In 1649, when the English fleet revolted from the parliament and the service of the Commonwealth, they chose this nobleman, Francis Lord Willoughby, for their commander and admiral; a capacity in which he attended upon his Majesty Charles II., then in Holland. Pointing out to his Majesty the islands in the West Indies which still remained faithful to his cause, and unsubdued, and where had congregated a vast assemblage of gallant royalists—the island of Barbados alone counting several thousands of them—his Majesty proposed to him to give him a commission of governor thereof, provided only he would go out and assume the command in his own person; terms with which Lord F. Willoughby was readily induced to comply—obtaining also a commission from the Earl of Carlisle, to whom those islands had been previously granted. Thus armed at all points, he arrived at the island of Barbados at the beginning of the year 1650. The first act of his lordship’s government, and of the ardent spirits there assembled and associated with him, was, now that Charles I. had perished by the fatal axe, to proclaim Charles II., his son, as his successor;—this was done when, by the laws of the Commonwealth, it was felony and death to acknowledge the Prince of Wales as king of England, or rightful heir of any of the territories thereunto belonging;—and Charles II. was proclaimed accordingly, on 7th May, 1650. But the legislature of Barbados being at this time engaged in some affairs of a very delicate nature, they wished to bring them to a close before any new commander assumed the head of the government; they therefore entreated his lordship to suspend his authority for the space of three months, when, on his return at the end of that period, they promised him all due submission—an arrangement to which Lord Willoughby assenting, he left Barbados, with some of his personal friends, (Major Byam in the number,) and came to Antigua, where they again proclaimed Charles II. as king of England and the territories thereto belonging. This seems to be the first occasion of his visiting the shores of this island; for at the end of the specified term he returned to Barbados, where, at the expiration of little more than another year, a fleet arrived for the reduction of that colony, an account of which will be found in the annals of the Byam family. (Vide page 40, vol. i.)
Lord Willoughby availing himself of the comprehensive nature of the terms then and there obtained, went to England. After the restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his ancestors, his lordship renewed his pretensions to Antigua and other West India colonies; and again obtaining a commission, dated 12th June, 1663, he shipped himself for those ports, and arrived at Barbados in the August following. In another part of this work is given an account of his loss off the Saint’s Island,
near Guadaloupe, with a large fleet under his command, destined for the recovery of St. Christopher’s, recently taken by the French. On his plantations at Surinam, his lordship expended no less than £26,000, a vast sum in those days, equal to £150,000 according to the value of money in our time; and these possessions (all lost by the surrender of Surinam, according to the terms of the treaty of Breda) his lordship, by his will, bequeathed to his nephew, Lieut-Gen. Henry Willoughby; his Barbados property to his next nephew, William; and his Antigua estates to his dau., Lady Brereton, already mentioned. Of this possession of his lordship’s in the island of Antigua, we find traces in the maps of the same, as late as 1748, wherein on “Collins’s” estate, near Nonsuch Harbour, is marked down, “My lord’s pond,” “My lord’s cove,” evidently in allusion to his lordship’s former possessions, and perhaps personal residence in the island. Lord Francis Willoughby dying without male issue him surviving, his brother
William succeeded to his hereditary honours, and became sixth Lord Willoughby of Parham, and obtaining letters patent for the renewal of his brother Francis’s commission, dated 3 Jan. 1666-7, he shipped himself for these colonies, where he arrived soon afterwards. His sons Henry and William, acted conspicuous parts in the West India islands, where, together with their father, they found their grave, though no memorial of them now seems to exist, nor, indeed, have the exact dates of their deaths been ascertained; but their father, William, Lord Willoughby, by whom the most ancient of the Antigua laws, as they now exist in the printed statutes book, were signed, died at Barbados, on 10 April, 1673. To the circumstance of the considerable mortality in this family (occurring in these islands) may fairly be traced the speedy extinction of their hereditary honours, and thus enabling a foot soldier (collaterally related to those who died in the Western hemisphere) to claim and recover the ancient honours of the Willoughby family; for Edward Willoughby, a private in the confederate army, serving under the illustrious Duke of Marlborough, perceiving the family honours vacant, and knowing himself to be a cadet of the house, laid claim to them, and succeeded in establishing his right to the same, though he did not long enjoy them, dying in April, 1713, when his brother Charles succeeded him. It would not be consistent with the plan of this work to pursue the history of this family further than to observe, that the title finally became extinct in 1779, in the person of George Willoughby, the seventeenth Lord Willoughby of Parham.
The present Earl of Abingdon traces his descent from George, seventh Lord Willoughby of Parham, (who succeeded [on the failure of male issue] William, sixth Lord Willoughby of Parham, capt.-gen. of the Leeward and Windward Caribbee Islands, and who died 10 April, 1673,) in the following manner:—
Elizabeth, dau. and sole heir of George, seventh Lord Willoughby, m. James Bertie, second son of James Bertie, second Earl of Abingdon, (by his wife, Eleanor, dau. of Sir Henry Leigh,) and had issue a son, who succeeded his grandfather as Willoughby, third Earl of Abingdon, born in 1692, m. Anna-Maria, dau. of Sir John Cullin, by whom he had issue, Willoughby, fourth Earl of Abingdon, born in 1740, m. Charlotte, dau. and coheir of Sir Peter Warren, K.G., and dying in 1799, was succeeded by his son, Montague, fifth and present Earl of Abingdon, born in 1784, m. Emily, dau. of Gen. Thomas Gage, by whom he has issue a son, Lord Norreys, born in 1808, M.P. for co. of Oxford.
No. 19.
GENEALOGY OF THE MARTIN FAMILY, OF GREEN CASTLE.
— Martin, colonel in the army. He emigrated to the West Indies, and became proprietor of an estate at Surinam, at which colony, soon after the Restoration, he swore to having been present at Charing Cross, London, when Charles, Prince of Wales, was proclaimed King, under the title of Charles II., and when his proclamation was read, commanding all persons then in office to continue so until further notice. This gentleman is said to have been, under the appellation of Sovereign, the chief magistrate of Belfast It is supposed he died at Surinam, previous to the removal of that colony to Antigua, according to the terms of the treaty of Breda, in 1667, leaving, by ——, his wife, a son,
Samuel Martin, major in the army, speaker of the house of assembly in Antigua, in 1689, during the administration of Christopher Codrington, the elder. He m. 1st, 18 Aug. 1690, the relict of Christopher Reynall, (who died 8 Aug. 1691, s. p.;) and 2ndly, 28 Jan. 1692, Lydia, dau. of the Hon. William Thomas, of Antigua, by whom (who re-married Governor Edward Byam) he left issue three sons,