Topic: Gullah History
Civil War was brewing in England long before it broke out on 22 August 1642. Few were ready to take sides, and most who did had personal reasons. For instance, during the summer of 1642 individuals in the Fen district of eastern England rebelled against drainage schemes promoted by Charles I. They became supporters of Parliament, [1] and Richard Ligon, who had been an investor, became a Royalist. [2]
On Barbados, cotton and tobacco still were the main crops. James Hay was still trying to pay off the debts of his father, the first James Hay, so he could inherit Barbados and the other Caribbean islands claimed by his father. When the planters heard rumors of Parliament’s activities in January 1642, they refused to pay their rents to Hay until they got approval from Parliament. [3]
When Charles learned Barbados had not sprung to his support in January 1643, he ordered Hay to replace the governor, Philip Bell, with a man selected by himself. The trustees of Hay’s estate, who had their own interests in maintaining trade on the island, intervened. [4]
In March 1643, Parliament passed the Sequestration Ordinance, which allowed it to collect the rents of people who were actively supporting Charles. [5] This was aimed at men who owned land, [6] but merchants in London saw potential dangers in Parliament’s attempts to raise funds to support its army. This is when they began investing their movable income in land on Barbados. [7]
The central part of Devon, the county east of Cornwall generally supported Charles, and provided a roadway for armies going to and from Cornwall. Much of the inland east of the river flowing from the north through Exeter was devoted to sheep, while the ports on both the north and south coasts supported fishermen. Exeter was the exception. It became the center for merchants who collected woven goods from the interior and shipped them to the Netherlands for finishing. [10] Landowners, who held obligations to the king that dated back centuries, supported Charles, while merchants supported free trade promoted by Parliament. [11]
Since the port of London was controlled by Parliament, Charles’ armies secured all the west country ports, except Plymouth, to maintain supply lines with Ireland and France. Garrisons were maintained in the cities, but citizens were expected to provide housing and food for the soldiers. Groups raided the countryside for food, animals, firewood, and other supplies. Nearly all could be vicious, but those of George Goring were the worst. [12]
Henry Walrond’s lands were in Somerset, the county to the northeast of Devon. Ilminster is in the south where armies marched. He joined one of the bands of citizens that formed to protect themselves from marauders. When Bridgewater, the port on the river flowing into Bristol Channel, was taken in June of 1643, he claimed “he was robbed by the king’s soldiers and driven into the garrison at Bridgewater.” [13]
Charles established his headquarters in Exeter after the city surrendered in September 1643. John Berkeley, brother of Virginia’s governor, was appointed governor. [14] Thomas Modyford was made a county commissioner for Devon. [15]
Little has been written about Modyford’s background. The family lands were in Halberton. [16] This is in eastern Exeter in the little arc south of Taunton. It is thought they had come from Somerset. [17] One would guess, his father, John Modyford, became a middleman who purchased woolen goods in the country and sold them to export merchants in Exeter. This placed him somewhere in the middle of the social structure in the port.
Before the Royal takeover, Exeter was governed by a council of twenty-four controlled by the merchant guild. Each year a man was elected mayor and four were made bailiffs. The latter actually were tax collectors. [18]
His father’s rise began in 1602 when he was elected bailiff in Exeter in 1602. He was bailiff again in 1612, [19] when he bought land within Saint Mary Arches, [20] the Puritan-leaning merchant parish. [21] The next year he was elected sheriff, [22] which was a county, [23] not city office. His father-in-law, Thomas Walker, [24] was mayor in 1614. Modyford held the office in 1622, and Walker again in 1625. [25] When he died in 1628, John had half the wealth of Walker. [26]
Modyford was eight-years-old when his father died, and could not inherit money until 1642. He apparently was raised to be the landowner, but did not gain his property until his mother died. [28] His brother James was apprenticed to a merchant company in the Levant. [29] His sister Grace married Thomas Kendall, who became a merchant in London. [30]
1643 was the year James Drax made his fortune in selling sugar. [31] In November, Parliament asserted oversight of foreign colonies, and appointed Robert Rich head of the Commission on Plantations. [32] Back in 1638, when Hay began demanding his then governor, Henry Hawley, forward monies owed the estate, Hawley began supporting Rich’s scheme to take over Barbados for the heirs of William Courteen. [33] When Hay fired Hawley, he returned to Barbados and claimed the island now belonged to Rich. [34]
While Hay was finessing demands from Rich and Charles, Bell was investing in his plantation. He had been granted 200 acres as his right, and gradually added to the land. [35] He bought slaves from the Guinea Company, and, as mentioned in the post for 30 January 2022, was given slaves by a sea captain wishing to ingratiated himself in late July of 1644.
The Guinea Company, formally known as the Company of Adventurers of London had been granted a monopoly for trade with Africa by James I in 1618. Nicholas Crispe had a controlling interest by 1628. [36] In 1643, Parliament sequestered his property for debts he owed as farmer of the customs. [37] The attempt to recover the funds led to the collapse of the Guinea Company in 1644. When the records were audited, it was found Bell was the largest debtor. [37]
Graphics
Kelisi. “A Map of England’s West Country.” Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 5 January 2008; last updated by Carlog3 on 17 June 2009.
End Notes
1. Ann Hughes. The Causes of the English Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1991. 127. Cited by “English Civil War.” Wikipedia website.
2. Susan Scott Parrish. “Richard Ligon and the Atlantic Science of Commonwealths.” The William and Mary Quarterly 67(2):209–248:April 2010. 210. Ligon published a survey of Barbados in 1673 that has been cited in previous posts.
3. J. H. Bennett. “The English Caribbees in the Period of the Civil War, 1642-1646.” The William and Mary Quarterly 24(3):359–377:July1967. 368. The senior Hay is introduced in the post for 7 November 2021. He was the Earl of Carlisle.
4. J. H. Bennett. 370.
5. Charlotte Young. “‘His Lands as well as Goods / Sequestred ought to be’: The Introduction of Sequestration, 1642-3.” British History in the 17th Century seminar group, Institute of Historical Research, 9 June 2016.
6. Ben Coates. “The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642–1650.” PhD dissertation. University of Leicester, June 1997. 81, 157.
7. Michael D. Bennett. “Merchant Capital and the Origins of the Barbados Sugar Boom, 1627-1672.” PhD dissertation. The University of Sheffield, June 2020. 127–128.
8. Arjan H. Dijkstra and Callum Hatch. “Mapping a Hidden Terrane Boundary in the Mantle Lithosphere with Lamprophyres.” Nature Communications 9:3770:2018.
9. Mark Stoyle. Loyalty and Locality: Popular Allegiance in Devon during the English Civil War. Exeter, Devon: University of Exeter Press, 1994. 16–17.
10. Eugene A. Andriette. Devon and Exeter in the Civil War. Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles, 1971. 16–17.
11. Stoyle identified 137 who were known to support Charles. 15% were gentlemen or squires, 13% were involved with producing cloth (fullers, weaver, combers), 12% were innkeepers, and 12% were merchants. Many of the others were skilled tradesmen. He found 57 who actively supported Parliament. 3.5% were gentlemen, 25% were cloth workers, and 21% were merchants. Instead of innkeepers, 14% were shopkeepers. [39]
12. Andriette. 77, 104.
13. “Humphrey Walrond.” Wikipedia website.
14. Stoyle. 45.
15. Jane Stevenson. “Richard Ligon and the Theatre of Empire.” 285–309 in Shaping the Stuart World, 1603 - 1714: The Atlantic Connection, edited by Allan I. MacInnes and Arthur H. Williamson. Leiden: Brill, 2006. 289.
16. “John Modiford Will.” Marine Lives website, 12 April 2011.
17. William Henry Hamilton Rogers. Archaeological Papers Relating to the Counties of Somerset, Wilts, Hants, and Devon. Taunton, Somerset: 1902.
18. Richard Izacke. Antiquities of the City of Exeter. London: E. Tyler and R. Holt for Richard Marriot, 1677.
19. Izacke.
20. “Feoffment.” Devon Archives and Local Studies Service (South West Heritage Trust), Document 332A/PF 16. National Archives website.
21. David Cornforth. “Exeter during the Civil War.” Exeter Memories website, 2007; last updated 22 April 2009.
22. Izacke.
23. Andriette. 19.
24. John Knox Laughton. “Modyford, Sir Thomas.” 38:94–95 in Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Sidney Lee. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1894.
25. Izacke.
26. “John Modiford Will.”
27. “John Modiford Will.”
8. “Sir James Modyford.” Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery, University College London website.
29. John. P. Ferris. “Kendall, Thomas (1609-66), of Chiswick, Mdx.” In The House of Commons, 1660-1690, edited by Basil Duke Henning. London: Secker and Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust, 1983.
30. “Grace Modyford.” Ancestry website.
31. For more on the introduction of sugar in Barbados, see the post for 17 January 2022.
32. J. H. Bennett. 370.
33. Larry Gragg. Englishmen Transplanted: The English colonization of Barbados, 1627–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 39 Rich was the Earl of Warwick. He and Hawley are mentioned in the post for 30 January 2022. Courteen is introduced in the post for 31 October 2021.
34. Gragg. 40.
35. Hilary MacDonald Beckles. “White Labour in Black Slave Plantation Society and Economy: A Case Study of Indentured Labour in Seventeenth Century Barbados.” PhD dissertation. The University of Hull, August 1980. 317.
36. “Guinea Company (London).” Wikipedia website.
37. Coates. 83.
38. See the post for 30 January 2022.
39. Stoyle. 105–106.
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