Jack Yeamans in Barbados

Topic: Gullah History - Early Legends
John Yeamans’s life, more than that of any other early settler in South Carolina, has been turned into legends that say more about the needs of Southerners for a usable past, than they do about him.  While few actual facts survive, romanticists have transformed every aspect, from conception to death.  They tend to call him Jack.

The popular view, published in an 1884 Burke’s peerage, is that Yeamans’ father was an alderman and sheriff in Bristol who was hung for plotting to turn the city over to forces supporting Charles I in 1643. [1]  This was a particularly useful rumor when Charles’ son was crowned king in 1660.  Another Yeamans was appointed comptroller that year after claiming his brother had been murdered, and he had been “wounded, imprisoned, and banished.” [2]  It remained a useful story when Southern whites were redefining their own civil war as a lost cause, led by heroes willing to risk everything.

The confusion was understandable.  There have been Yeamans, Yemans, and Yeomans in Bristol since the late 1400s when William Yeamans was a grocer.  Almost all were tradesmen. [3]  John’s father was a brewer according to Vere Oliver, who tried to set the record straight in 1894. [4]  The brewer became the accepted père after his name appeared in the 1900 volume of Britain’s Dictionary of National Biography, [5] though the martyr still appears. [6]

Yeamans was baptized in 1611 [7] and would have been 31 when Thomas Essex occupied the port city for Parliament in 1642.  The next year, Charles’ nephew, Rupert, took the city and it remained a Royalist center until 1645. [8]  In 1856, William James Rivers referred to him as “Major John Yeamans. [9]  In 1900, John Andrew Doyle said he became a colonel in the Royalist army. [10]

I have found no evidence for this; it does not appear in Burke’s peerage.  It may come from his time in Barbados where he may have served in the local militia.  Oliver identified him as “Colonel John Yeamans” in Barbados in 1660 when he was elected to the island council. [11]  It was his son, William Yeamans, who was a major in the island’s militia. [12]  Again, this fits the revised view of the American Civil War, when every man who had been an officer used his rank in place of his first name in public.

Exactly what he was doing during the war years is unknown.  Three men named Yeomans had property in Barbados in 1638.  Oliver could not identify them, because “the family was so numerous, and to be found in nearly every parish in Bristol.” [13]  Not only that but Richard Williams found their names — John, Thomas, and Robert — appeared in many of the families, but Thomas was not a son of the brewer. [14]

Some John Yeamans was a partner with Benjamin Berringer in real estate speculation on the island in 1641.  Peter Campbell notes that they shared the same Barbados address on 1643 documents, which implied that Yeamans was not then living there. [15]  By 1648, the partnership had soured and they divided the assets. [16]

The next part of the legend is that Yeamans moved to Barbados in 1650, where he became a planter.  The first one to specify that date was Doyle. [17]  Edward McCrady had simply said in 1897: “after the success of the parliamentary forces he retired to Barbados.  There he still maintained the Royal cause.” [18]  Yeamans’ name does not appear in Darnell Davis’ history of royalist conflict on Barbados in the 1650s. [19]

Unlike Thomas Modyford, Yeamans did not arrive with the capital necessary to buy a plantation. [20]  When Yeamans’ father died in 1645, his mother inherited the brew house; he was willed 40 pounds.  When she died in 1647, it went to his brother, Edward.  John was willed 200 pounds, [21] but it is not known if he actually received that amount.  Wills express wishes, but may not reflect assets at the time of probate.

He was admitted as a citizen of Bristol in 1649, when he was 38 years old.  This was years after his younger brothers were granted that status. [22]  This late date might be explained by his just having returned from Barbados, or could be after he had cleared his name with the Parliamentary government. [23]

Yeamans may have been confused with Berringer, who is mentioned by Davis as a supporter of Francis Willoughby, the governor appointed by the son of Charles I. [24]  Berringer was a member of the island council in 1651, but retired when Willoughby was deposed.  He went to England sometime after that. [25]  Berringer left his wife on the island, and someone must have been acting as an overseer for his plantation.  It then seems to have been 400 acres. [26]

Peter Campbell has done the most thorough research on Yeamans in the Barbados archives.  He found evidence that Yeamans’ wife was on the island in 1654, and he was in the House of Assembly in 1655. [27]  When Yeamans wrote his will in 1671, before sailing to Carolina, he was living on 45 acres that abutted Berringer’s property, and owned another 30 acres elsewhere on the island. [28]

History gets murky at this point.  Rumors at the time said Yeamans became romantically involved with Berringer’s wife while Berringer was away.  After Berringer returned to the island in 1656, [29] the marital relationship was stormy and he often went into Speightstown for relief. [30]  He died there in January 1661. [31]  Yeamans married his widow in April [32]  In December, a probate court in England wanted information concerning Berringer’s estate, for he had left a will leaving everything to his sister and brother-in-law. [33]

Legend says the two fought a duel, and Berringer lost. [34]  Poison was suspected at the time, done by someone on Yeamans’ behalf. [35]  His widow had an oral will witnessed by her indentured servants substituted for what she called the fraudulent written one. [36]

Hearings were held, but the presiding officer was Humphrey Waldron.  There was no governor at the time, and he was president of council.  He had returned after Charles II was installed. [37]  Campbell noted he “was far from incorruptible; indeed, it was corruption that was shortly to force him to flee” [38] again.

In 1663, Willoughby’s son was back as acting governor. [38]  He wrote in 1668 that he had “appointed John Yeamans, another of this Assembly, a judge, but the last Assembly brought an accusation against him of having been comittited for hiring a witness to take away a man’s life for no other reason but that he had a mind to the other gentleman’s wife.” [39]

Although Campbell’s notes were not published until 1986, the murder since has been affixed to the legend.  The most elaborate rendering turned the relationship into a Harlequin romance:

“The Berringers loved his visits, but to Mrs. Berringer, John Yeamans was a savior.  She was lost in long, lonely days in a rambling mansion, tucked away in a wilderness of mahogany trees, far away from like minds and interest.  Her husband did not understand her loneliness.  He was content with his life, the business, the military reserves, the plantation and the stately home.”

Then, the author places it in the context of the late nineteenth-century South where African Americans were turned into convict laborers:

“Margaret Berringer felt lost and alone.  She was uncomfortable with the workers and the slaves.  One white worker, a foreman, had been a convicted criminal.  He was crude and frightening.  Often she stayed indoors just to avoid his stare and uncouth manner.  ‘I am a prisoner in paradise,’ she thought.” [41]

Men, of course, were expected to protect women in this environment.  Berringer and Yeamans fought their legendary duel with pistols.  In 1809, David Ramsey described the character and manners of gentlemen in Charleston.  He noted: “A few duels are recollected as having taken place before the revolutionary war, and were often fought with swords.  During and since that period they have been more frequent; and always with pistols.” [42]

End Notes
1.  John Burke and Bernard Burke.  “Yeamans, of Bristol.”  592–593 in A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland.  London: J.R. Smith, 1844.

2.  Captain Richard Yeamans.  Cited by Richard Williams.  “Yeamans of Bristol (Updated).”  Genealogy website, 12 April 2013.

3.  Williams.

4.  Vere L. Oliver.  “Historical Notes.”  The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 11(3):184–186:July 1910.  He was publicizing “Yeamans of Bristol.”  Gloucestershire Notes and Queries 5:307–308:1894.

5.  Albert Frederick Pollard.  “Yeamans, Robert.”  63:308 in Dictionary of National Biography.  Edited by Sidney Lee.  London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1900.  This Robert was John’s brother.

6.  For instance, Harriott Horry Ravenel wrote in 1906: “Yeamans was the son of an alderman of Bristol who had suffered death for his fidelity to the crown.  He himself had warmly supported the royal cause in Barbados, already a thriving colony.” [43]  She is discussed in the post for 5 June 2022.

7.  John Andrew Doyle.  “Yeamans, Sir John.”  63:307–308 in Dictionary of National Biography.  Edited by Sidney Lee.  London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1900.

8.  “Bristol in the English Civil War.”  Wikipedia website.

9.  Wm. Jas. Rivers.  A Sketch of the History of South Carolina.  Charleston, South Carolina: McCarter and Company, 1856.  81,108.  Rivers was born in Charleston in 1822 into a family impoverished by the death of his father.  He had published his history by the time the Civil War broke out. [44]  Recently the manuscript for a novel he wrote after the war has been published.  Eunice [45] includes scenes of young women being saved from rape by Union soldiers, and freed slaves. [46]

10.  Doyle.  Most recently, Eugene Sirmans says “he fought in the royalist army during the English Civil Wars and attained the rank of major.” [47]  He has a footnote that covers half a paragraph, and may or may not refer to this.  I suspect he used Doyle, but since it was a standard reference, he did not feel the need to note it in a commercial publication.

11.  Oliver.  185.  His source was “Colonel Calender 484 and 494.”

12.  Shirley Carter Hughson.  “Yeamans Family.”  Gloucestershire Notes and Queries 5:431–432:1894.  432.  This probably was the source for Doyle, who in turn was the source for Alston Read in 1910.  The last added the date 1664, without attribution. [48]

13.  Oliver.  185.
14.  Williams.

15.  P. F. Campbell.  “Editor’s Note” for E. M. Shilstone.  “Nicholas Plantation and Some of Its Associations.”  The article appeared in The Barbados Museum and Historical Society Journal 9:120+:1942 and was reprinted by Campbell in Chapters in Barbados History.  Saint Ann’s Garrison, Barbados: Barbados Museum and Historical Society, 1986.  55.

16.  Shilstone, reprint, 50, and Campbell, 55.
17.  Doyle.

18.  Edward McCrady.  The History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719.  New York: The Macmillan Company, 1897.  5.  McCrady is discussed in the post for 5 June 2022.

19.  N. Darnell Davis.  Cavaliers and Roundheads in Barbados.  Georgetown, British Guiana: Argosy Press, 1887.  His history is discussed in the post for 17 April 2022.

20.  Thomas Modyford is discussed in the posts for 6 February 2022, 3 April 2022, and 10 April 2022.  Alexander Hewat thought: “the violence of the preceding times, which had deprived Sir John of his father, had also injured him in his private fortune, he embarked for the island of Barbadoes, at that time in a flourishing condition, to hide his poverty from his acquaintance in England, and endeavour to acquire a fortune suitable to his dignity.” [49]  Hewat moved to the colony in 1763 as a Presbyterian minister, and was expelled in 1777 for remaining loyal to the British monarch during the American Revolution. [50]  He published his history when he was back in England.

21.  Williams.  His source was their wills.  Eric Nye calculates 200 pounds is worth 45,368,42 in today’s dollars. [51]  A quick look at current Barbados prices for vacant land suggests that would purchase half an acre.

22.  Robert Yeamans, born in April 1617, was 26 and a merchant when he was admitted in 1643. [52]  George Yeamans, born in 1626, was 21 and a merchant when he was admitted in 1647. [53]

23.  The process for supporters of Charles I clearing their names and resuming ownership of their properties is discussed in the post 10 April 2022.  The item for John Yeamans simply says “and hath paid.” [54]  The same language was used with others granted the same status, and carries no special meaning.

24.  Davis.  On Berringer’s support for Willoughby, 153; on Berringer’s place on council, 219.  Willoughby is discussed in the posts for 10 April 2022 and 17 April 2022.

25.  Campbell.  56.
26.  Shilstone, reprint.  50.
27.  Campbell.  55.

28.  M. Alston Read.  “Notes on Some Colonial Governors of South Carolina and Their Families.”  The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 11(2):107–122:April 1910.

“house where in I now dwell, along wth; with all ye Landes belonging thereunto Cont: about forty five acres, bounding ye Lands of Hen: Mills Esqr:, Thomas Merricke Esqr: & the Landes of Lt Coll Berringer dyed seized.” [55]

“two pcells of land containing twenty acres ten acres in each the one I bought of Phelps bounding on Mrs Sandiford, & on Thomas Jones the oth’ bought of James Mastrs and Henry Jones bounding on Mrs Gray, my brothr ffostr, and on Robt Clifton.” [56]

29.  Shilstone, reprint.  50.
30.  Campbell.  57.
31.  Shilstone, reprint.  51.
32.  “John Yeamans.”  Wikipedia website.
33.  Campbell.  56.
34.  Shilstone, reprint, 50, and Campbell, 57.
35.  Campbell.  59.
36.  Shilstone, reprint.  51.

37.  Waldron is discussed in the posts for 3 April 2022, 10 April 2022, and 17 April 2022.

38.  Campbell.  56.  Shilstone simply said “Yeamans had by this time also become a Councillor and held a position in the island of such importance that he may have prevented the holding of an inquiry into the circumstances of the Cavalier’s death.” [57]

39.  “List of governors of Barbados.”  Wikipedia website.

40.  William Lord Willoughby.  Letter to “authorities in London,” July 1668.  Quoted by Campbell.  59.

41.  I have not found the original of the excerpt.  This version is from J. D. Lewis’ website on North Carolina history. [58]  Brian Landers included some of the same quotations in his 2009 history of imperialism, but with no footnote.  He simply called it the “tourist version.” [59]

42.  David Ramsey.  The History of South-Carolina.  Charleston, South Carolina: David Longworth, 1809.  Reprinted as Ramsay’s History of South Carolina.  Newberry, South Carolina: W. J. Duffie, 1858.  2:215–216.

43.  Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel.  Charleston, the Place and the People.  New York: Macmillan, 1906.

44.  “William James Rivers.”  Wikipedia website.

45.  William James Rivers.  Eunice: A Tale of Reconstruction Times in South Carolina.  Edited by Tara Courtney McKinney.  Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006.

46.  Thomas J. Brown.  Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.  132–133.

47.  M. Eugene Sirmans.  Colonial South Carolina: A Political History 1663–1764.  Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1966.  28.

48.  Read.  110.

49.  Alexander Hewatt.  An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia.  London: A. Donaldson, 1779.  Volume 1, chapter 2, section “Sir John Yeamans arrives at Carolina.”

50.  “Alexander Hewat.”  Wikipedia website.

51.  Eric Nye. “Pounds Sterling to Dollars: Historical Conversion of Currency.”  University of Wyoming website.

52.  Patrick McGrath.  Merchants and Merchandise in Seventeenth-Century Bristol.  Bristol, England: Bristol Record Society, 1955.  30, item 116.  His source was the Burgess Book 1607–1651 in the Bristol Record Office.

53.  McGrath.  31, item 117.
54.  McGrath.  31, item 118.
55.  Read.  112.
56.  Read.  115.
57.  Shilstone, reprint.  50–51.
58.  J. D. Lewis.  “Sir John Yeamans.”  Carolana website, 2007.

59.  Brian Landers.  Empires Apart. A History of American and Russian Imperialism.  New York: Pegasus Books, 2009.  59–60.