PRIVATEERING AND PIRACY
IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD
PROVIDENCE ISLAND.
1. Commission from the Providence Island Company to Governor Nathaniel Butler as Vice Admiral. April 23, 1638. [1]
Commission to Captain Butler[2] for the Admiraltie of the Island.
To all to whome theis presents shall come, we the Governor and Company etc. send greetinge. Wheras our gracious Soveraigne Lord King Charles hath by his Letters patent bearing date the 4th day of December in the 6th yeare of his Raigne,[3] for himselfe, his heires and successors, given and graunted to us and our successors, assignes and deputies for ever All Admirall rights, benefits and jurisdiccions and likewise all priviledges and Comodityes to the said Admirall jurisdiccion in any wise appertayneinge or belonging, in and upon the seas rivers and Coastes of the Island of Providence, Henrietta[4] and all other Islands within the Limits of his Majestys grant to us made and everie or any of them within 40 Leagues of any the said Islands and in and upon all other Rivers and Creekes within the said Limits, And likewise power to hold and determine all manner of Causes and pleas for and Concerning the same,[5] Now know ye that we the said Governor and Company confiding in the Fidelitie and Judgment of Captain Nathaniel Butler, now bound in a voyage to the Island of Providence, have elected, Constituted and deputed and doe hereby elect, constitute and depute the said Captain Nathaniel Butler, to be Admirall of the said Island of Providence, Hereby giveing and graunting to the said Captain Nathaniel Butler full power and authority to doe and execute (with the advise of the Counsell of warre which shall from time to time be established by us in the said Island) all matters and things concerning the said place of Admirall according to the Instruccions that we or our successors shall from time to time give and direct for and Concerning the execucion thereof, Nevertheless reserving to our selves all such Admirall duties as shall be payable and accomptable for or in respect of the same, other then[6] such priviledges and benefits as shall upon agreement betweene us and the said Captain Butler be assigned and appropriated to him, To have, hould and exercise the said place of Admirall of the said Island untill we shall otherwise dispose of the same. And we do require all persons whatsoever from time to time resideing in the said Island that shall at any tyme abide or be in the harbours, ports or Creeks of the same, to yeild and give all due obedience and respect to the lawfull Commands of the said Captain Butler as Admirall of the said Island, as they will answer the Contrary at their perills. Given under our Common Seale this 23th day of Aprill In the XIIII yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defendor of the Faith, etc. And in the yeare of our Lord God 1638.
| H. Darley, Deputy.[7] | Ro. Warwick. | |
| W. Say and Seale. | E. Mandeville. | |
| Ro. Brook. | Jo. Pym. | Jo. Gourden. |
[1] Public Record Office of Great Britain, C.O. 124:1, p. 118. This document and the next take us back to an almost-forgotten colonial experiment of the English Puritans, contemporary with their undertakings in New England but far removed from them in locality. Old Providence Island—to be distinguished from New Providence (Nassau) in the Bahamas—is an isolated little island in the western Caribbean lying off the coast of Nicaragua. It now belongs to Colombia, and is often called Santa Catalina. In 1630 a company of English investors, desiring to found a Puritan colony, and also to oppose Spain in the Caribbean, obtained from Charles I. a patent for a large area including Providence and other islands. John Pym was their leading member. The history of their colony is interestingly recounted in Professor A.P. Newton's The Colonizing Activities of the English Puritans (New Haven, 1914). The colony became merely a base for privateering against the Spaniards, who conquered and suppressed it in 1641. Thomas Gage, who passed by the island in a Spanish ship in 1637, says, "The greatest feare that I perceived possessed the Spaniards in this Voyage, was about the Island of Providence, called by them Sta. Catarina or St. Catharine, from whence they feared lest some English Ships should come out against them with great strength. They cursed the English in it, and called the Island the den of theeves and Pirates." The English American, or A New Survey of the West-India's (London, 1648), p. 199. For the whole matter of West Indian buccaneering, see Miss Violet Barbour's article, "Privateers and Pirates of the West Indies", in the American Historical Review, XVI. 529–566.
[2] Nathaniel Butler, third governor of Providence Island, sent out with a considerable expedition in April, 1638, had earlier been governor of Bermuda and then a member of the royal council for Virginia.
[3] December 4, 1630. The patent is summarized by Newton, pp. 86–90, and the part conferring admiralty rights is printed in R.G. Marsden, Law and Custom of the Sea (Navy Records Society), I. 470–472.