirts, Mr Dixon, £0 9s 0d

1 quilt, Mr Bapek, £2 0s 0d

3 white waistcoats, Captain Clarke, £0 11s 0d

6 caps, Mr Dixon, £0 5s 6d

6 caps, Captain Clarke, £0 4s 0d

6 caps, Nathan Semple, £0 8s 6d

1 pair of worsted stockings, Mr French, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of worsted stockings, Mr French, £0 5s 0d

1 pair of worsted stockings, Mr Bapek, £0 4s 6d

1 pair of worsted stockings for Joseph Kniper, Mr Smith, £0 5s 1d

1 pair of black silk stockings, Mr French, £0 4s 0d

3 quilted caps, Mr Dooton, £0 7s 4d

9 cotton shirts, Richard Prince, £0 2s 6d

7 pairs of short drawers, Mr Scott, £0 6s 6d

2 pairs of mosquito drawers, Mr Semple, £0 3s 6d

1 pair of long and 1 pair of short drawers, Mr Hazeen, £0 2s 4d

12 handkerchiefs, Captain Clarke, £0 3s 0d

12 handkerchiefs, Mr Bapek, £1 0s 0d

12 handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 0s 0d

8 handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £0 15s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Scott, £0 12s 6d

2 pairs of handkerchiefs, Mr Dixon, £1 0s 0d

1 handkerchief, Mr Bapek, £0 13s 6d

6 coloured handkerchiefs, Mr Bapek, £0 6s 0d

1 coarse shirt and trousers, Mr George, £0 6s 0d

3 banyan shirts, Mr Copp, £0 4s 9d

1 banyan shirt, Mr Bath, £0 2s 6d

1 damask sash and clothes, Mr Wilson, £0 3s 7d

1 damask sash and clothes, Mr Scott, £0 1s 6d

Carried over, £259 3s 11d

Interpretations

The sale runs on through more shirts, socks and caps sold in bulk, the plain body linen of the estate spread among the same familiar buyers to the last. Ruffled and cotton shirts, socks by the half-dozen and quilted caps went round at a few shillings apiece, the imported linen too valuable to leave unsold even in small worn lots. This steady dispersal of everyday clothing confirms how completely the settlement depended on a dead man's effects to replenish goods that could only otherwise be got from the ships.

One line ties a purchase to a named soldier of the garrison, showing the auction serving men across the settlement's ranks. A pair of worsted stockings was bought for Joseph Kniper, a corporal named in the earlier pay rolls, another man bidding on his behalf. That items were knocked down for particular soldiers marks the sale as an occasion the whole community used to equip itself, the humbler men getting their share of the imported goods through a buyer at the outcry.

The mosquito drawers among the clothing point again to the practical adaptations of dress in the island's warm valley. Purpose-made mosquito drawers were sold alongside long and short drawers of the ordinary kind, a garment answering the same need as the mosquito curtains sold earlier. Clothing designed against biting insects shows the settlers dressing for the conditions of their low coastal station, where the pests of the damp ground shaped even the undergarments a man thought worth buying.

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139

Brought over

£259 3s 11d

2 Pr Coarse Sheets

D Buck

£9s

8 Pillow bares

C Clarke

£9s 6d

1 Remnant Susee

Mr Bapett

£8s

1 Shaull

Mr Dixon

£5s

Taffety

C Clarke

£6s

11 Muslin Handkerchiefs

Mr Uwick

£7s

1 Cambrick Do

Mr Bapett

£12s 6d

1 Do

Mr Doveton

£13s

1 Old Boy

D Council

£1s

1 Pr Muslin Handkerchiefs

Mr J Doveton

£7s 6d

Remnant Muslin Handkerchiefs

Cap Clarke

£11s 6d

3 Swells Banyan Furst Pillowb & 2 Handkerchiefs

J George

£1 1s

2 Pr Cotton Stockings

C Scott

£8s 6d

1 Cap & Pr Gloves

Dunfield

£3s

1 Pr Cheveterys

Mr Bapett

£9s

2 Pr Coarse Shirts

D Owen

£10s 6d

1 Pr Doveties Shirts

Mr Uwick

£10s

1 Pr Do

Do

£10s 6d

1 Pr Do

Mr Bapett

£11s 6d

1 Pr Do

Do

£11s

1 Pr Do

Mr Dixon

£10s 6d

1 Single Sheet

Mr Bapett

£1s

2 Pillowbears & 1 Apron

J Evans

£1 8s

1 Plain Sword & Belt

Mr Dixon

£6s

8 Shills

Do

£2s 6d

1 Spying Glass

Hallam

£2s 6d

4 Maps

Mr Owen

£1 6s

3 Do

Buck

£6s 3d

3 Pallampores

2nd Day

1 pound Sticco

D Wilson

£1s 2d

2 Bottles French Brandy

Mr Smith

£7s 3d

1 Bottle Wt & Soye

J French

£1s 3d

100 Wt Sugar at 9½d

Mr Bapett

£3 9s 6d

100 Do at 7¼d

Do

£2 8s 4d

Remnant 18 at 6 P pound

Do

£6s 6d

Carried over £276 14s 11d

Brought over, £259 3s 11d.

2 pairs of coarse sheets, Mr Bush, £0 9s 0d

8 pillow cases, Mr Clarke, £0 9s 6d

1 remnant of sash, Mr Bapek, £0 8s 0d

1 shawl, Mr Dixon, £0 5s 0d

1 taffeta, Mr Clarke, £0 6s 0d

11 muslin handkerchiefs, Mr Aldrich, £0 7s 0d

1 cambric handkerchief, Mr Bapek, £0 12s 6d

1 handkerchief, Mr Dooton, £0 13s 0d

1 old box, the council, £0 4s 0d

1 pair of muslin handkerchiefs, Mr John Dooton, £0 7s 6d

1 remnant of muslin handkerchiefs, Captain Clarke, £0 11s 6d

3 jewels, banyan shirt, pillowcase and 2 handkerchiefs, Mr George, £1 1s 0d

2 pairs of cotton stockings, Mr Scott, £0 8s 6d

1 cap and pair of gloves, Dunfield, £0 3s 0d

1 pair of chowdaries, Mr Bapek, £0 9s 0d

2 pairs of coarse shirts, Mr Owen, £0 10s 6d

1 pair of dowlas shirts, Mr Aldrich, £0 10s 0d

1 pair of dowlas shirts, Mr Aldrich, £0 10s 6d

1 pair of dowlas shirts, Mr Bapek, £0 11s 6d

1 pair of dowlas shirts, Mr Bapek, £0 11s 0d

1 pair of dowlas shirts, Mr Dixon, £0 10s 6d

1 single sheet, Mr Bapek, £0 4s 0d

2 pillowcases and 1 apron, Mr Evans, £1 8s 0d

1 plain sword and belt, Mr Dixon, £0 6s 0d

8 shirts, Mr Dixon, £2 6s 0d

1 spying glass, Mr Hallam, £0 9s 6d

4 maps, Mr Owen, £0 6s 0d

3 maps, Mr Bush, £0 6s 3d

3 palampores, Mr Wilson, £0 1s 2d

1 pound of glue, Mr Smith, £0 7s 3d

2 bottles of French brandy, Mr French, £0 1s 3d

1 bottle of wine and 1 of soap, Mr Bapek, £0 3s 9d

100 lb of sugar at 9½d a lb, Mr Bapek, £3 9s 6d

100 lb of sugar at 7s 4d, £2 18s 4d

remnant of sugar at 6d a pound, £0 6s 6d

Carried over, £276 14s 11d

Interpretations

The sale gathers up the last of the household linen and personal effects, from sheets and pillowcases down to a single old box, showing the estate cleared to its very dregs. Coarse sheets, muslin and cambric handkerchiefs, a shawl and odd remnants of cloth all found buyers among the usual circle, nothing left unsold. This exhaustive disposal of a man's every furnishing was the ordinary end of an island estate, each scrap converted to cash so that the whole could be reckoned and divided among those entitled.

A few instruments and books among the goods hint at the interests and equipment of a seafaring man. A spying glass and several parcels of maps were knocked down, the telescope and charts the working tools of anyone who followed the sea or watched the shipping in the road. Their presence in the estate marks the dead man as one bound up with the maritime life of the station, his possessions those of a person for whom ships and coasts were daily business.

The bulk sugar sold at the close ties the private estate to the wider provisioning trade of the island. A hundredweight and more of sugar changed hands by the pound, priced by weight like a merchant's stock rather than a household's few pounds. That such quantities sat in a private man's effects suggests he dealt in the commodity as well as consuming it, the sugar drawn from the same ocean trade that brought the arrack, wine and tea sold on the earlier pages of the account.

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140

Brought over

£276 19s 11d

Curtains

Jos Bapett

£8s

Cloth Brush

Mr Bapett

£2s

Bagg Peas

D Wilson

£5s

1 Chest

J Dunfield

£17s

1 Pr Gaiters

J French

£1s 1d

Bed Pan & Urinal

Mr Bapett

£4s 3d

Case with 5 Bottles

Buck

£11s 9d

1 Do with 7 Do

N Cope

£6s 1d

2 Escruitores

Mr Bapett

£2s 1d

4 Ct Tamerine more or less at 34s P Ct

D Wilson

£12s 10d

Jarr Tamerine

Turner

£5s 1d

Tin Cannister

Josh Bapett

£1s 8d

Small Bagg Coffee

Mr Madge

£5s 7d

½ Firkin Butter

DuBois

£1 1s 1d

Books &ct

Mr Darvall

£5s

3 half Leagers

Buck

£10s 1d

Old Trifles Packed Together

J George

£4s 1d

Barbers Bagg

J French

£1s

£283 3s 5d

G G Powell

John Godfry

Brought over, £276 19s 11d.

curtains, Joseph Bapek, £0 8s 0d

1 cloth brush, Mr Bapek, £0 2s 0d

bags of peas, Mr Wilson, £0 3s 0d

1 chest, Mr Dunfield, £0 17s 0d

1 pair of garters, Mr French, £0 1s 1d

1 bedpan and urinal, Mr Bapek, £0 4s 3d

1 case with 5 bottles, Mr Bath, £0 11s 9d

1 case with 7 bottles, Mr Copp, £0 6s 1d

2 escritoires, Mr Bapek, £0 2s 1d

100 lb of tamarind more or less at 3s 4d a lb, Mr Wilson, £0 12s 10d

1 jar of tamarind, Mr Turner, £0 5s 1d

1 tin canister, Joseph Bapek, £0 1s 8d

1 small bag of coffee, Mr Madge, £0 5s 7d

1 firkin of butter, Mr Dubois, £1 1s 1d

books and other things, Mr Dewell, £0 5s 0d

3 half leaguers, Mr Bath, £0 10s 1d

old trifles packed together, Mr George, £0 4s 1d

1 barber's bag, Mr French, £0 1s 0d

Total, £283 3s 5d

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The sale closes with the odds and ends of a household, the last small goods swept up and knocked down before the account was totalled and signed. A cloth brush, a chest, garters, escritoires and a bundle simply called old trifles all found buyers, the estate cleared to the very last item. An escritoire was a writing desk or cabinet fitted with drawers and a fall front, and the pair of them among the effects, with the several parcels of books, again suggests a man of some literacy and paperwork.

The tamarind and coffee among the goods draw the estate once more into the produce of the wider trade that fed the island. Tamarind, a sour tropical fruit pulp used in cooking and as a mild medicine, was sold by the pound and by the jar, and a bag of coffee changed hands, both commodities of the eastern and African trades that met at the station. Their presence confirms how a private larder here was stocked from the same ocean traffic that supplied the settlement's drink, sugar and cloth.

The bedpan, urinal and barber's bag hint at the sickroom and the personal care of a man who may have died after some illness. Such items, together with the half leaguers for storing liquor, round out the intimate furnishings of a private life laid open by the auction. A leaguer was a large cask used for wine or water, the half leaguer its smaller measure, and their sale among the household goods shows even the vessels for keeping drink counted as saleable assets of the estate.

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141

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 15th February 1742/3

at the Castle

Present George Gab Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 3 of Council

The last Consultation was read and Approved.

The Governour Reports that Yesterday Evening he

was again Insulted in a most Egregious Degree by Mr Dixon in

the Castle who came thither Purposply because the Governour had

in the forenoon upon the Enquest Complaint of two Servants privately to the Steward for

such Quantitys of Punch as he had used every Day to drink up

the Valley to his Companions before Dinner.

And upon the Governours telling Mr Dover

that he was Sorry to take notice of a thing that might appear ye trifling

at first veiw as his Sending to the Castle for Punch, Nor should he

upon any Account if he Mr Dixon had not Received ale Brandy, Wherefore

he was Abliedged to tell him that altho he had a Right to Drink what

he Pleased at the Generalls Table (which indeed he had Devised a long

while) Yet he had no Right to send for it in Such Parcells to his

Private house.

Whereupon Mr Dixon told him in great

Passion that he would have it, for that he knew he had as good a

Right to it as the Governour or any that belonged to him and moreover

made use of Such unseemly Guestures and Taunting at the Governour

in a Bantering unmanly Way that the Governour told him to go out

of the Castle, Nor Return into it untill he sent for him which would

be tomorrow morning when the Council was Setting in order to

Examine him in a Matter of a higher Nature than the Personal Affronts

he received from him no less than his Caballing to one or two more

Discontented Persons against the Chief of the Island.

And the Governour observes that what

he meant by examining Mr Dixon before the Council was concerning

one of the most Notoriously false and vile Reports that could Possibly

be Invented which if Mr Dixon did not Invent Yet he fathered and

took no pains to Contradict it: But suffered it to be Spread in order

to Wound the Governours Reputation & good Name and Wane from him

the Duty and Affections of the Inhabitants & Garrison of this Island.

This Report was that our Present Governour

when he Invited the late Governours Family to Spend Some Weeks to

him in the Country the Better to Divert this Ladye he should take

that opportunity to Attempt to lay to one of the Young Ladys, But

that Mr Dixon being hard by Drive this Island upon this Governour &

so Saved the Lady.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 15 February 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor reported that the previous evening he was again grossly insulted by Mr Dixon in the Castle, who came there rudely because the Governor had that forenoon, on the arriving ships coming to their soundings, sent privately to the steward for a quantity of the punch he drank every day, to send up the valley to his companions before dinner. When the Governor told Mr Dixon that he was sorry to see him take notice of a thing that might appear trifling, since at first sight it looked like his sending to the Castle for punch, he should not have done so on any account had Mr Dixon not received all the brandy. The Governor was therefore obliged to tell him that although he had a right to drink what he pleased at the general table, which indeed he had wanted a long while, he had no right to send for it in such parcels to his private house.

Mr Dixon replied in great passion that he would have it, for he knew he had as good a right to it as the Governor, or any that belonged to him. He made use of such unseemly gestures and taunting at the Governor in a bullying, unmanly way that the Governor bade him leave the Castle, and would not return into it until he sent for him the next morning when the council was sitting, in order to examine him in a matter of a higher nature than the personal affronts he received from him, no less than his caballing with one or two more discontented persons against the chief of the island.

The Governor, in his absence, observed that what he meant by examining Mr Dixon before the council was concerning one of the most notoriously false and vile reports that he could possibly have invented, which Mr Dixon did not invent yet took no pains to contradict, but suffered it to spread in order to wound the Governor's reputation and good name, and wean from him the duty and affections of the inhabitants and garrison of the island. This report was that the present Governor, when he invited the late Governor's family to spend some weeks with him in the country the better to divert the ladies, should take that opportunity to attempt to lie with one of the young ladies, but that Mr Dixon, being hard driven, drove the island upon the Governor and so saved the lady.

Interpretations

The quarrel over the punch reveals how a small dispute about supply became a test of authority between the Governor and a subordinate councillor. What began as the Governor drawing drink from the Castle stores for his own companions turned into Mr Dixon's open defiance, claiming an equal right to the liquor. The Governor's insistence that a right to drink at the general table gave no right to draw supplies to a private house shows him defending the distinction between shared provision and private appropriation, the kind of line on which discipline in a small hierarchical settlement depended.

The heart of the matter, laid bare in the Governor's account, was a slander touching his honour that Dixon had let spread rather than invented. The report accused the Governor of attempting to seduce a young lady of the late Governor's family while she was his guest, and its danger lay in the wound to his standing among the inhabitants and garrison. Bringing the matter formally before the council shows the Governor treating an attack on his reputation as a public offence against the chief of the island rather than a private grievance, since his authority rested on the good opinion of those he governed.

The charge of caballing marks the affair as a matter of faction and challenge to the Governor's rule, not mere personal rudeness. The Governor accused Dixon of joining with one or two other discontented persons against him, framing the insults and the slander as part of an organised opposition. Examining a councillor before the board for conspiring against the head of the settlement shows how thin the line was between dissent and sedition in so confined a community, where a handful of disaffected men could seriously threaten the authority of the chief.

Speculations

The Governor chose to defer the reckoning with Dixon to a formal council sitting the next morning rather than have it out on the spot the evening he was insulted. The obvious response to a man taunting him in his own Castle was to confront the affront there and then, yet the Governor instead ordered Dixon out and waited until the council was in session to send for him. Holding the matter over to the board, over settling a personal quarrel privately, shows him deliberately lifting the dispute from a clash between two men into a public examination of caballing and slander, where the weight of the council and the record would stand behind his authority rather than his word alone against Dixon's.

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142

Now this is as Barbarous a Report and

as horridly false as God is True, and Such Pains has been taken to

insinuate this unto the minds of the People and at the Same time Whispered

as Such a Secret that neither the Governour nor the Ladye ever heard

of it untill one of the Inhabitants Acquainted the Governour with

it a little while agoe who immediately went to the Ladye and told

them of it and they Directly Expressed their best Thanks to the Governour

for his Extraordinary Pledging and Civil behaviour to them Since

the Death of the late Governour And earnestly intreated him to

Sift out the Author if Possible of this abominable Lye that so

he might be Punished according to his Deserts.

An other Scandelous Report Was

that the Governour & Mr Dixon walking together Mr Dixon

should swear to him the Governour that if he did not behave

better or in a more Pleasing way to him (or something to this

purpose) he would confine him the Governour to his Room.

Now this is as false and as Scandelous

a Report as the other. But has been Sevilly and Carefully Instilled

into the minds of the Garrison and so Craftily carried on as that

it never came to the Governours Ear untill one of the Soldiers

told him of it very Lately.

This Report its evident was intended to

blast and Upon the Governour, Edit with the Ridery and to make Mr Dixon

appear a Man of great Resolution & in high Authority, What it tended to

further is Abviosly no less than the sowing the Seeds of Sedition &

faction amongst the Troops.

This Report likewise Mr Dixon heard

And admitting he had not been the Author off Should in Consequence

of his Duty to the Honourable Company as he was one in Council

have Acquainted the Governour to and early Suppressed it, But so

farr was his behaviour from this Rule of that after the Governour had

taken a world of Pains in Tracing this Story from one to tother and

finding it length a Ridery Remarkable for his Impudence one

Jeremiah Wyrell who could or would not give any Account of his

Author he was Ditched upon himself for this Original, and Thereupon

Mr Godfrey & Mr Dixon were Summond to Determine what Corporal

Punishment should be Inflicted on this J Jeremiah Wyrells for this

his Rank Piece of Vilany And when it was thought Adviesable that

this fellow Should Receive One Hundred Lashes three Severall times

at the Wooden horns or Tails upon the Parade, Mr Dixon endeavoured

to Excuse it And said it was much more than this fellow Deserved.

Mr Dixon who was present & heard

ale this was asked what he meant by Acting in this manner So disad,

so disagreeable to the Duty he owed the Honourable Company.

He Also that as to this first Report

about the Ladye he heard it he must Confess but then the Person

This report was as barbarous as it was false, and such pains had been taken to instil it into the minds of the people, and at the same time whispered as such a secret, that neither the Governor nor the lady ever heard of it until one of the inhabitants acquainted the Governor with it a little while ago and told him of it. They immediately went to the lady and told her of it, and she directly expressed her best thanks to the Governor for his generous, obliging and civil behaviour to them since the death of the late Governor, and earnestly begged him to find out the author of this abominable lie if possible, so that he might be punished according to his deserts.

Another scandalous report was that the Governor and Mr Dixon, walking together, Mr Dixon should swear to him that if he did not behave better or in a more obliging way to him, or to something to this purpose, he would confine the Governor to his room.

This report was as false and as scandalous as the other, but had been secretly and carefully instilled into the minds of the garrison and so craftily carried on that it never came to the Governor's ears until one of the soldiers told him of it very lately.

This report was evidently intended to blast the Governor's credit with the friday, and to make Mr Dixon appear a man of great resolution in high authority. What it tended to further was clearly no less than the sowing of the seeds of sedition and faction among the troops.

This report, believing Mr Dixon heard, and admitting he had not been the author off, should in consequence of his duty to the Honourable Company, as he was one in council, have acquainted the Governor with it and early suppressed it. But so far was his behaviour from this rule that after the Governor had taken a world of pains in tracing the story from one to another and finding it at length a story remarkable for its impudence, one Jeremiah Wyrill, who could or would not give any account of its author, he was pitched upon himself for the original. Thereupon Mr Godfrey and Mr Dixon were summoned to determine what corporal punishment should be inflicted on the said Jeremiah Wyrill for this his rank piece of villainy, and when it was thought advisable that this fellow should receive one hundred lashes three several times at the wooden horse or whipping post upon the parade, Mr Dixon endeavoured to excuse it and said it was much more than the fellow deserved.

Mr Dixon, who was present and heard all this, was asked what he meant by acting in this manner, so disagreeable to the duty he owed the Honourable Company.

He said that as to the first report about the lady, he had heard it, he must confess, but then the person who [...].

Interpretations

The two slanders together aimed at the Governor's authority from opposite directions, one at his private honour and one at his public command. The first accused him of attempting a young lady's virtue, the second painted him as a weakling threatened with confinement by Dixon, so between them they attacked both his character and his mastery of the island. The Governor's charge that the second report meant to sow sedition among the troops shows how a rumour touching a commander's firmness could undermine the discipline of a garrison, where the men's obedience rested on their belief in his strength.

The case reveals the council doubling as a criminal court with power to order brutal corporal punishment on a common man. Jeremiah Wyrill was fixed upon as the author of the slander and the board met to decide his punishment, settling on three hundred lashes in three instalments at the whipping post on the parade. The savagery of the sentence, three several hundreds delivered at the wooden horse before the assembled garrison, shows how harshly the settlement dealt with words judged to threaten the Governor's authority, the public flogging meant as much to deter others as to punish the man.

Dixon's plea that the sentence was more than the fellow deserved turned his conduct in the affair into fresh evidence against himself. Having failed in his duty as a councillor to report and suppress the slander, he now sought to soften the punishment of the man blamed for it, which the Governor took as further proof of his sympathy with the Governor's enemies. His defence of Wyrill, rather than clearing him, deepened the suspicion that he stood with the disaffected, showing how in a factional quarrel every action a suspected man took was read as confirmation of his guilt.

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143

Who told him made him Swear that he would not Speake of it Again.

And as to his Threatning to Confine the

Governour to his Chamber he Owned he heard that likewise but that he did

not think it worth his while to Speak of it But he Denyed that

he was the Inventor of either of them and Declared they were both false.

The Governour asked him whither before

he left England he had not taken an Oath of ffidility to the Company;

He said he had; The Governour asked him then he could he so

unfaithfule as to Report or Countinance any thing whatsoever that

tended to the Disturbing the Quiet of any of their Honours Servants; He

said that what he Did was Right in his opinion and he would do it

again and stand by it, And growing warm he was desired to Moderate

his Passion And Reflect upon his former Behaviour.

That Since his Arrival he has not done

the Company any Service, The Governour at his Request and to Abliedge

him having Done ale the Secretarys Business till within this Month

altho he has been often urged to do somo himself; But has chose either

to herd and Cabal with Lieutenant Clarke & one or two other Discontented

Persons who would never be Satisfied were the Companys Attendance

five times as large as they are.

That he has very many times for no

cause more than to Gratify himself and Companions Indulent Disposition

Used the Governour Extreamly Ill, Nay giving him the Lye in Council

And at all times when he comes near him behave to him in Such a

Taunting Rude Way as is not becoming from a Gentleman to the Lowest

Person in the World.

That about a Month or Six Weeks ago

he in one of his Wild fitts Rudely turned himself out of the Council

and Saying he would Setle no more with us left the Room.

That in few Days after the Governour went

for him and advised him to behave in an other way telling him that so

small Pains had been taking to gette him into the Service and how

disagreable it must be to their Friends & Relations when they hear of

his Strange management therein And for their Sakes if he would Promise

to behave in future ye Tolerable Duty to the Company and Good Manners

to his fellow Servants he should be again Received into Council, Which

he at length the more same Difficulty Promised and Desired that Nothing

of it might be Mentioned in Consultation.

Still he did not keep his Promise but fell

into his former Course And it is Evident by his behaviour that when ever he

came into Council it was with no Design to Abott. But in the Contrary

to Retard business with his Sllegislefsly, always Quarreling & Disputing

about very trifles or rather nothing.

A fresh account of the whole affair before the council set out the following matters against Mr Dixon. As to the report about the lady, the person who told him had made him swear that he would not speak of it again.

As to his threatening to confine the Governor to his chamber, he owned he had heard it, though he did not think it worth his while to speak of it, but he denied that he was the inventor of either of them and declared they were both false.

The Governor asked him whether, before he left England, he had not taken an oath of fidelity to the Company, and he said he had. The Governor asked him how then he could so unfaithfully, in respect or countenance, do anything whatever that tended to the disturbing of the quiet of any of their honours' servants, and he said that what he did was right in his opinion and he would do it again, and stood by it. Growing warm, the Governor advised him to moderate his passion and reflect upon his former behaviour.

Since his arrival he had done the Company no service, the Governor at his request adding to oblige him, having done all the secretary's business himself within this month, although he had been often urged to do some himself. Instead he chose rather to breed and cabal with Lieutenant Clarke and one or two other discontented persons who would never be satisfied were the Company's allowances five times as large as they are.

He had very many times, for no cause more than to gratify himself and his companions' turbulent dispositions, used the Governor extremely ill, giving him the lie in council, and at all times when he came near him behaved to him in such a taunting, rude way as is not becoming from a gentleman to the lowest person in the world.

About a month or six weeks ago, in one of his wild fits, he rudely turned himself out of the council, saying he would sit no more with them, and left the room.

In two days after, the Governor sent for him and advised him to behave in another way, telling him that no small pains had been taking to get him into the service, and how disagreeable it must be to his friends and relations when they heard of his strange management therein. For their sakes, if he would amend his behaviour in future to a tolerable duty to the Company and good manners to his fellow servants, he should be again received into council, which he at length, with the same difficulty, promised and desired that nothing of it might be mentioned in consultation.

Yet he did not keep his promise but fell into his former courses, and it was evident by his behaviour that he ever came into council with no design to do about, but on the contrary to breed business with his colleagues, always quarrelling and disputing about very trifles or rather nothing.

Interpretations

The affair turns on the oath of fidelity every Company servant swore in England, which the Governor invoked to fix Dixon's conduct as a breach of sworn duty rather than mere bad temper. By drawing from Dixon the admission that he had taken the oath, then confronting him with his disturbance of the settlement, the Governor set his defiance against a formal obligation binding on all the Company's men. Dixon's answer that he was right and would do it again marks an open repudiation of that discipline, the refusal of a councillor to bend to the authority he had sworn to uphold.

The record shows the Governor carrying the whole administrative burden while a paid colleague withheld his labour, exposing how one obstructive man could cripple a tiny establishment. Dixon did the Company no service and left the Governor to do all the secretary's business himself, choosing instead to cabal with malcontents. On an island run by a mere handful of officers, the idleness or disaffection of a single councillor threw his share of the work onto the others, so that a personal quarrel became a real failure of government.

The Governor's earlier attempt to reconcile Dixon reveals the value placed on family and connection even in disciplining a wayward servant. He appealed to Dixon's friends and relations and the pains taken to secure his post, and readmitted him to council on a private promise to mend his ways. That the Governor sought to manage the breach quietly, sparing Dixon's people the shame of a formal record, shows how the reputation of a man's family in England reached across the ocean to shape how his conduct was handled at this remote station.

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Mr Dixon Said And will you Turn me out

do it, But I know the Companys Orders and I have as much Power to

turn You out as you to turn me out, ale you have said against me is

Trifling and I look upon it as nothing & should never Act otherwise than I

have Done.

How he was Induced to withdraw And upon

Deliberation We thought it Pity that a Young Man should Turn on ye so wild

a Course & Loose himself ere he was hardly Entied into the World. Therefore

Determined Still to continue him in the Councils if he will but promise

not to interrupt our Bussiness any more ye Litigiousness and do his Duty to

our Masters in the office he was Elected Alto We own his deserds merited

the Companys highest Displeasure, a while agoe. But more willing to impute it

to his Youth and non knowledge of the World.

Mr Dixon thereupon being called in was told upon

what terms he should be continued in the Council, But he in a Rude

Scoffing way told the Governour he might turn him out if he thought fit for

that he would not be perswaded he had any Power to do it And would not

give Us any Positive answer one way or other.

Whereupon both the Governour & Mr Godfrey

Advised him to consider better of it; for that this Honourable Companys

Bussiness could not be carried on Regularly unlefs he altered his Measures

and was less abusive and Quarrelsome in Council, But all Proveing to

no Purpose the Governour told him that as the Honourable Company had

appointed to he would not Presume to turn him out, But in Consequence

of his Duty he must Suspend him Untill their Honour further Orders

Arrive Concerning him.

Mr Dixon then Said that he had Complaints

to make against the Governour for that he incroaches Seventy Loads of

the Governours Hoggs upon the Companys Land, And that he is informed

the Governour has one of the Companys Slaves at work for him without

any Consideration to the Company.

The Governour Said that as to the Hoggs he cant

say Really whither they might or might not have Trespassed upon the

Company Since his being at the Tent. But Admitting there was Seventy

head of Hoggs upon the Companys Land they might not as his or if

they wores his they would not be there above half an hour before either

some of his or the Companys Hoggs must see them and turn them out

again; That the Companys Cattle every body knows are oftner Trespasing

upon his Lands then his are upon the Companys. Because the Land

lays so that they Jump Down hils upon him, and his Cattle must jump up

hile upon the Company But as they are Neighbours gaps of fence will sometimes

happen & things Slip this for a few Menuted in spite of all the care in the

World, Yet if Mr Dixon had ban a good natued Person he would have taken

Notice likewise that the Governour at Companys Husband is Repairing

the fence round this very Land he says he saw the Hoggs in as he

will do all other the Companys Lands as fast as Possible.

And as to his Information of the Governours

Employing one of the Companys Slaves at his own Work without Consideration

Mr Dixon said, and will you turn me out, do it, but he knew the Company's orders and had as much power to turn the Governor out as the Governor had to turn him out. All the Governor had said against him was trifling and he looked upon it as nothing, and he should never act otherwise than he had done.

He was pressed to withdraw, and on consideration the council thought it a pity that a young man should turn on so wild a course and lose himself before he was hardly entered into the world. It therefore determined still to continue him in the council if he would but promise not to interrupt the Company's business any more by his disagreeableness and do his duty in the office to which he was elected. Though his deserts merited the Company's highest displeasure a while ago, the council was more willing to impute his conduct to his youth and want of knowledge of the world.

Mr Dixon, being called in, was told upon what terms he should be continued in the council, but in a rude, scoffing way he told the Governor he might turn him out if he thought fit, for he would not be persuaded he had any power to do it, and would not give any positive answer one way or the other.

Both the Governor and Mr Godfrey advised him to consider better of it, since the Honourable Company's business could not be carried on regularly unless he altered his measures and was less abusive and quarrelsome in council. But all proving to no purpose, the Governor told him that as the Honourable Company had appointed him, he would not presume to turn him out, but in consequence of his duty he must suspend him until their honours' further orders arrived concerning him.

Mr Dixon then said that he had complaints to make against the Governor, for that he had increased seventy head of the Governor's hogs upon the Company's land, and that he was informed the Governor had one of the Company's slaves at work for him without any consideration to the Company.

The Governor said that as to the hogs he could not say really whether they might or might not have trespassed upon the Company, since his being at the tent, but admitting there were seventy head of hogs upon the Company's land, they might not be his, or if they were his they could not be there above half an hour before either some of his or the Company's negroes must see them and turn them out again. The Company's cattle, everybody knew, were oftener trespassing upon his lands than his were upon the Company's, because the land lay so that they jump down hills upon him and his cattle must jump up hills upon the Company. As they are neighbours, gaps of fence would sometimes happen and things slip thus for a few minutes, in spite of all the care in the world. Had Mr Dixon had a good-natured reason he would have taken notice likewise that the Governor's Company husband was repairing the fence round this very land, so that he saw the hogs in as he would do all other the Company's lands as fast as possible.

As to his information about the Governor employing one of the Company's slaves at his own work without consideration [...].

Interpretations

The suspension marks the limit of the Governor's power, revealing that even the chief of the island could not simply dismiss a councillor appointed from home. The Governor declared he would not presume to turn Dixon out because the Company had appointed him, but suspended him instead until their honours' further orders arrived. This careful distinction between suspension and dismissal shows the reach of the Company's authority across the ocean, the local head able only to hold a man's office in abeyance while the ultimate decision rested with the directors in England.

Dixon's counter-charges turned the proceeding into a mutual accusation, each side alleging misuse of Company property by the other. He accused the Governor of grazing seventy of his own hogs on Company land and of using a Company slave for his private work without payment. Levelling these charges at the moment of his own suspension shows Dixon fighting the Governor's authority by attacking his integrity, the classic recourse of a cornered subordinate seeking to drag his accuser down to his own level.

The dispute over straying stock exposes the practical difficulty of separating private and Company property on a small island of intermingled holdings. The Governor argued that the lie of the land threw his beasts and the Company's across each other's ground through gaps in the fences, and that his own husband was repairing the very fence in question. This picture of hogs and cattle jumping between hillside plots shows how hard it was to keep private and Company interests distinct where the two lay tangled together, so that a charge of trespass could always be met with the same charge in return.

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Its Utterly false & Malitious. And without the least foundation Which every

body knows save Mr Dixon who Pretends not to know it.

Mr Christopher Dixon Lieutenant Clark & Ensign

Joseph Kendale are the Remarkable Discontented Club, But for what cause

we know not unless it is to them a Secret Pleasure to sell the Rest of the

Officers and Garrison together by the Ears, By making false Representations

from one to tother Mr Kendall did indeed give the Governour an other

Reason that the Companys Allowance was not Sufficient for him to live like

a Gentleman in this Country where things were so Excesable Dear, The Governour

told him that he was Surprized to hear a Person who calls himself a Soldier

give so insufficient a Reason for Cabling and Raising divisions amongst his

Brother Officers, That he knew the Terms he was coming upon ere he

left England, and it was Evident by his Accepting of them that it was the

best thing he could do for himself, had he but intimated at the India house

his intention of making the Companys Servants at St Helena Uneasy, their

Honours could have found other Serjeants and good Serjeants too that

would gladly have Accepted the Preferment which he seems to Slight.

Mr Kendall being called in the Governour made

the following Complaint against him Vizt

That he is one of the three who has been for these four

or five Months Past Industriously Plotting how to make the Officers & Garrison

uneasy by Raising Storys from one to the other And that he has so well

Succeeded in his Attempts as to have given the Governour abundance of

Concern & Trouble to Reconcile these differences again.

That the Governour has often warned Mr Kendalls of

Such Unfriday like Practices and told him that he could not Expect to be continued

in a Service that Costed so much pain him, for that it was his the Governours

Particular Duty to Suppress ale Sedious Persons and thereby Preserve the

Discipline and Peace of the Island. To which Mr Kendale his frequently Replyed

that he should think it no Detriment to him to be sent to England.

That the Governour told Courage to Mr Kendale in

Passing by so many Misbehaviours he lately Encouraged him to Affront the

Governour in Person for some few Weeks agoe when Mr Kendalt had the

Charge of the Main Guard the Governour desired him to send a few of his

Guard to Assist in Launching one of the Companys Boats that lay upon

the Beach, But Mr Kendale returned to the Governour in few Menutes

And told him to a haughty Air that his Guard would not go to Assist

in Launching a Boat.

The Governour was a good deal Surprized at Mr

Kendales Answer, because it was customary to call upon the Guard for

these Occasions & to Reward each Man to a dram for his Paine, however

this Governour Expressed no Resentment against Mr Kendale at that time

because he hoped to Win him over in Spite of himself by a good

Natured Carriage.

The information about the Governor employing a Company slave was utterly false and malicious, without the least foundation, which everybody knew save Mr Dixon, who pretended not to know it.

Mr Christopher Dixon, Lieutenant Clarke and Ensign Joseph Kendall were the remarkable discontented club, but for what cause the council knew not, unless it was to them a secret pleasure to set the rest of the officers and garrison together by the ears by making false representations from one to another. Mr Kendall did indeed give the Governor another reason, that the Company's allowances were not sufficient for him to live like a gentleman in this country, where things were so laceable dear. The Governor told him that he was surprised to hear a person who called himself a soldier give so insufficient a reason for caballing and raising divisions among his brother officers, that he knew the reason he was coming upon since he left England, and it was evident by his accepting of them that it was the best thing he could do for himself, had he but intimated at the India house his intention of making the Company's servants at St Helena uneasy. Their honours could have found other ensigns and good sergeants too that would gladly have accepted the preferment which he seemed to slight.

Mr Kendall, being called in, the Governor made the following complaint against him.

That he was one of the three who had been for these four or five months past industriously plotting how to make the officers and garrison uneasy by carrying stories from one to another, and that he had so well succeeded in his attempts as to have given the Governor abundance of concern and trouble to reconcile these differences again.

That the Governor had often warned Mr Kendall of such unsoldierlike practices and told him that he could not expect to be continued in the service, that it caused so much pain to him, for that it was the Governor's particular duty to suppress all seditious persons and thereby preserve the discipline and peace of the island. To which Mr Kendall had frequently replied that he should think it no detriment to him to be sent to England.

That the Governor tried courage to Mr Kendall in passing by so many misbehaviours he had lately encouraged him to affront the Governor in town, for some few weeks ago, when Mr Kendall had the charge of the main guard, the Governor desired him to send a few of his guard to assist in launching one of the Company's boats that lay upon the beach, but Mr Kendall returned to the Governor in few minutes and told him in a haughty air that his guard would not go to assist in launching a boat.

The Governor was a good deal surprised at Mr Kendall's rudeness, because it was customary to call upon the guard for these occasions and to reward each man in a dram for his pains. However, the Governor expressed no resentment against Mr Kendall at that time, because he hoped to win him over in spite of himself by a good-natured carriage.

Interpretations

The Governor named a faction of three, exposing the disaffection as an organised clique rather than the temper of one man. Dixon, Lieutenant Clarke and Ensign Kendall together formed what the record calls the discontented club, working to set the officers and garrison at odds by carrying false tales between them. Identifying a standing group bent on stirring division shows the Governor treating the trouble as a concerted threat to the peace of the island, the kind of combination among a few officers that could poison the discipline of the whole small establishment.

Kendall's excuse that the Company's pay would not let him live as a gentleman lays bare the gap between an officer's expectations and the cost of life at the remote station. He complained that things were so dear on the island that the allowance was insufficient, which the Governor dismissed as no reason for a soldier to breed division. The exchange reveals the real strain on men sent to serve where imported goods commanded high prices, though the Governor held that private hardship gave no licence to undermine the service a man had willingly accepted.

The refusal to lend the guard for launching a boat shows how the faction's defiance reached into the ordinary running of the garrison. Kendall, holding the main guard, haughtily refused the Governor's request for men to help float a Company boat, a customary duty rewarded with a dram of spirits. This small act of insubordination over a routine task marks how far the disaffection had spread from words into the daily obedience on which the settlement depended, an officer openly withholding the cooperation his post required.

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The Succeeding Week the Governour Ordered the

Guard to clean their Parade which theirfore was always Done by them

without the Trouble of Ordering But Mr Kendale having Bragged that the

Governour said nothing to him when the Soldiers Disobeyed him last they

were Emboldened to disobey him now too, And Refused to clean the Parade

tho every one knew it was what they had always done before, & was their

Duty to do, Therefore Ensign Kirkpatrick who then had the Command of the

Guard would have abliedged them to have done it But Mr Kendale

Advised him to the Contrary & to let the Soldiers alone untill the Governour

Returned Who saw him at Bankes and at seeing when the Governour

and Return was met by Mr Kirkpatrick at the Landing Rock who

Acquainted him to what had happened & that he would have made them

done this Duty but Mr Kendale Advised him to them Contrary.

Whereupon the Governour Immediately Summonshas

the Council and sent for Mr Kendale and the Rest of the Officers and

in their Presence asked Mr Kendale what was his Reason for his behaving

in this Riotious Windelike Way, When after a long Story about nothing

at all he said he heard that the Governour should Speak to Lieutenant Easthope

Disrespectfully of him behind his Back, Which was his reason for not

making the Soldiers do their Duty, Then the Governour asked Lieutenant

Easthope what he had ever said to him Disrespectfully of Mr Kendalls, And

Lieutenant Easthope Declared that it was a false Report of Mr Kendalls

for that to the best of his Remembrance the Governour never mentioned his

name to him either one way or other.

Still the Governour Ordered Ensign Kirkpatrick to

have the Guard according to Custom clean the Parade (which was Done Early

next morning) And advised the Officers in General & Mr Kendale in Particular

to behave as Gentlemen and Soldiers always Remembering whose Bread

they Eat & what Errant they were sent upon And to Shew the Governours

earnest Desire to live together as becomes them he forgave Mr Kendale

this Attempt likewise in hopes of his Amendment.

That Notwithstanding ale the Pains & Endeavours to

Reform this Gentleman he again last Saturday morning (in a most Unprovidentle

Appearance) came to the Governour and Accused him worth being the Author

of a Letter which Lieutenant Scott wrote to the Governour Complaining in

Part of Kendale ilfage to him, The Governour asked him how he could

Suppose Such a thing, Mr Kendalts answered that truly he Suspected

the Governour more the Original Letter which Scott might Copy and

Send Sealed to him the Governour Who intended to Wind it to the

Company in Prejudice to him Kendale, the Governour told him that he was

Sorry that after all he had Done to please him he should still appear in

the Eyes of Mr Kendale so Ill a fellow as to be capable of so underhand a

Contrivance and to convince him of his Error he would next Consultation

day Send for Mr Scott & himself when the affair should be fully heard.

In Consequence of which they this Day Attended

and now Mr Scott being sent for in was asked before Mr Kendale the

following Questions 1 Whether the Governour Directed him what to

Write in a Letter sent the Governour concerning Mr Kendalts. Mr Scott

The following week the Governor ordered the guard to clean their parade, which before was always done by them without the trouble of ordering. But Mr Kendall, having bragged that the Governor said nothing to him when the soldiers disobeyed him last, they were emboldened to disobey him now too and refused to clean the parade, though everyone knew it was what they had always done before. It was therefore the duty of Ensign Kirkpatrick, who then had the command of the guard, to have obliged them to have done it, but Mr Kendall advised him to the contrary and to let the soldiers alone until the Governor returned, who was then at Banks. At leaving, when the Governor's return was met by Mr Kirkpatrick at the landing rock, who acquainted him with what had happened and that he would have made them done this duty but Mr Kendall advised him to the contrary.

The Governor immediately summoned the council and sent for Mr Kendall, and in the presence of the rest of the officers asked Mr Kendall what was his reason for behaving in this seditious, unsoldierlike way. After a long story about nothing at all, he said he had heard that the Governor should speak to Lieutenant Eastley disrespectfully of him behind his back, which was his reason for not making the soldiers do their duty. The Governor then asked Lieutenant Eastley what he had ever said in dispraise of Mr Kendall, and Lieutenant Eastley declared that it was a false report of Mr Kendall's, for that to the best of his remembrance the Governor never mentioned his name to him either one way or the other.

The Governor ordered Ensign Kirkpatrick to have the guard, according to custom, clean the parade, which was done early next morning. Advising the officers in general and Mr Kendall in particular to behave as gentlemen and soldiers, always remembering whose bread they eat, and to what extent they were sent upon, and to show the Governor's earnest desire to live together as became them, he forgave Mr Kendall this attempt likewise in hopes of his amendment.

Notwithstanding all the pains and endeavours to reform this gentleman, he again last Saturday, trimming in a most unproviddent appearance, came to the Governor and accused him hotly of being the author of a letter which Lieutenant Scott wrote to the Governor, complimenting in part of Kendall's usage to him. The Governor asked him how he could suppose such a thing, and Mr Kendall answered that truly he suspected the Governor was the original letter which Scott might copy and send sealed to him the Governor, who intended to send it to the Company in prejudice to him Kendall. The Governor told him that he was sorry that after all he had done to please him he should still appear in the eyes of Mr Kendall as odd a fellow as to be capable of so underhand a contrivance, and to convince him of his error he would, next consultation day, send for Mr Scott himself when the affair should be fully heard.

In consequence of which, Mr Scott, being sent for, was this day asked before Mr Kendall the following questions. Whether the Governor directed him what to write in a letter he sent the Governor concerning Mr Kendall. Mr Scott [...].

Interpretations

The dispute over cleaning the parade shows how one officer's boast could unravel the settled discipline of the guard. Kendall bragged that the Governor had let earlier disobedience pass, which emboldened the soldiers to refuse a routine duty they had always performed unbidden. His advice to Kirkpatrick to leave the men alone until the Governor returned turned a customary task into an act of defiance, revealing how the faction worked to erode obedience not by open mutiny but by undermining the junior officers charged with enforcing it.

The Governor's repeated forgiveness marks a deliberate strategy of patience, reforming rather than punishing in hope of preserving a scarce officer. Time and again he passed over Kendall's misbehaviour, reminding him whose bread he ate and appealing to him to behave as a gentleman and soldier. This forbearance, extended long past the point where the conduct merited punishment, shows a commander on a small island weighing the loss of an officer against the disruption he caused, choosing to try amendment before resorting to the harsher remedies open to him.

The letter affair exposes the atmosphere of suspicion that faction breeds, Kendall reading a plot into a colleague's complaint against him. He accused the Governor of secretly drafting the letter Lieutenant Scott had written about Kendall's treatment of him, imagining an elaborate contrivance to send it home to the Company. The Governor's answer, to summon Scott and have the matter heard openly, shows him meeting a paranoid charge with public examination, the settled method of the settlement for resolving accusation by bringing the parties face to face before the council.

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Answered that the Governour never intimated any thing to him about it he was

then asked whither it was his own Company or whether any other Person

Whatsoever either Advised or knew of his Writing the Letter, he said that the

Letter was his own writing and Contrivance And that he Delivered it to the

Governour Sealed who could not Possibly know what it contained Untill after

he had Perused it, To all which he took his Oath.

Mr Kendall finding himself disappointed

in this his Attempt against the Governour began to be very Rude And used

very many Unseemly Expressions Against the Companys Authority and methods

here; Whereupon he was Ordered to hold his Tongue several times tho he would

Comply, And then the Governour told him he was very unfitt to serve the

Honourable Company whom he so Disgraced. And therefore for Peace and

Safety Sake so was in duty Obliged however Unwilling to tell him that from

this Present he was no longer an Ensign in this Garrison, And Advised to

behave himself to more Decency than heretofore

Then the Rest of the Officers viz Lieutenants

Scott & Easthope Ensigns John Disfountain, Daniel Owen, John Barton,

Thomas Kirkpatrick Joseph Disfountain and Adjutant William Hayes Were

ale called in And Seperate and Distinctly Asked if they Laboured under

any Grievance or had any Sort of Complaint To which they Respectively Answered

that they had no Reason to Complain But were Treated better and had larger

Allowance now than ever, That they were Ready to serve the Honourable Company

to the utmost of their Power and were Particularly Obliged to the Governour

for his Extraordinary favours & Civility to them And withale Expressed their

Sorrow & Concern for Mr Kendalts Behaviour.

Upon Mature Deliberation We think it

Necessary to Examine and Count the Honourable Companys Treasure in Presence of

Mr Christopher Dixon and give him Certificate of the Amount & Well being

of the Same And for him to give the Certificates of the like Nature.

Therefore he was called upon and Acquainted

with our Intentions Which he Approved and said that upon so doing he would

Deliver up to the his Key of the Cash Chest, And as it grew late in the Day

We Appointed to meet early tomorrow Morning for that Purpose.

The Governour Reports that as Bankes

Fortification is Entirely Compleated the Premises tis necessary the Companys

thanks proceed to the Draining of Lime that so We might carry on the Works

at Ruperts which at Present lay in a Most Defenceless Posture.

And that no time may be lost the hired

Plants in the Mean while be Employed in flinging up the French before

Ruperts to Secure & cover the Wall from the Enemys Shott which Else is capable

of very little Resistance being Built Entirely with Sile Water and in some

Places Extreamly Thin withale.

G G Powell

John Godfrey

Agreed that the Same be Sett about

Mr Scott answered that the Governor never intimated anything to him about it. He was then asked whether it was his own Company, or whether any other person whatever, either advised or knew of his writing the letter, and he said that the letter was his own writing and Company and that he delivered it to the Governor sealed, who could not possibly know what it contained until after he had opened it. To all which he took his oath.

Mr Kendall, finding himself disappointed in this his attempt against the Governor, began to be very rude and used very many unseemly expressions against the Company's authority and methods here. He was ordered to hold his tongue several times before he would comply, and then the Governor told him he was very unfit to serve the Honourable Company whom he so disparaged, and therefore, for peace and safety's sake, he was in duty obliged, however unwilling, to tell him that from this present he was no longer an ensign in this garrison, and advised him to behave himself with more decency than before.

The rest of the officers, namely Lieutenants Scott and Eastley, Ensigns John Difountain, Daniel Snow, John Baker, Thomas Kirkpatrick and Joseph Difountain, and Adjutant William Hayes, were all called in and separately and distinctly asked if they laboured under any grievance or had any sort of complaint. To this they respectively answered that they had no reason to complain but were treated better and had larger allowances now than ever. They were ready to serve the Honourable Company to the utmost of their power and were particularly obliged to the Governor for his extraordinary favours and civility to them, and withal expressed their sorrow and concern for Mr Kendall's behaviour.

On mature deliberation the council thought it necessary to examine and count the Honourable Company's treasure in the presence of Mr Christopher Dixon and give him a certificate of the amount and well-being of the same, and for him to give the council a certificate of the like nature.

He was therefore called upon and acquainted with the council's intentions, which he approved, and said that upon his seeing the treasure he would deliver up to the council the key of the cash chest. As it grew late in the day, the council appointed to meet early the next morning for that purpose.

The Governor reported that as Banks fortification was entirely completed, it was necessary the Company's husband proceed to the burning of lime, so that work might be carried on at Munden's Point, which at present lay in a most defenceless state.

So that no time might be lost, the hired husband was in the meanwhile employed in flinging up the French bank before Munden's Point, to secure and cover the wall from the enemies' shot, which else was capable of very little resistance, being built entirely with salt water and in some places extremely thin.

The council agreed that the same be set about.

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The dismissal of Kendall marks the point where the Governor's patience finally gave way, the earlier suspension of a councillor now matched by the outright removal of an officer. Where Dixon could only be suspended pending the directors' decision, Kendall was told plainly he was no longer an ensign, a distinction that turned on rank and manner of appointment. That the Governor could dismiss the ensign but only suspend the councillor shows the different tenures by which the Company's servants held their places, some removable on the spot and others only by the authority that appointed them.

The canvassing of every remaining officer served to isolate the malcontents and put loyalty on the record. Called in one by one, the other officers each declared they had no grievance, were better treated than ever and were grateful to the Governor, while expressing their disapproval of Kendall. This deliberate, separate questioning of each man shows the Governor building a formal record of general contentment to set against the faction's claims, demonstrating that the discontent was confined to a few and that the body of the garrison stood with him.

The turn to the fortifications reveals the settlement's fear of attack driving its works, the batteries built in haste against a real threat. With Banks now finished, the Governor pressed on to Munden's Point, thrown up so hastily and with sea water in the mortar that its wall could barely withstand shot. The device of flinging up a French bank, an earthwork to shield the weak wall from enemy fire, shows a small island improvising its defences under pressure, the poor materials and exposed position forcing makeshift protection where proper masonry could not be had.

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At a Consultation held on Wednesday the 16th February 1742/3

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Council

The last Consultation was Read and Approved.

We Received Account the Estate of Hemmens Nichols

Deceased for Goods Sold at his Outcry vizt

Of George Gab Powell Esq

£36 11s 6d

of Joshua Twynam

£3 1s

of William Hayes

£3 14s 3d

of Thomas Colgrave

£14 17s 10d

of Jonathan Doveton

£7 1s 3d

of John Barton

£2

of David Wilson

£1 10s

of Joseph Darvall

£1 11s

Cash Recd by Mr Bapett at the Sale

£3 3s

of James Scott

£8 2s 6d

Cash Recd at Sale

£53 16s 2¾d

of Christopher Dixon

£12 11s 5d

208 17s 7¾d

Cash Received of the following for Debts due to

Mr Nichols at the time of his Death vizt

Of Joshua Twynam

£2 16s 8d

of Daniel Owen

£11s 3d

3 7s 11d

Cash found in his Escretore at the time of his

Death

166 7s 3¾d

£378 12s 10d

We this Day Paid Account

of Mr Hemmens Nichols as follows vizt

To Dr Christopher Dixon a Bill

for Sundrys ffound

1 17s 6d

To Thos Colgrave for Burial ffees

12s 6d

£2 10s

Then We Paid to the Heirs of Capt John Alexander Decd

for Sashes that Mr Crow had of them for the Use of the Castle £47 3s 4¾d

At a consultation held on Wednesday 16 February 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The council received the account of the estate of Hemmens Nichols deceased, for goods sold at his outcry, as follows.

Of George Gabriel Powell esquire, £36 11s 6d

Of Joshua Twynham, £3 1s 0d

Of William Hayes, £3 14s 3d

Of Thomas Colgrave, £14 17s 10d

Of Jonathan Dooton, £7 1s 3d

Of John Barton, £2 0s 0d

Of David Wilson, £1 10s 0d

Of Joseph Darval, £1 11s 0d

Cash paid by Mr Bapek at the sale, £3 0s 3d

Of James Scott, £8 2s 6d

Cash paid at sale, £53 16s 2¾d

Of Christopher Dixon, £42 11s 5d

Total, £208 17s 7¾d

The council received cash of the following for debts due to Mr Nichols at the time of his death.

Of Joshua Twynham, £2 16s 8d

Of Daniel Owen, £0 11s 3d

Total, £3 7s 11d

Cash found in his escritoire at the time of his death, £166 7s 3¾d

Total, £378 12s 10d

The council this day paid the account of Mr Hemmens Nichols as follows.

To Mr Christopher Dixon, a bill for stationery ware, £1 17s 6d

To Thomas Colgrave for burial charges, £12 6d

Total, £2 10s 0d

The council then paid to the heirs of Captain John Alexander deceased, for sashes that Mr Crop had of them for the use of the Castle, £47 3s 3¾d.

Interpretations

This is the reckoning of another dead man's estate, gathering into one account the proceeds of his auction, the debts owed to him and the cash found among his effects. The three sources together, sale receipts of over £200, small debts recovered and £166 found in his writing desk, made up the total worth of the estate before its debts were paid. Recording the money found in his escritoire as a distinct item shows how a man's ready cash was counted alongside his goods and dues, the whole gathered so the estate could be settled and the balance divided.

The same narrow circle of Company men appears once more as the buyers at the sale, the leading figures taking the largest shares. The Governor bought over £36 of goods and Dixon over £42, the two rivals of the recent quarrel both bidding freely at the same auction. That men so lately at open enmity in council appear side by side as purchasers shows how the small settlement's business went on regardless of its feuds, the handful of men with money to spend buying at every estate sale whatever their personal disputes.

The estate's debts reveal the ordinary charges that fell due at a death, from stationery bills to the cost of burial. Dixon was paid for stationery ware supplied to Nichols and Colgrave for the burial charges, the two settled out of the estate before any division. Paying the funeral expenses as a first charge on the estate shows the settled order in which a dead man's obligations were met, the cost of laying him to rest and the debts he owed discharged before his heirs could take what remained.

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Agreable to Our Resolutions on Tuesday We Sent for Mr

Dixon Yesterday Morning and began to Count & Examine the Honourable

Companys Treasure. But not being able to go through it in the Day

We Adjourned till this Morning when Sending for Mr Dixon again We

compleated the Same which we find as follows in good Order and

Condition vizt

Silver vizt

Dollars

2355⅞

£588 15s 7½d

Half Dollars

322

40 5s

Duccatoons

39½

11 17s

Rupees

248¾

27 19s 1½d

Double Royals

1819

113 13s 9d

Ryals

9548

298 7s 6d

Half Ryals

9959

135 12s 2¼d

Dutchland &d Money

3 3s 6d

1259 18s 8¾d

Gold vizt

Pagodas

1912

800 8s

Vinet Zequines

103

51 10s

Gubbers

21

6 6s

St Thomas

9

5 8s

Guineas

3

3 3s

Moydores

2¾ &c

2 5s

Gold Rupee

½

2 Bitts Gold at 3s 18

£23 4s 3¾d

1 Do 11 13s 4d at 3s 18s 3

46 1s 8¾d

4 Do 3 19s 13 at 3s 18

13 11s 2¾d

82 17s 2¾d

1013 2¼d

194 5s

£2747 3s 11d

Cash Notes

Then We Delivered to Mr Dixon an Alleged Key of the

Above And he the like to Us, After which We demanded of him the

Key of the Companys Cash Chest, Which to Our great Surprize he Refused

altho he had Promised it before, And said that if We wanted it We

must take it from him.

The Governour told him that it was highly Unreasonable

in him to Expect to be trusted with the Key of the Cash Chest after he

had been Suspended the Service for having been guilty of such So

horridly Riotorious as the Cabling against the Honourable Companys

Authority And openly sowing the Seeds of Sedition amongst the

Garrison and Inhabitants of this Island as he and his Associates

had done, But Mr Dixon obstintely Insisting upon our taking the

Key from him if We wanted it the Governour therefore Called a

Corporal who took it from him Accordingly.

G G Powell

John Godfrey

Following the council's resolutions, the council sent for Mr Dixon the previous morning and began to count and examine the Honourable Company's treasure, but not being able to go through it in the day, adjourned until this morning. Sending for Mr Dixon again, the council completed the count, which was found as follows, in good order and condition.

Silver:

Dollars, 2,355, £588 15s 7½d

Half dollars, 322, £40 5s 0d

Ducatoons, 39½, £11 17s 0d

Rupees, 248¾, £27 19s 1½d

Double royals, 1,819, £113 13s 9d

Royals, 9,548, £298 7s 6d

Half royals, 9,959, £135 12s 2¼d

Dutch and odd money, £3 3s 6d

Total silver, £1,239 18s 8¾d

Gold:

Pagodas, 1,912, £860 8s 0d

Venet zequines, 103, £51 10s 0d

Gubbers, 21, £6 6s 0d

St Thomas's, 9, £5 8s 0d

Guineas, 3, £3 3s 0d

Moidores, 2¾, £2 5s 0d

Gold rupees, [...]

2 bits of gold at 3s 18d, £23 4s 3¾d

1 bit of gold, 11 dwt 4 gr at 3s 18d, £46 1s 8¼d

1 bit of gold, 3 dwt 13 gr at 3s 18d, £13 11s 2¼d

Total gold, £1,013 0s 2¼d

Cash notes, £494 5s 0d

Total, £2,747 3s 11d

The council then delivered to Mr Dixon a copy of the above and asked the like of him. After which the council demanded of him the key of the Company's cash chest, which to the council's great surprise he refused, although he had promised it before, and said that if the council wanted it they must take it from him.

The Governor told him that it was highly unreasonable in him to expect to be trusted with the key of the cash chest after he had been suspended the service, having been guilty of acts so horridly notorious as the caballing against the Honourable Company's authority and openly sowing the seeds of sedition among the garrison and inhabitants of the island, as he and his associates had done. But Mr Dixon obstinately insisting upon the council taking the key from him if it wanted it, the Governor therefore called a corporal, who took it from him accordingly.

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

Interpretations

The formal count of the treasure before the suspended councillor served to protect both sides against any later charge of loss or embezzlement. The council counted the whole store and exchanged certificates with Dixon, each giving the other a record of what the chest held at the moment of transfer. This careful mutual documentation shows the settlement fixing responsibility for the Company's money at the precise point custody changed hands, so that neither the outgoing keeper nor the council could afterwards be blamed for any shortfall.

Dixon's refusal of the key turned an accounting formality into a final act of open defiance against the Governor's authority. Having promised to give up the key on seeing the treasure counted, he now refused, daring the council to take it by force. His insistence that they must seize it rather than receive it shows a man determined to yield nothing willingly, forcing the Governor to demonstrate his power physically rather than let Dixon appear to concede it.

The calling of a corporal to take the key by force marks the ultimate assertion of the Governor's command over a rebellious officer. Rather than let the standoff persist, the Governor summoned a common soldier to remove the key from Dixon's keeping, ending the matter by plain compulsion. That the dispute closed with a corporal physically taking the key shows how, when persuasion and authority failed, the settlement fell back on the simple exercise of force, the Governor's power resting finally on the men who would obey his order.

156

150

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 1 of March 1742/3

Present George Gab Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Council

The last Consultation was Read and Approved.

The Governour Reports that he has been

for these last Nine Days at Sandy Bay the better to Expediate the

finishing of the Reddubt upon the Point fronting the Valley as

Described in Consultation of 4 January last And that he has the

Pleasure to Say it is Entirely Compleated without one farthing

Expence to Our Honourable Masters other than the Labour of

Part of their own Slaves.

That it Entirely answers his Expectation and

makes that Valley which lays upon the Wrack of Us and has been

long avaided as a most Dangerous Place, now quite safe & Secure as

it must be impracticable for any Body of People to We may Naturally

Suppose will Land at any one Valley to Wrack through are free

for a Mile and a half at least along the Bottom of a Craggy Valley

as they must needs do if they Succeed in their Attempt upon Sandy

Bay.

That now the Honourable Companys Slaves

are burning of Lime, as wale Plantation Slaves as others and

that in a Month or Six Weeks time We hope to make Two thousand

Bushells with which We will carry on the Works at Ruperts

and finish them out of hand.

The hired hands were Removed to Ruperts upon

the finishing of Bankes where they are continued and are Employed in

getting of Stones and laying them near the Works that so when our

Lime is Burnt We may wait for nothing but go Briskly on with our

Work.

Mr John Godfrey Purchaser this day Brought

in his Collections for the Quarter ending the last of December which

was as follows vizt

A Collection of Stores Sold from October the 1 to December

1742 vizt

Bread and Flower

8 3s 12 Bread

16 10s 8d

6 2s 14 Flower

12 7s 4d

23 18s

Carried over£ 23 18s

At a consultation held on Tuesday 1 March 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor reported that for these last nine days he had been at Sandy Bay, the better to expedite the finishing of the redoubt upon the point fronting the valley, as described in the consultation of 4 January last, and that he had the pleasure to say it was entirely completed without one farthing expense to the Honourable masters other than the labour of their own slaves.

It entirely answered his expectation and made that valley, which lay upon the back of them and had been long argued as a most dangerous place, now quite safe and secure, as it must be impracticable for any body of people, in the Governor's supposal, who should land at any one valley, to march through and get free for a mile and a half at least along the bottom of a craggy valley, as they must needs do if they should succeed in their attempt upon Sandy Bay.

Now the Honourable Company's slaves were burning lime, as well plantation slaves as others, and in a month or six weeks time the council hoped to make two thousand bushels, with which it would carry on the works at Munden's Point and finish them out of hand.

The hired hands were removed to Munden's Point upon the finishing of Banks, where they were continued and employed in getting stones and laying them near the works, so that when the lime was burnt the council might wait for nothing but go briskly on with the work.

Mr John Godfrey, storekeeper, this day brought in his collection for the quarter ending the last of December, which was as follows.

A collection of stores sold from 1 October to 31 December 1742.

Bread and flour:

8 cwt 3 qr 12 lb of bread, £16 10s 2d

6 cwt 2 qr 14 lb of flour, £12 7s 4d

Total, £28 18s 0d

Carried over, £28 18s 0d

Interpretations

The completed redoubt at Sandy Bay shows the Governor's defensive thinking turning on the island's own broken terrain as the first line of protection. Rather than rely on the wall alone, he judged the valley behind it safe because any enemy landing there would have to struggle a mile and a half along the bottom of a craggy ravine to break out. This reliance on the natural difficulty of the ground, a redoubt closing the one passable point, shows a small garrison using the island's rugged geography to multiply the strength of its scanty works.

The boast that the redoubt cost not a farthing beyond the labour of the Company's slaves lays bare the economy on which the island's defences were raised. The whole work was completed using only enslaved labour, and the lime for the next works was likewise being burnt by plantation slaves and others. Building the fortifications almost entirely on unpaid enslaved labour let the Company defend its station at minimal cash cost, the human property of the island turned to raising the very walls that guarded it.

The careful sequencing of the works reveals a deliberate management of scarce labour and materials across the scattered batteries. The hired hands were shifted from the finished Banks to Munden's Point to gather stone in advance, so that when the lime was ready the building could proceed without delay. This coordination of quarrying, lime-burning and construction shows the settlement marshalling its limited resources to keep the fortification programme moving, each stage prepared beforehand so no time was lost once the next could begin.

157

151

Brought over

£28 18s

Broad Cloth

17 Yards ½ Blue

18 13s 6d

3 Yards ½ Scarlet

3 13s 6d

22 13s

Blankets 2

19s

Braziers Ware

1 Copper Sauce Pan

6s

1 Copper Kettle

10s

1 Brass Skimmer

4s

1 Ldle

3s

1 3s

Corks 1 Gross ½

9s

Cordage 2 Ct 4 10

11 5s

Canvas 19 Yards ½ Sacking

1 2s

Combs 3 at 14

3s 6d

2 at 16

2s

6 at 16

3s

1 at 20

1s 8d

1 Bushling Combs

2s

13s 6d

Cutlery Ware 5 Butchers Knives

3s 5d

Deals &ct 13 double Deals

3s

2 Spares

9s

10 Inch Wainscot Boards

3 1s

6 13s

Glaziersware

34 Sq Glass 6 8

6 7s 10½d

33 Do 8 10

1 7s

7 15s 4½d

Hoziersware

3 Pair Womens Hose

10s

1 Pair Girls Do

3s

1 3s

Haberdashery

18 Ch China Silk

7 17s 6d

2 2 Doz Breast Buttons

11s

31 Doz Coat Do

1 1s

78 Pr Bell Wines

9s

3 Pr Do & 4 Do Inain

1s

29 Pr 3 Sconce

10s

9 Pr Tape

1s

1 Pr Carnation Tape

1s

4 Pr Bedding

½

1 Pr Harras Tape

1s

2 Pr Nedler

4s 6d

5 Yds ½ Ribband

3s

8 May Lace

19s

8 Pr Mohair

1s

1 In Wire

14 3s 7½d

Haberdashery Carried over 14 3s 7½d

Carried over £82 19s 10½d

Brought over, £28 18s 0d.

Broadcloth:

17 yards and a half of blue, £18 19s 6d

3 yards and a half of scarlet, £3 14s 0d

Total, £22 13s 0d

Blankets, 2, £0 19s 0d

Braziers ware:

1 copper sauce pan, £0 6s 0d

1 copper kettle, £0 10s 0d

1 brass skimmer, £0 4s 0d

1 ladle, £0 3s 0d

Total, £1 0s 0d

Cloths, 1 gross, £0 6s 9d

Cordage, 4 cwt 1 qr 10 lb, £11 5s 8d

Canvas, 19 yards and a half of sacking, £1 2s 0d

Combs:

3 at 14d, £0 3s 6d

2 at 16d, £0 2s 3d

6 at 16d, £0 3s 0d

1 at 20d, £0 1s 8d

5 buckling combs, £0 2s 3d

Total, £0 13s 0d

Cutlery ware, 5 butchers' knives, £0 3s 5d

Deals and other:

13 double deals, £3 0s 0d

2 spars, £0 9s 0d

10 inch wainscot boards, £3 1s 8d

Total, £6 10s 8d

Glaziers ware:

34 squares of glass at 6s 8d, £6 7s 10½d

33 squares of glass at 8s 10d, £1 7s 0d

Total, £7 13s 10½d

Hosiery ware:

3 pairs of women's hose, £0 10s 0d

1 pair of girls' hose, £0 3s 0d

Total, £1 3s 0d

Haberdashery:

186 pieces of China silk, £7 17s 6d

2 dozen breast buttons, £0 11s 0d

31 dozen coat buttons, £1 10s 0d

78¾ dozen bell twine, £0 9s 0d

5 pairs and a half of ferret lace, £0 1s 1d

29¾ dozen ferret, £0 10s 0d

9 pairs of tape, £0 1s 3d

1 pair of carnation tape, £0 1s 0d

4 pairs of webbing, £0 0s 4d

1 pair of harness tape, £0 1s 0d

2 papers of needles, £0 4s 6d

5 yards and a half of ribbon, £0 3s 0d

8 stay laces, £0 19s 0d

5 lb of mohair, £0 1s 9d

1 line, [...]

Haberdashery carried over, £14 3s 7d

Carried over, £82 19s 10½d

Interpretations

This is the storekeeper's quarterly account of goods sold from the Company's warehouse, set out by category of merchandise, revealing the sheer breadth of stock a mid-ocean depot had to carry. From cloth and buttons to copper pans, cordage, window glass and building timber, the store supplied both the settlement's households and the ships that called, a general merchant's inventory gathered under one roof. The clerk groups the sales under headings of trade, broadcloth, braziers ware, haberdashery and the rest, so the turnover of each kind of goods could be seen at a glance.

Several of the categories carry the compressed trade names of the eighteenth-century merchant, terms that grouped a whole class of wares. Braziers ware meant goods of worked brass and copper such as pans, kettles and skimmers, haberdashery covered the small articles of sewing and dress like buttons, tape and thread, and deals were sawn softwood planks sold for building. These grouped headings were the ordinary language of the wholesale trade, by which a storekeeper reckoned his diverse stock in familiar classes rather than as a scatter of unrelated items.

The window glass and building timber among the goods point to the store supplying the fabric of the settlement's houses as well as its dress and food. Squares of glass sold by the piece, deals, spars and wainscot boards all served the construction and repair of buildings on the island. That such materials were kept in stock and sold by the storekeeper shows the Company provisioning the physical growth of the settlement, the timber and glass for its houses drawn from the same warehouse that furnished the cloth on its people's backs.

158

152

Brought over

£82 19s 10½d

Haberdashery Brought over 14 3s 7½d

2 In Wire

3s 10d

1 Pr Mohair 4 Pr Inain

3s 10½d

4 Taylors Thimbles

1s

14 12s 4d

Hooks and Lines

26 Doz Blew hooks

1 6s 6d

92 Doz ½ hooks Sorted

4 8s 8d

2 Doz Lines No 1

8s 8d

7 Lines No 2

2s 11d

60 Lines 3

1 15s

25 Do 4

16s 8d

8 Do 5

6s

1 Hambro Line

3s 6d

8 19s 11d

Fustains &c 14 Pr 3 Yd Sagathy

3 14s 7d

Ironmongersware

1 Claw hammer

1s 8d

1 Sugar Shovel

2s 6d

2 Shod Shovels

6s

2 Stock Locks Do

2s 10d

1 Do C

1s 8d

4 Rimmed Locks A

13s 4d

1 Do B

4s 2d

120 Wood Screws

15s

1 Frying Pan

6s 2d

2 13s 4d

Iron Potts

8 Potts wt 133½

1 18s 6d

1 Kettle wt 3 21

1 14s 5d

3 12s 11d

Lead 1 Ct Pigg Lead

2s 6d

56 Bird Shott

18s 8d

1 1s 2d

Leather 3 Ct ½ Leather

1 19s 4d

5 Ct Horse hides

9s

2 5s 1d

Nails 100 Ct Nails

3 2s 6d

24 10 Do

12s

16 20 Do

8s

36½ 3 Do

1 13s 5½d

6 Tacks

7s 6d

6 3s 5½d

Oyle 21 Gallons ½ Lamp oyle

5 7s 6d

12 Gallons ¾ Linseed Do

4 5s

9 12s 6d

Pitch &c 15 Ct Rozin

11s 4½d

1 Gall ¾ Tarr

1s 9d

13s 1½d

Carried over £136 8s 5½d

Brought over, £82 19s 10½d.

Haberdashery brought over, £14 3s 7½d

2 more lines, £0 3s 10d

1 pair and a half of mohair and 4 yards of lomain, £0 3s 10½d

4 tailors' thimbles, £0 1s 0d

Total, £14 12s 4d

Hooks and lines:

26 dozen and a half of blue hooks, £1 6s 6d

92 dozen and a half of hooks, soiled, £4 8s 8d

2 dozen of lines number 1, £0 2s 11d

7 lines number 2, £1 15s 0d

60 lines number 3, £0 16s 8d

25 lines number 4, £0 6s 0d

8 lines number 5, £0 3s 6d

1 Hamburg line, [...]

Total, £8 19s 11d

Fustians and other, 1 pair and 3 yards of sagathy, £3 14s 7d

Ironmongers ware:

1 claw hammer, £0 1s 8d

1 sugar shovel, £0 2s 6d

2 shod shovels, £0 6s 0d

2 stock locks and other, £0 2s 10d

1 stock lock, £0 1s 8d

4 rimmed locks, £0 13s 4d

1 rimmed lock, £0 4s 2d

120 wood screws, £0 15s 0d

1 frying pan, £0 6s 2d

Total, £2 13s 4d

Iron pots:

8 pots of 133 lb and a half, £1 18s 6d

1 kettle of 3 qr 21 lb, £1 14s 5d

Total, £3 12s 11d

Lead and other:

1 cwt of pig lead, £0 2s 6d

5 cwt of bird shot, £0 18s 8d

Total, £1 1s 2d

Leather:

3 cwt and a half of leather, £1 19s 4d

5 horse hides and a half, £0 9s 0d

Total, £2 5s 1d

Nails:

100 lb of ten-penny nails, £3 2s 6d

24 lb of ten-penny nails, £0 12s 0d

16 lb of twenty-penny nails, £0 8s 0d

36 lb and a half of three-penny nails, £1 13s 5½d

6 lb of tacks, £0 7s 6d

Total, £6 3s 5½d

Oil:

21 gallons and a half of lamp oil, £5 7s 6d

12 gallons and three quarters of linseed oil, £4 5s 0d

Total, £9 12s 6d

Pitch and other:

15 cwt and a half of rosin, £0 11s 4½d

1 gallon and three quarters of tar, £0 1s 9d

Total, £0 13s 1½d

Carried over, £136 8s 5½d

Interpretations

The account continues the storekeeper's quarterly sales, and the run of fishing tackle here reveals how large a place fishing held in the island's provisioning. Great quantities of hooks and lines were sold, ninety-two dozen hooks in one lot alone, graded lines by the number and a Hamburg line among them. That the store carried such a stock of tackle shows how the settlement fed itself from the sea around it, the waters off the island a vital source of fresh food to eke out the meat of the plantations and the salted stores of the ships.

The heavy sales of ironmongery, nails and building materials confirm the store's role in supplying the constant construction and repair of the settlement. Locks, hammers, shovels, wood screws, pots and hundredweights of nails passed over the counter, the hardware of a place forever building. This steady turnover of ironwork shows a settlement expanding and maintaining its houses and works, drawing from the Company store the fixings and tools that no island manufacture could provide.

The compressed trade names again show the merchant's habit of grouping wares under familiar class headings that a modern reader would not recognise. Fustian was a coarse cotton-and-linen cloth, sagathy a light woollen stuff, and rosin the hard residue of distilled pine resin used in pitch and for treating cordage. These grouped headings, ironmongers ware, fustians and pitch, were the ordinary categories of the eighteenth-century warehouse, by which the storekeeper reckoned his varied stock in the settled language of the trade.

159

153

Brought over

£136 8s 5½d

Paint 28 Barrels Blacking

14s

9lb ½ Smalt Do

6s 1d

10 Pr white Lead

1 6s

30lb Whitening

2s 6d

3 3s 7d

Oars 3 at 5s 10 Ea

17s 6d

2 at 5s

10s

1 7s 6d

Shoes 3 Womens Lask

3s 3d

4 Pr Mens bed Shoes

1 8s 2d

3 Pr Mens Shoes

18s

10 Pr Do Damaged Pr Lorrain

2s

4 Pr Womens Spanish

1 4s

1 Pr Boys

4s 8d

1 Pr Girls

3s 6d

6 2s

Starch 1lb

8d

Soap 1lb

4s

Shalloon 18 Yd ½ Blew & Coloured

2 15s 6d

12 Yd ½ Scarlet

2 6s 10¾d

4 Yd Do

15s

5 17s 4¾d

Stationary 2 Quire Paper

2s 8d

1 Protestant Tuter

1s

3s 8d

Salt 3 Pecks

5s 9d

Turneryware 3 Pr Bowles

1s 9d

2 Cloth Brushes

3s 4d

2 Paint Brushes

1s 6d

1 Scrubbing Brush

3s 4d

1 Wire Sieve

1s 2d

1 Large Bowle

1s 6d

1 Platter

1s

1 Ldle

6d

13s 3d

1 8s

Tinware 1 Coffee Potts

1 11s 3d

Twine &c 12 Twine

11s

5lb ½ Broken Do

6s 3d

2lb ½ Shoe Thread

2 8s 6d

Thread 41lb Inain

2 14s

10lb ½ Brown

2 1s

4 15s

161 13s 3d

India Goods

Arrack 40 Gallons ¾

13 4s 10½d

Challoe 24 Yd ½

16 19s 6d

Doosuttes 5 Pr

3 10s

Carried over £195 7s 7¾d

Brought over, £136 8s 5½d.

Paint:

28 barrels of blacking, £0 14s 0d

9 lb and a half of small, £1 6s 1d

10 lb of white lead, £1 1s 0d

30 lb of whiting, £0 2s 6d

Total, £3 3s 7d

Oars:

3 at 5s 10d each, £0 17s 6d

2 at 5s each, £0 10s 0d

Total, £1 7s 6d

Shoes:

3 pairs of women's laced, £0 3s 2d

4 pairs of men's best shoes, £1 8s 0d

3 pairs of men's shoes, £0 18s 0d

10 pairs of ditto, damaged and lomain, £2 0s 0d

4 pairs of women's Spanish, £1 4s 0d

1 pair of boy's, £0 4s 8d

1 pair of girl's, £0 3s 6d

Total, £6 2s 0d

Starch, 1 lb, £0 0s 8d

Soap, 1 lb, £0 4s 0d

Shalloon:

18 yards and a half of blue and coloured, £2 15s 6d

12 yards and a half of scarlet, £2 6s 10½d

4 yards of ditto, £0 15s 0d

Total, £5 17s 4½d

Stationery:

2 quires of paper, £0 2s 8d

1 Protestant Psalter, £0 1s 0d

Total, £0 3s 8d

Salt, 3 pecks, £0 5s 9d

Turnery ware:

3 pairs of bowls, £0 1s 9d

2 cloth brushes, £0 3s 4d

2 paint brushes, £0 1s 6d

1 scrubbing brush, £0 3s 4d

1 stave sieve, £0 1s 2d

1 large bowl, £0 1s 6d

1 platter, £0 1s 0d

1 ladle, £0 0s 6d

Total, £0 13s 3d

Tinware, 1 coffee pot, £1 11s 3d

Twine and other:

12 lb of twine, £0 11s 0d

5 lb and a half of broken twine, £0 6s 3d

2 lb and a half of shoe thread, [...]

Total, £2 8s 6d

Thread:

41 lb of green, £2 14s 0d

10 lb and a half of brown, £2 1s 0d

Total, £4 15s 0d

Total, £161 13s 3d

India goods:

Arrack, 40 gallons and three quarters, £16 19s 6d

Chelloes, 24 pairs and a half, £3 10s 0d

Doosooties, 5 pairs, [...]

Carried over, £195 7s 7½d

Interpretations

The account moves from the general store into a distinct class of India goods, the Asian wares that set a Company depot apart from any home warehouse. Arrack, chelloes and doosooties head this separate section, marking them as imports carried from the East rather than the European stock of the earlier headings. Chelloes and doosooties were both plain cotton cloths woven in India, staples of the Company's textile trade, and their listing under their own heading shows how the eastern goods were reckoned apart as the special stock of the India route.

The heavy sales of paint, blacking and building sundries again reflect a settlement constantly building and maintaining its fabric. Barrels of blacking, white lead, whiting and brushes passed over the counter alongside the oars and cloth, the materials for painting and finishing the island's structures. This steady demand for such goods shows the ongoing upkeep of a growing settlement, the storekeeper supplying not only the raw timber and iron of construction but the paint and finishing that followed it.

The single Protestant Psalter sold among the stationery is a small but telling mark of the religious character the settlement maintained. Amid the paint, thread and cloth, a book of psalms for Protestant worship was kept in stock and sold. Its quiet presence in the store account shows the Company providing for the spiritual as well as the material needs of its people, the means of Protestant devotion carried to the remote island along with its cloth and hardware.

160

154

Brought over

£195 7s 7¾d

Chinaware 16½ half Pint Cups

2 14s 8d

32 Rigging Do

8s

1 Tea Pott

1s 6d

2 Saucers

6d

3 4s 8d

Long Cloth 1 Pr

1 8s

2 Pr

3 7s

4 15s

Pallempores 1

6d

Sugar 12 2s 21

35 10s 6d

Candy 170

17 12s 6d

Pepper 1lb

1s 3d

Shirts &c 3 Pr Cotton hose

7s 6d

3 Shirts

7s 6d

15s

Tea 8lb

12s

Rice & Paddy 4 Ct Rice

7s

586 Paddy

2 2s 6¾d

2 9s 6¾d

£260 12s 1d

A Collection of Charges General &c from the 1 October to the

31 December 1742 Vizt

Broad Cloth 2 Yd Blew at 16 to cover Council Table

1 12s

Haberdashery 1½ Pr China Silk

1 1½d

Long Cloth 8 Pr Bedding at 2 2s 6 Pr Bunch for a horse

2 1s

Leather 2 Sett at 5½ P Ct

1 5½d

Nails vizt

7 Pr Nails at 4½ P 11

4½d

3 Copper Rivets at 3½ P 4

2s 3½d

2s 8d

Oyle vizt

9 Gallons of Linseed at 4s 5

1 19s 9d

1 Gall Lamp at 6s

6s

2 3s 9d

Paint vizt

18 White Lead at 30s P Ct

11s 11½d

2 Pr Yellow Ochre at 22s 6 P Pr

4s 9½d

12 Double Barrels Blacking at

3s 8d

18 Do Do

1s 9d

16 Spanish Brown at 15s P Ct

1s 10½d

10 Red Lead at 16s 5 P Ct

1s 5½d

20lb Whitening at 4½ P Ct

5s

1 5s 11½d

Turnersware 3 Paint Brushes

9d

2 Hair Brooms at 2s 3½ Pr Ea

4s 7d

1 Scrubbing Brush at 1s 7¾ Ea

1s 7¾d

7 11¾d

Carried over £8 11s

Brought over, £195 7s 7½d.

China ware:

16 half-pint cups and a half, £2 14s 8d

32 pieces of rigging, £0 8s 0d

1 tea pot, £0 1s 6d

2 saucers, £0 0s 6d

Total, £3 4s 8d

Long cloth:

1 pair, £1 8s 0d

2 pairs, £3 7s 0d

Total, £4 15s 0d

Palampores, 1, £0 6s 0d

Sugar, 12 cwt 2 qr 21 lb, £35 10s 6d

Candy, 170 lb, £17 12s 6d

Pepper, 1 cwt, £0 1s 3d

Shirts and other:

3 pairs of cotton hose, £0 7s 6d

3 shirts, £0 7s 6d

Total, £0 15s 0d

Tea, 8 lb, £0 12s 0d

Rice and paddy:

2 cwt of rice, £0 7s 0d

38 cwt of paddy, £2 2s 6½d

Total, £2 9s 6½d

Total, £260 12s 1d

A collection of general charges from 1 October to 31 December 1742.

Broadcloth, 2 yards of blue at 16s to cover the Company's table, £1 12s 0d

Haberdashery, half a pair of China silk, £0 1s 1½d

Long cloth, 1 pair of shalloon at 2s 6d and a pair of buckram for lining, £2 1s 0d

Leather, 2 cwt at 5s a lb, £0 1s 5½d

Nails:

2 lb of ten-penny nails at 4½d, £0 0s 4½d

3 copper rivets at 3s 4d, £0 2s 3½d

Total, £0 2s 8d

Oil:

9 gallons of linseed at 4s 5d, £1 19s 9d

1 gallon of lamp oil at 3s, £0 3s 0d

Total, £2 3s 9d

Paint:

1 cwt of white lead at 30s a cwt, £0 11s 11½d

2 lb of yellow ochre at 22s 6d a cwt, £0 4s 9¾d

12 double barrels of blacking at 3d, £0 3s 8d

1 lb of ditto at 1½d a lb, £0 1s 9d

16 lb of Spanish brown at 12s a cwt, £0 1s 10¼d

10 lb of red lead at 16s 3d a cwt, £0 1s 5¼d

20 lb of whiting at 2s 4½d a cwt, £0 0s 5d

Total, £1 5s 11¾d

Turnery ware:

3 paint brushes, £0 1s 9d

2 hair brooms at 2s 3d each, £0 4s 7d

1 scrubbing brush at 1s 7¼d each, £0 1s 7¾d

Total, £7 11s 3¾d

Carried over, £8 0s 11d

Interpretations

The account closes the storekeeper's sales with more India goods and staple foods, then opens a fresh section for the Company's own general charges. The distinction is important, the first part records goods sold to the settlement while the second sets down what the Company itself spent on running the establishment. This separation of sales from charges shows the storekeeper keeping two distinct reckonings in one account, the revenue from the warehouse marked off from the costs of maintaining the station.

The great weight of sugar, candy and paddy sold reveals the store dealing in bulk foodstuffs drawn from the eastern trade. Over twelve hundredweight of sugar, a large quantity of sugar candy and many hundredweight of paddy passed over the counter, paddy being rice still in the husk. That such quantities of Asian staples were kept and sold shows the island provisioned from the same India traffic that supplied its cloth and arrack, the homeward ships bringing the grain and sugar that fed the settlement and reprovisioned the fleets.

The itemised paint charges expose the working detail of the Company's upkeep costs, each pigment priced by the hundredweight. White lead, yellow ochre, Spanish brown, red lead and whiting were all bought for the settlement's painting, the coloured earths and lead compounds that made up the painter's stock. A line for two yards of blue broadcloth to cover the Company's table shows even the furnishing of the council chamber charged to the general account, the small comforts of government reckoned among the costs of the station.

161

155

Charges General Brought over

£8 11s

Thread vizt

4 oz Thread

1s 8d

1lb Coloured Thread

2s 2½d

3s 10½d

Glaziersware vizt

3 Squares Glass 3 by 16

2s 4d

2 Sq Do 6 8 at 5s 6½

6d

3s 0d

Ironmongersware 3 Iron Rimbed Locks B

7s 2¾d

Cutleryware vizt

1 Case Knives & Forks No 6

1 1s

1 Ivory Handle Knives & Forks

2s 2d

1 3s 2d

Chinaware 6 Small Dishes at 15s 6 P Ct

8s

Lanthorns 1 hand Glass Lanthorn

9s 0d

Cordage 2lb at 34s ½ P Ct

7s 3½d

Shott 1 Bird Shott at 5s 4 P Ct

2s 6d

Iron & Steel 2 Barr Iron wt 4 Pr 20 at 16s 6 P Ct

1 6½d

Charges General Amounting to £12 12s 3¾d

Blacks Vizt

Arrack ½ Gall at 6s 1 P Gall

10¾d

Sugar 2lb at 5½ P lb

5d

Shirts 18 White & Shirts at 15s P Ct

1 13s

Shoes 4 Pair Pr Lorrain at 4s P Pair

16s

Blacks Amounting to£ 2 10s 3¾d

Boats Vizt

Cordage vizt

32lb Cordage at 34s ½ P Ct

10s 2½d

1 Iron Suck Hawser wt 3 Pr 24

3 7s 1¼d

3 17s 1¾d

Deals 2 6 double at 2s P Sett Ea

3s

Nails vizt

36 Pr Nails at 15s P Ct

12s 6d

26 20 Do at 5s P Ct

6s 8d

26 30 Do at 5s 30 P Ct

3s 10d

1 5s

Oyle 1½ Gallons Lamp at 6s P Gall

4s 6d

Pitch &c Vizt

34lb Pitch

7s 7d

20lb Turpentine

2s 6d

4½ Gallons Tarr

2s 7½d

12s 8½d

Twine ½ Ct at 44s P Ct

5¾d

Boats Amounting to£ 9 4s 9¾d

A Collection

General charges brought over, £8 0s 11d.

Thread:

4 oz of thread, £0 1s 8d

1 lb of coloured thread, £0 2s 2½d

Total, £0 3s 10½d

Glaziers ware:

3 squares of glass 3 by 16, £0 2s 4d

2 squares of glass 6 by 8 at 6½d, £0 0s 3d

Total, £0 3s 0d

Ironmongers ware, 3 iron-rimmed locks and other, £0 7s 2¾d

Cutlery ware:

1 case of knives and forks number 6, £1 1s 0d

1 ivory-handled knives and forks, £0 1s 2d

Total, £1 2s 2d

China ware, 6 small dishes at 15s 6d a dozen, £0 8s 0d

Lanterns, 1 hand glass lantern, £0 0s 9d

Cordage, 2 lb at 4½d a lb, £0 7s 3¾d

Shot, 1 cwt of bird shot at 2s 6d a lb, £0 2s 6d

Iron and steel, 2 bars of iron of 3 qr 20 lb at 16s 6d a cwt, £0 1s 6¼d

General charges amounting to £12 12s 3d

Slaves:

Arrack, half a gallon at 6s 1d a gallon, £0 0s 10¾d

Sugar, 2 lb at 5½d a lb, £0 0s 5d

Shirts, 18 white and other shirts at 1s 10d each, £1 13s 0d

Shoes, 4 pairs and lomain at 3s 4d a pair, £0 16s 0d

Slaves amounting to £2 10s 3½d

Boats:

Cordage:

32 lb of cordage at 4½d a lb, £0 12s 0d

1 four-inch hawser of 10 cwt 3 qr 24 lb, £3 7s 1½d

Total, £3 17s 1¾d

Deals, 2 double deals at 2s 6d each, £0 5s 0d

Nails:

30 lb of ten-penny nails at 5d a lb, £0 12s 6d

2 lb of twenty-penny nails at 4d a lb, £0 6s 8d

2 lb of three-penny nails at 3½d a lb, £0 3s 10d

Total, £1 5s 0d

Oil, 1 gallon and a half of lamp oil at 3s a gallon, £0 4s 6d

Pitch and other:

30 lb of pitch, £0 7s 7d

20 lb of turpentine, £0 2s 6d

4 gallons and a half of tar, £0 2s 7½d

Total, £0 12s 8½d

Twine, half a hundredweight, £0 0s 5¾d

Boats amounting to £9 4s 9¾d

Interpretations

The account divides the Company's charges into distinct heads of expenditure, separating what was spent on the settlement, on its slaves and on its boats. Each division gathers the goods drawn from store for that purpose, so the cost of maintaining the enslaved workforce and the cost of keeping the boats in repair could each be seen apart. This careful apportioning of charges by object shows the storekeeper reckoning not merely what was spent but on what it was spent, breaking the running costs of the station into their separate uses.

The charges under slaves lay bare the minimal provision made for the enslaved workforce that built and worked the island. The whole quarter's issue to the slaves came to little more than £2, covering eighteen shirts, four pairs of shoes and small measures of arrack and sugar. That so bare an allowance clothed and rewarded the labour on which the fortifications and plantations depended shows how cheaply the Company maintained the people it held in bondage, a few shirts and shoes set against the constant toil recorded throughout these accounts.

The boat charges reveal the constant cost of keeping the island's small craft in service, the vessels essential to a place with no other means of moving goods along its coast. Cordage, a four-inch hawser, deals, nails, pitch, turpentine and tar were all drawn from store to maintain the boats. This steady expenditure on rope, timber and caulking materials shows how much the settlement depended on its boats, the only practical link between the scattered landing places of an island too rugged for hauling goods overland.

162

156

A Collection of Diet Expences from the 1 of October to the

31 December 1742 Vizt

Arrack 403 Gallons at 21s P Gall

33 11s 1½d

Ale & Beer vizt

511 Bottles Strong Beer

6 7s 9d

76 Bottles Ale

2 7s 6d

8 15s 3d

Bunting 3 Yards White at 6s P Yd

1 6d

Beef 1 Cask 125 Peices

17 8s 4½d

Chinaware vizt

6 half Pint Cups at 5s P Ct

6d

6 China Dishes

8s 6d

9s 6d

Pork 109 Peices

11 4s 6d

Oyle vizt

6¼ Gall Lamp oyl at 6s P Gall

18s 9d

22 Bottles Florence Yal at 2s 6 P Ct

2 15s

3 13s 9d

Pepper 6lb at 5s P lb

3s

Flour 9 Cwt 3s Bread at 10s 2 P Ct

61 10s

Sugar and Candy vizt

4 3s 4½ Sugar at 2s 5s 4 P Ct

9 3s 10½d

1 1s 19 Candy at 2s 6s 4 P Ct

1 19s 6d

11 3s 4¾d

Pitch &c 1lb Rozin

1¾d

Twine 1lb at 5s 6 P Ct

10¾d

Tinware 2 Doz Petty Sams at 5s 6 P Ct

11s

Corks 1 Cross

10d

Candles 28lb

1 17s 9d

Rice 80lb

3s 4d

Salt 3 Bushells

2 8s

Wine vizt

296 Bottles Port Wine

22 4s

203 Bottles Mountain

15 4s 6d

16½ Bottles Red Cape

2 6d

144 Bottles white Cape

2 19s 9d

42 8s 9d

£166 4s 11¾d

Fortification vizt

Twine 5lb ½ at 44s P Ct

3s

Thread ½ Grass Pr Brown Thread

4s 5d

Haberdashery ½ Pr Large Needles

1s 3d

Fortification Carried over£ 8 8s

A collection of diet expenses from 1 October to 31 December 1742.

Arrack, 403 gallons at 1s 9d a gallon, £33 11s 1½d

Ale and beer:

511 bottles of strong beer, £6 7s 9d

76 bottles of ale, £2 7s 6d

Total, £8 15s 3d

Bunting, 3 yards of white at 6s a yard, £0 1s 6d

Beef, 1 cask, 125 pieces, £17 8s 4½d

China ware:

6 half-pint cups at 6s a dozen, £0 0s 6d

6 China dishes, £0 8s 6d

Total, £0 9s 6d

Pork, 109 pieces, £11 4s 6d

Oil:

6 gallons and a quarter of lamp oil at 3s a gallon, £0 18s 9d

22 bottles of Florence oil at 2s 6d a bottle, £2 15s 0d

Total, £3 13s 9d

Pepper, 6 lb, £0 3s 0d

Flour, 9 cwt of bread at 40s a cwt, £61 10s 8d

Sugar and candy:

7 cwt 3 qr 14 lb of sugar at 25s a cwt, £9 3s 10½d

1 cwt 1 qr 19 lb of candy at 26s a cwt, £1 19s 6d

Total, £11 3s 4¾d

Pitch and other:

1 lb of rosin, £0 0s 1¼d

1 lb of twine, £0 0s 10¾d

Tinware, 2 dozen patty pans at 1s a dozen, £0 11s 0d

Cloths, 1 gross, £0 0s 0d

Candles, 28 lb, £1 17s 9d

Rice, 80 lb, £0 8s 4d

Salt, 8 bushels, £2 8s 0d

Wine:

296 bottles of port wine, £22 4s 0d

203 bottles of Mountain, £15 4s 0d

16 bottles of red Cape, £2 6s 0d

149 bottles of white Cape, £2 19s 9d

Total, £42 8s 9d

Total, £166 4s 11¾d

A collection of fortification charges.

Twine, 5 lb and a half at 5s 6d a lb, £0 3s 0d

Thread, 1 lb of green thread and brown thread, £0 4s 5d

Haberdashery, half a pair of large needles, £0 1s 3d

Fortification carried over, £8 8s 4½d

Interpretations

This is the account of what the Company spent feeding its establishment, and the great weight of drink in it reveals how central wine and spirits were to the table of a Company station. Arrack, strong beer, ale and hundreds of bottles of wine make up a large share of the whole, the port and Mountain alone running to nearly £40. Such lavish provision of drink, more than half the diet bill in some readings, shows the imported liquor of the Cape and India trades supplied freely at the general table, a mark of the standard of living the Company maintained for its servants.

The meat provision shows the settlement drawing heavily on preserved beef and pork by the piece, the salted staples of a maritime store. A whole cask of beef of 125 pieces and 109 pieces of pork were reckoned into the quarter's diet, the barrelled meat that kept in the island's climate and stocked the ships. This reliance on salted meat by the piece, alongside the fresh beasts of the plantation return, shows the settlement's table fed from both the living herds and the preserved stores of the ocean trade.

Mountain wine among the drink names a particular import that a modern reader would not recognise. Mountain was a sweet white wine from Málaga in southern Spain, made from grapes grown on the hillsides above that port, and hundreds of bottles of it were drunk at the station. Its presence in quantity alongside the port and Cape wines shows the range of the wine trade that reached the island, the settlement's cellar drawing on Spain and the Cape alike to supply the Company's table.

163

157

Fortification Brought over

£8 8s

Nails vizt

24 20 Nails at 5s ¾ P Ct

7s

13 10 Do at 5s 7 Do

16s

30 6 Do at 5s 3 Do

1 13s 4d

16 3 Do at 5s 7 Do

0s 4d

6 flying brads at 4s 4 Do

2s 1½d

½ Tacks at 5s 10 Do

5d

3 8s 2¾d

Ironware vizt

1 Brick layers Trowell

1s

2 Pick Axes at 2s 6 P Ct

5s

5 Ladhes

2s 9¾d

12 Shod Shovels at 1s 5 P lb Ct

17s 3d

2 Tille Locks at 2s P Ct

4s

1 Door Lock

11¼d

1 Frying Pann

3s 6d

1 Cubboard Lock

4s 6d

1 18s 11¾d

Cordage 2 50lb at 34s ½ P Ct

3 16s 3d

Pitch &c 1 Gazzole Tarr

1 1s 6d

Duch 11 Yards Nupra at 1s 6 P Yd

11s

Deals &c vizt

18 Long Spares at 2s P Ct

1 19s

60 Double Deals at 2s 6 P Ct

7 10s

6 Short Spares at 2s P Ct

12s

2 Large Peices of Oak Timber 21s P Ct

2 3s 4d

12 4s 4d

Cartwheels 26 Barrow whals at 3s 7 P Ct

4 6s 8d

Turnersware &c vizt

2 Paint Brushes at 5s 7 P Ct

1s 2d

2 Cloth Brush at 2s 3 P Ct

4s 6d

1 Do Platter at 1s 3 P Ct

4s

9s 8d

Glaziersware vizt

25 Squares Glass 6 by 8 at 5s 3 P Ct

10s 5d

42 Sq Do 6 8 5s 3 P Ct

17s 6d

1 7s 11d

Paint vizt

1 Pr Verdigrease at 22s ¾ P Ct

1s 4d

2lb White Lead at 5s 4 P Do

8d

10s

Oyle vizt

1½ Gallons Linseed at 4s 5 P Gall

6s 7½d

½ Do Do Lamp at 6s P Do

2s 3d

8s 10½d

Iron Potts vizt

1 Large Pote wt 4 Pr 21 at

17s 6d

1 Small Do wt 17

2s 11d

1 5s

Fortification Carried over£ 31 12s 6d

Fortification charges brought over, £8 8s 4½d.

Nails:

24 lb of twenty-penny nails at 4½d a lb, £0 7s 0d

13 lb of ten-penny nails at 5d a lb, £0 16s 0d

30 lb of six-penny nails at 5d a lb, £1 13s 4d

16 lb of three-penny nails at 5d a lb, £0 0s 4d

6 lb of flooring brads at 5½d a lb, £0 2s 1½d

half a pound of tacks at 5d a lb, £0 0s 5d

Total, £3 8s 2½d

Ironware:

1 bricklayer's trowel, £0 1s 0d

2 pickaxes at 2s 6d each, £0 5s 0d

5 hatchets, £0 2s 9¾d

12 shod shovels at 1s 5½d each, £0 17s 3d

2 till locks at 2s each, £0 4s 0d

1 door lock, £0 1s 1½d

1 frying pan, £0 3s 6d

1 cupboard lock, £0 4s 6d

Total, £1 18s 11¾d

Cordage, 2 cwt 50 lb at 4½d a lb, £3 16s 3d

Pitch and other, 1 barrel of tar, £1 1s 6d

Duck, 19 yards of nupra at 1s a yard, £0 11s 0d

Deals and other:

18 long spars at 2s each, £1 19s 0d

60 double deals at 2s 6d each, £7 10s 0d

6 short spars at 2s each, £0 12s 0d

2 large pieces of oak timber at 21s 8d each, £2 3s 4d

Total, £12 4s 4d

Cartwheels, 26 barrow wheels at 3s 7d each, £4 6s 8d

Turnery ware:

2 paint brushes at 1s 7d each, £0 1s 2d

1 wood brush at 1s each, £0 4s 6d

6 wood platters at 1s 8d each, £0 4s 0d

Total, £0 9s 8d

Glaziers ware:

25 squares of glass 6 by 8 at 5d each, £0 10s 5d

42 squares of glass 6 by 8 at 5d each, £0 17s 6d

Total, £1 7s 11d

Paint:

1 lb of verdigris at 2s a lb, £0 1s 4d

2 lb of white lead at 3s a lb, £0 0s 8d

Total, £0 10s 0d

Oil:

1 gallon and a half of linseed at 4s 5d a gallon, £0 6s 7½d

three quarters of a gallon of lamp oil, £0 2s 3d

Total, £0 8s 10½d

Iron pots:

1 large pot of 10 cwt 3 qr 21 lb, £0 17s 6d

1 small pot of 10 lb, 17 lb, £0 2s 11d

Total, £1 0s 5d

Fortification carried over, £31 12s 6d

Interpretations

This is the account of what the Company spent on its fortifications over the quarter, and the range of materials in it lays bare the whole business of building a battery from the ground up. Nails, spars, deals, oak timber, cordage, tar and window glass all pass under the fortification head, the raw stock of construction gathered for the works at Munden's Point and the other batteries. The account shows the settlement's defence as a matter of steady expenditure on ordinary building materials as much as of guns and powder.

The barrow wheels and shod shovels reveal the sheer manual labour of moving earth and stone for the works. Twenty-six barrow wheels and a dozen iron-shod shovels were charged to the fortifications, the tools of the enslaved and hired hands who carried the material to the sites. This provision of digging and hauling gear shows the works raised by hand, gang labour shifting the earth and stone that the accounts elsewhere record being burnt into lime and quarried near the batteries.

The oak timber and long spars point to the heavy carpentry that framed and supported the masonry defences. Large pieces of oak and quantities of spars and deals were bought for the works, the timber for platforms, gun carriages, scaffolding and shoring. That such substantial wood was carried to the batteries shows the fortifications as timber-framed as well as stone-built, the works needing the carpenter's craft alongside the mason's to mount the guns and hold the walls against the sea and the enemy.

164

158

Fortification Brought over

£31 12s 6d

Tea 1lb

10d

Lines 1 Line No 6

5½d

Leather 7lb ½ Sole at 5s 8 P Ct

5s 5½d

Fortification Amounting to£ 31 19s 3d

Garrison Vizt

Oyle vizt

41¾ Gallons Lamp oyl at 3s P Gall

6 5s 2d

1 Quart Florence at 2s 6 P Gall

2s 6d

3 Gallons Linseed at 4s 5 P Gall

13s 3d

6 19s 6d

Tea 37lb at 10s P Ct

2 7s 6d

Arrack 27 Gallons at 1s 5s 3 P Gall

2 7s 3d

Sugar 12lb at 5½ P lb

2s 6d

Lines vizt

2 Lines No 6 at 5s 3½ P Ct

11d

½ Large Hambro Line 1 Po P Ct

11d

1 10d

Deals &c vizt

3 Single Deals at 1s 6 P Ct

4s 7½d

2 Doubles Do at 2s 6 P Ct

5s

9s 7½d

Nails vizt

1lb 10 Nails at 5s 7 P Ct

4d

2 6 Do at 5s 7 P Ct

10d

6 2 Do at 5s 7 P Do

3s

8lb Spikes at 5s 34 P Do

2s 2d

8s 4d

Thread 2lb Grassed Brown thread P Swift

4s 3d

Turnersware vizt

5 Platters at 5s P ea

3s 4d

6 Paint Brushes at 5s 7 ea

3s 6d

6s 10d

Ironware vizt

1 Frying Pann

3s 6d

4 Gimbletts

7s

1 Sack Plein

1 10d

5s 10d

Iron Potts 2 wt 35lb

5s 11d

Cutleryware 2 Butcher Knives

10d

Tinware 1 Tin Lamp

9d

Paint vizt

4 Pr White Lead at 5s P Ct

1 4d

12 Double Barrels Blacking

3s 8d

Cordage 1 Cyle wt 2 3s 20 at 34s ½ P Ct

5s ½d

Twine 2lb at 5s 4 P Ct

1s 9d

Garrison Carried over£ 19 7s 11d

Fortification brought over, £31 12s 6d.

Tea, 1 lb, £0 0s 10d

Lines, 1 line number 6, £0 0s 5½d

Leather, 7 lb and a half of sole at 5s 8d a lb, £0 5s 5½d

Fortification amounting to £31 19s 3d

A collection of garrison charges.

Oil:

41 gallons and a half of lamp oil at 3s a gallon, £6 5s 9d

1 quart of Florence oil at 2s 6d, £0 2s 6d

3 gallons of linseed at 4s 5d a gallon, £0 13s 3d

Total, £6 19s 6d

Tea, 37 lb, £2 7s 6d

Arrack, 27 gallons at 1s 9d a gallon, £2 7s 3d

Sugar, 12 lb at 5½d a lb, £0 2s 6d

Lines:

2 lines number 6 at 6½d each, £0 0s 11d

half a large Hamburg line, £0 0s 11d

Total, £0 1s 10d

Deals and other:

3 single deals at 1s 6½d each, £0 4s 7½d

2 double deals, £0 5s 0d

Total, £0 9s 7½d

Nails:

1 lb of ten-penny nails at 5d a lb, £0 0s 4d

2 lb of six-penny nails, £0 0s 10d

6 lb of two-penny nails, £0 0s 5d

8 lb of spikes at 3½d a lb, £0 2s 2d

Total, £0 8s 4d

Thread, 2 lb of ruffled brown thread by twist, £0 4s 3d

Turnery ware:

5 platters at 1s each, £0 3s 4d

6 paint brushes at 1s each, £0 3s 6d

Total, £0 6s 10d

Ironware:

1 frying pan, £0 3s 6d

4 gimlets, £0 0s 7d

1 stock, plain, £0 1s 10d

Total, £0 5s 10d

Iron pots, 2 of 10 cwt 35 lb, £0 5s 11d

Cutlery ware, 2 butchers' knives, £0 0s 10d

Tinware, 1 tin lamp, £0 0s 9d

Paint:

1 lb of white lead at 3s a lb, £0 1s 4d

12 double barrels of blacking, £0 3s 8d

Total, £0 5s 0d

Cordage, 1 cwt 2 qr 20 lb at 4½d a lb, £0 5s 0d

Twine, 2 lb at 6½d a lb, £0 1s 0d

Garrison carried over, £19 7s 11d

Interpretations

The account closes the fortification charges and opens a fresh head for garrison charges, the goods drawn from store to maintain the military establishment itself. The distinction from the fortification account is one of purpose, the works charged with building materials and the garrison with the running supplies of the troops. This separation shows the storekeeper reckoning the cost of the men apart from the cost of the walls, each branch of the island's defence given its own account.

The heavy charge for lamp oil under the garrison head reveals the constant need for light in a place that stood guard through every night. Over forty gallons of lamp oil made up the bulk of the garrison's charge, the fuel that kept the guardrooms, quarters and watch positions lit. This large and steady expenditure on oil shows how much a garrison consumed simply in keeping its lights burning, the nightly watch and the lit posts of a defended station eating up fuel as surely as its guns ate powder.

The mix of small tools and materials under the garrison head shows the troops maintaining their own quarters and equipment from the store. Frying pans, gimlets, knives, platters, deals and nails were all drawn for the garrison's use, the ordinary gear of men keeping house in their barracks. This provision of domestic and light working goods shows the garrison as a small self-maintaining community, the soldiers supplied not only with arms and oil but with the everyday articles of cooking, eating and minor repair.

165

159

Garrison Brought over

£19 7s 11d

Glaziersware 2 Sour Hour Glasses

6s 8d

Pitch &c 1lb Rozin at 6s P Ct

6d

Garrison Amounting to£ 19 15s 1d

Plantation Vizt

Cordage 33lb at 34s ½ P Ct

10s ¾d

Ironware 2 Shod Shovels at 1s 5 P ea

2s 10¾d

Cutleryware 9 Butchers Knives at 5s 3 ea

3s 9d

Deals &c 4 Double Deals at 2s 6 ea

10s

Pitch &c 2 Gallons Tarr

1 1d

Duch 2 Yards Nupia at 1s P Yd

2s

Twine &c 4lb Pack Thread at 1s 2 P lb

7d

Nails vizt

6lb 10 Nails at 5s 3 P lb

2s 6d

6 20 Do at 5s 3½ P lb

1s 9d

4s 3d

Plantation Amounting to£ 1 14s 7¼d

Received John Godfrey Storekeeper

The Petition of William Gilchrist Provisionaher was

this Day Presented & Read desiring leave to Return to England upon the

Ensuing Shipping.

Granted Provided ale Debts due from him to Persons upon this Island

are first Discharged.

The Governour Reports that upon Examining the Gunners

Stores at Several forts he finds a very great Want of Waads at some

places there are not any So that We might almost as wale have no

Guns And upon enquiry of the Gunner how this Neglect hapned he

tells him that he has often made Application to former Governours

but has been puts of from time to time Whereupon We came to the

Resulution to deliver out to him a Thousand Weight of our Eldest

and worst Cordage and Ordered him to Work it up into Waads

immediately, And We Agreed to Purchase an old Cyl Cable or

otherwise Senk the first Opportunity for this further Purpose.

Messrs John Disfountain and Samuel Doviton Executors

of the last Will and Testament of John Bapett Decd; this Day

brought in the following Account Vizt

Garrison brought over, £19 7s 11d.

Glaziers ware, 2 four-hour glasses, £0 6s 8d

Pitch and other, 1 lb of rosin, £0 0s 6d

Garrison amounting to £19 15s 1d

A collection of plantation charges.

Cordage, 33 lb at 4½d a lb, £0 10s 4¾d

Ironware, 2 shod shovels at 1s 5d each, £0 2s 10¾d

Cutlery ware, 9 butchers' knives at 4d each, £0 3s 0d

Deals and other, 4 double deals at 2s 6d each, £0 10s 0d

Pitch and other, 2 gallons of tar, £0 1s 1d

Duck, 2 yards of nupra at 1s a yard, £0 2s 0d

Twine and other, half a pound of pack thread, £0 0s 7d

Nails:

6 lb of ten-penny nails at 5d a lb, £0 2s 6d

6 lb of twenty-penny nails at 3½d a lb, £0 1s 9d

Total, £0 4s 3d

Plantation amounting to £1 14s 7¾d

The account was received by John Godfrey, storekeeper.

The petition of William Gilchrist, coxswain, was this day presented and read, asking leave to return to England upon the ensuing shipping. It was granted, provided all debts due from him to persons on the island were first discharged.

The Governor reported that on examining the gunner's stores at the several forts he found a very great want of wadds at some places, there being not any, so that they might almost as well have no guns. On enquiry of the gunner how this neglect happened, he told him that he had often made application to former governors but had been put off from time to time. The council therefore resolved to deliver out to the gunner a thousandweight of old rope and worn cordage and ordered him to work it up into wadds immediately, and agreed to purchase an old ship's cable or otherwise seek the first opportunity for this further purpose.

Messrs John Difountain and Samuel Dooton, executors of the last will and testament of John Bazett deceased, this day brought in the following account.

Interpretations

The petition to leave the island shows the tight control the Company kept over the movement of its people, no man free to depart until his obligations were cleared. William Gilchrist, a coxswain, could return to England only once his debts on the island were settled, leave being conditional on his owing nothing behind him. This requirement shows the settlement guarding against men slipping away from their creditors, a departing servant obliged to square his accounts before the ships could carry him home.

The want of wadding at the batteries exposes a dangerous neglect that had left the guns nearly useless, a failure the Governor traced back to his predecessors. Some forts had no wadding at all, without which the guns could scarcely be fired, and the gunner had long been fobbed off by former governors. That the defences had been allowed to fall into so bare a state shows how the constant pressure of cost and inertia could hollow out a garrison's readiness, the present Governor moving to remedy what earlier neglect had left undone.

The remedy reveals the thrift and improvisation of a remote station making do with worn materials. Rather than await fresh supplies, the council issued a thousandweight of old rope and worn cordage for the gunner to work into wadding, and looked to buy an old ship's cable for more. Turning discarded rope into the wadding the guns needed shows the settlement stretching its scanty resources, salvaging worn material to meet a want that fresh stores from England could not supply in time.

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160

Dr Hemans Nichols Debtr to the Estate of John Bapett Decd Cr

To 112 Sugar at 2s 5s P Ct

2 6s 8d

To 2 Bottles Port Wine

6s

To 1 Do Cape Wine

1 11d

To 5 Pints Batavia Arack

3 1½d

2 17s 8¾d

To Ballance due P Cash

to Geo Gab Powell Esqr

Per Contra

48 13s 7¾d

£51 11s 4d

Sundrys Bought at Outcry vizt

By 2 Pairs Hankerchiefs

13s

By 2 Pairs Ginham

2 4s

By 13 Hankerchiefs

11s

By 1 Banyan Shirt

3s

By 6 Stocks

1 6s

By 12 Ditto

2 10s

By 10 Ditto

4s

By 6 Ditto

1 2s

By 12 Stocks

15s 6d

By 1 Banyan

1 3s

By 3 Pr Chints

2 16s

By 1 Cane

1 6s

By 1 Quilt

2s

By 1 Pr Worsted Stockings

4s 6d

By 12 Hankerchiefs

1s

By 4 Ditto

6s

By 2 Pr Ditto

15s

By a Remnant Susee

8s

By 4 Cambrick Hankerchiefs

12s 6d

By 1 Pr Cheveterays

9s

By 1 Pr Doveties Shirts

1 2s 6d

By 1 Long Cloath Ditto

4s

By 1 Cloath Brush

2s

By 1 Bed Pan & Urinal

4s 3d

By 1 Escretore

2 1s

By 13 Sugar at 6 P Ct

6s 6d

By 100 Ditto at 7 P Ct

2 18s 4d

By ½ Part of the Wine & Bar

Bought between Mr Dixon

Charles Clark & Jos Bapett

10 11s 1½d

By Cash received of Jos Disfountain

2 5s

By Dr received of Nichs Frache

1 6s

By Dr received of Sam Kniper

6d

By Ballance Due at Sept 26 1742

6 13s 1½d

£51 11s 4d

And they Accordingly find Us the Ballance Forty Eight Pounds Thirteen

Shillings & Seven Pence half Penney Upon Account of the Estate of Hemans Nichols

Decd.

This day Mr Samuel Doviton Acquainted Us that Mr James

Powell being Ill could not Attend, But that he had in obedience to the Order

of Consultation of 5 February last, Made Sale at Publick Outcry of the Effects

belonging to the Orphanes of the late John Bradley, And Delivered Us

the following Account Particulars thereof vizt

Account Sales

The account of Hemmens Nichols, debtor to the estate of John Bazett deceased, was set out as debtor and creditor.

On the debtor side:

To 112 lb of sugar, £2 6s 8d

To 2 bottles of port wine, £0 6s 0d

To 1 pair of Cape wine, £0 1s 11d

To 5 pints of Batavia arrack, £0 3s 1½d

To balance due, cash to George Gabriel Powell esquire, third of council, £48 13s 7½d

Total, £51 11s 4d

On the creditor side, sundries bought at outcry:

By 2 pairs of handkerchiefs, £0 13s 0d

By 2 pieces of gingham, £2 4s 0d

By 13 handkerchiefs, £0 11s 0d

By 1 banyan shirt, £0 3s 0d

By 6 stocks, £0 1s 6d

By 12 stocks, £2 10s 0d

By 10 stocks, £4 0s 0d

By 6 stocks, £0 1s 2d

By 12 stocks, £0 15s 6d

By 1 banyan, £0 1s 3d

By 3 pairs of chintz, £2 16s 0d

By 1 cane, £0 1s 6d

By 1 quilt, £0 2s 0d

By 1 pair of worsted stockings, £0 1s 6d

By 12 handkerchiefs, £0 1s 0d

By 1 handkerchief, £0 0s 6d

By 2 pairs of handkerchiefs, £0 15s 0d

By a remnant of sash, £0 5s 8d

By 4 cambric handkerchiefs, £0 12s 6d

By 1 pair of chowdaries, £0 0s 9d

By 2 pairs of dowlas shirts, £1 2s 6d

By 1 long cloth ditto, £0 4s 0d

By 1 cloth brush, £0 0s 6d

By 1 bedpan and urinal, £0 4s 3d

By 1 escritoire, £2 1s 6d

By 13 lb of sugar at 6d a lb, £0 6s 6d

By 106 lb of sugar at 7d a lb, £2 18s 4d

By half part of the wine and beer bought between Mr Dixon, Charles Clarke and John Bazett, £10 11s 1½d

By cash received of John Difountain, £2 5s 0d

By cash received of Hicks Prince, £1 0s 6d

By cash received of Samuel Kniper, £1 2s 6d

By balance due at 16 September 1742, £6 13s 1½d

Total, £51 11s 4d

The account found the balance to be £48 13s 7½d upon the estate of Hemmens Nichols deceased.

Mr Samuel Dooton this day acquainted the council that Mr James Powell, being too ill to attend, had in obedience to the order of consultation of 8 February last, made sale at public outcry of the goods belonging to the orphans of the late John Bradley, and delivered the following account of particulars.

Interpretations

This is a cross-account between two estates, showing how the settlement's dead were often bound together as mutual debtors and creditors. The goods and cash that passed between the estates of Hemmens Nichols and John Bazett were reckoned on one sheet, the sums each owed the other set off to strike a balance. This settling of accounts between two deceased men shows how tangled the finances of the small community became, the executors of one estate obliged to reckon with those of another before either could be closed.

The account confirms once more how the leading men shared purchases and drink among themselves, jointly buying stock to be divided. A half share of wine and beer bought between Dixon, Charles Clarke and John Bazett appears as a charge, three of the settlement's principal figures clubbing together to lay in liquor. This joint purchasing of drink by the leading servants shows the informal partnerships of a small society, the men pooling their means to import in bulk what none needed alone.

The proceeding closes with the sale of the Bradley orphans' goods carried out under the council's earlier order, showing the machinery of orphan protection working through to its end. The council had ordered the little estate sold and secured, and Samuel Dooton now reported the sale accomplished by James Powell in his stead through illness. That the order was carried out even when the appointed man fell sick, another stepping in to complete it, shows the settlement's determination to see the orphans' property realised and safeguarded as it had resolved.

167

161

Account Sales of the Goods and Effects belonging to the Orphans of

the late John Bradley Deceased Sold at Publick Auction this 23 Day of

February 1742/3 vizt

Joseph Whaley

1 Acre Lease Land

4 5s

Do

8 Head of Sheep

7 1s

Do

Remnant of Flannel

2s

11 8s

Doctor Alcock

1 Woman Slave

9 1s

Do

1 Girl Do

4

13 1s

Joshua Wirrall

1 Cow

5 1s

Do

Remnant Fustain

1 3s

6 4s

Samuel Doviton

1 Calf

1 11s

Do

2 13s

Do

Remnant of Chellow

7s

Do

Remnant of Long Cloth

6s

Do

A Parcel of Plantation Tools

3 1s

Do

11 Young Turkeys

1 6s

6 2s 7d

Jos Disfountain

16 head of Goats at 8s Ea

6 8s

Do

1 Striped Waiscoat

2s 8d

6 10s 8d

1 1s

John Goodwin

1 Large Sow

1 5s 6d

Willm Chillingsworth

1 Shoat

John Spencer

6 Piggs

1 6s

Do

2 Chellow Shirts

2s 7d

Do

A Parcel of Old Books

1s

Do

1 Fowl

Do

13000 Yams and Suckers

4 19s

6 9s 7d

6 2s

Thomas Colgrove

3 Piggs

11s 6d

Samuel Semple

1 Bed Coat

3 5s

Do

7100 Yams and Suckers

Do

7¼ Acres 1 half a Quarter of Freehold

Land the half the House

25

23 16s 6d

1 5s 6d

Benjm Madged

½lb Thread

11d

Chris Dixon

13 Fowls

7 6d

John Clarke

8 Fowls

6s 3d

Solomon Jacobs

2 Fowls

13s 1d

Gabriel Isaache

3 Grown Turkeys

7 15s

Willm Davis

14000 Yams and Suckers

£89 15s 4d

Dividend of Cash and Efft Due to ye Orphans vizt

£2 12s 3d

Cash

Joseph Whaley Senr

6 6s

John Draper

6

John Disfountain

6

Willm Bown

3 6s

William Toms

£4 2s 3d

The Amount of said Sales 50 18s 4d

Effts sold while Estate due to£ 94 7

We

An account of the sale of the goods and effects belonging to the orphans of the late John Bradley deceased, held at public auction on 23 February 1742.

Joseph Whaley, 1 acre lease land, £4 5s 0d

Joseph Whaley, 8 head of sheep, £7 1s 0d

Joseph Whaley, remnant of flannel, £0 2s 0d

Total, £11 8s 0d

Doctor Alcock, 1 woman slave, £9 1s 0d

Doctor Alcock, 1 girl slave, £4 0s 0d

Total, £13 1s 0d

Joshua Weinall, 1 cow, £5 1s 0d

Joshua Weinall, remnant of fustain, £1 3s 0d

Total, £6 4s 0d

Samuel Dooton, 1 calf, £1 11s 0d

Samuel Dooton, 1 calf, £2 13s 0d

Samuel Dooton, remnant of chelloes, £0 7s 0d

Samuel Dooton, remnant of long cloth, £0 6s 0d

Samuel Dooton, a parcel of plantation tools, £0 5s 1d

Samuel Dooton, 11 young turkeys, £1 0s 6d

Total, £6 2s 7d

Joseph Difountain, 16 head of goats at 8s each, £6 8s 0d

Joseph Difountain, 1 striped waistcoat, £0 2s 8d

Total, £6 10s 8d

John Goodwin, 1 large sow, £1 1s 0d

William Chillingsworth, 1 sheat, £0 5s 6d

John Spencer, 6 pigs, £1 0s 6d

John Spencer, 2 cotton shirts, £0 2s 7d

John Spencer, a parcel of old books, £0 0s 0d

John Spencer, 1 fowl, £0 0s 0d

John Spencer, 13,000 yams and suckers, £4 19s 0d

Total, £6 9s 7d

Thomas Colgrave, 3 pigs, £0 11s 6d

Samuel Semple, 1 red coat, £3 6s 0d

Samuel Semple, 7,100 yams and suckers, £6 2s 0d

Samuel Semple, 7 acres and half a quarter of freehold land and half the house, £25 0s 0d

Total, £23 16s 6d

Benjamin Madge, half a pound of thread, £0 0s 6d

Chief Dixon, 13 fowls, £0 6s 0d

John Clarke, 8 fowls, £0 7s 6d

Solomon Jacobs, 2 fowls, £0 1s 3d

Gabriel Prince, 3 grown turkeys, £0 13s 1d

William Davis, 14,000 yams and suckers, £7 15s 0d

Total, £89 15s 4d

Dividend of cash and effects due to the orphans:

Cash, £2 12s 3d

Joseph Whaley senior, £0 6s 6d

Joseph Difountain, £0 6s 0d

John Difountain, £0 6s 0d

Wilston Bates, £0 3s 6d

William Jones, [...]

The amount of the sale, £84 2s 3d

The whole little estate due to the orphans, £94 0s 7d

Interpretations

This is the account of the Bradley orphans' estate turned into cash at auction, the little holding the council had ordered sold and secured for the fatherless children. The sale realised over £84, which with the cash in hand made up the whole estate of some £94 due to the orphans. Recording the total due to the children shows the purpose of the whole proceeding, the family's modest property gathered into a sum that could be held in trust until they came of age.

The sale lays bare the buying and selling of slaves as the most valuable single assets of even a poor estate. A woman slave and a girl were sold to Doctor Alcock for £13, more than any other lot save the land and house, the two enslaved people fetching the highest prices of the movable goods. That the most valuable part of a labourer's estate after his land was the human beings he owned shows how deeply slaveholding ran through the whole society, reaching even the modest households of the island's poorer freeholders.

The land and house at the heart of the estate passed to a single buyer, keeping the core holding whole. Samuel Semple bought seven acres of freehold, half the house and a quantity of yams for £25, the largest purchase of the day. That the dwelling and its ground were sold together to one man rather than broken up shows the same instinct seen in the wills to preserve a holding intact, the orphans' land converted to a clean capital sum by passing entire to a new owner rather than divided into unsaleable fragments.

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162

We Ordered Mr Doveton to Acquaint the Purchasers

that they are not to fail Paying Us the Money between this and

the Next Sitting Day.

G G Powell

John Godfrey

At a Generale Sessions held on Tuesday the 4th Day of March

1742/3 at the Castle.

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Judge

John Godfrey Assistant

The Court being Opened Agreable to the Usual Form

and the Prisoner Joseph Long being sett to the Barr his

Indictments were Read as follows vizt

Joseph Long thou Standest Indicted by the Name

of Joseph Long late Soldier of this Island St Helena for that in the

Night between the 16 and 17 Day of January last and between the Hours

of Eleven and one of the said Night Contrary to the Peace of Our Sovereign

Lord the King and the Good Government of this Island Moved by the

Instigation of the Devil and not having the fear of God before Your

Eyes did Felloneously take from out of the Breeches Pockets of thy

Brother James Long as he lay Sleeping in the Guard House at

Ruperts the Sum of One Pounds Seventeen Shillings of Lawfule Money

of this Island and then and there Clandestinely and Feloniously took

and Carried away and Concealed in the Muzzle of a Cannon the said

One Pound Seventeen Shillings of good and Lawfule Money of this

Island the Property of him thy Brother James Long to the great Hurt

and Detriment of the said James Long And Against the Peace of our

Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and in Defiance

of

The council ordered Mr Dooton to acquaint the purchasers that they were not to fail paying the council the money between them the very next pay day.

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

At a general sessions held on Tuesday 4 March 1742 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, judge and John Godfrey assistant.

The court being opened in the usual form, and the prisoner Joseph Long being set to the bar, his indictments were read as follows.

Joseph Long stood indicted by the name of Joseph Long, late Indian of the island of St Helena, for that in the night between the 16th and 17th days of January last, and between the hours of eleven and one of the said night, contrary to the peace of the King and the good government of the island, moved by the instigation of the devil and not having the fear of God before his eyes, he feloniously took from out of the breeches pocket of his brother James Long, as he lay sleeping in the guard house at Ruperts, the sum of £1 17s 0d of lawful money of the island, and there clandestinely and feloniously took and carried away and concealed in the muzzle of a cannon the said £1 17s 0d of good and lawful money of the island, the property of his brother James Long, to the great hurt and detriment of the said James Long, and against the peace of the King, his crown and dignity, and in defiance of [...].

Interpretations

The proceeding shows the same men who sat as council transforming into a criminal court, the Governor now styled judge and his councillor his assistant. The general sessions was the formal court of trial, opened in due form with the prisoner set to the bar and the indictment read, the grave machinery of the criminal law brought to bear. That the identical handful of men who governed the island and settled its estates also tried its felonies shows how completely authority was concentrated in a few hands, the same figures wearing every hat the settlement required.

The indictment records the theft that had led to Joseph Long's committal earlier, now brought to formal trial with all the solemn language of the law. He was charged with feloniously taking £1 17s from his sleeping brother's pocket in the guard house and hiding it in the muzzle of a cannon. The elaborate formula of the charge, the instigation of the devil and the defiance of the King's peace, shows the settlement clothing even a petty family theft in the full ceremonial language of English criminal justice, the forms of the home courts carried whole to the remote island.

The detail that the accused was described as an Indian marks the presence of an Indian population among the island's people, brought through the Company's eastern connections. Joseph Long is named an Indian, and his theft from a guard house at Ruperts places him among the men serving the settlement. This notice of an Indian tried before the court confirms that the island's population drew on the Company's Asian settlements as well as on Europe and Africa, the eastern trade carrying people as well as goods to the mid-ocean station.

169

163

of the wholesome Laws and Constitutions of this Island.

Joseph Long thou Standest Indicted by the name of

Joseph Long late Soldier of this Island St Helena for that on or upon the

Nineteenth Day of December last in the Evening of the said Day Contrary to

the Peace of Our Sovereign Lord the King and the good Government of

this Island Moved by the Instigation of the Devil and not having the

Fear of God before Your Eyes Did Feloniously and with force and Armes

break into the Dwelling House of Francis Wrangham junr and Forceably

Entering the Same broke open a Large Escruitore which was therein and

Convey thence a hand Escruitore which thou likewise broke open and

did take thence a Pair of Silver Shoe and Knee Buckles, a Gold Ring,

a Parcele of Copen, And a Parcele of Metale Buttons and Silver Work

to the Value of Four Pounds of Lawfule Money of this Island and

then and there Forceably and Feloniously took and Carried away to

the Hurt and Prejudice of him the said Francis Wrangham junr and

against the Peace of our aforesaid Lord the King his Crown and

Dignity and in Defiance of the wholesome Laws and Constitutions

of this Island.

Judge How say You Joseph Long Are You Guilty of the Indictments Laid

to Your Charge or not Guilty

Prisoner Not Guilty

Judge Colprit How will You be Tryed

Prisoner By God and the Country

Judge God send You a good Deliverance

Judge Gentlemen of the Jury do You Answer to Your names and

Cryer do You Count them.

Then the Indictments were Read a Second time

Judge To which Indictment You have Pleaded not Guilty and have gave

Your Self upon God and Your Country for Tryale, Wherefore if You

have any Cause to object against any of them You must do it before

they come to the Book to be Sworn and before they are Sworn.

Cryer Count these vizt

John French Senr Foreman 1

Richard Goddwin 2

Francis Wrangham Senr 3

James Powell 4

Thomas Greentree 5

John Goodwin

The charge closed against the peace of the King and the wholesome laws and constitutions of the island.

Joseph Long stood indicted by the name of Joseph Long, late soldier of the island of St Helena, for that on 19 December last, in the evening of the said day, contrary to the peace of the King and the good government of the island, moved by the instigation of the devil and not having the fear of God before his eyes, he feloniously and with force and arms broke into the dwelling house of Francis Wrangham junior, and forcibly entering the same, broke open a large escritoire which was therein and took from it a hand escritoire, which he likewise broke open and took thence a pair of silver shoe and knee buckles, a gold ring, a parcel of copper and a parcel of metal buttons and other goods, to the value of £4 of lawful money of the island, and there forcibly and feloniously took and carried away, to the hurt and prejudice of the said Francis Wrangham junior, and against the peace of the King, his crown and dignity, and in defiance of the wholesome laws and constitutions of the island.

The judge asked Joseph Long whether he was guilty of the indictments laid to his charge or not guilty.

The prisoner answered not guilty.

The judge asked how he would be tried.

The prisoner answered by God and the country.

The judge said God send him a good deliverance.

The judge asked the gentlemen of the jury whether they answered to their names, and the crier called them.

The indictments were then read a second time.

The judge said that to which indictment he had pleaded not guilty and put himself upon God and his country for trial, and therefore if he had any cause to object against any of the jury he must do it before they came to the book to be sworn and before they were sworn.

The crier called the jury as follows.

1: John French senior, foreman

2: Richard Goodwin

3: Francis Wrangham senior

4: James Powell

5: Thomas Greentree

The list was signed by John Goodwin.

Interpretations

The second indictment reveals Joseph Long charged with a graver crime than the theft from his brother, a burglary of a dwelling house that carried far heavier weight in law. He was accused of breaking into Francis Wrangham junior's house by force and rifling nested writing desks for silver buckles, a gold ring and other valuables worth £4. Breaking and entering a dwelling with force and arms was among the most serious felonies of the age, so this charge exposed the prisoner to a far sterner penalty than the pocket theft, the two indictments together building a case of habitual and escalating crime.

The formal exchange between judge and prisoner shows the settlement observing the full ritual of an English criminal trial, every prescribed question and answer set down. The prisoner pleaded not guilty, chose trial by God and the country, and was told he might challenge any juror before they were sworn. This scrupulous following of the home country's trial forms, down to the ancient phrases of arraignment, shows the remote island determined to administer justice by the exact procedure of England, lending the weight of established law to the judgement of a handful of colonists.

The composition of the jury exposes the impossibility of an impartial trial in so small a community, the victim's own father sitting to judge the accused. Francis Wrangham senior, father of the man whose house was burgled, served on the jury that would try the burglar. That the injured party's close kin sat in judgement shows how the tiny population made the English ideal of a disinterested jury unattainable, the same few men serving as victims, witnesses and jurors in each other's causes because no larger pool of the impartial existed.

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164

John Goodwin 6

Daniel Owen 7

John Disfountain 8

John Barton 9

Richard Mason 10

Richard Gurling 11

Stephen Lughin 12

Who being Sworn the Judge asked them Gentlemen

of the Jury are You ale Sworn

And they Replyed We are ale Sworn

Then the Cryer was Ordered to Make Proclamation

three times and Repeat after the Clerk as follows.

If any Person or Persons can Inform our Sovereign

Lord the King or the Judge Now Setting of any Matters against

Joseph Long the Prisoner at the Barr let them draw Near And they

shale be heard for he now Stands Upon his Deliverance.

Judge Gentlemen of the Jury the Prisoner at the Barr has been

Indicted by the name of Joseph Long for that &c &c (as is

before Specified in the Indictments) to which Indictments he hath Pleaded

not Guilty And put himself upon God and his Country You are

therefore You are to enquire whether he be Guilty of the Indictments

Laid to his Charge or not Guilty So said together and hear Your

Evidence.

Henry Beale Serjeant being Sworn Deposed that

being upon Guard at Ruperts in the Night between the 16 and 17 Days

of January last the Prisoner Joseph Long came into the Guard Room

where this Deponent was laying down to James Long and Some

others of the Guard, And went to the Place where James Long then

he Remained Stile for about two Minutes then went out of the Guard

Room again, And a little after James Long being awakened to do his

trick of Sentry immediately called out that he had been Robbed of his

money Upon which this Deponent enquired of the Centinel Whether

any other than Jos Long had come in and out the Guard Room since

they had lain down till the Centinel answered that only Jos Long had

passed in and out and that he observed Joseph Long to go Straight to a

Cannon Gun and staid there some little time and then go the where Whereupon

this Deponent Ordered the Centinels to let no Person go Near that Gun

untile the Day broke, And at Day Break this Deponent sent one Man

to search the Gun who immediately found the money just within the

Muzzle of the Gun.

Adjutant Hayse being Sworn deposed that he heard

Joseph Long Confess that he had Robbed his Brother for which he said

that he was very Sorry and hoped the Governour would forgive

him

6: John Goodwin

7: Daniel Owen

8: John Difountain

9: John Barton

10: Richard Mason

11: Richard Gurling

12: Stephen Lafkin

The jury being sworn, the judge asked them whether they were all sworn, and they replied that they were all sworn.

The crier was ordered to make proclamation three times and repeat after the clerk as follows. If any person or persons could inform the King or the judge now sitting of any matters against Joseph Long, the prisoner at the bar, let them draw near and they should be heard, for he then stood upon his deliverance.

The judge told the jury that the prisoner at the bar had been indicted by the name of Joseph Long, as was before specified in the indictments, to which he had pleaded not guilty and put himself upon the country. They were therefore to enquire whether he was guilty of the indictments laid to his charge or not guilty, and to stand together and hear the evidence.

Henry Beale, sergeant, being sworn, deposed that being upon guard at Ruperts in the night between the 16th and 17th days of January last, the prisoner Joseph Long came into the guard room where the deponent was lying down with James Long and some others of the guard, and went to the place where James Long lay. There he remained for about two minutes, then went out of the guard room again. A little after, James Long, being awakened to do his turn of sentry, immediately called out that he had been robbed of his money, upon which the deponent enquired of the sentinel whether any other than James Long had come in and out of the guard room since they had lain down. The sentinel answered that only James Long had passed in and out, and that he had observed Joseph Long go straight to a cannon and stand there some little time, and then go to the place where he lay. Whereupon the deponent ordered the sentinels to let no person go near that gun until the day broke, and at daybreak the deponent sent one man to search the gun, who immediately found the money just within the muzzle of the gun.

Adjutant Hayes, being sworn, deposed that he heard Joseph Long confess that he had robbed his brother, for which he said that he was very sorry and hoped the Governor would forgive him.

Interpretations

The trial turns on circumstantial evidence and confession, showing the court building its case from the observations of the men on watch. The sergeant deposed that Long entered the guard room, went to his sleeping brother, then to a cannon where the stolen money was later found hidden, and the adjutant testified to Long's confession. This chain of witnessed movement and admitted guilt shows how the court reconstructed the crime from the testimony of those present, the hidden money in the gun muzzle serving as the physical proof that tied the prisoner to the theft.

The sentinel's watchfulness reveals the guard house as a place of constant observation, where a man's movements in the night did not pass unseen. The sentry had noted Long going straight to the cannon and lingering there, a detail that unlocked the whole case once the theft was discovered. That the posted sentinel could account for who came and went and mark a suspicious pause at the gun shows the close watch kept in a military post, the discipline of the guard turning its own vigilance into the evidence that convicted a thief.

The care taken to secure the cannon until daylight shows the settlement preserving evidence with a rigour worthy of a formal court. Rather than search in the dark or let anyone approach, the sergeant sealed off the gun until day broke and then sent a man to find the money within the muzzle. This deliberate protection of the scene until the hidden money could be recovered before witnesses shows the guard treating the recovery of evidence as a matter to be done properly, the proof kept untouched so it could stand at the trial that followed.

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him and he would be very carefull not to do any such thing again.

Judge Prisoner what have You to Say in your defence.

Prisoner I have nothing to say only that I did not Rob my Brother.

Judge Gentlemen of the Jury if You have any Questions to ask Please to

put them to me And I will Repeat them to the Evidences, Otherwise we will proceed

to the tother Indictment.

Francis Wrangham junr Deposed upon Oath that the Buckles and

Ring which were produced in Court and taken from the Prisoner were his

property, and produced the two following Notes Which the Prisoner while in

Prison wrote the Deponents Father.

Jno Wrangham

Sir I humbly beg Your Pardon for what I have Done Sir I

humbly beg that You will Pardon Me for the Crime that I have Comitted I never

wile do the like again as long as I live, I humbly beg Your Pardon I hope You

would be pleased to Pardon Me this time it being the first of my offence to

You and I wile take care it shale be the last Crime that I ever whil comitte in

that manner, Sir I being chained down to the Ground by both Legs that I cannot

Stir from the Place where I sette I being in a very miserable Condition for I am

almost Starved to Death for I have had nothing for this Month or Six But

a little Rice and Water hoping for that You will consider my condition

this Undeserved from You I meat acknowledge From Your most Obedient

Servant to Command Joseph Long

Sir I do hear declair the truth there was no person with me

I came from Ruports that morning and did it my Self therefore Sir I cannot

go to bring any Person in if I have a dying Oath to Witnefs what I have

here Wrote From Your most Obedient to Command Joseph Long

Judge Joseph Long do You acknowledge these Notes to be of Your own hand Writing

Prisoner Yes they are of my Writing

Adjutant Hayse Deposed upon Oath that the Prisoner Jos Long

Confessed that he did Breake open Mr Wranghams Houwe through a Back

Window

Prisoner The tone I wanted it because I wanted to Get out of Prison

Then the Jury Withdrew and about half an hour after Returned.

Judge Gentlemen of the Jury are You agreed upon Your Verdict

Jury We are Agreed

Judge

Long said that he would be very careful not to do any such thing again.

The judge asked the prisoner what he had to say in his defence.

The prisoner answered that he had nothing to say, only that he did not rob his brother.

The judge told the jury that if they had any questions to ask they should put them to the court and he would repeat them to the witnesses, otherwise they would proceed to the other indictment.

Francis Wrangham junior deposed upon oath that the buckles and ring then produced in court, taken from the prisoner, were his property, and produced the two following notes which the prisoner wrote to the deponent's father while in prison.

The first note ran as follows. Joseph Long humbly begged pardon for what he had done, and begged that he might be pardoned for the crime he had committed. He promised he would never do the like again as long as he lived, and humbly begged pardon this once, it being the first offence he had committed against him. He promised to take care that it should be the last crime he ever committed in that manner, being chained down to the ground by both legs and in a very miserable condition, for he was almost starved, having nothing for three days but a little rice and water. He hoped the deponent's father would consider his condition, and signed himself his most obedient servant to command, Joseph Long.

The second note ran as follows. Joseph Long declared the truth, that there was no person with him, for he came from Ruperts that morning and did it himself. He said he could not therefore bring any person in to witness what he had written, and would say it if he lay dying, and signed himself his most obedient servant to command, Joseph Long.

The judge asked Joseph Long whether he acknowledged the two notes to be of his own handwriting.

The prisoner answered that they were of his writing.

Adjutant Hayes deposed upon oath that the prisoner Joseph Long confessed that he had broken open Mr Wrangham's house through a back window.

The prisoner said that he had invented the notes because he wanted to get out of prison.

The jury then withdrew and about half an hour after returned.

The judge asked the gentlemen of the jury whether they were agreed upon their verdict.

The jury answered that they were agreed.

Interpretations

The prisoner's written pleas from his cell became the strongest evidence against him, his own confession under his own hand laid before the court. Long had written to the victim's father begging pardon and admitting the crime, notes he acknowledged as his own writing, though he now claimed he had invented them only to win release. That his desperate letters from prison were produced and owned in open court shows how a confession made in hope of mercy could return as proof of guilt, the very words meant to soften his gaoler damning him before the jury.

The notes lay bare the brutal conditions of the island's prison, a man chained by both legs and near starving on rice and water. Long wrote that he was fettered to the ground and had eaten only a little rice and water for three days, a glimpse of the harsh confinement that awaited a suspect before trial. This picture of near starvation and irons shows how severely the settlement held its prisoners, the wretchedness of the gaol so great that a man might confess to anything simply to escape it, as Long claimed he had.

The prisoner's shifting account exposes the trap that his own words had built around him, each explanation deepening his difficulty. He denied robbing his brother yet confessed to the burglary, then disowned his written confession as a mere trick for freedom, while the adjutant swore to a further admission about the back window. That his defence collapsed into contradiction, admitting, denying and explaining away by turns, shows a man caught between his earlier confessions and his present denial, the very inconsistency of his story leaving the jury little room to doubt his guilt.

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Judge Who shale Speak for You

Jury Our Foreman

Judge Gentlemen of the Jury look upon the Prisoner do You find him Guilty

or not Guilty

Jury Guilty of Felony for Breaking upon & Robing Mr Wranghams house

But not Guilty of Robing his Brother

Judge You Say that the Prisoner Joseph Long is Guilty of Felony for

Breaking upon & Robing Mr Wranghams House But not Guilty of

Robing his Brother So Saith Your Foreman & so Say You ale

Judge Remove the Prisoner from the Barr And bring into Court

the other Prisoners

Then the Jury being Sworn a Fresh the following Indictments were

Read vizt

Phill thou Standest Indicted by the name of Phill a Slave Man belonging

to the Orphanes of John Pigling Deceased late Free Planter of this Island St Helena

for that on or upon the 5 Day of December last in the Evening of that Day

Contrary to the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King and the good Government

of this Island, Moved by the Instigation of the Devil and not having the

fear of God before Your Eyes did with force and Armes break upon the House

of Joshua Twynam and Forceably Enter therein and Feloniously take and

Destroy Two Yeards of Chevre Eleven Gallons and a half of Wine, Four Gallons

of Beer one pint Cinnamon Water and two Quack of Mint Water to

the Value of Nine Pounds Eighteen Shillings & Six pence of Good &

Lawfule Money of this Island, And against the Peace of our Sovereign

Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, And in Defiance of the

wholesome Laws and Constitutions of this Island.

Simon thou Standest Indicted by the name of Simon a Slave

Man belonging to Samuel Doviton Free Planter of this Island St Helena

for that on or upon the 5 Day of December last in the Evening of that

Day Contrary to the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King and the good

Government of this Island, Moved by the Instigation of the Devil and

not having the fear of God before Your Eyes did with force and Armes

break upon the House of Joshua Twynam and Forceably Enter therein

and Feloniously take and Destroy Two Yeards of Chevre Eleven Gallons and

a half of Wine Four Gallons of Beer One pint Cinnamon Water and two

Quack of Mint Water to the value of Nine Pounds Eighteen Shillings

and Six pence of Good and Lawfule Money of this Island And against

the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, And

in Defiance of the wholesome Laws and Constitutions of this Island.

Simon

The judge asked who should speak for the jury.

The jury answered, their foreman.

The judge asked the gentlemen of the jury to look upon the prisoner and say whether they found him guilty or not guilty.

The jury answered guilty of felony for breaking into and robbing Mr Wrangham's house, but not guilty of robbing his brother.

The judge said that they found the prisoner Joseph Long guilty of felony for breaking into and robbing Mr Wrangham's house, but not guilty of robbing his brother, and asked whether their foreman spoke for them all.

The judge ordered the prisoner removed from the bar and the other prisoners brought into court.

The jury being sworn afresh, the following indictments were read.

Phill stood indicted by the name of Phill, a slave man belonging to the orphans of John Pyling deceased, late planter of the island of St Helena, for that on 5 December last, in the evening of that day, contrary to the peace of the King and the good government of the island, moved by the instigation of the devil and not having the fear of God before his eyes, he with force and arms broke into the house of Joshua Twynham and forcibly entering therein, feloniously took and carried away two gallons of Cape wine eleven gallons and a half of wine, one pint of cinnamon water and two quarts of mint water, to the value of £9 18s 6d of lawful money of the island, and against the peace of the King, his crown and dignity, and in defiance of the wholesome laws and constitutions of the island.

Simon stood indicted by the name of Simon, a slave man belonging to Samuel Dooton, planter of the island of St Helena, for that on 5 December last, in the evening of that day, contrary to the peace of the King and the good government of the island, moved by the instigation of the devil and not having the fear of God before his eyes, he with force and arms broke into the house of Joshua Twynham and forcibly entering therein, feloniously took and carried away two gallons of Cape wine eleven gallons and a half of wine, one pint of cinnamon water and two quarts of mint water, to the value of £9 18s 6d of lawful money of the island, and against the peace of the King, his crown and dignity, and in defiance of the wholesome laws and constitutions of the island.

Interpretations

The jury's split verdict shows a discriminating judgement, convicting on the burglary where the evidence was strong but acquitting on the theft from the brother. Long was found guilty of breaking into Wrangham's house, proved by the recovered goods and his own confession, but not guilty of robbing James Long, where the evidence rested more thinly. That the jury separated the two charges rather than condemning him wholesale shows a real weighing of the evidence on each count, the burglary carried by proof while the pocket theft, denied to the last, failed for want of it.

The court then turned to two enslaved men charged with the same burglary, tried like any other prisoners yet named as the property of their owners. Phill and Simon were indicted for breaking into Joshua Twynham's house and carrying off wine and cordials, each described as a slave belonging to a named master. That the enslaved stood trial under the identical forms and language as free men, yet were entered on the record as another's property, shows the double character the law gave them, answerable as persons for their crimes while counted as chattels in every other respect.

The identical wording of the two indictments shows the pair charged as joint actors in a single robbery, the same goods laid against each. Both Phill and Simon were accused of taking the same wine and mint and cinnamon water from the same house on the same night, the crime shared between them. This charging of two men in identical terms for one break-in shows the court treating the burglary as a joint enterprise, each held equally answerable for the whole theft though the goods were taken but once.

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Simon thou Standest Indicted by the name of Simon a Slave Man

belonging to John Brown Surgeon late of this Island St Helena for that on

or upon the Eighth Day of November last in the Evening of that Day Contrary

to the Peace of Our Sovereign Lord the King and the good Government of

this Island Moved by the Instigation of the Devil And not having the

fear of God before Your Eyes did Feloniously and Forceably take from off

the Lands of the Honourable the United East India Company the Sordes

proprietors of this Island Three Turkeys to the Vallue of Fifteen Shilings

to the Prejudice of the said Honourable the Sordes Proprietors and against

the Peace of Our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity And in

Defiance of the wholesome Laws and Constitutions of this Island.

Judge How say You Phill the Slave Man of the Orphans of John Pigling Decd

are You Guilty of the Indictment Laid to Your Charge or not Guilty

Prisoner Guilty

Which being Recorded We Proceeded

Judge How say You Simon the Slave Man of Sam Doviton are You Guilty of the

Indictment Laid to Your Charge or not Guilty

Prisoner Guilty

Which being also Recorded

Judge How say You Simon the Slave Man of John Brown are You Guilty of

the Indictment Laid to Your Charge or not Guilty

Prisoner Not Guilty

Semp & Mathrop two men belonging to the Honourable Company being

produced in Court Declared that they catch the Prisoner Simon with the

Turkeys upon him

Prisoner I toot them from behind the House and not out of the House

Judge And so You own that You took the Turkeys from behind the House

Prisoner Yes

Then the Jury found them all Guilty of their severalls Indictments as

themselves Confefs

Judge Bring the Prisoner Joseph Long to the Barr Again

Who was accordingly Brought

Judge You Joseph Long the Jury have found You Guilty of the Indictment

Laid against You by Francis Wrangham junr Which is Felony Therefore hear

the Sentence I am going to Pronounce upon You Agreable to the Law and

Constitutions of this Island

You

Simon stood indicted by the name of Simon, a slave man belonging to John Brown, surgeon, late of the island of St Helena, for that on 8 November last, in the evening of that day, contrary to the peace of the King and the good government of the island, moved by the instigation of the devil and not having the fear of God before his eyes, he feloniously and forcibly took from the lands of the Honourable United East India Company the fodder, property of the island, three turkeys to the value of 15s, to the prejudice of the Honourable the Lords Proprietors and against the peace of the King, his crown and dignity, and in defiance of the wholesome laws and constitutions of the island.

The judge asked Phill, the slave man of the orphans of John Pyling deceased, whether he was guilty of the indictment laid to his charge or not guilty.

The prisoner answered guilty.

The plea being recorded, the court proceeded.

The judge asked Simon, the slave man of Samuel Dooton, whether he was guilty of the indictment laid to his charge or not guilty.

The prisoner answered guilty.

The plea being also recorded, the court proceeded.

The judge asked Simon, the slave man of John Brown, whether he was guilty of the indictment laid to his charge or not guilty.

The prisoner answered not guilty.

Jemmy and Matthos, two men belonging to the Honourable Company, being produced in court, declared that they caught the prisoner Simon with the turkeys upon him.

The prisoner said that he took them from behind the house and not out of the house.

The judge asked whether he owned that he took the turkeys from behind the house.

The prisoner answered yes.

The jury then found them all guilty of their several indictments as they severally confessed.

The judge ordered the prisoner Joseph Long brought to the bar again, who was accordingly brought.

The judge told Joseph Long that the jury had found him guilty of the indictment laid against him by Francis Wrangham junior, which was felony, and therefore he heard the sentence for passing to pronounce upon him, in keeping with the laws and constitutions of the island.

Interpretations

The third indictment reveals the theft of turkeys from Company land treated as a felony against the Lords Proprietors themselves, the birds counted as the island's property. Simon was charged with taking three turkeys worth 15s from the Company's ground, the offence laid as a wrong to the Honourable Proprietors. That the theft of poultry from Company land was prosecuted with the same solemnity as a house burglary shows how the Company's ownership of the island turned even the pilfering recorded in the plantation returns into a crime against the proprietors, the stolen turkeys of the stock accounts here brought before the court.

Simon's defence rested on a fine distinction that the court refused to allow, that he took the birds from behind the house rather than from within it. He admitted taking the turkeys but insisted they were not taken out of the house, a plea the court treated as an admission of guilt all the same. That his attempt to distinguish where he seized the birds availed him nothing shows the court looking past the exact place of the taking to the fact of the theft, the prisoner's own words convicting him whatever the nicety he tried to draw.

The trial of enslaved men on the testimony of other enslaved men shows the whole apparatus of justice operating within the enslaved population as well as over it. Two men belonging to the Company, Jemmy and Matthos, gave evidence that they had caught Simon with the turkeys. That the enslaved served as witnesses against one another before the court shows the law reaching into every part of the island's society, the testimony of the unfree accepted to convict the unfree even as all alike were counted the property of others.

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You shale Restore unto the Partys James Long and Francis

Wrangham junr Whome You have Robed the Goods and Chattels which

You have Robed them off, And not only so But Likewise three times the

Value thereof, And the Rest of Your State whatsoever after Your Debts are

are Paid Shale be forfeited to the Honourable the United East India Company

You shale stand in the Pillory in the middle of the Valley with a Halter

about Your Neck And be Whiped from thence to the Prison and be there

left to the Discretion of the Governour and Council Either to Discharge

You or make You Work as a Bond Slave at the Fortifications of this Island.

This is Your Sentence and Pray God it may work a

thorough Reformation in Your future Conduct, And make You truly

Penitent for the Horrid Crimes You have been Guilty off

You Simon, Phill, and You Simon, the Jury have found

You Guilty of Your Indictments which are Crimes of no lefs a nature than

Felony. You have every of You been Notorious offenders for a Considerable

time past. Particularly You two whose names are Simon, And for You who

are the Slave Man of Mr Samuel Doviton this last is the Sixth Fleuce

which You have broke into and Robed within these four Years, The

continued Series of Your Irregular and Sinfule Lifes have Deserved Death long

since, But in hopes of amendment these Punishments have been Inflicted on

You from time to time, By your Continuance in Evil You have I fear too

Plainly Discovered your Selfs Incorrigible, And are Become a reale Brethen

to every Inhabitant on this Island, No one Being Secure in the Enjoyment

of the fruits of his Labour. Yet such is the Clemency of this Court, always

inclining to the Mercifule Side. That upon Your Earnest Promises of

Amendment in future and Seeming Sincerity therein, We willing to Soften

the Law, Not Punish You with Death at this time, But because You

Ecper or either of You fale under the Cognore of this Court again.

We Present You Simon the Slave Man of Samuel

Doviton free Planter of this Island hear Your Sentence.

You are to be immediately Branded with a hote Iron upon

the Right Cheek and upon the Palm of Your Right Hand, You are to be

Conducted from hence to the Prison where You are to Remain in Irons

during the Pleasure of the Governour and Council, You are to be Whiped

with a Hundred Lashes upon Your bare Back every Saturday for the

Space of Six Weeks, And You are also to be kept at hard Labour at the

Fortifications of this Island during the Pleasure of the Governour and

Council.

You Simon the Slave Man of John Brown late of this

Island hear Your Sentence

You Who have had Your Right Hand for thefts heretofore are

to be Branded with an hote Iron upon Your Right Cheek, And to Receive

every Saturday for the Space of Six Weeks an hundred Lashes upon Your

bare Back, from hence You are to be Conducted to the Prison

Where

Joseph Long was to restore to the parties James Long and Francis Wrangham junior the goods and chattels he had robbed them of, and not only so but also three times the value of the goods. After his debts were paid, the rest of his estate was to be forfeited to the Honourable United East India Company. He was to stand in the pillory in the middle of the valley with a halter about his neck, be whipped from there to the prison, and be there left to the direction of the Governor and council, either to discharge him or make him work as a bond slave at the fortifications of the island.

The judge said that this was his sentence, and prayed God it might work a thorough reformation in his future conduct and make him truly penitent for the wicked crimes he had been guilty of.

The judge told Simon, Phill and Simon that the jury had found them guilty of their indictments, which were crimes of no less a nature than felony. He said that many of them had been notorious offenders for a considerable time past, particularly the two whose names were Simon, and as for the one who was the slave man of Mr Samuel Dooton, this last was the sixth house he had broken into and robbed within three or four years. The combined course of their irregular and sinful lives had long since deserved death, but in spite of the lighter punishments inflicted on them from time to time, by their continuance in evil they had grown too publicly advanced in wickedness to be reclaimed, and were become a real burden to every inhabitant of the island, no one being secure in the enjoyment of the fruits of his labour. Yet such was the clemency of the court, always inclining to the merciful side, that upon their earnest promises of amendment in future and seeming sincerity therein, it was willing to soften the law and not punish them with death at this time, but hoped it would not see either of them under the notice of this court again.

The judge told Simon, the slave man of Samuel Dooton, to hear his sentence. He was to be immediately branded with a hot iron upon the right cheek and upon the palm of his right hand. He was to be conducted from there to the prison, where he was to remain in irons during the pleasure of the Governor and council. He was to be whipped upon his bare back every Saturday for the space of six weeks, and was also to be kept at hard labour at the fortifications of the island during the pleasure of the Governor and council.

The judge told Simon, the slave man of John Brown, late of the island, to hear his sentence. He was to have his right hand, which had heretofore been branded with a hot iron upon his right cheek, and to receive every Saturday for the space of six weeks a hundred lashes upon his bare back, and from there was to be conducted to the prison [...].

Interpretations

The sentences lay bare the sharp difference in punishment between the free man and the enslaved, the same crime drawing branding and repeated flogging for the slaves. Joseph Long, though convicted of burglary, faced the pillory, a whipping and forfeiture, with discharge or bond labour left open, while the enslaved Simon was branded on cheek and hand and sentenced to be flogged every Saturday for six weeks. That the enslaved were marked in the flesh and scourged week after week where the free man might be released shows how the law reserved its most savage bodily penalties for those it already held in bondage.

The judge's speech reveals a settlement worn down by repeated theft and a court choosing mercy over the death the law allowed. One Simon was named as having broken into six houses in three or four years, the burglaries so persistent that no man felt secure in his goods, yet the court spared their lives on their promise of amendment. That the bench, entitled to hang them, drew back to branding and flogging shows a deliberate leaning to the merciful side, the court preferring to mark and punish habitual offenders rather than execute them, while warning that its patience would not stretch again.

The branding of the enslaved served as a permanent public mark of criminality stamped on the body itself. Simon was to be burned on the right cheek and the palm of his right hand, and the other Simon had already been so branded before, the searing meant to label him a convicted thief for life. This use of the hot iron to mark a man's face and hand shows the settlement turning the body of the slave into a lasting record of his crimes, a visible warning carried wherever he went that no term of imprisonment could impose.

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Where You are to lay in Irons During the Pleasure of the Governour and Council,

Then likewise You are to be kept at Hard Labour at the Fortifications of the

Island During Pleasure.

You Phill the Slave of the Orphans of John Pigling Deceased

late of this Island hear Your Sentence

You Shale be Branded with an hote Iron Upon the Palm of

Your Right Hand And to Receive every Saturday for the Space of Six Weeks an

Hundred Lashes upon Your bare Back, from hence You are to be Conducted

to the Prison Where You are to lay in Irons During the Pleasure of the

Governour and Council Then likewise You are to be kept at hard Labour

at the Fortifications of this Island During Pleasure.

Then the Prisoners being carried to Prison the Cryer was

Ordered to make Proclamation three Severalle times and say after the Clerk

as follows vizt

If any Person hath any Matter to offer to this Court let them come

forth and they shale be heard. If not ale Persons bound to attend this

Sessions have leave to Depart.

God Save the King

G G Powell

John Godfry

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 22 Day of March 1742/3 at the Castle

Present Geo Gab Powell Esq Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Cancel

The last Consultation was Read and Approved

The Governour Reports that the Honourable Companys

Slaves Are busily Employed at Sandy Bay in burning of Lime and that

this

Simon was to lie in irons during the pleasure of the Governor and council, and was then likewise to be kept at hard labour at the fortifications of the island during pleasure.

The judge told Phill, the slave of the orphans of John Pyling deceased, late of the island, to hear his sentence. He was to be branded with a hot iron upon the palm of his right hand and to receive every Saturday for the space of six weeks a hundred lashes upon his bare back. From there he was to be conducted to the prison, where he was to lie in irons during the pleasure of the Governor and council, and was then likewise to be kept at hard labour at the fortifications of the island during pleasure.

The prisoners being carried to prison, the crier was ordered to make proclamation three several times and say after the clerk as follows. If any person had any matter to offer to the court, let them come forth and they should be heard. If not, all persons bound to attend the sessions had leave to depart.

God save the King.

The sessions were signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 22 March 1742/3 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

The Governor reported that the Honourable Company's slaves were busily employed at Sandy Bay in burning lime, and that [...].

Interpretations

The sentences on the enslaved men turned their punishment straight into the forced labour that built the island's defences. After branding and flogging, Simon and Phill were both to be kept at hard labour at the fortifications during the Governor's pleasure, their crimes converted into unpaid toil on the batteries. That the court sentenced convicted slaves to the same fortification work the accounts elsewhere record being done by Company slaves shows the settlement feeding its labour needs from its criminal justice, punishment and public works made one.

The formal close of the sessions with proclamation and the cry of God save the King shows the settlement enacting the full ceremony of an English court to the last word. The crier called three times for any further business before dismissing those bound to attend, and the loyal invocation ended the proceedings. This scrupulous observance of the closing forms, the same used in the courts at home, shows how the remote island wrapped its justice in the whole ritual of English law, lending the authority of the crown to the judgements of a handful of colonists.

The immediate return to lime-burning at Sandy Bay shows how seamlessly the settlement moved from punishing its people to pressing on with its works. The very next consultation opened with the Governor reporting the Company's slaves busy burning lime, the fortification programme resumed without pause. That the record turns straight from sentencing men to hard labour to noting the labour of other slaves at the kilns shows the constant priority of the defences, the building of the batteries the settled business to which every proceeding returned.

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This Evening or tomorrow Morning wile be sett on fire the first Kilner

Containing five Hundred Bushels.

And that the hired hands go on Briskly at Ruperts having

got together Stone nearly Sufficient for the Parapits.

And he this Day Delivered in the Husbands Account for

the Month of February last wale is as follows vizt

Account of the Honourable Companys Stock of Neat Cattle &ct for the Month of February 1742/3 Vizt

Bullocks, Cows, Heifers, Steers, Yearlings, Calves, Bulls, Totale, Ewes, Weathers, Lambs, Rams, Totale, Ewes, Weathers, Kids, Rams, Totale, Sows, Barrows, Shoates, Piggs, Boares, Totale, Turkeys, Fowls, Ducks, Geese, Horses, Maires, Totale

Remaining 1 February: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heifers 31, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totale 306, Ewes 74, Weathers 13, Lambs 25, Rams 3, Totale 115, Ewes 121, Weathers 13, Kids 38, Rams 4, Totale 176, Sows 13, Barrows 15, Shoates 35, Piggs 51, Boares 2, Totale 116, Turkeys 81, Fowls 231, Ducks 43, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totale 14

Encreased in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heifers 0, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 1, Bulls 0, Totale 1, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 4, Rams 0, Totale 4, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Kids 4, Rams 0, Totale 4, Sows 0, Barrows 0, Shoates 0, Piggs 6, Boares 0, Totale 6, Turkeys 0, Fowls 21, Ducks 0, Geese 0, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totale 0

Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heifers 31, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 98, Bulls 6, Totale 307, Ewes 74, Weathers 13, Lambs 29, Rams 3, Totale 119, Ewes 121, Weathers 13, Kids 42, Rams 4, Totale 180, Sows 13, Barrows 15, Shoates 35, Piggs 57, Boares 2, Totale 122, Turkeys 81, Fowls 262, Ducks 43, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totale 14

Killed in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heifers 1, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 1, Bulls 0, Totale 2, Ewes 0, Weathers 4, Lambs 0, Rams 0, Totale 4, Ewes 1, Weathers 2, Kids 0, Rams 0, Totale 3, Sows 1, Barrows 3, Shoates 1, Piggs 0, Boares 0, Totale 5, Turkeys 3, Fowls 42, Ducks 4, Geese 0, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totale 0

Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heifers 30, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totale 305, Ewes 74, Weathers 9, Lambs 29, Rams 3, Totale 115, Ewes 120, Weathers 11, Kids 42, Rams 4, Totale 177, Sows 12, Barrows 12, Shoates 34, Piggs 57, Boares 2, Totale 117, Turkeys 78, Fowls 210, Ducks 39, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totale 14

Died in Ditto: Bullocks 0, Cows 0, Heifers 1, Steers 0, Yearlings 0, Calves 0, Bulls 0, Totale 1, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Lambs 1, Rams 0, Totale 1, Ewes 0, Weathers 0, Kids 0, Rams 0, Totale 0, Sows 0, Barrows 0, Shoates 0, Piggs 1, Boares 0, Totale 1, Turkeys 0, Fowls 0, Ducks 2, Geese 0, Horses 0, Maires 0, Totale 0

Remaining 28 Ditto: Bullocks 30, Cows 95, Heifers 29, Steers 27, Yearlings 20, Calves 97, Bulls 6, Totale 314, Ewes 74, Weathers 9, Lambs 28, Rams 3, Totale 114, Ewes 120, Weathers 11, Kids 42, Rams 4, Totale 177, Sows 12, Barrows 12, Shoates 34, Piggs 56, Boares 2, Totale 116, Turkeys 78, Fowls 210, Ducks 37, Geese 12, Horses 7, Maires 7, Totale 14

Yams Expended at the Several Plantations 29000

One female Child born ye 15 Inst Named Prife

G G Powell

The first kiln, containing five hundred bushels, was to be set on fire that evening or the next morning.

The hired hands went on briskly at Ruperts, having got together stone nearly sufficient for the parapets.

The Governor this day delivered in the husband's account for the month of February last, as follows.

An account of the Honourable Company's stock of neat cattle and other animals for the month of February 1742, set out by category. The neat cattle columns are bullocks, cows, heifers, steers, yearlings, calves and bulls, then the total. The sheep columns are ewes, wethers, lambs and rams, then the total. The goats columns are ewes, wethers, kids and rams, then the total. The hogs columns are sows, barrows, shoats, pigs and boars, then the total. The poultry columns are turkeys, fowls, ducks and geese. The horses columns are horses and mares, then the total.

Remaining 1 February, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 31, steers 27, yearlings 20, calves 97, bulls 6, total 306

Remaining 1 February, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 13, lambs 25, rams 3, total 115

Remaining 1 February, goats: ewes 121, wethers 13, kids 38, rams 4, total 176

Remaining 1 February, hogs: sows 13, barrows 15, shoats 35, pigs 51, boars 2, total 116

Remaining 1 February, poultry: turkeys 81, fowls 231, ducks 43, geese 12

Remaining 1 February, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Increased in February, neat cattle: calves 1, total 1

Increased in February, sheep: lambs 4, total 4

Increased in February, goats: kids 4, total 4

Increased in February, hogs: barrows 6, shoats 6, total, and pigs 21

Total, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 31, steers 27, yearlings 20, calves 98, bulls 6, total 307

Total, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 13, lambs 29, rams 3, total 119

Total, goats: ewes 121, wethers 13, kids 42, rams 4, total 180

Total, hogs: sows 13, barrows 15, shoats 35, pigs 57, boars 2, total 122

Total, poultry: turkeys 81, fowls 262, ducks 43, geese 12

Total, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Killed in February, neat cattle: heifers 1, calves 1, total 2

Killed in February, sheep: wethers 4, total 4

Killed in February, goats: ewes 1, wethers 2, total 3

Killed in February, hogs: sows 1, barrows 3, pigs 1, total 5

Killed in February, poultry: turkeys 3, fowls 42, ducks 4

Died in February, sheep: lambs 1, total 1

Died in February, goats: wethers 1, total 1

Died in February, poultry: ducks 2

Remaining 28 February, neat cattle: bullocks 30, cows 95, heifers 29, steers 27, yearlings 20, calves 97, bulls 6, total 314

Remaining 28 February, sheep: ewes 74, wethers 9, lambs 28, rams 3, total 114

Remaining 28 February, goats: ewes 120, wethers 11, kids 42, rams 4, total 177

Remaining 28 February, hogs: sows 12, barrows 12, shoats 34, pigs 56, boars 2, total 116

Remaining 28 February, poultry: turkeys 78, fowls 210, ducks 37, geese 12

Remaining 28 February, horses: horses 7, mares 7, total 14

Yams expended at the several plantations, 29,000

One female child born the 15th instant, named Priss

The account was signed by G. G. Powell.

Interpretations

This is the livestock return for February, the third such monthly stocktake, showing the plantation herds tracked through the familiar balance of opening count, increase and loss. The neat cattle held near steady above 300 head, the sheep, goats and hogs moved only slightly, and the plantations again consumed 29,000 yams, so the supply farm carried on much as in the preceding months. The birth of new calves, lambs and kids set against the beasts killed for the table shows the herd sustained by breeding as fast as it was drawn down to feed the station.

The lighter losses of this month stand in marked contrast to the heavy goat mortality of January, suggesting whatever sickness or hard season had struck earlier was easing. Where January had seen goats die in great numbers, February records only a single wether and a lamb dead, the stock now falling chiefly to deliberate slaughter rather than disease. That the natural losses dropped so sharply from one month to the next shows how variable the threats to the herds were, a bad spell of sickness passing to leave the animals dying only at the butcher's hand.

The birth of a child named Priss recorded on the same sheet as the cattle count shows how the settlement's registers folded human and animal increase into one return. The note that a female child was born on the fifteenth and named Priss sits directly beneath the tally of calves, lambs and kids, the child entered as an increase alongside the beasts. That a human birth was set down on the livestock account, most probably the child of an enslaved woman counted among the Company's people, shows the settlement recording its enslaved population in the same ledger and manner as its stock.

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Doctor Clark having this day brought a Considerable Bill upon the

State of Mr Hemans Nicholes for Physick & Attendance since his Arrival We

Paid the same & took his Receipt for

£29 15s

We this day Received of Doctor Clark Acct Mr Hemans Nicholes for goods Bought

the Sum of

£9

G G Powell

John Godfrey

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 22th day of May 1743 at the Castle.

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Council

The Last Consultation was Read and approved

This day arrived the Ship Tygris Captain John Petre from

Bengall she came last from the Cape which place she left the 11 Instant and there were awaiting

there the Ships Vernon, Porto Bella, Benjamin & Somerset waiting for Orders

Captain Petre delivered the following protest vizt

On the 13 November 1742 at five o Clock in the Evening Mr Parsons our Pilot took his

Leave of us in 13 fathom Water Point Palmaris bearing by the Pilots Account WSW distance

about 18 Leagues

Sunday morning between Eleven & Twelve o Clock it began to blow very hard at SE & then

Veering to NW it Continued to blow excessive violent, in such a manner that we was laid down

on our Broad sides and Continued so for some time being obliged to Staw about four Tuns of Water

which we had on our Deck & throw over board between Thirty & forty Bags of Salt, which we had on

our Deck again in order to right our Ship The Carpenter Sounding our Pumps found Eighteen Inches

Water which came into the Ship by the Violence of the Sea thro laying down on his Broad sides

By this Sea the Captain & Officers have reasonto belolieve some of our Goods in the Hold may

have received Damage & here fore do hereby Protest against the Violence of the Wind and

Seas in the Bay of Bengall on the said Sunday Morning as aforesaid

Ship Tygris in St Helena Road this 29 day of March 1743

Jno Petre

Thos Taylor

Wm Fearnald

The Governour this day Paid the same of 20lt for Customs

due

Doctor Clarke, having this day brought a considerable bill upon the estate of Mr Hemmens Nichols for physic and attendance, the council paid the same and took his receipt for £29 15s 0d.

The council this day received of Doctor Clarke, on account of Mr Hemmens Nichols, for goods bought, the sum of £9 0s 0d.

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 24 May 1743 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

This day arrived the ship Tigris, Captain John Petre, from Bengal. She came last from the Cape, which place she left the 11th instant, and there were waiting there the ships Vernon, Ponte Bella, Benjamin and Somerset, waiting for orders.

Captain Petre delivered the following protest.

On 13 November 1742 at five o'clock in the evening, Mr Parsons, the pilot, took his leave in 13 fathom water, Point Palmiras bearing by the pilot's account west-north-west, distance about eight leagues. On the Sunday morning between eleven and twelve o'clock it began to blow very hard at east-north-east, then bearing to north-west, and continued to blow excessive violent in such a manner that the ship was laid down on her broadsides and continued so for some time, being obliged to stave about four tuns of arrack which they had on the deck and throw overboard between thirty and forty bags of salt, which they had in order to right the ship. The carpenter, sounding the pumps, found eighteen inches of water in the hold, which came into the ship by her laying down on her broadsides. By this the captain and officers had reason to believe some of the goods in the hold might have received damage, and therefore duly protested against the violence of the wind and sea in the Bay of Bengal on the said Sunday morning, as aforesaid. The protest was made on the ship Tigris in St Helena road on 29 March 1743, and signed by John Petre, Thomas Taylor and William Fearnald.

The Governor this day paid the sum of 20s for customs due [...].

Interpretations

The captain's protest was a formal legal declaration of storm damage, made to protect the ship and its owners against later claims for spoiled cargo. Captain Petre set down under oath how the Tigris had been knocked on her beam ends in a violent gale in the Bay of Bengal, forcing the crew to jettison arrack and salt to right her, and how water in the hold might have damaged the goods. Such a sea protest, sworn before the authorities at the first port of call, was the recognised means by which a master proved that loss came from the perils of the sea rather than his own negligence, shielding him from liability to the cargo's owners.

The arrival of the Tigris and the fleet gathering at the Cape shows St Helena's central place on the homeward passage, the island a fixed rendezvous for the Indiamen. The Tigris came from Bengal by way of the Cape, where the Vernon, Ponte Bella, Benjamin and Somerset lay waiting for orders. That so many ships converged on the route through the Cape and the island shows how the Company's homeward trade moved in gathered company, the vessels assembling at the staging points where the island served as a vital port of call.

The jettisoning of arrack and salt to save the ship illustrates the hard choices forced on a master in extremity, valuable cargo sacrificed to keep the vessel afloat. Four tuns of arrack were staved and forty bags of salt thrown overboard to right the labouring ship. That the crew destroyed the very goods they carried to preserve the ship and their lives shows the desperate calculus of a storm at sea, the loss of cargo accepted as the price of survival and afterwards recorded in the protest to justify the sacrifice.

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due upon 400 Gallons of Spirits which were imported P Ship Harrington.

And Likewise the sume of £42 3s 10d for Rent due from

him to the Estate of the late John Goodwin Esqr as P Consultation of 10 July 1741 from said

Consultation to 12 day of May last the Same he Purchased of Do Estate.

G G Powell

John Godfrey

At a Consultation held on Tuesday the 5th April 1742 at the Castle

Present George Gabriel Powell Esqr Governour

John Godfrey 2 of Council

The last Consultation was read & approved

Joseph Disfountain this day Presents a Petition

praying the Renewale of a Lease for one Acre that Whales now upon the Point of being Expired & that so may

be Admitted Tenant for another half Acre adjoyning thereto

Granted

The last Will and Testament of Thomas Bapett was this day Presented

& read upon the Oaths of the Witnesses thereto as follows vizt

In the name of God Amen this 9th day of September in the Year of our Lord 1742

I Thomas Bapett of the Island St Helena being Sick & weak of body but of Sound & perfect Mind &

memory do make ordain and appoint this my last Will and Testament that is to say first & principaly

I give and Recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God my Creator my Body I Commit to

the Earth to be buried in a Christian like & Decent manner at the Discretion of my Executors here after

Named my worldly Goods wherewith it hath Pleased God to Bless me with I give devise & dispose of the

same in the manner Vizen as follows

Imprimis after my Debts & Funeral Charges being fully satisfyed I give to my Well beloved

Wife the one half of my freehold Lands Whilst the House during her natural Life and also the one third

of my Personal Estate to be at her Disposal

Item I give to Elyzabeth Clough the Sume of Twenty Shillings

Item all the rest & remainder of my State both real & personal I give to be equaly divided among my

Well beloved Children vizt Thomas Matthew John George to be delivered them at the age of Twenty

one years or marriage as wale the other half of my real State posessed by their Mother after her

Decease, but whereas my Lands being divided among my Children being too little would be them

upon I therefore give the Rest of my Sons that shall survive the refusal of my Lands at a reasonable

Valluation Enjoying his other Brothers their proper Share or proportion thereof at the time abovemen

Ently I Nominate and appoint my Bro Wm John Bapett my good friends Messrs Richard Gurling

& Richard Goodwin Executors of this my Will hardy revoking & disannuling all former Wills

or Wills by me made ratifying & Confirming this & no other to be my Last Will & Testament

Signed Sealed & Sealed as the Last Will and Testament

of Thos Bapett in the Presence of us

Thos Bapett

John Wimell

Wm Hayes

Richard Beale

The customs sum was due upon 400 gallons of spirits imported by the ship Harrington.

The council likewise received the sum of £42 3s 10d for rent due from the estate of the late John Goodwin esquire, as per the consultation of 10 July 1735, from that consultation to the 12th day of May last, the same having been purchased of the estate.

The account was signed by G. G. Powell and John Godfrey.

At a consultation held on Tuesday 5 April 1742 at the Castle.

Present, George Gabriel Powell esquire, governor and John Godfrey second of council.

The previous consultation was read and approved.

Joseph Difountain this day presented a petition, asking for the renewal of a lease of land he then held which was upon the point of expiring, and that he might be admitted tenant for another half acre adjoining it. It was granted.

The last will and testament of Thomas Bazett was this day presented and read upon the oaths of the witnesses as follows.

Thomas Bazett of the island of St Helena, being sick and weak of body but of sound and perfect mind and memory, made his last will and testament on 17 September 1742. He gave and recommended his soul into the hands of Almighty God his creator, and committed his body to the earth to be buried in a Christian and decent manner at the direction of his executors, and disposed of his worldly goods as follows.

First, after his debts and funeral charges were fully settled, he gave his well-beloved wife the one half of his freehold lands, together with the house, during her natural life, and also a third of his personal estate at her disposal.

He gave Elizabeth Clough the sum of £20.

He gave all the rest and remainder of his estate, both real and personal, to be equally divided among his well-beloved children, namely Thomas, Matthew and John Bazett, to be delivered them at the age of twenty-one years or marriage. The other half of his real estate, reserved to their mother, was to pass after her death, and whereas his lands, being divided among his children, would come too little to settle upon them, he gave the best of his lands to whichever of his sons survived, at a reasonable valuation, on his paying his other brothers their proper share or proportion of the value.

He named and appointed his good friends Messrs Richard Gurling and Richard Goodwin executors of his will, and revoked all former wills. In witness he set his hand and seal to this his last will and testament. It was signed, sealed and declared as the last will and testament of Thomas Bazett in the presence of the witnesses John Weinall, William Hayes and Richard Beale.

Interpretations

The customs charge and the rent receipt show the settlement drawing a steady public revenue from the trade and land it controlled. The Company took 20s in customs on spirits landed from the Harrington and gathered £42 in accumulated rent from the late Goodwin's estate. This collection of duties on imports and rents on land shows the twin sources of the settlement's income, the passing trade taxed at the water and the island's ground yielding a return to the Company that owned it.

The petition for a lease renewal reveals the constant dependence of the island's tenants on the Company's grant, every holding needing periodic renewal. Joseph Difountain came to ask that his expiring lease be renewed and that he be allowed more ground adjoining it. That a tenant had to petition the council to keep the land he already worked and to add to it shows the Company's continuing control as landlord, the security of every planter resting on a grant that had to be sought afresh as it ran out.

The will of Thomas Bazett repeats the now familiar device of settling the best land on a surviving son under a charge to compensate his brothers, the same pattern seen across the island's estates. Bazett judged his lands too small to divide among all his children, so he gave the best to whichever son survived at a valuation, on his paying the others their shares. That yet another testator chose to keep his ground whole in one heir's hands rather than fragment it shows how firmly the island's landholders held to the practice of preserving a viable holding, the smallness of their plots making division self-defeating.

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The Inventory of his Estate was likewise delivered by the two Free

and the Appraizers vizt John Disfountain & Saml Doviton declared upon Oath that they had valled

and appraized the same according to the best of their Skill and Judgment

The Last Will and Testament of Mary Knipe was Presented and

Read upon the Oath of the Witnefs thereto vizt Richard Beale the other Witnefs Matthew Parkins

being not upon the Island the Will is as follows Vizt

In the Name of God Amen this Second day of June in the Year of our Lord 1740 I Mary Knipe

of the Island St Helena intending by Gods Permision to take Passage for Judia in the good Ship Beresford bound

for Barcelona do make Ordain and appoint this my Last Will and Testament in manner and form as

followeth

Imprimis I Will and desire that all Debts and other Charges be fully defrayed & satisfyed first

Item I give & bequeath unto my Wellbeloved Brother Samuel and Sister Ruth Knipe all the rest and

Remainder of my Estate both in what kind soever to be equally Divided between them

Lastly I Nominate and appoint Captain Do the Knipe & one of Council & my Uncle Mr John Disfountain

both of this Island Executors of this my Will ratifying and Confirming this & no other to be my Last Will and

Testament, herewith

Mary Knipe

Signed Sealed & declared

in the Presence of us

M Parking

Richd Beale

Complaint having been made by Captain Petre that the Chief Mate of his

Ship Mr Thomas Taylor hath behaved most remarkably Ill since his Arrival in this Road that they

ashis Orders to get the Ship in readinefs for Sailing with the Vernon expedition, And this Morning to some

on Shore & told the Captain that the people would not stand by the Ship in Cafe she went Singly from

honour And avouched that the Second Mate likewise heard the people say so

Whereupon we sent for both the Chief and Second Mate and Asking the latter

whether since his Arrival here he had won Ease the people say that they would not stand by the Ship if she

went from hence Singly he replyed that he heard in talk quite otherwise for they knew asking had much

Wages due they would defend it to the Utmost of their power and not loose No obstinance if they could lofs it

Mr Taylor being then asked how he came to be so Back ward in his Duty and

make so wrong a Representation to the Captain he said that he heard the people say so when in Madras Road

& grumbled for some time but at length asked the Cap Pardon and Confessed that he had done a great injury

Wrong himself in the Voyage but he was so unhappy as to be very passionate & haisty however was very Sorry for his

past failings & promised hereafter to obey the Captains Orders and behave in a better manner Whereupon

the Captain generously forgave what was past & desired him to go on Board & to his Duty

The Governour Reports that next Saturday being the 2 in the month

is pay Day for the Quarter ending the 31 March last therefore do desire that a Sum of Money may be

Issued him out of the Treasury Accordingly

And he received for that use the Sume of £1444 18s 6d

On Saturday last Captain Petre delivered the following Protest vizt

Sir I am sorry for the Occasion but Iam obliged to protest against the great lofs We have on

Board since my Arrival in as much as that I Cannot land the Company Goods, altho your Long Boat and

Pilore

The inventory of Thomas Bazett's estate was likewise delivered, the appraisers John Difountain and Samuel Dooton declaring upon oath that they had appraised the same to the best of their skill and judgement.

The last will and testament of Mary Kniper was presented and read upon the oath of the witnesses Richard Beale, the other witness Matthew Parling being upon the island. It ran as follows.

Mary Kniper of the island of St Helena, intending by God's permission to take passage for India in the good ship Beresford, bound to Bencoolen, made her last will and testament as follows. She committed her soul to God, and disposed of her estate as follows.

First, she directed that all debts and other charges be fully discharged and settled.

She gave and bequeathed to her well-beloved brother Samuel and sister Ruth Kniper all the rest and remainder of her estate, both in what kind soever, to be equally divided between them.

She named and appointed Captain John Petre, commander of the ship Beresford, and Mr John Difountain both executors of the will, and revoked all former wills, confirming this as her last will and testament. It was signed, sealed and declared in the presence of the witnesses Matthew Parling and Richard Beale, and signed by Mary Kniper.

A complaint having been made by Captain Petre that the chief mate of his ship Beresford, Mr Thomas Taylor, had behaved most remarkably ill since his arrival in the road, that this morning he came ashore contrary to orders to get the ship in readiness for sailing with the intended expedition, and this morning he had told the captain that the people would not stand by the ship in case she went singly from the road, and both the captain and officers vouched that the chief mate likewise heard the people say so.

The council sent for both the chief and second mate and asked the latter whether, since his arrival, he had ever heard the people say that they would not stand by the ship if she went from the road. He simply replied that he had heard in talk quite otherwise, for they knew, as by asking, that much wages were due and they would defend it to the utmost of their power, and not use their means if they could help it.

Mr Taylor, being then asked how he came to be back and asking the latter to make so wrong a representation to the captain, said that he had heard he was reputed to have done a great injury, and quibbled for some time but at length asked the captain's pardon, and confessed that he had done a great wrong, being in the voyage but was unhappy also to be very passionate. His behaviour was very forward, but at length, showing his passionate and forward manner past feelings expressed thereafter, the captain generously forgave what was past and desired him to go on board and do his duty.

The Governor reported that next Saturday being the 21st of the current month was pay day for the quarter ending the 31st of March last, and therefore desired that a sum of money might be issued to him out of the treasury accordingly, and he received for that use the sum of £1,444 18s 6d.

On the Saturday, Captain Petre delivered the following protest.

Interpretations

Mary Kniper's will shows how the perils of a long sea voyage prompted the making of wills, a traveller settling her affairs before facing the ocean. She made her will expressly on intending to take passage for India in the Beresford, appointing the ship's own captain as an executor. That a passenger drew up her testament as she embarked, naming her commander to see it done, shows how the dangers of the passage focused people on their mortality, the making of a will a natural precaution before entrusting oneself to the sea.

The mate's complaint reveals the fragile discipline of a merchant crew and the fear of sailing unescorted through dangerous waters. Taylor had reported that the men would not stand by the ship if she sailed singly from the road, though the second mate said the crew's real concern was the wages owed them. That the sailors balked at leaving the safety of company shows the risks of the homeward passage in wartime, a lone ship exposed to enemy privateers, while the dispute over their willingness exposes how easily a crew's grievances could unsettle a voyage.

The council's role in settling the shipboard quarrel shows the island's authority reaching over the affairs of the ships that called there. The captain brought his mate's misconduct before the council, which examined both mates and drew from Taylor a confession and apology before the captain forgave him. That a dispute internal to a ship's company was resolved by the island's governing body shows how the settlement served as more than a victualling stop, its council acting as the arbiter of order among the crews that gathered in its road.

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Patroon has been Continually along side waiting for an Oppertunity Nor can I fill my Water or

get any necessary refreshment from the Shore therefore please to notice that I do hereby Protest

against the Violence of the Surfs that have been since the Arrival of the Ship Tygrifs in this Road St Helena

Saturday the 2 day of April 1743 Iam

Worshipfull Sir

Your most humble Servant

Jno Petre

St Helena

2 April 1743

To George Gabriel Powell Esqr

The patroon had been continually alongside waiting for an opportunity, nor could Captain Petre fill his water or get any necessary refreshment from the shore. He therefore protested against the violence of the surf that had prevailed since the arrival of the ship Tigris in St Helena road, on Saturday 2 April 1743. The protest was addressed to George Gabriel Powell esquire, given at St Helena on 2 April 1743, and signed by John Petre.

Interpretations

This second protest from Captain Petre shifts the ground of complaint from the storm at sea to the difficulty of landing at the island itself, the surf preventing him from taking on water and supplies. The patroon, the officer commanding the ship's boat, had waited alongside without a chance to reach the shore, so the captain formally protested against the violence of the surf. Such a protest guarded the master against any charge that delay or shortage was his own fault, fixing the blame on the sea conditions rather than on his management.

The protest exposes the real hazard of St Helena's open roadstead, where ships lay exposed and landing depended wholly on the state of the surf. The island offered no sheltered harbour, only an anchorage in the road off James Valley, so that when heavy surf ran no boat could safely reach the beach. That a ship might sit at anchor unable to water or provision shows the practical limits of the island as a port, its usefulness as a victualling station always at the mercy of the weather breaking on its exposed shore.

The captain's inability to obtain water and refreshment underlines the very purpose that drew ships to the island and the frustration when it could not be met. The Indiamen called at St Helena precisely to replenish water and take on fresh provisions after the long ocean passage, so surf that barred the shore struck at the island's whole reason for being. That a master should formally record his failure to get the supplies he had come for shows how vital and how uncertain the island's service to the homeward fleet could be, its benefits held hostage to the sea.

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Book cover

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EAP 1364 St Helena

Document Name and Date

St. HELENA RECORDS 1742 (26)

Dimensions (height x width x depth) (cm)

47cm x 31cm x 3cm

No. written pages:

174

No. blank pages:

Spine and cover

GOOD CONDITION

Inside pages

GOOD CONDITION

Additional comments

Time taken to photograph (hours)

2 hours