Historical Reference

Real people, events and institutions from 1655 to 1730 appear below, followed by a dated regional calendar. Entries identify the subject, place and date, then explain its use at the table. Play spans 1660 to 1730; maps show 1716. Earlier and later entries supply context and aftermath.

Part One: People

Birth and death years are given where the sources agree.

Ayala y Escobar, Juan de

Interim Governor of Florida, 30 October 1716 to 3 August 1718. Succeeded Olivera y Fullana at St Augustine after his death on 30 October; Olivera had held office since 13 July 1716. Antonio de Benavides later accused Ayala of English contraband trading and briefly imprisoned him. At the table: Carolina trade reaches through Florida's governor; the Spanish frontier is porous at the top.

Bellamy, Samuel

Pirate captain. Broke from Hornigold in 1716. In November 1716 commanded Mary Anne, with 80 to 90 men and 8 guns. His later vessel, the London-built, 300-ton Whydah Gally, wrecked off Cape Cod on 26 April 1717. Discovered in 1982 and announced in 1984, the wreck was identified by its bell in 1985. At the table: A Nassau-era captain who captures a slaver, then loses her to wreck.

Bennett, Benjamin

Lieutenant Governor of Bermuda. Governors' lists give September 1715 to February 1722; contemporary records use Lieutenant Governor in 1716 to 1718. His Council of Trade letters dated 30 July 1717 and 31 May 1718 supply the estimate of 1,000 Bahamas pirates. At the table: A colonial official seeking numbers on the pirates.

Bienville, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de

Commandant and governor in Louisiana. Commandant from 1701 to 1713, based at Mobile from 1702, then acting colonial head following Cadillac's recall in 1716. Established New Orleans for the Company of the West in spring 1718 and captured Pensacola in May 1719. Lists end his government in 1724 or 1725. At the table: A few hundred colonists sustain his hold on the Gulf for France.

Blénac

Louis de Courbon, comte de Blénac, governor general of Saint-Domingue, 1714 to 1716. From Léogâne on 18 July 1716 he demanded that Lord Archibald Hamilton obtain justice for French ships robbed by Jamaica-based vessels. On 25 July he introduced Mr Morett, his envoy seeking reparation at Jamaica. At the table: French demands arriving at Port Royal during the map year.

Bonnet, Stede

Barbados planter turned pirate. Accepted Eden's pardon, then resumed piracy. Nicholas Trott presided over his Charles Town trial in October and November 1718; execution followed in December. At the table: A gentleman unfamiliar with his new trade whose career ends on the gallows.

Bonny, Anne

Pirate, 1718 to 1720. According to Johnson, she came from near Cork to Carolina with her father, married a sailor and reached Providence, where she joined Rackham. Captured with his Company in October 1720, she and Read pleaded pregnancy after sentencing. The court postponed execution pending examination of their pleas. At the table: Alongside Read, one of only two women in Rediker's file of 521 pirates.

Casa Torres, Marquis of

Governor of Cuba. Remained in office until Vicente de Raja succeeded him on 26 May 1716. Previously governed Cuba in 1708 to 1711 and Florida in 1693 to 1699. At the table: Havana's Spanish governor before the map year's change of office.

Codrington, Christopher, the younger

Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1699 to 1704. Landed on Guadeloupe in March 1703 and relinquished command after the expedition failed. On his death, 7 April 1710, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel inherited his Barbados estates and part of Barbuda; All Souls received 10,000 pounds and his library. At the table: Codrington College's founder endowed it through enslaved plantation labour.

Daniell, Robert

Deputy Governor of South Carolina, April 1716 to April 1717. Granted private man-of-war commissions by August 1716; Robert Johnson succeeded him. At the table: Hunters and pirates alike obtain his commissions.

Du Casse, Jean

French naval officer and governor of Saint-Domingue, 1 October 1691 to July 1700 by the list. Landed at Port Morant in 1694 and captured Cartagena with Pointis on 6 May 1697. France paid him 1.4 million francs instead of his promised 20 per cent. Promoted the French Guinea Company, asiento holder in 1701 to 1713. Fought Benbow in August 1702 and escorted Veracruz silver home in 1708. Philip V rewarded his Spanish service with the Golden Fleece. At the table: A French admiral entrusted with Spain's silver.

Eden, Charles

Governor of North Carolina in 1718. Pardoned Teach and about twenty crewmen at Bath in June 1718. Johnson describes a Bath Town Vice-Admiralty court condemning a French vessel captured during peace. At the table: A governor willing to buy prizes.

Enríquez, Miguel

Privateer of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Born about 1674 to a freed woman, Enríquez was a shoemaker of mixed ancestry convicted of contraband sales in 1700. Began privateering in 1701 and held a letter of marque by 1704. Recognised as Captain of Sea and War on 11 July 1710, he became a Caballero entitled Don on 12 March 1712. A biography assigns him some 300 vessels and over 500,000 pieces of eight across his career; both remain Legend (Other Ports, San Juan). His proposed seizure of Danish St Thomas with about 500 militia was refused in 1716. In 1717 he expelled foreign settlers from Vieques. Imprisoned in 1722 and ruined from 1731. At the table: The map year's guardacosta, a former shoemaker wealthier than the governor.

Every, Henry

Pirate. Took the Ganj-i-Sawai in 1695 and was never caught. At the table: The pirate who got away.

Fly, William

Pirate, hanged at Boston, 12 July 1726. His crew's trial and his hanging are the last of the New England cases. At the table: A late hanging, long after Nassau.

Hamilton, Archibald

Governor of Jamaica, 1711 to 1716. Issued privateering and anti-pirate commissions during 1715 and 1716. Dismissed Chief Justice Peter Heywood over a habeas corpus writ in March 1716; recalled that year. At the table: Pirate hunters carry his commissions while his judges contest his authority.

Hamilton, Walter

Governor of the Leeward Islands. Commissioned in 1715, served until 1721 and died in 1722. Reached Antigua in April 1716 but lacked a man of war to leave. On 1 March 1717 he requested something better than the station's small sixth rate; on 15 May 1717 he specified a fifth rate of 36 or 40 guns. Distinct from Jamaica's Hamilton. At the table: Repeated requests bring no adequate warship.

Herdman, Mungo

President of the Cape Coast court, 1722. Johnson prints Heardman. At the table: The captain who sat in judgment on Roberts's Company.

Heywood, Peter

Chief Justice, then Commander in Chief of Jamaica in 1716. Used the latter title by September 1716. Sought compensation for condemned vessels from Havana's governor on 16 August and Santiago de Cuba's governor on 24 August 1716. At the table: Jamaica's acting authority during the map year.

Hornigold, Benjamin

Nassau leader. Lost the Mary Anne captaincy by vote in 1716 and retained a captured sloop. Accepted Jamaica's pardon in January 1718, then hunted for Rogers, bringing in John Auger and his crew that year. A hurricane drove his ship onto a reef in 1719, killing him. At the table: A former pirate employed to catch his fellows.

Hosier, Francis

Commander of the Jamaica Station, 1726 to 1727. Walpole sent him to prevent Spain moving treasure without declaring war. Arrived off Bastimentos near Portobelo on 16 June 1726 and kept the galleons in port. Yellow fever killed 3,000 to 4,000 of about 4,600 men. Hosier died on 23 August 1727, or 25 August in one account. At the table: Orders forbid him to seize the silver he watches.

Jennings, Henry

Jamaica privateer turned raider. A captured mail ship revealed the plate-fleet salvage camp to Jennings and Vane in December 1715; the raid followed early in 1716. In January 1718 Jennings arrived at Bermuda with the Lieutenant Governor's son, Captain Bennett, and seven or eight men, accepting pardon there. He reportedly privateered in the War of the Quadruple Alliance and settled in Bermuda. At the table: His raid opens the map year's events.

Kidd, William

Privateer and pirate, hanged 1701. Received commissions in 1695 and 1696. Tried in May 1701 at an Old Bailey Admiralty session, executed and displayed in chains down the Thames. At the table: Governors cite his fate as a warning.

Lawes, Nicholas

Governor of Jamaica, 1718 to 1722; knighted in 1698. President of the Court of Admiralty at St Jago de la Vega that condemned Rackham's Company in November 1720. At the table: A judge-governor with a gallows.

Levasseur, Olivier

Pirate, called La Buse, hanged on Bourbon, 7 July 1730. The last hanging among the main names in the sources. At the table: The end of the age.

Lowther, Robert

Governor of Barbados, 1711 to 1720, with a break in 1714 and 1715 when William Sharpe acted as President. Reported on 20 July 1717 that warships spent nearly two thirds of each year in harbour. At the table: His naval protection remains at anchor.

Maynard, Robert

Royal Navy lieutenant. Virginia's Spotswood sent him against Teach. They fought hand to hand on 22 November 1718, in the inlet or 17 miles across the sound; sources differ. At the table: Pursuit in shallow-draft sloops.

Mithon de Senneville, Jean-Jacques

Intendant of the French settlements in Hispaniola. Appears as M. Michon in the English Calendar. From Léogâne on 18 June 1716, he sought redress from Hamilton for French ships seized at the Bay of Hondo by English-port vessels, including Jennings's. At the table: Cargo recovery concerns this trade-and-tax official more than revenge.

Morgan, Henry

Buccaneer, active 1660s and 1670s. A Jamaican commission authorised his Panama expedition in 1670 to 1671. Charles II knighted him. At the table: A leading buccaneer whose commission's legal standing changed.

Mostyn, Roger

Approved Governor of the Bahama Islands. Approved by the King in Council on 10 March 1716; no source shows he sailed. At the table: The governor Nassau never sees.

Ogle, Chaloner

Royal Navy captain, later Sir Chaloner. Commanded HMS Swallow when Roberts died off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722. Knighted in 1723, uniquely among naval officers for an anti-piracy operation. At the table: A successful pirate hunter.

Parke, Daniel

Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1706 to 7 December 1710. Killed by a mob at Antigua, the only governor in British America murdered in office. At the table: The governor Antigua's planters killed.

Pearse, Vincent

Captain of HMS Phoenix. Brought pardon news to Nassau between February and April 1718, lacking authority to grant it. Issued certificates to 209 pirates; 19 resumed piracy before he left. At the table: A certificate promises more than its issuer can deliver.

Phipps, James

Captain-General of the Royal African Company at Cape Coast Castle from 23 July 1719. Served on the 1722 court and was dismissed that year. Died at the castle on 15 January 1723 while awaiting passage home. At the table: The African Company's authority on the Guinea coast.

Rackham, John

Pirate, hanged 1720. Captured with his Company off Point Negril, tried at St Jago de la Vega and sentenced on 16 November 1720. His body was displayed in chains at Plumb Point. At the table: One sloop brings down an entire Company.

Raja, Vicente de

Governor of Cuba from 26 May 1716 to 23 August 1717. Followed Casa Torres. His 1716 prohibition of private tobacco sales preceded the Crown's April 1717 monopoly. Growers rose that year and expelled him, the first Captain General driven violently from office in Cuba. At the table: Havana's Spanish governor in the map year.

Read, Mary

Pirate. Johnson places her aboard a West Indies-bound ship captured by English pirates, then taking pardon and joining Rogers's privateering at Providence. Convicted alongside Bonny and remanded, she died imprisoned. One register dates her burial to 28 April 1721. At the table: Bonny's fellow convicted pirate.

Roberts, Bartholomew

Pirate captain, killed 10 February 1722. Johnson prints his 11 articles. HMS Swallow killed him off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722; his body remained missing. His Company then faced trial at Cape Coast Castle. At the table: The period's most successful pirate captain.

Rogers, Woodes

Privateer and governor. Circumnavigated between 2 August 1708 and 14 October 1711, rescuing Alexander Selkirk. Received the Bahamas governorship on 6 January 1718 and reached Nassau on 26 July 1718 with about 100 soldiers and 130 colonists. Reappointment followed on 22 October 1728. Died in Nassau on 15 July 1732. At the table: Nassau's pirate port ends under his government.

Spotswood, Alexander

Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Sent Maynard against Teach; his notice of rewards, given at the Council Chamber at Williamsburg on 24 November 1718, is printed in Johnson. At the table: A governor who hunts.

Teach, Edward

Pirate, called Blackbeard; killed 22 November 1718. Captured La Concorde in November 1717, renaming her Queen Anne's Revenge. Accepted Eden's pardon at Bath in June 1718. Maynard killed him on 22 November 1718 and carried his head from the bowsprit to claim 100 pounds. At the table: The age's most recognisable pirate.

Trott, Nicholas

Vice-Admiralty judge at Charles Town and Chief Justice, 1703 to 1719. Heard Bonnet's case and published the proceedings in The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates (1719). At the table: Court proceedings become his printed account.

Vane, Charles

Pirate. Accompanied Jennings in 1715. Rejected pardon and escaped Rogers in 1718. A tornado wrecked him near the Bay of Honduras in February 1719; Captain Holford recognised him and sent him to Jamaica. Held at St Jago de la Vega, he was hanged at Gallows Point, Port Royal, on 29 March 1721, then displayed in chains at Gun Cay. Johnson recounts his capture without dates. His 1718 brigantine had 12 guns and about 90 men. At the table: Refusing pardon ends with capture and execution.

Walker, Hovenden

Royal Navy officer, commander of the Jamaica Station 1712 to 1713. His Quebec expedition departed Boston on 30 July 1711 and lost about 890 on Île aux Oeufs's rocks on 22 August. At the table: Port Royal's admiral whose captains remember the St Lawrence disaster.

Walker, Thomas

Judge of the Admiralty for the Bahamas. Left New Providence in summer 1716 after pirates mounted guns in the fort. At the table: The last law officer at Nassau.

Part Two: Events

Events are in date order.

The English take Jamaica from Spain, 1655

Port Royal becomes the Navy's Jamaica Station and the buccaneers' port.

Morgan's Panama expedition, 1670 to 1671

Panama City is sacked and burned in 1671.

The Port Royal earthquake, 7 June 1692

Half to two thirds of Port Royal, population about 6,500, sinks. Counts leave about 18 to 25 of its fifty-odd acres. Council and Assembly meet only at Spanish Town; Kingston is founded on 22 July for survivors. See also Part Four, Kingston is founded.

Kidd hanged, 1701

After an Old Bailey Admiralty session in May 1701.

Rogers's voyage round the world, 1708 to 1711

Sailed 2 August 1708, home 14 October 1711.

The French royal declaration on brandy, 24 January 1713

Bans brandy distilled from syrups, molasses and similar substances, excluding French rum from France. Colonial tafia production continues.

The Treaties of Utrecht, 11 April and 13 July 1713

Britain signs with France on 11 April and Spain on 13 July, ending the war. The asiento de negros passes to Britain for thirty years. Discharged seamen number in the thousands, swelling Nassau. See also Part Four, The Utrecht settlement and The asiento begins.

The plate fleet hurricane, 31 July 1715

A hurricane off the east coast of Florida at 2 a.m. wrecks all eleven Spanish ships of the combined fleets; about 1,500 die. Salvage ships come from Havana by the end of August.

The Jennings and Vane raid, December 1715 to early 1716

Learned from a captured mail ship, the salvage camp is raided in early 1716.

The King's proclamation against pirates, 5 September 1717

This executive proclamation is not legislation. Surrender by 5 September 1718 earns pardon for piracies before 5 January 1718. Rank determines rewards (Era Rules, Rewards and the Pardon).

Rogers commissioned governor, 6 January 1718

Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Bahamas.

Pearse at Nassau, February to April 1718

HMS Phoenix carries the pardon to Nassau; 209 certificates are issued.

Teach takes Eden's pardon, June 1718

At Bath, North Carolina.

Rogers arrives at Nassau, 26 July 1718

Rogers arrives on 26 July and lands on 27 July (Truth, from his own letter). Vane escapes the harbour.

Bonnet's trial, 28 October to 12 November 1718

A court of Admiralty by commission at Charles Town, Judge Trott presiding.

Teach is killed, 22 November 1718

By Maynard in a fight in or beyond Ocracoke Inlet.

The Nassau trial, 9 and 10 December 1718

Ten men are tried; nine are convicted and eight are hanged on 12 December.

War with Spain, 17 December 1718

Britain declares war on 17 December 1718 (OS; 28 December NS), following Cape Passaro on 11 August 1718 New Style (31 July English records). France joins on 9 January 1719 (New Style); the Emperor already fights Spain in Sicily. Jamaica receives news and commissions in February or March 1719. Pirates' surrender deadline moves to 1 July 1719. See also Part Four, The War of the Quadruple Alliance.

A Spanish raid on Nassau, February 1720

The raiders withdraw.

Rackham's Company taken and tried, 22 October to 28 November 1720

Captured on 22 October. Rackham's Company receives sentence on 16 November; executions follow at Gallows Point on 18 November and Kingston the next day. Bonny and Read are tried and convicted on 28 November, then remanded after pleas of pregnancy.

Roberts killed off Cape Lopez, 10 February 1722

By HMS Swallow.

The Cape Coast trials, March to April 1722

A Court of Admiralty tries Roberts's Company at Cape Coast Castle. Johnson counts 74 acquittals, 52 hangings, 20 sentences of seven years' servitude to the Royal African Company and 17 transfers to the Marshalsea. Eight executed men are displayed in chains.

Fly and Levasseur, 1726 to 1730

William Fly is hanged at Boston in 1726 and Olivier Levasseur on Bourbon on 7 July 1730.

Part Three: Institutions

The Royal Navy's West Indies stations

Jamaica, Barbados and the Leeward Islands rely on few, often undermanned station ships. Governors' letters of 1716 and 1717 identify Adventure and six-gun, 40-man Swift at Jamaica; Roebuck and Scarborough at Barbados; departing Seahorse, then Seaford, in the Leewards; and Shoreham off Carolina and Virginia. One 1717 report says illness, deaths and desertion keep warships in harbour nearly two thirds of the year. Captains must carry orders while keeping ships operational. Between Walker in 1713 and Hosier in 1726, Jamaica has no listed flag officer apart from Vernon's commodore command in 1720.

Vice-Admiralty courts

These colonial prize courts spread under the Plantation Trade Act of 1696 to prosecute smuggling. Piracy trials instead sit by commission under the Piracy Act of 1698, with at least seven commissioners: Nassau and Charles Town in 1718, Jamaica in 1720 and Cape Coast in 1722. Bath also has a Vice-Admiralty court.

The Royal African Company

Chartered in 1672 after earlier charters in 1660 and 1663, this Guinea-coast company was insolvent by 1708. Cape Coast Castle hosted the 1722 Admiralty court. Company mines and works received prisoners sentenced to seven years' servitude.

The Council of Trade and Plantations

The Board in London that received the governors' letters and prepared commissions and instructions.

The asiento

The monopoly contract to supply enslaved people to Spanish America, passed to Britain by the Treaties of Utrecht for thirty years from 1 May 1713, held by the South Sea Company. Its terms are under Part Four, The asiento begins.

The Spanish guardacostas

Governors commission these colonial privateers. Records describe Santiago- and Trinidad-based periaguas, half-galleys carrying up to 120 men, and balandras, sloops of up to 25. Most descriptions date to the 1730s and 1740s (Powers of the Caribbean, Spain, Legend). For the full period's leading example, see Miguel Enríquez of San Juan in Part One.

The Bahamas proprietors

Held the Bahamas by charter until they surrendered civil and military government to the Crown on 28 October 1717.

The plate fleets

The Spanish convoys carrying silver from the Americas. The combined fleets of 1715 were wrecked on 31 July. The Casa de Contratación moved from Seville to Cádiz on 8 May 1717.

Part Four: The Region, 1660 to 1730

This regional calendar covers wars, treaties and local consequences; settlements and territorial transfers; storms, fires, fever and risings; trade legislation; and changes of officials. Pirates and privateers appear within that wider history. Four chronological bands follow the Notice's calendars: Old Style for English and colonial records, New Style for Spanish, French, Dutch and treaty dates. Both dates appear as OS/NS when sources supply both. See also links identify events in Part Two. For each power's holdings and aims in 1716, consult Powers of the Caribbean; dates belong here.

1660 to 1689: The Restoration and the Buccaneer Wars

The Navigation Act, 13 September 1660

Directed against Dutch carriers of much of the sugar trade, the Act is 12 Cha. II c. 18, confirmed on 27 July 1661. Trade and Shipping, The English Frame gives its provisions. At the table: Lawful English-port cargo requires a bond and declared destination; selling to a Dutch buyer is an offence.

The African Company, 1660 to 1698

Chartered on 18 December 1660, the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa initially pursues gold. Its 1663 charter adds slave trading; the Royal African Company's 1672 charter adds forts, troops and martial law. The Trade with Africa Act 1697 (9 Will. III c. 26), effective in 1698, permits English merchants to trade by paying the Company 10 per cent on goods exported to Africa. Independent vessels soon outnumber Company ships. Insolvent by 1708, it abandons slave trading for ivory and gold dust in 1731. See also Part Three, The Royal African Company. At the table: Bristol and Liverpool's "ten-per-cent men" trade beside Company castles.

Jamaica becomes a Crown colony, 1661 to 1662

Charles II enters London on 29 May 1660 (OS), and Cromwell's conquest of Jamaica is kept, not returned. A civil governor is appointed in 1661, and a proclamation of 14 December 1661, published on the island in 1662, promises settlers thirty acres a head and makes children born there to English parents free denizens of England. The Spanish commander Ysasi had fled to Cuba in 1660 when the Maroon leader Juan de Bolas went over to the English. Spain calls Jamaica stolen until 1670. See also Part Two, The English take Jamaica from Spain. At the table: A buccaneer colony turned royal without a treaty.

The asiento changes hands, 1662 to 1713

Grillo and Lomellini, Genoese contractors, hold the asiento from July 1662 to 1671, delivering 24,000 people over seven years, chiefly through Curaçao. Dutch contractor Balthasar Coymans takes over in February 1685; investigation begins in July 1686 and annulment follows in March 1687. Portugal's Cacheu and Cape Verde Company holds it in 1695 to 1701, followed by the French Guinea Company, promoted by du Casse, in 1701 to 1713. Through the century's end, the Dutch West India Company's Curaçao depot supplies most Africans reaching Spanish America. At the table: Four changes of holder precede English control of lawful landings at Cartagena.

Carolina is granted, 24 March 1663 and 30 June 1665

Charles II grants Carolina to eight Lords Proprietors. The charter of 1665 pushes the bounds to 36 degrees 30 minutes north and 29 degrees north, which takes in St Augustine on paper. A first settlement at Clarendon on the Cape Fear (1665) fails.

The Staple Act, 27 July 1663

Effective from 1 September 1663, the Act requires European colonial imports to land in England for inspection and taxation. Exceptions cover fishery salt, Madeira and Azores wines, and Scottish and Irish provisions, servants and horses. At the table: English wharves lawfully receive Madeira; French brandy or Dutch linen must first pass through London.

The four and a half per cent duty, 12 September 1663

Following the Crown's cancellation of Carlisle's proprietary claim, Lord Willoughby arrives in August 1663 and presses Barbados's Assembly for revenue. It grants a perpetual 4½ per cent export duty on island produce and manufactures; the Leewards follow. The Crown later leases collection to a syndicate for 7,000 pounds annually, returning little to the islands and sustaining a century's grievance. At the table: Before other charges, Bridgetown sugar pays 4½ in 100 to the King. Forged clearance papers have value.

The Second Dutch War opens on the Guinea coast, January 1664 to early 1665

Between January and May 1664 Holmes seizes WIC Guinea-coast posts, including Cape Coast Castle on 1 May. English forces capture New Amsterdam on 27 August 1664. De Ruyter recovers the African posts early in 1665, bankrupting the Company of Royal Adventurers, then raids Caribbean possessions.

The war reaches the Leewards, late 1665 to 1666

In 1665 an English force under Edward Morgan, deputy governor of Jamaica, takes Sint Eustatius and Saba, and another from Jamaica and Barbados takes Tobago. France declares war on England on 26 January 1666 (16 January in English records), and the alliances flip. On 10 and 11 April 1666 (21 and 22 April New Style) the French take English St Kitts at Sandy Point, Governor Watts is killed, and many English settlers flee to Nevis. A hurricane in late July 1666 (23 July by one account) sinks the fleet Francis, Lord Willoughby, governor of Barbados, is leading to the relief of Nevis, and he is lost with it. At the table: A buccaneer fleet under a governor's commission is the colony's navy; weather, not the enemy, decides a campaign.

The Leewards fall, August 1666 to May 1667

The French retake Tobago (August 1666). A Franco-Dutch force retakes Sint Eustatius and the French take Antigua (November 1666). La Barre's squadron occupies English St Kitts and Montserrat (January 1667). Abraham Crijnssen takes the English colony of Surinam, then called Willoughbyland, for Zeeland in February 1667. On 20 May 1667 (a page gives 17 May) a Franco-Dutch fleet attacks Nevis and is repelled the same day.

The Treaties of Madrid and Lisbon, 1667 and 1668

By the Treaty of Madrid of 23 May 1667 NS (one page gives 27 May), English merchants get trading privileges inside the Spanish empire that last until Utrecht, and each side agrees not to help the other's enemies. England undertakes to mediate the Portuguese war. The Treaty of Lisbon of 13 February 1668, brokered by the Earl of Sandwich, makes Spain recognise the Braganza kings and Portuguese independence after 28 years of war. At the table: An English factor may live and trade in Cádiz and Seville; the Indies stay shut, which is why Jamaica smuggles.

Harman at Martinique and the Peace of Breda, 1667

Sir John Harman attacks Saint-Pierre, Martinique, on 6 July 1667 as dated by the sources, destroying or capturing nearly every French ship. Cayenne surrenders to him on 15 September. Signed on 31 July 1667 NS (21 July OS), Breda comprises separate treaties with the Dutch Republic, France and Denmark. England retains New Netherland (New York), the Dutch Surinam. France returns English St Kitts, Antigua and Montserrat, although St Kitts changes hands only about 1670; England returns Acadia. Later captures must be restored. At the table: News follows signatures by weeks, leaving intervening prizes open to litigation.

The Bridgetown fire, 18 April 1668

An exploding public powder magazine starts the fire that destroys roughly 80 per cent of Bridgetown, about 800 houses. At the table: The rebuilt town of 1716 remembers its dangerous magazine.

Charles Town is founded, 1670

Charles Town is founded at Albemarle Point on the Ashley in March or April 1670 under William Sayle, with many settlers from Barbados, and moves in 1680 to the peninsula between the Ashley and the Cooper. Both Carolinas together hold about 4,050 people in 1670, nearly all of them in the older Albemarle settlements to the north; 16,424 in 1700 and 26,003 in 1710, when South Carolina has about 10,900 of them.

The Godolphin Treaty, 8 July 1670 OS (18 July NS)

Spain recognises England's possession of Jamaica, the Caymans and its other American holdings, and each crown is to suppress its subjects' depredations on the other. The treaty is ratified on 28 September OS (8 October NS). An admiralty court is set up on Nevis under it and convicted pirates are hanged there. See also Part Two, Morgan's Panama expedition. At the table: After 1670 a commission against Spain in peacetime is piracy on paper, and Morgan's Panama (January 1671) is already illegal.

The Bahamas go to the Carolina proprietors, 1 November 1670

The Carolina proprietors receive the Bahamas by patent. About 500 people live on New Providence (settled from Bermuda in 1666) and about 20 families on Eleuthera (settled in 1648). The town is Charles Town, renamed Nassau in 1695 under Governor Nicholas Trott, whose fort is finished in 1697 (Nassau).

Lynch and the buccaneers, 1671 to 1684

Lynch reaches Jamaica in 1671 with orders to command royal ships and suppress piracy. Spanish complaints force London to curb buccaneering and recall him in 1674; he returns under the same orders in 1682. Pursues Jean Hamlin despite Danish shelter at St Thomas, and retries Peter Johnson after acquittal, then hangs him. Morgan acts as governor in 1678 and 1680 to 1682. At the table: Governors hanging buccaneers in the 1680s foreshadow the policy of 1718.

St Thomas is settled, 1672

The Danish West India Company lands its permanent colony on St Thomas on 25 May 1672 under Governor Jørgen Iversen Dyppel. Of 190 who sailed, 77 die at sea, 104 land and 75 of those die in the first year. Slavery on the island begins in 1673, and the settlement of Taphus ("tap house") is said to have been renamed Charlotte Amalie in 1691 (a Legend, Other Ports, St Thomas). At the table: A harbour founded on a death rate of about four in five, whose survivors ran taverns. It is not a free port in law in the period.

The Third Dutch War, 1672 to 1674

Evertsen and Binckes recapture New York in 1673 and rename it New Orange. Their squadron burns Virginia's James River tobacco fleet in 1673 and raids colonies from December 1672 to February 1674. Westminster ends the war on 9 February 1674 OS (19 February NS), returning New Netherland to England. Dutch war with France continues alone until 1678. At the table: An anchored year's tobacco can vanish before a Dutch frigate off the Capes.

The Plantation Duty Act, 29 March 1673

The Act (25 Cha. II c. 7) makes the plantation duties payable on leaving a colony unless a bond is given to land the goods in England, closing the loophole of the intercolonial trade. The English Commissioners of Customs collect the duties and may take goods in kind.

The Barbados hurricane, 31 August 1675

The worst storm Barbados had known strikes under Governor Atkins, and a plot among the enslaved is reported the same year.

Tobago and Nijmegen, 1677 and 1678

Binckes retakes Tobago as a Dutch base. On 11 or 12 December 1677 the elder Blénac, Charles de Courbon, lands about 950 French troops. A mortar shell detonates Fort Sterreschans's magazine, killing about 250, Binckes among them. Thereafter Dutch defence relies on forts and payments instead of fleets. Nijmegen's treaties of 10 August and 17 September 1678 leave France claiming Tobago. At the table: An ungoverned careenage on an empty island claimed by France.

The Barbados census, 1680

Atkins's census, ordered in 1679, records about 20,000 whites and 38,000 enslaved people. The largest 175 planters own 54 per cent of land and 60 per cent of enslaved people. White numbers fell about 10,000 in 1660 to 1675; around 1680 labourers depart for Carolina and Jamaica. At the table: Charles Town and Port Royal receive poor Barbadian migrants and their accents.

Veracruz is sacked, 17 and 18 May 1683

Buccaneers under Laurens de Graaf, Grammont, van Hoorn and others sack Veracruz for several days, then lie off Isla de Sacrificios with their hostages until the ransom comes: some 150 notables are ransomed and about 800,000 pesos taken. De Graaf raids Campeche in July 1685. These are the last great buccaneer sackings before the Nine Years War.

Spain burns the Bahamas, January 1684

A Spanish force from Cuba burns the settlements on New Providence and Eleuthera, and the governor is carried off and executed. The islands are largely abandoned until resettled from Jamaica in 1686.

Bermuda becomes a Crown colony, 1684

The Crown revokes the Somers Isles Company's charter in 1684 after the islanders demand it. Bermuda gets an elected Assembly and turns wholly to cedar shipbuilding, salt-raking and carrying; its population is 5,862 in 1699 and 8,364 on 17 April 1721, of whom 3,514 are listed as Blacks, free and enslaved together. A Council order of 1712 lets masters carry as many enslaved seamen as they wish. At the table: The Bermuda sloop every captain wants is built by enslaved shipwrights and half-crewed by enslaved sailors, by law.

The Treaty of Whitehall, 16 November 1686 OS

James II and Louis XIV agree that a European war is not to disturb peace between their American colonies, that neither crown's subjects may fish or trade in the other's territory, and that neither may arm Indian nations at war with the other. The war of 1689 breaks it. At the table: In 1687 a French and an English captain who meet off St Kitts are bound to keep the peace whatever Europe does; in 1689 the fence is gone.

War comes by circular, April 1689

On 15 April 1689 Whitehall warns governors to prepare for French war; declaration follows in late April or May. Boston imprisons Andros on 18 April, breaking the Dominion of New England within a month. Leisler takes New York on 31 May, retaining power until royal forces arrive in 1691. He and his son-in-law Milborne are executed for treason. At the table: A circular, a French landing and unrest ashore announce colonial war.

St Kitts changes hands, 1689 to 1690

After a French siege the English garrison of Fort Charles surrenders on 15 August 1689 and is sent to Nevis. From 24 June to 16 July 1690 Codrington and Thornhill land 3,000 English troops, the French surrender Fort Charles and are deported to Martinique, and the English haul the first guns up Brimstone Hill. The same year an earthquake and sea wave destroy Jamestown on Nevis, and the capital moves to Charlestown.

1690 to 1712: The Wars of King William and Queen Anne

Risings in Jamaica, 1673 and 31 July 1690

About 200 to 300 enslaved people rise in St Ann's Parish in 1673; Jamaica then has 57 sugar estates, nearly 8,000 white colonists and over 9,000 enslaved Africans. On 31 July 1690 several hundred (300 to 500 by different counts) rise at Sutton's plantation in Clarendon. The owner is killed, arms and provisions are taken, the leader is hanged, and the escapers join the Leeward Maroons. Jamaica then has about 10,000 whites and 30,000 enslaved people. The sources say both risings fed the Leeward Maroons, and they give the leader's name differently. At the table: The first Coromantee rising comes on a small-planter island, and Clarendon's hills in 1716 hold the children of 1690.

Kingston is founded, 22 July 1692

After the earthquake of 7 June 1692, which sinks between half and two thirds of a town of about 6,500 (estimates of the dead run from about 2,000 at once to about 5,000 in all; the counts leave from about 18 to 25 of its 50-odd acres), the Council and Assembly sit at Spanish Town alone and Kingston is founded on 22 July to house survivors. About 2,000 die of fever in the tented camp at Hog Crawle. See also Part Two, The Port Royal earthquake.

Wheler's fleet, 1693

Sir Francis Wheler sails from Barbados on 30 March 1693 against Martinique with about 3,100 men. The troops sicken, the attack fails, and the fleet breaks up at Dominica on 29 April. It reaches Boston unannounced about 17 June with more than half its men dead of yellow fever. The planned attack on Quebec is dropped. At the table: A fleet that arrives with fever is a worse guest than an enemy, and Boston shuts its wharves.

Du Casse lands in Jamaica, 1694

Du Casse lands at Port Morant with three warships, 29 transports and about 1,500 men, burns plantations, wrecks more than 50 sugar works and seizes hundreds of enslaved people. He is beaten at Carlisle Bay by militia under Colonel Thomas Sutton and withdraws to Saint-Domingue.

The Board of Trade and the Plantation Trade Act, 1696

The Board of Trade succeeds the Lords of Trade in 1696; William Blathwayt had served as the latter's secretary since 1679. The Plantation Trade Act, 7 and 8 Will. III c. 22, passes on 10 April 1696 and takes effect on 25 March 1698. Oath-based registration checks foreign ship ownership; customs officers gain English powers, Admiralty courts hear offences and conflicting colonial legislation becomes void. See also Part Three, Vice-Admiralty courts. At the table: A pirate's judge in 1718 occupies a court established against smugglers in 1698. Board letters arrive after two to four months.

Cartagena falls to Pointis, 6 May 1697

Leaving Brest on 7 January, Pointis reaches Saint-Domingue on 3 March and captures Cartagena de Indias with du Casse's buccaneers on 6 May. Plundering continues until 24 May, yielding ten to twenty million livres. Denied his promised 20 per cent, du Casse later receives 1.4 million francs in France. At the table: The century's richest single haul provokes a dispute over shares.

The Peace of Ryswick, 20 September 1697

France signs peace with England, Spain and the Dutch Republic on 20 and 21 September 1697, then with the Emperor on 30 October. American possessions revert to pre-war holdings; France recovers Acadia. No Hispaniola cession or frontier appears in the treaty. Spain tolerates French occupation in the west, with a border undrawn until the late eighteenth century.

Darien, 1698 to 1700

The Company of Scotland lands at Darien on 2 November 1698, leaves in July 1699, returns on 30 November 1699 and finally yields to Spanish siege and blockade early in 1700. Over 80 per cent of colonists die. Losses consume about a fifth of Scotland's circulating money, contributing to the Union of 1707. A hurricane on 3 September 1700 (14 September New Style) wrecks Rising Sun at Charles Town's Ashley River bar. About 100 drown; minister Archibald Stobo is among few survivors. At the table: A ruined Isthmus fort and Scottish refugees in Jamaica and New York.

Pensacola and Biloxi, 1698 and 1699

Spain founds the Presidio Santa María de Galve at Pensacola in November 1698 (Arriola and Jordán de Reina with 357 people) to block the French. Iberville builds Fort Maurepas at Biloxi in April 1699, the first capital of Louisiana, and the base moves to Mobile in 1702.

Fever at Charles Town, 1699 and 1700

The first great epidemic of 1699 kills about 15 per cent of the town (the South Carolina Encyclopedia's estimate), and in 1700 about 180 die in two months, about 6 per cent. Charles Town has at least five and perhaps eight major epidemics after 1706.

Charles II of Spain dies, 1 November 1700, and the war of 1702

Charles II leaves his crown to Philip of Anjou, proclaimed Philip V. England, the Dutch Republic and the Emperor resist French control of Spain, forming the Grand Alliance in 1701. They declare war in May 1702 after William III dies in March. St Kitts's French governor yields to Codrington and Hamilton without fighting. English possession from 1702 rests on surrender rather than treaty. At the table: French vessels have allied status in Spanish ports from 1701, and French officers can escort Spanish silver.

Benbow's last fight, 19 to 24 August 1702

A running pursuit of du Casse off Santa Marta ends when Benbow's captains hang back and chain shot strikes him on 24 August. He dies at Port Royal on 4 November 1702. A court martial aboard Breda, 19 to 23 October, sentences Kirkby of Defiance and Wade of Greenwich to shooting; confirmation follows in 1703. At the table: Naval cowardice before the enemy carries death.

Vigo Bay, 12 October 1702 OS (23 October NS)

The New Spain flota, escorted from Havana by Châteaurenault's French squadron and finding Cádiz threatened, makes Vigo Bay in Galicia. Rooke's Anglo-Dutch fleet and Ormonde's troops break the boom, take the forts and destroy the whole escort. Most of the silver had already been landed.

Moore besieges St Augustine, 10 November to 30 December 1702

Governor James Moore of Carolina besieges St Augustine. The Castillo holds, relief comes from Havana, and the English burn the town as they leave. In 1704 Governor Zúñiga orders the Cubo Line built round the landward side.

Port Royal burns, January 1703

Fire consumes rebuilt Port Royal. Authorities prohibit resettlement and redirect merchants towards Kingston; the Queen overturns the prohibition in 1704. By 1716 Kingston leads Jamaica in population and trade, while Port Royal serves the Navy.

Codrington on Guadeloupe, March to May 1703

Against Governor Charles Auger, Codrington lands about 4,000 men from 45 ships on 19 March 1703 (NS). Basse-Terre's Fort St Charles falls after roughly two and a half weeks. English troops burn houses and sugar works, but Martinique reinforcements, scorched earth, disease and supply shortages force embarkation on 15 May. Guns and wounded men remain behind. Codrington relinquishes command. At the table: Guadeloupe's rebuilt fort and plantations bear living memories of English destruction.

Nassau is sacked, 1703 and 1706

Two frigates bring 300 to 400 privately raised French and Spanish troops from Santiago de Cuba and Saint-Domingue in October 1703. They surprise Nassau, kill over a hundred and burn it. A further raid leaves 27 families in 1706.

Queen Anne's proclamation on coin, 18 June 1704

Pieces of eight weighing 17.5 pennyweight are rated at six plantation shillings, equivalent to 4 shillings 6 pence sterling. Colonial disregard leads Parliament to legislate in 1707 and 1708, without ending it. Virginia values the dollar at five shillings throughout 1655 to 1710, and colonies continue setting their own rates. At the table: Traders profit from a coin's changing purchasing power between ports.

Iberville takes Nevis, April 1706

In February 1706 (New Style; 1705 in English records, whose year ran to 24 March) the French bombard Nevis for five days and raid the English quarter of St Kitts, carrying off 600 to 700 enslaved people by the English count. In April 1706 Iberville's force, about 1,100 buccaneers among them, takes Nevis (capitulation 4 April NS), loots and burns Charlestown and carries off about 3,400 enslaved people. An agreement of 19 April demands 1,400 more within three months or 100 pieces of eight a head, and the dispute is still before the Board of Trade in 1716. Nevis sugar does not regain its 1704 output for about 80 years. At the table: A ruined sugar island in 1716 whose planters are still suing over 1706.

Lefebvre at Charles Town, 24 August to 1 September 1706 (4 to 12 September New Style)

A Franco-Spanish expedition from Havana, five ships with about 300 French and 200 Spanish and a sixth ship from St Augustine, demands 50,000 pesos of Charles Town and is beaten ashore. Rhett's improvised flotilla takes the Brillant; 42 are killed and more than 350 captured, among them 90 to 100 Indians sold as slaves. Both Havana and Charles Town have yellow fever that summer, and Iberville dies of it at Havana on 8 or 9 July. At the table: Charles Town's walls and militia are real, and the season of fever is the season of invasions.

The Union opens the colonial trade, 1 May 1707

Scottish vessels and merchants gain equal access to English colonial commerce. Glasgow may now trade directly in tobacco. London exporters had sent tobacco to Scotland for the drawback, intending to re-land it after 1 May. About a quarter of early post-Union imports are smuggled.

The Nevis hurricane, 1707

A hurricane in September 1707 follows Iberville's raid on an island that was the richest Leeward colony in the 1670s; its whites fall from 3,595 in 1677 or 1678 to 1,104 in 1708.

Wager's Action, 8 June 1708 NS

Wager's squadron (Expedition, Kingston, Portland and the fireship Vulture) meets the Tierra Firme galleons off Cartagena. San José blows up at about 7 p.m. with about 600 aboard and 11 survivors, Santa Cruz is taken at 2 a.m., and San Joaquín escapes into Cartagena (Wager's own letter is dated 28 May OS). Captains Bridges and Windsor are court-martialled. Du Casse escorts the Veracruz silver home the same year with few losses. At the table: The Portobelo fair of 1708 ends at the bottom of the sea, and Lima's silver sits unsold for years.

Governor Parke is killed, 7 December 1710

Daniel Parke, Governor of the Leeward Islands, is killed by a mob at Antigua, the only governor in British America murdered in office. Walter Hamilton acts from 1710 to 1711, then Walter Douglas governs from 1711 to 1714 or 1716 (the sources differ). At the table: Antigua's planters have killed a governor, and the Crown has not forgotten in 1716.

Walker's Quebec expedition, 1711

Hovenden Walker leaves Boston on 30 July 1711 with nine warships, two bomb vessels and about 60 transports carrying about 7,500 troops and marines. On the night of 22 August seven transports and a storeship strike Île aux Oeufs in the St Lawrence in fog and about 890 die (705 soldiers, 150 sailors and 35 women). Walker turns back, and HMS Feversham of the same force wrecks off Louisbourg on 7 October with 90 drowned. At the table: The admiral at Port Royal in 1712 is the man who lost eight ships in the St Lawrence, and his captains know it.

The Tuscarora War, 1711 to 1713

On 22 September 1711 the southern Tuscarora and their allies kill about 140 settlers along the Neuse and Pamlico, among them Swiss and German settlers of New Bern, and carry off 20 to 30 women and children. Barnwell's South Carolina force of about 500, mostly allied Indians, arrives in January 1712 and takes the surrender of Fort Hancock on 17 April but does not end the war. Moore's second force takes Fort Neoheroka in March 1713, and most Tuscarora go north to the Iroquois.

Cassard's cruise, March 1712 to February 1713

Cassard's squadron of eight ships, about 3,000 seamen and 1,200 soldiers sacks Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands, Montserrat and Antigua, and ransoms Surinam (October 1712, 2.4 million livres, about 747,350 guilders). It occupies Berbice in November 1712 (redeemed on 24 October 1714 for 180,000 guilders cash and 120,000 in sugar and enslaved people) and sacks Essequibo. It lands on Curaçao on 18 February 1713, which capitulates on 24 February for 600,000 livres. Net plunder to France is nine to ten million livres. At the table: Ransom is a price list: a colony buys its own survival in cash, sugar and people.

The New York revolt, 6 and 7 April 1712

About two dozen enslaved Africans set a fire on the night of 6 April and kill eight or nine whites (nine by Hunter's report). About 70 are arrested, 21 are executed on Governor Hunter's account, some burned, one broken on the wheel and one hung alive in chains, and six kill themselves. At the table: A Black sailor in New York in 1712 is watched.

Crozat takes Louisiana, 1712

Antoine Crozat receives a 15-year monopoly of Louisiana in 1712 and gives it up after five years. Bienville is commandant from 1701 to 1713; Cadillac is governor from 1713 and is recalled in 1716. At Mobile in 1708 there are 359 people, 60 of them Canadian traders and 122 soldiers, sailors and craftsmen in Crown pay, with 80 enslaved Native people. At the table: Louisiana in 1716 is a few hundred people in two forts, and a GM can name most of them.

1713 to 1718: Peace, Fleets and the Closing of the Law

The Charles Town hurricane, 5 to 6 September 1713

A hurricane floods Charles Town, drives nearly every vessel in the harbour ashore, undermines the town walls and kills about 70. At the table: Charles Town's wall is patched in 1716, and the merchants remember the fleet on the mud.

The Utrecht settlement, 1713 and 1714

France makes peace with Britain and the Dutch on 11 April 1713 and Spain with Britain on 13 July. The Anglo-Spanish commerce treaty follows on 9 December 1713, and Spain makes peace with the Dutch Republic on 26 June 1714. France cedes Nova Scotia, Newfoundland claims and its whole part of St Kitts; Spain cedes Gibraltar and Menorca and gives Britain the asiento. See also Part Two, The Treaties of Utrecht. At the table: Each power's peace is a different day, and the Dutch are at war with Spain until June 1714.

The asiento begins, 1 May 1713

The asiento passes to the South Sea Company, formed in 1711, for thirty years: 4,800 piezas a year (a unit of account that meant more people than 4,800), an advance of 200,000 pesos in two instalments, a quarter of the profits reserved to the King of Spain, and one ship of up to 500 tons a year to trade at the fairs, Portobelo named in the contract. The first annual ship, Royal Prince, sails in August 1716. In 1716 the Company protests a Jamaica duty of 40 shillings a head on exported enslaved people, and on 21 December 1717 the Council of Trade rules against any duty on people landed at Jamaica only in transit. Spain seizes the Company's American assets in 1718. At the table: Company factors live lawfully in Cartagena, Portobelo, Havana and Veracruz, a British face inside a Spanish port.

The French lands on St Kitts, 1713 to 1727

Utrecht gives Britain the French part of St Kitts (the Basseterre and Capisterre quarters). The land is first granted to men who helped the Crown, some British, some Huguenots and a few formerly enslaved, then all the grants are annulled and a three-man commission sells it from 1726, its journal running to 1732. In 1727 Basseterre replaces Old Road as the capital of St Kitts. At the table: In 1716 half of St Kitts is Crown land squatted by grantees whose titles will be voided.

The Yamasee War, 15 April 1715 to 1717

At Pocotaligo on Good Friday, 15 April 1715, Nairne, Wright, Warner and Bray, Carolina's four commissioners, are killed. Roughly 90 of some 100 traders die in the opening weeks; settler deaths reach about 7 per cent. Cherokee alliance early in 1716, following the Tugaloo killings of 27 January 1716, turns the conflict. Creek peace follows late in 1717. Yamasee refugees move to St Augustine or the Lower Creek. Households holding enslaved Indians fall from 26 per cent in 1714 to 2 per cent in 1730. At the table: Refugees fill Charles Town in 1716; the frontier lies two days away.

The silver sailings, 1702 to 1715

French escorts accompany the 1702 flota to its destruction at Vigo. Casa Alegre reaches Cartagena in April 1706; his galeones are lost off Barú in June 1708. Du Casse escorts Veracruz's silver home in 1708. Ubilla and Echeverz's next combined fleet wrecks off Florida on 31 July 1715. French vessels and individual registry ships carry most legal silver to Spain during 1702 to 1720. See also Part Two, The plate fleet hurricane. At the table: Three disasters among four sailings in thirteen years leave Main ports short of coin and dependent on contraband in 1716.

Spanish office changes, 1715 to 1718

Viceroy of New Spain: the Duke of Linares gives way to the Marquis of Valero on 16 August 1716. Cuba: the Marquis of Casa Torres to 26 May 1716, Vicente de Raja to 23 August 1717, Gómez Maraver Ponce de León acting from 23 August 1717 to 23 June 1718, then Gregorio Guazo Calderón from 23 June 1718 to 29 September 1724. Florida: Córcoles y Martínez to 13 July 1716, Olivera y Fullana until he dies on 30 October, Juan de Ayala y Escobar as interim from 30 October 1716, and Antonio de Benavides from 3 August 1718. Puerto Rico: the removal of Juan de Ribera is ordered on 10 February 1716 and takes effect on 3 May, José Francisco Carreño acts from 3 May, and Alberto Bertodano y Navarra is sworn in on 30 August and governs to April 1720. Santo Domingo: Fernando Constanzo y Ramírez, 1715 to 1723. Pensacola: Gregorio de Salinas Varona, 1711 to 1717. Yucatán: Juan José de Vértiz y Hontañón from December 1715. Guatemala: Rodríguez de Rivas from 1716. At court Alberoni is chief minister from 1716 and Patiño becomes Intendant of Marine on 28 January 1717; on 8 May 1717 the Casa de Contratación moves from Seville to Cádiz, where the fleets had sailed in practice since 1680, and its president becomes Intendant-General of the Navy. At the table: The Spanish governor a Company met last season may already be gone.

The Preston prisoners and the Bermuda storm, 1716

The Jacobite prisoners of Preston, 639 in all, are shipped from Liverpool for sale in the colonies in 1716, 47 of them on the Two Brothers for Jamaica. A hurricane strikes Bermuda on 20 August 1716, in the map year.

The year of new governors, 1716

Jamaica's Hamilton is recalled and arrested; Heywood acts as Commander in Chief from mid-1716. Pitt's appointment brings no arrival. Walter Hamilton reaches Antigua in April 1716 to govern the Leewards. Carolina's Charles Craven leaves on 23 April, replaced by Deputy Governor Robert Daniell. Massachusetts receives Samuel Shute on 5 October 1716. Mostyn is approved for the Bahamas by the King in Council on 10 March, but Admiralty judge Thomas Walker flees to Carolina in June. At the table: Governors and warships are scarce in the map year.

Danish St Thomas and St John, 1716 to 1718

St Thomas loses its governor, Mikkel Knudsen Crone, on 8 August 1716; he had served since 1710. The council elects Erik Bredal on 5 September. A royal order of 16 August 1716 opens trade to all nations at 6 per cent export duty and 5 per cent import duty. This grants an open harbour, without legal free-port status. The island counted 3,042 Africans and 547 Europeans in 1715. A royal grant gives St John to the Danish West India Company in 1717. Bredal claims it at Coral Bay on 25 March 1718, landing about 20 planters, 8 soldiers and 18 enslaved people and raising a small fort.

The Campeche expulsion, December 1716

Spain's memorial allows British logwood cutters eight months to leave Laguna de Términos before being treated as pirates. Andrade's squadron accepts 20 vessels' surrender at Triste, 12 ships and 8 sloops, chiefly New Englanders. Masters' depositions date this to 30 November 1716 Old Style (11 December New Style); the Spanish account has him sailing from Tabasco on 7 December New Style. Spain lands 24 cannon and occupies the lagoon. On 10 December it declares ships without Spanish passports free prizes. Cutters shift south along Yucatán in 1717; Vértiz establishes Carmen presidio in July 1717. At the table: Spain's largest attack on British trade during the map year coincides with Nassau's autumn influx.

Gaoulé and the Exclusif, 1717

Blénac departs in 1716; Châteaumorand assumes Saint-Domingue's government on 1 January 1717, received on 11 January. La Varenne and intendant Ricouart arrive on Martinique on 5 January 1717 with prohibitions on new sugar mills and inter-island sugar trading. Planter militia arrests them at a Le Diamant banquet on 17 May 1717 and ships them home on 23 May. April 1717 letters patent restrict island commerce to French vessels from thirteen ports, excluding foreign supply. French trading with Spanish America is also barred. At the table: Selling at Saint-Pierre or Léogâne from April 1717 breaks French as well as English law for an English sloop.

The tobacco monopoly at Havana, April 1717

Philip V creates Havana's Real Factoría de Tabacos de La Habana, compelling growers to sell their entire crop at Spain's prescribed price. Raja had already prohibited private sales in 1716. Growers rebel in 1717, 1720 and 1723; the first rising expels Raja, Cuba's first Captain General violently driven out. Eleven growers are shot at Jesús del Monte in 1723, followed by a General Tobacco Intendancy. At the table: Crown ownership of tobacco on paper after April 1717 makes smugglers useful to growers.

The Company of the West, 1717 to 1718

Approved on 21 August 1717 and registered on 10 September, John Law's Compagnie d'Occident receives Louisiana as a perpetual fief and a 25-year commercial monopoly. Bienville founds New Orleans in spring 1718. About 800 settlers arrive that year, roughly doubling European numbers; Louisiana had about 550 people, including 300 soldiers, in 1717. The Company takes over the Compagnie du Sénégal on 4 December 1718.

The War of the Quadruple Alliance, 1717 to 1718

Spain occupies Sardinia between August and November 1717, then lands 30,000 troops on Sicily. Palermo falls on 7 July 1718. The Alliance forms on 2 August 1718; Byng destroys Spain's fleet off Cape Passaro on 11 August 1718 NS. Britain declares war on 17 December 1718 OS; France follows on 9 January 1719 NS. Imperial forces already fight in Sicily. See also Part Two, War with Spain. At the table: Spanish prizes become lawful again at the turn of 1718 and 1719, giving Rogers's pardoned crews privateering work.

1719 to 1730: Reform, Fever and the Cold War

Pensacola changes hands, and the war ends, 1719 to 1722

Pensacola falls to Bienville in May 1719, to Spain in August and to a French fleet on 1 September. The French then burn it. The Hague's treaty of 17 February 1720 admits Spain to the Quadruple Alliance and ends hostilities. Spain recovers Pensacola in 1722 and builds a new presidio on Santa Rosa's barrier island. The 1719 commissions expire, leaving pardoned crews unemployed. At the table: A 1720s garrison on sand islands buys food from Mobile and Carolina.

The Revolution of 1719 in Carolina

News of a supposed Spanish fleet prompts a bloodless Charles Town revolution. James Moore junior governs until 1721, when a provisional royal governor arrives. The Crown purchases seven proprietors' interests for 22,500 pounds in 1729, making both Carolinas royal colonies. Carteret retains the Granville District.

Lawes and the Miskito king, 25 June 1720

Lawes contracts with Jeremy II, Miskito king, for fifty trackers against Blue Mountain Maroons. By 1720 Nanny and Quao lead a strengthened Windward community around Nanny Town, raiding plantations at the mountains' foot.

The South Sea Bubble, 1720

South Sea shares reach 1,060 pounds on 25 June 1720. The Bubble Act passes in June; prices begin collapsing in September and drop below 200 by December.

Boston's smallpox, 22 April 1721 to February 1722

A population of about 10,700 suffers 5,759 to 5,980 smallpox cases and 844 deaths, or as many as 899 in other counts. At Cotton Mather's urging, based on an African account, Zabdiel Boylston inoculates patients and reduces mortality to a fraction of the natural rate. Trade shuts for the season. At the table: Charles Town refuses a Boston sailor arriving in 1721.

The Port Royal hurricane, 28 August 1722

Jamaica's 28 August 1712 hurricane destroyed houses and plantations. The later storm's eye crosses Port Royal with roughly 16 feet of surge, wrecking half the buildings and killing about 400. Only four crew survive from 50 harbour ships; another count records more than 50 vessels lost, including two Roberts prizes. At the table: Commercial Port Royal ends with the 1722 storm.

Jamaica's revenue and Maroon war, 1725 to 1730

The King in Council rejects Jamaica's perpetual revenue act of 1725; a 1726 draft offers 8,000 pounds annually. Hunter, governor from 1727 or 1728, escalates war against Windward Maroons. The First Maroon War continues to Cudjoe's treaty on 1 March 1739 and Quao's treaty, dated 1739 or 1740 in different records. In 1730 Jamaica contains about 75,000 to 80,000 enslaved people and 7,000 to 8,000 whites.

Hosier at Portobelo, 1726 to 1727

Spain allies with Austria at Vienna in 1725; Britain answers at Hanover. Walpole orders Hosier to block treasure shipments without open warfare. About 20 ships reach Bastimentos near Portobelo on 16 June 1726. The galleons unload and wait, but Gaztañeta slips 31 million pesos through in January 1727. Yellow fever kills 3,000 to 4,000 of about 4,600 men. Hosier dies on 23 or 25 August 1727; Hopson follows in May 1728 and St Lo in April 1729. A hurricane on 22 October 1726 damages or sinks 50 ships at Kingston, Port Royal and Spanish Town. At the table: A British fleet dies at anchor within sight of its objective.

The Anglo-Spanish War of 1727 to 1729 and the Treaty of Seville

Spain besieges Gibraltar on 11 February 1727 OS, abandons the effort on 12 June and agrees a truce on 24 June. Guardacostas seize British shipping in the Indies; Hosier's blockade is the only operation there. London judges El Pardo's Convention of 6 March 1728 too lenient. Britain, Spain and France sign at Seville on 9 November 1729, preserving the status quo and referring trade and prize disputes to commissioners. At the table: Guardacostas treat British Main traffic as prizes while compensation claims accumulate at the Board of Trade.

The Natchez revolt, 28 November 1729

Natchez forces capture Fort Rosalie and kill about 230 colonists, almost all Frenchmen. Périer and Choctaw allies expel them early in 1730. New Orleans expeditions in 1730 and 1731 capture most of the nation and sell the prisoners into plantation slavery. The Company of the Indies returns Louisiana to the Crown in 1731. At the table: The company colony has lost its upriver post as the play period closes.

Counts the record gives

The counts below are the figures the record gives for single years; where two sources disagree, the entry above gives a range.

Carolina's annual rice exports rise from about 8,000 barrels by 1715 to 40,000 by the 1730s; fleets need escort by the 1720s. Jamaica receives about 30,891 enslaved people in 1702 to 1710, 53,740 in 1711 to 1720 and 77,689 in 1721 to 1730. Of the middle total, 24,991 are re-exported, chiefly to Spanish buyers, making Kingston a depot for the Main. Chesapeake tobacco changes little during the century's first quarter, then approximately doubles by the 1730s.