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Bermuda's History from 1800 to 1899

The island's record of nineteenth century social and economic development

line drawing

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

To refer to this web file, please use "bermuda-online.org/history1800-1899.htm" as your Subject

History to 1699 History 1700-1799 History 1800-1899 History 1900-1951 History 1952-1999
History 2000 to 2005 History 2006 part 1 History  2006 part 2 History 2007JanFeb History 2007 March
History 2007 April History 2007 May History 2007 June 1-15th History 2007 June 16 to 30th History 2007 July 1-15
History 2007 July 16th to 31st History 2007 August 1 to 7 History 2007 August 8 to 14 History 2007 August 15 to 21 History 2007 August 22-31
History 2007 September 1 to 10 History 2007 September 11 to 20      

1800-1899

HMS Pickle

HMS Pickle, from a painting in the UK.

Bermuda sloop 1806

Bermuda sloop Laura, 1806

Bermuda's House of Assembly or Sessions House

Bermuda's House of Assembly, Sessions House, built 1817

1820-1830

Martello Tower

1830-1837

Bermuda schooner 1834

1837-1899

Black Watch 42nd Regiment

Black Watch in Bermuda 1847 to 1851

Hezekiah Frith, Privateer and Member of Parliament

Hezekiah Frith, from a painting originally at Spithead

Black Watch Well

Black Watch Well in Bermuda

Golden Rule

Ship Golden Rule

Hamilton Hotel, Bermuda

Hamilton Hotel begin in 1851, finished in 1852

1860 sketch of an oarfish in Bermuda waters

1860 sketch of an oarfish in Bermuda

Mary Celestia

Sinking of the Mary Celestia, 1864 by James

Grenmar in Bermuda 1866

Mark Twain and Bermuda

  • 1868. The Lunatic Asylum moved from the North Shore to the former Devonshire College and eventually became known as St. Brendan's.
  • 1869. Colonel William Drummond, Royal Engineers, British Army, based in Bermuda, wrote his Report on the Defences of Bermuda which included these words about  Fort Scaur: "With a view to prevent the capture or destruction of the Naval Establishment by an enemy who might have succeeded in effecting a landing, two positions have been selected, viz.: 1st, a line between the head of Hamilton Harbour and the Navy Wells, on the North Shore, called the Prospect Hill position; 2nd, a line between Ely's Harbour and the Great Sound, called the Somerset position. The latter being only 500 yards in extent, may be most advantageously defended by a continuous ditch and parapet from shore to shore, with a small keep in the centre, to prevent the position being turned. Plans are now being prepared."

  • 1869. May 6, Ascension Day. Trinity Church, on Church Street, Hamilton, was consecrated. It remained in service for the next fifteen years. 

  • 1869. July 28. Bermuda's first Floating Dock, the mammoth HMS Bermuda, arrived after being towed from the United Kingdom to Bermuda's Royal Navy Dockyard. It was in use there until 1904 (while being towed away to a ship breaker's yard, the dock broke loose and stuck at the foreshore, Spanish Point, where some remains are still visible in the water). The floating dock lay in Grassy Bay until the following April when it was brought to the North Basin and moored against the Great Wharf. As a functioning Dockyard, this facility had ammunition depots, deep water berths, barracks, chapels, soldiers and sailors to guard it. The soldiers were based at the fort here, the largest in Bermuda (now the Bermuda Maritime Museum).

Floating Dock 1

Floating Dock 2

Floating Dock arrives in Bermuda 1869

Ships that towed the floating dock

  • She was towed out by HMS Agincourt and HMS Northumberland (see above) as far as Porto Santo, Madeira, where HMS Warrior (Britain's first iron-hulled battleship, built in Blackwall on the River Thames in 1860 as a counter to the naval ambitions of Emperor Napoleon III of France, the fastest, largest, strongest and best-armed warship in the world but by 1869 she was obsolete) and HMS Black Prince took over. With HMS Terrible and a small gunboat fast astern, the voyage took 35 days. 

  • 1870. February. Representative Benjamin F. Whittemore resigned his northeastern South Carolina seat, having been charged with selling appointments to U.S. military academies. The Republican Party nominated Joseph Rainey, formerly of Bermuda, to replace Whittemore for the remainder of the term and for a full term in the 42nd Congress (1871-1873). Rainey won the full term by a substantial majority over his Democrat opponent and was sworn in on December 12,1870, the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Other African Americans had been elected to Congress before Rainey, but many white congressmen had refused to recognize their legitimacy. Rainey immediately demanded treatment equal to that of his peers when he took his congressional seat .A very proper man who never forgot his time in Bermuda, Rainey expected decorum and civility from whites. Rainey's work on the Committee on Freedmen's Affairs-created in 1865 to handle all legislation concerning newly freed slaves-earned him great recognition. He also generally opposed legislation that restricted Asian immigrants entering the United States. Public discrimination was rampant at the time, and a black Congressman was certainly not immune. Rainey insisted he be treated equally in public accommodations and exposed segregation he witnessed in Richmond, Virginia, even filing a lawsuit when he was forced off a streetcar because he was black. He eventually withdrew the suit, but it preceded the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case by more than 20 years. From the beginning of his time in office, Rainey steadfastly defended both Southern blacks' civil rights and amnesty for former white rebels. 

Joseph Rainey

Congressman Joseph Rainey, center

  • 1871. April 1. Republican Congressman Joseph Rainey, formerly of Bermuda, delivered his first major speech, advocating the use of federal troops to protect Southern blacks from the Ku Klux Klan. He detailed the dangers of returning to South Carolina during congressional breaks, where he and black colleagues would be exposed to violence by white supremacist organizations. After his speech, Rainey received a letter written in red ink warning him and other advocates of black civil rights to "prepare to meet your God." Though President Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act into law that month, white southerners ignored it, and it did nothing to stop terrorism. Eventually, the act's opponents in Congress killed it by eliminating funding, forcing Rainey to argue for federal appropriations needed to enforce the act, less than a year after it passed. On the House floor, Rainey said, "I tell you that the Negro will never rest until he gets his rights. We ask (for civil rights) because we know it is proper, not because we want to deprive any other class of the rights and immunities they enjoy, but because they are granted to us by the law of the land." As a result of his moderate policies, many white voters approved of Rainey as much as African-American voters did, and he was re-elected to the 43rd Congress in 1872 without opposition.

  • 1871. The opening of the Causeway, the road linking St. George's with the Main Island of Bermuda. Over the years it has has been damaged and at times been put out of bounds due to hurricanes, most recently Hurricane Fabian in 2003 and the closure to traffic during September 2006's near miss from Hurricane Florence.
  • 1872. August 8.  Bermudians first celebrated their emancipation from slavery in a new way - by making a point of including the British game of cricket in their celebrations. Hitherto it had been played officially by Britons in the British Army and Royal Navy then based in Bermuda, and unofficially among local teams not white in complexion. The unique match was to commemorate the annual August "Emancipation" Carnival-like celebrations after Britain enacted in Bermuda and the rest of the-then British Empire its formal, official and final Abolition of Slavery Act on August 1, 1834. Was this inclusion of British cricket into their celebrations a belated acknowledgement to Britain which had ended slavery after the strenuous efforts of the British politician William Wilberforce had finally been successful after many years of trying? Or was it simply because Bermudians wanted to make cricket as much of a Bermudian sport as a British one? We may never know for sure. What is known is that this cricket match was the very first of its kind in Bermuda between a cricket "eleven" (the number of men in a cricket team) representing Alexandrina Lodge No. 1026 of Hamilton and a similar "eleven" from the Victoria and Albert Lodge No. 1027 of Somerset. It may also have been the first time in the cricketing world that non-white teams are recorded as having competed in what was, until then, a mostly-white if not wholly white British sport. If so, Bermuda is certainly due some long-belated cricketing and socio-economic credit. Both Masonic Lodges there and then had played a leading role in getting former slaves recognized as real men despite their darker complexions and in getting them jobs, self-worth and respect for them as individual contributors to the human race in their own distinctive ways, not as people to be looked down on racially. All black members of both teams were Masons, members of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows. The event took place at the Naval Cricket Ground in Somerset and was won by 43 runs by the Somerset side. Both sides played in fraternal friendly sporting rivalry, not in the win-at-any-cost way many cricket matches overseas are played today.
  • 1872. The rebuilt Anglican Cathedral in Bermuda was mostly completed. Bishop Field wrote from Bermuda: "On Ascension Day I consecrated the Nave of a very beautiful church, the Chancel and Transepts of which I consecrated on the same Holy-day seventeen years ago." 
  • 1873. January 1.Sinking off Bermuda of the ship Minnie Breslauer, on her maiden voyage. She was a large (300 foot long) English steamer, built and launched in the latter part of 1872. Bound for New York she departed Portugal with an assorted cargo of cork, lead ingots, dried fruit and wine. There were 25 crew including the captain. Intending to use Bermuda as a landmark, the captain edged his new ship close to the islands off the South Shore. He did not have the appropriate navigation chart and was unfamiliar with the waters. Cruising at full speed, the ill-fated ship rammed into a submerged reef one mile offshore, causing the bow section of the hull to collapse. Not realizing the extent of the damage, the captain desperately tried to back his ship off the reef. This caused it to begin sinking. south but not far from the Southampton Princess Hotel beach. She lies on her starboard side on a coral slope, with her crumpled bow at 40 feet and her stern against the flat sand bottom at 70 feet. Her huge steam boiler sits amidships. 
  • 1874. In St. George's, Bermuda, the Unfinished Church began.
  • 1874. March. Though the representation was largely symbolic, Joseph Rainey, formerly of Bermuda,  presided over the South Carolina House of Representatives as Speaker pro tempore, the first black to do so. Having been appointed to the Committee on Indian Affairs, he oversaw the debate on an appropriations bill providing for the management of Native American reservations. Rainey faced Independent Republican Samuel Lee, another African American and a former speaker of the state house of Representatives. Although he won with 52 percent of the vote, Rainey faced violent threats from Lee's supporters during the campaign
  • 1874. January. The first regular New York-Bermuda service was opened by the Quebec Steamship Co, which was awarded a contract by the Government of the day. Although Samuel Cunard had operated a service between Halifax and Bermuda from 1833 to 1886, the Quebec Steamship Co provided the first regular connection with New York, and built the first new ships for the Bermuda trade in the 1880s. (This company remained on the run until December 1919, when after forty-five years service, it was taken over by Furness Withy & Co Ltd, to become the well-known Furness Bermuda Line).
  • 1875. Governor of Bermuda General Lefroy persuaded photographer James B. Heyl to make an expedition to North Rock to photograph the pinnacles. North Rock, called on early French maps "La Petite Bermude", is the northernmost land in the Bermuda archipelago, at least some of it is during the hours of low tide. Lefroy wanted a image to publish in his upcoming book on the early history of Bermuda and he, his Aide-de-Camp, Capt. Trench RA, and a group of friends all went on the adventure. As the "wet-plate process" was then in use, Heyl had to take his chemicals and a tent to develop the photographs immediately, as so required by that process. The tent-darkroom and the camera were set up on the eastern perimeter of the North Rock boiler and the resulting images captured the site on film, possibly for the first time. To the he east of North Rock, a channel to the open sea is defined to the east by the Great Breaker, which always breaks, and therefore around which the ocean constantly heaves.
  • 1876. Governor Lefroy, great compiler of the earliest historical records of Bermuda, made sure a memorial tablet was erected in the Somers Garden, St. George's, with the following inscription: "Near this spot was interred in the year 1610 the heart of the heroic Admiral Sir George Somers who nobly sacrificed his life to carry succor to the infant and suffering Plantation now the State of Virginia. To preserve his fame to future ages, near the scene of his memorable shipwreck of 1609, the Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony for the time being caused this tablet to be erected, 1876."
  • 1877. Major-General John H. Lefroy RA,  Governor of Bermuda, in his magnificent "Memorials of Bermuda" noted It will be necessary to erect on the North Rock a lighthouse, which is said also to be very practicable, in order to serve as a mark by day and night.
  • 1877. Mark Twain made his second visit to Bermuda, this time accompanied by his friend the Rev. Joseph Twichell. They stayed four days in a private boarding house. The trip resulted in Twain’s 15,000-word sketch "Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion" which was published in four installments in the Atlantic Monthly from October 1877 through January 1878.
  • 1877. At Fort Albert (expanded in 1860) in St. George's, a huge fire occured. With much gunpowder stored there, all St. George's was threatened. Heroic efforts by men of the Royal Artillery and 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers stemmed the fire.
  • 1878. April 1.Captain John Moresby R.N., arrived in Bermuda via the Mail Steamer Canima from New York, and succeeded Captain Somerset as Superintendent of the Naval Establishment at the Dockyard. in November of that year he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the governor. He carved a unique piece of Bermuda history for himself in his three years in Bermuda. He also had a military parade area and cricket ground named after him. He left Bermuda in April 1881 to gain more fame in the Pacific, via the Mail steamer Flamborough. He was succeeded by Captain Thomas Barnardiston, RN.

Captain John Moresby, RN

Captain John Moresby,  RN

  • 1878. March 24, 4:30 pm. There was a tragedy at sea on an elderly British warship, HMS Eurydice, bound from Bermuda to the United Kingdom. She was caught in a sudden and severe gale in blinding snow which came down the channel from the northwest. Off the Isle of Wight, the ship capsized and sank with only two survivors. More than 300 passengers aboard her died. One of them was Captain Louis John George Ferrier of Belsyde in Scotland, Commanding Officer since 1877 of the 32nd Company of the Royal Engineers in Bermuda. He was going home on leave and had boarded the ship on 6 March in Bermuda. His body was identified by his brother Captain George Henry Ferrier of the 105th Foot which was stationed at Colchester. Captain Louis John Ferrier was 38 years old. That "hurricane" also caused much damage to the Floating Dock in Bermuda at the Dockyard.

HMS Eurydice sinking

HMS Eurydice sinking of the Isle of Wight

  • 1879. Formal establishment of the Bermuda Police force.
  • 1879. November 21. Following a meeting at the Town Hall in Hamilton, six pages of a minute book were filled with signatures agreeing to a declaration to promote the “object and intention” of the recently-formed Berkeley Educational Society. At least nine of those who signed were unable to write their names and were obliged to simply make a mark on the paper – evidence, if any were needed, that the society’s goal, to found a school to educate all, was desperately needed in Bermuda. It was to be 18 years before that school, Berkeley Institute, was established but its name can be traced back to 1724, when Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley formulated a plan to build a college for white boys and North American Indians in Bermuda. A Proposal For The Better Supplying Of Churches In Our Foreign Plantations And For Converting the Savage American To Christianity By A College To Be Erected In The Summer Islands, Otherwise Called The Isles Of Bermuda contained a detailed scheme for St. Paul’s College – but the project was abandoned for a number of reasons, including a lack of funding and the Island’s isolated location. Bishop Berkeley never made it to Bermuda but his surname has, for more than a hundred years, been one of the best-known and most often referred to on the Island. For though it was not recorded anywhere at the time of the founding of the Berkeley Educational Society in 1879, it is believed that the parent body which eventually opened the Berkeley Institute in 1897 was named after the Bishop.
  • 1879. November 3. Overlooking the South Shore, the St. David's Lighthouse on St. Sat. David's Island, St. George's Parish was completed. Owned by the Bermuda Government it became a landmark, a sturdy Bermuda Stone (limestone of a type unique to Bermuda and then commonly used in building construction as a cheap local source of building materials). The structure is 55 high to the lantern. It shows a fixed white light of the second order, about 30,000 candlepower, 208 feet above sea level. It continues to warn ships. Since then it has undergone many changes and improvements. Instead of the original kerosene burner of the ordinary wick type it had a hood petroleum burner installed in June 1922. It was deliberately constructed inland, on a hill, not on the shore line, to be seen from afar. It was built to stop St. David's Islanders from luring ships with other kinds of lights to come too close to the reefs and get their bottoms torn out for easy plundering. When the lighthouse defeated their illegal activities, they became fishermen and excellent pilots.

St. David's Lighthouse

St. David's Lighthouse since 1879

  • 1879. December 14. Sinking of the Lartington, an old steamer freighter that crashed into Bermuda reefs. She had departed Savannah, Georgia, for Russia with a cargo of cotton. She had encountered numerous storms and heavy seas. A giant wave cracked her hull, causing a massive leak. The ship's water pumps could not keep ahead of the incoming sea and the captain decided to make a run for Bermuda. Instead, she ran aground on the reef five miles northwest of the Royal Naval Dockyard. The crew abandoned ship in lifeboats and was soon spotted and towed into Hamilton by a pilot boat. The Marine Board of Inquiry attributed the stranding to gross negligence and carelessness. The Captain should have taken information for depth and should never have altered his course. Subsequent storms scattered her remains but her bow section was fairly intact. She lies in 15 to 30 feet of water with her steam boilers, stern section and propeller still visible.
  • 1880. A hurricane struck Bermuda and did great damage.
  • 1880 to 1885. Dr. Edward Lewton Penny was the Dockyard parson, schoolmaster and librarian. A scholar, he described himself in Latin as "unhappily submerged and badly treated in the Bermuda Islands. " In this sketch by him he notes in Greek that the man who borrows a volume and does not return it is committing a sin. He hoped for the best but expected the worst.
  • 1880. Prince Albert, 16, and Prince George, 15, sons of the-then Prince of Wales, later, Edward VII), arrived in Bermuda as midshipmen on HMS Bacchante.
  • 1882. December 6. A Transit of Venus occured, clearly visible from Bermuda for several hours. A team of British scientists and astronomers from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were sent to Bermuda to witness it. They set up camp a few weeks before the event. They were led by well-known astronomer and meteorologist John Isaac Plummer and their viewing was conducted from Gibb's Hill, Southampton. In the USA, from its sightings there, US composer John Phillip Sousa composed the march "The Transit of Venus" in its honor.

Sousa's Transit of Venus March

Sousa's Transit of Venus March

  • 1883. January. Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848 to 1939), third daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the Marquess of Lorne, Governor of Canada, made her first trip to Bermuda. She stayed for 10 weeks at Inglewood, Paget. In her honor the Pembroke Hotel was renamed The Princess.
  • 1883. The first black member of Parliament in Bermuda was William Henry Thomas Joell (born 1838, died 1885), of the city of Hamilton. He was responsible for building Glebe Road. He Served on the committee that founded Berkeley Institute and was also a cabinet maker and carpenter. Joell's Alley in Hamilton is named after him. Much later, the Tennis Stadium in Pembroke was named after him.

William Henry Thomas Joell

William Henry Thomas Joell, Bermuda's first black Member of Parliament

  • 1883. Bermuda's original Anglican cathedral, then known as the First Trinity, was completed in 1883, having been commenced in 1844.
  • 1883. The paper "An Account of Bermuda, Past and Present" was written by John Ogilvy, born Aberdeen, Scotland 1831, died Frimley, Sussex, England 1899. He entered the British Army in 1853 as assistant surgeon, retired before 1885 with the honorary rank of Surgeon General. Listed in the Army List as Principal Medical Officer to Bermuda, 1882.
  • 1884. January 27. The church, known as the First Trinity, only completed in 1883, was almost completely destroyed when arsonists torched the building. Only the walls were left standing. Five months later a building committee was organized and architect Mr. Hay, who had been working at the East End on what would become known as the “Unfinished Church” at the time, was called back. Ironically he abandoned this impressive gothic vestige looming out over St. George’s on the eve of its completion, perhaps in part because the funds were diverted to the rebuilding of Hamilton’s fire-ravaged Cathedral. Mr. Hay, also involved with the original church here, called in another architect, George Henderson - the men later formed a partnership - and together work began on rebuilding the Cathedral. As they set about the project the men decided to use something they had an abundance of, native Bermuda stone. And they imported Caen stone from Normandy, France to frame the doors and windows. The final result was a typical Restoration Gothic-style cathedral in the shape of a Roman Cross. The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity was finally completed in 1905 with the addition of a nave and tower under the watchful eyes of Mr. Henderson’s assistant, Alan Lawrie Goodwin, who took over the work following Mr. Henderson’s death some months before. The church was dedicated by Bishop Lewellyn Jones in 1911. Mr. Goodwin was also responsible for the rebuilding of the choir area from 1906 to 1911, while the tiled roof was replaced in copper in 1926 by Harold Tarbolton and completed by Lawrence Harrower Smart in 1927. 
  • 1884. Bermudian John Smith, born at Bermuda in 1854 and in the US Navy at the time, received the Medal of Honor from the President of the United States. The Medal of Honor is the highest military award given by the US Government and is conferred on an individual by the Congress through the President for outstanding acts of gallantry under enemy fire and also in peacetime circumstances. He jumped overboard from his ship, USS Shenandoah, at Rio de Janeiro in 1880, and saved a shipmate from drowning. The USS Shenandoah was a wooden screw sloop of the United States Navy and was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1862. It was involved in Civil War actions, including the December 1864 attack on Fort Fisher, a Confederate Army stronghold.
  • 1886. Thomas S. Reid, in his booklet Trinity Church, Bermuda, a Sketch of its History, wrote this: "As time wore on and Hamilton increased in population and importance it was found inconvenient to have no Church within town limits, and the Parish Church, moreover, was unequal to the wants of the Church. An agitation began. The subscriptions were general and liberal. The Legislature came forward to supplement private liberality." 
  • 1886. End of the Samuel Cunard-operated shipping service between Halifax and Bermuda that was begun in 1833. 
  • 1886. The Merchants' Bank of Halifax, Nova Scotia was established in Hamilton, after splitting off at the same time from its original agency-holder, N. T. Butterfield & Son Ltd.
  • 1887. Saltus Grammar School opened at the instigation of Samuel Saltus for the education of white boys, and was operated from part of the funds left from the defunct Devonshire College. It is no longer solely for whites, blacks have equal access.
  • 1887. August 2. Joseph Rainey, formerly of Bermuda and firebrand politician, died. Although he repeatedly won election as a Congressman, he became embittered when blacks were further prosecuted in the USA, mostly under the white supremacist wing of the Democratic Party to which he had long been opposed. In the 1878 election he lost his seat to w white Democrat, John Richardson, by more than 8,000 votes. He never recovered from his political loss. It was said he was offered a post as Clerk to the House, then the offer was withdrawn. Rainey became an agent for the Internal Revenue Service but gave that up, then started a brokerage business in Washington DC but after 5 years it collapsed. After his father died in 1883 he sunk into a depression. 

  • 1887. After a great storm cut communication between Somerset and the Royal Naval islands, it accentuated the need for a bridge. Later, when the Dockyard was to be expanded a “Watford Island Bridge” was deemed essential. Works on the South Yard of the Dockyard and what was intended for the new bridge meant that the descendants of any Bermudian families of today who now live in Somerset first came to Bermuda to be employed on the construction of the South Yard and the bridge.
  • 1887. Buildings on Maria Hill near the Royal Navy Dockyard were erected as the Single Mechanics Quarters.
  • 1887. Installation of Bermuda's first telephones
  • 1888. The former Royal Navy gunboats Vixen and her sister ship the Viper were towed to Bermuda as coast defence ships after reaching the end of their careers. H.M.S. Vixen displaced 1,230 tons and was built by Lungley Shipyard, Deptford, England, in 1864, and launched in 1867. Vixen was the first twin-screwed vessel of the Royal Navy. Her iron hull was completely clad in teak wood. This design was made in an effort to overcome problems that iron hulled ships were having with marine organisms. The teak also produced extra drag on the ship, therefore, resulting in Vixen being the slowest ironclad vessel in the Royal Navy. Another very interesting aspect of this ship is that she was built with a ram type bow. Her heavily supported bow protruded forward almost nine feet under the water line. Unfortunately, after sea trials, the Vixen and her sister ship, Viper, were considered too slow as well as un-seaworthy. They were withdrawn from service in 1887.
  • 1888.October. Sir Edward Newdigate Newdegate KCB (June 15, 1825 to August 1, 1902) became Governor of Bermuda, until June 1892. He was a member of the Newdigate family. He was born at Astley, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the second son of Francis Parker Newdigate and Barbara Maria Legge. He was a professional soldier and reached the rank of Lieutenant General in the Rifle Brigade. He served in the Crimean and Anglo-Zulu Wars. On retirement from the Army he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He changed his surname by Royal Licence in 1888 to Newdigate Newdegate. He married Anne Emily Garnier on 1st June 1858. Their home was Astley Castle, Astley, Warwickshire. In his honour, Bermuda, in Warwickshire, England, is named after him.
  • 1888. The American House hotel at the top western end of Queen Street, Hamilton (where Boyle's Shoe Shop now stands) was an elegant Bermudian structure of two main buildings with verandas. In operation earlier, from this year Ii was managed by Mr. A Paschal and by 1908 had some 65 rooms and several suites. By 1909, "the American" was lighted by electricity and acetylene gas.
  • 1889. A hurricane devastated the Causeway linking St. George's Island to the Main Island. It had to be rebuilt.
  • 1889. The Bank of Bermuda Ltd. was founded, in Hamilton, as the beginnings of a second major banking house, as a going concern - by taking over the 3-year old branch in Bermuda of the Merchants' Bank of Halifax, Nova Scotia which split off in 1886 from its original agency-holder, N. T. Butterfield & Son Ltd. It was formally established and incorporated in 1890 and is now the largest bank in Bermuda by a considerable margin.
  • 1889. The Windsor Hotel, on Queen Street, Hamilton, was opened. It had hot and cold baths and, unlike the Hamilton Hotel, which closed for half the year (June to November), the Windsor was open year round. It became a much-favored retreat for both local Bermudians and Canadian visitors. (Americans tended to go to the American House Hotel opposite it).
  • 1890. February. The New York Times newspaper noted that the streets of Hamilton were full of American people and the shops full of American customers. Unlike now, the season at that time was in winter when Bermuda could provide relief from the snows and frigid temperatures of the US East coast.
  • 1890. March 3. Mount Saint Agnes Academy (MSA) convent began in Bermuda at Woodlands (where Saltus Grammar School now stands). The school was started after the officers of the Irish Garrison, who were stationed in Bermuda, appealed to the Archbishop of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1889 to open a school for the children of Irish soldiers. In response, four Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul were sent to Bermuda and at the request of the Archbishop, the Sisters chose St. Agnes (Agnes being the name of the Archbishop's mother), as the patron of the school. This was also appropriate, as St. Agnes is a Patron Saint of youth. The soldiers were recalled before the Sisters arrived, but the need for a girls' school would serve not only Bermudian children, but also the children of visitors who wintered here. Since its founding, MSA has become co-educational and has moved twice. In April 1892 the school was moved from Woodlands to Experiment Hill, which is on the corner of Cedar Avenue and Laffan Street, and now houses the mosque Masjid Muhammad #1. The property, with its additions and improvements over the years, was more often referred to as 'the Convent' and was utilised for teaching until 1967 when the entire student body was moved to the school's present location. Throughout its long history, Mount Saint Agnes Academy has remained dedicated to the principles of Catholic education, which form the basis of the school's philosophy.
  • 1890. August. (until July 1891). 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards arrived in Bermuda. After refusing to serve at Wellington Barracks in London, this unit was sent - exiled - to Bermuda as a punishment. It overlapped the stay of the Leicestershire Regiment and King's Regiment (Liverpool). Stationed in St. George's. Their many exploits included enlarging and leveling a playing field by the little lane running by it (now called Grenadier Lane). Brass tablets in memory of the six men who died in Bermuda were affixed in the Garrison Church (gone now), then Prospect Chapel (gone now), then St. Peter's Church in St. George's. The Bermuda Historical Society has many glass slides showing NCOs in family situations. Because of the stature of the Grenadier Guards and in ignorance of the real reason they arrived in Bermuda,  their presence in Bermuda marked more parties, more social events, more military involvement in sports and pastimes like sailing than any other period in Bermuda's British military history.
  • 1891. A little over a decade after his first visit, Prince George returned to Bermuda in command of the gunboat HMS Thrush.
  • 1892. The Bermuda Legislature enacted the black Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) and Bermuda Militia Engineers (BME), under white officers, the white Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) and Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (BVE). It was a hugely significant and historic move given what happened later. Both major units sent two contingents overseas during the 1914-1918 Great War First World and each sent one contingent overseas in the Second World War. Of the two units, the Bermuda Militia sent 240 men to the battlefields of the Great War while the BVRC sent 232 men. 

  • 1893. The Public Gardens - later, the Bermuda Botanical Gardens - were established.
  • 1890s. Bermuda faced agricultural tariffs from its main market, the USA.
  • 1894. March 11, Hospital Sunday. Patients of all classes who required hospital treatment were admitted to the little rectangular structure known as the Cottage Hospital which had only a handful of beds. It was the first civilian (but not military, as there were two) hospital in Bermuda. It was on elevated ground near the east end of Pembroke Parish on the Military Road from Fort Hamilton to Prospect.
  • 1894. The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) was established, after being legislated in 1892.
  • 1894. The St. John Ambulance Brigade was established in Bermuda. It is one of the oldest charities in the world, dating back to the 11th century. The brigade provides first aid and ambulance services to large and small events throughout the year.
  • 1894. Many West Indians began their relocation to Bermuda.
  • 1895. The Bermuda Historical Society was established, by Archdeacon George Tucker.
  • 1896. After The Bermuda Militia Act four years earlier, the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) was officially formed as the result of a threat of world conflict and the need for local security. Its purpose was to operate coastal defense facilities previously manned by elements of Britain's Royal Artillery.
  • 1896. After removal of her engines and machinery, the former Royal Navy gunship HMS Vixen, towed to Bermuda in 1888, was scuttled to block a narrow channel off Daniel's Head. The scuttling was done to prevent possible attacks by torpedo boats on the Dockyard.
  • 1897. On September 6 the first school mostly black children in Bermuda, Berkeley Institute, was opened. It then had 27 pupils, one of whom was white. (See origins on November 21, 1879).
  • 1897. Professor Edward Laurens Mark, with Charles Bristol of New York University, was one of the founding fathers of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. He began his association when he brought a party of students to Bermuda by ship. 
  • 1897. November. The Ordnance Survey of the Bermudas, the necessity for which both for military and civil purposes, had long been recognized by the authorities, was commenced by Lieutenant Savage of the Royal Engineers. Arthur Johnson Savage was only 23 years old when he arrived at Bermuda. He later served in South Africa and was awarded the DSO during World War One, passing away in 1933. The new technology he used was the Ramsden theodolite which became the surveyor’s major instrument of land measurement, until it was rendered obsolete by the invention of the digital “total station.” He brought two theodolites to Bermuda for his survey, one capable of making astronomical observations. This system originated from mapping the Scottish highlands after the revolt of 1745 and in the 1790s, when threats from France precipitated a survey of the south coast of England. His survey became the foundation for land tenure at Bermuda for the next 60 years. Instead of spying from on high, Savage had to work on the ground, with his theodolite, measuring chains and machetes, for the island was then much covered with heavy bush. Surveying works on the method of triangulation, for which a base line is essential. Savage established a primary one on the causeway road on Longbird Island, with a secondary one on the breakwater at Dockyard. Once these lines were accurately measured and their geographical position set by astronomical observations, the survey could begin. A network of imaginary triangles, from which all other detailed surveys were undertaken, in effect covered Bermuda. Levels were recorded on “bench marks” throughout the island, based on the datum of “Mean Sea Level as accepted by the Admiralty and recorded on the Dockyard Fire Gauge at Ireland Island”. The Savage map was published in six sheets in 1901 and also appeared in a folded edition, of which few copies survive. Markers of dark grey granite defined the parish boundaries and a number of these little monuments are still to be found. 
  • 1898. One of the ships on station at the Royal Navy Dockyard, Bermuda was HMS Buzzard, a Nymphe Class composite screw sloop, namely of both sailing (barque rigged) and steam propulsion. The vessel was launched in 1887 at Sheerness Dockyard on the River Medway, near the Thames estuary. At 195 feet, with a beam of 30 feet, Buzzard mounted eight four-inch Breech Loaders and for close work, the ship had four Nordenfeldt and four Gardner machine guns.  
  • 1899. Lieutenant Andrew Savage undertook the first Ordnance Survey of Bermuda.
  • 1899. Fort Hamilton, initiated in the 1870s, was completed by the Royal Engineers of the British Army. It was built to protect Hamilton Harbour from possible American or other invasion. It included a moat, dungeons and artillery.  
  • 1899. The Causeway was swept away during a severe storm.
  • 1899. December. The noted American painter Winslow Homer arrived in Bermuda and stayed until February 1900. He arrived when the Bermuda tourist was then in operation and viewed tourists as the most likely purchasers of his Bermuda watercolors.

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