Conflicts in Barbados

        The seventeenth century was not an easy one for the people on Barbados. There was a struggle for ownership of the island and power on the island as well as a fight for the profits made on the island. These struggles took place among the plantation owners on the island and the peerage back in England. This left the everyday farmer, their family, slaves, and their indentured servants caught in the middle of a vicious power struggle. It took roughly twelve years, from 1627 when the first settlers arrived to 1639 when Henry Hawley established the first effective parliament on the island, for stability to be established on Barbados (Beckles, 9-12).

        The dispute over the ownership of the island was the first conflict to have an effect on the island and people of Barbados. The first person to claim ownership of the island, through Letters of Patent, was a London merchant named Ralph Merrifield who took a “noble patron, the Earl of Carlisle” as protection (Hart, 5).  Merrifield put up the money for the Earl of Carlisle to apply for a royal grant from Charles I, King of England. The application was successful and the Earl of Carlisle soon claimed ownership of Barbados. At the same time, Sir Peter and Sir William Courteen, brother merchants from London, had financed the first exploratory mission led by Captain John Powell as well as the first settlement expedition and claimed the title of the island through those efforts. Because the brothers never got a Royal Patent for the island, the settlers that had been financed by the Courteens were portrayed as squatters on an island owned by the Earl of Carlisle. Unfortunately for Carlisle, the settlers and the representatives of the Courteens were actually on the island. Another claimant to the island was the Earl of Pembroke who had received an “erroneous subsequent issue of a royal patent” from Charles I (Beckles, 8).

For a while, ownership of Barbados bounced back and forth between the Earls of Carlisle and Pembroke. Supporters of those two skirmished back and forth across the island until Carlisle received a second Royal Patent that was meant to revoke the one given to Pembroke (Beckles, 8). While they were settling that issue, the Powell faction, who represented the interests of the Courteen brothers, still controlled the island. However, after the dispute between Carlisle and Pembroke was settled in Carlisle’s favor, he dispatched Charles Wolverston to administer the island on his behalf. Wolverston “landed in Barbados in June 1628, and by August had brought the entire island under his authority. On 4^th September he was selected Governor of Barbados” (Beckles, 8).

The struggle continued. Wolverston set up a government and excluded everyone but those who supported Carlisle. The colonist disliked him and accused him of keeping them as “tenants-at-will” by enforcing the Courteen’s unpopular land management policies. After there was a short lived uprising led by the Powell faction, Wolverston was deposed and deported. Carlisle then sent Sir William Tufton to Barbados to act as the new Governor. Tufton had strict instructions to set up a loyalist government. Among his other aims, Tufton aimed to help the indentured servants and poor people while ignoring the elite planter class. This made him unpopular and the planters wrote to Carlisle complaining about Tufton’s autocratic rule. Tufton was recalled and Carlisle sent Henry Hawley to replace him. Tufton was still on the island and tried to overthrow Hawley but was unsuccessful and was executed for sedition. Hawley was considered ruthless but ultimately managed to stabilize Barbados and started the Parliament system that they still use today.

Profit and politics are the issues that sparked and drove the conflicts on the island of Barbados. Each person claiming to own Barbados wanted the political power and profits that came along with the title of the island. The governors on the island were representative of the political struggle. They also got overcome with their own political aspirations and some turned into small time despots. No matter which way they turned, the colonist on the island found themselves caught between rival factions that put their life and property in jeopardy. Both Wolverston and Hawley can be credited with bringing about the stability the colonist found themselves living in.

Bibliography:

Hilary Beckles, A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Nation-State (New York: Cambridge, 1990), 7-12.

Richard Hart, From Occupation to Independence: A Short History of the Peoples of the English-Speaking Caribbean Region (London: Pluto Press, 1998), 5.