Irish Planters, Atlantic Merchants: the Development of St
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Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Irish planters, Atlantic merchants: the development of St. Croix, Danish West Indies, 1750-1766 Author(s) Power, Orla Publication Date 2011-05 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6011 Downloaded 2021-09-25T07:41:34Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Irish planters, Atlantic merchants: The development of St. Croix, Danish West Indies, 1750 to 1766 Orla Power A Thesis Submitted for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Nicholas Canny Department of History and The Moore Institute National University of Ireland, Galway May 2011 Contents Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations vi Translations vii Figures viii Introduction 1 1 The eighteenth century Irish West Indian community at Montserrat, British Leeward Islands 33 2 Irish plantations and the development of St. Croix. 56 3 Nicholas Tuite and the Atlantic sugar trade, 1756 to 1763 86 4 The Irish West Indian sugar trade, 1756 to 1763 109 5 The success of Nicholas Tuite’s Catholic haven 159 Conclusion 192 Bibliography 201 ii Dedicated to my mother Catriona L. Little, M.D. (1950-2010) iii Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been possible without the assistance, guidance and support of many individuals. Professor Canny’s undergraduate classes whetted my appetite for this research and I am privileged to have had the benefit of his insightful supervision and sound guidance. I would also like to acknowledge the support I received from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, which funded my research under the auspices of the project, ‘Colonisation and Globalisation, 1500 to 1800’. This thesis was completed at the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies and I am grateful for having had the opportunity to avail of the academic and personal support that this excellent facility provides. My special thanks to Martha Shaughnessy and Marie Kennedy of the Moore Institute whose able assistance and professionalism help to keep everyone’s show on the road. Thanks to Professor Svend E. Holsøe, University of Delaware, who provided me with some valuable insights in the initial stages of my research. I would also like to thank the members of the Virgin Islands Historical Society and, in particular, Dr. Arnold R. Highfield, University of the Virgin Islands, who welcomed me into his home at Christiansted and presented me with a wealth of information, books and pamphlets. A chance meeting with George Tyson Jr., of the St. Croix African Roots Project, proved to be most illuminating. My thanks to him. The advice and encouragement I received from Erik Gøbel at the Danish National Archives was very welcome and much appreciated. I am also grateful to Thomas M. Truxes who provided me with great assistance as I tackled the complex subject of intra-imperial trade. Many thanks to the staff of the Inter-Library Loans and the Special Collections Departments of the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway. In addition, I would like to express my appreciation to the personnel who assisted my research at the following institutions: the National Library of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, the Milltown Language Institute in Dublin, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the British Library, the National Archives in London, the Bodleian Library, the University of Bristol, the Royal Library and the Danish National Archives in Copenhagen, the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen, the Whim Estate Museum of St. Croix, the Lauinger Library at the University of Georgetown, the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore and the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland. iv The research for this work has brought me to some distant locations. In some of these places, I was lucky to have friends who provided me with a place to stay. While I was in Oxford, Cat Kernot made me feel at home. Whenever I found myself in London, Sefryn Penrose provided a couch and great company. On my visits to Washington, DC, Kathy Fox provided accommodation, food, transport and great fun. Closer to home, many faces have come and gone since I started at the Moore Institute and I would like to thank Padraig Moran, John Cunningham, Matteo Binasco for their friendship and their willingness to assist. Similarly, I would like to thank my friends Edward Collins, Tim Keane and John Gibney for their valuable input over the past few years. Thanks also to Tomás Finn for his wisdom, guidance and reassurance. My special thanks to Carmel Connolly who has been a constant source of help and encouragement. My close friends and family have also been of great support to me. I would especially like to thank Mary Boner for providing an open house that has become a home away from home. Dr. Aoife Tuite-Braiden deserves my gratitude, particularly for her keen interest in this topic and her role as field assistant on St. Croix. I would also like to give special thanks to Gwenda and John McInerney who welcomed me into their home and looked after me whenever I was studying in Dublin. Special thanks to my brothers – Evin for his map-making skills and Colm for his welcome distractions. Their interest and enthusiasm for this project often exceeded my own. Thanks to my late mother Catriona, who always encouraged me to ‘keep an eye on the ball, and just go for it!’ Her love of research, passion for trivia and outrageous sense of humour continue to inspire. Likewise, thanks to my father Kieran, on whose unwavering love and support I can always depend. Finally, my thanks to Cathal, whose love and friendship brighten my days and lighten the load. His gentle encouragement has facilitated the completion of this work. v Abbreviations BL The British Library CJC Customs’ Journal, Christiansted, 1760. WBC Weighbooks, Christiansted. DK Danish Chancellery/Danske Kancelli DNA Danish National Archives/Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen. GO Genealogical Office, National Library of Ireland. GTK-VGR Chamber of Customs –West India and Guinea revenue office/ Generaltoldkammeret – ældre del Vestindisk-guineisk renteskriverkontor HCA High Court of the British Admiralty JBTP Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations KB The Royal Library, Copenhagen/ Kongelige Bibliotek LJB Letterbook of John Baker MHS Maryland Historical Society NARA National Archives and Records Administration NLI National Library of Ireland PROB Prerogative Court of Cantebury PRONI Public Record Office, Northern Ireland TKUA German Chancellery's Foreign Division TNA The National Archives, London VGLK Debt liquidation Commission/ Den Vestindiske Gældslikvidationskommission, St. Croix. vi Translations Throughout this thesis, I have attempted to represent non-English language sources as faithfully as possible. In some cases, I have made direct quotations from documents that were originally written in French or Danish. In such cases, an English translation appears in the text while the original version is included in the footnotes. Generally speaking however, I have paraphrased my understanding of the sentiments expressed by the authors of the source material. Any errors in these translations are mine alone. vii Figures Figure 1 Map of the Caribbean Region, c.1760 9 Figure 2 Map of St. Croix, 1750 21 Figure 3 Map of St. Croix, 1766 22 Figure 2a Sion Hill Plantation, 1750 63 Figure 2b Concordia Plantation, 1750 67 Figure 2c Richmond Plantation, 1750. 72 Figure 2d Plessens’ Plantation, 1750 76 Figure 2e Signatures of the Quadripartite Concern 79 Figure 4a Lawrence Bodkin, slave trader (extract from CJC) 136 Figure 4b Map of Monte Cristi, Santo Domingo, c. 1760. 141 viii Figure 5 Table of Irish sugar exporters at St. Croix, 1762 163 Figure 5a Sion Hill, 1766 166 Figure 5b Concordia, 1766 167 Figure 5c Richmond, 1766 168 Figure 5d Plessen’s Plantation, 1766 169 Figure 5e Castle Bourke, 1766 170 Figure 5f John Irwin and Andrew Irwin 171 ix Introduction The West Indian island of St. Croix became a colony of the Kingdom of Denmark- Norway in 1733.1 Despite this, it remained undeveloped until the late 1740s when investment in the large-scale production of sugarcane began in earnest. By the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756 to 1763), the neutral island of St. Croix had a thriving sugar economy. This thesis examines a group of Irish merchant-planters who migrated to the Danish island from the British Leeward Islands. Although they became neutral subjects of the Danish Crown, they also maintained personal and commercial ties with the British Empire. In this way, they successfully established a number of sugar plantations and also took advantage of the brisk entrepôt trade that developed at St. Croix during this period. This group shipped a good deal of sugar to Denmark, yet it also supplied the besieged French colony of Saint Domingue with British and Irish goods, together with African slaves. In return, Saint Domingue was given an international market for its plantation produce. As we will see, the Irish community at St. Croix took advantage of the complex Atlantic supply chains and commercial networks that linked the island to ports such as London, Cork, New York, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Bordeaux. By following strategies of efficiency and economy, this trade became highly lucrative and allowed the Irish community to invest in the development and expansion of their Danish sugar plantations. As a result, their commercial activities as neutrals within the Atlantic economy served as the foundation upon which the Crucian sugar industry was established. The Danish Atlantic To date, historical studies of the ‘Atlantic world’ have taken many forms and have 2 explored diverse themes. However, one thing they all have in common is an approach 1 During the eighteenth century the terms ‘Denmark’ and ‘Danish’ were used to signify the Danish state in its entirety.