THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF PIRATES, , OR PLANTERS: LOCATING AND IDENTIFYING THE FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLERS OF ST. JOHN, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS

LA ARQUEOLOGÍA DE PIRATAS, CORSARIOS O SEMBRADORES: LOCALIZACIÓN E IDENTIFICACIÓN DE LOS PRIMEROS COLONOS EUROPEOS DE SAN JUAN, ISLAS VÍRGENES DE LOS EE. UU.

L'ARCHEOLOGIE DES PIRATES, DES CORSAIRES OU DES PLANTEURS: LOCALISER ET IDENTIFIER LES PREMIERS COLONS EUROPEENS DE SAINT JOHN, DANS LES ILES VIERGES AMERICAINES

Kenneth S. Wild

Kenneth S. Wild National Park Service, Virgin Islands National Park, U.S. Virgin Islands [email protected]

Several mid to late 17th century and early 18th century archaeological sites have been discovered in the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John. These newly identified sites prompted a closer look at the early European settlers of the Virgin Islands and how historical events occurring across the and Europe helped shape the 17th and early 18th century archaeological record of the Islands. In the process a number of disenfranchised societies were identified. An important role of archaeological research is to give a voice to those whose lifeways have gone unrecorded. Hence, archaeologists have gone to great lengths towards understanding the prehistoric peoples who inhabited the Caribbean, and we have developed entire academic programs dedicated to the study of those voiceless individuals who were captured, enslaved, and brought to these islands, as we should. The archaeology of the poor and the refugees of the 17th century is somewhat underrepresented. This paper looks at 17th century inhabitants of the Virgin Islands as a whole in order to provide context for the historical, geographical, and archaeological examination of specific sites on St. John. Ultimately this research approach is an attempt to begin defining the lifeways of those who occupied these sites during this little-known historical period.

Varios sitios arqueológicos de mediados a fines del siglo XVII y principios del siglo XVIII se han descubierto en el Parque Nacional de las Islas Vírgenes en St. John. Estos sitios recientemente identificados provocaron una mirada más cercana a los primeros colonos europeos de las Islas Vírgenes y cómo los eventos históricos que ocurrieron en todo el Caribe y Europa ayudaron a dar forma al registro arqueológico de las Islas en el siglo XVII y principios del XVIII. En el proceso, se identificaron varias sociedades privadas de derechos. Un papel importante de la investigación arqueológica es dar voz a aquellos cuyas formas de vida no han sido registradas. Por lo tanto, los arqueólogos han hecho grandes esfuerzos para comprender a los pueblos prehistóricos que habitaban el Caribe, y hemos desarrollado programas académicos completos dedicados al estudio de las personas sin voz que fueron capturadas, esclavizadas y llevadas a estas islas, como deberíamos. La arqueología de los pobres y los refugiados del siglo XVII está algo

600 subrepresentada. Este documento analiza a los habitantes del siglo XVII de las Islas Vírgenes en su conjunto a fin de proporcionar un contexto para el examen histórico, geográfico y arqueológico de sitios específicos en St. John. En última instancia, este enfoque de investigación es un intento de comenzar a definir las formas de vida de aquellos que ocuparon estos sitios durante este período histórico poco conocido (Google Translate).

Plusieurs sites archéologiques du milieu à la fin du XVIIe siècle et au début du XVIIIe siècle ont été découverts dans le parc national des Îles Vierges à St. John. Ces sites nouvellement identifiés ont permis d'observer de plus près les premiers colons européens des îles Vierges et comment les événements historiques survenus dans les Caraïbes et en Europe ont contribué à façonner le registre archéologique des îles au 17ème et au début du 18ème siècle. Dans le processus, un certain nombre de sociétés privées de leurs droits ont été identifiées. Un rôle important de la recherche archéologique est de donner une voix à ceux dont les modes de vie ont été ignorés. Par conséquent, les archéologues ont fait de grands efforts pour comprendre les peuples préhistoriques qui habitaient les Caraïbes, et nous avons développé des programmes académiques entiers dédiés à l'étude de ces individus sans voix capturés, réduits en esclavage et amenés dans ces îles, comme nous le devrions. L'archéologie des pauvres et des réfugiés du 17ème siècle est quelque peu sous-représentée. Cet article se penche sur les habitants du 17ème siècle des îles Vierges dans leur ensemble afin de fournir un contexte pour l'examen historique, géographique et archéologique de sites spécifiques sur St. John. En fin de compte, cette approche de recherche est une tentative de définir les voies de vie de ceux qui occupaient ces sites au cours de cette période historique peu connue (Google Translate).

The Virgin Islands National Park’s archaeology program is tasked with locating and identifying the park’s cultural resources. In this process 17th and early 18th century European archaeological sites have been identified. This research was prompted by a desire to understand who could have been using those sites and for what purpose. Historical records and archaeological findings indicate that St. John was occupied in the 17th and early 18th century. By 1721 the Danish records report that all of St. John was settled, lending support to the inference that the island had been inhabited before it was formally claimed by Denmark three years earlier. Surprisingly, the most remote, rocky, and least productive land on St. John supported many of the first settlements. Many of these small estates were abandoned early in the 1720s, ‘30s and ‘40s. They were never reoccupied but consumed by profitable neighboring sugar and cotton estates that remained productive well into the 19th century. These early settlements have become time capsules that have recently come to light from the Danish archives and have been mapped onto the historic landscape.

Research Context Over the past ten years, the park has been able to locate these early sites and place them in historical and archaeological context, due in large part to a cooperative graduate student intern program between the park and the University of Copenhagen that is supported by the Friends of the Park. The general purpose of the internships is to combine historical research in the Danish West Indian archives with on-site archaeological fieldwork in the Virgin Islands National Park. As a result of this program and other park survey efforts, these early sites have been found intact and undisturbed since they were abandoned in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, leaving a substantial archaeological record of the island’s first European and African settlers. Many of these early sites were dedicated solely to agriculture, but there are others that appear to reflect involvement in maritime pursuits that were common throughout the region during the first decades of colonization. However, investigating these 17th century archaeological sites in the Virgin

601 Islands as a whole, and St. John specifically, has been challenging. There is little academic literature on this subject, especially as it relates to archaeological findings. This may be because these early sites are rare and/or buried under existing towns and cities. Primary document research in the Danish archives has proven problematic because of St. John’s governmental isolation and lack of records, in addition to the fact that St. John’s records are entwined with those of St. Thomas. Finding these first settlers in the historical record may continue to prove difficult. Many of them came from low economic backgrounds, which might have limited their documentation in the historical record, especially enslaved people and indentured servants. This paper reviews this era, identifies potential socio-economic groups among the early inhabitants, and presents preliminary archaeological findings.

Contextual Historical Background Placing 17th and early 18th century archaeological sites on St. John in historical perspective requires a brief overview of European and Caribbean dynamics before and during the European colonization of the Virgin Islands. Maritime combat motivated by political power struggles and/or the quest for wealth played a large role. It involved not only official naval forces but also pirates and privateers. The distinction between “pirates” and “privateers” was usually blurred. Officially, pirates were sea robbers while privateers were authorized by government to capture ships of adversary nations. The label thus changed depending on the perspective of opposing sides at war. In addition, sea captains themselves often passed in and out of legality. The term ‘corsair’ is most often used when describing a French or Barbary pirate. The terms ‘’ and ‘freebooter’ are most often used to describe a Dutch pirate or a mix of Dutch, English and French pirates. The term ‘’ is often used to describe pirates in general and specifically those of . The term originally was applied to the European hog and cattle hunters of (Bosh 2016). The Virgin Islands’ geographical features and strategic location were key factors in the struggles by European powers for sovereign control of the islands. These islands consist of approximately 90 islands, islets, and cays, all of which are within no more than a day’s sail from each other and some of which are within sight of Puerto Rico. For the most part the islands were left uninhabited by the Spanish in the 16th century. Being uninhabited and in close proximity to ’s wealthy Puerto Rican port, these small islands with excellent anchorages, surrounded by high hills, were perfect rendezvous and hideaway places for interloping foreign powers. The French were the first Europeans to attack Spanish shipping and towns in the West Indies beginning in the early 16th century. Protestant Huguenots made up the vast majority of these who went to sea seeking Spanish riches and new lands to colonize (Durand- Gasselin 2018). The year after the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, protestant England wasted no time and immediately captured 200 Spanish ships (prizes). These Elizabethan “” had already been attacking Spanish Caribbean settlements and had attempted colonization. At the outset of the 17th century, the provinces of the Netherlands united and gained their freedom from Spain. This was largely due to a religious shift to protestant Calvinism and a movement against subjugation by Spanish Catholic rule. Although the Armada defeat was crucial to Dutch success, Dutch pirates known as “Sea Beggars,” organized by the Prince of Orange, were critical in winning Dutch independence. It was from these sea pirate beginnings that the Netherlands was able to secure its freedom and to develop a seasoned navy that went on the offensive against Spain in the Caribbean during the 17th century (Lundsford 2005).

602 Throughout the latter half of the 16th century and well into the 17th century, European powers used the Virgin Islands for staging assaults aimed at plundering Spanish shipping or capturing San Juan, Puerto Rico. Spain maintained control of Puerto Rico despite relentless attacks by pirates/privateers that included French corsairs, Dutch freebooters, and Queen Elizabeth’s English Sea Dogs (many of whom were successful pirates subsequently appointed as statesmen). The Virgin Islands’ close proximity to Puerto Rico made them a dangerous place to settle. Historical research concerning St. Croix and Tortola by local scholars has demonstrated just how difficult it was to settle the Virgin Islands in the 17th century (Caron and Highfield 1978, Figueredo 1978, Lewisohn 1966). In 1621, French corsairs on St. Croix were captured and executed on Puerto Rico. On Tortola, the Dutch were the first to settle in 1620 (Pickering 1983); then the /pirate Joost van Dyke along with accompanying English, Dutch, and French filibusters were attacked by the Spanish after the Dutch siege of San Juan in 1625. The English made their first attempt to try to colonize St. Croix in 1631. They were there just long enough to plant subsistence crops and tobacco before being attacked and imprisoned on Puerto Rico. The Spanish ships sent to destroy this settlement were themselves attacked at sea by French corsairs and also took note of marauding Dutch interlopers. Three years later the French tried again to settle St. Croix, but the Spanish burned their “straw” huts and killed most of them. The Spanish troops left on St. Croix were soon attacked by English pirates in 1636, from the island of Tortuga (Figueredo 1978). The Puerto Rican governor expressed concern over the large number of English ships in the Virgin Islands on their way to Tortuga, which was developing into a base for pirates: a growing population that was fueled by the deportation of Europe’s unwanted citizenry (Figueredo 1978). Throughout the remainder of the century, privateering and played a significant role in acquiring and controlling Caribbean Islands. Affluent statesmen obtained governorships in places where pirates congregated, such as Tortuga, Petit-Goave, , and the Virgin Islands, in order to partake in the lucrative and legal privateer commissions that came with the title. Often, under a self-imposed sovereign flag, they granted letters of mark against a warring nation to a captain who then obtained a crew from a populace intermixed from across Europe and . The governors received a share of each captured prize. Sovereign loyalty was often determined by who could grant letters against a nation from which rich prizes could be captured. As an example, the governor of Jamaica recognized that without the presence of the illicit fleet of pirates at , retaining British sovereignty of the island would have been impossible. In order to keep them there, he needed the ability to grant letters of mark (Barbour 1911, Haring 1910). The Virgin Islands probably were directly involved in this business. This is made evident through the actions of Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the French governor of St. Croix. Before he seized St. Croix, he had already taken several other islands in the Caribbean, including Tortuga. To capture Tortuga he had sent a group of Huguenot corsairs he needed to banish from his Catholic domain. The Huguenots were led by Jean Levasseur, an excellent military strategist and engineer. De Poincy and Levasseur agreed there would be religious freedom and that de Poincy would receive a share of the profits gained from the taxed prizes brought in by the corsairs. Levasseur expelled the English from Tortuga, built the first fort, Fort de la Roche, and defeated a large Spanish attack. He made a fortune off the pirates, but he kept the booty for himself, and instead of religious freedom he expelled the Catholic priest. De Poincy sent a fleet to have

603 Levasseur removed in 1653. However, before he could be ousted, Levasseur was killed by two trusted men--to whom he had promised his rich inheritance--because he had taken one of the men’s “handsome girl” mistresses for his own (Crouse 1940:90-91). From 1641 to 1647 the English, Dutch, French, and Spanish continuously destroyed each other’s settlements several times over as they battled back and forth for ownership of the Virgin Islands. Much of the researched documentation of this period has focused on St. Croix, where the French and the Knights of Malta under de Poincy eventually gained sovereign control in 1650. The Dutch were able to hold on to Tortola until 1672.

St. Thomas St. Thomas is recorded as being occupied by the Dutch beginning in 1657 (Figueredo 2006). It was probably occupied much earlier, as suggested in the translation of the French priest DuTertre by Aimery Caron and Arnold Highfield (1978). A party of Frenchmen escaped from to St. Thomas in 1647 and found that the island already had been inhabited, as there were figs, guavas, limes, bananas, and oranges growing in abundance. When the Danes attempted to colonize St. Thomas in 1665, the Dutch were gone (Westergaard 1917). The Danish cleric of this settlement recorded that they were soon attacked by English “pirates” who took all their food and ammunition. Few survivors made it back to Denmark (Villumsen 2016). The English, possibly the same “pirates,” soon returned in 1666 and stayed seven years, leaving just weeks before the Danes returned to reclaim St. Thomas in 1672. During this period English pirates/privateers under Edward Mansvelt and were attacking and robbing many of Spain’s rich ports in the West Indies (Esquemeling 1967 [1684]). When the Danes arrived in 1672, they found that St. Thomas was again inhabited by Dutchmen and there was a small fort (Knox 1852). It is no surprise that the Dutch were there. At that time the English had just gone to war with the Netherlands and were in the process of attacking and capturing many of the Hollanders’ islands, including Tortola, St. Eustatias, Saba, and St. Martin. The presence of the Dutch is significant in understanding much about the founding character of the Danish islands in the 17th and early 18th century. Throughout most of the 17th century, the Dutch represented one of the greatest sea powers and were extremely successful businessmen in the Caribbean. French philosopher Denis Diderot used the following analogy to describe Dutch activity: “The Dutch are like ants who spread to the farthest corners of the earth, taking along all odd, useful and valuable things they chance upon, which are stored in their warehouses” (Christensen and Jessen 2012, Klooster 1998:4). At sea their passion was Calvinist revenge, and piracy aimed at their Spanish oppressors was “agreeable” to them (Goslinga 1971). During the period when the Danes laid claim to St. Thomas, Dutch contraband () trade, which revolved around small islands such as St. Thomas and St. Eustatius, helped them to survive in the West Indies when war broke out (Christensen and Jessen 2012, Klooster 1998). In 1672 and England went to war against the Netherlands. In June Tortola was taken by the English. The English also captured the nearby islands of Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin. Many Dutch inhabitants from Tortola, and probably from other captured islands as well, “escaped to St. Thomas where they were permitted permanent residence (Bro-Jørgensen 1966, Christensen and Jessen 2012). In 1688 war again brought about another migration of Dutch settlers, this time

604 primarily from St. Eustatius. As a result, Dutch residents comprised the majority of the populace on Danish St. Thomas during the first decades of the colony. The Dutch language was the most commonly used outside government business, and many Danish officials married into Dutch families (Bro-Jørgensen 1966, Christensen and Jessen 2012). The Danes were able to attract immigrants by remaining neutral during European wars, plus they offered freedom of religion and land without taxes for the first seven years. These policies attracted not only the Dutch but also many other ethnic or religious groups being evicted or persecuted in their homelands. Before the Danes came to St. Thomas, the promoters of the colony were promised and provided as many men condemned in the Danish prisons, women from the spinning houses (government houses primarily for prostitutes), and indentured servants as needed to maintain the population of the colony. For decades the Danes continued to bring people who were prisoners and servants. Their chances of survival were slim. The first governor of the island Jorgan Iversen was brutal to those brought there, and many died under his command (Westergaard 1917). However, as the first governor he successfully established the Danish colony on St. Thomas and produced a profit through the trade of European merchandise for sugar with the French on St. Croix. This enterprise proved profitable until the French abandoned the island in 1696 to relocate to Hispaniola (Arnold Highfield, personal communications May 2018). The Danes named St. Thomas harbor “Tappus,” meaning beer hall. The process of developing a pirate/privateer expedition at this time in history always started with a meeting at the all-important beer hall. Thus naming your harbor town Tappus, at this moment in time, was like putting up a neon billboard advertising that you were open for business--for legal privateering enterprises and those possibly not so legal. The island’s next three governors confirm this suspicion. Governors Nicholas Esmit, followed by his brother Adolf, and Gabriel Milan were all removed from office due to their blatant collaboration with pirates (Westergaard 1917). When the company tried to reinstate Iversen after Governor Milan’s head was removed in Denmark, the convicts and indentured servants on board the ship to St. Thomas knew of Iversen’s brutality and killed him by throwing him overboard (Heisen 2016). Within a decade the Danish colony began to import more enslaved Africans, who before long outnumbered the European settlers. Adolf Esmit exemplifies the cruelty of the era towards these poor victims in the single act of impaling alive an enslaved African man for public display. The young Danish colony during this period welcomed not only the Dutch, but also English and French who came seeking refuge and fortune under a neutral power. They also allowed operation of the German Brandenburg Company, which was founded on the premise of privateering, and permitted it to establish a warehouse on St. Thomas. The Danish colony quickly mirrored the cosmopolitan population of places like Tortuga and Port Royal, and many of the most infamous pirates of this era dropped anchor in St. Thomas’s harbor. Danish governor John Lorentz led the colony into the 1700s. He dealt judiciously with some of the multitude of pirates, while making a fine profit from captured pirate ships and by supporting privateers of many nations under a neutral flag. However, as Westergaard (1917) notes, it was nearly impossible to distinguish between pirate and privateer, as letters of mark were handed out freely across the Caribbean. The Danish islands gained a reputation for illicit commerce because neutrality had opened trade to all, good or bad, which adversely affected honest commerce.

605 St. John and the British Virgin Islands In reviewing the history of site John, it becomes clear that Tortola and St. John have had business and family relations throughout history. The two islands are so close in places that one can easily kayak between them. During the 1680s the English considered St. John theirs, and three times they removed colonizers sent to St. John by the Danish governor Adolph Esmit. On one occasion they had to destroy a fort and remove forty men. When the Danes planted their flag and some cannons on St. John in 1718, the British threatened to attack but did not, at least not until the Napoleonic War. Close ties between the two islands continued after the Danish seizure. This is made clear in Martfeldt’s (1760-1770) notes about St. John inhabitants, in which he stated that the poor of St. John did business almost exclusively with Tortola for English goods. St. John was one of the last islands to be formally claimed in the Caribbean, which may have made it attractive to people who wanted to live and work outside of the law. Before the Danish government began keeping records, St. John appears to have been rarely recorded in historical documents. Recent archaeological and geographical studies have identified privateer/pirate land bases that were positioned in remote areas away from lawful settlements and outside the authority of any state. Such a place could have had profitable consequences for both legal and illegal distribution of merchandise. As described in Pieces of Eight (Ewen and Skowronek 2016), one of the few books on the archaeology of piracy, a land-based site or “lair” provided a place to sell captured commodities and to enjoy “rest and relaxation.” In the British Islands, which until 1718 would have included St. John, settlements would have had subsistence crops and could have engaged in privateering as the opportunity arose. Inhabitants could have profited by supplying food to maritime traffic, as well as selling commercial crops such as tobacco, indigo, cotton, and, later on, sugar and rum. As noted by historian Casey Schmitt concerning the pirates of Tortuga, piracy was also a means by which one could obtain the labor and tools needed to start a plantation (Schmitt 2018). In Issac Dookan’s book The History of the British Virgin Islands (1975), Dookhan makes it very clear that the British Virgins were, throughout the 17th century and well into the 18th century, lawless with no governing body. Those islands were inhabited only by debtors and pirates fleeing justice. These were the only people brave enough to go there. The result was that this produced “a unique trait in the character of the people. Not content with suppling pirates who called there, the inhabitants soon took to privateering themselves, and this occupation continued throughout the 18th century as long as war made it profitable” (Dookan 1975). Thus the British islands, including St. John, would have provided the perfect haven for those escaping the law and the brutality set upon enslaved laborers, indentured servants, and those brought in from the prisons and spinning houses of Europe. The fact that indentured people tried to escape is revealed in one of Governor Iversen’s laws, which mandated that servants who made such attempts must be placed in irons until they were broken of the bad habit (Knox 1852). A recorded example of one such escape during this period provides insight into such an undertaking, as well as clues to the food remains an associated archaeological site might contain. In Marcus Rediker’s Outlaws of the Atlantic (2014), a medical surgeon, one Henry Pitman, is captured in England and ends up an indentured servant/political rebel enslaved on in 1686. He gathered a multi-ethnic crew of fellow political prisoners, indebted prisoners, convicts, and enslaved Africans and escaped with them. Almost immediately they encountered at sea similar

606 Caribbean escapees who had turned pirate/privateer, and like them, the people encountered were an ethnic mix, including a Florida Native American. The observation that Pitman, in his journey through the West Indies at this time, only encountered pirate groups--three in total--demonstrates just how common this type of population was on the Caribbean seas. Each member of these multi- ethnic groups contributed to the survival of the crew. The educated surgeon provided navigational skills while the Native American and were well versed in surviving on local fish and shellfish. After Danish law arrived on St. John, a Captain William Vessup, like a number of other individuals who lived on St. John in the 1730s, demonstrated that even as late as 1733 Tortola remained a sanctuary for those escaping Danish legal authority. Vessup was a rich planter who owned a large plantation on St. Thomas and had bought the largest private estate on St. John in the watershed of Maho Bay. After murdering his neighbor with a saber, he found refuge on Tortola. In an effort to get back in good favor with the Danish authorities, he attempted to capture the 1733 African rebels on his boat by luring them with promises of guns and ammunition but failed (Westergaard 1917:171). The Danish islands remained involved in privateering affairs as late as the 1720s. Pirates who received a king’s pardon in 1718 along the North American coast knew or were instructed to go to St. Thomas and receive their commissions to go privateering against the Spaniards during the War of Spanish Succession (Johnson 1724). Records also indicate that at least one St. John resident had dealings with pirates in 1722 (Thatt and Pedersen 2009).

17th and early 18th Century Inhabitants The archaeological and historical research program conducted by the Virgin Islands National Park with the University of Copenhagen’s history department has revealed much interesting information about the early European settlers. A brief review of a few of the historically recorded settlers, centered around one wealthy Dutch family the Beverhoudts (specifically Lucas van Beverhoudt and his heirs), is presented as a means to interpret some of the behind-the-scenes developments involving the lives of these early inhabitants and their role in colonizing the islands. The following brief summary concerning the Beverhoudt family is derived from Christensen and Jessen’s (2012) report on the Mary Point and Beverhoudtburg plantation, which covers in detail the history and archaeology of these estates. Much of their information on the Beverhoudt family was gathered from research conducted by anthropologist Svend E. Holsoe (2012). It is uncertain whether the Beverhoudts came from Tortola, Saba, or St. Eustatius, but an Engel van Beverhoudt, a former Commander of Saba, showed up in the Danish records within the first years of Danish colonization. The name does not seem to reappear until the first land list of St. John, where Engel van Beverhoudt Junior is found owning two plantations (VGK 1728-1739). In 1674 a Jannis Beverhoudt was on St. Thomas. In the 1680s Lucas, Maria, Glaudi, and Johannes van Beverhoudt were on St. Thomas, all of whom eventually owned plantations on St. John. Maria van Beverhoudt became the wife of Jacob Jørgensøn Magens, one of the largest land owners on both St. Thomas and St. John. Glaudi van Beverhoudt had a plantation on St. Thomas and owned Little Cruz Bay and Great Cruz Bay on St. John before he died. Johannes van Beverhoudt was a merchant and owned ships as well as plantations. He was the founder of the Beverhoudt plantation on St. John and was involved in the suppression of the St. John slave revolt in 1733. Each of these characters could present good examples of Dutch influence in the Danish islands, but for brevity

607 the focus is on Lucas and his heirs. For more detail on all these histories, refer to Christensen and Jessen’s (2012) report Fragments of the Colonial History of St. John. In 1691 Lucas van Beverhoudt was living with his wife on St. Thomas, where he owned a cotton plantation with fifty-one enslaved workers. By 1699 he owned a house in Charlotte Amalie and was using his father-in-law Adrian Runnel’s house as a warehouse and for housing the Joachim von Holten family. On St. Thomas he now had two plantations and a second house, even though Lucas and his family were not living there. Research by Holsoe (2012) finds Lucas on St. Eustatius in 1699, 1705, 1710, 1715, 1720, 1725, and 1728; he was considered a foreigner on St. Thomas. Apparently he had settled on St. Eustatius and was one of the largest slave owners there, yet still owned his property on St. Thomas. However, he returned in 1709 with his wife Margaretha and family, probably as a result of a French invasion of St. Eustatius. Holsoe’s research also discovered why Lucas had to have several warehouses on St. Thomas. Lucas van Beverhoudt truly characterizes the Dutch at this time, as he, like his brother Johannes, had large maritime shipping businesses moving merchandise and people across an extensive network that spanned the entire Caribbean. As the opportunity afforded, he became like many other Dutch settlers in the Danish islands: a sea merchant and planter who exemplifies the wealthy upper class of the islands. Westergaard (1917:193-194) notes, “On the Danish West Indian as on the Dutch and other islands, smuggling early on became a fine art, one of the approved ways to wealth and affluence and even to titles of nobility.” The planters of St. Thomas and St. John, with ships supplied by New England, continued their risky seafaring trade well into the first decades of the 18th century. They ran a “gauntlet” that avoided the French, English, Spanish, and Dutch authorities and warships, and the multitude of other pirates (Westergaard 1917). During these first decades of the 18th century many disgruntled and brutalized English seamen had also turned to pirating, adding to an already long list of hazards at sea. In the Danish islands Lucas was credited with constructing the first sugar works on St. Thomas and founding plantations on St. John. By 1722 Lucas was dead. The largest estate he owned on St. John was sold by his widow to William Vessup in 1726 (VGK 1728-1739). Adrian, Lucas’s son, also owned plantations on St. John. After his first wife died, Adrian married his cousin Anna Maria von Holten and increased his commercial network, thereby sustaining his status in the upper class (Holsoe 2012). Adrian and his wife went on to own several plantations on St. John, from the first recorded land list until Adrian’s death in 1783. Two of Lucas and Margaretha’s daughters also gained influence and power over the affairs of the Danish islands, and through marriage they also owned property on St. John. Aletta van Beverhoudt, Lucas and Margaretha’s second child, was probably a driving force, along with her strong family ties, in the seizure and colonization of St. John in direct opposition to British authority. Aletta married the acting Danish governor Erich Bredahl, who in 1718 went to Coral Bay with cannons and soldiers and planted the Danish flag. In reviewing the early St. John land lists, it is clear that the Bevehoudts and/or their spouses ended up owning most of the fertile estates, many of which adjoined one another (VGK 1728-1739). This was probably no coincidence. After Erich Bredahl claimed the island for Denmark, he was also in charge of the island’s colonization (Albæk and Aagaard 2016). One could deduce these conclusions from the following excerpt from Christensen and Jessen’s (2012) report in which a passage, written by an unknown writer (Holsoe 2012), expresses concern over Aletta and Erich Bredahl’s marriage and the influence Aletta and her family had over the governor.

608 Many of these families have seized the occasion to govern and to act in such a manner as to bring about whatever pleases them. In general, this is the principal disorder in their ranks. No one has dared to speak out against any of this, as long as such a family was in control. Proof of all of this may be offered by the example of one of these distinguished persons [Erich Bredahl] who entered into matrimony with a member of one of the most distinguished [Creole] families. When he saw that everything was done improperly and that his wife [Aletta van Beverhoudt] and her family wanted to run everything and have the final say in all matters, he departed the island, leaving behind his wife and children, his property and his means of livelihood. After the wife had him summoned into court, she married someone else, a man who had been attending to her as her lover, both before and after her husband's departure (Christensen and Jessen 2012:27-28). Then there is Aletta’s sister Anna Elisabeth van Beverhoudt who married Frederik von Moth, a sailing captain who, within a couple of years, was made governor of St. Thomas in 1722. After the Danes purchased St. Croix in 1733, he was again made governor there in 1736. Finally, we find Lucas’s grandson in Nielsen and Nielsen’s (2013) report on the plantations of Rustenburg and Old Works on St. John. Lucas van Beverhoudt (the younger) was the son of Adrian van Beverhoudt. This grandson owned the Rustenburg plantation on St. John and a plantation on St. Thomas. In 1771 he married Maria de Malleville. Maria’s late husband, a former Governor Suhm, had left her with a rich estate on St. Croix. In 1787 the couple moved to New Jersey and bought a large estate that they named “Beverwyck.” Here they lived very well and welcomed some very important and famous guests, such as General George Washington and his staff, who dined at the estate, and Martha Washington, who stayed with them for six weeks (Nielsen and Nielsen 2013). Many early settlers of St. Thomas and St. John were singled out in the historical record as French refugees. They were on St. Thomas in the 17th century and were recorded as first settlers of St. John in Governor Bredahl’s report on the character of the inhabitants of the island of St. John (Thatt and Pedersen 2009), as well as in the St. John land lists. It appears the Danes, like the Dutch, had attracted yet another large set of displaced peoples, this time primarily for religious reasons. In the 1680s France began persecuting the protestant Huguenots. By 1685 these protestants were escaping France and its possessions, and by 1687 five to ten thousand of them had left Europe seeking freedom overseas (Stanwood 2013). Many of them and probably others from the French-held islands in the Caribbean obviously found shelter on St. Thomas and St. John. The diversity of historic archaeological sites in the park expands for the period after the Danes seized the island. Besides the rich Dutch and the French refugee sites identified on St. John, there are other first settlement sites that were occupied by people who were identified in historical records as poor or as debtors. One estate Governor Bredahl threatens to confiscate from a recent widow because she had associated with a pirate (Thatt and Pedersen 2009). Research in the park has also located some sites that were inhabited by Danish soldiers. The historical record indicates that very few of these mostly young men survived the West Indies and were able to return to Denmark. There are also archaeological sites where the historical record suggests that the settler had already been there before the Danes arrived to claim the island, but some of these colonists left soon after the Danes arrived and/or they began to tax the occupants. At least two sites preserve the early archaeological record of freed Africans who owned estates, and the Danish documents indicate that almost every early archaeological estate had enslaved Africans living there, whether the settler was rich or poor.

609 This review of the Virgin Islands 17th and early 18th century historical background clearly shows that inhabitants of St. John came from a wide range of economic backgrounds and that many could have been involved in legal and illicit maritime activities. As noted in the works by Skowronek and Ewen (Skowronek and Ewen 2006, Ewen and Skowronek 2016), academics have been hesitant to research certain occupational lifestyles, especially piracy, as it may be perceived as being a frivolous or sensational pursuit and possibly harmful to one’s career. However, this is a significant chapter in Virgin Islands heritage and should not be an era left to fiction and looters. The fact remains, people of this profession were present among the first colonizers and settlers, along with the rich planters and merchants, the enslaved and freed Africans, and the poor deported servants, convicts, and prostitutes. Giving voice to the untold stories of all these social groups should guide our efforts to identify, interpret, and preserve the archaeological record that represents them.

Preliminary Site Analysis Many St. John sites with 17th century remains are not surprisingly in close proximity to Tortola. They are strategically placed, tucked away in bays that can hide a ship’s mast. These kinds of locations match those of documented privateer sites of the Old and New Worlds. A number of site attributes suggest that occupants of some St. John sites dating from the late 1600s into the 1720s could have been engaged in privateering or pirate activities. Some of these sites are located at ideal hideaways and maritime choke points. Maritime choke points are typically narrow passages having high shipping traffic due to their strategic locations. Wind and current also contribute to creating choke points, especially during the era of sail. Sir Channel in the British Virgins is a classic example. A narrow end of the channel runs between St. John and Tortola. Today, as would be the case throughout history, constricted traffic converges to take advantage of consistent winds and multiple potential destinations. St. John provides numerous ideal land-based observation points from which to observe passing maritime traffic through choke points such as this, while the observer remains hidden from any vessels at sea. Such sites offered the element of surprise in an attack. One particular site on St. John affords that perfect hidden bay behind a low hill from which to observe passing ships. The site’s material assemblage contains high-status objects, in stark contrast to its neighbors. The food remains resemble a typical Native American diet--largely shellfish (specifically whelk and conch) and fish bone rather than the more diverse and domesticated animal food remains found on a plantation site. These food remains are not unlike those that one might expect to find in the food middens left behind by the pirates/privateers encountered by Henry Pitman in his travels through the Caribbean in the 17th century, described above. The site is in a rocky area of low agricultural potential and settlements of low economic status. And yet, there is at this site an exceptionally large number of artifacts, in contrast to the site’s immediate neighbors for this period. Neighboring estates have produced as few as twenty- five artifacts within a day’s surface survey, whereas this site’s surface remains were double or triple that number and recovered in far less time. The English artifacts verify Martfeldt’s 18th century notes on the local trade with Tortola. Common artifacts recovered included: English delft, Chinese porcelain, period pipe stems, joggled and early North Staffordshire slipware ceramics, plus Bartmann or witch’s bottle fragments and Rhenish and Westerwald stoneware fragments. These types of site attributes have been identified in known sites involved in illicit maritime trade and/or privateer activities and have been used to identify such sites (Finamore 2006).

610 Another site was recently located in a remote bay, considered remote even today. It is well situated for observing sailing traffic between St. John and St. Croix. The archives indicate that it was abandoned in the early 1720s (Thatt and Pedersen 2009), and analysis of the material culture supports these findings. On the surface are 17th and early 18th century ceramics, pipe stems, brick, and an exceptionally well-preserved house floor, but there is no indication of a factory or other extensive agriculture-related structures. The site’s positioning is unlike the house sites of many first settlers, who chose to be on hillsides within sight of each other. While this home is near sea level, it is hidden from those at sea behind a hill adjacent to a well-hidden anchorage. We have yet to uncover much information about the owner. Of some interest, his immediate neighbor, there when this site was occupied in the 1720s, apparently had to escape to Tortola in 1733 with another settler of questionable character, and they took with them an enslaved African who had murdered a planter family in the slave revolt (Olsen and Wraae 2009). Other early sites that raise suspicion of pirate/privateer activity, given the goings-on of the era, are those located at small bays at the base of steep cliffs where agricultural attempts would be nearly impossible. Then there are those places whose names alone are telling, such as Privateer Bay and Rendezvous Bay. Conclusions Virgin Islands National Park preserves a landscape of first European settlements from the 17th and early 18th century that history suggests were founded and supported by individuals from many countries and with a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Although we may or may not determine for certain whether a site or settlement is that of an indentured servant, a convict, a religious or political refugee, a freed African, or even a privateer or pirate, it is important that we are cognizant of these possibilities, given the circumstances of the era. Having identified these preserved archaeological sites, along with the well preserved and now digitized Danish archival record, we are presented a great opportunity to begin discerning the lifeways of these individuals. With respect to the 17th century, the northern Virgins (St. Thomas, St. John, and the British islands) are not unlike the Dominican Republic, where author Juan Bosch notes that “an entire century has been lost to today’s generation” (Bosch 2016:61). This is a century filled with fascinating characters and events. This period is important in the development of these islands’ heritage and deserves more attention given to historical research, archaeological investigation, and site protection. In that regard the park and its partners hope to fund further research and transcription of early Danish records, especially the journals of some of the first governors and other inhabitants, in order to grasp a greater understanding of who was here and why, during this captivating era.

Acknowledgments The author would like to thank foremost the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, specifically its president Joe Kessler and archaeology program supporter Chuck McQuaid. Without their support and their belief in the program there would not be an archaeology program in the park. I would like to thank Anna Walbom, Professor Niklas Thode Jensen, and Professor Gunvor Simonsen for making the Danish history and archaeology program possible in Denmark. For over twenty years now this program has depended on the dedicated hard work of the student interns, together with volunteers from other universities and volunteer groups. Over the past

611 several years I have been fortunate to have worked with Anne Finney, Chela Thomas, and Dave Worthingon, and I am so grateful for their enthusiasm, support, and hard work. Thank you Emily Lundberg for ruthless editing.

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