After peace had been once more proclaimed between France and England, and Antigua restored to its rightful sovereign, the English government, being fully assured of the death of Lord Francis Willoughby, appointed Lord William Willoughby, of Parham, (who when the royalists rose against the parliament, after the deposition of Richard Cromwell, undertook to secure Lynn for his exiled majesty,) Captain-General and chief Governor of Barbados, Antigua, and the rest of the Leeward Caribbee Islands, as some reward for his services.
Lord William Willoughby arrived at Antigua about 1668, and appointed Samuel Winthorpe his deputy-governor. During the first year of his lordship’s administration, a registrar’s office was established, and fees appointed for the same. The registrar and recorder was to be “a person of good discretion and honesty,” and his salary paid in sugar and tobacco.[[20]] Acts were also passed for the “settling the inhabitants in their lands” and “for the encouragement and promoting the settling of the island”—very necessary measures, as all was in confusion, from the late cruel dealing of the French, in so dismantling their promising colony. This year also (1668) commenced the four and a half per cent. duty; which was an impost upon all native productions shipped from the island, to be paid to the reigning monarch, his heirs, and successors, in consideration of new grants of lands being given to the inhabitants after the restoration of Antigua to the English crown; all old titles to lands having become void by reason of the late conquest, by the French.
Lord William Willoughby removing to Barbados about this time, nominated his son, Henry Willoughby, as acting-governor, the same gentleman who was left by Lord F. Willoughby deputy-governor of Barbados during his absence upon the disastrous expedition already spoken of. Nothing of much importance occurred during the short period Mr. H. Willoughby held the government. War had not broken out in the West Indies, although it threatened the mother country, so that the Antiguans had a little quiet to settle their domestic affairs. One of the first points to which they turned their attention was to endeavour to suppress the strong habit of profane cursing and swearing which had crept in among their community, and also to put a stop to the prevalence of inebriety. To bring this desirable reformation about, the legislature enacted, that a fine of ten pounds of sugar, or tobacco, was to be imposed upon every one who uttered an oath, or opened his lips to curse; and if any one was discovered in a state of intoxication, he could be made to pay fifty pounds of sugar, or not being able to procure that quantity, and being possessed of no other property which could be levied upon, he was condemned to be placed in the public stocks for the space of four hours. It would be well if something of the kind was in force now; our ears would not then, perhaps, be so frequently shocked as they are liable to be at every hour of the day by the passers-by. Regulations were also made for establishing a public treasury in the island, and regard paid to the martial bearing of the inhabitants, by exercising them in the science of arms.
Among the settlers who came to Antigua with Francis Lord Willoughby, of Parham, was William Byam, a distinguished royalist, at that time major, but who afterwards acquired the rank of lieutenant-general.
In 1644, Mayor Byam was among the officers in garrison at Bridgewater, and being on guard when an attempt was made by the parliamentary army to take the town by surprise, he defeated the forces with great slaughter, thereby averting for some time the fate of that important fortress. On the following year, Cromwell and Fairfax coming against Bridgewater with an overwhelming power, after a gallant and desperate resistance, the town was taken, and quarter only given to the garrison. The officers were immediately sent to London, and put at the disposal of the Parliament, whence they were despatched to the Tower, and other public prisons. After remaining in the Tower for some months, Major Byam accepted a pass “to go beyond the seas,” (as the term then was,) and, with some of his military friends, he accordingly left the home of his fathers, and sought in Barbados—that last asylum for royalists—a retreat from the Oliverian power. Soon after his arrival, the important post of “treasurer of the island,” as well as “master of the ordnance,” was conferred upon him, together with large grants of land; but the number of refugees increasing in the colony to such a surprising height, the Parliament became alarmed, and, in 1651, sent a fleet and armament, under command of Sir George Ayscue, to reduce the island. There being a defection in the garrison, owing to the withdrawal of Colonel Thomas Modiford from the side of the king, after a resistance of six months, the governor, Lord Francis Willoughby, of Parham, was compelled to think of terms; and accordingly he appointed, along with three other commissioners, Major Byam to negotiate a surrender. This gentleman and his coadjutors performed their parts so ably, that they obtained from the admiral terms allowed by all historians as alike “comprehensive and honourable.” Indeed, when they were reported to England, though the Parliament did not refuse to ratify them, yet, considering them much too favourable, they never afterwards countenanced Sir George Ayscue. The very first act of the Parliament possession, contrary to the tenor of some of the articles, was to banish Mayor Byam and the other commissioners, and about ten more of the royalists, including Lord Willoughby himself. Major Byam retired to the then newly-founded settlement of Surinam, which being composed chiefly of the refugee followers of Charles, they, in those times of turmoil, elected him, by united suffrages, governor of the colony in 1654. In this situation he continued for six successive years, although Cromwell had despatched an officer of his own to take the command, being elected by universal voice, until the Restoration, when, in virtue of the proclamation at that time issued, he became governor for the crown. He was afterwards more formally confirmed in this appointment, in which he remained until the removal of the colony (or at least a large portion of it) to the island of Antigua, in virtue of the treaty of Breda, in 1667. Of this island he also became an early governor, as is still to be seen by many documents in the registrar’s office, and resumed to himself that property which he had before acquired when on a visit to the island with Francis Lord Willoughby in 1650; and now, by letters patent for the crown, under date April, 1668, 20th Charles II., among the estates of Lieutenant-General Byam renewed to him at this period, were the present Cedar Hill and his Willoughby Bay estate.[[21]]
In 1672, his majesty Charles II. deemed it proper to make some alteration in the affairs of the West Indies. Hitherto all the Caribbee Islands were united under one government, but after the return of Lord William Willoughby to England, the king entered into fresh arrangements with the colonies, appointed him captain-general of Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent’s and Dominica; and Sir William Stapleton captain-general and commander-in-chief of Antigua and the other Leeward Islands. This Windward Island’s separation continues at the present time, after undergoing many changes, by having their own particular governor; as far as regards Barbados, St Lucia, and St. Vincent’s. Dominica has at length been united with Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher’s, Anguilla, Tortola, and the Virgin Islands, which now form the Leeward Caribbee government.
During the general government, a general council and assembly was held at either of the islands whenever the legislature deemed any important matter rendered it necessary to convene them; but the respective islands in the government, however, retained each their laws as regarded local circumstances. When the commander-in-chief found it necessary for the public good to call together this general council and assembly, the freeholders of each island met together and made choice of five eligible inhabitants to act as their representatives.
The convening of this general council and assembly accounts for the affairs of these different islands being wound up together, and laws which were passed at the one, answering, in many instances, for the others.
Sir William Stapleton preferring Nevis, he made that island the seat of government, and Colonel Philip Warner (Sir Thomas Warner’s son by his second wife) was appointed governor of Antigua. A very necessary precaution was adopted about this time—namely, the preventing persons wandering about cane-pieces, with lighted torches, hunting for land-crabs. If a free person was found so offending, the culprit was to pay into the public treasury one thousand pounds of sugar or tobacco; or if a slave, he was to be publicly whipped. This very dangerous practice continues to this day in seasons when the land-crabs are upon their travels, and certainly ought to meet with some punishment. So careless and thoughtless are the negroes, that large pieces of fire are frequently dropped upon the road while thus employed, which they never think of extinguishing; and as the scene of their exploits is generally in the vicinity of cane-pieces, where there is often a large quantity of dry cane-leaves, called in the country idiom, trash, serious accidents might, and indeed have been the result.
It was also deemed advisable to ordain that marriages solemnized by the governor, council, or any justice of peace, should, in absence of beneficed clergymen from the island, be adjudged equally binding and lawful, as if the ceremony had been performed by an orthodox minister. This was a regulation very necessary in that early period, when there was as yet no established church erected, or any clergymen officiating in the colony; and, consequently, marriages were obliged to be celebrated by a civil power. It was also enacted by the legislature this year (1672), that slaves killed or maimed, while acting in defence of the country, should have their value ascertained by arbitration, and the amount paid over to their owners from the public treasury.