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Bermuda's History from 1500 to 1699

How it is linked to events in Europe, the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer to this web file, please use "bermuda-online.org/history.htm" as your Subject

Bermuda was first sighted in 1505, but not settled

King Henry VII, 1485-1509	King Henry VIII, 1509-1547

• 1502. Christopher Columbus took his fourth voyage to the New World.
• Circa 1505. Bermuda was believed to have been discovered by accident by Juan de Bermudez, Captain of La Garza, a Spanish vessel, part of a Spanish fleet. But because it was so small, the island group remained uninhabited and unsettled until 1609, except for the occasional shipwrecked mariner.
• 1509. Africans and Arab chiefs began slavery in the Western and Northern Hemispheres with their tribal wars. Instead of ritually killing captured tribes or enslaving them themselves, they profited by selling them instead and ridding themselves of the problem entirely. It was from this African and Arab example that the Portuguese began the European slave trade in the New World.
• 1509. King Henry VII - see (top left above) died and was succeeded by his son, King Henry VIII (top middle). 
• 1511. In Spain a book of Spanish discoveries in the Caribbean published by Peter Martyr had a map of La Bermudas (or Garza, after the ship captained by Juan de Bermudez) well north of the Caribbean. 
• 1515. Spanish writer and historian Oviedo sailed near Bermuda but was unable to land.

• 1527. A petition was made by Hernando Camero, a Portuguese from the Azores,  to claim and people Bermuda for the crown of Spain, but was never followed up seriously. A later war involving Spain may have been why.

• 1543. A Portuguese slave ship sank off the South Shore, Bermuda in 1543. From this tragedy, the inscription of the "Spanish Rock" at Spittal Pond may derive.

• 1543. A French map of the world showing La Bermuda was published.
• 1543. In Bermuda, Spanish Rock was inscribed with this date, plus a cross, by Portuguese or Spanish mariners.
• 1544. Sebastian Cabot's Mappo Mundi was published. Many Bermuda resources including the Government of Bermuda official website and  late Bermudian author Terry Tucker's book Bermuda Today and Yesterday claim this map showed Bermuda as "ya de demonios"  (Isle of Devils, in Spanish). But this has been disputed by an American historian, apparently for cause, with the assertion that the copy of Cabot's map in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, which for many years was the only known copy, has Bermuda clearly labeled "la bermuda." Whatever, the devilish sounds were not demons but the cries - wild, eerie shrieks of sea and land birds - cahows indigenous to Bermuda.

1547-1558. Bermuda remained unsettled

King Edward VI, 1547-1553	Queen Mary 1, 1553-1558

• 1547. King Edward VI (above, left) ascended the throne.
• 1554. The birth, in Lyme Regis, England, of the man who discovered and colonized Bermuda, Admiral Sir George Somers. 

• 1556. From the port of La Rochelle, France, set out a man-of-war of some hundred tons, along with a pinnace of twenty-five tons, crewed by one hundred fifty soldiers and sailors, and commanded by a sea captain from La Rochelle by name of Captain Mesmin. The privateer took a Spanish prize in the Caribbean and headed home, with half the crew manning the newly-pirated acquisition. Unfortunately, the Bermuda reefs intervened and the prize became one of the early shipwrecks at the island. Some of the crew from the wreck were probably the first people to set foot on Watford Island, from which place the largest bridge in Bermuda was later so named, spanning the gap between that island and Somerset. The story is one of treachery and ethnic betrayal that began from the moment of the wrecking of the Spanish vessel. Captain Mesmin, in the French ship, hung offshore and received entreaties from the wrecked crew to take all of them aboard his ship and back to France. But he refused. Mesmin left the 45 men to their own devices, their ship still partly afloat, but firmly wedged and half sunk on the reefs. With their ship breaking apart under their feet, the abandoned sailors made two rafts, the better to reach dry land at Bermuda, seen in the distance. Enduring a bashing from the sea, both rafts floated to land, but one ended up at the eastern end of Bermuda and the other grounded to the west. The occupants of the latter, having set foot back on terra firma, with no loss among their number, they began to walk along the coast hoping to find some trace of their companions. But they had not got very far when they came across an obstruction in their path in the shape of a river which was at least 300 paces across. That obstructive “river” is believed to be the channel between Watford and Somerset Islands. The 25 shipwrecked mariners were obliged to return to the remains of their raft and reuse it to traverse the gap from Watford Island to Somerset. In so doing, as they had demolished part of the raft for firewood, five of the men were left behind on Watford Island, becoming in a way its first settlers. The other score took two weeks to travel to the eastern end of the main island of Bermuda, where they found the other members of the shipwrecked crew. Due to prickly pear, “they were forced to cut up their hats to put them on their feet as soles, because their shoes were all ripped and torn”. The treacherous saga continued and a boat was built to take the men back to the Caribbean. This was accomplished, but three of the sailors, being ethnic Normans and not from La Rochelle, were left behind in Bermuda. A ship sent out from Normandy to that end later rescued them.

1558-1603. Bermuda remained unsettled

• 1558. Queen Elizabeth 1 (see right) assumed the throne on the death of her older half-sister, Queen Mary 1. 
• 1558. Birth of Thomas Smith (Smythe), later Sir Thomas and the Treasurer of the Virginia Company, who had links to Bermuda
• 1560 to 1570. The first known visit to Bermuda by a Frenchman was by Captain Russel or Roussel, shipwrecked here then. His ship struck a reef and was so badly holed that lives were lost. Russel and the remainder of his crew made a smaller boat out of materials from the perished ship and sailed to Newfoundland where they got passage back to France.
• 1562. Sir John Hawkins first went to the New World and began the British slave trade from Guinea. But the Portuguese started it earlier.
• 1582. Establishment in Newfoundland of first British colony in New World.
• 1585. The first of two attempts to establish a colony on Roanoke Island were organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. The second disappeared without a trace in 1589.
• 1587. A report from Spanish sailor Pedro de Aspide reported pearl fisheries in waters around Bermuda and begged royal assent to exploit them. (Later, it was established they had no pearls).
• 1593. St. Augustine in Florida was founded by the Spanish, as the first continuously lived-in settlement by Europeans in the New World.
• 1593. On April 10, 1591, three ships sailed from Plymouth, England for the East Indies. They were the Penelope, Merchant Royal and Edward Bonaventura. In the latter was English seaman Henry May, transferred by his captain, James Lancaster, to a French vessel. The French ship was under the command of M. de la Barbotiere. He sailed from Laguna, Hispaniola, on November 30, 1593. Seventeen days later, his pilots thought they were out of danger of the Isle of Devils or Bermuda. They got their wine of height for a safe latitude, drank long and deep, with a minimal deck watch, but erred severely in their navigation. At midnight on December 17, the ship struck the north-west reefs of Bermuda and was so badly damaged that out of fifty five men, only twenty six reached the shore alive. Henry May and Captain de la Barbotiere were among the survivors. It is the wreck of this French ship on the Bermuda coat of arms. The crew cut down Bermuda cedar trees and built a seaworthy craft of eighteen tons. They caulked her seams with lime salvaged from the ship and oil extracted from local turtles they caught for food. They ate turtle meat fish, birds - and wild hogs.  
• 1594. On May 11, Captain de la Barbotiere and his repaired ship sailed from Bermuda to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, on May 20, where the Englishman, de la Barbotiere and crew observed the settlement before continuing to Newfoundland, where May boarded another French ship directly for Europe. He reached Falmouth, Cornwall, two months later in 1594.
• 1600. The East India Company of England was founded.
• 1600. In England, the lode stone acquired by Admiral Sir George Somers to magnetize his compass needles and later used by him to discover Bermuda, was manufactured.
• 1602. New England was first named and explored by English mariner Bartholomew Gosnold. He was the first Englishman in the region, after sailing from the Azores and then again from Maine to Cape Cod. He named the region after his homeland and Martha's Vineyard after the first name of his eldest child.

1603-1608. Bermuda remained unsettled

• 1603. Queen Elizabeth was succeeded by King James I of England and VI of Scotland (see right).
• 1603. Diego Ramirez, captain of a Spanish galleon, spent 3 weeks on Bermuda with his crew to repair their ship and sent a description to his superiors in Seville, Spain. A black crewmember was Venturilla. He was sent ashore with a lantern and axe to cut a piece of cedar while the rest of his crew waited on the ship. When on land, he was mobbed by many cahows and yelled to his crewmates for help. They assumed he was being attacked by the devil, rushed to his aid and that night captured more than 500 birds. All left after repairing the ship. The map created by Captain Diego Ramirez during his visit that year is the first-ever known map of Bermuda. Spanish Point is on the maps because of their visit.
• 1605. Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia, became the first permanent English-speaking settlement in North America.
• 1606. In April, King James I issued a charter to the Virginia Company for land along mid Atlantic coast. Dutch painter Rembrandt was born. 
• 1606. On February 1, Guy Fawkes and others were executed in London, drawn and quartered, for attempting to blow up Parliament. Their limbs were severed, stomachs were disemboweled and heads held aloft on spiked staves.
• 1606. On December 20, Captain Christopher Newport left London with the Godspeed, Discovery and Susan Constant for Virginia.
• 1607. Near Fort Popham, on the Kennebec River, in Maine, the English Popham Colony was established, abandoned after George Popham died. Yet they built the pinnace Virginia, the first English vessel launched from the mainland.
• 1607. On May 13, 104 male settlers arrived at James City for the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
• 1607. On May 26 in Jamestown, Paspahegh Indians attacked the colonists, killed two and wounded ten. On June 15, James Fort was completed. On September 10, the Council accused Councilor George Kendall of discord. He was placed under arrest on the Discovery and executed. On September 12 the Council found President Edward M. Wingfield guilty of libel. He was deposed and John Ratcliffe took his place. On December 10 Captain John Smith went up the Chickahominy for food but was captured. On December 29 he was brought before Powhatan but his daughter Pocahontas saved Smith's life.
• 1608. On January 1 Smith returned to James Fort and saw only 38 of the original 104 settlers. Smith was accused of deaths of men on his expedition. He was tried and condemned to be hung. But Captain Christopher Newport returned on the John and Francis with the First Supply of food and more settlers. Newport halted the Smith execution. In February, Smith took Newport up the York River to meet Powhatan for an exchange of beads for provisions and sons. Thomas Savage lived with the Indians and Namontack with the British. They acted as interpreters and liaisons. 
• 1608. Champlain founded the French settlement at Quebec City, courted Indian traders and imported French missionaries.
• 1608. Birth of famous English poet John Milton, whose poetical works are still popular today.
• 1608. In September the "Second Supply" with 70 new immigrants arrived on the Mary and Margaret, including an Elizabethan bed for Powhatan, a five piece barge to explore the Richmond Falls and two women, Mrs. Thomas Forrest and her maid Anne Burras. 
• 1608. In November, Jamestown had its first wedding, with much celebration, when Anne Burras was married to John Laydon, a carpenter who had arrived earlier.

1609. Bermuda settled by English colonists. Events thereafter

• 1609. In May, James I issued the second charter to the Virginia Company. Sir Thomas Smith (Smythe) was appointed Treasurer of the Virginia Company.
• 1609. On June 2, it sailed from Plymouth, England for Jamestown, Virginia, with Sir Thomas Gates as Lieutenant Governor designate. Admiral Sir George Somers, a British naval hero of Lyme Regis, Dorset, commanded the "Third Supply" Relief Fleet of nine vessels. Captain Christopher Newport was chief officer of the fleet. George Yeardley was then commander of land forces under Gates. 600 colonists included John Rolfe and his pregnant first wife, who died later in Bermuda. The fleet was to relieve the struggling British colony established in 1607 under Captain John Smith after failure of the Roanoke Island venture of Sir Walter Raleigh. It was the largest and most expensive colonization. On July 24, a hurricane sank one ship and threw the flagship Sea Venture so far off course that it was wrecked on a reef in Bermuda on July 28. All 150, including John Rolfe and his pregnant wife were saved. But Mrs. Rolfe and her daughter Bermuda died in Bermuda. The colonists rebuilt two boats, Deliverance and Patience, from the wreckage., at Buildings Bay, St. George's.
• 1609. Sir George Somers was rowed around the island and from the trip made the second known manuscript map of Bermuda, (after the one by Ramirez)  which has survived in two copies, one in Bermuda in the collections of the Bermuda National Trust and the other at the British Library.
• 1610. May 10. The "Deliverance" left Bermuda for the Virginia colony 10 May, arriving on 23/24 May at Jamestown, VA. She was abt 80 tons, about 57 feet in length with 64 ft foremast,72 ft mainmast, and 44 ft mizzen mast. She carried Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, William Strachey and 100 settlers (all except for three). 
• 1610. May 24, Lieutenant Governor Gates proclaimed martial law and instructed the colonists to abandon Jamestown. But on June 8 Lord De La Warr arrived. Virginia was saved. Sir George Somers returned to Bermuda for needed food, and a few months later -on November 9 - died on the island. His heart was buried in St. George's, and his body taken and buried in Dorset, England, where he was born.
• 1610. Henry Hudson explored the Hudson Bay.
• 1611. In May, Sir Thomas Dale arrived at Jamestown with 300 new settlers. George Yeardley, on the Sea Venture in 1609 before he went to Virginia in 1610, was knighted ( and later became a two term Governor of Virginia).
• 1611. In London, the first King James Bible was published.
• 1611. On November 1, in London, England, at Whitehall, for King James VI of Scotland and I of England, the first performance of the original dramatic and musical work THE TEMPEST by the British dramatist and playwright William Shakespeare, with music by the British composer Robert Johnson. The drama was based on true accounts by English writer, historian and lawyer William Strachey, of Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, and Sylvester Jourdain. Both had been in Bermuda until they got to Jamestown, Virginia and ultimately back to England. Whole sections of the original text were taken by Shakespeare from their dramatic accounts and the story of Admiral Sir George Somers. But Shakespeare obscured facts with fiction on his mythical Italian island.
• 1612. July 11. Arrival of the Plough, sent by the Virginia Company based in London, England, with sixty more settlers to Bermuda (by then called the Somers Isles), including Richard Moore, the new Governor. They were the first permanent settlers. They went initially to Smith's Island, then Tortus Island (now St. George's Island) and established that town (also sometimes called New London). The first long-term dwellings were constructed there, initially of cedar wood and palmetto thatch. (They remained this way until the early 1700s when limestone was used instead). Richard Moore Paget decided that Paget Fort, on the island of that name, was the most important place to be defended. He had platforms for guns cut on the southeastern end of the island as this overlooked the entrance to the channel. (This appears to be below the present site of the fort). Among the settlers were the first swarms of bees, deliberately included. Bermuda was subsequently sold by the Virginia Company to the new Bermuda Company.
• 1612. In Virginia, John Rolfe, by then a farmer, offered a crop of tobacco to help save the Jamestown settlement. Lord De La Warr and the Council issued the legal code "Laws Divine, Moral and Martial" (1612) which governed the colony until 1619. Much of this particular document was written by William Strachey, originally from Lyme Regis and also a Bermuda survivor. He had also written an excellent account of the voyage of the Sea Venture and how its passengers arrived safely from Bermuda in 1610. (His signet ring was found centuries later in Jamestown).
• 1612. The island of Bermuda now referred to as Cooper's Island was claimed by Christopher Carter in payment for his share of ambergris forfeited to the Bermuda Company. He spent years there digging in vain for what he thought was buried treasure.
• 1612. The Town of St. George was established, with the assistance of the ship Elizabeth which arrived on her first visit, with 30 settlers.
• 1612. December. An un-named ship arrived at Bermuda with 30 passengers and provisions.

• 1613. March. The first Governor of Bermuda, Richard Moore, was much occupied in raising a timber watchtower on a hill overtopping the town of St. George's to the westwards, to serve for the discovery of shipping upon the coast. From that tower, signals would be sent to the town below about sails on the horizon, reinforced one way or the other as soon as the ship was gleaned to be friend or foe. Signals have been continuously sent out from that hill, where Fort George (Harbour Radio) now stands, since then. It was originally called Rich's Mount (see graphic above) partly after the Governor of the time, and a single tower. It is the only military site in continuous occupation since the first days of the settlement of Bermuda in the late summer of 1612. 
• 1613. June. The ship Martha arrived at Bermuda with 60 settlers.
• 1613.  The ship Elizabeth arrived with 40 settlers on her second visit.
• 1613. Just before Christmas Richard Norwood arrived in the Somers Isles (Bermuda). His grandfather was the Usher at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire, England where Richard too was a pupil. The school still exists. His advice had been very helpful to the captain when the ship they were on went aground on one of the outer reefs. It was only a year and a half after the first boatload of settlers which included Bermuda’s first governor, Richard Moore. Norwood had been sent to the islands as a “technical specialist”, meaning that he had been hired as a pearl diver in search of what proved to be Bermuda’s non-existent pearls. When that job fizzled out, it was sheer chance that launched him on a career that would give him a very special place in Bermuda’s history as its first map maker and surveyor. He was a man of exceptional ability in those occupations, as well as in the many other pursuits in which he engaged during his long lifetime. Norwood had already distinguished himself as a mariner, navigator, and diver and would later prove his genius as a mathematician, textbook writer, schoolmaster and historian, as well as surveyor and map-maker. He had many other interests, too, such as nature and religion and in 1638 wrote a journal of his early life. Its detail and clarity have proved invaluable for historians. The original document, passed down through generations of his descendants, is now in the Bermuda Archives. In 1945 the Bermuda Historical Monument Trust had the journal published. The pearl-diving eventually came to nothing, and he then commenced a survey of the coastline for Governor Moore and Governor Daniel Tucker. The ancient record says: ‘’The first tribe to bee Eastward was then called Bedford Tribe, now Hamiltons [i.e. Hamilton Tribe or Parish, not the City of Hamilton]; the second, Smith’s Tribe; the third, Cavendish, now Devonshire; the fourth, Pembrooks; the fifth, Pagets; the sixth, Mansils, now Warwicks; the seventh, Southampton; the eighth, Sandys.’ The persons whose names have been perpetuated were: James Hamilton, second Marquis of Hamilton; Sir Tomas Smith or Smythe; William Cavendish, first Earl of Devonshire; William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke; William Paget, fourth Lord Paget; Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick; Henry Wriothesley (pronounced ‘Rocksley’) third Earl of Southampton; and lastly (the farthest west) – Sir Edwin Sandys.’’ Norwood had the help of Charles Caldicott. There were some 120 islands to be surveyed, all densely covered with cedar forests and without roads. The final survey, begun in the summer of 1616, was completed by May 1617. The resulting map, published in London in 1622, five years after Norwood’s return to England, was engraved by several cartographers (including John Speed in 1631, Abraham Goos 1626 and Hondius). It still serves as the basis of all land tenure to the present day. Before Richard Norwood sailed for England with all the data for his map in May 1617, he was involved in what became known as the scandal of the overplus. The fact was, Governor Tucker was due three shares from the Company; if the survey had continued straight ahead from east to west inevitably the expected overplus, the Governor’s perquisite, would fall at the extreme west end. But at a middle stage of the work, the Governor suddenly ordered Norwood to begin working from Sandys eastward, the reason given being that the rats had not yet attacked that part which therefore could easily be laid out. Norwood complied. The overplus which he had correctly anticipated, now fell in a specially luscious vale between Southampton and Sandys which Tucker immediately claimed as his bonus. Feelings ran high and when, undeterred, the Governor proceeded to build himself a fine house on this 200 acres the Rev Lewis Hughes denounced him bitterly as building a ‘flauntinge’ cedar mansion for himself while leaving ‘Gods house...but a thacht hovell.’ Even the Somers Island Company in London seemed likely to deprive the retiring Governor of the overplus and the house built at their expense. But in his last term of office he managed to send a huge consignment of tobacco from Bermuda, and appeared himself in London to state his own case. The result was that he retained the by then famous house (on the property later designated The Grove) and a little less than half the overplus property – a large and beautiful slice of land. Norwood was innocent of any complicity in the overplus plot, if plot there had been. He remained away from Bermuda for twenty years during which time he wrote several learned books on trigonometry, on navigation, on fortifications – books which went through many editions and continued being published for over half a century.
• 1614. March. After having sailed in February 1614 from Santo Domingo bound for Spain with a fleet of three naos, Captain Domingo de Ulivarri took the best route north with the Gulf Stream into the latitude of Bermuda, from where the east-blowing trade winds would sweep the fleet home to southern Europe. Spanish captains were under orders to check out the settlement at Bermuda, as it stood dangerously athwart that sea lane to Europe, though instructions to have these insolent people quickly annihilated seem fortunately only to be directed at the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia. A few weeks out, one of the naos sprang a leak and was abandoned, the complement transferred to the other two vessels. The actions of Captain de Ulivarri that occurred thereafter at Bermuda were recorded in a contemporary report. On 14 March at the 33rd latitude, they woke and found their ships three leagues south of the islands of Bermuda. The captain, knowing that His Majesty desired to know about the English colony, was determined to reconnoiter it. He approached the island from the south until he was in eight fathoms of water. Smoke was spotted on the island and immediately turning towards it, it was found to be emanating from two forts about 100 paces apart. One appeared to be built of mortar and stone and the other of wood. They saw people going from one to the other wielding artillery. There were ten to twelve pieces in both forts. One of the ships sailed into the [Castle] harbour. Thinking the visitors English, the colonists put out in a small boat, stopped a musket shot away, and refused to board. When they recognized the ship to be Spanish, the forts fired. The launches that put out to them were newly built and, they judged, of native wood, because it had very red oars of cedar, which is plentiful on that island. From a Bermudian report, Governor Moore, 'who was a very good gunner', blasted off two cannonballs from the King's Castle, one passing 'through and through' one of the ships, which turned tail and departed for Spain. The irony was that there was only one cannonball left in reserve and in firing the others, the good gunners spilled the only cask of gunpowder under the gun. The de Ulivarri account is positive proof of the presence of masonry fortifications at Bermuda from the earliest days of settlement. This was how the only shots ever fired in anger were sent whistling seaward from Castle Island in March 1614. Those shots across the bows of the two Spanish vessels became a legend in the early history of Bermuda.
• 1614. Early in March, the ships Blessing, with 100 passengers and the Starre with 180 new immigrants to Bermuda. The Governor took their names and immediately put them all to work on his projects' including the King's Castle.
• 1614. The ship Margaret arrived from England along with two frigates bringing the surveyor Bartlet and others.
• 1614. About May 24, in Virginia, colonist John Rolfe - once a castaway in Bermuda and a widower - married Pocahontas (pictured). On June 28 he shipped the first tobacco from Virginia to England.
• 1614. On November 23, the Virginia Company surrendered Bermuda to the Crown. It figured Bermuda was a poor investment. Bermuda became the first legal offshore colony of Britain.
• 1615. The ship Welcome took away Governor Moore and left provisions.
• 1615. The ship Edwin arrived. bringing supplies. 
• 1615. June 29. Somer Islands Company Charter of James I came into force. This separate and autonomous Bermuda Company, formed by English investors who were shareholders of the Virginia Company, took over, for £2,000  the Charter formerly held by the Virginia Company, under a charter granted by King James for the Plantation of the Somers Isles and under his command. Its purpose was to develop Bermuda as a profit-making enterprise. The first of the "hog money" coins - so called because they featured an image of a Bermuda hog - was issued in Bermuda as the earliest of all British colonial coins.
• 1615-17. Richard Norwood used a canoe to go from place to place in Bermuda to survey the islands before preparing his detailed pap of Bermuda.
• 1615. Captain John Smith was imprisoned by French pirates but survived.
• 1616. In Bermuda, the first General Assizes were held, at St. George's. Bermuda was divided into shares and tribes (parishes) by surveyor Richard Norwood. Each parish was named after investors in the Bermuda Company.
• 1616, on her second visit, the ship Edwin brought "many" passengers and proceeded to the West Indies, returning from there in the same year. 
• 1616. May. The ship George brought Captain Daniel Tucker and others, and returned to England. 
• 1616. The ship Sea Flower with Captain Gardener arrived.. She arrived again in 1619, bringing a preacher, and proceeding for Virginia. She is again mentioned in 1632 with John Rose master.
• 1616. The first slaves were brought to Bermuda by Captain George Bargrave to dive for pearls because of their skill in pearl-diving. It was believed there was money to be made harvesting pearls off the coast. As it proved unsuccessful, they were put to work planting and harvesting the initial large crops of tobacco and sugar cane.
• 1616. Governor Daniel Tucker succeeded Moore and ensured the construction of another battery below and in front of the original semi-circular platform, on Paget Island. 
• 1616. The ship Hopewell with Captain Powell arrived with passengers and proceeded to the West Indies. She returned with 3 prizes in 1617. 
• 1616. Because of the popularity of the fast-dwindling cahow of Bermuda as a source of food for the colonists, a law was enacted to protect them and other species. It was the earliest known conservation law in the New World.
• 1616. Hog Money - Bermuda's first minted currency and first coinage for any overseas British colony - circulated until 1624.
• 1616. On June 3, Rolfe and Pocahontas (then Rebecca) arrived in London.
• 1616. The Virginia Company began the headright system by giving 50 acres to anyone who paid the fare and an 50 additional acres to each person brought with him.
• 1617. On March 17 Pocahontas died in Gravesend, England. Raleigh led an expedition to Guiana, South America. The first cargo of Virginia grown tobacco reached England.
• 1617. Slaves were first mentioned in Bermuda records.

• 1617. One of the earliest homes that began construction was a house called The Grange, in Southampton (on a part of what is now the Port Royal Golf Course) former fairway at the golf course. It was the home of Bermuda's second Governor Daniel Tucker. (Also see 1618)

• 1617. September 29.  The death, in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, of Joanne Raymond of Sussex, wife of William Raymond. But it was as Joane Somers, widowed wife of Admiral Sir George Somers who discovered Bermuda, that she had earlier fame.  She was childless with both husbands.
• 1617. In the Bermuda of Governor Daniel Tucker, five men including James Barker were so fed up with his attitude that they stole a boat and rowed to Ireland and freedom.
• 1617. On October 29, Sir Walter Raleigh was executed for treason at the Tower of London.
• 1617. Bermuda was divided into twenty five acre strips of shares by surveyor Richard Norwood in his survey.
• 1618. In May, the Indian chief Powhatan died.
• 1618. After Governor Daniel Tucker had begun constructing his timbered dream house, "The Grange", at the Overplus in Southampton, courtesy of the public purse, labour was dragooned into service. Some men were set to work to dig cellars, others to burn lime and make mortar, others to make shingles.
• 1618. On June 18, Sir James Lancaster died in England. He was a merchant adventurer who knew Admiral Sir George Somers well and often sailed with him.
• 1618. In Jamestown, the "Great Migration" until 1623 increased the population from 400 to 4,400. But most died from disease, starvation or Indian attack.
• 1618. A Flemish or Dutch ship went aground and sank off what is now Wreck Hill (then Flemish Hill) on the northernmost tip of the Main Island of Bermuda. The captain of the ship was Powell and a notorious Caribbean pirate. The buccaneer ship had legal status as a privateer. It had sailed against the Spanish under a Letter of Marque by the Dutch prince Maurice of Orange, so was technically not a Flemish ship but a Dutch one. The British Government did not like the presence of Powell in Bermuda so Governor Miles Kendall banished him to what is now Ireland Island. It was from there that Powell and crew tried to build a new ship.
• 1618. The ship Neptune was sent to Bermuda for the purpose of whale fishing.
• 1618. The ship Diana was the first magazine ship to arrive and took away 30,000 lbs of tobacco.
• 1619. The ship Garland left London bound for Virginia but ended up in Bermuda - then the Somer's Islands - where she was seized.
• 1619. The ship Giliflower arrived with supplies.
• 1619. The ship Treasurer arrived in Bermuda from Virginia, with Africans were brought via Jamestown by Captain Daniel Elfrith (sic?). It was reported that acting Governor Miles Kendall had about 29 Africans from that ship locked up because he believed they were stolen from a Spanish ship in the West Indies. It was later discovered they came originally from Angola. Those who arrived in Jamestown on this ship were the first black African slaves to be imported to the USA.
• 1619. Jacob Jacobson, a shipwright from Holland, was wrecked off Bermuda but swam to shore and began a boat-building tradition by building several large boats for Bermuda's third Governor, Butler, for the defence of Bermuda.
• 1619. October. One of the early Bermuda forts was made of wood and burnt to the ground.
• 1619. Butler built a new platform at forts on Paget and nearby Smith's Islands. Although periodic repairs were attempted during the next century, none lasted.
• 1619. The first civilian stone structure to be commenced in Bermuda was the State House in St. George's.
• 1619. On July 30, the Virginia House of Burgesses first met, in the choir of the Jamestown church. Its first law stated tobacco was least three shillings per pound. Also in August, the first 20 blacks were purchased from a passing Dutch ship as indentured servants. Ninety young women went from England to Virginia as wives for deserving men, priced them at one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco.
• 1620. Sir Thomas Smith (Smythe) resigned as Treasurer of the Virginia Company after being challenged by his rival Sir Duncan Sandys. The first Bermuda Parliament was held at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. 
• 1620. By Royal Assent, Bermuda was granted limited self-government. The Plymouth Colony expedition from Holland and England to Plymouth, Massachusetts (originally bound for Virginia) by the Mayflower Pilgrim Separatists (until Plymouth's amalgamation with Massachusetts in 1692). One of the Pilgrims was Stephen Hopkins, who had been on the Sea Venture but was troublesome. It also led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the Puritans in 1629; Maryland by Lord Baltimore in 1634; Rhode Island by Roger Williams in 1636; Connecticut, by Thomas Hooker in 1636; Portsmouth, RI, by Mrs. Anne Hutchinson in 1638 (until its merger with Rhode Island in 1644); New Haven, CT, by emigrants from Massachusetts in 1638 (until its merger with Connecticut in 1662); and Delaware, by Swedes under British rule in 1638.
• 1620. The ship Treasurer was a wreck lying in a Bermuda creek. Nathaniel Butler salvaged some guns from her that year and erected them on the Smith's and Paget Island forts. The ship's end was recorded by Captain John Smith in 1624.
• 1620. Under what were possibly the first conservation laws in the New World, turtles - referred to as young tortoises - in Bermuda were protected. It became illegal locally to kill them.  
• 1620. The  State House in St. George's, commenced in 1619, was completed and opened. St. Peter's Church in St. George's was built - and equipped with the famous "Dole cupboard." 
• 1620. Governor Butler of Bermuda employed Dutch shipwright Jacob Jacobson to instruct settlers in boat building. Thanks to him, Bermudians were first taught ship building skills.
• 1620. After being toppled by a hurricane, Moore's Mount was rebuilt just after Easter  by Governor Butler as a triangular work. This tower, being absolutely finished and perfected . . . hath already stood stiffly in many a terrible storm, without the least damage that can be discerned and may be hoped to do so in many more, was given the new name of Rich's Mount.
• 1620. The creation of Maine, by Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1639 (until its merger with Massachusetts in 1791, before it again became a separate state later); North Carolina by eight noblemen in 1663; first North then South Carolina, again by eight noblemen, from 1663; New York, by the Duke of York in 1664; New Jersey, by Berkeley and Cartaret in 1664; Pennsylvania, by William Penn in 1681; and Georgia, by James Oglethorpe in 1732.
• 1621. On June 21, the death of William Strachey, one of the original Bermuda castaways in 1609 who went to Jamestown to receive prominence and write laws. He was one of the principal authors of the document that described the tempest off the Azores, arrival in Bermuda and eventual arrival in Jamestown. He returned to London and was a writer before he died. (His signet ring was found in Jamestown in 1999).

• 1621. Governor Nathaniel Butler erected the stone "Town House", now the State House, to encourage others to build in masonry. Part of his idea was to stop using scarce cedar timber for houses, for there was an inexhaustible supply of stone, and of limestone which would burn easily.

• 1621. The Virginia Company gave a tract of land in what is now Chesterfield County to the shareholders of The Bermuda Company in compensation for the small area of Bermuda they bought in 1612.
• 1621. In December, the Governor of Bermuda sent two cedar chests to Virginia with various agricultural products contained in them. One contained the first potato.
• 1621-1627. In Bermuda, nine churches were constructed of wood, plaster and palmetto thatch.
• 1622. May.  A small barque cleared Bermuda bound for Jamestown, Virginia, and her ballast was limestone, possibly indicating that stone was being cut or quarried for export for building or burning into lime.
• 1622. On March 22 a Powhatan Indian attack killed 347 colonists in Jamestown and began a war that lasted a decade. On April 18, Sir Richard Hawkins died in England. On December 20 the Abigail arrived in Jamestown with no food and an infectious load of passengers. Plague and starvation reduced the colony to 500 persons. They held out hope for the arrival of the Seaflower.
• 1622. A map was published by Blaeuw showing how Bermuda was divided into twenty five acre strips of shares by surveyor Richard Norwood in his survey of 1615 to 1617.
• 1623. Erection began of Holy Trinity Anglican church, Bailey's Bay. Hamilton Parish. It was topped by a palmetto-thatched roof.
• 1623. In Bermuda, ministers and parishioners, seriously alarmed about all forms of witchcraft, selected church wardens from each Parish. Their job was to seek out all sorcerers, enchanters, charmers, witches, figure casters, fortune tellers, conjurers has or seems to have any consort with the devil. Persecution and victimization started locally.
• 1623. An Act "to restrain the insolence of the Negroes" was legislated in Bermuda. It forbade blacks to buy or sell, barter or exchange tobacco or any other produce for goods without the consent of their master.
• 1623. On March 18 in Bermuda, the Seaflower was blown up due to the negligence of the Captain's son. In Jamestown in May, Captain William Tucker concluded peace negotiations with a Powhatan village by proposing a toast with a drink laced with poison prepared by Dr. John Potts. 200 Powhatan Indians died instantly and another 50 were slaughtered.
• 1623. In September, there was the last known reference to James City and surveyor William Clayborne laid out the streets of New Town, a suburb outside the James Fort.
• 1624. In June, the Virginia Company lost its charter and Virginia became a royal province, from mismanagement of the colony. Elsewhere, the Dutch settled New Amsterdam.
• 1624. In the United Kingdom, George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), was born.
• 1624. The ship George again arrived in Bermuda with settlers and provisions. 

1625-1649

• 1625. King Charles I (see right) ascended the throne, on the death of King James I of England and VI of Scotland.
• 1625. In Lyme Regis, England, Matthew Somers, who brought the body of his uncle Admiral Sir George Somers home from Bermuda in 1611, died after a term in prison for debt. Also in Lyme Regis, John Somers died on July 12, a grandfather many times over. He was the last survivor of the brothers of Admiral Sir George Somers.
• 1625. Virginia became a royal colony with the governor and council appointed by King James I. Later , Charles I became King on the death of James.
• 1625 to 1640. An estimated 1,000 or more indentured servants arrived in Virginia each year, some orphans and condemned criminals but mostly the unemployed seeking economic opportunity.

• 1626. Richard Norwood's second survey divided the island into 50-acre shares of land and was published as a map by John Speed. It showed the unusual shape of Bermuda.

• 1627. By law in Bermuda, pilchards and fry were only allowed to be taken for bait or food, not for oil. Similar laws went into force to protect cedar trees.
• 1628. In India, the Taj Mahal was built.
• 1629. The establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the Puritans, as a separate entity from the Plymouth Colony.
• 1629. At St. George's, Butler's watchtower was thrown down the hill by a passing hurricane.
• 1629. In Bermuda, the population was calculated as 2,500 white and between 300 to 400 black and Native American.
• 1630. English Puritan leader John Winthrop founded Boston.
• October 1630. Scots exiles were sent to and sold as slaves at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, Berwick in Maine and Bermuda by General Oliver Cromwell following the Battle of Dunbar (Sept 3, 1650).  He sent them on the ship 'Unity' with instructions to sell them "into perpetual servitude." There is no known listing in Bermuda of such sales.
• 1630-1650. Economic, political and religious unrest cause mass emigration from Britain to North American colonies including Bermuda.
• 1631. In June, Captain John Smith died in England at  the age of 51. He had tried to join the Pilgrim Fathers bound for America in 1620 but had been rejected.
• 1632. King Charles I issued a charter for colony of Maryland. It was named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria.
• 1632. In England, John Locke and Christopher Wren were born.
• 1633 Samuel Pepes, English diarist, was born.
• 1633. Richard Norwood completed a third survey of Bermuda. It was never published but exists in several manuscript copies.
• 1633. England was introduced to bananas when Thomas Johnston displayed a bunch from Bermuda in his shop window on Snow Hill, London.
• 1634. Establishment of Maryland by Lord Baltimore as a proprietary colony.
• 1635. Colonization of Connecticut began.
• 1635. On June 10, the ship Truelove left from England with more colonists for Bermuda. In September, the ship Dorset did the same.
• 1636. The establishment of Rhode Island and later the city of Providence by Roger Williams as a self governing British colony with complete religious freedom.
• 1636. The establishment of Connecticut as a British colony, by Thomas Hooker.
• 1636. In Massachusetts, Harvard College was founded.
• 1637. Richard Norwood returned to Bermuda as a schoolmaster, bringing his wife and four children. His first school was probably in Devonshire Tribe, but later he built his own school on his estate in Pembroke. This estate is still called Norwood – the house on it today was built about 1711 by the husband (Saltus) of Richard Norwood’s great granddaughter, but there are no remains of the school house.
• 1639. On January 11, King Charles I granted colonists in America the right to call their General Assembly. He set a precedent for partial self rule for British colonies.
• 1639. The establishment of the separate British colony of Maine, by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the famous seaman from Somerset, England (until its merger with Massachusetts in 1791, before it again became a separate state later).
• 1642. When Governor Josias Forster arrived, he upheld, encouraged and helped in the persecution and death of supposed witches in Bermuda. In his honor, the Forster Chair was made. It was used by him and future Bermuda Governors to deliver Throne Speeches. (The chair is normally on display in the Senate Chambers, but in 2009, Bermuda's 400th Anniversary Year, was part of an exhibition at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Museum. A Bermuda Coat of Arms carved out of Bermuda Cedar, and usually on display above the Forster Chair, was also sent to Jamestown. The exhibition, which opened on March 2, explored the shared history and links between England's first two permanent colonies in the New World, Bermuda and Jamestown). The Forster Chair is made of Bermuda Cedar and is decoratively carved with the following inscription: Capt Josias Forster Esq Governor Of the Sumer Islands Ano. Do. 1642.
• 1640s. In Bermuda, a dole cupboard (still extant) was given to St. Peter's Church for the collection of alms for the poor.
• 1642. 11 August.  The ship Gillyflower, Elias Pillgram master, left Bermuda for Virginia.
• 1644.  26 July. The ship Hopewell of the Somer Islands, John Sessiones factor, brought cargo from Barbados.
• 1649. In Bermuda, the execution in London of King Charles I caused "Bermuda's Civil War." To end it, militia members were embodied. The majority of colonists swore allegiance to the crown and forced the Independents or Puritans to leave Bermuda for the Bahamas.
• 1640s (to 1650s). Bermudians Anthony Peniston and John Stowe built cedar ships to trade in the West Indies.
• 1647. Richard Hunt and his wife Sarah, of Bromley, Kent, England, arrived in the Bermuda Islands and took possession of the estates, etc. of the then Earl of Manchester in those islands in which he was one of the proprietors. Sarah Hunt was one of the nieces of the Earl. He had devised by his last will his landed property in the Bermudas in trust to the Earl of Warwick, Lord Holland and Sir Nathanial Rich, his executors, for the benefit of one of his nieces deemed the most worthy. Richard and Sarah Hunt brought with them a daughter, also named Sarah.
• 1648. George Fox founded the Society of Friends (Quakers).
• 1648. Governor/Captain William Sayles and the Eleutheran Adventurers sailed from Bermuda in 1648 and settled the Bahamas. Governor Sayles served three terms as Governor of Bermuda before becoming the first Governor of the Bahamas and first Governor of Carolina (before it was split in two as North and South Carolina). 
• 1649. On January 31, King Charles I was beheaded in London by Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell. The English Commonwealth was established. In America, the Iroquois destroyed the Hurons and their Jesuit mission.
• 1650. On January 1, in London,  the Committee administering the affairs of Bermuda wrote to Captain Josias Foster, the island's Governor, ordering him to fund and accommodate Ministers from New England for the purpose of teaching letters and Godliness to adults and youth. As a direct result, Bermuda's first school, Warwick Academy, was created from the New England model of 1635.
• 1650. In England, John Churchill, the future first Duke of Marlborough, was born. Rene Descartes died. So did Sylvester Jourdain, who became famous after his Bermuda experience. He was buried at St. Sepulchre Church, Newgate, London.
• 1650. Mass immigration of British settlers to Bermuda ended.
• 1652. A British fleet representing the Parliament of Oliver Cromwell arrived off the Virginia island coast. Berkeley surrendered Virginia. As a result, the Virginia legislature was dominated by the House of Burgesses until 1660.
• 1656. In Bermuda, a slave uprising was foiled and all blacks previously given their freedom were banished.
• 1658. Oliver Cromwell died in England.
• 1660. On March 3 the Virginia Assembly elected Berkeley as Governor. 

1660-1685

• 1660. On May 29 the monarchy was restored in England. Charles II (see right) became King and the Anglican Church regained its status.
• 1661. In Bermuda,  another conspiracy of slaves - this time, joined by white Irish indentured servants - was foiled. The militia began a nightly watch.
• 1661. Virginia institutionalized slavery with a law that made the status of the mother determine slave or free status of the child.
• 1661. In England, Charles II received Tangier and Bombay as part of the dowry from Catherine of Braganza, Portugal.
• 1661. In Bermuda, during a severe storm, the ill fated armed British merchant ship Virginia Merchant became grounded near Boat Bay in Southampton Parish. She was a total wreck and sank there with great loss of life. Of the 179 people aboard, only 10 survived.
• 1661. The first of the Butterfield family (later, of local banking fame) arrived in Bermuda from England.
• 1662. Jamestown's status as the mandatory port of entry for Virginia ended.
• 1662. The merger of what had been the separate British colony of New Haven in Connecticut as a separate British colony,  with Connecticut proper.
• 1662. The English Book of Common Prayer was revised. The Royal Society received a charter from Charles II. Louis XIV of France began the Palace of Versailles.
• 1662. In Bermuda, Warwick Academy was founded at the first school.
• 1663. The establishment of the British colony of North Carolina by eight noblemen.
• 1663. Richard Norwood completed his second map of Bermuda.
• 1663. November 30. At a Bermuda court, it was resolved to prohibit New Englanders and other strangers from importing wine and setting up booths and warehouses to sell their products, in competition with Bermudians.
• 1664. The establishment of the British colony of New York, by the Duke of York. It was done in a bold military way in the event of trouble but the merchants of the city accepted it willingly, with no damage to the city. The British simply annexed the Dutch American colony of New Netherlands and renamed its capital of New Amsterdam as New York.
• 1664. The establishment of the British colony of New Jersey, by Berkeley and Cartaret.
• May 15, 1669. Sir John Heydon, a relative of Jeremy Heydon, an original investor in the Bermuda Company of the early 17th century, became Deputy Governor then Governor of Bermuda. He arrived at Castle Harbor aboard the Bermuda Company ship "Summers Isles Merchant." He was an uncompromising Puritan and tried his best to inflict his puritanical beliefs on other colonists, much to their annoyance. Although unpopular, he remained in Bermuda after retirement. When 80 years old, he was charged with treason. It was claimed he had allowed Dutch sailors to chart the reefs of Bermuda for a possible invasion by the Dutch and Spanish. Heydon was acquitted and before he died a few years later was charitable enough to apply Christian forgiveness to his neighbors by establishing the Heydon Trust Estate still surviving.
• 1669. The establishment of the separate British colony of South Carolina, again by eight noblemen.
• 1670. In Bermuda, John Hardy described boats of five tons with two masts and loose-footed triangular sails. He praised their seaworthiness and noted their ability to sail close to the wind.
• 1670. Population of Bermuda was estimated at 8,000 men, women, children and slaves. The latter were about 25%, triple the number of the 1629 statistics.
• 1673. Bermuda claimed and settled the Turks Islands. The salt trade was established. 
• 1673. In Bermuda, yet another slave conspiracy was foiled. Some conspirators were branded with the letter "R" for rogue, had their noses slit and were whipped prior to execution. The rest were branded and whipped. The Government attempted to restrict the importation of slaves and imposed strict controls on the existing slaves.
• 1675. The first formal recognition of the Bermuda rig is a manuscript that describes the "Bermoothes saile." 
• 1676. Bermuda Governor Sir John Heydon banned the future importation of black and Indian slaves at a time when colonies elsewhere were clamoring for a greater supply. Heydon also exiled the island's tiny free black, mulatto, and Indian population by ordering them to leave the island within six months or be re-enslaved. This order, irregularly invoked into the 19th century, sought to conflate race with legal status by eliminating free nonwhites and succeeded in keeping Bermuda's free black population small until the eve of Abolition in 1834. (Despite the deportation and the import ban, the island's black population continued to grow, reaching 1,737 in 1684 to compose a little under a quarter of Bermuda's inhabitants).
• 1676. On September 19, Nathaniel Bacon led south Virginians against the Indians in violation of Governor Berkeley's wishes. He opposed Berkeley and burnt Jamestown to the ground. On October 26 he died of dysentery.
• 1677. William of Orange married Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York.
• 1677. In Bermuda, an Act of 1675 prohibiting the importation of slaves is upheld.
• 1678. Bermudians first sailed south to establish the Turks Islands in the Caribbean as the center for decades of their industry for salt raking and salt trading. Their ships had two masts and loose-footed sails. They were used for storage, fishing and going from island to island.
• 1679. In April, the ship "Mayflower" left Barbados for Bermuda and Providence Island in the Bahamas. At the same time, the ship "Providence" left Barbados for Bermuda and Boston.
• 1681. In Bermuda, an Indian slave named John, the "property" of William Mulligan of Smith's Parish, was convicted of setting his master's house on fire and firing shots at Mulligan's family. John was hanged, drawn and quartered at Gibbet Island.
• 1682. In Bermuda, a slave conspiracy involving 5 men was discovered and quelled.
• 1684. In Bermuda, privateering became, with salt-raking, the major economic activity.
• 1684. The government of Bermuda reverted to the Crown, after disgruntled Bermuda colonists had joined forces with Perient Trott, a London merchant and renegade company member, to launch a legal attack on the company's charter. In what turned out to be the opening salvo of Charles II's judicial battle to rein in England's American colonies, Bermudians ultimately succeeded in dissolving the company after a five-year quo warranto trial.  The dissolution of the Somers Island Company was a watershed in the history of the colony. Free from company trade restrictions, Bermudians abandoned tobacco agriculture and took to the sea in pursuit of commerce. They developed an extensive carrying trade, selling salt from Turks Island and trading goods between North America and the West Indies. This formed the basis of the economy of Bermuda until the early 1800s.

1685-1688

1685. King Charles II died and James II (see right) - briefly - ascended the British throne. 1685. The economic shift from field to sea was a maritime revolution that fundamentally transformed Bermuda's society and landscape. For over 15 years Bermuda's annual tobacco exports fell from more than half a million pounds to fewer than ten thousand. In the same period, the island's merchant fleet rose from a handful to more than seventy vessels. Taking advantage of their island's advantageous location, Bermuda's first generation of mariners profited from connecting emerging regional economies in North America with the wealthy sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean. Freighting cargoes for other colonial merchants and buying goods on speculation enabled Bermuda to prosper far more than the older tobacco economy had allowed, and the island's extensive tramp trade made Bermudians among the best-informed denizens of the North Atlantic.  1685. King Louis XVI of France revoked the Edict of Nantes and exiled thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots).  1685. In Germany, J. S. Bach and Handel were born. 1687. The Parthenon in Athens was badly damaged by the Venetian bombardment of Turks on the Acropolis. 1688. King James II, the last Roman Catholic monarch, was driven from the English throne because of his religion and went into exile.

1688-1694 

• 1688. King William III and Queen Mary II (see right) were enthroned and reigned in England.
• 1689. The English Declaration of Rights was published. 
• 1691. Thomas Tew was an Anglo-American sailor of no great distinction before arriving in Bermuda from Rhode Island. Some contemporaries maintain that Tew had come to the island to settle permanently on land. But the promise of fortune beyond the horizon lured him. He was an unrefined man with the language and manners of the sea. At first, he entered the somewhat reputable state-sponsored brand of piracy. For 300 pounds he bought a letter of marque – a licence to privateer – from Governor Isaac Richier. Next, he found himself a crew – probably former salt traders tempted by the promise of greater riches. Little is known about Tew’s first voyages on the Amity. Around this time, however, something occurred which would alter the destinies of all sea-faring Bermudians. The Governor of the Bahamas, Ellas Askett, began a policy of seizing Bermudian ships in the Caribbean. Bermuda shares much in common with the Bahamas. During the English Civil War puritans in Bermuda found refuge there when loyalists here drove them into exile. Free blacks also were forced in to exile there during the slave rebellions in Bermuda during the mid-17th century. There are still many Bahamian families, especially in the northern islands, with Bermudian names. But at that time, the tensions between the two colonies threatened war. Governor Askett is recorded as saying: “I have never hanged a Bermudian, but would make no more of it than to hang a dog.” This incident is thought to mark the beginning of Bermudian piracy. Thomas Tew was commissioned to raid a French settlement in East Africa. Somewhere along the way, he offered to his crew to forfeit the protection of the Crown and become pirates. The response has become famous: “A gold chain or a wooden leg, we’ll stand by you!” The only surviving account of what happened next is The History of Pyrates by one Captain Johnson. Scholars have long suspected that this was a pen name for Daniel Defoe (of Robinson Crusoe fame), but this is now considered seriously doubtful. “Tew sailed around Africa, in to the Indian Ocean and eventually in to the Red Sea. It was fairly easy for pirates because it concentrated with ships. Tew found an Arabian vessel laden with gold and protected by 300 soldiers. His crew, although outnumbered, managed to capture the ship and the gold it contained. After that, if we follow the Johnson account, Tew then met a French pirate called Captain Misson who persuaded Tew to follow him to Libertalia. It was supposedly a pirate’s utopia in Madagascar where there was no slavery. From there, Tew sailed back to Rhode Island where he and his crew divided their treasure among them. The Bermudian crew, of both black and white members, was given £3,000 each, while Tew took £12,000 for himself. Tew’s Bermudian investors, hearing of their good fortune, soon arrived to collect their share. According to legend, Tew directed them to a beach and instructed them to start digging. They all became very rich men, very quickly. It is believed the Gilbert family used their new-found wealth to purchase a sizeable amount of land in Devonshire.
• 1693. In Virginia, the College of William and Mary was founded.
• 1694. Queen Mary of England died.